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Ken Silverman: Eclectic Vibes
by Hrayr Attarian
Guitarist Ken Silverman, in addition to being a virtuoso, is an innovative composer and improviser. On his five releases as a leader Silverman has demonstrated a delightfully unique ability to fuse various musical traditions into a single unit. His sixth, Eclectic Vibes, lives up to its name and, like his previous work, is uncategorizable. The ten relatively short, originals range from film music to the avant-garde. The album remains cohesive in its unorthodoxy. Joining Silverman on this synth-heavy ...
Continue ReadingKen Silverman: Guitar Fantasies
by Hrayr Attarian
With Guitar Fantasies Ken Silverman continues on the path he started on the 2015 release Parallel Man (Soundseer). The focus is again on the multifaceted melodies that simultaneously reflect elements of various genres while remaining anchored in the jazz idiom. While on Parallel Man there were more western classical motifs on the current album rock influences predominate. The three “Guitar Fantasies" demonstrate this amply. On number 2 Silverman's nimble and brisk strums together with bassist Sam McPherson's taut ...
Continue ReadingKen Silverman: Parallel Man
by Graham E Peterson
A modern guitar trio led by New York City guitarist Ken Silverman comes out of the gate burning with rhythmic intensity on the title track “Parallel Man." Silverman develops a motif of parallel guitar lines while a powerful rhythm sections support his development. He enters into a glistening glissando section bringing to mind sounds of sitar that build a drive so hard that his tone reminds one of a Charles Mingus solo, ready to explode. There is no doubt an ...
Continue ReadingKen Silverman: Parallel Man
by Hrayr Attarian
At first glance guitarist Ken Silverman's Parallel Man appears to be an album having an identity crisis. It seems lacking a unifying theme and the sense of adventure that marked its predecessors. A careful listen, however, reveals another explorative dimension, one that tries to find the core commonality among seemingly disparate genres. From the western swing of “Little Ditty" to the soulful blues of “Odyssey In Blue" to a Sergei Prokofiev composition these performances are all enveloped with an intimate ...
Continue ReadingKen Silverman: Visionaries
by Dan Bilawsky
Most of the world simply lives by the known, but some people fantasize about discoveries and ideas that are beyond the generally accepted scope of possibility. A select few from that list manage to make their dreams turn into reality, and they go down in history as visionaries; these are the people that multi-instrumentalist Ken Silverman salutes on Visionaries. A New York-based guitarist/composer who also plays charango, oud, and synthesizer on this solo date, Silverman chose a ...
Continue ReadingKen Silverman: Visionaries
by Hrayr Attarian
Multi-string instrumentalist Ken Silverman's first solo outing, Visionaries, is a collection of intimate sketches dedicated to those musicians (and other artists) who have inspired him. Silverman penned these abstract, tonal portraits first, and then named them after these iconic individuals. The result is the ultimate homage to eleven trailblazers. Each piece has, within it, diverse influences. “Hamza" is a multifaceted oud improvisation that fuses breathtakingly unrestrained musical expression with hypnotic vamps. It also melds distinctly western harmonic ...
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