Home » Search Center » Results: Gareth Thompson

Results for "Gareth Thompson"

Advanced search options

5

Article: Album Review

Surya Botofasina: Ashram Sun

Read "Ashram Sun" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


In the early 1980s, Alice Coltrane built an ashram on fifty acres in the Santa Monica hills. A space for musical practise and Hindu studies, it closed in 2017 and was burned down by wildfires a year later. As a child, Surya Botofasina grew up there with his mother amid mountains, veggie food, peace lessons and ...

8

Article: Album Review

Lady Blackbird: Slang Spirituals

Read "Slang Spirituals" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


In the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in 2020, the relatively unknown Marley Munroe dropped a cover of Nina Simone's 1966 song “Blackbird." Having adopted the title into her new stage name of Lady Blackbird, she took sombre pride in seeing this version chime with a fiercely engaged Black Lives Matter community. This came purely by ...

3

Article: Album Review

Lee Underwood: California Sigh

Read "California Sigh" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


Lee Underwood's late father played trombone in a big band at the University of Colorado. Underwood recalls, “Whenever he thought of those days, my dad would close his eyes, purse his lips, and extend his right hand as if still playing this beloved trombone." Lee himself became a high-school jazz pianist, but caught his break as ...

6

Article: Album Review

Byron Asher's Skrontch Music: Lord, when you send the rain

Read "Lord, when you send the rain" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive one in American history. Seven states were affected and the political fallout saw Herbert Hoover reach the White House by 1929. The saxophonist Byron Asher believes another political action was the development of New Orleans jazz, early in the twentieth century, in direct resistance to the ...

5

Article: Album Review

Mazz Swift: The 10000 Things: PRAISE SONGS for the iRiligious

Read "The 10000 Things: PRAISE SONGS for the iRiligious" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


The writer and critic Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) spoke of free jazz in terms of an essential and spiritual Blackness. Further, he described a return to collective improvisation as the “all-force put together." More vitally he suggested that free jazz reinforced the valuable memories of a people while at the same time creating new forms. This reasoning ...

8

Article: Album Review

Joy Guidry: Amen

Read "Amen" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


Along with the soprano saxophone, the bassoon in the right hands and mouths can invoke whatever spiritual visions one places faith in. Maybe it lies in the promise of divine warmth, conjured by Eastern or Indian reed instruments with similar qualities. As often noted, the word “oboe" sounds like something a bassoon might emit. With a ...

9

Article: Album Review

Isaiah Collier: Parallel Universe

Read "Parallel Universe" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


The direct-to-disc recording equipment in Haarlem's Artone studio resembles a vintage control room for time travel, or maybe the record deck in a cyberpunk loft. And yes, that's Haarlem, not Harlem, though one could be excused for mixing them up here. This is where Isaiah Collier came to record Parallel Universe, a valiant and affirmative album ...

9

Article: Interview

Thandi Ntuli: Reclaiming The Rainbow

Read "Thandi Ntuli: Reclaiming The Rainbow" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


Thandi Ntuli is in her music room at home in Johannesburg. It is late afternoon and sunlight bursts through narrow windows onto some boho chic furniture. Ntuli brushes a cloth over her laptop screen and comes into focus, beaming a smile of welcome, wearing a long orange dress. “I'm right in the city," she says. “There's ...

7

Article: Album Review

Rami Atassi: Dancing Together

Read "Dancing Together" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


The Chicago-based guitarist Rami Atassi went on a south American journey with his wife to explore Mexico and Colombia. Amid the daily background music, he heard different styles and rhythmic foundations than those he was used to and took percussion lessons locally. All this later began seeping into his solo work. A Syrian-American, Atassi ...

2

Article: Album Review

The Saxophones: To Be A Cloud

Read "To Be A Cloud" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


The monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh had a saying, “I have arrived, I am home." Hanh's writing was an influence on this third album from husband-and-wife pairing The Saxophones, namely Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdice. Hanh's use of clouds as a metaphor for impermanence became a keystone for them, but his thoughts on going ...


Engage

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.