Justin Kauflin's New Album "Coming Home" Produced By Quincy Jones and Derrick Hodge

Home is where you hang your hat, or so the old adage goes. For Justin Kauflin, critically acclaimed and accomplished jazz pianist and composer, the last few years home has been many places. Originally from Virginia, Kauflin’s touring schedule, has taken him across the nation and abroad expanding and growing the idea of home. Kauflin lost his sight when he was 11 years old, but his travels are still a visual experience. Through the sounds and feelings of a city or space, he can see vibrant and captivating scenes of moving psychedelic colors. On the forthcoming album, Kauflin invites others to experience the world from his perspective as he sonically paints the homes he has found throughout his global travels.

Coming Home will be Kauflin’s third release, and second with the tastemaker imprint Qwest Records. With this release he ventures into new sonic territory bringing in more modern influences of synths, electric guitar and bass. Kauflin said, “I’ve always loved music that had a good groove to it, whether it was swing or funk. With Corey Fonville’s help, we got into all sorts of great feeling grooves that I can’t wait to share.”

From the start, recording Coming Home was electric. Quincy Jones and Derrick Hodge produced the album at Quincy Jones’ infamous Westlake Studios (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Frank Ocean). Kauflin was joined by Chris Smith on acoustic and electric bass, Corey Fonville on drums and percussions, and Alan Parker on acoustic and electric guitar. The musicians had a blast bringing the album to life. Kauflin recalls, “Derrick was in there with us bringing such positivity and encouragement. I feel as if I was able to be more authentically me because Derrick was there to give me that confidence. He was an incredible catalyst for much of how the songs took shape. And if that wasn’t enough, to have Quincy overseeing the proceedings and giving his guidance and experience brought everything together in such a beautiful way.”

The album is 13 tracks that resonate emotions and transport the listener across space and time. The lead single “Coming Home,” due out August 17, opens the album and evokes Kauflin’s southern sensibilities. He comments “This song serves as an invitation to join me as I share how I experience the world around me through colors and vibrant ever-shifting textures and shapes. Alan Parker’s acoustic guitar inserts that down home feeling from my home in Virginia.” Another standout is “Lost,” Kauflin mentions, “As exciting as traveling the world has been, there have certainly been times where I’ve felt disconnected and out of my element. This is not just a feeling that is connected to where I am physically. This also delves into how I feel emotionally at times. Life itself can leave one feeling quite lost.”

The album also includes an ode to his time spent living in Brooklyn with the cover of “John My Beloved.” An impromptu on the spot session with Derrick Hodge created “ Something Somethin.” A tribute to Kauflin’s favorite food, fried chicken, most famously found in his home state on the track, “Country Fried.” “Pendulum” is about New York, and the feeling that at times it is the greatest place on earth and at others it is overwhelming. And “Strawberry Fields” as solo and band-accompanied tracks, Kauflin comments “I’ve always found the idea of an imaginary place where one can find refuge to be incredibly attractive. It is such a perfect marriage of harmony and melody and it conjures up this barely out of reach sensation, as if the place for which I’m looking is just right around the next corner.” He continues, “When I know what I’m really looking for is actually inside.”

Justin Kauflin is a pianist extraordinaire and an undeniably rare talent. He is an alumnus of the William Paterson University jazz program, mentee, protégé, and bandmate of legendary Clark Terry (winner of the 2010 Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz), signed to Quincy Jones’ management artist roster and label, and featured in the critically acclaimed film “Keep On Keepin’ On” which chronicled Kauflin’s friendship, and mentorship with Clark Terry. He has appeared on The Queen Latifah Show and the TODAY show and he was invited to perform at the Library of Congress. Kauflin has toured with Quincy Jones on a few world tours and is currently playing at international jazz clubs, and festivals.

Justin Kauflin is planning a tour to support the new album. He is excited to get back on the road and create new experiences with his music. He comments, “We had a great time in the studio, but I’m confident that each of the tracks will take a whole new life once we get a chance to take them out and play them in front of audiences. What will happen on tour will be a combination of what we created for the album and the energy we feel from the crowd.” Check out and follow his tour dates here.

Coming Home is due out on September 14th.

GRAMMY® Award-winning Yellowjackets Return with New Album & Collaboration with Vocalist Luciana Souza

While the Los Angeles-based Yellowjackets have been a creative force on the jazz scene since 1981 when they recorded their eponymous debut, their fourth Mack Avenue Records album, Raising Our Voice, once again ups the ante with bold new strides by inviting vocalist extraordinaire Luciana Souza to collaborate with the group for seven of its thirteen tunes as well as subtly taking a resistant stand against the status quo of the cultural and political undercurrent of our times.

The Yellowjackets have consistently forged ahead in their evolving artistic statements. The band has recorded close to 30 albums, been nominated for 17 GRAMMY® Awards, and has adventurously amplified the eclectic, electro-acoustic soundscape, creating a unique jazz sound since its fusion beginnings.

“The band keeps moving forward,” says saxophonist Bob Mintzer who joined the group in 1990. “It’s one of the few partnership bands in the last four decades. It’s democratic, laissez-faire and accommodating to everyone in the band to contribute. We’re constantly reinventing ourselves as a reflection of what’s happening in the world.”

The Jackets are comprised of pianist/keyboardist/co-founder Russell Ferrante, bassist Dane Alderson in his second recording with the group and drummer Will Kennedy, who joined the band in 1987 and then in 2000 took a 10-year hiatus before returning to the drum chair. As a relative outsider, Souza contributes wordless vocals as well as songs sung in Portuguese and English. She was quickly won over by the band.

