The Herbie Nichols Project
| The Herbie Nichols Project | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Modern jazz |
| founding | 1994 |
| Founding members | |
| Ben Allison | |
| Ron Horton | |
| Ted Nash | |
Tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone |
Michael Blake |
| Frank Kimbrough | |
| Jeff Ballard | |
| Current occupation | |
Drums |
Tim Horner |
trombone |
Wycliffe Gordon |
The Herbie Nichols Project is an American jazz formation from the 1990s. It is dedicated to the work of the pianist and composer Herbie Nichols .
Career
The project was created within the Jazz Composers Collective and was founded in 1994 by the pianist Frank Kimbrough and the bassist Ben Allison , who have been directing it since then. There were also trumpeters Ron Horton , saxophonists Ted Nash and Michael Blake , trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and drummer Matt Wilson .
The idea arose when Kimbrough heard a three-hour program on the radio in 1985 with compositions by the almost forgotten pianist Herbie Nichols. He then began to transcribe his music and play his pieces in public, then brought the compositions to sessions; from this the Jazz Composers Collective slowly developed ; it was decided to organize a project from the composer's work. The Herbie Nichols Project finally premiered in 1994; In May 1995 the first recordings for the Soul Note album Love is Proximity were made .
Before that, other musicians had recorded Nichols' music such as Roswell Rudd or Steve Lacy ; Rather, the collective was concerned with creating a repertoire band that also devotes itself to the unpublished work of Nichols, which is kept in the Library of Congress , in annual performances and tours as well as recordings .
The Herbie Nichols Project has now recorded three albums, Love Is Proximity (1995/96), Dr. Cyclops' Dream (1999) for Soul Note and finally Strange City in 2001 on the Palmetto label . With the program, they toured the United States, Canada and Europe. Currently (2015) the project consists of Frank Kimbrough, Ron Horton, Ted Nash, Ben Allison and Matt Wilson .
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide of Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .