Jazz Articles about Myra Melford

Myra Melford Be Bread: The Image Of Your Body

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 24, 2006

Se ci si ferma un istante a riflettere sugli sviluppi della sua musica, appare piuttosto evidente come Myra Melford stia negli anni combinando e ricombinando i diversi elementi della propria poetica, in un dialogo interno continuo e estremamente sottile che riflette bene il suo carattere di artista generosa, ma al tempo stesso schiva e profondamente riflessiva. Succede anche con The Image of Your Body, un lavoro in cui sulla formazione base del trio composto da lei assieme al bassista Stomu ...

Myra Melford Be Bread: The Image Of Your Body

by Nic Jones
October 1, 2006

Myra Melford augments her to a quartet here with either trumpet or guitar, and the range of the group is augmented in turn by her use of harmonium and the use of electronics by both trumpeter Cuong Vu and bassist Stomu Takeishi. The resulting music is a mixed affair, marked by a certain anonymous quality that often makes its presence felt.

The programme starts promisingly enough with “Equal Grace, where the sustenance of a mood shows how well the group ...

Myra Melford: Mystic Manifestations

by Franz A. Matzner
August 3, 2004

Leave the familiar for a while. Let your senses and bodies stretch out Like a welcome season Onto the meadows and shores and hills. The above lines are from the poem All the Hemispheres , by the Persian mystic poet, Hafiz. Though Myra Melford made no mention of this poem or Hafiz during our recent conversation, after listening to Ms. Melford speak, and returning to her music, these words come to ...

Myra Melford/The Tent: Where the Two Worlds Touch

by John Kelman
May 19, 2004

At its best music should transcend any technical evaluation; it should just be. All too often people (read: critics) assess the skill involved in creating a specific work, forgetting about whether or not it succeeds on purely a gut level. Pianist Myra Melford's latest project, The Tent, manages to rise above such pedestrian considerations, instead demanding that it be considered wholly on the basis of spiritual and emotional reaction. The question of what happens at the nexus point Where the ...

Myra Melford/The Tent: When The Two Worlds Touch

by Jerry D'Souza
May 12, 2004

Poetry has its own essence. Myra Melford was inspired by the words of Jelaluddin Rumi, the founder of the Mevlevi order of dervishes who are, perhaps, more recognisable as the Whirling Dervishes. Rumi’s words have undoubtedly cast a spell, but the music here goes well beyond that. Melford has a clasp on Hindustani music that she uses to add a captivating dimension. The band Melford has fashioned, from the musicians she has worked with, understand what she wants to say ...

Myra Melford/Marty Ehrlich: Yet Can Spring

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2001

From the opening notes of Yet Can Spring, it's clear that Myra Melford and Marty Ehrlich occupy common ground. It's not common in any other sense of the word, though. These two players each have a unique perspective on the intersection of straight-ahead improvisation with its freer forms, and both dwell eagerly at the interface. At times lyrical and introspective, at other times crashing down from the hilltops like a banshee, Melford can be like a wolf in sheep's clothing ...

Myra Melford and Marty Ehrlich: Yet Can Spring

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2001

Myra Melford-Marty Ehrlich: Yet Can Spring by Gerard Cox

Myra Melford and Marty Ehrlich are prominent musicians in a new school of the jazz avant-garde whose credo might speak something like this: “yeah, we're cool with playing out, but don't think that because of that we're not able to deal with and respect the jazz tradition, because the moment you do we'll turn around and surprise you."

Indeed, Melford and Ehrlich have both surprised thus far- in crafting brands of ...