Jay Rosen (drummer)
Encyclopedia
Jay Rosen is an American
jazz
drummer
. Rosen is a member of Trio X with trumpet
er/saxophonist
Joe McPhee
and double bass
ist Dominic Duval
, and performs in Cosmosomatics with saxophonist Sonny Simmons
.
At age 10, Rosen became interested in jazz drumming after seeing Tony Williams perform with Sonny Rollins
. He took lessons from Tracy Alexander, son of Mousey Alexander
(with an occasional lesson from the elder Alexander). Later, he would briefly study with Barry Altschul
.
Around age 18, Rosen became a professional musician, and played in a variety of settings, such as studio work
, weddings and cocktail lounges, as well as in various musical style
s, including rock and roll
, rhythm and blues
, country
, jazz, and Brazilian music
. His recording career in improvised music began in the mid-1990s, when he recorded Split Personality (GM Records) with Mark Whitecage
and Dominic Duval. He began an association with the CIMP label in 1996, and has appeared on at least fifty CIMP album
s (as well as seven albums from the related Cadence Jazz Records
). Todd Jenkins describes Rosen and Duval as the "house rhythm section
" for CIMP, given the number of recordings on which they have jointly appeared.
Since 1998, Rosen has performed with Joe McPhee and Dominic Duval in Trio X. In 2000, Rosen joined Cosmosomatics, a quartet including saxophonists Sonny Simmons and Michael Marcus
and bassist William Parker
.
Rosen describes himself as "a musician who plays percussion" rather than "'just a drummer.'" He uses a set of small cymbals that he approaches "like a string player, or a reed player," and his drum kit
includes objects such as a boat propeller and a set of organ pipe
s that he activates with foot-driven bellows
.
While Rosen is associated with free improvisation
, he questions whether the music he plays is "free:"
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
drummer
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. Rosen is a member of Trio X with trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er/saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone...
and double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
ist Dominic Duval
Dominic Duval
Dominic Duval is an American free jazz bassist.Since the 1990s, Duval has been active principally on the New York City jazz scene. He did not begin recording regularly until the 1990s, but since then has appeared on a very large number of albums, particularly on the labels CIMP, Cadence Jazz, and...
, and performs in Cosmosomatics with saxophonist Sonny Simmons
Sonny Simmons
Huey "Sonny" Simmons is an American jazz musician.He grew up in Oakland, California, where he began playing the english horn. At age 16 he took up the alto saxophone, which became his primary instrument...
.
At age 10, Rosen became interested in jazz drumming after seeing Tony Williams perform with Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
. He took lessons from Tracy Alexander, son of Mousey Alexander
Mousey Alexander
Elmer "Mousey" Alexander was an American jazz drummer.Born in Gary, Indiana, Alexander studied at the Roy Knapp School in Chicago. He began to work with Jimmy McPartland there, soon after playing in the band of his wife, Marian McPartland...
(with an occasional lesson from the elder Alexander). Later, he would briefly study with Barry Altschul
Barry Altschul
Barry Altschul is a free jazz drummer who gained fame in the late 1960s with the pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea.-Biography:...
.
Around age 18, Rosen became a professional musician, and played in a variety of settings, such as studio work
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, weddings and cocktail lounges, as well as in various musical style
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
s, including rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, jazz, and Brazilian music
Music of Brazil
The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, zouk-lambada, lambada, choro, bossa nova, frevo, maracatu, MPB, sertanejo,...
. His recording career in improvised music began in the mid-1990s, when he recorded Split Personality (GM Records) with Mark Whitecage
Mark Whitecage
Mark Whitecage is an American jazz reedist.Whitecage played in his father's family ensemble as early as age six. In the 1980s, he played with Gunter Hampel's Galaxy Dream Band, Jeanne Lee, and Saheb Sarbib. After touring solo in Europe in 1986, he put together two bands as a leader, Liquid Time and...
and Dominic Duval. He began an association with the CIMP label in 1996, and has appeared on at least fifty CIMP album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s (as well as seven albums from the related Cadence Jazz Records
Cadence Jazz Records
Cadence Jazz is an American record label specializing in noncommercial jazz music. It is associated with Cadence Magazine.Cadence Jazz was founded by Bob Rusch in Redwood, New York in 1980...
). Todd Jenkins describes Rosen and Duval as the "house rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
" for CIMP, given the number of recordings on which they have jointly appeared.
Since 1998, Rosen has performed with Joe McPhee and Dominic Duval in Trio X. In 2000, Rosen joined Cosmosomatics, a quartet including saxophonists Sonny Simmons and Michael Marcus
Michael Marcus (musician)
Michael Marcus is a American jazz clarinetist and multi woodwind player & Composer....
and bassist William Parker
William Parker (musician)
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...
.
Rosen describes himself as "a musician who plays percussion" rather than "'just a drummer.'" He uses a set of small cymbals that he approaches "like a string player, or a reed player," and his drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
includes objects such as a boat propeller and a set of organ pipe
Organ pipe
An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...
s that he activates with foot-driven bellows
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
.
While Rosen is associated with free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
, he questions whether the music he plays is "free:"
"While 'free music' indicates that you're free to play whatever you want to play and you're not following chord progressions, and there's no timeTime signatureThe time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
, there's no this, no that…. The way I've been playing free music, with my constituents, doesn't really follow those guidelines. When we play, it's very well put together, in actuality. We're not just blowing to blow; there's listening going on, there's concerted effort at construction and organization, at putting things together — at minute levels — that hardly go on in 'free music' anymore."