“They’re killers,” she says. “They’re so serious yet also so much fun. We laughed a lot during the sessions. Their curiosity is alive, and their joy is to make great music. I was originally going to just do three songs, but it ended up that I’m on over half the record.”

The collection features three old Yellowjackets tunes arranged for a fresh ride with Souza’s contributions, two co-writes with Ferrante and Souza, three new originals each for Ferrante and Mintzer, and Alderson’s first original piece for the band along with two short electronics interludes.

Unlike the last album, 2016’s Cohearence, where the music was toured before the studio recordings, Raising Our Voice grew organically from the collaborative nature of the sessions. “There was a gap between the last album and this one,” says Ferrante. “We hadn’t been playing a lot live, so most of these tunes came alive in the studio and were sparked by the electricity and chemistry with Luciana.”

Kennedy adds, “This is the album where we were the least prepared for the writing and rehearsals. It was a bit of a cram. But that gave it an excitement. And then Luciana, who came in at the last moment, was a great discovery for bringing her talents as a gift to the band.”

The Ferrante and Souza collaboration began years earlier when talking about working together. “As they were thinking of the next album, Russ came to the house and we went into my studio and we talked,” explains Souza. “He played some music and I sang along, and it was very sweet and unguarded.”

“We looked through some music that had a Brazilian feel to it,” Ferrante says. “We chose songs that lyrically fit her musicality.”

Raising Our Voice leads off with the vibrant reworking of the grooved “Man Facing North” (originally recorded on the Jackets’ 1993 album Like a River). Ferrante on piano and Mintzer on tenor sax take swinging breaks while Souza follows Alderson’s bass lines and sings counterpoint to the tenor with sweet, lilting wordless vocals that lift the song with storytelling.

Other Souza conversation-like contributions include the gorgeous ballad “Quiet” (she wrote the first half with Portuguese and English lyrics and Ferrante wrote the second half), the reworking of the Brazilian-tinged “Timeline” (a Ferrante composition from the Jackets’ 2011 album of the same name with Souza taking the lead with wordless vocals and conversing with Mintzer) and another re-orchestrated band number, “Solitude” from Like a River, written by Ferrante, with new Portuguese lyrics by the singer who playfully engages in a fetching call-and-response with both Alderson and Mintzer.

Souza also heartens Ferrante’s sprightly “Everyone Else Is Taken” and spices his mysterious “In Search Of” which was inspired from a quote by Thomas Merton: “There is no one so wrong as the one who knows all the answers.”

Ferrante contributes the moving, introspective tune “Mutuality,” based on the Martin Luther King Jr. speech, “Network of Mutuality.” In the midst of Souza’s musing support, the harmony goes through every key (minor and major). “This is a good example of making a statement but on a subtle side,” he says. “It really connects to the title of the album, which has a political slant. It’s about waking up to see what’s going on. A lot of musicians get in their own bubbles of charts and harmony, but don’t connect to the world we live in. We need to be less preoccupied and see the urgency of making music as a resistance.”

Mintzer’s three new songs include the deep-grooved “Ecuador” (his tenor saxophone takes the tasty role of a rhythmic instrument) and the upbeat “Strange Times.” He also contributes the most unusual Yellowjackets tune, “Swinging With It,” a pure swinger complete with walking bass lines. “Straight-ahead music is a big part of my legacy,” he says.

A key component to Raising Our Voice is the band’s stellar rhythm section of Kennedy and Alderson. “We provide a good foundation for our other band mates to stand on” says Kennedy. “Inspired by music from around the world, we all listen, grow, and incorporate those influences in our sound.”

“They gave me the freedom to explore,” says Alderson, the Perth, West Australia native who now lives in Virginia. “I’m a huge fan of the RC-300 Loop Station by Boss combined with the Roland VB99 midi unit, which I used on the two short pieces, ‘Emerge’ and ‘Divert.’”

Alderson’s first full composition for the Jackets is the upbeat “Brotherly,” which buoys with his tumbling bass lines. “It was just a bag of ideas at first,” he says. “But then I corresponded with Will and we talked about grooves. We’re both big fans of the UK band Brotherly, so we were influenced by it when we put this tune together.”

“It’s a different and unusual snapshot of where the Yellowjackets are today,” says Kennedy. “We’re getting older, but we’re still inspired and listening.”

Mintzer sees a bright future for the Yellowjackets. “What attracts me about the group is how stylistically broad we are,” he says. “There are no barriers. We’re free to try new things without making the music overly complex. I always say this is the band you always wanted to be in. We’ll see where we go next.”

Yellowjackets · Raising Our Voice

Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: September 14, 2018

Soul Jazz Guitarist Dee Brown Remembers His Late Love on New Release "Remembering You"

Two years ago, soul-jazz guitarist dee Brown (http://deebrownmusic.com) was preparing for an August wedding to gospel singer Shaunia Edwards. When Edwards unexpectedly took ill and passed away, Brown was shattered. A spiritually-rooted man, he purposely chose to be purposeful with his grief and preserve for posterity “the season” that they shared. The Detroit native wrote what became the newly released “Remembering You,” an upbeat album of R&B, jazz, funk and instrumental pop originals that recalls many of their intimate memories and amorous moments while celebrating the vibrant joy and positivity Edwards exuded. 

