Logan Strosahl, Sure (Sunnyside) Piping at the high end of the flute’s range, guttural near the tenor sax’s low end, sliding, slurring and sometimes punching notes on alto saxophone, Strosahl is intense and full of surprises with his trio. His music is laced with classical allusions and marinated in jazz feeling. He, bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Allan Mednard create moments in this album in which they come remarkably close to what few groups in the history of improvised music have truly … [Read more...]
Search Results for: Logan Strosahl
Monday Recommendation: Logan Strosahl
Logan Strosahl, Up Go We (Sunnyside) The unconventional structure of the title of Strosahl’s album smacks of post-Elizabethan England. Currents running through the music also evoke that time and place. The composer and saxophonist is a devotee of the orderly composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and of disorderly free improvisation. Both elements are apparent. “M.M. Ground,” concerned with post-Coltrane harmonic content, has a wild Strosahl alto saxophone solo leavened with Earl Bostic throat … [Read more...]
Catching Up: Logan Strosahl & Nick Sanders
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uh2QN8YyqF5K8OZH50amMC1jDyYxelP4"] Eight years ago, when Rifftides was young, I posted this item from New York following one of the last conventions of the lamented International Association of Jazz Educators. January 19, 2006 It is impossible to predict the course of an artist’s career, but here’s a name to file away: Logan Strosahl. He is a sixteen-year-old alto saxophonist with the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band from Seattle, Washington. Strosahl has the … [Read more...]
Future File: Logan Strosahl
A year and a half ago a Rifftides report on the conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators included this paragraph: It is impossible to predict the course of an artist's career, but here's a name to file away: Logan Strosahl. He is a sixteen-year-old alto saxophonist with the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band from Seattle, Washington. Strosahl has the energy of five sixteen-year-olds, rhythm that wells up from somewhere inside him, technique, harmonic daring with knowledge to … [Read more...]
Recent Listening: Strosahl And Sanders
Earlier this week at The Seasons, an acoustically blessed performance hall in Yakima, Washington, alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl and pianist Nick Sanders demonstrated the like-mindedness that makes them one of the most riveting duos in jazz. Sanders (on the left here) traveled to the Pacific Northwest from New York, his headquarters for a decade. Strosahl was visiting from Berlin, Germany, where he has been expanding his musical trilogy based on the King Arthur legend. The album cover below … [Read more...]
Monday Recommendation: Sanders & Strosahl
Nick Sanders & Logan Strosahl, Janus (Sunnyside) Collaborators since their student days at the New England Conservatory nearly a decade ago, pianist Sanders and saxophonist Strosahl are dedicated to tradition and improvisation. Making the two qualities inseparable, they take listeners on an excursion through music as old as the dance rhythm of the Allemande, as new as the adventurism of Strosahl’s genre-busting title tune and as familiar as “Stardust.” It makes programming and musical … [Read more...]
A Sanders-Strosahl Followup
Nick Sanders and Logan Strosahl, now and then put up a video on their YouTube channel. Their recent album is the new Rifftides Monday Recommendation (see the previous post). Here is a standard song not included on that CD. Mr. Strosahl makes the introduction—and a pitch. … [Read more...]
Strosahl, Sanders And Monk: Nutty—Twice
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="KdI5xkLO92ClLwLXnqdEu3LsdfydbuX6"] The Rifftides staff now and then checks in on alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl and pianist Nick Sanders, intrepid young musicians based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, where so many rising jazz artists are headquartered. Sanders, a New Orleans native, leads his trio in a new album produced by the veteran pianist Fred Hersch. Strosahl’s debut album is planned for midyear. A recent installment of Strosahl’s and … [Read more...]
Recent Listening In Brief (+ -)
The time when most recordings came from a handful of major labels is long past. As I have observed—with only enough exaggeration to make the point—now, every 18-year-old tenor player can be a record company. He or she can take advantage of technology and economies of scale that make it possible to record, package and market an album at a tiny fraction of what it cost in the days when the major labels ruled the record business. One result is that new jazz recordings stream into Rifftides world … [Read more...]
Year-end Poll Results
Again this year, I swore off voting in what has become an epidemic of jazz popularity contests, also known as critics polls, with one exception. I don’t seem to be able to say no to the persuasive Francis Davis, who conducts the National Public Radio Jazz Critics Poll. How I voted on the day I succumbed doesn’t necessarily reflect how I might have voted a day—or a week—sooner or later. Here’s my ballot: NEW RELEASES Tom Harrell, First Impressions (HighNote) Charles Lloyd, … [Read more...]
“Played Twice” Played Twice
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7L1GIH379jXN9DmExTprgG1ltOMFmKCM"] When Stan Kenton was asked where jazz was going next, he said, “Tomorrow night we’ll be in Detroit.” It is in the nature of creative music that the question cannot be answered. Still, it would be less than human for someone who takes jazz—or any important music—seriously, not to speculate. It is impossible to know whether the present generation of musicians in their teens and twenties includes people who will advance … [Read more...]
Uptown Trio On The Move
A few days short of a year ago, I told you about four 19-year-old musicians worth keeping an ear on. Three of them were the Uptown Trio, who appeared in concert supporting the gifted alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl. I wrote: Anyone keeping a future file would do well to add those names. If these players keep developing at their current pace and intensity, it is likely that we'll be hearing from them. I remarked in the review that pianist Sam Reider, bassist Jeff Picker (his real name) and … [Read more...]
On The Youth Front
The other night at The Seasons, I heard four nineteen-year-olds and was impressed. One of them, the alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl, has been intriguing me for a couple of years. The others, who comprise The Uptown Trio, were new to me except for the bassist, Jeff Picker, whom I had previously heard with Strosahl. All are beneficiaries of extensive high school jazz education and winners of prizes for excellence, all freshmen at prominent institutions of learning. Strosahl, from … [Read more...]
Jazz Education And Audience Size: A Conundrum
The Hampton festival's core purpose is the development of young jazz musicians. Students from several states converge here to play in big bands and combos, vying for group and individual honors. Nearly 400 youngsters competed in the final day's events. Before the professionals played on Saturday evening, we heard student winners in several categories. In competitions across the country it has become predictable that Seattle's Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools will be among the top big bands. … [Read more...]
Back
I completed the Yakima-Seattle-New York-Seattle-Yakima odyssey Tuesday evening, only slightly the worse for wear, now rested and restored. Here's a wrapup of some of my experiences at the IAJE conference and elsewhere in New York: Buddy DeFranco, approaching his eighty-fourth birthday, played in concert with the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble. Made up of sergeants of various stripes and led by Chief Warrant Officer Charles Vollherbst, the Blues (named for their dress uniforms) is one of the best … [Read more...]