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Alex Ward: electric guitar

“’Frames” is the debut solo guitar album from composer/improviser/performing musician Alex Ward. The path leading to the making of this album extended through many years, during which Ward’s approach to the guitar in general and solo playing in particular became solidified. Up until his mid-twenties, Ward was known primarily as a clarinettist and his involvement in improvised music was almost exclusively as a reeds player. During this period Ward was also playing...

ALEX WARD: clarinet (tracks 1, 2 & 4) and electric guitar (tracks 2, 3 & 4)
CHARLOTTE KEEFFE: trumpet and flugelhorn
OTTO WILLBERG: double bass
ANDREW LISLE: drums

“Item 4 is Alex Ward's latest ensemble to feature his compositions for improvisers. His previous work in this field with ensembles such as Predicate, Forebrace and the Alex Ward Quintet/Sextet has been described as "deft and utterly mesmeric" (Philip Clark, The Guardian review of Alex Ward Quintet "Glass Shelves And ...

This is an incredible, very composer-ly and orchestrated large ensemble jazz work. Highly recommended.

"Alto saxophonist and composer Greg Ward (Prefuse 73, Lupe Fiasco, Tortoise, William Parker, Andrew D'Angelo), combines forces with performing artist and choreographer Onye Ozuzu (Columbia College Chicago Dance Chair) to create Touch My Beloved's Thought. This cross disciplinary work of music and movement is a direct nod to Charles Mingus' Black Saint and the Sinner Lady seen through a modern...

Greg Ward (also sax)
Matt Gold and Dave Miller (guitar & effects)
Matt Ulery (bass)
Quin Kirchner (drums)

I see a lot of young, upcoming musicians and a lot of them are really really good. Having said that, one of the best I can recall seeing is saxophonist Greg Ward with Mike Reed’s People Places and Things. He’s an unbelievable player and this is the second release under his leadership.

“Following his critically acclaimed Greenleaf debut Touch My Beloved’s Thought in 2016

"David S. Ware's new quartet Planetary Unknown debuted in June 2011 with their self-titled studio communion on AUM Fidelity. That album documented an epic occurrence with major artistic circles between members Ware, Cooper-Moore, William Parker and...

"Live in New York, 2010 presents a tremendous one-night engagement by saxophone colossus David S. Ware and his latter day Trio in an intimate club setting -- the Blue Note on October 4, 2010. Featuring his perennially steadfast musical partner William Parker on bass, and equally incomparable Warren Smith on drums, they were celebrating the recent release of the studio album, Onecept (2010). Having played an electrifying set at Vision Festival in June, this extended night in October was the third and...

"The recording and release of Onecept celebrates David S. Ware's 50th year of singular and profound saxophone artistry; a studio session specifically arranged for same featuring Ware on three horns: saxello, stritch, tenor along with fellow musical....

"The new work from master musician David S. Ware arrives! Shakti is Ware's first new studio recording in almost 6 years, and his first with a new group since his highly esteemed Quartet was disbanded. The Quartet's final performance was documented on...

"The Balance is the fourth edition in the DSW-ARC Series; it presents an outstanding and incendiary David S. Ware concert, in trio with William Parker and Warren Smith. A tenor sax / bass / drums excursion of full intensity from the first note, this suite of spontaneous form was created at NYC's Vision Festival in 2010. Ware had been a perennial at this vital annual gathering since its beginning; this was his first time back since his revered Quartet bid farewell there in 2006, and it was a wholly...

David S. Ware-tenor sax
Joe Morris-guitar
William Parker-bass
Warren Smith-drums

“Théâtre Garonne, 2008 presents a luminous concert from a transitional period in David S. Ware's ever-creative life. His 17-year-longstanding Quartet with Matthew Shipp and William Parker, which had achieved a naturally ascendant and well-earned worldwide acclaim, performed their final concerts on a triumphal European tour in March 2007. Knowing that this end was coming, David had already begun writing..

