Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Daniel Del Pino, Andreas Prittwitz - Looking Back Over Chopin (2012)



Música sin fronteras (temporales)

Ya se sabe que a la música de Chopin no le hace falta que nadie le añada nada, pero me produce una enorme emoción y diversión interpretar músicas históricas con mis instrumentos y con el sentir musical de nuestra época actual, que para mi consiste en la improvisación. Al igual que con las otras grabaciones "Lookingback" del Renacimiento y del Barroco, no pretendo ni cambiar la obra ni mejorarla, simplemente hacerla mía interpretándola y soñándola, en este caso junto a mi amigo Daniel del Pino al piano.

Andreas Prittwitz

Music without (time) borders

It is a well-known fact that Chopin's music needs nothing added to it, but I find it highly exciting and entertaining to perform historic pieces of music with my instruments and with the musical feeling of our times, which for me consists of improvisation. As in the previous "Lookingback" Renaissance and Baroque recordings, I do not seek to change the work or improve it, but simply make it my own, by performing it and dreaming it, in this case, with my friend Daniel del Pino on the piano.

Andreas Prittwitz 



CRÉDITOS LOOKING BACK OVER CHOPIN :
Daniel del Pino Piano
Andreas Prittwitz Saxofón tenor y soprano, clarinete, voiceflute

Grabado en el auditorio del Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid los días 22 y 23 de diciembre, 2011 por Andrés Vázquez.
Mezclado y masterizado en "Arco del Valle", Cercedilla/Madrid por Andrés Vázquez.
Producción artística: Andrés Vázquez y Andreas Prittwitz
Ayudante de producción: Miguel Delaregla
Piano: Pianos Muñoz
Imagen de portada : Enrique Santana ( The Lake becoming a Sea, 2001, tríptico al óleo)
Diseño integral: Saúl Garbayo
Fotografías: Pepe Varela y Tato Sánchez
Video promoYou Tube: Juan Alcón- ANJú


Jazz Bassist Andrea Veneziani Debuts on CD March 13 with "Oltreoceano"


Trio Session with Kenny Werner & Ross Pederson
Features Veneziani Originals
As Well as Compositions by Bird, Monk, Bill Evans  


February 27, 2012

Andrea Veneziani OltreoceanoBassist Andrea Veneziani followed his musical dreams from Rome to New York in the summer of 2009, and those dreams are made manifest with the release on March 13 of his ravishing debut CDOltreoceano ("Overseas"). A trio session with pianist Kenny Werner and drummer Ross Pederson, the disc is a striking introduction to the gifts of this Tuscan-born bassist and composer.

"Kenny is one of the major pianists who operates in trio settings today," says Veneziani of Werner, who was an instructor in the bassist's NYU Master's program. "I like his playing, very sensitive and creative, a true improviser." Pederson, a rising young drummer on the New York scene, "knows how to shape the music, which was essential for me, because of the nature of my compositions."

Veneziani TrioThose compositions include two ("Night Flight," "In Viaggio con Te") inspired by his travels, which included a July 2010 tour of Costa Rica; "Traffico," for which Veneziani composed only the melody, with the remainder of the performance free-form; and the minor-key "Mark Rothko," for the late American abstract painter. Three short interludes -- "Free Episode #1," "Free Episode #2," and "Free Episode #3" -- were improvised in the studio by Veneziani, Werner, and Pederson without advance planning, other than the moods requested by the bassist beforehand. (Pictured at left: Pederson, Veneziani, Werner.)

The nonoriginals are from the oeuvres of three jazz icons: Charlie Parker ("Segment"), Thelonious Monk ("Pannonica"), and Bill Evans ("Time Remembered"). Evans's influence can be felt in the effortlessly floating interaction between Veneziani, Werner, and Pederson, not just during "Time Remembered," but throughout Oltreoceano.

"It's really about interplay," the bassist says. "I had listened to a lot of Bill Evans's piano trio recordings during my years of studies. Bassists in those kinds of groups have more space -- Scott LaFaro, Marc Johnson, all the bass players who played with Bill Evans always had the chance to play longer solos and counterpoint lines. You have more space and you can also break a bit the typical role of the instrument. I was always attracted to that."

Andrea Veneziani was born April 21, 1977, in Pescia, Italy, a small town in Tuscany. At 15 he moved with his family to Rome and by 19 had taken up electric bass, initially inspired by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other funk bass players. He gradually developed an interest in jazz and began studying acoustic double bass, "transfer[ring] all the technique I already had from the electric to the double bass."

Andrea Veneziani 

Veneziani studied at jazz clinics like Siena Jazz and at the Conservatory of Music Licino Refice in Frosinone, Italy, where he was awarded an Advanced Academic Diploma in 2007. From 2004 until leaving Italy in 2009, Veneziani performed at jazz festivals all over Italy, and was also active as a composer and arranger in many different settings, from jazz to theater and film.

