Jazz Articles about Ted Sirota

Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls: Breeding Resistance

by Rex Butters
May 1, 2004

Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls know danger when they create it. Arriving on Chicago's Delmark label, Breeding Resistance taps into an honorable jazz tradition of music as political activism. Mingus, Shepp, Kirk, Haden, and more recently Dapp Theory, David Budbill, and Vijay Iyer have successfully wed jazz and politics. Drummer Sirota drives his ensemble through a catalogue of styles, faithfully visiting dub, swinging post bop, Soweto, and more.

Sirota's longtime partner in Rebel Souls, Chicago guitar whiz Jeff Parker, ...

Ted Sirota: Drummer with the Soul of a Rebel

by R.J. DeLuke
April 12, 2004

Ted Sirota out of Chicago is a thinker. He’s politically astute and socially conscious. He’s also a musician, drummer and composer by trade. He sees struggle in all realms — political, social and art — but he rolls with the punches and moves with the times. And he’s combined a sound statement on the political and social scene with some outstanding music on his latest CD.Breeding Resistance by Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, the band’s first release on Delmark, ...

Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls: Breeding Resistance

by Mark Corroto
March 4, 2004

Anyone out there wondering where (and maybe when) all the popular culture protests over King George’s war will begin? Where are the Country Joe and the Fish bands? Has Someone kidnapped Arlo Guthrie? And will Crosby, Stills, and Nash have to seek the advice of their broker before singing “Ohio” again?

Sorry, but popular music is too closely tied to the corporate interests that run this country to speak out. Rappers will remain fixed on their collective ...

Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls: Propaganda

by Joel Roberts
July 1, 1999

I was immediately hooked by this album's first track: a loose, free-wheelin' tune called “Geronimo's Free" that laces jazz solos over a ska backbeat, recalling the best of the Skatellites. But don't expect just one sound or style from Chicago drummer Ted Sirota and his band, the Rebel Souls. Propaganda offers a little bit of everything: bebop, avant jazz, jazz-rock, even a touch of the blues - not surprising since Sirota was once a member of blues great Eddie Kirkland's ...