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The Big Takeover Issue #95

Michael Toland

Michael Toland began scribbling about music in 1988 for the photocopied ‘zine FHT Music Notes. He’s since written for various print and online publications, including Pop Culture Press (for whom he was reviews editor for several years), Texas Music (of which he was a founding editor), Trouser Press, Sleazegrinder, Sonic Ruin, Amplifier, Goldmine, Austin Citysearch the Austin American Statesman, Blurt and the Austin Chronicle. He was also the creator and grand poobah of the music-obsessive web site High Bias (2001-2006). He lives in Austin, Texas and works for public television.

Out Of/Into - Motion I (Blue Note)

13 December 2024

Five badasses setting aside egos and working toward the common (very, very) good.

The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip: Deluxe Edition (Flatiron/Label 51)

12 December 2024

Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is simply one of the essential texts of American psychedelic rock.

Fractal Sextet - Sky Full of Hope (RareNoise)

11 December 2024

It’s tempting to say the Sextet simply picks up where it left off on the self-titled album, but that’s selling short what this group does.

Ben Goldberg/Todd Sickafoose/Scott Amendola - Here To There (Secret Hatch)

9 December 2024

Using the bridges in Monk tunes as a starting point, the trio leaps off into a set of original songs.

Emily Remler - Cookin’ at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 (Resonance)

6 December 2024

Now a name mostly floated in guitar nerd circles, Emily Remler was on her way to becoming a major star of jazz guitar before her untimely death in 1990 at age 32.

Bill Evans - In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (Elemental)

5 December 2024

The latest in the Zev Feldman*-produced line of *Bill Evans’ European concert recordings, In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert exhibits a show from the 1970 Kongsberg Jazz Festival in the eponymous Norwegian town.

Sun Ra - Lights On a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank (Resonance)

4 December 2024

With its breadth, depth, and enthusiastic performances, it’s like a crash course in Arkestral history.

B.B. King - In France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival (Deep Digs/Ina/Elemental)

3 December 2024

In France captures something simple: a great B.B. King show.

Charles Tolliver/Music Inc. - Live at the Captain’s Cabin (Reel to Real)

2 December 2024

Trumpeter Charles Tolliver is an unsung hero in jazz.

Jakob Bro/Lee Konitz/Bill Frisell/Jason Moran/Thomas Morgan/Andrew Cyrille - Taking Turns (ECM)

29 November 2024

Directing an all-star group of guitar Bill Frisell, pianist Jason Moran, drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist Thomas Morgan, and, most significantly, legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz, Bro let go of the music as written and embraced the way his bandmates altered his work on the fly.

Arild Andersen - Landloper (ECM)

27 November 2024

For Landloper, Andersen hooks his double bass up to a set of effect pedals and goes it alone.

Thomas Strønen - Relations (ECM)

25 November 2024

Except for a pair of solo performances, each spontaneously composed track pairs Strønen with a friend or fellow traveler.

McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson - Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’ (Blue Note)

22 November 2024

Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’ captures an explosive gig co-led by the two old friends that must’ve ripped the late Slugs’ Saloon a new one.

Colin Vallon - Samares (ECM)

15 November 2024

Now the Swiss pianist returns with Samares, his most diverse, enigmatic, and moody record to date.

Oscar Peterson - City Lights: The Oscar Peterson Quartet - Live in Munich, 1994 (Two Lions/Mack Avenue)

13 November 2024

In 1993, Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson – a jazz superstar called the Maharaja of the piano by Duke Ellington – suffered a stroke that called into question his ability to keep playing. But by the summer of 1994, he formed a new band, strode back onto European stages, and mounted a resounding comeback.

The Dogs - Unleashed/Tony Marsico and the Ugly Thingz - No Future (Rum Bar)

11 November 2024

Ann Arbor and Detroit weren’t the only cities in Michigan that spawned high-octane Midwestern hard rock & roll.

The Bad Plus - Complex Emotions (Mack Avenue)

8 November 2024

Jazz quartet The Bad Plus continues its aggressive evolution on its latest album_Complex Emotions_.

Lions in the Street - Moving Along (Cargo)

6 November 2024

The band put everything they had into their catchy, well-written songs, playing a classic rock & roll style like they invented it and couldn’t wait to show it off.

Keith Jarrett - The Old Country: More From the Deer Head Inn (ECM)

4 November 2024

The now-retired Jarrett and ECM Records leader Manfred Eicher return to those recordings for another scoop.

Matthew Edwards - Hark (Last Tape Recording)

1 November 2024

It’s a genuine mystery why Edwards hasn’t achieved at least Robyn Hitchock or XTC levels of acclaim.

Andrew Hill - A Beautiful Day, Revisited (Palmetto)

30 October 2024

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill was an iconoclast, a remarkable musician who wrote weird, complex, brilliantly melodic pieces and presented them to musicians who knew exactly how to flow in and outside of the tunes.

Tyshawn Sorey Trio - The Susceptible Now (Pi Recordings)

28 October 2024

Joined by regular partners Aaron Diehl (piano) and Harish Raghavan (bass), Sorey lets his hair down, so to speak, and just plays music he likes, without having the weight of having written them be part of the conversation.

Ben Monder - Planetarium (Sunnyside)

25 October 2024

It’s all been building up to this: Planetarium, a three-disk magnum opus, ten years in the making.

Greg Lisher - Underwater Detection Method (Independent Project)

23 October 2024

Underwater Detection Method puts the man known for quirky postpunk and art rock in the realm of space rock.

Forq - Big Party (GroundUP)

21 October 2024

Keyboardist/bandleader Henry Hey, guitarist Chris McQueen, and their mates can clearly make anything into jazz.

