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Ethan Iverson

Ethan Iverson is a pianist, composer, and critic best known for his work in the jazz trio The Bad Plus with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King.

Iverson was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Before forming The Bad Plus, he was musical director of the Mark Morris Dance Group and a student of Fred Hersch and Sophia Rosoff. He has worked with artists such as Billy Hart, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tim Berne, Mark Turner, Ben Street, Lee Konitz, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Paul Motian, Larry Grenadier, Charlie Haden and Ron Carter. He currently studies with John Bloomfield and is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

In 2017, the Bad Plus announced that Iverson was leaving the group, to be replaced by Orrin Evans.[4] Also in 2017, the Mark Morris Dance Group premiered Pepperland, for which Iverson composed the score (derived from parts of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) and led the band during performances.

In 2018, Iverson premiered his Concerto to Scale with the American Composers Orchestra;[6] released the album Temporary Kings with saxophonist Mark Turner on the ECM label; and toured Europe with the Billy Hart Quartet.

In 2019, Iverson and trumpeter Tom Harrell released the album Common Practice, recorded at the Village Vanguard, on ECM. Iverson also served as an artistic director of the 2019 Jazz te Gast festival in the Netherlands, at which his orchestral piece Solve for X premiered.

In 2021, Iverson's album Bud Powell in the 21st Century, featuring Ingrid Jensen, Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, Lewis Nash, and the Umbria Jazz Orchestra, was released on Sunnyside Records.

Iverson also writes about music and music-related topics, and has been published by The New Yorker, NPR, and The Nation.

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16
Album Review

Ethan Iverson: Technically Acceptable

Read "Technically Acceptable" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


The funhouse genius of pianist Ethan Iverson hits full nor'easter with Technically Accepted, an album so loaded with invention and cool it rises instantly to the pack of hands-down favorites for the still unformed year of 2024. Unbounded, Iverson's many quirks and instigations hurl madly around the house, the studio, the bodega down the street and it is up to the rest of us to keep up. That includes his two simpatico rhythm sections: bassist Thomas Morgan and ...

Album Review

Ethan Iverson: Every Note Is True

Read "Every Note Is True" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Oltre vent'anni dopo la cofondazione dei The Bad Plus e a quattro dalla sua fuoriuscita dalla fortunata formazione, Ethan Iverson ha approfittato della sosta imposta dalla pandemia per portare in studio due musicisti di assoluto spicco quali Larry Grenadier e Jack DeJohnette per registrare con un nuovo trio un album che andasse oltre quanto maturato nel lungo lavoro svolto con la sua precedente formazione. Ne è venuto fuori questo singolare Every Note Is True, primo disco del pianista per la ...

1
Album Review

Chet Doxas: You Can't Take It With You

Read "You Can't Take It With You" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas has been getting attention in recent years by collaborating with prominent musicians such as Dave Douglas and Carla Bley. On this album he explores his own compositions in a trio with two sympathetic partners, pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Thomas Morgan. Doxas' music here falls into one of two general styles, slippery blues-inflected pieces reminiscent of Jimmy Giuffre's trios with Jim Hall or more abstract work where the three musicians take on roles complementary to each ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

Bud's Got Buddies

Read "Bud's Got Buddies" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


We bring the old-ish and the brand-new this week, with two catalog items courtesy of Mike and two 2021 Bud Powell tributes courtesy of Kismet, I guess. One oldie is a middle of the road Blue Note basic, while the other is a third stream effort that is glancingly echoed in the more orchestrated of the two Bud tributes. And that's all you're getting out of me—you'll have to listen to the episode to find out more. Playlist ...

1
Album Review

Ethan Iverson & Umbria Jazz Orchestra: Bud Powell in the 21st Century

Read "Bud Powell in the 21st Century" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Da quando ha lasciato The Bad Plus l'attività di Ethan Iverson s'è sviluppata in più direzioni, passando da lavori strumentali in duo (con Mark Turner: Temporary Kings ECM 2018) o in quartetto (Common Practice ECM 2019) ad opere estese come il concerto per pianoforte con l'American Composers Orchestra (Concerto to Scale). Tra le altre cose ha curato una celebrazione di Thelonious Monk alla Duke University e scritto la colonna sonora per Pepperland, l'opera sui Beatles del coreografo Mark Morris.

