Bio / Press

Press / Reviews

 

Decorating Time

“Decorating Time speaks in what feels like a new language, or at least a new dialect […] Consider the tantalizing earworms that abound on this album […] The syntax of his original compositions is simple but alluring, elusive without need of genus identification […] Gilmore [wields] a tantalizing but clean approach to harmony, pulsed by Knowles and shimmered by Williams’ cymbal work […] secured by the delightfully audible like-mindedness of the trio […]The session ends as provocatively as it began, with a track that at first sounds a sad distant trade whistle […] followed by plaintive chords which some of us, smiling in surprise, will make out as Willie Nelson’s pop crossover country classic “Crazy,” written in the late 1950s and indelibly recorded by Patsy Cline in 1961. With Decorating Time‘s only non-original, Gilmore respectfully puts the old love song on giddy shimmering sedatives, with Williams blissing out beyond time, in the spirit of Sunny Murray. Nelson would probably be grinning, while the rest of us wonder where the engagingly idiosyncratic Gilmore will be taking us next.”   “****” –Jeff Kallis / All About Jazz

 

“Accustomed to avant garde releases from Ears and Eyes Records, I expected to hear something similar in this case. But I was mistaken. Gilmore’s music, even if it can’t be reduced to isms, would be on the minimalism side, like an instrument directed towards a post-bop foundation.  Gilmore plays very simply without the embellishments that many guitarists have abused when demonstrating their technique. Matthew Golombiski, who provided us with the link to Gilmore’s work, compares his performance to Jim Hall and Kurt Rosenwinkel: very flattering comparisons! And the themes Gilmore prefers are simple—sometimes very simple—but they are used to build an improvisation for the entire trio. I must point out that the musicians demonstrate a perfect mutual understanding; they hear each other well, and Gilmore, in turn, leaves enough space for his partners to “decorate” their own patterns in Decorating Time […] The album is very friendly to the listener; anybody can easily enter into Gilmore’s music and surely feel cozy in it.”   – Leonid Auskern / Jazz Quadrant (trans by Michelle Slater and Dmitri Sinenko)

 

“An album rich in its vision and executed with avant-garde moments and plenty of innovative jazz exploration, Gilmore, Knowles, and Williams possess a rare chemistry, and the energy that spawns from it is […]infectious.”   –Take Effect Reviews  

 

Bag of Tricks vol. 1

“The musicians…follow an improvisational ethos that does not succumb to any predetermined gestures…There’s a constant discussion between the musicians throughout this CD…There’s a warmth in their choices…the percussion work of Galvin really stands out… his bond with the bassists is clear even to the untrained ear. Their path is that of second generation European improvisation, yet there are also melodies…They seem to work their way into each track with no preconceived ideas, providing crescendos like the one found the middle of the magnificent ‘Live Up to High Vibration’. It is then, at their highest of volume that they seem to be at their best with a solid free-playing percussive backbone, a gnarling tough guitar and raw sax playing. But tradition is not neglected… ‘House on Legs-Making the Essential Challenges’ is more boppish with fluid lines from the saxophone and an electric guitar that pays homage to the guitars that shaped jazz in the 50’s. You cannot feel disappointed from all this.”  – Free Jazz Blog

 

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“I love James Gilmore’s music because it is fearless and experimental while retaining an emotional core.”  -Jordan Green Triad City Beat

Interview w/Greensboro News and Record

Interview/ podcast w/ Daniel White