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Jonathan Barber

New York City-based Jonathan Barber was voted the #1 Up-and-Coming Drummer of 2018 in Modern Drummer. Only 29 years old, he has already recorded and toured worldwide with such artists as Pat Metheny, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, Jeremy Pelt, Wallace Roney, Terrace Martin, Jennifer Holiday, Harold Mabern, Steve Davis, Stefon Harris, and many more. Barber has also been called on for such significant performances as Jimmy Greene’s Ana Grace Project (with an all-star band comprised of Greene, Kenny Barron, John Patitucci, and Kurt Elling) and back-to-back sold-out concerts with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Erykah Badu at the BAM Opera House.

In addition to his first-call status as a sideman, Barber has recently stepped forth as a composer and leader with his Vision Ahead band, featuring saxophonist Godwin Louis, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, bassist Matt Dwonszyk, and pianist Taber Gable. Even with Barber’s history of high-profile gigs and recordings taken into consideration, DownBeat magazine calls Vision Ahead’s self-titled debut album his “greatest accomplishment to date.” Released on Rockwood Music Hall’s largest stage in May 2018, Vision Ahead is a powerful declaration of intent for a band that’s been making waves on the modern jazz scene since its debut performance at Smalls Jazz Club. The group’s blend of classic, swinging jazz with elements of gospel, rock, soul, and fusion is a compelling showcase of Barber’s broad stylistic range as a composer and performer. Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead was featured and headline the 2018 Rainy Days Jazz Festival held in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. 

Born in Hartford, CT, Barber has been playing drums since the age of five, initially falling in love with the instrument through watching his father perform in the family church. Barber’s upbringing in the church instilled within him a deep appreciation of the power, passion, and full sound of the gospel music tradition, and he now brings its infectious energy to the wide range of styles in his musical toolkit. Early influences also includes beginning George Duke, Fred Hammond, Weather Report, Yellowjackets and Commissioned, and classic jazz titans like Miles Davis, Jackie Mclean, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Tony Williams and Thelonious Monk. With soul, impeccable groove, and explosive chops, Barber has synthesized his favorite traditions into a thoroughly modern and endlessly adaptable musical expression that connects with listeners from across generations.

In September 2019, Barber completed his first solo drum tour in Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina).

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Catching Up With

Jonathan Barber: Blazing Forward

Read "Jonathan Barber: Blazing Forward" reviewed by K. Shackelford


Jonathan Barber is a force to be reckoned with. Pulling out a drum solo with just one high hat, making it an artful and meaningful rhythm to the composition at hand with intentional rhythmic sonority is rare. Yet this is one example of the ways that Jonathan Barber pulls out a surfeit of ideas from his drum set, which is a distinctive feature of his musical caginess. He's also taking jazz into a futuristic, digimodernism path. Recently, Barber ...

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Liner Notes

Steve Davis: Correlations

Read "Steve Davis: Correlations" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Surely it must be considered a milestone to chalk up Correlations as Steve Davis' 20th session as a leader. Just contemplate how much the world has changed since the trombonist started turning heads as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers back at the start of the '90s. The record business in particular occupies a vastly different landscape than was once the norm, a fact that figures all the more prominently in the precarious nature of recorded jazz. As such, ...

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Album Review

Felipe Salles: Tiyo's Songs Of Life

Read "Tiyo's Songs Of Life" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Talk about remarkable origins; the music on Tiyo's Songs of Life, performed by tenor saxophonist Felipe Salles' quartet, was written by Tiyo Attallah Salah-El while he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Pennsylvania prison. In spite of his circumstances, Salah-El never lost his love for life, an upbeat frame of mind that is ever-present in these nine sparkling originals. While imprisoned, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees and founded the Coalition for the Abolition ...

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Album Review

Felipe Salles, Zaccao Curtis, Avery Sharpe, Jonathan Butler: Tiyo's Songs Of Life

Read "Tiyo's Songs Of Life" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Embarking on an errant path in his youth led saxophonist Tiyo Attallah Salah-El to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. That is about as grim as it gets, but Salah-El, rather than giving in to defeat, turned himself into a behind-the-bars composer, author and activist. He passed in 2018, but his music came to the attention of saxophonist Felipe Sallas via prison abolitionist Lois Ahrens, who had befriended the imprisoned saxophonist Salaah-El, and even provided him with fifty ...

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Album Review

Julieta Eugenio: Jump

Read "Jump" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Listening to saxophonist Julieta Eugenio on the engaging Jump it is hard to believe this is only her debut. Her confident playing, warm, brassy tone and intelligent, spontaneous ideas belie her relative youth. Eugenio penned most of the music on Jump, so the release also showcases her superlative compositional skills. The poetic, loose-knit originals are perfectly suited to a trio with ample room for both individual expressions and collective performances. The taut and intriguing “Efes" opens the album ...

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Album Review

Julieta Eugenio: Jump

Read "Jump" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Aspiring jazz artists who pull up roots and make the “jump" to New York City have a lot of backbone. The uncertainty involved in the attempt to elbow into a hyper competitive situation which can boost a career must make for sleepless nights. For non-Americans, dealing with culture shock and struggling with the English language, things are even more challenging. But, in 2013, saxophonist Julieta Eugenio was undeterred, leaving her home in Argentina to make the pilgrimage that thousands have ...

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Album Review

Maria Kruttli: The Kind of Happy One

Read "The Kind of Happy One" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Quinto album per la pianista svizzera Marie Kruttli, trent'anni e una formazione classica iniziata da bambina, sviluppatasi poi nel mondo del jazz. Qui la troviamo alla testa di un trio, formazione che le è congeniale essendo questo il suo terzo disco, come negli altri affiancata dal contrabbassista Lukas Traxel, ma con alla batteria Jonathan Barber, che con la pianista aveva collaborato in altri contesti ma non in trio. Le composizioni sono tutte originali a firma della Kruttli, che ...

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Ash Luo
drums

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Jump

Greenleaf Music
2022

buy

Tiyo's Songs Of Life

Tapestry Records
2022

buy

Poetic

Self Produced
2022

buy

Entrance

Self Produced
2021

buy

Toe Tappin' Tasty

From: Tiyo's Songs Of Life
By Jonathan Barber

Peaceful World

From: A Year And A Day
By Jonathan Barber

Videos

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