Sheevaun Moran

Jason Moran's fourth Blue Note album, a highly idiosyncratic solo piano venture, attempts to reconcile a staggeringly diverse set of influences into a cohesive artistic vision. Beginning with stride master James P. Johnson's "You've Got to Be Modernistic," the omnivorous young pianist then takes that title to heart by personalizing everything from Robert Schumann's "Auf Einer Burg" to Muhal Richard Abrams' "Time Into Space Into Time" to Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock." Among the originals are two more chapters in Moran's ongoing "Gangsterism" series, as well as the closing "Gentle Shifts South," one of his simplest, most affecting melodies. Not unlike Brad Mehldau's Largo, which was released around the same time, Modernistic explodes jazz piano conventions by addressing the issue of sound…

The adventurous pianist, composer, and bandleader Jason Moran added guitarist Marvin Sewell to his band on 2005's Same Mother. Sewell is back and melding further with his own funky blues-based playing on Artist in Residence, which is a far-reaching jazz record combining elements of post-bop, New Orleans jazz, funk, blues and even post-20th century classical music to Moran's array of shades and colors to play with. The repetitive sampled spoken word loop by Adrian Piper which acts as the ground for both the opener "Break Down" and "Artists Ought To Be Writing" is a bit h jarring when the band lights up under her. As she chants "Break down the barriers/Break down, misunderstanding/Break down, the artworld/Break down, the artist/Break down, the general public . .," the band uses it (looped continually through the piece, even in the solos) to ground everything in a circular rhythmic principle…

New York-based composer and producer Kelly Moran’s intricate, experimental pieces transcend the piano’s more traditional and classically-imposed school of thought. On her forthcoming new album for Warp, Moran augments her pianistic abilities to superhuman levels in order to create a new strain of her singular experimental piano compositions. Hypnotic and emotive, the coming project solidifies Moran’s role as one of the leading contemporary composers for the piano, constantly pushing the instrument’s creative and sonic boundaries in the realms of classical and electronic music.