Clik here to view.
Save 30% On Burning Ambulance 1-4!
The fifth issue of Burning Ambulance is coming very, very soon! The upcoming print edition will include full-length interviews with Michael Gira of Swans, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and trumpeter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Burning Ambulance #5: Out Now!
Just in time for the holidays, Burning Ambulance #5 has arrived! (In fact, if you order by tomorrow, you can save 25% off your order with the checkout code COUNTDOWN.) This issue includes: a mammoth...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cecil Taylor – All The Notes
The documentary All the Notes is a superb 70-minute (or so) portrait of pianist Cecil Taylor, that covers not only his music but many of his other interests. And it’s been uploaded to YouTube in its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A List Of 50 Jazz Albums
by Phil Freeman Apparently April 30 is International Jazz Day. So as a way of subverting the canon-building exercises that are sure to go on across the jazz internet today, I’ve come up with a list of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 50 Greatest Saxophonists…EVER!!!: 50-41
Welcome to the official Burning Ambulance countdown of the 50 Greatest Saxophonists Ever. The list was determined by means we shall not disclose, though a number of jazz critics and musicians offered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 50 Greatest Saxophonists…EVER!!! 20-11
We’re heading into the home stretch with our countdown of the 50 Greatest Saxophonists…EVER!!! Here are #s 20-11, followed by a bonus list: Rudresh Mahanthappa picks his 5 favorite saxophonists! 20....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interview: Joe Morris
by Phil Freeman Joe Morris has been a crucial figure on the global free jazz/free music scene since the 1980s. Starting out as a guitarist, he expanded to bass, and has worked with many of the major...
View ArticleClik here to view.
David S. Ware 1949-2012
by Phil Freeman Tenor saxophonist David S. Ware died October 18, at 62, of complications from kidney disease. He’d suffered from it for many years, receiving a kidney transplant in 2009. I don’t want...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mostly Other People Do The Killing
Slippery Rock (Hot Cup) by Phil Freeman The fifth studio album by Mostly Other People Do The Killing (sixth release overall – the live The Coimbra Concert, their only album not to appear on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Runners-Up: Peter Brötzmann
The Runners-Up is a monthly column, wherein we will analyze an album that isn’t the consensus first choice or most canonical title by a given artist, but is one worthy of more attention than it’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
David Ake
by Phil Freeman Pianist David Ake is also an author and professor, so he doesn’t record very often. But earlier this year, Posi-Tone Records reissued his 2005 solo album, In Between, and now they’ve...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cecil Taylor In Paris
Here’s an amazing 45-minute movie, Cecil Taylor à Paris – Les Grandes Répétitions 1968. It features performance footage of Taylor, alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, bassist Alan Silva, and drummer Andrew...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jazz For Hippies: The Charles Lloyd Quartet In 1968
Between 1998 and 2003, I interviewed the late saxophonist David S. Ware several times. He had made his debut on Columbia in 1998 with Go See The World, and I visited him and his group in the studio...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ted Curson
Trumpeter Ted Curson died one year ago today—November 4, 2012. Without being a name that leaps immediately to casual jazz fans’ lips, he had an illustrious career, recording quite a bit as a leader...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Exclusive: Matthew Shipp and William Parker on David S. Ware
Today, November 7, would have been saxophonist David S. Ware‘s 64th birthday. He died on October 18, 2012, of complications from a kidney transplant he’d received in 2009. During his five decades of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cecil Taylor Wins 2013 Kyoto Prize
The Kyoto Prize, a sort of Japanese equivalent to the Nobel Prize, has been awarded every year since 1985 in three categories: Advanced Technology, Basic Science, and Arts and Philosophy. The Inamori...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Edwards Sanders Tilbury
Once upon a time, The Wire (a fantastic magazine I’ve been contributing to for, holy shit, a dozen years) capitalized genre designations, so reviews would be full of references to “Country” or “Metal”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interview: Jemeel Moondoc
Alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc first came to prominence on the New York loft jazz scene of the mid-1970s, as leader of the band Muntu. But he started out in Chicago, then moved to Boston, and then to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Best Jazz Of 2014: 15-11
Burning Ambulance’s week-long countdown of the year’s best jazz albums continues with #s 15-11. Shall we? 15. Rudy Royston, 303 (Buy It) The players Rudy Royston’s assembled for his debut as a leader...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cecil Taylor In 1983
Some fantastic video of Cecil Taylor from 1983 was recently uploaded to YouTube. The two lengthy performances come from European TV, and were posted by André Martinez Reed, one of the two...
View Article