AVAILABLE TOMORROW:
HARD-HITTING LIVING COLOUR DRUMMER
WILL CALHOUN RETURNS TO HIS JAZZ ROOTS ON
LIFE IN THIS WORLD, VIA MOTÉMA MUSIC
Album Features Ron Carter, Donald Harrison,
Wallace Roney, Marc Cary, Charnett Moffett,
John Benitez, and Cheick Tidiane Seck
Album Release Performance May 17-19 at The Blue Note
with Marc Cary and Charnett Moffett with Special Guests
Donald Harrison and Nicholas Payton (18 & 19 only)
Before he became famous as a member of the groundbreaking hard rock group Living Colour, Will Calhoun
was an aspiring jazz drummer raised on a steady diet of his father's
bebop records. Calhoun goes back to his roots on his latest album, Life In This World
- but to get there he takes a circuitous route through a wealth of
musical experience around the globe. From studies with master musicians
in Africa to experiments with electronic music in his home studio,
Calhoun's adventurous sonic imagination couldn't help but expand the
horizons of a stellar jazz recording which pairs the drummer with greats
including Wallace Roney, Donald Harrison, Charnett Moffett, Marc Cary, Doug Wimbish, John Benitez and legendary bassist Ron Carter.
Jazz
was the first music that Calhoun heard while growing up - "Before rock,
before hip-hop, before funk," he recalls. "In my family,
African-American history was very important, whether it was Muhammad Ali
or Jim Brown, Coltrane, Miles, Duke Ellington - It wasn't just
listening to the music in my house, the life styles of these men and
other women were laid down as history lessons on the music and culture."
Living
in the Bronx, however, it wasn't long before Calhoun was exposed to
myriad styles and cultures, from rock and funk to the burgeoning style
of hip-hop. It actually came as a shock to the young drummer when he
discovered that for most people genres were defined by hard boundaries -
a lesson he learned first at Berklee College of Music and later while
on the road with Living Colour.
That
band's success afforded Calhoun the opportunity to begin traveling to
Africa in the mid-1990s for stays that could last as long as six or
eight months at a time. He's continued those treks for nearly twenty
years, studying mainly in Mali but also in Morocco and Senegal. "I felt
like I didn't know the history of my instrument," Calhoun says. "I began
to ask myself what's the narrative of the rhythms and patterns we play
in the U.S. and Europe? I went over there and felt out of place. It was a
culture shock in the best way. Little children would walk by and clap
out the patterns to show me what I was doing wrong."
In 2005, Calhoun created Native Lands, a multi-media fusion of jazz and world music with ambient electronica and another passion, photography. Life In This World is Calhoun's most jazz-oriented recording since his GRAMMY® nominated 2000 release, Live at the Blue Note, but those diverse interests remain evident.
Calhoun, who like many artists have been urged by industry members to focus on one particular area,
has found a happy home in the maverick Motéma imprint, (also home to
Marc Cary and Charnett Moffett and now celebrating it's 10th year)
because the label especially focuses on virtuosic creative music that
crosses genres and international borders. Calhoun compares playing so
many different styles of music to speaking several languages, stressing
that "to keep a language sharp, you have to speak it with people."
There's no doubt from Life In This World and his entire body of work that Calhoun is a fluent and soulful communicator in many diverse tongues.
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Will Calhoun Trio at Blue Note featuring fellow Motéma artists Marc Cary (piano) and Charnett Moffett (bass)
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Upcoming Will Calhoun Trio Performances:
May 17 - 19 / The Blue Note / New York, NY
May 30 - June 2 / Rio das Ostras Jazz & Blues Festival / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 23 / Gnawa Festival / Essaouira, Morocco
August 2 / Voces del Jazz Festival / Cartagena, Colombia
August 5 / Hartford Jazz Society's Jazz in Bushnell Park / Hartford, CT
Other Upcoming Appearances:
June 9 / Jazz Clinic at Batuka Brasil (solo) / Sao Paulo, Brazil
August 4 / Jazz at Lincoln Center w/ Arturo O'Farrill in "Sacred Drums" / New York, NY
Life In This World Track Listing:
1. Brother Will (Charnett Moffett)
2. Spectrum (A. Hall)
3. King Tut Strut (Hotep Galeta)
4. Love For Sale (Cole Porter)
5. Naima (John Coltrane)
6. Evidence (Thelonious Monk)
7. Afrique Kan'e (Cheick Tidiane Seck & Will Calhoun)
8. He Who Hops (Marc Cary)
9. Etcetera (Wayne Shorter)
10. Dorita (Will Calhoun)
11. Love's Parody (Will Calhoun)
For more information on Will Calhoun, please visit: WillCalhoun.com
For more information on Motéma Music, please visit: Motéma.com
Will Calhoun · Life In This World
Motéma Music · Release Date: May 14, 2013
For media information, please contact:
DL Media · Maureen McFadden
For booking information, please contact:
Kimberly Chmura · kcc_productions@yahoo.com
Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos
and bio's) on all DL Media artists can be found at our new website: dlmediamusic.com