Live Review

L'integrale per pianoforte di Ligeti a Bologna

Read "L'integrale per pianoforte di Ligeti a Bologna" reviewed by Libero Farnè


Musica Insieme Contemporanea Oratorio di San Filippo Neri Bologna 28.2.2019 È seducente l'immagine del manifesto di MICO 2019: semplice, ma satura, allusiva, giocosa. Al centro di uno sfondo rosso è inquadrato un piccolo pianoforte-giocattolo altrettanto rosso, come quelli che fanno parte dell'armamentario di strumentini e oggetti accessori vari nelle solo performance di Fabrizio Puglisi o di altri pianisti improvvisatori. L'immagine rappresenta adeguatamente il tema e lo spirito della quattordicesima edizione della rassegna ...

324
Live Review

Ethan Iverson/Larry Grenadier/Paul Motian at the Village Vanguard on March 3, 2011

Read "Ethan Iverson/Larry Grenadier/Paul Motian at the Village Vanguard on March 3, 2011" reviewed by Warren Allen


Ethan Iverson / Larry Grenadier / Paul MotianThe Village VanguardNew York, NYMarch 3, 2011 The press that followed the rise of The Bad Plus rocked jazz's slightly dusty seismometer. And with it, pianist Ethan Iversion rose to the forefront of the jazz piano world for his heart-pounding work in the Plus' Prog-jazz aesthetic. Yet, at his core, Iverson is a powerful player who mixes cracks of atonality with a stately lyricism that draws broadly ...

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2

Recording

Just Released: "Clockworks" (Songlines Recordings) Featuring Patrick Zimmerli Quartet with Ethan Iverson, Chris Tordini, John Hollenbeck

Just Released: "Clockworks" (Songlines Recordings) Featuring Patrick Zimmerli Quartet with Ethan Iverson, Chris Tordini, John Hollenbeck

Source: AMT Public Relations

Completing a 25-year compositional arc, saxophonist-composer Patrick Zimmerli releases his new jazz suite Clockworks (Songlines) following the release in 2016 of his first quartet’s 1992 recording Shores Against Silence (with Kevin Hays, Larry Grenadier and Tom Rainey). Both records feature rhythmically and melodically advanced composition largely inspired by Zimmerli’s love of serial composers such as Babbitt, Carter, Stockhausen and Boulez, though still grounded in a jazz ethos. Both explore a different third stream direction in jazz that Zimmerli made his ...

5

Recording

Donna Lewis With UK Release Of "Brand New Day" Featuring Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King - Produced By David Torn - Out June 17, 2016 + UK Tour

Donna Lewis With UK Release Of "Brand New Day" Featuring Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King - Produced By David Torn - Out June 17, 2016 + UK Tour

Source: Emma Perry Publicity

Brand New Day is available for Pre-Order. “I Love You Always Forever" was such a huge hit for the multi-platinum artist Donna Lewis; a #1 chart hit / dance-pop classic for which people around the globe still have boundless affection—the 1996 song will always be the one for which many fans know her. But the Welsh native is an artist of many dimensions, as she has demonstrated with efforts ranging from “At the Beginning," her charming duet with Richard Marx ...

Education

Saxophonist Sam Newsome and Pianist Ethan Iverson Perform in the Sound It out Series at Greenwich House Music School, September 15, 2012.

Saxophonist Sam Newsome and Pianist Ethan Iverson Perform in the Sound It out Series at Greenwich House Music School, September 15, 2012.

Source: Two for the Show Media

Sam Newsome will play an intro set of incantatory solo soprano saxophone - including famous Coltrane and Ellington pieces - before being joined by Iverson, pianist of The Bad Plus, for a full duo performance. The Sound It Out series presents saxophonist Sam Newsome and pianist Ethan Iverson in performance at the Greenwich House Music School in New York City's West Village at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 15, 2012. Newsome is renowned for his incantatory solo soprano saxophone performances, ...