"Birth Of A Being (Expanded) presents the essential first studio recordings by incomparable jazz saxophonist David S. Ware as a bandleader.
Recorded in New York, April 1977, the first disc features material originally released on LP by the Swiss label, hat Hut Records -- out of print for over 30 years. The second disc features a full additional album of top-shelf material from those same sessions that have never been released in any form. This definitive edition was sourced from the original analog...

"Planetary Unknown documents an epic occurrence and its commercial release is itself the same. Major circles arc together and synchronize anew here. Mighty majestic, mackadocious! David S. Ware and company raise the bar on artistic heights, in all...

"Live in Sant'Anna Arresi, 2004 is the 2nd volume in AUM Fidelity's David S. Ware Archive Series, and the first release of the saxophone master in rare duo performance with fellow master of music, pianist Matthew Shipp. Though sharing 17 years together in the legendary David S. Ware Quartet (along with bassist William Parker and a series of drummers), Shipp recalls that he and Ware performed duo concerts perhaps six times at most in that period. Thankfully, on this latter-day occasion, their work...

Marta Warelis - piano

“A grain of Earth’ is the first solo venture and expression of several years of working with instant compositions and the timbral possibilities of an acoustic piano. This has been wrapped in an idea of realities beyond our perception, and a thought that we are a part of a big organism where everything goes endlessly bigger and smaller in scale of size, time and speed. Everything moves in constantly interfering waves of energy; echoing and reflecting, in ceaseless dance of...

Arve Henriksen : Trumpet and Electronics
Stian Westerhus : guitar and electronics
Jozef Dumoulin : Fender Rhodes and electronics
Teun verbruggen : Drums and electronics
"Warped Dreamer shares a fickle, mysterious city vibe with a few other bands these musicians are/ were involved in. At the same time this project, which combines the talents of Belgian stalwarts Teun Verbruggen (drums) and Jozef Dumoulin (keyboards) with those of Norwegian experimentalists Stian Westerhus (guitar) and.

"Hermeto+ includes arrangements of the music of Brazilian genius Hermeto Pascoal, alongside Huw Warren’s own eclectic compositions. Warren’s own music-making has been strikingly influenced by the highly idiosyncratic work of Hermeto Pascoal which...

Composer John Warren is one of the greatest yet completely unheralded, Brit-jazz composers! Anything from him is a treat!

"A previously unrecorded suite of compositions by JOHN WARREN, recorded live by the JOHN SURMAN led BRASS PROJECT.
In the early 1980s John Surman and John Warren realized a long-held ambition and formed the Brass Project. The ensemble was conceived as a brass led group focusing on new compositions from Surman and Warren. The large group ‘had to survive without grant or...

Marty Ehrlich conductor/alto saxophone
Bobby Zankel alto saxophone
Julian Pressley alto saxophone
Robert DeBellis tenor and soprano saxophone
Hafez Modirzadeh tenor saxophone
Mark Allen baritone saxophone
Dave Ballou trumpet
Dwayne Eubanks trumpet
Graham Haynes cornet
Josh Evans trumpet
Steve Swell trombone
Michael Dessen trombone
Alfred Patterson trombone
Jose Davilla bass trombone
Michael Formanek bass
Tom Lawton pia


They reference Return To Forever and The Mahavishnu Orchestra, but this is still one of the scariest covers you'll ever see...

Excellent instrumental jazz/rock band that channels Headhunters with classic helpings of Weather Report on top. Really enjoyable retro-fusion fun that seemingly came out of nowhere; when the clavinet kicks in with the bass clarinet on top, you’ll swear it’s 1974 again!

"The jazz fusion group Wasafiri, and its resulting 2022 debut album Klearlight, began with the memory of a feeling. Eastwood Music Group co-founders Luke Sardello and Skin Wade wanted to release a project that evoked the feelings...


