Wednesday, February 24, 2021

The True Loves Chase Down the Golden Hour in "Sunday Afternoon"

The True Loves have released “Sunday Afternoon,” the lead single off of the album eponymously titled after the single out in March 2021. In addition, the track kicks off their partnership with Color Red, the music discovery platform founded by Eddie Roberts of The New Mastersounds that will be releasing the record on their platform.

“Sunday Afternoon” is a sweet, horn-laden tune that summons the golden hour. As one of the premiere funk and soul outfits of The Pacific Northwest, the band’s well-honed brand of instrumental soul shines as they craft a soundtrack for winding down on the weekend and getting back to the hustle and grind of the week ahead. The massive horn section features Jason Cressey on trombone, Greg Kramer on trombone, Gordon Brown on tenor sax, and Skerik on baritone sax. The hard-hitting rhythm section is comprised of Jimmy James, Bryant Moore on bass, David McGraw on drums, and Iván Galvaz on percussion. Members of The True Loves have performed with artists such as Macklemore, Odesza, the Paper Boys, Allen Stone, Mike Clark, Garage a Trois, The Dip, Theoretics, Durand Jones & the Indications, Kelly Finnigan, Polyrhythmics, Monophonics, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio and more, accolades that highlight their individual prestige in addition to the powerhouse ensemble they form when their forces are combined. 

 As depicted through the imagery of a multi-colored triple scoop ice cream cone, “Sunday Afternoon” is just as decadent in harmonies and brilliant in a melodic color palette to go hand-in-hand with the audio-visual experience the Color Red platform creates. Color Red has established relationships with other living legends on the Seattle funk and soul circuit including Polyrhythmics, The Pulsations, West Seattle Soul, and more and welcome the addition of the tight-knit soulful entourage of The True Loves into their musical family.

The band formed out of a jam session in 2014 between three of the city’s most sought after rhythm section players of James, Moore, and DeGraw that later blossomed into a global force with the expansion of the star-studded horn section. Even before their first release, they appeared at Sasquatch and Doe Bay festivals with their prior vocalist Grace Love, who has become a standout voice coming out of the Seattle Music scene. The group released their debut instrumental LP Famous Last Words in 2017. In 2018, the group released the  “Dapper Derp/Kabuki” 45 on WeCoast Records and followed it up by the “Famous Last Words/Mary Pop Poppins” 45 on Colemine Records in 2019. Sunday Afternoon will be the band’s second full-length LP effort that will fit seamlessly into the Color Red catalog alongside other acts on the Eddie Roberts imprint that include The New Mastersounds, WRD (Robert Walter, Eddie Roberts, Adam Deitch), Polyrhythmics, and more. 

Prior to the pandemic, the group was slated to perform High Sierra Music Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and Doe Bay Fest. Those plays have been rescheduled for 2021 and the group will be announcing rescheduled performances in the coming months. 

The group’s live performances have garnered them much local acclaim and millions of streams on YouTube, especially adapting to present times. 


New Music Releases: Jesse Ryan, WRD, Kahil El'Zabar

Jesse Ryan - Bridges 

Bridges, the long anticipated debut recording from saxophonist and composer Jesse Ryan, is an eclectic and honest offering that straddles both jazz and Afro-Caribbean traditions: a true celebration of the cultural, rhythmic and expressive connections between North America and the islands of the Caribbean. The recording is released under Ryan’s own Fwé Culture label, and features six original compositions and one arrangement of a sacred Zambian folk melody. Each song on the album is either an idiomatic bridge between musical traditions or was written to present an idea in the form of an anecdotal narrative that encourages the listener to evolve by bridging the gap between their former and future selves.Three of the tracks on the album feature Tambrin drumming, performed by members of the Mt. Cullane Tambrin Band - a drumming tradition from Jesse’s homeland that is unique to the island of Tobago and has remained largely unchanged from when it began in colonial times.In keeping with the theme of bridging cultures, this recording brings together some of the finest young musicians from Toronto, Canada and Trinidad and  Tobago and was co-produced by the Grammy Award winning drummer Larnell Lewis.

WRD - Sleep Depraved

WRD the trio of some of the mightiest titans of the modern funk and jazz scene, Robert Walter, Eddie Roberts, and Adam Deitch, have released "Sleep Depraved." The track is off their forthcoming full-length album that slated to be released on April 30, 2021, in celebration of the respective birthdays of all three members in the trio. “Sleep Depraved” emulates the rush of adrenaline that comes from a marathon week of gigs during New Orleans’ Jazz Fest. Organist Robert Walter reflects on how music tends to get dirtier and more immediate in the extreme conditions from two weeks of late-night gigs where the joy of music overrides exhaustion. The track is heavily influenced by mid-70s jazz-funk artists like Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd and Grant Green’s album ‘Live at the Lighthouse,’ carrying the same fervor as the ironic album, but with organ trio instrumentation. The track was recorded during a 1-day session at Color Red Studios in Denver, CO where the band worked swiftly to talk down arrangements and roll the tape. 

