USA: NYYS Jazz Performs at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

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GERMANY: Rainer Böhm, Norbert Scholly ‎– Juvenile ( Pirouet 2015)

On their Pirouet debut, “Juvenile”, guitarist Norbert Scholly and pianist Rainer Böhm meet up to create nine captivating dialogs, sparkling chamber music that swings, grooves and breaths with one breath.

Rainer Böhm & Norbert Scholly · Juvenile

Rainer Böhm piano
Norbert Scholly acoustic guitar



Waltz for K.


Origin


El Cielo


Juvenile


Late


Warp Dream


Walls


Dance in Seven


Georgia on My Mind

FRANCE: Patrice Caratini ‎– Short Songs (CaraMusic 2015)

POLAND/CZECH REPUBLIC: Adam Pierończyk & Miroslav Vitous - Wings (For-Tune 2015)

Adam Pieronczyk – soprano & tenor saxophone, zoucra
Miroslav Vitous - double bass

1. Enzo and the blue mermaid
2. Bach at night
3. I'm flying! I'm flying!
4. Full moon sky
5. Mustangi
6. Halny
7. Pheidippides
8. Tulipan
9. Hypnotic minuet
10. Mandala of melodies

Adam Pieronczyk – soprano & tenor saxophone, zoucra

http://www.adampieronczyk.com
https://www.facebook.com/AdamPieronczyk

POLAND: Dominik Wania Trio ‎– Ravel (For Tune 2015)

 http://for-tune.pl/en/plyty/dominik-w...

Zobacz płytę w naszym sklepie:
http://for-tune.pl/plyty/dominik-wani...

1. NOCTUELLES
2. OISEAUX TRISTES
3. UNE BARQUE SUR L'OCÉAN
4. ALBORADA DEL GRACIOSO
5. LA VALLÉE DES CLOCHES

Dominik Wania -- fortepian
Max Mucha -- kontrabas
Dawid Fortuna -- perkusja

Maurice Ravel uważał się za kompozytora rozumu nie serca, a proces twórczy, twierdził, to nie owoc natchnienia, lecz intelektualna szarada. Z precyzją szwajcarskiego zegarmistrza (jego ojciec był Szwajcarem) pisał, niekiedy wręcz diabolicznie trudne do wykonania utwory, w których nie pozostawiał wykonawcy ani zbyt wiele miejsca na własną interpretację, a ani tym bardziej żadnej przestrzeni improwizatorskiej. Musiał być także człowiekiem wielkiego dystansu do własnej twórczości, skoro komentując swoje opus magnum powiedział: „Udało mi się stworzyć tylko jedno dzieło godne uwagi -- Bolero. Niestety nie ma w nim ani trochę muzyki. To tylko misterna tkanina symfoniczna".

Nie jest przypadkiem, że ten fonograficzny debiut Dominika Wani, dzieje się właśnie wokół muzyki Ravela. Nie jest też pewnie przypadkiem, że odnosi się do jednej konkretnej kompozycji francuskiego impresjonisty, fortepianowej miniatury „Miroirs", napisanej w latach 1904 -- 1905 a zadedykowanej członkom słynnego francuskiego awangardowego Stowarzyszenia Apaczy, którego Ravel był zresztą członkiem.

Na płytę „Ravel" czekali wszyscy śledzący muzyczne działania tego wyśmienitego młodego pianisty i jego Tria.
http://for-tune.pl

USA: Mack Avenue SuperBand - "Live From the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2015" - Available January 22 on Mack Avenue Records

Mack Avenue SuperBand Thrills Motor City Audiences

in Fourth Incarnation of All-Star Band Led by

Musical Director/Bassist Christian McBride on

Live From the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2015

Album Available January 22, 2015

via Mack Avenue Records

Group to Tour Nationally in 2016 -

Full Performance Schedule to be Announced

Stream Tracks from Live From the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2015

Since its rollicking debut at the 2012 Detroit Jazz Festival, the Mack Avenue SuperBand has become a tradition at the annual event, a gathering of label superstars that the Motor City can look forward to every Labor Day weekend. Live From the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2015 captures the fourth incarnation of the all-star ensemble, for the first time under the leadership of Christian McBride. This year, McBride takes over as musical director (a role previously held by fellow bassist Rodney Whitaker), leading a knockout conglomeration of Mack Avenue artists through a set as sweltering as that late-summer day in the concrete outdoor arena of Hart Plaza.