The bassist arrived in New York in the summer of 2009 on a scholarship from the Fulbright Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange between Italy and the United States. He was enrolled at New York University's Steinhardt Department of Music and performing Arts Professions, from which he graduated in May 2011 with a Masters of Music Degree in Performance with a Concentration in Jazz. His teachers at NYU included Joe LovanoChris PotterJohn Scofield, and Kenny Werner, his trio-mate on Oltreoceano.

Veneziani is in the process of planning a fall 2012 tour of Italy with an American trio. Meanwhile, the Harlem resident stays busy with teaching (private students as well as at the New York Jazz Workshop) and performing engagements with various bands, including his own trio. "I'm playing a lot here," he says of New York, "and better, because the level is higher. You can always play with good musicians. You can always meet new musicians from all over the world. Music here is really alive."  

 Web Site:
www.andreaveneziani.com
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Media Contact:Terri Hinte
510-234-8781
hudba@sbcglobal.net
www.terrihinte.com
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Anne Schaefer - The Waiting Room (2012)


Recorded with award - winning producer, Joby Baker (Alex Cuba, The Bills, The Cowboy Junkies, Mae Moore) and fleshed out with a stellar lineup of musicians including, Kevin FoxScott WhiteKelby MacNayr and Adrian Dolan, “The Waiting Room” is a near theatrical ride that takes listeners through the absurdity, loneliness, passion and piss-off’s of life and everything in between. From Dinah, who imagines herself as the superheroine, Black Canary and little Lily who wistfully wishes she could walk through walls and meet some aliens, to Beth who poignantly remembers a lost lover and Jacob who is shocked at the realization that his is suddenly very old even though he still feels like a boy, “The Waiting Room” seems to touch virtually everyone with it’s wit, wisdom, grace and grandeur.
Anne Schaefer
CD Release Concert
The Waiting Room
Thursday, March 1st
Alix Goolden Hall
907 Pandora Avenue
doors 7:30 show 8pm
Anne Schaefer – voice, piano, guitar
Sean Drabitt – upright bass
Kelby MacNayr - drums
Sara Marreiros - voice
Brooke Maxwell - voice
Adrian Dolan – violin, accordion
Zavallennahh Huscroft - fiddola
$20/$18 VJS and UJAM/$15students and seniors
tickets at Larsen Music and Lyle's Place, Victoria, BC

BELGIUM: Tue 06.03, Brussels: FLAGEY JAZZ SESSIONS Boyan Vodenitcharov, Steve Houben Duo, Sal La Rocca 5tet Igloo Records' Session


Two jazz groups celebrate the release of new albums : the Vodenitcharov/Houben duo and Sal La Rocca’s new formation. The former released Darker Scales last autumn with Igloo Records, an exploration of the connections between jazz and contemporary classical, and a freewheeling experiment that reflects the musicians’ long friendship.
Double bass player Sal La Rocca has performed with Toots Thielemans, Philip Catherine, Nathalie Loriers and Lee Konitz, among others. For his second album, It Could Be the End, he joins sax player Jacques Scharwz-Bart and Hans Van Oosterhout. Schwarz-Bart has played with musicians as different as Roy Hargrove, Me-Shell Ndegeocello, Roy Haynes, Ari Hoenig and d’Angelo. His jazz reflects his Guadaloupean origins. FLAGEY
Bulgarian pianist Boyan Vodenicharov and Belgian sax Steve Houben have released a new album entitled Darker Scales. We kick off with the piece Lime Limit.

You've heard Lime Limit, which is reminiscent of the jazz standard Limehouse Blues. The piece is authored by Steve Houben, a famous Belgian sax player and flutist. Having graduated Berklee College of Music-Boston, Steve teaches at Liege Conservatory. He's been on stage together with Toots Thielemans, Chet Baker, Mike Stern, Gerry Mulligan and many others. He's released some 40 albums, with the last one, Darker Scales, having been recorded with Bulgarian pianist Boyan Vodenicharov. 

Boyan Vodenicharov is a classical pianist and a laureate of several large-scale piano contests, such as the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. He gives solo and chamber concerts as well as teaches piano and antique keyboard instruments at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He's made dozens of albums offering the piano sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, etc. All pieces have been performed with original instruments or copies from the epoch of the above composers. He first met Steve in 1983. At the time, Boyan was invited to take part in the Queen Elizabeth Competition by playing classical music and jazz pieces. Their first album was called Les Valses

“After recording the first album we kept giving concerts and working on new pieces," Boyan Vodenicharov explains. "At first, our task was to find a common ground. He's interested in classical music and I play jazz. After many concerts, things got to happen more naturally. Our last album has got an organic sounding. It was presented in November in Jazz Station, an old Brussels station, transformed into an art space that is both a concert hall and a jazz club. All new jazz albums are presented there. Darker Scales was included in the programme of Jazz Station, although it's not jazz in the true sense of the word. It's rather improvisations that vary between “jazz” and “no-jazz”. In fact, I don't know what you call “no-jazz”. Sometimes all names and labels are not enough to define what sounds make, because they have their own opinion and nature”. 