Kahil El'Zabar - America The Beautiful 

An incredible new album by the legendary multi-percussionist addressing the state of America today while calling for a better tomorrow, the album is his musical testament to the state of affairs, expressed with love, urgency, hope & spirit.Following his latest release ‘Spirit Groove’ ft. David Murray, El’Zabar went into his musical vault to uncover for Spiritmuse Records works that he had scored for Daryl Roberts’ award-winning documentary, America the Beautiful. Kahil decided that the timing was right to release this music, in light of the tragic outbreak of COVID-19 and the global heartfelt tragedy of George Floyd’s brutal death. El’Zabar then went back into the studio recently to compose and score the rest of the music that would accompany the vision of what America the Beautiful has become. The album speaks to the times that we are living in today, with El’Zabar exploring issues related to the current affairs of America and the globe regarding race, ecology, economic disparity together with hopes, love and aspirations for a better world yet to come. 'America The Beautiful' is the last recording of legendary World Saxophone Quartet co-founder, Hamiet Bluiett – this album is dedicated to him.


Friday, February 19, 2021

Legendary Music Label Philadelphia International Records Celebrates 50th Anniversary In 2021


Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Chappell Music, the global publishing arm of Warner Music Group, are thrilled to announce today the launch of the yearlong campaign in 2021 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of music's most historic record labels, Philadelphia International Records.  The anniversary campaign will highlight the extraordinary musical output of this storied label and spotlight milestone musical moments, artists and songs from the remarkable Philadelphia International Records family that have defined the landmark label and its incredible impact over the past 50 years.  Throughout the year, Legacy Recordings, Warner Chappell Music and Philadelphia International Records will collaborate on an exciting series of exclusive partnerships, product and content releases, artist initiatives and much more. 

The groundbreaking label, founded in 1971 by innovative and prolific songwriters/producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, became the birthplace, incubator and launching pad for the sophisticated Philly Soul sound also known as "The Sound of Philadelphia."  The duo amassed an extraordinary array of producers, songwriters, musicians and engineers including Thom Bell, Dexter Wansel, Bobby Martin, MFSB, Joe Tarsia and more to help craft some of the most memorable lyrics and melodies of the past five decades.  The legendary roster of music stars who helped bring these chart-topping disco, R&B, soul and funk sounds to life included The O'Jays, Patti LaBelle, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls, McFadden & Whitehead, The Three Degrees, Phyllis Hyman, The Intruders, the ultimate "house band" MFSB, and many others.  You can watch a highlights reel spanning 50 years of Philadelphia International Records: https://PIR.lnk.to/PIR101Ep1PR

"It's a blessing to celebrate all of the writers, musicians, engineers, disc jockeys, and all the people that were on our team," said Philadelphia International Records co-founder Kenny Gamble.  "When I listen to this music now, I can close my eyes and the music brings us all back together again.  Hearing this music reminds me of all the hard work and dedication our team went through to make such a long lasting catalog, that has been embraced by the world and I'm thankful."  Philadelphia International Records co-founder Leon Huff shares the sentiment saying, "Long live the music of Gamble and Huff!"

To get the anniversary party started, Legacy Recordings teamed up with renowned producer/DJ/musician Eric Kupper and executive producer Brad LeBeau to release inspiring new remixes of one of the label's most iconic hits which has been adopted as an anthem for a new generation, the McFadden & Whitehead staple "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now." 

Additional partners who are coming on board the Philadelphia International Records "Love Train" in 2021 to help celebrate the label's rich musical history include:

In celebration of the 50th anniversary, leading sound experience company Sonos will premiere a new station on Sonos Radio HD, the ad-free, CD-quality audio tier of Sonos Radio, the popular streaming service available to all Sonos customers globally.  The new station, titled the Sound of Philadelphia, will be hosted and hand-curated by Kenny Gamble himself.  In partnership with Warner Chappell Music, The Sound of Philadelphia will explore the label's greatest hits from artists including The Jacksons, Patti LaBelle, the O'Jays, and more. The Sound of Philadelphia will take listeners behind-the-scenes with Gamble, who will share stories from his time writing, producing and working on 120 internationally-beloved albums and over 40 gold and platinum records. The station will feature special guests, as well unique programming for Black History Month, Women's History Month and more. The Sound of Philadelphia will be available February 24 on Sonos Radio HD.

VMP (Vinyl Me, Please) in conjunction with Legacy Recordings will partner on VMP Anthology: The Story of Philadelphia International, an exclusive vinyl box set celebrating the renowned Philly Soul label coming in 2021. The Story of Philadelphia International reinvents the box set experience to take listeners on a sequential journey told across eight albums remastered from their original tapes and paired with liner notes and an exclusive podcast interview series in celebration of the label's 50th anniversary.

