Home » Jazz Articles » Christopher Hoffman
Jazz Articles about Christopher Hoffman
Henry Threadgill: The Other One
by John Ephland
Listening to Henry Threadgill's music, the bobbing and weaving doesn't maintain a continuity but can jump from one strand to another, one scene to another, as in a dream. It is tonal and not, just as dreams are, perhaps, rhapsodic or unkempt, the story or plot being as tangible, fungible as a summer breeze. Much is made of Threadgill's chamber-music esthetic. And rightly so. It is “so chamber music precise it must all be premeditated, right?" asked the ...
Continue ReadingHenry Threadgill Ensemble: The Other One
by Troy Dostert
Now that Henry Threadgill has begun receiving the accolades he has long deserved--the Pulitzer Prize he won in 2016 for In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi Recordings, 2015) being just the most prominent example--it is impressive to find him still relentlessly stretching himself as a performer and composer. Since his first forays into the jazz avant-garde in the 1970s, the maverick multi-instrumentalist has always made music that challenges listeners in exciting ways, but it is his uncanny ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon
by Mark Corroto
Most listeners have long since moved saxophonist James Brandon Lewis from the rising star category to one labeled virtuoso. But then, pianist Matthew Shipp signaled this status when he mentored Lewis early on and certainly bassist William Parker ordained his arrival by recording with the saxophonist on his major label debut, Divine Travels (Okeh, 2014). Parker returns for this latest release, as does drummer Chad Taylor who can be heard on the quartet recording Molecular (Intakt Records, 2020) and two ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon
by Vic Albani
Erano anni che il jazz attendeva un lavoro come questo. Splendido nella totale sua interezza, capace di riportare “il jazz nel jazz" dopo tanti anni e tante nuove incisioni che i critici hanno valutato con attenzione e spesso incensate come lo sforzo creativo del guardare avanti, pur “rimanendo nobilmente avvinghiati alla tradizione" e via di conserva. Potremmo analizzare a lungo il jazz contemporaneo ma davanti a dischi come questo è ovvio riflettere e considerare ciò che in ...
Continue ReadingJosh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically
by Glenn Astarita
Bass clarinetist and baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton (Ideal Bread, Nate Wooley Quintet, Adam Hopkins' Crickets) has always been a tenacious improviser, and with his new trio bridges the gap between post-modernism, raw experimentalism and core jazz fundamentals. Featuring all-universe drummer Tom Rainey and cellist Chris Hoffman--admired for his work with cutting-edge music acolyte Henry Threadgill and other notables--this band dances and darts through undulating improv segments, and tangles with various metrics and structural facets amid a democratic group focus.
Continue ReadingJosh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically
by Jerome Wilson
Josh Sinton is a member of the Brooklyn jazz community who has been making a name for himself with his baritone sax, playing in contexts like his Steve Lacy repertoire band, Ideal Bread. His free-wheeling Predicate Trio with cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer Tom Rainey is a combustible unit that showcases his more improvisational side. Seven of the nine tracks here are written by Sinton and feel like old-school, fire-breathing free jazz. “Bell-ell-ell-ell-ells" establishes the loosely aggressive nature ...
Continue ReadingJosh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically
by Mark Corroto
Considerate isn't an adjective you generally apply to creative new jazz recordings these days. Vanguard musicians are accustomed to employing the shock and awe required to get attention and satisfy their constituents. Maybe that is why Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically is such a breath of fresh air. Josh Sinton's Predicate Trio delivers an exceedingly empathic recording. Sinton is a veteran of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Large Ensemble, Nate Wooley's Quintet, Anthony ...
Continue Reading
