Results for "Gary Thomas"

Gary Thomas

Saxophonist and flutist Gary Thomas established himself in the 1980s as one of the most jarring soloists of his generation, especially against somewhat chaotic backdrops such as the electronic-tinged accompaniment of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums on Seventh Quadrant (1987) and Code Violations (1988). He kept antagonizing the tradition of jazz with By Any Means Necessary (1989), featuring (among others) alto saxophonist Greg Osby, keyboardist Geri Allen, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Anthony Cox and percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, and The Kold Kage (1991), that experimented with synthesizer, turntable and rapping, always displaying a passion for uncharted territories. A member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and Thomas has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra Wilson, Wallace Roney, Miles Davis, Steve Coleman, as well as numerous other premier jazz musicians. He currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

Thelonious Monk Revisited

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

Thelonious Monk once said “play what you want and let the public pick up on what you are doing even if it does take them 15, 20 years." Luckily, he lived long enough to become fully embraced and celebrated before his passing. However, it's after his death that his music has really become central to the ...

2017: The Year in Jazz

By KEN FRANCKLING

A year of achievements, challenges to gender inequality, scandal and losses The year 2017 was quite something for the jazz world. Incidents or discussions of misogyny and sexual misconduct bubbled up even before the #MeToo phenomenon developed. Beyond that, woman musicians made significant contributions to the genre. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage ...

Aggregate Prime: Dream Deferred

By VINCENZO ROGGERO

Il quintetto Aggregate Prime si presenta come il classico gruppo post-bop ricco di energia, muscolare, dai ritmi quasi sempre sostenuti -che la chitarra di Mark Whitfield ingentilisce a tratti -, guidato da una vecchia volpe quale il batterista Ralph Peterson. Nel leggere la formazione balzano all'occhio i nomi di due musicisti anomali in tale contesto, quello ...

Greg Osby: Saxophone “Griot”

By VICTOR L. SCHERMER

The griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and/or musician, a repository of oral tradition who is often seen as a societal leader. Saxophonist Greg Osby recently was excited to meet some griots on his travels. While he is originally from jny: St. Louis, he himself is a griot in many senses of ...

Take Five with Cesar Orozco

By CESAR OROZCO

Meet Cesar Orozco: Orozco, a prolific pianist, composer, and arranger, fuses jazz with Cuban and Venezuelan musical styles in unexpected ways that fans in North and South America find irresistible. Born in Cuba in 1980, he moved to Venezuela in 1998, then to the United States in 2012. He has performed and recorded with ...

Gary Thomas: Till We Have Faces

By JOHN KELMAN

Gary ThomasTill We Have FacesJMT1992 It was sometime in 1992 when I came across today's Rediscovery. I was walking by a record store (remember those?) in my hometown of Ottawa, Canada when I suddenly heard this staggering guitarist playing over what sounded like a standard I thought I knew but couldn't ...

Alex Norris Organ Quartet: Extension Deadline

By DAN BILAWSKY

Extension Deadline isn't the first organ-based date that trumpeter Alex Norris put together. It is, however, the first one to see the light of day. In the liner notes for this satisfying quartet outing, Norris notes that he recorded an organ-centric record in the '90s, but that record was shelved. So it is with great satisfaction ...