Jazz Articles about John Gunther

About John Gunther

Album Review

Even though the contours and boundaries of jazz have been substantially altered and recast through the years, it is good to know that some aspects of America's classical music remain basically unchanged, especially the propensity to design and use melodic, harmonic and rhythmic concepts as a springboard for group interaction and personal improvisation. On Reckless Meter, the Colorado-based co-op sextet Convergence blends the best of those criteria to produce an hour of bright and engaging contemporary jazz. While ...

Album Review

Convergence: Reckless Meter

Read "Reckless Meter" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 6, 2026

Colorado has long nurtured a quietly serious jazz scene, and Reckless Meter makes a compelling case that Convergence ranks among its most seasoned examples. This is not a band formed for convenience or novelty; it is an ensemble built through years of shared bandstands, rehearsals, and the kind of musical debates that foster trust. Pianist Eric Gunnison, trumpeter Greg Gisbert, saxophonist John Gunther, trombonist Mark Patterson, bassist Mark Simon, and drummer Paul Romaine perform here with the relaxed authority of ...

Album Review

Brad Goode: Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer

Read "Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 22, 2025

"Polytonal," according to Webster's, denotes “the simultaneous use of two or more musical keys." Denver-based trumpeter and educator Brad Goode makes full use of that technique on The Snake Charmer, the debut recording by Goode's well-named Polytonal Big Band. When all has been written and played, two things are clear: first, Goode is a world-class big-band composer-arranger and master of his horn; and second, polytonality is simply a fresh approach to the music, one that in no way interferes with ...

Liner Notes

Brad Goode: Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer

by Neil Tesser
January 15, 2025

I try to avoid hyperbole. I'm not all that comfortable out on a limb. But I'll still wager you've never come across a big-band album like this. Perhaps you've heard orchestras that use dissonance and unexpected note clusters as their operating system. Maybe you've encountered soloists who ply their playing with extended technique and postmodern pastiche, vividly escaping the gravitational pull of conventional composition. But I can't think of an album that combines these elements with the electric ...

Album Review

Ben Markley: Ari's Funhouse

Read "Ari's Funhouse" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
February 6, 2024

Accade spesso nel jazz che dagli incontri estemporanei nascano le cose migliori. Il bandleader e arrangiatore Ben Markley e il batterista Ari Hoenig si sono conosciuti nel 2019 in un jazz festival del Texas. Da quell'incontro è nato questo progetto discografico, che ha visto Markley orchestrare le composizioni di Hoenig per la big band che guida a Denver. Il batterista è ospite dell'ensemble e dà il suo contributo con un vivace e articolato sostegno ritmico. L'album è stato registrato nel ...

Album Review

Ted Piltzecker: Vibes on a Breath

Read "Vibes on a Breath" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 22, 2023

Even though Ted Piltzecker is a splendid vibraphonist and ushers a group of Colorado's leading jazz musicians through its paces on Vibes on a Breath, it is his sparkling arrangements that carry the day on this delightful new album. Several members of Piltzecker's septet double, and he makes the most of that versatility, writing charts that bring to the fore John Gunther's bass clarinet, Wil Swindler's baritone sax and (on the closing number) Judith Leclair's bassoon and Javier Diaz's percussion. ...

Album Review

Ben Markley Big Band: Ari's Funhouse

Read "Ari's Funhouse" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 15, 2022

Ari's Funhouse, recorded in July 2021, sprang from a chance encounter at a Texas jazz festival in 2019 between New York-based drummer & composer Ari Hoenig and Denver-based pianist & arranger Ben Markley. After performing with Hoenig in a small group, Markley asked if he might score some of Hoenig's songs for a big band. Hoenig readily agreed, and after a lengthy Covid-induced pause, he and Markley's band finally met face-to-face in Denver to record the album. Two things are ...