Jazz Articles about Brian Settles

About Brian Settles

Album Review

Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted

Read "Undaunted" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel

by Pat Youngspiel
April 10, 2024

On Undaunted Washington D.C.-raised and Baltimore-educated pianist Lafayette Gilchrist continues his idiosyncratically swinging trajectory with deep grooves, memorable lines and the gritty, unapologetic type of interplay that first brought him international acclaim on the 2004 recording The Music According To Lafayette Gilchrist. Few will have forgotten the catchy track “Assume The Position" off that album, used prominently in the popular David Simon-produced series “The Wire." Some of the funkier, more electric bits in his writing have been replaced with a ...

Album Review

Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield

Read "From the Dancehall to the Battlefield" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
December 11, 2023

Uscito il primo gennaio 2023 su Bandcamp, questo album di Jason Moran, per il suo concept, per la varietà e la ricchezza, per il modo in cui fonde radici storiche e modernità è probabilmente da considerare il disco dell'anno. Il suggestivo titolo From the Dancehall to the Battlefield sintetizza la storia del mitico musicista a cui è dedicato: James Reese Europe, compositore, arrangiatore e direttore d'orchestra nero, nato a Mobile, in Alabama, nel 1881, e trasferitosi prima a ...

Album Review

Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted

Read "Undaunted" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
October 22, 2023

Barn-burning, barrel-housing pianist Lafayette Gilchrist may or may not be known by everyone pretending to be hip and attuned or even by the rather rarefied company he has been known to keep--David Murray, Cassandra Wilson, Andrew Cyrille--but Undaunted is going to get him some much deserved attention. Abundant with cajones and plenty of rhythm, Undaunted captures the imagination and attention immediately. The title track percolates within a laid back groove that Gilchrist, an admitted admirer of Duke Ellington's ...

Album Review

Chad Taylor Trio: The Daily Biological

Read "The Daily Biological" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
May 25, 2020

Chad Taylor è conosciuto in particolare per essere cofondatore, insieme a Rob Mazurek, del Chicago Underground Duo, con le sue varianti nei diversi ampliamenti degli organici. La sua attività si è dipanata ad ampio raggio negli ultimi trent'anni, facendo fulcro sulla scena di Chicago prima, e di New York poi, collaborando tra l'altro con protagonisti storici, come Fred Anderson, Pharoah Sanders, Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey o Marc Ribot. Ma pure con le generazioni nuove, tra cui Kris Davis, Jaimie Branch ...

Album Review

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne

Read "Hawthorne" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
September 9, 2018

Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Abbs began his Frequency Response series in 2003 with Conscription (CIMP Records). The group--then a quartet--included tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and drummer Chad Taylor. Alto saxophonist Jason Candler, violinists Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski are later additions to Frequency Response. On their long-awaited fourth album Hawthorne, Abbs again stands in as a one-man orchestra, playing bass, cello, piano, and tuba. Abbs, primarily known as a free improvisational bassist is also an accomplished filmmaker, having ...

Album Review

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne

by Don Phipps
August 23, 2018

On his album Hawthorne, Brooklyn-based Tom Abbs showcases his mastery of several instruments and writing styles. Combining free, hard bop, world, and blues styles, Abbs's compositions juxtapose explosive exposés of new music with idioms that hearken back to ancient times. Abbs is joined by Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski on violin, Brian Settles on tenor, Chad Taylor on drums, and Jason Candler on bass clarinet and alto sax. Abbs handles the chores on bass, tuba, piano, and cello. ...

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Album Review

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Lost & Found

Read "Lost & Found" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
August 18, 2009

Tom Abbs is a multi-instrumentalist who, besides violin and didgeridoo, plays bass, tuba and cello on this CD. He has enlivened the free jazz scene in New York, not only through his collaborations with Cooper-Moore and Steve Swell among others, but with his music as well. He thinks with a vivid imagination and as such injects his compositions with melody, free falling notes, jazz harmony and a picturesque development. The last may well spring from his role as film-maker.