Results for "Johnathan Blake"

Maria Schneider: On Worlds Diverged

by Dan Bilawsky
August 20, 2020

We stand today at an intersection between two realities. On one side there's digital darkness--an underbelly of networked netherworlds, profiteers building fortunes on the collective back of musicians, sinister forces posing as corporate protagonists--and on the other, pure light given over through nature's gifts, a kindness and humanity that grace daily existence, and the beauty and ...

Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords

by Jerome Wilson
August 11, 2020

Composer Maria Schneider has long been writing and speaking about the dangers of the omnipresent digital universe, intellectual property theft, gathering and manipulation of personal data by big tech companies, the unchecked proliferation of false and misleading material, and so on. Those concerns form the basis of her latest musical project, Data Lords, a 2 CD ...

Dave Pietro: Hypersphere

by Paul Rauch
August 6, 2020

You may not know the name Dave Pietro offhand, but it is likely, if you are a jazz fan of any sort, that you have heard him play. As a saxophone/woodwind artist, composer, educator, sideman, and bandleader, he has performed across a broad spectrum of projects since his becoming a mainstay on the New York scene ...

Michael Thomas: Event Horizon

by Jerome Wilson
July 21, 2020

Jimmy Katz seems to really be onto something with his Giant Step Arts label. Begun in 2018, the label has established a tradition of recording live performances by modern jazz musicians given complete freedom of repertoire and personnel. That approach has produced several outstanding releases including, earlier this year, The Concert: 12 Musings For Isabella, (Giant ...

Eric Alexander: Leap of Faith

by Angelo Leonardi
March 6, 2020

Eric Alexander è uno dei massimi tenoristi della sua generazione. In oltre quaranta dischi da leader e un centinaio di collaborazioni, ha evidenziato piena adesione al modern mainstream, privilegiando l'esibizione in quartetti o quintetti con la tipica sezione ritmica comprendente un pianista (spesso il suo mentore Harold Mabern) o talvolta un chitarrista (Pat Martino o Peter ...

Johnathan Blake

Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician. Blake’s gift for composition and band leading reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum. Heralded by NPR Music as “the ultimate modernist,” he has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Hans Glawischnig, Avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Linda May Han Oh, Jaleel Shaw, Chris Potter, Maria Schneider, Alex Sipiagin, Kris Davis and countless other distinctive voices. DownBeat once wrote, “It’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.” A frequent presence on Blue Note records over the past several years, Blake has contributed his strong, limber pulse and airy precision to multiple leader releases from Blue Note artists including Dr

Oded Tzur: Here Be Dragons

by Karl Ackermann
February 4, 2020

On his previous releases, Like a Great River (Enja, 2016) and Translator's Note (Enja, 2017), New York-based tenor saxophonist Oded Tzur amalgamated Eastern and Western elements and deep, balmy phrasing which drew sincere comparisons to John Coltrane. Not surprisingly, Manfred Eicher took notice and signed the Tel Aviv native to ECM for his third album, Here ...

Trion

By Johnathan Blake

Label: Giant Step Arts
Released: 2019
Track listing:
CD 1:
Calodendrum; Synchronicity 1; Trope (Linda Intro); Trope; One for Honor; High School Daze; No Bebop Daddy.
CD 2:
Bedrum; Good Hope; Eagle; Relaxing at the Camarillo; Blue Heart; West Berkley St.

Leap of Faith

By Eric Alexander

Label: Giant Step Arts
Released: 2019
Track listing: Luquitas; Mars; Corazon Perdido; Hard Blues; Frenzy; Big Richard; Magyar; Second Impression.

The (Jazz) Police

by Ludovico Granvassu
September 3, 2019

September 2019 will mark the 40th anniversary of “Message in a Bottle," an auspicious opportunity to look back at the seminal work of The Police, through a jazz lens. With both Sting and Andy Summers coming to The Police with jazz in their background and Stewart Copeland being a master of polyrhythmic drumming it's ...