Blue Engine Records announces the release of UNA NOCHE CON RUBÉN BLADES from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis featuring Rubén Blades

Rubén Blades — the salsa giant and nine-time GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and activist — collaborated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in 2014 for an extraordinary series of performances on the Jazz at Lincoln Center stage. On these very special style-straddling, Americas-spanning nights, the worlds of salsa and swing collided. Blue Engine Records today announced this historic concert, which the New York Times called "radically beautiful,” will be available as an album release entitled Una Noche con Rubén Blades on October 19, 2018.

Music-directed by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra bassist Carlos Henriquez (called an “emerging master in the Latin jazz idiom” by DownBeat magazine), Una Noche con Rubén Blades features Blades, backed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, performing Blades’ own beloved compositions, including “Pedro Navaja,” “Patria,” and “El Cantante,” as well as swing-era standards like “Too Close for Comfort” and “Begin the Beguine.” 

“I’ve known Rubén Blades since I was two years old—or at least I feel like I have,” Henriquez says. “His albums—and the sound and the warmth they generated–filled my family’s apartment at 146th and Brook Avenue in the Bronx, and his music was one of my earliest influences.”

“Jazz is the story of taking old parts and building something new,” he continues. “When Rubén joined us for our performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, we did exactly that using the Great American Songbook and the Afro-Cuban rhythms that propel all the wonderful music that Rubén sang that evening. The music I arranged for Rubén Blades to perform with the Orchestra sounds like Panama, New Orleans, and New York all mixed into one. Those sounds form the heart of all our stories as musicians, and in combining them we reaffirmed that we’re all in this together.”

The first single from Una Noche con Rubén Blades, “Ban Ban Quere,” is available for streaming and download on all mass-market digital platforms today. The album is available for preorder on iTunes and Amazon. Preorders via Jazz at Lincoln Center’s webstore include a deluxe bundle featuring the CD and limited-edition maraca.

Percussion pilgrim Jim Roberts lays down beats, grooves & a call for peace on The Tao of Time

In 2006, percussionist, producer, and educator Jim Roberts takes to heart the words of activist  Jody Williams,  who started the International Campaign to Ban Landmines when she said, "if you’re involved in something and you want me to know about it, don’t come to me until you’ve done something about it,”

Roberts took the challenge. He devoted years to doing something, crafting The Tao of Time (release: October 26, 2018), a concept album as diverse and unexpected as his wide-ranging musical influences. Inspired by peace activists and other agents of change--the wonderful Peace Pilgrim’s words, for example, create a pivot in the album--The Tao of Time explores the nature of time, history, human experience, and how the past can but does not have to determine the future.

“As a drummer, people often expect you to just do drum pieces, not the kind of things I’m doing here. When I began working on this record, I had a bigger vision,” says Roberts. “But I knew that I couldn’t leave the drums out. Drums, time and language are synonymous. It’s all part of the process.”

Roberts’s bigger vision unfolds over the course of interlocking vignettes guided by raucous  time-traveling seafarers, Captain Time and his Craic crew; clever covers (Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues,” Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger,” along with set of variations on its themes); and original pieces tackling war and peace, past and future, life and death, and the nature of the universe. Though Roberts urges listeners to engage with the darker side of existence on pieces like “Soul Power ” and “When Will Peace Come,” the destination is ultimately hopeful and forward looking, as the words and sounds ask us to be “All That We Can Be.”

Drummer-Composer Devin Gray reconvenes his Dirigo Rataplan band of master musicians for second album, Dirigo Rataplan II

Drummer-Composer Devin Gray reconvenes his Dirigo Rataplan band of master musicians - with Ellery Eskelin, Michael Formanek & Dave Ballou - for second album, Dirigo Rataplan II, due from Rataplan Records on Sept. 21

"A musician-drummer rather than a drummer-drummer, Gray is interested in making music that is deeply evocativeŠ shaped by a fizzing, often restless push-pull energy." - Jazzwise 

There are times when music lovers can just feel a talent coming into his or her own, when that artist is someone to catch onstage or on record at every opportunity. Drummer-composer Devin Gray has arrived at such a moment. The Brooklyn-based artist made his leader debut in 2012 with the Skirl Records release Dirigo Rataplan, which featured him fronting the eponymous band with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, bassist Michael Formanek and trumpeter Dave Ballou, each a master improviser renowned far and wide among fans of creative music. Cadence magazine declared that initial disc to be "fantastic," while JazzTimes said that Gray's debut represented "the work of a young artist who knows who he is."

Now, after six years of intensive experience as a leader and sideman on both sides of the Atlantic, Gray has reconvened this all-star group for Dirigo Rataplan II, which will be released on CD, vinyl, digitally and for streaming via Rataplan Records on Sept. 21, 2018. Time Out New York has praised Gray's compositions for balancing "formal elasticity with a meticulous sense of pacing." The new album brims with more earworm melody, richly implied harmony and a loose-limbed sense of rhythm as something physical and flowing - as blood, as breath. Fans of jazz from Ornette Coleman and Henry Threadgill to Dave Holland and Craig Taborn will dig this organic mix of composition and improvisation, structure and freedom, atmosphere and dynamism.

About the evolution of Dirigo Rataplan and his writing for the band, Gray says: "I've become more at ease with following my natural artistic impulses. The experiences I've had over the past six years have been so inspiring - in the intense, ultra-energized New York jazz scene, of course, but also in Europe, where players in improvised music are so open to different genres and have this holistic approach to art and creativity. With Dirigo Rataplan II, there is more free improvisation in the music, but I also think the melodic fluidity between the composition and the improvisation is more seamless, with one flowing into the other in a way that I really like. This music is personal for me, but I want Mike, Ellery and Dave to do what it is they do, to maximize the pieces in the way that I know they can."

About working with Gray, Formanek says: "Devin has grown as a composer since that first quartet recording session in 2011, but most important, he has a much more evolved sense of who he is_ as a musician, and also of who we are in the band as improvisers. These instincts take time to develop, and it has been great to see that process unfold in both his playing and his composing. This music is free and open with a lot of room for improvisation, but the tunes also have an intrinsic rhythmic and melodic character to them, a color and energy. With the quartet having played together more now, the sessions for the new album felt even better."

For Gray, what is most vital about Formanek "is not just that his tone and sense of time are so incredible. It's also that he cares so much about doing whatever he can to ensure the quality of the music in front of him. He's a composer's improviser, in that way. I feel this total, unspoken trust with him." About Eskelin, Gray says: "Ellery sets the bar so high for improvisation. The fluidity of his solos, the intense forward motion - that's what New York musicians have more than anyone else." Regarding Ballou, the drummer adds: "I've known Dave's playing intimately since I was a kid. I don't think he has ever sounded better, with that beautiful tone and wide palette of expression. He brings a strong interpretive sense to my music in that he anticipates what I'm looking for, yet via his own sensibility. Working with cats like this, you don't have to worry about individualism - it's in everything they do. They bring what are just notes on a page to real life."