 

Christian McBride

"I've been a Mack Avenue artist for quite some time now," says McBride, who made his label debut in 2009 with Kind of Brown, the first release from his Inside Straight quintet. He's since released five more albums by that band, his trio, and his big band. "My catalogue with Mack Avenue is bigger than it has been for any other label I've been affiliated with, so I feel like an important member of the Mack Avenue family. It would have been good just to be on the gig, period, but when they asked me to be the musical director it seemed like a simple call to make."

 

Joining McBride as first-time members of the SuperBand are pianist Christian Sands and trumpeter Freddie Hendrix. While neither has recorded as a leader for Mack Avenue, both have recorded for the label under McBride's leadership: Hendrix in the bassist's Big Band and Sands as a member of both Inside Straight and the Christian McBride Trio. The rest of the seven-piece group all are returning veterans: drummer Carl Allen has anchored the band since the beginning, while saxophonists Tia Fuller and Kirk Whalum and vibraphonist Gary Burton are all three-time members.

 

The members of the SuperBand represent a diverse range of generations and styles. It offers a rare opportunity, for instance, to hear NEA Jazz Master Gary Burton engage with a group of younger players with more of a hard-bop focus than he usually encounters in his own more modern-leaning bands. "This is definitely not my normal zone," he admits with a chuckle. "But this is the music I grew up playing. I was a bebop guy in my teens and twenties - that was the standard jazz of the day. Playing straight-ahead is something I hadn't done much for a while, so I was looking forward to a relaxing, fun, jam session kind of setting where I didn't have to read a million notes and play a lot of complex music. In spite of that, some of the music ended up being fairly complicated and challenging."

Gary Burton

Burton will be able to further enjoy that opportunity in early 2016, as the Mack Avenue SuperBand heads out on tour, affording audiences outside Detroit the opportunity to share the invigorating experience of witnessing the ensemble live on tour for the first time in its history. The line-up will be a slight variation on the one recorded at the 2015 festival, with Sean Jones returning to the trumpet and flugelhorn chair. Whalum will join the band for select West Coast performances.

 

"I'm looking forward to playing some of the music that we played in Detroit and a lot more and seeing where it goes," McBride says. "These bands change a little bit every year and we already know that this is not going to be a permanent group, so we just want to have as much fun as we can while we're together."

 

The 2015 concert recording features pieces penned by six of the seven members, kicking off with the "fatbacks and greens" (to steal McBride's words) of Whalum's soul-jazz burner "Preach Hank!" The tune echoes the saxophonist's roots in the Baptist church as well as his love for R&B sax great Hank Crawford, aligning it with his previous Mack Avenue tributes to soul icons Babyface and Donny Hathaway as well as the collaboration of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.

 

Hendrix's aptly named "Sudden Impact" follows, its hard-charging groove and brawny horn melody sparking blistering solos from Sands and the composer himself. McBride's lovely 5/4 jaunt "Paint Brushes" - one of those trickier-than-expected pieces that Burton cited - passes its trickling melody from voice to voice among the band members before ceding the spotlight to Burton and Fuller. The vibraphonist was inspired to make one of his rare forays into composing with the ballad "All You Have To Be Is You," which features Fuller's soprano engaging with his own cloud-like accompaniment.

