Three world-premiere recordings from Grammy nominated composer and clarinetist, Derek Bermel entitled MIGRATIONS

Three world-premiere recordings from Grammy nominated composer and clarinetist, Derek Bermel entitled MIGRATIONS was just released on Naxos [Naxos 8.559871].  showcasing The album includes his Migration Series for Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra (2006); the song cycle Mar de Setembro (2011), with texts by Eugénio de Andrade; and the three-movement orchestral A Shout, a Whisper, and a Trace (2009), in performances by the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, saxophonist Ted Nash, clarinetist Bermel, Brazilian jazz vocalist Luciana Souza, and the Albany Symphony under its music director, David Alan Miller.

Bermel's engagement with other musical cultures has become part of the fabric and force of his compositional language; he grew up playing jazz, funk, and rock; studied with a wide-range of compositional luminaries, including William Bolcom, Henri Dutilleux, and Louis Andriessen; and traveled extensively to absorb musical traditions from across the globe, including Thracian folk music, Brazilian caxixi percussion music, and Lobi xylophone from Ghana. Of the new album, Bermel writes: "Like many Americans, my family came to the US from distant lands. Migrations is inspired by three artistic journeys-painter Jacob Lawrence's vivid depiction of African American migration from South to North; Portuguese poet Eugénio de Andrade's journeys across the ocean and the soul; and Hungarian composer Béla Bartók's emigration to my hometown of New York City-and by my collaborators Wynton Marsalis and Luciana Souza."

Migration Series was commissioned by Wynton Marsalis, for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and by the American Composers Orchestra. It takes its title from a 60-painting series by Jacob Lawrence, which traces the movement of blacks from South to the urban North during the First and Second World Wars (known as "The Great Migration"). Music critic George Grella writes in his program notes: "Bermel describes his musical thinking here as realized in the form of a mosaic; he uses various motifs that reappear in each movement, like the repeated use of tiles to create different combinations of patterns with the same source material. This is a visual quality that Bermel identifies in Lawrence's work, but that's secondary to the physical pleasure of the music." Bermel here draws freely on his training and expertise as a clarinetist: "That feel of music coming through the hands," Grella observes, "is plain and strong in the swing and swagger of Migration Series." View Panels from Lawrence's Migration Series. (Cover Art: The Migration Series, Panel 3, "From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel north" (1940-41); The Phillips Collection. Washington, D.C. Acquired 1942.)

Written when Bermel was composer-in-residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Mar de Setembro-- consists of five songs ("Prologue: Que voz lunar," "Mar de Setembro," "Canção," "Ocultas águas," and "Frutas").  Mar de Setembro was composed in collaboration with the Brazilian jazz singer Luciana Souza. Bermel commented that great Portuguese poet Eugénio de Andrade's work "evokes saudade"-a hard-to-translate Portuguese word with a loose meaning of longing and sadness for lost people and lost things." The world-premiere was met with critical acclaim, the Los Angeles Times said "Bermel . . . has produced a small gem." Mar de Setembro, Grella writes, "is clear and upfront about its non-classical qualities, including the rhythms, harmonies, and the graceful, bossa nova–tinged vocal melodies." Something of a cultural travelogue, it opens the door to further possibilities: "The one place I've always wanted to go and have not yet been is Cuba," Bermel muses, and the country is "still on my list."

A commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, A Shout, a Whisper, and a Trace pays tribute to Béla Bartók, who spent the last five years of his life in New York. The work  was inspired by Bartók's experiences as a New Yorker to view his own home city from a different perspective. Bartók had a difficult time adjusting to New York, and temporarily stopped composing; he died there, of leukemia, in 1945. "Bermel," writes Grella, "loves Bartók, whose music was deeply informed by his study of folk music. In the final, haunting movement, Bartók's ghost floats along the streets of Bermel's native New York, mingling with the other residents past and present. As only music can, the piece collapses the distance of time into the immediate present of the listening experience."

Grammy-nominated composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel is artistic director of the American Composers Orchestra, director of Copland House's CULTIVATE emerging composers institute, and curator of the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music at the Bowdoin Music Festival. He has performed as a clarinetist worldwide, collaborated with an eclectic array of artists, and received commissions globally from the Pittsburgh, National, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, the Pacific Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York's WNYC, the Tanglewood Festival, Eighth Blackbird, the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble, Veenfabriek (the Netherlands), the Guarneri and JACK string quartets, violinist Midori, and the Koussevitzky and Fromm Music Foundations. His many honors include the Alpert Award in the Arts, the Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, the American Music Center's Trailblazer Award, the Academy Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and residencies at Yaddo, Tanglewood, Aspen, Banff, Bellagio, and Copland House. He recently served as composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony and as artist-in-residence at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study.

In 1941, a 23-year-old Harlem artist named Jacob Lawrence produced the Migration Series, 60 paintings depicting the Great Migration, the epic movement of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North during the early decades of the 20th century. The series was an immediate success. Shortly thereafter, this collection was acquired by two museums, New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, which divided the panels according to their even and odd numbers.

In recent times, Lawrence's masterwork has enjoyed newfound resonance, inspiring a multimedia dance production, a book of scholarly essays, and an adaptation based on the Arab Spring. 

It has also yielded Migration Series, composer Derek Bermel's sweeping, five-movement concerto for jazz ensemble and orchestra. Commissioned by Wynton Marsalis, the concerto is the centerpiece of "Migrations," a Naxos recording of Bermel's music by the Albany Symphony Orchestra and the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, conducted by David Alan Miller. 

In a display of Bermel's deep eclecticism, the album also features two other works rooted in non-Western classical forms - Mar de Setembro (2011), written for the Brazilian singer Luciana Souza, and A Shout, a Whisper, and a Trace (2009), about Bela Bartók's years in New York.

"I was really first intrigued and then impressed when I heard Migration Series," says David Alan Miller, Albany Symphony's Music Director. "It charted daring territory because few have done it successfully - this combination of jazz band and orchestra."

Miller adds, "The idea behind the piece is so strong. It's so clearly and beautifully inspired by the images. That helped it not seem like a pastiche project."

Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series paintings trace a somber yet uplifting narrative through barren Southern landscapes, gospel churches, factories, urban race riots and a voting booth. Scenes of crowded train stations form a recurring motif.

Derek Bermel describes its form as a mosaic. "I realized there are different elements that ping-pong back and forth between the different paintings," he said. "That gives you a larger composite view of a big story that he tells through lots of smaller stories, and I just found that fascinating. He does it with color, he does it with shape, he does it with texture."

Derek Bermel was a young boy living on Manhattan's Upper West Side when his mother took him to a 1974 retrospective of Lawrence's work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Migration Series, with its cubist-inflected shapes and muted colors, stuck in his consciousness. Thirty years later, when Wynton Marsalis requested a piece that would combine the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), Bermel returned to the series. He deploys a rumbling groove interwoven with gospel ballads, moaning blues, and sinuous solos for brass, saxophone solo (played by Ted Nash) and clarinet (Bermel himself).

Unlike composers who dabble in jazz, Bermel spent his childhood imitating Thelonious Monk records on the piano. "That was my way into playing piano," he explains. "Monk was more of an influence than probably any composer on my harmonic language." Another model was Duke Ellington, "because he was a composer who couldn't be contained."

These influences coalesced during his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where his teachers were the polymaths William Bolcom and William Albright. Bermel has also traveled to Ghana to learn the Lobi xylophone, Bulgaria to study Thracian folk music, and Ireland to learn the Uilleann pipes.

