World Peace Day (Amsterdam)

Friday 19th September 2014
start 19:00 to the next morning 7:00,
Maarten Luther Kerk
Dintelstraat 134
Amsterdam-Zuid

As part of a 12 Hour Art and Music Observance of the International Day of Peace in Amsterdam,
Alex Coke, Reine Nust & Andreas Wöhle improvise with Steven Feld's

recording of the World Peace Bell at midnight.
For complete schedule please visit:
http://www.amsterdamidp.blogspot.nl

The Music of Kenn Smith

Brilliant, passionate compositions with amazing instrumentation. Jazz,
Fusion, Rock, Ambient. A gifted and versatile composer, guitarist and
bassist who's music and impeccable technique are consistently
described as a soulful, organic experience." "If I Remember" is a cool
mixture of Contemporary Jazz and Ambient music. Gentle, soothing
sounds that any true music lover will enjoy and appreciate.

Kenneth LaMont Smith, born and raised in Chicago, he honed his musical
skills as a freelance guitarist and bassist on Chicago's music scene
and abroad. From theater and nightclubs to studio sessions and tours
he quickly earned the reputation as one of the best in his field
performing various styles of music. Sharing the stage with such artist
as: R. Kelly, Tower of Power, Wynton Marsalis and members of the Miles
Davis Band. As a solo artist, composer, instrumentalist, his music and
impeccable technique are consistently described as a "soulful, organic
experience". His style crosses all musical boundaries.

Musician/Label Website:
www.kennsmith.com

Vocalist Roseanna Vitro's "Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer" Due for Sept. 30 Release

