Jazz Articles about Marty Ehrlich

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Marty Ehrlich: News on the Rail

by David Miller
November 1, 2005

Jazz is a big word. And the jazz world is a big world. In an independent study of mine, I am trying to define just how big that world is. But that's the thing. It's boundless. And not only is it boundless, but musicians are constantly exploring new frontiers, trying things that haven't been tried before. Maybe that's why I love jazz, because I hope that some day I can possess the mindset to do something completely new.

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Marty Ehrlich: The Long View

by Jeff Stockton
July 3, 2004

Jazz needs composers like Marty Ehrlich. Like his mentor Julius Hemphill, Ehrlich, while proficient in the more conventional small group settings, envisions something greater, hearing music of multiple textures, moods, origins and voicings. Divided into six movements and a postlude, The Long View was originally conceived as aural accompaniment to an exhibition of paintings by Oliver Jackson (another Hemphill cohort). That this work stands on its own is implicit.

The first movement commences with a bracing sax statement by Ehrlich, ...

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Marty Ehrlich: Knows No Bounds

by Clifford Allen
March 11, 2004

My first experience of Marty Ehrlich was as the lanky, bespectacled fellow standing near my uncle on the back cover of the Creative Improvisers’ Orchestra LP The Sky Cries the Blues. A relatively obscure Leo Smith-directed album cut during the trumpeter’s sojourn in the New Haven scene of the early ‘80s, it is but a blip on the screen of Ehrlich’s vast discography. He and my uncle performed in a bass clarinet dialogue on side one, and though they never ...

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Marty Ehrlich: The Long View

by Rich Friedman
December 1, 2003

The Long View came out of a collaboration between Marty Ehrlich and his friend, the renowned painter Oliver Jackson, during a ten-week Harvard University residency in 2000. Inspired by Jackson’s work since the 1970s, Ehrlich sees his impressionistic paintings as “a visual counterpoint to what I have imagined in sound.” Although the music was developed to interact in exhibition with Jackson’s paintings, The Long View – comprised of six movements and a short postlude – stands on ...

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Marty Ehrlich: Line on Love

by Elliott Simon
October 7, 2003

Bold black brush strokes distinguish the cover of Line on Love, an offering whose compositions arouse with dense sensuality. The latest CD from reedman Marty Ehrlich features mood-inducing intros that allow him and pianist Craig Taborn to find their groove. Bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Billy Drummond especially enhance the dark cool feeling of Ehrlich’s playing. There is little frilly activity here and the session achieves elegance without daintiness. With the exception of respectful opener, “Hymn,” Ehrlich produces a thick ...

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Marty Ehrlich: Line on Love

by C. Michael Bailey
September 25, 2003

The presence of Marty Ehrlich on any recording more or less guarantees it will be interesting, innovative, and somewhat enigmatic. Mr. Ehrlich likes to tend toward the modern jazz/avant-garde side. On Line on Love he does not stray far from that esthetic but is still particularly well-behaved, which allows for a stimulating and educational listening experience. Ehrlich is joined by long time collaborators Michael Formanek on bass, Billy Drummond on drums, and Craig Taborn on piano. Collectively, these musicians concentrate ...

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Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day

by C. Michael Bailey
September 13, 2002

Dusk was only the beginning to this part of the story...I cannot listen to Andrew Hill’s new big band recording without thinking of him and his band as a relatively well-behaved Sam Rivers and the Rivbea Big Band. Of course, that horribly shortchanges the 65 year-old Chicago native who’s Palmetto debut, Dusk, was considered by many critics as the best jazz recording on the year. Add to that that Blue Note’s Alfred Lion considered Hill his last great ...