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Christopher Hoffman

Christopher Hoffman is a cellist and composer. Christopher performs in Henry Threadgill’s Pulitzer Prize winning ensemble Zooid as well as Double up & 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg

He also currently performs with the grammy-nominated Anat Cohen Tentet, James Brandon Lewis Trio & Red Lily Quintet, Rudy Royston’s Flatbed Buggy, Kenny Warren Trio, Tony Malaby and his own Christopher Hoffman Quartet

He has worked with Martin Scorsese, Yoko Ono, Bleachers, Butch Morris, Marc Ribot, Lee Konitz, Christina Courtin, Spring Awakening, Ryan Scott, Anthony Coleman, FLH, Marianne Faithfull, Ryan Adams, Iron & Wine, Jeremiah Cymerman, Michael Pitt, Pagoda & many others

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15
Album Review

James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia, With Love

Read "For Mahalia, With Love" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Moving on chronologically from George Washington Carver--the African-American musician and influential agricultural scientist to whom James Brandon Lewis' previous recording with the Red Lily Quintet, Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms 2021), was dedicated--For Mahalia, With Love continues the pattern of paying homage to influential Afro-Americans who, in their own way, changed the course of history. This album's dedicatee is the early gospel queen Mahalia Jackson, whose seminal performances lit a spark in the saxophonist's grandmother; she in turn carried the spark ...

10
Album Review

James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia With Love

Read "For Mahalia With Love" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has been establishing himself in various contexts for the last few years, but his main focus lately has been on his Red Lily Quintet. Their first album, Jesup Wagon, (TAO Forms, 2021), was dedicated to African-American scientist, George Washington Carver. On their 2023 release, the group's music focuses on the work of the legendary gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. This tribute takes the form of interpretations of familiar spirituals Jackson often sang. The gospel-derived ...

20
Album Review

James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia With Love

Read "For Mahalia With Love" reviewed by John Sharpe


The combination of James Brandon Lewis' impassioned tenor saxophone and songs associated with gospel singer and Civil Rights activist Mahalia Jackson is a match made in heaven. On For Mahalia, With Love by his Red Lily Quintet, Lewis retains the crack squad which made Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms, 2021) a success. Even though Lewis has a proven knack for crafting an affecting melody, he has chosen well as this repertoire has not only stood the test of time, but is ...

Album Review

Henry Threadgill: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


Giunto sulla soglia delle ottanta primavere, Henry Threadgill non lascia sbiadire la propria splendida vitalità creativa. Lo ha fatto quest'anno sia con la pubblicazione dell'imperdibile autobiografiaEasily Slip into Another World, che con una nuova realizzazione discografica, The Other One. Pure questa imperdibile, si colloca tra i lavori che lo hanno visto impegnato esclusivamente come compositore e direttore dell'ensemble, non in qualità di strumentista e solista, sulla traccia dei precedenti Old Locks and Irregular Verbs, del 2016, e Double ...

7
Album Review

Funkwrench Blues: Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures

Read "Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures" reviewed by Chris May


Once upon a time it was hard to walk into an arthouse cinema without bumping into a jazz soundtrack. Miles Davis' for Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (1958), Charles Mingus' for John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), Krzysztof Komeda's for Roman Polanski's Knife In The Water (1962) were among a legion of similarly inclined endeavours. But all that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. In the 2020s, if you want to hear a freshly ...

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Album Review

Henry Threadgill: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by John Ephland


Listening to Henry Threadgill's music, the bobbing and weaving doesn't maintain a continuity but can jump from one strand to another, one scene to another, as in a dream. It is tonal and not, just as dreams are, perhaps, rhapsodic or unkempt, the story or plot being as tangible, fungible as a summer breeze. Much is made of Threadgill's chamber-music esthetic. And rightly so. It is “so chamber music precise it must all be premeditated, right?" asked the ...

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Album Review

Henry Threadgill Ensemble: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Now that Henry Threadgill has begun receiving the accolades he has long deserved--the Pulitzer Prize he won in 2016 for In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi Recordings, 2015) being just the most prominent example--it is impressive to find him still relentlessly stretching himself as a performer and composer. Since his first forays into the jazz avant-garde in the 1970s, the maverick multi-instrumentalist has always made music that challenges listeners in exciting ways, but it is his uncanny ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Other One

Pi Recordings
2023

buy

4 Freedoms

Form Is Possibility
2022

buy

Asp Nimbus

Out Of Your Head Records
2021

buy

Jesup Wagon

Tao Forms
2021

buy

The Call

From: Soundtrack For A Film Without...
By Christopher Hoffman

Step

From: 4 Freedoms
By Christopher Hoffman

Bell-ell-ell-ell-ells

From: Making Bones, Taking Draughts,...
By Christopher Hoffman

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