Ethan Iverson's New Album, "Playfair Sonatas"

The album features six sonatas composed by Iverson for six different instruments and piano

Pianist, Composer, and Writer Ethan Iverson has released a new album on the Urlicht AudioVisual label titled, Playfair Sonatas. The album will be available digitally and as a 2-CD set featuring six sonatas composed by Iverson for six different instruments and piano.

To purchase and listen to the album, click here.

During the pandemic in 2020, the album came to fruition through an agreement with music producer Piers Playfair to write six "classical" sonatas incorporating jazz and popular idioms and rhythms in exchange for subsidizing six months of rent.

Playfair shared, “It’s cool that out of a COVID dinner we were able to put a project together that so encapsulates one of our joint core beliefs, that divisions that split music, such as jazz, classical, blues, etc., into neat little boxes are really just names that people put on them and shouldn’t define the artists.”

Iverson collaborated with violinist Miranda Cuckson, marimbist Makoto Nakura, clarinetist Carol McGonnell, trombonist Mike Lormand, saxophonist Taimur Sullivan, and trumpeter Tim Leopold. CD 1 features 12 tracks with solo sonatas for violin, marimba, and clarinet. CD 2 features 10 tracks with solo sonatas for trombone, alto saxophone, and trumpet. To open and close the entire album, the whole ensemble performs together for Fanfare and Recessional. 

Listen to Iverson's Clarinet Sonata from the album below

Ethan Iverson has released jazz albums on ECM, Blue Note, and Sunnyside. In addition to his performance career, he is also a writer with publications in The Nation, JazzTimes, The New York Times, and the Culture Desk of The New Yorker.