Jazz Articles about Brian Marsella

About Brian Marsella

Album Review

Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia

Read "Live in Philadelphia" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 26, 2025

In 2025, the Collegium Cardinalium, or College of Cardinals--a body formed in the Middle Ages--convened a conclave in Rome to elect a new Pope for the Catholic Church. Nearly five centuries before the inception of such conclaves, Tibetan Buddhists established their own process of succession by searching for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, often discovered in the form of a child. These spiritual traditions of succession are vital for preserving the identity, rituals and philosophies of their institutions. Each ...

Interview

Beyond Genre: Brian Marsella’s Expanding Musical Universe

by Nenad Georgievski
May 14, 2025

Brian Marsella is a pianist and composer whose work defies easy categorization. Whether leading his genre-blurring trio with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Kenny Wollesen , or collaborating with avant-garde luminary John Zorn, Marsella brings a rare blend of technical brilliance and emotional depth to every performance. Born in Philadelphia and based in New York since 1998, Marsella has carved out a unique space in the jazz and experimental music scenes. His projects span a broad creative spectrum, from the ...

Live Review

Brian Marsella Trio at International Jazz Day Celebration, Macedonia

by Nenad Georgievski
May 2, 2025

Brian Marsella Macedonian National TheaterInternational Jazz DaySkopje, Macedonia April 30, 2025 On a quiet spring evening in Skopje, the Brian Marsella Trio took the stage at the International Jazz Day Celebration and unfolded a concert that was anything but quiet. It was a performance rich with storytelling, abstract soundscapes and tight interplay, a vivid journey told through seven pieces that showcased the trio's chemistry, playfulness and emotional depth. The night opened with ...

Live Review

Brian Marsella / Sae Hashimoto and Miguel Zenon / Matt Mitchell / Miles Okazaki at Miller Theatre

by Paul Reynolds
July 7, 2023

Brian Marsella / Sae Hashimoto and Miguel Zenon / Matt Mitchell / Miles Okazaki Miller Theatre New York, NY June 9 and June 27, 2023 Underappreciated--perhaps because it's on the Columbia University campus in New York's upper Upper West Side--Miller Theater's innovative music programming favors contemporary classical music with a splash of jazz. But it's rare for its programs to straddle the two genres as much as did the two last 2023 installments of ...

Album Review

The Nels Cline Singers: Share the Wealth

Read "Share the Wealth" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
February 1, 2021

L'idea era di registrare delle lunghe improvvisazioni per poi selezionare frammenti, operare un copia-incolla di davisiana memoria e dar vita ad una sorta di mosaico/collage psichedelico. L'ascolto del materiale registrato, la percezione della magia sprigionata dalle sessions e della unicità dei brani hanno cambiato le carte in tavola e suggerito di pubblicare integralmente, senza sforbiciate, quello che è diventato Share the Wealth. Ossia--nella versione doppio LP e CD (oltre ottanta minuti) registrato in soli due giorni dalla versione allargata di ...

Album Review

The Nels Cline Singers: Share The Wealth

Read "Share The Wealth" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
December 3, 2020

Guitarist Nels Cline has led the Nels Cline Singers since 2002. While they have sometimes had guest performers on their recordings, the core band has been a trio of Cline, drummer Scott Amendola and bassist Trevor Dunn (originally Devin Hoff). This album expands the group to a sextet with the addition of saxophonist Skerik, keyboardist Brian Marsella and percussionist Cyro Baptista. The experimental ante was further upped by the fact that they had never before played together in this combination, ...

Album Review

The Nels Cline Singers: Share The Wealth

Read "Share The Wealth" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 11, 2020

A work of pummeling beauty, exhaustion and exhilaration await at the end of genre rogue guitarist Nels Cline's upheaval Share the Wealth, eighty minutes of magical, maniacal, free jam composition that, in perhaps a few more years down the line--if the line makes it past Election Day--we'll argue stands right up there with such and such album of equal fire and fury. Time, to which we've become too nervously accustomed, is tense, and everyone's cranked to ten or ...