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Adam Unsworth

The highly disciplined, truck driving, pavement pounding, nail banging, Civil War buff (His self-renovated fixer-upper even dates back to 1865), and proud papa of three debunks popular music mythology: classical musician does not equal jazz artist. Adam Unsworth, French hornist with The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1998 embraces the jazz idiom with the same guile and gusto as he does everything else in life.

At age 10, Unsworth confided in his first horn instructor, a professor at the local University, “I’m going to be principal horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra.” Well, almost, but the fall of 2005 is where the story takes an alternate route.

His ride began in 1968. Unsworth hails from Potsdam, New York, an idyllic, cultural and educational hub of 45,000, just north of the Adirondack foothills. Before moving to Boone, North Carolina in the ‘80s, his father was Associate Dean of the Crane School of Music at SUNY, Potsdam and played jazz piano. His mother played piano, taught music theory and history there too. He’s the second of six children, four of them, musicians.

Osmosis is one way the Unsworth clan incorporated music into their souls. Classical and jazz, but mostly the latter, was always on the record player. He remembers, “Plain and simple, music was the household focus.” A foreshadowing of Unsworth’s intensity, “I don’t think my parents ever had to get on me to practice. I started with classical piano lessons when I was 5, and because of its beauty and unusual sound, I picked up the French horn and additional lessons in 4th grade.” While wrapped up in classical training, he also had jazz on his brain, and thinks that the early aural immersion resulted in his current affinity for the genre.

Unsworth joined the junior high jazz ensemble playing yet another instrument, the electric bass. “In my teens, I looked up to my bass-playing, older brother. I wanted to play in his rock and roll band. He wanted to sing and was happy to pass the instrument onto me. My foray into heavy metal lasted only a couple of months, but I continued playing the instrument in large and small jazz ensembles through college. It was a great way to learn jazz forms and tunes, to develop an ear for harmonies and loosen up enough to experiment with improvising.”

On the other extreme, Unsworth entered many nationally recognized horn competitions and in 1985, in 10th grade, he was a finalist in the young artist solo competition sponsored by General Motors and Seventeen Magazine. He was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra in high school and had the honor of playing one week in Los Angeles under the direction of the then Oregon Symphony Music Director and native Philadelphian, James DePreist.

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Album Review

Miho Hazama M_Unit: Beyond Orbits

Read "Beyond Orbits" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Uno degli eventi al Monterey Jazz Festival del 2021 è stato il concerto dell'M_Unit di Miho Hazama, la giovane compositrice e bandleader giapponese che s'è imposta tra le figure più innovative della sua generazione. In quell'occasione Hazama ha presentato la suite in tre movimenti “Exoplanet" che--incisa poi in studio--costituisce il fulcro del disco appena pubblicato dalla Edition Records. Chi conosce i suoi lavori di questi anni, sa quanto la scrittura della bandleader risulti coinvolgente per l'abilità di ...

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Miho Hazama's M_Unit: Beyond Orbits

Read "Beyond Orbits" reviewed by Chris May


Beyond Orbits is the fêted composer and conductor Miho Hazama's fourth album with M_Unit. She founded the band in 2012, two years after moving from Tokyo to New York and while she was still studying for a masters in jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Hazama released M_Unit's first album in 2013. The band's third, Dancer In Nowhere (Sunnyside, 2019), was nominated for a Grammy. Among her other achievements, Hazama was in 2019 appointed chief ...

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Liner Notes

Marshall Gilkes: Cyclic Journey

Read "Marshall Gilkes: Cyclic Journey" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Wonders never cease with Marshall Gilkes. Having previously reached extraordinary heights as a leader on a breakout quartet set, two standout quintet dates, a pair of essential releases with the WDR Big Band and one stunning trio album, this celebrated trombonist and composer now moves beyond known borders. Directing and fronting a sui generis assemblage merging a top-shelf rhythm combo with a brilliant brass ensemble, he uncovers and explores the conventions of his own cyclic journey. “I wrote the music ...

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Interview

Adam Unsworth: Defying Convention

Read "Adam Unsworth: Defying Convention" reviewed by Ken Kase


With his debut CD, Excerpt This! (Self-Published, 2006). French hornist Adam Unsworth has shown himself to be unafraid of the conventional boundaries that exist between the jazz and classical worlds. A member of the Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty member at Temple University, his first recorded foray into jazz composition and performance brings a fresh voice to jazz that oozes technical brilliance with a serious attitude.His sextet contains musicians also familiar with going against prescribed standards and finding new ...

450
Album Review

Adam Unsworth: Excerpt This!

Read "Excerpt This!" reviewed by Ken Kase


As its title suggests, Excerpt This! is an open challenge to anyone who might not think of the French horn as the optimal instrument for a jazz soloist like Adam Unsworth. Or maybe it represents a collision of the jazz and classical worlds, and an admonition to would-be detractors who seek to pigeonhole this music. Unsworth's debut recording does what the best jazz should do by asking questions, shunning orthodoxy and predictability--and having a few laughs along the way.

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Recording

Two New Perfect Albums

Two New Perfect Albums

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

I'm sorry to cost you money, but trust me, these will be dollars well spent. Two albums crossed my desk recently that are close to perfect. One is a jazz orchestral album and another is a bossa nova release by way of Spain. I've listened to both from top to bottom multiple times and I can say without reservation that I could repeat this listening process all day long without ever changing the music. First, the orchestral album. It's Balance ...

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Recording

Adam Unsworth: Philadelphia Orchestra Hornist Makes Jazz Debut With Groundbreaking CD and Two March Performances

Adam Unsworth: Philadelphia Orchestra Hornist Makes Jazz Debut With Groundbreaking CD and Two March Performances

Source: All About Jazz

Adam Unsworth, Philadelphia Orchestra French hornist and Temple University Instructor of Horn and Coordinator of Brass Repertoire, reignites the buzz on his jazz debut, excerpt this! The groundbreaking soundtrack for the French horn features six of Unsworth's original compositions. In addition to six songs for sextet, the CD includes three unaccompanied jazz works for horn by Unsworth, Les Thimmig and a Temple University commission by Dana Wilson, setting new boundaries for virtuosity on the instrument.

The release coincides with two ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Beyond Orbits

Edition Records
2023

buy

Beyond Orbits

Edition Records
2023

buy

Cyclic Journey

Self Produced
2022

buy

Excerpt This!

Self Produced
2006

buy

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