Jazz Record Albums

 

 

 

This recording dates from 2001 but is new to me.  The band here is the Screaming Headless Torsos minus their vocalist, and consists of Fiuczynski on guitar, Fima Ephron on bass, Daniel Sadownick on percussion and drummer Gene Lake.  Being an all-instrumental recording, there's even more of Fiuczynski's guitar on display than usual.  The album is full of loose and funky grooves - the rhythm section really cooks here - over which Fiuczynski wails like a post-no-wave Hendrix.  It's actually not right to try and sum him up by reference to other guitarists, as he's a unique player with an instantly recognisable sound.  He obviously has chops to spare but does not indulge in fretw**kery - really the most impressive thing about his playing is the way he's always coming up with unexpected ideas, rarely going where you might expect.  After a couple of spins, standout tracks are Fallout Shelter (doomy and relentlessly intense, like funked-up Black Sabbath topped off with positively unearthly howling from a heavily treated guitar) and the misnamed Kiss that Whispers (Fiuczysnki makes the guitar speak in tongues whilst both percussionists throw everything that's not nailed down into the mix).  In fact there are no dull spots on the album: it just smokes throughout. 

 

Nice to know somebody reads those reviews in Amazon!!! BTW if you are following up on any other of my recommendations, more than happy to provide further input.

 

A Henry Kaiser produced bootleg by the Cline Brothers, a live spontaneous tribute to Tony Williams Lifetime, was my first introduction (well over a decade after the album's recording), which caused me to correspond with Nels, to the end that maybe but only just maybe the recording will be legitimised by Cuneiform....... And then an interview on BBC Radio 3 with Nels Cline had me sending off for a couple of NCS albums including Instrumentals from their LA-based record label (cheap and very fast turn round on orders). NCS are very interesting left field fusion but take time to get to grips with it - it is not immediate music.

 

 

A 2005 recording from the Swedish quartet of Anders Nilsson (guitar), Mattias Carlson (saxes / flute), David Carlsson (bass) and Peter Nilsson (drums).  There are a couple of good reviews of the album on its page at CDBaby.com linked below so I won't elaborate too much on the music, other than to say it's excellent jazz-rock with a definitely European feel to it (one could imagine this group being on ECM). 

 

Available here (where there are reviews and useful samples):

 

or directly from the label, Kopasetic Productions in Sweden:

 

There is an earlier album by the group entilted Blood  on Kopasetic which is also good, but for my money the later album is preferable.

 

 

I'm intrigued - shame the record label doesn't have any streams...

 

Do you know if they have any records in print?

The Anthology is quite an investment!  I'll look out for the individual albums you mention though, thanks.