Vocalist Roseanna Vitro Follows Up Her 2011 Grammy-Nominated Randy Newman CD With "Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer," To Be Released Sept. 30 By Random Act Records   CD Is the First Book of New Material by a Solo Singer Of Fischer's Music CD Release Show at Joe's Pub, NYC, 9/26 With Other Performances Scheduled in Oakland (9/28), Houston (11/22), Kitano NYC (1219) September 3, 2014   The richly harmonic, deeply melodic music of pianist and composer/arranger Clare Fischer (1928-2012) has proven to be fertile terrain for many jazz and pop artists over the last half-century. Vocalist Roseanna Vitro puts her passionate stamp on nine of Fischer's compositions (and a favorite of his by Ary Barroso) on her gorgeous new CD Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer, which will be released September 30 by Random Act Records. As on her 2011 Grammy-nominated disc, The Music of Randy Newman, Clarity finds Vitro focusing her talents on a pioneering composer of renown. With their intricate structures and overlapping debts to jazz, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music, and classical forms, Fischer's songs are not always easy to sing. "I really didn't realize what I was getting myself into with this project of difficult melodies," says Vitro. "But once I was in, well, I was in." It took almost two years to cultivate lyrics for six Fischer compositions "that have never been sung before. This is the first vocal book by a solo singer of his music." On this heartfelt project, Vitro pays tribute to a real musician's musician whose fascination with bossa nova and jazz samba is brought to vivid life by her longtime working band (and Randy Newman collaborators): pianist/arranger Mark Soskin, the savvy Sonny Rollins veteran and one of jazz's most in-demand players; brilliant young violinist Sara Caswell, a member of groups led by Esperanza Spalding and Marc O'Connor; bassist Dean Johnson and drummer Tim Horner, rhythm-mates to Vitro and a host of other top vocalists. The prolific percussionist Mino Cinelu (Weather Report) also contributed; vibist Brent Fischer, for whom his father composed "Sleep Sweet Child" (presented here as "Sleep My Child"), guests on one track.  Roseanna Vitro (l.) with Dean Johnson, Sara Caswell, Tim Horner, Mark Soskin. Clare Fischer's distinguished career began with his work as arranger for the Hi-Lo's in the late 1950s and included 11 Grammy nominations along with high-profile arranging work for Prince, Chaka Khan, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, and other pop stars. His lifelong involvement with Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean music first came to light on 1962's Bossa Nova Jazz Samba (with Bud Shank) and continued with 1964's Só Danço Samba and 1981's Grammy-winning Clare Fischer and Salsa Picante Present 2+2. The program on Clarity features several of Fischer's more widely covered compositions, such as "Morning," "Seagull" (Gaviota), and "Pensativa," as well as lesser known gems: "Take Your Breath and Sing" (O Canto), originally recorded in Portuguese with a vocal group, and boasting new English lyrics by Roseanna's husband (and CD producer/engineer) Paul Wickliffe; "Love's Path" (Love's Walk), written for Fischer's wife Donna, with new lyrics by Wickliffe; and "Swingin' with the Duke" (The Duke), whose lyrics were co-written by Vitro and Cheryl Pyle. The non-Fischer number, "Web of Love" (Inquietação), is by Brazilian master Ary Barroso and dates from 1935; new English lyrics are by Roger Schore. "My doing Clare's music is a deliberate effort to expand the jazz repertoire," says Vitro, whose previous CDs have also spotlighted composers Ray Charles and Bill Evans. "While the American Songbook now includes works by composers from the 1960s forward -- Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb -- I felt that Clare was a neglected figure. He's an insider's composer, representing a chamber-leaning point of view. I'm hoping that this record will introduce him and his songs to a wider audience, and that my fellow jazz singers hear this material as worthy of modern interpretation." To illustrate this point, Vitro asked her daughter, Sarah Wickliffe (a painter and film animator for ABC's The Chew), to create a visual depicting Fischer's "undiscovered" music as the desert. In Wickliffe's startling cover art, inspired by a Salvador Dali painting, the water flowing from the piano and violin "illustrates the birth and beauty of new music flowing into a bottomless well of creativity," explains Vitro. "My image is smiling, gazing at our new creation of stories set to intriguing melodies. Clare Fischer's harmonic colors and resplendent melodies are rhythmic chamber music for the voice, waiting to be discovered." A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas who emerged on the music scene in Houston before relocating to New York in 1978, Roseanna Vitro has made her mark as an educator in addition to her accomplishments as a recording artist and bandleader. For the last 14 years she has been the Vocal Chair at New Jersey-City University. Until last year she was the vocal jazz teacher at NJPAC, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Wells Fargo Jazz for Teens Program in Newark. She founded and runs JVOICE, a Facebook page for singers (with over 2800 members) where she posts videos, workshops, school info, and interviews with dozens of "great teachers, performers, gatekeepers, and pianists -- it's all about the singers." These interviews led to an affiliation with JazzTimes magazine for whose web site she hosts a column, Voices in Jazz, featuring interviews with artists such as Tony Bennett, Bob Dorough, and Mark Murphy. Her piece on scat singing, "How to Doo Bah -- A Guide to Scat Singing," appears in the September issue ("My first paid article!"). Vitro scheduled the following shows in support of the new CD: 9/26 Joe's Pub, NYC; 9/27 The Seqnoia Room, Fort Bragg, CA; 9/28 Bird's Nest Jazz, Oakland; 11/15 Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA; 11/22 Cezanne Jazz Club, Houston (with Mark Soskin; Warren Sneed, saxophone; local bass/drums); and 12/19 Kitano Jazz Series, NYC (with Mark Soskin and special guest). She will also be giving master classes while in Houston: 11/21 at the High School of Performing and Visual Arts (with Soskin), and 11/23 at Jane Vandiver's Star Singers Studio. Photography: John Abbott   Web Sites: roseannavitro.com / reverbnation.com/roseannavtroclarity Follow: Like: Media Contact: Terri Hinte hudba@sbcglobal.net 510/234-8781

AVAILABLE NOW: Bolivian Vocalist Gian-Carla Tisera Showcases Operatic Roots and Creates Latin American Folklore and Jazz Inspired Album, "Nora la Bella"

AVAILABLE NOW:

Bolivian Vocalist Gian-Carla Tisera 

Showcases Operatic Roots and Creates Latin American Folklore and Jazz Inspired Album, Nora la Bella

Album Release Celebration 

Tomorrow Night at Joe's Pub - 7:30 PM

(see performance lineup below)

  

"... edgy and brilliant. Its energy is turbulent and visceral, and beautiful. ...With 

this recording, Ms. Tisera's career may be going places where she never 

dreamt it would go. And she will be adored as well." - Latin Jazz Network

Stream tracks from Nora La Bella

Any true fusion in music represents a delicate negotiation. It requires both respect for the different genres in play, their traditions and codes and a 'why not?' attitude.  Cutting-and-pasting is one thing, translating the approach, technique and sensibility of one tradition to another demands a special talent and commitment.

On Nora La Bella, her debut recording, New York-based Bolivian soprano Gian-Carla Tisera makes bold, daring crossings between opera, jazz and Latin American folk music, art song and political song, experimentation and roots music.

