Seit 2010 schon hat Sylvie Courvoisier ihr Trio mit Drew Gress (Bass) und Kenny Wollesen (Drums) am Laufen. Anfang 2025 war die Band einmal wieder auf Europatour. Aus drei der Konzerte (Essen, Paris, München) sind hier Mitschnitte kombiniert, klingen aber wie ein einziger zusammenhängender Auftritt. Das ästhetische Konzept des Trios – zwischen Tempo und freier Time – begeistert dabei immer wieder. Kapriziöse Themen und groovende Strecken wechseln sich überfallartig ab mit experimentellen Passagen oder insistierenden Zwischenteilen. Die brüchige Struktur, die unberechenbaren Manöver wirken live noch souveräner als im Studio – man spürt die Freiheit der Erfahrung, die Explosivität der Konzertsituation. Das Trio agiert wie ein einziger Organismus. Nicht genug bewundern kann man Courvoisiers mutiges Klavierspiel, diese knotigen, dichten, dynamischen, mit Neue-Musik-Techniken durchsetzten, oft aggressiven oder dissonanten Figurierungen. Vier der neun Stücke im Programm kommen übrigens vom letzten Studioalbum, „Free Hoops“ (2020).

https://www.jazzthing.de/review/sylvie-courvoisier-trio-eclats-live-in-europe/

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik has spent nearly a decade demonstrating that the piano trio need not behave like a piano trio. Pianist Kaja Draksler, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Christian Lillinger established their peculiar chemistry on the excellent Punkt.Vrt.Plastik (Intakt, 2018), pushed it into more intricately constructed territory with Somit (Intakt, 2021) and documented its live potency on Zurich Concert (Intakt, 2022). Kompress continues the group's unconventional methods while tightening them into relatively concise pieces.

Calling this outside jazz only gets partway there. Punkt.Vrt.Plastik essentially dismantles the traditional piano-bass-drums hierarchy. Draksler is not the designated soloist supported by a rhythm section, nor do Eldh and Lillinger settle into conventional accompanist roles. All three operate as composers, colorists and rhythmic provocateurs. Patterns emerge, collide and disappear; grooves briefly establish themselves before another idea intervenes. Yet beneath the fractured surfaces lies a precise collective logic.

"Yogen" makes the point immediately, combining Draksler's dark, staggered piano figures with a nervous rhythmic undertow. "Trip" inhabits a similarly compressed landscape, where Eldh's bass functions as much as a melodic and percussive device as a conventional low-end anchor. He delves into odd-metered unison lines with Draksler as Lillinger stays on top of the pulse. On "Granular Navigation," the drummer splinters time into sharply defined fragments, joining the bassist for a brisk bop groove while Draksler counters with clipped phrases, clusters and strategically placed silences. At times the trio can sound almost electronically manipulated even when working from acoustic sources.

There are quieter turns as well. "For Sibylle" exchanges some of the group's customary velocity for space and abstraction, while "Mariatorget 87" develops through small gestures rather than a conventional melodic arc. "For A / Kompress" encapsulates much of the trio's approach: dense but controlled, rhythmically elusive and tightly coordinated. Elsewhere, abrupt transitions, fractured pulses and fleeting melodic shapes keep the music in near-constant motion.

What continues to distinguish Punkt.Vrt.Plastik is the absence of fixed roles. Eldh and Lillinger can generate formidable rhythmic machinery only for Draksler to puncture or redirect it; moments later the relationship may reverse entirely. There is tension, humor and the occasional structured groove, though Kompress's densely packed language can also feel somewhat hermetic over the course of the program.

The album does not radically reinvent a vocabulary the trio has already developed across several strong recordings, but it reinforces just how distinctive that vocabulary remains. Moreover, many of these pieces contain memorable primary and secondary themes amid the abstraction. This may still be a piano trio by instrumentation, but little else about Punkt.Vrt.Plastik operates according to the usual rules.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/kompress-punktvrtplastik-intakt-recordss

The album’s opening track certainly shifts the Overton window of musical acceptability. After those first fifteen minutes, the rest of the album—abrupt though it may be—unfolds more peacefully by comparison, letting us appreciate the compositions in a different light.