Snapper Music-United Souls in conjunction with Legacy Recordings will release a volume series of limited edition 8-CD sets throughout the year celebrating the 50th Anniversary of PIR.  Each set will contain a unique giant poster, exclusive 12" single, endorsed numbered certificate, a lavish 48-page hardcover book with a comprehensive archive of rare photographs compiled and curated in association with artists, engineers, and producers relevant to the label's story. All discs will be mastered from original tapes bringing together the entire PIR studio album collection for the very first time.

In 2014, Sony Music Entertainment announced their historic deal with Philadelphia International Records, securing global ownership of all recordings made for PIR. The landmark deal added all post-1975 PIR recordings to the PIR titles already owned by Sony Music Entertainment, reuniting the entirety of the Philadelphia International Recordings catalog under a single global licensing and reissue entity.

For nearly 30 years, Warner Chappell Music has had the privilege of representing Gamble and Huff and their legendary music catalog, spanning approximately 3,000 songs. 



Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly's 'Live In New Orleans' 40th Anniversary 2LP Reissue

MAZE Featuring Frankie Beverly, one of America's best-loved R&B bands, will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their acclaimed 1981 double album Live in New Orleans with a 2LP vinyl reissue and two special digital releases on February 19, 2021 via Capitol/UMe. The album will be released in two physical forms: standard weight black double-LP and special white vinyl, an homage to Beverly's all-white stage outfits and an acknowledgment to the audience members who in their own tribute faithfully wore all-white to Maze shows. 

Live in New Orleans reached #3 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart and #34 on the Billboard 200 chart. With three sides recorded at New Orleans's Saenger Theatre, it features extended live versions of their top 10 R&B chart hits "Feel That You're Feelin'" and "Southern Girl;" the definitive live versions of album cuts "Look At California" and "Joy and Pain," probably their biggest song that was never a hit single – and it shows, as the band performance transforms into a thrilling audience sing-along. The studio side of Live in New Orleans includes the top 10 R&B hit "Running Away," and the Maze anthem, "Before I Let Go," the latter of which was covered by Beyonce for her 2019 Homecoming: The Live Album and was the topic of a dance challenge from the musician on social media. 

To coincide with the 40th anniversary release of Live in New Orleans during Black History Month 2021 and the week of Mardi Gras, also releasing the same day are two digital remix EPs: Maze: The M+M Mixes and Joy and Pain: The Lifelines Remixes.

The M+M Mixes EP features all of the remixes created by M+M's John Morales including Maze's first R&B chart #1, "Back in Stride," in a version longer than the original 12", and "Too Many Games" (#5 US, top 40 UK), originally released only in the U.K. in 1985, and Morales's 2017 remixes of "Before I Let Go" and "Joy and Pain," that had only a limited release in Europe. Each remix also has a corresponding instrumental version, two of which are previously unreleased (see track list). All tracks are making their digital debut as well as their commercial US debut.

The Joy and Pain EP features the rare "Lifelines" remixes of the classic song by Hank Shocklee, Eric Sadler and Paul Shabazz, a.k.a. members of the production team The Bomb Squad, best known for their era-defining, multi-layered work with Public Enemy. These remixes, with Kurtis Blow doing a guest rap, were originally only issued on a promo 12" in 1989 to promote the album The Greatest Hits: Lifelines that included some remixes – and now, except for the long version on that album, these tracks are making their commercial debut as well as their digital debut. The EP also includes a highly sought-after instrumental version of the original LP version of "Joy and Pain."

The American soul band MAZE was founded by Frankie Beverly in Philadelphia in 1970 under the moniker Raw Soul. Upon moving to San Francisco in the mid '70s and being introduced to Marvin Gaye, who took them out on the road as an opening act, they changed their name to Maze in part due to Gaye's suggestion. Along with having roots in both Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay area, Maze have always considered New Orleans their home base. Beverly has credited the city for the Gold status of their 1977 debut album, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, saying that the majority of copies were sold in Louisiana and the greater New Orleans area. With that in mind, Maze decided to record their first live album and fifth overall album, Live in New Orleans, at the Saenger on November 14–15, 1980. The studio tracks that make up Side 4 were recorded at the Automatt Recording Studio in San Francisco. The album was produced and arranged by Frankie Beverly for Amazement Music. 

Live in New Orleans secured Maze and Frankie Beverly's deep-rooted bond with New Orleans, and transformed it into an indelible, tangible delivery for the entire world to experience. They've since closed the annual Essence Fest in the city for more than 20 years. 

