Home » Jazz Musicians » John Tchicai

John Tchicai

By approaching jazz from a wide scope, Afro-Danish-American John Tchicai has been continuously progressive throughout his life. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1936, of a Danish mother and a Congolese father and growing up in healthy surroundings, John Martin Tchicai became a leading exponent of the jazz avant-garde in New York in the '60s and a father-figure for the European avant-garde after that. Now based in Davis, California, and Claira, France, by a single-mindedness of purpose and action, his work still reflects what he's always been doing, which is innovate and inspire other people, in a most refreshing way. The Danish ministry of Culture recognized his work by awarding him a lifetime grant.

Instruments

John first began to play the violin as a child, and switched to the alto saxophone and clarinet at age 16. He studied with private teachers and attended the Conservatory of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, for two years. During the late '60s and early '70s, John began to play bamboo flutes, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone and some percussion, and when he discovered the tenor saxophone in the early '80s, he put the alto aside in favor of this, which has become his main instrument. John uses keyboards and sequencers as tools for composing.

Chronology

In the late '50s and early '60s, John explored the Danish and Northern European jazz-scene. He moved to New York City in '62. In the following 4 years, he recorded on 11 albums (a.o. "Mohawk", "Ascension" with John Coltrane, "New York Eye and Ear Control" with Albert Ayler), co-founded 2 ensembles ("New York Contemporary Five" and "New York Art Quartet" which was a harbinger of collective musical approaches and philosophies that leading avant-groups of the '70s would develop) that he toured Europe with, and was a member of "The Jazz Composers Guild". He moved back to Denmark in '66 where he co-founded "Cadentia Nova Danica", at one time a 30-piece ensemble which recorded "Afrodisiaca". In the '70s, John discovered hatha yoga and meditation which became lifelong focusing points in his spiritual development. He performed less often in this period, but taught elementary schools, composed, and led workshops. By the '80s, he had picked up touring and recording internationally again, traveling through Europe, to India, Japan and Africa, performing as a sideman as well as leading his own groups. In 1991 John moved to California. Here he founded "John Tchicai and the Archetypes", a 7-piece band that fused afro-jazz with blues-rock and released the album "Love Is Touching". Currently, he teaches workshops in schools and in prisons, composes and works on new projects. He practices yoga, pranayama and meditation, and still tours internationally.

Recognition

In 1966, Downbeat stated that John "stands out among the jazz avant-garde, musically and personally". Official recognition has grown steadily for John. In '77, he was the first jazz-musician to receive a three year-composing stipend from the Danish Ministry of Culture, and in '90, he received a lifetime-grant from the same Ministry. In the U.S., he was a California Artist-in-Residence in '96-'97, and he was awarded a fellowship for composition by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1997.

Composition

John's compositional activity has always had a high priority in his work, as he strives to reach a balance between composition and improvisation. The music of other cultures (African, Oriental, etc.) has been a continuous inspiration, and John's work has a highly rhythmic and poetic melodic-lyrical quality. He composed for his own ensembles, but also on commissions for other jazz and/or classically trained ensembles: a.o. for wind-orchestra, for three celli + jazz quartet, for strings- and winds double quintet, for percussion ensemble and for symphony orchestra.

Performing

John worked with and is peer to the greats in the field of "jazz" music. To name but a few, he played with John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Johnny Dyani, Roswell Rudd, Albert Ayler, Dollar Brand, Makaya Ntshoko, Carla and Paul Bley, Misha Mengelberg, Lee Konitz, Cecil Taylor. He performed at festivals, conservatoria, in churches, schools and concert halls from Bombay and Kyoto in the East to Vancouver and Seattle in the West; from Conacry, Guinea, Africa in the South to Reykjavik, Iceland, in the North. Poetry and audience-participation are often part of a Tchicai-performance.

