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Harvey Sorgen

Harvey Sorgen, Hot Tuna's sizzling drummer, started playing drums and percussion instruments in 1964. His mastery of many styles-jazz, rock, funk and pop-is evident on recordings and gigs with Ahmad Jamal, Robbie Dupree, Roswell Rudd, Dry Jack, Bill Frisell, NRBQ, The Mallards (his own group) and many others, including Hot Tuna. Harvey's taught, performed his own compositions, traveled all over the world (including a two-year stint in Holland) and served as a sound engineer and producer. He has also written and performed pieces for film and the stage, including a solo percussion piece for the New Day Repetoire Theater’s version of “Antigone”

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Extended Analysis

Live At Sweetwater / Live At Sweetwater Two / Live In Japan

Read "Live At Sweetwater / Live At Sweetwater Two / Live In Japan" reviewed by Doug Collette


Hot Tuna's Live at Sweetwater/Live at Sweetwater 2/Live in Japan (Mercury Studios, 2004) reaffirms the fluidity of personnel that's marked the veteran ensemble throughout its over fifty-year career. Comprised of titles originally issued on the Relix Records label in the mid-to-late Nineties, then re-released in modified form in 2004, this Mercury Studios compendium may represent the definitive versions of those titles (though the lack of notes providing historical perspective, as appeared on previous editions, leaves that a moot point).

2
Album Review

Dreamstruck: With Grace In Mind

Read "With Grace In Mind" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


With over one hundred and twenty-five years of gigging and recording between them, one might rightfully argue that pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Joe Fonda, and drummer Harvey Sorgen have said, played, performed, and heard everything that needs be said, played, performed, and heard. The argument could continue that the trio-- Dreamstruck-- have individually and collectively contributed to some of the best by such fellow travelers as Anthony Braxton, Karl Berger, Carla Bley, Archie Shepp, Paul Motian, and Pauline Oliveros. But, ...

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Album Review

Lamb Anderson Sorgen: First Mile

Read "First Mile" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


You can discredit the human imagination for any number of horrendous things. But when used right, things like First Mile happen. Some odd quirk in the continuum comes along and you find three far-travelled veterans, namely pianist Chuck Lamb (Dry Jack, Brubeck Brothers), drummer Harvey Sorgen (Hot Tuna, Anthony Braxton, Paul Simon, {[Bill Frisell}}) and bassist Jay Anderson (Maria Schneider, Paul Bley, David Bowie, Randy Brecker) in a room in Saugerties, NY making it happen. Making it happen real good. ...

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Album Review

Harvey Sorgen / Joe Fonda / Marilyn Crispell: Dreamstruck

Read "Dreamstruck" reviewed by Don Phipps


On Dreamstruck, the trio of drummer Harvey Sorgen, bassist Joe Fonda, and pianist Marilyn Crispell offer distinctive and fascinating interplay that explores the contours of romance, blues, free playing, and abstraction. For the most part, the three musicians eschew formality in favor of spontaneous compositions that emphasize inventive contributions. But included in the mix are two Fonda originals ("My Song" and “Read This"), the title piece “Dreamstruck" (composed by Bob Windbiel) and the delightful “Kalypso" (composed by the ...

1
Album Review

Harvey Sorgen: Dreamstruck

Read "Dreamstruck" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Throughout Dreamstruck's reverberant, captivating terrain, drummer Harvey Sorgen, bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Marilyn Crispell embark on a willful, tenacious interplay that serves as a template for the deep, wide ranging political and personal discourse we all need to seriously engage ourselves in. Crispell's whispery, born-of-the-moment, intro to “My Song" welcomes us instantly into the conversation, making us equal co-conspirators as Fonda and Sorgen slowly add their weaving, eccentric voices. The edgy “Portrait" and the diagonal chaos of ...

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Album Review

Harvey Sorgen / Joe Fonda / Marilyn Crispell: Dreamstruck

Read "Dreamstruck" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Drummer/composer/educator Harvey Sorgen boasts an impressive worked with/recorded with resume. His highest profile booster might be a handful of recordings with the Jefferson Airplane offshoot Hot Tuna, followed by a number of releases with bassist Joe Fonda and the Fonda/Stevens Group. With Fonda involved, you know you'll hear some left-of-center sounds. Dreamstruck teams Fonda with Sorgen, and brings pianist Marilyn Crispell in for a piano trio affair featuring several scrambled three-way, in-the- moment improvisations and four “written" turns, two by ...

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Live At Sweetwater /...

Mercury Studios
2023

buy

First Mile

I Am Them Records
2021

buy

Dreamstruck

Not Two Records
2018

buy

Rumble Seat

Bluebird
2012

buy

Three

Bluebird
2010

buy

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