By employing the very stylistic codes it critiques, the music highlights how the unacceptable becomes normalized. The resulting movement toward a different world, one to be invented together, is thrilling. And while the compositions are powerful, striking, and almost oppressive, they remain deeply spellbinding. Ultimately, this album is exceptional.

It’s easy for me to get dark and stay dark right now – to imagine the worst possible ending to everything. But in my reading, I found inspiration from people who helped me imagine a different kind of future, a future where we help each other out and ensure everyone’s basic rights; one in which we take care of each other and the planet.”
–Anna Webber

Anna Webber: tenor, soprano sax, flute; Ryan Easter: trumpet; Yuma Uesaka: clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano sax; Ingrid Laubrock: tenor, soprano sax; DoYeon Kim: 25-string gayageum; Mary Halvorson: guitar; David Virelles: piano; Chris Tordini: bass; Ches Smith: drums, chimes

https://bestofjazz.org/jazz-october-2026/#Anna-Webber-it-s-easier-to-imagine-the-end-of-the-worldd

"In Circles—Yellow Crane" joins two pieces, Co Streiff's "In Circles," which also gave the quartet's 2012 debut its title, and Russ Johnson's "Yellow Crane." At 16 minutes, 27 seconds it is the longest track on Oracle, taken from the group's 2023 European tour. The band has been together on and off since the early 2010s, with Gerry Hemingway on drums since 2019 and Christian Weber on bass.

Sixteen minutes is a lot of room for a quartet with no chordal instrument, and this is where that setup pays off. Streiff and Johnson can stretch out and change direction without anyone reharmonizing under them, while Weber and Hemingway decide how much pressure to apply. Pairing a Streiff tune with a Johnson tune also means the piece keeps changing character, which helps it over the long haul. It is the one track on the album that feels built for a live audience, and it is easy to see why the band would give it this much space.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/oracle-co-streiff-russ-johnson-quartet-intakt-records__320744

Someone seeking the difference between Free Jazz and Jazz that is played freely might turn to these quartet sessions led by a tenor saxophonist. While the separation may seem hair splitting – or maybe reed shaving – carful listening reveals a profound split. Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Pereleman and his American associates, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker and drummer Bobby Kapp are pure improvisation veterans. That means Synesthesia’s five lengthy are based as much on passion ads precision. Creative music that starts and ends somewhat unexpectedly.

Meanwhile American tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis as well as fellow Americans bassist Bred Jones and drummer Chad Taylor as well as Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz bring a similar level of emotion and expertise to Omni’s mostly shorter tracks. But the Lewis-composed pieces have a definite thought-out shape and sensibility. While intensity suffused sensibility means the playing is as exciting as on the other disc, there’s no thought that these aren’t songs, rather than one stop in an infinite expressive journey.

With rumbles and rat tat tats from Kapp, whose Free Jazz credentials go back to the early 1970s, Synesthesia is launched, with the drummer soon spelled by descending piano pounding and altissimo cries and multiphonics from Perelman turned to triple tonguing in tandem with Shipp’s keyboard stretches. Quartet members often work together when not involved in other projects. So it’s not unexpected for a track like “Blue Taste” to be introduced by Parker’s thick bass string pumps. Besides maintaining a consistent pulse here and on other tracks and thus linearity, his long-time partnership with Shipp in bands like David S Ware’s is advanced as the two evolve together. That means Parker’s skill toughens Shipp’s output as the pianist scoots from processional chording and pedal point pressure upwards to slippery treble note emphasis and single note interludes. Diffuse identities also characterize “Blue Taste” when the saxophonist’s initial spastic and shaking split tones settle into a breathy tête-à-tête with rugged keyboard pressure. This follows the saxophonist’s earlier emphasis on high pitched whistles and a series of reed squeaks.

