Jazz Articles about John Surman

John Surman: Brewster's Rooster

by Jeff Stockton
October 8, 2009

Over 150 years experience! That's how the band saxophonist John Surman assembled for Brewster's Rooster could be advertised. Surman first played with drummer Jack DeJohnette in the late '70s and DeJohnette and guitarist John Abercrombie first worked together earlier that decade. Rounded out by bassist Drew Gress, Surman revisits straight-ahead jazz after essaying an eclectic range of recordings. On “Hilltop Dancer," Surman's tone on baritoneis solid and assured, never tempted by the extremes available on the big horn and Abercrombie's ...

John Surman: Listen and Trust

by Thomas Conrad
September 5, 2009

John Surman is arguably the best baritone saxophonist to come into jazz since Gerry Mulligan and one of the most important British jazz musicians of his generation. Yet he has rarely performed in the United States and never as a leader. Therefore it is no exaggeration to describe his upcoming gig at Birdland as a genuine event. The most significant recent development in the jazz art form is globalization. There are now more major jazz innovators emerging outside ...

John Surman / Howard Moody: Rain On The Window

by John Kelman
August 31, 2009

With John Surman's Brewster's Rooster (ECM, 2009) refocusing attention on the British saxophonist/bass clarinetist's jazzier proclivities, it's a good time to assess Rain On The Window--not yet out in North America, but available in Europe since the spring of 2008. A duet recording that picks up, to some extent, where Proverbs and Songs (ECM, 1997) left off, this time it's Howard Moody on church organ, rather than Surman's longtime British cohort, John Taylor.

But there's more ...

John Surman: From Boy Choirs to Big Horns

by John Kelman
August 31, 2009

It's increasingly risky to be a musician on the road. When British saxophonist John Surman was traveling from his home in Oslo, Norway, to New York City in September, 2007 for a recording session, he almost lost his baritone saxophone to the airlines. “It is a nightmare traveling now," says Surman, “and hardly a tour goes by without something going missing, and of course there's the damage problem. Nowadays you get one handbag, which of course is my soprano, so ...

John Surman: Brewster's Rooster

by John Kelman
July 29, 2009

After a string of more jazz-centric ECM releases--1992's relatively free Adventure Playground, the large ensemble of 1993's The Brass Project, and the only document of his ongoing quartet with pianist John Taylor, bassist Chris Laurence and drummer John Marshall, 1994's Stranger Than Fiction--saxophonist John Surman's subsequent output for the label has consisted of unorthodox but no less intriguing projects. From solo recordings (1995's A Biography of The Rev. Absalom Dawe) and works for saxophone/bass clarinet and string ensemble (2007's The ...

Tierney Sutton Band: Desire

by Carl L. Hager
July 12, 2009

Tierney Sutton Band Desire Telarc 2009Singer Tierney Sutton's Desire is the kind of provocative musical work that could change the way a listener hears music. It is an album that is meant to spiritually provoke. It arrests, alarms, it even terrifies.

By the end of “It's Only A Paper Moon," the first track, it is quite plain this isn't the Tin Pan Alley of yesteryear. The much-recorded Harold ...

"Proverbs And Songs" by John Surman, Howard Moody and the Ultime Thule Choir at the 2009 Nordlysfestivalen, Tromso, Norway

by Mark Sabbatini
February 3, 2009

John Surman, Howard Moody, John Taylor, Ultime Thule Choir Nordlysfestivalen, Ishavskatedralen (Arctic Cathedral)Tromso, Norway January 23-31, 2009

It's been a couple of years since saxophonist John Surman performed his Proverbs And Songs suite. But judging from what he wrung from it after four days' rehearsal with an amateur choir north of the Arctic Circle, his spiritual side seems intact.Surman reunited with Howard Moody and John Taylor, switching their respective ...