Craig Taborn

Roscoe Mitchell | Corey Wilkes | Craig Taborn | Jaribu Shahid | Tani Tabbal | Roscoe Mitchell Quintet | Turn | RogueArt Jazz

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It’s been many years since the multi-facetted art of Roscoe Mitchell overwhelm us whether with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, or his Note Factory, or his solo performances or so many projects with so many giants. However, we know that Roscoe Mitchell still has much to say. Incredible as it may seems, this here quintet generously offers yet another dimension of his music. The first striking thing in “Turn” is how Mitchell perfectly controls such an elaborate speech while, rich as may be the written parts, they never hamper the freedom to ad lib. And that’s why each new listening at “Turn”, each of Turn’s turns (and there are many), bring new emotions and wonderful surprises. Roscoe Mitchell unquestionably is the architect of this refined musical building called “Turn”; however, without such great musicians as Corey Wilkes, Craig Taborn, Jaribu Shahid and Tani Tabal, the other members of the quintet, we wouldn’t have entered it so easily. For all these reasons, we dare say “Turn” is a masterpiece. And we do mean masterpiece! Continue reading →

Alexandre Pierrepont | Mike Ladd | Maison Hantee | RogueArt Jazz

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On one level, both music and poetry are very much the same, that being sound – at least the spoken word would be. Here in “Haunted House” is a sound design or shape being put forth with multiple meanings psychoacoustically, linguistically, musically that I can only say very little about in terms of meaning, since ultimately it’s meaning will be with each individual who experiences this work. This rhythmic engagement between these two art forms create a third reality of sound gestures and events that collide and integrate. Yet knowing these facts it still does not allow me to analyze or describe exactly what “Haunted House” is. Hopefully this experience will be a catalyst at some level for good. — Henri Threadgill, excerpts from the liner notes Continue reading →

Nicole Mitchell’s Sonic Projections | Emerald Hills | RogueArt Jazz

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…The writing, or rather the musical cards drawn up by Nicole Mitchell for Sonic Projections carefully and continuously handle many openings and many transitions. …It is fascinating to hear each musician circulating freely in the space of each piece, following the internal logic of the proposed forms and spacing them out, bringing in other forms inside and round about – stretching and projecting the meaning, as if to respect the opulence of things with their doubles. Each musician is himself a space and a passing place. Such is David Boykin on Wishes, leaning against the other three and giving out one of his enigmatic rewound solos; such is the transformational duo between Craig Taborn and Chad Taylor on the second half of Emerald Hills, passing completely as the interventions or non-interventions of the saxophonist and the flutist go by. …And if a volcano can project, on demand, lava, sulfur, cinders or scoria, this music projects vision and nourishment. « That’s what I love about music – the unlimited possibilities – and always restless to try something else. » — Alexandre Pierrepont, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading →

Craig Taborn | Rob Brown | Nasheet Waits | Rob Brown Trio | Unknown Skies | RogueArt Jazz

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…Every trio without a piano or without a drums, or as in this case without a double bass, gains in incline what it loses in “balance”. It only takes a little sometimes. Everyone plays at ease across. Everyone can split themselves. There are no more solos as solos but phases, circles of influence and predominance which do not last. The duos bind and unbind more clearly, the contrasts stand out better. The theme is no longer material to develop but, as in Unknown Skies, a lyrical and volatile substance which evaporates between the communicating vessels of two duos within the trio, from the sweet wanderings of Brown and Taborn to the moats where Taborn and Waits dance. Here and there. In the middle of Bounce Back, the theme is a branching, and only a branching, connecting the spiral discussion between the saxophonist and the drummer and the take off of the pianist. Here and there. On The Upshot, the theme does not unfold, it coils and rewinds more and more rapidly, up to the clearing. Bobbin-clearing. When it is still exposed in due form, and comes back at the end, as on A Final Line, the theme seems almost unable to bear the pressure of what will follow, of what has gone before. — Alexandre Pierrepont, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading →