Jazz Articles about Jazz Mandolin Project

The Jazz Mandolin Project: Mixed Media, Mixed Messages

by Doug Collette
April 30, 2006

The Jazz Mandolin Project FlynnSpace Burlington, Vermont April 8, 2006

Because Jamie Masefield's independence is matched only by his artistic integrity, it was perhaps inevitable that, after a decade of working on his Jazz Mandolin Project, he would venture into the realm of multimedia. The first of two nights at Burlington's intimate FlyynSpace found the Vermont native offering his presentation based on a Tolstoy short story with mixed results, but that's no reflection on ...

Jazz Mandolin Project: The Deep Forbidden Lake

by John Kelman
May 7, 2005

While the Jazz Mandolin Project has been a collective of sorts in the past, with a revolving door membership that has included Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and bassist Stacey Starkweather, it's really always been mandolin player Jamie Masefield's baby. And so, the Project's latest release, The Deep Forbidden Lake, is essentially a Jamie Masefield solo effort, with pianist/accordionist Gil Goldstein and bassist Greg Cohen sitting in as guests.

Whereas earlier JMP releases were sometimes lumped in with jam bands like ...

The Jazz Mandolin Project: The Deep Forbidden Lake

by Doug Collette
May 4, 2005

The Deep Forbidden Lake is not by any means a return to roots for the Jazz Mandolin Project, since Jamie Masefield's very first albums under the JMP moniker were with three-man lineups including drums. This new effort is rather a distillation of his ideas, a sort of folk-chamber music in which he, bassist Greg Cohen, and keyboardist Gil Goldstein explore the nuances of melody provided by a wide selection of compositions, the breadth of which clearly illustrates Jamie's eclectic taste ...

The Jazz Mandolin Project: Jungle Tango

by Farrell Lowe
May 1, 2003

The Jazz Mandolin Project may be touted as a cutting-edge band exploring new instrumentation and sonorities, but after listening to their new album Jungle Tango several times over the last three weeks, I don't hear it. What I do hear is an ensemble with inspired interplay, all fine players, and yes, there is a mandolinist--band founder Jamie Masefield--in the group.

The band is based around a nucleus of acoustic bass, drums, and mandolin with additional contributions by Gil ...

Jazz Mandolin Project: Jazz Mandolin Project

by AAJ Staff
January 20, 2003

I must admit that, when I first received this album, I thought to myself, “Jazz Mandolin?! WHAT?!" That they were from the “very exciting Burlington, VT music scene" made me all the more querulous. If The Project is any indication, however, I may be on my way to Burlington very soon, for when I eventually relented and listened to the album, I was pleasantly surprised! This was not the solo to “Maggie May" or even the backing basis of “Mandolin ...

The Jazz Mandolin Project: Xenoblast

by David Adler
September 1, 2000

The Jazz Mandolin Project may now have this major label debut under its belt, but in various incarnations, the unconventional trio has been touring and recording since 1993. With the current jam band craze, and the legitimacy the genre is gaining in the jazz world, it is finally the right moment for leader/mandolinist Jamie Masefield’s quirky musical worldview. The opening title track on Xenoblast zips along with a compelling, kaleidoscopic synthesis of funk, progressive rock, “new acoustic" music, and jazz. ...

the Jazz Mandolin Project: Xenoblast

by Rob Evanoff
July 1, 2000

The Jazz Mandolin Project? Mandolin and Jazz? Jazz played by a Mandolin? Throw your preconceptions out the window and open up your ears to experience a Xenoblast through time. The Jazz Mandolin Project, who are at home at the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival or a Jamband Festival such as the Berkshire Mountain Music Fest, return with opus numero three ready to dispense their eclectic blend of jazz, classical, rock and drum n bass on the uninitiated. Did I say jazz, ...