LATEEF THE TRUTH SPEAKER ANNOUNCES NEW PROJECT ROOTS AND TINGS WITH ACCLAIMED PRODUCER JAH YZER AND MULTI-TALENTED MUSICIAN WINSTRONG

Quannum and Solesides co-founder, and Grammy nominated MC, Lateef the Truth Speaker has joined forces with acclaimed Bay Area DJ and producer Jah Yzer and the multi-talented musician and reggae artist Winstrong, to showcase the crossroads of reggae and hip-hop on their newest project Roots & Tings. The new music draws deeply and respectfully from the history of both genres while pushing a new vibe to create powerful and provocative tracks. Roots & Tings will roll out singles monthly throughout 2019 with Quannum Records. Each release will be accompanied by original artwork, limited edition t-shirts from aspiring designers and will be available on both vinyl 45’s and digitally, everywhere you can stream.

Born and raised in Oakland, CA by politically active and former Black Panther parents, Lateef the Truth Speaker is most well-known for his role in the Bay Area rap collective Quannum Projects alongside DJ Shadow, The Gift of Gab, Chief Xcel and Lyrics Born. Together they helped usher in the underground era of hip-hop in the 90’s. His 20+ year career in the industry is highlighted with a Grammy nomination for his collaboration with Fat Boy Slim on “Wonderful Night.” And his duo Latyrx with Lyrics Born, who spawned the popular Bay Area anthem “Lady Don’t Tek No.” Lateef is a prolific solo artist, who’s writing is woke and witty. He joined up with DJ and Producer Jah Yzer who is well known in the Bay Area for dropping reggae and soundsystem riddims. The talented DJ first gained acclaim as a radio personality for Miami’s 94.1 Beach Radio, and moved to the Bay Area where he established himself as a high profile DJ and has collaborated with the likes of J Boog, Too Short, Sister Nancy, Fiji and more. Winstrong first hit the scene alongside the legendary Don Carlos as an Urban Dancehall artists. His voice is soulful and boldly couples strong melodies with conscious messages. He is able to elegantly combine world music, hip-hop with R&B and Soul, alongside his foundation as a roots reggae and dancehall vocalist. His talent is vast and creative, and has much to offer to the Roots & Tings project.

Until embarking on the Roots & Tings project, the Bay Area based artists, Lateef, Jah Yzer and Winstrong have known each other separately for more than 10 years. Coming together for this project a collaboration was immediately born as they clicked effortlessly over a relatively unstructured creative process on the new project. Lateef comments, “Roots & Tings came about as an organic evolution of an idea to do remixes for a mixtape, that led to more conversations and original ideas, which led to more songs.” He continues, “The name Roots & Tings came from the idea that the music should reflect the source, the soul- or the ‘Root’- of the music we were making, and all of the ways that we added on to those original ideas with new ideas and interpretations would be the ‘Tings’.” The new record was recorded primarily at Zoo Labs in Oakland, CA, and by the first session they had 9 songs laid down. Having now worked together for 2 years on this project and with almost 50 songs recorded, the trio are excited that they are finally putting forth their new project.

Roots & Tings will roll out deep cuts monthly and will be available digitally and on vinyl limited edition 45’s. This month the soulful love song with deep chilled dancehall riddims, “All Of This” ft. Vursatyl (of Lifesavas) dropped and is available everywhere.  For Lateef the song, “ ‘All of This’ is a modern love story. Passionate, honest, kinda messy, and very, very true. Hopefully people hear some of their own stories in there somewhere.” The new track was produced by Racayan – his debut track.

Roots & Tings debuted earlier this year with the dubby track “Class War” and “Oh” on the B-side. HipHopDX who first premiered the song commented, "Bay Area Hip Hop staple Lateef The Truthspeaker has resurfaced with a new single called “Class War” featuring his Quannum Recordings brethren Gift of Gab and Lyrics Born. The track is taken from his forthcoming Roots & Tings album, which intends to showcase the existing parallels between reggae and Hip Hop." Both tracks are stellar with cutting bars as Lateef the Truth Speaker and featured artists Lyrics Born and Gift of Gab spit about the 1% on “Class War”, Lateef says, “They want more. The rich get richer. The rest of us are poor. It’s a Class War.” On the B-side featured artist Gift of Gab joins Lateef on “Oh,” Lateef recalls, “We all know someone like the person described in the song.  If you don’t, you might be the person in the song.” Hitting the theme of the social economic injustices, “Class War” has limited edition original artwork by incarcerate artist Raul Fernandez. The artwork is available with special, limited vinyl 45’s and the music is available digitally everywhere you can stream.

The new project is full of epic island tinged remixes of Lateef’s hits as well as new fresh tracks including “Lady Don’t Tek No” remix, “Alpha Omega” remix and “Highest Grade,” all due to be released early 2019. Roots & Tings, is stacked with features with some of the best rappers in the game including, Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), Lyrics Born (Latyrx) and more to be revealed later.  Each release will be packaged both digitally and as 45’s. The 45’s will include limited edition artwork for the single, and each release will be accompanied with limited edition t-shirt created by Bay Area youth apprentice printers Youth Prints @ People’s Choice Prints. The young apprentice printers have designed and printed the shirts as they aspire to establish their own brands. Each of the designers will recoup 100% of the profits. The t-shirts are available www.rootsandtingsofficial.com.

Lateef reflects on the new project, “Roots & Tings is an ode to the love affair between Hip-Hop and Reggae music since the inception of hip hop. The music is a combination of all the different iterations through the years, of both genres.”

The trio will be touring Roots & Tings, as well as, new music all throughout 2019. They are kicking off the new year supporting Blackalicious. The live shows will be fully energized as Lateef, Jah Yzer and Winstrong are an unstoppable force that will leave the crowd hyped and wanting more. The sets will be accompanied by new and fresh visuals produced by Ben Stokes (DJ Shadow). 

Saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff Traces the Shadow of the Sun on the Second Release by his Innovative, Genre-Eclipsing Band Flux

Neither Toronto nor New York, the two cities that Quinsin Nachoff calls home, offered prime viewing conditions as the moon eclipsed the sun in August of 2017. But Nachoff, who has long drawn inspiration from the scientific wonders of the universe, couldn't help but be moved by this rare astronomical phenomenon - and to find a degree of solace in it. After all, here was a shadow large enough to blot out the face of the sun, darkening the Earth and then moving on. In the Path of Totality could be found hope that this, too - whatever "this" might be in the moment, whether political, personal or environmental - will indeed pass.

That faith in change is at the heart of Flux, the name that Nachoff has bestowed upon his remarkable group, which returns on February 8, 2019 with its second release, Path of Totality, via Whirlwind Recordings. Flux is an ensemble, and Nachoff a composer, that thrive in the spaces in between genres, styles and inspirations. At its foundation Flux is a quartet, though at times on this album a quintet and sometimes more, employing a vast array of instruments and a vivid palette of musical colors to create something that is consistently surprising as its shape morphs from moment to moment over the course of these six epic-length pieces.

In saxophonist David Binney, Nachoff has a frontline partner with a keen-edged tone and a refined ear for texture, having integrated electronics into his own work as an artist and a producer that expand and mutate his sonic environments. Matt Mitchell is a rigorous boundary pusher, a pianist and composer who astutely avoids obvious choices in favor of pressing fervidly into the unexplored. Kenny Wollesen couples a similarly adventurous instinct with a passion for the playful, as reflected not only in the eccentric arsenal of invented instruments known as "Wollesonics" but in the buoyant swing he maintains even in his most complex and abstract rhythmic excursions. The new addition this time out is Nate Wood, who alternates and at times shares the drum chair with Wollesen, lending the band an urgency and avant-rock propulsion familiar from his work with Kneebody.