In approaching the Migration Series, Bermel was also drawn to its larger, social themes. "I'm from a family of European Jews," he notes, "so when you think of these large movements of people who are driven by  an imperative to start anew, in a different place, it's a very powerful work in that way as well."

  

Migration is also a central theme of A Shout, a Whisper, and a Trace, a three-movement orchestral work that honors Bela Bartók's move from his native Hungary to New York City after the outbreak of World War II. The piece was an opportunity for Bermel to consider his hometown with fresh eyes.

"I had just picked up a copy of Bartók's letters in a used bookstore," said Bermel. "I was fascinated, especially by the section with the letters he wrote home from New York. Bartók's letters were full of this longing, much in the way that Lawrence describes the South."

Bartók found life in New York rather difficult. He and his wife lived on money from his research fellowship at Columbia University, in which he transcribed Serbo-Croatian folksongs for cataloging and publication. He struggled with traffic and the subway system. Though he produced a handful of major works - including the Concerto for Orchestra - he gave few piano performances and the effects of leukemia began to take their toll (he died of complications of the disease in 1945).

Accordingly, the first movement of Bermel's score explores a clash of cultures.

"Some of the harmonies don't match the rhythms," said Bermel. "The harmonies are a little more New York while the rhythms are a little more Eastern Europe."

After a second movement inspired by Bartók's "night music" sounds, the finale imagines him as a ghost-like figure, haunting the city streets. "I thought of his ghost and then I thought of all the ghosts of people who lived here before. So that was kind of my way into a New York piece."

Luciana Souza, the featured soloist on  Mar de Setembro. 

A Portuguese Rhapsody

Just as Eastern European folk music underpins Bermel's Bartók tribute, Brazil and Portugal are the focus of Mar de Setembro (September Sea), a set of five songs to texts by the late Portuguese poet Eugénio de Andrade and written for the Brazilian-born singer Luciana Souza.

One can't accuse Bermel of under-researching his subject matter. He has made several trips to Brazil, where he studied caxixi percussion and even learned Portuguese (his wife also hails from Portugal). Lightly touching on bossa nova rhythms, the piece evokes Portuguese saudade, a feeling of intense melancholy.

"Luciana, being from Brazil, is fluent in those styles," Bermel said. "She is an inspiration in the way that it was an inspiration to write for Wynton and his band. Like Ellington, she knows about classical music, she's a jazz singer, and she sings Brazilian music, so her world is very big."

Then again, given the wide-ranging influences that Derek Bermel draws from, it's clear that his musical world is pretty big too.

- Written by Brian Wise

New Music Releases: Josh Lawrence - Triptych; Big Beat – Sounds Good, Feels Good; Nick Fraser / Kris Davis / Tony Malaby - Zoning

Josh Lawrence - Triptych

A really wonderful album from trumpeter Josh Lawrence – a very strong-voiced talent who's got a way of being bright and sharp at the same time, and who can always bring lots of his own compositional strengths to bear as well! The core group is a quartet – with Lawrence blowing beautifully over piano from Zaccai Curtis, bass from Luques Curtis, and drums from Anwar Marshall – and the set also features some great alto from Caleb Curtis on two tracks, balancing out the sound of Josh in this strongly soulful spirit! Brian Charette brings some organ to the album's final track – a great remake of the Earth Wind & Fire tune "That's The Way Of The World" – and all other titles are Lawrence originals, with tunes that include "We're Happiest Together", "Composition #2", "Wind", "Earth", "Sugar Hill Stroll", and "Sunset In Santa Barbara". ~ Dusty Groove

Big Beat – Sounds Good, Feels Good

Sounds Good, Feels Good is Big Beat’s swinging, high-energy party of original, pop, funk, soul, R&B, and gospel tunes performed by a 19-piece orchestra made up of the some of the finest up-and-coming East Coast musicians who are destined to populate the upper echelons of the jazz firmament. Big Beat is a band comprising mostly younger musicians who have taken up the big band mantle, imbuing the music with a contemporary edge while still hewing to the traditional big band spirit. The co-leaders and founders of the band are four young men who all graduated with Master’s Degrees in Jazz Arranging from William Paterson University in New Jersey. They are bassist Charlie Dougherty, saxophonist Phil Engsberg, trombonist Caleb Runly, and pianist Ryan Tomski. In addition to their mastery of their respective instruments, each one is a top-notch arranger and composer. The band also features vocalist Allison McKenzie, a young woman with a powerful but lyrical voice that easily bridges the jazz and pop worlds. She is a superb songwriter and contributed four original tunes to this album. Based on the modern jazz tradition, Big Beat’s innovative arrangements bring the big band sound into the 21st Century.  With McKenzie’s soaring vocals and the band’s tight-knit, spot-on musicianship, Sounds Good, Feels Good, as the name indicates, is an album that undoubtedly sounds good and feels good.

Nick Fraser / Kris Davis / Tony Malaby - Zoning

Drummer Nick Fraser has a great sense of cyclical energy here – a way of playing freely, but elliptically – so that there's this sense of passage and phase in some of the music, even while all the members are improvising with great intensity! The core trio features Fraser on drums, Kris Davis on piano, and Tony Malaby on saxes – the last of whom blows with an angular energy that strikes a great balance between the piano and drums. Half the record also features two more guests – Ingrid Laubrock on tenor and Lina Allemano on trumpet – and titles include "Zoning", "Wells Tower", "Sketch 46", "Coda", "Charismatics", and "Events". ~ Dusty Groove

Pianist Leslie Pintchik Releases "Same Day Delivery: Leslie Pintchik Trio Live"

In a personal note that follows the liner notes of her vibrant new album Same Day Delivery: Leslie Pintchik Trio Live (available now on Pintch Hard Records), pianist and composer Leslie Pintchik writes, “In some ways, the release of this album is a happy accident. It was recorded casually—on a Wednesday evening gig at Jazz at Kitano in Manhattan—just so that I might listen back, at my leisure, to the live performance. When I did listen to the recording, it felt like a special evening; we were fortunate to have had a packed house as well as supportive listeners with generous ears, and they obviously spurred us on. The name of the album reflects the relative ease and speed with which the project came together: a ‘Same Day Delivery’ indeed.”

What a pleasure it is to hear this band and material with the energy and enthusiasm of a live audience. As a pianist, Pintchik plays this music with the wit, nuance and beauty her fans have come to expect. Moreover, the trio—with the exceptionally expressive bassist Scott Hardy and the genre-bending drummer Michael Sarin—has been playing together for over eight years, and it shows. The band and music are tight, but also alive and fresh: both cohesive and vibrant, the best of both worlds.

Pintchik’s new recording showcases her gifts as both composer and arranger, and features six of her original tunes and three standards, each one imbued with a singular character and flavor of its own. The wide range of grooves—swing, New Orleans second-line, samba and various Latin-based rhythms—coupled with the wide range of feeling inherent in the tunes inspire the trio to take this vibey material and run with it.

Before embarking on a career in jazz, Leslie Pintchik was a teaching assistant in English literature at Columbia University, where she also received her Master of Philosophy degree in seventeenth-century English literature. She first surfaced on the Manhattan scene in a trio with legendary bassist Red Mitchell at Bradley's, and in the ensuing years Pintchik formed her own trio which performs regularly at New York City and East Coast jazz venues. Pintchik has performed and/or recorded with saxophonists Steve Wilson and Rich Perry, trumpeter Ron Horton, percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, drummers Michael Sarin, Clarence Penn, Mark Ferber, Rogerio Boccato and Keith Copeland, and the accordion player Shoko Nagai. Pintchik’s debut album So Glad To Be Here was released in 2004, followed by Quartets in 2007. 