"Dinah Washington was one of the greatest jazz singers of all time and this compilation is a snapshot of her at the peak of her powers in the mid fifties period of rendition between blues and jazz. It is a fantastic introduction to the artists work....

"This is a splendid example of the young Dinah Washington. It's recorded live at Birdland on the Symphony Sid radio program. The sound is excellent for what it is, the band (Wynton Kelly, Percy Heath, Art Blakey, Jimmy Cobb, Ed Shaughnessy, etc) are...

Saxist Sadao Watanabe is one of the better known Japanese jazz musicians in the USA, probably because he made a bunch of really lightweight fuzak albums.
However, the man can really play and this rare session, recorded in June 1969, is a fine, meaty, very early jazz/rock session, featuring:
Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone, Flute, Electric Piano – Sadao Watanabe
Bass – Yoshio Suzuki
Drums – Fumio Watanabe
Flugelhorn – Chiyoshige Matsubara, Masahiro Tanaka
Guitar – Yoshiaki.

"The Watch is a 5 piece band from Milan. Their music is inspired by classic style prog of the 70s and in particular by the music of Genesis. Melody and energy are the main aspects of The Watch's music and the live dimension is one of the greatest points..

"This is getting ridiculous. These guys are 3 for 3 (OK 4 for 4 if you consider The Nightwatch). Killer old school progressive rock steeped deeply in the tradition of Gabriel-era Genesis. Simone Rossetti once again does a wonderful job of emulating the...

Giorgio Gabriel / electric guitars, 6 & 12 strings acoustic guitars, classical guitar
Valerio De Vittorio / keyboards, Hammond L122 organ and synthesizers
Simone Rossetti / vocals, mellotron, synthesizers, flute
Mattia Rossetti / bass guitars, bass pedals, electric guitars, vocals
Marco Fabbri / drums and percussion
with:
Steve Hackett (Genesis) / acoustic 12 string guitar

The Watch (originally The Night Watch) are a Italian band who started their life as a Gabriel-er

Simone Rossetti - lead vocals, Mellotron, synthesizers, flute
Giorgio Gabriel - electric guitars, 6- & 12-string acoustic guitars, classical guitar
Marco Fabbri - drums & percussion
Mattia Rossetti - basses, bass pedals, 6- & 12-string electric guitars, vocals
Valerio De Vittorio - keyboards, Hammond L122 organ, Mellotron, synthesizers

“The Art Of Bleeding [is] the eighth studio (and first conceptual) album from Milan’s symphonic prog heavyweights The Watch. The quintet have...


Patty Waters voice
Burton Greene piano
Mario Pavone double bass
Barry Altschul drums

“Patty Waters is a living legend and every record with her voice is, in consequence, a preciosity. Unanimously considered the main singer of the free jazz tendency since the release of her historical ESP-Disk albums “Sings” and ‘College Tour” in the Sixties, and widely known (Diamanda Galas and Patti Smith pointed her as their main reference) for her impressive interpretation of the traditional..

"In the Spring of 1966, ESP was given a grant by the New York State Council on the Arts, to tour the five colleges in the state with music departments. Artists for this tour included the Sun Ra Arkestra, Burton Greene, Patty Waters, Giuseppi Logan and...

Patty Waters is a visionary avant-garde vocalist and composer, best known for her groundbreaking 1960s recordings for the legendary free jazz label ESP-Disk. Captivated by the music of Billie Holiday, she sang with Bill Evans, Charlie Mingus, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock before coming to the attention of Albert Ayler, who introduced her to ESP-Disk's Bernard Stollman. The rest is history.
Recorded with pianist Burton Greene, Waters' haunting 1966 debut Sings juxtaposes a side of hushed...

"By 1984, the classic Pink Floyd line-up was all but finished. Despite reaching No. 1 on the charts, the previous year's The Final Cut had been met with mixed reviews, and many fans saw it as a Roger Waters solo album in all but name. Having unofficially left the group, Waters took the opportunity to resurrect a previous project, The Pros & Cons Of Hitch Hiking, a real-time concept album depicting a man struggling with a midlife crisis as he drives across California.
The idea had originally been...

