NETHERLANDS, Amsterdam: Alex Coke Upcoming Performance

Tuesday 27 March, 20.30
De Badcuyp, Amsterdam

Circular Breathing night
A unique night of compositions and improvisations all using the
continuous blowing technique on wind instruments called 'circular breathing'.

Susanna Borsch - recorder
Oguz Buyukberber - clarinet
Alex Coke - flute
John Dikeman - saxophone
Yedo Gibson - saxophone
Matthijs Koene - panflute
Anne La Berge - flute
Stefanie Liedke - bassoon
Ned McGowan - flute
Naomi Sato - saxophone, sho

De Badcuyp, Amsterdam
1st Sweelinckstr. 10
Gratis/free

Alex Coke @ JWQ
Alex Coke web site

Carmen Caramanica, Cosmo Castellano & Rick Compton- Carmen Caramanica Jazz Trio LIVE! (Carmen Caramanica 2011)

Finally, after years of playing together, Carmen Caramanica on guitar, Cosmo Castellano on bass and Rick Compton on drums, have released a CD! IT'S LIVE! It's real, and it is the instantaneous interaction of three musicians and their audience. 


As anyone who has seen us perform knows, our trio embraces the idea of collective arranging and improvisation. We know the tunes, the chords and melodies, and from there we jump in and try to create a piece of music that is living and developing NOW, in the moment. Each of us is involved is in creating our own part while interacting with the others, bringing our own personalities together with the trio's collective identity. 
Whew! That's a mouthful!

What makes it a pleasure for us, and interesting for the audience, we hope, is the genuine musical respect and personal affection we have for each other as life-long friends. We communicate what our musical intentions are to each other so instantly sometimes that it's uncanny, especially to us! 
The audience feels it, too. 

We've played together so much and with so much interaction that sometimes people think we spend many hours rehearsing to get it right. No, it's just the way we play "on the fly." We listen to each other and react to the music.

It's great fun for us, and I know a lot of you have come to our gigs time after time to see that aspect of our music. It's not just about one musician soloing over a background of chord changes. As wonderful as that can be this is more about three good friends making a new piece of music every time we play together. 

We're thrilled that our friend Ben was able to get a recorded snapshot of our music. We're glad to finally be able to bring some of it to those who have been asking for years, "Where's your CD?" 

Well, here it is. We hope you enjoy it!

Carmen, Cosmo and Rick


from The Daily Press, June 29, 1984
Review by Stephen Roberts

The Carmen Caramanica Trio serves up some of 
the finest music in the Upstate New York area.

The trio, fronted by gifted guitarist Caramanica,
excites and challenges listeners without going 
off on tangents that would lose any audience 
member who is willing to listen open-mindedly.

What the group plays is primarily - but not exclusively - jazz, and there are numerous elements of improvisation, too. They'll take a standard ballad, such as "My Funny Valentine," and work it carefully, looking at melodic nuances, and the chord structure, and then trade off solos with guitar, bass and drums all having their time in the limelight. The interesting part is that for all of the technical intricacy that's going on, there's nothing obscure; nothing impossible to fathom.

The trio, Caramanica (guitar), Cos Castellano (bass) and Rick Compton (drums) works well as a unit. They've been together for more than thirty years, and they're obviously an extremely compatible bunch of musicians - which is absolutely necessary for an improvisational work to fly. And although each of these musicians is a first-rate and dynamic soloist, there's never a push for front stage.

"It's our aim," Caramanica said, "to reach our audience. We're not up there just to jam, and to go our own way; we want to keep listeners involved in our process."

It's clear that the trio strives to play at a high level of musical accomplishment, but they want to make what they're doing accessible to their audience, and want to make it enjoyable, too. That's another reason why the group "mixes it up." On any given night that the group performs, you're likely to hear not only jazz, but also rock, funk, Latin, bossa nova and classical music. And while it isn't a jazz-rock fusion group in the sense the term is used nowadays, the three try to choose from a wide arena of musical styles. 

Bassist Castellano, for instance, has logged a lot of time as a classical performer and he brings that experience with him. Drummer Compton is the author of "Jazz Drumming; Time and Improvisation", a drum set method book. Both Castellano and Compton have bagsfull of musical experience. Each has played with illustrious jazz musicians and each has worked with several other groups before joining Caramanica in the trio.

Caramanica is one of Utica's leading and best-known musicians. He toured as a featured guitarist with pop singer Tony Orlando, and has previously worked as a musical director/arranger/conductor for jazz/soul singer Lou Rawls. 
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http://www.myspace.com/carmencaramanica

Johannes Löhndorf- Zwischen Nacht und Traum (Dewey Records 2012)

Johannes Löhndorf , based in Bonn/ Germany is an outstanding Composer and Writer of Poems, his music leads you into Moviescores, mixed with Classical and Jazz Elements... 


