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George Schuller

George Schuller (drums, composer, arranger, producer), a native of New York City, moved to Boston in 1967 where he was raised and educated, and later received a bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1982. For the next twelve years, Schuller was a fixture on the Boston area jazz scene performing with Herb Pomeroy, Jaki Byard, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Mick Goodrick, John Lockwood, Ran Blake, Lisa Thorson, Billy Pierce, Bruce Gertz, Mili Bermejo, John LaPorta, Dominique Eade and Hal Crook.

In 1984, he co-founded the twelve-piece ensemble Orange Then Blue recording several acclaimed albums, including the 1999 release: Hold The Elevator: Live in Europe and Other Haunts on GM Recordings. Orange Then Blue toured extensively throughout the US, Canada, Middle East and Europe during the 90s.

Over the last two decades, Schuller has also released several albums as a leader including his first CD entitled Lookin Up From Down Below (GM), and two releases with the Schulldogs, Tenor Tantrums (New World) and Hellbent (Playscape). Schuller has also released three recordings with Circle Wide including Round'bout Now (Playscape) featuring Ingrid Jensen and Tom Beckham, Like Before, Somewhat After (Playscape) featuring Donny McCaslin and Dave Ambrosio, and more recently Listen Both Ways (Playscape) featuring Peter Apfelbaum and Brad Shepik. Schuller has also recently embarked on a series of piano trio recordings with Trio This That (GM) with Barney McAll, and George Schuller Trio Life's Little Dramas (Fresh Sound/New Talent) featuring Dan Tepfer and Jeremy Stratton.

Since 2004, Schuller has also released several different and wide-ranging recordings showcasing his diverse interests in many styles of improvisatory approaches including JigSaw (482 Music) featuring an all-star cast of New York improvisers (Tony Malaby, Mark Feldman, Dave Ballou), and the collective bands of Conference Call (482, Cleanfeed, Nottwo) and Free Range Rat (Cleanfeed).

In 1995 Schuller appeared on Joe Lovano's critically acclaimed album Rush Hour (Blue Note) with compositions and arrangements by Gunther Schuller. It was voted "Album of the Year" by Down Beat magazine. In addition, Schuller has performed and/or recorded with many of today's leading musicians including Lee Konitz, Mose Allison, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nnenna Freelon, Ran Blake, Fred Hersch, Jerry Bergonzi, Armen Donelian, Cameron Brown, Burton Greene, Tom Varner, George Garzone, Mark Helias, Dave Douglas, Herb Robertson, Drew Gress, Peter Yarrow, Jimmy Greene, Liberty Ellman, J Geils, Kris Davis, Russ Johnson, Myra Melford, Roy Nathanson and The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.

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3
Album Review

Michael Musillami Trio: Block Party

Read "Block Party" reviewed by Troy Dostert


A relentlessly active and inventive guitarist whose first recordings date back to the '80s, Michael Musillami began to hit his stride in the '90s alongside veterans of the New York downtown scene such as bassist Mario Pavone, drummer Michael Sarin and saxophonist Thomas Chapin. But one of his foremost partnerships took shape in the early 2000s, when he first teamed with bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller, themselves long-standing veterans of creative jazz. Twenty years and ten albums later, ...

11
Interview

Drummer George Schuller Talks about Lee Konitz

Read "Drummer George Schuller Talks about Lee Konitz" reviewed by S.G Provizer


George Schuller performed as percussionist with the recently deceased saxophonist Lee Konitz on and off since 1992. I covered one of their last jny: Boston concerts here. George has lived in Brooklyn since 1992 but is well-known in Boston. His father, Gunther Schuller, was a composer and musician of note and served as President of the New England Conservatory of Music from 1967-1977 and his brother Ed Schuller is an accomplished bassist. George is co-founder of the ensemble Orange Then ...

4
Album Review

George Schuller's Circle Wide: Listen Both Ways

Read "Listen Both Ways" reviewed by Troy Collins


Listen Both Ways is the first studio recording by drummer George Schuller's longstanding Circle Wide quintet to concentrate primarily on his original compositions. The group's previous Playscape releases, 2003's Round 'Bout Now and 2008's Like Before, Somewhat After, paid homage to the seminal efforts of famous post-war bandleaders--trumpeter Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet on the former and pianist Keith Jarrett's American Quartet on the latter.Six of the album's eight tunes are staples of the unit's live sets, with ...

711
Interview

George Schuller: Like Before, But Fresh

Read "George Schuller:  Like Before, But Fresh" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


Throughout musical history, the influences of substantial artists, recorded works, or certain epochal periods, have their effect on contemporaries and ensuing generations. For those that make music, it shows up in their playing or composing. Tracking those influences, whether well-known sources or those under the radar, is not as important as the end result of an individual's statement.

Forward-thinking artists can find inventive ways of incorporating influences into personal statements. That's what Brooklyn-based drummer George Schuller ...