In 2010, she released her third record, We’re Here To Listen, as well as a DVD Leslie Pintchik Quartet Live In Concert. Jim Wilke, creator of the nationally syndicated "Jazz After Hours" radio show included We're Here To Listen on his "Best CDs of 2010" list. Pintchik’s fourth album, In The Nature Of Things, was released in 2014, and 2016 saw the release of Pintchik’s fifth album, True North. Released in 2018, Pintchik's sixth album You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! reached #4 in the country for radio spins on JazzWeek, and also remained in the top 10 for five weeks. Also in 2018, two tracks from Pintchik’s releases were included in the soundtrack of the recently released Orson Welles movie The Other Side of the Wind.

Professor Wouassa - Yobale Ma!

After their brilliant label debut with "Grow Yes Yes" in 2017, Professor Wouassa now returns with their brand new third album on Matasuna Records.

The Swiss band's career spans more than 15 years, where they have played at many major festivals in Switzerland and abroad. The 11 members of the band have perfected their musical qualities over the years and captivate as a well-rehearsed live band with their energetic and rousing shows. So it isn't surprising that they supported concerts of Afrobeat legends like Ebo Taylor or Seun 'Anikulapo' Kuti.

Their still exuberant creativity can also be heard on their new work entitled Yobale Ma!, which in Wolof's language can be translated as "take me" or "get me". With their new album they take the listener to their musical island to explore the borders of Afrobeat and beyond.

The song Fallou Fall opens the album in a jazzy & big band way, and quickly switches to an afrobeat theme and solo. In the middle the song breaks into an Afro-style pattern, which is performed by Thaïs Diarra in Bambara (Malian dialect) in a traditional Mandingo way of singing. The track ends with a Sabar percussion part - a traditional Senegalese drum.

Yobale Ma is the single of the album, which is inspired by the funky guitars of a Nile Rodger and some typical fast Ghanaian highlife of Ebo Taylor.

The track Thiaroye Gare is about the Tirailleurs sénégalais, a unit of the French army who fought for France in WWII. After returning from captivity they were taken in Camp Thiaroye northeast of Dakar. Corrupt and racist colonial officials led to a revolt, which was bloodily suppressed by French troops.

From the musical point of view the song shows a link between afrobeat and funky James Brown rhythms, which ends in a fast afrobeat style with baritone saxophone and trombone solos.

Beguente Len in the middle of the album is a kind of interlude that represents Wouassa's own way of interpreting traditional afro beats and rhythms.

With the two songs Djongoma and Sama Yone Professor Wouassa leaves his usual afrobeat path to explore the "sound of the islands" (Mauritius, La Réunion, Cape Verde or Cuba) and blend it with their personal and unmistakable style.

With Iba Niawoulo the professors investigate a kind of Ghanaian highlife medium tempo with a chord progression from Serge Gainsbourg's song "Initial BB". The tracks change in the middle to a fast Rhythm'n'Blues beat, which is accompanied by afro guitars. The singer "Mamadou Diagne" talks about his alter ego in Dakar.

In Djougoudja typical afro rhythms are mixed with pure Ethiopian 70's brass sounds and funk guitars. As heard several times in other songs, the track breaks into a very personal and hard to describe Wouassa beat in it's middle. At this time, Mamadou Diagne recites a big slam about the spiritual ideas and the history of the famous senegalese theologian and poet Serigne Touba (Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba). Under his flow some sabar percussions (typical senegalese percussions) build a strong and intense musical rug.

Damien Sneed 40+-City 2020 North American Tour, ‘We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’

IMG Artists, today’s leading global performing arts management agency, announces Damien Sneed’s 40+-city North American tour, “We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” The 2020 tour kicks off on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, at Joe’s Pub in New York, NY, and will make stops at concert halls and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The tour will conclude on Friday, March 13, 2020, at Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center in Kent, WA.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the multi-genre artist will bring his brand of classical, jazz, and sanctified soul to venues across the country during Dr. King’s holiday, Black History Month, and Women’s Month. “We Shall Overcome” is a joyous celebration reflecting on the triumphant and victorious moments during our history. To view footage from last year’s tour, click HERE.

“I’m super excited about the upcoming ‘We Shall Overcome’ tour,” says Sneed. “Last year was our first time going out, but now we are well prepared for the rigorous schedule and vast amount of travel required. The best part of this tour is how we will be able to touch the lives of so many different people through the lyrics and messages in the music.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Damien Sneed,” says Toby Tumarkin, Executive Vice President, Global Head of Artists and Attractions. “He is an amazing rising star, and ‘We Shall Overcome’ is an excellent opportunity for audiences across the country to experience Damien’s incredible music-making.”

Joining Sneed on tour will be an ensemble of multi-genre vocalists and instrumentalists, including Chenee Campbell (vocalist), Markita Knight (vocalist), Anitra McKinney (vocalist), Alicia Peters-Jordan (vocalist), and Linny Smith (vocalist) and other special guest artists to be announced. The musicians include Joel Tate (drums), John Matthew Clark (bass), and Marquéz Cassidy (keyboards).

Following the concert on January 14, at Joe’s Pub, the tour will continue to Place des Arts in Montreal, QC (Thursday, January 16); the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, PA (Friday, January 17); the Colonial Theatre in Keene, NH (Saturday, January 18); Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, NY (Sunday, January 19); the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford, MA (Monday, January 20); the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT (Wednesday, January 22); the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT (Thursday, January 23); Millersville University in Lancaster, PA (Friday, January 24); Gettysburg College at the Majestic Theater Gettysburg, PA (Saturday, January 25); the Fine Arts Center at University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Amherst, MA (Tuesday, January 28); the Alden Theatre at McLean Community Center in McLean, VA (Thursday, January 30); and the January tour dates will conclude at the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, VA (Friday, January 31).

During Black History Month, the We Shall Overcome tour will kick-off at The Wilson Center at Cape Fear College in Wilmington, NC (Saturday, February 1); High Point Theatre in High Point, NC (Tuesday, February 4); Temple Theater in Lufkin, TX (Thursday, February 6); Texas A&M University Auditorium in College Station, TX (Friday, February 7); Irving Arts Center in Irving, TX (Saturday, February 8); the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, TX (Sunday, February 9); Miami University of Ohio Hall Auditorium in Oxford, OH (Wednesday, February 12); Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in Clinton Charter Township, MI (Thursday, February 13); the Wharton Center in East Lansing, MI (Friday, February 14); the Dominican University at Lund Auditorium in River Forest, IL (Saturday, February 15); the Moraine Valley Community College at the Fine and Performing Arts Center in Palos Hills, IL (Sunday, February 16); the University of Dubuque at the Heritage Center in Dubuque, IA (Tuesday, February 18); the Victoria Theatre Association in Dayton, OH (Wednesday, February 19); the University of California Berkeley in Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA (Thursday, February 20), the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, CA (Friday, February 21); Chico Performances at Laxson Auditorium at California State University in Chico, CA (Saturday, February 22); Portland’5 Center for the Arts in the Newmark Theatre in Portland, OR (Monday, February 24); Arts Commons in Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, AB (Thursday, February 27); the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, BC (Saturday, February 29).

