Jazz Articles about Gregg Bendian

Tribute recordings for Mahavishu Orchestra, Miles Davis and John Coltrane

by Len Davis
July 21, 2023

A feature on tribute releases from The Mahavishnu Project, Yo Miles with Wadada Leo Smith and Henry Kaiser. Steve Morse with a tribute to Steely Dan. Steve Lukather pays tribute to John Coltrane and Mike Stern plays Miles Davis. The music of Jeff Beck from Eric Johnson and and the band Trinity pay tribute to Weather Report.Playlist The Mahavishnu Project “Trilogy" from Music of John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu orchestra (Aggregate) 00:00 Yo Miles “Jabali Pt 2" from ...

Dave Bryant: Night Visitors

by Dan McClenaghan
July 12, 2020

Free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman didn't record much with piano players. Exceptions were Geri Allen on Sound Museum: Three Women and Sound Museum: Hidden Man, released simultaneously in 1996 on Harmolodic / Verve, and Dave Bryant on Tone Dialing (Harmolodic / Verve, 1995), during Coleman's Prime Time days.Bryant's immersion in Coleman's sound—he has conducted master classes in the alto saxophonist's Harmolodic theory and performance at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music—lays the foundation ...

Gregg Bendian

by Bill Milkowski
July 13, 2009

Since the early '90s, drummer Gregg Bendian has distinguished himself as an adventurous and accomplished player-composer through his sideman work with the likes of Derek Bailey, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Peter Brotzmann and Pat Metheny while also leading his own Interzone Quartet and Trio Pianissimo. His most recent recording is the startlingly virtuosic solo drum project Research, on his own Aggregate Music label. But Bendian's most passionate undertaking in recent years has been his Mahavishnu Project (MP), the ...

Gregg Bendian: Research

by John Kelman
July 23, 2008

All-percussion ensemble albums are rare in any genre. Still, by digging deep, it's possible to find exceptional discs like Swiss percussionist Pierre Favre's Singing Drums (ECM, 1984) and, more recently, The New Percussion Group of Amsterdam's Go Between (Summerfold, 2007), proving that percussion needn't be just about the rhythm.

Solo percussion albums are even less common. The chameleon-like Gregg Bendian--who can just as easily be found performing left-of-center form and function with his Interzone group as propelling his Mahavishnu Project ...

The Mahavishnu Project: Return to the Emerald Beyond

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 17, 2007

Il gruppo guidato dal batterista Gregg Bendian affronta un compito davvero arduo: riproporre dal vivo l’intero secondo album della seconda edizione della Mahavishnu Orchestra, intitolato Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Un lavoro affascinante, ma non particolarmente fortunato dal punto di vista del successo discografico. Un'opera molto ambiziosa registrata in studio dalla band di John McLaughlin nel lontano 1975, ricorrendo spesso alla tecnica delle sovraincisioni. Quindi, praticamente, le varie composizioni non erano mai state suonate in diretta, nella loro interezza, neppure ...

Gregg Bendian: Inner Flame, Musical Visions

by Ian Patterson
March 5, 2007

“Being an American musician means being adventurous. The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and the recognition of the importance of music which was from one of the vernacular traditions. You know, music which at one time was considered primitive, uncultured, savage, whatever it may have been...dangerous above all...and recognizing that in this music, lots was being said. Perhaps some of the most important, cutting edge things were being said." (Michael ...

Gregg Bendian's Trio Pianissimo: Change

by John Kelman
October 26, 2005

Building on the deep interaction of Balance--originally released in 1998 but recently reissued by TrueMedia JazzWorks--Change finds Trio Pianissimo continuing to explore, evolve, and integrate percussionist/composer Gregg Bendian's diverse musical interests. While the piano trio represents Bendian's most intimate setting to date, that doesn't mean that Change operates in conventional terms. It is, in fact, a bold, in-your-face recording that even better meshes disparate elements including free jazz, contemporary classical through-composition, and even a little progressive rock.

Still, that's not ...