African Flowers named one of the Top Ten Jazz CDs of 2010 by LA Times!
There are several new reviews of African Flowers out, including a nice article in the January 2011 issue of Downbeat and top ten of 2010 mentions from the LA Times, AllAboutJazz, Neil Tesser, and the Ottawa Citizen. Here are some excerpts, or you can click on press for the full articles. You can click on the link on this page to download Peter Margasak's excellent and informative liner notes for "African Flowers."
Critics on African Flowers:
"Bradfield's experiences [in Africa]play out vividly on the new disc in a continuous suite; the thematic arc is identical to his itinerary, which found the group playing a string of cities across Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The titles tell the route: "Butare," "Lubumbashi" "Kampala" and "Harare," divided by solo interludes in addition to melodic anecdotes, like the hard-swinging postbop bustle "Nairobi Transit" and tender ballad "Mama Yemo," A sleek swing undercurrent keeps African Flowers filed in the jazz bin, but the syncopated countermelodies coursing through Bradfield's compositions play like a musical travelogue. " (Downbeat)
“Bradfield turned in poetic work on his CD of last year, "African Flowers" (Origin Records). The luster of his tone on saxophone is matched by the depth of his work as composer.”(Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune)
"...together the band delivers entrancing polyrhythmic themes like the melodic Rwandan praise song "Butare" and the danceable Congolese rumba "Lubumbashi," the latter a catchy clave vehicle for the leader's bold tenor sax work. (Jazztimes)
"Bradfield traveled to Africa and like many jazz musicians who have journeyed overseas to hear other forms of music, absorbed what he heard and blended influences from them with his own original ideas...Africa seen through the prism of Geof Bradfield's music proves to be a delightful experience. (AllMusicGuide)
"We’ve come to expect top-drawer saxophone solos from Bradfield... His solos unwind with a wealth of imaginative detail but without any sense of alacrity; at his most impassioned, he remains unruffled and unflappable, drawing occasional comparisons to a young Sonny Rollins or to the contemporary Chris Potter. But Bradfield’s writing is a revelation. Not only does it have much the same power and precision of his soloing; it also shows a highly refined use of the limited instrumentation, which allows him to create orchestral textures from just his sextet."
(Neil Tesser, The Examiner)
"He gracefully and precisely leads a superb sextet—with Fludas, Cohan, Sommers, guitarist Jeff Parker, and trumpeter Victor Garcia—through pieces characterized by lush, elegant melody lines and streaked with contrapuntal figures and pretty harmonies. Bradfield hasn’t undertaken an ethnographic experiment here—like the Ellington work I mentioned above, what he saw and heard functioned as an inspiration for ideas in his own idiom." (Chicago Reader)
"Mature and exciting work from an ascendant player and composer." (Chicagojazz.net)
"Bradfield's excellent jazz adventure into Africa ultimately leads right back home. Funny, how small this world actually is. This is one beautiful record." (Allaboutjazz)
Bio:
African Flowers showcases the wide range of musical relationships saxophonist and composer Geof Bradfield has developed in and beyond Chicago. Inspired by a tour of Eastern and Central Africa, the suite is an extended work for sextet blending African melodies and rhythms with elements of modern jazz. The Chicago Reader referred to the debut at the Chicago Cultural Center as “a knockout.” In the fall of 2010, Origin Records released African Flowers to numerous critical accolades, including a laudatory article in Downbeat magazine and selection as a top 10 CD of 2010 by the Los Angeles Times. The ensemble performed the work at the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park to an audience of several thousand in the 2011 series Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz. Mr. Bradfield and his ensemble also presented the suite at the DuSable Museum of African American Art as the Artist-in Residence of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in the fall of 2011.
Geof Bradfield was born in Houston, TX, where he attended the renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He lived and worked for periods in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington before settling in Chicago in 2004. Along the way Bradfield has been fortunate to work alongside many jazz luminaries and to perform throughout the United States, Europe, Russia, Africa and the Middle East. He is featured on numerous recordings, including three critically acclaimed albums as a leader (African Flowers, Rule of Three and Urban Nomad) and two as a co-leader (Collage and BA(sH)).
As a composer, Mr. Bradfield has received several commissions and awards, including the aforementioned 2008 New Works commission from Chamber Music America and grants and fellowships from the City of Chicago Community Arts Partnership, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. He is currently working on completing a new extended work based on the life and music of trombonist and arranger Melba Liston. He received a 2011 New Jazz Works commission from Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in support of this project, and anticipates a fall 2012 premier.
Mr. Bradfield also has extensive experience as an educator. Since completing his MFA at California Institute of the Arts, he has held positions at several colleges and universities as well as teaching master classes in topics ranging from improvisation to the history of American music in the twentieth century to jazz composition and saxophone technique. He currently holds the position of Saxophone and Theory Instructor at Columbia College Chicago.
Select Discography:
African Flowers (Origin 2010)
Urban Nomad (Origin, 2008)
Rule of Three (Liberated Zone, 2003)
Collage (2007)
Ramsey Lewis, Proclamation of Hope live at the Kennedy Center (DVD-2010)
Ryan Cohan, Another Look (Motema 2010)
Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, Seize the Time (Naim 2009)
Kobie Watkins, Involved(Origin 2009)
Chad McCullough, Dark Wood Dark Water (Origin 2009)
Tony DoRosario's New Chicago Quartet, New Beginnings (Chicago Sessions 2009)
Aaron Koppel Quartet, Falling Together, Falling Apart (Chicago Sessions 2009)
Ryan Cohan, One Sky (Motema, 2007)
Ryan Cohan, Here and Now (Sirocco 2001)
Kelly Brand, The Door (Origin 2008)
John Moulder, Trinity (OA2, 2006)
Michael Allemana Quartet, Inner Rhythm (2006)
Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, Breeding Resistance (Delmark 2004)
Rebel Souls, Vs. the forces of evil (Naim 2001)
