Here is S. Victor Aaron’s Best of 2018 list for avant garde jazz and experimental music, including releases by Wendy Eisenberg, Brandon Seabrook, David Dominique and others.
Marc Ribot and his merry little band of jazz misfits are back extending the middle finger to anything or anybody that catches their ire.
The freewheeling ‘Lebroba’ is a solid entry in Andrew Cyrille’s lengthy catalog, and could be considered a solid entry in the catalogs of Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Frisell, too.
This completes a year-long celebration of Satoko Fujii’s 60th birthday with the same inventiveness, grace and genius shown throughout the entire series.
A quarter century of musical association between Matthew Shipp and Mat Maneri continues with ‘Conference of the Mat/ts.’
Wendy Eisenberg is elbowing her way to the vanguard of guitarists who radically rethink the guitar as Machinic Unconscious Trio proves that she can shine in the company of New York’s best.
Ryan A. Miller’s ‘Atrophy Torque Fly’ thrives in its uniqueness.
David Dominique shows a creative zeal for using traditional jazz as a springboard into the abyss, much as Mingus, Kirk and Lacy did.
The way a chamber string trio is being used by the Brandon Seabrook Trio for ‘Convulsionaries’ is bonafide wack. It’s akin to G.G. Allin hosting ‘Masterpiece Theater.’
The fourth Frequency Response release from Tom Abbs could well be his last for a long time; the man’s got things to do. If that’s the case, it’s all the more reason to savor ‘Hawthorne.’
