Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe [Live]

Aaly Trio, Ken Vandermark | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 7, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Wobbly Rail
• ASIN: B00000K4HI
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,903 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Unit Character [For Lyons, Jimmy]

2. Ghosts

3. Alva Jo

4. Idioms

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Dedicated to exploring the legacy and music of Albert Ayler, Sweden's Aaly Trio is once again aided by the iron lungs of Chicago-based saxophonist Ken Vandermark. And while this live document covers some of the same ground Stumble explored, these agile, taut performances bristle with enough energy and excitement to make the return trip as exciting as the initial visit. Both Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson are in top form, and whether they are coloring inside or outside the lines, you can be sure their figures are rendered with the fearless confidence and peerless imagination to which fans have become accustomed. This is intense and hard-hitting, and it sparks with that jump-out-of-your-skin electricity that only a live performance (from a great band) can provide. Turn this one up--loud! --S. Duda

From Jazziz

This is the second live record to come from Mats Gustafsson's AALY Trio with Ken Vandermark. In 1996, the Swedes and their American friend recorded a studio album, Hidden in the Stomach (Silkheart), and since, the quartet has done more touring than you'd expect from collaborators who call different continents home. This new album was recorded in March of 1999 at a Stockholm club. Collectively, the three albums have included some free-jazz "standards," if you will, and a couple of tribute pieces. This recording features Albert Ayler's "Ghosts," Joe Harriott's "Idioms," and Vandermark's homage to the late alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, "Unit Character." The only other tune is a Gustafsson piece called "Alva Jo," which alternates between a slow, sultry groove and more spastic sections. Vandermark plays tenor and clarinet; Gustafsson, alto and tenor. As always, they are joined by bassist Peter Janson and drummer Kjell Nordeson, each of whom take an extended solo during the set. On "Ghosts," it's as if the band members are intentionally italicizing the compositional quirks that spooked them as headphoned youths. The tune is already a rollercoaster, but Vandermark and Gustaffson lean into the anthem's sharp turns, making it even more over-the-top than it was in Ayler's hands. Just the same, the song has lost some of its rough edges - it's missing some of the wonderful mess Ayler made of it. There is an almost-accessible, garage-band feel to aaly's free jazz, and it's not just the raucous covers. Perhaps it's Vandermark and Gustafsson's penchant for using melody as a touchstone. Perhaps it's how their solos often progress in a logical, symmetrical manner, or even their conventional use of tension-and-release. Most likely, it's just that they so clearly are having fun.

--- R. Dante Sawyer, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars aaly trio, live, January 26, 2000

By 

omar white (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe (Audio CD)

If you're like me, you want your free jazz rythmic, no matter how tangental. Well, this group is free and referential, cerebral and communal. It is a music of abandon, but it has an immediacy that is apparant to all but the obtuse. This is one of the best albums I've heard, in this genre, since David S. Ware's Cryptology, and it is equal to, if not better than, Oliver Lake's Live at Village Vanguard. Simply, devestatingly beautiful!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rough Energy, July 4, 2004

By 

Jason Gubbels (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe (Audio CD)

Perhaps there's something about the air up around the 60th parallel, because Sweden seems to be fully capable of pumping out free jazz outfits of note on a regular basis, and the AALY Trio is no exception. Noisy stuff, especially with Windy City fellow-reedman Ken Vandermark blowing his brains out alongside Mats Gustafsson, but also has moments of beauty and brief humor. If you've followed the free jazz movement even slightly, you won't be surprised by anything here, yet it's a fully enjoyable slab of rough energy that's enlivened many a dull day in my apartment, and annoyed my stuffy upstairs neighbor (not to mention my wife)to boot.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nothing new but this is good stuff, December 10, 1999

By 

"markiemarkie" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe (Audio CD)

Does the world really need more of the same old "new thing" jazz? This stuff sounds a lot like the good ol' stuff what with them doing Albert Ayler's "Ghosts" and a Joe Harriott tune as well. But you know what? It sounds GOOD. And folks have had 25+ years to improve on the original pattern. As for the direction of the songs, Vandermark seems to be the dominating voice here, and if you like his other stuff, this should be right up your alley. Gustafsson is his usual technically blazing self and the rhythm section is fully interactive. So if you like this stuff -- and you usually know if you do -- this is for you. Probably good for those coming from the rock side of things too; this is jazz that's full of energy.