Jazz Articles about John Surman

John Surman: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April '69

by Troy Collins
March 4, 2011

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 ...

John Surman: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April '69

by John Kelman
February 1, 2011

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, ...

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 ...