Jazz Articles about George Russell

Time Spiral: George Russell, Tyshawn Sorey, Yu Nishiyama, Daniel Carter

by David Brown
June 28, 2022

This week, extended works featuring George Russell's “Time Spiral," Anthony Davis “A Suite for Monk," David Murray and Randy Weston perform “Blue Moses." New releases from Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Yu Nishiyma, Tim Berne's Bloodcount, Daniel Carter, and much more. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Keefe Jackson, Oscar Jan Hoogland, Joshua Abrams, Mikel Patrick Avery “Gotta Get Some Sleep" from These Things Happen (Astral Spirits) 01:30 Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William ...

Duncan Heining: George Russell - The Story of an American Composer

by John Kelman
August 31, 2012

George Russell: The Story of an American Composer Duncan Heining 376 pages, hardback ISBN: 978-0-8108-6997-4 Scarecrow Press 2010 It's been out for a couple years now, but any book about American composer and founder of the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization—if not the most influential musical concepts ever written and applied to jazz, then certainly one of them—warrants attention. That it is as painstakingly researched and compiled by author (and occasional AAJ ...

In Memoriam: George Russell 1923-2009

by AAJ Staff
September 6, 2009

George was such an inspiration to all of us in his sextet. He encouraged us to go beyond our limitations by introducing and suggesting fresh new concepts. As band members (students) he gave us the encouragement we needed to go further and deeper into our musical improvisations. Playing in his band was a turning point in my drumming because of his encouragement and trust in my ability. George was a good drummer himself so he knew ...

Why George Russell Will Always Live in Time

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 10, 2009

A measure of just how underrated a musician he was in his lifetime is reflected in the fact that even three days after he passed on most of the major publications had not even reported his death, much less celebrated his life in the glowing terms that he so richly deserved. Perhaps this was because oddly enough he may have spent a lifetime mostly in the quietude of musical intellectualism rather than in its practice. That is, after all how ...

George Russell Sextet: Ezz-Thetics

by Troy Collins
October 6, 2007

A post-war masterpiece, Ezz-Thetics is pianist/arranger George Russell's definitive 1961 sextet recording from the earliest phase of his multi-decade career. On par with such iconic albums as Oliver Nelson's Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961), Mal Waldron's The Quest (Riverside, 1961) and Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (Blue Note, 1964), Ezz-Thetics traffics in the same advanced but accessible strain of avant-garde-influenced post-bop.

Author of The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (pub. 1953), Russell's seminal concepts of ...

George Russell And The Living Time Orchestra: 80th Birthday Concert

by Robert R. Calder
September 16, 2006

George Russell And The Living Time Orchestra 80th Birthday Concert Concept Publishing 2005

Now and then in recent years, George Russell (born 1923) has attacked what he considers backward-looking tendencies in the playing of younger jazzmen. The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra was among those who fell under grave suspicion. Yet there's not much difference between the music on 80th Birthday Concert and Wynton Marsalis' arrangement of “A Love Supreme" for LCJO.

Russell, though always ...

George Russell

by AAJ Staff
January 22, 2006

By Ed Hazell At 83, George Russell moves a little slower than he used to and his voice, which has never lost its Midwestern twang, is softer. But his eyes have not lost their amused, intelligent twinkle and he has never lost his passion for making music.“My aim at this point is to understand the language of music in its deepest sense and contribute to it, enrich it," he said one evening recently, sitting at ...