Haiku - the premiere recording collaboration between
multifaceted pianist, vocalist/songwriter, and arranger, Jenny Maybee, and veteran
jazz record producer, trumpet player, songwriter, and arranger, Nick Phillips - is a
mesmerizing mix of vocal and instrumental jazz recordings in which refreshingly
original compositions and imaginative arrangements of standards are brought to
life with inspired, risk-taking, live-in-the-studio performances.
The
Maybee/Phillips musical partnership began with a chance meeting at the 2014
West Coast Songwriter's conference. They discovered a shared love for music
arising from a place of stillness conveying frequencies of appreciation and
awe. Focusing their shared musical exploration on creating anenvironment for
relaxed improvisation, the duo organically developed original compositions and
reimagined favorite standards, for the pure joy of making music together.
Opportunity
knocked when Cookie Marenco - an esteemed, audiophile engineer/producer with
several GRAMMY® nominated recordings to her credit-approached Phillips about
recording his next project at her legendary OTR Studios. Marenco's proprietary Extended Sound
Environment (E.S.E.) recording technique and state-of-the-art,
ultra-high-resolution audio technology-Quad-rate DSD, aka DSD256, which records
at a sampling frequency that's 256 times that of a CD-captures Maybee and
Phillips' stirring and nuanced performances in a breath-taking sonic landscape
that is at once warm and intimate, yet detailed and spacious.
While the
recording technology is leading edge, the approach was decidedly "old
school": Three musicians-Jenny Maybee (piano, vocals), Nick Phillips
(trumpet), and Paul Eastburn (acoustic bass)- together in the studio for an
afternoon. No headphones, no isolation between musicians, no overdubs, no
Auto-Tune. Just real, responsive, in-the-moment jazz in complete, unedited
takes.
Although
record producer Phillips is no stranger to working with jazz vocalists - having
been at the helm of acclaimed jazz vocal projects, including GRAMMY®-nominated
albums by Karrin Allyson and Nnenna Freelon - Haiku marks his first album
collaboration with a vocalist as a co-leader and recording artist. And while
pianist Maybee has long been a fixture in envelope-pushing improvisation
ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area, Haiku marks the multi-talented
artist's long-overdue recording debut as a jazz vocalist.
Dropping on
January 29, 2016, the Haiku album release is being launched with a celebration
concert at Yoshi's Oakland on February 1, 2016.
http://maybeephillips.com
TRACKS
1. HAIKU
(Nick Phillips-Clifford Goldmacher) 6:58
2. YOU (Nick
Phillips-Clifford Goldmacher) 6:35
3.
INTERSTELLAR (Jenny Maybee) 5:18
4. THE
MEANING OF THE BLUES (Bobby Troup-Leah Worth) 5:33
5. BLUE MONK
(Thelonious Monk) 4:55
6. THE
SETTING SUN (Jenny Maybee) 4:03
7. AUTUMN
MOON (Paul Eastburn-Jenny Maybee-Nick Phillips) 2:16
8. WINTER
BUTTERFLIES (Jenny Maybee) 5:55
9. HEAVEN
(Jenny Maybee) 5:13
10. IDYLL
SURREAL (Nick Phillips) 6:14
11. NOW AND
THEN (Nick Phillips-Jenny Maybee) 7:01
Jenny Maybee
is a classically-trained jazz pianist and vocalist whoapproaches music as the
art of expressing the human body through song-structures and improvisation. Her
compositions are inspired by her studies of the martial and healing arts and
the vast sonic landscape of jazz and world music. Her playing reflects her
range of exploration, dancing from stunning open space and intricate use of
silence to powerful rhythmic intensity. Drawn to the San Francisco Bay Area to
complete her law degree at U.C. Berkeley, she has recorded and played in jazz
groups including her own trio, the Empty Chamber Ensemble, the Heftpistole
Chamber Ensemble, and Noertker's Moxie. www.jennymaybeemusic.com
Perhaps
best-known as a jazz record producer-with credits on countless
internationally-distributed releases including more than a dozen
GRAMMY-nominated projects-Nick Phillips' warm-toned, lyrical jazz trumpet
playing was put in the spotlight in 2014 with release of his own debut album,
Moment to Moment, co-led with jazz pianist Cava Menzies. Cracking the top 20 of
the Billboard Jazz chart, reaching the top 30 and spending nine consecutive
weeks on the JazzWeek chart, and garnering both a 4-star review and a coveted
spot on DownBeat magazine's "Best Jazz Albums of 2014" list, the
album drew laudatory comparisons to the work of jazz trumpet legends Miles
Davis ("The Ballads Album Miles Davis Never Recorded" -East Bay
Express) and Chet Baker ("... pristine, and moving, trumpet sound...Phillips
nods to his predecessor's [Baker's] fragility but also imparts a feeling of
strength that comes through a sense of restraint." -DownBeat).
www.NickPhillipsMusic.com
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