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Jazz Articles about Chris Speed
Human Feel: Galore
by AAJ Italy Staff
A vent’anni esatti dalla nascita e a più di dieci dall’ultima pubblicazione ufficiale (Speak to It del 1996), torna a farsi vivo il quartetto Human Feel; e lo fa licenziando un disco riuscito, vitale, intenso, che sembra voler racchiudere l’immenso patrimonio di esperienze accumulato dai membri, nel frattempo ascesi al rango di stelle di prima grandezza, lungo i sentieri percorsi dentro e fuori il crogiuolo downtown che li ha generati. Jim Black, Chris Speed, Andrew D’Angelo, Kurt Rosenwinkel: basterebbero i ...
Continue ReadingSkirl Records Visits Philadelphia
by Edward Zucker
We are in a period when more and more people download their music via the internet; important retailers such as Tower Records are shutting their doors; and blank CDs outsold pre-recorded CDs last year. Yet, Chris Speed--a multi-instrumentalist and longtime member of New York's downtown scene--has undertaken the Herculean task of starting an independent record label with the launch of Skirl Records. On December 15, 2006, Speed and several bands on his label came to Philadelphia for a ...
Continue ReadingAn AAJ Interview with Chris Speed
by AAJ Staff
In an effort to avoid having their work artistically typecast, many musicians have chosen to incorporate a variety of styles into their own vernacular. Although this frequently results in fascinating results, there are several distinct challenges and problems with the eclectic approach.
The first is simply that of failing to convince, perhaps better stated as a lack of credibility, a sort of musical equivalent to “hey, look at me, I can do that too!" or worse “you want that? We ...
Continue ReadingZeno De Rossi Sultry: Plunge
by AAJ Italy Staff
A distanza di quattro anni dall'esordio, il trio Sultry del batterista Zeno De Rossi pubblica il secondo capitolo con la nuova etichetta El Gallo Rojo Records. La formazione base (Chris Speed al tenore e clarinetto, Stefano Senni al contrabbasso e De Rossi alla batteria) è rimasta la stessa ma si aggiungono due nuovi ospiti: il tastierista Anthony Coleman e il chitarrista Enrico Terragnoli, già stretto partner di Zeno, che apporta un contributo determinante alle nuove dinamiche espressive. Come sa bene ...
Continue ReadingChris Speed's Yeah NO: Swell Henry
by Eyal Hareuveni
Four years have passed since the last release by Chris Speed's Yeah NO quartet, Emit (Songlines, 2000). Speed has been busy in those years as a key player in the ensembles of Uri Caine, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Matt Moran and John Hollenbeck. He toured and played with three collaborative bands with overlapping personnel--the Balkan-tinged quartet Pachora, with his own Yeah NO players, electric bassist Skuli Sverrisson, drummer Jim Black, and guitarist Brad Shepik; Jim Black's AlasNoAxis, with Sverrisson and ...
Continue ReadingChris Speed: Emit
by Glenn Astarita
With his fourth solo CD, saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed continues his distinct assault on modern jazz as Emit may in fact represent the artist’s finest achievement as a leader thus far. Along with three of his longtime band mates from the peppery Balkan based band, “Pachora”, Speed and trumpeter Cuong Vu make for an auspicious front line horn section in concert with the all world rhythmic pairing of bassist Skuli Sverrisson and drummer Jim Black.
Basically there’s not one track to ...
Continue ReadingChris Speed: Emit
by Glenn Astarita
With his fourth solo CD, saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed continues his distinct assault on modern jazz as Emit may in fact represent the artist’s finest achievement as a leader thus far. Along with three of his longtime band mates from the peppery Balkan based band, “Pachora”, Speed and trumpeter Cuong Vu make for an auspicious front line horn section in concert with the all world rhythmic pairing of bassist Skuli Sverrisson and drummer Jim Black.
Basically there’s not one track to ...
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