The goal of the project is attracting the interest of the international community through the Internet and other mass-media to the Festival and professional jazz musicians participating in it.
Due to its specific cultural and creative mission, the project is actively being discussed in social networks and on the pages of popular jazz Internet portals. Professionals and lovers of jazz from more than 150 countries of the world are following this project. The Festival is supported by major jazz world portals, as well as international cultural centres and art associations.
Read more at...MASTER-JAM FEST
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Stan Killian - Evoke (Sunnyside 2013)
In the small span of four years, having worked and recorded with many contemporary jazz luminaries such as Antonio Sanchez, Scott Colley, Ben Monder, Luis Perdomo, Gene Jackson, Eric Revis, and most recently, David Binney, Jeremy Pelt and Roy Hargrove on Unified, his Sunnyside debut, Stan Killian quickly acquired the reputation on the New York jazz scene as an “intrepid saxophonist” and “a force to be reckoned with,” observed Icon Magazine’s Nick Bewsey. Critic S. Victor Aaron, who named Unified as one of the best albums of 2011 for Something Else!, noted that Killian “going up against a major figure like Hargrove proves that he belongs in that kind of company.”
Evoke, the follow-up album to the aforementioned critically acclaimed recording Unified, shows Killian in peak form. Adding modern guitar master Mike Moreno to his quartet of the past four years, Killian states: “With this recording, I wanted to showcase my working band and some of the original music we’ve been developing over the past year at our steady 55 Bar gigs in New York. The first record with this group was more of an introduction to who I am as a player, composer, and band leader but may have been overshadowed by some of the heavy guest artists we had on it.”
credits
released 12 March 2013
Stan Killian - tenor saxophone
Mike Moreno - guitar
Benito Gonzalez - piano
Corcoran Holt - bass
McClenty Hunter - drums
Sunnyside
DIANA KRALL, STEVE WINWOOD, TONY BENNETT & TROMBONE SHORTY TO HEADLINE THE JAS ASPEN SNOWMASS JUNE FESTIVAL + JAS CAFÉ SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS
DIANA KRALL, STEVE WINWOOD, TONY BENNETT
& TROMBONE SHORTY TO HEADLINE THE
JAS ASPEN SNOWMASS JUNE FESTIVAL +
JAS CAFÉ SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS
 |
Diana Krall
Photo Credit: Robert Maxwell
|
Tickets On-Sale Mon. January 6
JAS Aspen Snowmass
is pleased to announce their 2014 June Festival line-up, including four
nights of music at the Benedict Music Tent, JAS Café Downstairs @ the
Nell performances, and the continuation of the June Festival lawn party.
With dates which coincide with the annual Food & Wine Classic in
Aspen, JAS has altered the first weekend of the Festival to a Thursday - Saturday format, kicking-off on Thursday, June 19 with a rollicking night of New Orleans music featuring trombonist and vocalist Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue.
"Brass band, funk, rock and even some gospel-drenched soul music.. in
many ways, he is a genre unto himself," says Billboard Magazine of
Shorty. The band will be joined by special guests The Soul Rebels Brass Band and the legendary New Orleans jazz vocalist John Boutté, whose diverse styles encompass blues, Latin, gospel and R 'n B.
On Friday, June 20 multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning jazz singer/pianist Diana Krall will take the stage in her first return to Aspen since 2006. Krall's new show, based on her extraordinary new album Glad Rag Doll,
is an exhilarating and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new
instrumentation and new musicians, which Diana calls, "a song and dance
record."
 |
Tony Bennett
Photo Courtesy of the Artist
|
The first weekend of the festival will conclude on Saturday, June 21 with one of the most influential artists in all of popular music, Steve Winwood.
For more than four decades Winwood has remained a primary figure in
rock 'n' roll. His last performance in Aspen was at the 2007 JAS June
Festival where he kept an enthusiastic audience on their feet throughout
the entire night.
The following weekend, on Saturday, June 28,
JAS and the Aspen Music Festival and School will co-present a very
special evening at the Benedict Music Tent featuring the legendary Tony Bennett.
New this year, JAS & AMFS will offer an on-site pre-concert dinner
at the JAS Patron Hospitality Tent, mirroring the Patron (VIP) ticket
that JAS provides at their festivals. Patron tickets will include
gourmet catered hors d'oeuvres, dinner and dessert, full open bars,
on-site parking, and premium floor seating for the concert. Reserved and
general admission seating will also be available for Bennett's
performance.
