Jazz Articles about Susan Alcorn

About Susan Alcorn

Album Review

Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens

Read "A Silence Opens" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
July 5, 2026

While grief is universal to the human experience, its specific manifestations can vary widely within each person who mourns. One of the challenges of the grieving process involves the difficulty of sharing exactly what one is feeling, and it can thus be an isolating experience--ironically, and painfully, at a time when human connection is most needed. Nate Wooley's latest iteration of his Columbia Icefield project involves his own attempt to come to terms with profound loss, both in the passing ...

Album Review

Michael McNeill: Barcode Poetry

Read "Barcode Poetry" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 10, 2025

Pianist Michael McNeill approaches music like an abstract painter. Thus his work is dynamic, multi-hued, and textured. The captivating Barcode Poetry, his fourth album as a leader, finds him expanding his palette with unorthodox instrumentation. His quartet includes, in addition to trumpeter Dave Ballou and percussionist Shelly Purdy, innovative pedal guitarist Susan Alcorn whose passing a few months after this music was recorded adds poignancy. “Timeigrant" opens with McNeill's percussive chords in a dramatic tone. Ballou echoes the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steve Coleman, Matthew Shipp and RIP Susan Alcorn

by Jerome Wilson
February 26, 2025

This show features a tribute to the late pedal steel master, Susan Alcorn. It also includes music from Matthew Shipp, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, and Steve Coleman among others. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Itamar Borochov “Bayat Blues" from Arba (Greenleaf Music) 00:53 Mehmet Ali Sanlikol “Estarabim" from Turkish Hipster (Dunya) 5:48 Host Speaks 13:28 Dizzy Gillespie “Theme from ...

Radio & Podcasts

Susan Alcorn, Damon Locks, Allison Miller, Avishai Cohen and Yuval Drabkin

by Hobart Taylor
February 12, 2025

New music from Allison Miller, Damon Locks, Avishai Cohen with Yuval Drabkin and remembering pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn.Playlist Allen Lowe & the Constant Sorrow Orchestra “Dance of the Occupiers" from Louis Armstrong's America (ESP-Disk) 0:00 Mafalda Minnozzi “ Telefone" from Riofonic (Musica Populare Italiana) 2:51 Jimmy Farace “Hours Fly, Flowers Die" from Hours Fly, Flowers Die (Shifting Paradigm) 7:08 Allison Miller “ Potomac" from Big and Lovely (Royal Potato Family) 15:19 Host Speaks 22:40 Harry Drabkin “Ishfahan" ...

Big Band in the Sky

Remembering Susan Alcorn: Bucking The Trends

by Ian Patterson
February 5, 2025

All About Jazz is saddened to learn of the passing of Susan Alcorn--pedal steel guitarist extraordinaire. She died on January 31st of natural causes. Perhaps more than any other pedal steel guitarist before her, Alcorn took her instrument into musical terrain not usually associated with it. She played country music for twenty years, but she also brought her instrument to bear on contemporary classical music, folk music, jazz and more experimental music. Born in Allentown, PA ...

Album Review

Michael McNeill: Barcode Poetry

Read "Barcode Poetry" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
October 22, 2024

Pianist Michael McNeill has pursued a number of projects since his debut release, Passageways, in 2013, each of which has defined his distinctive niche as a musician informed by both avant-garde and conventional jazz. On Barcode Poetry, it is the former impulse that prevails, as McNeill and his esteemed colleagues--Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, Dave Ballou on trumpet, and Shelly Purdy on vibes and percussion--engage in lengthy studies in texture and abstraction rather than straightforward melodic expression.

Radio & Podcasts

Susan Alcorn: Nueva Canción on Pedal Steel

by Lawrence Peryer
January 27, 2024

Today, the Spotlight shines On the innovative pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn.While Susan got her start playing in country & western bands in Texas, she has taken the pedal steel into new and uncharted territories, exploring 20th-century classical music, improvisational jazz, and various world musics.On her latest project, CANTO (Relative Pitch Records), Susan explored Chilean folk music and nueva canción, which translates as “new song" and refers to an intertwined musical and leftist social movement so ...