Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
CANADA, QUEBEC: AFJP-Post Bop Pawn Shop (2019)
Inspired by the infamous Pawn Shops where musicians sometimes wander to find good deals. Just like the previous album - a well crafted mix of Jazz and other genres - so the critics say !!! Hip-Hop, Cajun, African, Latin, Funk, Free Jazz, Fusion, reggae : you'll find it in AFJP's exciting music!
Website:: afjp.ca
USA:@KirkWhalum Kirk Whalum - Humanité (2019)
CHALLENGE
USA/FRANCE: Robin McKelle- Alterations(2020)
Robin McKelle
Nouvel album Alterations
Disponible le 14/02/20 chez Loop Productions
En concert le 16 et 17 mars 2020 au New Morning
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Toujours aussi inspirée, la chanteuse Robin McKelle est de retour le 14/02 avec l'albumAlterations sur lequel elle rend hommage aux grandes musiciennes de l'histoire et reprend des artistes comme Lana Del Rey, Sade, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, ou Dolly Parton.
Après plusieurs albums teintés de soul et de blues, Robin McKelle avait choisi, en 2018 avec Melodic Canvas, de revenir à une esthétique plus acoustique et plutôt minimaliste, accompagnée le plus souvent d'un trio piano, basse, batterie. Son nouvel opusAlterations est un recueil de "cover songs" toutes écrites par des femmes "songwriters" ayant marqué l'histoire de la musique populaire.
En choisissant ce contexte inhabituel, Robin McKelle se retrouve à donner une nouvelle vie à ces reprises en leur apportant une ambiance jazz, feutrée, intime et délicate.
Saluée pour sa voix de contralto puissante et expressive et ses qualités de performer, notamment dans le rhythm’n’blues où ressortaient ses influences soul (Nina Simone, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin...) Nous la (re) découvrons ici dans un registre plus personnel, sensible et nuancé, mais toujours aussi soulful.
Pour regarder et diffuser la vidéo d'Alterations :
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Née à Rochester, New-York, Robin McKelle nous rappelle Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin ou Janis Joplin avec son timbre d’alto et par ses qualités innées de « performer. » Nous la connaissions experte de la Soul, du Blues, du Rhythm’n Blues, du Jazz, de toutes ces musiques de l’âme et de l’émotion. Il y avait fort à parier que la belle américaine d’origine irlandaise nous conduirait plus profondément sur ces mêmes courants ; c’est finalement avec une légèreté trompeuse qu’elle nous entraine vers une Pop Soul raffinée.
Douze années après la sortie de son premier album Introducing Robin McKelle, l’ouragan de la soul signe son tout dernier opus musical, Alterations, un 8ème album, somptueux. Accompagnée de musiciens hors pair, Robin McKelle s’attache ici à parfaire tous ses talents : production, arrangements, chant, composition. Le projet Alterations est né peu de temps après une tournée de Robin McKelle en Europe La chanteuse à la voix puissante et finement éraillée choisit pour l'album Alterations de rendre hommage à des femmes, des compositrices qui ont marqué l'histoire de la musique. On retrouve aussi des reprises aux subtils arrangements jazz de morceaux inoubliables écrits par Dolly Parton, Sade, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, ou Lana Del Rey.
Douze années après la sortie de son premier album Introducing Robin McKelle, l’ouragan de la soul signe son tout dernier opus musical, Alterations, un 8ème album, somptueux. Accompagnée de musiciens hors pair, Robin McKelle s’attache ici à parfaire tous ses talents : production, arrangements, chant, composition. Le projet Alterations est né peu de temps après une tournée de Robin McKelle en Europe La chanteuse à la voix puissante et finement éraillée choisit pour l'album Alterations de rendre hommage à des femmes, des compositrices qui ont marqué l'histoire de la musique. On retrouve aussi des reprises aux subtils arrangements jazz de morceaux inoubliables écrits par Dolly Parton, Sade, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, ou Lana Del Rey.
