Home » Jazz Articles » Sylvie Courvoisier

Jazz Articles about Sylvie Courvoisier

About Sylvie Courvoisier

Album Review

If you have a pigeonhole into which you would like to place pianist Sylvie Courvoisier's music, maybe stop reading right now. The Swiss-born, now twenty-year native of New York, apportions her many talents to multiple ensembles and musical styles--solo to large ensemble, chamber works, Downtown jazz, flamenco, European classical and improvisation. Needless to say, stagnant is an adjective that could never be applied to her music. D'Agala is her 11th release on Intakt and the second trio recording ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: D'Agala

by Troy Dostert
January 16, 2018

Swiss-born pianist Sylvie Courvoisier has spent close to twenty years in the states honing her distinctive approach to classically-inflected jazz improvisation. Along the way she's worked with a who's-who of leading-edge musicians, including veterans like John Zorn, Evan Parker and Ellery Eskelin, but also the younger generation of avant-gardists such as Mary Halvorson and Nate Wooley. Courvoisier draws from both her conservatory background and her work in the creative jazz world to produce music of a very broad palette. Whether ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: Double Windsor

Read "Double Windsor" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
November 17, 2014

I dieci minuti dell'iniziale title-track valgono da soli il prezzo del biglietto. Non che il resto dello spettacolo sia di secondo piano, ma è in quell'inizio folgorante che riusciamo a cogliere al meglio l'originale vis poetica di Sylvie Courvoisier, pianista di origini svizzere da anni trapiantata a New York. C'è un ostinato sui registri bassi che detta i tempi, certamente, ma è molto di più, perché diventa a sua volta melodia martellante, presenza carsica che affiora e ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: Double Windsor

Read "Double Windsor" reviewed by Henning Bolte

by Henning Bolte
August 28, 2014

The piano trio is the supreme discipline in jazz. Through rich possibilities, it functions as a strong filter sifting out those few who were and are able to set new standards. What matters is how the three instrumental vertices relate to each other dynamically, harmonically and soundwise to build something coherent, in close dependency. Eventually, each shift at one vertex inevitably triggers shifts by the other two. New York pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, not excessively jazz affined in her ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier – Mark Feldman Quartet with Scott Colley and Billy Mintz: Birdies For Lulu

Read "Birdies For Lulu" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 14, 2014

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman are a dynamic duo within the neoteric strategies of modern jazz, coupled with their substantial artistic output. They intersperse classical inferences with shades of folk, avant-garde schemas, and bristling improvisational segments into the big picture. This incarnation of the quartet now features upper-echelon session bassist Scott Colley and venerable drummer Billy Mintz. Essentially, the artists enrich the avant-classical genre by cultivating an undertow framed on swing, bop and concise opuses tinted with the ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier - Mark Feldman: Live at Theatre Vidy-Lausanne

Read "Live at Theatre Vidy-Lausanne" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
July 8, 2013

Oggi, su questo pianeta, ci sono pochissimi altri duo pianoforte-violino che abbiano l'incredibile intensità, vibrante energia, identica immaginazione creativa, toccante lirismo e capacità di quello formato da Sylvie Courvoisier e Mark Feldman. Di per sé, al di fuori delle classiche ambientazioni proposte dalla musica “seria" (come qualche signorotto da conservatorio continua a voler distinguere), il duo pianoforte-violino non è figurazione facile. Molte volte - anche jazzisticamente parlando - non si tratta “solo" di interplay, bensì di indescrivibile magmatico movimento in ...

Album Review

Mark Feldman - Sylvie Courvoisier: To Fly to Steal

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 20, 2011

Si può essere troppo bravi? Sotto le spoglie di una domanda all'apparenza sciocca si nasconde un'annosa questione. Il virtuosismo come zavorra: da risorsa a limite, da mezzo a fine. Chitarristi che sfrecciano alla velocità della luce senza avere uno straccio di idea. Tastieristi da competizione per musica da circo. Non c'è peggior razza degli inutili virtuosi. Che c'entra Mark Feldman con la stirpe dei logorroici? Purtroppo c'entra, eccome. È già da qualche anno che i conti non tornano con il ...