JONATHAN BUTLER - MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU

Santa Claus has a special treat to stuff in the stockings of all the good Jonathan Butler fans this Christmas: the first Christmas album by the two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter-guitarist. Butler produced and arranged “Merry Christmas To You,” which will be released October 1 by Artistry Music. Two singles will be shipped to multiple radio formats this holiday season: an instrumental take on “Sleigh Ride” decorated with hallmarks from the South African native’s homeland, and the album’s title track, which is a retro-flavored R&B/adult contemporary ballad penned by Butler.

      

Butler recorded eight Christmas chestnuts for the collection and penned a pair of new songs, including “Happy Holidays,” an ardent urban groove ornamented with riffs of cool jazz guitar. High-profile hornmen Dave Koz, Rick Braun and Paul “Shilts” Weimer contribute to the festivities on a couple of tracks as does Butler’s daughter, vocalist Jodie Butler, and bassist Dan Lutz, who plays upright on a tune, but the heart of the intimate recording is Butler solo pouring his impassioned voice and acoustic guitar into the seasonal songs. His arresting performances and sparse production captivates, fostering an air of freshness to the evergreen material.

“These songs are beautiful on their own so I felt they didn't need a lot of instrumentation. Plus I wanted my fans to have a personal Christmas message from me. That is why the CD has very little production and plenty of voice and guitar. It’s a very proud moment for me to finally have a Christmas record, which has been a long time coming. I hope fans feel blessed and uplifted when they play it at home or in their car or wherever they may be. I truly thank God for giving me the strength and the opportunity to make this album,” said Butler, who lives in California’s San Fernando Valley with his family.

The “Merry Christmas To You” album opens with an energizing version of the Donny Hathaway soul classic “This Christmas.” Butler applies South African vocalization, chanting and rhythmic percussion to “Little Drummer Boy.” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “The First Noel,” “O Holy Night” and the lesser known “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” are presented starkly featuring show-stopping performances by the devoutly inspired man with his guitar.

Beginning November 30, Butler will venture out on a three-week U.S. concert swing performing on the Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour during which he will share the stage with the charismatic sax star as well as keyboardist Keiko Matsui and vocalist Oleta Adams.   

   

A former child star, Butler was the first black artist played on radio stations in South Africa. The hint of grit in his expressive voice reflects the pain he endured growing up under Apartheid, the youngest of 17 children. A true artist who refuses to segregate his music, Butler’s recordings consist of vocal and instrumental hits and enduring fan favorites spanning R&B, contemporary jazz, gospel, adult contemporary, pop and world beat stylings. The natural-born performer’s radiant spirit shines brightly through his beaming smile and twinkling eyes. 

The songs comprising Butler’s “Merry Christmas To You” are:

“This Christmas”

“Sleigh Ride”

“Merry Christmas To You”

“Happy Holidays”

“Little Drummer Boy”

“I’ll Be Home For Christmas”

“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

“Sweet Little Jesus Boy”

“The First Noel”

“O Holy Night”

www.jonathanbutler.com

JAZZ STATION WCLK 91.9 ATLANTA SWITCHES TO A MORE SMOOTHER FORMAT

Atlanta Jazz station WCLK 91.9 FM has switched formats, going from a traditional jazz station and adopting a more "smoother" sound.  By smoother, we mean adding tracks from such artists as Gerald Albright, Candy Dulfer, Anita Baker, Incognito, Bob James, Sade, Jeff Lorber, Wayman Tisdale, Kirk Whalum, Marc Antoice, Walter Beasley, Marcus Johnson, Euge Groove, The Crusaders - you get the picture. 

Since flipping formats on Monday (8/27), the station has garnered alot of negative feedback with avid listeners demanding that the station revert back to the music that they admired in the first place.  As a matter of fact listeners have voiced their opinions on WCLK's Facebook page and have even started an online petition asking that the station switch back.

So why the sudden change you may ask?  In an effort to boost its audience and garner more membership dollars, the non-commercial radio station attached to Clark Atlanta University has started pre-programming its playlist and narrowed it down from about 900 songs to 400 songs Monday-Friday, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution radio reporter Rodney Ho, who spoke to WCLK's general manager of the last 20 years, Wendy Williams.

In addition to severely cutting back on the number of songs being played, the radio DJ's are no longer allowed to program their own music.  A major focus is WCLK DJ and on-air personality Jamal Ahmad, who's S.O.U.L. of Jazz show has been a longtime listener favorite, recognized locally and internationally for its groundbreaking programming. "Jamal Ahmad's show is one of the last bastion's on noncommercial music in the city of Atlanta," reads the first line of the petition, started by Creative Loafing contributor and publisher of Slo Momagazine, Carlton Hargro.

Personally speaking, these are my thoughts...

I've always loved the sound of smooth jazz; however, the format has gotten tired over the last few years and I think that a hybrid playlist is more realistic as a formula for success. The format needs to be less sugary and less background music-ish - and please no more of the tired same old songs being played over and over again.

The format needs to be revitalized - more soul, more advant gardish, more diversion. Ever here of Jazz FM in the UK?  Check them out for ideas. 

WCLK walks a fine by making the switch to a tired format and needs to be careful that they don't fallback into the same old tired niche.  I suggest that they add the diversity to their playlist; open it up to much more than 400 songs; become edgier with their sound; and let Jamal Ahmad select his playlist.  Think about it - if his show has garnered awards and recognition then why not expand on that sound in the first place?

I look forward to any thoughts or comments - so please pass them on...

NEW RELEASES - REUBEN FOWLER, ALEXI TUOMARILA TRIO, KENNY WHEELER / NORMA WINSTONE / LONDON VOCAL PROJECT

REUBEN FOWLER - BETWEEN SHADOWS

‘Between Shadows’ is the debut album by award-winning trumpeter and composer Reuben Fowler. This is an album of huge ambition, delivered impeccably by an artist with a vision to match. Here is a young musician with plenty to say as both a player and a composer. He’s technically strong; equipped with a beautiful, round trumpet tone. As a composer he’s highly developed in orchestration with a vast understanding of harmony and instrumentation. However what‘s most impressive is his boldness and maturity in bringing together an ensemble of world-class musicians to create an album of huge breadth and poise. Featuring some of the most renowned and revered musicians in British jazz - including Stan Sulzmann, Jim Hart and Guy Barker (who conducts) - as well as US trumpet star Tom Harrell, Fowler's ensemble echoes the brilliance and invention evident in some of the great British big band leaders.

