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Jazz Articles about David Virelles
Mark Turner: Reflections on: The Autobiography on an Ex-Colored Man
by Alberto Bazzurro
Una musica molto composta, predefinita, intenzionale, il tutto da allargare all'essenza stessa di opera nella sua accezione più onnicomprensiva, è quanto ci arriva da quest'ultimo lavoro del fresco sessantenne (il 10 novembre) tenorsassofonista dell'Ohio. Non c'è solo musica, in effetti, in quest'ora e un quarto appena scarsa di suoni e parole (narrate, non cantate), perché qui c'è di mezzo una storia, che è poi quella raccontata un secolo fa da James Weldon Johnson nel volume del titolo, oggetto delle odierne ...
Continue ReadingEric McPherson: Double Bass Quartet - Live
by Pierre Giroux
Drummer Eric McPherson has long been recognized as a musician who combines rhythmic ingenuity and structural awareness in any project he undertakes. With Double Bass Quartet, recorded before a quietly appreciative New York audience, McPherson has assembled an unconventional line-up of Cuban pianist David Virelles along with bassists John Hébert and Ben Street, that challenges and redefines the traditional quartet format. The ensemble's two-bass configuration immediately invites comparisons to the more exploratory aspects of jazz history, yet this is no ...
Continue ReadingBrandon Ross Phantom Station: Off the End
by Vic Albani
"Navigando tra luce e oscurità, con Off the End, Brandon Ross Phantom Station offre una cerimonia che è allo stesso tempo aperta e strettamente focalizzata, rivelando uno spirito impavido slegato da vincoli stilistici." Le poche parole tratte dalla recensione pubblicata da “Jazz Trail" inquadrano perfettamente e in poche parole il sunto stilistico del nuovo lavoro discografico della straordinaria creatività del signor Ross, in Italia sicuramente e purtroppo poco conosciuto a parte forse l'avventura con il collettivo avant-rock Harriet Tubman accanto ...
Continue ReadingHenry Threadgill: The Other One
by Giuseppe Segala
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 ...
Continue ReadingJohnathan Blake: Passage
by Dave Linn
The drummer Johnathan Blake was born in Philadelphia in 1976. His father was the esteemed jazz violinist and educator John Blake Jr. who played in many diverse settings, (most notably Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner), before releasing seven albums under his name. He died in 2014. Blake (the son) began studying music at a young age, later attending William Paterson University studying with Rufus Reid and Steve Wilson. He eventually received a master's in composition at Rutgers University where he ...
Continue ReadingHenry 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 ...
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