 

Kirk Whalum

Burton was also responsible for the one tune not contributed by a SuperBand member, Makoto Ozone's swaying, Monk-inspired "Test of Time." The Japanese pianist is a long-time collaborator of Burton, who thought the piece would work perfectly arranged for the super-group's three-horn frontline. "I knew we'd have a bunch of upbeat and exciting pieces to play, but we'd need something else to play for contrast," Burton explains. "I thought my ballad and Makoto's slow blues would probably fill the bill, and sure enough, Makoto's tune was a big hit the first time we played it through." It remains a hit on stage, where blues-tinged solos from Whalum and Sands evoke throaty cries of appreciation from the Detroit audience.

 

Fuller contributes the brisk "Decisive Steps," unleashing the more tempestuous side of her soprano playing as well as a bold, soaring turn from Hendrix. The set concludes with an 11-minute run through Sands' muscular "Up!," allowing everyone in the band to show off their estimable - and crowd-pleasing - chops.

 

The Mack Avenue SuperBand "follows a tradition of record labels, no matter what genre, having a sense of pride in their roster," according to McBride. "What I like about Mack Avenue is that it seems to be one of the few - dare I say only - jazz label that really has an eye on straight-ahead jazz. They're certainly not opposed to breaking tradition - and breaking tradition is actually part of the jazz tradition - but at the same time they don't shun musicians who like to play swing rhythms."

 

Burton echoes that sentiment, recognizing that the "label family" idea harkens back to an earlier generation of jazz. "These days, everybody seems to be off doing their own thing. This really is like something from a past era, and I was a little surprised and pleased that the label decided to put it on tour. But there is something special about the Detroit Jazz Festival for the people on the label, and it increasingly feels like a touchstone. Come Labor Day weekend, we're going to be in Detroit and a bunch of us from the label will get together and play."

 

 

Mack Avenue SuperBand ·  Live From the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2015

Mack Avenue Records ·  Release Date: January 22, 2016

 

 

For media information, please contact:

DL Media · 610-667-0501

Greg Angiolillo · greg@dlmediamusic.com

Maureen McFadden ·  maureen@dlmediamusic.com

Don Lucoff · don@dlmediamusic.com

Serving the Finest in Jazz Since 1988

 

 

For press materials on Mack Avenue SuperBand, Mack Avenue artists or its family of imprints

(including album covers, promotional photos and logos), please visit media.mackavenue.com

 

 

MACK AVENUE ·  the road to great music ·  mackavenue.com

 

#  #  #

USA: Chester Thompson Trio-Simpler Times (Joyful Noise 2015)

The “Snap on 2&4” performance by The Chester Thompson Trio at the Jazz Cave was a master class on the joys of teamwork. You might expect that Chester, a virtuoso drummer with an impressive resume that includes Weather Report, Genesis, Phil Collins, and years as an L.A. studio ace, would overshadow his younger colleagues. Instead, the three performed as a seamless unit, defying the conventions of the usual jazz trio. Yes, each member took solos, but meanwhile the other trio members supplied complementary ideas, listened intently, and played with a ferocious intensity that never let up.
The concept of the trio as a unit, rather than soloists/accompanists, was pioneered by the Bill Evans Trio, who set a standard that is often emulated but seldom achieved. The Thompson Trio, while sounding nothing like the Evans Trio, approaches this ideal. Chester and band mates Michael Rinne on bass and Joe Davidian on piano, each delivered outstanding solos while maintaining the same level of creativity and intensity in support of their colleagues. Each brought their “A” game to the proceedings. Thompson, a virtuoso drummer who wields a pair of drumsticks like a surgeon wields a scalpel, delivered a range of time feels, grooves, and colors while making it all look effortless. Davidian, barely out of his 20’s, brought chops and taste galore, delivering masterful performances in a dizzying variety of styles.
Rinne, the youngest trio member, and a protégé of Roger Spencer, played with the kind of groove for which his mentor is known, while bringing a distinctive voice and impressive chops of his own. Chester quipped at one point, “I’m honored they’ll play with an old guy!”

http://www.chesterthompson.com/

GERMANY/MOROCCO/SYRIA: Abdelghani Elmassaoudi, Joss Turnbull, Mohamad Fityan, Matthias Kurth Pablo Giw ‎– Tamas (Ti-Records 2015)

Tamas is a free improvised project, initiated and organized by Joss Turnbull and Pablo Giw. It took place during 10 days of 2010, with musicians from Germany, Marocco and Syria. In studio-recordings, rehearsals, and concerts the musicians worked and improvised with arabic poetry, field recordings and improvisational concepts.

