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... I heard a group in Denmark
last year, John Tchicai and the trombone player Roswell Rudd, and sometimes
it happened and sometimes it didn't. But when it happened, it was marvelous.
They started out with something, and it happened to be a good melodic
idea, rythmic idea, and they would elaborate on that, and after a while,
they would get into things that sounded like, I guess... complete freedom
but still related to an essential idea. John is one of the most mature
players in this kind of music."
(Booker Ervin in Downbeat, regarding the 3-28-'65
version of "Holy Ghost")
"... big bones, amber tones
and gentle moves..."
(Fred Bouchard, Jazz Times)
"... moved to New York in
the mid-sixties and left a lasting impression..."
(Keith Shadwick, The illustrated story of Jazz)
"... sax's great Dane, whose
decidedly Cool, archly lyrical and ultimately enigmatic playing suggests
the secretive smile of someone who knows something strange but good..."
(Richard C.Walls, The Boston Phoenix)
"... a veteran woodwind
adventurer into musical outer space; his music exudes freedom..."
(Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner)
"... his sound is cool,
weightless, his style built on graceful, logical lines, and his writing
can just as soon invoke Monk's angular logic and the blues as an African
melody or rhythm.."
(Fernando Gonzalez, The Boston Globe)
"... he hasn't spent the
past 30 years playing standards... The piping warmth is so consistently
present and his Berlin Ballad is heartbreakingly lyrical..."
(Reuben Jackson, Washington City Paper)
"... he sounds like a man
who feels so deeply about an issue that he quietly and doggedly puts his
own point of view until those vociferous disputants with more superficial
beliefs move on... he sounds like a highly individual, architectural improviser
who submerges himself into the group with self-effacement... will someone
please bring John Tchicai to Britain for a tour?"
(Barry Witherden, WIRE)
"... belongs to the finest
composers in contemporary jazz. His themes are melodically rich, rhythmically
inventive (note the frequent changes of meter and tempo) and they shun
the formal or harmonic clichˇs that even today's jazz writers seem to
find so hard to avoid.... He's an improviser of astounding versatility,
equally well versed in tackling standard song structures as in free improvisation,
in group playing as in the art of the solo... The most intriguing and
personal quality of John's playing on whatever instrument is his incredible
ability to shape and vary the sound of his horn, ranging from minute timbre
variations via tender ballad lushness to powerful dramatic gestures..."
(Peter N. Wilson, liner notes for "Timo's Message")
".. loping, soul-tinged
jazz.."
(Marc
Weidenbaum, Sacramento News & Review)
"... Tchicai offers a large
and diverse program, often within a single piece - his turns reveal the
floating deliberation and melancholy passion that have always marked his
unique concept..."
(Bob Blumenthal, The Boston Globe)
"...a forceful presence:
his deep, inquisitive tone sounds wonderful, stately and reserved, while
his mates swirl madly around him.... Tchicai is flying high and cool over
the rhythm section's prancing and tumbling capers..."
(Jerome Wilson, Cadence)
".. silver-tongued ferocity,
a stunning ability to express himself and a compelling sense of drama
and dynamics... many people who find progressive music difficult and hard
to appreciate would have delighted in this.."
(Gamall Awad, California Jazz Now)