Thumbscrew - Wingbeats (Cuneiform)

18 October 2024

Wingbeats, the eighth album from jazz trio Thumbscrew, is one of those records about which it’s difficult to write.

Wolfgang Muthspiel - Etudes/Multitudes (Clap Your Hands)

16 October 2024

Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel returns to his classical roots with Etudes/Multitudes – well, sort of.

Brandon Seabrook - Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)

14 October 2024

Seabrook goes it alone, gathering six- and twelve-string guitars, a tenor banjo, a cassette recorder, and a six-string guitar banjo from the 1920s to create his own eccentric sonic world.

Immanuel Wilkins - Blues Blood (Blue Note)

11 October 2024

Wilkins’ most ambitious album both in theme and artistic endeavor.

Avishai Cohen - Ashes to Gold (ECM)

9 October 2024

Trumpeter and composer Avishai Cohen continues his winning streak with Ashes to Gold.

Weird of Mouth - s/t (Otherly Love)

7 October 2024

Consisting of saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, pianist Craig Taborn, and drummer Ches Smith, Weird of Mouth can’t be anything but a free improvisational jazz trio.

Darius Jones - Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)

4 October 2024

The seventh in a nine album series entitled Man’ish Boy that’s dedicated to exploring mental health in the Black community, Legend of e’Boy (The Hypervigilant Eye) vibrates with an emotional intensity not often found on jazz records.

Jeff Lederer - Guilty!!! (little [i] music)

3 October 2024

For the forthright Guilty!!! the subject matter is obvious: the 2024 election, and the madness that’s infused the path to get there.

Eric Person - Rhythm Edge (Distinction)

2 October 2024

Though he has a raft of recordings under his own name, saxophonist Eric Person made his bones as a steadfast member of drummer/talent scout Chico Hamilton’s band, as well as a stalwart presence in NYC’s “free funk” scene by way of Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society.

Simon Moullier - Elements of Light (Candid)

30 September 2024

For Element of Light, his fifth album and first for the legendary label Candid, he brings it all together into one direction.

The Kris Davis Trio - Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic)

27 September 2024
Davis uses the opportunity to pay tribute to six pianists who showed her the way.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr - Breezy (Sonic Transmission)

26 September 2024

Drawing specifically on the spiritual jazz of Pharoah Sanders and the Coltranes and the European tradition of free improvisation, Flatten paints a landscape that undulates between heaven and hell, with violent sound blasts interrupted by flowing ocean waves.

Bill Frisell/Kit Downes/Andrew Cyrille - Breaking the Shell (Red Hook)

25 September 2024

Downes, Frisell, and Cyrille find a commonality in drone, as each musician channels their instruments into a forward drift towards a universal tone.

Walter Smith III - three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not (Blue Note)

24 September 2024

One might well wonder why saxophonist Walter Smith III gave his latest album such a literal title.

Miguel Zenon - Golden City (Miel Music)

20 September 2024

Saxophonist Miguel Zenon embarks on his most ambitious project yet on his latest album Golden City: no less than a tribute to the city of San Francisco.

Ivo Perelman & Gabby Fluke-Mogul - Duologues 2: Joy/Ivo Perelman & Ingrid Laubrock - Duologues 3: Crystal Clear (Ibeji)/Ivo Perelman & Nate Wooley - Polarity 3 (Burning Ambulance)

18 September 2024

Saxophonist Ivo Perelman continues his attempt to be the world’s most prolific free improviser with three new albums that continue established series, both putting the free jazz master in pairs with like-minded colleagues.

Mike Stern - Echos and Other Songs (Mack Avenue)

13 September 2024

Despite coming from an era where his preferred milieu was so cheesy it should have been surrounded by mousetraps, Stern’s career has endured.

Micah Thomas - Mountains (Artwork)

11 September 2024

Mountains moves from hard bop to postbop to avant-big band and back again, showing off the musicians’ prowess without losing sight of the tune.

Andrew Wilcox - Dear Mr. Hill (Truth Revolution Recording Collective)

9 September 2024

Dear Mr. Hill doesn’t showcase a gifted mimic – Wilcox is his own person.

Stephan Thelen & Markus Reuter - Rothko Spaces, Vol. 2 (iapetus)

6 September 2024
The goal is challenging: how to convey in music the feeling given by a piece of visual art.

Steve Wynn - Make It Right (Fire)

5 September 2024

Steve Wynn’s first solo album since 2010, Make It Right is a musical memoir that coincides with the release of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, his literary one.

Orrin Evans & the Captain Black Big Band - Walk a Mile in My Shoe (Imani)

4 September 2024

The arrangements lean away from the good-time bombast of a lot of big band music, with the horns used less as bludgeoning melody than lush orchestration.

Andrew Tuttle/Michael Chapman - Another Tide/Another Fish (Basin Rock)

30 August 2024

When singer/songwriter/guitarist Michael Chapman died at 80 in 2021, he was working on an album entitled Another Fish, a sequel to his 2015 guitars ‘n’ effects album Fish.

Marquis Hill - Composers Collective: Beyond the Jukebox (Black Unlimited Music Group)

28 August 2024

Never an artist lacking ambition, trumpeter Marquis Hill came up with a cool idea for his latest album.

Nicole Mitchell & Ballaké Sissoko - Bamako Chicago Sound System (FPE)

22 August 2024

Forward-thinking Chicago flautist Nicole Mitchell and innovative Bamako (Mali) kora player Ballaké Sissoko have created something truly magnificent: a respectful, enthusiastic blend of artistic approaches.