Jazz Articles about Brad Shepik

About Brad Shepik

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Songlines: An Independent Voice for New Music

by Mark Werlin
June 6, 2016

The independent Vancouver-based record label Songlines Recordings was established in 1992. Inspired by the contemporary jazz music scene in Vancouver, label founder Tony Reif began recording Canadian, American, Dutch, German and French composer-performers. Over the next two decades, the core group of musicians who recorded frequently for Songlines included Benoît Delbecq, Harris Eisenstadt, Gordon Grdina, Wayne Horvitz, Francois Houle, Brad Shepik and Michael Blake. Plot a zig-zag route from Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, to San Francisco and Reno, from New ...

Album Review

Brad Shepik / Ron Samworth: Quartet 1991

Read "Quartet 1991" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 9, 2016

Tony Reif is calling a mulligan here. Some twenty-five years ago, shortly before he founded and launched the Songlines imprint and long before he was known the world over for his work in the production and promotion of creative music, Reif went into a Seattle studio to produce a recording for a quartet fronted by guitarists Brad Shepik and Ron Samworth. It was the first session he ever helmed, and some intriguing music was created and captured in less-than-ideal circumstances. ...

Album Review

Arthur Kell Quartet: Jester

Read "Jester" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 11, 2012

È dedicato alla figura del buffone (di cui la raffigurazione simbolica in copertina) il nuovo disco del contrabbassista Arthur Kell, figura anomala nel panorama del jazz contemporaneo. Trasferitosi a New York nei primi anni ottanta, dopo il diploma al conservatorio di Oberlin, Kell iniziò a collaborare con il meglio dell'avanguardia di allora (Bobby Previte, Wayne Horvitz, Marc Ribot, Mark Feldman, Thomas Chapin) ma interruppe nel decennio seguente per dedicarsi all'attività di militante ecologista, viaggiatore e insegnante in vari paesi del ...

Album Review

Brad Shepik Quartet: Across the Way

Read "Across the Way" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
December 6, 2011

Across the Way è il primo lavoro discografico del nuovo quartetto di Brad Shepik, con Tom Beckham al vibrafono e Mark Guiliana alla batteria, che con lui hanno già condiviso la militanza in alcuni dei gruppi di Dave Douglas. Completa la formazione Jorge Roeder al basso, componente anche del più recente quartetto di Gary Burton. Se nel precedente disco pubblicato da leader, Human Activity Suite del 2009, Shepik aveva proposto una suite per quintetto jazz in dieci movimenti, in Across ...

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Album Review

Brad Shepik Quartet: Across The Way

Read "Across The Way" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 8, 2011

One of the modern day pioneers of integrating Balkan music into the progressive jazz vernacular, guitarist Brad Shepik's solo and session career spans a comprehensive panorama. He lingers on the cutting-edge of matters amid collaborations with like-minded artists, such as trumpeter Dave Douglas, reedman Chris Speed and other jazz VIPs. And on this quartet date, Shepik and vibraphonist Tom Beckham impart a jubilant union within more traditional jazz quarters. Across The Way is a sinuous endeavor, packed with ...

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Album Review

Brad Shepik Quartet: Across The Way

Read "Across The Way" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
February 11, 2011

Guitarist Brad Shepik mines a lode of styles on his compositions. Shadow and light play through his music, and he is not averse to opening the door to let a swath of sunshine in. The mood is never static, the wheel of invention is constantly churning out ideas that surprise and delight. Shepik wrote most of Across The Way's tunes while he was on the road, where he teamed up with vibraphonist Tom Beckham, bassist Jorge Roeder and ...

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Album Review

Brad Shepik Quartet: Across the Way

Read "Across the Way" reviewed by Matt Marshall

by Matt Marshall
February 9, 2011

The opening strains to Brad Shepik's Across the Way--repeated six-string figures of wistful longing, tending toward melancholy, with strains redolent of Radiohead's OK Computer (Capitol, 1997)--signal that the guitarist is exploring darker, more insular spaces than on his previous effort, Human Activity Suite (Songlines, 2009). To be sure, that work, which takes on global climate change and humanity's active role within the growing disaster, could hardly be labeled trivial or lighthearted. But Shepik's tone and the music as a whole ...