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Richard Sussman: The Evolution Suite

By Troy Dostert

On this ambitious recording, keyboardist Richard Sussman draws together several seasoned jazz veterans with the Sirius Quartet for a stimulating, genre-defying album of music. Built around Sussman's five-part “Evolution Suite," the record's guiding theme is also a gesture toward the transcendence of stylistic boundaries that animates Sussman's music. By utilizing conventional jazz, fusion, contemporary classical and a good dose of computer-generated electronics, Sussman is clearly making a statement about the importance of moving beyond pre-established categories in the quest to ...

Richard Sussman: The Evolution Suite

By Dan McClenaghan

Arranger/conductor Gunther Schuller coined, in 1957, the term “Third Stream," to describe a musical synthesis of jazz and classical music. Early examples of this sound include Miles Davis/Gil Evans' Sketches of Spain (Columbia Records, 1961), saxophonist Stan Getz' Focus (Verve Records, 1961), and the Dizzy Gillespie/J.J. Johnson collaboration, the oddly overlooked and excellent Perceptions (Verve Records, 1961). Pianist/composer Richard Sussman takes that Third Stream idea a step further with The Evolution Suite, by combining jazz, classical and ...

Richard Sussman Quintet: Nyack, NY, July 22, 2012

By David A. Orthmann

Richard Sussman QuintetNyack Jazz Week at the Turning Point CafeNyack, NYJuly 22, 2012Unlike the performance of certain forms of popular music, in which musicians dutifully strive to reproduce perfect versions of tracks from a record, a jazz CD release party proceeds from entirely different expectations. Befitting the music's emphasis on improvisation and the element of surprise, a live set of previously recorded compositions serves as a jumping off point for differences born in the heat ...

Richard Sussman: Live At Sweet Rhythm

By Dan Bilawsky

Life has few certainties, but the constant and ever-moving nature of time is one of them. Events, both miniscule and monumental, pass by and usually leave nothing more than a memory or, in the case of music, a record. Such was the case with pianist Richard Sussman's Free Fall (Inner City Records, 1978). Joined by some burgeoning young talent in 1978, Sussman's album became an underground classic and that seemed to be the end of it. All the players involved ...

The Richard Sussman Quintet: Free Fall

By C. Michael Bailey

The re-release of a classic...

Formerly released on Inner City records in 1979, Richard Sussman's Post Bop masterpiece Free Fall languished for several years before being revived by Jamey Aebersold and Double Time Jazz Records. It is odd that as fine a recording as this is, Sussman recorded only once more for Inner City Records ( Tributaries, 1980).It is a pity, because this maiden voyage smacks of subtle brilliance. Sussman was savvy enough to bring on board a young and ...