Reflecting further on Dirigo Rataplan II, Gray concludes: "I don't set out to make jazz records, per se. I set out to make music, period - to capture the moment, the contemporary feel of the music, hoping that it can reflect in some small way how we live now and what we all have to deal with as human beings in the world."

    

In addition to Dirigo Rataplan, Devin Gray leads the quartet Relative Resonance, featuring Chris Speed, Kris Davis and Chris Tordini. Reviewing that band's eponymous Skirl Records album, All About Jazz said: "The vitality of Relative Resonance can't be deniedŠ the music here literally sparkles with wit and resourcefulness." On record, Gray has also led his Cloudsounds trio (with Ingrid Laubrock and Corey Smythe) and his quartet Fashionable Pop Music (with Tordini, Jonathan Goldberger and Ryan Ferreira). He recently released a hard-grooving digital single fronting his quartet Meta Cache with Jeremy Viner, Elias Stemeseder and Kim Cass.

       

As a sideman, Gray has recorded recent albums as part of Nate Wooley's Argonautica sextet, trumpeter Daniel Levine's trio Knuckleball (with Marc Hannaford) and a trio led by pianist Santiago Leibson (with Drew Gress). Of late, the drummer has played with Dave Liebman and Tony Malaby, along with touring Europe at the head of a trio with Speed and Gress. Gray's recent collaborators also include Gerald Cleaver, Uri Caine, Andrea Parkins, Satoko Fuji, Richard Bonnet, Daniel Guggenheim, Marc Ducret, Frank Gratkowski, Jacob Anderskov, Eve Risser and Susana Santos Silva.

o Oct. 1 - Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME   

o Oct. 2 - University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

o  Oct. 3 - University of Maine, Augusta, ME  

o Oct. 4 - SPACE, Portland, ME

o Oct. 5 - Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT 

o Oct. 6 - An die Musik, Baltimore, MD

o Oct. 7 - The October Revolution Festival, Philadelphia, PA

o Dec. 1 - Greenwich Music House, NYC 

o Dec. 4 - Korzo, Brooklyn, NY 

o Dec. 6 - SMAK, Ghent, BE

o Dec. 7 - Vortex, London, UK

o Dec. 8 - AMR, Geneva, Switzerland     

o Dec. 9 - Geneva Conservatory of Music, Geneva   o Dec. 10 -Villa Irniger, Zurich, Switzerland

devingraymusic.com                    

devingraymusic.bandcamp.com

Swedish-born and longtime Boston resident bassist and composer Bruno Raberg is releasing his tenth CD as a leader, Tailwind

Swedish-born and longtime Boston resident bassist and composer Bruno Raberg is releasing his tenth CD as a leader, Tailwind. The music consists of mainly original compositions by Raberg along with interpretations of the jazz repertoire. Raberg says, "It's been a dream of mine for a long time to be able to play with both Bruce and Adam. Bruce and I used to play with the Boston based large ensemble, Orange Then Blue, and it's been really great to reconnect with him. Adam is a new acquaintance and the way he completes the trio is just amazing." The music on Tailwind moves freely from hard swinging to the more lyrical and atmospheric, always with heart and soul. 

Tailwind - for me this is the feeling of being gently pushed ahead, having my intentions and dreams amplified by a collective effort, in this case making music together as a group. When playing with great musicians such as Bruce and Adam I get the sense of being lifted and carried along; the music flowing effortlessly, yet deeply.

The embryo of the opening track was written between classes while teaching at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. I recorded it on my phone, e-mailed it to myself, and it came through as Message XII. This song was very much written for this trio with Bruce and Adam and was, like most of the songs on this CD, premiered during the recording sessions.

I've had a melodic fragment stuck in my head for years not knowing where it came from until I recently heard Eric Dolphy's "Outward Bound" and the composition "245". My Song for Dolphy came out of that melodic fragment.

A Closer Look is a ballad that was written for Melissa, my future wife, back in 1985. Bruce and I were sharing an apartment at the time and we used to play this song in those early days.

Le Candide II (and Le Candide I - bonus track) are two quite different takes of the same composition. For take two Adam suggested that we start with an explosion and work our way from there. Le Candide is one of my very first compositions and was written during my first year at the New England Conservatory. Bruce and I used to play it with Orange Then Blue, which included George Schuller, Adam Kolker, Matt Darriau, among others. It was with the encouragement of Bruce that I got to record both this and "A Closer Look". The song has a very strong sense of forward motion as well.

Paris Window was also written in part between classes while teaching at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. Being engulfed in this highly creative environment helps me to live in the moment. It was finished at home where I have a picture that I took of my wife Melissa sitting in a window in Paris.

I often drive by a small plot of conservation land in Belmont, MA called Lone Tree Hill. On this particular day I started hearing music that would go with that title.

Swedish trombonist Eje Thelin first introduced me to Jimmy Van Heusen's, Here's That Rainy Day, when playing in his group. It has stayed with me and I much enjoy listening to all the different interpretations of the song. This is my arrangement and I choose to play the melody with Arco bass since that's the closest I can get to the human voice without actually singing. The into vamp ended up being the foundation for an original, Rainy Day Farewell, which is the closer of this program.

Bruno Råberg is an internationally renowned bass player and composer and a mainstay on the Boston music scene. Since coming to the US from his native Sweden he has created 10 recordings as a leader, has appeared on more than 30 as a sideman, and has performed with numerous world-class artists, including Donny McCaslin, Chris Cheek, Kenny Werner, George Garzone, Bob Moses, Mick Goodrick, Ben Monder, Bruce Barth, Jim Black, Matt Wilson, Ted Poor and Mike Mainieri. Tours have taken Råberg throughout Europe, Scandinavia, USA, Japan, India, Africa, and Central America, and to jazz festivals such as Pori, Umbria, Monterey, Nancy, Bologna, Graz, Stockholm, Boston, and Cape Town. As an educator, Råberg stands out. He is a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston where he teaches in the prestigious Berklee Global Jazz Institute's Masters Program, lead by the legendary Danilo Perez. He has traveled to Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Japan and Costa Rica as a clinician and performer for Berklee.

Jazz pianist and composer Bruce Barth has been sharing his music with listeners the world over for more than two decades. Deeply rooted in the jazz tradition, his music reflects both the depth and breadth of his life and musical experiences.Barth arrived on the New York jazz scene in 1988, and soon joined the great tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine; their musical collaboration spanned a decade. Barth has since been a member of the Terence Blanchard Quintet, touring extensively, recording six CDs and numerous movie soundtracks including Spike Lee's, "Malcolm X". He has toured and recorded with Nat Adderley, Steve Wilson, Terell Stafford, David Sanchez, and has performed with James Moody, Tony Bennett, Phil Woods, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Harrell, Branford Marsalis, Art Farmer, John Patitucci and the Mingus Big Band.

