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Jazz Articles about Justin Faulkner
Branford Marsalis: Belonging
by Thierry De Clemensat
It appears to be that time of year when all musicians with ties to New Orleans unveil their latest albums. This time, we are graced with a release from one of the most illustrious members of the Marsalis family. This remarkably elegant album represents Branford Marsalis and his quartet's vision of Belonging, the seminal record Keith Jarrett recorded in 1974 (ECM). This highly sophisticated reinterpretation borders on an outright rewriting of the original, with the crème de la crème of ...
Continue ReadingCaleb Wheeler Curtis: The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Deluxe Edition)
by Vincenzo Roggero
Musicista non ancora quarantenne, da noi poco conosciuto,Caleb Wheeler Curtis sassofonista, trombettista, compositore newyorchese, licenzia il suo album più ambizioso, un doppio CD che già dal titolo fa presagire qualcosa di assai lontano da un rassicurante mainstream. The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery, questo il titolo (ogni riferimento a Frank Zappa è puramente casuale), è un doppio CD che presenta due differenti trii, registrati a pochi mesi di distanza. Nel primo, che porta ...
Continue ReadingBranford Marsalis Quartet: Belonging
by Mike Jurkovic
For his Blue Note debut, saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his long-standing quartet--pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner--hit the sweet spot again and again and again, reinterpreting and re-imagining Keith Jarrett's epochal 1974 ECM classic, Belonging. Not only did Jarrett introduce the world to his no-holds-barred fear-no-idea European quartet--saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Jon Christensen--he was also in one of the most creative periods of his decades-long illuminating career. Consider the tense free-wheeling drive ...
Continue ReadingCaleb Wheeler Curtis: The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Deluxe Edition)
by Paul Rauch
Caleb Wheeler Curtis is one of the more daring musicians in jazz today, not only in his approach to playing the saxophone, but in his fearless dedication to his own musical conceptions, expressed clearly in his original compositions. That daring and dedication can be equally attributed to many of the shakers and movers of modern jazz, including one Thelonious Sphere Monk. On his double album release, The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Imani, 2024), Curtis ...
Continue ReadingCaleb Wheeler Curtis: The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Deluxe Edition)
by Troy Dostert
There has always been room in jazz for those creative minds who can bridge the gap between the heart of tradition and the leading edge of change. In the world of saxophonists, Thomas Chapin, Arthur Blythe, Julius Hemphill or David Murray easily come to mind. Multi-instrumentalist Caleb Wheeler Curtis has similarly explored this terrain for years, and like his forebears, he often does his best work in a trio format. His August in March (Imani Records, 2023) was an imaginative ...
Continue ReadingTom Guarna: Spirit Science
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist / composer Tom Guarna uses geometric concepts and patterns as a starting point on Spirit Science, his eighth album as leader, pairing its mathematical precision with spiritual awareness to more faithfully represent his musical point of view. Be that as it may, Guarna's handiwork must of course be appraised for its perception and effect on the listener, not for any tenets on which it is based. In other words, when all the premises have been explored, what ...
Continue ReadingTom Guarna: Spirit Science
by Friedrich Kunzmann
With The Wishing Stones (Destiny Records, 2017) New York-based guitarist Tom Guarna released something of a breakthrough album, featuring a prominently cast quartet made up of Brian Blade on drums, John Patitucci on bass and pianist Jon Cowherd. With that album Guarna perfected his personal style of composition, which sees post-bop language taken to more extensive structures filtered through modern sonic production values. Spirit Science picks up where that album left off and delivers another engaging set of modern post-bop ...
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