Throughout the recording, she sings in English, Spanish, Italian and Quechua. Co-produced by Tisera and Grammy-nominated Cuban pianist Elio Villafranca, Nora La Bella includes original songs, provocative versions of two works from the classical vocal repertoire and several pieces from the Latin American songbook, including a couple from the socially committed Nueva Canción.

But this is not a lab project. Rather, it's an expression of her experience and her personal search.

"I had this idea for a new kind of opera, something different, accessible and fresh," says Tisera. "I love opera and that's my training, and while I am not a jazz singer or a traditional folk singer, both genres have been an integral part of my life and my musical experience. And I also thought: how can I express my immigrant experience? How can I speak of my perspective as a Bolivian woman, as an American woman looking back at my country from a distance? All of that came into play when working on Nora La Bella."

Accompanied by a quartet featuring Villafranca at the piano and guest artists such as trumpeter Diego Urcola and five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist John Benitez, Tisera's music includes nods to Bolivian folklore, opera and Latin jazz. 

Tisera will celebrate the release of Nora la Bella tomorrow night (Thursday, August 21) at Joe's Pub in New York at 7:30 PM. Accompanying the vocalist for the performance are pianist Elio Villafranca, bassist Carlos Mena, drummer Franco Pinna and percussionist Paulo Stagnaro. The performance will also feature guest trumpeter Manuel Jr. Romero.

About Gian-Carla Tisera:

Born to a Bolivian mother and Italo-Argentine father, Tisera was raised in Cochabamba, a city surrounded by mountains located in the center of Bolivia. She studied at the Instituto Eduardo Laredo, in Cochabamba, and later moved to Los Angeles, CA, where she completed her Masters Degree in Opera Performance at the University of Southern California.

She worked in the United States and Bolivia, performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia and the Pasadena Symphony, among others, and for five years she toured with the Bolivian Baroque Project, performing 17th century music found in the Jesuit missions of the Bolivian jungle - a project that showcased her voice on the world's greatest concert halls. But once in New York, Tisera also started collaborating with visual artists and dipping her toes in the murky waters of jam sessions.

For those who see her approach as avant-garde, Tisera says she is "pushing the vanguard but to bring audiences to experience the greatness of opera as it relates to modern themes of love, politics and culture. I long to present opera not like an old, precious form but instead, as a vibrant, contemporary style that speaks to our concerns now. That's why there are operatic moments in Nora La Bella - but they might include improvisation, or the musical treatment might include Bolivian or Afro-Latin rhythms, and elements of Rock or Spoken Word. I remember during the recording we were listening to the second take of 'Ernesto in the Tomb,' with its Afro-Cuban groove and my operatic voice soaring above the music. The musicians heard it and said 'Wow, it works!' and I had to laugh. 'Yes guys, of course it works'."

Gian-Carla Tisera - "Senora Chichera" - Official Music Video

Upcoming New York City Performances:

 

August 21 @ Joe's Pub - 7:30 PM

(w/ Elio Villafranca, piano; Carlos Mena, bass; Franco Pinna, drums; 

Paulo Stagnaro, percussion; w/ guest trumpeter Manuel Jr. Romero)

joespub.publictheater.org

September 30 @ Americas Society - 7:00 PM

featuring Bolivian Folklore Dancers

(w/ Elio Villafranca, piano; Carlos Mena, bass; 

Franco Pinna, drums; Reinaldo de Jesus, percussion)

as-coa.org

Gian-Carla Tisera · Nora la Bella

Release Date: August 19, 2014   

 

 

For more information on Gian-Carla Tisera, please visit: giancarlatisera.com

 

For media information, please contact:

DL Media  ·  610-667-0501

Amy Miller ·  amy@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

Serving the finest in jazz since 1988

###

Ivo Perelman Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Recording With the Release of "Reverie" - Available on September 23 via Leo Records

Ivo Perelman Celebrates 25^th Anniversary

of Recording With the Release of Reverie -

Available on September 23 via Leo Records

"...One might fear that tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman may begin to repeat himself.  To put it succinctly - not a chance." - All About Jazz

For most artists, the chance to mark the silver anniversary of a recording career - as the tenor saxophone marvel Ivo Perelman does on his new album, Reverie - would involve a look back at the various styles and milestones that have marked the last quarter-century. It would perhaps include the participation of guest artists who have contributed to that period (during which the Brazilian-born Perelman has released more than 50 albums under his own name). A 25-year anniversary offers the chance for all sorts of majestic efforts to tie together that period with the advantage of hindsight.