The final leg of the tour concludes with a series of dates during Women’s History Month starting with the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton, WA (Sunday, March 1); the Brigham Young University’s Harris Fine Arts Center in Provo, UT (Monday, March 2); the University of Utah at Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, UT (Wednesday, March 4); Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, CA (Saturday, March 7); Pepperdine University at Smothers Theatre in Malibu, CA (Sunday, March 8); the College of Southern Idaho Fine Arts Center at Twin Falls, ID (Wednesday, March 11); and the Tower Theatre in Bend, OR (Thursday, March 12); and the Kent Meridian Performing Arts Center in Kent, WA (Friday, March 13).

 

On Friday, January 10, 2020, Sneed will also release the deluxe edition of the 2019 CD, Damien Sneed: We Shall Overcome on his label, LeChateau Earl Records, which was established in 2019 to reflect his varied musical interests. In September 2019, he released his new offering, Jazz In Manhattan. Previous recordings included Damien Sneed: We Shall Overcome (January 2019), The Three Sides of Damien Sneed: Classical, Jazz and Sanctified Soul (July 2018), Broken To Minister: The Deluxe Edition (March 2015), Spiritual Sketches (June 2013), and Introspections LIVE (January 2010).

As a multi-instrumentalist and producer, he has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B with legends including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, which he recently was the musical director for his mentor’s funeral service, and will be featured on Norman’s forthcoming and final recording, Bound For The Promised Land on Albany Records on November 2, 2019. He also worked with Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, Lawrence Brownlee, and many others.

The composer and pianist recently premiered his new opera, “We Shall Overcome -- Our Journey: 400 Years from Africa to Jamestown,” at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage for the Sphinx Organization Performance and Gala, sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Robert F. Smith. Sneed also wrote the libretto, which showcases musical styles from the African American diaspora from African rhythms to spirituals to gospel to jazz, all interwoven in the classical genre. He was joined by fellow Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipients and Metropolitan Opera’s J’Nai Bridges (mezzo-soprano) and Will Liverman (baritone), along with Sneed’s chorus, Chorale Le Chateau, and the Sphinx Virtuosi Orchestra, who brought to life his ground-breaking opera during the evening’s finale performance.

Sneed was also commissioned to compose a new chamber opera titled MARIAN’S SONG about the life of Marian Anderson for Houston Grand Opera, which will have its world premiere on March 5, 2020, at the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Center. In addition to MARIAN’S SONG, he was commissioned to compose a symphony in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen with its world premiere in summer 2020 in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area.

Sneed recently joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, where he teaches graduate-level courses in conducting, African American Music History, a singer/songwriter ensemble, a gospel music ensemble, and private lessons in piano, voice, and composition. A graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts School in his hometown of Augusta, GA., Sneed studied at some of the finest conservatories and universities, including Howard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Music – Piano Performance; the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University; New York University, where he earned a Master of Music in Music Technology: Scoring for Film and Multimedia; and the Manhattan School of Music. Sneed will also graduate with his doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from USC in 2020. Sneed was a member of the faculty at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Nyack College. His other professional affiliations have included The Juilliard School as a staff accompanist, Jazz at Lincoln Center as an artistic consultant, and the City University of New York (CUNY) as a professor of music. In 2015, Sneed established the Damien Sneed Performing Arts Institute, a division of the Damien Sneed Foundation. He is the founder and artistic director of the international vocal ensemble Chorale Le Chateau.

For more information on Damien Sneed and LeChateau Earl Records, go to www.damiensneed.com and www.lechateauearl.com.

New Music Releases: Jim Beard & Jon Herington; Jazzy Ladies Of Society Hill Records; Jan Harbeck

Jim Beard & Jon Herington - Chunks & Chairknobs

Steely Dan sidemen pianist Jim Beard and guitarist Jon Herington join forces on intimate duet album, 'Chunks and Chairknobs'. A unique piano-guitar project that organically blends their mutual interest in rock, pop, bossa, blues and jazz while also acknowledging their longstanding gig as sidemen in the game-changing band Steely Dan, this intimate encounter finds the two kindred spirits divvying up duties on eight tunes, easily alternating roles, comping supportively for each other while delivering melodic gems and brilliant solos along the way. From the jaunty title track, colored by Beard's New Orleans flavored barrelhouse piano to Herington's thoughtfully introspective "Double Blind" and Beard's soothing "Hand to Hand" to fresh interpretations of Bill Evans' "Loose Blues," the standard "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," the show tune "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and the popular Steely Dan anthem, "Gaucho," the two longtime collaborators put their own unique spin on the proceedings. A thoroughly engaging project, Chunks and Chairknobs is the result of what happens when two seasoned pros with longstanding, indelible chemistry get together in the studio to create. Magic ensues.

Jazzy Ladies Of Society Hill Records (Compilation)

Great work from the Society Hill label of Philly soul producer Butch Ingram – a force on the city's scene for many decades, and one of the few who are still turning out the kind of cool, classy sound that was Philly's big shift at the start of the 80s! Some of the artists here are older, and represent that later post-disco mode in Philly on labels like WMOT and Philadelphia International – and others are younger, but fit right into the groove – thanks to a unified Ingram style that keeps things warm and mellow throughout! Titles include "Give It Up" by Jean Carne, "Like A Lover" by Toni Richards, "I Love You" by Brandi Wells, "I'm So In Love With You" by Barbara Mason, "Good Morning Heartache" by Vicki Austin, "One Last Memory" by Vanessa Farley, "Waiting For My Lover" by Roz Ryan, "I Close My Eyes" by Carla Benson, "I Wish You Love" by Coretta Davis plus other tracks from Toni Richards, Marki Fields, Coretta Davis, Wardell Piper, and Bobbi Walker  ~ Dusty Groove

Jan Harbeck - Sound The Rhythm

Beautiful tenor from Jan Harbeck – a musician who's included four Ben Webster tunes on the album, and who definitely owes a lot to Ben in his tone! Harbeck's not a slavish Webster imitator – for one thing, his sense of rhythm and phrasing is very contemporary – yet he's got this warm, raspy charm that really hearkens back to the kind of special touch that Ben brought to the tenor, as he worked in a generation that really helped transform the way the instrument was used in jazz – to a point where it's now become one of the most soulful means of expression, especially in the hands of a player like Jan! The group features Henrik Gunde on piano, Eske Norrelykke on bass, and either Anders Holm or Morten Aero on drums – and one title features guest alto from Jan Zum Vohrde. Titles include the Harbeck originals "Lighter Shades", "Tangorrus Field", "Blues Crescendo", "Tail That Rhythm", and "Circles" – next to Webster tunes "Shorty Gull", "I'd Be There", "Poutin", and "Woke Up Clipped". ~ Dusty Groove

Zac Zinger Release Jazz Fusion/World Inspired Album “Fulfillment”

Award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Zac Zinger makes his debut with twelve original tracks combining jazz fusion and Japanese traditional music. He does so by introducing the shakuhachi, a primitive five-holed Japanese bamboo flute, to the jazz fusion quartet. A collection of his best compositions for small jazz ensemble over 10 years, each piece is through-composed with meticulous detail, and together display Zinger’s decade-long evolution as a jazz musician gathering influence from his immersion in American and Japanese cultures.

