Eldar Djangirov Trio - Breakthrough (Motema 2013)

“...his command of the instrument is beyond staggering.”
-Bob Doershuk, Downbeat

 “[THREE STORIES] is certainly jazz piano, but it's the kind that belongs in a recital hall… Djangirov gets to the heart of every song.”
-Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz

 “He’s a genius beyond most young people I’ve heard.”
-Dave Brubeck in The New York Times

http://www.eldarmusic.com

Colin Stetson / Mats Gustafsson - Stones (Rune Grammofon 2013)

"This is not a skronkfest in which two saxophonists go head on. Instead, these improvisations express a deep, wide-ranging communication that employs rhythm, dissonance, an unconventional yet clearly present lyricism, tonal and harmonic explorations, and various mechanical techniques. The technical prowess on display is considerable, but it is secondary to Gustafsson and Stetson making music together." by Thom Jurek

"Free-jazz listeners familiar with the work of Evan Parker or Peter Brötzmann will find Stones easy to relate to, but the energetic compatibility of this impromptu partnership exerts a broader appeal than that." John Fordham guardian.co.uk

O.A.P. RECORDS NIEUWSTE CD ALBUM: GENZO OKABE - Okabe Family

GENZO OKABE - Okabe Family
	Bezetting Genzo Okabe - Altosax Miguel Rodriguez - Piano Steven Willem Zwanink - Bass Francesco De Rubeis - Drums

DEBUUT ALBUM           Opnamen gerealiseerd door Olthof Audio Productions in de O.A.P. Studio te Den Haag. Opname/Mix en mastering door Barry Olthof. Catalogus Nr: OAPR1302 EAN-code: 8714835098027 Ⓟ & Ⓒ O.A.P. Records 2013

Bezetting Genzo Okabe - Altosax Miguel Rodriguez - Piano Steven Willem Zwanink - Bass Francesco De Rubeis - Drums Okabe Familie is in 2009 opgericht in Nederland. De band is een traditioneel akoestisch jazz kwartet, echter, de groep heeft als doel het verleggen van grenzen van wat een dergelijke groep kan bereiken op het gebied van geluid en complexiteit van de textuur. Genzo Okabe is een Japanse saxofonist / componist / arrangeur en de oprichter van Okabe Family gevestigd in Den Haag, Nederland. Geboren in Tokio, Japan. Genzo verhuisde naar Italië, waar hij zijn diploma klassiek saxofoon aan het Conservatorium di Musica di Perugia behaalde. Vervolgens de master studie jazz saxofoon aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag.   LIVE BELUISTEREN? 23 juni 2013- Pulchri Studio, Den Haag (15.00 uur, € 10 entree voor niet leden) Lange Voorhout 15, 2514 EA Den Haag   24 juni 2013 - Murphy's Law (21.00 uur, vrij entree, vanaf 22.30 uur Jamsessie) Dr. Kuyperstraat 7, 2514 BA Den Haag 25 juni 2013 - EPO (13.00 uur, vrij entree met ID pas) Patentlaan 2, 2288 EE Rijswijk zh   Volg O.A.P. Records via social media: Twitter Facebook   De CD is te koop via de webshop van O.A.P. Records voor 18,95 (inclusief verzendkosten) Download 'Okabe Family' bij: iTunes   Kijk voor meer informatie op: www.oaprecords.com www.genzookabe.com

Artists From Across The Globe Grace The Stage In Istanbul For International Jazz Day 2013

Artists From Across The Globe Grace The Stage In Istanbul For International Jazz Day 2013 (via PR Newswire)

Download image EVENTS TAKE PLACE IN 196 NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD ISTANBUL, May 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented series of events worldwide, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz joined together to…

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17th Annual JJA Jazz Awards Winners Announced Musical Achievements Honored in 28 Categories

17th Annual JJA Jazz Awards Winners Announced Musical Achievements Honored in 28 Categories