Now back to Prof. Vodenicharov, who tells us more about teaching improvisations. 
“The students and I do basic stuff. I offer them ideas from my improvisations. The course aims to introduce this kind of music to students because classical musicians are often afraid of it. I teach them how to listen to harmony, movement and phrase. If they don't follow these parameters, they can't compose anything. I suppose that every child starting to play a musical instrument improvises spontaneously. In the learning process, however, this is lost. Improvisation is a kind of link between playing and composition. This is what's most important about it!” (BNR.BG)

Josh Arcoleo - Beginnings (Edition Records 2012)

Born into a musical family in 1989 Josh was lucky enough to start saxophone lessons with the legendary Pee Wee Ellis when he was 13. At 18 he gained a place on the renowned jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music - he has just graduated with a 1st class degree, as well as winning a 2011 Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship and the Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize (the prize itself being a recording contract with Edition, hence this debut release). He has also received awards from the EMI Music Sound Foundation and MBF Young Talent. The first thing that hits home with Beginnings tenor saxophonist Josh Arcoleo s debut CD - is its timelessness. It s immediately modern and wonderfully assured and yet the entire tradition of jazz s first instrument seems to flow through it. Arcoleo has a highly personal tone on his horn and there s an individuality about his sound that is commanding but not idiosyncratic, eloquent and never verbose. Some musicians take years to learn these lessons and others never do. Josh Arcoleo, just 23 with already plenty of road miles under his belt, definitely has gravitas, that rarest of qualities, and he has it in spades.
amazon.com
http://www.josharcoleo.com
Josh Arcoleo is a prizewinning saxophonist from the Royal Academy of Music's jazz stable, and a debut on the astute Edition label (which has introduced, among others, young Norwegian sax firebrand Marius Neset) is no accident. Arcoleo is only 23, but he sounds as if he has covered a lot of mileage. Tenorists Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson are among his models, but for much of this fine album he deploys something of Wayne Shorter's hypnotic tentativeness, and the melodic style of the Cool School-inspired Mark Turner. Arcoleo's dark, hooting sound edges into softly grooving intros as if he's not sure of his welcome. Then come solos that develop from painterly brushstrokes to searing intensity. His ballad tone is rich and smoky on ruminations such as Glade and Kite Flight. The title track has a patient symmetry that becomes an abstract multiphonic rawness, confirming his composing strengths and technical breadth. Bassist Calum Gourlay, drummer James Maddren, from Kit Downes' band, and pianist Ivo Neame give this imposing newcomer immaculate support.
(The Guardian)





USA, CO: Vail Jazz Fest announces summer lineup


Festival expands this year, with new events in addition to favorites featuring national jazz artists
The Jazz at Vail Square talent is being finalized for this summer. Thus far, groups will include The Brubeck Brothers, Marcia Ball, Cuban sensation Wil Campa y su Grand Union, the Air Force Falconaires and more. New this year, due to the overwhelming popularity of the series, guests purchase preferred seats for $20 per show or purchase a season pass for $99. These seats guarantee guests premier seating at the front of the tent. Free seating remains in the rest of the tent, available on a first-come, first served basis. 

Jazz continues each Sunday beginning June 24 at the Vail Farmers' Market. Featuring regional and national artists performing in trios to large ensembles, each concert celebrates the joy of improvisation, the cornerstone of jazz. For 10 Sundays, jazz will be played from noon to 3 p.m. in the Jazz Tent at Solaris on the green. The lineup will be announced soon.
newsroom@vaildaily.com
VAIL CO, Colorado


ACT to release the New e.s.t. studio album "301" on March 30, 2012

"In January 2007 e.s.t. were on tour in Asia and Australia performing shows in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Jakarta, Perth and Sydney. It was their third tour of Japan and their second time on the fifth continent and the venues and audiences had become noticeably bigger. Only a few weeks before they had finished their triumphant tour of Germany performing their now legendary “Live in Hamburg” concert (awarded ‘Album of the Decade’ by the London TIMES). It was undoubtedly the prime time of the style defining jazz band of the Noughties.

Esbjörn Svensson, Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund decided to rent the famous Studio 301 in Sydney for their off-days in the middle of the Australian tour and jammed for two consecutive days to develop new songs and material. Altogether they recorded 9 hours of music. “Leucocyte” became the first release from this recording and has been praised by critics and fans alike as a ground-breaking work that leads into a new musical universe.

Very soon after the recording Esbjörn Svensson had edited much of the material down to two albums. And so the plan at the time was to release either a double album or two consecutive albums from this recording. The untimely passing of Esbjörn Svensson then disrupted this undertaking and only one of the albums, “Leucocyte”, was released at the time.

Three years on, in October and November 2011, Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström revisited the material from that recording and together with their regular sound engineer Ake Linton made their own edit for an album which is now called “301” on the basis of the name of the studio where the album was recorded."

