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Chris Kelsey Quartet: The Crookedest Straight Line Vol. 2
by AAJ Italy Staff
Ci sono dei musicisti che vanno in studio ed hanno difficoltà a mettere insieme quaranta minuti di musica, altri, come - in questo caso - Chris Kelsey, vanno per registrare un disco e spuntano sul mercato con due lunghi CD dalla qualità sopraffina, frutto più che di arrangiamenti complicati o difficili armonie di energia, di entusiasmo... quello che l'ascoltatore per prima cosa avverte quando viene confrontato con questo tipo di espressione musicale. In questo Volume 2 (per leggere la recensione ...
Continue ReadingChris Kelsey Quartet: The Crookedest Straight Lines - Vol. 1
by AAJ Italy Staff
La nuova fatica di Chris Kelsey per la CIMP è nel segno del mainstream, almeno per quanto riguarda il produttore Bob Rusch, pur se il sassofonista soprano esprime qualche dubbio sul suo sito chiedendosi cosa ne penseranno Kenny G e Branford Marsalis! Uno scherzo divertente con una punta di verità, perchè la musica di questo CD è di sicuro molto accessibile anche per chi di solito si avvicina con sospetto alle libertà che i musicisti creativi si prendono. Certo è ...
Continue ReadingChris Kelsey: Beyond Is and Is Not
by AAJ Italy Staff
"A jazz musician is what I am and will always be" scrive Chris Kelsey nelle note di copertina di questa sua nuova incisione. Rifiuta la catalogazione come musicista free (che è l'area stilistica in cui si era presentato nei suoi ultimi lavori) e tuttavia, su idea del suo produttore, Bob Rush, affronta da solo al sax soprano, strumento su cui ha focalizzato l'attenzione negli ultimi tempi, gli standard che sono parte del suo passato. Ne spuntano fuori versioni poco convenzionali, ...
Continue ReadingChris Kelsey Quartet: Renewal
by Derek Taylor
Sometimes a hiatus is the best answer to impending burnout. Soprano saxophonist Chris Kelsey recognized such signs and decided to shelve his horn in response to the stressors that were closing in. Also a writer, he seems to have hung up his quill for a spell as well. Time away from the rigors of creative improvised music allowed for the sort of perspective and focus that's encapsulated in his new album's single word title.
Kelsey's no neophyte to ...
Continue ReadingChris Kelsey's Ingenious Gentlemen Quartet: Situational Music
by Derek Taylor
From a purely financial perspective choosing improvised music as a profession has to rank among the most foolhardy and frustrating. Along with other artistic gigs like acting and writing improvised music is not widely regarded as a viable means of making ends meet. To take the argument further and generalize it a little, in the logical scheme of things, being an artist in America simply doesn’t pay. This is a sad certainty of life that saxophonist Chris Kelsey is intimately ...
Continue ReadingChris Kelsey's Unacknowledged Ensemble: Hear With Your Ear
by Derek Taylor
As Kelsey’s third offering in a threesome of inaugural titles on his own Saxophonis label Hear With Your Ears is arguably the most demanding both in terms of density and duration. Modeled loosely after Cecil Taylor’s now legendary unit with Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray the ensemble moves across the broad girth and breadth of two long-form improvisations that unfurl from atonal single-line melodies. Like other ensembles inspired by Taylor’s seminal aggregate (the Schlippenbach Trio comes to mind) the influence ...
Continue ReadingChris Kelsey: In Search Of Emmett Hardy
by AAJ Staff
Chris Kelsey is an original. The soprano saxophonist and composer hailing from New York by way of Oklahoma, has a distinct sound that doesn't seem to be coming from any external influences, but rather from within. As a composer, Kelsey writes music that is influenced by the jazz avant-garde, but also has clearly been influenced by impressionist and serialist composers such as Anton Webern and John Cage. His use of 12-tone clusters interspersed with modulating minor-thirds bears this out. In ...
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