While that combination of voices would offer a wealth of possibility for any composer, Nachoff was handed an even larger palette by Canada's National Music Centre, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Canadian music through exhibitions, performances and educational programs. As one of the NMC's first Artists-in-Residence, Nachoff was granted access to the Centre's extensive keyboard collection, an enormous resource of both acoustic and electronic instruments.

"They really want this to be a living collection," Nachoff says. "So I spent three weeks at the NMC exploring the keyboards and synthesizers in their new, state-of-the-art building, then another two weeks writing during an artists' residency in Banff."

Raised in a household where electronic music was not only heard but composed, Nachoff has long been spurred to follow his own, more acoustic path, but the NMC's collection proved too tempting to resist. Both Mitchell and producer David Travers-Smith have a field day with the array of instruments, particularly on the stunningly pointillistic "Splatter," recorded at the NMC. Beginning with Mitchell's Baroque-by-way-of-Sun-Ra solo harpsichord improvisation, the tune progresses through a cosmic haze carved by jagged rhythms before the erratic horn melody intrudes, gradually building in density before breaking apart into stark fragments.

In a sense that arc could be seen as the portrait of the universe in miniature, though a model of the stellar regions was more directly a source for "Orbital Resonances," the album's closing track. Based on the intersecting pathways of orbiting bodies in space, the tune places the members of Flux into interrelated motion, crafting a piece from the accumulated sound of singular identities. Nachoff is an artist that takes the idea of "experimentation" quite literally. He's taken his interest in science beyond simple inspiration, working directly with Dr. Stephen Morris, a physicist at the University of Toronto, to translate experimental data into musical form.

One early result is "Bounce," whose percussive outbursts and heady call-and-response are built on the mathematical model of a bouncing ball. The conceptual is ultimately subsumed by the poignant, however, as the massive swell of a 1924 Kimball Theatre Organ from the NMC collection overwhelms the piece, turning into a requiem for a pair of recently lost influences, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor - the latter of whom Nachoff was honored to record with on the 2007 release Horizons Ensemble. Another compositional inspiration, John Cage, provided the spark for "Toy Piano Meditation," which takes the late pioneer's "Suite for Toy Piano" as a starting point and fuses Cage-ian ideas with the entrancing melodic/percussive turns of Balinese gamelan.

Of course, no album that names itself for a momentary darkness shrouding the planet can help but comment on our current political reality, and "March Macabre" does just that, with a healthy dose of bleak humor. Wollesen's "march machine," a wooden board outfitted with a row of clomping clogs, provides the marching beat that opens the piece on a totalitarian note. By the end, through the blissful improvisation of tap dancer Orlando Hernández, the lockstep has been broken and individual freedom restored.

"We went on tour for the first Flux record the day after Trump got elected and I was concurrently going through the process of becoming a US citizen," Nachoff recalls. "We were all in shock. We didn't know what to think, what to say to people. 'March macabre' was the first piece I wrote after that, and the Russia scandal inspired me to tie in elements from Shostakovich or Prokofiev -- composers who worked under a strict authoritarian structure but were still able to overcome this and make really interesting music."

NYC-based saxophonist and composer Quinsin Nachoff has earned a reputation for making "pure, bracing, thought-provoking music" that is "cliché-and convention-free" (Ottawa Citizen). Since moving from his native Toronto to New York City, Nachoff has made a habit of freely crossing borders: his music moves fluidly between the jazz and classical worlds and manages to be soul-stirring at the same time that it is intricately cerebral. His passions reach into both the arts and the sciences, with concepts from physics or astronomy sparking inspiration for exhilarating compositions. As a saxophonist, Nachoff's playing has been described as "a revelationŠ [p]arsing shimmers of Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Mark Turner" (DownBeat). He was a semifinalist in the renowned Thelonious Monk Jazz Saxophone Competition and has been nominated for numerous Canadian National Jazz Awards. His diverse ensembles include Flux, the Ethereal Trio, Horizons Ensemble and FoMo quartet as well as the Pyramid Project.

www.quinsin.com

JON LUNDBOM & BIG FIVE CHORD RELEASE NEW ALBUM HARDER ON THE OUTSIDE

Hot Cup Records has released of the ninth recording project from Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, a new full-length CD and digital download titled Harder on the Outside.  This new album comes on the heels of Lundbom's ambitious four-CD/digital EP set released in 2016 and is his first full-length album since 2015's Jeremiah.

The roots of this new album lie in a years-long project between Lundbom and Bryan Murray (a.k.a. the world famous Balto Exclamationpoint). Over the past many years, Murray has developed a passion (and odd sort of fame on Facebook's Jam of the Week) for sampling and beat construction. For the project with Lundbom, Murray sampled old Big Five Chord albums (and related Hot Cup properties) and constructed beats to which Lundbom composed new music. They then sent the tracks back and forth to record live performances of the new music, improvised solos, and accompaniment. The result is called Beats by Balto, Vol. 1, to be released Tuesday, March 19 on Chant records.

Harder on the Outside is, at core, live renditions of the songs composed for this first edition of Beats by Balto! The album was recorded live in studio in New Jersey during the summer of 2018, marking Big Five Chord's fifteenth anniversary as a band. And Harder on the Outside is easily Big Five Chord's strongest outing since 2013's Liverevil, perhaps their finest recording to date.

The title can be taken at least four different ways: (1) as metaphor for one's personality "hardening" with age; (2) as a political statement, about alienation due to rising fascism and xenophobia; (3) as a statement about purity in free/"outside" music/improvisation; and (4) as fact, that it's really hard to make an album when you live in Austin and the rest of your band is in New York.

The album opens with the sole new Lundbom composition NOT from the Beats by Balto! project titled "People Be Talking." Set in a 1970's 6/4, the song features a relatively classic jazz vocabulary-style head over a driving groove laid down by the rhythm section of Moppa Elliott on bass and Dan Monaghan on drums. But when the solos start, Elliott and Monaghan blast off into a borderline-irascible, Afro-Cuban inspired feel. And in comes Bryan Murray on tenor, doing his best Pharaoh Sanders-meets-Albert Ayler. As Murray's solo winds down, the groove disintegrates into a rolling, rollicking out-of-time solo by Lundbom.

It's worth noting that for this album, Lundbom is playing a Fender Jazzmaster retrofitted with experimental pickups built by Chicago's Duneland Labs. These pickups are prototypes built for Nels Cline that now live with Lundbom in Austin, TX. One of Lundbom's goals in recording Harder on the Outside was to employ a wide range of different (non-effected) tones from these extraordinary instruments, and it shows.

Next up: the first composition developed for Beats by Balto!, titled "Basic Bitches." A spare and austere composition, "Basic Bitches" features a droning ostinato-like bass line (doubled by guitar) and somewhat "trap"-inspired drum groove. After the saxophones state the melody three times, Murray picks up his trademark balto! saxophone and teaches a master class in what to do with an alto saxophone with a baritone mouthpiece and plastic reed. Lundbom solos next, opting for more of a Scofield-like tone and approach over Elliott's and Monaghan's mean-ass half-time rock beat.

