Deconstructing Free Jazz

by Robert J. Lewis
September 3, 2025

In the continuously evolving history of artistic expression, certain movements emerge that challenge the very foundations of our aesthetic sensibilities. In the early and mid-20th century, Expressionism and free jazz were two audacious musics that not only broke all the rules but broke the spirit of many well-intentioned listeners. If the terms are not ...

Adam Shead

Born: January, 1993

Adam Shead is an accomplished percussionist, composer, improviser, and performance curator based in Chicago. He frequently performs with the Stein/Smith/Shead trio, microplastique, and Cellular Chaos, and is a sought-after percussionist in the Chicago jazz and improvised music scene. For nearly a decade, Shead has curated performances at notable Chicago art galleries such as Slate Arts & Performance and Comfort Station, where he helps promote both emerging and established artists, enriching the local cultural landscape.

Shead has collaborated with prominent figures such as Marilyn Crispell, Roscoe Mitchell, Jason Stein, Damon Smith, John Dikeman, Angel Bat Dawid, Mary Oliver, and Molly Jones, amongst others. He has released music through various record labels, including Amalgam, Ears & Eyes, Scripts, Balance Point Acoustics, Shifting Paradigm, and Irritable Mystic. Shead is the founder and composer of the Adiaphora Orchestra, microplastique, and Adam Shead Quintet and works regularly as a sideman in such groups as Ben Zucker’s Fifth Season, the Jake Wark Quartet, and Undisclosed Sims. From 2018 to 2020 Shead curated and hosted the impro jam, a bi-weekly multi-disciplinary free improvisation jam session, at Slate Arts and Performance - from 2021 to 2022 the impro jam took place at Cafe Mustache.

Daniel Casares

Born: July 21, 1995

Daniel Casares is a jazz guitarist and composer from A Coruña, Spain. He studied at the Berklee College Of Music from 2014-2018 under the mentorship of Terence Blanchard, Dave Santoro, Darren Barrett, Kenny Werner, Mick Goodrick, Tim Miller, and many more. As a student he led a weekly set at the historic Wally's Jazz Cafe in Boston. After graduation, Daniel lived in New York City and was able to perform regularly as a sideman in the city's venues and clubs. He moved back to Galicia in 2019, where he performs often as a leader and sideman at the region's main musical venues. He completed a master's degree at SOAS University of London in 2022. In recent years, Daniel has performed at prestigious venues and festivals in the United States, Europe, and India.

Matteo Ciminari

Matteo Ciminari is an Italian composer, guitarist, and theremin player renowned for his genre-defying musical approach. His compositions seamlessly blend elements from various styles, resulting in a unique and personal musical language.

Tom Teasley

Born: December 2

Tom Teasley, described in the Washington Post as “a multi-instrumental genius,” maintains a unique career as a solo percussionist, composer, and collaborator. He is a Drummie Award winner for “World Percussionist of the Year by Drum! Magazine. Tom is a multi Helen Hayes Theatre Award recipient for outstanding sound design (nominations in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2019). Tom tours frequently worldwide, performing and presenting clinics for the instrument companies he endorses, including Yamaha, Vic Firth, Sabian, Remo, and Gon Bops. His educational book /DVD, An American Approach to World Percussion, is published by Alfred Publishing.

Delphine Joussein

French flutist, member of Nout, Fire Orchestra, Calamity, Boolvar, Asynchrone and more.

Ali Hossein Mahdavi

Born: June 29, 1996

http://www.alihossein.com     

Ali Hossein Mahdavi, born in Tehran in 1996, is a Vienna based composer, pianist, and producer whose music bridges Iranian traditions, chamber music, and contemporary jazz. His compositions are marked by intricate harmonies, rhythmic complexity, and innovative instrumentation, blending cultural depth with modern sensibilities. Known for his dynamic performances with his different bands, Ali Hossein regularly captivates audiences with a fusion of structured composition and vibrant improvisation. His album "BISTOHAFT" highlights his ability to craft rich, emotive soundscapes, combining lyrical melodies with unexpected rhythmic and harmonic shifts.

