Jazz Articles about Gerry Hemingway

About Gerry Hemingway

Album Review

Formed in Lucerne in 1972 by saxophonist Urs Leimgruber, guitarist Christy Doran, bassist Bobby Burri, and drummer Fredy Studer, the original quartet fused the raw voltage of rock with the open architecture of free improvisation, arriving at a sound they eventually dubbed “ElectroAcoustiCore." Studer's death in 2022, weeks ahead of the release of the anniversary album 50 (Intakt), 2022), might reasonably have closed the book. Instead, the three surviving founders did something a lesser band would not have attempted: they ...

Album Review

Gerry Hemingway with Izumi Kimura, Frank Gratkowski and Christian Weber: Live at Bau 4

Read "Live at Bau 4" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 1, 2026

Drummer and composer Gerry Hemingway has spent five decades proving that percussion can be as harmonically literate as any horn or keyboard. That reputation was forged during his decade with the Anthony Braxton Quartet and expanded through an expansive discography on labels including Auricle, Tzadik, Clean Feed, and Intakt. Now based in Switzerland, Hemingway continues to cultivate collaborations that balance compositional rigor with the spontaneity of collective improvisation. Live at Bau 4 documents one such encounter. Per Maxi ...

Album Review

Gerry Hemingway: Live at Bau 4

Read "Live at Bau 4" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 1, 2026

Touch. It is the word that most often comes to mind when listening to the music of composer and drummer Gerry Hemingway. While rhythm and structure are central to his work, it is touch, the physical act of striking, rubbing, bowing, pressing and releasing that gives his music its distinctive character. Hemingway's performances do more than generate sound; they evoke texture. They invite the listener to imagine the grain of wood, the scrape of metal, the vibration of strings and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Gerry Hemingway, OM and Perelman/Sharp/Baptista

by Maurice Hogue
June 29, 2026

It doesn't matter which side of the Atlantic Ocean you consider when talking about master drummer Gerry Hemingway, he is highly respected as one of the most creative drummers ever. Now making his home in Altbüron, Switzerland, Hemingway's focus tends to be on European projects, like his latest Live at Bau 4 with his quartet of pianist Izumi Kimura, saxophonist Frank Gratkowski & bassist Christian Weber. They recorded the album at Bau 4, a performing space in an Altbüron lumber ...

Album Review

Rodrigo Amado The Bridge: Further Beyond

Read "Further Beyond" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
February 24, 2026

As well as being one of the premier exponents of his instrument, Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado thrives in demanding company. For Further Beyond, the follow-up to Beyond The Margins (Trost, 2023), he reconvenes the all star cast he calls The Bridge, comprising pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer Gerry Hemingway. On three expansive cuts from a 2023 Amsterdam concert, they advance a strain of contemporary improvisation rooted in free jazz yet impatient with its formal ...

Album Review

Erb / Mayas / Hemingway: Phyla music

Read "Phyla music" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 12, 2025

The improvisational music captured on Phyla Music, a live recording featuring Christoph Erb (reeds), Magda Mayas (clavinet), and Gerry Hemingway (percussion), documents an evening of profound sonic exploration at The Wurm Club club in Basel. This specific venue, known for its conducive acoustic environment, appears to have inspired the ensemble to reach a heightened state of collective invention. The anchor of the release is the sprawling, 47-minute titled “Phyla music" and the two and one-half minute ...

Album Review

Anthony Braxton: Quartet (England) 1985

Read "Quartet (England) 1985" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 10, 2025

Though Leo Records has previously documented Quartet (London) 1985 (1988); Quartet (Birmingham) 1985 (1991); and Quartet (Coventry) 1985 (1993), Burning Ambulance Music is proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the tour with this set of previously unreleased recordings from Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Bristol, Southampton, Leeds, and Huddersfield. Set to be digitally released exclusively on Bandcamp on what would have been Braxton's 80th birthday, (June 4, 2025), Quartet England (1985) is an unhinged glory from start to finish.