UK: Rosie Turton- Rosie's 5ive(2019)

London based trombonist and composer Rosie Turton is one of the up and coming voices on the UK jazz scene. Expressing herself through a variety of different musical outlets, from composing and playing with septet Nerija (Domino Recording Co), Sun Ra space influenced Where Pathways Meet to recording with Jitwam and Hollie Cook. After exploring the eclectic music scenes of London and New York to the Himalayas of India, Rosie’s ‘5ives’ release with Jazz Re:Freshed showcases her individual and unique voice as a performer, composer and producer. credits released January 11, 2019

 Rosie Turton - Trombone Johanna Burnheart - violin Maria Chiara Argirò - piano/wurlitzer Twm Dylan - bass Jake Long - drums Ben Hayes - synthesizers (Orange Moon) Luke Newman - vocals (stolen ribs)

USA: Chris Potter-Circuits (2019)

For more than two decades, Chris Potter's limitless creativity, effortless virtuosity and vibrant sense of swing has wowed critics, musicians and fans alike, who cite him as one of the most influential saxophonists and inventive improvisors of the modern day.His new album, Circuits is immediate and uplifting, rooted in a strong sense of groove and intense improvisation. Featuring an all-star band of 23rd year keyboard and Blue Note Artist James Frances, drum virtuoso Eric Harland and bassist Linely Marthe. Blending a vibrant sound world of electronics, memorable hooky melodies and surprising turns of phrase, Circuits is sure to delight both the dedicated Potter fans and new listeners alike.

USA/CANADA: Saxophonist/Composer Quinsin Nachoff Traces the Shadow of the Sun on the Second Release by his Innovative, Genre-Eclipsing Band Flux

Saxophonist/Composer Quinsin Nachoff Traces the Shadow of the Sun on the Second Release by his Innovative, Genre-Eclipsing Band Flux

Path of Totality, out February 8, 2019 on Whirlwind Recordings, features David Binney, Matt Mitchell, Kenny Wollesen and Nate Wood melding jazz and classical music with an arsenal of vintage electro-acoustic instruments

4.5 stars.  "Path of Totality is a stunning, deep dive of an album, the sort of music in which one could spend hours submersed." - J.D. Considine, DownBeat, February 2019

"Pure, bracing, thought-provoking musicŠcliche-and convention-free."
-Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen, reviewing Flux's debut concert

Neither Toronto nor New York, the two cities that Quinsin Nachoff calls home, offered prime viewing conditions as the moon eclipsed the sun in August of 2017. But Nachoff, who has long drawn inspiration from the scientific wonders of the universe, couldn't help but be moved by this rare astronomical phenomenon - and to find a degree of solace in it. After all, here was a shadow large enough to blot out the face of the sun, darkening the Earth and then moving on. In the Path of Totality could be found hope that this, too - whatever "this" might be in the moment, whether political, personal or environmental - will indeed pass.

That faith in change is at the heart of Flux, the name that Nachoff has bestowed upon his remarkable group, which returns on February 8, 2019 with its second release, Path of Totality, via Whirlwind Recordings. Flux is an ensemble, and Nachoff a composer, that thrive in the spaces in between genres, styles and inspirations. At its foundation Flux is a quartet, though at times on this album a quintet and sometimes more, employing a vast array of instruments and a vivid palette of musical colors to create something that is consistently surprising as its shape morphs from moment to moment over the course of these six epic-length pieces.

In saxophonist David Binney, Nachoff has a frontline partner with a keen-edged tone and a refined ear for texture, having integrated electronics into his own work as an artist and a producer that expand and mutate his sonic environments. Matt Mitchell is a rigorous boundary pusher, a pianist and composer who astutely avoids obvious choices in favor of pressing fervidly into the unexplored. Kenny Wollesen couples a similarly adventurous instinct with a passion for the playful, as reflected not only in the eccentric arsenal of invented instruments known as "Wollesonics" but in the buoyant swing he maintains even in his most complex and abstract rhythmic excursions. The new addition this time out is Nate Wood, who alternates and at times shares the drum chair with Wollesen, lending the band an urgency and avant-rock propulsion familiar from his work with Kneebody.

While that combination of voices would offer a wealth of possibility for any composer, Nachoff was handed an even larger palette by Canada's National Music Centre, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Canadian music through exhibitions, performances and educational programs. As one of the NMC's first Artists-in-Residence, Nachoff was granted access to the Centre's extensive keyboard collection, an enormous resource of both acoustic and electronic instruments.

"They really want this to be a living collection," Nachoff says. "So I spent three weeks at the NMC exploring the keyboards and synthesizers in their new, state-of-the-art building, then another two weeks writing during an artists' residency in Banff."

Raised in a household where electronic music was not only heard but composed, Nachoff has long been spurred to follow his own, more acoustic path, but the NMC's collection proved too tempting to resist. Both Mitchell and producer David Travers-Smith have a field day with the array of instruments, particularly on the stunningly pointillistic "Splatter," recorded at the NMC. Beginning with Mitchell's Baroque-by-way-of-Sun-Ra solo harpsichord improvisation, the tune progresses through a cosmic haze carved by jagged rhythms before the erratic horn melody intrudes, gradually building in density before breaking apart into stark fragments.

In a sense that arc could be seen as the portrait of the universe in miniature, though a model of the stellar regions was more directly a source for "Orbital Resonances," the album's closing track. Based on the intersecting pathways of orbiting bodies in space, the tune places the members of Flux into interrelated motion, crafting a piece from the accumulated sound of singular identities. Nachoff is an artist that takes the idea of "experimentation" quite literally. He's taken his interest in science beyond simple inspiration, working directly with Dr. Stephen Morris, a physicist at the University of Toronto, to translate experimental data into musical form.