And then Lundbom & Co. slow it down for "Prednisone," another composition from Beats by Balto! Here, the rhythm section strides forth squarely in dirge mode, as the saxophones wail in mournful, perfect fourths above. Here, the first solo is from long-time "sixth five chord" Mr. Justin Wood on alto saxophone, twisting and dancing delicately through the melodic implications of the theme. But as Wood winds down, Lundbom kicks things into high gear with a loud, fuzz-driven Bobo Alan Holdsworth solo. Having played all of the notes in all of the permutations at all of the speeds, Lundbom calls for a dramatic quits, squealing and squeaking and squonking past the otherwise cleanest of breaks.

Harder on the Outside continues with "Booberonic," a Beats by Balto! composition based around samples from Moppa Elliott's solo bass album Still, Up in the Air (that poor Moppa has to recreate here, over and over). It's a big time groovy number with an intricate, snaky back-and-forth between Murray on tenor and Wood on alto. Solo-wise, Wood gets it going, exploring the nooks and crannies while the rhythm section - unusually - keeps the A section/B section back-and-forth going strong. Lundbom breaks it all up, though, focusing on shorter, more staccato phrasing performed with a thinner, grindier, funkier sound - say, Catfish Collins meets Sonny Sharrock, underwater.

And then comes "Cereal," yet another piece from Beats by Balto! with a dumb joke for a title. Smooth and even and drone-y, nothing but footballs from the horns and nothing but glissando-y, West Coast inspired groove from the rhythm section. Lundbom solos first, finally, playing withŠwhat's this?...a clean "Jazz" tone! And what a clean "Jazz" tone it is. Lundbom plays real pretty for the producer (ibid), bringing thoughtful, tasteful melodic construction to the otherwise rock- and hip-hop-infused session. Next up, Wood (on soprano) in duet with Elliott on the bass, gesturing playfully back-and-forth over Monaghan in pure "solid pocket" mode. Wood "wins" and the piece winds down as gently as it began.

"Fussing Blues" is a "cover," of sorts. Originally written in 1924 for tenor banjo by Frank Littig, Lundbom and Big Five Chord treat it as a great excuse for a 60's-style Free Jazz Romp. The melody is loose, the solos collective, the "jazz ending" (as dictated by the published sheet music) surprisingly tight.

But all things must come to an end and the album shall pass indeed, closing with "Three Plus." There's three saxophones on the head, but - don't worry - Murray is doing double-duty here, overdubbing the third part (he does all three parts on Beats by Balto!). Monaghan (#toms) and Elliott (#RonCarter) REALLY dig in on this one, lending the louche, languorous groove the deepest of pockets. Wood and Murray solo together, and it's awesome. Just awesome.  When it comes time for Lundbom to play, he really lets the dogs out, moving through his incredible solo turn with precision and style and fury, closing the album out in style indeed.

But wait! There's more! A bonus track!!! "Basic Bitches (alt)" is an alternate, over-produced (or just masterfully produced for radio?!?) take of "Basic Bitches" in which the rhythm section sticks with the "trap"-inspired groove and Murray plays "MC" with his balto! for like ten minutes or whatever. Call up your local Jazz station and request it by name.

Formed in 2003, Big Five Chord is the primary vehicle for the music of Austin, TX-based guitarist, composer, and bandleader Jon Lundbom.  Jon's music - described as "Hardbop + Zeppelin + Schoenberg" (Dave Madden, 'SLUG') - is a showcase for his "intense phrasing and mind-altering solo spots" (Glenn Astarita, 'All About Jazz'), a "boundary-shattering shot of adrenaline that screws with your head and messes with your soul" (Jordan Richardson, 'The Seattle PI').  Jon has been called "an idiosyncratic genius harboring boundary-stretching notions in his musical make up" (CJ Bond, 'JazMuzic.com'); "hopefully Lundbom will start getting more attention for his fresh perspective, both as a writer and player" (Mike Shanley, 'ShanleyOnMusic'), "[Jon's playing brings] new ideas to what jazz guitar can be" (Paul Acquaro, 'Free Jazz Blog'); "Big Five Chord, individually and collectively, is one of the most important [ensembles] around today" (Gregory Applegate Edwards, 'Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog'). "Olympic-caliber guitar gymnastics" (Bob Gendron, 'Downbeat'). "A guitarist" (The New York Times). In addition to Big Five Chord, Lundbom performs with many other groups, most notably Bryan & the Haggards.

Justin Wood grew up in frozen Northern Maine, which might account for his warm sound and "spark-spewing solos that showcase the alto's best qualities" (All About Jazz).  Living in New York City for the past two decades, Justin has established a presence as a highly versatile and always unique voice on the saxophones and flute.

Originally from West Virginia, balto! saxophonist Bryan Murray (a.k.a. Balto Exclamationpoint) leads Bryan and the Haggards, New York City's most decorated avant-country instrumental Merle Haggard cover band; their collaboration with the legendary Eugene Chadbourne "Merles Just Wanna Have Fun" is available now from Northern Spy. He has toured with David Byrne and St. Vincent, recently released a solo hip-hop recording on his balto! saxophone, and is featured heavily on Facebook's "Jam of the Week."  www.bryanmurray.net

Accomplished bassist and composer Moppa Elliott is leader of the band Mostly Other People Do the Killing. A Pennsylvania native and graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Moppa has appeared in the DownBeat Critics' Poll in three different categories: Rising Star Bassist, Rising Star Composer, and Rising Star Arranger.  He teaches music at The Information Technology High School in Long Island City and runs Hot Cup records.  http://www.moppaelliott.com

Dan Monaghan, a native of Mansfield, Pennsylvania who teaches percussion at Temple and Widener Universities, is one of Philadelphia's most in-demand drummers.  Dan has performed and/or recorded with jazz luminaries such as Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein, Jimmy Bruno, Joe Magnarelli, and Randy Brecker and is equally at home playing straight-ahead jazz and aggressive rock and metal, making him the perfect drummer for Big Five Chord.

www.jonlundbom.com

www.facebook.com/BigFiveChord

www.twitter.com/BigFiveChord

http://www.instagram.com/JonLundbom

 

Multi-Instrumentalist Scott Robinson Returns to his First Love - the Tenor Saxophone - With a Stellar Quartet on Tenormore

For most saxophonists, the release of an album spotlighting the tenor would hardly merit notice. Scott Robinson, though, is not most saxophonists; in fact, it seems tremendously reductive to refer to him as merely a saxophonist. He is a master of that full family of instruments, of course, and over the past couple of decades has garnered great acclaim for his work on the baritone in particular, notably through his work with the Maria Schneider Orchestra. But he's also known as an avid collector of rare and obscure instruments, everything from the bass marimba to the sarrusophone to the contrabass banjo.

Despite his vast arsenal of exotic sound objects, the tenor saxophone remains Robinson's first love. On Tenormore (due out April 5 via Arbors Records), Robinson gets back to basics with the first all-tenor release in his extensive discography. Released just in time for his 60th birthday, it's at once an opportunity to look back and reconnect with an old friend, while at the same time offering the first document of his outstanding quartet with pianist Helen Sung, bassist Martin Wind, and drummer Dennis Mackrel.

"Tenormore is a very natural step for me," Robinson says. "The tenor saxophone is my main instrument, my home base, my comfort zone - if there is one. It's like the sun, and all the other instruments are like planets that revolve at varying distances. So I felt like it was time to make this album, to come out and make a statement: I'm still a tenor player at the core."

