JAIMIE BRANCH - FLY OR DIE LIVE

Chicago composer and trumpeter Jaimie Branch serves a gripping live iteration of her ‘Fly Or Die’ sessions, recorded with her quintet in Switzerland on her early 2020 EU tour - RIYL Irreversible Entanglements and Moor Mother

Captured in full flight in Zurich, just weeks before the pandemic really hit, ‘Fly Or Die Live’ sees Jaimie lead her ensemble on proper no wave jazz manoeuvres, freely swaggering between agitprop bullets aimed at the dome of Trump (‘Prayer for Amerikkka pt. 1 & 2) to oodles of taut but supple stick work by Chad Taylor that clearly gets the cord going, and thru to woozy Morricone-eque western themes again lit up with incredible percussion, and one almighty passage of no wave doom jazz in ‘The Storm’.  

Aye, it’s a lot, paying testament to the band’s punkish, dextrous drive and sparking energy for the full 90 minutes, with Jaimie front and centre switching between blazing trumpet and snarling vocals.

Birds Of Paradise
 
Prayer For Amerikkka (part 1 & 2)
 
Lesterlude
 
Twenty-Three N Me, Jupiter Redux
 
Reflections On A Broken Sea
 
Whales
 
Theme 001
 
Meanwhile
 
Theme 002
 
Sun Tines
 
Leaves Of Glass
 
The Storm
 
Waltzer
 
Slip Tider
 
Simple Silver Surfer
 
Bird Dogs Of Paradise
 
Nuevo Roquero Estereo
 
Love Song
 
Theme Nothing