Jazz Articles about Chad Fowler

About Chad Fowler

Album Review

Freely improvised music, saxophonist Paul Flaherty dubbed it “the hated music." Experiencing Alien Skin brings to mind another quote, this one from a shampoo commercial from the late 1980s: “Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." A beautiful alchemy is this session captured in the fall of 2021. It contains a three-horn front line of Chad Fowler, Ivo Perelman and Zoh Amba, plus pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, and drummer Steve Hirsh. I reference alchemy because the quintet ...

Album Review

Joel Futterman, William Parker, Chad Fowler, Steve Hirsh: The Deep

Read "The Deep" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 4, 2022

The Deep brings together the quartet of pianist Joel Futterman, bassist William Parker, saxophonist Chad Fowler, and drummer Steve Hirsh. Individually—and collectively—they have been the catalysts for many who wander to the farther bounds of jazz. This leaderless group has recorded in distinct member formations, with Futterman and Parker dating back to Authenticity (Kali Records, 1998). Fowler, on his Mahakala label, has issued post-2020 releases with each of his bandmates. The Deep comprises a single title track drawing on many ...

Album Review

Steve Hirsh: Sparks

by Mark Corroto
June 28, 2022

Listeners are inclined to classify music into categories. There's trad jazz, bebop, hard bop, post bop, avant-garde, free jazz, third stream, free improvisation, fusion, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, pigeonholes are for the birds. One might agree after listening to Sparks by Eri Yamamoto, Chad Fowler, William Parker, and Steve Hirsh. The quartet characterizes this two disc set of feel good (actually, extra feel good) music as “spontaneous folk music." This in not ...

Album Review

Dopolarians: The Bond

Read "The Bond" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
May 5, 2022

Rispetto alla formazione che diede alle stampe l'ottimo Garden Party, ci sono due avvicendamenti: Brian Blade sostituisce Alvin Fielder, storico batterista membro dell'AACM, deceduto pochi mesi dopo quell'incisione e il trombettista Mark Franklin al posto del veterano sassofonista Kidd Jordan. Ma lo spirito e l'approccio rimangono gli stessi, un dialogo aperto tra musicisti di generazioni differenti accomunati dalla passione per la improvvisazione (più o meno libera). E quale veicolo migliore di due lunghi brani tra i venti e i trenta ...

Album Review

Chad Fowler / Matthew Shipp: Old Stories

Read "Old Stories" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 28, 2022

Call it kismet, karma, astral influence or just plain luck, but when two musicians instantaneously click upon meeting, magic happens. Indeed, that was the case with the coming together of saxophonist Chad Fowler and pianist Matthew Shipp. The New York-based Shipp is ,of course, well known to adventurous listeners from his solo and trio recordings, plus his history with David S. Ware, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker, and Ivo Perelman. Fowler's name might be new to some ears. He is an ...

Album Review

Dopolarians: Garden Party

Read "Garden Party" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
October 5, 2020

Non si potrebbe trovare un titolo più calzante di questo Garden Party, per un disco che in tutta la propria estensione si dipana come un incontro piacevole tra vecchi amici, avvezzi a dialogare in tutta rilassatezza, perché conoscono bene il reciproco carattere, sanno dove il discorso andrà a parare e lo gestiscono in modo leggero. Ma l'incontro non si adagia sul già previsto: non mancano infatti le arguzie inattese, i reciproci stimoli di chi mette in campo tutta la propria ...