Robinson wears his history with the sax proudly - and quite literally: the hat that he sports on the album cover was crafted from 177 reeds that he's played over the years. But the sound of Tenormore is not just about the type of instrument that Robinson is playing; it's about a very specific tenor in particular: the silver 1924 Conn that he discovered in a Maryland antique shop in 1975 and has played ever since. In the liner notes, Robinson pens a moving love letter to the horn, which traces a life together with all of its triumphs and tragedies, from travels around the world to a near abandonment on a New Jersey Transit bus.

"I often say that we two are like an old married couple," he writes. "We roll our eyes but forgive each other's faults, because we've been together long enough to realize that we're better together than apart."

One imagines that Robinson speaks from experience. His wife Sharon (a relationship that predates even that with the '24 Conn, dating back to the 6th grade) plays flute on "The Weaver," a dedication to Robinson's father that opens with a short haiku recited by the elder Robinson at Scott and Sharon's wedding. Sharon also receives an homage via "Morning Star," a piece whose joy, tenderness and playful spirit paint the portrait of an ideal pairing. But the remainder of the album is all about the romance between a man and his horn, and it's one that's likely to sweep listeners up with its full range of emotions.

The album opens with Robinson's solo rendering of The Beatles classic "And I Love Her." While he makes the sacrilegious confession that he's "not a Beatles fan," he nonetheless got the four-note refrain stuck in his head one night, only exorcising it with this keening, heart-rending take, recorded late at night, after the rest of the band had left the studio, in one take with a split reed. The wear and exhaustion of a day's recording and a life's experience tells on both musician and instrument, in a most stirring, solitary fashion.

"Tenor Eleven" takes things in a decidedly more jaunty direction, with an elusive eleven-bar blues that Robinson tears into with delightful abandon. It's the first of three related originals on the album: "Tenor Twelve," originally recorded on his 1988 album Winds of Change and substantially transformed in this revisiting, features a tone both burly and sharply honed, often erupting into squeals of delight before ending with a punchy back and forth between Robinson and Mackrel. The title tune, which closes the session, slyly complicates things even further, with a series of ten-bar sections followed by an indeterminate number of additional bars. In practice, that leads to a series of intriguing and engaging interactions between the various members in rotating combinations.

Sung switches to organ for Wind's gospel-inflected contribution, "Rainy River." The piece was originally written for The American Place Theater's production of a one-man play based on Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried, and the wisdom in Sung's lush exaltations and the composer's profound melodic musings fully captures the story's hard-earned life lessons.

The rest of the album consists of a number of perfectly-chosen standards. "Put On a Happy Face" becomes surprisingly melancholy in the quartet's delicate ballad reading, highlighted by Robinson's breathy, bittersweet blowing and the sympathetic caress of Sung's comping. "The Good Life" opens with the four bandmates enjoying just that, with a free improvisation that finds Robinson's sinuous tenor snaking around Wind's groaning bass, with Sung spiraling around them and Mackrel offering colorful punctuation - until the tension suddenly breaks into a relaxed stroll through the familiar melody. Finally, "The Nearness of You" offers one last left turn, this time into a sprightly, soulful funk vein with Sung returning to the organ.

With an album full of deep communications and small delights, Scott Robinson has once again shown off his ability to be anything but predictable. From the avant-garde excursions and mad-science fusions of his releases on his own ScienSonic Laboratories imprint to the more straightahead but equally thrilling tunes on Tenormore, the saxophonist enjoys an instrumental homecoming that makes perfect sense. "I love playing adventurous, hard to define music," he concludes. "But at the same time I love to swing, play tunes, and play ballads. I have fun combining things like three bass saxophones and marimba, but I still adore the tried and true piano-bass-drums rhythm section. It never gets old, and I need to do this too."

Scott Robinson and his unusual reed and brass instruments have been heard throughout 55 nations and 250 recordings with a cross-section of jazz greats representing nearly every imaginable style of the music, including Bob Brookmeyer, Tom Harrell, Frank Wess, Maria Schneider, Anthony Braxton, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Ruby Braff and Roscoe Mitchell. Primarily a tenor saxophonist, Scott once placed directly below the great Sonny Rollins in the DownBeat Readers Poll. As a composer, his works range from solo performance pieces to chamber and symphonic works. He has been a writer of essays and liner notes, an invited speaker before the Congressional Black Caucus, and a Jazz Ambassador for the State Department. Scott releases highly adventurous music on his ScienSonic Laboratories label, and his Doctette (celebrating pulp adventure hero Doc Savage) gave what The Boston Globe called "the most quirky and delightful set" of the 2015 Newport Jazz Festival.

 

Blues and Soul from TONY MONACO on THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY

TONY MONACO is widely considered one of the most exciting, swinging, bluesy, and soulful musicians to ever play the Hammond B3 organ. His newest CD, THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY demonstrates why he stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, and Shirley Scott in the B3 firmament.

  

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY is Monaco's eleventh CD as a leader. The project is a bit different than his other releases, which usually feature several of Monaco's own compositions. This time around, he decided to record an eclectic mix of well-known tunes by other composers that cross genres and continents. Besides playing the B3 on this album, Monaco also plays the accordion and piano as well as sings. Columbus, OH, is his home base, and he enlisted some of the area's finest musicians for the project, including guitarist DEREK DICENZO, who has toured and recorded with Monty Alexander for many years. Dicenzo has also recorded with jazz guitar legends Jim Hall and Charlie Byrd. Drummer TONY MCCLUNG is a mainstay on the Columbus music scene and often performs with Monaco there. Monaco's wife, pianist ASAKO MONACO, is also featured on one tune. Asako is an accomplished musician and instructor, and she can be heard on several of Monaco's releases.

Monaco is a jack-of-all-trades. Besides playing, arranging, and producing the album, he also recorded, mixed, and mastered it. He's particularly proud of the album's production values. He recorded it at a very high resolution to create its crystal-clear sound.

From rock to funk to bossa and a traditional Italian song and a song using a Turkish pop scale, THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY is a departure from Monaco's other projects. Although the songs are eclectic, and some have never been tackled by a jazz musician, what remains the same is Monaco's masterful bluesy, soulful playing that comes from straight from his heart.

New Music Releases: Eric Darius – Breakin’ Thru; Murray A. Lightburn - Hear Me Out; Doug MacDonald Quartet - Organisms

Eric Darius – Breakin’ Thru

Truly one of the edgiest, innovative and explosive performers in the sweet spot where Smooth Jazz meets contemporary R&B, saxophonist Eric Darius breaks fresh ground by launching his own label (SagiDarius Music) for his perfectly titled album BREAKIN’ THRU. With two Top Ten Billboard charting hits, the collection hits on all cylinders, from slammin’ funk sizzle to power ballads and blistering Latin fire. Ensuring a continuously crackling urban crossover flow, the multi-faceted collection was co-produced by Darius and two of today’s hottest R&B sound masters, Rodney Jones Jr. and Butta N’ Bizkit. His latest single “L.O.V.E.” is a passionately burning, gospel infused ballad expressing Darius’ most visceral, heartfelt feelings for his wife. Written for their first dance at their wedding last year, the track features Brian Culbertson’ sensual keyboard eloquence throughout. ~www.smoothjazz.com

Murray A. Lightburn - Hear Me Out

Frontman of beloved Montreal indie institution the Dears performs the vulnerable, deep-soul from his new solo project Hear Me Out. Musically inspired by ‘60s girl groups, Motown, and soulful romantic crooners, Lightburn states, “I’m not really hearing or seeing that kind of stuff from guys that look like me these days. In Canada, not at all. Perhaps I can fill that void.” "Lightburn evokes...Scott Walker produced by the early-Seventies Curtis Mayfield... with the vulnerable, urgent songwriting and deep-soul flair” - David Fricke (Rolling Stone)

Doug MacDonald Quartet - Organisms

Organisms was recorded and mixed at Tritone Recording Studio by Talley Sherwood and was mastered at Capitol Studios by Robert Vosgien. The Doug MacDonald Quartet is Doug MacDonald on guitar, Bob Sheppard on tenor sax, Carey Frank on Hammond B3 Organ and Ben Scholz on drums. Organisms is MacDonald’s 13th album and third organ project and contains ten songs; three originals and fresh takes on seven standards including Sammy Cahn’s “It’s You Or No One,” Harry Edison and Jon Hendricks’ “Centerpiece,” “On The Alamo” by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn and “Too Late Now” by Buston Lane and Lana Lerner.

