Harry Skoler

Such a treat to share with our listeners.

Todd Matthew SteedWUOT Knoxville, Tennessee

The clarinetist's original "Underdog" wraps things up with a free moving piece that leans into the duality of its inspiration, both turbulent and gentle at the same time.

Shanley on Music

The most important thing for jazz musicians is if they can be recognized after a few notes. Skoler is clearly recognizable!

Lajos DudasJazzpodium

Harry Skoler plays with a melancholy but hopeful tone that adds a poignancy … His clarinet sound has a deep, rich quality…

Mike NeelyAllAboutJazz

No need to be so humble, the album is freaking great.

Jerry GordonWPRB, Princeton University

He plays with a muscular tone that gets to the heart of the piece … like Mingus, the album offers new discoveries with each listen.

Shanley on Music

This is such a lovely album. It's an honor to play it.

Chris HeimKMUW Wichita, KS

If clarinet might seem like a questionable instrument to lead a Mingus tribute, Skoler casts aside any doubt in the opening moments of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat."

Shanley on Music

Focusing on Skoler's radiant clarinet, all the arrangements … exalt the melodic charm of the themes, highlighting their restlessness with scores rich in internal contrasts and dissonances.

Angelo LeonardiAllAboutJazz

Harry Skoler, who put this joint together, plays clarinet and eases you into the Lester Young tune so sweetly that you wonder why the instrument isn’t more popular.

New-Jointz

Skoler speaks confidently with a poignantly transparent and vibrant sound.

Dr. Chuck BergJazzTimes

Living in Sound: The Music of Charles Mingus, was a warmly incantatory concerto-like setting for clarinetist virtuoso Skoler and orchestra…

Kevin Lynch Culture Currents

This album is a thing of beauty and one can only thank Harry Skoler for digging Mingus enough to drop this.

New-Jointz

…Skoler lays back, letting his clarinet seduce with purring trills that stretch the limits of human hearing.

Michael BieberJazziz

I appreciate your gratitude, but you should thank yourself. Your fine work demands exposure, and it's my privilege to provide it.

Jack HopkeWWNO New Orleans, Louisiana

The arrangements make excellent use of instrumental color and put Mingus’ themes into the context of extended, complex harmonies…this is good music well played, it feels good as it goes down…Skoler’s own “Underdog”…convincing, with flashes of complex, unresolved emotions and ideas—Mingus.

The New York City Jazz Record

Skoler’s warm and woody stick works wonders…

George W. HarrisJazz Weekly

If this disc doesn't get a Grammy nomination, then I don't know who, and for what!

Lajos DudasJazzpodium

Great release! Glad to share it with my listening audiences as we celebrate the Centennial.

Mr. JazzWRIR, Richmond, VA

Everything sounds great, the music swings and the ensemble has real command of the charts, of shifting moods and especially fine modulations of dynamics.

The New York City Jazz Record

Throughout this strikingly evocative project, the clarinet virtuoso — a Mingus obsessive since his teens — offers efflorescent improvisations through arrangements of nine Mingus compositions by Ambrose Akinmusire, Fabian Almazan and Darcy James Argue, with a to-die-for rhythm section of Kenny Barron, Christian McBride and Johnathan Blake, joined on various tracks by trumpet titan Nicholas Payton, vocalist Jazzmeia Horn and a string quartet.

Ted PankenJazziz

The album is powerful and I wouldn't be surprised if we see it among the Grammy nominees, or maybe it will bring the Golden Gramophone itself to its creators.

Leonid AuskernJazz-Quad Magazine

…the richness of his tone, somewhere between romance and melancholia, draws you into the music.

Frank-John HadleyDownBeat

Harry Skoler is a clarinetist who employs this difficult instrument with a gentle and loving touch … Skoler's sound is elegantly supple …

Patricia MyersJazzTimes

Thank you for the great music!

Bobtaintradio.org

Argue … takes “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” into interesting territory with an arrangement that straddles the lush and spare, one that Skoler navigates beautifully in his lead, with tones of respect for the composer Mingus most admired.

Jim HynesMaking a Scene

Harry Skoler

The new album
"Living In Sound: The Music of Charles Mingus"
is now available on Sunnyside Records!