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Amanda Gardier: Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson
by Robert Middleton
Amanda Gardier's Auteur is not just an album--it is a cinematic experience captured in sound, an exploration of one of America's most singular film directors, Wes Anderson, through the language of modern jazz. The album showcases Gardier's ability to translate visual storytelling into a sonic narrative that is vibrant, eclectic and highly expressive. With Auteur, Gardier has created what is, arguably, one of the most fascinating and inspired jazz albums of 2024 (it was released in January) and ...
Continue ReadingAmanda Gardier, Ill Considered, De Beren Gieren, Marty Isenberg & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
Today we focus on new albums by two revered European bands, De Beren Gieren and Ill Considered, and a peculiar case of artistic synchronicity: two intriguing records of music inspired by the films of Wes Anderson, which have been independently but almost simulatenously concocted by Amanda Gardier and Marty Isenberg in 2022 and recently released.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 De Beren Gieren “The Houses" What Eludes Us ...
Continue ReadingBuselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite
by Dan McClenaghan
This is where music for mass consumption--recorded music--started, in Richmond, Indiana, in the 1920s, in a piano factory by the railroad tracks in a glacier-carved gorge. Established in 1887, in the beginning Starr Pianos' bread and butter was pianos, but they branched out to selling other instruments and eventually photographs and records--their own records, recorded in the piano factory, taking breaks in the process when a train came by. At first, they called their recording side of the business Starr ...
Continue ReadingCharlie Ballantine: Reflections/Introspection: The Music Of Thelonious Monk
by Chris M. Slawecki
Reflections/Introspection... follows-up guitarist Charlie Ballentine's Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan, the guitarist's tribute to another (and very different type of) iconoclastic modern composer and one of the best albums of 2018. He absolutely bounces through this double-LP (one trio, one quartet) on a merry joyride through the compositions of “the onliest Monk." “Monk has such an incredible catalogue that one of the big challenges we faced was what songs to choose and also what instrumentation ...
Continue ReadingCharlie Ballantine: Reflections/Introspection: The Music Of Thelonious Monk
by Mark Sullivan
Indianapolis-based guitarist and composer Charlie Ballantine has made thematically organized albums before. Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan (Green Mind Records, 2018) featured creative versions of songs by the iconic songwriter, and Vonnegut (Green Mind Records, 2020), was made up of original Ballantine compositions inspired by the work of novelist Kurt Vonnegut. Here the inspiration is purely musical, and it is one of the pillars of modern jazz: the brilliant composer & pianist Thelonious Monk. Many of the ...
Continue ReadingCharlie Ballantine: Vonnegut
by Mark Sullivan
Indianapolis-based guitarist/composer Charlie Ballantine took his inspiration from iconic American novelist Kurt Vonnegut for this project, the most complex set of music in his already lengthy and varied recording career. He was joined by fellow Indianapolis musicians: saxophonist Rob Dixon, saxophonist/clarinetist Amanda Gardier, pianist Mina Keohane, bassist Jesse Wittman and drummer Cassius Goens. Dixon, Gardier and Wittman have appeared on several prior Ballantine recordings, so there is a strong base of shared experience to draw upon. Kurt Vonnegut ...
Continue ReadingAmanda Gardier: Flyover Country
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Amanda Gardier's sophomore recording, Flyover Country, opens with her original, “Midwestern Gothic," a tune which shifts between serene reveries and pronouncements so bold they could fit--switch out the acoustic rhythm section and the saxophone for some muscular, loud electric guitars--into an in-you-face heavy metal band. A fine way to open the show. Gardier pares things down in comparison to her debut, Empathy (Green Mind Records, 2018), where she employed a larger ensemble. The quartet approach suits her, ...
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