ALEXI TUOMARILA TRIO - SEVEN HILLS

Seven Hills is the new trio album from Finnish born Alexi Tuomarila, an artist on the verge of becoming one of the most important young pianists & composers on the European Jazz scene. Following numerous first prize awards at various international jazz competitions throughout 2003, he signed to Warner Jazz France releasing two albums that brought worldwide attention and critical acclaim from the international press, fans and musicians including fellow pianist Brad Mehldau, who is quoted as saying, "I'm definitely excited about the future of this piano player".

KENNY WHEELER / NORMA WINSTONE / LONDON VOCAL PROJECT - MIRRORS

Kenny Wheeler and Norma Winstone have been at the forefront of European Jazz scene collectively for the last 5 decades gaining the admiration and reverence from all generations of musicians and fans. With the release of ‘Mirrors’, a suite of music composed by Kenny Wheeler set to poems by Stevie Smith, Lewis Carroll and W.B. Yeats, they are joined by the London Vocal Project, a 24 piece choir directed by the inimitable Pete Churchill. Featuring some of the renowned and celebrated musicians in British Jazz including pianist Nikki Iles, saxophonist Mark Lockheart, bassist Steve Watts and drummer James Maddren, Mirrors is vast in conception and world class in its execution.

~ editionrecords.bigcartel.com

BOBBY WATSON & THE I HAVE A DREAM PROJECT - CHECK CASHING DAY

Saxophonist-composer-producer-educator Bobby Watson is proud to release, Check Cashing Day, the second self-produced recording on Watson's label, Lafiya Music. The project, which honors the March on Washington's 50th anniversary and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have A Dream" speech, is now available digitally (August 28, 2013) and will be released physically on November 12, 2013. 

As Watson reflects, Check Cashing Day serves as "a commentary on where we've been, where we are, and where we need to go as a people, as a country, and as a global community." Instead of focusing on the iconic "I Have A Dream" aspect of Dr. King's speech, Watson chose to concentrate on another very significant part: the reason why over 300,000 people, black and white, gathered in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Dr. King spoke of coming to Washington to cash a 100 year old check, a moral check that the founding fathers wrote into the Declaration of Independence, but to this day, the check keeps coming back marked 'insufficient funds.' "This, being the year of my 60th birthday, I sadly understand that Dr. King's dream has not been fully realized and the struggle continues," says Watson.

Introducing poet and spoken word artist Glenn North from Kansas City, MO, Check Cashing Day is a concept recording with 15 tracks portrayed in the vein of musical theatre. "I asked Glenn to put some poetry, from his perspective, to several of my compositions, as well as one written by vocalist Pamela Baskin-Watson and two by bassist Curtis Lundy," comments Watson. "It was my desire with this project to produce poetry that would in some ways cleanse the soul," notes North. In addition, Watson's release features trumpeter Hermon Mehari, pianist Richard Johnson, drummer Eric Kennedy, flutist Horace Washington, and trombonist Karita Carter.

With Watson's commentary on the ongoing struggle of todays racial inequalities spotlighted on compositions such as the title track "Check Cashing Day (For Ms. Trudy)" and "MLK on Jazz (Love Transforms)," he offers a recording that provokes positive conversation and continued movement towards Dr. King's 'dream,' so that the 'dream' becomes a reality in today's world. "The result is something more powerful and thought provoking than I could have imagined," concludes Watson.

The first "William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri, Distinguished Professor in Jazz Studies at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance," saxophonist, composer, producer and educator, Bobby Watson grew up in Kansas City, Kansas and trained formally at the University of Miami studying with Dr. Clifton Williams, receiving a B.M. in Music Theory and Composition in 1975. After graduating, he proceeded to earn his "doctorate" - on the bandstand - as musical director of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from 1977-1981. In addition to his work as leader of the Grammy® Award-nominated quintet Horizon, Watson also led a group known as the High Court of Swing (a tribute to the music of Johnny Hodges), the Grammy® Award-nominated Tailor-Made Big Band, and is a founding member of the highly acclaimed 29th Street Saxophone Quartet. Watson also wrote original music for the sound track of Robert DeNiro's directorial debut "A Bronx Tale."

Since 2000 he has served as director of Jazz studies at UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, and is also, currently Artistic Director for the Thelonious Monk Institute's "Jazz in America" Informance program, annually presenting dozens of informational concerts and jazz workshops around the nation. In 2010 Bobby released his self produced CD, "The Gates BBQ Suite" which went to #4 on the National Jazz airplay charts. In 2011, Bobby was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame and in 2013 he received the "Benny Golson Jazz Masters" award from Howard University. To date; Bobby has made 37 recordings as a leader and he appears on over 100 other recordings.

www.bobbywatson.com

NEW RELEASES - STEFANO BOLLANI / HAMILTON DE HOLANDA, RAY MANTILLA, SHAPES:CIRCLES COMPILED BY ROBERT LUIS

STEFANO BOLLANI / HAMILTON DE HOLANDA - O QUE SERA

Beautiful sounds from the duo of Stefano Bollani on piano and Hamilton De Holanda on bandolim – a set that’s heavy on styles borrowed from the Brazilian tradition, but which also features some other elements as well – all wrapped up in a blend that’s warmly lyrical one moment, then quite bold and striking the next! Bollani's piano really seems to pull a lot of fresh energy out of Hamilton's instrument – pushing it to some darker corners than we've heard before, in ways that really work perfectly not just with Stefano's rich notes on the piano, but also with the spacious ECM approach to production. The set was recorded live – and titles include "Beatriz", "O Que Sera", "Rosa", "Canto De Ossanha", "Oblivion", "Apanhei Te Cavaquinho", and "Guarda Che Luna"~ Dusty Groove

RAY MANTILLA - THE CONNECTION

A cracker of a set from Ray Mantilla – served up in that special approach to Latin jazz that's made Mantilla such a great leader for the past few decades! Ray's percussion is firmly at the helm of the set, but the group's definitely a jazz one through and through – graced with excellent work from Willie Williams on tenor and soprano sax, flute and baritone sax from Enrique Fernandez, and bold trumpet lines from Guido Gonzalez on a few tracks too! And while the solos are really rich and strong, the rhythms are definitely the core that drives the whole set strongly – not just Mantilla's percussion, but also bold, blocky piano lines from Edy Martinez, rolling acoustic bass from Chucho Martinez, and some drums from Bill Elder. Both Edy Martinez and Williams helped out with arrangements – and titles include "Andean Fantasy", "Psalm 107", "Sonando Puerto Rico", "Homanaje A San Rafael", "The Simple Life", and "New Moon".  ~ Dusty Groove

