Jazz Articles about Rich Halley

About Rich Halley

Album Review

Halley-Clucas-Reed-Halley: Boomslang

Read "Boomslang" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 25, 2021

Rich Halley has a thing about snakes. Those on the receiving end of a postal delivery from the Portland, Oregon-based saxophonist are likely to find a serpent coiled in the upper right hand corner of the envelope--a stamp featuring scarlet king snake, perhaps. Or maybe some sort of pit viper. And speaking of pit vipers, Halley released Requiem For A Pit Viper (Pine Eagle Records) in 2011. A thing about snakes... Not surprising, since Halley “was ...

Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 3, 2021

Accomplished saxophonist Rich Halley has an easily recognizable style which is marked with his brassy, rough-hewn tone, innovative ideas and simmering passion. After starting his own Pine Eagle label, in 2010, Halley added eleven stimulating albums to his discography, featuring bassist Clyde Reed and his son, drummer Carson Halley. In 2019 Halley started fronting the equally distinctive Matthew Shipp Trio. The fiery and captivating The Shape of Things is the quartet's second collaboration and expands on the themes explored on ...

Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
December 13, 2020

One thing is certain when approaching a Rich Halley recording: it's likely that you will hear the history of the saxophone in his playing. He's as capable of filling the room with fractured sound as he is in gently ruminating over a haunting phrase, and bop licks are as common as noisy abstraction on his albums; indeed, one might find all of these traits within the same piece. On his latest, The Shape of Things, he's fortunate to have the ...

Album Review

Rich Halley, Matthew Shipp, Michael Bisio, Newman Taylor Baker: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 11, 2020

In 2019, with almost two-dozen albums as a leader, Rich Halley broke his twenty-year streak of recording without a pianist as part of his various formations. It was Matthew Shipp who altered the saxophonist's course on Terra Incognita (Pine Eagle Records) which featured Shipp's trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. That successful project leads to The Shape of Things, which picks up and moves forward from where that stimulating and satisfying album left off.

Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 26, 2020

Nobody rips it up like Portland, Oregon-based tenor saxophonist Rich Halley. Whether he is playing with his West Coast crews on sets like The Literature (Pine Eagle Records, 2018) or The Outlier (Pine Eagle Records, 2016), or recording with his New York City compatriots on Terra Incognita (Pine Eagle Record, 2019). And now we have--with, again, the New Yorkers--The Shape of Things, where Halley continues to prove he can be counted on to shake the walls and rattle the windows ...

Album Review

Rich Halley: Terra Incognita

Read "Terra Incognita" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
May 15, 2020

Ultimo di una lunga serie, quest'album di Rich Halley vede il settantatreenne tenorsassofonista di Portland affiancato da quello che, in buona sostanza, è il trio del pianista Matthew Shipp, con Michael Bisio al contrabbasso e Newman Taylor Baker alla batteria. Formazione dunque di grande prestigio e affiatatissima, la quale si mette alla prova su sei improvvisazioni, per metà anche molto lunghe ("The Journey," raggiunge i diciassette minuti).La musica è di grande libertà, condotta in interazione dialogica e fondamentalmente ...

Album Review

Rich Halley: Terra Incognita

Read "Terra Incognita" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
September 8, 2019

On paper this is a very promising match-up: uninhibited tenor saxophonist Rich Halley backed by the relentless force of pianist Matthew Shipp and his current trio. For the most part, the resulting session delivers on its promise although at times Halley's playing is shoved so far to the front of the mix it drowns out everything else. This is especially true on the first track, “The Opening." Halley's long, steely lines are so overpowering that only the surface agitation of ...