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Jamie Saft: You Don't Know The Life
We should all be as comfortable in our own skin as Jamie Saft. Zen-like tranquility emanates from his music no matter the form of his projects: the ambient ensemble Plymouth, solo piano, vocals by Iggy Pop on Loneliness Road (RareNoise, 2017), or a small combo like his quartet. This multi- instrumentalist/composer is so secure in his identity that he can participate to the fullest, perfectly confident that his personality will permeate his contributions. You Don't Know The Life ...
read moreJamie Saft, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte: You Don't Know The Life
Since his 1997 recording debut, keyboardist Jamie Saft has carved out a dynamic profile, first (mostly) with John Zorn's Tzadik label and, since 2011, with RareNoise Records. A string of four releases on the label set the stage, beginning with 2014's trio outing The New Standard, through Loneliness Road (2017) (another trio set, with Iggy Pop sitting in on a few tunes), Solo A Genova (2018), and the quartet recording, Blue Dream, featuring saxophonist Bill Henry. It was a busy ...
read moreDoug Collette's Best Releases of 2018
It wasn't hard in the least to compile a 'Best of...' list for 2018. The titles were self-evident as they rolled out, with almost clockwork regularity, over the course of the twelve months, ultimately comprising what I kept going back to most often during the year, enjoying each one more (and in a slightly different way) with each successive hearing. Jamie Saft Solo A Genova Rare Noise Records Jamie Saft Quartet
read moreJamie Saft Quartet: Blue Dream
His third fairly conventional release in a row, Blue Dream is Jamie Saft's second release of this year, followup of a sort to the splendid piano recital Solo a Genova (Rarenoise, 2018). Both titles appear subsequent to a diverse string of projects including Plymouth (Rarenoise, 2014), Red Hill (Rarenoise, 2014) and Serenity Knolls (Rarenoise, 2017), none of which have much in common sonically or conceptually apart from an elevated level of collective creativity. Similar in concept to the ...
read moreJamie Saft Quartet: Blue Dream
If RareNoise Records has a characteristic sound as ECM Records has a characteristic sound, that sound is defined Jamie Saft. Whether it is the unholy ministry of Slobber Pup or the plaintive solo piano of his recent Solo A Genova (RareNoise, 2018), multi-instrumentalist Saft has brought Giacomo Bruzzo's and Eraldo Bernocchi's eclectic-electric British label front and center of not just the jazz world, but the music world. Saft has recorded widely, most notably with John Zorn, Wadada Leo ...
read moreFormats – Solo Through Nonet
One plus Two, equals three, and so on. What arbitrary combo size constitutes a big band? None of these. Solo: Jamie Saft Solo a Genova RareNoise Records 2018 That musical provocateur Jamie Saft, he is a prankster. After making all kinds of noise with the likes of Metallic Taste of Blood, Slobber Pup, Plymouth, Red Hill, The Spanish Donkey and Berserk! and Avant Gard jazz with Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte, Roswell Rudd, and ...
read moreJamie Saft: Solo a Genova
Jamie Saft's first solo album in his twenty-five year career, Solo A Genova, captures this restless, daring artist interpreting a selection of songs that reflect his eclectic taste as a reflection of his customary willingness to challenge himself. The sum effect of hearing this recording from Italy in March of 2017 is an altogether glorious experience made all the more stirring by the inclusion of audience applause: while the response of the attendees is hushed, perhaps out of respect, it's ...
read moreJamie Saft: Solo a Genova
Pianist Jamie Saft's Solo A Genova is a revelation. It is, in an extensive discography, his only alone-in-the-piano-chair outing. Saft has made a wide-ranging mark in collaborations with Slobber Pup, Metallic Taste of Blood, The Spanish Donkey and Berserk! These group names don't say it all, but do probably say something (Brash? Unconventional? Loud?) about the sounds they make. But for the jazz fan of the more purist persuasion, his piano trio discs are probably the ones that find their ...
read moreJamie Saft: Jazz in the Key of Iggy
In 1988 Bill Laswell produced Iggy Pop's album Instinct. Back then, little he could have known that, almost thirty years later, he would have been instrumental in facilitating the iconic singer's first foray in the Jazz world. Loneliness Road (RareNoiseRecords) documents the latest incarnation of James Newell Osterberg Junior, the front man of proto-punk band The Stooges. In this interview pianist Jamie Saft details the making of this one-of-a-kind project. A graduate of Tufts University and the New ...
read moreJamie Saft: Loneliness Road
Much of Iggy Pop's early notoriety in his days with the Stooges was predicated on shock value. These days his durability and longevity as an artist render his continued presence only slightly less startling: the seminal punk-rocker is hitting his seventieth decade, a milestone few might've forecast for him around the time of Raw Power (Columbia, 1973). Multi-instrumentalist and composer Jamie Saft is no doubt aware of this dynamic because he has his own predilections to confound, which is no ...
read moreJamie Saft - Steve Swallow - Bobby Previte: Loneliness Road
So, the front man for the rock/pop group called The Stooges gets an invite to pitch in with a classic jazz piano trio. The Stooge would be Iggy Pop; the piano trio, Jamie Saft's, with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bobby Previte. That's quite an experiment, like something Frank Zappa might have tried. Pianist Jamie Saft has hitched a big part of his star to John Zorn, appearing, as a sideman or leader, on a score of Zorn's ...
read moreBill Brovold & Jamie Saft: Serenity Knolls
It's a shame to say it, but even the most open-minded souls have a tendency to classify and ghettoize musical artists. This is the type of album that reminds us all that you shouldn't. Bill Brovold, a guitarist who came up in the New York no wave scene in the early '80s and is known for his work with avant-rock outfit Larval, and Jamie Saft, a wide-ranging keyboardist with aggressive tendencies and tremendous outside cred, pair decently ...
read morePoll Results
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Jazz Story
By Travis Rogers Jr.
Member since: 2012
I was first exposed to jazz through a high school friend who played Keith Jarrett's “The Koln Concert” for me. Therefore, that was the first jazz record I bought. From Jarrett to Chick to Oscar and Herbie and then came my first hearing of “A Love Supreme.” I was never the same...