Johannes Löhndorf , based in Bonn/ Germany is an outstanding Composer and Writer of Poems, his music leads you into Moviescores, mixed with Classical and Jazz Elements...
Der in Bonn lebende Komponist und Lyriker , Johannes Löhndorf, hat in seiner neuesten CD , kleine Träumereien in große Musik umgesetzt. 
Teils bedient er sich klassischer -, teils freie, improvisatorische Elemente und auch leichte Jazz Rockanleihen finden sich in dieser Musik wieder. Hier ist ihm durchaus ein Meisterwerk gelungen, welches erst durch die , auf der CD veröffentlichten Texten Löhndorfs, ganz zum Tragen kommt.
Ausgezeichnete Musiker haben ihn bei diesem Projekt unterstüzt: Michael Villmow ( Sopran und Tenor.Sax) , Stefan Schneider ( Drums), Hans Peter Salentin ( Trompete& Flgh ), Mathias Schuler ( Klarinette und Bassklarinette), Jörg Ohlert ( Guitare), Thomas Oldenburg ( Drums),  Hans Greuel ( E-Bass ) und johannes Löhndorf ( Keybords,Piano und Flöte).... Wir freuen uns , diesen Künstler auf Dewey Records präsentieren zu können. 
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Štěpán Markovič Q & Saxtet (Multisonic 2012)

When following the activities of Czech jazz musicians, we realize what  important role the cycle “Jazz at the Castle” has.  This is especially true about tenor saxophonist and educator Štěpán Markovič. Thanks to live recordings from these series, we can appreciate the diversity of his music.
Markovič’s two fbands performed on 26 May 2010 and this CD contains recordings of his current quartet as well as the band Saxtet in its Czech-Italian version. Saxtet is in fact an occasional formation of different players, which was originally created in 2006 just for the castle concert (Multisonic released the recording of this concert in 2008).

1. Eiderdown
2. Turn Out The Stars
3. Walkin‘ Up
4. Three Views Of A Secret
5. Jones
6. Morning Star
7. Infant Eyes
8. Footprints 

Multisonic

VOCALIST ALLAN HARRIS & PIANIST TAKANA MIYAMOTO CELEBRATE THE REVERED REPERTOIRE OF FAMED TONY BENNETT/BILL EVANS DUO RECORDINGS

ALLURING NEW ALBUM CONVERGENCE

AVAILABLE MAY 22 ON LOVE PRODUCTIONS RECORDS

 

       

 

 

 LISTEN TO STREAMING TRACKS FROM CONVERGENCE

  

Eloquence. Empathy. Interplay.

These are just some of the words that can be used to describe the mellifluous meeting of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans on their storied duo recordings from the 1970's. Few modern musicians have dared to tackle the venerable songbook that these Jazz giants made their own.

That is until now.

With the release of Convergence, vocalist Allan Harris and pianist Takana Miyamoto forge a symbiotic sonic bond, saluting the spirit of Bennett and Evans, while coining their own musical vocabulary as well. It's an aural affair not to be missed.

"I remember hearing The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album back around 1979," Harris says. "It stillknocks me out. I think that album should be required listening for anyone who wants to step into the arena as a vocalist. It truly is a textbook study on how to deliver a lyric."

"The combination of the two of them together is incredible," Miyamoto adds. "Everything about that album is beautiful - from Tony's voice, to the intros Bill played, to how the songs modulate into different keys. That album definitely gave me a great foundation for the work I do now with all kinds of vocalists."

On Convergence, Harris and Miyamoto channel the same sense of aural adventure found on Bennett and Evans' renegade recordings. Striking a delicate stance between deference and discovery, the duo tackles classic cuts like "Waltz For Debby," "Young and Foolish," and "The Touch of Your Lips." And much like the chance meeting that united Harris and Miyamoto in the first place, the album is a celebration of musical possibility.

"I was performing with a Bill Evans tribute trio," Miyamoto recalls. "My agent knew Allan and thought there might be musical chemistry between us. So we played a last-minute gig together at Churchill Grounds in Atlanta, and we ended up recording it. When we heard the tapes, we knew immediately that we had something special. But both of us being busy with other projects, we left the tapes for another time."

"I knew of Takana from her work with singers like Nnenna Freelon and Rene Marie," Harris says. "But from the very first time we played together, she did more than just play. She guided me, taking me to places I never expected to go musically. On this project, she doesn't just play like Bill Evans. She has her own style, and just like Bill did with Tony, she strikes a balance between supporting me as singer, and pushing me into places she wants me to go. She's much more than just an accompanist - she's a pathfinder."

Photo Credit: Richard Wright

 Harris and Miyamoto would revisit the recordings from their Atlanta concert years later, eventually opting to re-record the songs properly in a New York studio for release. "I happened to come across the tapes one day, so I listened to them again," Miyamoto says. "Not only did they sound great, but the crowd really responded to the material. So I called Allan and he said 'Let's release the tapes!' But as we started getting deeper into the project, we both thought we could better serve the material by recording it again."

"I thought the tapes sounded great, " Harris says, "but I thought we should go into the studio and record the songs again. To be honest, we were both scared that we'd lose the magic we found on those live recordings.  But I told Takana to trust me. We recorded the whole album in six hours, without any editing or overdubs whatsoever."

