Tyson Rogers: Press

"One of the leading lights of the young wave of avant-garde jazz musicians."

"****" Featured in Downbeat's list of the Best CD's of 2007

Top 10 of 2007 list

Top 10 of 2007 list

Top 10 of 2007 list

The music they make together is nothing short of glorious. The program of group originals is understandably well tailored to the trio's distinctive group conception, something they’ve had the chance to hone over a period of time, and Bennink brings his characteristic work to bear in a way that’s nothing short of a celebration of life...music that is a working definition of just how uplifting human creativity can be. It’s what those end-of-year polls were invented for.

Han Bennink "turned them into a bunch of dadaist anarchists."

Publisher's Pick

...People I Like is serious fun...Bennink’s approval is audible in his exuberant playing. He’s in buoyant form throughout, in his element with a group who are accomplished, imaginative and comitted to enjoyment. Recommended without reservation as an antidote to grey and rainy days.

...an accomplished set from an ensemble of four individuals who’ve mastered the art of simultaneously playing both against and with one another.

It isn’t everyday, and certainly is unexpected, when a trio of young, up-and-coming musicians still experimenting and searching for a defined sound collaborate with one of the most proven, established masters of his instrument; but People I Like is exactly that, combining the forces of a fresh sax/guitar/piano trio from New England with Dutch drummer Han Bennink, one of the vanguard figures in the birth of free jazz in Europe. The music presented on People I Like is profound because it takes an "out" approach to an earlier style of jazz, as opposed to pushing modern creative music further and further in the same direction.

With this new release, they take a giant step forward by linking up with the anarchic, at times over powering but very swinging, Mr. Bennink...this group’s conception has become so finely tuned that they can easily accommodate a player as strong as Bennink. And these pieces are open enough to give Bennink free reign to be himself...it’s become one of my favorite releases of the year.

Perpetually in motion with ruffs, taps, flams, paradiddles or bounces, the veteran drummer’s precise and swinging pulse enlivens the nine band member-penned originals. Not adverse to good-timey melodies, driven by Bennink’s sand dancer-like brush strokes and unison guitar-saxophone licks, the band is made up of jazzmen as knowledgeable as Bennink.

12 Overlooked Albums of 2007 list

"...one of the liveliest piano solos this side of a Joe Jackson album."

"a four piece band that is possibly one of the finest on the road right now."

"a very solid if not revelatory record"

"an all-star band that can do no wrong"

"One of 2005's most pleasurable albums"

"Especially wonderful piano solos"

"Stamey and Rogers coaxed their instruments into tumultuous, nonconcurrent rising and falling melodies, occasionally letting it all collapse into a brilliant heap."

"****" Best of 2005

They are talented, well educated, thoroughly modern. They can do post-bop, post-Monk, post-Ornette; they can play gospel and tango and free...One of the few jazz groups that feels communal.

"Best of 2004-2005"

"The Blueprint Project is rich with ideas, confidently executed, melodic and inventive all at once."

"Gives me hope for the future of jazz."

"[listening to the Blueprint Project] I am reminded that the naysayers do indeed know nothing and that the future of jazz is secure in the hands of the new generation of young musicians...a tremendous effort."

"Inspires liner-note writers and reviewers to pen poetic descriptions and metaphysical comparisons."

"adventurous and extraordinary"

"A delightful session by some upandcoming musicians deserving of wider recognition."

"Younger composers like Jane Ira Bloom and Tyson Rogers are breathing new life into hard-bop jazz"

"Nervous, twittering energy and the quirky notion of the blues...evidence of a running deconstructionist fever...a free jazz trio in love with sentimental melodies...rhapsodically romantic...gloriously unresolved"

"a unique convergence point of jazz, cartoonish spirit and neatly structured composition ...three-tiered, jumbled, single note lines...the compositional integrity of a Debussy piano work filtered through a jazz artist's experimental spirit...esoteric grooves...exotic and suave"