Drummer, composer, and educator Adam Cruz was born in New York City and has been a vital creative force on the international jazz scene for the last three decades. He leads his own group, and regularly works with artists such as Tom Harrell, The Mingus Big Band, Joey Calderazzo, Chris Potter, Steve Wilson and Edward Simon. Cruz currently teaches at CCNY and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. The drummer first emerged professionally in the early 1990's, performing and recording extensively with saxophonist David Sanchez and the Charles Mingus Big Band. He toured with pianist Chick Corea with whom he recorded "Origin - A Week at the Blue Note". Since 2000 Cruz has been an integral part of renowned pianist Danilo Perez's trio alongside bassist Ben Street.

 

Jazz Master Harold Mabern Swings Through an Extraordinary Life in Music During One Memorable Night On Stage at Smoke

While it was captured over the course a single night, there’s a rich lifetime’s worth of music packed into The Iron Man: Live at Smoke. If it’s a slight overstatement to say that the album represents an autobiography in song, that’s only because 82-year-old jazz master Harold Mabern tells his story in every note that he plays. That’s as true of the melodies he’s been interpreting for more then half a century – as many of the tunes on The Iron Man are – as it is of the always inspired music that flows spontaneously from the great pianist’s fingers.

The Iron Man, due out November 23 via Smoke Sessions Records, was recorded on the final night of a remarkable three-week residency, an annual holiday tradition at the renowned New York City club. Most of that 2017/18 run was dedicated to the music of John Coltrane and featured a host of invited guests to the bandstand. For this magical final performance, however, Mabern and his gifted, longstanding quartet – tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth – went it alone, vigorously swinging through well-loved tunes from throughout Mabern’s storied career.

The night kicks off with the rollicking funk of “A Few Miles from Memphis,” the title track from Mabern’s 1968 leader debut. The piece harkens back to Mabern’s vital role as a pioneer of soul jazz alongside collaborators like the great trumpeter Lee Morgan. More importantly, though, it transports the pianist back to his roots in Memphis, Tennessee, where he became entranced by the great jazz and blues innovator Phineas Newborn Jr. The city’s legendary blues traditions took hold of a generation of young musicians; Mabern graduated from Manassas High School, whose alumni also include Charles Lloyd and future Mabern collaborators Booker Little, Frank Strozier, and George Coleman.

Many of those Memphians would reconvene in Chicago in the mid-'50s, which is where Mabern honed his hard bop grooves accompanying such powerhouse tenor titans as Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons and Clifford Jordan. By the end of the decade he had found his way to New York City, where he would soon be an in-demand sideman for many of the most notable leaders of that generation – including Lionel Hampton, Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Williams, and Hank Mobley.

Mabern’s tender reading of Benny Golson’s immortal “I Remember Clifford” here, in a trio setting, recalls one of his first important gigs upon arriving in the Big Apple. He spent 18 months with The Jazztet, replacing McCoy Tyner in the influential band co-led by Golson and Art Farmer. The blistering “I Know That You Know” flashes forward to 1965, when Mabern recorded the tune with another hard bop trailblazer, saxophonist Sonny Stitt.

Mabern’s surprising rearrangement of “I Get a Kick Out of You,” meanwhile, is revived from last year’s To Love and Be Loved, an album which reunited him with legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb – who Mabern had first played with half a century earlier in Miles Davis’ band. Mabern’s stint with the iconic trumpeter was brief, but came at a crucial time as Davis was experimenting with the line-up that would finally congeal into his Second Great Quintet. Two earlier veterans of Davis’s storied band – John Coltrane and Paul Chambers -- receive a nod with Trane’s classic “Mr. P.C.”

Mabern forged a more lasting bond with Lee Morgan, recording the classic album The Gigolo for Blue Note in 1965 and continuing to play with the trumpet innovator until the night of his tragic death at Slug’s Saloon in 1972. In the meantime, Mabern started recording under his own name, releasing four well-regarded albums for Prestige between 1968-70 whose line-ups included such brilliant improvisers as Morgan, Blue Mitchell, George Coleman, Bill Lee, Hubert Laws, and Idris Muhammad.

On those outings Mabern helped define the fusion of soul and jazz, including contemporary hits like Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” – a penchant echoed on the Smoke bandstand with the quartet’s lovely take on the Michael Jackson ballad “She’s Out of My Life.” He followed a similar route with Stanley Turrentine when he worked with the soulful saxophonist on the early-'70s albums The Sugar Man and Don’t Mess With Mister T.

“Nightlife in Tokyo” is the Mabern-penned title tune from Eric Alexander’s 2002 album, which featured Mabern and Farnsworth along with bassist Ron Carter. It’s one of countless collaborations between the two since Mabern became the saxophonist’s mentor at William Paterson University, where the pianist has been a member of the faculty since 1981.

While he and Alexander have shifted from teacher and student to a partnership that is one of the most meaningful between any saxophonist and pianist in jazz, that’s just one testament to Mabern’s profound influence as an educator, a contribution to jazz on par with that made through his music. The list of Mabern students who have gone on to make their mark include Farnsworth, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey, drummers Bill Stewart, Mark Guiliana and Johnathan Blake, and saxophonist Roxy Coss.

The Iron Man draws to a rousing conclusion with another title tune, this one from Mabern’s 1968 sophomore release “Rakin’ and Scrapin’,” which featured George Coleman and trumpet great Blue Mitchell on the frontline. He rerecorded the piece with Lee Morgan on 1970’s Live at the Lighthouse, though the fact that he’s kept his ears wide open in the intervening decades is revealed by the clever quote of Steely Dan’s “Do It Again” that crops up unexpectedly in his solo.

Whether you listen to these two sets as representing a single special evening or 82 memorable years, there’s ample evidence that Harold Mabern deserves to be known as The Iron Man – a powerhouse player, a formative mentor, a revered survivor.

"The Iron Man: Live at Smoke" was produced by Paul Stache and Damon Smith,

recorded live at Smoke Jazz Club, NYC on January 7, 2018 and mastered to ½” analog tape using a Studer mastering deck.

Harold Mabern · The Iron Man: Live at Smoke

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: November 23, 2018

 

“QUEEN OF UNDERGROUND SOUL” SY SMITH INVITES US ON A DREAMY, SENSUAL TRIP TO “CAMELOT,” THE THIRD SINGLE FROM HER INDIE HIT ALBUM ‘SOMETIMES A ROSE WILL GROW IN CONCRETE’

On “Camelot,” the beautiful, sensual new single from Sy Smith’s critically acclaimed new album ‘Sometimes A Rose Will Grow in Concrete,’ the “Queen of Underground Soul” takes us on a heavenly, throwback-quiet-storm type of journey; inviting us to dream and fantasize along with her about the perfect love, “all in my mind.” The track, the third single from the collection following “Now and Later” and “Perspective,” will be serviced to Urban AC radio on September 24. 

