John Sharpe
Free jazz, free improv, creative music, wherever. I write for The New York City Jazz Record, Point Of Departure, All About Jazz, Jazz Podium. Love live music!
- Reposted by John Sharpe
This is a WILD list. Not just the albums chosen, but the order. Read it with a smile on your face. richardblute.ca/the-greatest... - Reposted by John SharpeThis film represents the only visual record of the Blue Notes playing in the 1960s, and is also incredibly rare footage of Ronnie Scott's legendary Old Place, London W1 The Real McGregor (2025 Restoration) youtu.be/TC0CoqSDV8U?...
- Two splendid sets from Sarost (Larry Stabbins, Paul Rogers, Mark Sanders) at the Vortex last night, with Rogers astonishing on his custom-built bass, in free flowing exchanges which took in a passing reference to Ornette's Lonely Woman partway through.
- Kit Downes and Tom Challenger forged a fluid amalgam of jazz, improv, folk and chamber at St. Margaret's church as part of the Lowestoft Jazz Weekend on Saturday night, and created a wonderfully transcendent racket when Downes moved to organ and literally pulled all the stops out.
- I really enjoyed Unseparate, the second album by the Webber Morris Big Band on Out Of Your Head Records. The outfit brims with ideas that challenge orthodoxy while remaining deeply rooted in jazz’s improvisatory spirit. You can find my review in PoD here: www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD92/PoD92M...
- The Louis Moholo Moholo memorial concert at the 100 Club was a suitably celebratory event. Highlights included Sarost (Larry Stabbins, Mark Sanders, Paul Rogers) and Five Blokes (Alexander Hawkins, John Edwards, Jason Yarde, Shabaka Hutchings) with various guests joining as the night went on.
- I was very sad to hear of the passing of the great tubaist Joe Daley recently. Among many others he played with Gil Evans, Muhal Richard Abrams and Carla Bley. But he can be heard at his best in Sam Rivers' '70s tuba trio. Photo from Edgefest in 2016 with Jason Kao Hwang's Burning Bridge.
- Also @cafeotodalston.bsky.social earlier in the week, an utterly ferocious set from Weird Of Mouth - Craig Taborn, Mette Rasmussen and Ches Smith - which became a swirl of snarling interlocking motifs. Much more intense than I expected but all the better for it.
- A belated offering from @cafeotodalston.bsky.social earlier in the week, where the final night of John Edwards' residency went out with a bang courtesy of Camila Nebbia on tenor and Sun Mi Hong behind the traps, following on from an explosive solo bass set to start the evening.
- Hugely enjoyable set from Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble just up the road at Norwich Arts Centre last night, made all the better by having the great Alex Harding on baritone saxophone, alongside Ishmael Ali on cello.
- A fantastic launch for a very good new album All It Was at the Vortex last night from the @oliebrice.bsky.social quartet. Having a band with the pedigree of Alexander Hawkins, Rachel Musson and Will Glaser meant that some wonderfully propulsive tunes became vehicles for blistering improvisations.
- Smoke pouring from the adjacent building truncated a thrilling set from the incendiary quartet of saxophonists Camila Nebbia and Colin Webster, bassist Caius Williams and drummer Andrew Lisle downstairs at the Vortex last night. Fire music indeed!
- Great concert from John Butcher, Chris Corsano and Florian Stoffner @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night. Butcher operates at a staggeringly consistent high level, but this must be one of the most potent settings for his timbral ingenuity and mastery of sound placement.
- Reposted by John SharpeToday is the 101st arrival date of Sun Ra Arkestra Director Maestro Legend Marshall Belford Allen - 25th may 1924 Happy Birthday with space age celebrations
- Anna Webber's Simple Trio with Matt Mitchell and John Hollenbeck really brought her intricate charts to bristling, pulsating life on her UK debut @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night, with much of the repertoire deriving from her excellent simpletrio2000 album on Intakt.
- Magnificent show from the James Brandon Lewis Trio at the Vortex last night, with that sublime tenor sound riding in incantatory waves over bustling grooves crafted and polished by Josh Warner on electric bass and the great Gerald Cleaver on drums.
- A splendid noise from Paul Dunmall's Double Quartet @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night. As someone said, more Ascension than Free Jazz, but actually less ordered than either, with roles merging into a single, impassioned, responsive organism rather than a cycle of solos.
- Saxophonist Camila Nebbia was very impressive @cafeotodalston.bsky.social on Sunday with her energy, timbral range and ability to forge a narrative, in a highly combustible trio completed by drummer Andrew Lisle and bassist Caius Williams, who was a worthy substitute for the missing Kit Downes.
