Jazz Articles about Clarence Penn

Dave Douglas Quintet: Live at the Jazz Standard

by John Kelman
December 13, 2007

Trumpeter Dave Douglas' a six-night run at New York's Jazz Standard in December, 2006, was relatively revolutionary in the jazz world. Every set, featuring his longstanding quintet, was recorded and made available the following morning in downloadable MP3 format. The twelve sets included nearly everything from The Infinite (RCA, 2002), Strange Liberation (RCA, 2003) and Meaning and Mystery (Greenleaf, 2006), as well as fourteen new pieces. Live at the Jazz Standard collects the best performances of this new material into ...

Dave Douglas: The Infinite

by AAJ Staff
October 15, 2002

This is a wonderful CD! Once again Dave Douglas scores big. It seems that this talented trumpeter just came out of nowhere and is suddenly upon us like a wild leopard. He deserves all the credit he gets.

I first ran into Dave Douglas at the 1999 Bell Atlantic 2nd Annual Jazz Awards in NYC. Dave Douglas was a new name--taking all the awards! He was standing beside me in the shadows, mumbling to himself how he didn't deserve all ...

Dave Douglas: The Infinite

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 12, 2002

When it comes to varied musical projects, trumpeter Dave Douglas seems to be almost schizoid in his zeal for not recreating himself. On a purely artistic level, that's a good thing. But for those trying to follow his career it can all seem to be a bit disjointed. You know, “I liked his last record, but what the hell is up with this new one?" That's why for me, and possibly other fans as well, The Infinite is the record ...

Dave Douglas: The Infinite

by David Adler
March 1, 2002

The Infinite is one of Dave Douglas's more “mainstream" dates, in that it features standard quintet instrumentation--save for Uri Caine's sparkling, superbly played Fender Rhodes. Paradoxically, though, this is also a record that finds Douglas loudly declaring his love for some current pop music. It opens with a tender reading of Rufus Wainwright's “Poses" and goes on to cover songs by Mary J. Blige ("Crazy Games") and Bjork ("Unison"). Douglas also tips his hat to Radiohead's lead singer on the ...

Clarence Penn: Play Penn

by Mark F. Turner
December 1, 2001

Change is a necessary factor in the musical development of jazz musicians and listeners. It's the fuel for the creative process that expands the boundaries for this thing we call jazz music. Clarence Penn's 1997 debut recording Penn's Landing, won him critical acclaim in many jazz circles. The essence of that recording highlighted an immensely talented drummer who displayed deep skills in musical composition,arrangement, and musicianship. Penn's group for that session featured a piano-less quartet that was in many cases ...

Clarence Penn Quintet: Play-Penn

by David A. Orthmann
November 1, 2001

Listening to a band rummage through a number of modern jazz styles during the course of a set is now closer to a rule than an exception. Shunning a single easily recognizable paradigm based on the music’s glorified past, many musicians embrace the vagaries of a constantly shifting artistic landscape. The best of them (quite a few, actually) inevitably stamp their own hard won personalities into a variety of modes. In the process, they also frequently manage to blur stylistic ...