Tracklists / Live In New Orleans (2LP Set)

Side 1

1.    You

2.    Changing Times

3.    Joy and Pain

Side 2

1.    Happy Feelin's

2.    Southern Girl

3.    Look at California

Side 3

1.    Feel That You're Feelin'

2.    The Look In Your Eyes

Side 4 - Studio Side

1.    Running Away

2.    Before I Let Go

3.    We Need Love To Live

4.    Reason

The Remix EPs

Maze: The M+M Mixes

1.    Before I Let Go / M+M Mix  8:50

2.    Joy and Pain / John Morales M+M Mix 11:11

3.    Back In Stride / Extended M+M Mix  9:34* [original 12" version was 8:00]

4.    Too Many Games / Extended Remix  7:30

5.    Before I Let Go / John Morales M+M Mix Instrumental  6:56*

6.    Joy and Pain / John Morales M+M Mix Instrumental  11:14*

7.    Back In Stride / John Morales M+M Mix Instrumental  8:15

8.    Too Many Games / John Morales M+M Mix Instrumental  5:47

*Previously Unreleased

Joy and Pain: The Lifelines Remixes

1.    Joy and Pain / Lifelines Remix 7" feat. Kurtis Blow  4:17

2.    Joy and Pain / Lifelines Remix Radio Version feat. Kurtis Blow  6:56

3.    Joy and Pain / Lifelines Remix feat. Kurtis Blow  8:47

4.    Joy and Pain / Lifelines Remix Instrumental  8:32

5.    Joy and Pain / Original LP Instrumental  7:21


Various Artists - The Vinyl Series Curated By Chris Blackwell

Since its beginnings in Jamaica in 1959, the story of the pioneering Island Records label has been inextricably linked to the story of its founder, Chris Blackwell. Now, Blackwell has curated a series of compilation LPs, featuring his hand-picked tracks that correspond with his and Island's legendary history.

On February 26, Island Records / UMe will release Volume One of The Vinyl Series, a 14-track album covering the years 1962 to 1969. Volumes Two and Three will follow later this year and explore Island's history in the decades that followed. 

Since its beginnings in Jamaica in 1959, the story of the pioneering Island Records label has been inextricably linked to the story of its founder, Chris Blackwell. Now, Blackwell has curated a series of compilation LPs, featuring his hand-picked tracks that correspond with his and Island’s legendary history. On February 26, Island Records / UMe will release Volume One of The Vinyl Series, a 14-track album covering the years 1962 to 1969. Volumes Two and Three will follow later this year.

"When I moved Island Records' base from Kingston to London in 1962, all I wanted to do at first was just release the really great music that was coming out of Jamaica," writes Blackwell in the collection's liner notes. "But then I got caught up in all the music that I was hearing in London, much of it from America."

The first volume of The Vinyl Series includes such groundbreaking hits as Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop" and "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker and the Aces—songs which introduced much of the world to the sound of Jamaican music. Several early singles set the context for these singles by Toots and the Maytals and "Forward March" by a teenage Derrick Morgan, the "first star of ska."

The set also points to the expansive musical directions that Island would soon pursue, especially after the 1966 smash "Gimme Some Lovin' " by the Spencer Davis Group, whose lead singer, Steve Winwood, would later further influence the label's direction. Also included are some of the immortal R&B singles that Island released in the UK through its Sue Records subsidiary, like "Mockingbird" by Charlie and Inez Foxx and "Harlem Shuffle" by Bob and Earl. In track-by-track essays by noted author and longtime Island Records chronicler Chis Salewicz, the album package features reminiscences that offer Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Blackwell's own perspective.

The future volumes of The Vinyl Series will illustrate the visionary role that Island played in the folk, hard rock, singer-songwriter, glam, and progressive movements—and, of course, the records by Bob Marley and the Wailers and Jimmy Cliff, among others, that defined reggae around the world.

"Clearly, the culture was moving in a new direction," writes Chris Blackwell in the introduction to this revelatory collection, "and I wanted Island Records to mirror that shift and be in this new world."

The Vinyl Series Volume One /Various Artists

SIDE A 

1   Long Shot Kick De Bucket – The Pioneers 

2   Six and Seven Books of Moses – Toots & The Maytals 

3   Rivers of Babylon – The Melodians 

4   Forward March – Derrick Morgan 

5   Liquidator – Harry J. All Stars 

6   Israelites – Desmond Dekker & The Aces 

7   007 (Shanty Town) – Desmond Dekker and The Aces

SIDE B 

1   My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small 

2   54-46 Was My Number – Toots & The Maytals 

3   Keep On Running – The Spencer Davis Group 

4   Gimme Some Lovin' – The Spencer Davis Group 

5   Mockingbird – Charlie & Inez Foxx 

6   Harlem Shuffle – Bob & Earl 

7   I Can't Stand It – The Soul Sisters 


Frank Sinatra: Reprise Rarities Volume 2

A collection of tracks from one of popular culture's most romantic singers goes digital today with the release of Frank Sinatra: Reprise Rarities Volume 2 from Frank Sinatra Enterprises and UMe. Featuring 13 Reprise tracks, many making their digital debut, the collection follows Volume 1 released last month in honor of Frank Sinatra's birthday and celebrating the 60th anniversary of "The Chairman of the Board" founding Reprise Records.

Hailed by The New York Times for an "extraordinary voice [that] elevated popular song into an art," Sinatra realized a long-time dream by forming his own record label, Reprise, in 1960. At the time Sinatra's business model was highly innovative in the recording industry; the very first of its kind, he pioneered the concept of having artists create and control their recordings.

