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Jazz Articles about Aruán Ortiz
Ivo Perelman: Brass And Ivory Tales
by Mark Corroto
Archeologists and cultural anthropologists theorize early humans had some form of music appreciation. They listened to the sounds wind made as it passed through trees. The breeze sounded different passing through oak than it did fir trees, and the sound was altered whether it was spring or fall. Then there were the bird songs, the first Lennon & McCartneys of the stone age. Early man replicated these melodies, with bones that could be whittled into horns or used to recreate ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis Quartet: Code of Being
by Troy Dostert
With each new release, tenor saxophone phenom James Brandon Lewis seems to raise his game even higher. He continues to craft ever more compelling compositions, with both lyrical intensity and conceptual rigor, and his sound on the tenor is just as noteworthy, mixing brawn with sensitivity in equal measure. It doesn't hurt that he has colleagues of the first rank, with pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones and drummer Chad Taylor part of his core quartet, the group that gave ...
Continue ReadingAi Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz - XXXVI Edizione
by Paolo Peviani
Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz Sant'Anna Arresi 7.8-8.9.2021 Trentaseiesima edizione del festival Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz. La prima senza Basilio Sulis, creatore e visionario direttore artistico della manifestazione, scomparso lo scorso novembre e ricordato con una bella e affettuosa mostra fotografica curata dal nostro Luciano Rossetti. Edizione di transizione e di tributo a Basilio, dunque. Edizione che ha proseguito quanto fatto in passato, ma ha mostrato anche diversi segnali ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis Quartet: Molecular
by Alberto Bazzurro
Trentotto anni, di Buffalo, James Brandon Lewis è uno dei più solidi tenorsassofonisti della sua generazione. A confermarcelo arriva questo suo nuovo lavoro in quartetto inciso a inizio 2020 (quindi fra gli ultimi ante-pandemia) in cui la solidità di cui sopra si manifesta sotto diversi profili: il suono, post-coltraniano aggiornato (non senza una patina di lirismo più o meno sotterraneo che rimanda a Gato Barbieri), le geometrie e gli equilibri quartettistici (complessivi), la cifra compositiva (tutti del sassofonista gli undici ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis: Molecular
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis offers up an introductory statement in the album packaging as a preface to the liner notes of Molecular. His train of thought is difficult to follow. He leaves an impression of not being a “normal" person, in the best possible sense of that assessment. It is the impression of a deep-thinking artist working hard to pin down elusive truths, tying molecular biology and “African American quilting, spirituals, jazz, the abstract paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, the molecular ...
Continue ReadingAruán Ortiz with Andrew Cyrille & Mauricio Herrera: Inside Rhythmic Falls
by John Sharpe
Cuban pianist Aruan Ortiz' fifth release for the Swiss Intakt label sits midway between his solo Cub(an)ism (2017) and dates by his Trio such as Live In Zurich (2018). In spite of the title, while there is a greater rhythmic impulse than on the unaccompanied session, the interaction largely pulls back from the intoxicating momentum of the latter. The presence of veteran master drummer Andrew Cyrille guarantees a certain degree of metrical adventure. But even with the addition of fellow ...
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