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Paul Dietrich's Elemental Quartet: A Small Patch of Earth
by Richard J Salvucci
Anyone who spends much time watching contemporary instrumentalists on the internet is bound to come away impressed. Modern players, it sometimes seems, can do just about anything. And that is particularly true of some instruments in the brass family, where the advances in technique and range over just a half-century are particularly impressive. There are many trumpet athletes, able to leap impossible intervals in a single bound and circular breathe their way smoothly through half a concerto and generally play ...
Continue ReadingPaul Dietrich: 5+4
by Jack Bowers
The concept for this latest album by Wisconsin-based trumpeter, composer and educator Paul Dietrich, his fourth as leader, can be found in its title, 5+4, wherein he employs a jazz quintet and four-member string section. It is to Dietrich's credit that neither one outshines the other; the quintet takes the lead on six of the album's eight numbers (all written by Dietrich), the strings on the others ("Out Here," “A Separation"). Indeed, the two components mesh so ...
Continue ReadingPaul Dietrich Jazz Ensemble (featuring Clarence Penn): Forward
by Troy Dostert
There's something to be said for acknowledging one's artistic debts. It's a trait especially prominent in jazz, where musicians paying tribute to their forebears is commonplace, a way to sustain the tradition and recognize its continual evolution. Trumpeter and composer Paul Dietrich has certainly done that with the debut recording from his large ensemble, Forward. Although not formally an homage to Maria Schneider, it's pretty close, particularly as Schneider's go-to drummer, Clarence Penn, is given “featured" recognition, something Dietrich explains ...
Continue ReadingPaul Dietrich: We Always Get There
by Hrayr Attarian
Chicago based trumpeter and composer Paul Dietrich's debut album We Always Get There is a vibrant and explorative work of modern music that inhabits the border zone between the mainstream and the Avant-Garde. The record's intricately constructed originals, with dramatic ambiences, are provocative while remaining intensely melodic, simultaneously accessible and pleasantly challenging.The intimate theme of “House On Willard" undulates within the tune's intriguing harmonic framework. Saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi's lyrical, serpentine improvisation ebbs and flows with a melancholic touch. ...
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