The Quintessential Sound of
New York Jazz: A Trio of Pianists
Smoke Sessions Releases New Albums by
Cyrus Chestnut, Orrin Evans and Eric Reed
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Photo Credit: Jimmy Katz
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Smoke Sessions Records,
the new imprint of New York City's influential uptown club Smoke,
releases new live recordings by a trio of three masterful jazz piano
peers, Cyrus Chestnut, Orrin Evans, and Eric Reed.
Smoke has a reputation among a number of pianists as "the place" in New
York City and these recordings will only help to reinforce this
claim. "Smoke is the best place musically to play in New York," says
pianist David Hazeltine, who released an album on Smoke Sessions Records
earlier this year. "It's very intimate and they get a great sound: it's
studio quality with the added energy of a live audience."
"What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is
a willingness to abandon notes and play space." - Time Magazine
Cyrus Chestnut,
the soulful straight-ahead piano master, releases his first live
recording, captured in front of an enthusiastic and appreciative
audience in the club's comfortably intimate setting. In addition,
Chestnut boasts that Smoke's Steinway B is the best piano in the city.
"It's just my ticket. We connect. It's warm and it's sharp at the same
time with a lot of earth in it. I like clubs like the Jazz Standard or
Smoke, where you can sit down at the piano and get down-home, because
that's the kind of audience they attract."
Joining
Cyrus are bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, two veterans
of the John Hicks' trio. Together they take listeners on a musical
odyssey that includes music by Billy Strayhorn, John Coltrane, and, of
course, John Hicks like the album's penultimate masterpiece, "Naima's
Love Song." Cyrus is one of the great piano voices of his generation as
he proves again with this rewarding live debut. Midnight Melodies
is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with
liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution
download mastered for iTunes.
Cyrus Chestnut · Midnight Melodies
Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: July 8, 2014
For more information on Cyrus Chestnut, please visit CyrusChestnut.net
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"A hard-charging player, seasoned with the harmonic touch of fellow
Philadelphian McCoy Tyner, Evans is in high demand in a lot of places." - NPR
Orrin Evans - pianist, bandleader and musical catalyst - is a bona fide, jazz original. Brimming with music and ideas, Orrin's Liberation Blues
debuts one of his most impressive projects yet, a new quintet lineup
that includes Sean Jones, JD Allen, Luques Curtis, and Bill Stewart.
It's a group wholly of Orrin's imagination that pairs established stars
Sean Jones and JD Allen for the first time. It's also hard to miss Bill
Stewart's presence. When planning for this project, Orrin recalls a
conversation with his wife and main sounding board, "Let me do something
that people wouldn't expect, somethin' that I wouldn't even expect,"
the pianist explains. "Listen...now is the time for Bill Stewart!"
The
recording, made live at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City, occurred
immediately following the passing of Orrin's close friend and fellow
Philadelphian, the bassist Dwayne Burno and is dedicated in his memory.
The opening selections comprising the "Liberation Blues Suite" are also
dedicated to Dwayne and feature two of his compositions. Orrin explains,
"In my eyes, Burno is now a 'Free Man'... but with that freedom, we've
lost a great man right here on earth. So, there's still a blues we feel
missing our brother and friend." Simply put, the playing is inspired.
The varied program with compositions by Paul Motian, Trudy Pitts, Miles
Davis, and, of course, Orrin, concludes with a memorable surprise visit
from Philadelphia vocalist Joanna Pascale on a impassioned version of
"The Night has a Thousand Eyes." Liberation Blues is available
for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes,
interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download
mastered for iTunes.
Orrin Evans · Liberation Blues
Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: August 12, 2014
For more information on Orrin Evans, please visit OrrinEvansMusic.com
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"And, at the piano, Eric Reed was an endlessly
resourceful improviser." - The New York Times
When pianist Eric Reed
decided he wanted to make a live record at Smoke Jazz Club, he didn't
want to make a good record...he wanted to make a great one. "I could
have got guys who play exactly what I want, but it wouldn't have been
very interesting. It would have been good. It would have been swinging
or it would have sounded nice, but there wouldn't have really been a
spark. You don't just want it to sound good, you want it to be killing,"
states Reed. His Groovewise is that record.
Though Reed is usually heard in trio, the new album features a quartet
with Seamus Blake, Ben Williams, and Gregory Hutchinson and is the first
recorded meeting of Reed and Hutchinson in over 15 years.
Inspired in front of a live audience, the creative energy flies off the bandstand. Groovewise
opens with what was a spur-of-the-moment reading of Clifford Jordan's
"Powerful Paul Robeson" for Jordan's wife, Sandy, who was in attendance
and it closes with the extended title track "Groovewise." In between
these solid bookends is a swinging program heavily influenced by the
weight of loss. Eric celebrates the memories and music of Mulgrew
Miller, Cedar Walton, and Marian McPartland with original compositions
dedicated to them. His original title, "Until the Last Cat has Swung,"
makes the explicit point that the music is alive and well and will
continue to be in the hands of new generations who are dedicated to the
art form. Although Eric confesses that he'd like a few more years before
he is responsible for being a "keeper of the flame," Groovewise makes the point that jazz is much better off that he already is. Groovewise
is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with
liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution
download mastered for iTunes.
Eric Reed · Groovewise
Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: September 9, 2014
For more information on Eric Reed, please visit: EricReed.net
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Several new titles for 2015 are already in production including recently recorded dates from Eddie Henderson (with Gary Bartz, George Cables, Doug Weiss, and Carl Allen) and Steve Turre
(with Bruce Williams, Xavier Davis, Gerald Cannon, and Willie Jones
III.) Henderson's set reimagines some of his heavily sampled '70s hits
in an acoustic jazz context and includes an energized version of Miles'
"Gingerbread Boy." Turre's program includes his highly original
arrangements of Gershwin's "S'Wonderful" and Rodgers and Hart's "With a
Song in my Heart," as well as moving originals like "Trayvon's Blues."
Both recordings were made at the legendary analog studio Sear Sound in
NYC. Look for these releases to arrive in early 2015.
All
Smoke Sessions releases are produced using vintage techniques and audio
paths - i.e.; Rupert Neve-designed mixing consoles (Amek-Angela),
Studer mastering decks, and Manley tube equalization - in combination
with modern high definition recording techniques. Label co-founder Paul
Stache records the sessions and works closely to mix the dates with
GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Roman Klun who then masters them. Each release features original photography by Jimmy Katz,
as well as an original 2,000-word artist interview. The recently
released limited edition 200-gram audiophile collection was mastered for
vinyl by celebrated engineer Kevin Gray and includes a
classic "tip-on style" gatefold record jacket. Smoke Sessions titles
are handsomely packaged as an 8-panel CD-deluxe album complete with
liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution
download mastered for iTunes.
For more information on Smoke Sessions Records, please visit SmokeSessionsRecords.com
For media information, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-0501
Maureen McFadden · maureen@dlmediamusic.com
Don Lucoff · don@dlmediamusic.com
Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos
and bios) on all DL Media artists can be found at our website: dlmediamusic.com
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