Fantastic gig by the duo of Eddie Prévost and Silvan Schmid at The Glad Café in Glasgow this afternoon.

Sadly double bassist Tom Wheatley was absent from their usual trio, but the two solo sets followed by a brilliant duo performance were the stuff of the elemental. Schmid’s sharpened breath and saliva cut through the earth-wired heat of Prévost’s mesmerising playing.

So wonderful to hear them both perform in the intimacy of this great venue, where I was lucky enough to snag a seat right at the front.

Alt-text for image: Two performers on a small stage:

• on the left, Eddie Prévost sits behind a drum kit, sticks in hand, looking with a fierce intensity at a large crash cymbal.
• on the right, Silvan Schmid stands, eyes-closed, playing his trumpet towards the microphone as though he were transmuting base metal into gold.

#EddiePrévost #SilvanSchmid #ImprovisedMusic #FreeImprovisation #TrumpetAndDrums #TheGladCafé

Can it really be 30 years since this brilliant album was released by a superlative “power trio” (for want of a better expression) of improvisors comprising Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell and Tony Williams?

Williams’ room-filling drumming is such a brilliant foil for the shards of Bailey’s explosive electric guitar attack. So sad that the former died the following year, aged just 51.

#DerekBailey #BillLaswell #TonyWilliams #ArcanaTheLastWave

It’s hard to believe that Derek Bailey died 20 years ago tomorrow. I listen to his wonderful (and frustrating!) music frequently.

And so I’m off to play a personal favourite from his many solo recordings, Drop Me Off At 96th, a 1994 CD on the Glasgow label Scatter. It contains recordings from two gigs in May 1986 and June 1987, beautifully recorded and with a brilliant track “Interlude” where Bailey’s unique comic timing is very much in evidence.

#DerekBailey #ImprovisedMusic #Improvisation #Guitar

Not One Not Two Openings and Samādhis CD (Discus Music, 2025)

Wonderful lyrical improvisations by Geoff Bright and Hervé Perez on alto, tenor and bass saxophones, plus voice, and all “shaped by Buddhist practice and meditation”. Experience the “unconditional letting go” which gives this music its seemingly limitless reach and the musicians a shared connection in the moment of being present.

#ImprovisedMusic #Jazz #Buddhism #Meditation #GeoffBright #HervéPerez

This is a beautiful new release for the Winter season by organist Huw Morgan, whose mainly slow organ music bandcamp is exactly what it says it is, but also so much more.

Morgan describes these improvisations "recorded on the historic organ of St Nicholas Church, Grosmont, [as] a place-paean to the landscape around the village, as well as being inspired by the folklore of Wales and the borders, particularly vivid and powerful around the arrival of winter."

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Donnie does this thing where he puts one paw over his eyes. It’s just too cute!

The ruined gunpowder mill at Roslin Glen first opened in 1801 but ceased operations just after WW2.