Resolving Doors by Joel Futterman, Alvin Fielder, Ike Levin Trio

He has performed across North America and Europe including at such noted music festivals the Visions Festival in New York, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Festival in Dennmark. He has compiled a discography of over 35 recordings including work with such notable jazz innovators as Jimmy Lyons, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Joseph Jarman, Richard Davis, Al Fielder, and Hal Russell, as well as Edward "Kidd" Jordan with whom he has had a highly productive association in recent years.

Alvin Fielder, Drums & Percussion

Al is an internationally recognized master percussionist and has been one of the true leaders in improvisational music for over four decades. While Al has performed with many noted be-bop and post-bop jazz artists, his passions have always moved more towards freer forms of jazz music. In 1963 Al and several other Chicago based jazz musicians founded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) in Chicago. After over 40 years of performing professionally, Al still approaches each

performance as a challenge and continually stretches himself and those he plays with to explore new territory and elevations. Al has compiled over 20 recordings with such noted artists as Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ahmed Abdullah, Sun Ra, Dennis Gonzalez, Joel Futterman, William Parker, Clifford Jordan, Wilbur Ware. For a number of years, Al co-lead the Improvisational Arts Ensemble with Kidd Jordan. He has performed at festivals worldwide including Germany, Holland, France, Finland, and Italy.

Ike Levin, Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet

Ike is a Chicago reed player now residing in the San Francisco Bay area where he is active in the expanding creative music scene. He displays an aggressive, muscular approach to improvisation combining expressionistic blowing with more pointed melodicism. Levin's strong, free improvisational talents are rooted in a reverence and appreciation for the blues, bebop, and contemporary chamber music. He studied with the legendary jazz saxophonist Joe Daley and Fred Anderson, co-founder of the Chicago based Association for The Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), as well as studied composition at Roosevelt University Music Conservatory in Chicago. Ike has performed around the U.S. a variety of venues with such noted creative jazz musicians as Ira Sullivan, Wilbur Campbell, Von Freeman, Ed Petersen, Yancy Taylor, Smiley Winters, Kash Killion, Ito Muraki, Lester Cobb, and Robert Porter, as well as Joel Futterman and Alvin Fielder. In addition, Ike performs with his own small ensembles. To date, Ike has compiled a growing discography of 7 CDs.

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CD PUBLISHED REVIEWS;

Joel Futterman/Alvin Fielder/Ike Levin - RESOLVING DOORS: As is so often true with CD's we've reviewed previously that have Joel & Ike on them, this is straight-ahead (& rockin') improv! I don't remember hearing Fielder before, but his drumming is superb! The opening track "Spatial Odyssey, has Futterman & Levin heading right off into "outland". Joel's piano on the intro reminds me a great deal of another improv pianist I love, Greg Goodman... all up/down/around th' keyboard. Levin's tenor is no less intense, & he is playing at full bore! "Third Ear", a much shorter cut (3:38) than all the others is very nice, but it is track 4, "Atmospherics", that scores th' highest for my ears. While none of these spontaneous creations can be called "calm", this one fuses all the elements of good improv together, & the players seem totally conscious of where they "are at" (sonically) in respect to each other. The recording is excellent, capturing every little nook & cranny of sound they explore together. I strongly recommend headphones for the first couple of listens... keep it uninterrupted, you'll be glad you did! The "revolving door" theme will be evident throughout... constant movement, different views of the "drum & drummer", every sonic second. This is one of the best jazz improv CD's we've heard this year... it gets a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of "fluid jazz" around the planet! Dick Metcalf, Zzaj Productions & Improvijazzation Nation

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