Perelman’s seeming infinite collection of tropes and transitions has its greatest scope on the final and extended “One Sense”. With bass string walks, percussion shuffles and inner piano rumbles the piece slowly takes shape as the saxophonist unfurls individual peeps and beeps that speed up to shaking and wavering tangents of irregular timbres, split tone shakes and note-bending affiliations, Almost at the one-quarter mark, his reed sparing almost reaches Bop inflections, with corresponding mainstream comping from Shipp. Confirming that intense extemporization leaves space for a variety of influences even as the saxophonist’s sound creation plot skyward and fragmented, sequences of swing and even simple nursery rhymes alternate with whiny squalls and tongue stops from the saxophonist. Eventually a chugging bass line, drum rebounds and warm piano projections combine when elevated reed motifs descend to mid range to complete the connection.

If the Synesthesia four make brief allusions to other musics on their discs, then the omnivores on Omni devote entire tracks to what all intents and purposes are Blues and gospel contrafacts. For instance “Call to Worship” undulates on top of a thick woody bass line, cymbal swishes and pounding kettle drum like echoes as Lewis introduces the magisterial theme before moving to speaking in tongues shaking squeezes and harsh reflux. Reflective piano chording maintain the linear exposition despite contrapuntal arco string buzzes before the offering reaches an expressive climax. The title of “Testify” may sound equally church-like, but the narrative is directed more towards soul music than soul ministry. Featuring a hard drum backbeat, the saxophonist’s reed squeezes, repeat shrieks and renal scoops as well as Ortiz’s keyboard runs sound like a compromise between the soul visions of Brother Joe May and Brother Jack McDuff.

Less earthy and ecclesiastical than these most of the other compositions are comprehensive variants of judicious improvised music where disparate modifications add to evolution, but with enough control to preserve horizontal equity. These range from short forceful tracks built around a single instrument designed to demonstrate what Lewis calls 12-tone gospel to mote extended tone poems.

Fittingly considering Lewis’ background the “Spirit of the Living God” is the most protracted track as the saxophonist moves from whiny split tones and doits to story-telling motifs alternating between tonal reed sentences and twisted breaths, pressurized smears and bursts of irregularly shaped timbres. This boomerang from straight ahead to splintered is aided by a barely there double bass pulse, swift keyboard movements and drum pitter patter.

Overall, this shift among da...

When Nite Bjuti (pronounced Night Beauty), Candice Hoyes, Mimi Jones, and Val Jeanty take to the stage, the surrounding air is charged with energy and anticipation. The trio conjures voices that invoke their ancestral past, and those voices guide them and help to shape and change the future. On Minwi, (Haitian Creole for midnight), Nite Bjuti channels that raw kinetic energy into a highly charged musical experience, an experience that reveals something different to the listener each time they hit play.

Their approach is deeply influenced by author Octavia Butler and her famous quote from Parable of the Sower:

"All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change."

That ideology is central to the trio's spirit and their approach to creating music. Hoyes does not sing the same thing twice; the lyrics are not so much written as they are conjured voices from the past, called on as the vibrations in the room move her to do so. Jones' bass throbs and flows around the words and weaves together with the percussion and turntablism of Jeanty, who in turn can electronically manipulate it all and send it back out into the room, changed.

That change is not a disruption of the composition; it is the composition. Constantly evolving, shifting, and metamorphosing, the band reacts, turns, pivots, and transforms in real time. As they move forward, the change remains the only constant. The music they create refuses to be easily categorized. Is it jazz? Is it a spiritual invocation? Is it free improvisation or experimental soundscapes? It is never just one; it is all simultaneously.

Nowhere is this approach more effective than on "Wombfire," a collaboration with legendary flutist Nicole Mitchell, who is also heavily influenced by Butler's writings and Afrofuturistic view. Mitchell's gorgeous flute adds another intoxicating ingredient to the trio's already potent sonic alchemy. Floating above and weaving together with Hoyes' vocals, they produce a dreamlike state of bliss, one that is both calming and reassuring. A full-length collaboration between these four visionaries will hopefully one day materialize, because it would make for an outstanding album.