The lyrical material spoken and sung by Abdelghani Elmassaoudi includes classical arabic and pre-islamic poems. The field recordings of two journeys to Lebanon and Syria in 2009 and 2010 were part of the concerts and studio sessions.

The music on this record is improvised.

Abdelghani Elmassaoudi - vocals
Joss Turnbull - field recordings, percussion
Mohamad Fityan - nay, kawala
Pablo Giw - trumpet, cornetto
Matthias Kurth - electric guitar

USA: Svetlana & The Delancey Five - "Night at the Speakeasy" - Available January 15 on Origin / OA2 Records

Svetlana & The Delancey Five Energize the Connection 

Between Band and Audience with Vintage-Inspired 

Swing on Debut Album Night at the Speakeasy

 

Available January 15 on Origin / OA2 Records

The sounds of hot jazz and swing conjure images of a long-lost world of back-alley speakeasies, frenetic dancers, bathtub gin and tommy gun-toting gangsters. Monday night regulars at New York's Back Room, where Svetlana & The Delancey Five have held swinging court for more than three years, know that the world isn't quite as lost as it may seem (minus the gangsters and with booze made in more sanitary conditions).

 

With the release of Night at the Speakeasy, produced by Grammy® Award-winner Guy Eckstine and co-produced by drummer Rob Garcia, the rest of us finally have the chance to revel in the sounds of the Delancey Five and their Moscow-born chanteuse, Svetlana Shmulyian (Eckstine called her "Astrid Gilberto via Moscow"). This is no strict throwback band, however; the repertoire on their debut album combines swing-era classics with modern pop songs by the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and original tunes from the pen of Svetlana and her bandmates, who are also noted for their work in the straightahead and modern jazz worlds. There's even a tune by the Russian-German trumpeter/composer Eddie Rosner sung by Svetlana in her native tongue.

 

"No other band on the hot jazz and swing scene would do a song in Russian," says Svetlana with considerable understatement. "I'm interested in songs in any genre. I wanted to write and record songs that you could dance to but that you could also listen to on the radio, in the car, or wherever. It's music that makes you smile."

 

Indeed, it's hard to suppress a grin when Svetlana's sweet, winsome tones intertwine with the warm, gravelly voice of legendary trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Over the years that Svetlana has been performing on the New York jazz scene, Gordon has become a mentor and collaborator, contributing several arrangements to Night at the Speakeasy along with singing and playing on the album. "Wycliffe has a natural chemistry with the band," Svetlana says. "He's truly one of the most professional, supportive musicians and band members that I know. He behaves like a soldier in an army that I lead, and then when he steps out the whole room lights up in a different color."

Stream Tracks from Night at the Speakeasy

 

Gordon joins an all-star band that includes drummer Rob Garcia, a bandleader on the modern Brooklyn scene as well as an in-demand sideman (Wynton Marsalis, Anat Cohen, Woody Allen, Vince Giordano, Dianna Krall); Australian-born reeds player Adrian Cunningham, (lead alto saxophone for Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, Wycliffe Gordon, Professor Cunningham and His Old School); trumpeter Charlie Caranicas (Independence Hall Jazz Band, the Karrin Allyson Group, Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra); master ragtime and stride pianist Dalton Ridenhour (Bria Skomberg, Vince Giordano); bassist George Delancey (Winard Harper, Christian Howes, Richard Galliano, Aaron Diehl); and guitarist Vinny Raniolo (longtime collaborator with Frank Vignola).