One early result is "Bounce," whose percussive outbursts and heady call-and-response are built on the mathematical model of a bouncing ball. The conceptual is ultimately subsumed by the poignant, however, as the massive swell of a 1924 Kimball Theatre Organ from the NMC collection overwhelms the piece, turning into a requiem for a pair of recently lost influences, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor - the latter of whom Nachoff was honored to record with on the 2007 release Horizons Ensemble. Another compositional inspiration, John Cage, provided the spark for "Toy Piano Meditation," which takes the late pioneer's "Suite for Toy Piano" as a starting point and fuses Cage-ian ideas with the entrancing melodic/percussive turns of Balinese gamelan.

Of course, no album that names itself for a momentary darkness shrouding the planet can help but comment on our current political reality, and "March Macabre" does just that, with a healthy dose of bleak humor. Wollesen's "march machine," a wooden board outfitted with a row of clomping clogs, provides the marching beat that opens the piece on a totalitarian note. By the end, through the blissful improvisation of tap dancer Orlando Hernández, the lockstep has been broken and individual freedom restored.

"We went on tour for the first Flux record the day after Trump got elected and I was concurrently going through the process of becoming a US citizen," Nachoff recalls. "We were all in shock. We didn't know what to think, what to say to people. 'March macabre' was the first piece I wrote after that, and the Russia scandal inspired me to tie in elements from Shostakovich or Prokofiev -- composers who worked under a strict authoritarian structure but were still able to overcome this and make really interesting music."

Quinsin NachoffNYC-based saxophonist and composer Quinsin Nachoff has earned a reputation for making "pure, bracing, thought-provoking music" that is "cliché-and convention-free" (Ottawa Citizen). Since moving from his native Toronto to New York City, Nachoff has made a habit of freely crossing borders: his music moves fluidly between the jazz and classical worlds and manages to be soul-stirring at the same time that it is intricately cerebral. His passions reach into both the arts and the sciences, with concepts from physics or astronomy sparking inspiration for exhilarating compositions. As a saxophonist, Nachoff's playing has been described as "a revelationŠ [p]arsing shimmers of Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Mark Turner" (DownBeat). He was a semifinalist in the renowned Thelonious Monk Jazz Saxophone Competition and has been nominated for numerous Canadian National Jazz Awards. His diverse ensembles include Flux, the Ethereal Trio, Horizons Ensemble and FoMo quartet as well as the Pyramid Project.
www.quinsin.com

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USA: 2019 Grammy Winners Jazz Section

Best Jazz Instrumental Album
“Emanon” — The Wayne Shorter Quartet

Best Improvised Jazz Solo

“Don’t Fence Me In” — John Daversa, soloist. Track from: “American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom”

Best Jazz Vocal Album

“The Window” — Cécile Mclorin Salvant


Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

“American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom” — John Daversa Big Band featuring DACA Artists


Best Latin Jazz Album

“Back to the Sunset” — Dafnis Prieto Big Band

USA/BRAZIL Helio Alves Quartet Jazz at Kitano Saturday, February 23rd Sets 8 & 10:00pm

Helio Alves Quartet Saturday, February 23rd Sets 8 & 10:00pm Jazz at Kitano 66 Park Avenue, East 38th St New York, NY 10016 Reservations Recommended 212-885-7119 www.kitano.com Helio Alves: Piano Vic Juris: Guitar Peter Washington: Bass Duduka Da Fonseca: drums ​

“Alves has sublety, musicality and a extraordinary facility for improvisation…” “…exceptional melodic improviser…” -Roberti L. Doerschuk, DownBeat Magazine "Alves is a pianist whose instincts are lush and romantic and expansive-and driven by an inner pulse.” Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, pianist Helio Alves combines the rhythmic complexity of modern brazilian music with the edgy energy of contemporary jazz. A resident of NYC since the early '90s, Alves has received high praise as an in-demand sideman with the likes of Joe Henderson, Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito D'Rivera, Airto Moreira, Claudio Roditi, Rosa Passos and Sadao Watanabe, to name but a few.

www.helioalvesmusic.net

USA: Bob Holz -Silverthorne(2019)

Drummer Bob Holz returns with ''Silverthorne''! Jazz fusion artist Bob Holz delivers world class tunes on his new release, ''Silverthorne''. Holz shows why he's considered one of the top drummer/composers in the world today on this incredible recording! The interplay between Bob Holz, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Ada Rovatti, Ralphe Armstrong, Brandon Fields and Billy Steinway culminates in one of the best albums of 2019!

USA: RICH PELLEGRIN- DOWN(ORIGIN ARTS 2019)

PERFORMERS: R. Scott Morning - trumpet Neil Welch - tenor saxophone Rich Pellegrin - piano Evan Flory-Barnes - bass Chris Icasiano - drums Mizzou New Music Ensemble (6-7): Erin Spencer, flute Jeremiah Rittel, clarinet Britney Stutz, violin Korin Wahl, viola Rachel Czech, cello José Mart'nez, percussion Taylor Burkhardt, percussion Rich Pellegrin, conductor (6) Stefan Freund, conductor (7) All compositions by Rich Pellegrin



 For his third OA2 recording, composer/pianist Rich Pellegrin presents his decade-old quintet performing five enigmatic compositions - from the raw intensity of "Trial" to the mystical, inscrutable hues of the title cut, "Down" - along with an extended alternate version of "Down," recorded with a contemporary classical ensemble at the University of Missouri - the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. Together, eleven diverse musicians create a radiant texture of interweaving lines, extending the vital, collaborative focus for which the band is already known.
OA2