Jazz Articles about Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon: United Soul Experience & Dig This!!

by C. Andrew Hovan
October 19, 2004

Straight out of the Wynton Marsalis school of jazz, trombone man Wycliffe Gordon cut his teeth with the ubiquitous trumpeter, yet unlike many from the Marsalis clan, Gordon has shown over the past few years that his musical personality takes in far more far reaching influences than the retro styled swing that Marsalis chooses as his muse. Influenced by a wide lineage of jazz trombonists from Dickey Wells to J.J. Johnson, Gordon has the chops to spare, but communicates with ...

Wycliffe Gordon: Dig This!!

by Joe Klee
March 13, 2004

Wycliffe Gordon is a trombone player who knows his instrument from the primordial playing of Kid Ory and Honore Dutrey through giants like Jack Teagarden and J.J. Johnson up to and including today's best like Steve Turre. This ability is nowhere better illustrated than on this new CD covering music as classic as “Limehouse Blues" and “I Can't Get Started" and as new as the originals composed for this late 2002 recording date. As a jazz historian/antiquarian, ...

Wycliffe Gordon: United Soul Experience

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 25, 2003

It's dangerous to take labels too seriously where music is involved. Take Wycliffe Gordon, for instance. A protégé of Wynton Marsalis and former charter member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the trombonist is most clearly associated with mainstream sensibilities. Truth be told, however, Gordon has evidenced varied interests by such projects as his studio effort The Gospel Truth and time spent with the Herbie Nichols Project.

To date however, he has never sounded more adventurous than on United Soul ...

Wycliffe Gordon Quintet: United Soul Experience

by David A. Orthmann
February 13, 2003

The brainchild of producer Gerry Teekens, United Soul Experience extricates trombonist Wycliffe Gordon from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra orbit and teams him with some of the most interesting young talent in the Criss Cross stable. Tradition-minded but not predictable, the music alludes to several jazz and funk styles without settling into any one of them. Gordon, tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, and pianist David Kikoski play like accomplished young veterans who continue to search for something more. Bassist Larry Grenadier ...

Wycliffe Gordon/Eric Reed: We

by Dave Nathan
July 16, 2002

German label Nagel Heyer knows a good thing when it sees and hears it. This is the third time it has brought New Orleans/post bop trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and contemporary jazz pianist Eric Reed into the studio. But stylistic classifications are set aside when they get together. These two clearly have a special bond which comes through in the fun and excitement they have with the tunes they play with their extraordinary talents. The play list pretty much resembles their ...

Wycliffe Gordon And Eric Reed: We

by C. Michael Bailey
June 1, 2002

Concerto for Wycliffe?

In classical music, this would be termed a trombone recital. Wycliffe Gordon, arguable the finest trombonist practicing, joins uber-pianist Eric Reed for an assembly of standards, originals and spirituals. The duet is pentultimately the most spare of formats to play within. This spareness is relieved to a degree by Reed's pungently orchestral approach to the piano. I cite his playing on “The Lord's Prayer," “Precious Lord Take My Hand," and “He Looked Beyond My Fault," where he ...

The Herbie Nichols Project: Strange City

by C. Andrew Hovan
December 1, 2001

Since 1992, the Herbie Nichols Project has been dedicated to performing the music of a gentleman who in his lifetime was sadly neglected but who left behind a body of work just as idiosyncratic and distinctive as that of Thelonious Monk. Following their two previous releases, Dr. Cyclop’s Dream and Love Is Proximity, the group now makes their debut on the Palmetto label with Strange City, a program made up almost exclusively by tunes that Nichols never recorded himself. Arguably, ...