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Jacob Garchik: Assembly
by Mark Corroto
As a consequence of the global pandemic, we have been schooled in the science of virology. Under certain conditions viruses mutate and reorganize into something completely new. That is bad. Mutations can also be heard in the adventurous music of Jacob Garchik. That is good. His trombone leads his Atheist Gospel Trombone Album, his big band, plus Banda de los Muertos, a Mexican brass band. He can be heard in ensembles lead by Anna Webber, Henry Threadgill, Mary Halvorson, John ...
Continue ReadingAnna Webber: Idiom
by Stefano Merighi
Già da oltre un decennio, la complessità della canadese Anna Webber (sax tenore, flauto, composizione) ci interroga sulla possibilità di compenetrare nel jazz di oggi mente e corpo, attitudine concettuale e abbandono rituale. Non è la prima, ovviamente, a lambire questi territori impervi. Si situa, forse, in una geografia sonora che parte da Cecil Taylor e attraversa le gigantesche ombre di Anthony Braxton e Henry Threadgill. Ma, velocemente, sta atterrando in un pianeta sonoro totalmente proprio, come dimostra questo doppio ...
Continue ReadingAnna Webber: Idiom
by Hrayr Attarian
Award winning composer, saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber is a restless innovator and musical individualist. Her ninth release as a leader, the sublime and magnificent two-disc Idiom is an ambitious project which Webber pulls off brilliantly and with elegance. Five compositions from the “Idiom" series are represented here. Four are in a sparse trio setting while “Idiom VI," which fills the entire second disc, is with a large ensemble. Another one, “Idiom II," (not included here) appeared on Webber's Clockwise ...
Continue ReadingAnna Webber: Idiom
by Mark Corroto
Is Idiom, from composer, saxophonist, and flutist Anna Webber, new classical music or jazz? Yes. Is the music scored or improvised? Again, yes. Last question: Is it demanding or easy on the ears? Both. On the heels of two stellar releases, the septet Clockwise (Pi Recordings, 2019) and the Webber/Morris Big Band recording Both Are True (Greenleaf Music, 2020), Webber was commissioned to present Idiom VI at John Zorn's Stone series. She expanded the material from one track heard on ...
Continue ReadingJacob Garchik: Clear Line
by Dan Bilawsky
As strange as it may sound, sometimes the best way to break free is to simply box yourself in. Limitations obviously cut off certain possibilities entirely, but they open the mind to so many others in the process. Composer (and trombonist) Jacob Garchik has long subscribed to that line of thinking and he takes it to bold heights on this, the most original, least derivative big band recording to arrive in ages. Basically throwing out the rule ...
Continue ReadingJacob Garchik: Ye Olde
by Troy Collins
Ye Olde, the self-titled debut of Jacob Garchik's latest ensemble, has been described by the eclectic trombonist--who serves as in-house arranger for the Kronos Quartet, co-leads the Mexican brass band Banda de los Muertos, and is responsible for the Atheist Gospel Trombone Choir--thusly: “Imagine a 2015 cover of the soundtrack to a 1970's remake of a 1930's movie about the Middle Ages." Truth be told, Garchik's summarization is perfect; though nostalgic, this diverse effort (based on a whimsical tale involving ...
Continue ReadingJacob Garchik: Ye Olde
by Mark F. Turner
In Ye Olde, trombonist Jacob Garchik uses progressive rock, jazz and plenty of imagination to create what might be a mashup of Game of Thrones and 21st century music. He's performed with Henry Threadgill and Lee Konitz and produced the outstanding 2012 solo project The Heavens: The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album (Yestereve Records). These proclivities continue in his fourth date as a leader about an imagined faux-Gothic Flatbush/ Brooklyn architecture brought to fruition by a forward thinking band who handle ...
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