Identity, versatility, and productivity intertwine in the music of Patrick Shiroishi. Best known as an alto saxophonist, the Los Angeles-based musician plays five different saxophones, guitar, and keyboards. His ever-growing discography includes 65 album-length releases with his name on the cover, and that number balloons to more than 100 if you count records where he’s […]
Tag: saxophone
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Saxophonist and former Chicagoan Aram Shelton is back in town and playing better than ever
Early experiences count for a lot. After reedist Aram Shelton moved to Chicago in 1999, fresh out of college, he became an integral part of an interdependent community of jazz musicians who were ready to realize one another’s concepts. Shelton left town in 2005, but he’s continued his practice of embedding himself in a scene, […]
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French polymath Jean-Luc Guionnet finally commits his solo saxophone music to wax
Jean-Luc Guionnet’s relationship to music is complicated, and it shows. As a youth, he drew while his father played saxophone, and he didn’t much like what he heard. When he changed his mind during his teens and started making his own music, his first instruments were keyboards, spliced tape, and drums; he only came around […]
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Saxophonist Gene Barge helped shape the sound of Chicago R&B
Gene Barge has done his most influential work as a sideman or producer, but he’s just as important as any of R&B’s marquee stars.
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Saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh tunes up for duets
Saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh has spent the better part of 30 years forging connections among jazz, Persian artistic concepts, and free music. This has resulted in a clutch of albums that ping-pong between gutsy postbop and meditative duets, the latter of which come into focus on his new album, Facets (Pi). Modirzadeh has frequently worked with […]
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Archie Shepp and Jason Moran turn tradition into new challenges on Let My People Go
After saxophonist Archie Shepp became known in the 1960s as a fierce musical and political voice in what was then called the avant-garde, he charted a different path. In 1977, Shepp recorded a collection of traditional spirituals (and one jazz standard) in a duet session with pianist Horace Parlan titled Goin’ Home, which is as […]
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Old comrades Peter Brötzmann and Fred Lonberg-Holm reunite on Memories of a Tunicate
German reeds player Peter Brötzmann turned 79 in March, so it would be developmentally appropriate for him to take a look back. But memories are a mixed blessing for a devoted practitioner of improvised music. While they can build up a shared understanding between partners, making it easier for them to come up with something […]
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Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis releases a second record with his all-star quintet
When you want to put together an improvising ensemble whose interactions will be unpredictable as well as satisfying, it helps to recruit someone who has your back and someone else who isn’t afraid to push the music somewhere you didn’t think it would go. For one night in December 2018, Chicago alto, tenor, and baritone […]
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Brooklyn-based saxophone and drum duo meld composition and improvisation seamlessly
Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey have been married to each other since 2010 and playing together since 2007, working as a duo as well as within larger ensembles, where they’ve collaborated with avant-garde jazz musicians such as Tim Berne and Mary Halvorson. Though the duo initially focused on improvisational music, a 2016 tour […]
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Gerrit Hatcher updates Chicago’s tenor sax tradition
Chicago has a rich tenor sax tradition—Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman, Fred Anderson, and so on. With tradition comes prescription; Chicago tenors, to fit the mold, need to be able to summon a broad tone, a bluesy vibe, and a steady stream of improvisational ideas. Local saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher has no trouble living up […]
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Ken Vandermark convenes a fresh group of old and new collaborators
This autumn marks 30 years since Ken Vandermark moved to Chicago. The reedist plays tenor and baritone saxophones as well as B-flat and bass clarinets, and his staggering output—he’s put out six releases this year alone, one of them a five-disc set—can be divided and analyzed according to any number of metrics, including where he […]
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Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber applies extreme sounds to diverse circumstances
Soprano and tenor saxophonist Urs Leimgruber has covered a lot of ground since he first recorded in 1974. On his earliest recordings, with Swiss jazz-rock group Om (which predates by decades the heavy American band of the same name), he played muscular solos over surging rhythms. Since the 90s he’s used several groups—including Quartet Noir […]
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Avant-garde reedist Chris Speed grows into tradition
Chris Speed brings a trio to the Jazz Festival that lets the avant-garde reedist tread the ground of the old masters without losing himself.
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Gene Barge blew his sax on some of the wildest R&B hits of the 60s
The Blues Festival pays tribute to 91-year-old saxophonist Gene “Daddy G” Barge with a set with by his longest-running band, the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings.
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Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis builds an intentional community in jazz
Dave Rempis organizes concerts, mentors young musicians, and connects players from across the States and abroad—modeling the commitment and generosity that keep the jazz scene viable.