Jazz Articles about Terry Plumeri

Les DeMerle: Once in a Lifetime

by Jack Bowers
May 16, 2023

Drummer Les DeMerle recorded his first album, Once in a Lifetime, when he was a twenty-year-old prodigy in 1967. However, as is sometimes true in the music business, the album was lost in the shuffle at Atlantic Records and sat gathering dust until someone had the good sense to retrieve and release it some fifty-six years later. As the saying goes, better late than never. To share the front line on this dynamic (mostly) studio date, DeMerle ...

Les DeMerle & Sound 67: Once in a Lifetime

by Scott Yanow
May 14, 2023

Every once in a while, the discovery of a forgotten recording from the past results in the history of jazz being altered. Until now, it was believed that the hard-driving and swinging drummer Les DeMerle made his first recordings in 1969 with his debut as a leader, Spectrum. The first-time release of Once In A Lifetime, which was recorded in 1967, rewrites the history books a bit. At the time, Les DeMerle was 20 and already had quite ...

Terry Plumeri: Water Garden

by John Kelman
November 26, 2009

With the compelling, largely free-blowing 1971 session He Who Lives In Many Places (GMMC Records) finally issued on CD in 2006, Water Garden rights a similar wrong for Terry Plumeri, an overlooked bassist if ever there was one. Recorded five years later, Water Garden was an even more ambitious date that brought back guitarist John Abercrombie and percussionist Michael Smith, but also features enlists Ralph Towner and, in one of his earliest date, pianist Marc Copland.

Terry Plumeri: He Who Lives in Many Places

by John Kelman
April 4, 2008

There's no shortage of jazz bassists possessing distinctive voices with a bow. Few, however, have made Arco (the fine art of bowing the double-bass) their primary focus, with the exception of Terry Plumeri. Plumeri's never achieved his due in the jazz world, to some extent due to his parallel work in other spheres--scoring for film, classical composition and interpreting the music of iconic composers like Tchaikovsky. Blue in Green (GMMC, 2005), featuring pianist David Goldblatt and drummer Joe La Barbera, ...

Terry Plumeri: Singing Strings

by Maxwell Chandler
March 31, 2008

Bassist Terry Plumeri wears several hats and wears them well. He has scored films, written his own symphonic tone poems, conducted symphonic orchestras all over the world and worked with some of the top names in jazz.

Chapter Index Conducting and Tchaikovsky Tone Poems Film Scores Jazz

Conducting and Tchaikovsky

All About Jazz: You have an affiliation of over a decade as a conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic. How did this partnership initially come ...

Terry Plumeri: He Who Lives in Many Places

by John Barron
March 21, 2008

Noted composer of film music, orchestral conductor and bassist extraordinaire Terry Plumeri made his debut as a jazz artist in 1971 with the now landmark release He Who Lives in Many Places. Newly re-mastered and re-issued, the ground breaking session from the fusion-era features an all-star cast consisting of pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist John Abercrombie, drummer Michael Smith and percussionist Eric Gravatt.

The disc's five tracks, all composed by Plumeri, are open-ended in nature, allowing for spontaneous group invention. Beneath ...

Terry Plumeri: Blue In Green

by Stephen Latessa
August 22, 2005

The sound that comes from the speakers is immediately arresting. It is a groan, or a whine, or maybe a croon. It shifts and slides from position to position, defying your efforts to pin it down. Now deep and sonorous, now thin and electric as feedback, Terry Plumeri's bowed bass work is endlessly compelling. Pair it with musicians the caliber of David Goldenblatt (piano) and the great Joe La Barbera (drums) on a choice selection of standards and the effect ...