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Tom Hall
Tom Hall (baritone & tenor saxophones & music educator) has been an active professional musician since his teens when he played a weekly gig at the Ebony Inn with Ohio Hung Jury, a Washington, DC funk band. He moved to Boston in 1976 to attend New England Conservatory, where he studied with Joe Allard, Jaki Byard, Jimmy Guiffre, George Russell, and Ernie Wilkins.
It was during these years he first studied free improvisation. He was the co-founder of Ensemble Garuda, whose members included percussionist Sam Bennett, trumpeter Frank London, and Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum. This group met for years, with the sole purpose of an intensive exploration of improvisation.
In 1979, shortly before graduation from NEC, he co-founded Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet (1979-1997) with Steve Adams, Allan Chase, and Circe Miller (other members of the group over the years included Ben Schachter, Joel Springer, Douglas Yates and Bob Zung). Over the next 18 years, Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet toured the United States and Europe and recorded five CDs. In addition to playing at every conceivable venue in New England, YNSQ also appeared at The Boston Globe Jazz Festival, Bang on the Can Festival (NY, NY), and the Moers Music Festival (Germany), among others.
During the 1980's, along with his work with YNSQ, he recorded and toured with many original groups, playing very different styles of music. Hall toured the world and recorded with Volo-Volo (1980-1987), a popular Haitian band, as well as playing in many of the New England area’s finest Latin orchestras. He was a longstanding member of Mark Harvey's avante-garde big band Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. He led and fronted his own rap group (1988), walked the bar in blues bands, performed with the Bentmen and recorded with avante-garde rockers Birdsongs of the Mezesoic, and singer- songwriter Geoff Bartley.
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Club d'Elf: As Above - Live At The Lizard Lounge
by Doug Collette
The music of Club d'Elf's debut album, As Above, speaks volumes in terms of the group's mystical and stylistic roots. In fact, it is perfectly reflective of the actual ancient quote from which the title is taken; 'As above, so below...' suggests how the rhythm motifs are as fully and completely developed as the melodic themes. Recorded in 1999 and 2000, at the Lizard Lounge in Boston, which has become Mike Rivard and company's home base over the ...
read moreClub d'Elf: As Above: Live at the Lizard Lounge
by AAJ Staff
The groove runs deep and long on As Above, a 2-disc set from Club d'Elf. Voyaging through realms of electronica, ethnic percussion, and dirty funk, As Above pays exquisite attention to the beat. The two-plus hours of collected music on this set document the highlights of five months' worth of live improv at Boston's Lizard Lounge. (OK, so it's actually in Cambridge, but what's a hop across the river in the grand scheme of things?) Ringleader (bassist) Mike Rivard hosts ...
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Music
Left Hand of Clyde (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
From: As Above - Live At The Lizard...By Tom Hall