In Haitian folklore, Minwi is a sacred hour; it is the period of night when boundaries no longer exist and communication with the spirit world becomes possible. Nite Bjuti taps directly into this sacred space, summoning the voices that help to shape this new magical world alongside them.

Virtuos und bescheiden

Die Band, der wir dieses spannende, gut durchdachte und spielerische, höchst vergnügliche Album mit dem Titel «Oracle» verdanken, nennt sich Co Streiff Russ Johnson Quartet. Tatsächlich ist sie seit ihrer Gründung und ihrer ersten CD, «In Circles» (2011), eine so eng kollegiale Kooperation, die gemeinsame Suche nach diesem Klangvergnügen, dass weder der agilen Zürcher Altsaxofonistin noch dem amerikanischen Trompeter, einem seinerseits an keinem Starstatus interessierten Virtuosen, an alleiniger Leadership gelegen war. Mehr noch: Dieses Quartett ist so etwas wie ein fein austariertes Mobile, das in seiner aktuellen Version (nach dem Abgang von Drummer Julian Sartorius) Co-Streiff-R ...

https://weltwoche.ch/story/virtuos-und-bescheiden/

**USA und CH: Das Gipfeltreffen**

Die Zürcher Altsaxofonistin Co Streiff und der amerikanische Trompeter Russ Johnson kennen sich seit 2004; ihr gemeinsames Quartett besteht seit 2009. Am Kontrabass agiert von Beginn an Christian Weber. In der Formation, die 2012 das formidable Album «In Circles» herausbrachte, sass Julian Sartorius am Schlagzeug; nun ist es der Wahlluzerner Gerry Hemingway. «Oracle», das neue, im April 2023 live aufgenommene Album der Band, bietet so sinnlichen wie intelligenten Jazz: Mit ausgefuchsten Bläsersätzen, hellwachem Interplay und fein abgestufter Dynamik schreibt es die Pionierarbeit von Ornette Coleman und Don Cherry fort. (pap.)

**USA and CH: The Summit Meeting**

Zurich alto saxophonist Co Streiff and American trumpeter Russ Johnson have known each other since 2004, and their joint quartet has existed since 2009. Christian Weber has been on double bass from the start. In the line-up that released the formidable album «In Circles» in 2012, Julian Sartorius was at the drums; now it is Gerry Hemingway, a Lucerne resident by choice. «Oracle», the band's new album, recorded live in April 2023, offers jazz that is as sensuous as it is intelligent: with cunning horn arrangements, wide-awake interplay and finely graded dynamics, it carries forward the pioneering work of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. (pap.)

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/david-murray-album-guide

Murray spent many years in Europe, but in the last few years has returned to America. That was announced to the world with his new Quartet, Murray surrounded by the superb young talent of pianist Marta Sanchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Russell Carter (with Kassa Overall often substituting for him). Words like “renewed” and “revived” are wrong for this album; it’s us who have missed out on what he was doing for so long, so there should be no surprise that Murray is as exuberant and emotive as always. That’s who the man is.

from the article: David Murray is History

Progress in the arts—the way new ideas and possibilities are incorporated and keep things moving concurrently with societal changes—generally follows a formula: the avant-gardist stakes out territory beyond the contemporary boundaries of a tradition, then that tradition eventually catches up. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Then there are the rare artists who are both avant-gardists and traditionalists, who single-handedly move things forward with the force of their artistic personalities, bringing the tradition into the avant-garde and thereby hauling tradition with them to whatever aesthetic space they happen to occupy. And that is a good single-sentence description of the masterful contemporary jazz musician David Murray.