Every Monday the band plays for a packed crowd combining swing dancers, jazz aficionados, and those Svetlana refers to as "jazz curious" at the Back Room, one of only two speakeasies from the days of Prohibition still operating today. Located behind Ratner's Deli on Delancey Street (hence the name of the band), the clandestine bar was purportedly the haunt of such underworld notables as Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano.

 

Since forming in the spring of 2012, Svetlana & The Delancey Five have gone on to consistently sell out a number of renowned New York jazz venues including the Blue Note, B.B. King's, Ginny's Supper Club, Zinc Bar, City Winery, and Kitano while maintaining their home base at the Back Room. The band has also become one of the most in-demand features at the numerous sold out hot jazz and swing events (Prohibition Production, Gemeni & Scorpio, Times Square flashmobs which consistently draw hundreds of attendants) - as well as secured residencies in popular Brooklyn spots whereby seamlessly integrating into the thriving Brooklyn music scene. It's an interesting culmination of the story of a Russian girl who grew up singing, studying piano and classical vocal, singing in traditional Russian choirs - but, at insistence of her family of engineers, studied a more practical subject of mathematics.

It's not an immigrant story that begins in hardship, however. "I had a fabulous, happy childhood in the dark concrete buildings of Moscow," Svetlana recalls. "I have a great family and I guess that's where it starts and ends - it doesn't matter where you are or how long you have to stand in line to get bread and butter. I come from a family of nerds and engineers and the reality of becoming a full-time artist seemed really far-fetched, but in my heart of hearts I always knew I was an artist."

 

However after completing her mathematics degree with high honors in Moscow - Svetlana enrolled in Moscow College of Improvised Music and Jazz. Still the scholarship landed her in New York - where she arrived with one suitcase and a guitar on a crisp autumn day.  Soon thereafter she was playing occasional gigs by night. It wasn't until the late 2000's that she turned her full attention to being a musician, after forming a band for a summer music festival. "I was immediately hooked," she says. "We do this because we couldn't imagine our lives without it. The exhilaration of coming together with other musicians and producing this most abstract work of art, there one minute and gone the next, keeps you wanting to go back so badly."

 

After a few years singing in a variety of contexts and languages, Svetlana fell into the hot jazz and swing circuit, finding the exhilaration in singing songs she listened to on old LPs since she was a kid and feeling highly energized by singing for mixed audiences of listeners and dancers. In a way that style harkened back to her earliest jazz experience, when she took her school lunch allowance to a Moscow department store determined to buy the album with the highest number of songs, whatever it was. That ended up being 30 By Ella, Ella Fitzgerald's 1968 recording of a half-dozen medleys arranged by Benny Carter.

 

Through the auspices of the Back Room, Svetlana formed the Delancey Five in 2012. She began writing her own songs at Wycliffe Gordon's behest, and in 2013 enrolled at the one of the most prestigious and demanding graduate jazz vocal performance programs, the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied vocal performance with Theo Bleckmann, Gretchen Parlato, and Kate McGarry, and composition and arranging with Jim McNeely and Phil Markowitz. The band regularly joins forces with a DJ collective for an electro-swing series, The Speakeasy Sessions for large-scale vintage-inspired soirees in warehouse-style venues of the Lower East Side and Brooklyn.  Svetlana is also a frequent featured vocalist of several New York based big bands (George Gee, Seth Weaver, etc).  Svetlana's vintage-inspired swing appeals strongly to both dancers and listeners - be that at a high brow jazz club or an underground Brooklyn speakeasy.  The band's "magnificent energy" (noted by the collaborator, Wycliffe Gordon) reflects the magic of "social music" which goes to the very root of how swing became popular in 1920s and why it is on the uprise again today - in that every live performance creates a strong connection between the band and it's audience that consumes the music with their minds, their hearts, and their whole bodies.  As Will Friedwald states in the record's liner notes, this may be the reason why "Svetlana will be singing it and leading one of the major bands in the idiom for some time to come".