Recording

Not only did John record over 20 albums as a leader (with "New York Contemporary Five", with "New York Art Quartet", with "Cadentia Nova Danica", with "John Tchicai Trio", "J.T. Group", duo's, with "John Tchicai & the Archetypes"), and many more as a sideman (with John Coltrane on "Ascension", with "Pierre Dorge & the New Jungle Orchestra", a Danish Ellington-African inspired big band, with South African bassist Johnny Dyani, with Faroe Islands-pianist Kristian Blak, with Dutch saxophone sextet "The Six Winds", with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and with Cecil Taylor on "Winged Serpent"), but he also took part in collaborations with artists of disciplines other than music (with poets Amiri Baraka, John Stewart, David Gitin, with painters, actors and dancers). He composed for film, theater plays and video-projects.

Teaching

John utilizes available resources in a patient, positive way, whether it concerns improvisational or compositional material, instruments, time, space, energy or: people. His vast teaching experience was accumulated through working in elementary schools as a music teacher, teaching private lessons and international workshops for musicians of jazz, classical and other backgrounds, workshops in prisons and masterclasses at conservatories. His book for music students, "Advice to Improvisers", which includes compositions and exercices for all instruments, was published in '87. It is available at the addresses listed in Orchestral compositions. Show less

New York Art Quartet: New York Art Quartet Revisited

Read "New York Art Quartet Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
January 9, 2024

Questa preziosa (ancora una volta) riedizione di oltre un'ora e un quarto di musica riunisce i primi due album di uno dei gruppi più leggendari della stagione free, il primo intitolato semplicemente col suo nome e pubblicato dall'altrettanto leggendaria ESP fondata nel 1963 da Bernard Stollman (incisione del 16 novembre 1964), il secondo, Mohawk, di pochi mesi successivo (17 luglio 1965), edito su Fontana. Il gruppo è per tre quarti identico in entrambe le occasioni, allineando figure nodali di quella ...

Album Review

Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, John Thicai, Don Moore, J.C. Moses: Copenhagen 1963 Revisited. Live Jazzhus Montmartre

Read "Copenhagen 1963 Revisited. Live Jazzhus Montmartre" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
June 19, 2023

Questo concerto registrato al Jazzhus Montmartre di Copenhagen risale a una settimana esatta prima dell'assassinio di JF Kennedy a Dallas. E già questo colloca il nostro ascolto in un contesto, in un'atmosfera specifica. Ma in quel 1963 venne assassinato anche Medgar Evers (il 12 giugno), tra i più autorevoli attivisti afroamericani, freddato da un suprematista bianco e celebrato in questo disco dal brano di Archie Shepp “The Funeral." Shepp sosteneva che la musica, sempre, è sia un fenomeno ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler: New York Eye and Ear Control Revisited

Read "New York Eye and Ear Control Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 10, 2021

The backstory of New York Ear and Eye Control is a significant factor in the music and the direction free jazz took in the 1960s. Filmmaker Michael Snow commissioned Albert Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray to record a thirty-minute soundtrack for a movie, “Walking Woman," he had yet to film. As explained in the liner notes, he “wanted to buy a half hour of music." Also invited to the session were trumpeter & cornetist Don ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler: New York Eye And Ear Control Revisited

Read "New York Eye And Ear Control Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 30, 2021

The development of so-called free jazz in New York during the first half of the 1960s was topped and tailed by three landmark recordings: Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1961), John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse, 1966) and Albert Ayler's New York Eye And Ear Control (ESP, 1966). Of the three discs, only New York Eye And Ear Control broke away completely from jazz's normative structure of theme/solos/theme. Commissioned as an art-film soundtrack, Ayler's recording was also the product of an altogether ...

Album Review

New York Contemporary Five: Consequences Revisited

Read "Consequences Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 27, 2020

This 2020 reissue of the New York Contemporary Five recordings from 1963-64 can't help but draw one's attention to the social unrest occurring in America in 2020. In 1964 the riots in Harlem and Philadelphia over police brutality were followed by similar riots a few years later in Watts, Newark, Detroit, etc. In the growing civil unrest these recordings were born. The New Thing was the equivalent to what Chuck D of Public Enemy claimed when he said rap music ...

