Red Toucan goodies
The mailman's been feeding the box quite heavily and happily this past week. A bunch of new records for yours and my enjoyment on New Orbit (I'm back this Monday 10PM-12AM EST). Here's a quick rundown of what I got:
Compilations are rarely worth mentioning. They're incoherent, self-congratulatory, and fail to represent the discography of a particular artist's career. Maybe Red Toucan's 2-disc retrospective, Amalgam(e): 10 ans de Red Toucan, is not much different, but after ten years of solid releases, the French label's earned their right to a 142 minute collection. From what I've listened to so far, every track's been stellar. While it's a good sampling of French free-jazz scene, the Toucan's sound reaches all over Europe and Canada. Just to name a few: Marilyn Crispell (piano), Glenn Spearman (tenor sax), Achim Kaufmann (piano), Joelle Leandre (contrebasse), the Laura Andel Orchestra, Dylan van der Schyff (percussion), and George Graewe (piano). Admittedly, most of the names on here are new to me like Talking Pictures from Vancouver, a group you should really check out if you're a fan of the Chicago Underground Duo.
Both Joelle Leandre (contrebasse) and India Cooke (violin) were also unknown to me when I attended the Vision Festival this past summer, but their performance left a permanent mark on me as to how a jazz musician can play live. With a style so impassioned yet playful, the duo engaged the senses of the audience. Firedance is a live recording and it shows. Lucky for them the acoustics of the Guelph Youth Music Centre were a great match for contrebassist Leandre's low, ambient, and violent bowing and Cooke's joyful, disjunct fiddlin'. Their free improvisation is full of powerful energy, yet - dare I say - fun.
Cadence stocks Red Toucan.
Also downloaded more OGG files from Leo Records. More on those later.
Compilations are rarely worth mentioning. They're incoherent, self-congratulatory, and fail to represent the discography of a particular artist's career. Maybe Red Toucan's 2-disc retrospective, Amalgam(e): 10 ans de Red Toucan, is not much different, but after ten years of solid releases, the French label's earned their right to a 142 minute collection. From what I've listened to so far, every track's been stellar. While it's a good sampling of French free-jazz scene, the Toucan's sound reaches all over Europe and Canada. Just to name a few: Marilyn Crispell (piano), Glenn Spearman (tenor sax), Achim Kaufmann (piano), Joelle Leandre (contrebasse), the Laura Andel Orchestra, Dylan van der Schyff (percussion), and George Graewe (piano). Admittedly, most of the names on here are new to me like Talking Pictures from Vancouver, a group you should really check out if you're a fan of the Chicago Underground Duo.
Both Joelle Leandre (contrebasse) and India Cooke (violin) were also unknown to me when I attended the Vision Festival this past summer, but their performance left a permanent mark on me as to how a jazz musician can play live. With a style so impassioned yet playful, the duo engaged the senses of the audience. Firedance is a live recording and it shows. Lucky for them the acoustics of the Guelph Youth Music Centre were a great match for contrebassist Leandre's low, ambient, and violent bowing and Cooke's joyful, disjunct fiddlin'. Their free improvisation is full of powerful energy, yet - dare I say - fun.
Cadence stocks Red Toucan.
Also downloaded more OGG files from Leo Records. More on those later.
posted by Lars Gotrich at 3:28 PM
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