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John Tchicai

By approaching jazz from a wide scope, Afro-Danish-American John Tchicai has been continuously progressive throughout his life. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1936, of a Danish mother and a Congolese father and growing up in healthy surroundings, John Martin Tchicai became a leading exponent of the jazz avant-garde in New York in the '60s and a father-figure for the European avant-garde after that. Now based in Davis, California, and Claira, France, by a single-mindedness of purpose and action, his work still reflects what he's always been doing, which is innovate and inspire other people, in a most refreshing way. The Danish ministry of Culture recognized his work by awarding him a lifetime grant.

Instruments

John first began to play the violin as a child, and switched to the alto saxophone and clarinet at age 16. He studied with private teachers and attended the Conservatory of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, for two years. During the late '60s and early '70s, John began to play bamboo flutes, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone and some percussion, and when he discovered the tenor saxophone in the early '80s, he put the alto aside in favor of this, which has become his main instrument. John uses keyboards and sequencers as tools for composing.

Chronology

In the late '50s and early '60s, John explored the Danish and Northern European jazz-scene. He moved to New York City in '62. In the following 4 years, he recorded on 11 albums (a.o. "Mohawk", "Ascension" with John Coltrane, "New York Eye and Ear Control" with Albert Ayler), co-founded 2 ensembles ("New York Contemporary Five" and "New York Art Quartet" which was a harbinger of collective musical approaches and philosophies that leading avant-groups of the '70s would develop) that he toured Europe with, and was a member of "The Jazz Composers Guild". He moved back to Denmark in '66 where he co-founded "Cadentia Nova Danica", at one time a 30-piece ensemble which recorded "Afrodisiaca". In the '70s, John discovered hatha yoga and meditation which became lifelong focusing points in his spiritual development. He performed less often in this period, but taught elementary schools, composed, and led workshops. By the '80s, he had picked up touring and recording internationally again, traveling through Europe, to India, Japan and Africa, performing as a sideman as well as leading his own groups. In 1991 John moved to California. Here he founded "John Tchicai and the Archetypes", a 7-piece band that fused afro-jazz with blues-rock and released the album "Love Is Touching". Currently, he teaches workshops in schools and in prisons, composes and works on new projects. He practices yoga, pranayama and meditation, and still tours internationally.

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Album Review

New York Art Quartet: New York Art Quartet Revisited

Read "New York Art Quartet Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Questa preziosa (ancora una volta) riedizione di oltre un'ora e un quarto di musica riunisce i primi due album di uno dei gruppi più leggendari della stagione free, il primo intitolato semplicemente col suo nome e pubblicato dall'altrettanto leggendaria ESP fondata nel 1963 da Bernard Stollman (incisione del 16 novembre 1964), il secondo, Mohawk, di pochi mesi successivo (17 luglio 1965), edito su Fontana. Il gruppo è per tre quarti identico in entrambe le occasioni, allineando figure nodali di quella ...

Album Review

Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, John Thicai, Don Moore, J.C. Moses: Copenhagen 1963 Revisited. Live Jazzhus Montmartre

Read "Copenhagen 1963 Revisited. Live Jazzhus Montmartre" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Questo concerto registrato al Jazzhus Montmartre di Copenhagen risale a una settimana esatta prima dell'assassinio di JF Kennedy a Dallas. E già questo colloca il nostro ascolto in un contesto, in un'atmosfera specifica. Ma in quel 1963 venne assassinato anche Medgar Evers (il 12 giugno), tra i più autorevoli attivisti afroamericani, freddato da un suprematista bianco e celebrato in questo disco dal brano di Archie Shepp “The Funeral." Shepp sosteneva che la musica, sempre, è sia un fenomeno ...

3
Album Review

Albert Ayler: New York Eye and Ear Control Revisited

Read "New York Eye and Ear Control Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The backstory of New York Ear and Eye Control is a significant factor in the music and the direction free jazz took in the 1960s. Filmmaker Michael Snow commissioned Albert Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray to record a thirty-minute soundtrack for a movie, “Walking Woman," he had yet to film. As explained in the liner notes, he “wanted to buy a half hour of music." Also invited to the session were trumpeter & cornetist Don ...

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Album Review

Albert Ayler: New York Eye And Ear Control Revisited

Read "New York Eye And Ear Control Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


The development of so-called free jazz in New York during the first half of the 1960s was topped and tailed by three landmark recordings: Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1961), John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse, 1966) and Albert Ayler's New York Eye And Ear Control (ESP, 1966). Of the three discs, only New York Eye And Ear Control broke away completely from jazz's normative structure of theme/solos/theme. Commissioned as an art-film soundtrack, Ayler's recording was also the product of an altogether ...

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Album Review

New York Contemporary Five: Consequences Revisited

Read "Consequences Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


This 2020 reissue of the New York Contemporary Five recordings from 1963-64 can't help but draw one's attention to the social unrest occurring in America in 2020. In 1964 the riots in Harlem and Philadelphia over police brutality were followed by similar riots a few years later in Watts, Newark, Detroit, etc. In the growing civil unrest these recordings were born. The New Thing was the equivalent to what Chuck D of Public Enemy claimed when he said rap music ...

