Jazz Articles about Tom McMahon

About Tom McMahon

Album Review

Instruments often tell stories through music, but it's rare that a story can spawn an actual instrument. When author Frank Herbert's Dune hit book store shelves in the '60s, he probably never imagined that his book would become a movie or a television mini-series, but that's not the only thing that came to life from the pages of his writing. The baliset--a stringed instrument played by tapping the strings against the frets--was born from Herbert's words. Diehard fans know that ...

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Album Review

Tom McMahon: Small Talk

Read "Small Talk" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 3, 2004

The Baliset, as Tom McMahon explains on the cover of his d'but recording, Small Talk , --is a unique eleven-string instrument that is played by tapping the strings against the frets. The large range of the Baliset--over five octaves--fills out the trio, as bass and treble parts are played simultaneously." Like artists including Charlie Hunter with his eight-string hybrid and Tony Levin with his Stick, McMahon's instrument requires a certain independence of thought, a certain pianistic approach that most string ...