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Dave Bryant

Keyboardist and composer, Dave Bryant is best known for his work as a member of Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time group. Bryant’s addition to the group marked Ornette Coleman’s first extended work with a keyboard instrument in decades. Starting in 1990, Bryant toured as part of the group and performed on the Prime Time “Tone Dialing” CD. During Bryant’s tenure with Prime Time, the band also performed with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, and numerous symphony orchestras throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Kurt Mazur. Bryant’s first CD project was a self-titled debut album with his trio Shock Exchange in 1986, featuring bassist John Turner, percussionist Chris Bowman, and liner notes by Coleman. In 1999, Bryant released a second CD, “The Eternal Hang,” recorded with Turner, Bowman, saxophonist George Garzone, drummer Bob Gullotti, and noted recording engineer Roger Nichols. He has also recorded an as-yet unreleased project featuring Turner, Bowman, and Gullotti, this time joined by fellow Prime Time alumni Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Badal Roy, Bern Nix, and Kenny Wessel. In 1999 he performed on the John Tchicai /Charlie Kohlase Quintet CD, “Life Overflowing,” which was named Boston Music Awards Jazz Album of the Year. Other credits include performances with Wadada Leo Smith, Read more

" data-original-title="" title="">Leroy Jenkins, Gregg Bendian, and Eric Person. Bryant has also composed and performed scores for silent films including Battleship Potemkin, Greed, Metropolis, and Pandora’s Box. He now produces and performs in a monthly concert series at Outpost 186 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, featuring many long-time associates as well as special guests. Dave Bryant attended Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music before moving to Boston, where he attended Berklee College of Music, graduating with a B.M. in Jazz Piano Performance in 1982. He began studies with Ornette Coleman in 1983. Bryant has conducted master classes in harmolodic theory and performance at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and the Longy School of Music. Currently serving as a faculty member at the Longy School of Music, Bryant resides with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Source: Dave Bryant
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6
Album Review

Dave Bryant: Night Visitors

Read "Night Visitors" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman didn't record much with piano players. Exceptions were Geri Allen on Sound Museum: Three Women and Sound Museum: Hidden Man, released simultaneously in 1996 on Harmolodic / Verve, and Dave Bryant on Tone Dialing (Harmolodic / Verve, 1995), during Coleman's Prime Time days.Bryant's immersion in Coleman's sound—he has conducted master classes in the alto saxophonist's Harmolodic theory and performance at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music—lays the foundation ...

8
Album Review

Dave Bryant: The Garden of Equilibria

Read "The Garden of Equilibria" reviewed by Dave Wayne


As one of the few keyboardists to perform and record with Ornette Coleman on a consistent basis, Dave Bryant stands alongside the likes of Geri Allen and Paul Bley. Yet, Bryant is not nearly as well-known. A Berklee graduate who studied privately with Coleman starting in 1983, Bryant's first appearance on record was with the trio Shock Exchange (self produced, 1986) which also featured drummer Chris Bowman and bassist John Turner (who later appeared on recordings by Either/Orchestra and Charlie ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Dave Bryant

Read "Take Five With Dave Bryant" reviewed by Dave Bryant


Meet Dave Bryant: Keyboardist and composer, Dave Bryant is best known for his work as a member of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time group. Bryant's addition to the group marked Coleman's first extended work with a keyboard instrument in decades.Instrument(s): Keyboards.Teachers and/or influences? I went through a lot of teachers, but my favorites were Fred and Shirley Clements when I was growing up in my home town, and Bruce Thomas and ...

107
Album Review

Dave Bryant: The Eternal Hang

Read "The Eternal Hang" reviewed by Robert Spencer


George Garzone? George Garzone ? Ladies and gentleman, I have reviewed a good number of discs featuring this ubiquitous reedman lately, and virtually every one of them contained impeccably-played hard bop. Letter perfect, engaging, expertly done. When this disc arrived featuring Garzone with Ornetteian keyboardist Dave Bryant, I thought it might herald a slight departure, as Bryant anchored Ornette's funky latter-day Prime Time ensembles. But friends, I wasn't prepared for this.

George Garzone? The opening track, “Kidnapped," sounds more like ...

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1

Event

Third Thursdays with Dave Bryant And Friends: A Monthly Harmolodic Jazz Series Starting In April 2022

Third Thursdays with Dave Bryant And Friends: A Monthly Harmolodic Jazz Series Starting In April 2022

Source: Mary Curtin Productions

Keyboardist and composer Dave Bryant has many friends. Many who also happen to be notable local, national, and international jazz artists, who have collaborated with Cambridge-based Bryant on different projects over a span of decades. Those connections began to grow in the early 1980's, within a year after Bryant completed his formal undergrad studies at Berklee. It was then that he began to study privately with free jazz harmolodics pioneer Ornette Coleman. During this seven-year student/mentor period, Coleman counselled Bryant ...

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Advocacy

"On the Edge: Exploring the Creative Music Scene" Musician Panel on May 4th for Jazz Week from JazzBoston

"On the Edge: Exploring the Creative Music Scene" Musician Panel on May 4th for Jazz Week from JazzBoston

Source: Chris Rich

Top-flight musicians Dave Bryant, Tom Hall, John Kordalewski, and Neil Leonard carry on a lively conversation about current trends, with performances by the presenters at the Boston Public Library between 6 and 8pm in the Boston Room.

Dave worked with Ornette Coleman in Prime Time and has been contributing to the quality of musical life here for 30 years. Tom was a founding member of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet. John is the guardian of the Makanda Ken McIntyre legacy and ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Recalled to Life -...

Art of Life Records
2021

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Night Visitors

SE Records
2020

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The Garden of...

Self Produced
2016

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The Eternal Hang

Milestone Records
1999

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