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About Christopher Hoffman

Album Review

Henry Threadgill: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
October 30, 2023

Giunto sulla soglia delle ottanta primavere, Henry Threadgill non lascia sbiadire la propria splendida vitalità creativa. Lo ha fatto quest'anno sia con la pubblicazione dell'imperdibile autobiografiaEasily Slip into Another World, che con una nuova realizzazione discografica, The Other One. Pure questa imperdibile, si colloca tra i lavori che lo hanno visto impegnato esclusivamente come compositore e direttore dell'ensemble, non in qualità di strumentista e solista, sulla traccia dei precedenti Old Locks and Irregular Verbs, del 2016, e Double ...

Album Review

Funkwrench Blues: Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures

Read "Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 3, 2023

Once upon a time it was hard to walk into an arthouse cinema without bumping into a jazz soundtrack. Miles Davis' for Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (1958), Charles Mingus' for John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), Krzysztof Komeda's for Roman Polanski's Knife In The Water (1962) were among a legion of similarly inclined endeavours. But all that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. In the 2020s, if you want to hear a freshly ...

Album Review

Henry Threadgill: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by John Ephland

by John Ephland
July 25, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Henry Threadgill Ensemble: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
July 11, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon

Read "Jesup Wagon" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 14, 2021

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 ...

Album Review

James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon

Read "Jesup Wagon" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
May 3, 2021

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 ...

Album Review

Josh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically

Read "Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 27, 2019

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.