A partir du mois de mars, Robin McKelle sera en tournée dans toute l'Europe pour faire découvrir l'album Alterations, et s'arrêtera le 16 et 17 mars à Paris au New Morning.
Concerts en 2020 :
5 mars Cambrai (F)
7 mars Dreux (F) Jazz Fest
13 mars Wissous (F)
14 mars Montbrison (F)
16 mars Paris (F) New Morning
17 mars Paris (F) New Morning
26 mars Megève (F) Jazz Fest
29 mars Cully (F) Jazz Fest
15 avril Colmar (F)
30 avril Tournai (B)
Sunday, December 29, 2019
USA: Bernard Purdie and David HaneyNew York Jazz Stories plus Adam Lane and special guests Joe's Pub Febuary 22, 2020 9PM
Bernard Purdie and David Haney
New York Jazz Stories
plus Adam Lane and special guests
Joe's Pub February 22, 2020
Ticket Price: $20
Doors at 9pm
Show at 9:30pm
New York Jazz Stories
plus Adam Lane and special guests
Joe's Pub February 22, 2020
Ticket Price: $20
Doors at 9pm
Show at 9:30pm
Tickets on sale now - Click Here   |
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| Pianist and composer David Haney and legendary drummer Bernard Purdie will bring another performance of New York Jazz Stories to Joe’s Pub. New York Jazz Stories combines swinging, electrifying music, featuring Bernard Purdie and company along with some highly entertaining stories retold by David Haney. These are real stories told directly to Haney, transcribed and brought to life with a soundtrack by “Pretty” Purdie and friends. "Haney and Purdie fit together like interlocking parts of a jigsaw puzzle. The drums gives a center to the piano's drifting improvisations and the piano creates fantastic shapes about the drum foundation. These two makes a really strong and fascinating team." -Cadence Magazine BERNARD PURDIE, the world’s most recorded drummer, was born June 11, 1939 in Elkton, Maryland as the eleventh of fifteen children. Purdie moved to New York in 1960 and soon after recorded his first hit with King Curtis. This led to his engagement with Aretha Franklin in 1970, which marked the beginning of an unparalleled career. Since then, Purdie has worked with a vast array of artists, such as Paul Butterfield, Larry Coryell, Miles Davis, Hall & Oates, Al Kooper, Herbie Mann, Todd Rundgren, and Cat Stevens, as well as regularly producing his own solo albums. DAVID HANEY studied composition with Czech American composer Tomas Svoboda and piano with jazz pianist Eddie Wied. As music editor for Cadence Magazine, David interviewed over 60 jazz artists for the Jazz Stories project. The following artists have worked and recorded with David: Roswell Rudd, Julian Priester, John Tchicai, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Bud Shank, Wolter Weirbos, Han Bennink, Andrew Cyrille, Bernard Purdie, Marvin Bugulu Smith, Gerry Hemingway, Dylan Van de Schiff, Buell Neidlinger, Dominic Duval, Adam Lane, Michael Bisio, Paul Blaney, Perry Robinson, Johannes Bauer. As a leader, Haney has over 20 albums on CIMP-USA, Cadence-USA, SLAM-UK, NoSe-So-Argentina, La Gorda-Argentina, and Canada Jazz Studio-Canada. |
Saturday, December 28, 2019
USA, NYC: January 10, Kendra Shank: Abbey Lincoln Tribute @ NYC Winter Jazzfest / March 20, 21 @ Kitano & more
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Friday, December 27, 2019
RUSSIA/USA: Russian-Born Vocalist Katerina Brown, Now Based in San Francisco, Debuts on CD with "Mirror," Oct. 18
Katerina Brown
Places Songs of Her Native Russia
Alongside Pieces from the Jazz Repertoire
On "Mirror,"
Set for October 18 Release
By Mellowtone Music
Vocalist's Debut Album
Features a Band with Bassist/Producer Gary Brown,
Pianist Adam Shulman,
Drummers Akira Tana & Timothy Angulo, &
Guests Including
Vocalist Kenny Washington, Percussionist Airto Moreira
CD Release Show at the Sound Room, Oakland,
Saturday, November 2
September 19, 2019
 Vocalist Katerina Brown explores her recently minted identity as a Russian immigrant to the United States with the October 18 release of Mirror, her remarkable debut album, on Mellowtone Music. Accompanied by a band of San Francisco Bay Area musicians that includes her husband, bassist Gary Brown(who also produced the album), pianist Adam Shulman, and drummers Akira Tana and Timothy Angulo along with a number of special guests, Brown offers interpretations of three classic Russian songs (first in her native language, then in English translations) as well as five favorites from the American repertoire.