REGINA BELLE DECLARES ‘FREEDOM’ ON BRAND-NEW SINGLE

World-renowned singer and songwriter Regina Belle makes a welcome return to recording with a timely new single titled “Freedom” featuring Iyanla Vanzant. The tune offers inspirational commentary on the political and moral climate found currently at home and abroad. Recorded with a live band, a full choir, and live spoken-word segments by spiritual life coach Vanzant, and Bishop Kenneth W. Paramore of Christ Centered Church in Akron, Ohio. Belle premiered “Freedom” on TV One’s “Sister Circle,” the single is available on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play and other digital retailers everywhere.

Belle wrote and produced the aptly titled “Freedom” with Chris Walker, her longtime music partner, and collaborator, and has released it on her newly formed independent record label, Tashi III Entertainment. Belle says the song is a tribute to our ongoing fight for social justice in light of political turmoil, racial strife, and despair.

A history major during her undergraduate years at Rutgers University, Belle wrote “Freedom” eight years ago, when she was hired as a grant writer for an African American Museum in Philadelphia. It was during that time the initial concept of the song came to life. Though America had its first African American President, the state of Black people in this country has remained stagnant as an escalation of hate and deepening of the racial divide has changed the political and social climate. Over the past year, Belle’s urgency to complete the song resulted in a two-day recording session with Walker.

“‘Freedom’ encompasses a lot,” says Belle, “In terms of my consciousness about black and brown people, that’s always going to be a place that resonates with me. This song is part of my bloodstream more than I know.”

With the release of “Freedom,” Regina Belle is ushering in yet another inspiring chapter in her musical legacy as well as the work she does in the community as part of her ministry as an ordained minister of the Gospel.

Last year, she joined Congressman John Lewis and others as they walked over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in commemoration of MLK’s 50th Anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama.

“‘Freedom’ starts with me, and I hope my ancestors are proud of me,” she explains.  “There’s work that we as people of color need to do. We need to stop talking and get on board doing it. That is the question this song asks to every listener: Are you doing your part? Are you doing your share? Are you your brothers’ and sisters’ keepers?”

“There are some things I’m not going to wait on the government to do,” she continues. “I’m going to do it myself. ‘Freedom’ reflects that message, it’s not just the freedom of what someone gives you the right to do, but it’s also freeing your mind to believe who you are, it starts there. This song is a great representation and reflection of the work that our ancestors have done.”

“As a minister of the gospel, when somebody is hungry, I can’t say, ‘Well, I'm going to pray for you,’’’ she exclaims. “I’ve got to give them something to eat and then you can pray. You’ve got to feed that physical issue for them to hear you.”

Regina Belle has made a career following her heart and moving gracefully between the worlds of R&B, gospel, and jazz. A winner of both an Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning song for “A Whole New World,” her beloved duet with Peabo Bryson from Walt Disney’s 1992 animated film Aladdin, her string of hit songs includes “Make It Like It Was,” “If I Could,” “Baby Come To Me” and “This Is Love.”

“‘Freedom’ is not just a song for entertainment; it is a song to promote people to do something, to find your proverbial knee, whatever that is, to take a stand in some aspect, in some form,” declares Belle. “If ‘Freedom’ can promote somebody to get out of their seat and do something, then I feel like I accomplished something with this song.”

www.iamreginabelle.com

 

Rhyme and Reason the new quartet album from the brilliant trumpeter Jason Palmer

Rhyme and Reason, the stunning new double album by trumpeter Jason Palmer and his quartet, features spirited playing from Palmer, saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Kendrick Scott. Boasting nearly two hours of expansive, breathtaking original music, the recording will be released March 1, 2019 thanks to the groundbreaking new non-profit Giant Step Arts, led by noted photographer and recording engineer Jimmy Katz.

Katz launched Giant Step Arts in January 2018 in order to provide some of the music's most innovative players the artistic and financial opportunity to create bold, adventurous new music free of commercial pressure.  

"Jason's project epitomizes the type of music that Giant Step Arts is seeking to foster," Katz explains. "It's extremely creative, it's emotionally intense, everybody's solos are extraordinary - it represents the highest level of creativity and musicianship in jazz right now. We're collaborating with musicians who are making big statements, not just making records.  Our goal is to allow these artists the space to prove that they are important voices within the history of jazz."

Rhyme and Reason provides vivid evidence of the adventurous and original music that can be created when artists are provided such integral support. Palmer assembled a dream band and composed bold new music that allows each of these gifted players ample space and inspiration to explore. "I tried to write music that really captured the spirits of the players in the band that I was able to assemble," Palmer says. "Each of these guys were my first call musicians for this project and I was really fortunate that they all agreed to join me."

Palmer had worked extensively with each of the album's sidemen, though never all together. The trumpeter has been a fixture of Turner's working band for the last three years, while his association with Brewer dates back to their formative years in saxophonist Greg Osby's band. His friendship and musical hook-up with Scott has endured for two decades, on the bandstand as well as the basketball court.

Katz has also been a close collaborator, having previously recorded Palmer's Live at Wally's series of releases, recorded at the South End jazz institution. "Jimmy came up to Boston four or five times over the span of an entire year, so we already shared a good camaraderie," Palmer says. "The records I made with him were the two where I really had enough time to make the music I wanted to. I'm really grateful to Jimmy and Dena for providing this opportunity. It's a really noble gesture and gave me a lot of positive initiative to help uplift this new endeavor."

Palmer draws on a range of inspirations for his compositions, reframing them through his own singular perspective and transforming them into unexpected forms wholly his own. Many of the compositions are built on the work of other artists: the rhythmic pattern on opener "Herbs in a Glass" taken from a song by August Green, the supergroup combining rapper Common, keyboardist Robert Glasper and drummer/producer Karriem Riggins, melded with the chord structure of Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me a Bedtime Story." Kurt Rosenwinkel's "Dream of the Old" was the leaping-off point for "Waltz for Diana," while "Mark's Place" pays homage to bandmate Mark Turner. Other pieces are more directly drawn from Palmer's personal experience: "Blue Grotto" is named for a stunning locale in Malta that he discovered while touring with saxophonist Osby, while "Kalispel Bay" paints a sonic picture of a wintry landscape in Idaho.

In the coming months, Palmer's album will be followed by stand-out new releases by Johnathan Blake, one of the most in-demand drummers on the scene today, leading a trio with sax great Chris Potter and bassist Linda May Han Oh; and a surprising departure by swinging tenor master Eric Alexander with Blake and bassist Doug Weiss. These wide-ranging sessions point the way to Giant Step's future, with another series of concert recordings planned for 2019 and hopes to continue the organization's work indefinitely with the support of the jazz community.