ACT Music+VisionMagnus Öström, Esbjörn Svensson, Dan Berglund - © ACT / Joerg Grosse-Geldermann

USA: Boston Arts Academy, Boston Latin to compete at largest HS Band Jazz Festival

Boston, MA, February 23, 2012—Berklee College of Music’s 44th High School Jazz Festival will showcase over 3,000 students and 200 bands and vocal ensembles from 13 U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, competing for $175,000 in scholarships to Berklee’s Five-Week Summer Performance Program. The largest high school jazz festival in the U.S. will include clinics and concerts by drummer Kendrick Scott, saxophonist Hailey Niswanger, and SF Jazz faculty members.  Berklee’s Tower of Power and P-Funk ensembles, the Berklee Rainbow Band, and the Berklee City Music High School Academy will perform.
The entire event is free and open to the public, and will take place on Saturday, March 10, 2012, at the Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston Street, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Scholarship and award winners will be announced at 6:00 p.m., followed by a winners showcase concert at 7:30 p.m. Find the complete schedule at berkleejazz.org.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Barb Jungr, Kuljit Bhamra, Russell Churney - Durga Rising: An Indo-Jazz Adventure (KEDA 1996/2011)

The interplaying of influences from the trio's respective backgrounds – European, Asian, Jazz, Blues, Bhangra and RnB - create the unique sound of this best-selling album. KEDA Records
wikipedia

After her fruitful and prolific stint as one-half of the ever-eclectic Jungr & Parker, Barb Jungr returned to school to earn her masters degree in ethnomusicology, which in turn led to the formation of JBC (later changed to Durga Rising), a Hindustani-flavored trio also featuring Kuljit Bhamra -- an expert tabla player and a pioneer in London's bhangra movement -- and Jungr's longtime musical partner, pianist Russell Churney. The group lasted for a couple years, but as a recording unit it only managed the one-off album Durga Rising, an effort that managed to merge Indian, jazz, European cabaret, blues, and pop music into a mostly successful and coherent, though admittedly peculiar, sort of treat. The compelling collisions begin immediately with "The Cutter," which most listeners would be hard-pressed to place as the Echo & the Bunnymen cover that it, in fact, is. In JBC's arrangement, with its viscous raga rhythms and haunting cello, the swirling post-punk song is tweaked into an earthy but exultant psychedelic anthem. The whimsically mooning "Bombay Dreaming," oddly enough, shares with the sprightly "Crimes Against Nature" the honor of being the most theatrical song on the album. In contrast, "Go Down Easy" is a beautiful dirge borrowed from the legendary British folk master John Martyn. Only "Spit It Out," a blues tune, drags on a bit longer than necessary (the other Jungr & Parker contribution, "Tears in a Bottle," is just right), especially in light of the slow-burning, almost operatic revision of "Blind Willie McTell," a Bob Dylan composition that not only serves as the cornerstone of the album but also pointed the way toward Jungr's later masterwork, Every Grain of Sand. An intriguing, adventurous amalgam.
Stanton Swihart/allmusic.com)

USA, LA: Jazz Musician Rufus Reid Debuts Master Production of Art Influencing Art


Jazz Musician Rufus Reid to debut four movement work “Quiet Pride” inspired by sculptures created by American artist Elizabeth Catlett, Feb. 28-29, 7:30 PM, Baton Rouge, Reid to lead Louisiana State Univ Jazz Ensemble/Orchestra and play upright bass

WEBWIRE – Sunday, February 26, 2012
Jazz artist, composer and jazz educator Rufus Reid (http://www.rufusreid.com) will bring to life a master production of art influencing art, as he presents the world premiere of his four movement work Quiet Pride, on Feb. 28-29 at 7:30 PM each night, at The Manship Theater, The Shaw Center in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana (100 Lafayette Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70801, 225-344-0334, http://manshiptheatre.org). Mr. Reid, a jazz artist whose performing and recording credits include a who’s who of jazz musicians (Dexter Gordon, Eddie Harris, Thad Jones and many others), will lead the Louisiana State University orchestra and play upright bass for the debut concert performance of this four-movement work - “Recognition;” “Glory;” “Mother & Child;” and “Singing Head.” – inspired by four sculptures created by American artist Elizabeth Catlett.

USA: Can a massive jazz museum take root in Chicago?


Back in the 1990s, several influential Chicagoans joined forces to try to build a National Jazz Museum here.
They quickly raised $350,000 in seed money to launch an institution that would do for jazz what Symphony Center does for classical music or the Lyric Opera of Chicago for music drama: provide a world-class venue that nurtures the art form.
Better still, the proposed National Jazz Museum would achieve what none of its Loop counterparts attempted, giving music with African-American roots high visibility in a downtown cultural grid mostly devoted to white, European-derived art.
But the effort lost steam in 1999, when the City of Chicago turned down the planners' proposal to take over a choice parcel of land up for redevelopment at the northwest corner of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue, where the decaying Avenue Motel once stood. After that setback, the National Jazz Museum quickly faded into memory.(Full article written by Howard Reich)

VOCALIST JUDI SILVANO CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF RECORDING WITH NEW STANDARDS ALBUM, INDIGO MOODS, AVAILABLE APRIL 10 VIA JAZZED MEDIA


jazzed media 1
 
Judi Silvano  
 
         
   
Storied jazz vocalist and composer Judi Silvano celebrates the 20th Anniversary of her recording career, with the April 10 release of her tenth album, Indigo Moods (Jazzed Media). What makes this release different from most of Silvano's previous nine albums is that Indigo Moods consists entirely of familiar popular jazz standards delivered in an extremely intimate setting.