7
Album Review

Tchicai - Kohlhase - Fewell - McBee - Hart: Tribal Ghost

Read "Tribal Ghost" reviewed by John Sharpe


Of all the collaborations in the later years of legendary reedman John Tchicai, some of the most fertile were in the company of guitarist Garrison Fewell, whether under the Dane's leadership like One Long Minute (NuBop, 2012) and Big Chief Dreaming (Soul Note, 2005) or in undocumented appearances with the guitarist's Variable Density Sound Orchestra. Joining the pair on Good Night Songs (Boxholder, 2006), Boston-based saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase completed a formidable unit. For the week long engagement at New York's ...

7
Album Review

Tchicai - Kohlhase - Fewell - McBee - Hart: Tribal Ghost

Read "Tribal Ghost" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Late saxophonist John Tchicai's roots and influences emanated with the 1960s innovative free-jazz ensemble, The New York Art Quartet. He became a significant global artist in all things considered to be cutting-edge within the ever-expansive jazz vernacular. This 2007 concert, recorded at the New York City venue Birdland, features compositions by guitarist Garrison Fewell and one track written by Tchicai. Ultimately, the album is unique from a perspective that includes sojourns into the avant jazz space, while containing memorably melodic ...

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177

Festival

Vision Festival 16 Opening Night; Echoes of Ascension, Marion Brown and John Tchicai.

Vision Festival 16 Opening Night; Echoes of Ascension, Marion Brown and John Tchicai.

Source: Chris Rich

Having covered the Panel Discussion for Sunday the music needs its due. Where else but the Vision Festival, in the US at least, would you find a night given to two participants in that legendary extended fanfare the world knows as Ascension. One still works among us, John Tchicai, and the other left us since Vision Festival last conveved. Marion Brown was a wonder. He was among the early inventors of mixed medium work incorporating poetry, visual arts and the ...

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Performance / Tour

Guus Janssen QT (Mon) John Tchicai QT (Wed) Sanda & Orchestra (Thu) Lucain Ban's Elevation (Fri) This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Guus Janssen QT (Mon) John Tchicai QT (Wed) Sanda & Orchestra (Thu) Lucain Ban's Elevation (Fri) This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. Mon Feb 04, 8:30PM GUUS JANSSEN QUARTET Guus Janssen, piano; Thomas Heberer, trumpet; Reuben Radding, bass; Harris Eisenstadt, drums Wed Feb 06, 8:30PM JOHN TCHICAI QUARTET John Tchicai, reeds; Alex Weiss, ...

152

Performance / Tour

John Tchicai Trio April 16, 8:30-11:00pm Cornelia Street Cafe

John Tchicai Trio April 16, 8:30-11:00pm Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: All About Jazz

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York212-989-9319 www.corneliastreetcafe.com between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1,9 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, F to West 4th St. Contact: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services, 845-986-1677, [email protected] John Tchicai Trio John Tchicai, tenor sax, bass clarinet and voice Charlie Kohlhase, alto, tenor and baritone saxes Garrison Fewell, guitar, assorted musical objects and percussion April 16, 8:30-11:00pm Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street New York City 10014 ...

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Performance / Tour

All About Jazz-New York Presents "1s & 2s" Featuring John Tchicai And Garrison Fewell (4/7) Cornelia St. Cafe

All About Jazz-New York Presents "1s & 2s" Featuring John Tchicai And Garrison Fewell (4/7) Cornelia St. Cafe

Source: All About Jazz

April 6, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] THURSDAY APRIL 7th, 2005 AllAboutJazz-New York Presents “1s & 2s: Music For Solo & Duo" FEATURING: John Tchicai (reeds, winds) & Garrison Fewell (guitar) at Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com *8:30 and 10pm sets - $12/ (student discount $8) JOHN TCHICAI Approaching jazz from a wide scope, the Afro-Danish American John Tchicai is a composer/saxophonist ...

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Performance / Tour

John Tchicai Reunites with the Either/Orchestra

John Tchicai  Reunites with the Either/Orchestra

Source: All About Jazz

Legendary Afro-Danish composer/saxophonist John Tchicai and Boston's always-evolving ten-piece Either/Orchestra will be collaborating on concerts in Boston and NYC

February 1, Boston: the Institute of Contemporary Art's ICA Theater is at 955 Boylston Street.

Advance tickets are available through Twisted Village at 12 Eliot Street in Harvard Square, Cambridge MA 02138, or (617) 354-6898. Show is at 8 pm. Tickets are $16, $12 for students and seniors.

February 2, New York: Tonic is at 107 Norfolk St. Shows are at ...

... I heard a group in Denmark last year, John Tchicai and the trombone player Roswell Rudd, and sometimes it happened and sometimes it didn't. But when it happened, it was marvelous. They started out with something, and it happened to be a good melodic idea, rythmic idea, and they would elaborate on that, and after a while, they would get into things that sounded like, I guess... complete freedom but still related to an essential idea. John is one of the most mature players in this kind of music." —Booker Ervin in Downbeat, regarding the 3-28-'65 version of "Holy Ghost"

"... big bones, amber tones and gentle moves..." —Fred Bouchard, Jazz Times

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Lars Winberg
bass, electric

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Ensō: The John...

Tonos Records
2022

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Copenhagen 1963...

Ezz-thetics
2021

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John Tchicai's...

Cadence Jazz Records Historic Series
2017

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