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Rich Halley
For over two decades, Rich was the leader of the Lizard Brothers, a sextet whose performances combined exploration and jazz tradition. He was the leader of Multnomah Rhythm Ensemble, a group that combined new jazz with multi-media.
Rich has performed throughout the US, in Canada and in the Middle East. He has performed with Andrew Hill, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Tony Malaby, Julius Hemphill, Michael Bisio, Oliver Lake, Obo Addy, Michael Vlatkovich, Rob Blakeslee and Bert Wilson. Rich is a founder of Oregon's Creative Music Guild.
Rich Halley was educated as a field biologist. His lifelong interest in nature and his love of adventure has informed his music and led him on many trips into wilderness regions around the world. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Rich Halley: Fire Within
by Troy Dostert
The cover and title of Rich Halley's latest, Fire Within, have a menacing edge, alerting us to the incendiary qualities that are always a part of the tenor saxophonist's music. But one of the remarkable things about Halley's output is that it is never one-dimensional; there are abundant nuances and surprises to keep a listener engaged, with plenty of rhythmic fervor and lyricism even amidst the more anarchic moments. And as he is united once again on his third outing ...
read moreFinding The Fire Within With Rich Halley And More
by Bob Osborne
On this show we feature recent and new releases from Rich Halley, Pat Thomas's Ism, Angel Bat Dawid, John Herberman, Pernille Bévort 3, Joe Santa Maria, Rajna Swaminathan, Rebecca Nash, Ancient Infinity Orchestra, Isaiah Collier, Christoph Gallio Dominic Lash & Mark Sanders, and Blue Moods featuring Art Hirahara, Diego Rivera, Boris Kozlov and Vinnie Sperrazza.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Rich Halley Following The Stream" from Fire Within (Pine Eagle Records) 00:56 Ism Niloo's Dream" from Maua (577 Records) 17:22 ...
read moreRich Halley: Fire Within
by Mike Jurkovic
The name of free form saxophonist and raconteur Rich Halley may not roll off the tongue or be a secret G7 password, but he sure kicks up a lot of dust. Put him in the same room as piano slaying Matthew Shipp, bassist Michael Bisio, and drummer Newman Taylor Baker and rest assured all hell will break loose. And when all hell breaks loose it sounds hydrogen-charged and animated like Fire Within--a runaround Hail Mary with a post-rock punch and ...
read moreRich Halley: Boomslang
by Mark Corroto
Jazz has, to some extent, always been about making connections and pointing out interrelations. Ever since Buddy Bolden blew his cornet in New Orleans around the start of the twentieth century, listeners have been playing connect the dots, linking Bolden's innovations to King Oliver and Oliver's to Louis Armstrong, likewise Buck Clayton to Dizzy Gillespie and Kirk Knuffke, and so on. Jazz has both an oral and aural tradition that contextualizes innovation within the traditions but maybe more importantly allows ...
read moreHalley-Clucas-Reed-Halley: Boomslang
by Dan McClenaghan
Rich Halley has a thing about snakes. Those on the receiving end of a postal delivery from the Portland, Oregon-based saxophonist are likely to find a serpent coiled in the upper right hand corner of the envelope--a stamp featuring scarlet king snake, perhaps. Or maybe some sort of pit viper. And speaking of pit vipers, Halley released Requiem For A Pit Viper (Pine Eagle Records) in 2011. A thing about snakes... Not surprising, since Halley was ...
read moreRich Halley: The Shape Of Things
by Hrayr Attarian
Accomplished saxophonist Rich Halley has an easily recognizable style which is marked with his brassy, rough-hewn tone, innovative ideas and simmering passion. After starting his own Pine Eagle label, in 2010, Halley added eleven stimulating albums to his discography, featuring bassist Clyde Reed and his son, drummer Carson Halley. In 2019 Halley started fronting the equally distinctive Matthew Shipp Trio. The fiery and captivating The Shape of Things is the quartet's second collaboration and expands on the themes explored on ...
read moreRich Halley: The Shape Of Things
by Troy Dostert
One thing is certain when approaching a Rich Halley recording: it's likely that you will hear the history of the saxophone in his playing. He's as capable of filling the room with fractured sound as he is in gently ruminating over a haunting phrase, and bop licks are as common as noisy abstraction on his albums; indeed, one might find all of these traits within the same piece. On his latest, The Shape of Things, he's fortunate to have the ...
read moreRich Halley's Quartet Goes Long and Strong on "Requiem for a Pit Viper"
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Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Tenorist-band- leader-tunesmith Rich Halley turns in one his very best efforts on the new CD Requiem for A Pit Viper (Pine Eagle 003). It's Rich plus trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bassist Chris Reed and drummer Carson Halley in a long set of originals with lots of room for solos. As is generally the case with Rich's band concept there is a distinct post-Ornettian vibe. The pianoless group generally keeps the time going and freeboppingly rides atop in their own waycalling on ...
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Rich Halley Quartet - Requiem for a Pit Viper (2011)
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Something Else!
Last year we introduced a really good avanteer to this site in Rich Halley, a lively and imaginative saxophonist and composer who would probably be more of a household name if he were in Chicago or New York instead of Portland, Oregon. Or played in a world-renowned venue like the Village Vanguard instead of Potter Valley, California. But Halley lives where he wants to live and plays what he wants to play, which is out jazz. And thankfully so, because ...
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Children of the Blue Supermarket: Dan Raphael's Poetry Melds with Rich Halley's Jazz
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Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Poetry-Jazz collaborations can vary wildly from the Why?" to the Wow!" The poetry of course should be worth hearing. But equally, the recitation should have a dynamism of pitch-speech performance excitement. Then of course the jazz needs to relate to all that and in the end be jazz that's worth hearing alongside the poetic meanings evoked. Children of the Blue Supermarket (Pine Eagle 002) qualifies on each of those levels. The CD was recorded during two live appearances in 2008 ...
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Rich Halley Quartet - Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival (2010)
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Something Else!
By Pico Since the fifties, many a jazz musician have made records of their live gigs at festivals. Some of the largest and most enduring ones have been a favorite location for cutting a record: Newport, Montreaux, Monterrey, North Sea and so on. And then there's the Penofin Jazz Festival in Potter Valley, California. Nestled in a dell surrounded by rugged, mountainous terrain about 120 miles north of San Francisco, the live performances are held in a large barn. This ...
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"Freewheeling and satisfying." -Eric Fine, DownBeat
"No saxophonist out there is playing with more fire, muscle, sheer guts or wild abandon than Halley. But as out there as he can get, there's always a boppish discipline, a thread of containment" -Dan McClenaghan, allaboutjazz
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From: Back From BeyondBy Rich Halley
Requiem for a Pit Viper
From: Requiem For A Pit ViperBy Rich Halley