  

Brown’s expressive and lyrical electric jazz guitar serves as an evocative narrator throughout the set list that chronicles their connection, shares the cheer in Edwards’ own voice that she infused into the lives of those who knew her (the first single, “Hey Baby”), reflects the glee of their summer romance, honors the pledge they made, captures the energy and enthusiasm of their commitment and gratitude for having found each other, appreciates the soulful beauty they shared, and ends with a resonant parting, a promise that their love will endure. 

Keyboardist Valdez Brantley (Usher’s former music director) co-wrote and co-produced most of “Remembering You” with Brown. Other notables contributing to the session, urban-jazz keyboardist-pianist Bob Baldwin helmed “I Will,” adding class and sophistication to the cosmopolitan sonicscape; flutist Althea Rene lends quixotic qualities to “Our Summer”; and keyboardist Nate Harasim co-penned and produced the sultry “Beauty Within.” The current single climbing the radio charts from Brown’s fourth album is the playful frolic “Pop the Question.”           

                                          

The blessed circle of life becomes complete when Brown’s August wedding will happen after all. He takes marriage vows with “a beautiful child of God” on the 18th – a week after he performs at the River Raisin Jazz Festival outside of Detroit on August 11. 

New Music From: Meli’sa Morgan; Dave Holland with Evan Parker; Tenderlonious featuring the 22 Archestra

Meli’sa Morgan – Love Demands

R&B megastar Meli’sa Morgan returns with a brand new set of recordings, her first in over 10 years! A former backup singer for Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston and others, Morgan launched her solo career in the mid-’80s with a massive hit single that topped the R&B chart, a cover of Prince’s “Do Me Baby!” This unique release combines six original songs, including the gorgeous title track “Love Demands,” with covers of some of Morgan’s favorite artists including Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Otis Redding and more plus versions of Morgan’s smash hits “Do Me Baby” and “Fool’s Paradise!”

Dave Holland with Evan Parker – Uncharted Territories

A really fantastic meeting of the minds – as legendary musicians Dave Holland and Evan Parker come together here in a quartet that's maybe more powerful than either of their recent recordings! Parker's got this focus and tunefulness at times – not a jazz swing, but a sense of spacious direction that really fits Holland's work on bass – and the group also features some really inventive work on piano, organ, and other keyboards from Craig Taborn – whose open sense of structures fits the mood as well. Drummer Ches Smith may well be the most restrained member of the group – but in a great way – and the tracks on the set feature different groupings of musicians – some straight quartet, some duo or trio tracks – spun out over the extra-long space of the album. ~ Dusty Groove

Tenderlonious featuring the 22 Archestra - Shakedown

We kinda want to hate the guy for such a hokey name like Tenderlonious – but this album's a surprisingly great little gem, and one that mixes lots of openly-blown work on flute with some sweet keyboards and other jazzy rhythms! The approach is maybe a bit like the Jason Lindh or Chris Hinze albums of the early 70s – and by that, we mean their better sets – with a flute approach that's less biting than the generation of Herbie Mann and Roland Kirk, using the instrument more in these spacious ways that are pretty darn great – especially against the heavy percussion and basslines of the 22Archestra! There's a few nice moments that almost have a Bobbi Humphrey sort of warmth – and titles include "Togo", "SV Interlude", "Expansions", "The Shakedown", "Yussef's Groove", "Red Sky At Night", and "You Decide". ~ Dusty Groove

Nw Music From: Joyce Moreno, Barbara Ingram, Nathan Haines

Joyce Moreno - 50 

A beautiful little record – one that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first album from Joyce – one of our favorite Brazilian singers of all time! Joyce revisits all the songs from that record – including a few written by Caetano Veloso, Toninho Horta, and Marcos Valle – and the change in sound is amazing – given all the maturity and sophistication the singer has brought to her sound over the decades! Make no mistake, Joyce was tremendous right from the start – but the change here from the first album is amazing – music that's full of subtle brilliance, jazzy inflections, and this way of completely inhabiting the lyrics, but without ever overdoing things – all qualities that were not in place on Joyce's debut. The set features work from Toninho Horta, Marcos Valle, Roberto Menescal, Zelia Duncan, Danilo Caymmi, and others – and titles include "Improvisado", "Anisedade", "Superego", "Litoral", "Choro Chorado", "Me Disseram", and "Bloco Do Eu Sozinho". Also includes two new tracks – "A Velha Maluca" and "Com O Tempo".  ~ Dusty Groove

Barbara Ingram – Philadelphia Sweetheart

One of the few albums we've ever seen to foreground the talents of the great Barbara Ingram as a lead act – even though her vocals had been a huge part of the Philly scene from the 60s onward – in a legacy that includes work with Ray Charles as a Raelette, lead vocals with her brothers in Ingram Family, and countless studio work as a member of The Sweeties backup trio! Barbara's got this mature, sophisticated style that recalls the shifts that other Philly females were taking in the 80s as they were growing up – and the set features some production work from brother Butch Ingram, and other help from LB Young. Titles include "What Else Can I Say", "Let The Love Begin", "Spirit Of Love", "Someone's On My Side", "She's All Alone", "Tried It & Liked It", and "Music Is The Message".  ~ Dusty Groove

Nathan Haines – Zoot Allure

Nathan Haines returns to Papa Records with the aurally astounding long player, Zoot Allure. Originally released back in 2014 only in New Zealand, Zoot Allure has been replayed, re-mastered and remixed for a special new version for 2018. Nathan Haines again teams up with long time collaborators, Mike Patto, Vanessa Freeman and Marc Mac, plus he welcomes some masterful vocal contributions from Marlena Shaw, Kevin Mark Trail and fellow Kiwi Tama Waipara. To round off this outstanding album are two fresh remixes of the single Got Me Thinking from Opolopo and Bugz In The Attic to bring the extra dance-floor funk and groove.

