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Jose Davila
A native from Puerto Rico and raised on the East Coast (Philadelphia, Connecticut and New York) he started to work and hone his craft on the New York scene in the mid 90’s. A multi-talented instrumentalist, composer and arranger he has shown ease in many genres of music spanning from his sideman hits with Jazz superstars (contemporary and traditional), Latin legends, and classical music forays in the halls of Lincoln Center. Jose’s sideman activities have included work with many of the world’s finest talents; Ray Charles Henry Threadgill, Andrew Hill, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Marc Anthony, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Anderson, Nora Jones, Butch Morris, Ted Nash, Lincoln Center Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, American Symphony to name a few....
Currently he is a member of ZOOID led by legendary composer, instrumentalist and avant-garde helmsman Henry Threadgill, and the Liberty Ellman Sextet led by guitarist, composer Liberty Ellman (Liberty Ellman Sextet
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Henry Threadgill Zooid: Cut You Where You Was
by Dan McClenaghan
In 2001, Seth Rosner resurrected reed man Henry Threadgill's career by establishing Pi Recordings, initially for the sole purpose of releasing Threadgill recordings. Threadgill wanted to put out two albums simultaneously. Rosner said he would have agreed to four if that was what the artist requested. But two it was: Up Popped Two Lips by Henry Threadgill's Zooid and Everybody's Mouth's a Book, by Henry Threadgill & Make A Move. This was a move of genius on Rosner's part. Since ...
Continue Reading...Jorge Sylvester Spontaneous Expressions: Mayhem At Large--The Last Baha'i Session
by Jack Bowers
This two-disc set by saxophonist Jorge Sylvester's Spontaneous Expressions documents the last of the Tuesday evening jazz concerts at the Baha'i Center on East 11th Street in New York City. According to the jacket notes, the event was recorded live in March 2020. If that is so, Sylvester's listeners have earned top prize as the quietest audience in recorded history. Nary a sound. Either they were fast asleep or expressing an opinion. The discs themselves are...well, the words ...
Continue Reading...Album Review
Henry Threadgill: The Other One
by Giuseppe Segala
Giunto sulla soglia delle ottanta primavere, Henry Threadgill non lascia sbiadire la propria splendida vitalità creativa. Lo ha fatto quest'anno sia con la pubblicazione dell'imperdibile autobiografiaEasily Slip into Another World, che con una nuova realizzazione discografica, The Other One. Pure questa imperdibile, si colloca tra i lavori che lo hanno visto impegnato esclusivamente come compositore e direttore dell'ensemble, non in qualità di strumentista e solista, sulla traccia dei precedenti Old Locks and Irregular Verbs, del 2016, e Double ...
Continue Reading...Henry Threadgill: The Other One
by John Ephland
Listening to Henry Threadgill's music, the bobbing and weaving doesn't maintain a continuity but can jump from one strand to another, one scene to another, as in a dream. It is tonal and not, just as dreams are, perhaps, rhapsodic or unkempt, the story or plot being as tangible, fungible as a summer breeze. Much is made of Threadgill's chamber-music esthetic. And rightly so. It is “so chamber music precise it must all be premeditated, right?" asked the ...
Continue Reading...Henry Threadgill Ensemble: The Other One
by Troy Dostert
Now that Henry Threadgill has begun receiving the accolades he has long deserved--the Pulitzer Prize he won in 2016 for In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi Recordings, 2015) being just the most prominent example--it is impressive to find him still relentlessly stretching himself as a performer and composer. Since his first forays into the jazz avant-garde in the 1970s, the maverick multi-instrumentalist has always made music that challenges listeners in exciting ways, but it is his uncanny ...
Continue Reading...Warriors of the Wonderful Sound: Soundpath
by Mark Corroto
If we alter President John F. Kennedy's 1962 moon spaceflight speech just a bit, it easily fits the big band adaptation of Muhal Richard Abrams' magnum opus Soundpath, “We choose to perform this composition not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept." Accepting the challenge was band leader Bobby Zankel and ...
Continue Reading...Warriors of the Wonderful Sound: Soundpath
by Giuseppe Segala
Nel 2011 il sassofonista di Filadelfia Bobby Zankel, leader della big band The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound e promotore di laboratori di musica contemporanea, propose a Muhal Richard Abrams un lavoro compositivo che avrebbe dovuto essere affidato alla band, con la direzione dello stesso pianista. Operazioni di questo tipo erano già state realizzate da Zankel negli anni precedenti con le musiche per big band di Julius Hemphill, dirette da Marty Ehrlich, poi con composizioni di Rudresh Mahanthappa e Steve ...
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