News & Updates — out-jazz

If you've heard Ethiopian music, the chances are that you've heard the bold tenor saxophone vibrato of Gétatchèw Mèkurya. Ever-present on the recordings of the '60s and '70s, much of which was found on the amazing Ethiopiques series, his career found a larger international audience in his later days with his work with the Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex, Boston-based creative fusion ensemble Either/Orchestra, the group of Fendika, Indian singer Susheela Raman and others, and his music was sampled by K'Naan and Damian Marley. The native of Yifat, Ethiopia began his studies on the traditional instruments the krar and masenqo...

One of the best of improvised violin & viola, Leroy Jenkins was a member of Chicago's musicians collective AACM, co-formed Creative Construction Company (with Anthony Braxton) and the incredible out-jazz protest trio Revolutionary Ensemble (with Sirone and Jerome Cooper--check out Vietnam on ESP-Disk and Manhattan Cycles on India Navigation). He also worked with Alice Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, Rashied Ali, the JCOA, Andrew Cyrille, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Frank Lowe, Henry Threadgill, Paul Motian and many more. A native of Chicago, he brought classical chops into a radicalized improv-jazz setting, with a percussive yet mesmerizing style. His group...

Happy birthday to the harmolodic genius Ornette Coleman! His saxophone crying and unique compositional style were as groundbreaking on the avant-garde jazz front as John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor & Sunny Murray, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler were in that new freedom era that started in the late '50s and caused an avalanche of free-jazz in the '60s. In fact, it was Coleman's "double-quartet" album, Free Jazz -from '60, which gave name to a whole genre to follow. The musical revolutionary grew up poor in Fort Worth TX and learned to sight-read and started teaching himself alto sax at 14, right...

One of my favorite bassists (and a major piece of the Coltrane groups of the '60s), Jimmy Garrison came out of the Philly jazz scene, working and/or recording with a host of greats such as Kenny Dorham, Calvin Massey, Jackie McLean, Ornette Coleman, Lee Konitz, Philly Joe Jones and others before hooking up with Trane in '62. He brought a hard-driving style that later displayed a flamenco-inspired lyricism (at times) to the Trane sound as his #1 bassist until the saxophonist's death in '67. In the following years he continued to record with many Coltrane associates (such as Alice, Elvin...

The should've-been-better-known out-jazz tenor player (and bass clarinetist) Glenn Spearman brought a powerful lyricism and fierce beauty to great records by Cecil Taylor, Emergency (a group he co-founded in Paris with Bob Reid), Raphe Malik, Marco Eneidi, Trio Hurricane, John Heward and William Hooker. He also worked with Rova Saxophone Quartet and his own groups, such as G-Force and his classic Interstellar Space-inspired duo album Night After Night with Don Robinson. He was a major part of the Bay Area avant-garde & out-jazz scenes beginning in the late '60s and was on staff at Mills College. I have seem him...