He is joined by Adam Neely on bass, Sharik Hasan on piano, Luke Markham on drums, and a host of special guests. Zac plays saxophones, flute, clarinet, shakuhachi, EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), and a host of ethnic flutes. His playing and writing can be heard on 27 albums and counting, as well as the

soundtracks of Street Fighter V, Final Fantasy XV: Assassin's Festival, Just Cause 4, RWBY, Lazer Team, and many more. He has also had the pleasure of performing in thirteen countries and with the likes of Nobuo Uematsu, The 8-bit Big Band, and Adam Neely’s Jazz School.

In 2017 with a grant from the Asian Cultural Council, he conducted a five-month residency in Japan, studying the shakuhachi and its traditional music under masters Kinya Sogawa, Keisuke Zenyoji, and Akihito Obama. Zac was invited to perform and speak at the 2018 World Shakuhachi Festival in London, UK on the usage of the shakuhachi in the jazz medium.

As a writer, Zac has written/arranged for internationally acclaimed multimedia including Street Fighter V, Jump Force, Just Cause 4, Mobile Suit Gundam, and RWBY, which reached #1 on the iTunes charts in 2016. Awards include a 2016 Asian Cultural Council Artist Fellowship; the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards; the 2013 ASCAP Johnny Mandel Prize; and the 2009 and 2010 Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition Awards.

New Music Releases: Gerald Cleaver – Violent Hour At Firehouse 12; Ron Carter – Foursight: Stockholm Vol. 1; Brotzmann / Schlippenbach / Bennink

Gerald Cleaver – Violent Hour At Firehouse 12

On his new recording, Violet Hour Live at Firehouse 12, Cleaver reconvenes this allstar ensemble for a rare performance and live recording at the New Haven, Connecticut venue. Violet Hour was first assembled for Cleaver's 2008 recording Detroit and features some of the most inspiring instrumentalists that have come into the drummer's orbit, most of them also hailing from or having connections to Cleaver's home town of Detroit, the state of Michigan or the Midwest. The ensemble is made up of some of the best and most in demand musicians in jazz, all questing souls who fortunately managed to cross paths in New York City.

  

Ron Carter – Foursight: Stockholm Vol. 1

Legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter leads his new "Foursight" quartet on this live recording from Sweden recorded in November 2018. The group includes drummer Payton Crossley, tenor saxophonist Jimmy Green, the and star pianist Renee Rosnes. The music includes "Cominando", a crackling hardbop structure that transports the spirit of the 1960s into the 21st century within a few bars, "Joshua", is Carter's reminiscence to his old friend and partner Miles Davis, whilst the quartet recalled the late pianist Geri Allen with the blues "Nearly". Carter's bass sound can be heard on 2221 recordings according to the latest entry in the Guinness Book of Records, and a few more no doubt, "It's like giving a private concert in a living room. Or we could be a chamber music ensemble that develops the power of a large orchestra without leaving a certain volume level. We have undoubtedly succeeded in doing so in Stockholm. I really love this CD!" Personnel: Ron Carter, (bass), Renee Rosnes (piano) Jimmy Greene (tenor saxophone), Payton Crossley (drums).

Peter Brotzmann / Alexander Von Schlippenbach / Han Bennink - Fifty Years After – Live At The Lila Eule

A legendary trio, very firmly back in action – and making us feel like it's the late 60s European free jazz scene all over again! The energy of the players here is tremendous – and while we've enjoyed the renewed strengths of saxophonist Peter Brotzmann in recent years, we're equally impressed with the fire of Alexander Von Schlippenbach on piano and Han Bennink on drums – both musicians who can give us so many different sounds and styles, but who really remind us here that they're some of the key folks who helped put the "free" in free jazz! Brotzmann blows tenor, b flat clarinet, and tarogato – and titles include the very long "Fifty Years After" and "Frictional Sounds" – plus "Short Dog Of Sweet Lucy", "Bad Borrachos", and "Street Jive". ~ Dusty Groove

New Music Releases: Najee – Center Of The Heart; Change – Paradise – The Ultimate Collection 1980-2019; Carmen Lundy - Modern Ancestors

Najee – Center Of The Heart

With special guest Kenny Lattimore! Multi-platinum seller, recipient of multi-Grammy nominations, the NAACP Image Award and the Soul Train Award, Smooth Jazz icon Najee has shared the stage with such greats as Prince, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Lionel Richie and his beloved mentor, George Duke! 'Center Of The Heart' is the highly anticipated followup to Najee’s much loved 'Poetry In Motion'. As the title implies, the album represents Najee’s exploration into the world of sensuality and romance, interspersed with some fantastic spirited grooves that have made him a favorite the world over! Highlights include Najee’s brilliant interpretations of Maxwell’s “Sumthin’ Sumthin’” and the Dionne Warwick classic “Alfie,” “Better,” a romantic collaboration with Kenny Lattimore, the spirited "Bella Vista” and much more!!

Change – Paradise – The Ultimate Collection 1980-2019

Demon Records presents Change: Paradise – The Ultimate Collection (1980-2019), the greatest hits of Change, the innovative Italian/American studio group that launched Luther Vandross’ Solo career with the top 20 hits ‘Searching’ And ‘The Glow Of Love.’ This double album, 19-track collection features the cream of group’s seven albums from 1980-2018 and includes their biggest singles that made the pop, R&B, and dance charts all over the world including ‘a Lover’s Holiday,’ ‘Paradise,’ ”The Very Best In You,’ The Jam & Lewis produced ‘Change Of Heart,’ right up to last year’s massive club smash ‘Love 4 Love’ Remixed by Joey Negro. Three previously unreleased bonus remixes include a brand new extended dance mix of ‘Let’s Go together’ And the legendary lost Jim Burgess mix of ‘Searching’, especially reconstructed for this collection. Another four dance mixes make their vinyl debut here. Newly remastered and adorned with Greg porto’s iconic artwork throughout, “Paradise: The Ultimate Collection (1980-2019)” is pressed on 2 x 180g Double Vinyl.

Carmen Lundy - Modern Ancestors

To our ears, there's nothing like a record from Carmen Lundy – one of the few jazz singers who can hold us completely rapt over the years, and who keeps on coming up with wonderful albums like this one! Carmen's voice has always been fantastic, but in recent years she's got an even more majestic sense of her instrument – tuned here to some tunes that really continue the more powerful lyrical approach she's used over the past decade or so – with an agenda that's much larger than herself, and has righteous elements we never would have found in her earlier music! Lundy's also become quite the instrumentalist too – and also handles guitar, Fender Rhodes, and even some larger orchestrations – in a lineup that also features piano from Julius Rodriguez, bass from Curtis Lundy and Kenny Davis, and percussion from Mayra Casales. Titles include "A Time For Peace", "Burden Down Burden Down", "Jazz On TV", "Meant For Each Other", "Still", and "Affair Brazil".  ~ Dusty Groove

Pianist Roberta Piket Releases "Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz"

Pianist Roberta Piket presents a truly intimate musical offering with the December 6 release of Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz on her own Thirteenth Note Records. A solo piano performance (her third, following 2012's Solo and 2015's Solo Volume 2), the album assays ten intriguing compositions by Billy Mintz, the highly regarded drummer who regularly collaborates with Piket -- and who is also her husband.

The intimacy on display throughout Domestic Harmony is authentic: it was intended for an audience of one. Piket originally conceived the album a few years ago as a birthday surprise for Mintz. (She allows that it was "a milestone year" for the intensely private Mintz but declines to say which.) She arranged to record it while he was on tour, completed the editing later, and successfully surprised and delighted him when the big day came.

"It was just something I was doing for Billy, and not for anybody else," says Piket. "It was only later that I started to think about putting it out." 