The expanded Free Lawn Party,
a huge hit at last year's June Festival, will once again take place on
the Benedict Music Tent grounds prior to the main stage acts on June 19-21, starting at 6pm
nightly. The party includes a variety of on-site food booths, beverage
and full bar service vendors and live music on two stages.
Additional shows surrounding the Festival will take place at the JAS Café Downstairs at the Nell, including jazz vocalist René Marie on June 26-27 with a tribute to one of America's most iconic entertainers, Eartha Kitt, a show based on Marie's acclaimed new release I Wanna Be Evil. Marie is followed by vocalist Tierney Sutton on July 2-3 performing "After Blue," a tribute to Joni Mitchell, from her new release.
Other highlights of the 2014 JAS Café Summer Season include the return of Jamaican jazz piano virtuoso Monty Alexander's Harlem Kingston Express, August 8-9 and world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli, August 15-16. More summer shows will be announced at a later date.
Tickets for the June 19-21 JAS June Festival performances at Benedict Music Tent and the summer JAS Café performances will go on-sale Monday, January 6 through the JAS Box Office at 866-JAS-TIXX (527-8499), www.jazzaspensnowmass.org or at the Belly Up Box Office in Aspen (970-544-9800). Tickets for the Tony Bennett show will also go on-sale Monday, January 6 at the AMFS Box Office, 970-925-9042 or www.aspenmusicfestival.com.
Patron (VIP) tickets for the JAS June 19-21 Festival will be available on January 6 at 970-920-4996 or www.jazzaspensnowmass.org. Lodging and ticket packages can be found at 800-SNOWMASS.
For more information on the JAS June Festival please visit www.jazzaspensnowmass.org or call JAS at 970-920-4996.
# Media Contact: Andrea Beard (970) 920-4996 ext 12 #
ARTIST BIOS
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue:
Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has God-given talent, natural charisma
and a relentless drive to bridge music's past and future. His latest
album, Say That to Say This, sounds like nothing else out there, as Andrews and his longtime band, Orleans
 |
Trombone Shorty
Photo Credit: Kirk Edwards
|
Avenue - guitarist Pete Murano, bassist Mike Ballard and drummer Joey Peebles - continue their natural musical evolution.
In
a very real sense, the torch is passed from one great New Orleans band
to another on the album, which features the first new studio recording
from the original members of the legendary Meters in 36 years, as they
revisit their 1977 classic "Be My Lady," with Andrews singing lead and
playing horns.
Andrews' previous projects include 2010's GRAMMY® Award-nominated Backatown and hissophomore effort, For True
which spent 12 weeks atop Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart. In the
past few years alone, Andrews has appeared on recordings by an eclectic
assortment of artists ranging from Zac Brown to Eric Clapton to Rod
Steward and Cee Lo Green. In February 2012 Andrews performed at The
White House. "That was a dream come true about 50 times over," he says.
"When we started playing I forgot I was out the White House because I
was on stage with all this musical royalty - B.B. King, Mick Jagger,
Booker T. Jones, Jeff Beck, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Gary Clark
Jr., the list goes on. And then, when I turned to the audience, there's
the President and the First Lady. I'm like 'This can't be happening.'"
Good
things continue to happen for Trombone Shorty, thanks to his
virtuosity, his dedication, and his ability to move people. That he
pursues his passion with such humility and unpretentiousness makes his
still-unfolding story as compelling as the music he's making along the
way.
John Boutte:
John Boutte's job is to sing - to sing jazz, to sing it with such style
and grace that no one ever mistakes him for anything other than a
master. Growing up, Boutte was awakened by the sounds of his New Orleans
neighborhood. Voices carried over the fence from the church behind his
home in the Seventh Ward, the home where his mother Gloria still lives,
where most of his Creole family still lives and sings. Past the front
yard, second-line parades rolled by, matching the madness of Carnival
season and the transcendent joy of the jazz funeral. This roux of
influences created John Boutte, and serves him to this day. He is one of
those remarkable cases where the art arises from the true heart.