"Untrammeled, unfettered, unconfined" is how the early advertisements described Sinatra on Reprise.

Throughout the years artists including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Green Day and Michael Bublé among others have recorded albums for Reprise.

Additional volumes of Frank Sinatra: Reprise Rarities will continue to be released in 2021. Siriusly Sinatra (SiriusXM Ch. 71) will also air part two of an exclusive 'Sinatra: Reprise Rarities' special in February.

Throughout his seven-decade career, Frank Sinatra performed on more than 1,400 recordings and was awarded 31 gold, nine platinum, three double platinum, and one triple platinum album by the Recording Industry Association of America. The three-time Oscar® winner also appeared in more than 60 films and produced eight motion pictures. 

Sinatra was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Recording Academy, The Screen Actors Guild and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as the Kennedy Center Honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. 

Frank Sinatra demonstrated a remarkable ability to appeal to every generation and continues to do so; his artistry still influences many of today's music superstars. He remains a legend and an inspiration around the world for his contributions to culture and the arts.


The Roots "Do You Want More?!!!??!" Deluxe Edition

It's been 26 years since Do You Want More?!!!??!, the groundbreaking second studio album and major label-debut by The Roots. Originally released on January 17, 1995 via DGC Records, Do You Want More?!!!??!, brought The Roots' neo-soul bohemian zest to life and established them as leading figures of hip-hop-jazz. The album which peaked at #22 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, features their singles "Distortion To Static," "Proceed" (considered one of their most signature recordings), and the rap ballad "Silent Treatment." Led by MC Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the Philadelphia rap crew are going back to where it began with a 3LP, 4LP and a digital deluxe collection of Do You Want More?!!!??! to be released on March 12, 2021 via Geffen/Ume.

Going back to the vault, this deluxe edition is drawn from the original recordings and features eighteen bonus tracks curated by Questlove; some of which have never been released and others that have never previously been available digitally. The 3LP deluxe vinyl edition features five bonus tracks — "Proceed II Feat. Roy Ayers", "Proceed III", "Proceed IV (AJ Shine Mix)", "Proceed V (Beatminerz Mix)," along with five remixes of "Silent Treatment" — plus a 24-page booklet featuring images taken by Mpozi Tolbert, essays by Questlove and Black Thought as well as track-by-track commentary. While the 4LP edition features all of the above plus the additional eight bonus tracks; "In Your Dreams Kid (I'm Every MC)," "The Ultimate (Original '94 Version)," "...…(dot dot dot…on & on)," "Pffat Time," "Swept Away (Original Draft)," "It's Coming," "Lazy Afternoon (Alternate Version)," and two remix versions of "Distortion To Static."

What made them stand out from other artists who were intertwining hip hop with jazzy influences and prominently using live instrumentation was the Roots' unabashed confidence with experimentation and letting the music speak for itself. As Albumism says, "While the live instrumentation is integral to their artistic success, it is not the sole attraction. Even 25 years ago, Black Thought stood out as a commanding lyricist, as did Malik B, his more publicly reserved rhyme partner. " A quarter of a century after the release of Do You Want More?!!!??, they are still considered to be one of the greatest live acts in the industry and have been named as such by Rolling Stone. They are also the house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and served in the same role on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014.

Do You Want More?!!!??! has been considered by critics as a classic of hip-hop-jazz. Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot celebrated the group's ability to "mate hip-hop wordplay, funk rhythms and jazzy textures" and called the album "an impressive display of skills, intelligently arranged and performed." In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. On November 2, 2015, twenty years after its release, the album was certified Gold. The album stands out from The Roots' iconic discography as it showcased a pioneering live band that put their own spin on a genre that was still coming into its own. 


Thursday, February 18, 2021

New Music Releases: MelBreeze, Russell Ferrante Trio, Delasito Project

MelBreeze - I Love Paris

Turkish vocalist and visionary MelBreeze’s album titled “I Love Paris” is a beautiful modern album featuring many talented artists. Produced, Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Scott Kinsey c/o Wishbone Studio and Kinesthetic Music. Now, after years of collaborating with Scott Kinsey, they’re debuting her first co- produced album, I Love Paris. The songs are born out of countless jam sessions where they riffed off each other, creating a fertile improvisational foundation. The album, chalked full of standards interpreted in untraditional ways, is a delight to discover. Whether it’s a Turkish children’s game song making an appearance in “Sentimental Journey.” Or improvised spoken word, creating a moment of storytelling in the middle of “I Love Paris.” Each song is a titillating reinterpretation of songs you know and love. Explore the journey of I Love Paris, and you, too, will fall in love with the odyssey.

