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Anthony Coleman

Anthony Coleman is a composer-keyboardist who has performed and recorded throughout the world. His projects include the piano trio Sephardic Tinge, which has released three discs: “Sephardic Tinge,” “Morenica,” and “Our Beautiful Garden Is Open” (all Tzadik) and has performed at the Sarajevo Jazz Festival (with support from Arts International), North Sea Jazz Festival, Saalfelden Festival, and the Krakow and Vienna Jewish Culture Festivals.

His Selfhaters Orchestra has issued two CDs: “Selfhaters” and “The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same” (both Tzadik). His compositions for other ensembles include Latvian Counter-Gambit for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Crosstown Ensemble, Mise en Abime, commissioned by the Bang On A Can All-Stars/Jerome Foundation, Goodbye and Good Luck, commissioned by Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers/Meet The Composer, as well as commissions from Relche, Aspen Woodwind Quintet, and David Krakauer/Concert Artists Guild.

Coleman's compositions can also be heard on the following CDs: Carol Emanuel's “Tops of Trees” (Koch); Guy Klucevsek's “Manhattan Cascade” (CRI) “A Guide For The Perplexed” (Knitting Factory Works) “A Conspiracy of Dances” (Einstein) and “Polka From the Fringe.” (Wave/Eva)

Coleman's other major projects have included by Night, a series of pieces based on experiences in the ex-Yugoslavia (Disco by Night [Avant]) and the duo “Lobster and Friend,” with saxophonist Roy Nathanson (The Coming Great Millennium, Lobster and Friend [both Knitting Factory Works] and I Could've Been A Drum [Tzadik]). He has also produced several recordings for other artists, including Marc Ribot, Basya Schecter and Pharoah's Daughter, Romanian singer Sanda, as well as the acclaimed With Every Breath - the Music of Shabbat at BJ [Knitting Factory Works].

Anthony Coleman has received grants and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Djerassi Colony, the Civitella Ranieri Center, the Frei und Hansestadt Hamburg Kulturbehšrde and the Yellow Springs Arts Center. In the last year, Coleman has been the subject of a three-day festival, Abstract Adventures, in Brussels, Belgium. He presented a concert of his music as part of the Interpretations series at Merkin Concert Hall, NYC. He spent the spring semester of 2003 teaching theory and composition at Bennington College in Vermont and toured Europe with his new trio, Professionales, featuring Brad Jones and Roberto Rodriguez.

He has degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Yale School of Music and attended Mauricio Kagel's seminar at Centre Acanthes in Aix-en-Provence, France.

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Album Review

Anthony Coleman and Brian Chase: Arcades

Read "Arcades" reviewed by Troy Dostert


An interesting cross-generational pairing, Arcades features veteran pianist Anthony Coleman alongside relative upstart, drummer Brian Chase. A key exponent of the jazz avant-garde, Coleman's body of work extends back to the 1980s with John Zorn, plus a host of recordings since then with folks like Wadada Leo Smith and Marc Ribot, not to mention a substantial series of his own releases, including a solo disc from 2019, Catenary Oath (NoBusiness). Chase's dominant claim to fame has been his tenure with ...

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Album Review

Anthony Coleman: Catenary Oath

Read "Catenary Oath" reviewed by John Sharpe


Catenary Oath presents a 2018 solo recital by pianist and composer Anthony Coleman, recorded at Jordan Hall in the New England Conservatory in Boston where he also teaches. The album, available as a limited edition LP or digitally, contains a mix of originals and standards all given deeply personalized interpretations by the pianist. Coleman's profile has lessened since the 1990s when he was a regular on the downtown scene alongside John Zorn, Dave Douglas and Marc Ribot, but he still ...

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Album Review

Anthony Coleman: Freakish

Read "Freakish" reviewed by Warren Allen


Great composers put heavy demands on the people who play their music. No matter how long ago they wrote the tunes that continue inspire after they are gone, their presence continues to hover over the music, almost haunting the pianos that would crank out their concertos and rags. It takes work to deal with these ghosts. Perhaps this is why it took Anthony Coleman five years to complete his special tribute of the music of Jelly Roll Morton.

Coleman is ...

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Album Review

Anthony Coleman: Lapidation

Read "Lapidation" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk


After a recording career given over in large part to shtick and nostalgia, the last few years have seen a well-deserved spike for Anthony Coleman. His last two records for Tzadik showed him (on 2006's Pushy Blueness) as a strong composer and (also 2006, Shmutisige Magnaen: Coleman Plays Geburtig) a remarkable interpreter. Lapidation continues the documentation of the pianist as a strong composer. The five pieces included were written over the span of the last decade, ranging ...

