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Rob Thorsen

Composer and bassist Rob Thorsen’s new release, “Lasting Impression,” takes us on a journey through an audible photo gallery of contrasts, colors, shades of light and space. Although he has focused on musical landscapes before as a leader on three previous CD’s, his current project demonstrates an evolution and maturity as a composer and musician that clearly raises the bar. Rob is a devoted and seasoned instrumentalist, equally confident with standards and original compositions, whose bass sings with a warmth and creative spirit while maintaining an engaging interactive dialogue with the ensemble. “As a creative musician one can never be sedentary in approaching a performance, whether it is live or recorded. Clearly, the musicians on this CD completely dedicated themselves to making this a stimulating and inventive musical endeavor,” remarked Thorsen.

Thorsen credits his mother for his musicality as she surrounded their home in San Diego, California with her classical guitar sounds and textile arts skills. To that end it is obvious why Rob developed a knack for weaving instrumental textures in his music through various combinations of timbres and sonorities and has a special interest in visual arts through his own photography. Thorsen describes his concept for the current project: “I took the jazz quintet format and added or subtracted instruments as I needed for particular songs. There is one solo track, two trios, three quartets, three quintet pieces, and one sextet. The sextet uses alto flute, bassoon, and flugelhorn. I like using different combinations of players as good musicians adapt immediately to different group situations - it helps create a variety of sounds on the recording.”

Rob is no stranger to different instrumental sounds since starting out playing baritone ukulele at age six, switching to classical guitar at eight, then flute, saxophone and tuba through High School and finally buying his first electric bass at a garage sale in San Francisco at nineteen. In his twenties he discovered the upright bass and that became his one true love beginning a long career that started with his first gig on a cruise ship. What made Rob gravitate to the bass was the fact, as he describes, “that you feel as much as you hear when playing an acoustic bass due to its amazing design physically as far as projecting low frequency sound. I’ve worked at developing a good sound with the bow as well,” continued Thorsen, “It completely changes the character of the instrument and gives the player many vocal-like opportunities.“

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Read "Ode To Joe" reviewed by Jack Bowers


While West Coast drummer David Whitman's Ode to Joe [Henderson] is a rather brief one at less than thirty-three minutes, it is otherwise admirable for what is enclosed within its concise parameters. Whitman leads a well-schooled septet whose makeup is freshened by rotating tenor saxophonists Bob Sheppard and Rob Lockart and guitarists Bruce Forman and Chris Montgomery. Whitman and trumpeter Andrew Neesley share composer credits, and Neesley handles the arrangements, awakening warm memories of the Golden Age ...

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David Whitman: Ode To Joe

Read "Ode To Joe" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Dipping into this fine recording is, to mix metaphors a bit, like opening a time capsule. That capsule is called One For All (A&M, 1990), perhaps the final studio recording of Art Blakey with The Jazz Messengers. It was not a perfect outing, but it was a memorable one. The lines got into the head and stayed there, just waiting for a chance to be reawakened. Well, now is the time with Ode to Joe. A convenient link between the ...

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Christopher Hollyday: Dialogue

Read "Dialogue" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Il ritorno discografico di Christopher Hollyday—a un quarto di secolo dall'ultimo disco—è proprio una sorpresa. Chi segue il jazz dei primi anni novanta ricorderà il formidabile debutto del sax contralto non ancora ventenne in un disco da leader per l'RCA/Novus, accompagnato da Wallace Roney, Cedar Walton, David Williams e Billy Higgins. Un talento naturale dalla tecnica smagliante e lo stile alla Jackie McLean, che nei successivi tre dischi per l'etichetta l'imposero tra i promettenti young lions della sua generazione. Nel ...

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Album Review

Rob Thorsen: Lasting Impression

Read "Lasting Impression" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Bassist Rob Thorsen became interested in jazz when he heard Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The acoustic bass, which he discovered when he was in his twenties, became his instrument of choice as he began his career as a performer on a cruise ship. On Lasting Impression, his fourth CD as leader, Thorsen plays compositions by Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane and George Gershwin, along with his own work.

Thorsen grafts his ideas convincingly onto the ...

283
Album Review

Rob Thorsen: Lasting Impression

Read "Lasting Impression" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


San Diego-based bassist Rob Thorsen seems to be shining up a '50's-'60's jazz classics lesson with the first four cuts on Lasting Impression. The set opens with Charlie Parker's “Dexterity," a crisp, jaunty take on the classic, with Gilbert Castellanos--another San Diego jazz scene stalwart--sitting in on trumpet, giving the tune a bright, fluid feeling. John Coltrane's “Giant Steps" is done in piano trio mode, with Josh Nelson's upbeat keyboard workout making the melody shine before he accompanies with a ...

187
Album Review

The Rob Thorsen Quartet: Evolution

Read "Evolution" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Bassist-led recording dates make among the most interesting and swinging music produced in jazz. Paul Chambers’ recordings for Blue Note are a great case in point. Veteran bassist Rob Thorsen extends this tradition with Evolution. Thorsen is a San Francisco native who has been playing and performing the better part of his life and has appeared with many jazz luminaries, including Mark Murphy, John Hendricks, James Moody, Charles McPherson, and Richie Cole. He is a bassist in the vein of ...

244
Album Review

Rob Thorsen Quartet: Evolution

Read "Evolution" reviewed by J. Robert Bragonier


One pleasant consequence of so many independent CDs on the market is the opportunity to hear regional musicians who otherwise would have gotten little or no national exposure. It is exciting to find groups as good or better than nationally known variety. Rob Thorsen's quartet is but one example. When he was 18, bassist Rob Thorson began playing in San Francisco blues and street bands. Over the next several years, he was exposed to the artistry of ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Ode To Joe

Shifting Paradigm Records
2023

buy

Dialogue

Jazzbeat
2019

buy

Lasting Impression

Pacific Coast Jazz
2009

buy

Evolution

Azica Records
2003

buy

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