Diana Krall: Diana Krall's extraordinary new album Glad Rag Doll,
is an exhilarating and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new
instrumentation and new musicians. It stars a singer and piano player,
filled with mischief, humor and a renewed sense of tenderness and
intimacy. The record reveals itself at that remarkable vanishing point
in time where all music: swinging, rocking and taboo, collide with songs
of longing, solace and regret. All are made new again in a vaudeville
of Krall's own imagining. It is at once a major departure and a natural
progression for the gifted musician. Diana simply calls the album "a
song and dance record." As ever with a Diana Krall record, her
distinctive feel and unique sense of time is crucial. She has
established a new and exciting rhythmic rapport with drummer Jay
Bellerose and bassist Dennis Crouch that has let loose some of her most
joyous piano playing heard on record to date.
Krall's 2009 GRAMMY® Award-winning album, Quiet Nights,
used Brazil as a musical point of reference and landed at #3 on the
Billboard 200, her highest ever position on the chart and her fourth
consecutive album to debut within the top 10.
 |
Steve Winwood
Photo Credit: Sam Erickson
|
Steve Winwood:
For more than four decades, Steve Winwood has remained a primary figure
in rock 'n' roll, a respected innovator who has helped to create some
of the genre's most celebrated achievements. Winwood burst into
prominence in 1963 with the Spencer Davis Group and since that time his
celebrated skills as a composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist
have developed an impressive catalog of popular music.
It
should come as no surprise to learn that many honors have been bestowed
on Steve Winwood. He is a recipient of the Ivor Novello Outstanding
Song Collection and the Musicians Union Classic Rock Award - honors both
voted for by his peers. He has also received an honorary Doctorate
Degree in Music from Berkley College of Music as well as a second
Doctorate from Ashton University in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
While rightfully acknowledged for his many achievements, Winwood forges
ahead undaunted, continuing to create and perform new and exciting
material.
Tony Bennett:
Tony Bennett, one of the legends of jazz and popular music, was born in
Astoria, Queens New York on August 3, 1926. He had his first hit,
"Because of You," in 1951 and made a career singing standards, including
his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Bennett's
career waned in the mid-1960s, as rock music became dominant, but
rebounded in the 1990s as Bennett brought back his original style,
tuxedo and the Great American Songbook. Bennett has won 17 GRAMMY®
Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award), and two Emmy Awards. He
has been named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree and has
sold over 50 million records worldwide.
René Marie:
René Marie - singer, actress, writer. Eartha Kitt - singer, actress,
writer. Never before has there been a vocal recording tipping the hat to
the divine Ms. Kitt and her fiery, sensual and clever interpretations
of songs. With her incredible range of vocal ability, her powerful
emotional resonance and strong independent streak, René is the right
artist to conceive of this historic project, her latest album: I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt). This brilliantly entertaining album burnishes René's reputation as the most provocative risk-taker among today's jazz divas.
For
René Marie, success means shining attention on important issues in
America and on bold artists like Eartha Kitt who helped change America's
landscape for the better. René has become one of those bold artists.
Tierney Sutton: "A serious jazz artist who takes the whole enterprise to another level," - The New York Times.
Sutton, a five-time GRAMMY® nominee, is often described as "a singer's
singer," but just as often she is described as a "musician's singer,"
who uses her voice like an instrument. Spanning over 20 years of
collaboration, the Tierney Sutton Band's nine CD's have consistently
topped the US jazz charts, leading to Tierney's selection as Jazzweek's
Vocalist of the Year as well as to numerous other accolades in the music
world.
Tierney's latest CD, After Blue, is an intimate, jazz-inspired re-imagining of the legacy of Joni Mitchell.
Monty Alexander's Harlem Kingston Express:
Jamaican jazz piano virtuoso Monty Alexander is acclaimed the world
over for his seemingly extraterrestrial technique and sublime, heartfelt
swing. In a career spanning five decades he has built a reputation
exploring the worlds of American jazz, popular song, and the music of
his native Jamaica, finding in each a sincere spirit of musical
expression. For the Harlem-Kingston Express presentation, Alexander
traveled to Bob Marley's Tuff Gong Studio in Kingston and teamed up with
Jamaican top session players to record Concrete Jungle, a set of twelve
compositions penned by Bob Marley and reinterpreted via Alexander's
jazz piano-oriented arrangements. The resulting union of musical
perspectives digs deep into the Marley legend and brings together the
two worlds that Alexander most treasures, building the musical bridges
that are the very essence of his craft.
