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Rich Halley

Rich Halley is a saxophonist and composer who has released more than a dozen critically acclaimed recordings. He performs in settings that range from solo to large groups and frequently with the Rich Halley 4 which includes Michael Vlatkovich on trombone, Clyde Reed on bass and Carson Halley on drums. Rich also leads the Outside Music Ensemble, a four horn two percussionist group that performs acoustically in outdoor settings.

For over two decades, Rich was the leader of the Lizard Brothers, a sextet whose performances combined exploration and jazz tradition. He was the leader of Multnomah Rhythm Ensemble, a group that combined new jazz with multi-media.

Rich has performed throughout the US, in Canada and in the Middle East. He has performed with Andrew Hill, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Tony Malaby, Julius Hemphill, Michael Bisio, Oliver Lake, Obo Addy, Michael Vlatkovich, Rob Blakeslee and Bert Wilson. Rich is a founder of Oregon's Creative Music Guild.

Rich Halley was educated as a field biologist. His lifelong interest in nature and his love of adventure has informed his music and led him on many trips into wilderness regions around the world. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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5
Album Review

Rich Halley: Fire Within

Read "Fire Within" reviewed by Troy Dostert


The cover and title of Rich Halley's latest, Fire Within, have a menacing edge, alerting us to the incendiary qualities that are always a part of the tenor saxophonist's music. But one of the remarkable things about Halley's output is that it is never one-dimensional; there are abundant nuances and surprises to keep a listener engaged, with plenty of rhythmic fervor and lyricism even amidst the more anarchic moments. And as he is united once again on his third outing ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Finding The Fire Within With Rich Halley And More

Read "Finding The Fire Within With Rich Halley And More" reviewed by Bob Osborne


On this show we feature recent and new releases from Rich Halley, Pat Thomas's Ism, Angel Bat Dawid, John Herberman, Pernille Bévort 3, Joe Santa Maria, Rajna Swaminathan, Rebecca Nash, Ancient Infinity Orchestra, Isaiah Collier, Christoph Gallio Dominic Lash & Mark Sanders, and Blue Moods featuring Art Hirahara, Diego Rivera, Boris Kozlov and Vinnie Sperrazza.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Rich Halley “Following The Stream" from Fire Within (Pine Eagle Records) 00:56 Ism “Niloo's Dream" from Maua (577 Records) 17:22 ...

10
Album Review

Rich Halley: Fire Within

Read "Fire Within" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


The name of free form saxophonist and raconteur Rich Halley may not roll off the tongue or be a secret G7 password, but he sure kicks up a lot of dust. Put him in the same room as piano slaying Matthew Shipp, bassist Michael Bisio, and drummer Newman Taylor Baker and rest assured all hell will break loose. And when all hell breaks loose it sounds hydrogen-charged and animated like Fire Within--a runaround Hail Mary with a post-rock punch and ...

3
Album Review

Rich Halley: Boomslang

Read "Boomslang" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Jazz has, to some extent, always been about making connections and pointing out interrelations. Ever since Buddy Bolden blew his cornet in New Orleans around the start of the twentieth century, listeners have been playing connect the dots, linking Bolden's innovations to King Oliver and Oliver's to Louis Armstrong, likewise Buck Clayton to Dizzy Gillespie and Kirk Knuffke, and so on. Jazz has both an oral and aural tradition that contextualizes innovation within the traditions but maybe more importantly allows ...

5
Album Review

Halley-Clucas-Reed-Halley: Boomslang

Read "Boomslang" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Rich Halley has a thing about snakes. Those on the receiving end of a postal delivery from the Portland, Oregon-based saxophonist are likely to find a serpent coiled in the upper right hand corner of the envelope--a stamp featuring scarlet king snake, perhaps. Or maybe some sort of pit viper. And speaking of pit vipers, Halley released Requiem For A Pit Viper (Pine Eagle Records) in 2011. A thing about snakes... Not surprising, since Halley “was ...

5
Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Accomplished saxophonist Rich Halley has an easily recognizable style which is marked with his brassy, rough-hewn tone, innovative ideas and simmering passion. After starting his own Pine Eagle label, in 2010, Halley added eleven stimulating albums to his discography, featuring bassist Clyde Reed and his son, drummer Carson Halley. In 2019 Halley started fronting the equally distinctive Matthew Shipp Trio. The fiery and captivating The Shape of Things is the quartet's second collaboration and expands on the themes explored on ...

7
Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Troy Dostert


One thing is certain when approaching a Rich Halley recording: it's likely that you will hear the history of the saxophone in his playing. He's as capable of filling the room with fractured sound as he is in gently ruminating over a haunting phrase, and bop licks are as common as noisy abstraction on his albums; indeed, one might find all of these traits within the same piece. On his latest, The Shape of Things, he's fortunate to have the ...

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95

Recording

Rich Halley's Quartet Goes Long and Strong on "Requiem for a Pit Viper"

Rich Halley's Quartet Goes Long and Strong on "Requiem for a Pit Viper"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Tenorist-band- leader-tunesmith Rich Halley turns in one his very best efforts on the new CD Requiem for A Pit Viper (Pine Eagle 003). It's Rich plus trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bassist Chris Reed and drummer Carson Halley in a long set of originals with lots of room for solos. As is generally the case with Rich's band concept there is a distinct post-Ornettian vibe. The pianoless group generally keeps the time going and freeboppingly rides atop in their own way—calling on ...

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Recording

Rich Halley Quartet - Requiem for a Pit Viper (2011)

Rich Halley Quartet - Requiem for a Pit Viper (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Last year we introduced a really good avanteer to this site in Rich Halley, a lively and imaginative saxophonist and composer who would probably be more of a household name if he were in Chicago or New York instead of Portland, Oregon. Or played in a world-renowned venue like the Village Vanguard instead of Potter Valley, California. But Halley lives where he wants to live and plays what he wants to play, which is out jazz. And thankfully so, because ...

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Recording

Children of the Blue Supermarket: Dan Raphael's Poetry Melds with Rich Halley's Jazz

Children of the Blue Supermarket: Dan Raphael's Poetry Melds with Rich Halley's Jazz

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Poetry-Jazz collaborations can vary wildly from the “Why?" to the “Wow!" The poetry of course should be worth hearing. But equally, the recitation should have a dynamism of pitch-speech performance excitement. Then of course the jazz needs to relate to all that and in the end be jazz that's worth hearing alongside the poetic meanings evoked. Children of the Blue Supermarket (Pine Eagle 002) qualifies on each of those levels. The CD was recorded during two live appearances in 2008 ...

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Festival

Rich Halley Quartet - Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival (2010)

Rich Halley Quartet - Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Pico Since the fifties, many a jazz musician have made records of their live gigs at festivals. Some of the largest and most enduring ones have been a favorite location for cutting a record: Newport, Montreaux, Monterrey, North Sea and so on. And then there's the Penofin Jazz Festival in Potter Valley, California. Nestled in a dell surrounded by rugged, mountainous terrain about 120 miles north of San Francisco, the live performances are held in a large barn. This ...

"As we enter the second decade of the 21st Century, Rich Halley has flourished into one of the world's very finest jazz tenor saxophonists... His cavernous tenor sound and impassioned soloing long ago stepped outside of these, and numerous other primal influences and can only be compared, as a point of reference, to that of players such as Don Byas, David S. Ware, David Murray, Coleman Hawkins, and George Adams." -Dave Wayne, jazzreview.com

"Freewheeling and satisfying." -Eric Fine, DownBeat

"No saxophonist out there is playing with more fire, muscle, sheer guts or wild abandon than Halley. But as out there as he can get, there's always a boppish discipline, a thread of containment" -Dan McClenaghan, allaboutjazz

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fire Within

Pine Eagle Records
2023

buy

Boomslang

Pine Eagle Records
2021

buy

The Shape Of Things

Pine Eagle Records
2020

buy

Terra Incognita

Pine Eagle Records
2019

buy

The Literature

Pine Eagle Records
2018

buy

The Wild

Pine Eagle Records
2017

buy

Spuds

From: Back From Beyond
By Rich Halley

Requiem for a Pit Viper

From: Requiem For A Pit Viper
By Rich Halley

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