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Ryan Keberle
Hailed in the Downbeat International Critics Poll as #1 Rising Star trombonist, a player “of vision and composure” according to The New York Times, Ryan Keberle has developed a one-of-a-kind voice both on his instrument and as a bandleader, earning distinction among jazz’s most adventurous new voices.
Keberle’s outlets include the celebrated piano-less group Catharsis; the Big Band Living Legacy Project, carrying on the rich musical language of big band jazz (’30s through ’70s), featuring top veteran players in the idiom; and Reverso — Suite Ravel, a chamber-jazz collaboration with French pianist Frank Woeste featuring cellist Vincent Courtois and drummer Jeff Ballard.
Keberle's music integrates his wide-ranging experiences into a highly personal vernacular — immersed in jazz tradition, drawing on world music, pop and other influences, seeking fresh and original pathways. His earliest work as a leader, on Double Quartet and Heavy Dreaming, featured an ensemble thick with brass textures and a malleable little-big-band aesthetic. Catharsis, with its invigorating trombone-trumpet frontline, agile rhythm section and the voice and guitar of Camila Meza, debuted in 2012 with Music is Emotion, followed by Into the Zone in 2014 and Azul Infinito in 2016 (the latter two released on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf label). Billboard picked Azul Infinito as one of “five jazz albums you need to hear.”
In 2017 Catharis turned its attention to political turmoil in the U.S. with the protest album Find the Common, Shine a Light, praised by The Nation as “unpretentiously intelligent and profoundly moving.” Find the Common also saw Keberle emerging as a solid performing keyboardist (his first instrument).
Catharsis has toured internationally for years, engaging audiences at the Toronto, Ottawa, Rochester and Bergamo International Jazz Festivals, and at premier jazz clubs including Pizza Express (London), Le Duc des Lombards (Paris), Stadtgarten (Cologne), Jazz Standard and Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York) and bluewhale (Los Angeles). The band was also featured in NPR’s prestigious Tiny Desk Concert series and on the French TV channel Mezzo.
Keberle has also worked in endlessly varied settings with musicians ranging from superstars to up-and-coming innovators, in jazz, indie rock, R&B and classical music. As a featured soloist with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, he collaborated with David Bowie on his 2015 single “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime).” He has performed extensively with the acclaimed songwriter Sufjan Stevens and with Darcy James Argue’s groundbreaking big band Secret Society. He has also played in the big bands of Pedro Giraudo and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón, with Brazilian superstar Ivan Lins, and with the Saturday Night Live house band. He has accompanied soul hit-makers Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake as well as jazz legends Rufus Reid and Wynton Marsalis.
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Ryan Keberle's Collectiv do Brasil: Considerando
by Maurizio Zerbo
Considerando è una delle realizzazioni più mature e riuscite di jazz brasiliano negli ultimi anni. Ne è protagonista uno straordinario quartetto in grado di riproporre da una prospettiva più complessa la tradizione rivisitata, regalando al pubblico una delle letture più eleganti e raffinate di questo repertorio. La collaborazione tra Ryan Keberle e il gruppo di San Paolo Collectiv do Brasil arriva al secondo capitolo di un progetto che evita accuratamente le formule manieristiche o da cartolina oggi purtroppo ...
read moreDial and DeRosa: Keep Swingin'
by Jack Bowers
Keep Swingin', a splendid new album from pianist Garry Dial and drummer Rich DeRosa, features the music of Charlie Banacos." Charlie who? you may ask. And the answer is, there are jazz educators, and then there was Charlie Banacos, whose talent and ingenuity in the classroom influenced and inspired countless jazz musicians for more than fifty years. During that time, he designed more than a hundred courses of study and wrote half a dozen books on composition and improvisation.
read moreJohn La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard
by Jack Bowers
Composer/arranger John La Barbera has been at the top of his game for more than half a century, and Grooveyard is simply another example of his undiminished artistry. Besides arranging everything--superbly, as always--La Barbera wrote six of the session's ten charming songs, escorting other treasures by Carl Perkins, Dave Brubeck, Curtis Fuller and Elvin Jones. As he writes his handsome and colorful big-band charts, La Barbera is always careful to observe Rule No. 1: they have to ...
read moreDarcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension
by Angelo Leonardi
Precursore nel 2009 (con l'innovativo Infernal Machines) del nuovo rinascimento orchestrale nel jazz, Darcy James Argue approda all'etichetta Nonesuch e pubblica il nuovo album in studio: un doppio CD realizzato con i consueti partner della Secret Society più l'aggiunta della cantante Cecile McLorin Salvant e della violinista Sara Caswell. A differenza degli ultimi due dischi, Dynamic Maximum Tension non è un'opera multimediale ma conserva la spinta visionaria animata dalla costante riflessione socio-politica. Spinta che si traduce in ...
read moreDarcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension
by Katchie Cartwright
Darcy James Argue's superb double-album Nonesuch debut offers compositions written throughout his career. He turns to twentieth-century thinkers for ideas that can help us in the present, that we can reexamine and reconfigure for our own purposes." These include futurist designer Buckminster Fuller, cryptanalyst-computer scientist Alan Turing, composer-arranger Bob Brookmeyer, actress-screenwriter Mae West, trumpeter-mentor Laurie Frink, and musician-beyond-category Duke Ellington, among others. Like West, Argue seems to control his own path. He may not yet be the tycoon she was, ...
read moreThe John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The geometry, if you will, of a terrific big band recording is such that the three major elements--the players, the arrangements, and the performance--balance in every regard. Grooveyard from the John La Barbera Big Band is such an offering. The album features ten masterfully selected, arranged, and performed selections, each containing outstanding section, solo, and ensemble playing. Wes Montgomery's Grooveyard" launches a hip, swinging first course in which tenor man Pat La Barbera and guitarist Brandon Coleman ...