The tunes on Mirror not only span nations, but also styles. They range from delicate ballads to lilting bossa nova to brash, bluesy swingers. "It's a jazz CD, but it has different styles," says Brown. "I want to show people that I'm still searching. Standards helped me find myself but that's not what defines me. ... I want to explore more."
The stylistic range itself is one of the album's star attractions, opening with a fragile take on the romantic Russian song "The Gate" (featuring violinist Mads Tolling), followed by a saucy treatment of the Gershwins' standard "They Can't Take That Away from Me" (a duet with singer Kenny Washington) and a tremendously swaggering "Moanin'" on which Brown sings Jon Hendricks's vocalese lyrics (with organist Brian Ho, trumpeter Miles Olmos, and saxophonist Robert Roth augmenting the core band). Elsewhere, the Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Peixoto and percussionists Celso Alberti and Airto Moreira lend subtle bossa nova flavors to "Like a Lover" and "I Feel You."
At the same time, however, the three Russian songs, strategically positioned as the opening, closing, and central pieces ("The Gate," "The Mirror," and "It's Snowing," respectively), have undeniable significance for this document of Brown's artistic arrival. "When I came here, I thought, 'To be a Russian jazz singer singing all American songs, that's a bit strange," she says. "I need to bring something from my culture so that American audiences can listen and get familiar with them."
This cultural cross-pollination includes the arrangements as well as the songs themselves. Both Shulman and St. Petersburg pianist Dina Sineglazova provided charts for Mirror, even collaborating in the case of one tune. It further evidences Brown's determination to be as unconstrained by geography as she is by style.
 Katerina Brown was born July 16, 1982 in a small town outside St. Petersburg, in what was then the Soviet Union. She was drawn to music as an infant and devoured the few jazz albums in her father's collection (especially those by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington). She studied classical vocals as a teenager, but performed by night in local jazz and blues clubs before moving to St. Petersburg at 19 and forming her own blues band at 21.
Soon afterward, Brown joined the Old Fashioned Blues Project, which took her from the local scene to a national one, touring all around Russia and into Ukraine for the next six years. In 2010, however, she quit the band to matriculate at the Saint-Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, where she formally studied music theory and on her own dug deeper into jazz vocals. Soon she was performing as featured vocalist for a big band sponsored by Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In 2013, Brown met her future husband Gary Brown when the American bassist was touring Russia with pianist Rebeca Mauleón. They struck up an acquaintance that ultimately led to the singer applying for a visa to study jazz in the United States. She first spent time in New York City before moving to the Bay Area in 2015 and establishing herself within its thriving jazz scene. She has worked as the featured vocalist with SFJAZZ's Monday Night Big Band and is a frequent performer at the region's top jazz venues. She also teaches the vocal technique developed by the Complete Vocal Institute in Denmark, which is based on the anatomy and physiology of the human body.
Photography: Tanya Magnani
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Thursday, December 26, 2019
USA:ROB RYNDAK & TOM LOCKWOOD - Gratitude (2019)
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
USA:@ponchosanchez #ponchosanchez Poncho Sanchez Trane's Delight(Concord Picante 2019)
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
USA/BRAZIL, NYC: @badiassad Badi Assad-Friday Jan 10 /Saturday Jan 11 2020
Badi Assad
Showcses:
Friday Jan 10 7:00pm Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle
Saturday Jan 11 11:00am New York Suite 4th floor Hilton Hotel
Insights from Steve: Badi Assad (Bah-gee Ah-sagh) is a dynamo. She exudes excitement. She is a unique combination of Brazilian bossa nova, singer/songwriter and world music. She is a master guitarist, singer, and vocal percussionist. She can actually sing and use vocal percussion at the same time. She is totally unique!! Badi is best in a more intimate presentation (under 500 seats) or for exciting outdoor festivals or series.
