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Colin Gordon
Colin has won various awards and prizes, most recently as the featured soprano saxophonist on Jennifer Bellor's piece Midnight Swim (2013) winning the DownBeat Outstanding Performance Award. Colin has performed extensively in New York City at venues such as Smalls, Birdland, Smoke, ShapeShifter Lab, Tea Lounge, Douglas Street Music Collective, Somethin' Jazz Club, Symphony Space and City Winery. He has also played at numerous international jazz festivals and clubs throughout The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Most recently he was a featured soloist with the UNLV Wind Orchestra at the Festival des Anches d'Azur (2016) in La Croix Valmer, France.
While many of his greatest influences in the saxophone include jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and Lee Konitz, Colin has also found inspiration in various musical cultures throughout the world. He has developed a unique sound studying aspects of rhythm and melody from both Western and Eastern cultures. He is currently writing a book regarding microtonal music in jazz after receiving an award from Eastman's New Venture Challenge, as well as an instructional book on practicing rhythms in jazz.
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Brendan Lanighan Octet: A Little Optimism
by Jack Bowers
A Little Optimism, trombonist Brendan Lanighan believes, can often go a long way. That is the essential message of the Lanighan Octet's debut recording, a pleasurable pastiche of original compositions by the Buffalo, NY-born trombonist plus a pair of enduring standards that share a springtime theme and the name Richard Rodgers as composer. Along the way, Lanighan pays homage to one of his early heroes, the late tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker ("All Day Breckfest"); to another Buffalo-born ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Saraga Quintet: First Vision
by Dan Bilawsky
When young artists release their first album, it's always tempting to say they “show potential" or “are off to a good start," but those comments tend to be kindly veiled takes on “you get an A for effort, but should have waited a bit longer." Jonathan Saraga need not worry about having such pacifying comments thrown his way; the trumpeter's First Vision isn't the stuff of amateurs on the brink of musical maturity, it's a stand-up-and-take-notice offering. ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Saraga Quintet: First Vision
by Dan McClenaghan
Trumpeter Jonathan Saraga opens his debut, First Vision with the eleven-and-a-half-minute original, “Guidance," a probing rumination that flares up during his solo. The tune as a whole is a slow burn, but it bursts into high flames as it comes to its conclusion.The leader has assembled a fine quintet of standard configuration--two horns, a chording instrument (here, guitar), bass and drums. The music, all Saraga-penned, has an uncommon freshness coming from a 24 year-old artist who is well ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Saraga: First Vision
by Hrayr Attarian
Award-winning trumpeter Jonathan Saraga's First Vision, is a skillfully conceived and exquisitely realized debut that brings to mind the edgy, envelope-pushing hard bop of many a Blue Note record in the early 1960s. The modal melodies are artfully orchestrated, allowing each musician the full breadth of his spontaneous creativity without resorting to unfettered clamor. Not a single note is wasted. Whether on trumpet or flugelhorn, Saraga's clear, elegiac tone weaves intricate musical tales around the themes. “Guidance," ...
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The Reiki Practitioner
From: First VisionBy Colin Gordon