This album exemplifies the impact of the trio format with which the veteran singer has been working for several years, in venues across New York, Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic area, featuring pianistPeter Tomlinson and trumpeter Fred Jacobs.

"The reason that I did this album now, with these songs and with these musicians," she says, "is because our musical communication felt so connected. Peter Tomlinson has a flowing and evocative touch and Fred Jacobs is a beautifully melodic player. It felt like the time was right to feature these songs that I have known virtually my entire life, with these musicians."
          
The songs are mostly pieces that the trio has performed live on gigs, but, she elaborates, "There are always surprises when you get into the recording studio! We didn't start with set arrangements. I led the session but with a collaborative attitude and because we are so attuned to each other, things would just spontaneously happen in intriguing places - I love that!"

A Philadelphia native who has lived in New York for most of her professional life, Silvano's background was originally in dance and formal "classical" music. However, once immersed in Manhattan's bustling "downtown" arts scene, she was invariably drawn to jazz and improvised music. Silvano developed relationships with leading improvisers in New York City and premiered original works in ensembles with musicians such as Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner, George Garzone, Tim Hagans, Ratzo B. Harris and Gerry Hemingway. Personal encouragement from veterans like Bob Brookmeyer, Abbey Lincoln, Manny Albam, Gunther Schuller, Sheila Jordan and Mal Waldron helped formulate Silvano's style.

"I grew up listening to singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan but I needed to study and learn the repertoire for myself in order to make the stylistic transition from the classical style to the more dramatic Jazz singing." Since that time, Silvano has completed 10 recordings under her own name, and sung on numerous others, collaborating with leading heavyweight jazzmen of multiple generations.

"In the past 20 years, I have developed longstanding relationships and the deep sense of trust that comes with that, enabling me to grow and reach within myself to sing this classic repertoire," says Silvano.

Ready to interpret the Great American Standards, Silvano chose to do so in an emotionally exposed, stripped down format, without bass and drums. "I have been collaborating with Peter & Fred as a Trio for over two years. The synthesis of our musicality allows us to weave our melodic ideas by carefully listening to each other as we play these vintage tunes. With this recording, I feel I have integrated bringing these songs to life in my own personal way with a sense of ease. And at least for me, that only comes with having lived a little longer, from experience."

Silvano is accomplished at composing and performing fully-notated contemporary works (such as Lori Dobbins's "Sketches for Silvano" and Kenny Werner's "No Beginning, No End"), at improvising wordless jazz vocals, and, increasingly, at realizing the familiar music and lyrics of such masters as Johnny Mercer, George and Ira Gershwin, and their colleagues. 
          
These songs were both challenges and opportunities to sing. "Mood Indigo" and "Still We Dream" are the works of two immortal jazz composers, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, the latter famously Monk's only waltz (known instrumentally as "Ugly Beauty"). Irving Berlin's imagery of "It Only Happens When I Dance With You" (from Easter Parade) spoke to her partly because of her career as a dancer. "I love the way Strayhorn's melody on "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" unfolds and opens up, like a flower turning upwards towards the sun, a beautiful image. I've sung it on many gigs, and recorded it before, but not with this fluidity." And about "Skylark" she says, "What a magnificent song, a dreamscape of emotion and longing!" On both the Gershwins' "Embraceable You" and Jobim's "If You Never Come to Me," she catches listeners off guard by not starting with the lyric. "I want people to tune into the melodic and rhythmic movement before they hear the words."
          
The end result is 14 songs, all of which are well known, although many of the verses to these vintage tunes (like "If I Had You" and "If You Could See Me Now") will surprise even serious song buffs. Silvano says, "The music really unfolded as we went along and because we listened attentively and responded to each other's sounds, we could create fresh interpretations of these amazing songs. I hope our listeners will share this sense of adventure upon hearing the stories of these great songs once again!"

In addition to her accomplishments as a singer, dancer, composer, and songwriter, Silvano is also a painter. Three of her watercolors are featured in the album booklet ingeniously merging Silvano's distinctive visual imagery with the uniquely expressive music of her "Indigo Moods."
  
