Adam Berenson: Reviews and Quotes about Adam

Press Reviews:

Every Beginning Is A Sequel album review - All About Jazz (January 2020)
Top Album of 2019 (All About Jazz): Stringent and Sempiternal
Adam Berenson / Scott Barnum: Stringent and Sempiternal
Experimentalists: Talking with Adam Berenson, Dana Jessen, and Abdul Moimême
Introverted Cultures: All About Jazz (October, 2018)
Jazziz Magazine (Spring, 2018)
NPR radio interview, WHYY 90.9 FM Philadelphia (November, 2017)
Penumbra: All About Jazz (January, 2017)
Settlement Music School Interview (December, 2015)
Lumen: All About Jazz (March, 2015)
Gramophone (September, 2014)
Downbeat Magazine (July, 2014)
NewMusicBox (July, 2014)
Philadelphia Inquirer (March, 2014)
Philadelphia CityPaper (June, 2013)
All About Jazz (February, 2013)
The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine (November, 1999)
Downbeat Magazine (October, 1999)
Cadence Magazine - Representations (1998)
Cadence Magazine - Dialectical Constructs(1998)
The Philadelphia Inquirer (December, 1997)
Boston Phoenix (September, 1997)

What the Experts Say:

"Adam Berenson is what is needed in our over specialized society-- a true polyartist-- Pianist, Playwright, Composer, Teacher, Humanist, and a man to get to know because in his smooth, respectful style, Mr. Berenson has a lot to show and tell us about art, behavior, and the ability to survive with humor in a harsh and rough time where we have decided art is not of utmost importance."
-David Dubal, Author, The Essential Canon of Classical Music, The Art of the Piano, Evenings With Horowitz, and Professor at the Juilliard School

"I am overwhelmed about [Adam Berenson's] recordings. Especially [Nothingness]. I hear so much space and liberty in that music, combined with the finest and most delicate piano technique. This music gets even stronger the softer it articulates itself. I am very impressed and was deeply moved about such profound musicianship... I feel very much at home when listening to [Mr. Berenson's] music. It is beautiful."
-Matthias Pintscher, Composer and Music Director of Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC)

"Lumen is a greatly ambitious and uncompromising collection whose diversity never trips it up. Berenson's cerebral process and understated-but unmistakably-dramatic sense of time and placement bring his vision into sharp relief. From free jazz to classical dance influences, he manages a balance between austere and radical, not playing into the hand of either, but producing something that feels organic. Lumen is an outstanding artistic creation from a limitless composer"
-Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

" [The] variety [on Assemblages] reveals a lively curiosity as well as rigorous musicianship, offering a fit vehicle to convey Berenson's intrepid intellect."
-Neil Tesser, JAZZIZ

"Adam Berenson's] music has this tendency to the essential that I admire; the nudity and the roughness of a transparent statement. It made me think of Grisey, when he used to talk about the music of the insects, the music of men, the music of whales: the scales of the sound. Also, it brought to my mind some of Bartok's nocturnal musics: not that [Berenson's] looks like it at all, but maybe some spirit or state of mind; the quietness of the soul trying to listen to the world. Our world has become so messy and frustrating."
-Ramon Lazkano, composer and Kairos recording artist.

"[Adam Berenson] is a composer of post-modern vision and staggeringly wide-ranging interests."
-Shaun Brady, Downbeat Magazine

"Adam Berenson is a highly talented musician. His style is fluid, harmonically advanced, and full of surprises. He has tremendous technique but more importantly, soul and originality. Few musicians of his age have found their own voice to the extent that he has."
-Bob Moses, Drummer / Composer and Gramavision recording artist

"There's great sonic wealth throughout [The Disenchanted], and I like how seamlessly [Adam Berenson] switches between [the] worlds of the synth and acoustic piano (with the most direct Messiaen/Evans influences, especially in the purely chordal moments), and the piano with extended techniques, and the varying degrees of abstraction [Berenson is] able to attain, all within the same world. Bravo [Adam] on a really great project! "
-Anthony Cheung, Composer/ recipient of the Guggenheim fellowship and the Rome Prize

"Songs From The Garret is a beautiful piece of work; [it] really brings the music of those days to life in a new light. I especially love Claude And Betty, and in fact I prefer what [Adam Berenson has] done with it to the original recording (despite Eberhard [Weber's] best efforts). It's a lovely gift to receive such an evocative performance of a song I've felt never got its due. I hasten to add that the rest of the album is a joy too. Mike Gibbs must be likewise happy with what [Berenson has] done with his pieces. Carry on [Adam]! A million thanks."
-Steve Swallow, Bassist/Composer. ECM/WATT recording artist.