But Perelman is an artist who keeps his sights trained on the steps ahead, not the path behind, and accordingly, his silver-anniversary recording features him in tandem with an artist he had never played with before, and in fact had never met until just before their studio session. As Grammy® Award-winning jazz authority Neil Tesser writes in the liner notes to Reverie: "If you were expecting a grand retrospective, a summation of all the artistic threads and spikes of the preceding quarter-century, you've come to the wrong guy and the wrong place. Ivo doesn't do nostalgia."

And Perelman doesn't trade in the comfortable or conventional, either, as shown by his decision to record this album with Karl Berger, the storied pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and musical activist, whose Creative Music Workshop - founded with Ornette Coleman in 1971 in Woodstock, New York - has remained a magnet for musical iconoclasts and visionary artists to this day. But despite Berger's history of championing transformative ideas and innovative techniques - two phrases that accurately describe Perelman's own work - the two had never met, or even spoken, until plans for Reverie got under way. Berger had heard Perelman's name, but never his music; for his part, the saxophonist had once heard a Berger recording, and was well aware of his place in the development of modern music.  Still, he had never considered teaming up with Berger until, he says, "I was talking to another musician, and he mentioned being a big fan of Karl Berger, and so I got in touch with him to talk about a couple of projects. These things didn't all work out, but we did get the duo happening."

"Happening" doesn't begin to cover the level of interaction and synergy that marks Reverie. The album is, if not unique, then certainly quite unusual among the spate of albums that have marked Perelman's current creative burst (during which he has released nearly 20 titles in this decade alone). Reverie juggles and re-orders the elements that make up any Perelman project. These include the hyper-expressivity and expanded technique of his tenor playing, with its controlled excursions into other-worldly registers of the instrument that most other saxophonists visit only for haphazard effect; his ability to transform the instrument into either a gruff and guttural warrior or a transcendent poet; and the split-second switchbacks from mood to mood and tempo to tempo that can only arise in an atmosphere of total freedom. (As is always the case with Perelman, he entered the studio without any written music or even a pre-session discussion about where each improvisation might lead. In fact, he and Berger met for the first time at the studio, says Perelman: "I shook his hand five minutes before we went to record.")

It is Berger's presence, and his philosophy of performance, that re-orders these elements into an unusually spacious Perelman album. In comparison to the pianists Perelman has worked with in the past, he explains, "Karl is more 'European' - more romantic, I think you can say - and so I'm not playing my usual 'fire-breathing.' The music asked for something else. And I'm a slave of the music - a conveyor of the emotions that are happening." 

The "European" aspect that Perelman refers is a lyricism grounded in Berger's use of space, and it elicits a serene centeredness in the saxophonist's own playing - a phenomenon that Berger himself is well aware of. "People can much more strongly express their individuality if they're looking not just at what they play, but at what they don't play," Berger points out. He anticipates a further evolution of this interplay: "My feeling with Ivo is that there's a grand potential for him to go further even than in this album. I'm looking forward to arriving at another place with him. If you really edit yourself down to the essentials, it brings the listener in. If you leave silences for the listener to play in their own mind, it answers what you do; if you leave more and more space, then more and more the listener can come back and react, and feel closer."

"Active and passive - the meeting of two minds that are open and humble enough to cover each other's lexicon," Perelman says of this date. "And I know Karl was very happy about it, too: he was dancing in the studio." By allowing Berger's relative minimalism with his own expansive "fire-breathing," Ivo Perelman has produced one of the most unusual and accessible albums in his monumental catalog - a startling (but typically iconoclastic) way of launching the second quarter-century of his recording career. 

Born in 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, Perelman was a child prodigy on classical guitar; entranced by the cool jazz saxophonists Stan Getz and Paul Desmond, he soon moved to the tenor saxophone. Entering the famed Berklee College of Music in 1981, he first studied the mainstream masters of the instrument, to the exclusion of such pioneering avant-gardists as Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann, and John Coltrane - all of whom would later be cited as precedents for Perelman's own explosive and ear-stretching technique. Within two years, however, Perelman found his studies confusingly unsatisfying; leaving Berklee, he moved to Los Angeles, where he discovered his penchant for post-structure improvisation. At jam sessions, he recalls, "I would go berserk, just playing my own thing." Emboldened by this approach, Perelman began to research the free-jazz saxists who had come before him, arriving at a more nuanced understanding of his place in this lineage. 