Judi Silvano Indigo Moods
Judi Silvano - "Indigo Moods" - EPK
 
Judi Silvano · Indigo Moods
Release Date · April 10, 2012

 For further information on Judi Silvano, visit:

For all media information, please contact:

DL Media · (610) 667-0501
Don Lucoff · don@dlmediamusic.com 
Amy Miller · amy@dlmediamusic.com 

Pete Escovedo Keeps Latin Jazz Alive with Fundraising Concert for Santa Clara Law BLSA / La Raza Law Student Association Scholarship Fund


Santa Clara University School of Law to host a concert to benefit the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) / La Raza Law Students Association Scholarship Fund with the Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz Orchestra, featuring Juan Escovedo & Peter Michael Escovedo: Saturday, March 24, 2012, 7:00pm - 9:00pm, $35, Locatelli Center, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California, 95053. For tickets and more information: http://law.scu.edu/admissions/events.cfm
Read full story at PRWEB

Emerson Bran Management Announces New Jazz Artist on Roster: BET Jazz Calls Him the Latest Cuban Wunderking, Aruán Ortiz, Exalts in the American Jazz Scene.


Widely respected and known in the New York scene & across the world – Aruán Ortíz, is exhilarating, fresh, classically gifted and trained: a colorful and transparent musician.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) February 17, 2012
Emerson Bran Management (EBM) is pleased to announce the latest addition to their all-star Latin & Jazz roster: Cuban Pianist, Aruán Ortiz! Look out for the artist who BET Jazz calls, the latest “Cuban Wunderkind.” Known in the New York scene and across the world – EBM is excited to share Aruán Ortiz with you. This colorful and transparent musician will be releasing two new albums in March and April 2012. Aruán Ortiz, is fresh, grounded and offers a beautiful and entertaining Latin Rhythms.

Ron Spielman Trio - ELECTRIC TALES (Groundsound 2012)

Music is always special when it offers a room for each of us to enter where we unexpectedly find things that we didn’t realise we were looking for.

It is exactly this type of magical musical moment that the
 Ron Spielman Trio devotes itself to. But what do I mean by « trio » ? This band is a potent, boundery-pushing, majestic rock machine, ripened through countless live gigs and thickly woven together into a very sexy sound. This is rock music for people who have grown up and become adult, without really wanting to. The effect is the same, touching and engagingly authentic but the quality of the music has thickened into a wisdom of sound that incorporates and distils experience, musical and otherwise. Ron Spielman combines in his world-class songs the fragility of the singer-songwriter with the directness and playfulness of rock. The twelve songs from the new (all-original material) album «  Electric Tales « are drawn from life and seemingly  so real that to distance oneself is impossible as the listener is pulled into a parallel world where, surprisingly, one feels at home from the very first note. This is the music that Spielman /Greb /Maclean are currently making.

This album is an increasingly rare example of a truly original work in rock music. Thanks to the trios power, brilliant craftmanship and precision, even the ballads make the listener hover inches above the ground.
Is there such a thing as release through music ?
You bet there is !

Ron Spielman Trio



Fee Stracke - Vertreibung aus dem Paradies New Tunes (JazzHausMusik 2012)

Oliver Fox - cl,sax
Valentin Gregor - viola,violin
Fee Stracke - p
Sergio Gomez - b
Hampus Melin - dr

Jazz? Classical music? Romantic music? Fee Stracke’s musical concept contains all these facets as well as some more. She brings them out with a line-up that is rather uncommon in improvised music: clarinet and viola/violin smoothly feed each other lines instead of saxofone and guitar. Stracke’s compositions open up spaces for freely associating sounds, images, whatever, both for listener and musician. Her style is vivid, rhythmic, humorous. Don’t be surprised if it also comes to exciting and entertaining “latin folklore 2.0”. Yet it remains surprising how much energy there is in the chamber musical setting – and how much of it is transferred directly to its listeners.
www.feestracke.de

JazzHausMusik

Maciej Obara Quartet - Equilibrium (Fonografika 2011)


The raw sound of classical jazz trio with European character.

1. Cool Madness
2. Hidden
3. Tale
4. Domino
5. Cheshire Cat
6. Lady With A Weasel
7. Transcendental

Maciej Obara - saxophone
Dominik Wania - piano
Maciej Garbowski - bass
Krzysztof Gradziuk - drums

Maciej Obara is a young Polish composer and alto saxophonist. His career started after recording "Message from Ohayo" in 2006, with which he won the Bielska Zadymka Jazz Contest for young jazz bands.
In the year 2008 Obara organized a tour in Poland with Antoine Roney, the prominent jazz saxophone player from USA.

In 2008 he was also recommended by Manfred Eicher(ECM) to Tomasz Stanko, which resulted in their frutful cooperation. During this period Maciej Obara recorded and performed music for the Tomas Stanko "Terminal 7" show in National Theatre, he participated in the international project called "Tomasz Stanko Special Project" during the Autumn Jazz Festival 2007 and cooperated with Stanko in his project "New Balladyna Quartet".

In January 2008 Maciej Obara Trio released a new recording "I can do it", which received th enthusiastic reviews in press.

In November 2009 the leader of the band presented his new project - "Obara Special Quartet", into which he invited musicians from NY School of
Improvisational Music: Ralph Alessi - trumpet, Mark Helias - bass, Nasheet Waits - drums.

The 2009 autumn tour with Alessi, Helias and Waits lead to the recording in NY studio Systemstwo.

