Press Quotes
One of the most energizing songs you’ll hear this year is the 7:48 opener, “Onset”… don’t be surprised if you find yourself spinning this tune over and over (and OVER) again; it’s definitely in the “instant hit” category!… “In Sight” … gives each of the players the chance to shine ever so brilliantly. Perfect timeing and flawless recording will have you completely absorbed from the opening note to the closing measure… I predict this song will win awards. This is an amazing jazz journey that gets a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating from me, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) score of 4.99.
Dick Metcalf, Editor, Contemporary Fusion Reviews
May 1, 2024 https://contemporaryfusionreviews.com/tantalizing-tasty-original-jazz-carl-clements-a-different-light/
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Carl Clements – A Different Light, apart from his talents as a musician, is also a very inspired composer. The arrangements on this album prove it; everything here is done with lightness and intelligence. Across the 9 diverse tracks of “A Different Light,” the musician seems to paint us a novel drawn from his travels and encounters, as the way he manages the instruments in his compositions sometimes reminds me of the brilliant Joe Zawinul, especially when the latter performed accompanying other artists on the piano, allowing space for each while imposing his style. Clements does exactly the same thing, not with his instruments, but with his compositions, which are sometimes dauntingly complex yet always very aesthetic.
I would struggle to pigeonhole “A Different Light” into a too defined category, but with each listen, this album has become “Indispensable,” [highest rating] and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 1st 2024 https://www.paris-move.com/reviews/carl-clements-a-different-light-eng-review/
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“Beautiful, blissful compositions come together with Carl Clements taking on a series of unexpected twists and turns with “A Different Light.” The instrumental richness feels genuinely inspired… Everything works. The balance between all the different elements gives the album a sunny disposition. Best of all, tracks work together, resulting in blooming kaleidoscopic bursts of color… ‘A Different Light’ presents the pitch-perfect style of Carl Clements in creating an aural environment that feels light, bright, and airy.”
Skope Mag
May 11, 2023 https://skopemag.com/2024/05/11/carl-clements-presents-a-different-light-out-may-23-2024
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Sunlight beaming into a church through a stained-glass window is a different light—tinted and soft-hued, suggestive of the presence of divinity. Saxophonist Carl Clements' quartet outing, A Different Light, gives the same impression. Looking to the album's stained glass-like cover art, artist Amanda Barrow's visual for the album seems a fine fit for this distinctive, modern jazz quartet… What is certain is that this saxophone and a rhythm section quartet makes a distinctive ensemble sound… World jazz shadings move in and out of the ensemble sound. The title tune has a spiritual, Wayne Shorter-like vibe; Clements is on the soprano here, and his tone is exquisite. There is patience in the storytelling of the tune… Much is made of John Coltrane's 1960s quartet with bassist Jimmy Garrison, pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones, for the synchronicity and collective energy in their perfection of expression of the leader's vision. The same goes for saxophonist Oded Tzur and his quartets. Carl Clements and his A Different Light quartet travel a similar searching path on this remarkable recording.
Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
May 29, 2024 https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-different-light-carl-clements-self-produced#:~:text=What%20is%20certain%20is%20that,workings%20of%20a%20solar%20system.
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"The impression is that the saxophonist Carl Clements is drawing musical high points, as it were... The saxophonist is as sonorous as he is quick-tempered…
Watercolored piano passages meet the fine tone of the soprano saxophone. Everything seems to flow… Crystal-clear sound waters seem to flow. And then a velvety flute sound rises when Clements plays his bansuri. It sounds like a whispering wind blowing through palm fronds... Clements then changes instruments and "intoxicates" us with the euphony of the soprano saxophone until the last bar.”
Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther, JazzHalo
June 4, 2024 https://www.jazzhalo.be/reviews/cdlpk7-reviews/c/carl-clements-a-different-light/
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A Different Light, the new album from jazz artist Carl Clements, is as ever-changing as the sky itself. The permutations, the overlaps, the gradations from one moment to the next, are as imperceptible as the day-to-night (or night-to-day) transition that occurs every 24 hours. In other words, these songs make perfect sense and offer profound truths… as long as the listener is willing to hear them.
The album offers a variety of aproaches—many based on world music traditions—that establish a musical language of action and reaction. The musicians—Carl Clements (saxophone), Chase Morrin (piano), Bruno Raberg (bass, acoustic), and Gen Yoshimura (drums)—are all given many opportunities to exceed the usual expectations. Working with a collection of refreshingly intuitive compositions, they find endless moments to invent and reinvent.
