Jazz Articles about John Blum

John Blum: Nine Rivers

by Mark Corroto
September 22, 2023

Pianist John Blum's solo Nine Rivers is not so much a hit as it is a HIIT. His music is and has consistently been, to borrow a term from sports, a HIIT workout. HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training is a series of repeated all-out efforts with a brief recover time in between each effort. This recording from the 2013 Crosscurrent Festival in Pescara, Italy confirms Blum's approach as an anaerobic endeavor. His intensity only recovers in the spaces between ...

John Blum and Jackson Krall: Duplexity

by Troy Dostert
September 30, 2020

A pianist of undeniable virtuosity and uncompromising intensity, John Blum has impressed free-jazz aficionados since the early 2000s with his uniquely potent approach to his instrument. One can easily hear the influence of Cecil Taylor in his ferocious, jaw-dropping power; but just as important are his ties to earlier pianists. There is just as much Art Tatum as Taylor in Blum's manic flights, as lightning-quick stride passages are as likely to surface as his more concussive thunderings. Fortunately, he's teamed ...

John Blum: Who Begat Eye

by Martin Longley
June 10, 2010

Pianist John Blum is a native New Yorker who has been immersed in the city's free improvisation scene for the last 15 years. His work with bassist William Parker and drummer Sunny Murray has had the highest profile and last year's release by this trio, In The Shade Of Sun, appeared on guitarist Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, no doubt doing much to push Blum's music towards an alternative rock audience.

This set of solo pieces was recorded in a ...

John Blum: In The Shade Of The Sun

by Karl Ackermann
March 5, 2010

Despite his relative anonymity, pianist John Blum has been a New York free jazz fixture for more than a decade. In the Shade of the Sun teams him with ubiquitous bassist William Parker and percussion innovator Sunny Murray. Blum and Murray work well together, having established their musical relationship in Murray's trio and on Perles Noires Volume 2 (Eremite, 2005). Parker can create his own place in any mix and does so here as well.

Blum's keyboard technique is something ...

John Blum Astrogeny Quartet: Astrogeny

by Clifford Allen
October 9, 2006

Bassist William Parker is known for his telepathic collaborations with percussionists; of late, his work with Hamid Drake has become an in-demand support system. Unfortunately not as well known or historically revered was his longtime partnership with free-percussion architect Denis Charles, which lasted from the '70s until Charles' death in 1998.

Recordings such as Parker's Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace (Centering/Eremite) and In Order to Survive (Black Saint), clarinetist Peter Kuhn's Livin' Right (Big City) and Rob Brown's Breath ...

John Blum: Naked Mirror

by Mark F. Turner
May 5, 2002

New York pianist/composer John Blum has been on the music seen for over ten years. His list of credentials is quite extensive having worked with such notables such as William Parker, Cecil Taylor, and Jackson Krall. He is well known within the circles of “free jazz" artists.

The term for the idiom free jazz should require some definition. In a loose quote from (Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians): “Free" or “free-form jazz", for instance, suggests that few guidelines are established in the ...