Jazz Articles about Noah Howard

About Noah Howard

Album Review

Noah Howard: Quartet At Judson Hall Revisited

Read "Quartet At Judson Hall Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
December 14, 2023

Avrebbe compiuto ottant'anni lo scorso 6 aprile, Noah Howard, nativo di New Orleans, se non fosse scomparso ormai da tredici anni, lasciando peraltro una cospicua mole di incisioni a proprio nome, fino alla fine, anche se è innegabile che la sua stella--se così possiamo definirla--ha avuto il suo periodo di maggior fulgore--o comunque visibilità, e pertinenza storica--tra la metà degli anni Sessanta e i primissimi Settanta. Questa preziosissima ristampa ce ne restituisce, riuniti in un unico CD, i primi due ...

Album Review

Noah Howard: Quartet To At Judson Hall, Revisited

Read "Quartet To At Judson Hall, Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 5, 2023

Saxophonist Noah Howard is a musician deserving wider recognition. Born in New Orleans in 1943, like many black musicians he began playing music in the church. After a stint in the army, he settled on the West Coast where the avant-garde was progressing outside the purview of New York, which at the time was considered the center of all things jazz. The West Coast was also the origin of such as avant-gardists as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and ...

Album Review

Noah Howard Quartet: The Bremen Concert

Read "The Bremen Concert" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
June 26, 2012

Alto saxophonist Noah Howard was a key player in the free jazz movement of the 1960s. He moved into the realm of that decade--a time when the atmosphere was rife with saxophonists primed to the calling. Born in New Orleans, Howard characterized his approach with a distinctive sensibility for gospel music that unraveled enticingly in his explorations. His improvisations revolved on the turnstiles of a ripe imagination, and it was no surprise, then, that his first record as a leader, ...

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Album Review

Noah Howard: The Black Ark

Read "The Black Ark" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk

by Kurt Gottschalk
January 17, 2009

Noah Howard's 1969 album The Black Ark has, in an unintended way, lived up to its name in recent years. It has become, to free jazz obsessives, a sort of Ark of the Covenant, a fabled and much sought after grail and jazz message boards lit up when it was announced that the British label Bo'Weavil would be putting the album out on CD. Recent years have also shown a renewed interest in Howard's career, with new ...

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Album Review

Noah Howard: The Black Ark

Read "The Black Ark" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 26, 2007

Like “rarely performed" operas, “hard to find" recordings are often obscure for a prosaic reason: they're no good. Here's a monumental exception to the rule. The Black Ark--released in small numbers on the Freedom label in 1969, out of print almost overnight, and a holy grail for collectors practically ever since--is forty minutes of passionate and thrilling music, new-thing free jazz as great as practically any that came out of the late 1960s without saxophonist John Coltrane's name on it. ...

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Profile

Noah Howard

by A. Henkin
October 11, 2005

A move to Europe can often take a successful musician out of the tight focus of American listeners. Though the cross-pollination of Europe and America is now well established, ex-pat Americans often give up their native renown for the increased work and appreciation to be found across the pond. Though Noah Howard, once one of the young darlings of the new music scene in '60s New York, plays the city quite rarely, he has maintained a successful ...

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Album Review

Noah Howard: One Eye Open, the Other One Closed

Read "One Eye Open, the Other One Closed" reviewed by Garvin Masseaux

by Garvin Masseaux
April 1, 2004

Blues are everywhere, and saxophonist Noah Howard knows it. So do his bandmates on this newest escapade for his own Alt Sax label. Yet, there's more. Howard employs an old blues lyric as the basis of his title track. Sung by Eve Packer, his frequent partner in song, the piece represents the crème de la crème of modern blues interpretations. Packer and Howard play hard-driving romps for half of the disc. Hence much of their music is rooted in energy ...