Veteran saxophonist Wayne Shorter, longtime creative music trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and newcomer Ryan Truesdell were top winners of the 2013 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards announced today online at the website www.JJAJazzAwards. Sonny Rollins was named "Emeritus Jazz Artist – Beyond Voting," and other winners were divided between familiar names and new ones, although consistency with past results was more frequent than turnover of Awards to new nominees. Shorter, who emerged in the 1960s as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis' "second great quintet" besides his own classic albums on Blue Note Records and long collaboration in Weather Report, won the Award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz and for Soprano Saxophonist of the Year. The Wayne Shorter Quartet , featuring pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade was named Best Small Ensemble. Smith, born in Arkansas, steeped in the blues but also an early member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and now a professor at California Institute for the Arts, was named Jazz Musician of the Year and Trumpeter of the Year, partly in recognition of his acclaimed album Ten Freedom Summers. That album was a nominee for Best Record of the Year, though that Award went to Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans, the debut album of bandleader Ryan Truesdell – and Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project was named Best Large Ensemble of the Year. A full list of the winners of music categories in the 17th annual Awards voted for by the JJA, a non-profit professional organization of writers, photographers, broadcasters and new media producers, is available at the website www.JJAJazzAwards.org. Winners of the JJA's Jazz Awards for excellence in journalism will be announced at a ticketed event to be held at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City on June 19. The JJA, with some 300 members mostly in North America but scattered across Europe, Asia, South America and New Zealand, too, has a mission to sustain journalism about jazz and related musics in a media landscape that currently includes both traditional and newly emergent platforms  -- blogs, websites, self-produced videos, podcasts, social media and the like. The Association's recent JazzApril campaign in support of Jazz Appreciation Month and International Jazz Day comprised, among other facets, the establishment of a 60-member Media Network and the celebration of 26 community-designated "Jazz Heroes" in 24 U.S. cities and Ottawa, Canada. Winners of the JJA Jazz Awards for music and journalism are determined through a two-stage voting process, limited to the Association's professional members. The JJA also has non-voting "supporter" and "industry associate" members, and a small coterie of non-voting student members. For further information about the Jazz Journalists Association, go to http://members.jazzjournalists.org and JJANews.org, or contact JJA president Howard Mandel, President@JazzJournalists.org.

Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

COMPOSER/PIANIST ROGER DAVIDSON MELDS MULTIFACETED SOUNDS OF BRAZIL WITH FRENCH ROOTS ON LATEST RELEASE, "JOURNEY TO RIO", AVAILABLE JUNE 11 VIA SOUNDBRUSH RECORDS

  
COMPOSER/PIANIST ROGER DAVIDSON MELDS
MULTIFACETED SOUNDS OF BRAZIL WITH FRENCH ROOTS ON LATEST RELEASE, JOURNEY TO RIO, AVAILABLE 
JUNE 11 VIA SOUNDBRUSH RECORDS

Double-Disc Release Featuring 28 Original Davidson Compositions Recorded in Rio de Janeiro 
Alongside Producer Pablo Aslan

    

 

"Davidson is an impeccable player..." - JazzTimes

Stream Tracks from 

Journey To Rio

For Roger Davidson, music is a world without boundaries. Both as a composer and pianist, he has a fearless reach. Though often termed a classical artist, Davidson has explored tango, klezmer, Latin music, and jazz in recent years, however he has always held the multifaceted sounds of Brazil especially close to his heart. His long-standing passion for Brazilian music has resulted in several albums, including Bom Dia (2007) and Brazilian Love Song (2009). His latest, Journey to Rio (available June 11 on Soundbrush Records, cofounded by Davidson in 1998), is a double-disc release showcasing 28 original Brazilian compositions. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, the project features a wide range of top-flight Brazilian musicians as well as Pablo Aslan, the gifted Argentine bassist and producer/labelmate.

Having traveled the world to learn about all styles of music, international synergy is in Davidson's blood. Born in Paris to a French mother and American father, his family relocated to New York shortly after. Davidson began playing piano at the age of four, ultimately discovering the bossa nova recordings of Stan Getz at age 10 through his babysitter playing Getz' Big Band Bossa Nova. "That was the start of my lifelong love affair with Brazilian music. I thought it was beguiling, uplifting, sexy, relaxing, and very melodic. It made me want to go to Brazil to find out where the music came from." Nearly fifty years later, he found out.

In October 2011, accompanied by Aslan, Davidson took his first trip to Brazil with the intention recording this project. "I've been living with the music for forty years," he says, "so it was almost like a homecoming." Most of his eight days there, which he spent in Rio de Janeiro, were occupied by six recording sessions.

Journey to Rio features deeply emotional Brazilian love songs alongside Davidson's French inspired compositions. These compositions enforce a sense of rooted emotion that melds Davidson's vast life experiences of international culture with the modern expressions of Brazilian jazz. With Davidson melody always comes first. "Any music has to start with a strong melodic line," he asserts. Like Debussy with his Preludes, Davidson gives his compositions titles that evoke scenes suggested by the music. They focus largely on love and nature, the prevailing themes of the bossa nova. Meanwhile, he pays more than passing respect to the moody, pulsing sound he heard on those Getz bossa records.

The sessions include two respected bassists: bossa nova veteran and acoustic playerSérgio Barrozo and electric bassist Ney Conceição, who was a longtime collaborator of João Bosco. The resulting line-up of trombonist Gilmar Ferreira, soprano and tenor saxophonist Marcelo Martins, percussionist Marco Lobo, guitarist Leonardo Amuedo, and alternating drummers Paulo Braga and Rafael Barata showcases some of Rio's finest musician.

The tightness of the ensemble work and comfortable grooves belie the fact that the sessions began with no written arrangements and minimal rehearsal. "The music was worked out in the studio day by day," Davidson notes. "I didn't even know exactly what tunes I was going to record. I'm not obsessed with writing out every note. I'm an improviser. Playing with other good improvisers, you reach greater heights of inspiration and spontaneity. I want to leave open space for other musicians to find their own voice within my tunes."