New York native Allan Harris has been a longtime fixture on the international music scene, with a seemingly non-stop string of acclaimed concert appearances and recordings. A singer, songwriter and guitarist of great musical gifts and stylistic flexibility, Harris effortlessly blends Jazz, Blues, and Broadway standards with elegance and ease.

Takana Miyamoto was born in Yuki, Japan, leaving at the age of nineteen to study at Boston's famed Berklee College of Music. "Funny enough, I had no idea Berklee was such a big Jazz school," Miyamoto says. "I went there to study film scoring and really knew no Jazz tunes before I got there. But soon after I arrived, I started liking it, and within a short time, I was gigging." Miyamoto would also garner acclaim for her musical compositions for film, theater and dance.

On Convergence, Harris and Miyamoto do far more than simply pay tribute to Bennett and Evans. They chart their own captivating course through some of the duo's most signature songs, with Miyamoto's crystalline piano touch playing the perfect foil to Harris' buoyant baritone. Rarely has a piano/vocal duo sounded this confident and complete. From Miyamoto's tender piano work on classics like "My Foolish Heart" and "Waltz For Debby," to Harris' glowing, unaccompanied intro on the "The Touch of Your Lips," the pair brim from album start to finish with guts, gumption and grace.

"We found a beautiful balance on Convergence," Harris says. "I brought the whole Americana component to the plate - of African American Blues, Jazz, Soul and the American Songbook. And Takana brought an Eastern sense of patience and perspective to the music. She showed me how to take my time."

Allan Harris & Takana Miyamoto · Convergence 

Love Productions Records · Release Date: May 22, 2012

For more information on Allan Harris, visit: www.allanharris.com

For more information on Takana Miyamoto, visit: www.takana.net

 

For media information, please contact:

DL Media · 610-667-0501

Amy Miller · amy@dlmediamusic.com
Don Lucoff · don@dlmediamusic.com  

    

ENZO PIETROPAOLI QUARTET - YATRA (Via Veneto/Jando Music 2011)

ENZO PIETROPAOLI - bass
FULVIO SIGURTÀ - trumpet
JULIAN OLIVER MAZZARIELLO - piano
ALESSANDRO PATERNESI - drums
via veneto

Don Mark's Fire Escape - In a New Light (NIROMI Record Company 2011)

Saxophonist Don Mark leads Fire Escape in a style all their own, Jammin' Rhythm & Jazz Fusion! 

Don Mark’s Fire Escape is a jammin’ rhythm and jazz fusion band offering our audience a musical escape of an impacting and uplifting experience to a better space. I have chosen the music of some of my favorite sax players, Michael Brecker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Bob Mintzer, Cannonball Adderley, King Curtis, David Sanborn, and Hank Crawford as the album’s engine, the talents of my great band and accomplished guest artists, as the fuel, and the inspiration of my Father in Heaven to reach escape velocity “In A New Light”. 

Don’s passion for music improvisation was ignited by his dad’s extensive jazz record collection, which he listened to after school in his early teens. Don played his sax along with Trane, Bird, Duke, Monk, Basie, and others as if a member of their great bands. After “jamming” with these jazz greats, there was no other profession possible for him other than a career devoted to music. “In A New Light” is Don Mark’s fourth album, following three solo projects, "Silver & Gold", "Songs In The Key Of Light", and "New Jerusalem", all released on the NIROMI Record Company label. Don has performed in the United States, China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Africa, Botswana, Germany, Moscow, The Ukraine, Romania, and many other countries, performing for heads of state, presidents, ambassadors, and world leaders. Don even performed in East Germany on the night the Berlin Wall was torn down!
“In A New Light” is Don Mark’s newest and most creative jazz project. His inspired musical spontaneity and dramatic playing style is complimented by Dawoud Said’s keyboards, Jesse Powers’ bass, and Johnny Jones’ drums.

The NIROMI Company was founded in 1989 with the vision to inspire hope in children, to spark their creative spirit, and transform their lives through the power of artistic expression. A significant portion of the revenue from this album supports this vision. Don Mark’s Fire Escape is Don Mark on saxophones, Dawoud Said on keyboards, Jesse Powers on bass, and Johnny Jones on drums. Guest performing are Larry Griffin on percussion, Greg Boyer on trombone (Soul Serenade), Michael Mark (Jubilation), and Roy Smith (Better Days Ahead) on guitars.
Executive Producer Don Mark, Artistic Director Alexis Mark
Recorded at BRATT Studio during the 2011 East Coast Earthquake and Hurricane Ilene and the 10th Anniversary of 911. Our Fire Escape proved to be earthquake, hurricane, and flood proof!

For information about Don Mark’s Fire Escape including tour schedule and booking information, please contact The NIROMI Company, 28 Strabane Court, Baltimore, Maryland 21234, call the Saxophone Help Line at 443-621-2384, or visit our website DonMarksFireEscape.com. 
@2012 The NIROMI Record Company 
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