It's a beautiful glimpse of art at its most direct. Every nuance of Piket's lustrous touch, chord voicings, and improvisational energy -- and, on "Destiny," her tender, haunting vocal -- radiates with warmth and fondness for its recipient.

Of course, the recipient in question also played no small part in the creation of this music. "[Billy] has a very personal voice," says Piket. "He has a natural talent for looking at the big picture and going beyond just his instrument.... He writes in a very simple, direct way that's incredibly appealing." He has been honored before by musicians performing his compositions, including saxophonist Adam Kolker, pianist Russ Lossing, and Piket herself, who has previously recorded a few of the tunes on Domestic Harmony.

Roberta Piket 

The context, however, transforms Piket's interpretations of them into something more personal and frank. If "Destiny," with Piket's vocal, is pointed in its expression, her thoughtful piano playing on "Ghost Sanctuary," "Flight," and "Your Touch" is no less so without it. As well, it's difficult to imagine a more perfect balance of affection with the inherent playfulness in "Shmear" and "Cannonball," both of which (uncoincidentally) feature some of the pianist's most assured and inventive improvisational work. Her unique birthday gift for her husband is now their shared gift to the world.

Roberta Piket was born in New York City on August 9, 1965 to a father who was a classical composer father and a mother who was a traditional pop singer. Needless to say, it was a musical household, made more so when at 14 young Roberta stumbled across a secondhand copy of Walter Bishop Jr.'s Speak Low at a synagogue bazaar. It began her journey into jazz piano.

Completing a joint double-degree program at New England Conservatory (in piano) and nearby Tufts University (in computer science), Piket first spent an unfulfilling year in software engineering before deciding that music was her true calling. She returned to New York in 1989 and began building a career and a reputation as a pianist. Within a few years she had established relationships with Marian McPartland (appearing on her National Public Radio program Piano Jazz) and Lionel Hampton (who provided her with her first professional recording session on his 1995 For the Love of Music).

Piket has since established herself as an adventurous and versatile pianist, ready and able to try anything. Her albums (of which Domestic Harmony is the 13th) and performance projects have ranged from straight ahead to free jazz, from solo piano to big band, from chamber jazz ensemble with string quartet to the electric Alternating Current, and any number of other adventures as both leader and sidewoman. In addition, she maintains a working trio with Mintz, in which she has also begun to feature herself more prominently as a vocalist.

In the 2018 Down Beat Critics' Poll, Piket was voted Rising Star in the Organist category and placed 16th in Rising Star Piano, while in the publication's 2018 Readers' Poll she placed 8th in the Jazz Artist category, 7th in Piano, and 5th in Organ.

Piket will be performing Billy Mintz's music with several duos -- including saxophonist Virginia Mayhew, valve trombonist Mike Fahn, and Mintz himself -- at Mezzrow, NYC, on Thursday 1/16/20.

Other upcoming shows: the Roberta Piket Sextet celebrates the music of Marian McPartland, with special guest Karrin Allyson, at Flushing Town Hall, Friday 12/6; a set of duos with Virginia Mayhew at Maureen's Jazz Cellar, Nyack, NY, Sunday 12/15; the Roberta Piket Organ Trio plays the music of Billy Mintz (featuring tenor saxophonists Tony Malaby and John Gross with Mintz on drums) at Quinn's, Beacon, NY, Monday 5/4/20.

In addition, Piket will be a sidewoman on piano and organ with the Billy Mintz Band (also including Rich Perry on tenor saxophone, Adam Kolker on saxophones and woodwinds, Curtis Folkes on trombone, and Hilliard Greene on bass) at Balboa, Brooklyn, Wednesday 12/18; Quinn's, Beacon, NY Monday 12/23; iBeam, Brooklyn, Friday 12/27; and Smalls, NYC, Saturday 12/28. 

Bobby Oroza -: This Love (Instrumentals)

The instrumental version of Bobby’s instant classic debut album. Pressed up on translucent red coloured vinyl with a free poster inside packed into a chipboard cover that tips it’s hat to the very first Bobby Oroza 45 jacket; where it all started...

When Bobby Oroza and the Cold Diamond & Mink production duo first got together in the studio they cut ‘This Love.’ That turned out to be a hell of a start. Since they originally released it in 2016 the tune has become somewhat of an underground hit. From the heavy air play at car shows and swap meets in the South West to being featured in numerous movies and tv shows, it even made its way to an Earl Sweatshirt mixtape. All of this has led to a lot of anticipation for Bobby Oroza’s debut full length which is appropriately named after the tune that started it all.

Bobby pushes the borders of soul and rock balladry and creates a sound distinctly his own. Cold Diamond & Mink provide a pitch perfect collection of lo-fi, low-key classics on which Bobby’s smokey tenor floats atop, breaking hearts on some tunes and melting them on others. Maintaining the band’s signature dark and intimate aesthetic, they run the gamut of tempos, breaking hearts on some tunes and mending them on others. The group’s second single ‘Your Love Is Too Cold’ is a stomper that blends the groovy soul drumming of early Motown records with guitar that could have been lifted from a James Bond score and has been getting heavy spins across the globe at soul parties and on radio shows. Bobby takes care of the dancers with a few up numbers, ranging from the northern soul nods on ‘Lonely Girl’ and ‘Falling in Love’ to the 70s jazz funk nod on ‘Keep On Believing.’ However, the ballad lovers with the uncontrollable urge to two-step late into the night will be the real winners with ‘This Love.’ Bobby thrives on the bed of dark and intimate sensuality found on tracks like ‘Alone Again,’ ‘Down On My Knees,’ and ‘Deja Vu.’

Saxophonist Kevin Sun Meditates on Space and Sound with Ambitious Double Album, The Sustain of Memory

The Sustain of Memory, out November 8, 2019 via Endectomorph Music, is saxophonist and composer Kevin Sun’s ambitious follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 debut release Trio.  Featuring three extended compositions for trio, quartet, and quintet – with trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, pianist Dana Saul, bassists Simón Willson and Walter Stinson, and drummers Dayeon Seok and Matt Honor– the double album shows Sun’s commitment to the formal and dramatic possibilities of small-group formats as well as his emergent vision within them. 

Trio, (described as “rich and endeavoring” by Audiophile Audition), found him navigating through an assortment of musical puzzles and mazes with his trio counterparts Stinson and Honor. Following the release of Trio, Sun continued pursuing his creative direction during a period of self-reflection and meditation. Over the course of 2018 he sought personal expression through space and sound and eventually wrote the two hours of music that make up The Sustain of Memory.

“I’ve always been drawn to sprawling, encyclopedic or maximalist works of art,” says Sun, “Just the idea of creating a complete world that contains its own logic, but that threatens to overspill beyond its borders—that’s been appealing to me.”

The first piece on the album, “The Middle of Tensions,”is also the most recent, composed in the latter half of 2018. Featuring the trio plus the addition of pianist Dana Saul, the work progresses through six movements uncovering new emotional valences in the shadowy post-tonal language favored by the jazz and improvised music vanguard of recent years. Although much has been said about Sun’s study of jazz music in its earlier decades, his explicit interest in contemporary improvisors like Steve Lehman, Matt Mitchell, and Craig Taborn comes to the fore here.

Saul, whose September 2019 album Ceiling features Sun, imbues the quartet with his kaleidoscopic harmonic sense; the two met as roommates at the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music in 2012, and reconnected after Sun moved to New York City in 2015.

