Home » Jazz Articles » Joel Harrison
Jazz Articles about Joel Harrison
Joel Harrison & Anupam Shobhakar Multiplicity: Leave the Door Open
by John Kelman
If but a single word must describe guitarist/composer Joel Harrison it's restless; one look at his discography, from his “breakthrough" Free Country (ACT, 2003) to the 19-piece big band of Infinite Possibility (Sunnyside, 2013) and it's clear that this Guggenheim Fellowship Award winner isn't content in any one place for long. Leave the Door Open may be his first album of 2014--and yet another departure, this time exploring an improv-heavy kind of world music sourced from the East and West ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison 5 at Gigspace Performance Studio
by John Kelman
Joel Harrison 5 Gigspace Performance Studio Ottawa, Canada March 1, 2014 Tucked at the end of a small strip mall in an unlikely location, Gigspace Performance Studio has, since opening in the fall of 2011, garnered a reputation as an intimate performance space where magic often happens. A not-for-profit 46-seat venue, “created by musicians for musicians," it sports surprisingly great sound, despite a stage where even a quintet like the Joel Harrison 5 had to ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison & Lorenzo Feliciati: Holy Abyss
by Glenn Astarita
With his stylistic approach to jazz guitar, Joel Harrison imparts a mark of authenticity on whatever genre-busting activities he approaches. Whether tackling drummer Paul Motian's compositions with a folk-jazz, chamber slant on The Music of Paul Motian (Sunnyside, 2011), or morphing country, blues, and jazz on So Long 2nd Street (ACT, 2004), the guitarist often injects a newfangled twist within standard fare. On Holy Abyss, he co-leads with wunderkind Italian bassist Lorenzo Feliciati, supported by three eminent jazz artists for ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison 7: Search
by Troy Collins
For over a decade, Joel Harrison has been steadily expanding his palette as a composer, although his penchant for unorthodox instrumental combinations and multicultural folk forms encompass only one facet of his inclusive aesthetic. Harrison's most recent efforts have borrowed heavily from Western neo-classical tenets; The Wheel (Innova, 2008) included an expansive five movement suite for jazz quintet and string quartet, while The Music of Paul Motian (Sunnyside, 2011) featured stately arrangements performed by two electric guitarists and a traditional ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison 7: Search
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il recente Holy Abyss con il bassista italiano Lorenzo Feliciati (pubblicato da Cuneiform pochi mesi fa) sembrava avere distolto almeno un po' il bravo chitarrista americano dal suo mondo fatto da incroci improbabili fra generi solitamente lontani come il jazz contemporaneo e la musica classica del novecento. Questo album intitolato Search, appena pubblicato dall'etichetta Sunnyside, gli fa compiere immediatamente il percorso a ritroso e ritroviamo nuovamente valori e stilemi che erano ben presenti negli album precedenti di Harrison. Sono con ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison 7: Search
by John Kelman
Over the past decade, Joel Harrison has created a body of work distinct in its eclectic and multifaceted reach. Compositionally, the guitarist has worked in a variety of contexts, from the ambitious five-movement suite for string quartet and jazz quintet of The Wheel (Innova, 2008) and the pan-cultural, genre-busting Harbor (HighNote, 2007), where he found a particularly strong foil in Parisian guitarist Nguyên Lê, to his very personal and irrefutably modern homage to the emergent electric music of the early ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison - Lorenzo Feliciati: Holy Abyss
by AAJ Italy Staff
Questa musica è dolente e luminosa allo stesso tempo ed è molto bene rappresentata dal titolo dell'album, che fa riferimento ai 'sacri abissi.' Infatti la luminescenza scura di questo ottimo lavoro, è proprio quella tipica che si trova sott'acqua, dove la luce arriva filtrata e diminuita dai sovrastanti metri d'acqua limacciosa. E la sacralità è ovviamente quella benedetta di madre natura, che bacia appassionatamente questa musica organica che cresce come per magia di fronte a noi. Un vero antidoto per ...
Continue Reading