John Pizzarelli: World-renowned jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli was called "Hip with a wink," by Town & Country, "madly creative" by The Los Angeles Times and "the genial genius of the guitar" by The Toronto Star.
Using performers like Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra and Joao Gilberto
and the songs of composers from Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin to
James Taylor, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Lennon & McCartney as
touchstones, Pizzarelli has established himself as one of the prime
interpreters of the Great American Songbook and beyond, bringing to his
work the cool jazz flavor of his brilliant guitar playing and singing.
All media requests should be sent to:
Andrea Beard · 970-920-4996 x12
The Jazzinvaders feat. Dr. Lonnie Smith - That's What You Say! (Unique Records 2013)
Monday, December 30, 2013
Free Mp3 List update on JazzWorldQuest: Natalie Jean - YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING
Track/Single: YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING
Composer: Natalie Jean and Alexi Von Guggenberg
Musician website
Year: 2013
CD Store
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Promote your music through the Free Mp3 List on JazzWorldQuest
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Cuban Pianist ALFREDO RODRÍGUEZ Reflects on Memories of Home with New Album, The Invasion Parade, Available March 4 on Mack Avenue Records
Cuban Pianist ALFREDO RODRÍGUEZ Reflects on Memories
of Home with New Album, The Invasion Parade,
Available March 4 on Mack Avenue Records
Co-Produced by Mentor Quincy Jones and Featuring
Esperanza Spalding, Pedrito Martínez and Henry Cole
""[Alfredo's] playing, proficient and soulful, projects a spirited,
youthful charm." - The New York Times
"I have been surrounded by the best musicians in the world my
entire life and he is one of the best." - Quincy Jones
For those who know how to listen, time and distance offer a wealth of perspective.
"When
you live in your own country, you are immersed in that reality and
you're not necessarily conscious of all the different elements that make
it what it is," says Cuban pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez,
who moved to the United States in January 2009. "I breathed Cuban
music. Being outside that reality gives me a different perspective.
Creating and playing this music has been like finding out who I am, all
over again."
On The Invasion Parade, the follow-up to his stunning debut on Mack Avenue, Sounds of Space, Rodríguez explores his memories of Cuba, the people and the culture he left behind-and finds his new place.
Co-produced by Quincy Jones, Rodríguez' champion and mentor, and featuring a superb ensemble that includes bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, percussionist/vocalist Pedrito Martínez, and drummer/percussionist Henry Cole, The Invasion Parade
comprises nine tracks including originals by Rodríguez as well as
evergreens such as "Guantanamera," Maria Teresa Vera's "Veinte Años,"
and "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás."
"I
searched different styles, different rhythms of Cuban music," explains
Rodríguez. "I explored Conga Santiaguera [a rhythm from Santiago, in
Eastern Cuba], Afro-Cuban music and also música guajira [country music].
I'm exploring the roots and searching for my own contribution to Cuban
music."
Born
in Havana, Cuba as the son of a popular singer, television presenter
and entertainer of the same name, Rodríguez began his formal music
education at seven. Percussion, not piano, was his first choice. "But to
choose what I wanted I had to wait until I was 10," he explains. "So I
picked piano. By the time I could actually switch to percussion, I knew
the piano was my path."
He
graduated to the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán, and then to the Instituto
Superior de Arte. He had a strictly formal classical musical education,
and learned popular styles on stage playing in his father's orchestra
from the age of 14. "I had a chance to perform every day, and write
arrangements for all kinds of music: boleros, rock 'n' roll, dance
music, you name it. That is where I learned the discipline of being a
professional musician."
He entered the world of jazz and improvisation at 15, when an uncle gave him Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert. "Until then it had been all Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. I didn't know anything about improvisation. The Köln Concert changed my life."
In
2006, Rodríguez was chosen to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival. While
there, he was invited to a gathering at the house of the festival's
founder and director, Claude Nobs, who asked him if he would play for
Quincy Jones.
"When
I finished, Quincy said he liked it a lot and that he wanted to work
with me. That someone I admire so much would be interested in doing
something with me was incredible. But I'm a realist, and while it was a
nice idea I thought it would be difficult. And it was."
