Jazz Articles about Adam Benjamin

Danny Given: Appunti di viaggio

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 28, 2009

La collana di Abaco si arricchisce di una nuova tessera. A seconda della prospettiva da cui lo si osserva, Appunti di viaggio di Danny Given è un libro da ascoltare, o un disco da leggere. Visto da fuori ha la forma di un comune volumetto hard-cover con una copertina talmente naïf da strizzare l'occhio all'immaginario on the road più consunto. Dentro, voltata la prima pagina, l'America. Danny Given è nato nel 1969 a San Francisco, si è presto innamorato di ...

Kneebody: Live Volume One

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 29, 2008

Questo giovane e brillante quintetto statunitense conferma le aspettative create dai due album precedenti e promette bene per il futuro. In realtà quest’album, pur con un’energia e un inteplay fantastici, non ha l’inventiva e la maturità di Low Electrical Worker, ma le ragioni sono probabilmente da ricercare molto semplicemente nel fatto che la registrazione (si tratta di un live) risale al tour del 2005/6, antecedente al disco in studio, nonché nella giovanissima età dei cinque, che li ha portati a ...

Dave Douglas and Keystone: Moonshine

by Matthew Miller
August 30, 2008

Dave Douglas is not your typical iconoclast. The progressive trumpeter--a mainstay of John Zorn's Masada and more typically avant-garde groups--favors an understated upheaval in his efforts as a leader, courting, in the words of writer Andy Battaglia “tradition and progression without puzzling over the difference." On Moonshine, his second album with Keystone, a sextet featuring Marcus Strickland (saxophone), Adam Benjamin (Fender Rhodes), Brad Jones (bass), Gene Lake (drums) and DJ Olive (turntables and laptop), Douglas once again focuses his modernist ...

Dave Douglas & Keystone: Moonshine

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 23, 2008

Originariamente concepito come progetto di sonorizzazione dei film dello sfortunato comico degli anni Venti, Roscoe “Fatty" Arbuckle [clicca qui per leggere la recensione del disco di esordio di questa formazione], il sestetto Keystone del trombettista Dave Douglas ha da subito dato l'impressione di non essere una prova isolata, una semplice divagazione, ma di ampliare il percorso intrapreso con il quintetto “elettrico" [ormai strutturatosi in una sua, per quanto stimolante, classicità], dimostrandosi più aperto a influenze della natura più varia. Questa ...

Dave Douglas & Keystone: Moonshine

by Mark F. Turner
May 29, 2008

As one of jazz's most omnivorous thinkers, trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas continues to explore ideas outside of the norm. Moonshine is a continuation with Keystone--an electric sextet that includes Marcus Strickland (saxophones), Adam Benjamin (Fender Rhodes), Brad Jones (bass), Gene Lake (drums), and DJ Olive (turntables)--exploring in music, the life and art of 1920s silent film actor/director Roscoe “Fatty" Arbuckle, whose career was abruptly ended when he was falsely accused of murder. Whether or not Douglas' odd juxtaposition ...

Dave Douglas & Keystone: Moonshine

by John Kelman
December 7, 2007

It's unlikely that Dave Douglas expected the Grammy-nominated Keystone (Greenleaf Music, 2005) to turn into an ongoing project, but as a parallel to his quintet of the past half decade, the trumpeter has forged a distinct entity with the group he now calls Keystone. This sextet shares some commonality with the quintet responsible for Meaning and Mystery (Greenleaf, 2006), but there are just as many differences, if not more. Moonshine affirms that Keystone is a band with a very different ...

Dave Douglas: Keystone Live in Sweden

by John Kelman
October 4, 2006

In the early days of silent film, scores were played live, most often by a single musician--simplifying the response to the on-screen activities. In recent years artists like guitarist Bill Frisell and clarinetist Louis Sclavis have upped the ante by combining composed music with improvisation on silent film scores for small ensembles, making the coordination of sight and sound much more challenging.

Trumpeter Dave Douglas' Keystone (Greenleaf, 2005) is another contemporary entry, a two-disc release including a DVD of the ...