Bill Laswell / Toshinori Kondo "Charged [Live]"

toshinori kondo - trumpet

This record is just as wow-worthy for it's all-star cast as it is for the trance-inducing improvised grooves unleashed once you hit play.

Bill Laswell on bass. Dude recorded with Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, David Byrne, Brian Eno. Responsible for some mind-melting fusions of jazz, improv, funk and dub. Major player in 1990s New York City underground scene. Laswell's credits page on allmusic.com alone is jaw-dropping.

Toshinori Kondo on trumpter. Done some really out there shit with Peter Brotzmann but my favorite Kondo performance is alongside DJ Krush on Ki-Oku (1998).

Hamid Drake on drums. Top 5 favorite drummers of all time. Played with Ken Vandermark, William Parker, Charles Gayle, so many others. Severely under-appreciated. More music of his to be posted here soon I promise.

Aiyb Dieng on percussion. This is the only record I've honestly heard with Dieng in the ensemble but this guy has recorded with a who's who of both popular and improv-based musicians: everyone from Mick Jagger and Yoko Ono to Berniel Worrell and Sly & Dunbar.

DJ Disk. Hip. Hop. Legend. Original member of Rocksteady Crew and Invisibl Skratch Piklz. Wanna see dude just go off? (Not coincidentally in another ensemble featuring Bill Laswell) Watch this.

All are led by Italian composer/guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi, who hand-picked the players on this record.

Charged is completely improvised and recorded live. Funny that I dug this out of a stack after picking up Miles Davis' Live at Fillmore at the Austin Record Convention this weekend. Charged is formulaic post-Bitches Brew fusion for sure, but so what? Grooves are tight, improvisation is great... Enjoy!

1. Shintotech Iridescence
2. Fathoms
3. Death Tools
4. Dueling Sufis
5. Subterrania
6. Overloaded Lila/...

But the record here.

Frank Kimbrough "The Quickening"

I randomly picked this CD out of a large stack the other day, thought to myself, "I guarantee that I've never even heard this before," and popped it in. Can't say I recall ever listening to this but maybe that's a good thing cause man was I blown away.



Frank Kimbrough is often described as an "inside/outside" improviser. Most of these tunes are solidly hard-bop, but Kimbrough isn't afraid to take his piano improvisations a little out there. This record reminds of a lot of the more "out there" Blue Note stuff... Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy. Artists who played in the distinctly hard bop mode but stretched things a little bit.

Quickening is a live release, recorded in 1998 at New York City's New School University, and released 4 years later on the Omnitone label. I've shared two tracks here, "Svengali" and the title track. "Svengali" is all about the groove established between bassist Ben Allison and drummer Jeff Ballard. Slow and mournful, with Kimbrough dancing around the rhythm. "Quickening" is a little more disjointed, certainly more angular and busy.

Really great piano trio record. Download these tracks and if you dig em, snag the album here.

The Quickening (Omnitone, 2003)
Frank Kimbrough - p
Ben Allison - b
Jeff Ballard d

1. Quickening
2. Cascade Rising
3. Chant
4. Clara's Room
5. Svengali
6. For Duke
7. TMI
8. Ancestor

WOW

So yeah, it's been a long long time since I posted anything on here. After listing off excuses to my better half, I've been told to get back to work. So much music to share. Yo, Have You Heard... is back... so stay tuned for updates.