“For a while, I had a sort of phobia about writing music for chordal instruments—almost like a fear of being locked into something,” says Sun, “but that’s not an issue with Dana because he constantly reinvents and extrapolates, so it’s always a surprise.”

The dense, exploratory passages of “The Middle of Tensions” conclude with a tonal sublimation of the musical events that came before, setting the stage for the second piece, Sun’s “Circle, Line” for trio. Set across twelve short movements that employ all possible instrumental combinations within the trio (including duets and solo pieces), this song cycle’s starkness and sonic transparency offer a pleasing contrast.

“The piece sort of reflects its formal patterning,” says Sun. “It’s fairly austere sonically, and there’s really not very much explicit deviation from the composition aside from individual embellishment and occasional melodic improvisation.”

Sun’s infrequent and informal studies with modern saxophone titan Mark Turner are an unmistakable influence on the piece, which, according to Sun, is also a study in the movement of voices. Although not always tonal, “Circle, Line” centers on the different kinds of relationships between melodic voices—whether they move together up and down or go in different directions or at different times, and how that creates a feeling of depth and space within the ensemble.

Given the abstract conception behind the piece, these dozen miniatures share the quality of both being outside of an obvious idiom while evoking certain sound worlds; the first movement has a medieval chant-like quality, while the seventh movement sounds like a strangely understated rock band flattened to its barest melodic elements. Taken as a whole, they represent both the next step and a departure for Sun’s trio as they continue to personalize the time-honored format.

The album’s final piece, “The Rigors of Love,”occupies the entirety of the second disc and introduces a new rhythm team of Saul (piano), Simón Willson(bass), and Dayeon Seok(drums), plus the addition of trumpeter Adam O’Farrill(2019 DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star) to the frontline. First premiered at New York City’s The Jazz Gallery in May 2018, the title of the work was inspired by the process of composition itself, which, from Sun’s perspective, requires both sustained feeling and discipline.

“After ‘Circle, Line,’ essentially I wanted to write something with more of an emotional thrust to it,” Sun says, “while still using what I’d learned about composition and form from writing the trio piece.”

Orchestrated in three movements, the piece foregrounds a range of ensemble colors and moods that emphasize inwardness and reflection over surface polish and drama. Clarinet and muted trumpet appear and re-appear throughout the piece to indicate shifts in emotional register, and epic solos surface from virtuosic ensemble textures and vice-versa.

In writing “Rigors,” Sun was also mindful of an aphorism attributed to Duke Ellington: The composition begins when the musicians have been chosen. In this case, Sun assembled a different cast of musicians to better suit the nature of the music, which would be more spacious, patient, and subject to interpretation than his more circumscribed works.

Joining him in the frontline is trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, who Ambrose Akinmusire has called his “favorite trumpet player of any generation right now” in a recent JazzTimesprofile. Sun and O’Farrill first played together in a weekly ensemble at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege in 2009, and their reunion on this album amply displays their longstanding chemistry. Pianist Dana Saul, who has employed Sun in the pianist’s own sextet, brought his compositional instincts to bear upon the musical proceedings. Sun notes that Saul exceeded expectations by composing his own piano parts for large portions of “The Rigors of Love.”

“There were sections where I didn’t specify a piano part or chord symbols, so he devised parts, notated them, and brought them to rehearsals, gigs, and the recording session,” says Sun. “That’s dedication.”

Concerning the rhythm team, Sun’s history with each player inspired him to pair them for the ensemble: Sun and bassist Simón Willson were bandmates since their days together at New England Conservatory, where they performed and recorded with co-led ensembles Great on Paper and Earprint. Sun met drummer Dayeon Seok in New York through a mutual friend, and the two became close collaborators in the co-led quartet Mute. Sun emphasized their flexibility and tasteful contributions across a wide range of musical settings.

“I wanted to put them together and take advantage of their flexibility,” says Sun. “I could write sections that swung in a conventional or traditional fashion and also have sections that were more open and idiomatically untethered.”

Sun avers that The Sustain of Memory is a lot of music to take in, but he sees it as part of the process of being a blossoming musician with something personal to share.

“Where I am now, I’m OK with being a bit messy or over-extended if it means I’m going to grow and learn as an artist, which is why I documented this period,” he says. “I hope that people feel some sense of immersion when listening; I’d want nothing more than to give the feeling of stepping into another world, as my favorite artists do.”

Kevin Sun is a saxophonist living in New York City. His trio, established in 2016 and comprising bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor, has released the acclaimed Trioand performs regularly around the city. Sun plays in a number of co-led ensembles, including Earprint and Mute. His creative work to date has attracted attention from leading critical publications, including The New York Times, The Village Voice, DownBeat, The New York City Jazz Record, Audiophile Audition, PopMatters, and Stereogum, among others. Sun is in demand as a sideperson on the New York jazz and improvised music scenes, and he has performed with a variety of small ensembles and larger ensembles, most notably the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine. He has also performed extensively across China and serves as Artistic Director of the Blue Note China Jazz Orchestra, which performs bimonthly at Blue Note Beijing.

www.thekevinsun.com

New Music Releases: Eric Alexander; Cherrill Rae; Michael Dease

Eric Alexander - Leap Of Faith

The great Eric Alexander in a trio mode – soaring out with a lot more space and soul than some of his albums with a pianist – and that's saying a lot, given the wonderfully soulful sound of that work too! The style is a mode that Alexander has explored a bit over the years, but which really comes out with great force here – and opens up a sharper, more biting tone than you might be used to hearing from the saxophonist over his 25+ years of recording! It's almost as if Eric's awoken with a whole new sense of spirit – and we mean that quite literally, as the album has Alexander arising as a very powerful saxophonist in a spiritual tradition – with a sound that's still very individual, but which has links to a legacy that includes Pharoah Sanders and Charles Lloyd – something we never would have said about Eric just a few years ago. The other trio members are key to the sound, too – Doug Weiss on bass and Jonathan Blake on drums – and titles include "Corazon Perdido", "Luquitas", "Mars", "Magyar", "Big Richard", "Second Impression", and "Frenzy".  ~ Dusty Groove

Cherrill Rae – For Once In My Life

Cherrill Rae puts her indelible stamp on the Stevie Wonder classic "For Once In My Life," featuring stellar backing from the legendary Ingram Family band and production from the Philly Soul maestro, Butch Ingram. One of the most talented vocalists in the Society Hill stable of artists, Cherrill Rae is supremely versatile in R&B, Gospel, Jazz and Pop. Born in England and raised in the Canadian province of Ontario, Rae grew up on a steady diet of Motown and old school R&B, which left a lasting impression that she strongly identified with, and quickly realized that singing was something she had a natural affinity for.

Cherrill was a member of The Rae’s who were signed by A&M records in 1980 and had a hit single with a remake of the old Doris Day song “Que Sera Sera”. It was arranged with a percussive Latin beat and killer vocals. It climbed to number one on the Canadian top 40 and stayed there for ten consecutive weeks.Their next album "Dancing up a Storm" became a top 40 success in the United States as well as Canada and Europe. The number-one single off that album "A Little Lovin’” written by Freddie Peren and Dino Fekarris went top ten in Cash Box, Record World and Rolling Stone Magazine.

