Results for "John Abercrombie"

John Abercrombie

Over a career spanning more than 40 years and nearly 50 albums, John Abercrombie has established himself as one the masters of jazz guitar. Favoring unusual sounds (he played electronic mandolin on McCoy Tyner's 1993 album 4x4) and nontraditional ensembles (recent quartet recordings have included violinist Mark Feldman), Abercrombie is a restless experimenter, working firmly in the jazz tradition while pushing the boundaries of meter and harmony." Born on December 16, 1944 in Port Chester, New York, Abercrombie grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he began playing the guitar at age 14. Like many teenagers at the time, he started out imitating Chuck Berry licks

Steve Khan: A Rich Discography and A Priceless Left Hand

By JIM WORSLEY

The life and times of guitarist extraordinaire Steve Khan stretch through a high volume of evolving chapters that fuse together like the passages of a finely crafted arrangement. An expansive conversation with Khan touched on a variety of memories. Still, this is perhaps the Reader's Digest version of the seventy-three years old musician and composer's remarkable ...

Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff

By THOMAS FLETCHER

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio are amongst the most evident and high-profile jazz musicians that roam the Polish scene. Celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary playing together only last year, the ensemble is widely renowned for challenging the piano trio and broadening its sound. Having collaborated with luminary wind players such as Jan Garbarek, Arthur Blythe and John Surman, ...

Jacob Young: On ECM, founding a label and finding the "drama" in the music

By FRIEDRICH KUNZMANN

There's a lot to be said about musical excellence in versatility when it comes to guitarist Jacob Young. The Norwegian fret-acrobat came to international prominence in the early 2000s, when ECM's Manfred Eicher detected his remarkable chops and subsequently recorded and released Young's debut Evening Falls (2004) for the prestigious German label. Two more sessions followed ...

Jazz in the Time of Pandemic

By KARL ACKERMANN

The first week of April 2020: images crystalized the daily news reports; a dystopian Times Square; Piazza Navona in Rome, emptied of tourists, Barcelona's Basílica de la Sagrada Família standing like an abstract ruin, makeshift morgues in hospital parking lots. The jazz world is small but still a microcosm of society with interdependencies that run deep. ...

The Adventurous Spirit of Red Piano Records

By GENO THACKARA

There actually isn't a piano to be heard anywhere in this batch, but the season's crop illustrates the ethic of Red Piano Records in some interesting ways nonetheless. The small Brooklyn label specializes in music offbeat enough to require some adventurous ears, comfortably rooted under the jazz umbrella while usually stepping at least one foot somewhere ...

Dave Stryker: Guitars, Organs & Eight-Tracks

By MARK SULLIVAN

Guitarist Dave Stryker grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and moved to New York City in 1980. His big break came when he joined organist Jack McDuff's group for two years, from 1984-85. It was through McDuff that Stryker met tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, who would occasionally sit in. After leaving McDuff, Turrentine asked Stryker to join ...

A World of Piano Trios II

By MARK SULLIVAN

Several parts of the world heard from in this installment: Sweden, Norway, France, and the United States. Esbjorn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.) e.s.t. live in Gothenburg ACT Music 2019 Before Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson's untimely death in 2008, e.s.t. was a sensation. They brought an eclecticism and rock-like ...

Marc Copland: And I Love Her

By MIKE JURKOVIC

Perhaps you glance quickly at the song titles on the back cover and haphazardly say to yourself or your phone or your new imaginary friend “What?!"Afro-Blue" again?" and just as haphazardly put the disc down and move on to Billie Eilish. But, if you take a moment-you'll-never-get-back to pause and listen, you'll hear drummer Joey Baron ...

John Abercrombie and Don Thompson: Yesterdays

By DON PHIPPS

The late John Abercrombie's outstanding and extensive recorded legacy includes two duet albums with fellow guitarist Ralph Towner, Sargasso Sea (ECM 2008) and Five Years Later (ECM, 2014), four Gateway trio albums (with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette), and three Baseline Trio albums (with bassist Hein Van de Geyn and drummer Joe LaBarbera).