Click to Watch the "Night at the Speakeasy" EPK

Upcoming Svetlana & The Delancey Five Performances:

Jan. 15 / BBKings / New York, NY

Nov. 20 / Shapeshifter Lab / Brooklyn, NY

Dec. 15 / MTA Subway Swing Party / New York, NY

Dec. 25 / Zinc Bar / New York, NY

Jan. 11 / Mezzrow Jazz Club / New York, NY

Jan 13. / Urbo Gotham Club / New York, NY

 

Svetlana & The Delancey Five Weekly Residences:

Monday / Back Room / New York, NY

Wednesday / Bedford Hall / Brooklyn, NY

 

Svetlana & The Delancey Five · Night at the Speakeasy

Origin / OA2 Records · Release Date: January 15, 2015  

  

Visit Svetlana on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter:

 

For media information, please contact:

DL Media  ·  610-667-0501

Matthew Jurasek · matthew@dlmediamusic.com

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

 Serving the Finest in Jazz Since 1988

 

USA: John Scofield- Past Present (Impulse! / UMC 2015)

|. Scofield sounds warmer and more comfortable in his skin than he has for some years, but this set’s mellowness is constantly being creatively hounded by a quartet of superb improvisers."
The Guardian

John Scofield updates his early-90s quartet with drummer Bill Stewart and saxophonist Joe Lovano by recruiting bassist Larry Grenadier for his fetching, appropriately titled impulse! debut, Past Present.

Between 1990 and 1992, the celebrated guitarist released three well-received discs Meant to Be, Time on My Hands and What We Do for the Blue Note label as the John Scofield Quartet. On those records, either Marc Johnson or Dennis Irwin played bass. Nevertheless, Grenadier also has history playing with Scofielld; he toured with Scofield in support of the 1996 disc, Quiet.

The nine exciting tunes Scofield penned on Past Present also reflects his philosophy on playing jazz music. He stresses the importance of being knowledgeable of the musics deep, complex roots while simultaneously being spontaneous and in the moment while performing it. For an artist with such a multifaceted discography as Scofields, getting to the root of jazz means channeling the blues, as demonstrated on the discs closing, titled-track.

Johns love for R&B and blues tends to inform all of his discs regarding of idiomatic styling. After all, his first guitar hero was the legendary B.B. King, who strummed very vocal-like single-note melodies. Singable melodies and infectious rhythms shine on the soul-jazz opener, Slinky, on which the guitar tickles an instantly catchy riff before Stewart underscores it with a supple 5/4 groove that suggests New Orleans second-line rhythm. Grenadier propels the momentum with a loping blues bass line while Scofield and Lovano trade soulful licks and tasty solos.

Past Present also highlights Scofields love for country music on the whimsical Chap Dance, which evokes both the wide-eyed Americana compositions of Aaron Copeland and the hoedown sophistication of Ornette Colemans harmolodics. Scofield says that the songs exuberant opening melody and spry rhythmic pulse remind him of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammersteins 1943 Broadway musical, Oklahoma!, particularly the scenes with the cowboys dancing in chaps and vests.

As Scofield continues to solidify his reputation as one of modern jazzs most dynamic guitarists, history will reveal Past Present as an integral chapter in his expansive discography one that reflects him being more reverential than referential to his personal and professional past while remaining fresh and ever-present. 

USA, NY: JAZZ@TheFalcon DECEMBER 2015

Dinner & Drinks from 5:30 Opening Acts at 7:00 Main Acts at 8:00 Start times are subject to change. Donations Encouraged!  Table reservations for dining only.  Call 845 236 7970  or go to liveatthefalcon.com and click "RESERVE YOUR TABLE"

