Jazz Articles about Mike Pride

About Mike Pride

Album Review

Peter Evans, Mike Pride: A Window, Basically

Read "A Window, Basically" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
August 4, 2026

Trumpet meets drums in a series of superbly balanced exchanges on A Window, Basically. When the trumpet belongs to Peter Evans then not only virtuosity is guaranteed, but also an acute musicality. Nothing exists purely for effect. And double down on that when Mike Pride helms the trapset. Long-time colleagues, the pair recorded the seven cuts over a two-year period, although their history goes back much further. While together they constitute two-thirds of the band Pulverize The Sound, this album ...

Album Review

Three-Layer Cake: Sounds The Color Of Grounds

Read "Sounds The Color Of Grounds" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 29, 2025

The trio of Mike Watt, Brandon Seabrook and Mike Pride began as a pandemic-era experiment, exchanging music files remotely to create Stove Top (RareNoise, 2021). Now, as Three-Layer Cake, they return with Sounds The Color Of Grounds, a record that reveals a fully realized and cohesive jazz-punk--or perhaps punk-jazz--ensemble. Watt, etched into punk rock's Mt. Rushmore, co-founded the Minutemen with D. Boon in 1980, and later formed fIREHOSE in 1986 following Boon's tragic death. Never confined by genre, ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues Volume 3 Part 2: Exuberant Scars

Read "I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues Volume 3 Part 2: Exuberant Scars" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 26, 2024

Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is a master improviser who routinely creates provocative and moving works. Exuberant Scars, the fourth episode in his I Don't Hear Nothin' But The Blues series is no exception. Irabagon is joined by like-minded musicians on a single, 46-minutes long, spontaneously created piece. Drummer Mike Pride, who has appeared on all four I Don't Hear Nothin' But The Blues, opens the performance with chiming percussion and splashing cymbals. He sets a cinematic ambience. Irabagon's breathy ...

Album Review

Jonathan Mortiz & Mike Pride: Summertime

Read "Summertime" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 22, 2024

Sumertime by the duo of Jonathan Moritz and Mike Pride highlights the distinction between paying attention and attention paid. The former deals with concentration, while the latter concerns awareness or consciousness. With this release or any free improvisation experience, immersion prevails over comprehension. In other words, dig the view instead of building a camp here. Mortiz's saxophone has been paired with Pride's drums in several groups, with Ken Filiano and Nate Wooley, the Jonathan Moritz Trio, and the ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues Volume 3 Part 2: Exuberant Scars

Read "I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues Volume 3 Part 2: Exuberant Scars" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 7, 2024

Besides being a wunderkind in jazz and improvised music, is Jon Irabagon also a kind of math aesthete? Specifically, does he sometimes dabble in chaos theory? Within the apparent randomness of complex improvised music of Exhuberant Scars, Irabagon finds underlying patterns, interconnections, feedback loops and musical self-organization If one is keeping score, Exhuberant Scars is volume 3, part 2 of Ibragon's I Donʼt Hear Nothinʼ But The Blues (IDHNBTB) series. The concept began as a duo with drummer ...

Album Review

Jeremiah Cymerman: Body of Light

Read "Body of Light" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 12, 2024

Body Of Light by clarinetist and composer Jeremiah Cymerman is an album, a collection of recordings that make up a complete work. Cymerman's underlying message here is for the listener to consume these 42 minutes of sound not as four individual tracks but as one whole. Those who are familiar with his music, such as Systema Munditotius, Vol 1 (5049 Records, 2020) and Decay of the Angel (5049 Records, 2018), will know that he works in complete blocks.

Album Review

Acceleration Due To Gravity: Jonesville

Read "Jonesville" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
February 16, 2024

Bassist, composer and arranger Moppa Elliott's uniquely-titled nonet Acceleration Due To Gravity presents Jonesville a gravity- defying jazz odyssey. It pays a captivating homage to influential bassist Sam Jones by weaving a sonic tapestry which transcends the boundaries of conventional jazz. In this brief seven-track, twenty-one-minute outing, four compositions are by Elliott, with the remainder being Sam Jones' originals. The members of the octet who participated in this unusual musical excursion are trumpeter Bobby Spellman, trombonist Dave Taylor, alto saxophonist ...