Schanzer + Speach Duo – Live in Brooklyn 1992-2002
Documenting a vital decade of artist-led experimentation, the 2-CD set Live in Brooklyn 1992–2002 captures guitarist Jeffrey Schanzer and pianist/composer Bernadette Speach at the height of their collaborative synergy. Having forged a partnership back in the ’80s bridging free jazz, global traditions, and the post-Cagean avant-garde, the duo transformed Brooklyn venues like the Lafayette Presbyterian Church and the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture into sanctuaries for open-ended sonic dialogue. Across these two discs, their core dynamic serves as the grounding anchor on every track for a staggering roster of guest improvisers, painting a vivid portrait of a thriving grassroots creative movement.
Disc 1 moves fluidly between pointillist textures and raw intensity. It kicks off with the first fiery “Improvisation,” where alto saxophonist Oliver Lake offers melodic yet disjointed runs against Schanzer and Speach’s deliberate background racket. Lester Bowie lends his signature trumpet to “The Villager,” carving out a sparse soundscape, while Dr. David Pleasant and Drumfolk Riddim Specialist inject a deep facade of skittering bomp into the second “Improvisation.” The disc balances these dense moments with the multi-instrumental poetry of “Rain Flowers, Vertical Spears and Diamond Sunrays,” featuring Wadada Leo Smith on koto, trumpet, mbira, harmonica, and wooden flute, before concluding with the heavy free-improv pounding of bassist Mark Dresser in the third “Improvisation.”
Disc 2 delves even deeper into atmospheric range and explosive electronic collisions. Opening with the fourth “Improvisation,” Bowie returns with cellist Fred Longberg-Holm, building from moodiness into wild frenzy, followed by the spoken and belted vocal artistry of Alva Rogers on “Foreign Affair.” Violinist Leroy Jenkins delivers some raspy friction that gradually softens into Schanzer’s volume pedal textures, setting up the stark noise overload of “Glove Quartet,” where Holland Hopson’s sax and John J.A. Jannone’s electronics unleash balls of noise. Closing the set, Joseph Jarman’s alto sax, flute and percussion ground “Hollows Five II: Sincere Words. Can’t Compromise or Overpower” in simple, homely melodies, sealing a revelatory archive of Brooklyn’s creative music history of the 1990s.
Label: Neuma Catalog Number: Neuma 266 Format: 2-CD Packaging: Mini-LP tri-fold Tracks: Disc 1: 5, Disc 2: 5 Playing time: Disc 1: 56:45, Disc 2: 61:29 Country: United States Released: 2026 More: Bandcamp
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