There is nothing conventional about this young woman who plays the trombone and composes music unlike anyone else today. Her mastery of sound, her use of timbre and phrasing are superb, yet cloaked in a melancholic linearity that makes the complex appear simple. The art of composition in Kalia Vandever defies comparison, whether stylistic or genre-based. To define her as a jazz musician would be reductive – the lifeblood of the African American idiom is certainly present in her music, but describing her as an artist influenced by contemporary rock aesthetics would be equally limiting. On the other hand, presenting her as a classical musician with a tendency toward minimalism would be superficial, even though she is certainly not averse to any of these musical styles. Let us simply say that we are dealing with a trombonist endowed with an intrinsic gift for originality, both in her use of the […]