News & Updates — avant-garde

I want to give a shout-out to jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard on his date of birth. He may not have been an iconoclast himself but there he was on some of the most ground-breaking and important jazz records made in the '50s and '60s, such as Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz and John Coltrane's Ascension. You want more classics? How about this list of awesome LPs: Eric Dolphy Outward Bound, Max Roach Drums Unlimited, Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil, Oliver Nelson The Blues And The Abstract Truth, Art Blakey Ugetsu, Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage, Tina Brooks True Blue, Sonny Rollins East Broadway...

Noah Howard was underknown as a sax player to many, yet was a vital figure in the landscape of out-jazz, recording albums for ESP-Disk, America, Freedom, CIMP, Free Music Productions, Ayler Recordings and his own AltSax imprint, among others. Born in New Orleans, he was deeply inspired by John Coltrane and Albert Ayler and cut a couple of disks on the legendary underground NYC label ESP in the mid-'60s. In '68 he left the States, living most of the rest of his life in Europe (as well as some time in Kenya). He played on Archie Shepp's amazing Black Gypsy...

Joe Meek may very well be rock's first independent producer/auteur. He is like an early rock & roll Lee Perry, a man with a strong artistic inclination and a home studio, eccentric tendencies and behaviors, and experimental processes to create otherwordly results. He had a background as an electrician and started cutting his own records in the '50s. He set up perhaps the first home recording studio in rock (he loved to bother his neighbors). He produced "Tornado", a major international hit by the Telstars in '62, becoming the first British group to top the US charts. He utilized separation...

One of West Africa's (and indeed the planet's) most unique and independent musicians was the Nigerian synth-funk artist William Onyeabor, who passed away earlier this year. Born in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria, he studied cinematography in Russia and upon returning to Nigeria attempted to produce movies but found better luck when he opened a record pressing plant, recording studio, publishing company and record label. In the late '70s and into about 1985, he self-produced several unique, avant-garde records driven by synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers and very funky, groovy psych-disco rhythms. It has been speculated that he acquired all his expensive and...

Tenor player Fred Anderson may have been an underknown saxophonist but there is no denying his amazing, flowing playing and his commitment to nurturing the local scene in Chicago. In fact, it was desire to stay home and run the Velvet Lounge that kept him from a larger international profile. Born in Louisiana, he came to Chicago in the '40s and worked doing carpet installation before opening nightclubs. In the '60's he was a founding member of the AACM and played on a couple of fantastic Joseph Jarman albums. Indeed, those fine albums are where I first heard him, especially...