Photo: Scott Friedlander
As far as the free-jazz duet is concerned, we’re living in a golden era. Consider cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and drummer Tomas Fujiwara’s strong 2007 session, True Events—featured in TONY—or the many strong sax-drum pairings showcasing Norwegian percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, recently issued on the Smalltown Superjazz label. This Saturday, June 20, marks the recorded debut of a similar yet slightly more unusual team-up, as violinist Sam Amidon and drummer Aaron Siegel celebrate the release of a new Peacock Recordings LP, Fiddle and Drum, as part of the Telluric Currents series at Brooklyn’s I-Beam Music. Volume readers are likely familiar with Amidon’s foward-thinking folk work alongside Nico Muhly, Doveman’s Thomas Bartlett (with whom he shares a bill at [Le] Poisson Rouge tonight) and others, but this record offers a chance to hear him in much freer, more experimental context. It’s an earthy, highly sensitive release that instantly brings to mind a lost improv classic, 1975’s Swift Are the Winds of Life, by the duo of the late violinist Leroy Jenkins and drummer Rashied Ali. Stream a track from each record below. (Click the “windows” icon in the top right-hand corner of the player to hear the full-length versions.)
When a well-known musician shows up at a big rock gig, they’re just a face in the crowd, at best fodder for the next day’s gossip column. But when the same thing happens at a jazz club, it creates an electrifying tension—everyone’s wondering, Will they sit it? The latter scenario played out last night at Zebulon, as veteran saxist 