Singles released earlier this year, “Now and Later” and “Perspective” became a popular tracks on smooth jazz and Urban AC radio outlets, including rotation spots on Sirius XM’s Adult R&B hits station Heart & Soul and Music Choice’s R&B Soul channel. The official video Sy shot for “Now and Later” scored over 35,000 views on YouTube/Facebook. “Perspective” currently has over 64,000 streams on Spotify with the live video performance getting over 60,000 views on YouTube/Facebook. 

The multi-talented singer/songwriter and performer has done two rounds of touring since the album’s release in February, starting with late winter-early spring performances in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York. This summer, she did shows in Oakland, Boston, Montclair, NJ, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago. “Camelot” has received rousing ovations everywhere, with audiences connecting deeply with the perfect romance and hopeful “love will come and find you” scenario. Invariably, they have risen to their feet as the song draws to its dramatic crescendo, with Sy, voice and emotions rising, singing the title over and over. 

“Whether one associates the word with King Arthur, the Broadway musical or the Kennedy era in American history, we all know that ‘Camelot’ is not a real place but a realm of a fairy tale,” Sy says. “The same goes for the character in the song. She’s experiencing a relationship that only exists in her mind. Yet it’s very real to her and plays out beautifully as she envisions it. In real life, the man she is singing to and about has no idea…but as I sing, ‘it wants to take flight.’

  

“When I perform the song,” she adds, “I introduce it by telling the story so that when I start singing, people know that I’m describing a dream – and the floating feeling of the music truly reflects that. In modern terms, I compare Camelot to a fictitious place like Wakanda from ‘Black Panther,’ and people get a kick out of it. There’s definitely a line she’s walking between a full on fantasy and making it real, and I have fun exploring that. When I sing the ‘la la la’ part, it’s me sort of snapping her - and the audience - back to reality.”   

Sy will be headlining more dates in support of “Camelot” and ‘Sometimes a Rose Will Grow In Concrete’ starting on September 30 in Austin, TX. Her current schedule includes November dates in NYC (11/2) and Annapolis, MD (11/20), a week on the Capital Jazz SuperCruise in January (17-24) and February shows in Baltimore (2/8) and at Blues Alley in Washington, DC (2/9-10).

  

Sy’s previous albums include The Syberspace Social, named one of the Top Albums of 2005 by The Boston Globe); 2007’s Psykosoul Plus, featuring stellar production from A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad and The Roots’ James Poyser; and 2008’s Conflict, which included the charting radio singles “Fly Away With Me” and “The Art of You.”

An internationally acclaimed vocalist, Sy has toured and/or recorded with many legendary artists and musical greats, including Whitney Houston, Meshell Ndegeocello, Macy Gray, Chaka Khan and Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti. Her longtime association with bandleader Rickey Minor includes six seasons as a vocalist on “American Idol.” A part of trumpeter Chris Botti’s ensemble on and off since 2007, Sy appears on his current Great Performances special on PBS. She is also featured on three tracks of legendary bandleader Pete Escovedo’s new album ‘Back To The Bay,’ and is prominently featured in the video for “Let’s Stay Together,” which has over 2 millions views on YouTube/Facebook combined.  

“Camelot (live performance)” Youtube link: https://youtu.be/epJ0xDHHceE 

"Camelot" on Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/3JfwJKL9aJfIWX5JwKCedL?si=UBBgS73AS4Ckg0V7qypjpw

Sy Smithtour info: https://bnds.us/rpj52v

Bob Baldwin takes on the Beatles with his new tribute project and launches a record-breaking recording featuring 10 soloists on one track

As we enter into the fall of 2018, pianist and keyboardist Bob Baldwin has unleashed several projects this year in celebrating his 30th year as an artist, and 10/1/18 will mark his 10th year on the air with his NewUrbanJazz Radio Network, which begun with a humble five stations in the NPR Radio chain. The show continues to grow with over 45 terrestrial stations and a listening base of over 500,000 listeners. The show can be consumed with a NewUrbanJazz app via your smartphone, or you can listen in from your desktop computer at work. Archived weekly shows appear on Soundcloud.

In 1988, his debut release I’ve got A Long Way To Go on Malaco Jazz announced to the world that he would continue to be a mainstay in the Contemporary/Smooth Jazz format. He now has over 25 discs released as a solo artist, having recorded some of them on 5 continents, including the countries of Brazil, the U.K., Dubai, and South Africa. His recent acquisitions of product from Shanachie includes Cool Breeze and The American Spirit, both of which are owned by his label, City Sketches Records, which launched in 1997.

“I anticipate that there was going to be some seismic shifts in the music business, so I anticipated what those changes would be”, says the native Mt. Vernonite. “When iTunes came to the party in the mid 2000’s, the message was to own your material, and that’s what I’ve been striving for since 2000. A lot of my peers didn’t answer the call, and now, most of them are playing catch-up. People are stealing the music, downloading less and streaming more…and most labels aren’t sharing all the revenues…less than 15% of industry revenues trickle down to the artists, while the labels clean up. I’m happy to say that I’m both the artist and the label, which is a huge advantage”. That Nostradamus-like prediction has enabled Baldwin to flood the market with music in 2018 without label interference.

So what way to further celebrate 30 years in the music business? By releasing even more music. His soon to be released Bob Baldwin Presents Abbey Road the Beatles featuring House groove singer CeCe Peniston, Smooth saxman Euge Groove, Flutist Ragan Whiteside and Washington DC vocalist Lori Williams.  His creatively arranged arrangements of classic tracks by Lennon, McCartney and the rest of the Abbey Road gang has been on the back burner for several years, but Baldwin had to time it perfectly to record and release the project in 2018.

Additionally, Baldwin has been working on a track that has evolved in history measures. His project by The Groove Pact featuring Marion Meadows and himself, entitled “Club Life” features a record ten soloists on one single 4:16 track, with solo appearances by Walter Beasley, Joey Sommerville, Ragan Whiteside, Oli Silk, U-Nam, Nils, Tom Browne and the aforementioned Baldwin and Meadows. The project has some proceeds to benefit the How Big Is Your Dream Foundation, which encourages young students to learn about music through performance seminars, based in the Atlanta, GA market.

Three re-mix projects with some new material are already in the works, beginning with the most popular disc, “Never Can Say Goodbye a Tribute to Michael Jackson (Remixed and Re-Mastered)”. The out-of-print recording which now sells on Amazon starting at an eye-popping $55.00 will now be re-released to ward off all rogue record retailers, released as a normally-priced disc.

A Mount Vernon, New York native who has become a longtime resident of Atlanta, Baldwin debuted in 1988 with “I’ve Got A Long Way to Go” and his 25 albums – eight of which climbed into the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 20 – are jazz, R&B and gospel outings. Over the years, he’s worked as a producer, songwriter and performer alongside George Benson, Gerald Albright, Euge Groove, Will Downing, Phil Perry, Pieces of a Dream, Paul Taylor, Rick Braun, Kirk Whalum and Chuck Loeb. Since 2008, he has hosted the nationally syndicated radio program “The NewUrbanJazz Lounge,” which attracts nearly 500,000 listeners weekly. His City Sketches, Inc. is the umbrella entity that houses a production and event planning company, the radio network and NewUrbanJazz Hats. Baldwin is also the author of a book about the music industry, “You Better Ask Somebody / Staying On Top of Your Career in the ‘Friggin’ Music Business.”


