Jazz Articles about Jane Ira Bloom

Jane Ira Bloom: Mental Weather

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 19, 2008

L’iniziale “A More Beautiful Question“ un duo con pianoforte che ricorda la melodia di “I Love You Porgy“ e la conclusiva “First Toughts/This Nearly Was Mine“ in solitario al sax soprano, sono un vero e proprio trattato sul suono e sul silenzio. Il controllo dell’emissione, la purezza timbrica, la capacità di trasformare i minimi riverberi in melodiose onde sonore e i silenzi in note sul pentagramma proiettano Jane Ira Bloom ai vertici assoluti dello strumento. E in mezzo? Una lezione ...

Jane Ira Bloom: Mental Weather

by J Hunter
May 14, 2008

Since 2000, Chamber Music America has put its imprint on jazz by supporting projects by (among others) Dave Douglas, Ben Allison, Don Byron and Ryan Cohan. But while Cohan's multi-hued plea for peace One Sky (Justin Time, 2008) operates on a macro scale, saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom's Mental Weather is much more intimate, though no less creative. Bloom has benefited from CMA's largesse before, so they must think she's a good investment. Given the stunning beauty Bloom has created, CMA's ...

Jane Ira Bloom: Mental Weather

by John Kelman
March 30, 2008

Sometimes it's good to shake things up. Jane Ira Bloom has been working with the same bass/drum team of Mark Dresser and Bobby Previte since The Red Quartets (Arabesque, 1999) and, more often than not, the soprano saxophonist's pianist of choice has been Fred Hersch as far back as Mighty Lights (Enja, 1983). Bloom's distinctive blend of spare lyricism, sometimes knotty writing and tasteful use of live electronics remains intact but, with an entirely new quartet, Mental Weather is less ...

Jane Ira Bloom: Mental Weather

by Lyn Horton
March 23, 2008

In the distinctly male world of jazz and improvised music, it is particularly good to hear music that sparkles with femaleness. The fact that a woman composes and plays that music is icing on the cake. Suddenly, everything seems to fit together. The gender. The sound. The dynamic.

And nothing could identify this femaleness more than Jane Ira Bloom's Mental Weather. She has placed herself adroitly in a band that has yet another woman, Dawn Clement, at the piano and ...

Jane Ira Bloom: Mental Weather

by Martin Longley
March 12, 2008

Jane Ira Bloom is a pixie. An electronicized pixie, to be precise. This is not entirely a musical image, but also a description of her onstage demeanor. Mental Weather's chief quality is one of capering lightness, as the quartet leader's soprano saxophone negotiates the tricky lines set up by the composing half of her brain, navigating around hyperventilating themes that are tightly twinned with the similarly stippling piano and Fender Rhodes of Dawn Clement. The bass and drums of Mark ...

Jane Ira Bloom: Like Silver, Like Song

by Jack Bowers
October 3, 2006

Jane Ira Bloom is one of those musicians I'd known about by reputation but hadn't actually heard. Now, having listened at last to her most recent album, Like Silver, Like Song, I am somewhat at a loss as to what to say about it.

Even though well-played--let there be no doubt about that--it is clearly on the outer periphery of jazz as I know and appreciate it. Whereas the basic musical elements--melody, harmony, rhythm--are securely in place, the mood is ...

Jane Ira Bloom: Like Silver, Like Song

by Michael McCaw
August 12, 2005

Like Silver, Like Song marks another fine addition to Jane Ira Bloom's catalog and another evolution of her working quartet, which has featured a number of accomplished pianists. However, with the addition of Jamie Saft this time around, one can easily hear that she may have discovered her ideal foil. Bloom has long been developing her electronics persona in an acoustic setting, and she has consistently been successful. And while the addition of Saft marks a pushing of these boundaries, ...