CUBA: Zule Guerra, el New Jazz y Blues de Habana

La Elegancia y la improvisación distinguen a la joven intérprete cubana Zule Guerra en su primer CD DVD titulado Blues de Habana .
Zule Guerra, el New Jazz y Blues de Habana

Zule Guerra, el New Jazz y Blues de Habana

El álbum licenciado por la empresa de grabaciones y ediciones musicales EGREM, es su primer fonograma que apuesta por las nuevas formas de decir la canción denominada new jazz, interactuando cono otros géneros como, el soul, la música electrónica y el jazz, fusionado con lo más autóctono de la música cubana.

The album released by the EGREM label , is its first CD dedicated  to new ways  of jazz  interacting with other genres such as , soul , electronic music and jazz, merged with most native Cuban music 


More info

USA: Dan Weiss Large Ensemble Sixteen: Drummers Suite(Pi Recordings 2016)

Dan Weiss Large Ensemble

Sixteen: Drummers Suite

Out Now

 

Sixteen: Drummers Suite is the highly anticipated follow-up to Fourteen, drummer/composer Dan Weiss’s brilliantly ambitious opus for fourteen musicians. Nate Chinen of the New York Times named it one of his top ten releases of 2014, and Peter Hum in the Ottawa Citizen called it “a blazingly creative effort…. Ultimately, its audacious and unconventional success is uplifting, a testament to what’s possible and what can be imagined.” Sixteen is even more daring: The ensemble is now comprised of sixteen musicians, featuring drums, acoustic bass, guitar, piano, synthesizer, three saxophones, two trombones, tuba, flute, three voices, harp, glockenspiel, organ, vibraphone, tabla and percussion, giving the work even greater sonic scope. Like on Fourteen, the work is an unique amalgam of jazz, Indian music, prog rock, contemporary classical music, and other completely idiosyncratic influences, all woven by Weiss into a completely sui generis musical tapestry.

Weiss started composing Sixteen immediately after the completion of Fourteen, which had whet his appetite for further exploration of different orchestration concepts and use of a greater tonal palette. The work is particularly influenced by the composers Iannis Xenakis and Per Nørgård, whose works Weiss was studying. Around the same time he was analyzing an Elvin Jones comping rhythm from a video he found on Youtube of the John Coltrane Quartet performing the song “Vigil” at the Comblain-la-Tour Festival, Belgium in 1965, and the idea came to him to use a particular drumming passage as the basis for his composition “Elvin.” Inspired by the idea of starting his composition process with a drum pattern rather than harmony or melody, Weiss went on to meticulously transcribe specific rhythmic passages of some other of his favorite drummers: Max Roach, Tony Williams, Philly Joe Jones, Kenny “Klook” Clarke and Ed Blackwell, and utilize them as the basis of each movement of the suite. Each piece on Sixteen is built not only around these specific drum patterns but they also reflect Weiss’s imagining of the personality based on his research into the lives of each drummer. He further cross-references these personalities from movement to movement as a way of showing how they influenced one another, reflecting the nature of the drum lineage in the jazz tradition. The introductory piece “The Drummers Meet” intertwines all six drummers’ phrases in the context of a chakradar, a specific type of tabla composition. The source material for the other pieces are:

Elvin Jones, from John Coltrane Quartet recorded at the Comblain-la-Tour Festival, Belgium, 1965: “Vigil,” from 2:15 to 2:23

Max Roach, from Max Roach’s Deeds, Not Words: “Jodie’s Cha Cha,” from 1:02 to 1:11

Tony Williams, from Miles Davis’s Nefertiti: “Nefertiti,” from 6:37 to 6:50

Philly Joe Jones, from Miles Davis’s Milestones: “Billy Boy,” from 5:10 to 5:14

Kenny “Klook” Clarke, from Dexter Gordon’s Our Man in Paris: “Broadway,” from 0:00 to 0:09

Ed Blackwell, from John Coltrane and Don Cherry’s The Avant Garde: “Cherryco,” from 4:55 to 5:02
Weiss is one of the busiest drummers on the jazz scene. He has toured and recorded with the likes of Rudresh Mahanthappa, Greg Osby, Lee Konitz, Tim Berne, Rez Abbasi, and Amir ElSaffar, in addition to musicians such as keyboardist Matt Mitchell, saxophonists Dave Binney and Miguel Zenon, guitarist Miles Okazaki, and vocalist Jen Shyu, all of whom appear on Sixteen. Indeed, the musicians on the album – most of whom also appeared on Fourteen – are almost entirely made up of Weiss’s long-time collaborators. As much as Sixteen is an expression of his singular vision, it is also a reflection of this strong community of superb, like-minded musicians who admire Weiss’s talent and ambition and have bought-in fully to this considerable undertaking. Pianist Jacob Sacks, who has played with Weiss for over twenty years, says of him “Dan is one of the greatest musicians of our time. His endless fountain of creativity, scholarship, and camaraderie is a constant source of inspiration to me and to anyone who has ears and a heart.”