He now has recorded some of them on 5 continents, including the countries of Brazil, the U.K., Dubai, and South Africa.

New York based producer, Atropolis, announces the release of his new EP Shuffle Mode

New York based producer, Atropolis, announces the release of his new EP. Shuffle Mode is set for release on September 28, 2018 on the Cumba Mela imprint. Shuffle Mode encompasses Atropolis’ journey over the years of releasing, performing, teaching, and spending his youth among the diverse music scene of New York City. Taking close to 3 years to complete, each track has its own time, place, story, and sound.  Atropolis states, “This EP is a collection of intimate collaborations, it feels like a playlist on shuffle mode, a reflection of how music is being experienced by the masses.” 

Adam Partridge’s (a.k.a. Atropolis) deep passion for diverse musical cultures has led him to work with artists from India, Colombia, Ghana, Mexico, South Africa, London and beyond. With a degree in music composition and ethnomusicology, Atropolis explores international styles of music fused with electronic elements. Atropolis’ catalog includes two studio albums (Atropolis – 2011, Transitions – 2013), a collaborate remix project with Geko Jones on classic Palenque/Colombian songs (Geko Jones & Atropolis present: Palenque Records Remixed – 2013), and remixes for, Fania Records (Celia Cruz & Willie Colon), and Dom La Nena remixed with Jeremy Sole that was licensed to the Starz Network hit show – ‘Power.’ It’s no surprise that his work has received press accolades from NPR, SPIN Magazine, MTV, Remezcla, and XLR8R for starters.

2018 is shaping up to be a landmark year for Atropolis. He recently released a new EP called Jump for Wonderwheel Recordings and is already back with Shuffle Mode. Although both releases are bounded by the theme of collaborations, Atropolis explains the distinct differences, “For Shuffle Mode I wanted to work with more vocalists, as a response to my Jump EP, which was entirely inspired by instrumental collaborations. For this EP I focused my energy with working with the voice, one of the most powerful instruments.”

The name of the EP Shuffle Mode is inspired by today’s consumption of music with the prominence of playlists and how listener’s interact with music on their own terms now. Atropolis explains, “After the internet and the demise of record stores, the invention of the iPod and now Spotify, I am among many who enjoy a wide range of music over a short period of time. As a by product of New York I’ve always been drawn to diversity, as an artist this is everything to me. Shuffle Mode embraces my approach to making music and listening to music, I am never tied to one genre or sound.”

Shuffle Mode succeeds in having a diverse range of tracks with a talented mix of vocalists including Latasha, Zuzuka Poderosa, Vivian Garcia, Ani Challa, and a collaborate track with Slavic Soul Party. The lead single “The Take Back” features the critically acclaimed vocalist Latasha who floats her beautiful lyrics over Atropolis’ layered production. Atropolis was connected with her after Latasha reached out two years ago once she discovered his production through their mutual friend Lido Pimienta on “Reza Por Mi.” NYC by way of Brazil vocalist Zuzuka Poderosa graces the track “Violencia Policial” puts the spotlight on police brutality, a serious issue in the U.S. and Brazil. Vivian Garcia teams up with Atropolis on “Cada Mañana,” a love song about a conflicted lover rising above the rejection of their significant other.

Rounding out the last two tracks off the EP is “Barbes,” featuring Brooklyn’s finest brass band Slavic Soul Party. The track is a full circle experience for Atropolis as he elaborates, “I studied jazz guitar at Queens College when I was 15,  after the program I didn’t see most of my teachers ever again. Five years later, I ran into one of my teachers at Barbes in Brooklyn, he was playing with Slavic Soul Party, and ever since that moment I knew I wanted collaborate with them.” The closing track on the EP is called “Immigrant” featuring Ani Challa. The track, which is a perfect topic in today’s political climate is about Ani coming to the U.S. from India at the age of 6. Ani explains, "I loved the open heartedness from people who were genuinely interested in knowing where I came from. I loved answering ‘Who are you?’ ‘Why did you choose to come to the US?’ and ‘How did I get to the US?’ Sometimes I would be asked these questions and in answering them encounters became not so pleasant....Being proud and remembering who you are is what I get to tap into. Spreading the love of my culture in sharing a different perspective on the American Dream…It’s something I am very proud of.” He adds, “I want the questions in the lyrics to spark conversation openly for anyone needing to get things out of their mind and feel what leading from the heart truly means for them.”

Even with two major releases coming out in 2018, Atropolis continues to make moves not only as an artist, but also as an Ableton Live instructor, where he was recently tapped by the legendary Grand Master Flash to be his Ableton Live Engineer. So what’s next for Atropolis? He concludes, “This release like all releases is a stepping stone, we are constantly striving to strengthen our voice, I am currently working on some new music with artists from Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa that I’m really excited about, so please keep your ears open for 2019.”

Shuffle Mode EP – Tracklist

1. Cada Mañana (ft. Vivian Garcia)

2. Violencia Policial (ft. Zuzuka Poderosa)

3. The Take Back (ft. Latasha)

4. Barbes (ft. Slavic Soul Party)

5. Immigrant (ft. Ani Challa)

New Music From: Change – Love 4 Love; Azymuth – Light As A Feather; Ashley Henry – Ashley Henry’s 5ive

Change – Love 4 Love

Wonderful new work from Change – the international soul combo who made some classic cuts back at the start of the 80s – still sounding great all these many years later, but in a slightly different way! The balance between all elements here is fantastic – as the music has all the best parts of the group's earlier music, but also updates the sound a bit – in the way that a combo like Incognito or Brand New Heavies were updating older soul music back in the 90s, by grabbing all the strongest parts of the past, and fusing them into a fresh lean groove. The songs are upbeat, positive, and full of the kind of catchy hooks that Change always did so well – and titles include "Friends", "Make Me Go Cray", "How Will We", "Too Late", "Living Monday", "Love 4 Love", "All My Life", and "Hit Or Miss". Also includes some remix versions of older tracks – "Searching (Figo Sound version)", "Oh What A Feeling (Figo Sound version)", "You'll Always Be A Part Of Me (Figo Sound version)", and "It's A Girl's Affair (Figo Sound version)". ~ Dusty Groove

Azymuth – Light As A Feather (180 gram vinyl)