212
Album Review

George Schuller's Circle Wide: Like Before, Somewhat After

Read "Like Before, Somewhat After" reviewed by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio


This writer's familiarity with the physical concept known as dewpoint is as extensive as can be expected from someone who spent much of her science classes with a literary magazine hidden underneath her notebook. “Dewpoint," the appropriately titled opening track of the sophomore release of George Schuller's Circle Wide, is perhaps as elucidating as any semester-long course in conveying what it means to reaching a threshold of precise saturation, neither failing to live up to the bar set high nor ...

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Album Review

George Schuller's Circle Wide: Like Before, Somewhat After

Read "Like Before, Somewhat After" reviewed by Nic Jones


"Dewpoint," the appropriately titled opening track of Like Before, Somewhat After, the sophomore release of George Schuller's work with Circle Wide, is perhaps as elucidating as any semester-long course in conveying what it means to reaching a threshold of precise saturation, neither failing to live up to the bar set high nor causing discomfort by reaching too high and producing a work of pretentious chaos.

“Dewpoint" is one of two original tracks on the record, the ...

165
Album Review

George Schuller's Circle Wide: Like Before, Somewhat After

Read "Like Before, Somewhat After" reviewed by John Sharpe


It's now some thirty-one years since the demise of Keith Jarrett's “American Quartet," uniting Ornette Coleman alumni Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden with former Bill Evans drummer Paul Motian. That group's masterpiece and effective swansong was Survivors' Suite (ECM, 1976), and so it is fitting that two sections are reprised on drummer/composer George Schuller's affectionate tribute to the band, alongside four other Jarret pieces and two originals.

It takes both the vibes of Tom Beckham and ...

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Performance / Tour

Firehouse 12 to Present George Schuller's Circle Wide November 7th

Firehouse 12 to Present George Schuller's Circle Wide November 7th

Source: Improvised Communications

On Friday, November 7th, veteran drummer/composer George Schuller will perform with his longstanding group, Circle Wide, as part of Firehouse 12's ongoing 2008 Fall Jazz Series.

The New York-based band, which features saxophonist (and Hartford native) Jimmy Greene, guitarist Brad Shepik, vibraphonist Tom Beckham and bassist Dave Ambrosio, will be celebrating the recent release of its latest recording, Like Before, Somewhat After (Playscape Recordings), which pays tribute to the music of jazz legend Keith Jarrett's seminal American Quartet of the ...

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Interview

Drummer George Schuller Interviewed at AAJ

Drummer George Schuller Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Throughout musical history, the influences of substantial artists, recorded works, or certain epochal periods, have their effect on contemporaries and ensuing generations.

For those that make music, it shows up in their playing or composing. Tracking those influences, whether well-known sources or those under the radar, is not as important as the end result of an individual's statement.

Forward-thinking artists can find inventive ways of incorporating influences into personal statements. That's what Brooklyn-based drummer George Schuller has done in his ...

205

Recording

George Schuller Pays Tribute to Keith Jarrett's American Quartet on New CD

George Schuller Pays Tribute to Keith Jarrett's American Quartet on New CD

Source: Improvised Communications

“Embracing the lyricism inherent in Jarrett's writing, Schuller's ensemble offers one of the most euphorically adventurous albums in recent memory. Effortlessly moving between freedom and formal structure, Circle Wide embraces the same malleable, inside-outside aesthetic that the American Quartet excelled at. Like Before, Somewhat After invokes the bittersweet intensity of Jarrett's formative work, making this richly rewarding tribute one of Schuller's most beautiful and accessible albums." --Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com

Playscape Recordings is proud to announce the May 13th ...

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Performance / Tour

Carlos Morena with Joe Fonda & George Schuller

Carlos Morena with Joe Fonda & George Schuller

Source: All About Jazz

N E W I M P R O V @ Z E I T G E I S T G A L L E R Y 1353 Cambridge St. Inman Sq. Cambridge, Mass. 02139 617.876.6060 ~ ALL AGES ~ WWW.ZEITGEIST-GALLERY.ORG Thursday, 27 October 2005 7:30-10:00pm $12 or b/o rob chalfen & subconsciouscafe new chamber music presents Italian pianist CARLOS MORENA with JOE FONDA & GEORGE SCHULLER Carlos Morena - piano / Joe Fonda - bass / George Schuller - drums ...

"Schuller is a graceful, swinging drummer, always tasteful and capable of driving a band without overwhelming it."
—Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes

"Drummer George Schuller is a significant member of today’s progressive jazz scene. Whether performing as a sideman or leading his own projects, Schuller’s pen represents a potent and forward thinking mindset…"
—Glenn Astarita, JazzReview.com

"Schuller knows how to use composition to spur improvisation, and as a way to organize free blowing so that it never sounds arbitrary. What’s more, funky tunes like ‘Band Vote’ will keep you whistling after the CD is over."
—Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Block Party

Playscape Recordings
2023

buy

Listen Both Ways

Playscape Recordings
2012

buy

Like Before, Somewhat...

Playscape Recordings
2008

buy

Jigsaw

482 Music
2004

buy

Round 'Bout Now

Playscape Recordings
2004

buy

'Round 'Bout Now

Playscape Recordings
2004

buy

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