Jazz Articles about Jonathan Finlayson
About Jonathan Finlayson
Instrument: Trumpet
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsSteve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz: Ex Machina
by Mark Corroto
Does Ex Machina settle the long-standing debate about whether saxophonist Steve Lehman is human or a replicant. Lehman and his approach to music may remind one of Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford in Blade Runner (1982) a movie adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick; Deckard was tasked with hunting and destroying humanoid replicants i.e. robots. The film never answers the question viewers might have as to whether Deckard is actually a replicant himself. ...
read moreSteve Lehman: Ex Machina
by Karl Ackermann
When native New Yorker Steve Lehman releases an album, the odds are it will turn up at the top of year-end polls. If the composer & saxophonist has a formula for success, a listener would be unlikely to discern a methodology across his previous sixteen leader releases. What sets Lehman apart is a hunger for knowledge and risk. With advanced degrees which culminated in a doctorate from Columbia University, he is a researcher, scholar, and Professor of Music at The ...
read moreSteve Coleman and Five Elements: Live at the Village Vanguard Volume II (MDW NTR)
by Vincenzo Roggero
Circa un anno dopo i due set incendiari confluiti nel meraviglioso Live at Village Vanguard Vol. I (PI Recordings, 2018), Steve Coleman e i suoi fidi Five Elements ritornano sul luogo del delitto e danno vita ad un doppio set, se possibile, ancora più entusiasmante. L'ennesimo aggiustamento di formazione, al chitarrista Miles Okazaki succede il fuoriclasse dello freestyle Kokayi, fornisce un ulteriore impulso alla musica di Coleman, dove la voce e le metriche del rapper sembrano andare a nozze con ...
read moreJacob Garchik: Clear Line
by Dan Bilawsky
As strange as it may sound, sometimes the best way to break free is to simply box yourself in. Limitations obviously cut off certain possibilities entirely, but they open the mind to so many others in the process. Composer (and trombonist) Jacob Garchik has long subscribed to that line of thinking and he takes it to bold heights on this, the most original, least derivative big band recording to arrive in ages. Basically throwing out the rule ...
read moreLiberty Ellman: Last Desert
by Jerome Wilson
Guitarist Liberty Ellman has been doing valuable work in recent years as a sideman for musicians such as Henry Threadgill, Stephan Crump and Myra Melford. Once in a while he also puts out his own music as a leader. Inspired by a marathon race that takes place in Antarctica, the music on this disc is a constantly moving bundle of sounds with some resemblance to Threadgill's recent work in its use of tuba and its overall jangling ensemble ...
read moreLiberty Ellman: Last Desert
by Mark Corroto
Guitarist Liberty Ellman doesn't release many albums as a leader. Last Desert is only his fifth in more than twenty years, and fourth for Pi Recordings, following 2015's Radiate. But that doesn't mean he isn't a busy artist. He can be heard with JD Allen, Jason Robinson, Myra Melford's Snowy Egret, Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio and, of course, Henry Threadgill's Zooid. He also produces music, mixes and masters recordings. Those last three crafts may explain why his recordings as a ...
read moreJonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam
by BIMHUIS
Jonathan Finlayson's music has clarity of sound and atmosphere and, at the same time, keeps you on the edge of your seat. The American trumpeter knows how to make challenging music accessible, which he has already shown in the bands of Steve Coleman, Henry Threadgill and Steve Lehman. Like their music, his own compositions are also full of surprising twists and turns. On his most recent album, Moving Still, he establishes a logical connection between jazz, the rhythms ...
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