read moreMichael Davis - Hip-Bone Big Band: Open City
by Jerome Wilson
Michael Davis is an accomplished trombonist who has had a long career of live and studio work accompanying a varied roster of big-name jazz and rock talents such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Mintzer, Buddy Rich, Paul Simon, and Sarah Vaughan. He is also an established solo artist and composer who leads an imposing large ensemble, the Hip-Bone Big Band. The big band's second album is an exuberant affair which reflects the joy of getting back ...
read moreJazz this week: Maceo Parker, Barb Jungr & John McDaniel, Ryan Keberle, and more
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features one of the godfathers of funk saxophone, cabaret interpretations of the music of the Beatles, the return of a popular free concert series, and more. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, January 24 Saxophonist Maceo Parker opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Parker made his reputation in the 1970s and '80s as a member of James Brown's band, the JBs. He ...
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Ryan Keberle & Catharsis To Tour The Pacific Northwest April 7th-13th
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Ryan Keberle
Beginning this Tuesday, the critically acclaimed jazz outfit, Ryan Keberle & Catharsis, will hit the road traversing the Pacific Northwest and Northern California bringing their music, what the LA Times recently described as a potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies" to both rural and urban centers. Ryan Keberle & Catharsis is: Ryan Keberle - Trombone, Melodica Mike Rodriguez - Trumpet Jorge Roeder - Bass Eric Doob - Drums Camila ...
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Trombonist Ryan Keberle & Catharsis To Release Second Record, Into The Zone
Source:
Fully Altered Media
Exploring Meditative Concept Of Mindfulness As Applied To Improvised Music, On Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf Music, Out Sept. 30, 2014 Into the Zone Features Original Catharsis Lineup: Ryan KEBERLE (trombone/melodica), MIKE RODRIGUEZ (trumpet), JORGE ROEDER (bass), ERIC DOOB (drums), Plus Newest Addition to Catharsis, CAMILA MEZA (vocals); And An Encore Guest Spot from SCOTT ROBINSON (sax) Most jazz musicians avoid repetition dogmatically. But when Ryan Keberle realized he’d been playing the same eight-note phrase in all his recent warm-ups, the trombonist ...
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News and Tour Dates on Trombonist/Composer Ryan Keberle
Source:
Two for the Show Media
In-demand and multi-faceted jazz trombonist and composer, Ryan Keberle, will unveil his newest project, Ryan Keberle and Catharsis, in a series of performances around the tri-state area this February. Ryan Keberle and Catharsis, a piano-less" quartet highlighting Keberle's tuneful compositions and emotive arrangements in a bluesy, groove based, latin-jazz influenced atmosphere features three of the jazz world's most notable up-and-coming voices, Mike Rodriguez on trumpet, Jorge Roeder on bass, and Eric Doob on drums. Fresh off one of his busiest ...
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Ryan Keberle Double Quartet @ the Rubin Art Museum August 27th
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Ryan Keberle
The Ryan Keberle Double Quartet will be performing at the Rubin Art Museum on August 27th at 7pm as part of their Harlem in the Himalayas series, presented in conjunction with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Mr. Keberle will be performing music from his critically acclaimed, recently released CD, Heavy Dreaming. Here's what the critics have to say: Keberle's broad compositional ideals, along with his superb ability to balance the big and the small within his band, helps place ...
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Ryan Keberle Double Quartet Live at CIM
Source:
Two for the Show Media
The Ryan Keberle Double Quartet is back at it next Friday, November 16th, at the Center for Improvisational Music (CIM). We'll be playing music from my debut CD which continues to receive rave reviews (an article on trombonist/recording artists just came out in the October Issue of JazzIz magazine which has some very nice things to say about my record, as well as other new releases). Details are below. The Ryan Keberle Double Quartet @ The Center For Improvisational Music ...
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Trombonist Ryan Keberle Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
Trombonist Ryan Keberle's debut CD, Double Quartet (Alternative Side, 2007), displays a facile and expressive instrumentalist with a sound and technique that is smoothly intoned and gregarious with an emphasis on creating strong melodic lines. He is also a musical thinker with a rapidly maturing compositional and arranging style.
He currently performs with his own group, but stays busy in New York as a member of Maria Schneider's Orchestra and performing with the likes of Slide Hampton, Joe Lovano and ...
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"a sumptuous and spirited disc" (Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen)
"wonderful balance of listenability and complexity" (Damian Erskine, Bass Musician Magazine)
"Heavy Dreaming is easily on target for one of my 2010 favorites" (Bobby Vega, Jazz Times)
"Keberle's broad compositional ideals, along with his superb ability to balance the big and the small within his band, helps place Heavy Dreaming in a class of its own" (Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz)
"[Keberle] is clearly in the vanguard of a handful of stalwarts re-introducing the trombone to now unaccustomed ears" (Bob Gish, Jazz Inside)
Primary Instrument
Trombone
Location
New York City
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Jazz Professor at Hunter College, in demand trombone, big band, improvisational clinician.
Clinic/Workshop Information
Trombone studies, Jazz History, Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Styles, Ensemble rehearsal
Natalie Cressman
trombonePhotos
Music
Grooveyard
From: GrooveyardBy Ryan Keberle
Canopy of Trees
From: Red ListBy Ryan Keberle
Blue in the 2nd Degree
From: A Rose In The CanyonBy Ryan Keberle
Wedding Music
From: Double QuartetBy Ryan Keberle