In 1989 Perelman recorded the first of more than 50 albums now under his own name, featuring a number of mainstream and Brazilian jazz musicians, and a program comprising traditional Brazilian folk melodies. But even then, he recalls "moments of real free playing, and I decided I liked it." In the early 90s he moved to the more inviting artistic milieu of New York, where he lives to this day, often working with in a small coterie of collaborators that include pianist Matthew Shipp, bassists William Parker and Joe Morris, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and violist Mat Maneri. In recent years, Perelman has undertaken immersive study of music written for the natural trumpet - the instrument used before the invention of trumpet valves - so as to apply techniques used on that instrument to gain even more command of the squeaky-high altissimo range, of which he is already the reigning master in modern music. 

Perelman, who is also an internationally recognized (and collected) visual artist, is in the midst of what he has called a "creative frenzy" during which he has released 17 albums since 2011, almost all of them on the Leo Records label.

Ivo Perelman · Reverie

Leo Records  ·  Release Date: September 23, 2014  
 

For more information on IVO PERELMAN, please visit: IvoPerelman.com

For media information, please contact:

DL Media  ·  610-667-0501

Matthew Jurasek  ·  matt@dlmediamusic.com 

Greg Angiolillo  ·  greg@dlmediamusic.com

Serving the Finest in Jazz Since 1988 

Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos

and bios) on all DL Media artists can be found at our website: dlmediamusic.com

###

Press Release - Autumn Love - New Single - New Season Classic - Jazz & Blues - Vocal Standard

Press Release - Autumn Love - New Single - New Season Classic - Jazz & Blues - Vocal Standard

Going for Radio Adds - Sept 8, 2014 - Airborne - Autumn Love - Radio Edited Version - Time - 4:05

A New Season Classic - Airborne - Autumn Love - Full Length Single - Time - 5:10 - Radio Friendly

Listen to Autumn Love - Airplay Direct - Press Only - http://www.airplaydirect.com/Airborne

Watch the New Season Classic - Autumn Love - Music Video - http://youtu.be/-yQfumNYlIQ

Airborne beautifully Colors the Airwaves with their Music of Love in this Season of Autumn

There is nothing in this world more colorful and peaceful than the season of autumn. During this time of year a joyous and wondrous spirit fills the air with an atmosphere of love and beauty.

The wonderful array of bright shades of red, gold, auburn, and green shine a warm comfort on every heart. It is truly the Season of Love which awakens in us all the feelings of hope.

Airborne the multi-cultural and veteran jazz group formed in 1988 in New Haven CT USA has written, recorded, and produced a musical composition that will simmer inside you an emotion of happiness which is the joy of real love.

A beautiful vocal and instrumental tune that can be best described as embellishing a Great American Jazz Standard with the amazing torch love song style of the one and only Tony Bennett then heat it up with some great American Blues styling’s of the King of Blues himself BB King then mix the talents and sensitivity of the jazz group Airborne and you get a new season classic entitled Autumn Love.


The Lyrics take you on a sentimental road of dreams to a Love Song of First Love as the music creates enchanted moments of a Love Song of True Love. It is said that you only fall in love once and it is forever. No matter if you are apart the two souls are joined together for eternity.

Picture two lovers strolling together hand in hand on a bright autumn day and the sun glowing on the colors of leaves of the tress as the wind floats in the sky the ones that are falling. The sound and stillness arouse and link a romance that can never be broken. That is Autumn Love.

So let Autumn Love help you Smile, Laugh, and find Happiness. Let it Light your Way to Hope

Airborne brings in its New England roots and experiences to their trademark sound of island passion and urban emotion celebrating joyful jazz with a message with this new single release of Autumn Love. Airborne has been proclaimed the musical peacemakers of contemporary jazz.

