​

“…a trombonist of such sweeping power and majesty that he transcends all styles.”
John Wilson, The New York Times

“In his sure hands this rather neglected instrument seems to take on a new life.”
Braad Thomsen, Politiken, Copenhagen

“Rudd gets more trombone out of his instrument than any colleague, past or present.”
Whitney Balliet, New Yorker Magazine

“The key transitional figure of the ’60’s was Rudd…in his own masterful album, Everywhere, he demonstrates a revitalization of expressive techniques and dynamic sensitivity.”
Gary Giddins, Village Voice

“Rudd extracts sounds from the trombone that go back to New Orleans and further ahead than anyone has yet reached.”
Nat Hentoff, Cosmopolitan

“You blow in this end of the trombone and sound comes out the other end and disrupts the cosmos.”

Roswell Rudd

LISTEN AND PURCHASE MUSIC FROM ROSWELL RUDD

 

Roswell Rudd’s MALIcool,  May 2002

​

“The haunting beauty of the group sound is evident from the opening “Bamako”, the simplicity of its harmonies balanced by the shifting of constant cross-rhythms…The virtuosic abilities of the traditional players is given free space here, and is open to your admiration….this is something on a higher plane that listeners should relish.”

Anthony Troon, Jazz Review

​

“A musical work full of tenderness, at the meeting place of two worlds.”

La Voix du Nord,
19.6.02

​

“On MALIcool, there’s a real mutual effort to listen, to find a path to each other. And that is very rare.”

Le Nouvel Observateur
13.6.02

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“It’s a beautiful fusion….The adapatation of these Malians to Roswell Rudd’s phrasing (even on Thelonious Monk) is surprising. A very, very good record.”

La Marseillaise
2.6.02

​

“Now Rudd amazes us again with a fascinating west African influenced album.  MALIcool documents one of the rare encounters in which there is a real fusion between Jazz and African music and not just a superficial merger.”

“Something happened between these two creators, Roswell and Toumani…Something that a thousand million polished productions, images from a tamed Africa, will never possess…And everything about this journey rests on a latent ambiguity, the precarious balance of chemistry.”

Arnaud Robert,  Vibrations

​

Its musical consciousness features artistic freedom, experimentation and curiosity about what happens when music and cultures mix

Robert  Palmer, The New York Times
July 9, 1982

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​

​

​

​

With a fan’s enthusiasm and a connoisseur’s modesty, Gillis has been giving the city ear-openers for years, and thanks to Gillis’ far-flung contacts, SOUNDSCAPE is plugged into the European and Asian and jazz communities, and the Caribbean-Latin-Nuyorican nexus

Jon Pareles, The Village Voice
Jan 5, 1982

​

It’s a dream called SOUNDSCAPE. A space born of a concept, and cleared in the maelstrom of the city where music weird and wondrous can flourish

Richard M. Sudhalter, The New York Post
Sept. 18, 1983

​

Verna Gillis knows more about the world’s music, where styles came from and how they have evolved than many musicians

Robert Palmer, The New York Times
July 9, 1982

​

SOUNDSCAPE today stands as something of a beacon on the New York scene. Few innovators are themselves this generous, but SOUNDSCAPE is possibly the most important club in the free-music world and it deserves such accolades. All jazz visitors to New York should make SOUNDSCAPE an early port of call, and to make their own contribution to the breaking down of musical barriers

The Wire, London Summer
1984

​

The level throughout the performance was very high indeed, which is to the credit of Verna Gillis who organized the concert

John Rockwell, The New York Times
March 10, 1975

​

Musical boundaries crumble and re-emerge in new forms several nights a week at SOUNDSCAPE

The Westsider
June 25, 1981

​

SOUNDSCAPE always presents music imperatively worth hearing

Michael Shore, The Soho Weekly News
December 20, 1979

​

Verna Gillis and performers are making musical history in Clinton at SOUNDSCAPE

Bob Kalin, The Clinton Community Press
November, 1980

​

In SOUNDSCAPE’s imaginative series, pop idols with mass followings at home bring their magic to the world market

Connoisseur Magazine
June 1988

​

The artists new to New York are being presented by organizations that book such varied adventurous and international work all year long…a tribute to the taste and savvy of energetic producers like SOUNDSCAPE’s Verna Gillis

7 Days
June 15, 1988

​

No one has done with jazz what Verna Gillis’s SOUNDSCAPE did when she offered a look at the condition of various vanguards at Irving Plaza

Gene Santoro, The Nation
Sept. 19, 1988

 

 

The whole package of Interpretations of Monk was put together by SOUNDSCAPE doyenne Verna Gillis and was never less than stunning

Lee Jeske, Downbeat
February, 1982

​

It was always a charge to head up to SOUNDSCAPE.  SOUNDSCAPE always bristled with expectation and tension. And on most any given night, there was the sound of surprise, the fecund creativity that’s compelling and maddening because a brilliant moment can only linger in the listener’s imagination

Don Palmer, Frank Lowe Quintet
DIW-399

​

Verna Gillis’ SOUNDSCAPE , celebrated for the adventurousness of its programme policy and as we see in hindsight, it was a sounding board for what later became known as the “downtown” scene.

