Quotes & Reviews

Quotes about Chris Chalfant

“Chris Chalfant is that rare combination of first-rate jazz composer and improviser. [She is a] rugged individualist in the tradition of the best players.” Stork Festival, 1994 - Chris Kelsey

“Book of Unstandards is an empowering anthology of music for the performer in much the same way that jazz’s body of standard repertoire serves as a mere, yet vital, outline to individualistic, expressive performance. Like every important composer in jazz and the classical world, Chalfant has tapped into the essence of song, which never lets the actual composition get in the way of the music.” Dmitri Ekshtut, JazzImprov Magazine

Definite creative statement…exciting and absorbing.” “All in Good Time” Frank Rubolino, Cadence Magazine

“What on sheet music was a sparse melody with only two chords [“Love is the Answer”] evolved into a grand expressive overture not unlike the Sprechstimme of Arnold Schoenberg and other Twentieth Century innovators.” Book Party for “Book of Unstandards” Weiler Hall June 21, 2006 Dmitri Ekshtut, JazzImprov Magazine.

“Chalfant and Joseph Jarman (“Vision Festival 2002”, “Love and Light”) draw on the standards devices of spiritual jazz as they have evolved since Coltrane’s monumental “A Love Supreme”. Chalfant lays down droning piano lines that mix the grandeur of McCoy Tyner with the expressionism of Cecil Taylor. The percussion lays down deep, rolling rhythms that evoke ancestral Africa.” – David Dupont, One Final Note

“Chris is a staggeringly powerful force in music. I don’t even have my socks left.” - Joel Freedman, film producer, cellist

“Chalfant’s swirling improvisations assimilate the directions and perspectives of Don Pullen, Cecil Taylor, and Dave Burrell…highly original music.” “All in Good Time” Marshall Zucker, JazzImprov Magazine

“…a combination of serenity and unearthly dissonance... [“African Harp” is] a swirling, shimmering tapestry of sound.” Nate Dorward, Cadence

“It was wonderful hearing you…dynamite, just dynamite.” Connie Crothers

“Both writing and playing are wonderful (“Love and Light”)” – Myra Melford

“I love it. At the forefront of understanding that we are connected to everything is a song, yes?” Harmon Hathaway, American Yoga Foundation