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Jazz Articles about Jonathan Finlayson
Liberty 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 ...
Continue ReadingLiberty 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 ...
Continue ReadingJonathan 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 ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Finlayson: 3 Times Round
by Glenn Astarita
As a solo artist, trumpeter/composer Jonathan Finlayson (Steve Coleman, Henry Threadgill) has been forging a rapid growth-pattern, conspicuously illustrated here, on his third release for Pi. On his previous solo outings for the label, Finlayson was the lone horn player with his band Sicilian Defense. Now, he broadens his scope by employing eminent saxophonists, Steve Lehman and Brian Settles. Indeed, it's an all-star aggregation of like-minded cohorts, who are willing to take risks with the utmost verve and intensity.
Continue ReadingJonathan Finlayson: 3 Times Round
by Mark Corroto
Listening to the music of Jonathan Finlayson is kind of like being in the audience of a TED Talk where the entire house is packed with PhDs. You understand the presenter is operating on a higher level, and so the acquisition of knowledge requires attention and some discipline. But you come to expect a challenge from this trumpeter/composer. Schooled the past 18 years as a member of Steve Coleman's Five Elements, Finlayson delivers music with a surgical precision, as evidenced ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Finlayson: Moving Still
by Vincenzo Roggero
La partita a scacchi giocata da Jonathan Finlayson e dai suoi Sicilian Defense (storica contromossa d'apertura del gioco degli scacchi) ha in Moving Still risultati eccellenti. In meraviglioso equilibrio tra scrittura e improvvisazione il disco è la definitiva consacrazione di un talento che ha tradotto la quasi ventennale presenza nei Five Elements di Steve Coleman e la più recente frequentazione di Henry Threadgill in una visione personale che contempla le innovazioni metriche del primo e le audaci strategie compositive del ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Finlayson: Moving Still
by Karl Ackermann
Trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson has been an in-demand sideman for a decade, laying a foundation of top-tier groundwork in recording with Steve Coleman on all of that uncompromising composer's Five Elements albums since 2002. Finlayson's performing credits include gigs with Ravi Coltrane, Steve Lehman, Mary Halvorson, Vijay Iyer, and many other notable artists. Not until 2013 did the trumpeter/composer release Moment and the Message (Pi Recordings), his first--and highly acclaimed--outing as leader of the quintet, Sicilian Defense. He returns with six ...
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