Jazz Articles about Matthew Jacobson

About Matthew Jacobson

Album Review

Past and present converge on Good Friday, the persuasive debut from Origin Story—the Dublin-trio of Greg Felton, Matthew Jacobson and Cormac O'Brien. Formerly known as F-JOB, the trio has been gigging since 2016, though the three musicians' paths have crossed in various settings over many more years. On these seven originals it is a case of familiarity breeding intuitive, free-flowing dialogue, where grooves old and new form the backdrop to fine individual and collective performances. “Good Friday," one ...

Interview

Matthew Jacobson: Rituals Of Sound And Time

by Ian Patterson
May 19, 2020

For someone whose livelihood and lifeblood are all about rhythms, the COVID-19 lockdown, with its very different rhythms, must be extremely frustrating. Especially when, as is the case with Matthew Jacobson, renowned drummer, composer, promotor and record label manager, there is no drum kit in his Dublin apartment. “I've been doing more work on the practice pad than I ever have," says Jacobson via Skype. “It's the kind of stuff that I should do regularly anyway. It would ...

Album Review

Daniel Rorke: Naked Allies

Read "Naked Allies" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 15, 2020

Naked Allies is a two-horn, no-chord quartet, formed in 2018, that bridges the Atlantic. Dublin-based Australian Daniel Rorke and Dubliner Matthew Jacobson made the trek across the big pond in June that year to hook up with Oscar Noriega and electric bassist Simon Jermyn. The Irish connection runs deep, for Dublin was also home to Jermyn, who quit the Irish capital for New York in 2010. Prior to emigrating, Jermyn recorded Hymni (Diatribe Records, 2010), an impressive solo outing that ...

Album Review

Lina Andonovska: A Way A Lone A Last

Read "A Way A Lone A Last" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 13, 2020

Solo flute albums rarely clog up the world's second-hand vinyl bins. More's the pity, for the flute's sounds are timeless. In prehistoric times people played flutes made from bones and mammoth ivory--making the connection between the air inhaled and exhaled to produce music. Or sounds, for there is, and always has been, a fine line between the two. On her debut solo album, classically trained, Australian flutist Lina Andonovska responds to five contemporary compositions by Irish/Ireland-based composers. The Dublin-based Australian ...

Album Review

ReDiviDeR: Mere Nation

Read "Mere Nation" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 12, 2020

It may be disappointing to enigmatologists that there are no palindromes or obvious anagrams from ReDiviDeR on its third Diatribe Records release, following Never Odd Or Even (2011) and I Dig Monk, Tuned (2013). Musicophiles, however, should be delighted, for like its predecessors, Mere Nation is a colorful box of delights. Rambunctious, brooding and tender in turn, drummer Matthew Jacobson's compositions explore a heady no man's land between discipline and freedom. Thirteen years into ReDiviDeR's trajectory, Jacobson, alto ...

Album Review

Umbra: West

by Ian Patterson
September 15, 2018

American road trips have long inspired writers, from Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck and Tom Wolfe, to Hunter S. Thompson, Robert M. Pirsig and Bill Bryson. Fewer are the extended works, similarly inspired, written by musicians. Some things, it seems, may be easier put into words. Umbra's West is inspired by founding member Chris Guilfoyle's 2017 road trip, as evidenced through the song titles, through North America's Western states to Canada. It marks Umbra's full debut, but can be seen as ...

Album Review

Insufficient Funs: Insufficient Funs

Read "Insufficient Funs" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 12, 2017

An original name, if not quite such an original concept. Saxophone and drum duets used to be as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth, with John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's 1960s collaboration always the benchmark. In recent years, however, this striking duo combination has seen something of a boom. Charles Lloyd and Billy Higgins; Dave Rempis and Frank Rosaly; Tatsuya Nakatani and Michel Doneda; Eliel Sherman Storey and Famoudou Don Moye; Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano; Neil Welch and Chris ...