- Excellent article. I only have one Strata-East album, Stanley Cowell's solo Musa: Ancestral Streams, but it is a superb.
- Fascinating interviews/oral history of Strata-East Records: jazztimes.com/features/int...
- Lovely show from the wonderful Amina Claudine Myers @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night where for over 90 minutes she played her own inimitable mix of gospel, jazz, blues and episodes more tricky to label.
- The last Soundhunt (for a while at least) went out with a bang in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon, with three short duos, from hosts Dominic Lash and N.O.Moore, a first time meeting between Tansy Spinks and Ben Jones, and an established duo from David Birchall and Alistair Zaldua, before all together.
- I really enjoyed Alex Bonney's trio with Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders at the Vortex last night, especially his first set piece dedicated to late trumpeters Ron Miles and Herb Robertson, and then the improv set when both he and Dunmall were blowing freely and Sanders was brewing up a storm.
- I got to review two excellent records for the March edition of Point Of Departure: Bone Bells by Mary Halvorson and Sylvie Courvoisier; and Rare by John Butcher and Sophie Agnel. Read about them, and lots of other great things here: www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD90/PoD90M...
- Two superb sets from Craig Taborn and Peter Evans at the Vortex last night. I had a silly grin on my face from the first notes, marvelling at the dazzling interplay and constant weave in and out of their original charts, as well as one from Paul Motian.
- Reposted by John SharpeNew long Anthony Braxton interview
- Reposted by John SharpeCecil Taylor Unit Live at Antioch College, April 3, 1971 Cecil Taylor (age 42), piano Jimmy Lyons (39), alto saxophone Sam Rivers (47), tenor and soprano saxophones, and flute Andrew Cyrille (31), drums youtu.be/wDB3_2QguNg?...
- Background research for an upcoming project is leading me down some wonderful rabbit holes. I've just relistened to the A side of Company 5 for the first time in some 30 years and realized what a wonderful piece it is: a septet with Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Leo Smith, Braxton, Lacy, Honsinger.....
- ...and Maarten van Regeren Altena. Bill Shoemaker talks about the genesis in a chapter in his essential book Jazz In The 1970s.
- I was so gripped by The Brutalist that I couldn't focus on the soundtrack, though I glimpsed bassist Joel Grip, pianist Simon Sieger and saxophonist Pierre Borel in the club scene, and picked out John Tilbury's piano, I couldn't distinguish Evan Parker, Seymour Wright or Axel Dorner et al.
- I was saddened to hear of Howard Riley's passing. His trio with Barry Guy was one of the seminal groups of the time, and though undersung, paved the way for many later improvising piano units. But if anyone wants to dive into his later work, I can't recommend the 6 CD Complete Short Stories enough.
- Image taken at his Pizza Express duo concert with Keith Tippett on 9 March 2016 (later released as Journal Four by the wonderful NoBusiness imprint).
- Fabulous set from Tyshawn Sorey's Trio @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night. I thought the latest album was good, but here everything was dialled up and edgier: the individual contributions, the contrasts, the hypnotic intensity. And they played without pause for over 130 minutes. Incredible.
- Image from Tyshawn Sorey's website.
- I enjoyed the new Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary, even though the band's heyday was slightly before my time. It was a real treat to see the extended live footage of complete songs, especially the excitement in the 1968 clip from Sweden, before they'd even taken on the name, which was tremendous.
- In over an hour's worth of understated excellence, Tyshawn Sorey takes the vaunted piano trio and gives it a delicious tweak on the nose with The Susceptible Now. My thoughts on p17 here: nycjazzrecord.com/issues/tnycj.... I can't wait to see them live @cafeotodalston.bsky.social on Monday!
- I could only make the first night of Alexander Hawkins' residency @cafeotodalston.bsky.social, but it was a cracker. After a scintillating solo set, the highlight was his duet with the astonishing vocalist Sofia Jernberg, by turns exploratory, exuberant and surprisingly tender.
- Kris Davis' trio was in superb form at the Vortex last night. Over two long sets, Davis cloaked her dazzling left field excursions in a series of irrepressible lurching grooves, which bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake made seem unforced and natural, making light of any complexity.
- Listening to the great Arthur Blythe on the excellent archival Live From Studio Rivbea 1976 from NoBusiness Records has sent me down a rabbit hole of revisiting some of his other earlier dates, like The Grip on India Navigation. Definitely worse ways to spend the weekend!
- Reposted by John SharpeWadada Leo Smith was born in Leland, Mississippi on this day in 1941. He turns 83 today. 📸 Jeff Caltabiano, NYC, 1.17.18, w. Deerhoof
