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Sean Noonan
An Irish-American drummer with a theatrical bent and a passion for African rhythms, Noonan’s excursions are both geographical, taking him to far-flung corners of the world to study cultural and conceptual traditions as he explores the outer limits of music to soak in harmolodic jazz, bleeding-edge rock or avant-garde classical influences. His “wandering folk” theory captures the elusiveness of ever-evolving world music traditions and reorients them through his own particular lens.
That nomadic muse has led Noonan in a wealth of unexpected directions, resulting in an explosion of dynamic releases and projects spanning more than 19 albums and hundreds of performances in more than a dozen countries, including such international festivals as Timezone Festival, EFG London Jazz, Bergen Natt Jazz, Incubate and Jazz Liege. He’s worked with an incredible array of artists from across the literal and musical map, including Abdoulaye Diabaté, Marc Ribot, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Mat Maneri, Susan McKeown, and Can’s Malcolm Mooney.
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Sean Noonan: The Aqua Diva
by Don Phipps
Surreal, comic, wistful, and whimsical, Sean Noonan's The Aqua Diva provides a unique journey into a world that is part Tom Waits, part Mose Allison, part Frank Zappa, and a whole lot of Sean Noonan. Noonan articulates and sings odd ditties and lyrics which introduce us to the Aqua Diva, Bubbles, the Smoking Man, and other strange and colorful personas. He is joined on his musical expose by Alex Marcelo on piano and Peter Bitenc on bass. On ...
read moreSean Noonan: Not Simply Beating a Dead Horse Drum
by Phillip Woolever
Composer and drummer Sean Noonan is an explorer, charting many edges of the compositional frontier. The term unique does not quite cover the range of his thoughtful, abstract approach to musical narrative.Edgy is often the operative theme in Noonan's repertoire, gleamed from studious sojourns to distant cultures and locales. Noonan's results take form in string-based dreamscapes or saxophone solos layered over Parliament/Funkadelic style aqua-grooves. His beats can cover science fiction, pounding punk and orchestral visions on Frank Zappa.
read moreSean Noonan: Man No Longer Me
by Matt Hooke
From the first bass notes of Man Vs. Machine" the opening track from Sean Noonan's Man No Longer Me it's obvious that this isn't your average jazz fusion record. The Irish American Noonan combines West African rhythms, with jazz harmony, and the absurdist humor and attitude of Frank Zappa, making this release a welcome respite from the tepid Berklee Funk" that often populates jazz fusion. The album is based on the loose concept of a man's transformation into ...
read moreSean Noonan: Man No Longer Me
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Drummer and self-declared Storyteller Sean Noonan's body of work draws from a variety of different music and poetry of past and present. Having explored various musical cultures in the past, Noonan feels as much as home with cutting edge distorted punk riffs as he does with mellow Jazz Fusion or even chamber music. On his most recent outing Man No Longer Me he combines his entire catalogue of approaches and fuses it to a homogenous whole. Spoken word arrangements meet ...
read moreSean Noonan: Man No Longer Me
by Chris Mosey
Man No Longer Me is about the transformation of a man who gets tickled by a sunbeam one morning on a mountain top and who, as the story progresses, wanders and gets lost in a desert and transforms into a coyote. All clear, so far? New York avant-garde drummer Sean Noonan's incoherent, barely musical ramblings were born from harmolodic jazz, bleeding-edge rock and avant-garde classical music. He is a modern day ...
read moreSean Noonan e il Questionario di Proust
by Paolo Peviani
All About Jazz: Il tratto principale della mia musica. Sean Noonan: Questo, questo." Sì?" Questo è il CONTRARIO di noioso" (come ha detto qualcuno su http://louderthanwar.com/sean-noonan-cantus-domus-stargaze-haldern-pop-2016). AAJ: La qualità che desidero nei musicisti che suonano con me. SN: Che abbiano sempre voglia di rischiare e che non abbiano paura di esplorare nuovi territori musicali. AAJ: Come musicista, il momento in cui sono stato più felice. SN: ...
read moreSean Noonan: A Gambler's Hand
by AAJ Italy Staff
L'impiego di un quartetto d'archi in ambiti jazzistici e di improvvisazione non è più una novità già da parecchio tempo; sono molti infatti musicisti e compositori che hanno contribuito ad abbattere i muri che separano sempre più debolmente i vari settori della musica contemporanea (basti pensare a Kronos Quartet e John Zorn tanto per fare un paio di nomi). Eppure, il batterista Sean Noonan riesce ancora a sorprendere con questo suo lavoro, una suite per batteria e quartetto d'archi che ...
read moreSean Noonan Releases Pavees Dance 'Slide Gate': An Epic Journey Of Transformation And Conflict Through Experimental Jazz Rock
Source:
GoMedia PR
Drummer and composer Sean Noonan, celebrated as a “Rhythmic Storyteller,” unveils his latest release, Slide Gate, marking the third installment from the jazz-rock ensemble Pavees Dance. On the new album, Noonan is once again joined by the original Can vocalist, Malcolm Mooney, the legendary bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma (Ornette Coleman's Prime Time), and the guitarist Ava Mendoza (Unnatural Ways). Comprised of ten tracks, Slide Gate embarks on a storytelling adventure which revolves around an android's quest to reclaim its humanity. Within ...
