Steve Reynolds

Wilkerson especially as he rarely leaves Chicago fwiw Michael Foster with strings this past Sunday was transformative including Webb Crawford, Deyung Kim, Nava Dunkelman & Anna Abondolo included Ellington, Strayhorn & Fred Anderson compositions to create a 30 minute suite that organically mixes radical freely improvised music with the compositions. brilliant to the nth degree

Last night at The Stone Brian Marsella, Peter Evans & Nasheet Waits Tonight at The Stone: Marsella, Billy Martin, John Medeski & Cyro Baptista the amount of keyboard gear is awesome for this 75 person theatre! Big Leslie amp 10-12 feet from me. Medeski will be 7-8 feet from me and I’m in the second row.

Sam Rivers most famously

Brandon Lopez/Gerald Cleaver Mark Dresser/Gerry Hemingway Barry Guy/Paul Lytton

Late change gabby couldn’t make it due to a travel issue and was replaced by Mat Maneri who took a cab from the airport after just flying in from New Orleans. Mind blowing incendiary set from the quartet with the great man playing as great or even better than ever. Impossible to convey the depth and gravity of the collectively improvised music I heard tonight. Lordy Lordy Get Ready to Receive Yourself

Missed Berne last night as I was a bit tired with an achy back but I’m at The Stone tonight Simon Hanes, gabby fluke-mogul, Anthony Coleman & Billy Martin Let’s GO!!

Last night Simon Hanes, Anna Abondolo, Jon Starks & Ches Smith at The Stone at New School Simon & Anna on electric basses. Dual drummers. Alternated first half of the set with one of them sometimes using an octave pedal. 45 minute set of 5 improvisations. Brilliant unique blistering music. nobody better than Ches Smith in this context. Force of Nature. Simon is great and Anna is a young genius. I’d seen her twice on double bass but last night a whole other thing. Astounding young musician. She’s probably 24-25. will be back Friday and/or Saturday night tonight Tim Berne with Gregg Belisle-Chi and Tom Rainey

Lots of shows the past 2 weeks! Highlights Tony Malaby 2 great sets on 2 different Saturday nights at Barbes Tim Berne with his trio with Rainey augmented by the *great* Oscar Noriega on b-flat clarinet Rubin Kodheli on cello with Mary, Trevor Dunn & Brian Chase Matt Nelson solo soprano saxophone, Michael Foster duo with Webb Crawford & a great trio with James Paul Nadian and two young musicians on altered electric guitar & electric bass tonight at Jazz Gallery 7 Poets Trio with Tomas Fujiwara, Tomeka Reid & Patricia Brennan double bill with Tomeka’s quartet with Mary, Jason & Tomas

Should be a recording of Rubin Kodheli, Mary Halvorson, Trevor Dunn & Brian Chase from this past Sunday night!! and Ches Smith, Mary & Nick Dunston from 2 weeks ago plus a trio with Mary, Tomas Fujiwara & Henry Fraser from 2/14 among the numerous shows I’ve seen these might have been the best this month. all freely improvised magical performances Mary is best in these small group improv settings

55-56 minute continuous improvisation. Genius level performance. Maybe the best I’ve ever heard Mary play. Stunning. Invention and true on the spot compositional improvisation. Very impressed with Henry Fraser. First time hearing him. Very strong more than holding his own in elite company. Tomas has it all and yet his typical restraint was combined with the most explosive playing I’ve ever heard from him.

Tomas Fujiwara with Henry Fraser & Mary Halvorson at The Stone at The New School tomorrow night Tim Berne with Gregg Belisle-Chi, Trevor Dunn & Tom Rainey at Lowlands Saturday night Open Loose with Mark Helias, Tony Malaby & Tom Rainey with Tim Berne guesting at Barbes

Thank you Sir SO glad you were able to experience this what a “front line”

We want to hear more!!

2 great sets tonight in NYC. My friend and I were 10 feet from Tom Rainey. Will see him again twice next week. I can never get enough of the *great* Tom Rainey. Peaking madly. Next Thursday with Tim Berne’s group then Saturday 2/17 with Open Loose (Helias & Malaby) with Berne as a guest.

Awesome! Try to find Matt Vernon & Hope. Ask around. Tell them Steve says hello. Hope was Peter’s tour manager for the US for a couple of decades.

A few of my friends are there. Are you going to any of the sets?