It
took him three years. Finally in 2009, while in Mexico after playing
some engagements with his father who lived there at the time, Rodríguez
made his move with "nothing: a suitcase with a sweater, a pair of jeans
and my music."
Sounds of Space, his first album on Mack Avenue, was released in 2011.
 |
Photo Credit: Miguel Elizalde
|
The title The Invasion Parade
refers to an annual tradition, a carnival parade in Santiago de Cuba
commemorating the invasion of the Liberation Army that marked the end of
Cuba's War of Independence. In this blocks-long parade "not only
comparsas [drumming and dance groups] participate but also all the
people of Santiago, they come out and join playing whatever they
have-drums, pots, whatever, and singing improvised lyrics," explains
Rodríguez.
The
term "invasion" in the title, he's quick to note, "refers to the
invasion of the streets by people who come out to participate and
celebrate. In my mind it also has to do with an invasion of culture. I
wrote and arranged the music but not everybody in the group is Cuban. We
have Cubans but also Americans [such as Esperanza Spalding], a Puerto
Rican [Henry Cole], a Bulgarian [bassist Peter Slavov] and it's a mix of
cultures in which everybody contributes."
The
soprano sax in "The Invasion Parade" is featured to evoke the Chinese
trumpet, the one melodic instrument in the Santiago conga ensemble. "The
idea is to recall that sound without trying to sound traditional-and at
the same time express who we are," he explains.
The
sunny "Guantanamera" receives a dissonant, almost unsettling treatment.
"My music is very influenced by contemporary music-Messiaen,
Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Prokofiev-and I try to bring my experience and
that sound to Cuban music to take it to a different place," he says.
"And obviously, my 'Guantanamera' is not about the same Guantanamera
that [composer] Joseíto Fernández knew [in the 1920s]," explains
Rodríguez. "For me, music comes from life experience. My music reflects
the reality I lived in and my experiences, which are very different from
his."
The
Latin standard "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" and the classic "Veinte Años"
were set as a change of pace from Rodríguez' detailed, tightly
constructed compositions and arrangements.
"We
have performed 'Quizás...' many times with the trio so we just went
into the studio and played it," says Rodríguez. "We did the same with
'Veinte Años.' We know this music so we just let ourselves go. I think
it adds some balance to the record after so much composed music. It adds
a looser, more spontaneous feel."
Rodríguez
also explores the music of the Yoruba-rooted, Afro-Cuban religion
better known in the U.S. as Santería, from unexpected and often deeply
personal angles.
"A
Santa Bárbara," dedicated to the Catholic Saint who has her counterpart
in Santería as the deity Changó, is a classic song by Celina y
Reutilio, a beloved duo of Cuban guajiro music. "Reutilio died many
years ago, but Celina [González] was very close to my family. I even had
the chance to play and arrange for Celina, so this a very personal song
for me," says Rodríguez. "Those of us working on improvised music, have
been exploring Afro-Cuban music and the country music of Cuba has been
ignored, and it's a beautiful part of our culture."
"Snails
in the Creek" ("Caracoles en el Riachuelo") is a song for Eleggua,
another Santeria deity, and features the singing of Pedrito Martínez,
which he improvised in the studio.
"El
Güije," titled after a goblin in Cuban fables, features Spalding on
vocals and evokes the quirky, playful melodies of Brazilian composer and
multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, a Rodríguez favorite. "This is a
song that has influences from the Caribbean, South America and other
places, but the rhythmic foundation is Cuban and to me it means that
yes, we are global, but underneath it all, our roots are Cuban."
And
then in "Timberobot" and "Cubismo," Rodríguez addresses his interest in
and concerns about technology, modernity-but also dancing, and in
particular, timba a modern Cuban style.
"Sometimes
there's a gulf between the intellectual elements around music and the
dancer's needs. It happened in jazz and it was very damaging. In my
music I don't want to lose that connection to the dance floor, and that
doesn't happen with music that has a folk essence. You go ask a rumbero
[rumba practitioner] in Cuba and for him there is no difference between
the singer, the player and the dancer. It's all one thing. And if you
don't know all the three aspects then for him, you know nothing about
it."