SHAPES: CIRCLES COMPILED BY ROBERT LUIS (VARIOUS ARTISTS)

Great grooves at a great price – an excellent array of contemporary funk and underground tracks from the all-great Tru Thoughts label – including bits by some of the label's biggest names, and a few up-and-comers as well! These Shapes collections are always wonderful – and can always be trusted to serve up the best little gems from the label – no surprise, consider than some of them, like this one, are compiled by one of the label owners himself. 2CD set features a massive 30 tracks in all – and titles include "Let Me Be" by Harleighblu, "Wasted Time (Ross PTH mix)" by Belleruche, "Like You Never" by Ty, "Jump Move Rock" by Wrongtom Meets Demas J, "Alients Enter (Hint rmx)" by Hint, "Get Started (Full Crate mix)" by Mark De Clive-Lowe with Omar & Sheila E, "Mind Open" by Tieknots, "Empty Heart" by Yanna Valdevit & Lay Far, "Where Does The Time Go (Si-Tiew take it back mix)" by The Bamboos with Aloe Blacc, "Maracatu" by Drumagick, "Raving Bully" by Sleeping Giantz, and "Crash & Burn (Cone rmx)" by Hint.  ~ Dusty Groove

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NEW RELEASES - WILFORD BRIMLEY WITH THE JEFF HAMILTON TRIO, MIKE JONES TRIO, FRANK POTENZA

WILFORD BRIMLEY WITH THE JEFF HAMILTON TRIO 

Wilford Brimley has packed a few lives into his 78 years on this earth. The beloved actor who viewers instantly recognize from film (Cocoon, The Firm, Absence of Malice, The Natural), and television appearances (The Waltons, Seinfeld), has also been a ranch hand, a horse wrangler, a blacksmith, a stunt man and even a bodyguard to Howard Hughes. Still, the fact that Brimley is a talented singer may strike many as the ultimate surprise. And not only does he sing -- he swings. On Wilford Brimley with the Jeff Hamilton Trio, Brimley puts his own stamp on classic pop songs and Great American Songbook standards, essaying timeless tunes in a warm, unaffected manner that brings a listener close, as if Brimley were confiding to each directly.

MIKE JONES TRIO - PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

Mike Jones is what used to be called a "two handed pianist." Not as obvious as it sounds, the term actually applies to jazz pianists who make full use of the entire range of the instrument and whose left hand prowess matches that of their right. Pre-War jazz styles such as Stride and classic Swing are prime meat for such virtuosic pianists, and, when it comes to most effectively demonstrating the durable beauty of these idioms, Mike Jones might well be the modern day master.   The CD features Jones, who's also musical director for the Penn & Teller Show, performing a range of standards by Jerome Kern, Harry Warren and Kurt Weil, Bossa Nova classics, jazz originals and even early rock and roll.  The CD cover was illustrated by David Silverman, famed animator and director for The Simpsons.

FRANK POTENZA – FOR JOE

In 1964 the legendary jazz guitarist Joe Pass recorded the album, For Django, a widely praised tribute to the brilliant Gypsy guitar master, Django Reinhardt. With For Joe, guitarist Frank Potenza, a close Pass associate, celebrates the singular artistry of the late virtuoso. Utilizing the same instrumental team that Pass employed on his 1964 classic - guitarist John Pisano, bassist Jim Hughart and drummer Colin Bailey - Potenza takes on signature tunes that Pass came to be associated with. The result is a heartfelt tribute that revives memories of one of the most significant guitarists in jazz history, as well as calling attention to Potenza, one of the finest jazz guitarists now active on the jazz scene.

AHMAD JAMAL - SATURDAY MORNING

Saturday Morning - pianist, composer, bandleader and NEA Jazz Master Ahmad Jamal's new eleven-track album produced by Jazzbook Records, featuring his quartet, drummer Herlin Riley, bassist Reginald Veal and percussionist Manolo Badrena - is his impressive and invigorating follow-up to his GRAMMY® Award-nominated, 2012 Jazz Village release, Blue Moon. With over nearly sixty recordings as a leader, this new album represents another aural chapter in the musical life of this enduring artist; who after six decades on the scene, is finally focusing more of his recorded output on his own compositions. "It's a natural transition that happens when you reach maturity; with greater confidence in yourself," Jamal says. "So, when you have greater confidence in yourself, you begin to explore yourself. And now I'm exploring my own potential."

Save for his lovely and longing rendition of Duke Ellington's immortal ballad "I Got it Bad And That Ain't Good," and the Doris Day/Les Brown torch song "I'll Always Be With You;" his impressionistic interpretation of the James Moody-associated jazz standard, "I'm In the Mood for Love," and a "remix" of a funky, three note-motif tune "One," recorded in the late seventies by Jamal, written especially for him by the late composer Sigidi Abdallah all of the tracks on Saturday Morning, including the 4/4-Caribbean-cadenced tracks, "Back to the Future," "The Line," "Firefly," "Edith's Cake," and the title track, are all written by Jamal. They feature all of the inventions and dimensions of his unique artistry: his profound and powerful pianist amalgam of Errol Garner, Nat "King" Cole and Franz Liszt; his intricate, orchestrally-influenced arrangements, and his signature use of space and dynamics.

"I have a vast repertoire," Jamal says. "I started composing when I was ten years old, and my influences are far reaching: from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Jimmy Lunceford and Fletcher Henderson to [Claude] Debussy and Maurice Ravel. In Pittsburgh, we didn't have that line between American classical music and European classical music. We studied it all."

One track from Saturday Morning bears special mention. "Silver," a melodic, Latin jazz-tinged composition, is something rare in the Jamal canon: a tribute written by him to a fellow artist - in this case - to the brilliant pianist/composer/bandleader Horace Silver, composer of many jazz standards including "Song For My Father," and "Senor Blues."

"I wrote it some years ago," Jamal says. "Horace is an ensemble player like myself. He's a leader, and a very successful writer, to say the least. The last time I saw him, I was working at the Catalina club in Los Angeles, and Horace came to see me in a wheelchair ... So that shows you his respect for me, which is matched by my respect for him."

As amazing as Ahmad Jamal is, his musicians are also an important component of his artistry, as evidenced by his current quartet. "My present players are spectacular men," Jamal says. "Manolo has been off and on with me for a number of years, and played a long time with Joe Zawinul and Weather Report. Herlin's first job was with me; I took him out of New Orleans in the eighties. Reginald Veal was with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center. They all have great character. And you can't be a great musician unless you have great character."

