Jazz Articles about Burton Greene

Burton Greene: Bloom in the Commune

by Lyn Horton
April 5, 2008

How cultural history impacts present practice is a part of a recurring cycle of reminders. Because those who have lived that history continually refresh it, its renewed view in coincidence with our exposure to it collapses time. And then we all become one, moving through now as we moved then but in, perhaps, different global circumstances. The questions posed by those who relate stories of the past remain the same; they address essential issues of artistic expression that can only ...

Burton Greene: Ins and Outs; Signs of the Times; Retrospective 1961-2005: Solo Piano (August 18, 2005)

by Clifford Allen
July 13, 2007

The era that ushered in free jazz was perhaps marked more greatly by hornmen than by the pianists. Chicago-born pianist Burton Greene, who came to prominence on three 1966 ESP recordings, seems to have been given a bit of short shrift in the history books, mostly because until the last decade or so a significant amount of his sizeable discography was either out of print or on woefully obscure European labels unavailable in the States. With this latest trio of ...

Burton Greene: Retrospective 1961-2005: Solo Piano (August 18, 2005)

by Lyn Horton
June 4, 2007

Clarity of an all-encompassing vision can push a musician to say in music whatever is desired no matter what the response. This approach bolsters certainty and confidence which resultantly flows out of the instrument the musician plays. Both certainty and confidence exude from Burton Greene on Retrospective 1961-2005, Solo Piano. The recording is the third and only solo of a series by Greene on the CIMP label.

Chicagoan Greene was a founding member of the Jazz Composers Guild ...

Burton Greene: Retrospective 1961-2005: Solo piano, August 18, 2005

by AAJ Italy Staff
March 19, 2007

Se chiedete a un accademico del jazz notizie del signor Burton Greene, nato a Chicago nel giugno del 1937, vi sentirete probabilmente rispondere qualcosa del tipo: “seppur misconosciuto, è un pianista di una certa importanza in quanto tentò di coniugare il free jazz con il cool di Lennie Tristano e con la contemporanea di Cage (l’introduzione nel jazz del piano preparato o suonato direttamente nelle corde sembrano essere farina del suo sacco)”... Se chiedete la stessa informazione ad un ex-hippy ...

Pianist Burton Greene

by Clifford Allen
June 11, 2004

Pianist Burton Greene was born June 14, 1937 in Chicago. Following a brief stay in San Francisco he moved to New York in the early ‘60s and quickly became part of the nascent free jazz movement, playing with Alan Silva in the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble. He was a member of the Jazz Composers’ Guild, worked with Marion Brown, Rashied Ali, Albert Ayler, Sam Rivers, and Patty Waters among others before moving to Europe in 1969. He currently resides on ...

Burton Greene: Live at Grasland

by Clifford Allen
May 15, 2004

You would not be faulted for raising an eyebrow at the appearance of a Burton Greene solo record. It is not without precedent, of course, for 1998’s Shades of Greene (Cadence Jazz) and It’s All One (Horo, 1975) set a worthy course. Nevertheless, Greene’s music has been fruitfully explored in ensemble recordings, from the classic open-communications music of the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble (featuring Alan Silva and Jon Winter) and his great quintet with master saxophonists Marion Brown and the ...

Burton Greene: Calistrophy

by Elliott Simon
March 11, 2003

The latest offering from pianist Burton Greene, Calistrophy, is a curious blend of klezmer, blues, swing, free form, Latin, Balkan and plain old straight ahead jazz. Greene, a founding member of the '60s cutting edge Free Form Improvisation Ensemble, was, with his group Klezmokum, also among the first to reacquaint contemporary jazz with klezmer. Joining Greene on this effort, and billed as the Klez-Thetics, are Hungarian reeds player Akos Laki and Klezmokum's core rhythm-masters drummer Roberto Haliffi and tubaist Larry ...