"I think [Adam Berenson's music is] very innovative and connects genres in an interesting way."
-Steve Hackett, Guitarist and composer

"I complain a lot about the state-of-the-arts, and for good reason. But I also like to post things I like, and there's usually a big silence; maybe more of you all find it entertaining when I stand on my head and moon the jazz world; and let's face it, that's an easy target.

Well here is something I like a lot-- sharply written, well performed, and diverse, like little mini-portraits of nothing in particular, which is my favorite model; and sounding like it's coming from a corner of the room I may have missed. And this guy is here on Facebook, Adam Berenson."
-Allen Lowe, Composer, musician, music historian, and sound restoration specialist. 2021 'Jazz Times' Readers' Poll Artist of the Year.

"I am most impressed by [Adam Berenson's] music. His titles are as arresting as the music."
-Alex Ross, Music critic for The New Yorker

"[Nothingness] is extraordinary. It was good to hear that genuinely original (not idiosyncratic) music. It is a very special composition which, eventually, will be recognized as such by, at least, very special listeners. Adam Berenson is singular."
-Milton Babbitt, Composer and MacArthur grant recipient

"Adam Berenson knows how to compose, organize an ensemble, do musical research, play solo and trio piano, write for musical journals, and enlist others to his cause. A very fine musician."
-Paul Bley, Pianist / Composer. ECM and hat ART recording artist

" I've sampled [Adam Berenson's] CDs..., and enjoyed them very much. ... A fine body of work. "
-Steve Swallow, Bassist/Composer. ECM recording artist

"Adam Berenson's music is heady and abstract, to be sure, but it's also warm and inviting-- more Mark Rothko than Joseph Albers. Berenson's spare lyricism is built of oblique melodies toyed with in series of variations... In [the] emaphasis on glacially slow tempos, unresolved tensions, songlike melodies, and intimate interplay, the trio sometimes recall the great Paul Bley trios of the 1960s. But Berenson's music has a hushed urgency all its own "
-Ed Hazell, Jazziz magazine Critic / Co-author of Musichound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide

"Adam Berenson is a composer/pianist with a good, clear, inventive formal sense, and a strong technique. He also has a terrific ear for texture. Dialectical Constructs is a pleasure to hear."
-Lee Hyla, Composer and Nonesuch recording artist

"[Adam Berenson] has something that I don't hear very often. He's got something."
-Cecil Mcbee, Bassist and Palmetto recording artist

"Adam Berenson's delicate and evocative compositions bring freedom and elegance to the jazz piano idiom. That he is inspired by Roosevelt (Eleanor), Beethoven, existentialism, television and the weather tells the listener that Adam Berenson is receiving on all channels, finding moments of connection among the disparate signals of our cultures, and sending a coherent, complex and thoughtful message in response. Much of his music is gentle and etheral, but I am especially fond of the bubbling energy of his "dance of the psychiatrists" and wonder if it is a New Years Eve party in the hospital cafeteria or a minimalist ballet--a pax de dux with Freud and Jung perhaps--that we hear in the halting, interrupted rhythm. It is music to listen to and to think about."
-Maurice Wright, Composer / New World Records recording artist

"Many aspects of [Adam Berenson's] music seemed appealing to me."
-Valentin Silvestrov, Composer/ ECM recording artist

"I appreciate [Adam Berenson's] sensitivity and his approach."
-Charles Lloyd, Saxophonist and ECM recording artist

"[Adam Berenson's music] is fascinating. Monk meets Ligeti, etc..."
-Fred Bouchard, Downbeat magazine.

"I can see why [Paul Bley] likes [Berenson's music]... I like it best when it's... openly lyrical or post-Ornetty."
-Kevin Whitehead, Jazz critic for National Public Radio

"I indeed find [Adam Berenson's] CDs to be painterly. They're terrific!"
-Chuck Close, American painter/ member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters