Bobby Bradford
How can one begin to assess the numerous contributions of a great cornetist/trumpeter/composer/bandleader/educator? How can one also adequately offer a testament for an artist who is such a high quality human being and who profoundly touches so many lives?
Those of us who have been blessed to know Bobby Bradford for a number of years can attest to a probing, powerful intellect that assimilates the history of Jazz in a highly unique manner, drawing conclusions that are as innovative and provocative as one of his solos. His understanding of the history, coupled with his embracing of Jazz’s mandate for innovation, reveals itself in his teaching, playing and composing. I have profoundly admired his brilliant mind, up-tempo wit and his usual location of being two or three steps ahead of everyone else. Like Lester Bowie, he has achieved an individualistic incorporation of Louis Armstrong’s musical language and has placed that influence within the context of modern Jazz’s avant-garde movements. Like Sonny Rollins, J.S. Bach and Ornette Coleman, Bradford has a strong penchant for using musical sequences in both his compositional and improvisational languages. Also like Sonny Rollins, Bradford has a remarkable gift of musical memory. These gifts along with a boundless imagination have consistently enabled Bradford to deftly organize his improvisations. I am consistently stunned by the exquisite musical architecture instantaneously created in his solos. These improvisational edifices give room for his listening audiences to roam within them--exploring and discovering something new about him and themselves. Bradford’s rhythmical language is extremely diverse and his lyrical leanings give many of his solos an emotional depth that only the best practitioners in the music achieve. Bradford is Bradford - coming out of Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Fats Navarro, Charles Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young - yet still Bradford.
Read moreTags
Album Review
- Blue Cat by John Sharpe
- Live At The Blue Whale by Alberto Bazzurro
- Live At The Blue Whale by John Sharpe
- live at the Blue Whale by Glenn Astarita
Profile
Album Review
- Live At The Magic Triangle by John Sharpe
- Live At The Magic Triangle by Glenn Astarita
- Live At The Open Gate by John Sharpe
- Live At The Open Gate by Mark Corroto
- No U Turn: Live In Pasadena, 1975 by Mark Corroto
January 17, 2011
John Carter - Bobby Bradford - Mosaic Select 36 (Mosaic, 2010)
January 02, 2011
John Carter - Bobby Bradford Quartet - Seeking (Hatart 1969, 2001)
October 26, 2006
John Carter-Bobby Bradford Quartet: "Seeking" on hatOLOGY 620
Photos
Albums
Watch
Similar

woodwinds

trumpet

guitar, electric

piano

piano

saxophone, soprano

saxophone, tenor

trumpet

saxophone

saxophone, tenor

saxophone, alto

drums

trumpet

saxophone

trumpet

saxophone, baritone