Guitarist/Composer Scott DuBois Recounts a Day Long Journey Through Varied Landscapes on Latest Release Winter Light - Available November 6 on ACT Music
Nineteenth-century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson called art an "expression of nature." Guitarist Scott DuBois' Winter Light
transports the listener on a day's journey from earliest dawn into
deepest night, illustrating the day's changing light through varied
landscapes and weather conditions. He has loved representations of this
evolution in visual art, especially in the paintings of Claude Monet,
who often worked on several canvases at once in order to track the day's
shifting light. Winter Light captures such visions in sound.
"First
Light Tundra" opens with the earliest glimpse of light over a cold,
desolate landscape as birds awake, call, and fly off into the distance.
In a battle between darkness and light, fierce crashing winds obscure
the approaching sunrise with flying snow. The sun triumphs in the end.
"Early
Morning Forest" introduces a stately pine forest soon pierced by rays
of light dazzling snow-filled branches and the white forest floor.
Animals call one another to enter the mass of trees. Deeper in the
forest, in the darker thick brush, an ominous cold mist fills the air.
The animals call again after slowly emerging from the forest into the
warmth of the unobstructed morning sun. "Late
Morning Snow" conveys the elegance and peaceful nature of light on
newly fallen snow. A progressively cold stinging wind rises.
"Noon
White Mountain" begins with the day's most powerful light on majestic
snow-capped mountains. They are slowly overtaken by dark clouds. A
distant storm transforms into a passing gentle freezing rain. Then
bright noon light returns. "Afternoon Ice Fog" evokes mysterious light reflections from the tiny ice crystals suspended in the air. In "Evening Blizzard" the light is shrouded by the intensity of a snowstorm while peace and tranquility return in "Night Tundra" where moonlit snow glows in the darkness.
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Photo Credit: Arek Wyderka
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The New York City Jazz Record
has described DuBois' writing as "captivating music for the meditative
thinker." This telling expression goes quite some way towards unlocking
its essence, since the guitarist composes in an associative way, through
pictures. Indeed, Winter Light, which marks his debut as
an artist on the ACT label, has a strongly programmatic concept running
right through it. The listener is taken on a journey through a winter's
day. As we witness the progression from before daybreak right through to
the depths of night, DuBois draws the listener in with sounds vividly
portraying myriad shifts in the balance of light, leading us through
different landscapes, and even making us feel the ever-changing patterns
of the weather.
The guitarist's first five albums have received major critical acclaim. Black Hawk Dance earned the maximum 5-star rating from DownBeat Magazine. His next album, Landscape Scripture, was one of the "Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2012" as selected by the highly influential coast-to-coast American network, National Public Radio.
About Scott DuBois
Scott
DuBois, the 37-year old American jazz guitarist and composer, is one of
the most important figures on the young New York jazz scene. The New York Times
has praised the way that DuBois "has begun to make waves" with his
"exploratory yet melodic sensibilities, serious compositional
ambitions," and "cohesive looseness against complex subtleties."
DuBois
studied at the Manhattan School of Music. He made his first mark
alongside saxophonist David Liebman, who appeared on DuBois' albums for
the Soul Note record label, Monsoon (2005) and Tempest
(2007). DuBois' quartet, with whom he has now been working for the
past decade, consists of some of the world's most in-demand improvising
musicians: German saxophonist and bass clarinetist Gebhard Ullmann, American bassist Thomas Morgan, and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood.
This regular working band performs DuBois' masterfully-crafted original
compositions which point to future trends. DuBois presents these
powerful works with dynamic group improvisation and interaction,
creating massive, colorful landscapes and a spiritual intensity that
cuts straight to the heart.
Scott DuBois · Winter Light
ACT Music · Release Date: November 6, 2015
For more information on SCOTT DUBOIS, please visit: ScottDuBois.com
For media information, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-0501
Greg Angiolillo · greg@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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