Jazz Articles about Nicolas Meier

Nicolas Meier Trios: Breeze

by Bruce Lindsay
September 14, 2010

Breeze is a guitar trio album. To be more precise, it's a Trios album--a combination of original tunes and standards being performed by acoustic and electric bands. The result is an imaginative and creative recording that further establishes Nicolas Meier's reputation as one of the finest guitarists on the contemporary jazz scene. Most of Breeze is performed by Meier's acoustic trio, with Demi Garcia on percussion and Paolo Minervini on acoustic bass. The electric trio--bassist/harmonicist Pat Bettison ...

Nicolas Meier: Journey

by Bruce Lindsay
March 3, 2010

Swiss-born, UK-based guitarist Nicolas Meier dedicates Journey to his wife Songul, for sharing “this beautiful life journey" with him. Thematically, the eight tunes can readily be viewed as representing such a journey--but it is equally successful in evoking a single day's walk through a beautiful and mysterious landscape, with Meier's band members as fellow travelers. Meier's production achieves a fine sound quality, enabling all of the instruments to show their individual voices, while his playing is uniformly ...

Nicolas Meier: Journey

by Chris May
March 1, 2010

Turkish music and jazz make compatible bedfellows, so it's curious that congress takes place so infrequently outside Turkey. In the late 1950s, pianist Dave Brubeck combined Turkish 9/8 rhythm patterns with classical rondo form and the blues to create “Blue Rondo A La Turk" on Time Out (Columbia, 1959). In the 1980s, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel hooked up with the Turkish pianist Aydin Esen, a fellow student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, eventually recording the noodling, new ...

Nicolas Meier: Silence Talks

by Chris May
April 15, 2008

Like the saxophonist/flautist Gilad Atzmon, guitarist Nicolas Meier is a British-based musician exploring the rich synergy between jazz and Middle Eastern folk musics. Atzmon's synthesis is primarily shaped by Israeli music, but includes the traditions of neighbouring Arab countries. Meier's focus is Turkish, and also extends to neighbouring countries, particularly to the Balkans, with added flecks of Spain.

How Swiss-born Meir's exposure to Turkish music came about is unknown--whether it was via his Turkish wife, or whether the ...