"I've seen the industry from lots of different angles: from the musician's perspective, from the media perspective, and from the record label perspective," Katz explains. "In the current political climate, I feel it's really important to support positive ideas in the arts. As artists, it's our role to stand for the greatest aspects of American culture. This, after all, is what has always made America great."

Trumpeter/composer/educator Jason Palmer is becoming recognized as one of the most inventive and in-demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with such greats as Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Common, and Roy Hargrove, among others. Palmer was a recipient of the 2014 French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship and was named a 2011 Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In addition to performing on over 40 albums as a sideman, Palmer has recorded eight albums under his own name and has toured over 30 countries. Palmer's quintet has been leading the house band every weekend at Boston's historic Wally's Jazz Café for the past twelve years, and he maintains a busy schedule as an educator and actor, as well as the Vice President of JazzBoston. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at Berklee College of Music in Boston and a Visiting Professor at Harvard University.

Boo Boo Davis - Tree Man

Boo Boo Davis is a survivor and belongs to the last generations of musicians that write and play the blues based on first hand experience of a hard life in the Mississippi Delta. He was born and raised in Drew, Mississippi in the heart of Delta. It was the richest cotton land in the South and the large amounts of field workers attracted the best musicians from the surrounding areas. The entire Delta region was rich with blues, but the town of Drew was a particularly fertile one. Charley Patton stayed near Drew for many years and several legendary performers spent time there. Sharecroppers sang loudly to help pass the grueling hours of work and without a doubt Boo Boo developed his loud, bellowing voice based on the singing he heard in the fields as a young boy. In fact, that voice, through the years has demolished many amps and speaker cabinets.

Boo Boo’s father, Sylvester Davis farmed cotton and played several instruments. Musicians who he played with include John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and Robert Pete Williams. Boo Boo remembers these and other musicians dropping by and rehearsing at their house. At the age of five Boo Boo was playing the harmonica and singing in church with his mother. By thirteen he was playing guitar, and by eighteen he was playing out with his father and older brothers under the name of The Lard Can Band. This band travelled all throughout the Delta. In the early sixties he went north to St Louis and was around during the heyday of the St Louis music scene (Albert King, Ike Turner, Chuck Berry and many others). Together with his brothers they were the weekend house band in Tubby’s Red Room in East St Louis for eighteen years.

Even though Boo Boo moved north to St. Louis, he will always be a southerner at heart. When he is at home (and not performing) his favorite pastimes are hunting with his dogs and fishing. During Boo Boo’s childhood there was no time or money for him to go to school so he never learned to read and write. However that did not prevent him to travel all over the world. Following his guiding spirit (that he calls Dave) Boo Boo has found a way to deal with modern society. The blues helps him to keep his spirit high and survive day-to-day life. It deals with all the basic raw elements of life; good and bad, plain and simple.

His first European tour took place in April 2000 and since then Boo Boo is touring Europe at least twice a year. So far Boo Boo has released 5 CD’s on Black and Tan Records and all of them were very well received. Number 4 (DREW, MISSISSIPPI) was listed with the 10 best blues records of 2006 by MOJO Magazine (UK). In 2007 Boo Boo was invited to perform on the POCONO BLUES FESTIVAL, one of the biggest blues festivals in the USA and in March 2007 Boo Boo  performed live on CBC Radio One, national radio in Canada.

What started as a crazy idea after the European tour of Boo Boo in October 2007 has turned out to be not too crazy at all. On the Spring Tour of 2008 they decided to leave out the bass and tour as a trio: Boo Boo Davis on vocals & harmonica, John Gerritse on drums and Jan Mittendorp on guitar. This trio has been touring Europe extensively; the last few years they did over four hundred shows in twenty three different countries including a lot of the big blues & jazz festivals (Montreux, Peer, Juan les Pins, Amal, Olstzyn).

After a string of single releases of famous blues covers on KuvVer Recors it’s now time again for Boo Boo to release a new and ‘all original’ album.  Like most of the previous recordings with Boo Boo we captured everything live in one room without any overdubs. Ten brand new songs and one new version from a song that was released earlier in 2002.

Vocalist Mary Stallings Reflects on a Life in Music on Songs Were Made To Sing

Not a single lyric on Songs Were Made To Sing was written by Mary Stallings, but each one represents a chapter in her life and a piece of her soul. On her latest album, due out May 17 from Smoke Sessions Records, the incomparable vocalist has crafted an exquisite collection of classic songs to reflect on a life well and passionately lived. With Songs Were Made To Sing, Stallings puts her distinctive stamp on a diverse set of 13 songs, using her gift for interpreting a lyric to transform familiar melodies into profoundly personal and captivating stories.

From the youthful passions and heartbreaks of “Stolen Moments” and “Lover Man,” to the wistful ruminations of “While You’re Young” and “Give Me the Simple Life,” Songs Were Made To Sing travels a journey of decades, with songs that collect wisdom and maturity along the way. Impulse ripens to romance, hope deepens to reflection, and Stallings’ voice captures every emotional step along that path with a perfectly chosen lyric from some of the greatest songwriters of all time.

“It’s amazing how you can feel things in your heart and in your mind but not find the words to say them,” Stallings says. “But I can always find a song that expresses everything that I need to say. So I pick tunes that seem to apply to me personally, and a story grows out of that.”

The soulful Bay Area chanteuse worked closely with master pianist David Hazeltine (Joe Henderson, James Moody), who tailored the album’s vibrant arrangements to Stalling’s singular voice and to the stellar band that was assembled for the date, which brings together such greats as saxophonist Vincent Herring (Cedar Walton, Nat Adderley), bassist David “Happy” Williams (Roberta Flack, Elvin Jones), and drummer Joe Farnsworth (McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders). Percussionist Daniel Sadownick (Michael Brecker, Steely Dan) is added to the mix for Latin-tinged takes on “Lover Man” and “Lady Bird.”

Adding extra meaning to the occasion is the appearance of veteran trumpeter Eddie Henderson (Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, The Cookers), whose friendship with Stallings stretches all the way back to their days as students at San Francisco’s Lowell High School, when the singer was already a well-known presence on the city’s thriving jazz scene.

“I always admired the way Mary sang,” Henderson recalls. “And, I was ecstatic to reunite with her and play together again. She makes the lyrics come alive; she’s not just saying arbitrary words, she means it.”

The middle child of 11 siblings, Stallings grew up around music, getting her first professional experience with her mother and two older sisters in a family gospel group. Her uncle, tenor saxophonist and bandleader Orlando Stallings, introduced her to jazz – still considered by some in the church at that time as “the devil’s music.”

“My music was gospel but I loved to listen to Uncle Orlando play bebop, too,” Stallings says. “They called it ‘sinful music,’ and I wanted some of that sin.”

Decades before it became one of the cornerstones of psychedelic rock, San Francisco’s Fillmore District was lined with jazz and blues clubs, becoming known as the “Harlem of the West.” This was the scene that Stallings dove into as a teenager in the early 1950s, performing with such giants as Ben Webster, Cal Tjader, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Red Mitchell, Teddy Edwards, and the Montgomery Brothers – Wes, Buddy, and Monk.

1961’s Cal Tjader Plays, Mary Stallings Sings earned the vocalist her strongest accolades and led to a busy decade in which she toured with Tjader, Billy Eckstine, and Dizzy Gillespie. She spent three years fronting the Count Basie Orchestra, after which she spent the majority of the 1970s focused on raising her family – including her daughter, the acclaimed R&B singer Adriana Evans. Stallings made a full-fledged comeback in the early ’80s, releasing a string of albums with such luminaries as Gene Harris, Monty Alexander, Gerald Wiggins, Harry “Sweets” Edison, and Geri Allen.

