Jazz Articles about Mark Turner

About Mark Turner

Album Review

The Phoenix Trio: Tomorrow Is Today

Read "Tomorrow Is Today" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 22, 2026

Registrato all'Ornithology di Brooklyn a fine marzo 2025, questo album è l'esatto ritratto di una generazione (o meglio di una costola della stessa) che ha sposato la causa di un jazz molto ritorto sul passato adattandogli un suono--con tutte le virgolette del caso--contemporaneo. Un suono scuro, pastoso, concentrato, a sua volta un po' ritorto su sé stesso, che però ha il grande pregio di appagare la maggior parte di coloro che si occupano di jazz, che si parli di pubblico ...

Album Review

Mark Turner: Patternmaster

Read "Patternmaster" reviewed by Sue Yang

by Sue Yang
June 17, 2026

Mark Turner has never been a saxophonist of easy declarations. His tenor rarely shouts for attention; instead, it moves through the music like a thought searching for its most exact shape. On Patternmaster, the follow-up to Return From The Stars (ECM Records, 2022), that familiar restraint remains, but the quartet sounds more road-tested, more physically alert. This is still Turner's cool, high-wire music, but the wire now trembles with a little more heat. The album title helps frame ...

Radio & Podcasts

Confronting the Questions: Race, Anonymity, and the American Experience

by David Bixler
December 9, 2025

In the early 1900s, James Weldon Johnson explored the complex life of a bi-racial man who chose to disappear into white society in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Now, saxophonist Mark Turner uses this powerful novel as the foundation for his latest project. Join us as we listen to and discuss Turner's powerful compositions--a musical meditation on race, anonymity, and heritage--performed by his stellar quintet featuring Jason Palmer, David Virelles, Matt Brewer, and Nasheet Waits. Discover how this music ...

Radio & Podcasts

Mark Turner: Jazz and Race-He Tells It Like It Is

by Stephen Braunginn
November 29, 2025

World-renowned tenor saxophonist Mark Turner turns his attention to a provocative subject, directly related to a dynamic novel by civil rights activist, poet and novelist, James Weldon Johnson. Turner's latest project, Reflections On: An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is the main subject of this conversation on Strictly Jazz Sounds. Turner goes into detail explaining how personal and historical contexts guided the music's thematic material. He describes the process of selecting relevant texts from the book to enhance the album's ...

Album Review

Mark Turner: Reflections on: The Autobiography on an Ex-Colored Man

Read "Reflections on: The Autobiography on an Ex-Colored Man" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 6, 2025

Una musica molto composta, predefinita, intenzionale, il tutto da allargare all'essenza stessa di opera nella sua accezione più onnicomprensiva, è quanto ci arriva da quest'ultimo lavoro del fresco sessantenne (il 10 novembre) tenorsassofonista dell'Ohio. Non c'è solo musica, in effetti, in quest'ora e un quarto appena scarsa di suoni e parole (narrate, non cantate), perché qui c'è di mezzo una storia, che è poi quella raccontata un secolo fa da James Weldon Johnson nel volume del titolo, oggetto delle odierne ...

Radio & Podcasts

Mark Turner, Perelman/Wooley, O.N.E. & Herb Robertson

by Maurice Hogue
October 21, 2025

Acclaimed saxophonist Mark Turner's new recording, Reflections on: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, will attract attention not only for the brilliant playing, but also for the very forthright topic of a bi-racial man able to “pass" as white. Turner used as his motivation the semi-fictional account written by James Weldon Johnson, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance &a key member of the Civil Rights movement, and the fact that passing as white happened in Turner's own family. Other ...

Live Review

Umbria Jazz 2025

by Libero Farnè
July 22, 2025

Umbria Jazz 2025 Varie sedi Perugia 11--20 luglio 2025 Basta scorrere il cartellone di Umbria Jazz 2025--soprattutto gli appuntamenti succedutisi al teatro Morlacchi, al Teatro Pavone e alla Sala Podiani della Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, ma anche le serate jazzistiche all'Arena Santa Giuliana--per rendersi conto di quanto quest'anno la programmazione fosse nutrita e di qualità elevata. Ho fatto il possibile per partecipare a quattro giorni del festival, sui dieci totali, il che permette di dare solo ...