Home » Jazz Articles » Quinsin Nachoff
Jazz Articles about Quinsin Nachoff
Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux & Hot Heros
by Maurice Hogue
A pair of albums from Northern European artists demonstrate a similar approach in this episode--improvising upon the folk melodies of their countries--Poland's Irek Wojtczak and his Folk Five and Finland's Hot Heros. For Wojtczak, he's just happy to see his recording available: the radio station that was recording the live concert lost the tapes, but fortunately, like a lot of other musicians, he recorded the shows himself. Hot Heros is a trio with connections to another prominent Finnish band: Black ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun Large Ensemble: Atwood Suites
by Jerome Wilson
Andrew Rathbun is a Canadian saxophonist who has made a major musical statement here with this collection of suites, two of which are based on the poetry of author Margaret Atwood. Rathbun's writing shows the influence of another Canadian, Kenny Wheeler, in its lush sonority, the frequent gorgeous flugelhorn solos by Tim Hagans and the role of Luciana Souza, who both sings Atwood's poetry with gentle forcefulness and moans wordlessly within the orchestral ensembles, the same way Wheeler often utilized ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun: Atwood Suites
by Paul Rauch
The mingling of jazz music and poetry is not a new concept. It has always been an amiable, yet at times, uncomfortable fit. From a verse standpoint, it is in many ways liberating. While most vocalized lyrics and spoken word forms rely on rhyme to speak to cadence and rhythm, free verse poetry liberates the narrative from the confinements of structure, and much like an improvising instrumentalist, takes spoken language into a intertwining duality with the melody within harmonic dimension. ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun: Atwood Suites
by Friedrich Kunzmann
In a way, the Atwood Suites have been in the works for almost two decades. When Kenny Wheeler approached Toronto native Andrew Rathbun in search for a band in 2001, the former furthermore inquired if the latter would like a composition of his own penning to be performed beside Wheeler's “Suite Time Suite." Consequently, the “Power Politics Suite," which makes for the second half of the first CD, was born, with Wheeler's and vocalist Luciana Souza's sound specifically in mind. ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun Large Ensemble: Atwood Suites
by Dan Bilawsky
The marriage between jazz and poetry is having a true moment in the present artistic sphere. The two have long mixed and mingled, oft proving sympathetic and symbiotic in their multidirectional moves, unique cadences, and improvisational capacities. But never before has the connection been so strong and centralized. With drummer Matt Wilson's triumphant encounter with the work of Carl Sandburg, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom's exploration of Emily Dickinson's writing, saxophonist Benjamin Boone's collaboration with Philip Levine, and a handful ...
Continue ReadingQuinsin Nachoff: Quinsin Nachoff's Ethereal Trio
by Mark Corroto
It's interesting how modern jazz performers come to the music from very different circumstances than those of players of bygone eras. Instead of learning their craft in a bar or bagnio, they went to a conservatory to sharpen their chops. What they lack in perceived street-smarts (the outdated 1950s hipster delusion of jazzman as junkie), they make up for with a richness of talents and a knowledge of modern music. All this can be said of saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff. He ...
Continue ReadingQuinsin Nachoff's Ethereal Trio: Quinsin Nachoff's Ethereal Trio
by Roger Farbey
Unlike Canada-raised/New York-based reedman Quinsin Nachoff's previous recordings--Flux, Magic Numbers, Horizons Ensemble, FoMo and 5 New Dreams--this is a trio album. “Clairvoyant Jest" benefits from a buoyant head which initially propels the number, as Nachoff's improvisatory talent manifests in his soloing, a marriage of Albert Ayler's meanderings with Sonny Rollins' fluid articulacy. “Imagination Reconstruction" employs its preceding track's methodology but evinces a touch of Ornette Coleman in the trio's fluid cohesion. “Gravitas" is just that: ...
Continue Reading