Other equally great musicians of character have played with Jamal over the years, including bassists Jamil Nasser, James Cammack and fellow NEA Jazz Master Richard Davis, and drummers Frank Gant and Idris Muhammad. "I've been very fortunate to have harnessed a whole list of notables and great musicians in my groups," Jamal says. "What they get from me is how to be supportive. And what could be more supportive than Vernel Fournier and Israel Crosby?"

It was the immortal 1958 LP, But Not for Me: Ahmad Jamal Live at the Pershing with the New Orleans-born Fournier on drums with equally ebullient Crosby from Chicago on bass, that catapulted the Pittsburgh-born, former child prodigy who left home at seventeen and scuffled for years in the Windy City, into an overnight sensation. Jamal was so influential that Miles Davis recorded many Jamal-associated songs, such as "A Gal in Calico," "But Not for Me," "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" and "New Rhumba," which was transcribed by Gil Evans into a big band arrangement. Generations of pianists - from Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett to Eric Reed, Jacky Terrasson and Aaron Diehl, proudly acknowledge his influence.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, who have, in pianist Hampton Hawes' words become, "casualties on the road to truth," Ahmad Jamal is a soul survivor, who lived long enough to reap the benefits of his Olympian artistry - as evidenced by his 1994 the American Jazz Masters fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his induction into the prestigious Order of the Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, who named him an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007. He's also sampled by many hip-hop artists including Kanye West, Gangstarr, Jay-Z, and De La Soul.

Saturday Morning represents the latest chapter in an astounding musical life that is far from over. "I'm very thankful and grateful for my longevity," Jamal says "And I'm looking forward to more discoveries. Every day is a new discovery for me, and that's what makes life interesting."

Jamal's Saturday Morning will be released on September 10, 2013.

Upcoming tour dates:

September 1 / Detroit Jazz Festival / Detroit, MI

September 19-21 / Jazz at Lincoln Center / New York, NY

September 27 & 28 / Manchester Craftsman's Guild / Pittsburgh, PA

October 12 / UC Davis Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts / Davis, CA

November 7-9 / Theatre De L'Odeon Europe / Paris, France

January 31 / All Blues / Lucerne, Switzerland

February 1 / All Blues / Geneva, Switzerland

June 23-30 / Costa Jazz Cruise 2014 / Cruise Ship Costa Fascinosa

www.ahmadjamal.com

NEW RELEASES - GATO BARBIERI, MAURIZIO GRONDONA GROUP, ALYSA HAAS

GATO BARBIERI - FENIX

Argentine Gato Barbieri was one of the most important saxophonists to emerge in the early 1970s. A veteran of several important late 60s avant-garde outfits, he perfected the fusion of adventurous blowing and the rhythms of South America on his second album for Flying Dutchman "Fenix". Early in his career Barbieri worked with trumpeter Don Cherry in the 60s and by the mid-70s, he was recording for A&M Records and moved his music towards soul-jazz and jazz-pop with albums like Caliente! in 1976 and the 1977 follow-up, Ruby Ruby, both produced by fellow musician and label co-founder, Herb Alpert. Fenix is scheduled for release on October 8. Upcoming concerts include: 9/13/13 @ Friday Morning Musicale Theatre (Tampa, FL); 10/18/13 @ Howard Theatre (Washington, DC); and 11/28/13 @ The Blue Note (New York, NY).

MAURIZIO GRONDONA GROUP - THE NIGHT VIBE

Refined, soulful, captivating.....these are just some of the words fans use to describe the inspired contemporary jazz of The Maurizio Grondona Group. Making their debut on the Italian scene in 1987 with 'On My Road', the group is led by singer, guitarist and composer Maurizio Grondona, a native of Bari (southern Italy on the Adriatic coast). Influenced by numerous American jazz greats including Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny and Al Jarreau, Maurizio also counts among his mentors hip-hop/soul acts such as Grammy winners, The Roots (Jimmy Fallon's House Band) and the late renowned producer, J Dilla (De La Soul, Busta Rhymes and Erykah Badu). The result of such a diverse musical education is cosmopolitan American jazz with a decidedly Mediterranean flavor. ~ cduniverse

ALYSA HAAS - SPASM

Alysa Haas, an emerging performer and recording artist, exhibits a true musicality and interweaves a story through each of her songs. Her band comprising of notable recording musicians in their own right include, her arrangers: pianists Jeffrey Klitz and Tedd Firth, and bassist Paul Beaudry. Filling out the band - drummer, Tony Jefferson & guitarist, Bernd Schoenhart. The music numbers are produced by Jeffrey Klitz (Broadway Production, Priscilla Queen of the Desert). The CD is filled with love songs from the Great American Songbook, Broadway, and pop tunes by Bob Dylan, Rob Thomas, and Lennon & McCartney. "...a seduction...a talent for fresh interpretations of standards. Rodgers and Hammerstein's "People Will Say We're in Love" was given a light and humorous delivery, while the Bernstein, Comden and Green, "I Can Cook, Too" was offered up in a surprisingly restrained, understated style..." (Bart Greenberg, NiteLife Exchange). ~ cduniverse

CAMERA SOUL - NOT FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE

Born in early 2013 songwriting/arranging team (Piero and Pippo Lombardo) and vocalist Serena Brancale from Bari (Apulia) Italy collaborated with jazz pianist and composer Kathryn Ballard Shut from Denver, Colorado all through the wave of technology. The Internet songwriting dream consists of thirteen unique tracks engineered by executive producer Marco Rossi set to modern soul and Latin jazz grooves.

The group features a world-class lineup of studio and live performance musicians, including Pippo Lombardo (piano), Beppe Sequestro (bass), Francesco Palmitessa (lead guitar), Liviana Ferri (percussion), Mimmo Campanale (drums), Daniele Scannapieco and Bruno Tassone (saxes), Gianfranco Campagnoli (trumpet and flugelhorn), and Piero Dotti (background vocals). 

Camera Soul is a powerful jazz-funk ensemble inspired by legendary horn line, soul, R&B, and jazz-fusion artists such as Earth, Wind and Fire, The Commodores, Tower of Power, and Stevie Wonder, as well as neo-soul grooves by Erykah Badu and Jamiroquai.

“By riding on the infectious riffs, amazing horn lines, and world-class talent of the Brothers Lombardo and Serena Brancale, it has been a true privilege to have earned such respect and trust as a fellow songwriter and lyricist, and an additional honor to have been asked to write the liner notes. I sent the brothers a song (“Locked Inside”) that I had written that needed a tight melody line; they worked on it, sent it back, and surprised me by asking for permission to include it on the album” says Kathryn Ballard Shut.

