ARTICLES

• Scarecrow Mobius in Boston Phoenix Jon Garelick wrote some nice stuff in The Boston Phoenix about a Scarecrow Mobius gig in late November, 2008.

REVIEWS

Night Visitors

• Lydia Liebman: Lydia Liebman has produced a great overview page devoted to Dave’s new album “Night Visitors,” with comments on each track and links to reviews.
• Jazz Word: A smart review full of praise for Dave’s playing, as well as that of Dave’s bandmates on “Night Visitors.” Charnett Moffett and Greg Bendian. The reviewer, Ken Waxman, calls the album “a splendid example of [Dave Bryant’s] art, pinpointing his compositions as well as ambidextrous skills on acoustic piano and various keyboards.”
• All About Jazz: A very appreciative review that includes this comment about what might be called the “title tune” of the record: “Three Night Visitors,” a three-part, twenty-plus minute suite, with Bendian’s glockenspiel and electronic sweetenings, is a dream sequence soundtrack, a surreal and patiently unfolding reality as seen through a diaphanous and slightly luminescent gauze—gorgeous and mysterious.
• Chicago Music Revealed: This is a full 30-minute video interview with Dave Bryant that covers his new record “NIGHT VISITORS,” the history of his studying with and finally joining the band of Ornette Coleman, and much more. The video is #70 in their series of interviews, and right now it’s on their cover page. If you come upon this notice in the future, you’ll have to click the “Next” button to look for it. However, a sure way to get right to the interview is to watch it directly on YouTube.
• Musical Memoirs: “Piano notes scurry like wild salmon swimming upstream. Dave Bryant spirals across the black and white keys with energy and purpose. As one of the few and very selective pianists that Ornette Coleman ever performed and recorded with, you immediately hear this piano player’s love of freedom, excitement and improvisation. He pushes any restrictive walls that may have stood between him and the universal spirit of music. His compositions will not be contained or limited.” (Scroll down to see the review, second from last on the page.)
• Jazz Trail: “Bryant, who was a late member of Ornette’s Prime Time ensemble, pays tribute to his post-graduate mentor by evoking him on several pieces. The saxophonist’s ‘Dee Dee’, which was first recorded in 1966 with a trio that included Charnett’s father, Charles Moffett, appears as the sole cover on the album, acquiring the form of an expressionist organ-driven piece shaped with genuine swinging excitement. On the other hand, ‘The Night Flock’ mixes Ornette and Monk’s moods, allowing the trio to interact and stretch farther with rhythmic elasticity.”
• Midwest Record: “DAVE BRYANT/Night Visitors: When has a piano player ever given you the feeling you’re listening to Pete Christlieb? This album opens with a vibe right-out Christlieb’s Warne Marsh session. And leading his trio of hitters, it just goes from there. With Ornette Coleman and comics in common, this trio has been at it for years in one way or another and it all comes home to roost here in a session that certainly qualifies as classic. A piano trio with no boundaries, this is one fine summitch of a set that hits all the right notes and never lets you down. Killer!”
• Wulf‘s Music + Blog: “Very original and a great tribute to the music of Coleman, taking his concepts forward. Adventurous and a pleasure to listen to!”
• Making A Scene: “Bryant is one of the few keyboardists the pioneering Ornette Coleman ever performed and recorded with. Appropriately Bryant celebrates the compositional and improvisational methodology of the late saxophone titan.”

Garden of Equilibria

• All About Jazz: A fine review of Dave’s ensemble and solo album from 2015.
• Jazz Weekly: “Keyboardist Dave Bryant crates some exciting and experimental moments here with Tom Hall/ts, Neil Leonard/ss-as, Curt Newton-Eric Rosenthal/dr-perc, Jacob William/b and Jeff Song/cello. The release is dominated by two large pieces, ranging around 20 minutes each. The four part “Four Ways In” is vintage jazz fusion with some piano musing slowly evolving into wild electronica and free form jamming along with stratospheric solos by Leonard and Hall. Bryant teams up with William for an ominous title track that takes you there and back, while Bryant goes it alone on a very thoughtful and creative “Solo No. 1”.The band delivers a quirky “Salutations” and Hall gets wild and wooly on “Check Your Lid,” making this a fun white knuckler of a ride for fusion fans.”
• Avant Music News: AMN chooses GARDEN OF EQUILIBRIA as one of its “picks of the week.”
• O’s Place Jazz Newsletter: “O’s Notes: Dave Bryant plays keyboards and leads a septet performing The Garden of Equilibria. The program contains Bryant originals except two selections co-written with other band members. Listening to this music is like traveling though the maze on the CD cover. It’s appealing until you can’t get out! Then you are forced to take on Bryant’s perspective. That’s not a bad thing once you embrace the concept. The best tunes are ‘Salutations’ and ‘Secret Handshake.’ ” [Site is accessible by members only—$15/year.]

The Eternal Hang

• Coda Magazine: Bryant, a member of Coleman’s Prime Time since 1990, makes his debut as a leader here, and the record is an unequivocal blast.
• Signal to Noise: The good news is that, in spite of these high expectations, the final product does not disappoint. The old Shock Exchange fire is there, but there is more structure and reserve to the tunes. And the addition of a voice and personality as strong as Garzone’s prevents this from being a concertante recording. What makes…
• Jazztimes: The Eternal Hang has an inescapable harmoldic feel, which Bryant doesn’t apologize for. “In the grand scheme of things, my music doesn’t seem that far out. It is dense, but rhythmically and melodically it is strong. It is not obscure music,” Bryant says. “I don’t know where it crosses the line into free jazz. Sometimes…
• Downbeat Magazine: On his debut recording as a leader, Bryant turns the beast loose the way Hudson used to do nightly on his riotous keyboard feature called “The Genetic Method.” Bryant swoops, swirls and cascades through seven compositions that are Colemanesque in both shape and texture.
• Boston Sunday Herald: Top Ten CDs of the Year Number 9. Dave Bryant, The Eternal Hang (Accurate). Unsung, uncompromising and more often than not accessible, keyboard man Bryant turns out an avant-garde gem of a CD.
• City Search: The album’s nine tracks (all but one written by Bryant) are intentionally sequenced to run from one directly into the next, which makes it a suite, of sorts. Punchy, aphoristic themes, long a Coleman trademark, are here, as are galloping rhythms and detours into unadulterated freedom. Bryant’s jangling, skittering, Sci-fi keyboards, in the grand tradition…
• AllAboutJazz.com: …Bryant shows himself to be just as versatile –and he’s an intriguing and capable composer. Great, innovative, astounding music.
• Jazz Weekly, March 28, 2000: Imagine if fusion had become a viable option for improvisation instead of turning into a beauty contest for soloists with more chops than taste. Dave Bryant obviously had that vision as well and has tried to express it on this disc.