First Dance
There are albums that impress, albums that challenge, and albums that defy classificationaltogether. First Dance, the latest release by the Freedom Art Quartet, falls into the rarethird category, a project so daring in conception, so wildly inventive in execution, that it feelsless like a jazz...
FREEDOM ART QUARTET - FIRSTDANCE September 9, 2025 by FILIPE FREITAS. Jazztrail.netLabel: Freedom Art Records, 2025Personnel - Alfredo Colón: tenor saxophone; Omar Kabir: trumpet; Adam Lane: bass; LloydHaber: drums. Freedom Art Quartet returns more than two decades after debuting with Spirits Awake. Thecollective, formed in 1991 by...
Freedom Art Quartet: First Dance (Freedom Art Records /FAR-52962) It’s very rare that I play a new album and immediately know that I’m going tolike it, but that’s the feeling I got here. It’s a little bit chaotic, a little bit Mingusand, to use an old...
Freedom Art Quartet: First Dance Raucous, brash and freewheeling, First Dance by The Freedom Art Quartet is rooted inthe past yet fresh and contemporary. The album should sound familiar to those whohave ventured outside the mainstream and spent time with Ornette Coleman andthe Art Ensemble Of...
by Mwanji Ezana16 August 2004 Given the names of the quartet and the album and the album's cover art, one could be excused for expecting free jazz with mystical overtones. Instead, one gets hard bop that goes out a bit, which, while firmly rooted in the...
On Spirits Awake, the Freedom Art Quartet immediately announces its overall dedication to groove and funky second-line beats with "In the Thick of It," as Jaribu Shahid’s ripely swinging bass gives way to Abraham Burton’s lush, confident tenor and Omar Kabir’s incisive and radiant trumpet....
Led by the out-front tenor of Abraham Burton, The Freedom Art Quartet is a throwback to the old Blue Note days. I'm sure Miles is somewhere smiling when Omar Kabir riffs his trumpet with Doug Yates on Kimbunga or reaches for the sky on Love...
(Down Beat 01/04) This debut disc from New York’s Freedom Art Quartet swings from Monkish games to Ornette Coleman and Horace Silver with admirable proficiency. Drummer Lloyd Haber’s seven, neatly drawn songs are played in a sensible string, letting the tightly sheltered solos and easy architecture...