"Not For Ordinary People", released by Azzurra Music [TIMKAT Entertainment, Americas] is a wonderful and joyful dip into the unforgettable past, brimming with rhythms and harmonies that take us back to the late 70's Soul Funk, where electronics counted for little, robust bass lines dominated, horn lines enveloped melodies, and listeners found peace in a blissful rhythm guitar. In other words, songwriting, arranging, and musicianship ruled. In this recording project, the artistic quality is very high.” - Edigio “Gigi” Franco –  Puglia [Italy] Journal, (Translated from Italian) (Jul 25, 2013)

“I was delighted to be contacted by Kathryn Ballard Shut regarding her new found international songwriting relationship with Camera Soul. She is a lovely extention of her father Tim Ballard’s musical legacy. Kathryn’s keen musical and business savvy is the perfect combination to get the kudos this project deserves. Bravo!” says Jaijai Jackson, creator and owner of The Jazz Network Worldwide social network.

 Visit THE JAZZ NETWORK WORLDWIDE "A GREAT PLACE TO HANG" at: http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

IVO PERELEMAN'S TWO NEW RELEASES DUE OCTOBER 1 - ENIGMA & A VIOLENT DOSE OF ANYTHING

In his latest harvest of recordings, saxophone visionary Ivo Perelman unveils the products of an especially fruitful month in the recording studio. Not all of the month's recordings: the current crop contains "only" two releases (on Leo Records), which contain just half the music documented during the month of May 2013. (Even considering the whirlwind pace of exploration and discovery that marks Perelman's work, that is indeed a bumper crop.)What's more, each of these recordings uses a unique combination of artists to frame Perelman's dervish saxophone in quite different contexts. 

They would seem to have absolutely nothing in common, except for the presence of Perelman and his musical blood brother, pianist Matthew Shipp. But in Perelman's view, it is this diversity itself that binds them together to depict a single month in his creative life. "What links them is they sound completely different," he says. That statement risks self-contradiction, but as Perelman explains: "The link is that within the same month, in the same time and space, living my same own life, I went into the studio four times and came out with such different results. Of course, I went in with different intents, different goals, and different musicians. 

But the difference is so large - the results are so disparate - that this is what they have in common." In other words, they share one trait: each is utterly unique from the others, although they all stem from the same esthetic consciousness within a finite period of time. Another thing they all share, of course, is the protean and electrifying voice emanating from Perelman's tenor saxophone, which he has fashioned into a singularly expressive vehicle for his far-ranging vision. As jazz authority Neil Tesser writes - in the liner notes to A Violent Dose Of Anything - Perelman's solos "are grounded in the rich soil and rare earths of saxophone history, but they can also prove shockingly mercurial; they traverse that history in swift flights from zephryrous melody to supersonic yawps. . . . Strip away the unpleasant connotations oft he word and 'violence' - which can be defined as 'strength of emotion, or a 'swift and intense force' - might easily creep into descriptions of Perelman's galvanic explorations." 

This album comprises the first of two recording sessions used in the soundtrack for A Violent Dose Of Anything, a 2013 film from Brazilian director Gustavo Galvao. When Galvao approached Perelman about creating music for the film - which follows some young Brazilians "on the road," going from town to town in a quest for self-discovery - the saxophonist at first demurred. Perelman's preferred method of creating music is to walk into the studio with no preconceptions (not even a written theme) and improvise, from scratch,for an hour or so. 

Nothing could stray further from the usual movie-soundtrack process, by which a composer painstakingly fits and shapes music to fit the split-second edits of the finished film. "I told him how I would work, with nothing written, and music not tied to each scene, says Perelman. "I told him I would just go into the studio and make the music, like I always do,and he could pick and choose what he wanted. And to my surprise, he said yes. But I knew that in the recording many moods would come up, like they always do" - more than enough to suit the cinematic needs of the director. Perelman also knew that he wanted to feature a string instrument with his saxophone and Shipp's piano, and to that end he enlisted leading new-music violist Mat Maneri. "I wanted someone who would understand how to work with a saxophone," he points out, and chose Maneri based on his recordings with his father, the iconoclastic saxophonist Joe Maneri.  

This first-ever meeting resulted in a series of performances that indeed reflect a cinematic range of moods and emotions. (The pieces were titled post-production, for characters and places in the film.) Perelman's interplay with Shipp was to be expected: they have developed an extraordinary communication, documented on nearly a dozen recordings over the last three years. Maneri provides a salutary wild card. His hyper-expressive bowing,and his ability to match and at times anticipate Perelman's approach, give the saxophonist a worthy alter-ego while adding layered depth to the music. 

This is one of two recordings Perelman provided for the soundtrack; the other features Shipp and the improvising string quartet Sirius. Perelman recorded both sessions in the first part of May, 2013, and Galvao uses portions of each project in his film. The follow-up recording has a planned release of early 2014. (Shortly after finishing his soundtrack recording, Perelman undertook another adventure, at the behest of his longtime bassist - and frequent guitarist - Joe Morris. After working in a metal rock band with the unlikely name Slobber Pup, Morris learned that the band's drummer, a young Hungarian named Balázs Pándi, was in fact a fan of Perelman's. 

Their mutual admiration led to a studio date - another chapter in Perelman's busy month of May, 2013 - that will be released on RareNoiseRecords, simultaneously with the saxophonist's two albums on Leo Records.) Finally, before the month ended, Perelman found himself in the studio to record Enigma. "I was starting to hear in my head a denser sound, so I wanted to experiment with that - by doubling the personnel," he says. To do so, he invited the drummers who have worked most often with Shipp and himself over the last several years: Gerald Cleaver, the drummer in Perelman's quartet, and Whit Dickey, the drummer in Shipp's own trio. "It was just time to put them together," Perelman explains. "But it was very risky, because both Gerald and Whit are very individual, very particular voices on the drums. So you might possibly dilute their strength; or it could double to unbearable heights." But as proved by the album, neither of those extreme outcomes occurred. Instead, as Neil Tesser writes in the liner notes, "Enigma has a transparency - a clarity of melodic logic, a clarion lyricism, a lightness of context - that actively opposes the sonic complexity that might well come from two drummers banging away at each other." 

