Jazz Articles about Ellery Eskelin

About Ellery Eskelin

Album Review

Ellery Eskelin: About (or On), First Visit

Read "About (or On), First Visit" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
July 3, 2025

All'interno di un catalogo variegato ma di sicuro assottigliato negli ultimi anni, il tenorsassofonista Ellery Eskelin ha dato prova di controllare una cultura musicale ampia e sofisticata, nutrita sia dalla tradizione gospel e blues che dalle decostruzioni postmoderne. I due dischi di cui la ezzthetics stavolta meritoriamente cura la riedizione, pubblicati nel 2011 e nel 2013 dalla Prime Source Recordings, stanno un po' per conto loro nella discografia del compositore, ma brillano per inventiva, maestria e originale sonorità, ...

Album Review

Ellery Eskelin Trio New York: About (or On), First Visit

Read "About (or On), First Visit" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 25, 2025

It might be tempted to say that Ellery Eskelin's Trio New York is deconstructing the eleven standards on the two-disc set About (or On) First Visit. But that would be a misreading. This is not a breakdown of classic material in search of alternative meanings or structural analysis. Rather, Eskelin, alongside organist Gary Versace and drummer Gerald Cleaver, channels something more elusive--what ancient philosophy once called the fifth element, or aether. Their interpretations evoke the atmospheric essence of these songs, ...

Album Review

Terrence McManus: Music for Chamber Trio

Read "Music for Chamber Trio" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 28, 2024

Terrence McManus' Music for Chamber Trio is a masterclass in the art of minimalism, a testament to the power of understated composition. The album, which features an unconventional trio, challenges traditional notions of chamber music, favoring textural exploration over melodic or rhythmic dominance. From the outset, guitarist McManus makes it clear that this is no ordinary affair with acclaimed artists, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and drummer Gerry Hemingway. His guitar provides the foundation, not through ostentatious displays of technique, ...

Album Review

Phil Haynes: 4 Horns & What? – The Complete American Recordings

Read "4 Horns & What? – The Complete American Recordings" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 8, 2024

Con minime variazioni fra le diverse edizioni di questo suo gruppo così particolare (quattro fiati più batteria), sicuramente in grado di esprimere (verrebbe da dire “esporre") al meglio le sue doti di compositore e “demiurgo" musicale in senso lato, Phil Haynes, oggi sessantatreenne, riunisce tre sedute d'incisione (l'ultima dal vivo) datate rispettivamente 1989, 1991 e 1995, oltre tre ore e un quarto di musica serratissima (salvo i brevi parlati introduttivi dell'ultimo volume), ricchissima sia sotto il profilo, appunto, compositivo, che ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
November 29, 2021

Undicesimo album per l'Orchestra New York di Satoko Fujii, qui composta di tredici elementi, dei quali ben nove già presenti nel primo lavoro, South Wind, risalente al lontano 1997. Il disco è registrato nel maggio del 2019 ed è uscito già lo scorso anno, ma merita egualmente grande attenzione, in quanto si tratta di un lavoro di primissimo livello. Né poteva essere diversamente, considerando non solo la qualità media, altissima, delle produzioni della musicista giapponese, ma anche l'organico straordinario della ...

Album Review

Ben Goldberg: Everything Happens To Be.

Read "Everything Happens To Be." reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
November 17, 2021

If you do not listen too closely, there are parts of this download-only release that sound soothing and gentle. That is not really the case and that is the fun part of this music. When the reed players play a pretty or swinging melody line, there is always some irritant factor elsewhere in the band to spice things up. All of these musicians are known for their experimental tendencies and have worked together before in various combinations. The ...

Album Review

Ben Goldberg: Everything Happens To Be.

Read "Everything Happens To Be." reviewed by John Chacona

by John Chacona
June 18, 2021

The music of Ben Goldberg seems to come from a place outside of time--or maybe it comes from several times simultaneously. Maybe it's the instruments he chooses; while the clarinet family has been on the comeback trail in jazz for a quarter century, it's a sound that invariably invokes the New Orleans of a century ago. That's especially true when Goldberg picks up the mellow, woody, Albert-system E-flat instrument on “Cold Weather." That tune's sweet melancholy wobbles perilously close to ...