One of Azymuth's best-remembered albums from their American years on Milestone – a really killer classic that beautifully blends Brazilian and American styles of fusion! There's a simple, elegant feel to these tunes that takes off nicely from the group's previous album for Atlantic in Brazil – a pushing forward of the soulful sides of their style, but with just the right blend of quirkier elements as well – one that still keeps the edge of the early years, yet helps the group reach out with a wonderfully warm sound! Most tracks are quite spare, and without any too-smooth polishing in production – and titles include the classic "Jazz Carnival", a funky fusion classic if there ever was one – plus "Light As A Feather", "Avenida Das Manguerias", "This Exists", "Partido Alto", "Dona Olimpia", "Amazonia", and "Young Embrace". (Limited repress of 500 copies. Remixed and remastered version with download code.) ~ Dusty Groove

Ashley Henry – Ashley Henry’s 5ive

This might be the first we've ever heard from pianist Ashley Henry – but given the quality of the set, we imagine that we might be listening to his music for many years to come! Henry's got this wonderful conception of rhythm – as if he's sometimes racing ahead of the bass and drums, and grabbing up all these handfuls of notes – scattering them quickly in these broad waves of soulful colors, while the bass of Sam Vicary and drums of Sam Gardner swing in and keep things moving forward! There's a sense of freshness to this album that reminds us of the time we first heard the music of Robert Glasper many years back – even though Henry is a completely different stylist – as you'll hear on titles that include "Deja Vu", "Altruism", "Deimos", "St Anne's", and "Monk's Dream".  ~ Dusty Groove

Terry Callier's Psychedelic, Romantic And Socially Conscious 1972 Funk-Soul Classic 'What Color Is Love' Available On Vinyl After Being Out Of Print For Nearly Two Decades

Terry Callier's 1972 album, What Color Is Love, is available on vinyl once again following nearly two decades of being out of print in the resurgent format. Released today via Verve/UMe, the album is on standard weight black vinyl and housed in a high-quality wrapped jacket. Produced and arranged by the legendary Charles Stepney, the revered album is a portal into Callier's socially conscious, musically kaleidoscopic blend of soul, jazz, funk, rock and classical. 

A childhood friend of Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler — the latter would go on to co-write a track on What Color Is Love — Callier began as a relatively conventional folk singer, releasing an album for Prestige, The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier, in 1968. But it was increasingly clear that Callier was thinking beyond coffeehouses. A musical omnivore who couldn't shake his soul roots, he was commensurately inspired by classical music, sinewy Chicago blues and the orthodoxy-breaking tenor work of John Coltrane. 

Callier pivoted hard from his folkie days. By the 1970s, Callier was recording for Chess' jazz imprint, Cadet Records, mainly known for releasing albums from hard-bop giants like Kenny Burrell, Lou Donaldson and Ahmad Jamal. But the creatively restless Callier fit like a glove in this unconventional environment. The three albums he produced for the label — 1972's Occasional Rain and What Color is Love and 1974's I Just Can't Help Myself — transcended genre descriptors to conjure a distinct sonic universe that was purely his.

While Rain, its predecessor, was often misty and diffused — a "blue" listen — What Color Is Love has dynamic fire to its performances. This was even down to its provocative cover sleeve that carried strong undertones of racial and sexual disharmony. And the music follows suit. On key tracks like "Dancing Girl" and "You Goin' Miss Your Candyman," Callier displays a polyphonous, kitchen-sink version of Chicago soul complete with sparkling string arrangements and driving rhythms.

Despite its ecstatic, genre-blending brilliance, What Color Is Love would eventually fall into relative obscurity, as Callier retired as a singer in the 1980s to become a computer programmer. He eventually returned to the fold of the music business on the Verve Forecast label in the late 1990s, when burgeoning interest in his work in London led to celebrated collaborations with Paul Weller, Beth Orton and Massive Attack. As he said to The New York Times of his triumphant return to the stage in 1998, "It was like a dream come true. A couple of times I had to stop the show because it was just too over the top emotionally for me to continue. People knew all the words to my songs."

Callier sadly passed away in 2012 at age 67 from cancer, but we all continue to know the words to those songs — especially What Color Is Love, which stands among his finest work to this day.

WHAT COLOR IS LOVE TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

1. Dancing Girl

2. What Color Is Love

3. You Goin' Miss Your Candyman

SIDE B

1. Just As Long As We're In Love

2. Ho Tsing Mee (A Song of the Sun)

3. I'd Rather Be With You

4. You Don't Care

STU MINDEMAN'S NEW ALBUM WOVEN THREADS EXPLORES THEMES OF DISTANT MEMORIES, SELF RE-DISCOVERY AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CULTURES

Stu Mindeman, pianist and composer, is set to release his new album titled Woven Threads (Sunnyside Records) on September 14, 2018. The eight track album is a remarkable journey through themes of distant memories, self re-discovery, and the connection between North and South American cultures. Woven Threads is inspired by Stu’s recent trips to Chile reconnecting him to his childhood memories of the country’s rich culture, vibrant people, and diverse musical landscape. The album also features an impressive array of talents including Francesca Ancarola, Ana Tijoux, Kurt Elling, Miguel Zenón, and Marquis Hill.

Stu, who currently resides in Chicago, spent his formative years in Santiago, Chile when his father took a job with the Santiago Symphony. He elaborates, “My dad would bring home recordings of various Chilean folk music artists and play them for me as a child. A dear Chilean friend of my parents named María would often come to our home, while both of my parents were working, watching after me and teaching me Spanish. I grew up with very little memory of my time in Chile, expect for the echoes of those folk melodies in my ears, and the small amount of Spanish María had taught me.” As Stu began playing music professionally he started working closely with many Latin American artists that spanned Salsa to Afro-Caribbean to Latin Pop leading Stu to tour South America, which helped bring  his Spanish speaking skills back. The result led him to yearn for a return back to Chile in hopes to reconnect with his distant memories.

In early 2017, his dreams came true when he finally had a chance to visit Chile. Stu was instantly drawn into the rhythm and vibrant warmth of Chilean culture through his daily interactions with all the new people he met in Santiago. Stu adds, “I immediately immersed myself in the modern music scene in Santiago, meeting many Jazz, Folk, and Hip Hop musicians and I began to take note of the intensely vibrant and diverse art being made in Chile, both rooted in history and the present.”

In May 2017, Stu was invited back to Chile to present a series of concerts and decided he wanted to record a project with the talented Chilean artists he was collaborating with. These profound experiences resulted in Woven Threads and includes the talents of Chilean musicians Carlos Cortes Diaz on drums and Milton Russell on bass, as well as acclaimed Jazz singer Francesca Ancarola and Hip Hop artist Ana Tijoux.

One of the Chilean movements that deeply struck Stu was Nueva Canción, which was rooted in 60s and 70 protest songs about social change and political activism. Artists of the Nueva Canción movement included Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, Ali Primera, and Chavela Vargas. Stu expresses, “In my own life I resonated with the themes in Jara’s lyrics and Parra’s poetry, as well as those of the lyrics of the other South American songs I arranged: unrequited love, the cyclical nature of time, the tender balance between hope and depression, between longing and despair.” Inspired, Stu arranged two Victor Jarra songs, “El Aparecideo” and “No Puedes Volver Atrás” and composed stunning tributes to Violeta Parra in “Woven Threads – What Word” and “Woven Threads – A Thousand Stars.”

