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Michael Herring

Michael Herring is JUNO-nominated a double-bassist and composer based in Toronto who writes, performs and records across genre lines, equally comfortable in jazz as in folk, world, and pop/rock settings. Herring is a major contributor of original music to a number of groups that he leads and co-leads: Michael Herring Quartet, a chordless two-saxophone band drawing inspiration from 1960’s jazz, especially Mingus and Ellington; Way North (New York/Toronto/Ottawa collaboration with Petr Cancura, Rebecca Hennessy and Richie Barshay) exploring folk musics through improvisation - one Ottawa Citizen top Canadian Jazz albums of 2015; Peripheral Vision, a JUNO-nominated modern-jazz quartet co-led with guitarist and long-time collaborator Don Scott. Peripheral Vision has recorded four albums, maintains a busy touring schedule, and won the Galaxie Rising Star Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival; Michael Herring's Vertigo, a modern-jazz sextet which recorded two albums featuring New York’s David Binney - the first was included in All About Jazz New York’s Top 5 Debut albums of 2006; and The Uplifters and Harrington (New Orleans/Roots), two groups where you can hear Herring’s lyrics, and lead and backing vocals. Herring has toured and recorded with such great musicians as Ab Baars (ICP/Amsterdam), Ken Vandermark, Dave Clark, David Braid, Mansa Sissoko (Mali, Africa), Bucky Pizzarelli, Percy Sledge, and Ernest Ranglin. He received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship (through the Ontario Arts Council) and used it for an extended stay in New York City.

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Album Review

Peripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation

Read "Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


Irrational Revelation & Mutual Humiliation sees Peripheral Vision celebrating their outfit's ten-year anniversary of collaboration. During that time, the group has released four studio albums and one live recording (Spectable: Live!, 2011), each time presenting fresh and stirring new music written by the leaders Don Scott and Michael Herring. More than anything though, the Canadian quartet always makes an effort to demonstrate truly synergetic interplay and democratically fashioned tapestries of sound, as much rooted in jazz tradition as in modern ...

1
Album Review

Peripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation

Read "Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The fifth release of the Canadian quartet Peripheral Vision, the stimulating double album Irrational Revelation & Mutual Humiliation crystalizes the band's creative vision of over a decade into 14 captivating originals. Composers Michael Herring on bass and Don Scott on guitar contributed all the tracks that range from the personal to the socially conscious with a definite abstract and spiritual trait running throughout the intriguing music. A language-barrier problem inspired Scott's whimsical “Schleudern." Opening with drummer Nick Fraser's ...

3
Album Review

Peripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation

Read "Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The Toronto-based quartet Peripheral Vision offers up Irrational Revelation and Mutual Humiliation, the group's fifth release in a discography that began in 2014 with Sheer Tyranny Of Will (Step3). The leaders, guitarist Don Scott and bassist Michael Herring, anchor a tight rhythm section with drummer Nick Fraser, rounded out with alto saxophonist Trevor Hogg. Distinctively modern in sound, toe tapping grooves abound, powering ahead with a momentum as in synch as that of Chick Corea's' Elektric Band. Irrational ...

3
Album Review

Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error And Shame

Read "More Songs About Error And Shame" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


The first half of 2018 sees the Toronto Jazz-scene bursting with fresh sound and innovation, bringing new and exciting nuances to what appears to be today's Status Quo. After the architecturally intense exploration that was saxophonist Gordon Hyland's Never Die!, by his group Living Fossil in February, the object of this review exposes shared similarities with the latter in its compositional approach. On Peripheral Vision's More Songs About Error And Shame, Toronto-based leaders Michael Herring and Don Scott establish a ...

5
Album Review

Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error And Shame

Read "More Songs About Error And Shame" reviewed by Anya Wassenberg


More Songs About Error And Shame by Toronto's Peripheral Vision offers sophisticated, melodic modern jazz with an esoteric bent and eclectic tastes. Co-founders Michael Herring and Don Scott are joined by Nick Fraser on drums and Trevor Hogg on tenor sax in seven original tracks that combine elements of contemporary jazz with a garage band vibe and a groovy Sixties flavor of cool that includes swinging guitars and a strong rhythmic pulse. With tracks titles like “And the ...

3
Album Review

Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error And Shame

Read "More Songs About Error And Shame" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The Juno Award-nominated jazz quartet, Peripheral Vision, delivers a spontaneous set of modernistic music on More Songs About Error And Shame. The sound has a live-in-the-studio freshness, with studio tweakings to embellish their forward-leaning approach. The group's appraoch is a brash and metallic, a mesh of the teaming of Trevor Hogg's sharp toned tenor sax with the luminescence of Don Scott's resonant electric guitar. The Canadian quartet shares a decade-long history of live performance that translates to a ...

21
Album Review

Peripheral Vision: Sheer Tyranny Of Will

Read "Sheer Tyranny Of Will" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


If titles are anything to go by, then Canadian quartet Peripheral Vision has a pretty pessimistic world view--if Sheer Tyranny Of Will isn't downbeat enough, “Robbed And Ridiculed," “The Ill Conceived Plan" and “Neurosis And Everyday Life" add further evidence to the pile. Maybe it's circumstantial though: tucked away in the track listing is one of 2014's most wonderful tune titles--a band that performs a number called “Charleston Heston" can't be too downhearted, can it? Bassist Michael Herring ...

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"Michael Herring has established himself as one of the most creative musicians on the Canadian scene" Joseph Blake - Times-Colonist

“[a] Toronto bassplayer with a penchant for contemporary grooves, colours and energy… cutting-edge but accessible sounds inspired by New York's downtown jazz innovators” Doug Fischer - The Ottawa Citizen

“one of the most exciting and interesting [albums] to arrive this year… The ensemble passages are all rich in texture, catchy hooks relieve the aura of intellectual rigour, the boss's bass soars and swoops and the overall impact is tremendous” Geoff Chapman - Toronto Star

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Music

Dig Up The Stories

From: All The Little Things You Do
By Michael Herring

Whistle up a Rope

From: Irrational Revelation And...
By Michael Herring

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