WEDNESDAY 12.02   Sofia Ribeiro Featuring Sofia Ribeiro/Voice, Juan Andrés Ospina/Piano, Petros Klampanis/Double Bass and Marcelo Woloski/Percussion. Sofia Ribeiro is one of the greatest voices from the country of fado, a magnificent singer who has the ability to immediately attract the listener to her unique musical universe.     THURSDAY 12.03   Fabian Almazan & Rhizome Featuring Camila Meza Featuring Fabian Almazan/Piano/Compositions, Camila Meza/Voice/Guitar, Megan Gould/Violin, Tomoko Omura/Violin, Karen Waltuch/Viola, Noah Hoffeld/Cello, Linda Oh/Bass and Henry Cole/Drums. "Ms. Meza voices, in pure and lovely tones.... Mr. Almazan combines ....Afro-Cuban hand percussion, fuguelike strings, into music that sounds remarkably fluid."  - Wall Street Journal SUNDAY 12.06   John Medeski Trio A new and exploratory ensemble with legendary A-List cats! John Medeski, of the genre-defying trio Medeski Martin & Wood,  has garnered fans across the musical spectrum. David "Fuze" Fiuczynski has lent his talents to Screaming Headless Torsos, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jack DeJohnette, and others. Calvin Weston, an avant-garde jazz-funk heavyweight is known for his work with Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, the Lounge Lizards, James Blood Ulmer and Marc Ribot, among others.   WEDNESDAY 12.09   David Krakauer & Kathleen Tagg "Breath &  Hammer" David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg have been performing for three years. BREATH AND HAMMER is their latest genre-bending project. “It is lovely to watch Tagg and Krakauer playing from the same invisible page where mood and phrasing are written. Their synergy of interpretation travels immediately to the audience… After the last note of the enchantment had faded, no-one wanted to come out of meditation.” — Andy Wilding, Fine Music Radio     THURSDAY 12.10   Billy Martin's Festival of Percussion Solo and ensemble music with Special Guests by Medeski Martin & Woods' legendary drummer / composer, Billy Martin! Throughout his tenure with MMW, since 1991, Martin has pursued outside projects, with both notable musicians and up-and-comers.      WEDNESDAY 12.16   Ed Laub & Gene Bertoncini Duo Seven-string guitarist and vocalist, Ed Laub, has been a consistent playing partner with his mentor and friend, Bucky Pizzarelli. We regret Bucky has been hospitalized, and cannot be with us tonight. We send our very best wishes to him. The elegant, tasteful, and sensitive guitarist, Gene Bertoncini has worked with Clark Terry, Paul Winter, Nancy Wilson, and Wayne Shorter, among others.     SUNDAY 12.20   Psssst! It's Jazz Bassist Cameron Brown's Birthday Cameron Brown’s Birthday Bash will feature a legendary line-up: Sheila Jordan/Voice, Joe Lovano/Sax, Billy Hart/Drums, and Special Guest Judi Silvano/Voice Mr. Brown anchored some of the most important groups of the seventies, eighties and nineties, with Sheila Jordan, Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp and Beaver Harris as his mentors and bandleaders.     TUESDAY 12.29   Chris Thile of the Punch Brothers & Brad Mehldau Two of America’s most groundbreaking young musicians - acclaimed jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and singer/mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile of THE PUNCH BROTHERS, perform as a duo. Both artists are inspired by a wide range of composers and songwriters, from Bach to Radiohead. The duo will explore the beauty and intricacies of form and improvisation through a variety of their favorite tunes and original compositions.

NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM: Phil Abraham - Roots & Wings (Challenge 2015)

This is the story of a proud raven and a clever fox. So basically, the raven is sitting on top of a tree holding a big fat cheese in its beak. And the clever fox who is very interested in the cheese tells the raven how wonderful he looks and that he would love to hear his voice. So, the raven is all chuffed, he opens his beak to sing and drops the cheese. The fox tells the morale of the story which is that vanity is not nice and it has just cost the raven a big fat cheese. The story is in French but all non-French speakers have to listen to the music of the language and try to guess what's happening. Some key words: the raven is "le corbeau" in French, the fox is "le renard", the cheese is "le fromage". So listen carefully to the sound of French. At the end of the day, isn't the trombone the best international language? Challenge

Phil Abraham