109

Performance / Tour

Fred Hersch and Ethan Iverson Rework Stephen Sondheim for Pianist Anthony de Mare

Fred Hersch and Ethan Iverson Rework Stephen Sondheim for Pianist Anthony de Mare

Source: AMT Public Relations

Pianist Anthony de Mare Salutes Stephen Sondheim in LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano A Nationwide Tour of 36 Premiere Interpretations by Today's Most Revered Composers 2012 Concert Tour:

Jan 21 :: Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY Feb 4 :: Cliburn Concerts, Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX Mar 12 :: Music at Meyer, San Francisco, CA Apr 21 :: Symphony Space, New York, NY May 1-2 :: Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Kalamazoo, MI

Fred Hersch/No One Is Alone—"No ...

75

Interview

Ethan Iverson Revisits

Ethan Iverson Revisits

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Ethan Iverson has updated his original post that listed his favorite jazz albums from the years 1973-1990. When his first list came out in 2006, it ignited an excellent conversation about albums in that period that have been overlooked by fans and scholars. His update expands this idea further, focusing on post-bop jazz from the 1970's and 80's. There are some really interesting choices here, definitely food for thought in re-assessing an era that is often overlooked in jazz history. ...

146

Interview

Ethan Iverson Interviews Gerald Early

Ethan Iverson Interviews Gerald Early

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman


323

Event

Grammy Award Winner Steve Reich, Ethan Iverson, and Others to Discuss the Life and Career of Composer Hall Overton in the Free Program Hall Overton: Out of the Shadows at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on April 14

Grammy Award Winner Steve Reich, Ethan Iverson, and Others to Discuss the Life and Career of Composer Hall Overton in the Free Program Hall Overton: Out of the Shadows at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on April 14

Source: Michael Ricci

In collaboration with The Jazz Loft Project exhibit, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts welcomes Steve Reich, Joel Sachs, Carman Moore, Ethan Iverson, and Sam Stephenson to discuss famed composer Hall Overton in Hall Overton: Out of the Shadows on Wednesday, April 14 at 6:00 p.m. in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. The New York Public Library for the ...

160

Performance / Tour

The Respect Sextet Returns to le Poisson Rouge in NYC on Tues, January 12, 2010 at 10:00PM with Ethan Iverson (of the Bad Plus) Opening on Solo Piano

The Respect Sextet Returns to le Poisson Rouge in NYC on Tues, January 12, 2010 at 10:00PM with Ethan Iverson (of the Bad Plus) Opening on Solo Piano

Source: Michael Ricci

After nearly a decade together, the members of The Respect Sextet have created an environment of trust and musical courage that allows them to explore the many facets of improvised music. They displayed this fearlessness--and a playful love of experimentation--to a standing-room-only crowd at Le Poisson Rouge. So said All About Jazz columnist Jason Crane about The Respect Sextet's previous performance at Le Poission Rouge in late May, when the band celebrated the release of their newest recording, on Mode ...

151

Website

2007 World Premiere of the Complete Visual Jazz Composition " Buffalo Collision" with Ethan Iverson, David King, Tim Berne and Matt Maneri by T.E. Priemon

2007 World Premiere of the Complete Visual Jazz Composition " Buffalo Collision" with Ethan Iverson, David King, Tim Berne and Matt Maneri by T.E. Priemon

Source: All About Jazz

"Buffalo Collision" explores the non-standard use of the jazz composition. This work was composed using the medium of Photonality, which basically is a visual music composition. The camera acts as an additional instrument within the performance. This visual music composition was from the April 2007 performance of Buffalo Collision at the University of Pennsylvania Rose Hall. Etahn Iverson and David King are both from “The Bad Plus" and were joined by legendary Tim Berne and Matt Maneri to form this ...

336

Event

Ethan Iverson, Solo Piano

Ethan Iverson, Solo Piano

Source: All About Jazz


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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Technically Acceptable

Blue Note Records
2024

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Every Note Is True

Blue Note Records
2022

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Bud Powell in the...

Sunnyside Records
2021

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You Can't Take It...

Whirlwind Recordings
2021

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Common Practice

ECM Records
2019

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Live At Smalls

Clean Feed
2000

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Videos

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