Jazz Articles about Sam Griffith

About Sam Griffith

Album Review

Brad Goode: Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer

Read "Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 22, 2025

"Polytonal," according to Webster's, denotes “the simultaneous use of two or more musical keys." Denver-based trumpeter and educator Brad Goode makes full use of that technique on The Snake Charmer, the debut recording by Goode's well-named Polytonal Big Band. When all has been written and played, two things are clear: first, Goode is a world-class big-band composer-arranger and master of his horn; and second, polytonality is simply a fresh approach to the music, one that in no way interferes with ...

Liner Notes

Brad Goode: Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer

by Neil Tesser
January 15, 2025

I try to avoid hyperbole. I'm not all that comfortable out on a limb. But I'll still wager you've never come across a big-band album like this. Perhaps you've heard orchestras that use dissonance and unexpected note clusters as their operating system. Maybe you've encountered soloists who ply their playing with extended technique and postmodern pastiche, vividly escaping the gravitational pull of conventional composition. But I can't think of an album that combines these elements with the electric ...