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John Lang

Bassist John Lang has a diverse background in performance, arranging and composition. John has toured the United States, South America and Europe with dozens of exceptional performers. New York City audiences know John’s work on upright, backing such artists as Larry Ham, Tardo Hammer and Michael Moore in duo settings. In the fall of 2019 John was named House Bassist for the River Spirit Festival held in Hastings-On Hudson, playing for a wide range of artists. Mr. Lang is a founding and current member of the new American jazz powerhouse: The Kolotov Mocktails whose debut CD “Ivy Hall” is enjoying a warm review on radio stations across the United States. He can also be heard playing behind vocal dynamo, Mary Ann Renza, the great soul band “Rocksteady”, and “River of Dreams” the Tri-State area’s finest Billy Joel tribute band. As a bassist, he has performed in the Broadway pit orchestra for Legally Blond, The Color Purple and Jersey Boys, and has toured and performed regionally in Forever Plaid, Forty Second Street, Five Guys Named Moe, The Fully Monty, Radio Broadway, and 100 Years of Broadway. Internationally, he has toured Europe with The Jack Cassidy Trio, and in South America with the Adriene Hindmarsh Trio. Closer to home, he can be seen with Kinny Landrum and the Gumbo Roux, Cady Huffman, and Sis Boom Bah. As a composer and arranger he has recorded 3 CDs of his own compositions. Mr. Lang has been on the faculty of the Music Conservatory of Westchester since 2014. His latest CD, “Now Ear This” produced by jazz legend John Patitucci will be released in December 2020. Mr. Lang is proud to have been accepted, in the fall of 2020, to the SUNY Purchase jazz department as a master’s candidate in jazz performance. John resides in the Hudson River Valley, just north of New York City, with his wife Damaris and son Milo. Our current pandemic greatly reinforced his deep love and respect for audiences that attend and support live music. Thank You!


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32
Album Review

John Lang: Earotica

Read "Earotica" reviewed by Jack Bowers


There's something special about a nonet: small enough to have its own personality, yet large enough to sound at times akin to a full-size big band. Bassist John Lang leads a first-class nonet on Earotica, his fourth album as leader. Having given Lang's last disc a rather lukewarm appraisal almost two years ago, it is a pleasure to note that his new album is superior in every respect. Gone are the desultory funk and rock beats, replaced ...

6
Album Review

Kolotov Mocktails: Ivy Hall

Read "Ivy Hall" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Setting aside the issue of genres (jazz, folk, Americana, funk, R&B, country, whatever), the question becomes: on their debut album, Ivy Hall, does the Tennessee-based and curiously named quartet, Kolotov Mocktails, deliver the goods? And the answer has to be yes, they do. This leads to a second question: is what they are doing jazz? And here the answer is less obvious. Certainly, there are elements of jazz in the form of improvisation and rhythmic patterns, but they are sporadic ...

7
Album Review

John Lang: Now Ear This

Read "Now Ear This" reviewed by Jack Bowers


For what it is, bassist John Lang's fourth album, Now Ear This, is quite well done. For jazz fans, the dilemma lies there, precisely in what it is--a series of eleven rock/fusion themes, nine written by Lang, which would be right at home on a smooth jazz/easy listening radio station, for example, but whose jazz content would earn them no more than a tenuous place on any playlist beyond that. Tempos are more or less proximate, as is the steady ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Earotica

Cellar Records
2023

buy

Now Ear This

Self Produced
2021

buy

Ivy Hall

Self Produced
2021

buy

Lend Me Your Ears

Self Produced
2009

buy

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