Jazz Articles about John Tchicai

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John Tchicai / Hans Joachim Irmler / Jan Fride / Roman Bunka / Hanna Tuulikki / Aby Vulliamy / Chris Hladowski / George Murray: Schlachtfest Session II

by Nic Jones
November 30, 2008

This isn't so much a meeting of minds as it is a meeting of generations; each individual intent on serving the perpetually slippery thing that is The Music. John Tchicai is the individual with the greatest heritage here, and the idea of him coming together with Hans Joachim Irmler of the sonic explorers Faust will always be an intriguing one. Here it yields inscrutable results, the whole musical whole far greater than the sum total of its parts.

Their coming ...

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John Tchicai and Cadentia Nova Danica: Afrodisiaca

by John Kelman
July 19, 2008

A minor classic so unknown that, until this 2008 reissue, it wasn't even listed at All Music Guide, Danish-born of Congolese-descent saxophonist John Tchicai's 1969 MPS release Afrodisiaca is a sprawling, multi-disciplinary work that rivals better known works like John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965). No less a personal journey, Afrodisiaca stands, nearly forty years later, as a masterpiece that blends Afro-rhythms and harmonic conceits with improvisation of the freest kind, near-classical microtonalism and innovative sonic experimentation. Its reach as an ...

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Giancarlo Nicolai: La sorvegliante del tempo

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 4, 2008

È un pezzo che l’idea dell’orchestra di chitarre frulla nella testa di Giancarlo Nicolai. Dai tempi della musica per 25 chitarre e quintetto jazz ne è passata di acqua sotto i ponti, era il 1988, ma l’ossessione delle formazioni all’insegna delle sei corde sembra viva più che mai nella mente del musicista svizzero. Non sorprende, dunque, che La sorvegliante del tempo, terza testimonianza discografica del gruppo formato da cinque chitarre elettriche con il quale Nicolai lavora fin dal 2000, veda ...

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John Tchicai - Charlie Kohlhase - Garrison Fewell: Good Night Songs

by AAJ Italy Staff
December 3, 2006

Piace Good Night Songs. Piace perché a settant’anni suonati l’afro-danese John Tchicai, cofondatore dei New York Contemporay Five e attivo esponente della fase eroica del free, licenzia un album avventuroso, stimolante, ricco di idee e di una verve ritrovata. Piace perché allestisce una formazione insolita, un trio chitarra e doppio sassofono assai poco usuale nella storia della musica afroamericana, ensemble che senza la canonica sezione ritmica costringe ad un grande ascolto reciproco e lascia aperti spazi invitanti. Piace perché in ...

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John Tchicai: Two New Trios

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 23, 2006

The Danish-American saxophonist John Tchicai, now resident in France, should need no introduction. He began building his reputation forty years ago on John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965), and even now, at over seventy years old, he's still going strong.

On two fine new releases--Witch's Scream, recorded in New York in September 2004, and Good Night Songs, recorded in Amherst in December 2003--Tchicai proves himself still to be a compelling and spirited player, gifted with a sense of humor and drama, ...

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John Tchicai / Charlie Kohlhase / Garrison Fewell: Good Night Songs

by Bill Bennett
September 16, 2006

Justly renowned since the 1960s as one of the most lyrical and imaginative players in the avant-garde, Afro-Danish reedman John Tchicai shows no signs of diminishing creativity, although he recently celebrated his 70th birthday. He has collaborated with Boston-area musicians Charlie Kohlhase and Garrison Fewell in several contexts, but this tour was the first time the three had worked as a trio.

Tchicai plays tenor sax and bass clarinet; Kohlhase tenor, alto and baritone saxophones; Fewell guitar, chopsticks (!) and ...

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John Tchicai / Charlie Kohlhase / Garrison Fewell: Good Night Songs

by Nic Jones
June 11, 2006

These three protagonists set out their case for a trio of multiple reeds, guitar and percussion, and in doing so present a programme of music which is as idiosyncratic in itself as that lineup might suggest. On a more fundamental level, they also show that the plurality of improvised music can come up with some cogently individual statements of lasting value.

John Tchicai has a pedigree that goes back to the likes of Coltrane and Ayler, and even in the ...