Jazz Articles about Steve Tibbetts

Hellbound Train—An Anthology

by Dan McClenaghan
September 4, 2022

A career anthology of trumpeter Miles Davis' music would struggle for cohesion, trying to combine sounds from his Birth Of The Cool (Capitol, 1957) to the first and second great quintets, to Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and On the Corner (Columbia, 1972). It is a stew that is hard to digest in one sitting. It makes more sense to listen to the albums separately rather than putting snippets into one package. The same could be said for pianist Herbie Hancock, ...

Steve Tibbetts: Life Of

by Mario Calvitti
February 6, 2019

Pochi musicisti sono così sfuggenti a ogni tentativo di categorizzazione come il chitarrista americano Steve Tibbetts. La sua musica, da lui descritta come 'neo-primitivismo postmoderno' trae le sue origini inizialmente dal folk-rock sperimentale, spostandosi poi sempre più verso una dimensione world-ambient (nutrita dal profondo interesse dell'artista verso la musica nepalese e tibetana) realizzata attraverso una costante ricerca su sonorità e timbriche elettro-acustiche. Negli oltre 40 anni di attività ha realizzato 13 album, a suo nome o in collaborazione con altri ...

Steve Tibbetts: Life Of

by Mark Sullivan
May 27, 2018

Minnesota-based guitarist Steve Tibbetts has always gone his own way, crafting his albums in the recording studio with deliberate care. Many of those albums have featured his scorching electric-guitar playing, for example Exploded View (ECM, 1986) and the later A Man About a Horse (ECM, 2002). But beginning with his previous album, Natural Causes (ECM, 2010), he has concentrated on acoustic sounds. His main instrument here is a Martin 12-string guitar, but strung with double-course unison strings (in place of ...

Steve Tibbetts: “Northern Song” and the Sounds of Silence

by Rob Caldwell
May 17, 2015

It's a chilly, overcast afternoon in jny: Oslo, Norway in late October 1981. This close to the Arctic Circle, the days are already rapidly shortening with winter's approach, the sun beginning to disappear over the horizon by mid-afternoon. In a darkened studio, guitarist Steve Tibbetts, percussionist Marc Anderson, producer and ECM Records head Manfred Eicher, along with engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug have been sequestered for two days of a three day recording session. The team is intently laying down tracks ...

Steve Tibbetts: Natural Causes

by AAJ Italy Staff
December 20, 2010

Tra i tanti artisti originali presenti nel catalogo ECM, Steve Tibbets è sicuramente uno dei più difficili da inquadrare. La sua musica è sempre risultata estremamente personale, con elementi di folk, rock, world, elettronica e ambient amalgamati in un modo assolutamente unico e originale. I suoi lavori nascono tutti nel suo studio di registrazione personale a St.Paul, nel Minnesota, con il solo ausilio di pochi amici fidati (su tutti, il percussionista Marc Anderson, sempre al suo fianco), attraverso la sovraincisione ...

Steve Tibbetts: Natural Causes

by Ian Patterson
October 7, 2010

Although guitarist/composer Steve Tibbetts and Marc Anderson have collaborated since the late 1970s--the percussionist has played on every one of Tibbetts ECM releases--this is their first duo recording since Northern Song (ECM, 1982). That album employed silence as a sideman, and although there is less outright pause on Natural Causes, the same soothing, meditative ambiance forms a natural bridge between the two works, separated by almost thirty years. Tibbetts layers and interweaves 12-string guitar, bouzouki and kalimba, with a bewitching ...

Steve Tibbetts: Natural Causes

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
July 3, 2010

First things first: this is a mellow record. A very mellow record. Not Ben Webster mellow, or Antonio Carlos Jobim mellow, or Morton Feldman mellow, but rather, a record of music depicting a kind of quietism: profoundly passive contemplation. And it's not clear that quietism is a direction all jazz fans will want to go.

Now the project is an interesting one, and there is no lack of skill or care in its execution. Guitarist Tibbetts plays his ...