Articles

Adam Nussbaum: Back To Basics

By Ludovico Granvassu

For his first album as a leader, The Leadbelly Project (Sunnyside Records), Adam Nussbaum has decided to focus on one of his first musical heroes, Huddie William Ledbetter, best known as Leadbelly. With an original line-up featuring two guitar players (Steve Cardenas and Nate Radley) and one saxophonist (Ohad Talmor) Adam Nussbaum has chosen to go on a path less travelled, putting aside for a moment his power drumming and going back to basics with a project that prioritizes communication ...

Adam Nussbaum: The Lead Belly Project

By Dan McClenaghan

The blues is simple music. What do they call it? Three chords and the truth? They say the same about country music and rock, but that's another article. But for much of American music, blues is the bedrock, be it rock, soul, funk, a good slice of country western, and, yes, jazz. Drummer Adam Nussbaum zeros in on the blues with the Lead Belly Project, exploring the seminal delta blues of Huddie Ledbetter (1888-1949), aka, Lead Belly.

(Another) Nuttree Quartet (Abercrombie / Anderson / Liebman / Nussbaum): Something Sentimental

By John Kelman

It's always a pleasure to hear a group of musicians who, over the years, have developed not just a strong musical bond, but a personal one as well. If it's a truth that most musicians' style is a direct extension of their personality--of who they are--then it's equally logical to extrapolate that the musical interaction between them somehow mirrors the way their friendships have evolved.

First coming together for a party to honor the recently departed ...

The Nuttree Quartet (John Abercrombie / Jerry Bergonzi / Adam Nussbaum / Gary Versace): Standards

By John Kelman

With the plethora of discs released every year that over-mine the standards repertoire, it's easy to forget that there was a time when an album called Standards would not be considered almost a dirty word. Saxophonist David Liebman's recently unearthed Pendulum Live at the Village Vanguard (Mosaic, 2008) is one such example. Drummer Adam Nussbaum, figurative leader of The Nuttree Quartet and occasional Liebman collaborator, may not demonstrate quite the same visceral energy on Standards, but there's still plenty of ...