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Jazz Articles about Lucian Ban
Mat Maneri Quartet: Dust
by Glenn Astarita
The respective artists are firmly rooted in the modern vanguard of experimentation, improvisation and countless offshoots of the jazz vernacular. However, A-list bassist John Hebert is also a veteran of many modern/progressive jazz sessions but, as evidenced here, is also comfortable exploring the outside realm. Hence, the musicians dish out a rather somber and stoic chamber-jazz program amid fragile underpinnings and a slowly-paced gait with asymmetrical pulses and blossoming mini-themes. In addition, Mat Maneri's extended viola choruses assist with steering ...
Continue ReadingAlex Harding - Lucian Ban: Dark Blue
by Glenn Astarita
Lucian Ban (piano) and Alex Harding (woodwinds) have performed and recorded together for 20-years besides their prominent activities within global progressive jazz and improvisational circles. The universal language of jazz is conveyed here as Detroit-reared Harding and the Romanian born pianist gel to a variety of tempos amid solstice, reflective sentiment, off-centered blues balladry and bouncy grooves. Toss in some lyrically resplendent tapestries of sound and a crystalline audio production, you are liable to become entranced by the duo's moody ...
Continue ReadingLucian Ban, Alex Simu: Free Fall
by Alberto Bazzurro
Il mondo di Jimmy Giuffre, anzi più nello specifico quello del trio con Paul Bley e Steve Swallow (anche se qui non c'è traccia di contrabbasso) e di un suo storico album in particolare, omonimo di questo e inciso, tranne un brano, nell'autunno (fall, appunto) 1962, è il punto di riferimento di questo notevole album del duo rumeno composto dal cinquantenne pianista Lucian Ban e dal trentottenne clarinettista Alex Simu. In realtà nessuno dei brani presenti in ...
Continue ReadingLucian Ban & Alex Simu: Free Fall
by Glenn Astarita
Inspired by legendary clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre's small group recordings, Romanians Lucian Ban (piano) and Alex Simu (clarinet) recorded these luminous duets at The French Cultural Institute in Bucharest, as they personalize the aura of Giuffre's comingling of chamber and modern jazz with sojourns into experimentalism. It's a gorgeous endeavor, executed with tender harmonic content, reflective passages and heartwarming melodies. From an all-inclusive perspective, the musicians ingrain bluesy phrasings, buoyant mid-tempo jaunts and impassioned choruses, shaded with playful interludes ...
Continue ReadingLucian Ban and Alex Simu: Free Fall
by Peter J. Hoetjes
Romanian musicians Lucian Ban and Alex Simu may not have met in their native country but, after a serendipitous meeting in Amsterdam, the two endeavored to play a series of shows there. The product of that tour, titled Free Fall, is an unexpectedly nuanced album. Though a compelling release by its own merits, Free Fall is a live recording inspired by and dedicated to trailblazing jazz clarinetist Jimmy Guiffre. It took place on February 7th at the French ...
Continue ReadingMat Maneri and Lucian Ban at Barbès
by Tyran Grillo
Mat Maneri and Lucian Ban Barbès Brooklyn, NY August 5, 2017 To hear the music of violist Mat Maneri and pianist Lucian Ban is to hear your own heartbeat: both require intimacy without distraction. In Brooklyn's Barbès, such mechanisms of the body become audible. The venue is a home for them, and its thickly curtained performance space allows the duo's balance of form and freedom to nourish itself. Maneri and Ban have toured ...
Continue ReadingLucian Ban Elevation: Songs from Afar
by Neri Pollastri
Residente negli USA ma nato e cresciuto a Teaca, villaggio della Transilvania, il pianista Lucian Ban presenta in questo CD una panoramica della sua poetica, cangiante fin dalla disposizione della formazione: un classico quartetto con il sax tenore di Abraham Burton, che si allarga a quintetto in quasi tutte le tracce per la presenza della viola di Mat Maneri o, in due, della voce di Gavril Tarmure, diventa un sestetto quando questi si aggiunge alla viola invece di sostituirla e ...
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