Jazz Articles about Sana Nagano

About Sana Nagano

Album Review

Sometimes very talented people write difficult music. The music is difficult because its intent is not immediately clear. Or it does not follow canonical criteria, at least as currently understood. Music history presents us with many examples: Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich--these are only very famous “classical" composers whose work passed from controversial to acceptable to mainstream. In jazz, one thinks of Ornette Coleman or someone probably considerably less orthodox and perhaps much less well known.

Festivals Talking

Moers Festival Interviews: Sana Nagano

by Martin Longley
June 4, 2022

Right place, right time, your scribe caught Smashing Humans playing a late night set at the original Nublu club in NYC's Alphabet City, 19th April 2019. Intensity ensued, via a serrated prog-jazz extremity, sharply sculpted in its dynamic schizoid turning of sharp bends, its abrasive surface causing exciting distress. Smashing Humans were assembled by the Japanese violinist Sana Nagano, who's now been dwelling in NYC since 2010, and in the USA for two decades. At that 2019 gig she may ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sana Nagano, John Zorn, Sam Gendel, Zane Carney & More New Releases

by Ludovico Granvassu
April 20, 2021

We kick off this episode of Mondo Jazz with another gem from Georgia Anne Muldrow and land with John Zorn and the first (of what will certainly be many) box set dedicated to his delightful Bagatelles. In the middle, a mini-section on the Palladino bass-dynasty which acts as a bridge between two of the hot scenes of today, London's and Los Angeles,' with a special focus on fascinating new releases by Sam Gendel, Carlos Niño, Zane Carney, Henry Solomon and ...

Album Review

Sana Nagano: Smashing Humans

Read "Smashing Humans" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 15, 2021

Violinist Sana Nagano is an idiosyncratic and accomplished artist who is immersed in New York's avant-garde scene. Her sonic experiments are an end in themselves, thrilling and provocative as well as quite intimate. Nagano's debut with her new quintet, the electrifying, Smashing Humans, expresses this singular vision to its fullest, creating a wholly absorbing work of rare beauty. The cinematic “Humans in Grey" starts off with Nagano playing repeating scales that saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum echoes. The entry of ...