Ella Fitzgerald's Acclaimed 1956 Live Album 'Ella At Zardi's' To Be Released On Vinyl

Following the limited-edition Record Store Day release of Ella Fitzgerald's unreleased 1956 album Ella At Zardi's on pink and blue vinyl, which earned Fitzgerald her first No. 1 on the 24-year-old Jazz Albums Chart and her second No. 1 on the Traditional Jazz Albums chart, the acclaimed live album will receive a wide release as a double LP on black vinyl on August 17 via Verve/UMe. 

First released on CD and digital in December 2017, the album capped off a year-long celebration of the jazz legend's centennial. The collection earned rave reviews and topped many year-end lists including the Los Angeles Times and NPR who exclaimed, "It's a real find: two sets of blithe vocal brilliance recorded in a club in 1956, before Ella became a trademark," continuing, "Get this to savor Fitzgerald's assured sense of swing, and unmatched (still!) vocal dexterity."

Recorded on February 2, 1956 at Zardi's Jazzland in Hollywood, Ella At Zardi's features the entirety of the evening's two-set, 21-song performance, which captures an inspired Fitzgerald, backed by a stellar trio comprised of pianist Don Abney, bassist Vernon Alley and drummer Frank Capp, singing and swinging in front of an animated, adoring crowd, just days before she'd go on to record the album that would catapult her to stardom. The concert was originally recorded by Norman Granz to celebrate the creation of, and Fitzgerald's signing to, Verve Records, which Granz founded largely to give Fitzgerald the attention that he felt she wasn't receiving at her then-current label, Decca. Ella At Zardi's was planned as the label's inaugural release but shelved in favor of the now-classic studio album Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Song Book, which kicked off a best-selling, signature series of Song Book releases. The Zardi's tapes languished in Verve's vaults for six decades.

Ella At Zardi's captures the brilliance and inspiration Fitzgerald's performances embodied at the time. As veteran jazz journalist Kirk Silsbee observes in the album's liner notes, "We can hear a fluid and joyous singer who operates with almost giddy authority. Ella manages to find a way of swinging almost every number, no matter the tempo. She anticipates her studio songbook albums with Duke Ellington's 'In A Mellow Tone,' Cole Porter's 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy,' the Gershwins' 'S'Wonderful' and 'I've Got a Crush On You,' and Jerome Kern's 'A Fine Romance'... Ella uses her intelligent phrasing and rhythmic sense in inventive and exhilarating ways. Her repertoire was vast and she didn't always remember the correct lyrics of a song. But the way she spontaneously redesigns the text in the most musical of ways is Fitzgerald's signature."

Ella At Zardi's stands out for its history-making rediscovery of a vintage performance by one of jazz's greatest artists. As Granz enthuses in his stage introduction, "This is for real; for me she's the greatest there is—Miss Ella Fitzgerald!"

ELLA AT ZARDI'S TRACK LISTING

LP1 – FIRST SET

SIDE A

1.   It All Depends On You 

2.   Tenderly 

3.   Why Don't You Do Right 

4.   Cry Me A River 

5.   In A Mellow Tone

SIDE B

1.   Joe Williams's Blues 

2.   A Fine Romance 

3.   How High The Moon 

4.   Gone With The Wind 

5.   Bernie's Tune

LP2 – SECOND SET

SIDE C

1. 'S Wonderful 

2. Glad To Be Unhappy 

3. Lullaby of Birdland 

4. The Tender Trap 

5. And The Angels Sing 

6. I Can't Give You Anything But Love

SIDE D

1. Little Boy (a.k.a. Little Girl)

2. A-Tisket, A-Tasket 

3. My Heart Belongs To Daddy 

4. Airmail Special 

5. I've Got A Crush On You

VOCALIST MARTY ELKINS INVIGORATES TRADITIONAL JAZZ WITH THE RELEASE OF “FAT DADDY”

Vocalist MARTY ELKINS has a special affinity for older jazz and swing tunes. She has a liquid, bluesy voice that is the perfect vehicle for standards originally sung by artists like Alice Faye, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ethel Waters. Although the 14 songs on Elkins’ newest CD, FAT DADDY, were all written between 50 and 90 years ago, Elkins makes them feel as fresh and relevant today as ever.

Elkins’ voice is attractive and relaxed. She sings with a lot of warmth and feeling, but never emotes. The lyrics and mood of a song are much more important to her than mere pyrotechnics. Her favorite instrument is the trumpet, and it’s easy to hear how it’s influenced her tone. She loves to sing ballads, but she can swing as well as any of the old masters. 

Marty Elkins’ straight-ahead, smoky interpretations create a stimulating immediacy as she imbues these songs with a naturalness and sense of sheer fun that only an experienced artist can evoke. FAT DADDY is Elkins’ fourth CD on Nagel Heyer Records, a German label that specializes in mainstream jazz with internationally known artists. 

