Roscoe Mitchell with Craig Taborn and Kikanju Baku
Conversations I
2014 - Wide Hive Records: WH-0317 
http://www.widehiverecords.com/roscoe-mitchell-conversations-i-with-craig-taborn-and-kikanju-baku/

* Roscoe Mitchell: flutes, saxophones
* Craig Taborn: piano, organ, synthesizers
* Kikanju Baku: drums, percussion
 
http://www.artensembleofchicago.com/roscoe.html 
http://www.craigtaborn.com/ 
http://www.gakishidosha.net/

Recorded on September 13th and 14th.
Mixed on November 6th and 7th, 2013 at Wide Hive Records Berkeley, California.
Engineered by Gregory Howe and Jimmy Fontana.

Reviews
~~~~~~~

Roscoe Mitchell with Craig Taborn and Kikanju Baku
Conversations I and II
By Bill Meyer for Down Beat Magazine 
http://www.widehiverecords.com/awesome-review-of-conversations-i-and-ii-by-down-beat-magazine/

Multireedist Roscoe Mitchell is well into his 70s, but coasting just isn’t on
his agenda. These two albums, which are products of the same two-day session,
reflect a recent strategy in which the master woodwind player has matched up
with much younger drummers who have some concepts of their own.

Like drummer Mike Reed and multi-instrumentalist Weasel Walter, both of whom he
has played with in the past year, Kikanju Baku, the percussionist on this
session, is a player who makes things happen. Possessed of both manic energy
and a fine instinct for restraint, he articulates elaborate shapes that sound
like they owe as much to prog rock as to any tradition of improvisation.

Mitchell takes to their convolution like a duck to water; his own playing is
all sharp angles, coarse cries and pitches so acrid, they seem to have been set
alight by Baku’s ferocity. Taborn’s piano runs match Mitchell’s lines in
momentum and persistence, but he also has good instincts for when to hold back;
there are long passages where he plays sparsely or not at all. His other
keyboards add subliminal textures and tonal variety without once lapsing into
mere novelty.

Both of these CDs are remarkably consistent; the engagement and invention never
flags, which makes it hard to favor one over the other. Honor also goes out to
the session engineers, Gregory Howe and Jimmy Fontana. Not only is he sound
crisp and immaculate, it imparts a spacial experience hat makes it feel like
the music is happening all around the listener.

--

By Josh Campbell 
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2014/02/roscoe-mitchellcraig-tabornkikanju-baku.html

by S. Victor Aaron 
http://somethingelsereviews.com/2014/04/14/roscoe-mitchell-with-craig-taborn-and-kikanju-baku-conversations-i-2014/

Mateusz Magierowski (pl) 
http://www.jazzarium.pl/przeczytaj/recenzje/conversations-i-ii

Di Nico Toscani (it)

Par Luc Bouquet (fr)