I’ll be seeing them tonight at Le Poisson Rouge

The new Tim Berne with Hoff, Ducret, Torn & Ches Smith is incredible

The gig this Wednesday is an improv set with Mary, Nick Jozwiak & the *great* Ches Smith. In a tiny room in Brooklyn. The small groups are the place to really “hear” Mary Halvorson. I strongly recommend Hotel Grief on Intakt by the Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrock & Mary Halvorson. Freely improvised MUCH different than the overly composed larger ensemble music. to my ears it’s much more exciting as well as I tend not to be moved by more academic structured music. Not just with Mary either.

Seeing Mary in more preferred settings for me 3 times this month. This week in an improvising trio with Nick Jozwiak & Ches Smith. Later this month with Tomeka Reid’s great quartet. In between a trio with Henry Fraser & Tomas Fujiwara. as an aside, this is a golden age for live left leaning music in NYC/Brooklyn. Much of it is way under the radar but “the gold is where you find it”. retirement is glorious:)

4 nights of Brandon Lopez in various improvising ensembles from last Wednesday thru Saturday night highlights were the trio with Chuck Roth & Dennis Sullivan on Friday night and then the duo with Fred Moten on Saturday night which was sublime and emotionally devastating. Brilliant. Chuck Roth is a genius level improvisor. 27 years old and beyond creative and totally unlike any guitarist I’ve ever heard. Also the quintet with T.J. Borden, Michael Foster, Webb Crawford & Joey Sullivan was great. Webb Crawford is a brilliant young guitarist. I can’t tell anyone here how great Brandon Lopez is as a bassist and creative inventive force but I will say the 4 day experience will be a lasting one. Certainly I don’t know another bassist who is improvising at this level that I’ve seen live. Plus for my ears, mind and heart he’s pursuing a muse that is in a very powerful oblique and abstract direction and more power to him. also fit in a trio set with Tony Malaby, Ben Monder & Alan Mednard @ Barbes. Tony stuck with his tenor for this set and had to overcome a slightly too loud Monder but this is a minor quibble. Monder was really bringing it with his effects and Tony mixed his long tones with some elbow flapping high energy classic Malaby playing. The dude is as great as ever. Look forward to 2/17 with Open Loose (with Helias & Rainey) plus Tim Berne. I think the first Open Loose show in 8 or 9 years.

A few great gigs last week including an amazing trio with Sandy Ewen, Tim Dahl & Brian Chase Tonight thru Saturday night Brandon Lopez at The Stone tonight with Michael Foster, Webb Crawford, T.J. Borden & Joey Sullivan fired up

Be well and welcome back, Larry

Last Sunday: Tony Malaby, Ben Monder, Angelica Sanchez & Tom Rainey / second set incredible / nobody playing soprano saxophone like this. His tenor playing was great as always. Both sets fully improvised. Tom Rainey remains among the greatest drummers on the planet. As Kevin Reilly says in his low key manner, “he’s the best” Last Night: James Paul Nadian solo followed by a trio adding Tom Wall and the *great* Fred Lonberg-Holm. Amazing Tonight: Tim Berne with David Torn, Trevor Dunn & Tom Rainey Will be a nice long improvised set and as always I’ll be a few feet from the band.

Caroline Morton is a very strong young bassist. Lemuel Marc also very promising. The times I’ve seen them live were inspiring. I’m mixed on Zoh. Very little harmonic agility. Best when she is with strong players like Chris Corsano, Steve Gunn, Ryan Sawyer & gabby. Saw a great drummerless quartet with Forbes Graham, gabby & Luke Stewart. The other best set was with Gunn, gabby & Ryan Sawyer. Sawyer really pushed her even more than Corsano. Tom Weeks on alto strong as well. He’s from the Bay Area but plays in a free jazz quartet with Caroline, James McKain & Kevin Murray. HUGE energy. do NOT sleep on the *great* Chuck Roth. Just wait. The most original voice on guitar I’ve heard the last few years. Olaf Rupp type brilliance. But only 26 and has been playing seriously for a very long time. Plus the smartest funniest person I know:) The last set I saw with Michael Foster, Greg Kelley & Brandon Lopez was as great a 40 minute improvised set as I saw this past year out of many many sets. The trio set with Ghost was a close second. It’s hard to explain what Brandon Lopez means to these young musicians from a musical standpoint and otherwise. His fully in the moment creativity is off the charts.