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Dylan Hayes
Meridian Odyssey: Second Wave
by Paul Rauch
The human qualities that are attributed to friendship, draw a remarkable parallel to those qualities that bring musicians together and allow them to communicate without fear. There is the willingness to make oneself vulnerable to emotional discretion, to communicate and embrace others without the encumbrances of ego. There is hard work involved, and a unity that is earned through honest interpretation of one's personal humanity. The actual circumstances that bond friendship, or musical integrity, are distinct and variable. In the ...
read moreBrandonLee Cierley: Camaraderie
by Paul Rauch
Camaraderie (Lofijazzsoul,2022) is BrandonLee Cierley's introduction to the jazz world, where he is a relative newcomer. A Tacoma, WA native who now works out of Portland, OR, Cierley clearly prioritizes original composition as much as he does spontaneous composition as a jazz tenor saxophonist. For a younger player, and as stated, a musician new to the jazz idiom, it is often the case. With the major shift in the recording industry over the past decade, more and more younger players ...
read moreMeridian Odyssey: Earthshine
by Jack Bowers
Meridian Odyssey is a sextet comprising young musicians from the improbable jazz territory of Big Lake, Alaska, and Earthshine is their second recording together, with trumpeter Noah Halpern having been added to the quintet since the ensemble's 2021 debut album, Second Wave. On Earthshine, there are nine original compositions by members of the group, two of which ("The Front of the Mirror," “Reflecting") are roughly a minute or so long. “Mirror" was written by and features bassist ...
read moreMachado Mijiga: Gradient
by Paul Rauch
Machado Mijiga is a Portland born and raised multi- instrumentalist, producer, audio engineer and educator, still based in his city of origin. His 2022 release, Gradient, turns his focus to his creative strengths as a drummer and composer, taking in tunes written over the course of the past decade. Mijiga has mild synesthesia, hearing sounds as colors, shapes or more specifically, colors seen through the spectrum, or color groups. This is similar to the recently passed pianist, Jessica Williams, who ...
read moreMeridian Odyssey: Second Wave
by Dan McClenaghan
Seattle's Origin Records opened 2021 on a hopeful, turning-of-the-page note with Second Wave, by the group Meridian Odyssey. The band comprised five young (twenty-something) Seattle-ites who took advantage of the time on their collective hands, and the low air fares resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, to journey to Alaska, where guitarist Martin Budde's father—a pilot—owns an airplane hangar which served as a recording studio. Where the plane, the hangar's previous occupant, ended up is uncertain. But the saxophone, guitar, bass, ...
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