As
if to drive the point home, "Cubismo" has a simple, repeated refrain:
"Dancing Cubism." "It's a celebration of timba-but a Picasso timba, a
Juan Gris timba," he offers with a laugh. "It's an abstract timba. You
are dancing timba and looking at 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'.
"The invasion of The Invasion Parade
is a peaceful one, and an honest one," he says. "It's a celebration to
which all are invited, exactly like in the conga Santiaguera. That's the
message we want to send out."
Upcoming Alfredo Rodríguez Performances:
February 7 / Cornell University Concert Series / Ithaca, NY
March 6 / Scullers Jazz Club / Boston, MA
March 7 / Ferst Center for the Arts / Atlanta, GA
March 8 / Art on Broadway - First United Methodist Church / Wichita, KS
March 14 / Michigan Theater / Ann Arbor, MI
March 22 / The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College
Performing Arts Center / Santa Monica, CA
March 28 / Napa Valley Performing Arts Center
at the Lincoln Theater / Yountville, CA
April 23 / Kuumbwa Jazz Society / Santa Cruz, CA
April 24 - 27 / SFJAZZ Center / San Francisco, CA
Alfredo Rodríguez · The Invasion Parade
Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: March 4, 2014
For national media inquiries, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-050
Maureen McFadden · maureen@dlmediamusic.com
Don Lucoff · don@dlmediamusic.
MACK AVENUE · the road to great music · mackavenue.com
Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos and bios)
on all DL Media artists can be found at our new website: dlmediamusic.com
Joshua Breakstone - With The Wind And The Rain (Capri 2014)
http://www.joshuabreakstone.com
DVD: Compania Danzarena, Matanzas, Cuba
A stunning performance of the Compania Danzarena, Matanzas, Cuba released on DVD by the "Consejo provincial de las artes escenicas Matanzas" 2012 The team is composed of 20 dancers whose command of the stage is absolute. Driven by the Lauro Rodriguez Bejerano's choreographic imagination they move from traditional and classic to modern dances with the same flexibility and beauty.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Archie Shepp & Attica Blues Orchestra – I Hear the Sound (Archie Ball 2013)
http://www.archieball.com
New CDs by Mimi Jones, Camille Thurman, & Shirazette Tinnin Due from Hot Tone Music Feb. 4
Hot Tone Music to Release CDs
By Bassist Mimi Jones,
Saxophonist Camille Thurman,
Drummer Shirazette Tinnin
On February 4
By Bassist Mimi Jones,
Saxophonist Camille Thurman,
Drummer Shirazette Tinnin
On February 4
Thurman & Tinnin Debut with
"Origins" & "Humility: Purity of My Soul" Respectively; "Balance" Is the 2nd Hot Tone CD by Jones,
The Label's Founder/President
"Origins" & "Humility: Purity of My Soul" Respectively; "Balance" Is the 2nd Hot Tone CD by Jones,
The Label's Founder/President
CD Release Show February 4
At Le Poisson Rouge, New York City
At Le Poisson Rouge, New York City
The simultaneous release on February 4 of new Hot Tone Music CDs by Mimi Jones (Balance), saxophonist Camille Thurman (Origins), and drummer Shirazette Tinnin (Humility: Purity of My Soul) places the label at the forefront of bringing recognition to the increasing prominence of world-class female musicians in the jazz arena.
"Hot Tone Music was
created to give chances to those who may have been overlooked and denied
the necessary support and knowledge to develop," says bassist Jones,
who founded the label in 2009. "Women are a big part of that group, and
so I always look out for them. Women have come a long way but are still a
minority in jazz, so we've formed a network of sorts where we can call
on each other for support and recommendations.
"As it is a great
desire of mine to free myself of remembering that we are 'women in jazz'
instead of musicians," she adds, "we are still in times where it
remains seen as 'special' for women to be really doing it -- and doing
it well."
L. to r.: Camille Thurman, Mimi Jones, Shirazette Tinnin.
Jones, Thurman, and
Tinnin had already established impressive track records as
instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, and bandleaders. The three women
make appearances on each other's Hot Tone CDs and also call on the
services of top players such as Ingrid Jensen, Luis Perdomo, Enoch Smith Jr., and Justin Faulkner (Jones); Corcoran Holt, Rudy Royston, and Brandee Younger (Thurman); and Rachel Eckroth, Willerm Delisfort, and Tia Fuller (Tinnin).