Even after many years of performing, 15 CDs recorded, soundtracks edited, writing and producing for themselves and other artists there is still a deep love and compassion the band has for their life of music which has achieved Worldwide Airplay and International Acclaim

“Excellent Composition, Great Vocals and Musicianship and Wonderful Arrangement”

Open your Heart to the music of Airborne and let its love color your Season of Autumn

Visit www.airbornejazz.com for concert dates, history, biographies, music, video, reviews, interviews, and information on the band’s educational and humanitarian endeavors. xxxx

Tilt Records - Licenses - Distribution - Music Copyrights - Heavy Vibes Music - BMI
Representative: Thomas Borino - Phone: (203) 687-8834 - Email: tiltrecords@snet.net

Heavy Vibes Music - Booking - USA and International
Representative: Gregory Borino - Phone: (203) 468-0587 - Email: heavyvibes@snet.net.net

Airborne - CDs and Downloads - Fan Club - Tech - Information - Press
Airborne - Website: http://www.airbornejazz.com  - Email: airbornejazz@snet.net

CD Baby - Airborne - Autumn Love - New Single - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/airborne13

Amazon - Airborne - Autumn Love - New Single - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MXG656M

iTunes - Airborne - Autumn Love - New Single - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/autumn-love-single/id911126494

CD Baby - Airborne Store - CDs and Downloads
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/Airborne

iTunes - Airborne Store - Downloads
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/airborne/id151014843

Amazon - Airborne Store - CDs and Downloads
http://www.amazon.com/Airborne/e/B001LHTIQI

Three Musicians; Three Days; One Magnificent Obsession

Take a journey into the creative minds of one of the most adventurous bands of today. The Rocktronix capture on film the birth and evolution  of their band including in depth interviews, unedited rehearsal
footage, live performances and a full length music video.

The Rocktronix came together for the NAMM Bass Bash in 2013. They are a collaborative project drawing from the vast experience of Joseph Patrick Moore on bass (Stewart Copleland, Earl Klugh, Colonel. Bruce Hampton), Wayne Viar on drums (David Crowder, Bo Bice from American Idol) and Chris Blackwell on guitars (Geoff Mcbride, Trina Braxton, Jennifer Holiday). The film gives viewers an inside track on marrying music, video and the art of life by musicians that have much to say. By recording Magnificent Obsession in three days, the resulting product stands out with bottomless improvisation and spontaneous expression of musical ideas.

The group's chemistry is self-evident in The Magnificent Obsession Movie. Commenting on the powerful group dynamic, Mr. Moore says, "Music is a language. Without true collaboration, you're just talking
to yourself". The movie shows the streaming of ideas between three veteran musicians and super-engineer Rush Anderson. Rush has worked in the studio or live with such superstars as Steve Morse (Deep Purple),
Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic) and jazz legend John McLaughlin (Miles Davis) to name a few. His vast experience and depth is palpable in the resulting tones and the quality of the production. His is a rare talent.

The diversity of the band's vision is particularly evident in the full length video for the song “When I Become A Butterfly” and “The Calling” contained in the film. Aside from the band's obvious classic rock influences, the evidence of classic alternative, electronica, jam band and even 60s era psychedelic rock. Rocktronix is
a jazzy explosion of musical influences that just feels right. Magnificent Obsession the Movie grants the audience an opportunity to see how real collaboration comes together from embryonic ideas to aural and visual art.

We all have a story to tell...and this is one of obsession...a Magnificent Obsession.


Magnificent Obsession (Blue Canoe Records)
Year of release: 2014
Musician/Label Website:
http://www.TheRockTronix.com
Link to CD Store:
http://www.therocktronix.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

First Annual Jazz Forward Competition Set to Premier at 2015 Portland Jazz Festival

First Annual Jazz Forward Competition
Set to Premier at 2015 Portland Jazz Festival

Portland State University and PDX Jazz Partner on a
New Education Initiative in Support of Black History Month

Winners Receive Opportunity
to Perform at Festival Headline Concerts

Portland State University, Oregon's largest university located in downtown Portland, will host the first annual Jazz Forward Competition on February 20 and 21, 2015 during the 12th Annual Portland Jazz Festival.

Students will compete in the following five categories: Vocal Soloist, Vocal Ensemble, Jazz Combo, Instrumental Soloist, and Big Band. For more information on entry requirements, registration deadlines, application fees, cash prizes and partner provisions go to www.pdxjazzforward.com

The Jazz Forward Competition will now join prestigious regional student jazz competitions in the western United States including: The Monterey NextGen Festival; Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho; Reno Jazz Festival; and Seattle Jazz Experience at Cornish College of the Arts.

