Jazz Articles about Hashem Assadullahi

Benjamin Boone: Caught in the Rhythm

by Paul Rauch
September 28, 2023

The connection between poetry and jazz music is a delicate one. It has been documented so infrequently, in performance and recordings, that one still conjures the flicker of an image of Jack Kerouac reading in some dark Greenwich Village cafe with Steve Allen or Zoot Sims, surrounded by beret-wearing, cappuccino-sipping beatniks. The work of Fresno-based saxophonist Benjamin Boone has assisted in widening that view through four albums recorded for the Origin Records label, including the fourth, Caught in the Rhythm ...

Benjamin Boone: The Poets Are Gathering

by Paul Rauch
December 31, 2020

Saxophonist Benjamin Boone continues his ambitious foray into jazz and poetry, this time recruiting an impressive cadre of poets for his aptly entitled release, The Poets are Gathering (Origin, 2020). The union of poetry and jazz has never been so powerfly presented, reflecting the past year of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, the universal role of the poet, and the power of art and voice to raise awareness and inspire change. The album employs the likes of US Poet ...

Hashem Assadullahi: Pieces

by Mark Corroto
April 24, 2013

Saxophonist Hashem Assadullahi and his core band returned to the studio to release an exceptionally strong sophomore effort with Pieces. The Texas born-Northwest cured-New York-based musician revealed his penchant for melody on his prior release Strange Neighbor (8bells, 2009). Here he builds upon that foundation with a scattering of themes from pop tunes, avant-garde leanings, and some deftly orchestrated group improvisations. Assadullahi's returning partners here are guitarist Justin Morell and trumpeter Ron Miles, who yearly receives the “artist ...

The Hashem Assadullahi Quintet: Strange Neighbor

by Glenn Astarita
October 14, 2009

Oregon-based musician and educator Hashem Assadullahi introduces a wealth of attention-grabbing points of view into this quintet date, featuring eminent trumpeter Ron Miles. It's a democratic, group-focused modus operandi, spinning with variable harmonic and rhythmic underpinnings, where Assadullahi is more concerned with compositional depth and use of space. Still, the soloists receive ample breathing room to improvise and engage in thematic expansion.

On “Hypothesis B--The Wildflower," the quintet merges a sense of quietude via Justin Morell's simple guitar ...