Jazz Articles

Bobby Bradford, Tom Heasley, Ken Rosser: Varistar

by Bruce Lindsay
October 20, 2009

Recorded in Los Angeles in 1999, but mixed and released ten years later by tubaist Tom Heasley and Kronos Quartet engineer Scott Fraser, Varistar is a moody and atmospheric work from three experienced improvisers. Its predominantly slow and introspective feel of its seven improvised pieces create, at times, an almost claustrophobic intensity. The opening “Delicious Red" is driven by cornetist Bobby Bradford's fine playing. In fact, Bradford is the most consistently inventive player across the album--Heasley lacks ...

Tom Heasley: A Passage to Sound

by Tobias Fischer
March 23, 2008

Tom HeasleyA Passage to SoundFull Bleed Music2008

---> Tom Heasley is sensitive about the way that people label his music--very sensitive in fact. We've been in regular contact ever since I first listened to Passages (Full Bleed Music, 2007), a disc filled to the brim with spacey, sensuous and eruptive duets between his 'Ambient Tuba' and Toss Panos' drums. But I'm unsure whether this music marks him as an intuitive composer or a meticulously ...