Born in Oakland, Murray grew up and came of age in California before moving to New York City in the mid-1970s and joining the loft jazz scene. In that decade, jazz music was dying off in record company offices—if you weren’t Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock, nobody was making any money. But the world, and especially New York, was still full of phenomenal musicians. New York was also full of decaying, post-industrial loft buildings without amenities or even working plumbing, but the rents were cheap. That’s essential to the story of post-punk and no wave, but also to new and avant-garde jazz, which not only survived but thrived during the 1970s because musicians found cheap places to live and play (often the same place).

Murray quickly became such an important player with such musical gravity that when the jazz business regained a little life in the 1980s (thanks in large part to the Black Saint/Soul Note labels), Murray was its single most important musician—we’re talking the history of post-WWII modern music and the central story of jazz in the ‘80s. He wasn’t just playing and touring and recording; he was a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet and the organizer of a little big band that maintained a regular residency at Sweet Basil on Seventh Avenue South. The musicians who cycled through that ensemble included Henry Threadgill and Butch Morris.

In the 1970s, it was almost impossible to find a young tenor saxophonist who wasn’t closely following John Coltrane’s sound, if not his path. Murray was and remains the exception, putting together a sound and style that boils down to a single word: romance. That made for an unlikely fusion of Albert Ayler and Ben Webster, the former the great free-spiritual, neo-primativist, the latter a monumental, traditional, buttery balladeer. But both men were playing about love, for God and Jesus and for romantic partners, and thus for life itself, spiritual and sensual, inseparable. And Murray, first and always, is a deeply expressive, personal player who is telling you about life, loving, living.

That voice, coming through Murray’s tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, is one of the most distinctive in jazz history, bar none. There is no one who has ever sounded or played like him. He has few peers in terms of versatility—Murray is at home playing ballads, free jazz, and also slow jams, funk, Latin music, songs from the Grateful Dead catalog, and more—and while his musical career is strewn with multiple generations of close collaborators, no one has come forth to play like him. The musical personality is perhaps too singular to have an influence that doesn’t sound like imitation. Hear this voice on Bandcamp.

SWR NEWJazz Meeting: Camila Nebbia
Camila Nebbia Bei seiner Premiere 1966 hieß dieses Treffen noch SWF Free Jazz Meeting, 1973 nannte es der damalige Jazzredakteur des Südwestfunks, Joachim-Ernst Berendt, in SWF New Jazz Meeting um. Doch die ursprüngliche Intention, regelmäßig Improvisationskünstler:innen aus aller Welt nach Baden-Baden einzuladen und sie einige Tage lang wie in einem Versuchslabor an der Musik arbeiten zu lassen, wurde beibehalten. In den zurückliegenden sechs Jahrzehnten nahmen unter anderem Albert Mangelsdorff, das Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry, Irène Schweizer, Norma Winstone, Anthony Braxton, Django Bates, Joachim Kühn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Ingrid Laubrock oder Melissa Aldana an einem dieser Meetings teil. Seit acht Jahren wird das SWR NEWJazz Meeting als Biennale ausgetragen, zuletzt wurden der Bassist Lukas Kranzelbinder 2018, die Vibrafonistin Sasha Berliner 2021 (wegen der Corona-Pandemie um ein Jahr verschoben), der Pianist Micah Thomas 2022 und der Bassist Pascal Niggenkemper 2024 als Kurator:innen benannt.

