Jazz Articles about Ramón López

About Ramón López

Album Review

Trevor Watts / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez: The First Touch

Read "The First Touch" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
September 29, 2026

Trevor Watts and Barry Guy's near 60-year musical acquaintance yields an immediacy that continues undiminished on The First Touch. Recorded live in Poland in 2025 with drummer Ramon Lopez, a frequent cohort of the bassist, the seven tracks capture a trio whose empathy is matched by its appetite for risk. Although Watts' saxophones and Guy's bass naturally define the conversation, Lopez exerts a similarly decisive influence, propelling the performance through abrupt shifts of density, register and momentum. In ...

Album Review

Andrés Coll: Ride to Heaven

Read "Ride to Heaven" reviewed by Artur Moral

by Artur Moral
April 17, 2026

Some instruments can come across as far removed from the jazz orbit--especially when we think of them as vehicles for a soloist's showcase. Yet a number of resolute experimenters have worked hard to prove otherwise, with commendable skill. Among others, such is the case with Dorothy Ashby on harp, Julius Watkins on French horn and Garvin Bushell on oboe. The marimba is another of those devices that at first seem foreign to the genre, more associated with Latin or radically ...

Album Review

Ramón López: 40 Springs in Paris

Read "40 Springs in Paris" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
February 20, 2026

Batterista dalle mille risorse, ritmiche e timbriche, l'ispano-francese (nato ad Alicante nel 1961, ma di stanza a Parigi fin dal 1985) Ramon Lopez, da chi scrive scoperto cum summo gaudio non meno di un quarto di secolo fa nel gruppo di Sylvain Kassap, ci regala qui un saggio delle sue doti strumentali, generando una fitta trama percussiva (peraltro assai ordinata, senza eccessi di sorta) che attraversa dieci brani incisi a Barcellona nel maggio 2024 e usciti un anno dopo, con ...

Album Review

Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii / Ramon Lopez: Yama Kawa Umi

Read "Yama Kawa Umi" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
August 22, 2025

Encounters with Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii arrive with mindboggling regularity, yet her output remains remarkably immune to routine. Yama Kawa Umi reunites her with trumpeter (and husband) Natsuki Tamura and Paris-domiciled Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez, resuming the volatile chemistry first heard on Mantle (NotTwo, 2020). Across eight compositions--five by Fujii, three by Tamura--and a brief collective, the trio sculpts improvisations within shifting frameworks, where precision can erupt from apparent disorder and dissolve just as suddenly. Despite the sparse ...

Album Review

Ramón López: 40 Springs In Paris

Read "40 Springs In Paris" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 17, 2025

To say that Spanish-born Ramón López is an in-demand drummer would be an understatement. His recent collaborators span a wide spectrum of creative music, including Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Ivo Perelman, Barry Guy, Agustí Fernández and Angelica Sanchez--and that list reaches well beyond the realms of jazz and free improvisation. López has performed in intimate ensembles and large jazz orchestras, and his deep study of both flamenco and Indian classical music adds rich dimensions to his artistry. This ...

Album Review

Savina Yannatou / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez / Floros Floridis: Kouarteto

Read "Kouarteto" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
March 5, 2025

Four seasoned improvisers unite to telling effect on Kouartéto. Their pedigrees go back a long way. Greek vocalist Savina Yannatou, English bassist Barry Guy and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez have been colleagues in Guy's Blue Shroud Band for the past 14 years, though Attikos (Maya, 2010) documenting bassist and singer in tandem at Amsterdam's esteemed Bimhuis predates that. Clarinetist Floros Floridis' association with the singer stretches back further still, not surprising as he has been at the forefront of the ...

Album Review

Natsuki Tamura, Satoko Fujii, Ramon Lopez: Yama Kawa Umi

Read "Yama Kawa Umi" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 5, 2025

Il batterista franco-spagnolo Ramon Lopez, uno dei più personali della scena avant, specificatamente in quel suo approccio che definiremmo “tellurico" all'elemento percussivo, senza per questo mai esondare, si inserisce--si innesta, meglio ancora--su un duo d'arte e di vita largamente collaudato come quello formato da Satoko Fujii e Natsuki Tamura, generando un dialogo a tre voci decisamente sui generis, per la libertà che lo informa, a partire dal modo in cui vengono ribaltate le usuali gerarchie esistenti fra i tre strumenti ...