Russell Ferrante Trio - Inflexion

Russell Ferrante (YellowJackets) releases a beautiful jazz trio album titled, "Inflexion​". Featuring the beautiful interplay from Russell Ferrante (piano), Michael Valerio (bass), and Steve Schaeffer (drums). "Inflexion or inflection comes from the Latin root inflexionem meaning to bend in, to change direction. This music is indeed very personal and intimate and one could say it bends in. It is rooted in friendship, mutual respect, and the numerous points of connection we’ve shared over decades. I met Steve Schaeffer shortly after moving to Los Angeles in 1977 through our mutual friend, guitarist, Robben Ford. I met Michael Valerio years later when we began collaborating and recording with vocalist, Lorraine Feather. We all met Aaron ten years ago after Steve built a home recording studio and was searching for an audio engineer and some musicians to kick the tires. I didn’t have a home studio but I did have a few tunes that needed their tires kicked. As we worked on the music it became clear that Steve, Michael, and Aaron were perfect collaborators. Their generosity, sensitivity, commitment, and talent is what made this recording possible. It has been an exhilarating, sometimes humbling, but always rewarding experience to shape this music together. Thank you for bending in with us." ~ Russell Ferrante

Delasito Project - Filodia

Inspired by the distinctive, atmospheric sound of the vibraphone, the Delasito Project band has developed a vibrant repertoire of original, multi-dimensional compositions influenced by the jazz / funk scene, as well as classical music, free improvisation and ethnic music. The band has appeared in important jazz and alternative contemporary music festivals, managing to deeply move the audience with its fascinating soundscapes. In June 2020 the band released its debut album. Titled Filodia - A musical journey to jazzality, this album is a journey to the contemporary jazz world, as seen and conceived by vibraphonist and composer Christos Sitokonstantinou. Filodia's sounds are harmonic, rhythmic, dreamy, improvisational, enchanting, subversive, liberating, redeeming. There are moments in the album that the listener might feel the urge to sway his/her body to the rhythm of the music, whereas in some other moments the music becomes overtly playful. Filodia has received quite complimentary reviews as a concise 8-track body of work, while at the same time some of its tracks seem to particularly stand out to critics. According to the Más Jazz magazine, Filodia is a vibrant amalgam, with elements of phantasmagoric art and with advancing, ambient sound, while the track "Naida" is according to 45rpm amazing, epic and reveals a mystique. Contemporary Fusion Reviews refers to Filodia as "unique, engaging and enchanting", commenting that "Naida" is mighty mellow, "Subway" is eerie, bringing to life stimulating imagery, and "Made in Chapan" will carry the listener through many different, high pleasing moods. Filodia has gained significant airplay in the UK, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Canada and the USA.


J. Peter Schwalm's Neuzeit

How we define the age we live in depends entirely on the frame we choose to view it through. On one timescale we’re just getting settled into the 21st century; zoom out and we’re deeply entrenched in the Anthropocene. We might be waking to the dawn of an enlightened, interconnected new era or teetering on the brink of a sixth mass extinction

Neuzeit, which German electro-acoustic composer J. Peter Schwalm views through his new duo outing with the Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, is generally taken to refer to the modern era that began in the 16th century and witnessed the rise of Western Civilization. Schwalm chooses to take the term on its face, however; the fusion of “new” and “time” he defines as a period marked by sudden and drastic change. To borrow another word from the German, it ably yet dauntingly captures the zeitgeist of our tumultuous moment, one in which political upheaval, global pandemic and catastrophic climate change seem poised to usher in an uncertain new existence.

“Neuzeit reflects the time of change after a crash,” says Schwalm. “The cards are remixed again; changes in any direction are possible. There are opportunities to get things right again – e.g. to rearrange them. Of course, there is always a dark side in everything.”

Neuzeit is not only a sonic commentary on this unstable age but a product of it. The collaboration was created almost entirely in the altered reality brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schwalm began crafting the compositions in February, as cities around the world began instigating lockdowns to stem the tide of the virus. Realizing that he and Henriksen would be unable to meet in an actual studio, a collaboration by correspondence began, with conversations over the phone and ideas and music sent via email. Once the parts were recorded, Schwalm sequestered himself in the studio for months, assembling, mixing and editing to conjure the finished product.

“My idea was to offer Arve ideas that might inspire him to step into a territory where neither of us have ventured before. After some conversations on the phone we narrowed it down to a basic idea. Our starting point was rather formal and orchestral. It was quite a formal but at the same time a very creative working process in the beginning as we couldn’t meet in a studio due to the COVID-19 situation. But I soon realized that Arve is a really fast and creative performer and co-composer.”

Both men can boast a rich history of deep and inventive collaboration throughout their respective careers. In 1998 Schwalm’s electro-jazz ensemble Projekt Slop Shop caught the ear of legendary musician/producer Brian Eno, instigating a six-year partnership that included recording the album Drawn From Life, composing the soundtrack to Nicolas Winding Refn’s film Fear X, and the creation of a multi-channel sound installation in the crater of the Volcano del Cuervo on the Spanish island of Lanzarote. Schwalm released Musikain, the first album under his own name, in 2006; since then he’s released three other albums, the last two for RareNoise: The Beauty of Disaster in 2016 and How We Fall in 2018.

