Results for "Alex Coke"

Alex Coke & Carl Michel: The Emissary

by Jerome Wilson
April 16, 2022

With instrumentation that includes harp, pedal steel guitar and vibraphone, this album is clearly not meant to resemble a classic jazz session. Instead, it ambitiously incorporates jazz, medieval composition and exotic folk melodies into a hypnotically beautiful set of diverse rhythms and motifs. The most austere selection is “O Pastor Animarum" by 12th century ...

Alex Coke & Carl Michel: The Emissary

by Kyle Simpler
February 7, 2022

While much of the world was in lockdown during 2020, saxophonist Alex Coke and harpist Elaine Barber had an idea that caught on. They decided to bring their instruments out on the driveway of the Austin, Texas home they were sheltering in and play music while waiting for their groceries to be delivered. These impromptu concerts ...

The Emissary

By Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet

Label: Play On
Released: 2021
Track listing: Arabesque; O Pastor Animarum; The Emissary; Sol y Luna; Alterations; Go Down, Old Hannah.

Sol Y Luna

November 29, 2021

Album: The Emissary
By Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet
Label: Play On
Released: 2021
Duration: 05:18

Burton Greene: From Bomb To Balm

by Barbara Ina Frenz
December 18, 2020

Chicago-born pianist Narada Burton Greene (b.1937) can be called a veteran of the 1960s jazz avant-garde—the starting point of his universal musical life. In 1962, he moved to New York and founded, together with bassist Alan Silva, the Free Form Improvisational Ensemble, which played improvised music without preconceived compositional elements. In 1965, he became a member ...

Prolific Austin composer, first call pianist Rich Harney dies suddenly at 66

March 21, 2020

Austin is mourning the loss of one of its finest and most beloved musicians, pianist Rich Harney. Harney passed away on January 5, 2020, just before a Sunday night trio gig at The Elephant Room. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Harney was a prolific composer first inspired by the recordings of Oscar Peterson. Influences include Thelonious Monk, ...

Rich Harney

Born: June 7, 1954

Rich Harney has been illuminating the Austin jazz scene as one of its brightest stars for the last decade. His remarkable talents as pianist, composer, and vocalist have gained him acclaim from the Austin American-Statesman as “one of Austin’s most valuable musical resources.” The Austin Jazz Players and Critics Poll honored him in 1993 as Composer of the Year, Best Songwriter, and Best Male Jazz Vocalist. He also received second place honors in the Austin Music Umbrella’s 1992 Composer Competition. In a 1990 competition adjudicated by Branford Marsalis, MUSICIAN Magazine named Harney’s Sextet as one of the “Twelve Best Unsigned Bands Nationwide”.Harney has performed extensively as band leader and ensemble pianist with Gene Ramey, Tony Campise, Carmen Bradford (Count Basie Orchestra), Martin Banks (Duke Ellington Orchestra), Clifford Scott and Ted Piltzecker (Director, Aspen Music Festival’s Jazz Program)

Alex Coke

Born: November 13, 1953

Alex Coke 
is a Texas tenor saxophonist, flutist, and composer 
based in Austin, Texas and Amsterdam, Netherlands.



An improvisor at heart, his multifarious projects as bandleader include 
Live Action Brass Band, Leadbelly Legacy Band, New
 Texas Swing, a jazz adaptation of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas In Wales, and the post-bop quintet, Worthy Constituents, a collaboration with longtime partner, pianist, and composer, Rich Harney.

In 2022, along with guitarist Carl Michel, Coke began writing for, performing and recording with the Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet, an outgrowth of a series of driveway concerts he and harpist Elaine Barber began hosting in 2020. The sextet has recorded 3 albums to date on the PlayOn records label The Emissary, Emergence and Situation.

Afrifonica[CD]/Pyrasonix [DVD}

By Anyaa Arts Kollektif

Label: VoxLox
Released: 2014

Ilebombo

By Phola Mamba

Label: Indy release
Released: 2013
Track listing: 1. Bokhewane 2. Shisa 3. Emachosani 4. Tingumasitsela 5. Baleka 6. Khona 7. Khwela 8. Shikisha 9. Zulu 10. Sililo 11. Batsume 12. Ngiyekeleni 13. Mbombela 14. Baleshebeen