CD-Charts Position 81
Average Rating:

ECM Touchstones: Lookout For Hope

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Bill Frisell

Release Date August 26, 2008
Bill Frisell, for those who don't know, is a guitarist whose music is hard to pin down or categorize. One minute he's playing jazz, then the next he's playing country. You will find his music in your local music store's jazz section and if they don't know who Bill Frisell is, then I don't know if that person deserves to be working in a music store, because Mr. Frisell is one of the most original guitarist of the past 20 years. He got his start playing on ECM records in the mid to late 70s and has since then had a rollercoaster ride of a musical career. Not that this is going to mean anything, but he won a Grammy this year for the album "Unspeakable." His first Grammy award (it's about time the masses and the music buying public take notice). ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 82
Average Rating:

Another Day on Earth

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Brian Eno

Release Date June 14, 2005
Eno amazingly continues to mature. Albeit the fanbase may have difficulties Eno-volving. Beautiful, simply beautiful. If you are a fan of Eno w/ Lyrics, ala Another Green World, make your purchase. I highly doubt you'll regret it after the 85th listening. Stunning. Tearjecking. Heartrending. Listen and evolve.

CD-Charts Position 83
Average Rating:

Conference of the Birds

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Dave Holland Quartet

Release Date April 11, 2000
"Conference Of The Birds" starts with a blast -- "Four Winds" gets straight to the point with a fast, lively melody and fast, lively playing by the band. Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton share the saxophone and flute playing, and they are excellent throughout. This version of "Four Winds" is superior to the one Holland recorded in 1988 with Steve Coleman and Jack DeJohnette. The second song, "Q & A" is a very free song. At points, given its slow pace a whistling flutes, you think it could be called "Conference Of The Birds", but of course it isn't. The title track is a great tune - it has a witchy, beguiling melody, and ends too soon. "Interception" is boiling fast, and starts with wild soloing. It's a blast from start to finish, and you ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 84
Average Rating:

Moonshine

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Dave Douglas

Release Date May 13, 2008
Overview:
Moonshine brings back the same group from Douglas's 2005 release Keystone. The muse once again is the film work of Fatty Arbuckle. However, unlike the original Keystone recording this album is not intended to be a "soundtrack" to an Arbuckle film. This allows the artists more freedom explore different sounds and really opens things up for turn table artist DJ Olive who has a much more active role on this CD than he did on Keystone. Each of the tracks is inspired by different Fatty Arbuckle films, which make the tracks on this album much more diverse than Keystone. The album is a hybrid live/studio album. It was recorded live at an Irish radio station, but the live work was then edited in a studio. The end result is an album ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 85
Average Rating:

Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
from: Nonesuch

Release Date February 07, 1995
I am befuddled by the negative reviews of this recording, just as I am befuddled by those who dismiss Glass, Reich and their peers as "Minimalists" as if their development had ended where it started. Both Reich and Glass are now mature and accomplished composers who have transformed the radical ideas of their youth into a rich and unique compositional language.

On this recording, Kronos show us just how involving and nuanced Glass's "repetitive" language can be. The Quartet #5 in particular is a masterpiece. Perhaps my favorite Glass composition. It is chock full of wonderful melodic and rhythmic ideas. Yes, the rhythmic and harmonic backdrop consists of relentless diatonic arpeggios, but the continual harmonic and dynamic modulations ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 86
Average Rating:

The Very Best of Michael Nyman - Film Music 1980-2001

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Michael Nyman

Release Date November 12, 2001
This truly is Michael Nyman's best works over an extensive period of time. This collection shows the range of his compositions and it is beautifully recorded. For any Michael Nyman fan this is a "must have"!

CD-Charts Position 87
Average Rating:

Bass Desires (ECM Touchstones)

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Marc Johnson

Release Date August 26, 2008
Wonderful inspired work by some of the greats of modern jazz. Joining Marc are Bill Frisell, John Scofield, and Peter Erskine. No horns, no keys, just two master guitarists dueling over thoughtful and energetic compositions. This album is different than many albums of the time period because the compositions are so interesting, Marc's time with Bill Evans coming through? Marc has taken the traditional Rock line up and turned it on its head with the two Bass Desires recordings. If you don't own it you should.

CD-Charts Position 88
Average Rating:

Let It Come to You

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Taylor Eigsti

Release Date May 06, 2008
I've been waiting for another Taylor Eigsti album for some time. This album is as wonderful as his first two. His skill at the piano is amazing. A must-have for those who love jazz piano.

CD-Charts Position 89
Average Rating:

The Carnegie Hall Concert

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Keith Jarrett

Release Date September 26, 2006
For me, Keith Jarrett music evokes a very strong feeling...eternal longing, hope, discovery, sadness and regret.

When I drove those 10 hours with my friends to see Keith play at Carnegie Hall, I longed to hear his music and experience those emotions, to be sure, but I also wanted to be there in the same room with him--to tell him what his music means to me. When I got there, it seemed to me that everyone who was there had that same desire.

We all know Keith's story, we have been moved by his many recordings--the man has nothing to prove anymore. And we have also seen his physical vulnerablilty these past 12 years, and it's frightening to think that his hands may cease to play one day.

So when you hear that applause, so rapturous, so ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 90
Average Rating:

Gattaca: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

CD-Charts > Music > Avant Garde and Free Jazz
by: Michael Nyman

Release Date October 21, 1997
Forget Gladiator; this is, by far, the best score ever written for any movie. No other score has so fully reflects the feelings running through its film; this score not only accomplishes this to an astounding, even haunting, degree, but it also immeasurably deepens those feelings. In a way, each piece of this score seem to contain all human emotions simultaneously: it bleeds sorrow, it strengthens hope, it stirs anger, it both tranquilizes and agitates. Listen for it and you will find it. This holism, this completeness, makes the music, as others have said, inexplicably haunting. But beyond emotions, this music will prompt you to think, as if ideas flicker subtly beneath the melodies and the harmonies: ideas about human potential, ambition, sacrifice, and strife.