Chasing Paint, (subtitled Jane Ira Bloom Meets Jackson Pollock), is an album by saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom which was recorded in 2002 and released on the Arabesque label the following year.[1][2][3]

Chasing Paint
Studio album by
ReleasedMarch 4, 2003
RecordedApril 14 and May 3, 2002
StudioThe Studio, NYC
GenreJazz
Length50:38
LabelArabesque
AJ-0158
ProducerJane Ira Bloom
Jane Ira Bloom chronology
Sometimes the Magic
(2001)
Chasing Paint
(2003)
Like Silver, Like Song
(2004)

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [4]
The Buffalo News    [5]
Penguin Guide to Jazz    [6]
Tom HullA−[7]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz    [8]

The AllMusic review by David Dupont said "With Chasing Paint, Jane Ira Bloom offers a follow-up to her well-received Red Quartets session of 1999. Returning with the same cast, Bloom offers a sound portrait of abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. True to her own muse, Bloom's portrait, while abstract, is impressionistic rather than expressionistic. ... With Chasing Paint, Bloom creates a series of complementary pieces that have the coherence and sweep of an extended work".[4] Jeff Simon of The Buffalo News added, "...And if Pollock could come back to life one night and hear Bloom play "The Sweetest Sounds" for him, I think his furious, questing heart would melt."[5]

On All About Jazz, Franz A. Matzner stated "Jane Ira Bloom's experimental homage Chasing Paint was both immediately fascinating and disturbing ... what Bloom has attempted is a translation into sound of Pollack's [sic] transmutation of sound into color and movement. The result is a series of dense, explorative compositions, the faultless execution of which delineates the thoroughly progressive and acutely perspicacious nature of Bloom’s writing",[9]

In JazzTimes, Nate Chinen wrote "the album conveys a meticulous air even as it heeds jazz’s freer impulses. Bloom’s soprano saxophone is characteristically fleet and full-toned, capturing all the angular caprice of a brush on canvas ... At times, Bloom’s trademark electronic effects manage to evoke a drip painting’s network of color and line. Yet even at its most elliptical, this album remains wholly approachable. Like a Pollock canvas, it needn’t be explained to be understood".[10]

Track listing

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All compositions by Jane Ira Bloom except where noted

  1. "Unexpected Light" – 8:34
  2. "Chasing Paint" – 7:12
  3. "The Sweetest Sounds" (Richard Rodgers) – 3:24
  4. "On Seeing JP" – 4:54
  5. "Many Wonders" – 6:39
  6. "Jackson Pollock" – 2:54
  7. "Alchemy" – 8:24
  8. "Reflections of the Big Dipper" – 4:09
  9. "White Light" – 4:28

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ Jazzlists: Arabesque Jazz discography accessed May 22, 2018
  2. ^ Jazzdisco: Jane Ira Bloom discography accessed May 22, 2018
  3. ^ janeirabloom.com: recordings accessed May 22, 2018
  4. ^ a b Dupont, David. Jane Ira Bloom: Chasing Paint – Review at AllMusic. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Simon, Jeff (March 28, 2003). "MUSIC DISCS". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  6. ^ Hull, Tom. "Penguin Guide to Jazz Diffs: 7th vs. 8th Editions". tomhull.com. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Tom Hull: Grade List: Jane Ira Bloom". Tom Hull. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  8. ^ Cook, Richard. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. p. 137. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  9. ^ Matzner, F. A. All About Jazz Review, accessed May 22, 2018
  10. ^ Chinen, N. JazzTimes Review, accessed May 22, 2018
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