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Drummer/Composer And Rhythmic Storyteller Sean Noonan To Release Two Imaginative New Albums In Early 2022
Source:
GoMedia PR
Drummer and composer Sean Noonan has long preferred the term “Rhythmic Storyteller” to describe his audacious, genre-defiant artistry. As a modern-day self-described sonic griot he combines the most ancient of traditions with forward-seeking experimentation; as a kind of post-modern wandering minstrel he gathers irreverent folk tales and offbeat inspirations from various cultures and translates them through his own singular worldview. The first of the two releases that he has slated for 2022 is Knott Tones, a collision of new music ...
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Sean Noonan's Stories From Behind The Drum Kit Continue With Bruised By Noon
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GoMedia PR
Bruised by Noon, A Limited Edition Solo Drum Project Which Concludes the Tale of Finny Finnigan, the Gambler Who Was Introduced on Noonan's Critically Acclaimed 2012 Project A Gambler's Hand, Available as CD, Download and Vinyl and Accompanying Book Drummer/composer/storyteller/producer Sean Noonan is among the most prolific and innovative musicians of his generation. Just a few months after the release of his punk-rock influenced Pavees Dance: There's Always the Night, which paired the 38 year old drummer with Malcolm Mooney, ...
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Sean Noonan Will Preview Music From New CD On Concert Window Webcast On May 28
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GoMedia PR
On Wednesday, May 28, drummer, composer and producer Sean Noonan will preview music from his upcoming June 3 album, Pavees Dance: There's Always the Night, in a very special webcast on Concert Window. The live, real-time performance will feature Noonan, along with keyboardist Alex Marcelo, and - in a rare performance - former Can frontman Malcolm Mooney. The webcast will begin at 5:00 PM Eastern time. In addition to the watching the performance, viewers will get to chat live during ...
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Sean Noonan's A Gambler's Hand Is A Further Step Forward In His Evolving Blend Of Music And Narrative
Source:
GoMedia PR
Drummer's Latest, Along With Oudist Gordon Grdina's Her Eyes Illuminate, Will Be Released by Songlines on August 14 Songlines Recordings will once again traverse musical boundaries and challenge genre specificity with its two August releases: Sean Noonan's A Gambler's Hand and Gordon Grdina's Haram's Her Eyes Illuminate. While Noonan's last release for Songlines, Boxing Dreams (2008), featured such unlikely combinations as Irish and West African vocalists singing simultaneously in Gaelic and Bambara against raucous guitar and hyperactive drums, A Gambler's ...
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Sean Noonan's Brewed by Noon: November 9th & 18th with Thierno Camara, Aram Bajakian, Abdoulaye Diabate, Mat Maneri
Source:
All About Jazz
Brewed By Noon pre-recording session sneak album preview performances When:Tea Lounge, Friday, November 9, 9pm Soundfix Records, Sunday, November 18, 7pm With: Thierno Camara -bass/vocals, Aram Bajakian -guitar, Abdoulaye Diabate -vocals, Mat Maneri - viola, Sean Noonan - drums SEAN NOONAN'S BREWED BY NOON DELIVERS A RICH BLEND OF TRADITIONS ON STORIES TO TELL Drummer/composer Sean Noonan describes Brewed by Noon as tribal rhythms by an Irish griot....My goal is to adapt folklore in a modern jazz context, ...
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Sean Noonan's Brewed By Noon American Composers Forum premiere w/ Marc Ribot, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Mat Maneri, Abdoulaye Diabate, Susan McKeown etc.
Source:
All About Jazz
NOONAN'S BREWED BY NOON DELIVERS A RICH BLEND OF TRADITIONS ON STORIES TO TELL
Songlines Debut from NY-based Drummer Fuses Jazz-Punk, Rock, Blues with Celtic and West African Rhythms
Speaking of his Brewed by Noon project, which will release its new CD, Stories To Tell, on January 9, 2007, drummer Sean Noonan describes it as tribal rhythms by an Irish griot". My goal is to adapt folklore in a modern jazz context, merging storytelling and folk music from bardic and ...
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Sean Noonan's Brewed by Noon To Debut American Composers Forum-Commissioned Pieces at New York's Symphony Space
Source:
GoMedia PR
On January 13, 2007, drummer/composer Sean Noonan and Brewed by Noon will premier the first set of twelve compositions commissioned by the American Composers Forum, at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space in Manhattan.
Noonan was awarded the commission by the Jerome Foundation Commissioning Program in 2005, based on his goal of creating original compositions which fuse traditional wandering folk music with concepts from the New York progressive jazz scene. The Commission will underwrite a total of 24 original ...
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"Encapsulating a kaleidoscope of styles, in fact far too many to mention, the constantly changing and evolving canvas on which Noonan paints his wonderful musical landscape make it fascinating and a joy to listen to." Bebopspokenhere
"This is not the typical release but an experience. A dynamic and virtually flawless execution of art at an apex of creativity few can match." Brent Black @CriticalJazz
Photos
Music
Pussy Cat's Gone Wild
From: Man No Longer MeBy Sean Noonan
Bruised by Noon Bout 3
From: Sean Noonan Bruised by NoonBy Sean Noonan