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Chad Fowler
Chad Fowler is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, author, and label owner. He co-leads the avant-garde group Dopolarians, whose first record featured Kidd Jordan, Alvin Fielder, and William Parker. He has played and recorded with artists such as William Parker, Brian Blade, Matthew Shipp, Ivo Perelman, Rufus Reid, Reggie Workman, and Andrew Cyrille.
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Art Edmaiston & Chad Fowler: Memphis Mandala
by Glenn Astarita
Recorded live in Memphis, Memphis Mandala is led by Art Edmaiston on tenor and soprano saxophones, alongside Chad Fowler's work on stritch and flute. They are backed by a rhythm section that intuitively knows when to push the accelerator and when to let the engine idle in neutral. The result is collective improvisation--with two drummers--that feels less like a performance and more like five people arguing passionately about the meaning of life, only they are using horns and drums instead ...
Continue ReadingArt Edmaiston / Chad Fowler: Memphis Mandala
by Mark Corroto
We often approach recordings as if they were live performances: fully present in the moment, deeply engaged, and then rarely revisited. Like a concert, the sounds drift into the ether, lingering in memory and, perhaps, subtly reshaping the listener's internal landscape. Yet Memphis Mandala, the 2024 live collaboration between saxophonists Art Edmaiston and Chad Fowler, resists that pattern. Though comfortably situated under the free jazz rubric, this is a recording that rewards, and arguably demands, repeated listening. Each ...
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown
by Troy Dostert
Since founding Mahakala Music in 2019, saxophonist Chad Fowler has done as much as anyone to continue the spirit of unfettered free jazz, drawing on an illustrious roster which includes veterans such as William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Joe McPhee, Ivo Perelman and many others, with Fowler himself frequently appearing alongside them. The label is also doing a superb job of bringing together cross-generational assemblages of musicians, as on 2022's Alien Skin, which brought Shipp, Parker and Perelman together with Fowler, ...
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman / Chad Fowler / Reggie Workman / Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown
by Mark Corroto
Let's explore the title of saxophonist Ivo Perelman's latest release, Embracing the Unknown. His quartet with fellow saxophonist Chad Fowler, plus jazz legends Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille embrace, or welcome, adopt, and maybe better stated, champion the unknown. This exercise in instant composing guides listeners through the mysterious, the new, the novel, the undiscovered, i.e. the unknown. But then again, doesn't every Ivo Perelman recording embrace the unknown? With his one hundred plus (and counting) discography, the ...
Continue ReadingChad Fowler: Alien Skin
by John Sharpe
Although the group responsible for Alien Skin might be a one-off, unlikely to meet again in this exact configuration, it contains sufficient prior connections to vouchsafe cohesion, to go with the undoubted quality. Bassist William Parker furnishes the common denominator, having previously recorded with all of the participants, even relative newcomer, reed player Zoh Amba, while pianist Matthew Shipp's releases with saxophonist Ivo Perelman are legendary and abundant. Label boss reedman Chad Fowler hooks up regularly with drummer Steve Hirsh, ...
Continue ReadingChad Fowler: Alien Skin
by Mike Jurkovic
Just from the paperwork alone, it was duly expected that Alien Skin would be unruly, raw, and cathartic. That is just the nature of the beast. That is just the way the big man planned it. But even with all that said, no one (including the players) saw Alien Skin coming down the runway. A bayou bebop rave-up of the highest order, the album's madcap namesake rips the veil, drops the mic, and makes subversive a badge of ...
Continue ReadingChad Fowler: Alien Skin
by Mark Corroto
Freely improvised music, saxophonist Paul Flaherty dubbed it “the hated music." Experiencing Alien Skin brings to mind another quote, this one from a shampoo commercial from the late 1980s: “Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." A beautiful alchemy is this session captured in the fall of 2021. It contains a three-horn front line of Chad Fowler, Ivo Perelman and Zoh Amba, plus pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, and drummer Steve Hirsh. I reference alchemy because the quintet ...
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In The Garden
From: SparksBy Chad Fowler
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Chad Fowler
Instrument: Saxophone
Born: May 11, 1974