PSU features an urban campus located on the historic Park Blocks, a short walk from the Portland Jazz Festival's main stages of the Newmark and Winningstad Theatres, and the Art Bar Atrium inside the P5 complex. This allows for greater accessibility to Festival activities, and the hospitality sector, supported by our cultural tourism partner hotels and restaurants, where live free music is also performed. 

Designed and curated by Origin Records recording artist and PSU Jazz Faculty member Jeff Baker, a critically acclaimed performer and award winning educator educator in the Northwest region, Jazz Forward is an outgrowth of the four year PSU Student Stage, organized by the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute @ PSU, and the more recent President's Day Student Celebration at Jimmy Mak's, both of which took place during the annual Festival.

"The Pacific Northwest has a long, rich history in the jazz idiom and especially in jazz education," states Baker. "We are excited to join other esteemed institutions and jazz presenting organizations who have traditionally offered a compelling competition component to their festival program mix. Our ongoing history with PDX Jazz during the Festival made for a natural fit. It will certainly resonate with the students as they will be exposed to world class performers." Baker concludes, "By conceiving Jazz Forward during the annual Portland Jazz Festival, the competition will hopefully raise the awareness of PSU's Jazz Studies program and inspire these outstanding young jazz musicians to achieve new artistic heights."

"It's a great opportunity to foundationally build and grow the Festival with a like-minded partner," states PDX Jazz Managing Director, Don Lucoff. "Our community has watched with pride how PSU educators and leaders, Bryan Johanson, Charlie Gray, Darrell Grant, and George Colligan have served the music as advocates and role models for a wide array of impressive students and alumni including: Esperanza Spalding, Farnell Newton, Andrew Oliver, Mel Brown, Gordon Lee, and Nicole Glover among others. This competition is yet another collective pathway that sustains the music and leads to a greater degree of developing the next generation of jazz audience. This has been part of our mission since the first festival in 2004."

The Jazz Forward Competition is funded in part by Wieden + Kennedy.

 

For more information, please contact:

Jeff Baker, Director

Jazz Forward Competition

Email: pdxjazzforward@gmail.com

Website: www.pdxjazzforward.com

Don Lucoff, Managing Director

PDX Jazz & Portland Jazz Festival

Email: dlucoff@pdxjazz.com

Website: www.pdxjazz.com

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Incunabula Digital Series on M.O.D. Technologies

