San Francisco String
Trio's full album May I Introduce to You, a Kaleidoscopically Creative
Reimaging of the Beatles' Epochal Album will be available September 8, 2017 via
Ridgeway Records
The San Francisco String Trio - the Bay Area super-group
featuring guitarist Mimi Fox, bassist/vocalist Jeff Denson, and violinist Mads
Tolling - will release the single "Being For The Benefit If Mr. Kite"
on June 1, 2017 for 50th Anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The single will be available via all digital
outlets such as iTunes and Amazon. This
track is also featured on the trio's debut album May I Introduce to You, a
loving homage to the classic Beatles record on its 50th anniversary and slated
for release on Ridgeway Records on September 8, 2017.
The SF String Trio brings together three celebrated masters
who have each recorded critically acclaimed albums as bandleaders. Much like
the Beatles drew on an array of traditions and styles in crafting Sgt.
Pepper's, the cooperative ensemble approaches each track as an opportunity to
imbue supremely familiar songs with a sense of delight and surprise. "The
idea was to do something different to shake up these fantastic songs, but not
just for the sake of doing something new," says Fox. "We're all
coming from a jazz background and we like to mix things up."
"We love to blend genres and you can hear tango,
R&B, pop and classical influences too," Tolling adds. "We're all
arrangers and we'd work on pieces individually then bring them in and work on
them as a group and really make them come to life."
Though the musicians grew up in different generations (and
different countries), they're united by vaunted reputations as improvisers,
abiding love of the Fab Four, and faculty positions at the California Jazz
Conservatory. As the senior member of the ensemble, Fox remembers the explosive
impact of Sgt. Pepper's release as a child growing up in New York. Tolling, a
classical prodigy, fell in love with the Beatles as his gateway to pop music as
a teenager coming of age in Denmark in the mid-90s. And Denson heard the album
in regular rotation amidst his mother's records while growing up outside
Washington D.C. in the 1980s. The universally beloved album left a deep and
enduring impression on each of them that has continued to provide inspiration
in their work as jazz artists.
"When I first moved out here I taught a class on the
Beatles at the California Jazz Conservatory," says Denson, who became the
first full professor in the CJC's newly accredited Bachelor of Music program in
2011. "When I first went to Berklee, where Mads and I met, I took an
arranging class and wrote a chart for 'She's Leaving Home.' It's always been a
really special album to me and part of my life."
The trio's emotional connection to Sgt. Pepper's is evident
throughout May I Introduce to You, and every track sheds a bright and revealing
light on the genius of the Beatles. Tolling transfuses some of Joe Cocker's
gospel fervor into his ballad arrangement of "With A Little Help From My
Friends," and sets a good deal of "Lucy In the Sky With
Diamonds" to a crunching 5/4 beat. Fox evokes George Harrison's sitar with
a sleek modal interpretation of "Within You Without You" and delivers
a ravishing solo rendition of "She's Leaving Home." Denson's
arrangement of "Fixing A Hole" incorporates his striking vocals, as
does his multilayered unpacking of "A Day In the Life," another tour
de force that distills the song's essence while winding its way to a surprising
climax, with Fox's twang replacing the famous last crashing chord.
"Essentially we have three drummers in the group, as we're all comfortable
with our instruments' percussive qualities," Fox says, "as well as
the harmonic and melodic possibilities."
It's hard to overstate the wealth of experience the trio
brings to this project. An internationally acclaimed touring artist for the
past quarter century, Fox has performed/recorded with horn heavy weights
(Branford Marsalis, David Sanchez, Houston Person), fellow fret masters
(Charlie Byrd, Stanley Jordan, Charlie Hunter), Hammond B-3 greats (Joey
DeFranceso, Barbara Dennerlein, Dr. Lonnie Smith), and vocal stars (Abbey
Lincoln, Diana Krall, Kevin Mahogany). She's shared the stage with legends
Stevie Wonder and John Sebastian and Patty Larkin featured her on the Vanguard
Records project La Guitara. Fox has released 10 critically acclaimed albums as
a leader, including three on Steve Vai_s Favored Nations label. Her YouTube
videos have received hundreds of thousands of views. In conjunction with
Heritage's 30th anniversary, the Kalamazoo guitar company has rolled out the
Mimi Fox Artist signature model.
Born and raised in Copenhagen, Tolling was on his way to a
successful career as a classical soloist when he discovered Miles Davis. His
growing passion for jazz brought him to Berklee in 2000, where at the
recommendation of Jean-Luc Ponty bass luminary Stanley Clarke recruited him for
his touring band. He moved to the Bay Area in 2003 to join the pioneering
crossover string ensemble Turtle Island Quartet, an eight-year run that
included two Grammy Awards for 2006's 4+Four, and 2008's A Love Supreme: The
Legacy of John Coltrane (both on Telarc). Since setting out on his own in 2012,
Tolling has established himself as an ambitious bandleader, accomplished composer,
and daring improviser committed to expanding the violin's sonic parameters. A
Yamaha clinician who's given workshops in the US, Canada, Japan and Dubai,
Tolling earned the #1 slot as Rising Star Violinist in the 2016 DownBeat
Critic's Poll. His latest album, 2017's Playing the 60s (Madsman Records),
mines the New Frontier era for powerfully engaging but oft-overlooked material
while introducing an ardently grooving group sound.
Denson first gained international attention in the
cooperative trio Minsarah with Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz and German pianist
Florian Weber. It was the group that caught the ear of alto sax legend Lee
Konitz, who adopted the combo as his rhythm section on 2007's Deep Lee, 2009's
Live at the Village Vanguard, which earned the 2010 Album of the Year Award
from France's Jazzman Magazine, and 2014's Standards Live: At the Village
Vanguard (all on Enja). A prolific composer and arranger, he's written music for
an array of jazz settings, from big band to trio, as well as for string
ensembles, solo bass, and a chamber opera. Since settling in the Bay Area,
Denson has released five solo albums in six years and continued to tour
internationally with Lee Konitz and his own projects along with forging new
creative alliances with some of the West Coast's most prodigious improvisers.
He's explored intricate harmonic soundscapes with drummer Alan Hall and bassoon
and electronics virtuoso Paul Hanson, and recorded with Konitz again, this time
under his own name, on 2015's The Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz. The album
introduced Denson's Ridgeway Records label, which over the last two years has
become an essential outlet for brilliant young artists and established masters in
the Bay Area and beyond.
Denson first met Fox shortly after he arrived in the Bay
Area and was immediately impressed by her musicality. "We started getting
together and playing duo, and talking about different possibilities,"
Denson says. "Mads and I had met at Berklee but really got a chance to
play together after I moved here and I did some things with his band. Mads and
Mimi had also been talking about playing together. Finally, we connected all
the dots and we had great musical chemistry right away."
Their formidable chemistry ignites on May I Introduce to
You, a project that sets a new standard for jazz interpretation of the Beatles.
Inspired by each other and an era-defining album, the San Francisco String Trio
pays the ultimate compliment to the Liverpool lads by treating their songs as
an extension of the Great American Songbook. "The Beatles have spanned
generations," Fox says, "and their melodies, particularly Paul's
ballads, hold their own with Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Musically, emotionally
and creatively, this project has everything going for it."
