Brian McCarthy blends jazz, astronomy, and the AfterLife
The Vermont-based jazz virtuoso explores the cosmos with a nine-piece ensemble.
Today, the Spotlight shines On Vermont-based saxophonist, composer and arranger Brian McCarthy. Brian joins us on the occasion of his most recent project, AFTER|LIFE released back in late May, just a few days after we recorded this talk.
AFTER|LIFE is the second album of Brian’s in the nonet format as well as the second to be brought to fruition through support from the Vermont Community Foundation and the Vermont Arts Council.
Chris Pearson in The Times of London wrote, “Imagine John Coltrane's A Love Supreme driven by science rather than spirituality…while Coltrane praised God, McCarthy muses musically on death and rebirth in a cyclical cosmos and how we are all linked, down to a molecular level.”
There is a lot of concept packed into this record and Brian guides us through it. We had some laughs, too, though, and this was a very enjoyable talk. Enjoy.
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Dig Deeper
• Listen to the Brian McCarthy Nonet’s AFTER|LIFE on Bandcamp or streaming platforms.
• Visit Brian McCarthy online at brianmccarthyjazz.com
• Follow Brian McCarthy on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
• What is a Nonet?
• Why Kentucky Route Zero is the most important game of the decade
• Henry Peryer on the Music of Kentucky Route Zero
• Don Braden
• Branford Marsalis - Full Concert - 08/26/87 - Newport Jazz Festival
• Branford Marsalis Quartet - Giant Steps (1988)
• John Coltrane - The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings
• Clark Terry
• What Is Free Jazz?
• Bill Evans: The Quiet Man
• Phineas Newborn Jr.
• Art Tatum: A Talent Never to Be Duplicated
• Oscar Peterson | 10 Legendary Jazz Piano Recordings
• When is National Oscar Peterson Day?
• Vermont Arts Council
• Vermont Community Foundation
• Brian McCarthy on The Better Angels of Our Nature
• We are all made of stars: half our bodies' atoms 'formed beyond the Milky Way'
• Kind of Blue: how Miles Davis made the greatest jazz album in history
• Rare interview with Bill Evans recounts the story of Miles Davis and Kind of Blue
• William Patterson Jazz Room Series
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Brian McCarthy
musician
Saxophonist, composer, and arranger Brian McCarthy draws inspiration from the history of jazz, while maintaining a modern awareness. His debut nonet project, The Better Angels of Our Nature, began with a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council in 2014. Earning 4 ½ Stars from Downbeat Magazine, Brian Zimmerman called the work “a jazz album that makes a cavernous impression for its arresting beauty and conceptual brilliance.” Author and journalist Bob Blumenthal says the project “is both timeless (as is all great music) and could not be more timely. Brian McCarthy has assembled an ensemble of brilliant players and given them music of deep roots and resonant meaning.” McCarthy is endorsed by Selmer-Paris saxophones and D’Addario Woodwinds, has additionally released two albums of small group material, and in 2022 started a project jazz orchestra to feature a guest artist with all original charts tailored for them. McCarthy was awarded a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation Arts Endowment Fund in 2015 for his quartet album Codex (2017), and again in 2018 for his latest nonet project AFTER|LIFE. AFTER|LIFE was also awarded a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant in 2014 for his nonet debut of The Better Angels of Our Nature (2017) and in 2020 for AFTER|LIFE (2023). Brian is the Affiliate Artist of Saxophone at the University of Vermont and the Adjunct Director of Bands at St. Michael’s College.
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