Greg Victor, Parc Bench
June 14, 2024 https://parcbench.live/2024/06/14/new-jazz-carl-clements-a-different-light/
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The opening tune titled “Onset” is a Carl Clements original, as are all nine of these carefully selected album compositions. Clements pulls his own style and interpretation of his original music through the bell of his horns and also from a North Indian bansuri flute. This first composition offers the listener a maze of music, with the piano creating mad rhythm beneath the smooth execution of the interesting melody Clements has created. Bruno Råberg opens the piece with a melodic bass line. Carl Clements rides the rhythmic wave created by his powerful rhythm section, smooth as a saxophone surfer. This song introduces us to the players of his entertaining package of jazz.
Chase Morris is a pianist, composer and educator, popular for his diverse musical range. He takes a jazzy solo, pumped up by the busy and delightful drums of Gen Yoshimura. What I found captivating about Morris’s piano solo was the way he built the tension and at the top of his crescendo, Bruno Råberg steps into the spotlight on double bass. His low notes growl throughout this arrangement and enhance it. Yoshimura takes a featured solo on drums and is quite impressive. Now we have met all the characters who are unraveling this musical story.
A song called “Sanyog” (an East Indian or Hindi word) plays next. It sounds very Middle Eastern and Carl Clements plays his flute during this arrangement. It’s a pretty original song. When Råberg enters on bass, his tone woos me. He has a definite style and unique presentation. Improvising freely, it is quite thrilling when his fingers pull that growl from his instrument, like a stalking tiger’s warning voice. Raberg is an internationally renowned bassist and composer. In fact, he has made six albums as a leader and five-times that many as a sideman. This Clements composition is quite intriguing. The group has a very youthful, energetic sound.
Gen Yoshimura is a versatile drummer, composer, and he too is an educator. His excitement and creative attitude on his trap drums is impressive. He teaches masterclasses at prestigious institutions around the world.
Together, this quartet will completely entertain you. Clements is an amazing composer and a master on both tenor and soprano saxophone, as well as on the bansuri flute. His bandmates match his intention and talent in spades!
Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil, Makingascene.org
June 24, 2024, https://www.makingascene.org/carl-clements-a-different-light/
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Carl Clements, the internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist hailing from Massachusetts, weaves a remarkable tapestry of sound on both Tenor and Soprano saxophones. With a conversational style that's both explorative and emotionally invested, Clements mesmerizes listeners with his pensées and visions, while the guitar provides a beautiful backdrop to his sonic wanderings.
Mediaversal Music (US), July 2023 https://www.mediaversal.com/music/kastning-and-clements-strand-in-strands.html
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"Carl Clements is both a jazz master of tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as, alto flutes, again with many compositions."
Scott S Mertens, The Phantom Tollbooth (http://www.tollbooth.org/index.php/home/music-reviews/994-kevin-kastning-carl-clements-nowhere-no-here)
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"The 13 entirely improvised pieces on this sublimely beautiful recording by Kastning... and Clements... tap deep wells of subterranean feeling while simultaneously filtering light from the Empyrean."
Barry Cleveland, GuitarPlayer.com
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"catch the remarkable tone Clements invokes... sounding like a lost artifact from Oregon's prime, something providentially found on the cutting room floor during that remarkable band's Music from Another Present Era period...Clements is... conversationally inclined, explorative, emotionally invested, at times Garbarekesque... Clements.. wastes no time mesmerizing the listener as the guitar paints backdrops for his pensees and visions."
Mark S. Tucker, AcousticMusic.com
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"… some of the finest sax playing I've heard for some time"."
Roger Trenwith, DPRP, 2012 https://www.dprp.net/reviews/2012/037
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“a fine composer and player… … maybe due to his assimilation of Indian music performance techniques. Clements can articulate verbally and on his instrument with ease and dexterity."
Marc Medwin, Bagatellen.com
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"Clements tells a compelling story with his strong sense of time and linear development."
H. Allen Williams, Jazz Times
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“A touch of Hindustani inflected the entire performance….The scorching solos drew applause every single time.”
Arhat Sett, The Times of India
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“The mood is pensive and it flows musically through Carl's soprano saxophone solo as it tells the story in a very picturesque way.”
Peter LaBarbara, Jazz Zine
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“…brawny yet thematically rich tenor sax soloing”
Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz
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“Clements' style harkens back to early jazz by emphasizing the melodic variation of the piece's central theme rather than using it as a starting point to be abandoned. This results in spare yet friendly runs… Clements' saxophone is more aggressive, invoking the bluster and brilliance of Charlie.”
Ron Davies, Spendid Ezine
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“Carl… chirps with power, letting all share in his joy”
John Barrett, JazzUSA
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"North March" highlights the strong emotion of Carl Clements' singing soprano sax,” “The intriguing ‘Firefly’… Clements ‘flies’ in, as the sax glides over the track with intensity,” “Clements soulful sax gets the steam rolling.”
Denai Burbank, Jazz Review
"a throaty blues workout, with bracing solos by saxophonist Carl Clements..."
Nathaniel Friedman, Jazziz
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