Brazil’s Badi Assad is one of the most innovative, passionate and talented Artists of all times and is lauded as one of the world’s most unique and cross-transcendental performance artists of this generation. She transcends traditional styles of her native Brazilian music with a mixture of pop, jazz and world/ethnic sounds from around the world. She combines an extraordinary guitar talent, a unique mouth percussion, beautiful singing, combining a rhythmic body movement, to create an exciting, fresh music sound, and leaving spectators… simply… BREATHLESS. Indeed, watching Badi perform is like witnessing a spiritual phenomenon. How she does what she does all at once, and delivering an extraordinary performance, is quite unbelievable.
Monday, December 23, 2019
UK: Stuart McCallum-Solitude Part ii (2019)
Stuart McCallum is one of the most exciting, innovative and creative guitarists and composers working today. His series of EPs for Edition Records represent his personal expression and ability at its most pure and unmediated. 2018’s Solitude, a completely improvised series of vignettes, explored the subtleties and emotive nuances of the acoustic guitar in a breathtakingly beautiful way. The follow up, Solitude part ii, uses pre-composed devices and the live looping ideas that Stuart has developed in the live arena in a studio setting. The result is an extraordinary sound palette that manages to be soulful and experimental at the same time. Stuart describes the process: “In order to experiment with these sounds I turned the whole computer into a loop pedal, recording the music section by section (each section being completely finished before moving onto the next) to imitate the way I would play them live.” Corry Strand - This was inspired by the great Julian Lage track, 'Gardens' - it’s in the famous DADGAD tuning - an open string modal tuning popularised by the folk/jazz guitar legend Davey Graham. Corry Strand is a place in County Leitrim in Ireland on the shores of Lough Allen. Hide & Seek was inspired by the John Smith track 'Salty and Sweet'. "I wanted to bring my ambient influences to a more country/folk/roots sounding track.” Says Stuart. "This song emotes quite a childish and innocent feeling for me. It was fun to write and play."
Sunday, December 22, 2019
USA: @UNTOneOClock One O'Clock Lab Band Marks Its 53rd Yearly Recording with "Lab 2019," Due Nov. 22 from North Texas Jazz
One O'Clock Lab Band
Marks Its 53rd Yearly Recording with
"Lab 2019,"
Set for November 22 Release by
North Texas Jazz
Prestigious University of North Texas Performing Ensemble
Continues Its Tradition of
Affirming the Past & Investigating the Present
With Eight New Student/Faculty-Written Compositions,
Two Arrangements of Jazz Standards
CD Release Concert at Winspear Hall, Murchison PAC,
Denton, TX
Tuesday, November 26, 7:30 PM
September 30, 2019
The University of North Texas's renowned One O'Clock Lab Band maintains its uncanny aptitude for both timeliness and timelessness with the November 22 release of Lab 2019 (North Texas Jazz). The latest installment in an annual series that has continued since 1967, the album features six original student compositions, five of them by members of the 20-piece student ensemble, as well as two standards with new student-penned arrangements. In addition, it offers new work by two of UNT's jazz faculty members and prolific Lab Band contributors: Grammy-nominated composer Rich DeRosa, the school's Director of Jazz Composition and Arranging, and Alan Baylock, the acclaimed big band veteran (Airmen of Note, Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra) and director of the One O'Clock Lab Band.
This 53rd recorded iteration of the Lab Band (named for its long-entrenched rehearsal time) finds the institution in danger of losing neither inspiration, nor its long-held place in the elite of collegiate jazz ensembles. "We want everyone to know that the great UNT tradition going back many years is still alive and well," says Baylock in marking his third year of directorship.
Baylock (below) is also an alumnus of UNT, earning his master's in jazz studies in 1995.
