Home » Jazz Articles » John Surman
Jazz Articles about John Surman
John Surman: Saltash Bells
by AAJ Italy Staff
Proprio quarant'anni fa John Surman pubblicava per la Help (sottoetichetta della Island Records dedicata ai progetti musicali più sperimentali) il suo primo disco registrato completamente in solitudine, Westering Home. Cinque album analoghi gli avrebbero fatto seguito, tra il 1979 e il 1994, per la ECM, da Upon Reflection che marcò il suo esordio da titolare per la label tedesca, fino a A Biography of Rev. Absalom Dawe, l'ultimo in cui si era cimentato con questa formula. Le possibilità offerte dai ...
Continue ReadingJohn Surman: Saltash Bells
by John Kelman
There's no denying the “the sound of surprise" of group recordings; working solo, however, provides its own possibilities, despite meaning different things to different people. Pianist Keith Jarrett views it as a means for pulling form from the ether: one man, one piano, in real time. Multi-instrumentalist Stephan Micus, on the other hand, considers it a blank slate where it's one man but a multitude of instruments layered one upon the other, through multi-tracking, over the course of days, months...even ...
Continue ReadingJohn Surman: The Rainbow Band Sessions
by John Kelman
It's been nearly two decades since British saxophonist/clarinetist John Surman last did a large ensemble disc, with the exception of Free and Equal (ECM, 2003), which teamed the duo of Surman and drummer/pianist Jack DeJohnette with the London Brass ensemble. But the last time Surman did a swinging session beyond a quartet was The Brass Project (ECM, 1993), and that was in collaboration with Canadian expat John Warren, another longtime Surman partner dating as far back as How Many Clouds ...
Continue ReadingJohn Surman: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April '69
by AAJ Italy Staff
La mai abbastanza lodata Cuneiform recupera dagli archivi un altro inedito storico di lusso proveniente dal periodo d'oro del jazz inglese, come aveva già fatto nel 2005 con Way Back Then di John Surman e Workpoints di Graham Collier, e l'anno scorso con NDR Jazz Workshop: Hamburg 1973 dei Soft Machine. Anche in questo caso a riemergere è una session guidata da John Surman e registrata negli studi dell'emittente tedesca NDR nell'ambito dei Jazz Workshop che in numerose occasioni mettevano ...
Continue ReadingJohn Surman: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April '69
by Nic Jones
In the necessarily modestly expansive booklet note which accompanies this CD and DVD set, Brian Morton sets out the development of jazz in Britain, from its point of origin in the early decades of the twentieth century. He also rightly identifies the musical generation that came of age in the 1960s as having no sense of cultural inferiority, a point which is made most potently on Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop--April '69 in music that reveals a character every bit as ...
Continue ReadingJohn Surman: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April '69
by Troy Collins
Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop--April '69 is a stunning discovery. Featuring unreleased material executed by a unique ten-piece line-up of European jazz luminaries, it provides a fascinating window into the development of British saxophonist John Surman at the very beginning of his career. Capturing an international all-star ensemble working through Surman's formative concepts, this informal studio session was taped in Hamburg, Germany for the NDR Jazz Workshop, a weekly television series. Despite being recorded in mono for televised broadcast, the audio ...
Continue ReadingJohn Surman: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April '69
by John Kelman
1969 was a watershed year for John Surman. He released his eponymous debut on Dutton Vocalion that year, but it was the recording session for How Many Clouds Can You See? (Vocalion, 1970), that made the year of Woodstock and man's first steps on the moon so portentous for the 25 year-old saxophonist An album effortlessly joining large and small ensembles--right down to a burning duet with drummer Alan Jackson that alluded to John Coltrane's incendiary pairing with Rashied Ali, ...
Continue Reading