As on Fourteen, the work is through-composed and written specifically to showcase each musician’s unique sound. Even with all the tricky rhythms and abrupt changes in the music that might seem unwieldy for such a large group, the musicians pull it all off with aplomb. Jen Shyu says of Sixteen: “I was most struck by how tailor-made it was for each of us. During the recordings session he seemed to know exactly how it would sound. The music really shows the vastness of his imagination and is a window into how his mind works; how he is able to bring all of these influences together. For all its complexity rhythmically as well as melodically and harmonically, the music remains penetrating and lingering.” Jacob Garchik, who plays trombone and tuba on the recording said “Danny has a distinctive compositional voice, which mirrors his vibrant personality: deeply layered and complex, with humor, surprise, virtuosity, tradition, swing, soulfulness, and groove. On Sixteen, he abstractly and beautifully translates the multi-layered styles of his drum heroes, their independent limbs to simultaneous melodies. It delights with overlapping, complimentary layers where melodic lines co-exist in different rhythmic cycles, instrumental groups, stylistic references, and sonic palates.” With Sixteen: Drummers Suite, Weiss has realized another exceptional achievement, one that continues to reimagine the possibilities of what a large ensemble can do in a jazz context. 

PERFORMERS:

Dan Weiss: compositions, drums, tabla, vocal percussion

Thomas Morgan: acoustic bass

Jacob Sacks: piano

Matt Mitchell: keyboard, piano, glockenspiel, organ, vibraphone

Miles Okazaki: guitars, vocal percussion

Stephen Cellucci: percussion, vocal percussion

Katie Andrews: harp

Anna Webber: flute, alto flute

David Binney: alto saxophone

Miguel Zenon: alto saxophone

Ohad Talmor: tenor saxophone

Jacob Garchik: trombone, tuba

Ben Gerstein: trombone

Judith Berkson: voice

Lana Is: voice

Jen Shyu: voice

Praise for Dan Weiss and Fourteen ·     “Dan Weiss is a jazz drummer of articulate virtues: You listen to him and you’re reminded of what drum tone should sound like, what multi-limb rhythmic organization is, what a displaced beat can do.” – The New York Times ·     “…brilliantly ambitious… Heady and heavenly all at once.” -- All About Jazz ·     “This is not merely a highly complex piece of music but a full-fledged exercise in contrasting rhythms, daring sonorities, and clashing harmonic tensions. Maybe it’s best just to hear Fourteen as a kind of pure abstraction … A number with passion. A number with fire.” -- Popmatters ·     “It’s dizzyingly vast and eclectic and somehow utterly chaotic and bonkers and then beautifully serene, thoughtful, wise and peace-conjuring. And this is happening all at once.” -- Off the Tracks

RACKS:

1.     The Drummers Meet

2.     Elvin

3.     Max

4.     Tony

5.     Philly Joe

6.     Klook

7.     Ed

UK/USA: Roswell Rudd, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn, Balázs Pándi - Strength & Power (RareNoiseRecords 2016)

Bass – Trevor Dunn
Drums – Balázs Pándi
Piano – Jamie Saft
Trombone – Roswell Rudd



In a remarkable example of uncanny group-think, pianist-keyboardist and RareNoise regular Jamie Saft (Metallic Taste of Blood, Slobber Pup, Plymouth, The New Standard, Red Hill) joins with longtime collaborators Trevor Dunn on bass and Balazs Pandi on drums and master trombonist Roswell Rudd on the astounding, purely improvised Strength&Power.
RareNoiseRecords

USA: Kurt Elling to present Lifetime Achievement Award to Jon Hendricks @ the 31st ANNUAL BISTRO AWARDS

