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Burton Greene

Burton Greene was born and spent his early years in Chicago, Illinois. He had seven years of classical music training with Isadore Buchalter of the Fine Arts Building. Burton studied jazz theory and harmony with Dick Marx, and continued his music education in the "School of the Streets" of the mid 1950's from such luminaries as Billy Green and Ira Sullivan. He arrived in New York in 1962 and formed probably the first spontaneous composition group with bassist Alan Silva in '63: The Free Form Improvisation Ensemble. He joined the Jazz Composers Guild in '64 (organized by Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor) and formed his first recorded quartet in '65 which included Marion Brown and Henry Grimes. He performed in New York in the 1960's with such people as Sam Rivers, Rashied Ali, Albert Ayler, Patty Waters, Byard Lancaster, Gato Barbieri, etc. Burton was involved with the New Music Concert Series in Town Hall and YMHA organized by Max Pollikoff which included panel discussions with Morton Feldman and Earl Brown.

Burton moved to Europe in 1969—first to Paris and then to Amsterdam. Since that time he has toured and recorded extensively in both Western and Eastern Europe with occasional tours in America. Burton has recorded almost 100 records and CD's of his compositions in many and varied contexts. As an eclectic composer and performer, his works are involved with jazz, contemporary classics, electronics, and a great variety of folklore musics.

Burton has collaborated with many musicians; among them are John Tchicai, Johnny Dyani, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Willem Breuker, Han Bennink, Keshavan Maslak, Sunny Murray, Steve Tintweiss, Shelly Rusten, Frank Wright, Sean Bergin, Paul Stocker, Theo Loevendie, Maarten van Regteren Altena, Martin van Duynhoven, Clarence Becton, Perry Robinson, Roswell Rudd, Tjitze Vogel, Raoul van der Weide, Tom Jones, Tobias Delius, Michael Moore, Akki Hak, Lou Grassi, Wilber Morris, Roy Campbell, Mark Dresser, Adam Lane, Paul Smoker, Russ Nolan, Ed and George Schuller etc., etc.

In recent years Burton has been working and recording again with legendary vocalist Patty Waters, with Roberto Haliffi (Burton's main percussionist for many years), Adam Lane, Igal Foni, Reut Regev, Dave Brandt, Renato Ferreira, Silke Röllig, Tilo Baumheier, Gert Jan Prins, Bálazs Pándi, Guillaume Gargaud, and just recently Jasper Stadhouders.

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Radio & Podcasts

Spinifex, Greene / Smith / Moses & Devin Brahja Waldman Ra Kalam Bob Moses

Read "Spinifex, Greene / Smith / Moses & Devin Brahja Waldman  Ra Kalam Bob Moses" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


This edition of One Man's Jazz tends to a lot of music out on the edge, starting with a tune from a 2019 release called Life's Intense Mystery by Burton Greene, Damon Smith & Bob Moses, before heading to the powerful and unpredictable band from Amsterdam, Spinifex; they've added singers to the mix on their latest. After that check out the sounds of the Blue Lines Trio, also from Amsterdam, Peter Van Huffel's Gorilla Mask, the Chicago guitar/bass duo of ...

6
Interview

Burton Greene: From Bomb To Balm

Read "Burton Greene: From Bomb To Balm" reviewed by Barbara Ina Frenz


Chicago-born pianist Narada Burton Greene (b.1937) can be called a veteran of the 1960s jazz avant-garde—the starting point of his universal musical life. In 1962, he moved to New York and founded, together with bassist Alan Silva, the Free Form Improvisational Ensemble, which played improvised music without preconceived compositional elements. In 1965, he became a member of the Jazz Composers Guild, founded by Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor. The Jazz Composers Guild resonated with the community spirit that Greene had ...

469
Album Review

Burton Greene / Perry Robinson: Two Voices In The Desert

Read "Two Voices In The Desert" reviewed by Lyn Horton


Pianist Burton Greene and clarinetist Perry Robinson have been close friends for a very long time. During those years, they have bonded with a common musical purpose that stems from free expression to the gentle molding of a life perspective. Working together in Greene's groups--Klezmokem and Klez-Edge--the pair has become identifiable with an open and unfettered sound, imbued with Eastern European origins. Outside of these larger groups, Greene and Robinson come together to present a unique and lively duo conversation ...

518
Live Review

Burton Greene and Perry Robinson at the Zeitgeist Gallery, Boston, MA

Read "Burton Greene and Perry Robinson at the Zeitgeist Gallery, Boston, MA" reviewed by Lyn Horton


Burton Greene and Perry Robinson Outpost 128 / Zeitgeist Gallery Boston, Massachusetts April 11, 2009

Pianist Burton Greene and clarinetist Perry Robinson have known each other for two generations' worth of years. They first played together at Greene's loft in New York in 1965 in a trio, which included Joel Friedman on cello. The two were together in Greene's quartet, Klez-Edge, a recording for Tzadik, and will play again soon in another recording called ...

296
Album Review

Klez-Edge: Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters

Read "Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters" reviewed by Elliott Simon


John Zorn once remarked to that in the '60s, “we didn't want to hear Jewish music at our Bar Mitzvahs, we wanted to hear Hendrix." Funny how a few decades and some intermarriage with post-bop jazz can change all that. However, if back then some very hip parents convinced the best free jazzers to do a Bar Mitzvah party set, the result could very likely have been something akin to this album. The amazing thing about this ...