Steve Lake, Material
DIW-389

​

From 1979 through 1984 producer extraordinaire Verna Gillis offered an open vista in her performance loft SOUNDSCAPE on “music from everywhere.”

Howard Mandel, SUN RA
DIW-388

​

This magnificent afternoon and evening of music was the inspired conception of SOUNDSCAPE producer Verna Gillis. It took nearly 13 years to see commercial release, but now we have the concert in its entirety, and as a tribute to Monk it is untouchable

Bob Blumenthal, CD Review
November 1994

​

It’s rare when one event substantially captures the gist of an era or a great artist’s legacy, but a certain November 1981 event delineated both the emerging sensibility of the 80’s with the legacy of the then-ailing Thelonious Monk. Finally issued as a four-CD set, the long anticipated documentation of INTERPRETATIONS OF MONK (*****) confirms the concert’s legendary status, as it is one of the most rewarding recordings of recent years.

Bill Shoemaker, Downbeat
November 1994

​

SOUNDSCAPE presentations still offer a more provocative mix of musical directions than other New York concerts

Robert Palmer, The New York Times
March 6, 1985

 

With a fan’s enthusiasm and a connoisseur’s modesty, Gillis has been giving the city ear-openers for years, and thanks to Gillis’ far-flung contacts, SOUNDSCAPE is plugged into the European and Asian and jazz communities, and the Caribbean-Latin-Nuyorican nexus

Jon Pareles, The Village Voice
Jan 5, 1982

​

It’s a dream called SOUNDSCAPE. A space born of a concept, and cleared in the maelstrom of the city where music weird and wondrous can flourish

Richard M. Sudhalter, The New York Post
Sept. 18, 1983

​

Verna Gillis knows more about the world’s music, where styles came from and how they have evolved than many musicians

Robert Palmer, The New York Times
July 9, 1982

​

SOUNDSCAPE today stands as something of a beacon on the New York scene. Few innovators are themselves this generous, but SOUNDSCAPE is possibly the most important club in the free-music world and it deserves such accolades. All jazz visitors to New York should make SOUNDSCAPE an early port of call, and to make their own contribution to the breaking down of musical barriers

The Wire, London Summer
1984

​

The level throughout the performance was very high indeed, which is to the credit of Verna Gillis who organized the concert

John Rockwell, The New York Times
March 10, 1975

​

Musical boundaries crumble and re-emerge in new forms several nights a week at SOUNDSCAPE

The Westsider
June 25, 1981

​

SOUNDSCAPE always presents music imperatively worth hearing

Michael Shore, The Soho Weekly News
December 20, 1979

​

Verna Gillis and performers are making musical history in Clinton at SOUNDSCAPE

Bob Kalin, The Clinton Community Press
November, 1980

​

In SOUNDSCAPE’s imaginative series, pop idols with mass followings at home bring their magic to the world market

Connoisseur Magazine
June 1988

​

The artists new to New York are being presented by organizations that book such varied adventurous and international work all year long…a tribute to the taste and savvy of energetic producers like SOUNDSCAPE’s Verna Gillis

7 Days
June 15, 1988

​

No one has done with jazz what Verna Gillis’s SOUNDSCAPE did when she offered a look at the condition of various vanguards at Irving Plaza

Gene Santoro, The Nation
Sept. 19, 1988

 

 

The whole package of Interpretations of Monk was put together by SOUNDSCAPE doyenne Verna Gillis and was never less than stunning

Lee Jeske, Downbeat
February, 1982

​

It was always a charge to head up to SOUNDSCAPE.  SOUNDSCAPE always bristled with expectation and tension. And on most any given night, there was the sound of surprise, the fecund creativity that’s compelling and maddening because a brilliant moment can only linger in the listener’s imagination

Don Palmer, Frank Lowe Quintet
DIW-399

​

Verna Gillis’ SOUNDSCAPE , celebrated for the adventurousness of its programme policy and as we see in hindsight, it was a sounding board for what later became known as the “downtown” scene.

Steve Lake, Material
DIW-389

​

From 1979 through 1984 producer extraordinaire Verna Gillis offered an open vista in her performance loft SOUNDSCAPE on “music from everywhere.”

Howard Mandel, SUN RA
DIW-388

​

This magnificent afternoon and evening of music was the inspired conception of SOUNDSCAPE producer Verna Gillis. It took nearly 13 years to see commercial release, but now we have the concert in its entirety, and as a tribute to Monk it is untouchable

Bob Blumenthal, CD Review
November 1994

​

It’s rare when one event substantially captures the gist of an era or a great artist’s legacy, but a certain November 1981 event delineated both the emerging sensibility of the 80’s with the legacy of the then-ailing Thelonious Monk. Finally issued as a four-CD set, the long anticipated documentation of INTERPRETATIONS OF MONK (*****) confirms the concert’s legendary status, as it is one of the most rewarding recordings of recent years.

Bill Shoemaker, Downbeat
November 1994