Home » Jazz Articles » Mark Shim
Jazz Articles about Mark Shim
Tyshawn Sorey: Members... Don't!
by Mike Jurkovic
Pulitzer Prize-winning, MacArthur Fellow Dr. Tyshawn Sorey may not remember 1968 directly, since he was born in 1980, but he most certainly and unapologetically understands how angry that year was. And he has captured that fiery time with an epic reimagining? rethinking? rebooting? double take of Max Roach's epic telling of that year after the Summer of Love, Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic, 1968) Recorded live at the tail end of a four-day stay at the Jazz Gallery ...
Continue ReadingJon Irabagon: Focus Out
by Glenn Astarita
Jon Irabagon remains among the most uncompromising voices in contemporary jazz. A first-generation Filipino American from Chicago, he draws deeply from the AACM legacy--Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams--and his home city's tradition of bold, searching saxophone work. Since his 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition win, Irabagon has used his Irabbagast Records imprint to sustain a commitment to fierce originality and collective dialogue. Focus Out serves as a formidable statement from his working quartet, featuring Irabagon ...
Continue ReadingPatricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch
by Dan McClenaghan
On her first two albums, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan worked with a quartet comprised of three percussion instruments, herself on vibes and marimba, joined by percussionist Mauricio Herrera and drummer Marcus Gilmore, with a bassist Kim Cass. Momentum in large part, is the name of the game. For Breaking Stretch she expands her musical universe, adding trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and saxophonists Mark Shim and Jon Irabagon. This proved a good move; her musical universe in this septet setting has an energy ...
Continue ReadingPatricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch
by Mike Jurkovic
Wild-willed vibraphonist Patricia Brennan gets straight down to business without any fanciful mission declaration with the Afro-Cuban, effusively powered, clear-the-dancefloor and blow-the-ceiling-off this joint “Los Otros Yo (The Other Selves)," the opening cut of her third album Breaking Stretch. She does so in a captivatingly, wickedly good way. Brennan--who has added much vitality to music by such other big thinkers as Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Anna Webber, Michael Formanek--began her musical education at 4 years old listening to ...
Continue ReadingTravis Reuter: Quintet Music
by Glenn Astarita
Released as the long-anticipated encore to his avant-garde debut, Rotational Templates (New Focus, 2011), Travis Reuter's Quintet Music is a masterpiece of musical sorcery, brimming with bold invention and innovative creativity. Reuter, a maverick guitarist who is unafraid to color outside the lines, leads his band of equally audacious virtuosos through a sonic wonderland that most musicians only dare to visit in dreams. The quintet, with Peter Schlamb swapping the traditional piano for the vibraphone, tosses the jazz ...
Continue ReadingBen Sidran: Don't Cry for No Hipster
by Luca Muchetti
'Stile' è il primo sostantivo che viene facile utilizzare per descrivere la musica di Ben Sidran. Nome notissimo nella scena americana, cantante, pianista, compositore e fine conoscitore della musica in toto (evitiamo di utilizzare l'etichetta 'jazz' memori anche del non troppo lontano album in tributo a Bob Dylan), con Don't Cry for no Hipster Sidran torna alle atmosfere fumose a lui più care: quattordici canzoni, tante, trovano spazio in un'opera che guarda alla tradizione, intimismi da jazz club e puntate ...
Continue ReadingCarlo De Rosa's Cross-Fade: Brain Dance
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il bassista Carlo De Rosa non è granchè noto da noi, ma a New York gode di un certo credito tra la comunità musicale. Come ambasciatore del jazz americano ha girato il mondo e si è costruito un'esperienza notevole che gli permette di maneggiare diversi stilemi della musica d'oggi. Il suo è un caso emblematico di strumentista aperto un po' a tutto, senza una poetica forte da proporre, interessato semmai a una sintesi elettroacustica, dove la tecnica è spesso preponderante ...
Continue Reading