Kürzlich gab die SWR-Jazzredaktion die diesjährige künstlerische Leiterin bekannt: die argentinische, in Berlin lebende Saxofonistin, Komponistin und Videokünstlerin Camila Nebbia. 1987 in der Buenos Aires geboren, studierte Nebbia klassisches und Jazzsaxofon und entdeckte die Musik des Free-Jazz-Pioniers Ornette Coleman ebenso wie Aufnahmen ihres Landsmannes Gato Barbieri. 2020 zog sie nach Europa, wo sie sich mit zeitgenössischer Performancekunst und elektronischer Musik beschäftigte, bevor sie 2022 nach Berlin zog, wo sie Teil der internationalen Improv-Szene wurde. Ihre Musik ist oftmals radikal im Ausdruck, sie erstreckt sich dynamisch weit von eruptiven, lauten Passagen bis hinab zu leisen, fast unhörbaren Momenten. Aller Geräuschhaftigkeit in ihrem Spiel auf dem Tenorsaxofon zum Trotz besitzt ihr Sound stets einen melodischen Duktus. Auslöser für ihr Schaffen sind gerne Gedichte unterschiedlicher Lyriker:innen, in ihrer Musik setzt sie sich oftmals mit Themen wie Identitätssuche in der Diaspora auseinander, ihre Konzerte inszeniert sie auch als audiovisuelle Aufführungen, deren Klang- und Bildebenen gleichermaßen aufeinander reagieren wie sie sich kontrastieren.

So will Nebbia auch ihr SWR NEWJazz Meeting anlegen. Mit einem international besetzten Quintett (unter anderem mit der Pianistin Marta Warelis und der Harfenistin Kathrin Pechlof) wird sie zusammen mit dem Visual-Artist Andro Manzoni ihre Komposition „only the stones along the path told me the truth of reality“ vom 5. bis 9. Oktober im SWR-Studio Freiburg als ein Werk über Vergänglichkeit und Migration einstudieren. Seine Premiere hat Nebbias Stück dann am 10. Oktober im Rahmen von Enjoy Jazz im Kulturzentrum dasHaus in Ludwigshafen, eine weitere Aufführung gibt es am 11. Oktober in der Manufaktur in Schorndorf.

https://www.jazzthing.de/news/2026-9-22-swr-newjazz-meeting-camila-nebbia/

Different Tranes

When an artist departs this realm at a relatively early age, acolytes frequently seek a sense of how that curtailed creativity would have evolved. Miles Davis was expected to continually enhance his interest in funk, groove, electronics, and hip-hop, surely set to run alongside each of his favored developments in new music. John Coltrane is another of 2026’s centenarians, and a similar fantasy retro-anticipation is far more difficult. There was no sign of Trane hitting the fusion racks in any kind of possible future. Close to the edge, he was delving radically into free jazz, with enlarged solos or duo cut-backs (Ascension and Interstellar Space, the latter being an intimate meeting with drummer Rashied Ali). We can’t imagine Coltrane heading into rock or funk. His more likely direction would have been to seep in quietness and meditation, working more closely with Alice Coltrane, reflecting the softer stretches of Pharoah Sanders and his more global-ethnic works. Surely?

Here, we will consider descendant players who have clearly been shaped (often in a revelatory fashion) by Trane’s existence, but those who have also taken his core essence, to formulate approaches that, in their own way, continue his legacy via a non-mimicking path.

The New York tenorman Michael Brecker can easily be seen as a key channeler, with his fingering virtuosity, exhaustive stamina and his seeking of ever-higher planes of expression via duration. Brecker’s early work with Dreams, Steps Ahead, and the Brecker Brothers is not particularly where we’re looking, but rather his later concentration on acoustic settings, as his trajectory refined itself. One LP that explicitly deals with the John Coltrane legacy is Directions In Music: Live At Massey Hall (Verve, 2002), with Roy Hargrove, Herbie Hancock, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade. Much of the material stems from the Miles Davis repertoire, but there is a significant Trane-wedge included. “Impressions” is taken at a softly slow lounge pace, but it’s to complement “So What,” with which the reading is intertwined. “Naima” has just Brecker alone, for a long introductory embracing of the theme, gradually revealed, his tenor solitary for the entire seven minute performance. This is one of the best examples of Brecker’s continuance in the Coltrane vein. Then, “Transition” brings in the entire combo, delivering a straighter rush of hyperactive energy, Brecker mobilized entirely, Herbie in full flow afterward. The closing “D Trane” (penned by Brecker) opens with a tirelessly inventive tenor solo, surging through half of the fifteen minute performance, leaving Hargrove little choice but to pepper sensitively with his own following solo, although it doesn’t take the trumpeter long to rise up to a more crackling, volatile state, Hancock ultimately crowning the climax of this solo-led number. The audience went wild, repeatedly, even as they laid low in the mix. This number acts as a shining distillation of Trane’s aura. (Brecker can also be heard on the more recently released Naima (Live) album via Delta Music, once again investigatively interpreting its key tune in an a capella state.)

