The avant-garde schema is sort of an open-world platform where almost anything goes. But Incline is an album that sheds a radiant light on the sax-drums duo format, featuring an inordinate degree of textural components and a seamless integration of two like-minded artists, performing on similar planes. Here, Swedish drummer Kjell Nordeson and American alto…
Read moreMichael Coleman’s more famous indie rock trio, Beep!, provides a helpful primer and reference point for anyone trying to understand this one. In many ways, Arts & Sciences falls in the same aesthetic vein, albeit with jazzier instrumentation (woodwinds, percussion, keys instead of piano-bass-drums), and a freer format — he characterizes the outfit as modern…
Read moreAram Shelton has been one of my favourite discoveries over the last few years. There’s a forcefulness and deep intuitiveness to his performances that has always amazed me. Kejell Nordeson is a terrific and inventive drummer whom I have followed since his days with Swedish outfit Aaly Trio (due to their recordings with Ken Vandermark)….
Read more“There is something special going on here. It seems obvious to me that this duo have been playing together for a while since their is an assured connection between what they are playing. Fractured phrases, jumpy yet tight, rhythmically and melodically the duo are often playing similar patterns together as one. Like a spastic dance,…
Read moreGiven the number of great musicians the Bay Area has lost to other cities, it’s nice when someone from Chicago or New York decides to come here. Oboeist Kyle Bruckmann has been here for a while, participating actively in the sfSound modern-classical collective. And now we get Aram Shelton. Like any creative musician, Shelton has…
Read moreTradition can be a perilous thing, especially when one is compelled to both clearly follow one’s forebears and express oneself in a very personal manner. Alto saxophonist and clarinetist Aram Shelton is a young improvising composer who has called the Bay Area home for the last several years, though he came up in Chicago’s jazz…
Read moreTasting just one slice of the musical pie that is Aram Shelton, one finds him in his Bay area trio with bassist Kurt Kotheimer and drummer Sam Ospovat. His Ton Trio makes a jazz sound reminiscent of a ’60s venture into The New Thing, yet favors a very melodic writing. The saxophonist gained fame in…
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