Jazz Articles about Jeff Cosgrove

About Jeff Cosgrove

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

Read "Alternating Current" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
July 21, 2014

Drummer Jeff Cosgrove certainly knows how to draw attention to himself. For his third album the DC area-based drummer enlists the services of two avant jazz icons in pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker. Just what a coup this is can be gauged from the fact that Shipp's previous sideman dates have included the legendary saxophonists David S. Ware and AACM iconoclast Roscoe Mitchell. Cosgrove has studied with masters like Andrew Cyrille and Paul Motian, and has covered the ...

Extended Analysis

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

by Ian Patterson
July 7, 2014

"Playing music is like doing heart surgery," bassist William Parker told interviewer Radhika Philiip in Being Here: Conversations on Creating Music (Radio.org, 2013). “Every time you hit a note, someone's life is on the line, and so you can't fool around." Serious intent and intense focus are the cornerstones of these playful dialogues between Parker, drummer Jeff Cosgrove and pianist Matthew Shipp. A similar approach is also recommended in approaching this music--background noise it ain't. Drummer Andrew Cyrille--to ...

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

Read "Alternating Current" reviewed by Harry S. Pariser

by Harry S. Pariser
June 8, 2014

Drummer Jeff Cosgrove's new CD “Alternating Current" is an endeavor built around the composition “Victoria," by the late drummer Paul Motian. Motian first came to prominence in the mid-1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties. For this date, Cosgrove brings together pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, both long-established players on the avant-garde scene, and each with numerous releases. For ...

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

Read "Alternating Current" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
June 2, 2014

Questo splendido lavoro vede due protagonisti dell'avanguardia attuale (il pianista Matthew Shipp e il batterista Jeff Cosgrove) in libero confronto collettivo assieme al contrabbassista William Parker, concreta connessione con le rivoluzioni musicali degli anni sessanta. In particolare due eminenti figure di quella stagione si pongono come ideali riferenti per questa musica e sono i batteristi Paul Motian e Andrew Cyrille. Quest'ultimo ha intrattenuto relazioni con tutti loro, in differenti momenti e situazioni, mentre le composizioni del primo sono ...

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

Read "Alternating Current" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 13, 2014

The recipe for this album could be detailed as such: start with one inventive drummer, add two interconnected masters of wholly improvised music, throw a composition from Paul Motian into the pot, and let it all stir itself. Drummer Jeff Cosgrove's fascination with the music of Motian isn't a secret. As the man behind Motian Sickness, a band dedicated to shining a spotlight on Motian-as-composer, he drew attention to the late drummer's written work on The Music ...