Results for "Carla Kihlstedt"

Instrumental Duos

by Karl Ackermann
April 20, 2021

The early days of jazz were not always harmonious. Converted dance orchestras often sounded like unbalanced acoustic junkyards; a single violin, cornet, trombone, clarinet, tuba, drums, banjo, and piano, all fighting for attention. The piano was meant to be the glue holding the shrill and boisterous elements together. In 1921 a prodigy pianist named Zez Confrey ...

Carla Kihlstedt

Satoko Fujii - Joe Fonda: 4

by Karl Ackermann
October 17, 2019

When pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda first teamed up on Duet (Long Song Records, 2016), neither was familiar with the work of the other. Three short years later, “other" no longer applies, as the instantaneous rapport Fujii and Fonda found has led to a growing portfolio of cutting-edge music. 4 is the latest entry ...

Satoko Fujii / Ramon Lopez: Confluence

by Karl Ackermann
July 17, 2019

Satoko Fujii's duo recordings are among her most interesting projects. Those one-on-one situations bring out creative energy in the improviser that becomes perpetual movement between musicians. The shape-shifting artist has worked this magic with Australian pianist Alister Spence, bassist Joe Fonda, violinists Mark Feldman and Carla Kihlstedt, and Fujii's husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. Similarly, Fujii's work ...

Wayne Horvitz: Those Who Remain

by Mario Calvitti
July 8, 2019

Conosciuto principalmente per le sue partecipazioni a vari progetti di John Zorn (in particolare nel gruppo Naked City), le collaborazioni con Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte e altri, e i gruppi da lui guidati come Zony Mash (e la versione acustica Sweeter Than the Day), Pigpen e Presidents, il tastierista Wayne Horvitz può vantare anche una intensa, ...

Big in Japan, Part 3: Satoko Fujii’s Year of Living Dangerously

by Karl Ackermann
January 4, 2019

In the first two parts of this series we looked at the origins of jazz in Japan and its adherence to the American style of composing, arranging and playing. Though jazz has been popular in Japan from the earliest days, it was--as in the United States--hardly met with unanimous approval in a country that prized classical ...

Rova Channeling Coltrane: Electric Ascension

by John Sharpe
October 5, 2016

John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse, 1965) stands as a seminal moment in the development of modern jazz, presenting structured large group improvisation which renounced both the form and content of almost all previous models. It was never performed live, and this was one of the facts which initially captured the attention of the now venerable ROVA Saxophone ...

Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda with Natsuki Tamura: Duet

by Karl Ackermann
September 30, 2016

Two of creative music's most inventive forces come together on Duet. Musical restiveness is at the core of pianist/accordionist and composer Satoko Fujii. With a catalogue three-score deep, she has covered formations from large orchestra to solo where the common denominator is her wide and daring exploration of improvisational spaces. Her adroit aptitude for moving through--and ...

George Hurd: Navigation Without Numbers

by Karl Ackermann
March 3, 2016

San Francisco-based composer George Hurd doesn't subscribe to any of the monolithic definitions around musical categories. In his own creative process he incorporates classical chamber music, home-grown electronics and acoustic instrumentation. Performed by the rotation of players making up his namesake ensemble, his debut album, Navigation Without Numbers, presents us with eleven Hurd original compositions that ...

Ben Goldberg: Orphic Machine

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 30, 2015

Un nonetto pieno zeppo di musicisti di prima grandezza si pone al servizio della musica di Ben Goldberg, nello specifico integrata dai testi di Allen Grossman cantati da Carla Kihlstedt. La componente corale, il disegno complessivo, appaiono da subito centrali nel lavoro, che si svolge di conseguenza attorno a parametri estetico-espressivi ben delineati, che si espandono ...