Evan Palmer

Evan Palmer (they/them) is an improviser, bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn. They specialize in avant-garde and improvised music.

?Raised in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Palmer moved to Boston in 2018 to attend Berklee College of Music, where they studied with John Lockwood, Francisco Mela, Bob Gullotti, Bruce Gertz, Bruno Räberg, and Linda May Han Oh. They graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Music in Bass Performance.

?Palmer's music draws from a wide variety of influences. These include jazz, Latin, European classical, and folk, but with a focus on improvisation, avant-garde music and experimentation

Sharada Shashidhar

Los Angeles-based vocalist, composer, and producer Sharada Shashidhar has a deep awareness of the cosmos. There’s a distinct tug-of-war in her music, an understanding that scanning the heavens to answer existential queries isn’t quite enough; there are internal depths to plumb as well. Shashidhar’s first album, 2020’s Rahu, found her voice billowing out of smoky, post-beat-scene soundscapes, meditating on the collective unconscious and the energy exchange between all living things. Her newest work, Soft Echoes, is a bold step forward, eschewing her previous work’s hip-hop tilt for expansive compositions that blend jazz and Indian classical influences into a swirling, spiritual whole.

Though she has an extensive resume as a collaborator in LA’s experimental jazz scene, notching work with the likes of Carlos Niño, Zeroh, and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Soft Echoes marks Shashidhar’s first outing as a bandleader. Gathering an ensemble that includes Anna Butters on bass, Julian Rodriguez on keys, Devin Daniels on saxophone, and Timothy Angulo on drums, Shashidhar sought to create a band that ostensibly functioned as an extension of herself. Her primary goals in writing these songs were to “let [her] body do what it wanted to do,” to trust her intuition, and “play without judgment.” Through that process, making Soft Echoes became a practice of presence and exploration, a chance to unlearn rigid structures and rediscover the joy of creating for oneself.

Recording took place over three brief, distinct sessions at Altamira Sound in Alhambra, California. Though the full band wasn’t ever present at the same time, Soft Echoes sounds like the work of a group in complete, mind-meld focus. Splashy drums nudge up against skronkingsaxophone on “Canyon Song,” while mushrooming synth tones stack up behind rippling Rhodes piano on “Luckiest.” Shashidhar’s elegant voice is the anchor for each of these tracks, sometimes gracefully stretching between instruments like a lithe dancer’s limbs, other times scattering through psychedelic delay.

She describes the album as having “two poles,” illustrated by the whimsical, buoyant opener “Soft Echoes” and the darker, more anxiety-ridden closer, “New Echoes.” The songs in between may come from different emotional spaces, but “it’s all really reflective,” she explains. The album can play like a loop, with Shashidhar entering a portal “into the endlessness” during “New Echoes,” only to be transported back to the beginning, full of gratitude and pondering “how strange it is to be alive.” On Soft Echoes, Shashidhar leads us on a journey through her mind, traversing its peaks and canyons in search of greater connection. “I want to take people places,” she says, pausing thoughtfully. “I can’t always guarantee that they’re good places, [but] hopefully you’ll feel something.”

Alex Dante

Born: May 12, 1983

Alexandros Dandoulakis (born 12th of May 1983), better known by his stage name Alex Dante is a Greek musician originally from the island of Crete. 

Since 2001 he lives and works as guitarist, music teacher, arranger and composer in Athens. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the National Technical University of Athens and Music at the University of West London which he graduated with the Licentiate of Teacher’s Diploma in electric guitar.

He has collaborated with many Greek artists and world class musicians like Bill Frisell, Alan Zavod (Zappa & the mothers), Monophonics and Jazz Soul Orchestra. His projects cover many music genres such as Jazz, Soul, Rock and Classical music.Alex Dante, with his electric guitar, redefines the aesthetics and sound over Frederic Chopin’s and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s pieces, describing a route from Wes Montgomerry and Joe Pass to Pat Metheny and Kurt Rosenwinkel.