During the winter workshop in Brooklyn Academy of Music Obara recorded also the second album titled "Three" with Harvey Sorgen and John Lindberg.

In 2011 Obara has began a new project with a great polish piano jazz player Dominik Wania. Both musicians have met in a band of Tomasz Stanko for the first time and this cooperation has triggered a great musical friendship between these two talented polish artists. Their work resulted with a recording called "Equilibrium".
polishjazz.com
http://maciejobara.com
amazon.com

Monday, February 27, 2012

Kenny Wheeler - The Long Waiting (CAM Jazz 2012)



Like few musicians in the history of music, Kenny Wheeler has been able to make his music a trademark. An approach to his instrument, the trumpet, that has marked artistic events for generations of musicians. A sound that transfixes today as it did yesterday and touches whoever comes into contact with this artist. But Kenny Wheeler is more than that. Music at its purest, an instrumentalist but also as a composer and arranger.


And "The Long Waiting", released by CAM Jazz, the label to which Wheeler now inseparably links his name, is a precious gem inside the corpus of the trumpeter's discography. After having measured his composition for string quartet with the album "Other People" (CAM Jazz), Wheeler raises the stakes by facing a much larger format: the big band. The result is amazing, unique.


A modern writing that embellishes the history of the jazz orchestra. It seems simple, listening to this work with particular attention to the melody, but in Wheeler's themes there is a compositional complexity that only a great craftsman of music is able to construct. "This torrent of beautiful melody, this acceleration in creativity reminded me of the surge in work-rate which Picasso went through, producing several works a day in 1968-1971", explains the critic Sebastian Scotney, "Or of the last four years (1893-7) and nine opus numbers (114-122) of Brahms, the period after he'd told his publisher he was packing it in. Who knows where these late flowerings in a creative life come from. They are miracles."


Yet there’s no doubt the result would not be the same without the wonderful Kenny Wheeler Big Band, an orchestra that boasts in its ranks great soloists, capable of completely satisfying the compositional ideas of their conductor. And there is also a bit of Italy in the "The Long Waiting": the talented singer Diana Torto-- a musician who, for years, Wheeler chooses not to go without.


The John Moawad's All Star Big Band - For You (2012)


John Moawad's All Star Big Band
The John Moawad All-Star Big Band plays a collection of jazz band great John Moawad's favorite tunes in the first ever produced Jazz In The Valley CD. Proceeds from the sales of the CD are directed toward the Moawad Jazz Scholarship at Central Washington University ($18 CD, $3 s/h and $15 to student scholarship). The CD contains the following songs:

In A Mellow Tone
Stompin’ at the Savoy
Beautiful Love
Whirly-bird
Maria
The Song Is You
New Blues
Tickle Toe
Body And Soul
I Thought About You
Night In Tunisia
Georgia On My Mind
The Stars and Stripes Forever 


Founded and taught continuously since 1947, the Central Washington University Jazz program has always enjoyed a national reputation for home-grown excellence. 
Beginning in the ‘90s, every summer John would assemble outstanding former students into and all-star band to close the Jazz in the Valley Festival. Seats in this band were covered, with players nationwide returning to work with “coach” Moawad again.
John passed in late 2009. At his 2010 “celebration of life” more than 750 attended, anxious to keep the Moawad legacy alive. After much hard work from many, the Jazz in the Valley Band now bears his name, as does a scholarship endowment, the CWU Invitational Jazz Festival, and Coaches coffee shop. …..then this CD project was born.
When word leaked out of this first-ever CD release from Jazz in the Valley, chairs in the band filled instantly, with a waiting list. Musicians donated their time and talent in two marathon CWU recording sessions over 2011’s Spring break.

This album observes Moawad’s imperative to program “something old, something new, something tried and something blue.” But most are updated in new settings.
All proceeds benefit the John Moawad music scholarship program at Central Washington University.
You may also order offline by sending an email to reichm@cwu.edu or call 509.963.1489. The contents of the email should include your name, a way to contact you (phone is best), and a day/time best for you to receive the call. Margaret will call you and get your order information, then process the cd order. Please do not include any credit card information in the initial email to Margaret, as the email is not a secure site.  The cost of the CD is $15 (all funds go to jazz scholarship) PLUS $3 for handling.


TITO CARRILLO - Opening Statement (Origin 2011)

A confluence of the post-bop trumpet legacy of Miles, Hubbard, & Shaw, along with the complexities of Cuban rhythms, lyrical ballad phrasing, and boundary-breaking free exploration, "Opening Statement" is a powerful recording by one of the more prominent fixtures on the vibrant Chicago jazz scene of the past 15 years. Though having appeared on over 20 CDs alongside luminaries such as Willie Pickens, Chuchito Valdes, and even pop icon Phil Collins, this project marks trumpeter Carrillo's first recording as a leader, revealing a singular modern trumpeter with an expressive and original compositional voice. 


