Ellery Eskelin

Dennis González is an extraordinary musician and composer that has developed his activity since the early 70’s. Unlike many musicians who establish themselves in a place making it their musical habitat and connecting to the local jazz scene, his adventurous and free spirit made him welcome in many different cities, establishing musical bonds with diverse local musicians.

It often seems like there’s an inverse proportion between the number of musicians involved in creating improvised music and the balance between the instrumentalists. The more players who are involved, the greater the imbalance. Anything larger than a trio usually features at least one subservient member.

Aside from this new release, the Dennis González NY Quartet is also featured on an earlier Clean Feed release, “NY Midnight Suite,” which was recorded shortly after a 2003 concert at the now defunct club Tonic. The live Tonic concert was recorded as well, but only partially. Because of technical problems, only 34 minutes of that fantastic performance survived.

With the jazz drumming tradition well assimilated, a first-hand knowledge of West African rhythms (he studied with local masters from Gambia, Ghana and Senegal) and a compositional vision of his own going as far as the contemporary classical field, Harris Eisenstadt has turned very rapidly into one of the most interesting, and in demand, musicians of the present international scene.

The music on Eternal Interlude by drummer John Hollenbeck cannot be described in one word, but if it could that word would be "poignant." But of course, one word is not enough, so in settling for two, those would be "poignant" and "challenging." But then two words appear so insufficient, and the search widens and reveals, perhaps, an additional word to go with "poignant" and "challenging," and tha