Uplifting Music for the Current Turbulent Times

By Eyal Hareuveni
Just when you think that there is little hope as the world is being dominated by demented, authoritative rulers with reptilian tendencies, three European bands (with one American), equipped by decades-long experience of the Dutch The Ex, may convince you that resistance is the best defense, in music, in lyrics, in thought and action. Paal Nilssen-Love Circus with The Ex Guitars - Turn Thy Loose (PNL,...

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Live at Roulette // أحمد [Ahmed]

A fan favorite for sure - أحمد [Ahmed], the collective of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip, and Seymour Wright delve into the works of bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, crafting vibrant, swinging, and endlessly dynamic music that seamlessly merges depth and energy, channeling a intense sense of ecstatic emotion. This performance was captured at Roulette in Brooklyn at the end of March this year. Go to Roulette's website to learn more about the concert. ...

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Steve Lehman Trio/Mark Turner- The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings 2025)

By Ken Blanchard Anthony Braxton stands as one of the greatest explorers of that mysterious continent known as Avant-garde jazz. His breakthrough album For Alto (1969) “challenged every parameter of the music, tonal, textural, rhythmic, and structural,” according to The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recording (may it be praised!). Eugene, recorded twenty years later,...

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Stefano Leonardi & Antonio Bertoni - Fuoco Sacro (AUT Records, 2024)

By Ferruccio Martinotti
Sometimes, while tirelessly sifting the muddy waters in search of some sparkling golden specks, one could happen to be so lucky to get a well shaped pebble in the sieve: this record is one of these cases. The sophomore work by Stefano Leonardi and Antonio Bertoni, following their 2021 debut Viandes, Fuoco Sacro sees the duo delivering an excellent and mesmerizing record, released by the German Aut Records. But who...

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The Young Mothers - Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmission Records, 2025)

By  Martin Schray Loyal readers of this blog may know about my ambiguous relationship with jazz-rock and fusion. In the early 1980s I was fascinated by musicians like Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke (and their project Return to Forever), the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble or Jean-Luc Ponty because I was impressed by their virtuosity. However, I quickly...

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Give the Composer Some

By Paul Acquaro
In the most recent of El Intruso's Encuesta 2024 – Periodistas Internacionales poll, in which participating music writers are asked a series of questions asking about the best of in many categories, drummer Devin Gray and bassist Max Johnson made it into my choices under best composer, even though these two are probably considered more frequently under the best drummer and bassist category. Although...

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Skin of A Drum – Alexithymia (Aosmosis, 2024)

By Nick Ostrum
Emerging out of a canceled-gig-turned-studio-session, Skin of a Drum is the quartet of Pavel Aleshin, Serena Pagani, Sascha Stadlmeier, and William Rossi. (Disclaimer: Rossi is a fellow contributor to FJB.) Pagani, Stadlmeier and Rossi play guitars, Aleshin electronics, and all four contribute various other effects, loops, objects, and processing and to which Pagani also adds her voice. Alexithymiais their...

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Chuck Roth @ DMG

Chuck Roth is a guitarist living and working in New York City. Here, he is playing a solo set at the venerable Downtown Music Gallery, exploring the sounds of the electric guitar, following his muse where it seems to take the textured, atonal melody. Roth has a debut recording, Document 1, out on Relative Pitch Records. &nbs...

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Tom Weeks - Paranoid II (Wolfsblood, 2025) *****

By Don Phipps
Alto saxophonist Tom Weeks creates an amazing tour de force of muscular, musical intensity on his album Paranoid II, an outing he dedicates to the great Art Ensemble of Chicago founder and AACM member Roscoe Mitchell (now 84 years young). Weeks, who composed all the numbers, is joined by James Paul Nadien on drums and Shogo Yamagishi on bass. Together, the trio rip, roar, and soar – creating soundscapes...

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Archived 1979 Interview: Roscoe Mitchell Hits New Level of Musical Existence

Roscoe Mitchell, circa 1978. Photographer unknown. By Don Phipps
Roscoe Mitchell sat down with me on February 4, 1979 before he gave a solo recital on alto saxophone in front of a full house at the now defunct Lulu White’s Supper Club in Boston, Massachusetts. This interview, published in its entirety in the September 10, 1979, edition of The Daily Free Press, where I was the Art Editor and a staff...

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