Jazz Articles about Michael Formanek

About Michael Formanek

Album Review

Warning! Warning! Heads up! Spoiler alert! Server Farm has the potential to take your head to some random places. Some alarming (as all artists should be these days), Some cacophonous. Some claustrophobic. Others freeing, fleeting, fervent. Server Farm, saxophonist/composer Jon Irabagon's heatedly precise and prescient head-on clash with the threat of AI blisters the binary codes and algorithms of the connected world (which makes us all individual heads of the Hydra) both surgically and haphazardly, letting it all ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer, Mary LaRose: Schoenberg on the Beach

Read "Schoenberg on the Beach" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
May 6, 2024

La copertina, scarna ed evocativa, con quel virato seppia che le dà tutto il fascino delle cose d'antan, dice già molto circa la tipologia e il tono del lavoro, firmato da Jeff Lederer in combutta con sua moglie, la cantante Mary LaRose, la quale attraversa il disco come una sorta di presenza parallela, districandosi--quando chiamata al centro delle operazioni--attraverso testi di autori anche molto illustri (Goethe, Nietzsche e Rilke bastano a rendere l'idea?) e musiche non solo del dedicatario dell'opera, ...

Album Review

Nataniel Edelman Trio: Un Ruido De Agua

Read "Un Ruido De Agua" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 6, 2024

Born in Buenos Aires in 1991, Argentinean pianist Nataniel Edelman first met bassist Michael Formanek and saxophonist Michaël Attias when studying in New York City. He maintained the ties and the outcome was the three sessions under Edelman's leadership in a Berlin studio in 2022 which resulted in Un Ruido De Agua. It is not the first time he has recorded with the reedman, as Attias joined Edelman for a tour in his homeland in 2021, where the pianist, an ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer with Mary LaRose: Schoenberg on the Beach

Read "Schoenberg on the Beach" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
December 30, 2023

Saxophonist Jeff Lederer has used several unexpected inspirations for musical projects over the years, such as Shaker hymns and the writings of Herman Melville. Schoenberg on the Beach may be the most audacious thing he has ever done. It blends the compositions of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and the sounds of Coney Island together into an intriguing song cycle performed by a team of exceptional jazz musicians. Schoenberg lived in Los Angeles in the latter part of ...

Album Review

Nicolas Politzer: Visiones

Read "Visiones" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 8, 2023

At first encounter, as the Cecil Taylor infused “Fandango" kick-starts Argentinian drummer Nicolas Politzer's highly recommended Visiones, a keen perception of falling, or at least cliff-side vertigo, accompanies the rancorous performance. But do not let go. Hang on. There is resolution. Politzer's angular musicality makes for some fiery and spirited discussions with well-travelled bassist Michael Formanek, (Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara, Fred Hersch) and equally far-afield pianist Santiago Leibson, (Francisco Mela, Gerald Cleaver, Camila Nebbia), which can (and do) ...

Radio & Podcasts

Aki Rissanen, Michael Formanek, Jin Jim and Jeff Sipe Trio

by Len Davis
July 16, 2023

New releases from Aki Rissanen, Michael Formanek from Damaged Goods and German band Jin Jim with Johann May. Experimental Trio from Austria EKKO 3, and from the UK Paroksha with Marco Anderson. We finish the hour with high energy rock from Mark Lettieri, Fernando Molinari, Isobar, Commodore from Argentina, and The Jeff Sipe Trio.Playlist Aki Rissanen “Day After Yesterday" from Hyperrreal (Edition) 00:00 Michael Formanek “Verdigris" from Damaged Goods (Cuneiform) 05:47 Jin Jim “Turning The Page" from New ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Formanek's Elusion Quartet And More

by Bob Osborne
June 22, 2023

On this show the featured album is the new release from Michael Formanek's Elusion Quartet. There is also new music from Jim Alfredson, Laila Ferman, Guzmán Calzada & Sofía Scheps, Louis Stewart & Noel Kelehan, Joëlle Léandre with Craig Taborn & Mat Maneri, Juan Pastor / Chinchano, Javier Red's Imagery Convertor, Buselli Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, and, The Nimmons Tribute.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Jim Alfredson “Verna" from Family Business (Posi-tone) 00:43 Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet “Rewind" from As Things ...