Over the last three decades, Arve Henriksen has established himself as one of the most distinctive and in-demand trumpeters and improvisers on the diverse Scandinavian scene. In addition to releasing ten albums of his own through Rune Grammofon and ECM, Henriksen has also been an integral member of the renowned avant-jazz band Supersilent since its formation in 1997. The trumpeter has worked with a staggering list of creative music luminaries, including Jon Balke, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvær, Arild Andersen, Dhafer Youssef, David Sylvian, Jon Hassell, Laurie Anderson, John Paul Jones, Gavin Bryars, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Frisell, Terje Rypdal, Maria Schneider and Christian Fennesz, among many others.

The pair met in 2006 at the second Punktfestival in Kristiansand, Norway, an annual gathering of experimental musicians dedicated to the idea of live remixing. Since that year Schwalm and Henriksen have both made regular appearances at the festival, and have often discussed the idea of a joint project. “I always felt that the right moment and the right basic idea to start with would come when the time was right,” Schwalm explains.

Despite their mutually impressive credentials, Schwalm says that the two were strangers to each other’s work when their paths crossed initially. “When I saw Arve performing for the first time at the Punktfestival, I didn’t know him and Iwas absolutely amazed by his natural musical drive,” the composer says. “He is one of the few musicians where I think, ‘He is music.’ The way that the instruments he plays and his voice melt into such a unique sound is just stunning.”

Henriksen’s singular voice, combined with Schwalm’s visionary approach to crafting vast and evocative sonic landscapes, immediately seize the listener and transport them into an exploratory terrain on Neuzeit. The tone is vividly set by the opening piece, “Blütezeit,” which refers to something emerging and growing. There’s a bristling hybridity to the sounds created by the two men; the elusive atmospherics that usher in the piece seem to morph fluidly from snare drum echoes to crashing tides. Henriksen’s horn tone mutates into a vocal keen and back again seamlessly. Throbbing electronics and tolling piano suggest a no man’s land between the organic and the artificial.

The title of “Suchzeit” alludes to a search for answers and reasons, a resonant quest amidst such disquiet. Henriksen’s inquisitive horn probes the dark recesses of Schwalm’s mysterious environments, with an element of hope – if not quite certainty – arising over the course of the track. The title track, with its suggestion of tentative, unsteady footsteps, sums up the album’s theme of radical change driven by world events. The same is reflected in the album’s cover art, a vast expanse of sea and sky, momentarily poised between light and darkness – which, depending on the viewer’s mood, could be perceived as either threatening or promising.

With Schwalm’s elegiac piano tones, Henriksen’s breathy, mournful horn and the patter of rain upon an imaginary window, “Raumzeit” suggests a place of reflection and peace, whether physical or mental. Schwalm describes “Schonzeit” as the pause between the onset and the finale of a Big Bang; that could be the infinitesimal break of a held breath or it could be time itself, and the pair’s tautly cinematic dialogue here suggests the intimacy and expanse of that ambiguity. 

Stark and pointillist, “Unzeit” stands for the wrong time, thrilling in the dissonant strangeness of its disjointed design. “Wellenzeit,” with its suggestion of waves, refers to the cyclical nature of time, a returning and repeating contained in the rhythms of life and the echoes of history. Gentle, questing and heartbreakingly hopeful, “Zeitnah” means, simply, “soon.”

Interpret that single word however you will, but with Neuzeit J. Peter Schwalm and Arve Henriksen not only encapsulate the conflicting feelings of our modern era but suggest a way forward. How today is seen will only be clear through the lens of history; but its shaping, this transportive and powerful album, seems to urge, is entirely our doing.


Swiss Jazz Icon Franco Ambrosetti Releases "Lost Within You"

For this third recording on the Swiss-based Unit Records label and 25th overall in his long and illustrious career, trumpeter-composer and bandleader Franco Ambrosetti demonstrates his soulful command of ballads on Lost Within You. Coinciding with his 79th birthday, this all-star outing, which finds the Swiss jazz icon once again in the company of guitarist JohnScofield, pianist Uri Caine, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Jack DeJohnette (all of whom appeared on Ambrosetti’s 2019 Unit release, Long Waves) has Franco concentrating strictly on flugelhorn as he digs deep on a beguiling program of ballads by such jazz greats as Bill Evans, Horace Silver, and McCoy Tyner, along with a couple of well-chosen standards and two new Ambrosetti originals. Pianist Renee Rosnes also appears on five songs, including Tyner’s “You Taught My Heart to Sing” and the delicate Bill Evans-Miles Davis composition “Flamenco Sketches.” The leader imbues each of the nine tunes on Lost Within You with a golden tone, his signature lyricism and a depth of feeling that comes directly from the heart. Combining all of those inherent qualities with a masterful sense of storytelling, he is able to pull heartstrings throughout the affecting program. 

“As a young man, my goal was to play fast,” recalled the Lugano native. “Then slowly but surely I started to discover ballads, and Miles Davis was one of the great inspirations for that. From listening to Miles play ballads I started to understand and I was able to go inside the ballad and play these long notes that he was playing. Miles showed me how you stretch the notes out like you’re really singing or crying, and I think I can express my feelings better that way.”

