Jazz Articles about Chris Jentsch

Chris Jentsch Group No Net: Topics in American History

by Jerome Wilson
February 27, 2019

Guitarist Chris Jentsch's newest project is a suite that treats various periods of American history to a somewhat skeptical, alternative viewpoint. It doesn't attempt to tell a chronological story but instead hopscotches through topics like the Civil War, Westward Expansion, the Cold War and post-World War II suburban sprawl with a constant sense of unease and caution. Jentsch uses a nine-piece group here, giving him room to play with brass and reed voicings as well as feature his ...

Chris Jentsch Group No Net: Topics in American History

by Jack Bowers
February 8, 2019

Brooklyn-based guitarist / composer Chris Jentsch writes with clear images in mind and invites the listener to see and hear them as he does. On his sixth and latest CD, Jentsch draws on a longstanding interest in historical events and trends to describe in musical terms Topics in American History ranging from 1491 (the year before Europeans led by Christopher Columbus landed in the New World and changed the North American continent forever) to the harrowing decades of the Cold ...

Jentsch Group No Net: Topics in American History

by Troy Dostert
February 7, 2019

Don't let the album's title fool you. Guitarist/composer Chris Jentsch's Topics In American History isn't a disguised syllabus for a college seminar. Jentsch's liner notes reveal an abiding interest in American history, but his modus operandi is to use pivotal aspects of the nation's past as springboards for creative, immersive music. Although using just a nine-piece band, Jentsch's compositions feel designed for a larger unit, and they certainly do justice to the sweeping tableau of America's rich--and sometimes fraught--legacy.

Jentsch Group Quartet: Fractured Pop

by Jerome Wilson
April 20, 2017

Chris Jentsch is a guitarist who, from the evidence of this recording, enjoys splashing around in the wide pool of music between jazz and rock. His work here goes all the way from grooving hardcore jazz to ambient nature sounds with a lot of fun things going on in between those two poles. The title track starts out on a folkish acoustic guitar riff joined to Matt Renzi's climbing tenor sax, establishing an overall style of jazz improvisation ...

Chris Jentsch: Cycles and Reflecting on the Journey

by Ludwig vanTrikt
February 9, 2010

John Coltrane once said, “Let the music speak for itself." The guitarist/composer and band leader Christopher Jentsch adds an interesting twist on that subject by opting to describe himself when asked about the broader subject of how to capture his music in his own words. “I think of myself as a composer/guitarist working with contemporary improvisational forms on the fringe of jazz, but jazz that is inclusive of rock/pop, world music and classical genres. I also strive generally for a ...

Chris Jentsch: Cycles Suite

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 25, 2009

Il chitarrista americano Chris Jentsch ci prende gusto con l'idea della suite. Dopo un primo lavoro dedicato alla città di Miami e un secondo dedicato al quartiere di Brooklyn (per leggerne la recensione clicca qui) adesso arriviamo alla conclusione del trittico con questo lavoro davvero ben riuscito che non è ispirato dal mood di una location geografica ben circoscritta, ma dall'idea stessa del ciclo, della ripetizione, della forma ripartita in varie sezioni. Jentsch utilizza come al solito una orchestra allargata, ...

Jentsch Group Large: Brooklyn Suite

by Michael P. Gladstone
March 13, 2008

Guitarist/composer/arranger Chris Jentsch has produced a highly original forty-five minute work in the titular Brooklyn Suite, as well as two other new compositions. Jentsch has lived in the New York borough of Brooklyn since 1999 and pays homage to the sights and sounds of his adopted home. Jentsch did the same for another city on Miami Suite (Blue Schist, 1999).

Brooklyn Suite is an ambitious work, impressive in its creativity. The influence of the orchestral writing ...