The surprise of Enigma, and much of its joy, comes from the thoughtful and even delicate ways in which the percussionists interact - as well as in Perelman's reaction to their dual presence. "It was very organic," he says. "At times they merged intentionally, and became one big drum set; and sometimes the very next bar they would go their own way. When you have two drummers, they can be two, or one, at will." Born in 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, Perelman excelled at classical guitar before finally gravitating to the tenor saxophone. His initial influences - cool jazz saxophonists Stan Getz and Paul Desmond - could hardly have presaged the volcanic improvisations that have become Perelman's stock-in-trade. But those early influences helped shape the romantic warrior at the heart of his most heated musical adventures.  

In 1981 he entered Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he focused on the mainstream masters of the tenor sax to the exclusion of such pioneering avant-gardists as Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann, and John Coltrane - all of whom would later be cited as precedents for Perelman's own work. He left Berklee in 1983 and moved to Los Angeles, where he soon discovered his penchant for post-structure improvisation; emboldened by this approach, he began to research the free-jazz saxophonists who had come before him. In the early 90s he moved to the more inviting artistic milieu of New York, where he now lives and works - not only on his music, but also on the drawings and paintings that have attracted admirers worldwide to his skill as a visual artist.  Critics have lauded Perelman's no-holds-barred saxophone style, on the one hand calling him "tremendously lyrical" (Gary Giddins) and, on the other, "the most intense, disturbing, tormenting sax player alive" (Françoise Couture in Desire Actuel). The blog improvandsounds.com called attention to his "piercing, burning, meaningfully warm, lyrically expressive, dream-awakening sounds that explode with an unrivalled urgency." This latest series of recordings is sure to elicit even more - and perhaps even more extravagant - accolades for his remarkable innovations.

JESSY J - SECOND CHANCES

Sax player Jessy J  burst onto the contemporary jazz scene in 2008, blending her love for Latin rhythms and jazz on her chart-topping, award-winning debut album  Tequila Moon. Jessy earned the Radio & Records 'Debut Artist of The Year' Award and Contemporary Jazz 'Song of the Year' by Both R & R and Billboard for the title track, all which held the # 1 spot on the chart for eight weeks. The talented saxophonist, pianist, singer and songwriter  has worked with everyone from The Temptations to  Michael Bublé , and she has been developing her musical voice since she was very young.

Second Chances (her 4^th release), is due out on Shanachie Entertainment on September 10, 2013 and the album features collaborations with Grammy Award-nominated keyboardist-producer Jeff Lorber, Grammy Award-winning guitarist Norman Brown, renowned bassist Jimmy Haslip (formerly with The Yellowjackets) and legendary pianist Joe Sample.

The album contains ten songs;  eight originals and two  covers Including the  Roberta Flack  hit "Feel Like Makin 'Love" and the  Sergio Mendes  classic "Magalenha."   Jessy shares, "I like to play music that people will recognize and connect to and be familiar with and also play music that's original, that 'really inspires creates new memories."

Upcoming tour dates: 9/01 - Albuquerque, NM @ Crowne Plaza // 9/07 - Austin, TX @ Riverbend Centre // 9/14 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia @ KL Jazz Fest // 9/22 - Temecula, CA @ Thornton Winery // 9/28 - Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas @ Jazz Fest // 10 / 05 - San Jacinto, CA @ Esplanade Arts Center // 10/26 - Riverside, CA @ Fox Perf Arts Center // 10/27 - Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Jazz Fest // 11/06 - Seal Beach, CA @ Spaghettini // 11/30 - Seal Beach, CA @ Spaghettini // 12/06 - Bari, Italy @ Italian Jazz Fest // 01/04 - Chicago, IL @ The Montrose Room

DIANNE REEVES - BEAUTIFUL LIFE, FIRST NEW ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS DUE FOR RELEASE

One of the preeminent female jazz vocalists in the world, Dianne Reeves, is set to release her Concord Records debut, Beautiful Life, on February 11, 2014. The album showcases Reeves’ sublime gifts by melding elements of R&B, Latin and pop within the framework of 21st Century jazz. “At its essence,” says Reeves, “Life is beautiful and I wanted to celebrate that which is too often overlooked.”

There should be no overlooking Beautiful Life, a journey of 12 songs which includes singularly memorable covers of Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” and Ani DiFranco’s self-empowering “32 Flavors.”  Included in the rest of the tracks, which cover the spectrum from jazz to soul, are two new songs “Cold” and “Satiated” which are emotionally volcanic. Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington, Beautiful Life features an all-star cast that includes bassists Esperanza Spalding and Richard Bona, vocalists Gregory Porter and Lalah Hathaway, pianists Robert Glasper and Gerald Clayton and Reeves’ cousin and frequent longtime collaborator George Duke.

Reeves, a four-time Grammy winner, has recorded and extensively performed with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis, who said of Reeves, “She has one of the most powerful, purposeful and accurate voices of this or any time.” Reeves has also recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim and was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition, she was the first Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the first singer to ever perform at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall. Reeves appeared throughout George Clooney’s award winning Good Night and Good Luck and performed every song on the Grammy-winning soundtrack. More recently, Reeves has toured the world in a variety of contexts including a program entitled “Sing the Truth,” a musical celebration of Nina Simone in which Liz Wright and Angelique Kidjo were also featured.

Diane Reeves - Beautiful Life Track Listing: 1.I Want You (4:57) // 2.Feels So Good (Lifted) (4:25) // 3.Dreams (5:19) // 4.Satiated (Been Waiting) (5:38) // 5.Waiting in Vain (6:35) // 6.32 Flavors (5:26) // 7.Cold (6:13) // 8.Wild Rose (5:50) // 9.Stormy Weather (8:02) // 10.Tango (6:35) // 11.Unconditional Love (For You) (5:42) // 12.Long Road Ahead (3:59)

THE MICHAEL TRENI BIG BAND - POP-CULTURE BLUES

Like a trickster in a West African folk tale, the blues can come in a multiplicity of guises, from a soul-bearing lament on a bottleneck guitar to a buoyant blast of brass on a ballroom bandstand. Trombonist Mike Treni, a well-traveled composer who has reemerged in recent years as one of the most resourceful arrangers on the jazz scene, knows that above all the blues is a communal celebration, and he gives the stellar cast of improvisers on his new album Pop-Culture Blues plenty to party with. Slated for release on June 25, 2013, Treni's fifth big band album offers a sweeping historical overview of the blues' pervasive presence in post-World War II American jazz, while suggesting that we need look no further for the soul that's absent in so much contemporary culture.
"I've always been fascinated with the blues from a player's perspective; there are so many different things you can do with the form," says Treni, who composed all the pieces to evoke or pay tribute to jazz masters who have fruitfully explored the blues. "The title isn't exactly a commentary, but a lot of artists and musicians don't want to know the accomplishments of the past. I don't have a problem with people doing their own thing, but not with ignoring the craft."

