Jazz Articles about Adam O'Farrill

About Adam O'Farrill

Album Review

Guitarist, composer & raconteur Mary Halvorson could very comfortably (and rightfully) wear the sobriquet of “The Charles Mingus of Guitar" if she wanted to. But even that open-ended comparison would limit her as she outdoes herself again on Cloudward. Though it must surely be getting harder to top herself given the string of releases--the deliberately articulate schizophrenia Amaryllis and Belladonna (Nonesuch, 2022), the unbridled trio synergy Multicolored Midnight (Cunneiform, 2018), the crackling mad invention propelling 2018's Code Girl (Firehouse 12 ...

Album Review

Anna Webber: Shimmer Wince

Read "Shimmer Wince" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 31, 2023

Some mechanical wristwatches have clear faces which allow the owner to observe the inner workings of the marvelous object. It is a wonder just how the timepiece utilizes its mainspring and gear train to drive the harmonic oscillator which keeps near perfect time. The same can be said of composer, saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber's investigation into unique tunings using the overtone series known as Just Intonation (JI). It is an ancient system based on the natural vibration of physical ...

Album Review

Kevin Sun: The Depths of Memory

Read "The Depths of Memory" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 26, 2023

Saxophonist/composer Kevin Sun's 2 CD set, The Depths Of Memory, is said to be more suited to focused listening than to the “convivial distractions of a jazz club." That rings true. From CD 1's opener, “All This Stillness," subdivided into seven sections, the album finds the saxophonist and his bandmates sounding as if they have slipped into a flow. Sun says he wanted the feeling of “being swept along in a current of musical thought over a period of time." ...

Album Review

Lesley Mok: The Living Collection

Read "The Living Collection" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 20, 2023

Percussionist and composer Lesley Mok is a restless explorer who has also been called a sound artist. However, that designation does not give a full picture of her creative vision. Mok deftly maintains the singular balance between the notated and the improvised as well as abstraction and accessibility, thus breaking out of narrow genreist designations, to make music which is urgently relevant. All this and more is clearly demonstrated on her debut as a leader, the provocative The Living Collection. ...

Album Review

Adam O' Farrill: Visions of Your Other

Read "Visions of Your Other" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
February 13, 2023

Nella famiglia la musica è di casa: ritroviamo il padre, Arturo O'Farrill, pianista e compositore vincitore di Grammy, il nonno, Chico O'Farrill, leggendario bandleader cubano, Allison Deane, la mamma, pianista classica, Zack O'Farrill, il fratello maggiore, batterista. Non stupisce che anche il “piccolo" Adam (classe 1994) abbia iniziato a percorrere giovanissimo quei sentieri frequentando e registrando con maestri del calibro di Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mary Halvorson, Mulatu Astatke, Stephan Crump etc... fino a mettere in piedi un quartetto denominato Stranger Days ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: Rising Sun

Read "Rising Sun" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
October 14, 2022

Since his days with bassist Moppa Elliot's maddeningly inventive Mostly Other People Do the Killing, first-generation Filipino-American saxophonist Jon Irabagon has seemed to be on the periphery of the larger jazz world looking in. His big surging tone instantly and reverently recalls late era John Coltrane and has been associated with fellow adventurers Dave Douglas, Ralph Alessi, and a host of guitarist Mary Halvorson's musical configurations. With Rising Sun Irabagon sets his sights on getting his sound and vision out ...

Album Review

Anna Webber: Idiom

Read "Idiom" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
April 4, 2022

Già da oltre un decennio, la complessità della canadese Anna Webber (sax tenore, flauto, composizione) ci interroga sulla possibilità di compenetrare nel jazz di oggi mente e corpo, attitudine concettuale e abbandono rituale. Non è la prima, ovviamente, a lambire questi territori impervi. Si situa, forse, in una geografia sonora che parte da Cecil Taylor e attraversa le gigantesche ombre di Anthony Braxton e Henry Threadgill. Ma, velocemente, sta atterrando in un pianeta sonoro totalmente proprio, come dimostra questo doppio ...