Kurt Elling to present Lifetime Achievement Award to Jon Hendricks Jazz greats Annie Ross and Janis Siegel also honored at the 31st ANNUAL BISTRO AWARDS GALA Tuesday, March 8th Multi-award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling will present the ASCAP Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award to Jon Hendricks at the 31st annual Bistro Awards on Tuesday, March 8 at 6:30 at Gotham Comedy Club. Elling, who is also performing, has stated, “Jon is undoubtedly the greatest jazz singer alive and an internationally. His recorded scat solos stand up to those of the most accomplished improvisers of his generation; his lyrics are on a par with the masters of any genre of writing. He is living history, and his is the standard to which any jazz singer must aspire.” Mr. Hendricks co-founded the pioneering vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross in the '50s. Together with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross, he mastered the art of vocalese — that of adding lyrics to instrumental compositions and instrumental solos, as well as complex vocal treatments for the Big Band arrangements of the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Their work influenced countless well-known singers, including Van Morrison, Al Jarreau, and Bobby McFerrin.  As a solo vocalist, he has recorded several albums, made frequent television appearances, and toured extensively internationally, and he has served multiple times on the Kennedy Center Honors committee. Being honored with a Bistro Award for her Outstanding Contributions to the World of Jazz, Annie Ross was part of the famed Lambert, Hendricks & Ross trio for six years. After leaving the group, she ran a jazz club in London and has enjoyed a long career in film and theatre. She has been a celebrated solo jazz vocalist for many years. Janis Siegel has been a member of Manhattan Transfer since 1973 and is also an acclaimed solo jazz vocalist; she is being recognized for Sustained Excellence in Jazz Performance and Recording, And being honored with a Bistro Award for Ongoing Artistry in Cabaret and Concert Performance is Christine Andreas, who has maintained an international career in theatre, television, concert halls, and clubs. This year's other recipients and their categories are:   Jarrod Spector & Kelli Barrett / Major Engagement “Another Hundred People” (KT Sullivan, Jeff Harnar, Sondra Lee, Jon Weber) / Musical Revue Sharon McNight / Commanding Cabaret Artistry Matt Baker / Ira Eaker Special Achievement Award Molly Pope / Creative Cabaret Artist Ann Dawson / Vocalist Dawn Derow / Vocalist Rob Sutton / Vocalist Charlie Johnson / Entertainer Aaron Morishita / Recording ("Singing Sondheim") Urban Stages’ “Winter Rhythms” (Frances Hill, Peter Napolitano) / Series Hosting the 31st annual show is Jason Graae, whose varied career spans Broadway, Off Broadway, opera, television, and film. He is a four-time Bistro Award recipient for his various one-man shows which have toured all over the country and for his special musical material. This will be the fourth year in a row that the Bistro Awards show will be under the directorial helm of Shellen Lubin. A director, songwriter, performer, and vocal and acting coach, she has been in the forefront of attaining parity for women in the arts. The gala event will be held on Tuesday, March 8 at 6:30 pm at Gotham Comedy Club. 208 W. 23rd Street. As is the Bistro Awards tradition, the evening will feature performances by nearly all of the winners. Sherry Eaker, the former longtime Editor-in Chief of Back Stage and the producer of the event since its inception, heads up the Awards Committee that includes BistroAwards.com critics Gerry Geddes, Roy Sander, Robert Windeler, and Mark Dundas Wood. Sander is also the award show’s associate producer. The Bistro Awards is sponsored by ASCAP. Premium Tickets are $120.00; General Admission tickets are $70.00. Ticket-buyers in both categories are invited to the “After-Bistros” party as guests of the Bistros.  For details about the various ticket categories and to purchase tickets, visit www.BistroAwards.com. Press contact: Sherry Eaker sherry@bistroawards.com 917-239-5467 Press contact: Sherry Eaker sherry@bistroawards.com  917-239-5467 www.bistroawards.com

USA: Ed Cherry "Soul Tree" (Posi-Tone 2016)

 

Ed Cherry "Soul Tree"

"Top-notch material that is interpreted in a refreshingly straightforward manner, a band that wholeheartedly embraces unity, and soloists who speak concisely and with character: These are the things that make Soul Tree a recording that can be enjoyed by listeners new to jazz and aficionados as well."
- David A. Orthmann, All About Jazz

 

Guitarist Ed Cherry grooves back onto the scene with his second record for Posi-Tone, "Soul Tree."  With organist Kyle Koehler and drummer Anwar Marshall, Cherry succeeds in offering listeners a fresh take on the art of the organ trio.  While the session is definitely straight forward and features some hard swinging highlights, the music is also elegantly lyrical and brilliantly evocative of a more modern jazz sensibility.  With an amazing combination of talents, some brilliant performances, and an evocative program of music, Ed Cherry's latest record "Soul Tree" is sure to bring bright moments to jazz fans everywhere.

 

listen to the track "Rachel's Step"

 

  buy from Posi-Tone 

buy from iTunes

buy from Amazon
 

USA Marc Copland-Zenith(2016)

"Copland's sound in the piano trio is singular: he dips deeply into harmony, creating glistening chords and shimmering rhythms, a sort of diaphanous dream music so beautiful it's almost hard to believe." ---Allaboutjazz.com

"Copland at the summit of his abilities....a quartet that seems to beat with one heart....Copland is so keyed into what the moment needs from him, and he delivers it with passion, humor, touch, and a killer rhythmic instinct."

USA: Alex Conde "Descarga for Monk” @ Cornelia Street Cafe Thus, March 31st 8pm

"On Descarga for Monk, his ZOHO Music debut (and third recording as a leader overall), the gifted pianist-composer has his way with the high priest of bop in an adventurous all-Monk program that is teaming with the spirit of Spanish duende.  Accompanied by jazz musicians of the highest caliber, Conde draws on his own personal experiences in the rich flamenco tradition to craft a stirring set of music that pays tribute to Monk while taking great liberties with the familiar themes and rhythms of such staples as Bemsha Swing, Evidence, Monk’s Dream and others. 

“The Bay Area's role as a crucible for Latin jazz experimentation continues apace.  Spanish-born pianist Alex Conde released one of the year's most memorable projects with "Descarga For Monk" (Zoho Music), a passionate re-imagining of classic Thelonious Monk compositions through the lens of flamenco.”  Andrew Gilbert, KQED

www.alexconde.com/live/

Media Contact
Jim Eigo
Jazz Promo Services
272 State Route 94 South #1
Warwick, NY 10990-3363
Ph: 845-986-1677 / Fax: 845-986-1699
Cell / text: 917-755-8960
Skype: jazzpromo
jim@jazzpromoservices.com
www.jazzpromoservices.com