Stalling’s long-running musical relationship with Buddy Montgomery, which lasted until his death in 2009, provided a strong bond with Hazeltine. During his own formative years in Milwaukee, Hazeltine was taken under Buddy’s wing while the great vibraphonist and pianist lived in the Midwestern city for more than a decade before returning to the West Coast. “Buddy was one of my main mentors, and Mary loved Buddy and worked with him a lot,” the pianist says. “That gave us a nice connection.”

Stallings had long admired Hazeltine’s skills, both through Buddy and the recommendation of vocalist and friend Marlena Shaw, for whom Hazeltine long served as accompanist and arranger. “David is a very fine musician,” raves Stallings, “and boy, did he make magic with the treatments that he gave to this music. He has a great insight and I was thrilled to work with him.”

Hazeltine reciprocates the admiration. “I just can’t say enough great things about Mary. She’s imaginative and soulful, with perfect intonation and a creative way of approaching the tunes. I am in awe of her singing ability.”

Surely those expressive qualities are the fruit of nearly eight decades of musical, not to mention life, experience. Stallings brings the entirety of that life to bear on her lyrics, and proudly faces the landmark birthday she’ll commemorate this August.

“I’m going to be 80 years old and I’m very proud of it,” she announces. “I’m still here. I’m still breathing. I’m still living. And I’ll live until I die, spending every day doing something positive. I’m the product of everything that I’ve been through in my life, and that comes through in my music. My joy is getting on that stage and having people listen to my stories.” 

"Songs Were Made to Sing" was produced by Paul Stache and Damon Smith and

recorded live in New York at Sear Sound's Studio C on a Sear-Avalon custom console

at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to ½" analog tape using a Studer mastering deck.

Available in audiophile HD format.

Mary Stallings · Songs Were Made To Sing

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: May 17, 2019

www.MaryStallingsJazz.com

Record Kicks presents “I’ve Come A Long Way”, the new installment of the enfant prodige of soul Alexis Evans

The enfant prodige Alexis Evans returns with a new album that makes Bordeaux the new French capital of deep soul.

Forget about great wines for a second, from Bordeaux rolls in Alexis Evans, the next big thing of the French deep soul scene. 

Following his acclaimed debut LP “Girl Bait” (2016) Record Kicks is proud to present “I’ve Come A Long Way”, the new installment of the Anglo/French artist that will hit the streets worldwide on March 08 2019. 

Recorded in Bordeaux, mixed in Sydney by Dojo Cuts’ and The Liberators’ head honcho Nate Goldentone and mastered in LA at Golden Mastering, with “I’ve Come A Long Way” Alexis Evans is ready to impress you with one of the most original and honest deep soul and rhythm and blues album that you’ll find around.

“I’ve Come a Long Way” might seem like an ambitious album for a 25 years old guy, but from the soulful opening track “She Took me back” to the last rock and roll storming cut “Rock’N’ Roll Healer” you’ll be immediately captured by Alexis’ incredible musicianship and songwriting. Imagine a soulful and much funkier version of Jon Spencer where the Meters, Otis Redding and Sly & The Family Stone are kings. “I spent a few months composing and arranging all these tracks with the idea of approaching the songs of The Impressions, Allen Toussaint or Bobby Womack” says Alexis “and with everyone in the right mood, we found our own sound and we recorded the album”.

Despite his relatively young age, the Bordeaux-based singer-songwriter-producer Alexis Evans is not a newcomer in the music scene. He discovered Afro-American music as a child and learnt to play guitar thanks to his father, an English musician. At the age of 17 he debuted with his first project “Jumping to the Westside”, with which he was awarded the “Cognac Blues Passion” prize and flew to the “International Blues Challenge” in Memphis, Tennessee, where he impressed the American audience even though he was still a teenager. Mr.Evans has built a household name in the scene as the “enfant prodige of soul”, touring extensively his country with explosive live sets at RDV Erdre Nantes, Rhino Jazz St-Etienne, Lyon Ninkasi, Club Nubia Paris, Festivals Relâche Bordeaux, Jazz à Vienne as well as Festivals in England, Switzerland and Wales.

Fans of Daptone and Stax Records you better take note.

New Releases: Norah Jones – Begin Again; Zara McFarlane with Dennis Bovell – East of The River Nile; Phresoul - Hipster Antichrist

Norah Jones – Begin Again

On April 12, Norah Jones will release Begin Again, a collection of singles that gathers 7 eclectic songs she has recorded over the past year with collaborators including Jeff Tweedy, Thomas Bartlett, and Brian Blade. Following her 2016 album Day Breaks, Norah returned to the studio with the sole intent of following her muse down creative pathways without any expectations or boundaries. Reveling in the joy and spontaneity of music-making with a true spirit of openness, she got together with various friends for brief, largely-improvised sessions to collaborate and experiment. Begin Again will be released on 12” vinyl, CD, and digitally.

Zara McFarlane with Dennis Bovell – East of The River Nile

The latest track from vocalist Zara McFarlane with the legendary Reggae & Dub producer Dennis Bovell. Also on production is the incredible Moses Boyd ! Four reinterpretations of the title from Augustus Pablo's 1977 classic album - ‘East of the River Nile’ available on LP & All digital platforms on Brownswood Recordings.

Phresoul - Hipster Antichrist

The Word Was Made Phresh is the new EP from British-Italian collaborative trio Phresoul on Khalab’s new label, Hyperjazz Records. Consisting of seven instrumental tracks, the talent and versatility of one of the most interesting new groups in jazz, hip-hop, and alternative-rock is brought into sharp focus over the course of the record. The new project from the trio, which is one third British and two thirds Italian, made up of Charlie Stacey (piano, fender rhodes, synthesizer), David Paulis (double-bass) and Enrico Truzzi (drums), dismantles jazz’s traditional rules, absorbs influences and contemporary sounds and portrays the conflicts and contradictions of our times with subtle irony. The record comes two years after the trio’s debut release, Metempsychosis, and solidifies Phresoul’s sound, where noise-rock improvisations meet neo-psychedelia, abstract hip-hop and space-jazz.

Belgian progressive avant-jazz-rockers THE WRONG OBJECT release 'Into The Herd'

UK magazine JazzWise has described Belgian sextet The Wrong Object as “adept at mixing Canterbury styled prog rock with Zappa-esque jazz fusion and Frippertronics to produce a beat that has elements of the past and the future thundering through it. [Their music] cleverly fuses all of these various musical elements together, expertly twisting various world music styles into the mix to produce a varied and unpredictable set of original material.”

With their new release, Into The Herd (Off/MoonJune), The Wrong Object make a return to center stage, with a studio album of original compositions showcasing a variety of fresh, powerful material. After 15 years of an existence marked by extensive touring, recording and numerous collaborations with international jazz and rock luminaries (Elton Dean, Harry Beckett, Annie Whitehead, Alex Maguire, Stanley Jason Zappa, Ed Mann, Robin Verheyen), The Wrong Object ventures further into hybrid musical territories, pushing the boundaries of progressive jazz, rock and contemporary music. Perhaps the influence of the late Frank Zappa has never been more apparent. The songs continually weave, duck, dart, and ‘stop on a dime’; while exhibiting the “controlled reckless abandon” and a similar zany, humorous approach to both harmony and melodic/thematic motifs, akin to that which characterized his work. This is a herculean effort; one that goes a long way in filling the very noticeable long-standing void left in the wake of Zappa’s departure.

