Home » Jazz Articles » Sam Newsome
Jazz Articles about Sam Newsome
About Sam Newsome
Instrument: Saxophone, soprano
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar ToSN Trio: Free Wyoming
by Mike Jurkovic
There is a lot of movie going on: The night boatman at the moors, fifty foot ants, a crisis in chaos, gulls, babies, dark climes, eccentric mimes . . . Whatever you can fancy while listening to the unruly codes of saxophonist Sam Newsome and his equally idiosyncratic, first-time rhythm section of bassist Matt Smiley and drummer/percussionist Ron Coulter is happening, whether you can follow it or not, within the challenging realm of Free Wyoming. Recorded live in ...
read moreSam Newsome: Chaos Theory
by Neri Pollastri
Grande specialista del sax soprano, Sam Newsome è anche uno sperimentatore dello strumento, con all'attivo tre album in solitudine nei quali documenta gli esiti della sua ricerca—peraltro valorizzata anche in altri lavori, per esempio Magic Circle, in duo con Jean-Michel Pilc. Qui presenta il quarto, nel quale “prepara" in molti modi il sax: aggiungendovi campanelli e sordine, operando con elettronica, perfino prolungandolo inserendo tubi di plastica tra corpo e bocchino. A dispetto di questa varietà di interventi “impropri" ...
read moreSam Newsome, Jean-Michel Pilc: Magic Circle
by Neri Pollastri
Non molto noto in Italia, Sam Newsome va oggi annoverato tra i massimi specialisti del sax soprano, che suona sfruttandone molte delle nascoste peculiarità timbriche e spesso anche “preparandolo" con singolari artifici tecnici. Autore di ben tre lavori in solitudine, qui ne mette a frutto l'esperienza dialogando con il pianista francese Jean-Michel Pilc. La registrazione arriva al culmine di circa un anno di collaborazione tra i due e avviene in studio, ma senza alcuna preparazione e prendendo le first takes ...
read moreSam Newsome and Jean-Michel Pilc: Magic Circle
by Hrayr Attarian
Intimate, innovative and captivating Magic Circle is an album of duets between soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and pianist Jean-Michel Pilc. Although they perform primarily standards their interpretations are anything but conventional. Both musicians are known for their individual styles and singular approaches to improvisation and they showcase these superbly on the current disc.Pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington's “In a Sentimental Mood" opens with almost baroque refrains of Newsome's rich, meditative saxophone. Pilc's tolling piano provides a dark undertone. ...
read moreSam Newsome: Sopranoville: New Works for the Prepared and Non-Prepared Saxophone
by Karl Ackermann
On his fifth solo soprano album, Sopranoville: New Works for the Prepared and Non-prepared Saxophone, Sam Newsome continues to explore and extend the utility of his instrument. This new release takes yet another new direction for Newsome whose previous solo outing The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation/Art of the Soprano, Vol. 2 (Self-produced, 2014) provided an aural link to Africa, evoking the soul and vitality of the continent. Here, as on Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 ...
read moreSam Newsome: The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation
by Karl Ackermann
Sam Newsome's The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation (subtitled “Art of the Soprano, Vol. 2") is--despite the chronology--the fourth solo outing by the alto/tenor-turned-soprano saxophonist. The self-produced Monk Abstractions (2007) and Blue Soliloquy (2009) were highly regarded entries that preceded The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 (2012). The latter album saw Newsome using layering techniques that allowed him to add a percussion element effectively derived from tapping keys. To suit the objectives of The ...
read moreSam Newsome: The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation
by Dan McClenaghan
Sam Newsome played tenor saxophone in trumpeter Terence Blanchard's group back in the early 90s, but he put away the tenor late a few years later and left his soprano saxophone out on the table. The plan was to explore the possibilities of “the straight horn." Then Gerry Teekan, producer and founder of Criss Cross Records, advised Newsome that the soprano horn was a very limited instrument. That observation was, fortunately, not taken to heart. The Straight Horn ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 1
