Tyshawn Sorey

Where to start with drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey? What is a better introduction: his work under his own name or as a sideman (with Roscoe Mitchell, Zorn)?

My two favorite CDs of his (or featuring him) are Koan, on 482 Music, and trombonist Samuel Blaser's Pieces of Old Sky, on Clean Feed, which features the same band (guitarist Thomas Neufeld, bassist Thomas Morgan, Sorey on drums). They work really well as companion pieces, and the music is beautiful.

Thanks for the recommendation, I knew he plays on some Clean Feed titles but I´m not familiar with any of them.

haven't got anything interesting to say other than The Inner Spectrum Of Variables is so beautiful.

It really is; a fantastic album.

I went for a long walk this morning and had it on the earphones, was absolutely blown away by movement III.

I got it in the mail this week and am very very impressed with it. Some parts reminded me of the composition "Live Oaks" from this Tzadik-album:

http://tobiaspicker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/81uWPj1J4FL._SL1425_-300x300.jpg

MacArthur "genius" grant recipient

can't wait to check this out

Met him for the first time at the Art Ensemble of Chicago show in NYC on Friday night. Super nice guy.

Just realized that I saw him play with Vijay Iyer last year. (It was a Trio show -- he was sitting in for Marcus Gilmore, I guess.)

he is also credited as conductor on the latest Matt Mitchell album, busy guy.

new huge treble album Pillars with an Octet inc Stephen Haynes sounds incredible so far.

Tyshawn says it's inspired by Tibetan ceremonial music and it's a one-off that can't be replicated live, it's a real trip and this is just having listened to part i.

Yeah, I interviewed him about it (and other projects) for Down Beat; it's very much a ritual music kind of thing, with a heavy Bill Dixon influence as well (theoretical/conceptual more than sonic, though Stephen Haynes worked with Dixon a lot, obviously).

So far I think part ii is the strongest, it's awesome.

this really is incredible

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/10/02/capturing-the-ephemeral-beauty-of-improvisation/

Shatz on the excellent Sorey/Crispell Adornment Of Time album.

thanks for sharing !

Really good review of it on Pitchfork today as well!

The album's really beautiful. Well worth hearing.

yeah! it's a beautiful piece.

listening to him for the first time via Verisimilitude, and have to say I really love this. Can't wait to check out more of his discography.

I interviewed Marilyn Crispell about this album (and a bunch of other things - we talked for an hour) today. Apparently they've played together a few times now, including one earlier this year. Here are some of their previous encounters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czYzQIxY5jg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY9IxbOIZ18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-dn0v9NHc4

i admit that i had seen his name for a few years without checking him out, but it was actually this conversation that he had with Claire Chase in BOMB Magazine that really convinced me to seek out some recordings. Great interview!

https://bombmagazine.org/articles/tyshawn-sorey/

been listening to his violin/drums duo with International Contemporary Ensemble master violinist Jen Curtis. It's probably not his most essential release compared to recent highs but still quite excellent imo. Can understand him trying something a bit more breezy and casual after the intensity of his last few projects.

well breezy and casual is a massive undersell tbf it's some really fine improv, but I mean by his standards!

It's really good. I included it in the jazz column for the upcoming issue of The Wire, because why not.

I'm gonna see him play on Friday night, with Vijay Iyer on piano and Linda May Han Oh on bass.

you ever hear his live performance with Gebhard Ullmann from Berlin in '17? When I downloaded it from slsk I assumed it was a bootleg, but I just noticed it has album cover and looks like an official release. Anyway I think it is excellent and never saw it reviewed anywhere at the time.

Not high concept, but he's a sideman on this Lage Lund album, and it's cool to hear him just rip and play a lot of drums in a more traditional manner: https://open.spotify.com/album/06PWp6Uz0zH1R2W94fZ027?si=0-0JRPfCRwiZMZNEqGUHew

Yeah, that Lund album is really good. I haven't heard the Ullmann thing. Googling doesn't turn up an official release, so I'm guessing whoever bootlegged it made some art, which is always cool.

FINALLY getting around to Pillars, and upon second listen, this might be one of my favorite pieces of recorded music made in the past decade.

it's fucking great. Like with Henry Threadgill it often takes me a couple of years to catch up with the latest Tyshawn Sorey releases. I mean his latest, Unfiltered opens with a 50 odd minute track - sometimes you don't get a chance to hear it all in one go! he's a great drummer and a singularly brilliant composer of music of the likes nobody else is making.

I think Unfiltered is one continuous piece broken into three tracks? Dude I think goes on to long for my taste, although I enjoyed Unfiltered, not sure I'll listen to it frequently. I saw him live at a festival once and enjoyed the performance but he went way over his allotted time with a repetitive motif it actually made me retrospectively dislike him and the performance. I've since gotten that out of my system and I continue to follow his work but it's good to have a pause button!

I think Unfiltered is one continuous piece broken into three tracks?

No, that's Pillars - three 70+ minute CDs, one track each, one big piece.

I should also say that I actually like Pillars III the best, at least upon my second full listening.

https://tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com/album/mesmerism

"[documenting] my lifelong connection to the ‘straight-ahead’ continuum of this music" doesn't sound as adventurous as his usual thing, but I like the sample

Listened to this today, it sure is a change of pace. Not sure I’m into it though.

it's rather whelming in comparison to his usual standard of the last decade. I thought it might be more akin to that last Iyer trio he worked on, but no, despite being an excellent trio of players - it's just not that good.

changed my mind - I love this now!

That’s great cause he’s got a three cd set of standards coming out soon!

well i had no idea who this was, love that sample track on 'mesmerism' tho, real autumn music

Yeah, we were talking about coming around to at least some, maybe most of it on RJ this summer:

Comments and especially excerpts in Kevin Whitehead's Fresh Air coverage of Sorey's Mesmerism indicate more variety and shades of interest than I expected: an "Autumn Leaves" I didn't recognize even when he gave the title after playing it, and a couple I didn't know at all: Horace Silver's "Enchantment," where
they leave open space, but every part fits together drum choir-style. Bass becomes a percussion instrument like piano, drums and cymbals.
Even more intriguing is Muhal Richard Abrams' "Two Over One," and KW mentions, without naming or playing, something by Paul Motian. Indicates that there are some more trad numbers as well, and indicates they're not always more than "polite" or "breezy"---a v. laid back "REM Blues," by Ellington, is one I could do without, judging by the wisp of it here---but will prob stream the whole thing somewhere at some point:
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114236045/tyshawn-soreys-mesmerism-celebrates-the-everyday-miracle-of-the-jazz-rhythm-trio
― dow, Thursday, July 28, 2022 9:18 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

i was just coming hear to say the same thing, or nearly the same thing, which is that i like how it sounded much more than i was expecting to, and that the MR abrams-penned track piqued my interest

― budo jeru, Friday, July 29, 2022

Finalist for a Pulitzer, Sorey is now a Philadelphian, or at least teaches here, and is doing A LOT in the city over the next year or so. Just scooped tickets for a June showcase of his ongoing Fieldwork project, in a trio with Vijay Iyer and Steve Lehman. Very stoked!

that trio sounds fab! I'm always happy for a new Tyshawn Sorey project, looking forward to whatever they release.

ooh new trio album out, sounds great so far