Michael Dease - Never More Here

Michael Dease is as great a writer as he is a trombonist – which is to say a heck of a lot – but this time around, he opens the door to a wider range of jazz history – by offering up his own arrangements of tunes by Jimmy Heath, Jackie McClean, JJ Johnson, Eric Alexander, and others who've gone down the path before him! Dease always has a fantastic ear for color and rhythm – and that really comes through here, as he works with a fantastic lineup that features Steve Wilson on reeds, Renee Rosnes on piano, Gerald Cannon on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums – all players that have an equal mastery of color, which really comes through as the album moves on! The Dease approach to phrasing is fantastic – maybe in a space between JJ Johnson and Curtis Fuller during their classic years – and as you might imagine, Rosnes and Wilson are a delight, too. Titles include "Shortcake", "Frenzy", "Lament", "Milestones", "A Harmonic Future", "I Wish I Knew", and "For Hofsa". ~ Dusty Groove

 

MAE.SUN Returns with Vol. 2: Into the Flow

When the acclaimed saxophonist, flutist and composer Hailey Niswanger talks about forming her mindful and fiery electric band, MAE.SUN, whose new album is Vol. 2: Into the Flow, she returns often to ideas of transformation, gratitude and unity. “I felt like I finally stepped into a new version of myself that was 100-percent authentic and free,” she says. “MAE.SUN really feels like I’m fulfilling my potential and my purpose.”

Reflecting her middle name, Mae, and Sun, the “second heart that connects all life,” the group’s concept extended from her studies of Zen Master Thích Nhât Hanh, a revered spiritual leader and peace activist. MAE.SUN’s 2017 debut, Vol. 1: Inter-be, was an inspired exploration of her newfound consciousness—a prayer for peace and a wish that all of humanity could discover its oneness. As DownBeat commented in its rave review, “[L]istening all the way through [serves] as a compelling guide for meditation.”   

           

Vol. 2: Into the Flow is the result of Niswanger’s consciousness being tested by the unavoidable trials of life. In the midst of profound personal, spiritual and even geographical life changes—earlier this year, she relocated to L.A. after years on the Brooklyn scene—she began a deep inward search. “I finally started being able to see myself for me,” she says. As a person and an artist, she worked toward a place where she could “release into this idea that your life is set for you—that we chose our lives before we got here,” she explains. “You have your own flow that you need to give in to.”

Submitting to that natural, inevitable flow, she was reminded “to not give in to the pressures of society, by getting caught up in fears, anxieties and stigmas that can hold us back.” That notion of flow all but defines music as well—a positive force that moves into its creators and cycles back out into the atmosphere.

As with Inter-be, Niswanger designed Into the Flow to be experienced best in one uninterrupted listen, and she’s aided in this mission by a genre-bending band she feels honored to helm. The lineup includes Niswanger on soprano saxophone and flute, vibraphonist Nikara Warren, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, keyboardist Axel Laugart, bassist Aaron Liao and drummer David Frazier Jr, with Jake Sherman on additional synths. Sonically, Into the Flow is MAE.SUN’s boldest project yet, and fans of fusion’s ’60s and ’70s heyday will appreciate the often-wild, evocative timbres she achieves through electronics. Overseeing production, mixing and mastering, Drew Ofthe Drew has designed an ensemble sound that is at once psychedelic and focused, expansive and crisp.

In addition to her contributions as a player, composer and leader, Niswanger further explores her passion and skill as a vocalist, singing background and, on the track “Cycle,” lead. “Singing for people has been exhilarating—and scary,” she says. “But I’ve wanted that, because music started getting really comfortable for me. I’m used to getting up on a stage with a saxophone; using your vocal cords brings in a new challenge.”

Into the Flow also features two special guest vocalists whom Niswanger considers heroes and friends. Amber Navran, of the Los Angeles-based soul trio Moonchild, appears on “Bond,” an affirmative blend of sultry modern R&B and dynamic jazz interplay. Australian-born, Brooklyn-based Kate K-S brings her sweet, sandy voice to the grooves of “Ascension.” Elsewhere, she and the band elevate her writing, which is fascinating yet accessible and another invaluable part of her mission to unify. “What can the majority of humanity connect to?” she asked herself during the composition process.

“You go back and listen to sounds that have been around for centuries, like African music,” she answers. “It’s a groove, a feeling that everyone around, whether they’re musically inclined or not, can connect with.” MAE.SUN’s sound, from the cosmic opener, “Awaken,” to the fierce drum-and-bass of the closer, “Free,” melds blazing improvisation with an all-embracing stylistic palette.

About Hailey Niswanger

Still just 29, Hailey Niswanger has nonetheless already experienced a rich and full life in music, making her arrival at Into the Flow all the more profound. She was born in Houston, raised in Portland, Oregon, and later moved east to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. In 2010, she was chosen for the inaugural class of Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute under the artistic direction of pianist Danilo Pérez. She’s collaborated onstage with Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Michael Wolff and Mike Clark, Ralph Peterson Jr., the Soul Rebels Brass Band, the Either/Orchestra and other luminaries, and performed at some of the jazz world’s most esteemed venues and events, including the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, Smalls Jazz Club, the Portland Jazz Festival and the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. In the pop realm, she performed with Demi Lovato on Saturday Night Live and Sleigh Bells on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Late Show with David Letterman. Currently she tours with electronic musician Louis Futon, and recently performed at Red Rocks Amphitheater.

Her debut as a bandleader, 2009’s Confeddie, experienced phenomenal success for a jazz album—especially a self-produced and self-released project. In the Wall Street Journal, legendary jazz critic Nat Hentoff called it “a work with the joyous feeling of the first day of spring”; it went on to become the No. 2 most-downloaded jazz album at Amazon.com, and debuted the following week at No. 13 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart. Prior to forming MAE.SUN, Niswanger released two other buzzed-about discs, 2012’s The Keeper and 2015’s PDX Soul, which earned her an interview on NPR.

A handful of years later, and following those deep personal and spiritual breakthroughs, Niswanger’s outlook brims with gratitude. “I’m just really honored to play music,” she says. “Hopefully I can reach people in a way that will connect us more and bring relief to those who need it.”

Dom La Nena Releases New Video and Song “Oiseau Sauvage”

The multi-talented singer, songwriter, producer, and cellist, Dom La Nena releases her highly anticipated song “Oiseau Sauvage” , with tastemaker Six Degrees Records. The stunning song comes in advance of her third album Tempo due out early next year.

The new single effortlessly brings the Brazilian born, Paris based artist’s impressive vocals and songwriting sensibilities center stage in the dreamy song. Dom La Nena reflects, “ ‘Oiseau Sauvage’ is the first song that I wrote that incorporates the three languages that I have consistently used throughout my life: Portuguese, Spanish and French. Sometimes this is exactly what happens inside my head; a sentence from each language, mixed up and interchanged, as if the three languages have become one in my head.

I wrote this song during my pregnancy. It is a reflection on the incredible feelings of having someone growing inside yourself with whom you share everything very deeply (happiness, sadness, joys, fears). You learn more about this being with time but from whom you do not know a lot about at the beginning.”

The new song is accompanied by an equally elegant video directed by Jeremiah (R.E.M., The Do, Camille) and in collaboration with French magician Etienne Saglio – a master of the French new magic movement — « Nouvelle Magie » — which reinvents the exploration of a contemporary aesthetic with a romantic & mystifying imagination.

The new single was produced and performed by Dom La Nena and mixed by the talented Noah Georgeson (Devendra Banhart, Rodrigo Amarante, The Strokes). Watch the new video for “Oiseau Sauvage” here: https://youtu.be/a-VJsiacGZc

Check out the new single here: https://domlanena.lnk.to/oiseausauvage