Intakt

The Schlippenbach Trio has been playing together now for over three decades, and the members (Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano, Evan Parker on sax, and Paul Lovens on percussion) have honed their communicative abilities to a rare degree. Most of their recent recordings have been live, but this one is a studio session with shorter pieces.

Cecil Taylor, who recently celebrated his 73rd birthday, continues to show the chops and invention that have inspired a bustling genre of music for more than forty years. The Willisau Concert is another fascinating entry into a discography with an already healthy share of solo performances.

Even before he started wearing baggy corduroys, sensible shoes, and sweaters with elbow patches, Anthony Braxton's image was one of the enigmatic intellectual. You had to expect his playing to be more geometric than gutbucket. In a meeting at Wesleyan University (where Braxton is on the faculty), however, he and Andrew Cyrille make music that turns that image on its ear.

Even before he started wearing baggy corduroys, sensible shoes, and sweaters with elbow patches, Anthony Braxton's image was one of the enigmatic intellectual. You had to expect his playing to be more geometric than gutbucket. In a meeting at Wesleyan University (where Braxton is on the faculty), however, he and Andrew Cyrille make music that turns that image on its ear.

Since 1995, whenever Aki Takase has not been making solo recordings, she has always sought the company of Rudi Mahal: The depth of their knowledge of jazz history and their craft-oriented approach are self-evident – if actually rather secondary to their remarkable, dazzlingly enterta

Here is the first ever complete Monk oeuvre project, undertaken by pianist and composer Alexander Schlippenbach, himself no stranger to Monk's songbook.