A savvy concept album that wears its theme with grace and style, Pop-Culture Blues is a 10-movement suite that explores modern jazz's rapidly evolving compositional styles through the lens of the blues. A project devoted to investigating the elasticity of the blues is promising to begin with (see: Coltrane, John Coltrane Plays the Blues). What makes Treni's music so enthralling is that he has attracted a jazz orchestra laden with world-class section players and improvisers who can express themselves with authority in an array of blues idioms.

The album opens with Treni's "One for Duke," a piece inspired by the Maestro, Duke Ellington, who found an inexhaustible well of inspiration in the blues. A swaggering polytonal number that provides tenor sax legend Jerry Bergonzi with a lush but indeterminate harmonic field over which to gambol, the tune gets things started with a rush of adrenaline. From the heady opener Treni charges headlong into the suite with the raucously riffing "BQE Blues," a tribute to Count Basie's powerful New Testament Band, featuring a searing tenor saxophone solo by Frank Elmo (a versatile New York cat who should be heard more in jazz contexts).

"The closest band I can think of where you have this kind flexibility are early Thad Jones/Mel Lewis bands," Treni says. "The breadth of ability to cover various styles is mind blowing."

As no modern jazz composer made more vivid use of the trombone than Charles Mingus, Treni picks the perfect spot to step forward with a lowdown gritty solo on his Mingusian "Minor Blues." He tips his hat to Coltrane on "Summer Blues," a modal vehicle for two of the ensembles most potent players, Bergonzi and powerhouse trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who's recorded widely with George Benson and performed with heavyweights such as Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, Wynton Marsalis, Rufus Reid, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Michael Brecker.

The Brecker Brothers inspired Treni's "Mr. Funky Blues," a sassy, brassy modal workout featuring some appropriately tough tenor work by Frank Elmo and a pungently expressive solo by the great Bob Ferrel on a fearsome buccin trombone. Treni closes the album with the title track, a wide-ranging and supremely hip chart that breaks the orchestra up into various units and then regroups in full force.

Just when it seems like the band must have revealed all its treasures, a new array of solos highlights masters such as tenor saxophonist Ken Hitchcock (whose credits include recordings with several of the legends evoked on this album, namely Charles Mingus and Gerry Mulligan), and the supremely swinging drummer Ron Vincent, a longtime Mulligan collaborator who's also recorded with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Bill Charlap, John Lewis, and Slide Hampton, among many others.

"Each guy has a niche, and on every tune someone can stand up and play with complete authority," Treni says. "It's like having a baseball team with a deep bench. I thought a lot about which guys to feature, and put them in spots that showed off their strengths."

Pop-Culture Blues is the latest and most ambitious missive from an artist in the midst of a sensational resurgence. After a promising start on the New York scene as part of a cadre of brilliant young improvisers, Treni eventually walked away from music in the late 1980s to pursue an entrepreneurial vision as the founder of a company specializing in innovative wireless audio and language interpretation systems (he holds two patents in wireless technology).

A decade ago he returned to jazz, his first passion. Working in partnership with his equally gifted producer, Roy Nicolosi, who's also an accomplished reed player, he gradually assembled the Michael Treni Big Band, a jazz orchestra loaded with heavyweight players. With critically acclaimed albums such as 2007's Detour, 2009's Turnaround, and 2012's Boys Night Out, Treni has taken his rightful place in the jazz firmament. As Mark Gilbert wrote about Boys Night Out: "5 out of 5 starsŠ. Smartly played swinging set of standards and originals with Jerry Bergonzi. Outstanding." While his reemergence is a welcome development, given his background it's not a surprise.

Treni earned a full scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music, but instead enrolled at the University of Miami, where he displayed such prowess that the school recruited him for the faculty at 19. Before long, he launched the band Kaleidoscope with classmate Pat Metheny. By the mid-1970s he was a rising player in New York City keeping company with other prodigious young artists like Tom Harrell, John McNeil, Paul McCandless and Earl Gardner. But when Treni lost the opportunity to tour Europe with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, his ambition took him in another direction. Recommended for the Messengers by his University of Miami buddy Bobby Watson, Treni impressed Blakey at an on-stage audition at the Village Vanguard.

"After the set Art came up and gave me a bear hug and said, 'Damn man, you can play!'" Treni recalls. "I finished the week with him and everything seemed set for the European tour, but when I didn't hear anything I called Bobby. It turned out that Curtis Fuller heard about the tour and asked if he could do it, so I didn't get to go. That snapped something in me. If I wasn't going to play with Blakey, I was going to pursue a career as a writer and commercial arranger."

Treni brings all his far-flung experiences to bear in Pop-Culture Blues, a tremendously rewarding and entertaining album that highlights the enduring wisdom of Art Blakey's first impression.

http://www.bellproductionco.com/

IVO PERELMAN / MATTHEW SHIPP - THE ART OF THE DUET VOLUME ONE

The Art Of The Duo, v. 1 inaugurates a series of recordings (three in all) that feature Perelman and Shipp alone, in the most intimate of musical settings. In three recording sessions over the course of two weeks, the saxophonist and pianist created some 40 pieces out of thin air - all of them completely improvised, with not a note written or discussed beforehand, in keeping with Perelman's preferred modus operandi. In doing so, they discard every conventional foundation of traditional music - chord schemes, predetermined tempo, time signature - and replace them with the adhesive chemistry of pure sound.

"Two quite different, possibly incompatible musical personalities?," asks Brian Morton, co-author of the renowned Penguin Guide To Jazz, in one of the liner essays for The Art Of The Duet, v. 1. "Two men from whom one can only expect an interesting collision of philosophies, the one pulling towards disorder and inclusion, the other tending toward careful winnowing of ideas and selective presentation of only those which work unambiguously?" Despite this dichotomy posed by Morton, though, the duo performances attain a rare cohesion. As Morton goes on to say: "These are not random explorations. They are not the transcript of a casual and heavily elided 'conversation,' but are instead the culmination of a long and thoughtful association, which has marked a singular path of evolution for both artists.

