Ben Allison

Ben Allison ( born November 17, 1966 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American jazz musician ( a double bass player, composer and band leader ). His exceptional bass playing that integrates unusual Klangexperimenente, its complex, multi-layered compositions that go beyond formal way beyond the usual jazz song structures at all tradition binding and catchiness, and its involvement in various musical projects have him as one of the most interesting jazz musicians of his generation from.

Life and work

Together with his longtime musical collaborators, pianist Frank Kimbrough, he founded the Herbie Nichols Project, which is dedicated entirely to music by the late pianist and composer Herbie Nichols highly original. In 1991 he founded the Jazz Composer's Collective, a New York based non-profit organization that brought together the aesthetics of the New York jazz avant-garde with the achievements of modern jazz composition by Duke Ellington to Charles Mingus. For several years he engaged in the oriental -themed bar " Kush " (named after a composition by Dizzy Gillespie ) on the Lower East Side in New York ( Orchard Street ), where he also performs regularly in a trio with Michael Blake.

With his seven -piece band Medicine Wheel he was linked to the sound world of Gil Evans. On his album " Peace Pipe " he works with kora player Mamadou Diabaté West African, another virtuoso cosmopolitan artists from the known griot family, without getting lost in the clichés of an ethno-jazz. A reminiscent of Dave Douglas ' Tiny Bell Trio Quartet with trumpet and guitar playing on Cowboy Justice an urban, contemporary grooves be taken by the Modern Jazz. On Little Things Run the World, it integrates, notably in the contributions of Steve Cardenas, Americana influences. Bulkiest discharges are guided effortlessly to moments of pure beauty.

In addition, Allison has worked as a member of the formations of Michael Blake and Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra.

Disco Graphical Notes

  • Seven Arrows (1997)
  • Medicine Wheel (1998)
  • Third Eye (1999)
  • Riding the Nuclear Tiger ( 2001)
  • Peace Pipe ( with Mamadou Diabate, 2002)
  • Buzz ( with the mentioned under the previous plate Medicine Wheel Group with Michael Blake (saxophone ), Frank Kimbrough (piano), Ted Nash (flute & sax ), Clark Gayton (trombone ) and Michael Sarin (drums ), 2004 )
  • Cowboy Justice with Ron Horton (trumpet ) as co-leader, 2006
  • Little Things Run the World ( with Ron Horton (trumpet ), Steve Cardenas (guitar ), Michael Blake (saxophone ) and Michael Sarin (drums ), 2008 )
  • Action - Refraction (2011)

Lexigraphic entries

  • Wolf Kampmann: Reclam Jazz Encyclopedia. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5
Dave Douglas (trumpeter) Steven Bernstein (musician) Ted Nash (saxophonist, born 1960) Discogs Integrated Authority File
116153
de