Jazz Articles about Gordon Grdina

About Gordon Grdina

Album Review

Gordon Grdina's The Twain feat. Dōjō and Kōichi Makigami: Gordon Grdina's The Twain feat. Dōjō and Kōichi Makigami

Read "Gordon Grdina's The Twain feat. Dōjō and Kōichi Makigami" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
February 5, 2023

Any music lover impressed with the prolific output of multi-instrumentalist Gordon Grdina over the last few years would no doubt describe his work with The Twain as a wondrous discovery. Three hour- long sets were recorded at Tokyo's GOK Studio in 2019, then edited down to a final approximately seventy minutes for a late 2022 release. It is certainly worth waiting for, if for no other reason than it both illustrates and reaffirms the broad grasp of the Canadian's musicality ...

Multiple Reviews

Gordon Grdina: Intuitive Idiosyncrasy

by Doug Collette
September 23, 2022

Prolific as is Gordon Grdina, he never falls prey to pointless repetition. When the Canadian multi-instrumentalist/composer/bandleader does deign to return to familiar realms, it's with a purpose, so he and his collaborators all bring fresh viewpoints and open minds in order to nurture that spirit of the moment air of continuous surprise. And Grdina relishes the intimate direct communication available in a small combo as much as the more expansive multi-leveled dialogues available in a large(r) ensemble. Thus, it's only ...

Album Review

Gordon Grdina: Pathways

Read "Pathways" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 23, 2022

Unlike most of our country where we can not even share the same basic facts and truths, musicians intuitively seek out, discover and discourse in an integral, common language. Pathways revels in and celebrates that common vocabulary. Enjoying what could be the most prolific and adventurous period of his Juno Award-winning career, guitarist/oudist Gordon Grdina's sixth recording in just under a year, including the brazenly alluring Boiling Point (Astral Spirits, 2022) and the hypnotic Oddly Enough: The Music ...

Album Review

Gordon Grdina: Night's Quietest Hour

Read "Night's Quietest Hour" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 17, 2022

Gordon Grdina might be proof of the saying “you can't keep a good man down." With Night's Quietest Hour he turns his attention once again to traditional Iraqi and Arabic folk music. This release by his small big band Haram follows Her Eyes illuminate (Songlines, 2012) and includes a guest appearance by Marc Ribot. Much like Ribot's forays into Cuban music with his Los Cubanos Postizos and Frantz Casseus' Haitian compositions, Grdina aspires for musical authenticity without being patronizing. And, ...

Album Review

Gordon Grdina: Boiling Point

Read "Boiling Point" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 14, 2022

For all its unstinting muscularity, feverish virtuosity and concentrated interplay, Canadian guitarist/oudist Gordon Grdina's first of two simultaneous summer releases, Boiling Point, could easily have been entitled Shock and Awe or Scorched Earth or perhaps even Ground Zero. Because as densely and wirily structured as these six Grdina comps are, Lower East Side piano legend Matt Mitchell and equally lauded drummer Jim Black bash away to the heart of matter, clearing the way for Grdina to crunch, skronk, and ruminate ...

Album Review

Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio: Boiling Point

Read "Boiling Point" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 16, 2022

Even if Gordon Grdina does not release another album in 2022, the year should be considered as the time when it all came together for the Vancouver-based guitarist and oud-ist. Oddly Enough: The Music Of Tim Berne, Night's Quietest Hour and Pathways, all on Attaboygirl Records, were released in the first six month of 2022--a productive time. Add to that Boiling Point, the second outing by Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio. Grdina's artistry is hard to pin down. Free ...

Album Review

Gordon Grdina/Mark Helias/Matthew Shipp: Pathways

Read "Pathways" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 31, 2022

Gordon Grdina, guitarist and oud player, has cranked things up into high gear in terms of CD release productivity. This is a good thing. When artists regularly release albums--two to four or five or six a year, which was common during Blue Note Records' heyday in the late 1950s and early 60s--their artistry evolves more quickly. Grdina, at the halfway mark of 2022, has already offered up four albums for the year, an output that has lifted his artistry into ...