Album Review

Tchicai - Kohlhase - Fewell - McBee - Hart: Tribal Ghost

Read "Tribal Ghost" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 2, 2014

Of all the collaborations in the later years of legendary reedman John Tchicai, some of the most fertile were in the company of guitarist Garrison Fewell, whether under the Dane's leadership like One Long Minute (NuBop, 2012) and Big Chief Dreaming (Soul Note, 2005) or in undocumented appearances with the guitarist's Variable Density Sound Orchestra. Joining the pair on Good Night Songs (Boxholder, 2006), Boston-based saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase completed a formidable unit. For the week long engagement at New York's ...

Album Review

Tchicai - Kohlhase - Fewell - McBee - Hart: Tribal Ghost

Read "Tribal Ghost" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 18, 2013

Late saxophonist John Tchicai's roots and influences emanated with the 1960s innovative free-jazz ensemble, The New York Art Quartet. He became a significant global artist in all things considered to be cutting-edge within the ever-expansive jazz vernacular. This 2007 concert, recorded at the New York City venue Birdland, features compositions by guitarist Garrison Fewell and one track written by Tchicai. Ultimately, the album is unique from a perspective that includes sojourns into the avant jazz space, while containing memorably melodic ...

177

Festival

Vision Festival 16 Opening Night; Echoes of Ascension, Marion Brown and John Tchicai.

Source: Chris Rich
June 4, 2011

Having covered the Panel Discussion for Sunday the music needs its due. Where else but the Vision Festival, in the US at least, would you find a night given to two participants in that legendary extended fanfare the world knows as Ascension. One still works among us, John Tchicai, and the other left us since Vision Festival last conveved. Marion Brown was a wonder. He was among the early inventors of mixed medium work incorporating poetry, visual arts and the ...
read more

124

Performance / Tour

Guus Janssen QT (Mon) John Tchicai QT (Wed) Sanda & Orchestra (Thu) Lucain Ban's Elevation (Fri) This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
February 4, 2008

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. Mon Feb 04, 8:30PM GUUS JANSSEN QUARTET Guus Janssen, piano; Thomas Heberer, trumpet; Reuben Radding, bass; Harris Eisenstadt, drums Wed Feb 06, 8:30PM JOHN TCHICAI QUARTET John Tchicai, reeds; Alex Weiss, ...
read more

152

Performance / Tour

John Tchicai Trio April 16, 8:30-11:00pm Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: All About Jazz
March 7, 2006

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York212-989-9319 www.corneliastreetcafe.com between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1,9 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, F to West 4th St. Contact: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services, 845-986-1677, [email protected] John Tchicai Trio John Tchicai, tenor sax, bass clarinet and voice Charlie Kohlhase, alto, tenor and baritone saxes Garrison Fewell, guitar, assorted musical objects and percussion April 16, 8:30-11:00pm Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street New York City 10014 ...
read more

177

Performance / Tour

All About Jazz-New York Presents "1s & 2s" Featuring John Tchicai And Garrison Fewell (4/7) Cornelia St. Cafe

Source: All About Jazz
April 6, 2005

April 6, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] THURSDAY APRIL 7th, 2005 AllAboutJazz-New York Presents “1s & 2s: Music For Solo & Duo" FEATURING: John Tchicai (reeds, winds) & Garrison Fewell (guitar) at Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com *8:30 and 10pm sets - $12/ (student discount $8) JOHN TCHICAI Approaching jazz from a wide scope, the Afro-Danish American John Tchicai is a composer/saxophonist ...
read more

168

Performance / Tour

John Tchicai Reunites with the Either/Orchestra

Source: All About Jazz

Legendary Afro-Danish composer/saxophonist John Tchicai and Boston's always-evolving ten-piece Either/Orchestra will be collaborating on concerts in Boston and NYC

February 1, Boston: the Institute of Contemporary Art's ICA Theater is at 955 Boylston Street.

Advance tickets are available through Twisted Village at 12 Eliot Street in Harvard Square, Cambridge MA 02138, or (617) 354-6898. Show is at 8 pm. Tickets are $16, $12 for students and seniors.

February 2, New York: Tonic is at 107 Norfolk St. Shows are at ...
read more

... 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 clichŽs 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

Show less

Recent Releases

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

John Tchicai

John Tchicai

Followers

Get more of a good thing!

Connect

More Access

For Musicians

Advertise