  

featuring

MARTY ELKINS  vocals

JON-ERIK KELLSO  trumpet

JAMES CHIRILLO  guitar

JOEL DIAMOND  piano (6, 7, 10, 14), organ, alto saxophone (10)

STEVE ASH  piano

LEE HUDSON  bass

TARO OKAMOTO  drums, tambourine

LEOPOLDO FLEMING  percussion (10)

Tracks 

1. YOU TURNED THE TABLES ON ME  (3:57)

2. ON REVIVAL DAY  (2:45)

3. HOW CAN YOU FACE ME  (3:48)

4. THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO THAT  (3:43)

5. IT’S TOO HOT FOR WORDS  (3:19)

6. COW COW BOOGIE  (3:35)

7. I COVER THE WATERFRONT  (4:26)

8. IT’S A PITY TO SAY GOODNIGHT  (3:10)

9. MY OLD FLAME  (6:02)

10. FAT DADDY  (3:53)

11. I CAN’T FACE THE MUSIC  (4:40)

12. SUGAR  (3:40)

13. THESE FOOLISH THINGS  (5:13)

14. TRAVELIN’ ALL ALONE  (4:02)

Produced by Frank Nagel-Heyer and Joel Diamond

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/user-438687735/sets/stories/s-LSIwi

Cécile McLorin Salvant To Release Duo Album with Critically Acclaimed Pianist Sullivan Fortner

The world first learned of the incredible vocal artistry of Cécile McLorin Salvant when she won the prestigious 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. In just under the span of a decade she has evolved into a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winner (with all three Mack Avenue Records releases receiving nominations, and the last two winning the Best Jazz Vocal Album category) and a prescient and fearless voice in music today.

Her newest release, The Window, an album of duets with the pianist Sullivan Fortner, explores and extends the tradition of the piano-vocal duo and its expressive possibilities. With just Fortner’s deft accompaniment to support McLorin Salvant, the two are free to improvise and rhapsodize, to play freely with time, harmony, melody, and phrasing.

Each new recording by McLorin Salvant reveals new aspects of her artistry. WomanChild and For One To Love established her style, her command, and interpretive range. Dreams and Daggers is a work that highlights her fresh and fearless approach to art that transcends the conventional—live and in the studio, with a trio and with a string quartet, standards and original compositions—held together by a vocal delivery that cuts against the grain, ever deepening, intensifying, and nuancing the lyrics.

Thematically, The Window is a meditative cycle of songs about the mercurial nature of love. The duo explores the theme across a wide repertory that includes Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim, the inner-visionary Stevie Wonder, gems of French cabaret, and early Rhythm and Blues, alongside McLorin Salvant’s brilliant, original compositions. Just as a window frames a view—revealing as much as it hides, connecting as much as it separates—each song on the album offers a shifting and discerning perspective on love’s emotional complexity. McLorin Salvant sings of anticipation and joy, obsession and madness, torment and longing, tactics and coyness. The Window traverses love’s wide universe, from the pleasure of a lover’s touch with its feelings of human communion, to the invisible masks we wear to hide from others and from ourselves.

Her gifts as an artist are rooted in her intensive study of the history of American Music and her uncanny ability to curate its treasures for her audience. Her albums are explorations of the immense repository of experience and feeling that abound in popular song. She understands the special role of the musician to find and share the emotions and messages in music that speak to our past, present and future. “I am not interested in the idea of relevance,” she explains. “I am interested in the idea of presence. I want to communicate across time, through time, play with time.”

Onstage, her persona is often compared to that of an actress. But, as McLorin Salvant notes, “jazz would not be what it is without its theatrical origins, vaudeville, and minstrel shows.” Through her selection of repertory and brilliant interpretations, she “plays with time,” making the musical past speak to our contemporary world. Historically, her unflinching performance of songs from the minstrel tradition challenge us to think harder about race in America today. Her ironic, even sinister, rendition of songs explore the complex intertwining of sex, gender, and power. Her blues numbers are bawdy and vibrant, melancholic and forlorn, insistent and emancipatory.

She sings of the ecstasy and agony of love, of jubilation and dejection, of desire and being desired, of fearlessness and fragility. “I want to get as close to the center of the song as I can,” McLorin Salvant explains. “When I find something, beautiful and touching I try to get close to it and share that with the audience.” Immersed in the song and yet completely in control, McLorin Salvant brings her immense personality to the music—daring, witty, playful, honest, and mischievous.

All of McLorin Salvant’s study, training, creativity, intelligence, and artistry come together in her voice on The Window. The sound of her voice covers the gamut from breathy to bold, deep and husky to high and resonant, limpid to bluesy, with a clarity and richness that is nearly unparalleled. When she first burst onto the jazz scene, many listeners were struck by her ability to recall the sound of Bessie Smith, Sarah Vaughan, or Betty Carter. Yet with each new album, McLorin Salvant’s voice has become more her own, more singular. While conjuring the spirits of the ancestors, her references are controlled, focused, and purposeful. Her remarkable vocal technique never overshadows her rich interpretations of songs both familiar and obscure.

Touched at every moment by Cécile McLorin Salvant’s brilliance, The Window is a dazzling new release from an artist who is surely, to quote Duke Ellington, “beyond category.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant · The Window

Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: September 28, 2018

Pianist/ Renee Rosnes and Author/Lyricist David Hajdu to Release First Album of Songwriting Collaborations

Ice on the Hudson features vocalists René Marie, Janis Siegel, Darius de Haas and Karen Oberlin and an all-star ensemble interpreting diverse songs about the emotional complexities of adult life in today's world.