"When dissected carefully, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking becomes a fascinating conceptual voyage into the workings of the human psyche. As an abstract peering into the intricate functions of the subconscious, Waters' first solo album involves...

"I first heard David Watson some 25 or more years ago at a small festival in Tasmania. Exotic location - and so was the music. I was astonished by a highly developed bowed guitar technique - up there with one of my favourite bowed guitar exponents...

Doc Watson with just an acoustic guitar and his voice, captured very early in his career in 1962-63. This is great American roots music, pure and simple.

"In recent years Doc Watson, whose contributions to American roots music have few equals...

Post punk / post-rock supergroup who play a mostly instrumentally based post-rock / progressive rock / soundtrack-ish music, reminiscent of the groups they come from: Tortoise, Grails, Slint!

"When Watter first appeared fully formed in 2014 as a trio featuring founding members of Grails and Slint, most assumed the mercurial group would vanish into the ether just like the foggy echoes of sound they crafted on their debut album, This World. Instead, they toured the US with their longtime friends in..

"Watter is a new trio made up of close friends and collaborators whose collective pedigree reads like a desert island list of must-haves in experimental rock musicians. Multi-instrumentalists Zak Riles (Grails) and Tyler Trotter are anchored by legendary drummer Britt Walford (Slint, Evergreen) on six genre-defying pieces of monolithic mood music. For Riles and Trotter, it's a chance to dig deeper into the sandbox in which Grails have sculpted many mercurial masterpieces in recent years; for Walford....


This 2012, newly transfered and remastered version is by far the best sounding CD version of this album! Marzette Watts was much better known as a painter, but he was a fine musician and this was the 2nd of only 2 albums he released. It has a great...

Trevor Watts: alto and soprano saxophones, leader, composer
Colin McKenzie: Bass
Paapa J. Mensah: kit drums, indian finger drums, african tana drums, cabassa, ankle bells, djembe, zebra skin drums, lead vocals

"This album has an...




André Roligheten tenor saxophone and clarinet
Kristoffer Alberts alto and baritone saxophone
Niklas Barnö trumpet
Mats Äleklint trombone
Mattias Ståhl vibraphone
Ola Høyer double bass
Tollef Østvang drums

"The title says it all: here is music conceived under the influence of Albert Ayler, author of seminal free jazz pieces like “Bells” and “Ghosts” and one of the most celebrated interpreters of a gospel hymn specially cared by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Fats...

“Every time experimental British saxophonist John Butcher plays in the northwestern part of this continent his trio is made up of two Vancouver-based players: bassist Torsten Muller and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Listening to the nine pitch-perfect improvisations on this disc demonstrates why this configuration has been maintained since 2007.
The veteran bassist, who is perfectly capable of atonal string-stretching and scrubbed pulsations, is careful to maintain a connective pumping throughout...

"Concerto for Electric Violin was recorded by Curved Air and Wolf violinist Darryl Way for Island Records and was the subject of much critical acclaim and a feature on ITV’s “South Bank Show” upon its release in 1978. A unique fusion of rock and...

“Darryl Way is a co-founder of CURVED AIR, a trailblazing rock violinist and composer.
“Destinations” is the new studio album by Darryl Way and features ten new rock instrumentals, with a variety of influences and sound effects enriching the style and delivery of the pieces.”

“This album feels like a spiritual sequel (prequel?) to Darryl's 1991 "Under the Soft", which was recorded for I.R.S.' No Speak label. This is due to its sound, which is made of violin (well, of course!), synth, guitar and drums.
As the title suggests, the 18 tracks here were written to later be used in television and movies (think of "affordable musical score database"). But do not let the word "affordable" fool you into thinking that the stuff is mediocre,- it is far from it! Alright, IMHO there...