Jazz Articles about Gerald Cleaver

About Gerald Cleaver

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: In The Shadow Of A Cloud

Read "In The Shadow Of A Cloud" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
August 21, 2017

Following her successful quintet outing, Blooming Tall Phlox, pianist Yelena Eckemoff retains the ensemble's name while quietly reshaping its interior life, recalibrating the personnel for another generous two-disc statement. Joined this time by Chris Potter on reeds and flute, Adam Rogers on electric guitar, Drew Gress on double bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Eckemoff unfurls a map of 14 new compositions that trace some of her most fluid and contemplative terrain yet. These pieces feel resolutely discovered, as though ...

143

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: In The Shadow Of A Cloud

Read "In The Shadow Of A Cloud" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
August 14, 2017

She may rarely perform live in this context, but Yelena Eckemoff has managed to build, over just seven years and a mammoth eleven releases--including her second release of 2017, In the Shadow of a Cloud--a loyal and growing following in the jazz world. It's all the more remarkable for a multi-talented expat Russian pianist who began life in the classical world, and only entered the jazz world in 2010 with Cold Sun. But there's even more to marvel ...

Album Review

Samuel Blaser Quartet: As the Sea

Read "As the Sea" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 17, 2013

Quartetto d'eccezione quello allestito da Samuel Blaser, giovane trombonista svizzero che con una decina di incisioni si è costruito una solida reputazione tra i colleghi e unanimi apprezzamenti dagli addetti ai lavori. Perché se il bassista Banz Oester, pur vantando collaborazioni prestigiose con Pierre Favre ed Harry Hemingway, è nome non troppo noto, il batterista Gerald Cleaver ed il chitarrista Marc Ducret non hanno bisogno di presentazioni e contribuiscono in maniera decisiva alla riuscita di questo lavoro. Samuel Blaser è ...

Album Review

Samuel Blaser Quartet: As The Sea

Read "As The Sea" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 23, 2013

Allocating his time between Europe and New York City, Swiss-born trombone maestro Samuel Blaser has recorded for prominent record labels, specializing in the outside jazz realm. Thus, As The Sea is the quartet's follow-up to Boundless (hatOLOGY, 2011). Blaser's recognizable plight to lay out nouveau frontiers remains a continuum. No wonder why he's garnered the assistance of such reputable instrumentalists. Otherwise, the program contains a flux of contrapuntal statements. His musicality imparts breathy expansionism amid swarming movements that are purposely ...

Album Review

Samuel Blaser Quartet: As The Sea

Read "As The Sea" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 14, 2013

The whole of some musical outfits is greater than its separate parts. The Berlin-based, Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser's Quartet is one of these outfits, comprised of resourceful musicians with strong personalities, distinct approaches that together complement the strengths of this band but also pushes it into newer terrains. Blaser is conservatory trained and university educated, has a perfect-pitch sound on the trombone and rich musical vision that encompasses anything between composer Richard Wagner's grandiose operas, classical Indian ...

Album Review

Gerald Cleaver: Uncle June: Be It As I See It

by AAJ Italy Staff
August 29, 2011

Sarà anche un'ovvietà, ma l'occhio di Horus ci ricorda tanto Sun Ra e il suo misticismo solareggiante, anche se, in questo terzo disco di Cleaver, “Sonny" Blount e la sua mitologia cosmica forse hanno lasciato il segno in un gusto dell'arcano (l'occhio accostato alle foto di famiglia, i simboli della copertina interna e l'enigmatico testo della poesia “He Said" sembrano degni a una certa mistica psichedelica) e nello sguardo decisamente anticonvenzionale, ma un po' meno nei contenuti musicali. Un'aurea misteriosa ...

210

Album Review

Gerald Cleaver: Be It As I See It

Read "Be It As I See It" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
February 25, 2011

On his fourth disc as leader, and the first with his Uncle June ensemble, Detroit-native drummer Gerald Cleaver shoots for the stars. Though termed a sound collage based on the Great Migration, Be It As I See Itis not programmatic. Cleaver's approach is personal, celebrating the intelligence, strength and humor of the folks he grew up with, and those who made one of the first real choices for black people in America: the movement of two million out of the ...