Steve Swell

The Implicate Order “At Seixal” is the recording of a memorable concert in Auditório do Forum Cultural do Seixal, home of one of the most important Jazz Festivals in Portugal. It is also a landmark in the collaboration between Portuguese and American improvisers.

Few players have forged the free jazz genre with the unmitigated intensity and purity of Paul Flaherty, the organizer of The Jumala Quintet. Among diehard aficionados, Flaherty’s albums are the stuff of legend: They are difficult to find, uncompromising in concept, cathartic in intensity, and impressive in the level of performance.

“Like new fire / Burning us down to the roots, past the roots”. These are the first two verses of the poem by Geral Schwartz that inspire this record. And Fire Music this is indeed, as the press call to free jazz and its heirs in the present scene.

Until the formation of The Resonance Ensemble in 2007, Ken Vandermark's writing for large ensembles had been limited to his electro-acoustic Territory Band and Peter Brötzmann's sprawling free jazz Chicago Tentet. With this 10-man group, he succeeds in what he works so very hard at with the Vandermark 5.