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Album Review

Anthony Coleman: Pushy Blueness

Read "Pushy Blueness" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk


Anthony Coleman is such a dictionary of style and genre that he has been an invaluable sideman in the Downtown chronology for more than 25 years. His ability to adapt, reference and mimic gave breadth to the wide-eyed, nascent scene--and has also informed his own genre-busting projects. But anyone who has listened closely has surely thought that there's not just an interpreter in him, but a composer as well, and potentially a pretty great one. And in ...

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Album Review

Anthony Coleman: Shmutsige Magnaten: Coleman Plays Gebirtig

Read "Shmutsige Magnaten: Coleman Plays Gebirtig" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk


Mordechai Gebirtig was, as Anthony Coleman explained at a performance of the composer's work at The Stone in February, a writer of Polish folk songs evoking the hardships of Jewish life in the '30s and '40s. More a poet than a musician, Gebirtig would often sing or hum melodies to others to score. Coleman has given programs of Gebirtig's work at festivals in New York and Europe, and he broke out the songbook again at The Stone.

He's such a ...

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Megaphone

Anthony Coleman: Ambiguity is a Richness

Read "Anthony Coleman: Ambiguity is a Richness" reviewed by AAJ Staff


By Anthony Coleman Tradition. Sometimes I really don't like that word. It feels so limiting, conservative. And so much current discourse revolves around it. And we've seen something many of us hoped for: “jazz", or whatever you want to call it, put on the pedestal with the other great music of the world. Why aren't we happy? In my musical world there are so many influences. Improvisation is central, but not always present, and certainly ...

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Performance / Tour

New England Conservatory's 1923 Celebrates The First Woman Tango Singer Rosita Quiroga, The Innovations Of Henry Cowell, The First Recording Of 'Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika,' Mongolian Soundscapes, And More

New England Conservatory's 1923 Celebrates The First Woman Tango Singer Rosita Quiroga, The Innovations Of Henry Cowell, The First Recording Of 'Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika,' Mongolian Soundscapes, And More

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

The year 1923 was pivotal in Music History. In a concert titled simply 1923, NEC’s Contemporary Musical Arts Department looks at how, one hundred years ago, music engaged with world events, technological innovations, and more. Directed by faculty member Anthony Coleman, the 7:30 p.m. performance on Tuesday, November 14 takes place in Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. Admission is free, reservations are required. For more information visit necmusic.edu. The concert celebrates the innovations of American experimental composer Henry Cowell; ...

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Performance / Tour

New England Conservatory Contemporary Improv Dept Presents International Broadcast Of 'Ritual' on June 4

New England Conservatory Contemporary Improv Dept Presents International Broadcast Of 'Ritual' on June 4

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation students, faculty, and special guest, Ukrainian-American folk musician, improviser, and composer Julian Kytasty, present Ritual, a concert exploring the myriad of ways that ritual manifests in our lives and music. Curated by faculty member Anthony Coleman, the program includes performances centered in Jewish, African, Ukrainian, Korean, and American folk tradition as well as new student works engaging with contemporary rituals of modern life, from the dance hall to the doctor’s office. International broadcast of the ...

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Interview

UYS: Pee Wee Ellis & Anthony Coleman interviews.

UYS: Pee Wee Ellis & Anthony Coleman interviews.

Source: underyourskin


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Performance / Tour

Jamaaladeen Tacuma, G Calvin Weston, Billy Martin & Anthony Coleman @ TONIC NYC Dec 1st

Jamaaladeen Tacuma, G Calvin Weston, Billy Martin & Anthony Coleman @ TONIC NYC Dec 1st

Source: All About Jazz

Creative Music is alive and well at Tonic NYC, this Friday night, December 1st, as four genre-busting" musicians grace the stage.

Legendary G Calvin Weston and Billy Martin of Medeski Martin & Wood on drums and percussion, Weston & Martin have shared a history as a partnership in Lounge Lizards which has given rise to numerous collaborations over the years. Developing intense rhythmic complexities. Jamaaladeen Tacuma only adds fuel to the fire with his heavy hitting free funk bass style. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Arcades

Chaikin Records
2022

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Latecomers

Ictus Records
2020

buy

Catenary Oath

NoBusiness Records
2020

buy

LATECOMERS

Ictus Records
2020

buy

Watch The Walls...

Underwolf Records
2012

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