There’s a special chemistry that’s found only in the rarest of songwriting partnerships, forever linking the names of composer and lyricist in the minds of listeners. The names Renee Rosnes and David Hajdu are already well known to music lovers: Rosnes as one of her generation’s most acclaimed jazz composers and pianists, Hajdu as an award-winning author and critic. With Ice on the Hudson, their first collaborative album of songs, the pair reveals a breathtaking synergy, crafting a collection of deeply felt and genre-defying songs that join words and music with alchemical results.

Ice on the Hudson, due out October 12 via SMK Jazz (a newly launched imprint curated by Smoke Sessions Records), brings together four magnificent vocalists: revered, GRAMMY® Award-nominated jazz singer René Marie; Manhattan Transfer co-founder and nine-time GRAMMY® winner Janis Siegel, celebrated musical-theater actor and art-song interpreter Darius de Haas; and acclaimed jazz/pop performer Karen Oberlin. Their voices are matched by a stunning ensemble, featuring Rosnes at the piano along with cellist Erik Friedlander, saxophonists Steve Wilson and Seamus Blake, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, bassist Sean Smith, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogerio Boccato.

While both Rosnes and Hajdu can boast considerable accomplishments in their respective fields, songwriting was a fairly new endeavor for both. Rosnes had had a handful of her instrumental compositions set to lyrics, and Hajdu had collaborated on a few songs with Fred Hersch and others. When Rosnes and Hajdu decided to try writing together, five years ago, "Everything clicked," in Hajdu's words.

“Renee is one of the most gifted, most sophisticated and most creative composers alive,” Hajdu says. “I consider myself the luckiest boy in the music world for getting to write with this flat-out genius. We both enjoy the exhilarating thrill of doing something that we care about, that draws on our professional and life experiences, but that provides a whole new set of challenges for us.”

For Rosnes, who has long drawn inspiration for her own music from sources as diverse as the natural world and the visual arts, the partnership has given her rich depths of emotion and narrative to plumb. "David is a powerful and compelling storyteller," she says, "and each of his lyrics has many layers and great substance. It's been a fulfilling experience to take his words and search for melodies that truly allow the story to shine through."

Given the tantalizing complexity of Hajdu’s words, Rosnes found herself exploring a wide range of sensibilities, never concerned with genre. Ultimately, while some pieces fit comfortably into the jazz songwriting tradition of Jon Hendricks or Bob Dorough, others evoke the world of musical theater or such respected singer-songwriters as Joni Mitchell or Randy Newman. “When I embarked on this project with David, I put the idea of genre out of my mind,” she explains. “I was most interested in allowing the lyrics to inspire and move me in whatever direction that musically translated to."

“A Tiny Seed” opens the album with a parable both timeless and timely, about a wall-building king and the seemingly small detail that grows to topple his kingdom. Marie’s wry, soulful vocal offers inspiration to those hoping to turn such fairy tales into reality. Her serpentine lines bring an exotic mystery to “Little Pearl,” a reinterpretation of Rosnes’ instrumental “The Quiet Earth.”

Siegel’s voice seems to float into a whimsical daydream on “I Used to Like to Draw,” a tender reminiscence of the childhood days when we all gave vent to our imaginations, before the supposed reality of adult life quashed such fancies. Siegel also sings “The Passage,” which takes the natural splendor that inspired Rosnes’ instrumental piece “Gabriola Passage” into the realm of transcendence. On the title track, "Ice on the Hudson," she takes the bizarre fact that the Hudson River flows both upstream and downstream as a metaphor for the often contradictory aspects of grown-up reality – one of several instances of complex ideas that stem from the collaboration between two artists with a wealth of life experience.

Oberlin offers a bit of culinary respite from the world’s divisiveness on the playful “I Like Pie” and a bit of romantic perspective on “I Still Feel the Same.” The moving “All But You” builds from scraps of both songwriters’ biographies to paint a picture of living with a missing someone. Rosnes suggested a song based on her experience as an adopted child wondering about her birth parents, which Hajdu countered with his own background. “Renee said it felt strange growing up not knowing who her biological parents were, but my father sat at the dinner table with me every night my whole life, and I don't know who my father was either. We share that feeling of a hole in your life, that there are people who could have been there who were not."

Hajdu based “To Meet My Brother” on the tragic loss of his sister and the feeling of wanting to be reunited, whatever the cost. Darius de Haas brings tender yearning to that piece and an urgent sensuality to “Confound Me.” His knack for theatrical drama illuminates “Trotsky in Mexico,” a Sondheim-like musing on the Russian revolutionary’s fling with Frida Kahlo.

A five-time winner of the JUNO award, Renee Rosnes is one of the premier jazz composers and pianists of her generation. Upon moving to New York City from Vancouver, Canada, she quickly established her enduring reputation as a creative original and versatile collaborator, touring and recording with such masters as Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, BobbyHutcherson, J.J. Johnson, James Moody, and Ron Carter. With 16 recordings as a leader, Rosnes has grown ever more ambitious musically, as her most recent album, Beloved of the Sky (Smoke Sessions Records), attests.

David Hajdu is an award-winning author, critic, and songwriter. A three-time winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for Music Writing as well as a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Hajdu is the author of five books, including Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street, and Love for Sale: Pop Music in America.



Various Artists · Ice on the Hudson

Smoke Jazz · Release Date: October 12, 2018

Marcos Valle - Nova Bossa Nova (20th Anniversary Reissue)

Marking sixty years of Bossa Nova, and twenty years since Marcos Valle’s first release for Far Out Recordings, what better time to bring back this era-defining classic from the Brazilian master composer?

