Jazz Articles
Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Eli Wallace/Beth McDonald: Solo/Duo
by Karl Ackermann
Pianist & free improviser Eli Wallace and tuba player Beth McDonald team up for Solo/Duo, an ineffable project which eludes characterization. Wallace works across multiple genres, with an experimental spirit. He moved east from Oakland, CA in 2015, earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the New England Conservatory in Boston. Now a Brooklyn resident, he has composed for piano, ensembles, vocalists, big band, orchestras, and a dance company. He co-curates the Brooklyn-based music and art installation series Invocation, with guitarist ...
Continue ReadingEli Wallace and Ben Cohen: Evaporation
by Troy Dostert
In a series of imaginative projects, pianist Eli Wallace and saxophonist Ben Cohen have shown themselves to have a remarkable range of creative impulses. Wallace has thrived in a powerful duo with percussionist Rob Pumpelly called Dialectical Imagination; the two create furious intensity with a substratum of romanticism, as on The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Rapture (Atma Nadi Records, 2017). Cohen has a lyrical side as well, displayed to strong effect in his Viriditas trio, which at ...
Continue ReadingEli Wallace: Barriers
by Karl Ackermann
Eli Wallace is best known as the keyboard half of the piano/drum improvising duo Dialectical Imagination with Rob Pumpelly. Listeners familiar with Wallace's work in that setting and with the trio Cataclysmic Commentary, with tenor saxophonist Ben Cohen and Dave Miller on drums, know that Wallace is not averse to swimming against the current. The California native, now residing in Brooklyn, works across genres of improvisation, modern jazz, rock and classical music. He holds Bachelor's and Master's of Music, from ...
Continue ReadingCataclysmic Commentary: Audience Participation
by Troy Dostert
Tenor saxophonist Ben Cohen and pianist Eli Wallace represent the current generation of adventurous improvising artists, although their prior releases to date have taken very different approaches to their craft. Over the last couple years Wallace has released records with percussionist Rob Pumpelly under the name of Dialectical Imagination--The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Rapture (Atma Nadi, 2017) and The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Wrath (Atma Nadi, 2018)--both of which used composition as a vehicle ...
Continue ReadingViriditas: Viriditas
by Troy Dostert
Saxophonist Ben Cohen is currently based in Brooklyn, but it doesn't take long to figure out that he hails from elsewhere: rural Tennessee, to be exact. His rootsy, earthy tenor sound reveals a background as steeped in folk music and the blues as in avant-garde jazz, giving his voice an accessible edge that should serve him well as he gains wider recognition. He recently founded Eschatology Records as a vehicle for his music, and on Viriditas, the label's first release, ...
Continue Reading