"The brilliant and scholarly saxophonist Dave Liebman, in his own liner essay, remarks on this phenomenon as well, writing that "The two communicate at times as one, totally enmeshed in their dialogue with no preset requirements except to be in the moment, to be musical and most of all generous in spirit to each other." Adds veteran music critic Neil Tesser (in the third liner essay), "There's nothing ethereal about these duets. Just the opposite: they have structure and purpose that belie the process of completely spontaneous improvisation. Rather than wisps of smoke, they bristle with flesh and bone. Without the slightest programmatic conceit, they present concrete (if unfamiliar) images, crystallized emotions; they exist as sonic sculptures that prove as irreducible as they are indelible."

Perelman's vociferous artistic independence might suggest a headstrong, rigidly uncompromising leader. But throughout his career, he has actually revealed himself to be a surprisingly flexible and open-minded collaborator. On The Edge, he joins forces with Shipp's working trio (bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey) for a set that displays the raw power of first meetings: even though Perelman has worked separately with the members of Shipp's band, this marks the first recording in which he encounters the trio as a whole. In this configuration, Shipp plays an even more pivotal role than he does as a member of Perelman's own quartet; it is, after all, the pianist's band (whose Elastic Aspects was named one of the year's 50 best albums in Rhapsody.com's 2012 Jazz Critics Poll). On

The nine pieces on The Edge run a gamut, from quiet to forceful and mysterious to playful, several of them invoking Perelman's command of the saxophone's squeaky-high altissimo range. On this album, as on the 2012 albums The Clairvoyant and The Gift, Perelman uses his recent studies of the Baroque Era's valveless "natural trumpet" to further enhance his almost freakish facility with this extended range of the saxophone. Through it all, he retains a lyrical romanticism rarely heard in this range, and which remains a hallmark of his work.The aptly named Serendipity employs a radically different approach; taken with The Edge, explains Perelman, "it typifies what a change in personnel can originate in creative music." It was originally designed as a trio date with Shipp and drummer Cleaver. But when one of the musicians was delayed (Perelman won't say which one), he put in a call to the venerated bassist William Parker, an old friend and former collaborator, to fill out the trio. But when the delayed musician also showed up, "It became a quartet recording on the spot," says Perelman. To accommodate the sudden shift, the album became a one-track, 45-minute long performance - but one transformed into a remarkably varied suite, thanks to its mutating themes, transformations of mood, and deep reservoir of creative energy, replenished again and again by Parker's unexpected participation.

Serendipity thus displays yet another aspect of the Perelman-Shipp dynamic, as the two principal melodists spur and contain an epic quartet free-for-all, so dramatically separated in tone and intent from the individuated pieces on The Edge.

Born in 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, Perelman excelled at classical guitar before finally gravitating to the tenor saxophone. His initial influences - cool jazz saxophonists Stan Getz and Paul Desmond - could hardly have presaged the galvanic, iconoclastic improvisations that have become Perelman's stock-in-trade. But those early influences helped shape the romantic warrior at the heart of his most heated musical adventures.

In 1981 he entered Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he focused on the mainstream masters of the tenor sax to the exclusion of such pioneering avant-gardists as Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann, and John Coltrane - all of whom would later be cited as precedents for Perelman's own work. He left Berklee in 1983 and moved to Los Angeles, where he soon discovered his penchant for post-structure improvisation; emboldened by this approach, he began to research the free-jazz saxists who had come before him. In the early 90s he moved to the more inviting artistic milieu of New York, where he lives to this day.

KALLE KALIMA & K-18 - OUT TO LYNCH

On their second release, Kalle Kalima & K-18 continue to present composer and guitarist Kalle Kalima´s aural impressions of the world of movies. Whereas their first album included Kalima´s compositions inspired by Stanley Kubrick´s films, Out To Lynch presents his reflections on some of director David Lynch´s key movies, such as Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart.

With this recording, Berlin-based Kalle Kalima has created another unique album that is rich in sonic colors and constantly alternating moods. Just like its predecessor (Some Kubricks Of Blood, TUM CD 022), the album does not aim at re-scoring the music in David Lynch´s films, but rather uses some of the key characters and locations in the movies as an inspiration for Kalima´s compositions and the group´s collective improvisations.

Kalle Kalima says that "The films of David Lynch have inspired me since I was a teenager. His style is unique in that his films are like Russian matuschkas consisting of different layers. The mystical places, that he has created, bring up feelings that are hard to define in words."

"The music on this recording is not a soundtrack but, rather, each piece is a reminiscence of the initial feeling that Lynch´s movies left in my mind when I first saw them. Musically, I wanted to combine elements of jazz improvisation with soundscapes coming more from modern classical music and avant-garde rock. Our goal as a group is to work on a collective sound and create something that is unique to us. The music has a lot of room for improvisation and the biggest challenge for us is to combine the composed and improvised material."

Out To Lynch was recorded in the outskirts of the old East Berlin at Studio P4, a studio originally built for the State Broadcasting Company (Rundfunk) of Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), or the German Democratic Republic.

Kalle Kalima (b.1973) is one of the central ambassadors of the vivid contemporary Finnish jazz scene. After taking up residence in Berlin in 2000, Kalima has collaborated with the likes of trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Tomasz Stanko, saxophonists Juhani Aaltonen and Anthony Braxton, pianist Heikki Sarmanto, guitarist Marc Ducret, bassists Greg Cohen, Teppo Hauta-aho, Sirone and Ed Schuller, composer Simon Stockhausen and vocalist Linda Sharrock as well rock/pop artist Jimi Tenor. Kalima is particularly well known as the leader of several highly acclaimed ensembles of his own or collaborative groups, such as K-18, Klima Kalima, Johnny La Marama, Momentum Impakto and Soi Ensemble,as well as his solo project, Kalle Kalima Pentasonic. He has also performed as the featured soloist of the Umo Jazz Orchestra and other large orchestras.

Featured with K-18 (Finnish for a film "not allowed for viewers under the age of 18") are again saxophonist Mikko Innanen, bassist Teppo Hauta-aho and accordionist Veli Kujala, each an acknowledged master of his chosen instrument.

Saxophonist Mikko Innanen (b.1978) is one of the most innovative saxophonists and composers on the current Finnish and Nordic jazz and improvised music scene and a long-term colleague of Kalima´s. Teppo Hauta-aho (b.1941) on the double bass can draw on five decades´ worth of experience playing improvised music in various guises, not only with virtually every Finnish jazz musician but also with the likes of Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor. Finally, the role of accordion player Veli Kujala (b.1976), who is renowned not only as a soloist in classical orchestral works but also as an improviser, is essential to the group´s sonic texture. His use of the quarter-tone accordion lends itself to building melodies around microintervals, a feature central to Kalima´s compositions here.