Jazz Articles about Mark Turner

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Robert Glasper: Canvas

by Woodrow Wilkins
October 4, 2005

Robert Glasper Canvas Blue Note Records 2005

Wow! That's the first expression that came to mind when I heard “Rise and Shine, the opening track on Canvas. Pianist Robert Glasper's trio--including Vicente Archer on bass and Damion Reid on drums--is as tight as a unit can. This aptly named tune, sure to help many a dreary eye awaken, sizzles from start to finish. And it's just a prelude of things to come.The ...

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Robert Glasper: Canvas

by Paul Olson
October 3, 2005

Houston-raised, New York-based pianist Robert Glasper's Blue Note debut is only his second CD as a leader, but one would be hard pressed to find a single argument against his being ready for the big-time jazz limelight. The 67 minutes of music on Canvas are packed with richly memorable compositions, virtuosic playing, unassumingly exotic harmony and superlative group interplay. It's the most startlingly fine debut on Blue Note in quite a while.This is, for the most part, a ...

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Robert Glasper: Canvas

by Jim Santella
October 1, 2005

As the paintbrush of modern mainstream jazz takes broader strokes across the canvas of contemporary music, Robert Glasper folds elements from several areas into his art. And that's what makes his performances so interesting.

His first album, Mood (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2004), introduced the pianist as an eclectic artist who takes jazz and blues to heart. The 26-year-old Houston native has made numerous connections in contemporary music circles, and has worked in different modes.

Canvas, however, places ...

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Robert Glasper: Canvas

by Chris May
September 29, 2005

Hallelujah! Another exciting young pianist emerges to take the classic piano trio tradition forward. This is Robert Glasper's second album--the first was Mood (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003)--and at just 26, he is already cooking.

The marketing thrust which accompanies this album makes much of Glasper's supposed membership of the hip-hop massive. Truth is, he's got the locks, and he's the right age, but his music is firmly--gloriously--in the Tyner/Hancock/Jarrett tradition: harmonically and melodically rich, rhythmically virile, and ...

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Mark Turner: Dharma Days

by David Adler
June 1, 2001

It took four Warner Bros. albums for Mark Turner to nail down his prodigiously advanced concept and find a dream band to help him do it. Dharma Days is the studio debut of Turner’s regular working quartet, with Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, Reid Anderson on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums. This is a live band to the core, as was evident during its triumphant return to the Village Vanguard stage in late May, timed to coincide with the album ...

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Mark Turner: Dharma Days

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 1, 2001

Jazz has its share of famous duos; names that just seem to go together. For example, let’s consider Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin, Elvin Jones and John Coltrane, and the list goes on and on. Now we can add to this unofficial inventory the names of tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. These two go way back, from Mark’s first record as a leader ( Yam Yam ...

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Mark Turner/Tad Shull: Two Tenor Ballads

by C. Andrew Hovan
November 1, 2000

The two tenor battle is not a new idea, with predecessors ranging from Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray to Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin. However, what we have here is not so much a competition but a complimentary pairing that makes the most of the individualistic styles of Mark Turner (a distinguished disciple of Lester Young and Warne Marsh) and Tad Shull (straight out of the Webster/Hawkins school of deep-throated tenors). It’s the contrast that makes for provocative listening, ...