Flow States | |
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Studio album by | |
Released | 2020 |
Recorded | April 21, 2015 |
Studio | ScienSonic Laboratories, Teaneck, New Jersey |
Genre | Free jazz |
Label | ScienSonic SS12 |
Flow States is an album by reed players Marshall Allen, Roscoe Mitchell, and Scott Robinson, and drummer Milford Graves. It was recorded at ScienSonic Laboratories in Teaneck, New Jersey on April 21, 2015, and was released in 2020 by the ScienSonic label. [1] The album captured the first occasion on which Mitchell played with either Allen or Graves. [2] It was recorded one day after the ScienSonic session that produced the album Heliosonic Toneways, on which both Allen and Robinson performed. [3]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
DownBeat | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
In a review for DownBeat , Ivana Ng called the album "a compact yet unrelenting set of expansive improvisations," and commented: "Flow States finds the quartet oscillating between forceful explorations and sparse, meditative musings, while seamlessly weaving in bebop, funk and more avant-garde concepts... The band's collaboration throughout feels organic and well-balanced, with each musician afforded the proper space to explore fringe concepts... By its conclusion, the band reaches a full-on flow state of boundless improvisation and unbridled creative energy" [4]
Writing for The New York City Jazz Record , Kyle Oleksiuk described the album as "strong" and "adventurous," and depicted the bulk of the music as "a high-energy free jazz atmospheric fugue (in the 'fugue state' sense), worthy of addition to the browsing music of any adventurous record store." He concluded: "This section is relatively standard; it is the kind of thing that most free jazz fans will feel they've heard a thousand times before but, like the blues, one never gets tired of hearing it." [5]
Matthew Shipp is an American avant-garde jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader.
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Milford Graves was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, Professor Emeritus of Music, researcher/inventor, visual artist/sculptor, gardener/herbalist, and martial artist. Graves was noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions in the 1960s with Paul Bley, Albert Ayler, and the New York Art Quartet, and is considered to be a free jazz pioneer, liberating percussion from its timekeeping role. The composer and saxophonist John Zorn referred to Graves as "basically a 20th-century shaman."
Marshall Belford Allen is an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and the electronic EWI.
After Love is an album by jazz pianist Dave Burrell, which was recorded in 1970 and released on the French America label. It was reissued on CD in 2004 by Universal France. The two songs were recorded during the "legendary Parisian sessions of 1969–1970". It was during this time period that such acts as the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp and others took up residence in Europe, specifically in Paris, France.
Scott Robinson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. Robinson is best known for his work on multiple saxophones, but he has also performed on clarinet, alto clarinet, flute, trumpet, sarrusophone, and other, more obscure instruments.
Sirius Calling is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in April, 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin and released in 2004 on the Pi Recordings label. It features performances by Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye with Malachi Favors Maghostut on what would be the final album before his death. It was recorded on April 24–26, 2003 in Madison, WI.
Nonaah is a double album recorded in 1976-77 by Roscoe Mitchell. It was originally released on the Nessa label in 1977 and features solo, duo, trio and quartet performances by Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Malachi Favors, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, Henry Threadgill, Joseph Jarman, and Wallace McMillan. The 2008 double CD reissue added five unreleased saxophone solos to the album.
Streaming is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Roscoe Mitchell recorded in 2005 and released on the Pi Recordings label in 2006.
Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell recorded in Germany in September 2004 and released on ECM in 2007.
Roscoe Mitchell Quartet is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell recorded in 1975 and released on the Canadian Sackville label.
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Taylor Ho Bynum is a musician, composer, educator and writer. His main instrument is the cornet, but he also plays numerous similar instruments, including flugelhorn and trumpet.
In Walked Buckner is an album by American saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell which was recorded in Chicago in 1998 and released on Delmark the following year. The album is dedicated to vocalist Thomas Buckner.
Sketches from Bamboo is an album by saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell. It was recorded in June 1979 at Palm Studio in Paris, and was released on LP later that year by Moers Music. On the album, Mitchell is joined by members of a large ensemble known as the Roscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra.
PoZest is an album by saxophonist Marshall Allen. It was recorded at The Spirit Room in Rossie, New York on May 10 and 11, 1999, and was released in 2000 by CIMP. On the album, Allen is joined by Lou Grassi's PoBand, featuring Perry Robinson (clarinet), Paul Smoker (trumpet), Steve Swell (trombone), Wilber Morris (bass), and Grassi (drums).
Children of the Forest is an album by percussionist Milford Graves on which he is joined by saxophonists Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover. It was recorded at Graves' basement laboratory and workshop in Queens, New York, in early 1976, in the months preceding the session that yielded the album Bäbi, which featured the same personnel. The album, which includes photographs by Val Wilmer, was released in 2023 on vinyl as a double LP set by Black Editions Archive as part of the Milford Graves Archival series.
Sacred Ceremonies is a three-CD box set album by trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith on which he is joined by drummer Milford Graves and electric bassist Bill Laswell. Disc one was recorded on May 27, 2016, and features Smith and Graves in duo format. Disc two was recorded on May 26, 2016, and features Smith and Laswell. The entire trio is heard on disc three, which was recorded on December 11 and 12, 2015. All three discs were recorded at Orange Music Sound Studios in West Orange, New Jersey. The album was released by TUM Records in 2021.