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TD Ottawa Jazz Festival 2018

2018 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Multiple Venues Ottawa, Canada June 21-June 26, 2018 For its 2018 edition, the 39th annual TD Ottawa Jazz Festival faced a number of significant logistical challenges. First, Confederation Park, which has traditionally been the location of its large, outdoor venue, a food court and number of shops where attendees can pick up CDs of the artist they just saw, T-Shirts and more, is currently under renovation and, therefore, ...
read moreIan Patterson's Best Releases of 2017

I'm always conscious of the fact that no matter how much new music you listen to in a given year it represents but a handful of stars in a teeming galaxy. These are a few of the brightest stars to have illuminated my 2017. The Firebirds Aladdin's Dream ILK Music The Firebirds, the Danish trio of drummer Stefan Pasborg, saxophonist/clarinetist Anders Banke and keyboardist Anders Filipsen recorded a brilliant tribute to the music ...
read moreMarius Neset: Circle of Chimes

It's not just the breath-taking scope and depth of saxophonist/composer Marius Neset's ACT Music releases, Lion (2014), Snowmelt (2016) and now Circle of Chimes (2017) that's remarkable, but the fact that such powerful waves of music have come from the thirty-two-year old Norwegian in the span of just three years.Stylistically diverse as they are, these recordings can be seen together as signposts along the way of Neset's probing journey into terrain where labels seem increasingly inadequate. So too, ...
read moreMarius Neset/London Sinfonietta: Snowmelt

That Marius Neset would eventually produce an extended orchestral-inspired work had been on the cards for some time. As early as his debut as leader, Suite for the Seven Mountains (Calibrated, 2008), the Norwegian saxophonist was incorporating strings into a contemporary jazz setting with a very personal stamp of authority. The extraordinary Birds (Edition Records, 2013) took the concept to exhilarating heights, with the addition of just a seven-piece chamber ensemble to his quintet producing complex, multi-layered sonic tapestries that ...
read moreLive From Birmingham: Marius Neset, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Death Shanties & The Apex Jazz And Swing Band

Marius Neset CBSO Centre April 10, 2015 Not an artist who's interested in stasis, the Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset spent most of two sets unveiling pieces from his new Pinball album, which was released at the beginning of 2015. It's his fourth recording, and Neset seems set on making this a pleasingly prolific annual event. The album features Jim Hart (vibraphone/marimba) and Petter Eldh (bass), but they were also joined for this gig ...
read moreMarius Neset: Pinball

Though Marius Neset thrives in small ensemble settings, his writing has increasingly exhibited orchestral ambition, as witnessed on the thrilling Birds (Edition Records, 2013), which saw his quintet augmented by brass, accordion and woodwind instruments to spectacular effect, and on Lion (ACT Music, 2014), a powerful outing with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. The aptly named Pinball sees Neset in equally expansive mood, navigating often complex charts with his core quintet bolstered on half the tracks by cello, violin and flute. ...
read moreMarius Neset/Trondheim Jazz Orchestra: Lion

Lion is a good name for Marius Neset's first recording with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, for like a great cat, the Norwegian orchestra purrs and prowls, roars and pounces. Regardless of tempo--whether cruising or charging--there's majesty in the collective voice. Commissioned for the Molde Jazz Festival in 2012, the momentum from that performance took Neset and this twelve-piece orchestra into the recording studio with spectacular results. In fourteen years, the TJO has become something of a Norwegian national ...
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