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Album Review

Klez-Edge: Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters

Read "Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters" reviewed by Lyn Horton


Although rewards can come from listening to a recording where mixing styles is done through patching different samples together, the music on Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters radiates out of the mindful integration of several identifiable musical idioms within the same performance spectrum.

A child of pianist Burton Greene's 1989 band Klezmokum, the group Klez-Edge does more than blend traditional Jewish, Eastern European folk and improvised musics; it also equalizes them in terms that are spiritual, joyful, plaintive, humorous and political. ...

603
Live Review

Burton Greene and Laurence Cook Duo at Studio 234

Read "Burton Greene and Laurence Cook Duo at Studio 234" reviewed by Lyn Horton


Burton Greene and Laurence Cook Studio 234 Cambridge, MA April 26, 2008 It was chilly for late April in New England. It had not rained for a while. And in a salon-type event, a small room filled with a motley grouping of chairs awaited an audience for a performance of two musicians, who live an ocean apart, but whose camaraderie in improvised music brought them to sit ten feet away from each ...

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Performance / Tour

A Rare Sighting Of Burton Greene At Outpost 186 In Cambridge MA

A Rare Sighting Of Burton Greene At Outpost 186 In Cambridge MA

Source: Chris Rich

Outpost 186 is very pleased to present Burton Greene on tour with his latest composition “Variations on the Hungarian Folk Songs of Bela Bartok" and featuring a documentary film about his life and music called “Moldavian Blues” by the English film maker Malcolm Hart. The film will precede the concert. The film Moldavian Blues tells the story of how Jazz Pianist Burton Greene evolved from the pursuit of the American idiom to a more pressing awareness of his own Jewish ...

182

Recording

Burton Greene - Live at the Woodstock Playhouse 1965 (Porter)

Burton Greene - Live at the Woodstock Playhouse 1965 (Porter)

Source: Master of a Small House

Woodstock was a creative refuge well before the music festival that bore its name signaled a culmination of counter-culture sensibilities. Pianist Burton Greene was among a number of jazz musicians who made the area a second home in the mid-Sixties. Separated from daily grind of city-living they were able to develop and express their music largely independent of distracting stressors. Part of the process included live performance and fortunately the tape machines were often rolling. This set by Greene's working ...

124

Performance / Tour

Burton Greene Concert Tour USA February 2010

Burton Greene Concert Tour USA February 2010

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Burton Greene concert tour in the USA in February, 2010 Feb. 10 Trio concert with Ed Schuller and Perry Robinson at Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia St., NYC. 8:30 PM Feb. 13 Trio with Ed and George Schuller at Bean Runner Cafe in Peekskill, NY, 201 S. Division St. 7:30 PM Feb. 16 Trio with Ed and George Schuller at Korzo, 657 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 9:30 PM http://www.eurotripbrooklyn.com/ Feb. 19 Solo piano concert: WMUA World of Piano series in ...

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Performance / Tour

Burton Greene (Mon) Marcus Rojas's Big Happy (Tue) Sanda & the New Gang (Wed) Paul Shapiro's Ribs and Brisket Revue (Thu) This Week at Cornelia Street

Burton Greene (Mon) Marcus Rojas's Big Happy (Tue) Sanda & the New Gang (Wed) Paul Shapiro's Ribs and Brisket Revue (Thu) This Week at Cornelia Street

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Jul 02 6:00PM BURTON GREENE TRIO (George Schuller, drums;Ed Schuller, bass;Burton Greene, piano) This is a new group, although the players know each other and have been friends for years. The idea of the piano trio is to present jazz which emcompasses a wide history of the jazz piano literature. We play “inside", “outside", “up and down", for that matter.. The group members have vast experiences in all kinds ...

111

Performance / Tour

Burton Greene Trio at Cornelia Street Cafe, January 7, 8:30 PM

Burton Greene Trio at Cornelia Street Cafe,  January 7, 8:30 PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. Burton Greene Trio Sunday, Jan 7, 2007, 8:30PM, $10 + $6 minimum featuring Ed Schuller, bass; George Schuller, drums; and special guest Russ Nolan, soprano and tenor sax This is a new group, although the players know each ...

Friday, June 15, 2012 Narada Burton Greene, Live At Kerrytown House: NoBusiness Records, 2012 On Live at Kerrytown House, the music is thematic, tends to be quiet, slightly explosive, adhering to Greene’s sense of humor, lyricism and even romantic melody. He does not play without minor improvisational discords and cantankerous fingerings. For it is with these juxtapositions that Greene maintains the utmost integrity and musicianship. He has collaborated with and arranged compositions by associates, including longtime colleague Silke Röllig. With Röllig, he has created some of the most evocative contemporary piano music that there is… The miracle of Greene’s music is its never-ending luster. Not one piece in this performance eludes its brightness or demonstrates lack of respect for the instrument he plays… The sage that he is, as his Yogic name Narada indicates, Burton Greene embraces an essential cultural core in his music. He never flounders and always is pondering the next step, whether that be for a solo or group context. Coming out of a meditative state of solitude or the conviviality of others, Greene is giving us his truth of self.

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