Results for "Darren Johnston"

The Flatland Quartet: Songs From The Urban Forest

by Hrayr Attarian
March 18, 2021

The members of The Flatland Quartet are not only accomplished improvisers, they are socially aware artists. Their activism permeates Songs From The Urban Forest. This is not only because the proceeds from its sale will be donated to the Sacramento Food Bank. All six interrelated pieces are simultaneously abstract and earthy, marked by a sublime balance ...

Darren Johnston

Canada-born trumpeter/composer/educator Darren Johnston’s interests rotate primarily between performing all styles of jazz, purely improvised music, new music, and various other traditional musics, especially that of the Balkans, Greece, and Macedonia. He is especially drawn to music that tends to defy categorization, and is also generally open to further suggestions. After twenty one years in the Bay Area, Johnston recently relocated to Brooklyn, NY in 2019. In the time since moving there, he has played and/or recorded withChes Smith, Dayna Stephens, Carmen Staaf, Michael Formanek, Tony Malaby, Michael Attias, Slavic Soul Party!, Raya Brass Band, The Peter Hess Quartet, Michael Vatcher, and many more. As a composer he has written for ensembles ranging from small jazz groups, to big-bands, brass bands, string quartets, choirs, rock bands, and countless combinations thereof

Dave Rempis, Brandon Lopez, Ryan Packard: The Early Bird Gets

by Giuseppe Segala
September 3, 2019

Musicista molto attivo sulla scena fremente di Chicago, Dave Rempis si mise in luce poco più che ventenne accanto a Ken Vandermark, nel 1997, abbinando i propri sassofoni alle ance del leader nella formazione The Vandermark 5, attiva fino al 2010 con sedici lavori pubblicati soprattutto dall'etichetta Atavistic. Nel contempo, alimentò formazioni proprie o a nome ...

Dave Rempis/ Darren Johnston / Larry Ochs: Empty Castles

by Mark Corroto
June 22, 2018

The trio Spectral might best be examined in the aviary of your local zoo. Trumpeter Darren Johnstonand saxophonists Dave Rempis and Larry Ochs are like three different bird species, but share the same genus. Their “song" is built from the unique coop in which they find themselves. The music on “Empty Castles," their third ...

Electric Squeezebox Orchestra: The Falling Dream

by Jack Bowers
April 2, 2018

No, the San Francisco-based Electric Squeezebox Orchestra does not come with accordions attached. It does, however, come with a well-developed eye for harmony and rhythm, an inflexible group dynamic and a number of perceptive soloists, all of which serve to make the ensemble's second album, The Falling Dream, a pleasure to hear. The ...

Shipwreck 4

By Darren Johnston

Label: NoBusiness Records
Released: 2016
Track listing: The Storm We See, The Sea We Saw; Counted Like Flies; When Not Night; Everything's Coming Up Rosaly; Boom; The Face Consented, At Last.

Aaron Bennett / Darren Johnston / Lisa Mezzacappa / Frank Rosaly: Shipwreck 4

by Glenn Astarita
October 13, 2016

Chicago-based session ace and solo artist, drummer Frank Rosaly aligns with San Francisco Bay Area notables for a meeting of like-minded, highly skilled improvisers. After a gig in Frisco, the musicians' scheduled time to record this quartet date. Unfortunately, Shipwreck studios was destroyed in a fire a few months after this session and the musicians decided ...

Aaron Bennett / Darren Johnston / Lisa Mezzacappa / Frank Rosaly: Shipwreck 4

by John Sharpe
August 16, 2016

Named after the Oakland studio where the disc was recorded, the Shipwreck 4 brings together three West Coast improvisers with Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly for a program of six collectively created selections. As apparent on Everybody's Somebody's Nobody (Clean Feed, 2016), his duet with guitarist Fred Frith, trumpeter Darren Johnston's work maintains a melodic core, albeit ...

Dave Rempis/Joshua Abrams/Avreeayl Ra + Jim Baker: Perihelion

by Mark Corroto
June 21, 2016

These days, it's a luxury to have a working jazz band. It's funny to think in those terms, isn't it? Sure, that was a nice record, you think. But modern musicians, particularly jazz musician often play in multiple ensembles, in theatre productions, teach music lessons privately, and curate local music series. These things are often accomplished ...

Fred Frith / Darren Johnston: Everybody's Somebody's Nobody

by John Sharpe
May 27, 2016

Here's a West Coast entrant to the slim body of guitar/trumpet duets from iconoclastic strummer Fred Frith and trumpeter Darren Johnston. It collects 11 short cuts from two studio sessions into a three-quarter hour program. They're not averse to co-opting rhythms (Frith) or melodic figures (Johnston), meaning that what we have here can be termed the ...