Tim Armacost
Web Site
June 2000

The Wishing Well
Double-Time
2000

The Wishing Well
Reviewed By
Joel Roberts

The Wishing Well
Reviewed By
Flibbert J. Goosty

Tim Armacost has led a life of constant motion. He has gathered knowledge and experience around the globe, which forms the foundation of his passionate brand of jazz. Since he landed in New York in 1993, Armacost has quickly developed a powerful presence on the scene. Armacost's April 1996 CD, Fire on Concord Records, marked his emergence as a leader with a clear voice in the resurgent jazz of the 1990's. His follow up release, Live at Smalls, on Double Time Records, displays the results of his recent harmonic exploration, and features the depth and beauty of Tom Harrell's trumpet playing.

Armacost's career is already distinguished by performace and recording credits alongside the likes of Kenny Barron, Billy Hart, Tom Harrell, Ray Drummond, Roy Hargrove, Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi, Dave Kikoski, Lonnie Plaxico, Robin Eubanks, Pete Christlieb, Jesse Davis, Randy Brecker, Akira Tana, Valery Ponomarev, Hendrik Meurkens, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, and the David Murray Big Band. He has toured throughout East and West Europe, Japan, India, and the United States.

Armacost describes his early upbringing as a pendulum swing between his hometown of Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Washington D.C. He began his musical training on clarinet in Tokyo at the age of eight. By sixteen he had switched to tenor saxophone, and was working in big bands around Washington. The turning point into a jazz career came back in LA at eighteen, where Armacost met his two primary teachers, Bobby Bradford and Charlie Shoemake. Through them he learned the fundamentals of melody and harmony, and was exposed to the giants of modern jazz, wh Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Harrell, Sonny Stitt, Pete Christlieb, Harold Land, and Clifford Brown.

Armacost graduated Magna Cum Laude from Pomona College with a major in Asian Studies in 1985. His restless spirit took him to Amsterdam later that year, where he established himself on the jazz scene, attained fluency in Dutch, and became the head of the Sweelinck Conservatory's saxophone department. After gaining seven years worth of extensive performing, teaching, and recording experience in Europe, Armacost raised his stakes once again and headed for India. Having studied melody and harmony for twelve years, Armacost arrived in New Delhi with the goal of concentrating on rhythm. He had the good fortune to become a student of the tabla master Vijay Ateet. Under Mr. Ateet's guidance, Armacost explored the rich rhythmic tradition of Hindustani classical music.

With the sponsorship of The United States Information Service, and the Delhi chapter of Jazz India, Armacost performed frequently with Indian jazz and classical musicians. He recently returned to India to play at the Jazz Yatra, Bombay¹s international jazz festival. Indian rhythmic concepts continue to be a source of inspiration in Armacost's development as an improvisor. As evidenced by his recently recorded pieces "The Tabla Mater," "Indian News," and "Afro Pentameter," Hindustani music has also profoundly influenced Armacost's compositional style.

Throughout twenty-five years of frequent traveling to Japan, Tim Armacost has developed a deep and special relationship with its people. He is a fluent speaker of Japanese, which he studied as an exchange student at Waseda University, and is an active student of Japanese culture and religion. His performances there have included such great musicians as Fumio Karashima, Nobuyoshi Ino, Fumio Itabashi, Shingo Okudaira, Benisuke Sakai, Kiyoto Fujiwara, and Yutaka Shiina.