New Music Releases: Louie Vega Presents Leroy Burgess & Patrick Adams; Ricardo Peixoto; Itamar Erez

Louie Vega Presents Leroy Burgess & The Universal Robot Band Featuring Patrick Adams – Barely Breaking Even

BBE will mark 500 releases with a Louie Vega, Leroy Burgess & Patrick Adams remake of the Universal Robot Band track that gave the label its name. BBE founder Peter Adarkwah convinced Burgess—who made the 1982 original along with his Logg bandmates Sonny T. Davenport and James J. Calloway—to collaborate with Louie Vega and the legendary disco producer Patrick Adams on a new version of the iconic track. The trio's two remakes look back to integral strands of New York City dance music culture with respective house and boogie mixes. Both feature live strings from the Apple Hill String Quartet, arranged by Adams and Burgess.

Ricardo Peixoto – Scary Beautiful

Although guitarist and composer Ricardo Peixoto was born and raised in Brazil, his musical horizons cross borders, cultures, and genres. Scary Beautiful, his newest CD, comprises 10 of Peixoto’s original compositions, each colored by his broad musical palette. Scary Beautiful is Peixoto’s third CD as a leader. The recording includes some of the best Brazilian and straightahead jazz players from the San Francisco Bay Area and Brazil, and was co-produced by Ricky Fataar, producer and drummer with Bonnie Raitt. Peixoto has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Japan and Brazil, recording and performing with Flora Purim and Airto, Bud Shank, Claudio Roditi, Dori Caymmi, Guinga, Arturo Sandoval, Spok, and Jovino Santos Neto, among many others. Peixoto is also a member of the popular Bay Area group, The Berkeley Choro Ensemble, who released their album The View From Here in 2018. Peixoto is a classically trained musician as well as a graduate of Berklee College of Music. His music is firmly rooted in jazz and his native Brazil, with hints of his classical training. His fluid melodic sense and original harmonic approach place him among the top representatives of Brazilian guitar in the U.S. today.

Itamar Erez – Mi Alegria

Itamar Erez is no stranger to exploring new musical territory. Trained in classical guitar, he’s roamed from Turkish music to Spanish Flamenco, from jazz to Afro-Brazilian sounds. But when Erez moved his young family from Tel Aviv to Vancouver, it felt like starting from scratch all over again. A requinto, a Mexican cousin of the guitar, had been sitting in his music room for years, as if the two needed to get to know each other. As Erez began to create a musical community again in his new home, he found inspiration to stretch his sound yet again. Picking up that requinto, Erez delighted in the playful feel of its higher register. The joyful optimism of that moment rings out in “Requinto,” the scintillating opening track of his new solo album, Mi Alegria, a celebration of all of Erez’s musical homes past and present.