Jazz Articles about Gretchen Yanover

About Gretchen Yanover

Album Review

For some people, tango means the dance with a stereotypical red rose between the teeth. For Ben Thomas, a percussionist and bandoneonist from Seattle, tango is much more than that: it has been an important part of his life for at least fifteen years before the 2022 release of Eternal Aporia. The album includes twelve of his original compositions mixing tango with jazz and classical chamber music. Joining Thomas on the album are Eric Likkel (clarinets) and ...

Album Review

Ben Thomas (US): Eternal Aporia

Read "Eternal Aporia" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 22, 2022

They say it takes two to tango. On Ben Thomas' new album, Eternal Aporia ("uncertainty; doubt"), it takes at least three, and sometimes half a dozen. That's not a bad thing, as Thomas' splendid core trio is fleshed out on three numbers by cellist Gretchen Vanover and on two others by Vanover, violinist Brandon Vance and pianist Jonathan Greer, making the tango more lustrous and enchanting than ever. Thomas himself plays vibraphone, bandoneon and percussion, leading a burnished threesome whose ...