Jazz Articles about Taylor Ho Bynum

About Taylor Ho Bynum

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum: The Ambiguity Manifesto

Read "The Ambiguity Manifesto" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 17, 2019

Cornetist, composer, organizer and curator Taylor Ho Bynum marshals his recording The Ambiguity Manifesto into the categories of before and after, as in AM/PM, BC/AD, and maybe more appropriately before AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and after AACM. With the entire breadth of recorded jazz history available, Bynum chose the concepts of the AACM as the tipping point(s) for this recording. This is a natural progression from his apprenticeship with Anthony Braxton and also his work with ...

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum 9-tette: The Ambiguity Manifesto

Read "The Ambiguity Manifesto" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
September 15, 2019

Taylor Ho Bynum's The Ambiguity Manifesto, with its oxymoronic title, is the third album in what the cornetist-composer calls an “accidental trilogy." Following his Firehouse 12 Records releases Navigation (Possible Abstracts XII & XIII) (2013) and Enter the Plus Tet (2016), Bynum recognized a form--however unconventional--both in the composition and performing of these large ensemble works. With a 9-tette made up of members of his sextet and Plus Tet, Bynum adds Stomu Takeishi on electric bass. Bynum cites ...

Album Review

Illegal Crowns: Illegal Crowns

Read "Illegal Crowns" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 10, 2016

Three quarters of the cast on Illegal Crowns comprises familiar faces and frequent collaborators. Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and guitarist Mary Halvorson have enjoyed long associations with iconoclastic composer and reedman Anthony Braxton. With the addition of drummer Tomas Fujiwara, they constitute Bynum's Trio and the larger part of The Thirteenth Assembly, whose Station Direct (Important, 2011) was one of the unsung classics of that year. The ringer here is French pianist Benoit Delbecq who, as well as leading his ...

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum: Enter the PlusTet

Read "Enter the PlusTet" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 23, 2016

Taylor Ho Bynum continues to delve into the endless possibilities of large ensemble writing on Enter the PlusTet, the debut of his newest band of the same name. Following in the footsteps of Navigation, his ambitious multi-format sextet and septet recording (Firehouse 12, 2012), this lean set finds the vanguard cornetist more than doubling the size of his working sextet on a trio of long-form compositions that circumvent the conventions of traditional song forms by way of non-linear episodic narratives. ...

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum: Enter the Plus Tet

Read "Enter the Plus Tet" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 8, 2016

Cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum has proven to be a visionary composer, striking the difficult balance between free improvised and arranged music. While accomplished in any group setting, he has shown a particular gift for extended works in larger group situations as in two recent Firehouse 12 Records releases, his sextet Apparent Distance (2011) and sextet and 7-tet on the impressive box set Navigation (The Complete Firehouse 12 Recordings) (2012). On Bynum's new release Enter the Plus Tet he incorporates some ...

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum 7-tette: Navigation

Read "Navigation" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
March 3, 2014

L'intento--racconta lo stesso Taylor Ho Bynum nelle note di copertina--è quello di massimizzare la libertà dei musicisti nell'ambito delle sfide poste dalla rigidità e dalla struttura delle composizioni. A tal fine organizza Navigation (The Complete Firehouse 12 Recordings) in questo modo: una seduta dal vivo registrata il sette dicembre 2012 con il sestetto e fissata su due long playing in edizione limitata, un seduta in studio avvenuta il giorno seguente nella quale si aggiunge il batterista e vibrafonista Chad Taylor ...

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum: Navigation (Possible Abstracts XII & XIII)

Read "Navigation (Possible Abstracts XII & XIII)" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 11, 2013

If Duke Ellington and Anthony Braxton were able to mix their DNA and reproduce themselves, the cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum would certainly be their scion. The best example of this Ellington/Braxton spawn is the latest recordings by Bynum's Sextet: the simultaneous release of an LP with digital download of the live date Navigation (Possible Abstracts X & XI) and a studio session, Navigation (Possible Abstracts XII & XIII), augmented here by drummer Chad Taylor to form a 7-tet.