Jazz Articles about Jesse Elder

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Joanna Wallfisch: Blood & Bone

by Dan Bilawsky
February 5, 2018

Put quite simply, Blood & Bone is both the sound of a broken heart laid bare and the sonic summation of a journey toward its reconstruction. It's an album informed by the gravitas of naked truth, finding vocalist Joanna Wallfisch creating and delivering a singular blend of poise, pain, and passion with startling clarity. As with any path to discovery or healing, there are mixed emotions to be found along the way here. On the album's tied-together ...

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Jesse Elder: The Winding Shell

by Ian Patterson
November 7, 2009

What is clear from one listen to The Winding Shell is that pianist Jesse Elder is a composer/arranger of some ambition. Changing time signatures and the harmonizing of alto and tenor are features of the music, as are interesting percussive dynamics and contrasts between softly voiced and more animated passages. Lively charge and pregnant pause coexist with absorbing juxtaposition in music where improvisation and structure strike a fine balance. Throw in some truly fine sax playing from four talented, distinctive ...

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Jesse Elder: The Winding Shell

by Raul d'Gama Rose
October 12, 2009

Pianist Jesse Elder has no time for linear melodies, or logical, arithmetical rhythms. Still, on The Winding Shell, he shows himself to be a rather clever master of song form. In prismatic style, he lights up his tunes with refracted luminous and melodic excursions. He plays these around the musicians who augment his obtuse schematics, and receives an almost revered response--not for his leadership, but rather for the solemn musical ground that some of them cover. There is also a ...

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Jesse Elder: The Winding Shell

by Chris Mosey
October 1, 2009

A small black and white picture on the sleeve shows 29-year-old New York avant-garde pianist/composer Jesse Elder, unsmilingly clasping a hand to his head. His eyes are shut tight, screwed up as if in pain. Below the picture a note explains that The Winding Shell is part of a series “dedicaded (sic) to Modern jazz, New classical, Avant rock, Experimental beats and Women voices." All the warning signs have been displayed: this is obviously not going to ...

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Jesse Elder: The Winding Shell

by Mark Corroto
September 27, 2009

There is always room for a new songsmith in jazz. Pianist/composer Jesse Elder is a prodigious new voice in modern jazz, and his debut recording displays not only his nonpareil composing talents, but those of a very skilled arranger and performer.

The Winding Shell finds him working with kindred spirit drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the much heralded voice of the new Brooklyn sound. These two artists don't confine their music to the jazz vocabulary; they just might be the descendants of ...

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Jesse Elder Quintet: From Out of the Grey Forest

by David A. Orthmann
April 28, 2006

"Nothing is plumb, level or square. This first line from Alan Dugan's poem “Love Song: I and Thou" comes to mind while listening to composer/pianist Jesse Elder's second recording. Unlike Dugan's unnamed protagonist, whose haphazard structure holds up for just “one great moment, Elder's irregular audible designs come together as a whole, remain stable, and stand up to repeated listening. His diverse, melodically rich compositions are interpreted by an able band of young, largely unknown players who thrive on the ...

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Jesse Elder Quintet

by David A. Orthmann
March 30, 2005

Jesse Elder Jesse Elder Quintet Self Produced 2005

Jesse Elder is a 21-year-old composer, pianist, and bandleader with a bright future. Throughout a self-produced CD recorded in March of 2005, Elder's musicianship and organizational skills evince maturity and wisdom well beyond his years. The antithesis of a blowing session, the recording is a showcase for 10 of Elder's compositions, all of which are enjoyable and challenging. His pieces have little or no relation to ...