Jazz Articles about Harris Eisenstadt

Harris Eisenstadt: The Soul and Gone

by AAJ Staff
December 10, 2005

By Chris DiGirolamo Jazz is a conversation between musicians, and when it comes down to it, the style has an inherent structure. Musicians should have something to say, and drummer/composer/leader Harris Eisenstadt does, without a doubt. The Soul and Gone is indubitably about compositional expression. With the dynamics of a five o'clock traffic jam, the music still makes sense and takes in even the veteran listener. Though his compositional style may not be for everyone, Eisenstadt does ...

Harris Eisenstadt: The Soul and Gone

by Jerry D'Souza
December 8, 2005

Harris Eisenstadt wrote all the compositions on The Soul and Gone, and he recruited a fine band of musicians who never cease to make the music amazing. All of the players have consistently created monuments of aural splendour. This time out is no exception. There is a constant shift of emphasis and shade, subtlety and emphasis, momentum balanced with reflection.

In the midst of all this comes the blowing “Koala #2 (Reduction), which has several factors going for it. Jason ...

Harris Eisenstadt: Ahimsa Orchestra

by Rex Butters
November 20, 2005

Presenting two extended compositions played by two different large ensembles, Harris Eisenstadt's Ahimsa Orchestra highlights the percussionist/composer's emergence as an artistic force to be reckoned with. Eisenstadt gathers an impressive array of West Coast improvisers and feeds them charts inspired by his broad musical interests. Recorded live, the improvisations often launch from segments of music composed in a contemporary classical vein.

The three part Non-Violence suite opens with growls from Noah Phillips' guitar and Eisenstadt's scampering percussion. An inquisitive figure ...

Harris Eisenstadt: Ahimsa Orchestra & Jalolu

by David Adler
October 2, 2005

With these two discs, we get two contrasting views of West Coast, now NYC-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt.

class="f-left"> Harris Eisenstadt Ahimsa Orchestra Nine Winds 2005

Ahimsa Orchestra, on Vinny Golia's Nine Winds label, consists of two lustrous large-ensemble works written by Eisenstadt and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi: the three-part “Non-Violence and the four-part “Relief. Both are conducted by Omid Zoufonoun and performed by twelve-piece bands with slight changes in personnel ...

Harris Eisenstadt Quintet: Jalolu

by Rex Butters
September 6, 2004

Harris Eisenstadt's quintet makes its recording debut in the Spirit Room for CIMP Records. The resulting Jalolu bursts with spicy interplay from a three-horn front line, joined and supported by Andy Laster on clarinet and baritone sax, his playing on the latter supplying the bass. Holding it all together, Eisenstadt travels over his drum set like a greyhound, subtle on a cymbal then rolling the snare and snapping the toms.

Laster's low baritone starts “Boogie on Lenjeno" like a freight ...

Harris Eisenstadt: Fight or Flight

by Jeff Stockton
July 25, 2003

The compositions on Fight or Flight are as elemental as the brass, wood, and steel of the instruments that define the recording’s multi-textured sound. "Rise" begins frenetically: flutes dueling like blue jays chasing each other through the trees, trombone insinuating itself with truncated growls, mallets plunking a marimba, chimes ringing, and all the while Harris Eisenstadt’s steady drum presence below. This music's policy is to move ahead as fast as it can, but take as much time as ...

Harris Eisenstadt: Last Minute Of Play In This Period

by AAJ Staff
July 11, 2002

Drummer Harris Eisenstadt first impressed me at the free Sunday music series at New York's Downtown Music Gallery. The first track on this disc starts off with a nebulous head which quickly find its place: this is one of the finest examples of a rhythm section with free horns; the acoustic bass (Michael Dillon) and drums allude to dub and funk, but play free.

The second track, “Ballad," the only one with different personnel, is an excellent trio ...