Jazz Articles about Mike Fahn

Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10: A Beautiful Day, Revisited

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 13, 2024

Registrato dal vivo al Birdland dal 24 al 26 gennaio 2002, il materiale di questo doppio CD (nonché doppio vinile) raggiunge oggi i quasi 83 minuti di durata, aggiungendo, rispetto all'edizione originaria uscita pochi mesi dopo il concerto, un'alternate take inedita del brano che intitola l'album e una versione ampliata di “11/8," riposizionando nel contempo i nove brani complessivi in quanto a “ordine di apparizione." Ne vien fuori un'opera che possiamo tranquillamente definire monumentale, anche proprio per la ...

Andrew Hill Sextet Plus Ten: A Beautiful Day, Revisited

by Dan McClenaghan
October 21, 2024

The heyday of pianist Andrew Hill (1931-2007) happened during his hang with Blue Note Records, where he released ten albums between 1963 and 1970, including 1964's Black Fire, a splendid quartet session featuring saxophonist Joe Henderson; 1964's Point Of Departure), that featured a freewheeling sextet that included Henderson, multiple reedist Eric Dolphy and trumpeter Kenny Dorham; to Passing Ships (1969), with an exuberant multi-horn group that included trumpeter Woody Shaw, trombonist Julian Priester and flutist Joe Farrell. For those with ...

Mike Fahn: Close Your Eyes... and Listen

by Jack Bowers
April 3, 2003

I first heard valve trombonist Mike Fahn some years ago on an album led by the wonderful tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper and was duly impressed. “There’s a player to watch," I said to myself. Great chops, lovely sound, quick reflexes, singular voice. Been watching ever since but apart from occasional appearances as a sideman on others’ albums I’d heard little from Fahn until Close Your Eyes... and Listen arrived in the mail.

Fahn moved (or, more accurately, ...

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 ...

Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 2002

"There is plenty going on," designated cheerleader Stanley Crouch informs the reader, on composer / pianist Andrew Hill's latest album, A Beautiful Day, which showcases Hill's sixteen-piece big band in a concert performance last January at New York's famed Birdland nightclub. “With a vision given to great plasticity," Crouch writes, “[Hill] has found his own ways to reinterpret 4/4 swing, the blues, the romantic or meditative ballad, and the Afro-Hispanic rhythms that have almost invariably connected one generation of Jazz ...

Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day

by Jon Wagner
August 1, 2002

Sometimes a live recording captures the dynamism and vibe of a band that's really “on." In ideal situations, the musical energy is obvious right off the bat, continues throughout the set, and winds up on a disc. The listener thinks: “Man, I would love to have been at that gig." Andrew Hill's new release A Beautiful Day is one of those recordings. Hill is a pianist who's been around for a long time and played in many different ...

Mike Fahn: Close Your Eyes...and Listen

by Mark F. Turner
July 22, 2002

Close Your Eyes...and Listen is an appropriate title for the new recording by valve trombonist Mike Fahn; which showcases the majestic and beautiful sound of the peculiar instrument in the hands of a most capable musician. Fahn, who is primarily self-taught, has an impressive resume with luminaries such as Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, and Diana Krall. Fahn’s past credentials are intact but it’s his smooth sound and style on this new recording that leave the greatest impression of his skill. ...