Jazz Articles about Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon: In Loving Memory of America

by Bruce Lindsay
February 28, 2009

This is an outstanding album. Reed man Gilad Atzmon has taken five standards, re-interpreting the versions recorded with strings by Charlie Parker, added six of his own compositions, and created an original, supremely enjoyable and affecting piece of work.

The album's title refers to an imagined land--the country that Atzmon envisaged when, as a 17 year-old in Israel, he first heard Charlie Parker playing “April in Paris" and fell in love with jazz and America. According to his liner notes, ...

Gilad Atzmon: Artie Fishel and the Promised Band

by AAJ Italy Staff
November 29, 2007

Ironico miscelatore di stili, l’israeliano di nascita e inglese di adozione Gilad Atzmon cambia stavolta anche nome, diventando Artie Fishel per proporre un disco “alla Daniele Sepe”, nel quale classici del Jazz e temi di compositori classici come Dvorak e Bernstein vengono triturati e - addizionati della feroce critica antiebraica che caratterizza Atzmon - passati al frullatore del sarcasmo, uscendone talvolta diversi fin nei titoli. “West Side Story” diviene così “West Bank Story”, “Bye Bye Blackbird” si muta in “Hoy ...

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble: Refuge

by Chris May
September 24, 2007

Something of a polymath amongst the general corpus of jazz musicians, Israeli-born reed player Gilad Atzmon, London-based since 1994, is not only a prolific performer and recording artist, but also a novelist, political essayist and campaigning anti-Zionist. Atzmon's books--his most recent, My One And Only Love (Saqi Books, 2004), is a comic satire about a Jewish trumpet player who becomes ensnared in an Israeli spying operation--have been enthusiastically received on the literary pages. His fiery and outspoken political activities are ...

Cuckooland

by Joshua Weiner
December 19, 2003

The marriage of jazz and rock musical styles has had a checkered history. The late '60s records of Cannonball Adderley, Gary Burton, Tony Williams, and Miles Davis stretched the boundaries of jazz music while successfully bringing it to a broad young audience. The later development of Fusion with a capital “F" by Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, and Weather Report led to platinum sales by jazz artists and some great records.It also, unfortunately, prompted the release of many ...

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble: Exile

by AAJ Staff
July 25, 2003

There are so many contradictions about protest albums. Whatever the subject, they usually exude as much joy as anger; as much implication as direction; and as much journey as arrival. That's more an aesthetic issue than a moral or intellectual one, but it can't help but broaden the experience beyond direct communication. In jazz, discovery is the locomotive, no matter what's on the train behind it.

Just as well. Gilad Atzmon's Exile holds true to its title, a bold statement ...