Genre-blending is a hallmark of Mimi Jones's music -- on both her 2009 debut A New Day and her brand-new Balance.
The disc features seven of her own compositions, one by band member
Marvin Sewell, and striking arrangements of tunes by Adele ("Someone
Like You"), Roy Ayers ("Everybody Loves the Sunshine"), and Bob Dorough
("Nothing Like You") as well as the children's favorite "The Incy Wincy
Spider." She plays acoustic bass on nine tracks and electric bass on
three and sings on six (Jones added singing to her bass playing seven
years ago).
Born in New York City
(in 1972) and raised in the Bronx, Mimi attended Fiorello LaGuardia
High School and earned a B.A. in music at the Manhattan School of Music
Conservatory. She missed her graduation, however, because she'd been
hired to tour Japan with saxophonist Masa Wada and drummer Denis
Charles. It was the first of numerous overseas tours that would take her
to Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, some under the auspices of
the U.S. State Department. In addition to leading her own groups, Jones
has worked with jazz artists including Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen,
Terri Lyne Carrington (who chose Jones to play on her Grammy-winning The Mosaic Project), Ravi Coltrane, Lizz Wright, Lionel Hampton, Roy Hargrove, and many more.
On her Origins CD, Camille Thurman
performs 11 original compositions, plus one apiece by Fats Waller
("Jitterbug Waltz") and Saul Chaplin/Sammy Cahn ("Please Be Kind").
Thurman has major chops on all four of her instruments -- tenor and
soprano saxophone, flute, and voice -- and an abundance of imagination
to go along with them. She's also an outstanding writer, two of whose
tunes, "In Duetime" and "Origins" -- both on the new CD -- were
recognized by the ASCAP Foundation with Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer
awards, in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Thurman was born in
St. Albans, Queens, NY in 1986 and was introduced by her mother early on
to the great vocal artists. She began playing flute at age 12, alto
saxophone at 13, and switched to tenor at 14 after hearing Dexter
Gordon. She went on to earn a B.A. in Geological and Environmental
Sciences from Binghamton University before deciding to become a
full-time musician. Currently a member of Jones's group and the leader
of her own quartet, Thurman has worked in the big bands of Charli
Persip, Nicholas Payton, and DIVA; recorded with Dianne Reeves on her
upcoming Beautiful Life CD; is in the all-star
house band on BET's "Black Girls Rock" award show; and was the second
runner-up for a Sassy Award in last month's Sarah Vaughan International
Vocal Competition.
Drummer Shirazette Tinnin debuts on Humility: Purity of My Soul,
working with her band, the Shirazette Experiment: pianists Willerm
Delisfort and Rachel Eckroth, guitarist Seth Johnson, bassist Tom
DiCarlo, and singing tenor saxophonist Camille Thurman. Seven of her
compositions are included, along with arrangements of songs by Eddie
Harris ("Freedom Jazz Dance") and McCoy Tyner ("Passion Dance"). Tia
Fuller, in whose band Shirazette has played for the past three years,
and the Angolan vocalist Afrikkanitha make guest appearances on the new
disc.
Shirazette was born in
Chapel Hill, NC in 1979, the daughter of gospel singers who performed
up and down the East Coast. After getting her B.A. in Music Industry
Studies at Appalachian State University, she studied at Northern
Illinois University, earning her master's in music. Tinnin worked and
recorded with flutist Nicole Mitchell and, at a jazz festival, met
trumpeter Gabriel Alegría, who invited her to come to New York (in 2009)
and join his Afro-Peruvian Sextet, with whom she has recorded and
regularly toured in the U.S. and Peru. Tinnin also reconnected in New
York with Mimi Jones, whom she had met a decade earlier in North
Carolina. She has organized several bands over the years, including
Imani 7. When she's not playing music, Shirazette works as a personal
trainer.
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| Mimi Jones EPK |
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| Camille Thurman EPK |
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| The Shirazette Tinnin Experiment EPK |
Web Sites:
hottonemusic.com, mimijonesmusic.com, camillethurmanmusic.com, shirazettetinnin.com
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Mimi Camille Shirazette Media Contact:
510-234-8781
hudba@sbcglobal.net
www.terrihinte.com
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