Digital

Joe McPhee / Matthew Shipp / Dominic Duval

2005

"With its beautiful sound, In Finland captures three master improvisers live and spinnin' takes. Longtime fans of Matthew Shipp who miss his prolonged flights into thundering, gothic creations: this is your fix. With two tracks hovering around the thirty-minute mark, the performances allow Shipp room to stretch and flex. Joe McPhee sticks mainly to a rich-toned soprano sax, although he plays some playful pocket trumpet. A veteran of Mark Whitecage's ensembles as well as a frequent collaborator of McPhee's, bassist Dominic Duval plays rough, his hands exploding with fat, rapid-fire plucking or smeared arco."

Ig Henneman Kwintet

1991

""… Her compositions inspire performances which are anything but ordinary, the collective improvising often breathtaking. The balance between melody and abstraction, rhythmic drive and ballad tones, keep it all sounding brilliantly right. In Grassetto feautures exciting bass clarinet Hein Pijnenburg, with Bart van der Putten's alto, Wilbert de Joode's bass, and Fred van Duynhoven's drums. They execute Henneman's turns magnificently. The leader has an original touch on viola." 
--Doug Lang CODA Magazine 1999"

Bahru Kegne

2013

"Bahru Kegne was a legendary azmari, who was even a private court-player under Haile Selassie, then the ‘free newspaper’ in the communist days and recording some amazing ‘modern’ cassettes in the last years of his life. Deep, hypnotic, trance-like music, and unlike things published before."

School Days

2002

Side A

2014

Steelwool Trio

1995

Joe McPhee / Mikolaj Trzaska / Jay Rosen

2008

Ab Baars Trio & New York Guests

2014

Joe Morris & Mat Maneri

1997

Joe McPhee / Jeb Bishop / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Michael Zerang

2011

"Both McPhee and Bishop have played far on the outside but while these pieces are framed as improvisations between the four participants, neither strays too far from their lyrical side. The opener begins with a mournful trombone laying out thematic concepts. McPhee joins in the mourning against Zerang's slow rumble. Then it all gives way, Bishop becoming increasingly percussive, as if trying to match the drummer's off-kilter rhythms before this in turn disintegrates and McPhee, his tone reminding me of Charles Tyler, comes storming in. And so it continues, each track revealing just why they are regarded as amongst the greatest improvisers currently performing. "

Rempis/Reid/Abrams

2018

"This collaborative trio featuring three mid-career artists with deep roots in the Chicago improvised music scene puts forth a stunning and austere debut, a chamber-like exploration in which their three voices intertwine seamlessly into one multi-headed unit. Although each member is no doubt comfortable as a soloist, with significant leader credits under each of their belts, here they shirk that approach in favor of a music that is unflinchingly interactive and group-oriented. In this context, solo explorations don’t drive the music, but instead the sum of the three parts together delivers an unstoppable momentum recalling the type of egalitarian interactions pioneered by the trio of Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley, and Steve Swallow in the early 1960’s. The resulting pieces, each one a thoroughly unique and cohesive landscape, deliver a strikingly clear example of what’s possible when musicians with broad interests in all types of contemporary musical expression combine their aesthetics in a non-genre and non-stylistically bound approach. Rempis, Reid, and Abrams deliver a wholly original sound on this recording, straddling the intersections of free improvisation, contemporary classical, jazz, and folk musics from around the world, without being contained by the precepts of any one of those influences."

Arashi

2019

"FOR PREORDER NOW:

The trio of Scandinavian rhythm section Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Johan Berthling (double bass) hooking up with Japanese free jazz legend Akira Sakata (saxophone/clarinet) started in 2013 at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway. The trio took their name from the legendary 1977 collaborative album by Yosuke Yamashita Trio and dance group Dairakudakan – an album that Sakata was a central part of, that even 40 years later stand solid as a radical and bold musical statement. And this piece of history gives us a clue to where the trio of Nilssen-Love, Berthling and Sakata is aiming for, not by looking back and rethreading what has been done before, but adopting its attitude of kicking the often stale sax/drums/bass-format forward with such force that it feels completely fresh. After its start in 2013 Arashi has been a steady group, doing numerous tours in Europe and Japan, and PNL Records is pleased to release the trio’s third album, “Jikan”, a live recording from the Pit Inn club in Tokyo in September 2017. “Jikan” captures the trio at full force – with Sakata doing almost as much vocals as playing the reeds."

Joe McPhee / Evan Parker / Daunik Lazro

1996

Joe McPhee

2018

"This very special limited edition release features excerpts from Joe’s conversation with John Corbett and is accompanied by the complete interview in a beautifully designed 20 page booklet. It’s release coincides with the Blank Forms celebration of Joe’s career. "

Bridge 61

2006

"Bridge 61 is one of the musical highlights of 2006, Vandermark on sax and clarinet, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, Nate McBride on bass and Tim Daisy on drums. McBride is also the bass player of Spaceways Inc., and Tim Daisy is the drummer of the Vandermark 5. Despite his incredible output of albums, Vandermark manages to keep the attention up. The pieces on this album are all composed but with room for improvisation, the search for new effects and sound combinations. "

Trio X

2003

"Much of the credit is due to Joe McPhee's exquisite sense of melody: even when intense, he infuses every note with thoughtful control. The results reflect the group's natural reticence and attraction to nuance, something that is especially evident on "Journey." Overall, though, this is not music for the fainthearted, as delicacy is juxtaposed with aggressive expression. On "Albert's Alto," for example, the ghost of Albert Ayler is resurrected but never cloned, and his spirit absorbed and reincarnated. The closing "Amazing Grace," in memory of Dominic Duval's late wife, is perhaps the highlight of the album, a lovely, even exquisitely executed reflection of deeply held sentiments. - Steve Loewy, AllMusic"

Marc Riordan & Tim Daisy

2016

"Joyride is the debut recording by two veterans of Chicago's vibrant creative music scene. Pianist, drummer, and filmmaker Marc Riordan and composer + percussionist Tim Daisy have both worked together in various contexts over the years including with the Marc Riordan Quartet, the contemporary dance ensemble The Seldoms, and the Tim Daisy Trio. This debut recording documents their recent explorations in an improvised duo context, their latest vehicle for sound exploration. credits "

Resonance Ensemble

2011

Ab Baars Quartet

2005

Nate Wooley

2017

"We can say without exaggeration that the new project by Nate Wooley introduces in the so-called “free jazz” format a system that few times – if ever – we encountered with such a relevance for the musical results since the harmolodic process proposed by Ornette Coleman. And the always surprising trumpeter is very much aware of the ground breaking possibilities of this band with the upcoming New York musicians Chris Pitsiokos, Brandon Lopez and Dré Hocevar, and of the music recorded in “Knknighgh” (to be pronounced as “knife”), when presenting it as «a radical new take on the classic free jazz quartet tradition». So it is: you immediately recognize the approach as free jazz, and yet, free jazz never sounded like this before. - Clean Feed"