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George Colligan: Variety, Presentation and Doing It Because It's Fun
by Paul Olson
Although George Colligan is a wildly in-demand musician whose piano, organ and Fender Rhodes have graced the recordings and performances of clarinetist Don Byron, bassist Buster Williams, vocalist Cassandra Wilson, and many other artists, he's also managed to produce a pretty sizable discography as a band leader. While his chops and imagination--coupled with a consistent clarity ...
Rez Abbasi: Microtones, Fearlessness and the Fifteen-Step Process
by Paul Olson
India-born and California-raised, guitarist/composer Rez Abbasi--a resident of New York City for over a decade now--has been perfecting his own unique East-meets-West musical hybrid of Indian and jazz musics for some time. With the releases of Snake Charmer (Earth Sounds, 2005) and Bazaar (Zoho Music, 2006), he's perfected his formula, in part because his core group ...
John Ettinger: Broken Pedals and an Open Mind
by Paul Olson
Although violinist John Ettinger's been a presence in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene since he moved to the region from Arizona in 1992, he was by no means a household name even on the West Coast and was virtually unknown elsewhere. That state of relative obscurity made his recorded debut as a bandleader, August ...
Rob Reddy: The Fine Line Between Composition and Comfort
by Paul Olson
Rob Reddy's one of the prominent soprano saxophonists working today, but his reputation has been built upon his work as bandleader and, especially, as a composer. He's been a presence in New York for 20 years now, having studied with soprano player Dave Liebman and reedsman Makanda Ken McIntyre before graduating from the first-ever jazz program ...
Don Byron: Moving Towards the Idiomatic
by Paul Olson
Don Byron is one the most familiar names in contemporary jazz music and by far the most prominent clarinetist of the last 20 years. Born in the Bronx--and proud of it--Byron was introduced to an eclectic world of music and culture at a very young age by his pianist mother and bass-playing father. His early years ...
Mark Feldman: His Own Music, His Own Sound, His Own Aesthetic
by Paul Olson
In his twenty years in New York City, violinist Mark Feldman's played a dizzying number of gigs and sessions with trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Uri Caine, saxophonist Tim Berne, drummer Billy Hart, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, bassist Mark Dresser, and of course, saxophonist John Zorn, with whom Feldman has had a particularly fruitful association. ...
Paul Olson's Best of 2006
by Paul Olson
Jazz Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet Husky (Hyena) Tomasz Stanko Quartet Lontano (ECM) John Ettinger Kissinger in Space (Ettinger Music) Paul Motian Band Garden of Eden (ECM) Nels ...
Benevento/Russo Duo: Hero Rock, Mind-Reading and Constant Movement
by Paul Olson
Could a band without a vocalist be the best rock band in America?Keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo formed the Benevento/Russo Duo in 2002 in response to Russo being offered a Thursday night residency at the Knitting Factory, New York's still-iconic Downtown improv club. Although the two New-Jersey-raised players were still each well ...
Steven Bernstein: Proud Member of the Pre-Computer Absorption Generation
by Paul Olson
Trumpeter/composer/arranger Steven Bernstein may be the ultimate Downtown jazz personality. Certainly, he's one of the most ubiquitous and hard-working since he began playing in New York in the 1980s after relocating from California. In addition to playing with, well, everyone, he was a member of the 1990s edition of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards and a co-leader ...
Skerik: Concept is All Anyone Cares About
by Paul Olson
Seattle-born saxophonist Skerik--née Eric Walton--isn't a jazz musician. Or at least, he wouldn't say he is, because no contemporary instrumentalist is more indifferent to--even contemptuous of--musical boundaries and genres. His early years in Seattle were deeply jazz-informed (his father was a jazz fan), but he was playing in rock groups at the same time he was ...