For Immediate Release Please New York, August 25, 2014 M.O.D. TECHNOLOGIES   PRESENTS SIX RELEASES OF ITS            INCUNABULA Digital Series with  Milford Graves, Wadada Leo Smith,   Praxis, Buckethead, John Zorn,   DJ Krush, Bernie Worrell, Bill Laswell, Method of Defiance   and more...           MILFORD GRAVES & BILL LASWELL The Stone - April 22, 2014  Song Title: Back In No Time    AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOAD ONLY. ONLINE AND VIA M.O.D.TECHNOLOGIES.   OUT NOW!  WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM       Milford Graves - Iconic Force of Nature, Teacher, Healer, Shaman, Spiritual Rhythmatist... His drums speak in heavy African and Afro-Cuban dialects. Echoes of timeless voices... From his beginnings with Albert Ayler, Sonny Shorrock and others... To the present space / time... Milford Graves has been a profound conductor of healing energy. A true spirit, a legendary African-American voice... Here in uninterrupted dialog with bassist Bill Laswell.  WADADA LEO SMITH &   BILL LASWELL The Stone - April 22, 2014  Song Title: Akashic Meditation      AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOAD ONLY.   ONLINE AND VIA M.O.D.TECHNOLOGIES.   OUT NOW!  WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM  Wadada Leo Smith - One of the most original and important trumpet players of his generation. His masterful tone opens portals that explore new sonic environments and lost worlds. Ambient space music above with the deep delta blues below. He was born in Leland, Mississippi. And early corroborrator with the AACM in Chicago, has also worked with Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Jack DeJohnette, John Zorn and many others. With many documented recordings under his name. A true original. Caught here in duet with Bill Laswell.    PRAXIS The RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ Buckethead John Zorn Bill Laswell  Song Title: In Times Of Horror       AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOAD ONLY. ONLINE AND VIA M.O.D.TECHNOLOGIES.   OUT TODAY, AUGUST 25, 2014.  WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM  THE RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ - Gothic Futurism, Ikonoklast Panzerism... "In Times of Horror" - a coded message from the gates of hell.The specter of the 90s Earache imprint, collides with intense sound construction detonated with multi layers of fierce industrial textures...contrasting semi controlled chaos. Featuring mutant Guitar virtuoso at his freest, avant-garde Icon - saxophonist/composer John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Trash, hardcore, garbage god metal, chainsaw demolition, IT GROWS.    DJ KRUSH & BILL LASWELL    Shuen Song Title: Shuen      AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOAD ONLY.   ONLINE AND VIA M.O.D.TECHNOLOGIES.   OUT TODAY, AUGUST 25, 2014.   WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM  Turntablist and producer, DJ Krush, is one of the first Japanese artists to be embraced by the global hip-hop world. Beginning by mixing elements  of R & B and Acid Jazz with the big breakbeat backbone of mid- tempo hip-hop. Gradually moving more toward the abstract applying heavy effects and sample manipulation to thick, smart breaks, layered, ambient textures and subtle, inventive scratching. Heard here in duet with ikonoklast bassist/producer Bill Laswell. Shuen shows both musicians seamlessly navigate through the ambient / world beat matrix...a brief journey into sound and rhythm. METHOD OF DEFIANCE  Phantom Soundclash   Cut-Up Method: One  Song Title: Nebuchadnezzar        with Dr. Israel, Garrison Hawk, Bernie Worrell, Adam Rudolph, Graham Haynes,   Peter Apfelbaum, Guy Licata, Bill Laswell, Foday Musa Suso       AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOAD ONLY.   ONLINE AND VIA M.O.D.TECHNOLOGIES.   OUT OCTOBER 7, 2014.   WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM  A spontaneous-recombinant, concrete music / sound collage. Electric Miles Davis, avant-funk, dub, reggae, noise, free-jazz and flashes of Africa - endure constnat rhythmic sound blasts, sonic detonations and high energy malfunctions. All past wreckage as raw material to be applied to the construction of completely new forms. Dr. Israel, Garrison Hawk, P-Funk icon - Bernie Worrell, Gambian Griot and kora master - Foday Musa Suso, Adam Rudolph, Graham Haynes, Peter Apfelbaum, Guy Licata and Bill Laswell... To be continued.  BERNIE WORRELL   Phantom Soundclash   Cut-Up Method: Two Song Title : Purple World   with Bill Laswell, Adam Rudolph, Dr. Israel, Grandmaster DXT    AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOAD ONLY.   ONLINE AND VIA M.O.D.TECHNOLOGIES.   OUT OCTOBER 7, 2014.   WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM  P-Funk legend Bernie Worrell, without a doubt, the most influential and definitely the most emulated and copied electronic keyboardist in modern music. His work totally defined the synthesizer of 80s and 90s hip-hop and can still be clearly recognized in the pop hits of today. Caught here in a classic sound / mush up...that moves from delicate to simply raw, intense and bombastic free-form funkafied filth reloaded. In collaboration with multi-directional percussion virtuoso Adam Rudolph, Brooklyn's finest DJ / beat generator - Dr. Israel, Bill Laswell and the original Bronx DJ - Grandmixer DXT (Zulu Nation, Wild Style) best known for introducing scratching to the mainstream on Herbie Hancock's mega hit "Rockit"... Thus spawning a generation of innovative turntablists...The history continues.

ABOUT THE LABEL - M.O.D. Technologies - revealing light on the development of new sound experiences in material culture. A multi-directional music / sound / information system. Initiated in 2010 by bassist / producer Bill Laswell and Giacomo Bruzzo, co-founder of the progressive / future music label Rare Noise.   M.O.D. - A futuristic hybrid of music exploration - dub / dub step / reggae / world / africa / drum'n'bass / mutant hip hop / avant metal / experimental / vocal music / instrumental / DJ culture and much more. M.O.D. resumes and continues the legacy of AXIOM, the timeless imprint established in 1989 by Bill Laswell with Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records. ABOUT THE SERIES - The Incunabula Series promises to present rare and unique, one time only captured events, in some cases originally experienced by a fortunate few and recover unusual, lost until now studio recordings. Documenting as far back as the early 80s up to present time. Moments seldom heard or experienced by anyone.          The Incunabula Digital Series will present further releases soon...Stay tuned! PRESS CONTACT  Antje Hübner hubtone PR | New York phone: 212-932-1667    antje.huebner@hubtonepr.com     www.hubtonepr.com