| Sonic Rivers | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 24 June 2014 | |||
| Recorded | December 2013 | |||
| Genre | Avant-garde jazz | |||
| Length | 45:17 | |||
| Label | Tzadik | |||
| Producer | John Zorn | |||
| George Lewis chronology | ||||
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| Wadada Leo Smith chronology | ||||
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| John Zorn chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
Sonic Rivers is a collaborative studio album by trombonist George Lewis,trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith,and saxophonist John Zorn. It was released in June 2014 by Tzadik Records.
A reviewer of Soundohm stated "Tzadik introduces its new Spectrum series with a very special and exciting new group featuring three of the most creative wind players in new music. Friends and colleagues since the ’70s,these three musicians share a vision of improvisation and composition that is unique,virtuosic and cooperative. Performing compositions and collective improvisations,they sculpt sound and silence with masterly assurance. Surprising yet completely inevitable,this is an essential document of improvisational music in the 21st century by three contemporary masters." [2]
John Zorn is an American composer,conductor,saxophonist,arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". His avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz,rock,hardcore,classical,contemporary,surf,metal,soundtrack,ambient,and world music. In 2020 Rolling Stone noted that "[alt]hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream,he's gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time".
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz,exploring atonality,noise,and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work,Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is an American trumpeter and composer,working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Ten Freedom Summers,released on May 22,2012.
George Emanuel Lewis is an American composer,performer,and scholar of experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971,when he joined the organization at the age of 19. He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music,which he began pursuing in the late 1970s;in the 1980s he created Voyager,an improvising software he has used in interactive performances. Lewis's many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship,and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself:The AACM and American Experimental Music received the American Book Award. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music,Composition &Historical Musicology at Columbia University.
Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer,known as an idiosyncratic soloist,a sideman,an ethnomusicologist,and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music,Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale. He is the son of Henry J. Kaiser Jr. and the grandson of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.
Susie Ibarra is a contemporary composer and percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz,classical,world,and indigenous musicians. One of SPIN's "100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music," she is known for her work as a performer in avant-garde,jazz,world,and new music. As a composer,Ibarra incorporates diverse styles and the influences of Philippine Kulintang,jazz,classical,poetry,musical theater,opera,and electronic music. Ibarra remains active as a composer,performer,educator,and documentary filmmaker in the U.S.,Philippines,and internationally. She is interested and involved in works that blend folkloric and indigenous tradition with avant-garde. In 2004,Ibarra began field recording indigenous Philippine music,and in 2009 she co-founded Song of the Bird King,an organization focusing on the preservation of Indigenous music and ecology.
Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.
Jamie Saft is an American keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist and composer. He was born in New York City and raised a Conservative Jew,and studied at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music.
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer,pianist,improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne,Switzerland,and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way:“Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 8 is a live album of improvised music by Susie Ibarra,Wadada Leo Smith and John Zorn documenting their performance at Tonic in September 2003 as part of Zorn's month-long 50th Birthday Celebration concert series.
Masada Anniversary Edition Volume 3:The Unknown Masada is the third album in a series of five releases celebrating the 10th anniversary of John Zorn's Masada songbook project. It features twelve previously unreleased Masada compositions performed by Erik Friedlander's Quake (1),Rashanim (2),Dave Douglas (3),Tatsuya Yoshida (4),Naftule's Dream (5),Jamie Saft (6),Zahava Seewald (7),Koby Israelite (8),Julian Kytasty (9);Fantômas (10),Wadada Leo Smith and Ikue Mori (11),and Eyvind Kang (12).
Tzadik Records is a record label in New York City that specializes in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. He is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases. Tzadik is a not-for-profit,cooperative record label.
Creative Music - 1 is the first recording as a leader by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith,which was released in 1972 on his own,privately pressed label Kabell. Subtitled "Six Solo Improvisations",the album featured Smith solo using trumpet,flugelhorn and various drums,gongs,bells,and home made percussion. It was reissued in 2004 as part of the four-CD box Kabell Years:1971-1979,released by John Zorn's imprint Tzadik Records.
Reflectativity is the second album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and the debut with the ensemble New Dalta Ahkri,which was recorded live at The Educational Center for the Arts,New Haven,and released in 1975 on his own Kabell label.
Song of Humanity is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with the ensemble New Dalta Akhri,which was recorded live at The Gallery,New Haven,and released in 1977 on his own Kabell label. The album was reissued in 2004 as part of the four-CD box Kabell Years:1971-1979 on John Zorn's imprint Tzadik.
Lake Biwa is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith released on John Zorn's Tzadik label in 2004. The album contains four pieces composed between 2000 and 2004.
Okkyung Lee is a South Korean cellist,improviser,and composer.
Kabell Years:1971–1979 is a four-CD box set released on Tzadik Records compiling American jazz trumpeter/composer/inmproviser Wadada Leo Smith's earliest albums which were originally released on his own,privately pressed label Kabell along with additional previously unissued material from the same era. The set includes the previously released material from Creative Music - 1,Reflectativity,Song of Humanity and Solo Music:Ahkreanvention.
Luminous Axis is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith which was recorded in 2002 and released on the Tzadik Records' Composer Series. The album includes an extended suite for four laptops and trumpet,two duets with Ikue Mori and a composition featuring the percussionist William Winant.
Abbey Road Quartet is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith released in 2009 via Treader label.