Though he was not an official member of the One O'Clock Lab Band during his time at the university, he wrote 15 charts that were featured in the band's performances and on its recordings. He adds to that legacy with "Confluence," a startling and highly experimental piece that features solos by tenor saxophonist Addison Jordan and trumpeter Chris Van Leeuwen as well as musique concrète work by guitarist Ethan Ditthardt.
Though he was not an official member of the One O'Clock Lab Band during his time at the university, he wrote 15 charts that were featured in the band's performances and on its recordings. He adds to that legacy with "Confluence," a startling and highly experimental piece that features solos by tenor saxophonist Addison Jordan and trumpeter Chris Van Leeuwen as well as musique concrète work by guitarist Ethan Ditthardt.
DeRosa is a legendary figure among jazz composers and has written a new piece for the One O'Clock Lab Band each year since his arrival at UNT in 2010. "Al-Go-Rhythm" ranks among his most thrillingly ingenious: subtitled "A 21st Century Take on a Gershwin Tune," it's an abstraction of "I Got Rhythm," recognizable by its chord changes and increasingly sneaky use of melodic motifs from the original. Jazz lovers will also identify it with the relentless swing that for DeRosa is as essential an ingredient as Gershwin's notes.
Ultimately, however, the One O'Clock Lab Band is an endeavor by, of, and for its student members, and their work on Lab 2019 rivals that of their elders for excitement and accomplishment. The complexity of trombonist DJ Rice's "Aggro" (which interlaces the harmonies of "Cherokee" and "Giant Steps") is exceeded only by the fun of listening to it; Rice also takes a solo of majesty and pathos on his sectionmate Nathan Davis's luxurious arrangement of the standard "I Can't Get Started." Student composer-arranger John Sturino, a former band member, shines with his sweetly hopeful tune "Frauenfeld" and boisterous setting of Styne & Cahn's standard "The Things We Did Last Summer" that features vocalist Marion Powers. Meanwhile, lead saxophonist Kyle Myers contributes three originals, cresting with the breezy, bluesy, meter-shifting swinger "Third Time's the Charm."
The One O'Clock Lab Band is the premier performing ensemble of the University of North Texas jazz studies program. It began in 1927 as the Aces of Collegeland, an extracurricular dance orchestra at what was then North Texas State Teachers College. It gained academic accreditation (as the Laboratory Dance Band) in 1946-47, when UNT established the world's first collegiate jazz studies program.
When innovative educator Leon Breeden took leadership of the program in 1959, he recast the ensemble as a forum for the serious study of jazz, renaming it for its daily rehearsal time.
When innovative educator Leon Breeden took leadership of the program in 1959, he recast the ensemble as a forum for the serious study of jazz, renaming it for its daily rehearsal time.
With Breeden as its director, the band performed at venues ranging from Birdland to the White House; toured worldwide; and in 1967 began recording its annual albums at the request of legendary Voice of America broadcaster Willis Conover. Eight years later, the One O'Clock Lab Band became the first college band to be nominated for a Grammy Award. (It has been nominated seven times in all.)
Pianist and composer Neil Slater succeeded Breeden in 1981, compounding the ensemble's success over his 27-year run. Slater was then followed by Maynard Ferguson/Doc SeverinsenBand alum Steve Wiest; Stan Kenton veteran Jay Saunders; and Alan Baylock, who became director of the One O'Clock Lab Band in 2016, after a highly lauded 20-year tenure as chief arranger for the U.S. Air Force's Airmen of Note jazz ensemble and leader of the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra.
Alumni of the UNT One O'Clock Lab Band include Billy Harper, Bob Belden, Jim Snidero, and Ari Hoenig.
Gary Smulyan is guest artist for the One O'Clock Lab Band's 59th Annual Fall Concert/Lab 2019 CD Release Event, to be held at Winspear Performance Hall, Murchison Performing Arts Center, Denton, TX, on Tuesday 11/26 at 7:30pm. (Tickets: https://thempac.
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| One O'Clock Lab Band: Kyle Myers - "Red Herring" |
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