Ethan Philion – Gnosis (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ethan Philion – Gnosis (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 53:20 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sunnyside

Following up his debut album Meditations on Mingus (“Ingenious wrinkles along with dazzling and deeply realized performances from all” — Neil Tesser, Jazziz), bassist Ethan Philion pivots from a larger 10-piece unit to a spry, economical quartet on his brilliant sophomore release Gnosis. The spirit of Charles Mingus is present, most clearly in the quartet’s treatment of “What Love” (Mingus’ epic deconstruction of the Cole Porter standard “What Is This Thing Called Love”). But the focus on this new outing is original music, played with drive and ceaseless invention by alto saxophonist Greg Ward, trumpeter Russ Johnson and drummer Dana Hall joining the leader on bass.

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Ethan Philion – Meditations on Mingus (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ethan Philion – Meditations on Mingus (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:13 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sunnyside

In-demand Chicago bassist Ethan Philion — praised by bass legend Rufus Reid for his “wonderful internal pulse,” and by The Washington Post for his “well-honed chops and astounding musicality” — has long looked to Charles Mingus as a towering role model. Mingus’ highly physical bass technique, his up-front communicative style as a bandleader, his interest in blending composition and improvisation, his pursuit of a unified voice in both small and large group settings, and not least of all his uncompromising antiracist politics and the way they manifest throughout his oeuvre: these qualities continue to inspire Philion and so many others in the decades following Mingus’ untimely death from ALS in 1979, at age 56.

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