Jazz Articles about Adam O'Farrill

About Adam O'Farrill

Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
October 26, 2020

Esistono due donne nel mondo del jazz moderno che hanno mostrato di conoscere e capire in toto il genio musicale di Robert Wyatt. La prima, molto tempo fa e quindi in tempi non sospetti, è stata Carla Bley e non c'è altro da aggiungere. La seconda, che è invece colei di cui vogliamo scrivere, è Mary Halvorson, chitarrista newyorkese di Brooklyn, da almeno una dozzina di anni indicata dalla critica più attenta e intelligente quale una delle più intriganti personalità ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
October 25, 2020

Aside from her most obvious musical talents, including her phenomenal guitar chops and her budding talent as a lyricist, Mary Halvorson has a special gift for understanding the abilities of her bandmates and drawing out their strengths to the fullest. Part of it is the way she tends to keep the same company in her assorted projects: bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara are the leading examples, having recorded extensively with her in their trio Thumbscrew, as heard on ...

Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill: Four Questions

Read "Four Questions" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
September 2, 2020

Surprisingly this set marks the first time Arturo O'Farrill has recorded a set of solely his own compositions. It was worth the wait because this music, played by his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, really demonstrates the cinematic sweep and variety of his writing. The set is constructed around two topical extended works. The first, “Four Questions," is based on four questions about the struggle for human rights and personal dignity first posed by African-American author W.E.B. DuBois in ...

Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Four Questions

Read "Four Questions" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 25, 2020

The Four Questions addressed by composer / pianist Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra on its latest album were first posed in 1903 by W.E.B. DuBois in his book The Souls of Black Folk and are answered herein by the esteemed educator / historian / social activist Dr. Cornel West. For the record, the questions are “what does integrity do in the face of adversity and oppression, what does honesty do in the face of lies and deception, what does ...

Album Review

Webber / Morris Big Band: Both Are True

Read "Both Are True" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 23, 2020

On Both Are True Canadian composers and reed players Anna Webber and Angela Morris reimagine the language of the big band. They extend the tradition through adventurous arrangements spiced with the unpredictability of improv, by co-opting the nimbleness of a much smaller group, and reveling in non-standard techniques. Webber has already garnered plaudits for the work of her Simple Trio with Matt Mitchell and John Hollenbeck, while Morris' ventures such as the Motel Trio boast a lower profile so far. ...

Album Review

Kevin Sun: The Sustain of Memory

Read "The Sustain of Memory" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 6, 2020

Ambition is good. Saxophonist Kevin Sun has it. He proves it by releasing--before attaining his thirtieth birthday--The Sustain of Memory, a cinematic two-disc set of atmospheric avant-garde music in trio, quartet and quintet settings, which maintains a start-to-finish focus of an expansive artistic vision. “I've always been drawn to sprawling, encyclopedic or maximalist works of art," Sun says. And he has produced an excellent and beautiful example of the genre. The music is divided into three “suites": the ...

Album Review

Kevin Sun: The Sustain of Memory

Read "The Sustain of Memory" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
March 17, 2020

This is an ambitious set of compositions by saxophonist Kevin Sun, 2 CDs which contain three suites for various-sized small groups, each with its own distinct identity. “The Middle Of Tensions" is in six sections played by a quartet of Sun, pianist Dana Saul, bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor. Most of this work explores the contrasts between Sun's blasts of singing tenor and Saul's stumbling keyboard progressions, as the bass and drums keep a bumpy rhythm ...