Jazz Articles about Adam O'Farrill

About Adam O'Farrill

Album Review

Belgian drummer Raf Vertessen's quartet unites a mouth-watering array of talent, and he keeps them busy on his leadership debut LOI. Since arriving in Brooklyn, in 2016, Vertessen has dug in deep, enlisting saxophonist Anna Webber, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and bassist Nick Dunston, all acclaimed leaders in their own right, to realize his charts in a way which allows them full expression while at the same time respecting compositional boundaries drawn largely from the free jazz vernacular. ...

Album Review

Kevin Sun: The Sustain of Memory

Read "The Sustain of Memory" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
February 24, 2021

Il secondo album da leader del trentenne sassofonista e clarinettista newyorchese Kevin Sun è un'opera lunga, due CD, e complessa, articolata su tre suite diverse per organico e clima. La prima suite—"The Middle of Tension," in sei parti per un totale di trentasei minuti—vede di scena un classico quartetto, nel quale Sun è accompagnato dal pianoforte di Dana Saul, dal contrabbasso di Walter Stinton e dalla batteria di Matt Honor. Ed è il pianoforte, con la frammentarietà e ...

Album Review

Jacob Garchik: Clear Line

Read "Clear Line" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 14, 2021

As strange as it may sound, sometimes the best way to break free is to simply box yourself in. Limitations obviously cut off certain possibilities entirely, but they open the mind to so many others in the process. Composer (and trombonist) Jacob Garchik has long subscribed to that line of thinking and he takes it to bold heights on this, the most original, least derivative big band recording to arrive in ages. Basically throwing out the rule ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
December 23, 2020

Guitarist Mary Halvorson has displayed her playing and composing talents in a number of settings, but this second release by her song-based band, Code Girl, is one of the most focused and intense things she has ever done. Halvorson and her quintet constructed music around eight of her own poems, each written in a specific poetic form. The results are fluid and improvisational art songs, in the manner of complex but catchy British art rock groups of the ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 26, 2020

Not content with having scaled the heights of the guitar pantheon, with the second release from Code Girl, Mary Halvorson also cements her place in a unique genre of her own design. As befits someone who has taken to heart Anthony Braxton's dictum to find her own musical voice, she presents something which is part art song, part indie rock, part mainstream jazz and part free form, but all Halvorson. Mirroring the progression of her trio, first to ...

Album Review

Raf Vertessen: LOI

by Glenn Astarita
November 14, 2020

Since relocating from his native Belgium to New York City, superb drummer and wily composer Raf Vertessen has ingratiated his talents into the region's always burgeoning improv and avant-garde musicscape, performing with upper-echelon musicians, evidenced on this first-rate debut as a leader. Here, the drummer cites influences from the dynamic international contingent of 1960s free/progressive jazz performers who turned conventional jazz frameworks upside down. The drummer's works include budding layers of sound, by using building blocks amid blossoming ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
November 7, 2020

Released by Mary Halvorson's Code Girl, Artlessly Falling presents eight new compositions, each of which is structured around a specific poetic form with accompanying lyrics/poems by Halvorson herself. The forms represent a significant diversity of cultural origins and eras, including Japanese Tanka, 12th century Sestina, French Villanelle, and Malay Pantoum. With each of the above sources arguably requiring deep study to become well-versed in, this central conceit might feel like a daring experiment, hubris, or a bit of ...