Jazz Articles about Rich Brown

About Rich Brown

Album Review

Matthew Zapruder, in his book Why Poetry (HarperCollins, 2017), draws an informative parallel between reading poetry and listening to classical music: ...the act of treating poetry like a difficult activity one needs to master can easily perpetrate ... mistaken, and pervasive, ideas about poetry that make it hard to read in the first place. Like classical music, poetry has an unfortunate reputation for requiring special training and education to appreciate.... This same reasoning applies to jazz, ...

Album Review

Ernesto Cervini: Tetrahedron

Read "Tetrahedron" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
June 8, 2020

A tetrahedron is a pyramid with a triangle base, thus a three dimensional shape consisting of four triangle faces. On the cover of his newest undertaking as a leader, Canadian drummer Ernesto Cervini uses this shape as an analogy to his working trio inviting a fourth member to the party. In this case the fourth person is New York-based guitarist Nir Felder, whom Cervini had met during his time studying at the Manhattan School of Music, between 2003 and 2007. ...

Album Review

Jacek Kochan & musiConspiracy: Occupational Hazard

Read "Occupational Hazard" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
June 4, 2020

Polish-born and current Canadian Jacek Kochan's 22nd release as a leader, Occupational Hazard, exists at the crossroads of straight ahead and electric jazz. A drummer, composer and arranger, Kochan has played with a variety of musicians over the course of his long career. On Occupational Hazard he leverages this broad experience to bring together an unusual mix of instrumental and vocal talent, establishing an intriguing blend likely to appeal most to fans of accessible tunes dominated by guitar ...

Album Review

Ernesto Cervini: Tetrahedron

Read "Tetrahedron" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 29, 2020

Toronto-based drummer Ernesto Cervini juggles a lot of ensembles: the Turboprop sextet, a pair of co-led trios, MEM 3 and Myriad3, and chordless trio Tunetown. Add to that another trio, Tetrahedron, offing up an eponymous debut with guitarist Nir Felder and his Fender Stratocaster sitting in to add some electric chording to the mix, electric bassist Rich Brown adding a funkier vibe than is normally found on a Cervini project, and the Cuban-born and now Toronto-based saxophonist Luiz Deniz injecting ...

Album Review

Rich Brown: Abeng

by Dave Wayne
April 19, 2016

In jazz, it's all about the company you keep. The press accompanying bass virtuoso Rich Brown's third album, Abeng, specifically calls out Roy Ayers and Weather Report as musical reference points. And while there's a breath of Ayers' silky R&B feel to the slinky “Promessa," and though Brown's use of his fretless electric bass as a lead voice favorably recalls Jaco Pastorius' tenure in Weather Report, Abeng is more intensely colored by the music of Brown's past and current associates, ...