Tuesday, December 22, 2020

New Music Releases: Feiertag, Ada Bird Wolfe & Jamieson Trotter, Menagerie

Feiertag | La Parisienne

The last few months must have been the most exciting of Joris Feiertag’s career so far. Even though the dutch drummer has been releasing music since 2015 (f.e. on Kraak & Smaak’s label «Boogie Angst»), his proper debut album will finally see the light the day within the next year. This upcoming oeuvre has been long awaited by his numerous fans worldwide - almost as much as it has been for Feiertag himself. Fortunately for all parties involved, the artist still managed to hold us over with a steady stream of quality music in the meantime (f.e. the two EPs «Severance» and «Heal» – both on Sonar Kollektiv). To that end, the musician and producer extraordinaire now rations us yet another one-off treat: «La Parisienne» is a spheric modern jazz funk track, reminiscent of the glorious days of 70s library music while forging links to the aesthetics of Early Sounds Recordings in Napoli or Mildlife in Melbourne. Although this release was initially planned as a one song single, the two minute piece of bliss in the form of «Saviour» was added as the two songs compliment each other so perfectly. And with that, Sonar Kollektiv have tied up a fabulous double package..

Ada Bird Wolfe & Jamieson Trotter | He & Me

He & Me, the newest project by singer and lyricist Ada Bird Wolfe, is a duo album featuring the esteemed pianist and arranger Jamieson Trotter performing jazz standards and original tunes. He & Me follows Wolfe’s 2018 release, Birdie, named one of the top 10 albums of 2018 by C. Michael Bailey in All About Jazz. Dick Metcalf of Contemporary Fusion Reviews called Birdie "a superb jazz vocal adventure." And Dodie Miller-Gould of Lemonwire said: "Birdie is a joyous compilation of songs that shows off the singer’s vocal range and scope of moods." Wolfe has a rich, alto voice with a warm, intimate timbre. She eschews melisma and vocal gymnastics to tell her stories through inventive phrasing and subtle variations on melody. Trotter is a first-call accompanist for vocalists who are serious about their craft. He possesses an expansive musical vocabulary and the ability to listen closely and react with his own imaginative turns of phrase. He and Me provides a glimpse into the creative process of two musicians whose tastes and aesthetics are completely in synch. They build tunes organically by listening closely to one another and weaving tapestries of sound that create new and unexpected aural images.

Menagerie | Many Worlds

Australian 9-piece Spiritual Jazz group Menagerie announce their highly anticipated third album "Many Worlds" on esteemed U.K label Freestyle Records. Menagerie is the Melbourne-based jazz ensemble founded by producer, songwriter, guitarist, DJ and recording artist Lance Ferguson, also the driving force behind The Bamboos, Lanu, Rare Groove Spectrum and Machines Always Win. Menagerie‘s debut album "They Shall Inherit" saw the light of day in 2012 via label Tru Thoughts and 2018 saw the release of "The Arrow Of Time" on Freestyle. Two years on from their last full-length album, Menagerie are back with "Free Thing", the first single from their upcoming album that sees the band leaning heavily into the spiritual side of their sound. The hypnotic spoken word-poem is evocative of The Last Poets, an earthy yet futuristic meditation on the universal theme of freedom itself, set to a backdrop of insistent percussion, double bass and brooding piano voicings.


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