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It's one of the ironies of life that the more you learn during your time on this planet, the more you realize how little you really know. Perhaps that is the ultimate wisdom...

With the jazz drumming tradition well assimilated, a first-hand knowledge of West African rhythms (he studied with local masters from Gambia, Ghana and Senegal) and a compositional vision of his own going as far as the contemporary classical field, Harris Eisenstadt has turned very rapidly into one of the most interesting, and in demand, musicians of the present international scene.

Only in a recording by Simon H. Fell could you find such disparate musicians as Tim Berne, Joe Morris, Rhodri Davies, Jim Denley, Alex Ward and Steve Beresford,coming from the many tendencies existing in the jazz and freely improvised music fields.

Prepare yourself for a big surprise. The European Movement Jazz Orchestra may be formed by young musicians still in the beginning of their very promissing careers, but what they offer here is a fantastically performed, fresh, enthusiastic and very pertinent vision of the big band model.

This new quintet lead by Gerry Hemingway has evolved from Hemingway's long standing compositional platform that began in 1985 with the recording of "Outerbridge Crossing" and has enjoyed numerous incarnations while retaining its penchant for an integrative compositional/improvisational ensemble approach.

Although a broad term, most people associate a specific set of dos and don'ts with jazz, most of them unseparable from the African-American experience. Artists like trumpeter Thomas Heberer--a German living in New York City--challenge those seemingly holy rules by not trying to pretend; he simply is himself: A man raised and educated in Europe.

Tony Malaby. Telling this name only is a guarantee in advance that you’re going to hear wonderful music. Either playing straight-ahead or avant-garde jazz, Malaby’s distinctive mark and seal of quality will be there. Wonderful and, we might say, different from everything done before by the saxophonist.

Fields wrote OZZO and Moersbow with the idea of having a book (which continues to grow) that could be performed by any ensemble stocked with at least sixteen traditionally trained musicians who play pitched instruments and who improvise. The piece can accommodate many more pitched or unpitched instruments as well.