Jazz Articles
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Jesse Elder: The Winding Shell
by Ian Patterson
What is clear from one listen to The Winding Shell is that pianist Jesse Elder is a composer/arranger of some ambition. Changing time signatures and the harmonizing of alto and tenor are features of the music, as are interesting percussive dynamics and contrasts between softly voiced and more animated passages. Lively charge and pregnant pause coexist with absorbing juxtaposition in music where improvisation and structure strike a fine balance. Throw in some truly fine sax playing from four talented, distinctive ...
Continue ReadingJesse Elder: The Winding Shell
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Pianist Jesse Elder has no time for linear melodies, or logical, arithmetical rhythms. Still, on The Winding Shell, he shows himself to be a rather clever master of song form. In prismatic style, he lights up his tunes with refracted luminous and melodic excursions. He plays these around the musicians who augment his obtuse schematics, and receives an almost revered response--not for his leadership, but rather for the solemn musical ground that some of them cover. There is also a ...
Continue ReadingJesse Elder: The Winding Shell
by Chris Mosey
A small black and white picture on the sleeve shows 29-year-old New York avant-garde pianist/composer Jesse Elder, unsmilingly clasping a hand to his head. His eyes are shut tight, screwed up as if in pain. Below the picture a note explains that The Winding Shell is part of a series “dedicaded (sic) to Modern jazz, New classical, Avant rock, Experimental beats and Women voices." All the warning signs have been displayed: this is obviously not going to ...
Continue ReadingJesse Elder: The Winding Shell
by Mark Corroto
There is always room for a new songsmith in jazz. Pianist/composer Jesse Elder is a prodigious new voice in modern jazz, and his debut recording displays not only his nonpareil composing talents, but those of a very skilled arranger and performer.
The Winding Shell finds him working with kindred spirit drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the much heralded voice of the new Brooklyn sound. These two artists don't confine their music to the jazz vocabulary; they just might be the descendants of ...
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