His Name Is Alive

His Name Is Alive: Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute To Marion Brown

by Chris May
March 5, 2008

Starting with a bold and beautiful idea--to perform a concert tribute to an iconic musician from an earlier age while that musician is still with us--His Name Is Alive have gone on to record an album of such oh-my-god beauty and vitality that the listener may at first be reduced to silent, slack-jawed wonder. And while we'll never know whether trumpeter Miles Davis would have approved bassist/producer Bill Laswell's reconstruction of his music on Panthalassa (Columbia, 1997), we do know ...

His Name Is Alive: Sweet Earth Flower: a tribute to Marion Brown

by Mark Corroto
November 12, 2007

Everything old is new again, even “the new thing is, well, “the new thing again.

In the 1960s, as the moldy conservatives and even the hard bop practitioners were trying to define jazz as one specific thing. Suddenly, the music exploded into multiple directions. Aided by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, adventurism jazz musicians like Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, Sun Ra, Joseph Jarman, and Marion Brown incorporated freedom and Afro-centric themes into the mix.

His Name Is Alive: Sweet Earth Flower: a tribute to Marion Brown

by Troy Collins
October 30, 2007

Sweet Earth Flower: a tribute to Marion Brown is His Name Is Alive's meditative ode to the work of the under-sung free jazz saxophonist. Veterans of the American rock underground, His Name Is Alive has been exploring various musical tangents since the early 1990s, slowly moving closer and closer to a more improvisational, jazz-oriented base.

The brainchild of Michigan-based, multi-instrumentalist/producer Warren Defever, His Name Is Alive was initially signed to the illustrious British label 4AD, a ...

His Name is Alive Record the Music of Marion Brown

Source: All About Jazz
October 24, 2007

Originally conceived only as a single concert at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in 2004, His Name is Alive began recording Sweet Earth Flower shortly after that very successful evening. Although the connection between His Name is Alive and Marion Brown may not be obvious to some of the younger students, this is album is truly a very special release in either artist's varied catalog.

His Name is Alive is probably best known for having been one of ...
read more

Announcing NOMO Dates, NOMO / His Name Is Alive US Tour Begins May 15

Source: All About Jazz
April 5, 2006

ANNOUNCING 19 NOMO TOUR DATES: NOMO/HIS NAME IS ALIVE HIT THE ROAD STARTING MAY 15; UBIQUITY TO RELEASE NOMO'S 'NEW TONES' ON MAY 9, 2006, THE BRAND-NEW ALBUM FROM DETROIT'S EIGHT MEMBER RIOTOUS JAZZ AND FUNK BAND

NOMO's roots are firmly planted in the fertile soil of African polyrhythm and American free jazz, and bandleader Elliot Bergman's tracks draw inspiration from cultures and generations wildly different than his home setting. Detroit producer Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive) was charged ...
read more