The tribute to Violetta Parra also emerges in the album title Woven Threads. Stu describes, “In my exploration of the work of Violeta Parra, I was seized by her works of visual art, especially her tapestries. After some reflection, I realized that the image of woven threads was a perfect metaphor for the entire project: Chilean music woven together with North American music, South American voices and poetry is blended with North American voices and sounds, I’ve woven together my childhood memories with my experience as an adult.”

After recording in Chile, Stu returned to the U.S. and added more layers and orchestration, featuring Jazz singer Kurt Elling, as well as celebrated Jazz instrumentalists like Miguel Zenón and Marquis Hill.

Woven Threads is Stu’s most personal release to date, focusing on his re-discovery of self through his Chilean upbringing and creative journey into distant memories.

ACCLAIMED DUO CAPATHIA JENKINS & LOUIS ROSEN UNVEIL “PHENOMENAL WOMAN: THE MAYA ANGELOU SONGS”

To celebrate the October 26th, 2018, release of their brand-new Di-Tone Records project Phenomenal Woman: The Maya Angelou Songs, the critically acclaimed duo of vocalist Capathia Jenkins and award-winning composer, arranger and musician Louis Rosen will perform for three nights, Thursday through Saturday, October 25, 26, and 27, 2018, at the iconic jazz venue Birdland’s new Birdland Theatre in New York City. The Birdland Theatre is located at 315 West 44th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

This will be the first time Phenomenal Woman will be performed live since it was re-arranged for jazz sextet and recorded for release.  Jenkins and Rosen originally premiered the material in March 2005 at New York’s famed Joe’s Pub, in its original piano and vocal arrangements. Phenomenal Woman: The Maya Angelou Songs features eleven songs that pay tribute to the genius of the late American poet Maya Angelou, with some of her most iconic poems forming the lyrics.

This unique project came to fruition in 2005 when Jenkins and Rosen were granted rights by Maya Angelou to perform the 11-song cycle, which had been specifically composed by Rosen for Jenkins. The rights were expanded in 2017 to include recording and publishing. At that time Rosen began arranging the tunes for a jazz sextet (and occasional organ). The duo then went into the studio with their co-producer, Scott Lehrer. In addition to the Maya Angelou Songs, the new release also includes four instrumental interludes penned by Rosen, called Songs Without Words. This is the fifth album collaboration for Jenkins and Rosen.

Critics have already hailed the project: The Chicago Tribune stated, “Jenkins has an uncanny ear for the droll irony and naked emotion of Rosen’s work, and a vocal range that brings out every shift in tone without bombast or pathos.”  Bloomberg noted, “What is so memorable about this pairing is how unselfconscious and confident both are, Rosen as composer and songsmith, Jenkins his joyous, hand-in-glove interpreter. I’ve never been so seduced by music completely new to me yet as embraceable as any from the classic American songbook.”

The recording of Phenomenal Woman: The Maya Angelou Songs marks the completion of the recording of Louis’ Black Loom Trilogy, three song cycles composed for Jenkins on the poems of three major African-American writers, including Dream Suite: Songs in Jazz and Blues on Poems by Langston Hughes and One Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs. The duo’s previous collaborations include South Side Stories and The Ache Of Possibility with four songs again on poetry by Ms. Giovanni.

Capathia Jenkins has been featured on Broadway in Newsies; Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me; Caroline, or Change; The Look of Love; The Civil War; and Off-Broadway in Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore; (mis) Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story (Drama Desk nomination); and Godspell.  She has numerous TV and concert appearances to her credit.  For more information on Capathia Jenkins, please visit www.capathiajenkins.com.

Louis Rosen received a 2005 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition. He has three solo recordings, including 2017’s Dust To Dust Blues, Act One: Piano Music from the Theater, and Time Was; numerous compositions, and two musical theater pieces, Book of the Night (1991) and A Child’s Garden (2000). He has also scored 30 theatrical productions on and off Broadway and at regional theaters. Rosen is also the author of the memoir “The South Side: The Racial Transformation of An American Neighborhood” (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 1998). For more information on Louis Rosen, please visit www.louisrosen.com.

Previously Unreleased Historic Recordings: Dexter Gordon Quartet's Espace Cardin 1977 and Woody Shaw Quartet's Live in Bremen 1983

Elemental Music is pleased to announce the release of two recently discovered, previously unreleased live recordings: Dexter Gordon Quartet, Espace Cardin 1977 and Woody Shaw Quartet, Live in Bremen 1983. Presented in exceptional sound quality, these deluxe-CD editions include a 12-page booklet with an essay by famed jazz producer and Elemental project coordinator Michael Cuscuna, as well as contributions from Gordon’s widow and biographer, Maxine Gordon, and from Shaw’s son and namesake, Woody Shaw III.

In 1977 Dexter Gordon returned home to the U.S. after more than a decade living in Europe and launched perhaps the most productive period of his long and varied musical career. “He had peaks and valleys to his playing career, but boy in the mid-‘70s he was at a peak. It was unbelievable,” Cuscuna remembers. “I used to hear him night after night, on and off over a couple of years, and he never had a bad night. It was always just extraordinary.”

Not forsaking Europe entirely, Gordon returned for gigs like the inspired set captured here at the Espace Pierre Cardin (Théâtre de la Ville) in Paris in September 25, 1977. Sharing the stage with him that night are the well-known rhythm section of French bassist Pierre Michelot and American drummer Kenny Clarke. What makes this performance unique is that it is the only known recording of Gordon playing with one of the stalwarts of bebop piano, Al Haig. A constant presence on 52nd street during the embryonic days of bebop in the late 1940s, Haig’s career had gone fallow by the 1960s. At the time of this performance, he was experiencing a much-deserved rediscovery.   

In a set that both celebrates and is grounded in jazz standards from “Body and Soul” to “’Round Midnight,” Gordon’s tenor saxophone with its rich, unmistakable tone dominates from the opening notes of his own composition, “Sticky Wicket,” which he laces with playful quotes including “Pop Goes the Weasel.” This tour de force continues with Gordon’s own fresh and inventive take on “Body and Soul,” one that owes a debt to John Coltrane’s earlier re-imaging of this most played of all modern jazz standards.

After a dashing whirl through Gordon’s own “Antabus,” this set concludes with a swinging, full-blooded rendition of Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo” in which the ever-mischievous Gordon adds another quote, this time from “Here Comes the Bride.” A quieter reading of Thelonious Monk’s immortal “’Round Midnight” by just the trio minus Gordon closes an impressive evening.

