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CD
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INT 32492CD
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"One can safely say that Ned Rothenberg is an exceptional phenomenon among the woodwind players: Not only is he a virtuoso saxophone and bass clarinet player, he also plays brilliantly different kinds of flutes -- he learned to play the Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi by studying it with the masters Yokoyama Katsuya and Yamaguchi Goro in Japan. Rothenberg's constant musical curiosity and his untiring fondness of experimenting made him examine techniques usually not applied by saxophone and clarinet players; for example, he learned intercircular breathing like Australian didgeridoo players do and used both polyphony and the whole spectrum of harmonics on his instruments. These and other even more exotic approaches are the reason for Ned Rothenberg's reputation as excellent performer and composer who has left the traditional allocation of roles of his instrumental genre in the sense of mere melodic function(s) far behind him. He already worked with John Zorn, Fred Frith, Sainkho Namchylak, Elliott Sharp, and Samm Bennett, as well as Arto Lindsay, Don Cherry, and many others. Even as a soloist or with his own ensembles he has gained the respect of an international audience in the last two decades; Sync is Ned Rothenberg's latest project: a trio with the bassist Jerome Harris and the tabla virtuoso Samir Chatterjee, following the rather introspective paths that also characterize Rothenberg's solo works. Despite the large variety of styles including authentic Asian elements, Port Of Entry is a genuine jazz album. Sync prefers to play with open space, with silence and tension and the anticipation of the listener the overall impression is that of lightness but at no rate that of a lightweight. This impression is contrasted with a gentle air of melancholy which more or less clearly pervades the eight tracks of the album, giving large part of Port Of Entry an almost rhapsodic appearance."
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