Throughout his astounding six-decade career, infiltrating pop, bossa nova, samba, delicate psychedelia, jazz and funk, Marcos Valle has consistently shown a dogged determination to transcend the traditions and structures of bossa nova, whilst never veering away from the movement’s fundamental spirit. To some extent, his epithet ‘the original Rio beach boy’ is a handy one: it reflects the origin and character of his often sun-soaked sound, but expounding his importance in the lineage of Brazilian music, he is more discerningly known as ‘the renaissance man of Brazilian pop’.

Up until Nova Bossa Nova, Marcos Valle hadn’t released an album for well over a decade. After 1983, he resented the way the music industry had changed with commercialisation and new demands curtailing his creative freedom. This was until 1994 when Marcos met Far Out boss Joe Davis and they recorded a track for Far Out’s first Friends From Rio album. This new collaborative partnership resulted in a new solo album, which commenced recording in 1996.

Nova Bossa Nova brought Marcos bouncing back into the 90s, slotting nicely in place alongside the acid jazz movement as well as a voracious new demand for Brazilian music on dancefloors from London to Tokyo. Unveiled at the peak of the Brazilian movement, the record would also prove to be something of a revolution, inspiring a new generation of artists like Bebel Gilberto, Sabrina Malheiros, Da Lata and Bossacucanova, who continued to fuse Brazilian influences with modern electronic sounds.

Twenty years since the original release, the album remains a landmark for Far Out Recordings and Brazilian music in general. It is yet another example of Marcos Valle’s ability to transcend musical limitations and explore new musical ground, as he has done so passionately for the last sixty years.

TONY BENNETT AND DIANA KRALL CELEBRATE THE GERSHWINS ON THEIR COLLABORATIVE ALBUM LOVE IS HERE TO STAY

Tony Bennett Celebrates His 92nd Birthday Today

Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate their shared love of the music of George and Ira Gershwin on their new collaborative album, LOVE IS HERE TO STAY, set for a September 14th release on Verve Records/Columbia Records.  Tony Bennett, who celebrates his 92nd birthday today, has been friends with Diana Krall for over 20 years. The two toured together in 2000 and recorded duets for two of Bennett's albums ("Duets" and "Playin' With My Friends"), but this marks their first full album project together.  LOVE IS HERE TO STAY is out just in time for the 120th Anniversary of George Gershwin's birthday which takes place on September 26th.  Both multi-Grammy winning and platinum-selling artists, Bennett is the only artist at the ages of 85 and 88, respectively, to have an album debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Krall is the only jazz artist to have eight albums debut at #1 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart.  Danny Bennett, President and CEO of Verve Label Group commented, "When Tony Bennett and Diana Krall sing the music of the Gershwins, it's truly the consummate artistic pairing of singers and songwriting.  It's one of those recordings that when you listen to it, you recognize instantly that it had to happen - it was just a matter of getting these two extraordinary performers into a studio and putting the Gershwin songbook in front of them."

"No one expected me to compose music. I just did. What I have done is what was in me; the combination of New York, where I was born, and the rising, exhilarating rhythm of it, with centuries of hereditary feeling back of me."  - George Gershwin, 1926

  

Listen to "Fascinating Rhythm" released today on all digital platforms:  https://Verve.lnk.to/FascinatingRhythmPR

LOVE IS HERE TO STAY was recorded with the Grammy award winning Bill Charlap Trio and the stunning result is a subtle, sophisticated and beautifully rendered love letter to The Gershwins' music and their status as one of the premiere songwriters of the American popular standard.  It is a masterclass in vocal delivery and phrasing and the command that Bennett and Krall display of the material in both their duets and solo tracks makes it appear effortless, belying the honed skill of the vocalists. The duet tracks include "Love Is Here to Stay", "S'Wonderful," "They Can't Take That Away from Me" and "Fascinating Rhythm," among them.  "Fascinating Rhythm" was Tony Bennett's first physical recording, made under his then stage name, Joe Bari, which he revisits as a duet with Krall for this project.  Two of the duet tracks were never recorded by either artist prior in their career: "My One and Only," and "I've Got A Crush on You."

Tony Bennett's album, "Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet To Come" won a Grammy award this past February and Diana Krall recently won two Juno awards for her last recording, "Turn Up the Quiet," including the prestigious Producer of The Year award.  This Fall, the two will appear on several national television shows performing songs from LOVE IS HERE TO STAY including The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America, and Live With Kelly and Ryan.

LOVE IS HERE TO STAY was produced by Grammy Award winner Dae Bennett and Bill Charlap with Danny Bennett as Executive Producer.  It will be released on CD, vinyl, digital and streaming platforms.  The Bill Charlap Trio features Bill Charlap on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums.

LOVE IS HERE TO STAY:  TRACK LISTING

1. 'S Wonderful

2.  My One And Only

3.  But Not For Me (Diana Krall solo)

4.  Nice Work If You Can Get It

5.  Love Is Here To Stay

6.  I Got Rhythm

7.  Somebody Loves Me

8.   Do It Again

9.   I've Got A Crush On You

10. Fascinating Rhythm

11. They Can't Take That Away From Me

12. Who Cares? (Tony Bennett solo)

New Release: Chris Jasper - Dance With You

If you are familiar with The Isley Brothers then you know Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Chris Jasper, an integral member of The Isley Brohers during the 1970s and 1980s—their gold and platinum years—from the 3+3 (1973) to Between the Sheets (1983) albums. Chris Jasper was primarily responsible for writing, arranging and producing all of The Isley Brothers music during this time, including such beautiful love songs as “For The Love of You” and “Between the Sheets” and uptempo funk such as “Fight the Power.” His arrangements and instrumentation as a classically-trained musician, and his expertise on the keyboards and synthesizers, are the foundation of the legendary “Isley Brothers Sound.” When the six members of The Isley Brothers disbanded (1984), Marvin and Ernie Isley joined Chris Jasper and formed Isley-Jasper-Isley.

