Exquisite International Anthem double-bill
The most exciting jazz label â with punk attitude(!) â of recent years is no doubt Chicago-based International Anthem. Chicago Reader summed it up perfectly: âInternational Anthem brings punk idealism to progressive jazz.â It so happens that IA shares a lot of similarities with the ground-breaking Impulse! label of the â60s: top productions, cutting-edge music, and a characteristic classy graphic design. Itâs no coincidence that inspiring IA artists like Angel Bat Dawid, Irreversible Entanglements, Jaimie Branch, Makaya McCraven, Ben LaMar Gay AND Alabaster dePlume have all already appeared on stage at AB. With the latter and Anteloper, AB surely presents an exquisite double-bill.
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Alabaster dePlume (uk)
Fair is fair: it took a while, but once you have poet/saxophonist Alabaster dePlume in your head, he becomes an A B S O L U T E addiction. Just take a listen to his superb and mesmerising album âThe Corner Of A Sphereâ, which is highly regarded by contemporary jazz protagonists. Shabaka Hutchings calls him âOne of my definite favourite saxophone players from this countryâ and Gilles Peterson exclaimed that âHe absolutely blew my mindâ. Following on from his latest (instrumental) album âTo Cy & Leeâ, this spring a successor will appear. For those in doubt, an extra quote from The Guardian: âOne of the most thrilling performances weâve seen this year; a reminder of how vital and adventurous music can be.â
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Anteloper (= Jaimie Branch x Jason Nazary) (us)
Anteloper is the rousing collaborative project involving trumpetist Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary. Branchâ albums - âFly or Die I & IIâ â were both critically acclaimed by both The New York Times and The Wire. Live, Branch is definitely an experience: exciting, unruly and 100% punk. There have been two albums released under the name Anteloper: âKuduâ and âTour Beats Vol. 1â. Of the former, Rolling Stone wrote: âthe duo convincingly bridges woozy psychedelic abstraction and furiously propulsive free funk... fractured beats and peeling, effects-heavy brass suggests a punk-minded update of Miles Davisâ most thrillingly weird Seventies explorations⊠This is music for serious immersion.â
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