Jazz Articles about Jen Baker

About Jen Baker

Album Review

Two quotes come to mind in the wake of Simon Hanes' Gargantua. The first is from Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction: “Camera got them images / Camera got them all / Nothing's shocking... “ The second, often attributed to William S. Burroughs: “Nothing is true, everything is permitted." Taken together, they suggest a world where boundaries dissolve and meaning becomes fluid. Hanes both affirms and challenges that premise in this sprawling, provocative work. Gargantua is written for an ...

Album Review

Simon Hanes: Gargantua

Read "Gargantua" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
May 25, 2026

Tre batterie, tre bassi elettrici, tre tromboni, tre corni francesi e tre voci, questo l'ensemble che mette in scena Gargantua, album proveniente dalla sempre più benemerita Pyroclastic Records. Inusuale, sorprendente, bizzarra strumentazione? Niente affatto, se in cabina di regia siede Simon Hanes, visionario artista, californiano di nascita ma residente a Brooklyn, che miscela le più disparate suggestioni musicali--siano esse polifonie rinascimentali, hard rock, noise, minimalismo, avant jazz, o colonne sonore italiane anni sessanta/settanta--con sorprendente nonchalance e altrettanto sorprendenti risultati.

Album Review

Webber/Morris Big Band: Unseparate

Read "Unseparate" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 8, 2025

Le sassofoniste Anna Webber e Angela Morris confermano le innovative concezioni orchestrali dimostrate in Both Are True (Greenleaf Music, 2020), con un disco ancor più avvincente, che s'impone tra i migliori dell'anno. L'organico registra pochissime variazioni (le più significativa sono l'ingresso della pianista Marta Sanchez al posto di Marc Hannaford e le assenze della vibrafonista Patricia Brennan e del trombonista Nick Grinder sostituiti rispettivamente da Yuhan Su e Zekkereya El-magharbel). L'organico è costituito dai migliori strumentisti operanti a New York ...

Album Review

Jon Raskin / Phillip Greenlief: 2 + 2 with Jen Baker & Liz Allbee

Read "2 + 2 with Jen Baker & Liz Allbee" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 31, 2023

Innovative saxophonists Jon Raskin and Phillip Greenlief use graphic scores for a series of recordings, each with a similar pair of instruments. These collaborations are called 2 + 2. The first of these is the provocative 2 + 2 with Jen Baker & Liz Allbee. As the title indicates Raskin and Greenlief join two brass players, trombonist Jen Baker and trumpeter Liz Allbee. The resulting music, both improvised and interpreted, is a stimulating conversation of four unique yet synergistic voices ...

Album Review

Webber / Morris Big Band: Both Are True

Read "Both Are True" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 23, 2020

On Both Are True Canadian composers and reed players Anna Webber and Angela Morris reimagine the language of the big band. They extend the tradition through adventurous arrangements spiced with the unpredictability of improv, by co-opting the nimbleness of a much smaller group, and reveling in non-standard techniques. Webber has already garnered plaudits for the work of her Simple Trio with Matt Mitchell and John Hollenbeck, while Morris' ventures such as the Motel Trio boast a lower profile so far. ...