Chris Jasper brought his “unique sound” and musical talents to Isley-Jasper-Isley, and topped the charts, writing and singing lead vocals on “Caravan of Love” (1985), which was covered by English recording group, the Housemartins, and became an international #1 pop hit. When Isley-Jasper-Isley disbanded (1987), Chris Jasper again brought his “unique sound” to his own solo projects, again topping the charts with “SuperBad,” a song promoting the value of education.

Chris Jasper's music has been covered and sampled by hundreds of new and established recording artists, including Whitney Houston, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Fantasia, Will Smith, Alliyah, Queen Latifah, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Natalie Cole, Jaheim, Kendrick Lamar, and the list goes on and on. His music has also been used in many movie and television soundtracks, and TV commercials.

Chris has received numerous gold and platinum albums and music industry awards, including the BET lifetime achievement award. In 1992, Chris Jasper, along with the other members of The Isley Brothers, was inducted into the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME and in 2014, received a GRAMMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. In 2015, Chris Jasper received the German Record Critics Lifetime Achievement Award ("Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik"). In 2016, Chris was awarded the National R&B Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

Chris Jasper has continued to write songs and produce his own R&B and Gospel music, as well as other artists, for his independent record label, Gold City Records.

"Dance With You" is Chris's 15th solo album since his days writing and producing for the Isley Brothers (1973-1983) and Isley-Jasper-Isley (1984-1987). Funk, ballads and midtempo dance tracks along with a special spiritual message in the song called "It's a Miracle"...it's just what you would expect from Chris Jasper. His musical style continues...reminiscent of the music he wrote and produced for the Isley Brothers, Isley-Jasper-Isley and his solo music.

Trumpeters Show Off Their Chops at Newport Jazz Festival August 3 - 5

Since 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival® has been a prominent showcase for jazz trumpeters to show off their chops - from Louis Armstrong playing "Blue Room" and Dizzy Gillespie performing "Manteca" to Miles Davis blowing cool on "'Round Midnight," and Wynton Marsalis putting his neo-classic nuances on "Black Codes from the Underground." In every era, the trumpet kings and queens have signed their sonic signature in this soulful setting, and this year's edition presented by Natixis Investment Managers, which convenes at Fort Adams State Park August 3-5, continues this grand and grooving tradition.

The Texas-born trumpeter-flugelhornist Roy Hargrove represented the cream of the crop of trumpeters who came after Wynton Marsalis in the Young Lions era of the eighties. His Grammy-winning, butter-rich trumpet tones encompass straight-ahead to R&B and hip-hop, and on Sunday, August 5, his quintet, featuring alto saxophonist/flautist Justin Robinson, pianist Tadataka Unno, bassist Ameen Saleem and drummer Quincy Phillips, will no doubt provide their fearless leader with the right moves and grooves that have kept him in the public eye for decades.

Chicago has been second to none in producing trumpeters of impeccable taste, as evidenced by Marquis Hill, winner of the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition. His trumpet tones get their airlift from Donald Byrd's inspirational wings, and on Friday, August 3, he and his Blacktet - alto saxophonist Braxton Cook, pianist Michael King, bassist Jeremiah Hunt and drummer Jonathan Pinson - come to the stage to perform their wide panorama of genres, from hard bop, blues and beyond, which are heard on Hill's 2016 release The Way We Play.

Oakland's Ambrose Akinmusire also is a Monk Competition winner (2007). His first place finish in the recent 66th Annual Down Beat International Critics Poll confirms what many already know - that he's been one of the most intrepid improvisers and compelling composers in the last decade and a half, as heard on his 2-CD recording A Rift in Decorum: Live at The Village Vanguard. He's a sideman in Mary Halvorson's Code Girl ensemble on Saturday, August 4, and on Sunday, August 5, he brings his Origami Harvest with rapper Kohl A.D., keyboardist Sam Harris, drummer Marcus Gilmore and The Minos String Quartet to Newport performing music that spans from the vital center to the outer limits of jazz.

British Columbia's Ingrid Jensen, sister of saxophonist Christine, and a multiple winner of Canada's Juno Award, came in second place in that same Downbeat Critics Poll which, given that she stylistically comes from Clark Terry and Freddie Hubbard, should come as no surprise to anyone. With nine CDs as a leader, including her 2016 release Infinite, she performs with the super-ensemble Artemis on Sunday, August 5, which also features vocalist Cecile McLorin-Salvant, pianist/music director Renee Rosnes, saxophonist Melissa Aldana, drummer Allison Miller, clarinetist Anat Cohen and bassist Noriko Ueda.

All told, the trumpet is in good hands and in good company with Hargrove, Akinmusire, Hill and Jensen on the scene.

The 2018 Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Investment Managers takes place August 3 - 5 at Fort Adams State Park and the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino. Artists include Charles Lloyd's 80th Birthday Celebration with three different bands; Andra Day; George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic; Jon Batiste; R+R=NOW; Alicia Olatuja; Michel Camilo; Grace Kelly; Laurie Anderson & Christian McBride Improvisations with special guest Rubin Kodheli; and many more.