Customer Reviews

Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe

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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!

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.

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.

This album's a part of the Chicago/Stockholm cross-pollination that's been producing some wonderful concerts (in Chicago anyway, I haven't been to Stockholm). Wobbly Rail has a small but excellent catalog (See Susie Ibarra, Sebi Tramontana and Jeb Bishop, etc.) and I like their bio-degradable cd covers. Another group, Witches and Devils, was the main Vandermark project for Albert Ayler covers (I actually like that lineup slightly better, I think it includes Mars Williams who was in the Vandermark 5 for Simpatico and Target or Flag, etc., but you can't go wrong with the original Ayler either. The albums are hard to find now, but Cinghiale (Ken Vandermark/Mars Williams saxophone duets) is a spectacular group too. As for poor Vandermark live showings, yeah I've seen them too and heard that complaint, but the guy tours a lot and has plenty of in-between projects too. Frankly I've seen a lot of world class musicians that didn't impress me so much on particular days. Anyway, I've seen a lot of his shows, and the good outweigh the bad by far. My favorites are the ones that lean more toward composed music (V5, Straight Lines, Free Jazz Classics) than to energy/avant music (DVK Trio), but that's just an opinion. Also the comparison between Vandermark and other MacArthur winners is a little difficult to do because he got it presumably early in his career where earlier jazz musicians to win it all got it as more of a lifetime achievement award. Frankly he probably deserved it on the strength of his work in the Chicago jazz community as much as for any musical talent.