Jazz Articles about Antonin Gerbal

About Antonin Gerbal

Album Review

Few contemporary bands dismantle Thelonious Monk's charts with either the conviction or the discipline displayed by حمد [Ahmed] on Play Monk. This double CD veers between primal throb and cerebral cool. Pianist Pat Thomas, alto saxophonist Seymour Wright, bassist Joel Grip and drummer Antonin Gerbal united around a shared affection for the work of pioneering bassist and oud player Ahmed Abdul Malik, whose late '50s albums introduced Arab and East African modes into the hard bop milieu. Although they seemed ...

Album Review

Ism: Maua

by John Sharpe
March 20, 2024

What would a free jazz group sound like if it stayed within conventional rhythmic and melodic parameters? One possible answer was given by pianist Lennie Tristano's pioneering sides such as “Intuition" and “Digression," extemporized by a sextet including Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Ism, the cosmopolitan threesome of British pianist Pat Thomas, Swedish bassist Joel Grip and French drummer Antonin Gerbal, offer another option. On Maua (meaning flowers in Swahili), the outfit's fourth album, they once again ...

Album Review

اسم [ism]: Maua

by Mike Jurkovic
January 28, 2024

Where would the world be without the clang and the clamor of sensory heightened free-jazz blowing purposeful and wild throughout the realm and surrounding tenements? This is an unsung understanding understood by fellow wayfarers, handed down by the elders and experienced by all who listen. Pianist Pat Thomas understands all this and reassures you of it on the right rollicking Maua, a tight as a snare drum, free jazz free-for-all that does not get on your nerves halfway ...

Album Review

Sbatax: Spires

by John Sharpe
July 10, 2023

On their third album the Swiss-French pairing of saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal dishes up a double helping of fiery free jazz. While Denzler revels in the exquisitely sparse detail of outfits such as the electro-acoustic Trio Sowari, he also has a track record in weightier realms--witness his contributions to Neuköllner Modelle with veteran drummer Sven-Åke Johansson and bassist Joel Grip-- which serves him well here. Gerbal too has a broad resume which includes Peeping Tom, Ism and ...

Album Review

SBATAX: Spires

by Mark Corroto
March 22, 2023

The current literature on training to improve one's physical fitness advises an 90/10 approach. Ninety percent of workouts, it is advised, you maintain zone 2 (elevated heart rate but with the ability to carry on a conversation) when say, running or cycling. The remaining ten percent of your workouts, you opt for HIIT (High Intensity Interval training). This entails intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods until the point of exhaustion. If we correlate musicians with athletes, saxophonist ...

Album Review

اسم [Ism]: Japanese Flower

Read "Japanese Flower" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 23, 2021

The trio اسم [Ism] is comprised of pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Joel Grip and drummer Antonin Gerbal. Japanese Flower by the trio is the second release from a 2018 recording session from Knuttal House in Tokyo, Japan. It is the trio's third release and it follows Metaphor (2019) and إنتقام الطبيعة اسبب تعقدها = Nature In Its Inscrutability Strikes Back (2015), all three released on Umlaut Records. اسم in Arabic, translates to 'Ism" or in English, 'The Name.' For sure, ...

Album Review

[Ahmed]: Nights on Saturn (communication)

Read "Nights on Saturn (communication)" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 20, 2021

When [Ahmed] released its debut album, Super Majnoon (Otoroku), in 2019, it provided not only an opportunity to revisit the under-heralded work of pathbreaking bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik. It also offered a bewildering, sometimes intoxicating stew of improvisation that relied equally on minimalist repetition and deeply-rooted grooves. This intrepid team of European musicians, consisting of saxophonist Seymour Wright, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Joel Grip and drummer Antonin Gerbal, envisioned new ways of continuing Abdul-Malik's quest to find shared connections between jazz ...