{"id":62,"date":"2023-08-03T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T15:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2025-10-07T15:29:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:29:45","slug":"reviews","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/?page_id=62","title":{"rendered":"Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From a Paris Move review of <\/strong>Jennifer Madsen’s Reimagine<\/em> album<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The best evidence comes midway through the album, on the fifth track, \u201cOver the Sea.\u201d Here, Edstrom strips the accompaniment to its bare essentials, leaving Madsen\u2019s voice suspended in air. The effect is devastatingly simple and yet profoundly affecting. It is the kind of performance that reminds us why the human voice, unadorned, remains the most direct instrument of all. It is not about virtuosity. It is about sincerity, intimacy, and the ability to move an audience without adornment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thierry De Clemensat, Member of Jazz Journalists Association, August 17, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jazz Orchestra Plays It Fast, Sweet<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A couple of cuts from Count Basie\u2019s band and its predecessor, Bennie Moten\u2019s Kansas City Orchestra, showcased the mind boggling speed of the SJO\u2019s Brent Edstrom on the piano. It was as if Edstrom had three hands as his left made blurring leaps from bass to middle keys and his right tickled high notes at digital speed, (Gunther) Schuller said it\u2019s rare for him to perform with a pianist dexterous enough to reproduce the high-velocity melodies. Edstrom dazzled the audience with two more solo pieces before the night ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review, January 27, 2003 By Isamu Jordan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Precision Jazz<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday night, he (Gunther Schuller) returns to the Met to conduct more jazz…Schuller teams up with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra for an evening of truly repertory jazz from the swing era of the 1930\u2019s through the early \u201950\u2019s…Conducting such works is a rare pleasure for him. \u201cThis is extremely difficult…You won\u2019t believe your ears when you hear the fantastically fast tempos. This is only the second time I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with a pianist talented enough to play these pieces,\u201d Schuller said. He\u2019s referring to Saturday night\u2019s featured pianist, the SJO\u2019s Brent Edstrom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review January 24, 2003 By Isamu Jordan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bach Fest Pleasurably Surprising<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s festival took an unusual turn Saturday with a concert at the Spokane Club, which furnished \u201cBach With A Twist,\u201d as the program title had it. Gunther Schuller, the festival\u2019s artistic director is famous as a historian of jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the local leadership surprised Schuller by scheduling a musical match between harpsichordist Mark Kroll playing Bach straight and the Brent Edstrom Trio \u2013 Edstrom on piano, with bassist Brian Flick and drummer Rick Westrick providing the same music in a jazz version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the classical listeners Saturday had a chance to cringe at the thought of such sacrilege, the players showed how vibrantly Bach\u2019s music \u2013 in this case seven movements from the \u201cGoldberg\u201d Variations \u2013 could respond to such varied approaches. The modern Jazz Quartet\u2019s John Lewis and his harpsichordist wife, Marijana, invented the chess match idea in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was particularly intrigued at how easily Edstrom and his cohorts made the opening aria glide over Bach\u2019s bass line, adopting a swing version of some of the original\u2019s melodic figures. Kroll has been over this territory many times and was able to fill Bach\u2019s virtuoso demands without flinching. And the Edstrom trio players, new to this game, fell right into line showcasing Bach\u2019s melodic resources, whether in the piano part or in Flick\u2019s solos in the bass\u2019 high register. Westrick furnished quietly inventive ideas with brushes on the drums. This was chamber music that would have caused Bach to flash a surprised smile, just as others in the audience did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review February 19, 2007 By Travis Rivers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Musicians Simply Soar On \u2018Flights\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Spokane Symphony and conductor Morihiko Nakahara took their audience on \u201cFlights of Fantasy\u201d Friday at the INB Performing Arts Center. Tim Reis was joined by the fine playing of pianist Brent Edstrom and percussionist Rick Westrick. The elegiac slow movement showed a quiet interplay among the three solo instruments against an orchestral cushion of sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review, January 26, 2007 By Travis Rivers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jazz Season Opener A Schuur Thing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Spokane Jazz Orchestra kicked o” its 30th season Friday night at the Met by bringing singer\/pianist Diane Schuur back to town for the first time in 23 years…Pianist Edstrom propelled the Basie band arrangement of \u201cI Can\u2019t Stop Loving You.\u201d There was a repeat performance of Edstrom\u2019s own \u201cIt was a Dark and Stormy Night,\u201d a playful, Duke Ellington meets the Wolfman sort of a”air that the SJO debuted last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review By Rick Bonino<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jazz Orchestra Swings With Dance Masterworks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s concert will again highlight Brent Edstrom\u2019s ultra-intricate piano solos, succinct jazz that is indicative of the era and and Pulitzer Prize winner Schuller\u2019s trademark talks on jazz history. The bulk of the pieces will demand more of the lilting leaps and light-speed bounds of the stride piano style that floored the audience in January. Edstrom has been boning up for this show since the last one. And he\u2019s been transcribing similar works by Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Fats Waller over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review, March 2003 By Isamu Jordan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Region\u2019s Jazz Talent Shines At SJO\u2019s Season Debut<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Saturday night\u2019s concert was a sampling of the quality of talent and skill in both jazz composition and performance in our neck of the woods…Edstrom\u2019s \u201cIt Was a Dark and Stormy Night\u201d was written specifically for the seaon opener. It was exacly the night\u2019s highlight Keberle promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman-Review, October 20, 2003 By Isamu Jordan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Repaving The Way<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joining the SJO as special guest pianist is Brent Edstrom, who will be featured as soloist on several of the program\u2019s pieces…Edstrom frequently lends his formidable talents to the SJO. \u201cThe music Gunther [Schuller] picked out for this concert to feature the piano is extraordinarily di!cult, demanding, and very exciting,\u201d says SJO trumpeter Craig Volosing. \u201cWhen Gunther first shared his wishes to do these kind of pieces, both Dan (Keberle) and I assured him that we really did have, in Brent, a world-class pianist who could be counted on to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inlander, January 2003 By Mike Corrigan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From a Paris Move review of Jennifer Madsen’s Reimagine album The best evidence comes midway through the album, on the fifth track, \u201cOver the Sea.\u201d Here, Edstrom strips the accompaniment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-62","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brentedstrom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}