Home » Jazz Musicians » Greg Wall

Greg Wall

Saxophonist Greg Wall has performed and recorded with Hasidic New Wave ,Greg Wall’s Later Prophets , Zion80, The Wall/London Band, Neshama Carlebach, the Hi-Tops, Greg Wall’s Unity Orchestra, and has made many session appearances for record dates and film scores.

He was the musical voice of James Earl Jones in the feature film “On the QT”. Writing in Jazz Forum magazine Robert Buczek said, “Wall plays incredibly; his improvisations are well constructed and convincing.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer adds, “He plays with a consistent power and imagination.” His compositions for dance, jazz orchestra, and electronica have been widely performed and recorded. His critically acclaimed release, “From the Belly of Abraham”, with Hasidic New Wave and Senegalese master drummers Yakar Rhythms was named one of the ten best CD’s of 2002 by Jazz Times magazine.

Since then, Greg has released several recordings on John Zorn’s Tzadik label with his own ensemble Later Prophets as well as with the large group Zion80. Greg performs frequently at top venues throughout North America and Europe and has been featured at many major festivals. Greg is equally fluent  in the jazz and world music idioms and has recorded with his Unity Orchestra, a pan cultural ensemble featuring 8 musicians from 5 continents.

Greg has collaborated with the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company since 1999, resulting in the commissioned scores for”Meyne Mentchen” (2000-2001), the electronic score, “Echad” (2002), “Lovelines” (2003), “odisea” (2005) and “Tikkun” (2009).

Between 2008 and 2012 Greg produced over 70 recordings for Pioneers For A Cure, an innovative artist driven project supporting a wide variety of cancer charities with reimagined versions of early pre-state of Israel music, the “Songs that Built Israel”.

Greg received rabbinic ordination in 2006, and in 2009 was appointed the rabbi of the Sixth Street Community Synagogue in Manhattan’s East Village. He was founder and artistic director of the influential Center for Jewish Arts and Literacy based at the synagogue, attracting thousands to the best of cutting edge and classic music, theater, spoken word and visual arts presentations.

Greg moved to Westport, CT in 2013 to become the rabbi of Beit Chaverim Synagogue. Since then he has been a founding board member of the Jazz Society of Fairfield County (JazzFC) where he serves as President and Artistic Director. Greg has curated a weekly Westport based Jazz series since 2015, performing weekly with a rotating lineup of internationally acclaimed NYC based and touring Jazz artists.


Tags

349
Album Review

Greg Wall's Later Prophets: Ha'Orot: The Kook Project

Read "Ha'Orot: The Kook Project" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


Rabbi Avraam Izchak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935) was one of the most influential and inspirational religious Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. Kook was a man who was humanistic in his philosophy. He preached for vegetarianism and was interested in the arts (he thought that Rembrandt was a tzadik, a righteous man), though his philosophy was deeply religious. He believed that the re-establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel had deep theological significance, a heavenly plan to bring ...

172
Album Review

Greg Wall: Later Prophets

Read "Later Prophets" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


What do you recommend for that always-searching jazz fan who has heard everything? Maybe a CD by Hasidic New Wave (how's that for a category?) saxophonist/clarinetist/composer Greg Wall.The story of Ezekiel inspired Wall's latest offering, Later Prophets : Ezekiel ..."whose prophecy resurrecting dry bones after the destruction of the temple contains a great message of hope."Not to worry, though, if you aren't familiar with the traditional music used to chant the biblical prophecies that Wall draws ...

90
Album Review

Greg Wall: Later Prophets

Read "Later Prophets" reviewed by John Kelman


On Later Prophets , his third release as a leader, reedman Greg Wall continues to use traditional Jewish music as a starting point, as he has with Hasidic New Wave, but the complexion is altogether different. Traversing the diverse from an authentic ethnic style to Ayler-like freedom, from ambient work reminiscent of Mal Waldron’s work on Harold Budd’s The Pavilion of Dreams to subtle electronica, Wall weaves an intriguing and surprisingly accessible tapestry that is loosely based around the biblical ...

Read more articles
261

Recording

Greg Wall's Later Prophets Featuring Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein Release Passionate New CD

Greg Wall's Later Prophets Featuring Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein Release Passionate New CD

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

“HA’OROT: The Lights of Rav Kook” on TZADIK Wall Simultaneously Straddles the Gates of the Ancient and Avant-garde “The soulful performances of all the pieces succeed to parallel and complement the texts with organic affinity and unity and leave enough space for reflection. Their inventiveness and the richness of the musical vocabulary of the band members suggest that these texts could, perhaps, have been pat of a canon of modern Beat poets…Quite quickly, after the third piece, it’s actually ...

Photos

Music

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.