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Rich Halley Quartet: Requiem For A Pit Viper
by Bruce Lindsay
Requiem For A Pit Viper opens up with a powerful, in-your-face, four-note riff that demands attention. The Rich Halley Quartet keeps demanding--and deserving--this attention throughout this collection of the tenor saxophonist's original compositions, as it delivers a constantly surprising and inventive music that ranges from a scream to a whisper--with a few squeaks thrown in. The musicians' energy and pleasure is almost palpable, the grooves strong and sinuous. Halley, based in Oregon, has a discography that goes ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley: Requiem for a Pit Viper
by Andrew J. Sammut
Rich Halley lists music and nature as his two greatest interests. Judging from Requiem for a Pit Viper, the saxophonist and composer is inspired by the raw power of the natural world, rather than its more peaceful gestures. This album maintains an unrelenting intensity through ten Halley originals that rarely allows a chance to stop and smell the roses. Halley's coppery tone leaves an imprint on the air between his phrases on “Snippet Stop Warp," and his ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley Quartet featuring Bobby Bradford: Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival
by Glenn Astarita
Prominent USA West Coast jazz artists, saxophonist Rich Halley and cornetist Bobby Bradford, disseminate a restless spirit, boosted by memorable compositions and compelling improvisational jaunts on this 2010 set. Bradford is a living legend via his affiliations with Ornette Coleman and long-running partnership with pioneering clarinetist John Carter. As anticipated, this band does not disappoint. Sparked by commodious passages, surging exchanges and invigorating free-bop sprees, Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival offers the complete package. Halley leads a ...
Continue ReadingDan Raphael / Rich Halley / Carson Halley: Children Of The Blue Supermarket
by Bruce Lindsay
There have been times when jazz and the spoken word appeared inseparable. Brief times, but times when the combination was a powerful artistic and (counter) cultural force. Children Of The Blue Supermarket brings those times back, a reminder of how effective a partnership the jazz musician and the poet can create. Maybe it's the new thing. The musicians: experienced saxophonist Rich Halley and his percussionist son, Carson; and poet Dan Raphael, who's been writing and performing poetry ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley: Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival
by AAJ Italy Staff
Un sassofonista che vive a Portland, nell'Oregon. Un cornettista eternamente in ombra nato a Cleveland, nel Mississippi, ma da quasi mezzo secolo attivo a Los Angeles e dintorni. Un festival fuori mano come il Penofin Jazz, che da diciassette anni si svolge a Potter Valley, centoventi miglia a nord di San Francisco. Ecco un disco che percorre sentieri poco battuti, provando a mettere in discussione quella percezione tutta europea che nel jazz americano di oggi [e di ieri] ci siano ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley: Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival
by Gordon Marshall
Tenor saxophonist Rich Halley gives the great cornetist, Bobby Bradford, the first solo on Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival, as well he should. Bradford is a veteran of the melodically oriented free jazz scene, going back to his days in the late '50s with Ornette Coleman, who is Halley's starting point. When Halley himself comes in on the number, “The Blue Rims," he doesn't so much come out of the woodwork as come out like the woodwork itself, something ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley Quartet featuring Bobby Bradford: Live At The Penofin Jazz Festival
by Bruce Lindsay
As the title suggests, Live At The Penofin Jazz Festival is a straight-from-the-stage recording, from the 2008 Festival held at Potter Valley, California. It chronicles a fiery, upbeat performance, from the Rich Halley Quartet, that combines composed and improvised music in an interesting and enjoyable set of tunes. Four of the compositions can be found on tenor saxophonist Halley's previous studio albums--three from The Blue Rims (Louie, 2003), and one, “Grey Stones," from Objects (Louie, 2002)--in addition to Streets Below," ...
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