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Jazz Articles about Gerald Cleaver
Caleb Wheeler Curtis: Heatmap
by Paul Rauch
It is mostly troublesome to make blanket assertions about jazz and the musicians that facilitate the art form. Such assertions are subjective at best, yet it would not seem unreasonable to assert that Caleb Wheeler Curtis is one of the more interesting alto saxophonists to emerge since 2000. His playing has a radiant, vocal quality to it, whether addressing strong melodies, or abstractions of the same. His approach is strong without being forced, and while his musical spirit has an ...
read moreDaniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver: Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2
by John Sharpe
Such is the magic of free jazz that even when uniting known quantities, the outcomes can still surprise and enchant. Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2 constitutes the second release from an October 2019 session which brought together four seasoned veterans of the NYC scene in reedman Daniel Carter, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver. Given countless prior collaborations, in all manner of permutations, it's not a bombshell that they form such a flexible and empathetic unit on ...
read moreTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Jerome Wilson
This is the second release by drummer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara's unique double trio with himself and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on brass, a group that can be configured as two trios, three pairs of instruments or something in between. The sound of the resulting combinations can come out ambient or raucous, but tends towards an angular prog-jazz fusion sound, that can pack the punch of ...
read moreTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Mark Corroto
Drummer, composer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara did not set out to rebut the saying “familiarity breeds contempt," but March from his sextet Triple Double does just that. His combination of three pairs of double instruments—guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, cornet/trumpets Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi, plus double drummers Gerald Cleaver and Tomas Fujiwara himself—creates respect, the opposite of contempt. The harmonious and organic nature of this music, first heard on their self-titled debut album Triple Double (Firehouse 12, ...
read moreBenoît Delbecq 4: Gentle Ghosts
by Alberto Bazzurro
Quando ci capita di incontrare, discograficamente parlando, il pianista francese Benoît Delbecq, cinquantasei anni il prossimo giugno, non rimaniamo mai delusi, e questo suo ultimo lavoro, inciso a Parigi nel settembre 2019, non fa eccezione. Vi è all'opera il suo oliatissimo, efficientissimo quartetto, cui il tenore di Mark Turner dà la sua classica impronta, diafana, sorniona, vigorosamente pensosa (un contrasto in termini? e perché mai?), cui il parterre che lo affianca, anche grazie alla puntualità strutturale di ...
read moreTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Troy Dostert
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara's March, another offering from his Triple Double sextet, was recorded in December 2019, prior to the widespread racial unrest that followed the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others in 2020. But it feels completely of a piece with those protests, with an unsettled anger and impatience that animate every moment of this absorbing album. Creating music that seems perfectly suited for a tumultuous age, Fujiwara's compositional instincts are spot-on, and he once again marshals ...
read moreGerald Cleaver: Griots
by Mark Corroto
Gerald Cleaver's Griots confirms just how far creative musicians have developed since the appearance of drum machines, music workstations and software modular synthesizers. A drummer by trade, Cleaver can be heard in innumerable ensembles including those of Ivo Perelman, Chris Lightcap, Steve Swell and Tomasz Stanko, to name just a few. His craft has blossomed beyond the drum chair, leading his own ensembles and a recent dive into electronics. He previously released the all-electric Signs (577 Records, 2020) which was ...
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