Browse by Artist: BLUM, JOHN

Artist:	BLUM, JOHN
Title:	In The Shade Of Sun
Label:	ECSTATIC PEACE
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	E#5D

Featuring John Blum (piano), William Parker (bass) and Sunny Murray (drums); recorded May 14, 2008. "John Blum was born in New York City, April 15, 1968 and has been a mainstay of the free-jazz community there for over 15 years. 'I first heard John at Bennington (where I teach part-time in the college's Writing Seminars), affectionately kicking around some bebop and Thelonious Monk tunes with a bassist and a drummer. His chops, inventiveness and taste -- how many pianists would think to pull out Monk's 'Pannonica'? -- caught my attention immediately, but I didn't hear the real John Blum until he sent me the CD you now have in your hands. Not only is he a master musician -- if a pitcher were this fast and pinpoint-precise, he'd be out-earning Johan Santana and C.C. Sabathia combined -- but his playing seems to encapsulate the whole history of jazz piano: if you listen hard, you'll catch bits of Harlem stride, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Monk and Taylor, all recombined in a flow almost -- but not quite -- too rapid for the ear to absorb and the mind to process. Like every great jazz improviser, from Louis Armstrong on, he's a self-portraitist, registering the play of his own thoughts and intuitions as they arise. His abundance of ideas -- and ideas springing from those ideas and morphing into yet other ideas -- suggests a teeming, almost Joyceian inner world. The titles of his pieces allude to the context of struggle in which this world exists; but the music itself, sometimes majestic, sometimes frightening, sometimes witty, many-colored and ceaselessly inventive, is an ideal universe of freedom. John Blum and his collaborators [William Parker and Sunny Murray] have created work of enduring value and endless fascination. As many times as I listen to these pieces, I always hear something fresh and surprising: further revelations, deeper interconnections. It's a gift from generous spirits, straight from their hearts and minds to yours.' -- David Gates, Senior Writer Newsweek"

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