“Mandala” (Shifting Paradigm 127). Album art and design by Marine Tempels Black.
“Chant” (Shifting Paradigm 143). Album art and design by Marine Tempels Black.
“A Held Space” (Woolgathering 012). Album art and design by Marine Tempels Black.
Black Diamond
Black Diamond thrives on the chemistry and compositions of saxophonists Artie Black and Hunter Diamond. They met while studying under David Baker and Tom Walsh at Indiana University. A mutual admiration for the collaborative recordings of saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh led them to experiment with their own two-tenor palette, and it quickly became apparent that the variance in their tonal and stylistic approaches created a captivating sense of balance. This dynamic has allowed them the unique compositional opportunity to write for the group in a way that is both deeply personal and instrumentally uncommon.
August 2017 marked the release of Black Diamond's debut recording , "Mandala," on Shifting Paradigm Records. Featuring bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Neil Hemphill, the album contains nine original works by Black and Diamond. The title is inspired by the Vajrayana Buddhist practice of sand painting. The intent of a mandala is to form a representation of the enlightened mind through intricate patterning of layered grains of colored sand. The music on "Mandala" represents our grains laid; our mandala composed.
For more information including performances, digital content, and news, please make a visit to the Black Diamond wesbsite.
Credit: Ricardo Adame
Recording Residency at Bordel Chicago 2020 (incomplete due to pandemic).
Metal & Wood
Several years in the making, this series of improvised Saxophone & Drum duo recordings will be released over the course of 2021 and 2022. Recorded in a variety of locations throughout Chicago and New Orleans, each recording features a different drummer.
This context is an element of my development that allows for maximum personal growth. The ultimate goal of this investigation is to reveal more of my identity as an improvisor and artist by stripping down the instrumentation and inviting variations of style, aesthetic, and personality as my partners rotate in and out. But, listening to the records is a vitally important part of the process. Being aware of the ways that this has been done before, and being receptive to that influence as I'm developing my own way is crucial to my ability to build and test my own approach.
Inspired by the fertile improvised music community in Chicago, and the power of the saxophone-drum set combination famously explored by John Coltrane & Rashied Ali/Elvin Jones/Roy Haynes, Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake, Charles Lloyd & Billy Higgins, Dewey Redman & Ed Blackwell, and Bill McHenry & Andrew Cyrille, and many others.
Dessous Dessus
This project combines acoustic and electronic sounds to invert the relationship between composed and improvised material - we play improvised music, and when, or if the moments arise, we perform from a book of original chamber compositions with treatments fully subject to the atmosphere of the moment.
Katinka Kleijn - cello, electronics
Jason Roebke - acoustic bass, electronics
Hunter Diamond - winds, percussion, electronics
credit: Ricardo Adame
Strange Frontiers
Strange Frontiers is both the title of this group and of my father's 2015 book of poems released by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Company. Eric Diamond is a clinical psychologist, musician, songwriter, poet, Jewish mystic, and a new age healer committed to constructing a widespread social understanding of positive masculine identities.
Inspired by my father's writings, I’ve set his poems with a series compositions that draw from chamber, jazz, and improvised musical traditions. Allowing his wisdom and lively spirit to influence each performance, I recite and sing the poems, as well as provide percussive and instrumental textures with Berber and porcelain flutes, clarinet, saxophone, and various singing bowls and chimes.
With the support of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation's special artist grant program, Strange Frontiers will document the material on record in 2023.
Herbsaint
The Herbsaint Band is a traditional jazz quartet that features the music of New Orleans master musicians Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, and more. The group came together specifically during the development of the "Got You Some" New Orleans party series, created by myself and chef Chris Reed. For this project, I play the clarinet, drums, and sing, with the aim of capturing the sonic spirit of the crescent city at the turn of the 20th century.
Credit: Sam Lewis