Born: February 28, 1972

Trumpeter/Composer Liam Sillery was born in a New Jersey suburb outside of New York City. His uncle, also a trumpet player, introduced him to music at an early age. Liam considers himself fortunate to have been surrounded by great teachers/musicians throughout the years. However, most significant was his acquaintance with the great tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson during his undergraduate studies at the University Of South Florida. Since, Liam performed as a freelance musician until 2002 when he attended the Manhattan School Of Music. At MSM studies had included such notables as Cecil Bridgewater, Dave Liebman, Phil Markowitz, Joan Stiles, Mark Soskin, and Garry Dial. In 2004 Liam released his first recording as a leader, Minor Changes (OA2 22020). Liam's second cd, On The Fly (OA2 22030,) recorded with the David Sills Quartet was released on October 17, 2006. Liam has performed with musicians such as Max Wild, Richard Huntley, David Sills, John Ellis, Tony Moreno, Soren Moller, Josh Ginsberg, Matt Aronoff, Jesse Stacken, Thomas Morgan, and others. During the summer of 2007, Liam recorded his third cd with Matt Blostein, Jesse Stacken, Thomas Morgan, and Vinnie Sperazza. The new disc Outskirts was released in January.

MUSIC REVIEW: Liam Sillery, “Outskirts”

by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide

On a third release for Origin's more exploratory arm OA2, trumpeter Liam Sillery moves slightly toward the realm of free jazz. The pieces are not entirely improvised, nor are they fully charted. Indeed, the band works in collective improvisation at varying levels throughout the album, exploring new phrasing ideas, exploring some off-kilter motifs and some particularly dissonant triads à la Sun Ra. Sillery himself honks his way through here and there, trying out phrasings that normally don't lend themselves to straightforward, composed jazz. Furthermore, he duels with alto sax player Matt Blostein to draw out a little more energy on the brass. When the band moves into a blues motif, the drums and bass thump out a fairly standard backdrop of rhythm, though the lead instruments scoot back and forth across a couple of musical ideas, with pianist Jesse Stacken casually plinking in between the movements of the other players. The overall sound is that of a light free jazz -- Sillery isn't in entirely full and random exploration here, nor should he be. The sounds are structured, though often structured to include some dissonance, to include some off-key squawks. Free jazz is always a little bit of a fence for listeners, dividing jazzheads into those who like listening to free jazz and those who only appreciate its right to exist but eschew listening to it. Sillery's album itself sits right on that fence, not so terribly dissonant and abstract as to scare away listeners, but not so simplistic and straightforward as to make for a casual ambient listen.

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