Artist Title: Daniel Carter, Ayumi Ishito, Eric Plaks, Zach Swanson, Jon Panikkar 
Album Title:  Open Question Vol. 1
Label: 577 Records
File Under: Avant, Avantgarde, Experimental
Release Date: 1/21/22
Cat#: 5869-1
Format: CD/Digital
Barcode CD: 755491217429
CD-577R-5869-1

Open Question Vol. 1 — soon to be followed by a second volume—is the first of two albums that rely on stellar, warm, collective, and freely improvised music. The band formed organically in 2019 from weekly jam sessions in Harlem; it is comprised of tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, pianist Eric Plaks, bassist Zach Swanson, and drummer Jon Panikkar, and later, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter. Recording an album with only free improvisation was Ishito’s long-time dream, stalled by the pandemic, and realized only this year. Open Question’s music today, while fully improvised, remains firmly rooted in the jazz tradition. This is best heard on “Synchronicity,” the last recorded piece of the session, where each musician’s trajectory diverges even as the piece holds together. On the track, Carter starts out with soprano sax then later switches to tenor toward the middle of the piece, as Carter and Ishito playfully spar with competing tenor melodies. This album marks Ayumi Ishito’s second album on 577 Records, following her widely-acclaimed Ayumi Ishito & the Spacemen Vol. 1 (2021).

577 Records is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York 
operating since 2001

577 Records
Brooklyn, New York
www.577records.com
©+℗ 2021

Daniel Carter, Ayumi Ishito with Plaks, Swanson, Panikkar : Synchronicity from Open Question Vol. 1

577 Records is proud to be celebrating its 24 year anniversary.  The legendary music master Daniel Carter was one of the first people 577 cofounder Federico Ughi met soon after arriving in New York from Italy in 2000, after a brief stint in London.  It was a meeting of like minds and shortly thereafter the two started a series of house concerts at 577 Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, the apartment where Federico was living at the time. The spontaneous nature of the concerts along with the incredible caliber of the deep downtown underground music they were able to present inspired them to bring the unique nature of what they were doing to a wider audience and they founded the label 577 Records to further that mission. 

577 Records started the New York Forward Festival in 2015 to mark the momentous occasion of Daniel Carter’s 70th birthday, now with festival editions happening in Morocco and Italy as well, and the international residency program Sounds of Freedom, in which active musicians are awarded the opportunity to develop their own sound, skills, and improvisation concept.

100% of profit from the sale of most of these albums goes to the musicians.

 

 “Guided by a mission to capture the ephemeral, to keep jazz relevant, and to foster a collaborative community of artists, the music 577 releases is timeless, masterful, and mystical.” - Bandcamp

“the music of new possibilities, full of spirituality and introspection, an alternative that did not need volume or screaming at the top of your lungs to position itself, and coupled with a deep sense of pulse and the blues.” - Free Jazz Blog

“577 Records, the musical home of the daring and the brave” - All About Jazz


577 Records
Brooklyn, New York
www.577records.com
©+℗ 2025