Michel Delville -guitar/guitar-synth/electronics

Marti Melia – bass and tenor saxophones/clarinet

François Lourtie – baritone and tenor sax

Antoine Guenet – keyboards

Damien Campion – bass

Laurent Delchambre – drums/electronic pad/samples

Easily an early contender for jazz-rock album of 2019, 'Into the Herd' is a musical joy from a supremely talented band at the height of their powers. - Peter Pardo, Sea Of Tranquility

There is nothing wrong with this object, it is a lovely example of consummate music making of a high calibre. - Roger Trenwith, The Progressive Aspect

Suppose you've a friend, who thinks jazz-rock an aberration and fusion noodling its inevitable nadir. Here's what you do. Strap them to a chair, put The Wrong Object on at full volume and leave them a few hours. If by then they still don't get it, find another friend. – Duncan Heining, Jazzwise

Belgium’s The Wrong Object is brimming with artful compositions and quirky guitar work. Originally a Zappa tribute band, guitarist Michel Delville and his colorful cohorts have pushed the quintet’s music far beyond homage status, into an oeuvre combining structural complexity with emotional authenticity, much as their mentor’s music did. – Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player

 

Drummer Matt Slocum Presents SANCTUARY Featuring Pianist Gerald Clayton and Bassist Larry Grenadier

On Sanctuary drummer/composer Matt Slocum unleashes lovely, inspiring missives that could compel you to imagine a world in which peace, kindness and solace prevail - his music comes from an unsullied place, where the music is all that matters. And, he has a sound! An inviting, burnished sound as pure and effervescent as water streaming from high peaks that reveals itself as much through his compositional output as it does through his choices behind the drums.

Slocum is also a conceptualist and an instigator, traits which have produced five acclaimed recordings of mostly original music, including the gem you hold in your hands now, Sanctuary (available on Sunnyside Records on May 31, 2019), four of them featuring the great Gerald Clayton on piano (a friend and musical partner for almost two decades), and Sanctuary being the first to feature first-call bassist Larry Grenadier (a modern-day giant known for his 25-year association with the Brad Mehldau Trio, as well as consequential engagements with Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, Charles Lloyd, Joshua Redman, and Mark Turner).

The three protagonists on Sanctuary, recording after a single rehearsal, listen and interact on such a high level as to give the impression that they'd internalized the music after a long tour - a credit to Slocum's leadership. "Matt always focuses on the melody and beautiful writing, and the forms are obvious and smooth. The song, the composition and melody is the most important thing, which is why it's fun to play with him. He has a very strong foundation in the tradition, super-hard-swinging but still modern," said long-time collaborator and bassist on Slocum's first three recordings, Massimo Biolcati. Also notable on Sanctuary is the programmatic quality that underpins the proceedings. It's definitely an ALBUM - the tunes connect emotionally, they cohere into a narrative arc. "Usually I have in mind a specific instrumentation and group of musicians before I write and arrange music for a project, so that it becomes tailored to that configuration and musical aesthetic," Slocum says. "Here, for the first time, I took a different approach. I allowed myself to write whatever I felt like without those preconceptions. This seemed to make me reflect musically more on what I'd call places and characters that, at one time or another, have provided a perceived sense of creative refuge and even a feeling of home. That's why I'm using the title, Sanctuary. I'm struggling with the new reality since January 2017, which I'm sure had some influence on it."

  

More about the music on Sanctuary (with excerpts from the album's liner notes, by Ted Panken): Sanctuary opens with a haunting treatment of "Romulus," from the visionary singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens' 2003 album Greetings From Michigan. "The lyrics are heartbreaking, and it's a beautiful piece of music," Slocum says. "The challenge was to find a way to arrange it without lyrics, where so much of the story is carried." The performance begins and ends with gripping statements by Grenadier, whose sound just drips of humanity and all of its joys and sorrows. Clayton probes the tune's dark undertones over Slocum's tasteful cadences.

A crisp, pithy drum fanfare launches "Consolation Prize," Slocum's expressively swinging, reharmonized contrafact of Irving Berlin's "The Best Thing For You" that provokes creative solos from all members, who converse with energetic simpatico and mutual intuition. Titled for an island of aspen trees in the middle of a swamp near his childhood home, "Aspen Island" is based on Frederic Chopin's "Prelude in E-Minor." After the ensemble develops the theme, Grenadier uncorks a sparkling variation on the melody, before handing the baton to Clayton, who reinforces the aura of wonderment attendant to the song's subject.

Responding to Slocum's relaxed, brushed swing beats, Clayton takes his time while developing the lovely melody of "Star Prairie," named for the small village contiguous to Slocum's childhood home, not far from Wisconsin's western border. During third grade in the nearby town of New Richmond, Slocum took his first piano lessons, as mandated by his middle school for students who wanted to play percussion. By high school, Slocum was studying in Minneapolis with the excellent drummer Phil Hey, who introduced him to a slew of recordings propelled by the drummers who continue to influence him. Although Slocum soft-pedals his prowess on the drums, his learning curve was sufficiently steep to earn a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he studied with Peter Erskine, and met not only Clayton and Biolcati, but present-day tenor titans Dayna Stephens and Walter Smith, III (who play on Slocum's superb Black Elk's Dream, from 2014), as well as generational contemporaries like Harish Raghavan, Taylor Eigsti, and Ambrose Akinmusire. Slocum graduated in 2004, and remained in Los Angeles until 2007, gigging with pianists Josh Nelson and Bill Cunliffe, and developing his compositional chops.

Melancholy and ominous, "A Dissolving Alliance" elicits the album's most open-ended performance. "It's along the lines of 'Romulus' in depicting a broken sanctuary," Slocum says. "But there's still beauty in the darkness." He characterizes the tune "Days of Peace" (and its placement in the track order) as, "intended to create the illusion of a daydream- a mood of playfulness and warmth through a flashback to a brighter time before everything became seemingly lost and broken." Slocum first documented this composition on Black Elk's Dream with a very different treatment.

On the title track, whose melody invites a lyric, Slocum's subtle postulations complement Clayton's erudite harmonic probes. In distinction to the other tunes on Sanctuary, he says, it's based "not on a specific place or character, but on an overall sense of places where I felt comfortable creating and on people who've supported that process."

The final selection, "Anselmo," is another memorable melody on a form that morphs from a long stretch of 4/4 into a tom-tom based 6/4 passage. It's named for a key character in Ernest Hemingway's iconic Spanish Civil War novel For Whom The Bell Tolls, which Slocum re-read not long ago. "How that character deals with his sense of home and being part of the resistance there is interesting to me," Slocum says, before elaborating on his attitude towards interpreting his music in real time on the drums. "I write a lot of tunes without even thinking of a meter, until I record myself playing it on piano," he says. "Then I make a 5-bar phrase or a 3-bar phrase because that's where it feels like it wants to breathe, not because it's a hip jazz thing or it's unusual to do. You can practice for hours, months, years before the session, but at the end of the day, it depends on what the other musicians do - and if you want to let them be themselves, you have to be open in that moment."

Slocum's explication of his compositional m.o. illuminates why Sanctuary continues to stimulate after multiple listenings. "I've been moving closer to developing a voice where my influences aren't conspicuous," Slocum says. "This is definitely the most personal recording I've done thus far."