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Jerry Granelli: Groovemaster or Destroyer?
by Paul Olson
It's easy to mention drummer Jerry Granelli's accomplishments, but hard to really make clear his importance, or the way he's continuously, over forty years, been at the forefront of most of the innovations and new movements in jazz music. Granelli grew up in San Francisco and made his mark drumming for pianists Vince Guaraldi ...
David Torn: A Lifetime of Improvisation in Non-Improvisational Settings
by Paul Olson
David Torn has done work in so many capacities in such a variety of musical projects that it's somewhat daunting to try to state just what exactly he is. Certainly Torn's a guitarist of humbling technique--but he's always been more interested in texture and sound than the kind of electric shredding beloved in guitar-hero-worshiping ...
The Bad Plus: Drama, Joy, Humor, But Not Irony
by Paul Olson
If you had the remotest interest in contemporary jazz music in 2003, the chances were very, very high that you had heard of The Bad Plus. The odds were just as good that you had an opinion, positive or negative, about the merits of the collective trio of bassist Reid Anderson, drummer David King and pianist ...
Vince Mendoza: Color, Counterpoint and Open Ears
by Paul Olson
If Vince Mendoza were only known as a composer, he'd still be worth interviewing; his songs have been covered by Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Kurt Elling, Charlie Haden and John Abercrombie. He'd be fascinating to talk to if he were only known as a recording bandleader--his early records Start Here (Blue Note, 1990) and Instructions Inside ...
Avishai Cohen: As Is ... Live at the Blue Note
by Paul Olson
It's impossible to deny the sheer musical virtuosity of bassist/composer Avishai Cohen; he can hold his own with anyone on the double bass, and he's a wonderful electric bassist as well. He's also a gifted composer whose intricate, often Middle Eastern-inflected pieces are, while well within the jazz idiom, unique--hear one of his songs, and you'll ...
John Abercrombie: All About the Sound
by Paul Olson
John Abercrombie is the most important living jazz guitarist. That caught your attention, didn't it? Well, I'll insist it's true. No guitarist has a stronger recorded legacy than Abercrombie's. He moved to New York City in 1969 and immediately began carving out a reputation as a peerless, fearless player, doing road work with organist ...
Anat Fort: Swimming in a Sea of Motian
by Paul Olson
While her discography as a leader consisted, until this year, of only one self-released album (Peel, 1999), New York-based, Israeli-born composer/pianist Anat Fort has been working steadily for years. Few contemporary jazz pianists have as graceful and developed a playing style as Fort--her use of rests, her love of space, and her classically-imbued phrasing are, once ...
Dan Willis: No Longer a Divided Artist
by Paul Olson
You'll have to look long and hard to find a better tenor saxophonist than Dan Willis.You'll have to look long and hard to find a better oboeist than Dan Willis.Dan Willis is a wonderful soprano saxophonist. He's a terrific English horn player. His bass clarinet and piccolo playing is fine. He's more ...
Samo Salamon: Melody, Heaviness and Maturity
by Paul Olson
There are many outstanding guitarists in jazz music, but Samo Salamon stands out. He's a technically terrifying musician, but the world of improvisational music is full of players with intimidating technique. Salamon's greatest attribute is his uniqueness: His rock-inflected electric tone and trademark solo lines of jagged single notes and crunching chord clusters are his own. ...
Nicole Mitchell: Flute, Healing and Wanting the Best
by Paul Olson
Composer, bandleader and flutist Nicole Mitchell isn't quite a household name in jazz circles outside Chicago, but there's not a more talented flautist--or, for that matter, composer, or large-ensemble bandleader--working in improvised music today. It's not surprising she's a co-president of the Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Chicago collective associated with Windy City ...
