Jazz Articles about Dominic Duval

Remembering Dominic Duval

by Dom Minasi
August 28, 2016

Around 1985, I got a call from a close friend and my drummer at the time, Tony Lupo. Tony and I had been friends and playing together since 1963. At that time, we were both into Be-Bop and as we grew in age, our musical tastes and interest leaned towards outside playing. Of course, we never played that way on gigs, but when we got together that's how we played. In the seventies, my trio consisted of Mitchel May on ...

Dominic Duval: Follow Your Melody

by Maxim Micheliov
July 22, 2016

In memory of Dominic Duval: 1945-2016. This article was first published in October 2010. Bassist Dominic Duval is a mystery to many—even to those interested in free music. Seemingly emerging out of nowhere in the mid-1990s, over the course of 15 years he has built a formidable discography, firmly establishing him as one of the most original and prolific bassists alive today. His career is well-documented on more than one hundred recordings, including collaborations with Cecil ...

Jimmy Halperin/ Dominic Duval/ Brian Willson: The Music of John Coltrane

by John Sharpe
January 1, 2011

Why would modern improvisers want to create a session around music over 50 years old? That's the question the pairing of bassist Dominic Duval and saxophonist Jimmy Halperin look to answer over the 68-minute program of The Music of John Coltrane. Having already delved into the Thelonious Monk songbook on Monkinus (CIMP, 2006) and Monk Dreams (No Business, 2009), the duo this time has drummer Brian Willson along for the ride, and an honest, engaging and enjoyable ride it is ...

Dominic Duval: Covering All Basses

by Robert Iannapollo
December 8, 2006

Although a late bloomer (the first recording under his own name came in 1997 when he was 52), Dominic Duval is one of the great bassists working in jazz today. And in the last ten years, his output both under his own name and in bands (including Trio X and with Cecil Taylor) has ballooned to well over 60 releases. Although best known as a bassist of voluminous technique whose output is oriented toward the avant-garde and free improvisation, that ...

Dominic Duval/Mark Whitecage: Rules of Engagement Vol. 1

by Clifford Allen
January 22, 2004

When one thinks of a bass duet record, one expects a dialogue with another rhythm instrument, if not another stringed instrument. Bass/piano duos are not uncommon (Matthew Shipp/William Parker, David Izenzon/Joe Scianni), but to hear the bass in conversation with a frontline instrument is rather rare. Of course, the matching of wits between two untempered instruments produces sympathetic results: the ability to slide between notes and match harmonics is common to both strings and reeds, so it should be no ...

Duval / Rosen / Whitecage: No Respect

by Frank Rubolino
June 25, 2003

The trio of Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, and Mark Whitecage convey a strong sense of intimacy on No Respect. Recorded during a club date in Austria, the set reflects three musicians picking up a spark of current and transforming it into brilliant light. Their music has rushing absorbability, rolling mightily along and gathering momentum as the sound of reeds, bass, and drums all intertwine cohesively.

Whitecage, who composed five of the pieces on this date, is an intriguing woodwind player. ...

Dominic Duval String & Brass Ensemble: American Scrapbook

by Derek Taylor
December 2, 2002

American folk music takes many forms, from the austere jangle of tautly strung banjo strings to the urban blues wail wrung from a burnished saxophone bell. Dominic Duval’s freshly minted ensemble falls somewhere in between on this admittedly slipshod spectrum of indigenous sounds. The instrumentation evinces strong chamber music connotations - strings balanced by a small bulwark of brass sans percussion and reeds. But the music and the pathos-permeated playing that suffuse the program suggest other reservoirs of creative energy. ...