One rogue, teetering presence by Brecker (plus trumpeter and brother Randy) is on Zappa In New York (Discreet, recorded in 1976), the 1978 double live LP where the pair employ parpling electronics in a very imaginative manner that hasn’t dated, aligned with the limb-twisting complexities of “The Purple Lagoon,” an epic side-four instrumental. We can just about visualize Trane being captured by the twistings of this Zappa direction, but he probably wouldn’t have played on the opening “Titties & Beer.”

More recently, the Washington Heights alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin has dedicated an LP to the music of the Coltranes (both Alice and John, fairly equally), a recording which has been partly instrumental in massively expanding her audience. The 2020 Pursuance: The Coltranes (Ropeadope) featured several guest artists (as is the today way), adding but not distracting from the mission. The Coltrane readings breathed in infusions of their joint creative powers, grasping the aura and attitudes. There’s a notable funking-up of “Syeeda’s Song Flute,” with Keyon Harrold guesting.

Although known as a funkster (with her early albums and Soul Squad band), Benjamin was a regular member of Rashied Ali’s quintet around two decades back, connecting her directly to the Coltrane flow, gigging excitingly around NYC clubs such as the Jazz Standard. Through Ali, she began playing with the recently departed guitarist James Blood Ulmer (who lived just across the street from the sticksman), touring with him toward the end of his active playing life. Now, Benjamin is still including a funk section as the climax of her live sets, but her recent albums have been addressing a harder, faster, more extreme bunch of tunes, and an ever-escalating soloing prowess, pushing further and higher than many saxophonists dare. ...

Mit „Kompress" entfliehen Kaja Draksler, Petter Eldh und Christian Lillinger einmal mehr der Zwangsjacke des klassischen Jazz. Die Band erkundet, wie präzise und hochkomplexe Rhythmen mittels freier Ausbrüche in eine, wenn auch quecksilbrige, Form gerinnen. Die Artisten vibrieren zwar vor nervöser Energie, bleiben aber einer Musik verbunden, die auf Tradition und Schwerkraft fußt. Kaja Draksler schlingert am Piano mit unkonventionellen Melodien um ebensolche Rhythmen. Im Sattel gehalten wird der wilde Ritt mit verschleppten Metren von Petter Eldh am lässigen Bass und Christian Lillingers hyperaktivem Schlagwerk. Im Auge des Orkans ruht „När Världens Hopp Förtvinat Stod", ein schwedischer Choral aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Punkt.Vrt.Plastik zeugt von Telepathie und langjähriger Improvisation auf Augenhöhe. Anders ist es nicht zu erklären, dass Komplexität so easy daherkommt – far out! z'kay

Gut verankert zwischen anspruchsvoller Jazzkomposition und freien Passagen, locken die Schweizer Saxofonistin Co Streiff und ihr Quartett in ein intensives Hörerlebnis. Ihr Saxofon und die Trompete von Russ Johnson ergänzen sich zu zwei differenziert agierenden Lead-­Stimmen, die gewitzt mit Traditionen ­spielen und klangliche Grenzen ausloten. Ein starkes Quartett, dem Drummer Gerry Hemingway und Bassist Christian Weber viel Schub verleihen.

https://www.kultur-tipp.ch/artikel/artikeldetail/musiktipps-duo-eleriya-und-co-streiff-russ-johnson-quartet

https://www.publico.pt/2026/09/04/culturaipsilon/critica/americano-escavacoes-lisboa-2185589

New Digs, de Michael Formanek: um americano em escavações em Lisboa ("an American on excavations in Lisbon")