You'll hear it in "Love Across Time", one of the album's most heartfelt compositions. Davidson wrote it as he and his wife were separating. The song, he says, expresses "a love that transcends unhappiness." "Onde Está o Amor?" explores the stated theme with the same sort of melodic improvising that make the Getz albums so appealing. Braga's playing is gentle as a whisper, yet carries the song forward with a sure touch. "O Unico Amor"is a richly melodic piece. "I was thinking about how it feels to have one love above all. It was a pretty deep feeling that inspired the tune," explains Davidson. This deep emotion translates to the dark, aching bossa nova "Memories of Deborah", written as a gift to a close friend of Davidson who lost his wife to cancer.

 

Amuedo is the star of "Sonho do Amor", a throbbing bossa with a touch of saudade, the Portuguese word for a sometimes-indefinable yearning. "I was definitely thinking intently of Brazil in this tune," says Davidson. The most intimate tracks are the duets: "Olhos de Ouro" teams Davidson with Amuedo for a spacious dialogue in which silence is the third partner, while "Amantes para Sempre" is a showcase for the expansive, lyrical trombone playing of Ferreira, who states the theme then takes it apart with some of his prettiest improvising.

Bossa may be Brazil's most famous musical export, but it's not the only one that Davidson presents. "Sonho de Amanha" takes the album into the realm of modern Brazilian jazz, while "Bridge to Bahia" evokes the brighter side of a state in the northeast of Brazil, where African and Brazilian culture meet in the most soulfully percussive music to be found anywhere in the country. The title track, "Journey to Rio", keeps the party going. Ferreira and Martins (on soprano) state the rollicking tune in perfectly synchronized unison then Davidson and Martins solo at racing speed. Davidson wrote "To Brazil with Love" an hour before his show at Sala Baden Powell. This ruminative piano solo stands as his valentine to a place that instantly felt like home to him. "I felt that my internal rhythm slowed down in Rio," says Davidson.

 

With his work on the international front, it comes to no surprise that France, was also on his mind throughout these sessions. He brought the countries together musically on "Je m'en Souviens", which intertwine piano and soprano sax with utter simplicity. "Soir Brésilien" is a piano solo with a quiet grandeur and a French flavor. "It also has a Brazilian character in the harmony and melodic ideas," notes Davidson. "Embrasse-moi" showcases the French influence while featuring the delicate interplay of Davidson and Amuedo, whose playing breathes together.

Davidson's deep passion for all genres of music drove him to establish the Society for Universal Sacred Music, devoted to works that "have a message of unity and aspiration that included all humanity." The Society is now a worldwide organization, dedicated to commissioning new works and presenting performances all over the world. 

Ultimately, Davidson's entire career and love of international jazz has led up to the release of Journey to Rio. "It's been a great blessing that I've been able to do so many things well, and that they feel natural, as part of the global musical vocabulary I've developed," he says. "I feel a lot of empathy for all kinds of good music - music that really comes from the heart and that seeks to communicate passion and positive feelings."

Roger Davidson in Brazil - Soundbrush Records

Upcoming Roger Davidson Appearances:

June 14 / Zinc Bar / New York, NY

Roger Davidson·  Journey To Rio

Soundbrush Records ·  Release Date: June 11, 2013 

 

For more information on Roger Davidson, please visit: rogerdavidsonmusic.net

 

For more information on Soundbrush Records, please visit: soundbrush.com

  

 

For media information, please contact:
DL Media ·  610-667-0501
Don Lucoff ·   don@dlmediamusic.com
Matthew Jurasek ·  matthew@dlmediamusic.com 

 

Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos

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

Craig Taborn Trio - Chants (ECM 2013)

Craig Taborn piano
Thomas Morgan double bass
Gerald Cleaver drums

Recently hailed by Down Beat as “one of the visionaries of the current wave”, Craig Taborn has a unique perspective on creative music-making. Just as Avenging Angel subverted expectations of solo improvised piano, so does “Chants” find its own response to the vast tradition of the piano trio. The pieces that Taborn has been writing for the band in the eight years of its existence are set up to generate a new group music by channelling the special skills of drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Thomas Morgan. “I knew that if I created a context and then deferred, fully, to Gerald’s and Thomas’s sensibilities it would inherently be stimulating and would also challenge the context. I wanted to invite that challenge: I’d much rather engage with the group, always, than have the format be ‘piano adventures with supporting cast’”. Morgan and Cleaver share the leader’s concern for compositional shape and multi-layered improvisational detail, as the music is pulled between the poles of density and spaciousness, to dramatic and thrilling effect. “Chants” was recorded in New York in June 2012, and produced by Manfred Eicher. Its release is accompanied by international touring with concerts in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US. 
ECM