Jazz Articles about Quinsin Nachoff

Quinsin Nachoff's Flux at Constellation

by Hrayr Attarian
November 22, 2016

Quinsin Nachoff's Flux Quartet Constellation Chicago, IL November 16, 2016 Chicago's Constellation, the city's premier venue for innovative music, hosted composer and tenor saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff and his Flux quartet. The intense and stimulating recital, in the intimate space, captivated the small and attentive audience for close to 2 hours. The intricate Nachoff originals allowed for plenty of individual spontaneity as they served as vehicles for his band members' unique expressiveness. For instance, ...

Quinsin Nachoff: Flux

by Glenn Astarita
October 26, 2016

Canadian-reared, New York City-based saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff summons a meeting of some very bright musical minds on this stirring quartet date. Rounded out by heralded modern era musicians, saxophonist David Binney, keyboardist Matt Mitchell and drummer Kenny Wolleson, the band erects a cunning bridge between structured and melodic thematic ventures with traditional jazz values and free-flowing improvisational overtures. Many of these works are erected with polytonal sequences and odd-metered aberrations via forceful choruses and unanticipated diversions. Moreover, the ...

Quinsin Nachoff: Flux

by Mark Corroto
September 12, 2016

Listening to Flux by saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff, it's easy to see in your mind's eye the DNA double helix beautifully spinning in the dark space of the human cell. That's because Nachoff composes tight, complex chamber pieces, seemingly delicate in structure, but able to withstand the attack of the jazz infantry. Nachoff's training and experience writing for orchestras, chamber ensembles, plus new music, brings a depth to his jazz bona fides. Plus, working with heavyweights like Ralph Alessi, ...

Quinsin Nachoff: Flux

by Dan McClenaghan
August 18, 2016

Saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff sounds right at home on Mythology Records--saxophonist/producer/provocateur David Binney's label. Everything on Mythology has a intensity and modernity, a brashness and in-your-face confidence of delivery, whether it's Binney as the leader, or on sets headed up by pianists John Escreet or Edward Simon, or Quinsin Nachoff. Flux is Nachoff's debut on the label, a two saxophone front line with piano and drums, and no bass in the mix, in the mode of Vijay Iyer's Fieldwork ...

Quinsin Nachoff - Bruno Tocanne Project: 5 New Dreams

by Glenn Astarita
February 16, 2009

Had this CD been received in 2008, it would surely have made my personal top-ten list. Canadian reed man Quinsin Nachoff aligns with French modern jazz artists, including the co-leader and drummer Bruno Tocanne. Sans a bassist, the four-man horns section generates an excitable string of musical notions, sparked with adventurous shifts in strategy. As Tocanne's resonating drum parts generate a heavy and vibrant bottom end.

Featuring beefy pulses, swaggering grooves and pause/restart type charts, the quintet delves ...

Quinsin Nachoff: Horizons Ensemble

by Jerry D'Souza
December 10, 2008

Saxophonist and composer Quinsin Nachoff continues his journey into chamber and contemporary music in his quest to extrapolate musical forms, as he leans into classical music and tempers it with his sense of jazz harmony. The two streams, reflected in his compositions, entwine and flow majestically on his self-released Horizons Ensemble.  His players rise to meet the challenges. Neither John Taylor (piano) nor Ernst Reijseger (cello) are strangers to challenges. They bring in their own progressive sense of time and ...

Quinsin Nachoff: Horizons Ensemble

by Troy Collins
November 7, 2008

Horizons Ensemble is the sublime follow-up to Quinsin Nachoff's stellar Songlines debut Magic Numbers (2006). The Canadian-born, New York-based saxophonist continues to explore neo-classical territory initiated by the Third Stream Movement with a series of extended compositions that skirt a tenuous line between the written and the composed.

Magic Numbers featured a trio with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Jim Black augmented by a traditional string quartet. Nachoff's Horizons Ensemble dispenses with percussion entirely, relying solely on a ...