George Schuller ... Playscape Recordings

About

George Schuller is known as "a criminally underappreciated drummer and bandleader" (James Hale, Jazz Chronicles), "a significant member of today's progressive jazz scene" (Glenn Astarita, JazzReview.com) and "a master musician deserving wider acclaim" (Paul Blair, Hot House). "Never a bender to trends or rigid ideology," adds the Hartford Courant's Owen McNally, "he plays in the moment and looks to the future. At the same time, he's aware of the past as something to build on in new ways." In addition to his longstanding quintet Circle Wide, he currently leads the George Schuller Trio and co-leads the groups Conference Call, Trio This, Whirrr! and Yard Byard. He is also a member of the Michael Musillami Trio, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2012.

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Booking

COMPANY OF HEAVEN
Andreas Scherrer
523-525 W 152 Street, Suite #51
New York, NY, 10031, USA
email: info@companyofheaven.com
phone & fax = (001)212-281.9785
mobile phone = (001)347-210.9617

Reviews

Schuller is a graceful, swinging drummer, always tasteful and capable of driving a band without overwhelming it.

— Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes

Drummer George Schuller is a significant member of today's progressive jazz scene. Whether performing as a sideman or leading his own projects, Schuller's pen represents a potent and forward thinking mindset...

— Glenn Astarita, JazzReview.com

Schuller knows how to use composition to spur improvisation, and as a way to organize free blowing so that it never sounds arbitrary. What's more, funky tunes like 'Band Vote' will keep you whistling after the CD is over.

— Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix

George Schuller's talent on Hellbent lies in his ability to keep the quartet together through periods of order and disorder. He uses drums, rather than cymbals, much of the time to sharpen edges and provide contrast. Schuller's playing is particularly refreshing because he doesn't generally play on (or off) the beat — instead, he comes in and out unexpectedly, dancing around the pulse.

— Nils Jacobson, AllAboutJazz.com

Schuller's compositions create an effective balance between form and freedom; his melodic sense is firmly rooted in the post-Ornette vocabulary, and his rhythmic conception is finely connected to the time/space continuum. As a drummer, Schuller propels, swings hard and has the rare ability to conjure form out of seeming chaos.

— The Tuscon Weekly

Schuller's charts provide fruitful frameworks for the improvising, with loose-limbed harmonic lines and purposeful rhythmic foundations underpinning free-wheeling melodic parts from the horns.

— JazzReview (UK)

George Schuller is an endlessly inventive drummer, tooling around his augmented kit he is a whirl of tiny cymbal clashes and ping-ponging percussive accents one minute, a throttling mass of press rolls and punishing back beats the next.

— Troy Collins, Cadence

Discography

Block Party

Michael Musillami Trio

09.13.2023

Life Anthem

Michael Musillami Trio +2

05.01.2018

Zephyr

Michael Musillami Trio

10.06.2015

Pride (2 CD)