Jazz Articles about Badland

Badland: The Society Of The Spectacle

by Glenn Astarita
January 22, 2006

This free-flowing trio has been doing its thing for about ten years amid intermittent personnel changes. The estimable bassist Simon H. Fell serves as the anchor and has been doing so for quite some time. Badland explores the dicey side of jazz and improvisation, where deft expressionism shines forth in multi-hued designs. The members of the trio pursue soft soundscapes with depth and contrast, manifested by percussionist Steve Noble's acute cymbal shadings. Fell's creaky arco bass lines and organic bass ...

Badland: The Society of the Spectacle

by John Eyles
January 13, 2006

Badland is an occasional trio which has now been recording for over a decade. The Society of the Spectacle, recorded in 2003, is the group's third album, the previous two having been released on Simon H. Fell's own Bruce's Fingers label.

Simon Rose provides the sleeve notes here, a series of pithy one-liners that sketch out the group ethos--for instance, “Sometimes improvisers with limited experience play poignant performances. Whether this is intended to refer to Rose himself is unclear; while ...