To further complement this series, Gordon’s legacy is also being illuminated by Gordon’s widow and former manager, jazz historian and archivist Maxine Gordon, with the completion of his official biography entitled Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon - to be published by University of California Press in November 2018. Maxine has preserved Gordon’s legacy and worked to advocate for and document the work of numerous musicians and organizations since Gordon’s passing in 1990. Visit http://maxinegordon.com and http://dextergordon.com for more info.

Woody Shaw Quartet’s Live in Bremen 1983 was recorded live at Post Aula, in Bremen Germany on January 18, 1983. It’s a rare and satisfying snapshot of trumpeter Shaw’s second great quintet, formed in 1980 with pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Stafford James, and drummer Tony Reedus. Like all Elemental releases, this set was produced by Cuscuna, who was a close friend of the late trumpeter during the last 15 years of his life.

All of the Shaw releases in this series were curated and assembled by Shaw’s son, Woody Shaw III, Associate Producer of these Shaw projects. A musician and digital producer with degrees in the arts and business from Columbia University and Harvard, Shaw III has spent the past 15 years preserving his father’s legacy. In fact, Cuscuna and Shaw III have co-produced several reissues of Shaw’s classic recordings together, including the 7-CD set for Cuscuna’s Mosaic Records label entitled Woody Shaw: The Complete Muse Sessions (2013). Shaw III also wrote liner notes for this Elemental series.

Woody Shaw III is currently producing a documentary film on the late trumpeter entitled Woody Shaw: Beyond All Limits. The film which is in production, documents the artistic, intellectual, and philosophical discoveries of Shaw through his music, serving as an intergenerational memoir of a rich musical legacy passed down from father to son. Visit http://woodyshaw.com for more info.

 “Woody was an incredibly unique player, who broke the trumpet mold because his style was forged on a respect for Lee Morgan, Booker Little and to some extent Freddie Hubbard but also on saxophone players,” Cuscuna says, “He was an exceptional soloist and also a great intellect. He’s influenced a lot of people who came after him.”

Opening with the “You and the Night and the Music,” a standard recorded by everyone from Sinatra to Bill Evans, Shaw charges into a brilliant solo that turns from long and lyrical lines to rapid fire bursts while Miller shows the influence of McCoy Tyner on his playing. Introduced by Shaw as something “fiery and uptempo,” his fast-paced “Rahsaan’s Run” composed as a tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk who had died in 1977, appeared on Shaw’s breakthrough recording, Rosewood. The Miller composition, “Eastern Joy Dance” follows, and here again the lyricism that was such a striking feature of Shaw’s playing comes to the forefront.

First appearing on Shaw’s third Columbia Records album Woody III (which was dedicated to Shaw’s father, Woody Shaw, Sr. and his newborn son at the time, Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III) — the tune “Organ Grinder” was composed in tribute to famed Newark organist and fellow Arts High School alum, Larry Young, who was a close friend and musical mentor to Shaw. Written as part of the soundtrack to the silent film, Seventh Heaven, Lew Pollak and Erno Rapee’s “Diane” here receives a deeply sensitive and emotional reading with Miller, Stafford and Shaw all embroidering their solos with uncommon thoughtfulness and inventiveness. Shaw closed the set with a sprightly, rhythmic version of Walter Davis Jr.’s “400 Years Ago Tomorrow,” which was chosen by Shaw to celebrate the Afro-Caribbean roots of his music and of jazz as a whole. The show’s encore is a swift and sweet version of one of Shaw’s most memorable melodies, “Sweet Love of Mine,” which was first recorded on Jackie McLean’s Demon’s Dance album for Blue Note Records in 1967, and later on Shaw’s Master of the Art album for Bruce Lundvall’s Elektra/Musician label in 1982.

“In the United States, all the engineers from the ‘50s like Rudy Van Gelder, Frank Laico, Fred Plaut were all trained in mixing as you recorded,” Cuscuna concludes. “All the European guys, especially in France and Germany, were the same way. They knew how to record something in two-track and capture it beautifully, and that’s reflected in the sound of all the Elemental releases.”

Best of all, both Dexter Gordon Quartet, Espace Pierre Cardin 1977 and Woody Shaw Quartet, Live in Bremen 1983 are presented in remarkably clear and dynamic sound quality.

Dexter Gordon Quartet · Espace Pierre Cardin 1977

Woody Shaw Quartet · Live in Bremen 1983

Elemental Music · Release Date: October 19, 2018

Frank Sinatra's Landmark 1958 Album 'Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely' Receives New Stereo Mix For Expanded 60th Anniversary Edition

Frank Sinatra's intimate 1958 opus, Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely, has been newly mixed in stereo for an expanded 60th Anniversary Edition to be released worldwide on October 19 by Capitol/UMe and Frank Sinatra Enterprises. 'Only The Lonely' (60th Anniversary Edition) will be released in a Deluxe 2CD package, in 180-gram 2LP vinyl and 1CD configurations, and in two digital album versions. 

Frank Sinatra’s intimate 1958 opus, 'Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely,' has been newly mixed in stereo for an expanded 60th Anniversary Edition to be released worldwide on October 19 by Capitol/UMe and Frank Sinatra Enterprises. ‘Only The Lonely’ (60th Anniversary Edition) will be released in a Deluxe 2CD package, in 180-gram 2LP vinyl and 1CD configurations, and in two digital album versions.

  

'Only The Lonely' (60th Anniversary Edition)'s 2CD Deluxe package pairs the album's remastered original 1958 mono mix with a new 2018 stereo mix by Larry Walsh. Four bonus tracks from the mono session recordings are also featured, including studio takes making their release debuts: "Angel Eyes" (alternate session takes – May 5, 1958) and "Lush Life" (session takes – May 29, 1958). The album's original mono mix makes its digital release debut in an expanded digital collection pairing the remastered album mix with the four bonus session recordings, while the 1CD, 2LP vinyl, and standard digital album configurations feature the album's 2018 stereo mix. The new edition's audio was mastered by Ron McMaster at Capitol Studios.

'Only The Lonely' was recorded as both a mono and stereo presentation," explains Larry Walsh in his notes for the 60th Anniversary Edition. "The mono was the focus as that was the chief format of the day. The stereo was recorded with two microphones suspended high over the studio orchestra. Frank Sinatra's voice was recorded onto a third track. With the stereo recording being mid-side decoded, the depth of the studio is revealed."

For 'Only The Lonely,' Sinatra recorded evening sessions at Capitol Studios in May and June 1958, joined by an orchestra and his frequent collaborator, conductor and arranger Nelson Riddle. Sinatra delves deeply into love, pain, and loss across the album's songs of heartbreak and yearning, including "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)," "Angel Eyes,"' and "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry." 'Only The Lonely' reached No. 1 on Billboard's albums chart and remained on the charts for 120 weeks. At 1959's inaugural GRAMMY Awards® ceremony, the album won the award for Best Recording Package.

"The ones that stick in my mind are 'Only The Lonely,' 'Wee Small Hours,' and 'Come Fly With Me,' because I think the orchestrator's work and my work came together so well." – Frank Sinatra.