TITO CARRILLO trumpet & flugelhorn 
BENJAMIN LEWIS piano (except 2,6) 
LORIN COHEN bass 
DANA HALL drums 

Special guests: 
GEOF BRADFIELD tenor & sop. saxophones (1,4) 
DARWIN NOGUERA piano (2,6) 
PHILLIP DOYLE tenor saxophone (8,9) 

Origin

Simcock - Garland - Sirkis - LIGHTHOUSE (ACT 2012)

Line Up: 
Tim Garland / soprano & tenor sax, bass clarinet
Gwilym Simcock / piano, melodica on 01
Asaf Sirkis / drums, percussion, hang drum



Garland, Simcock and Sirkis sound out all imaginable possibilities of this unusual instrumentation. A miniature orchestra that unites skillfully interweaving melodies, complexity and groove. Strong, distinctive melodies and bounding folk-tinged rhythms underpin the music, along with many other influences from around the world and some tributes to a few of the great musicians of recent British contemporary music history.
Once upon a time … there was a lighthouse

On England’s north east coast, just before the Scottish border, on an island near Whitley Bay, stands a gleaming white lighthouse - St. Mary’s Lighthouse - which ascends into the sky. The five hundred metres between the tiny island and the coast can only be crossed at low tide. When Tim Garland took on a job as composer-in-residence at nearby Newcastle university he decided to buy a house - near the lighthouse. “You enter this space and the first thing you notice is the special acoustics. It's totally hollow inside. When the tide is in, the lighthouse stands in water and is cut off from the land and then all you can hear and see is the sea.” For the CD “If The Sea Replied” Garland recorded several bass clarinet solos in the lighthouse which he later orchestrated. During his work he had the idea of presenting the project live and for this he needed fellow musicians - and the Lighthouse Trio was born. 

Garland taught Gwilym Simcock at London’s Royal Academy of Music. To talk of the pianist as a kindred spirit would be typical British understatement. The Welsh pianist whose awardwinning solo album “Good Days at Schloss Elmau” finally gave him star status forms, together with Garland, one of the most productive partnerships around. Alongside Lighthouse, they also work in Malcolm Creese's 'Acoustic Triangle' - a drum-less trio which regards resonance as the fourth band member and prefers giving concerts in churches and cathedrals.

The Israeli conjurer of sound - drummer and percussionist in one
 - Asaf Sirkis quickly became one of the most interesting trendsetters of the jazz and world music scene after his move to London, including work as hand drummer in Gilad Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble. But it was for the Lighthouse Trio that he developed an especially composed drum set which is tailored for music full of rhythmic surprises, and perfect to showcase his ability to create unusual sounds. Garland, Simcock and Sirkis sound out all imaginable possibilities of this unusual instrumentation. A miniature orchestra that unites skillfully interweaving melodies, complexity and groove, and yet, in doing so, works astonishingly effortlessly. There is both the air of a sonorous countryside idyll, a reflective sea mood, but also an urban, pulsating energy which ignites one flare after the next. 

A celtic influence surfaces on some of the trio's material,
 unsurprising given Simcock's birthplace (Bangor, North Wales) and Tim's musical history (incl. British Folk/Jazz group 'Lammas' for many years). Strong, distinctive melodies and bounding folk-tinged rhythms underpin the music, along with many other influences from around the world and some tributes to a few of the great musicians of recent British contemporary music history. If St. Mary’s Lighthouse is a genuine sight, this Lighthouse is a major aural sight - a new chapter in lighthouse history.

01 Space Junk: This was written after I did some work in Ibiza with two great DJ's, Carl Cox and Yousef. It was also inspired by a news story about a satellite that disintegrated and fell to earth in large 'fridge-sized' pieces in 2011!

02 Weathergirls: An idea of Tim's, that morphed into a co-write; Breezy, bright with occasional stormy patches.

03 One Morning: Like any other, but for this. In memory of those we have loved.

04 Above The Sun: The piece came as a kind of reply to a previous Lighthouse tune, 'Bajo Del Sol', which we've had a lot of fun playing many times around the world. Like its predecessor, this has a touch of flamenco in its blood.

05 The Wind On The Water: Midnight walks along a Northumberland beach. 'Lucky' barks at the luminous
waves that reach for us under the stars and a giant moon.

06 King Barolo: For Malcolm Creese, founder of Acoustic Triangle, a British Classical/Jazz trio that celebrated its 10th year in 2011. Gigs are often followed by a great deal of fun afterwards, as Malcolm's great generosity often extends to sharing a bottle of his favourite tipple...

07 Wax Lyrical: Dedicated to legendary British saxophonist Stan Sulzmann, who I've had the great pleasure of working with over the last 10 years. As well as an inspiration to many generations of musicians in this country, Stan has a huge wealth of fantastic (and always hilarious!) tales to tell from his life as a musician.

08 Devilled: A tribute to the music of Yes/King Crimson drummer and Prog Rock pioneer Bill Bruford,
whose band Earthworks Tim and I played in before Bill's retirement a few years ago.

09 Tawel Nawr (Quiet Now): A little bedtime story...



ACT