Ambrosetti’s “less is more” approach to ballads has served him well for five decades. That refined approach was particularly evident on 2018’s lavish orchestral production, The Nearness of You, and it plays out in sublime fashion again on Lost Within You. In a relaxed, unhurried environment at Sear Sound Studio in midtown Manhattan, he and his stellar sidemen rise to the occasion with some highly interactive, conversational playing throughout their three days of recording. Drumming great DeJohnette turns in a rare piano performance on Horace Silver’s delicate “Peace,” a tune where Scofield makes his six-string presence felt. The guitarist also contributes an outstanding solo on Ambrosetti’s Latin-tinged “Silli in the Sky,” named for his wife. 

Franco delivers a particularly lyrical touch on poignant readings of the Cy Coleman-Joseph McCarthy torch song “I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Outta My Life” and Dave Grusin’s “Love Like Ours,” both performed in an intimate, revealing trio setting with Rosnes and Colley. Pianist Caine provides the perfectly syncopated backing on Franco’s wistful “Dreams of a Butterfly,” which opens with a fragile ascending figure before setting into an insinuating New Orleans flavored “Poinciana” groove on the kit by DeJohnette, inspiring some of Ambrosetti’s boldest playing on the record. Caine also sets the mood for a relaxed, expansive quartet take on Johnny Green’s “Body and Soul,” then plays with graceful restraint as a trio with Franco and Colley on Benny Carter’s melancholy ode, “People Time.” Rosnes brings a luminous quality to a delicate reading of “Flamenco Sketches,” the innovative modal closer from Miles Davis’ 1959 classic, Kind of Blue, co-written by Miles and Bill Evans. And she alternates between delicacy and light swing on the tender closing number, McCoy Tyner-Sammy Cahn’s “You Taught My Heart to Sing,” which features searching, expressive solos from Scofield and Rosnes and showcases Ambrosetti’s golden, alluring long tones. 

Intuition and trust played a major role throughout the three days of highly interactive sessions for Lost Within You. As the leader explained, “Musicians of this caliber, you want them to play what they are. I can explain the form and what is happening in terms of the solo order and everything. But then I tell them, ‘What you do behind that, it’s up to you.’ They know exactly what to do. We think the same way so I trust them completely.” 

The venerable jazz master holds the reigns loosely on this inspired outing, demonstrating the power of ‘less is more’ in his beautiful restraint on flugelhorn and his remarkable chemistry with some of greatest names on the jazz scene today. Lost Within You is his sublime triumph, a healing balm for tense times.


Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón and pianist Luis Perdomo Release duo album El Arte Del Bolero

On September 28, 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, alto saxophone icon Miguel Zenón and pianist Luis Perdomo recorded a concert at The Jazz Gallery in New York City which was livestreamed in November. When they listened to the recording of the concert, they knew it was something to share.

Miguel writes in the liner notes to the album: “As an instrumentalist, I spend a lot of my time working on making the saxophone an extension of my creative process. This process is always filtered through interpretation and expressiveness, and more often than not I find myself looking up to some of my favorite singers (people like Ismael Rivera, Cheo Feliciano and Andy Montañez) as sources of inspiration. In their individual voices I can hear a reflection of their unique personalities, all manifested at the highest level through their interpretation of songs. These melodies become vehicles for their creativity—a canvas on which they’ll portray their feelings and states of mind.

But these are not just any songs. These are songs they have heard hundreds of times, familiar pieces of music they know very well, and that is sort of the way I feel about the repertoire on this album. We chose compositions from the Bolero era that we could just play right away, without giving it a second thought: songs from the times of our parents and grandparents that somehow stuck around long enough for us to get to know them and truly love them. They are all as essential to our development as the music of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane or Thelonious Monk, but perhaps even more familiar. When we play these songs, we can hear the lyrics in the back of our minds—something that provides a very deep connection, one that is hard to replicate in any other situation. It really is almost beyond familiar. These songs are part of us.

We recorded this music as a live show, all in one take, without much preparation other than discussing tonalities and some basic elements on form. We were more than pleasantly surprised with the results and decided that they deserved to be shared. There is nothing like making music with someone else, finding a common language we can grab onto and then just going and exploring that together. We hope this comes across here, and that you enjoy the music.”

About The Music

- Como Fue: Popularized by the great Benny Moré, this song has long become a Latin-American standard. Luis and I have been playing the song for years, usually in the key of Eb. We decided to play it in Db here, mainly inspired by a recent immersion into the music of Billy Strayhorn.

- Alma Adentro: A song we previously recorded with a larger ensemble on a 2012 album of the same name. Sylvia Rexach, the composer of this piece, is a favorite of my mother’s, and I was exposed to her music as a young child. This is a song that always brings back feelings of longing and deep nostalgia, a yearning for things no longer there.

- Ese Hastío: Ray Barreto recorded this under the title of “Piensa En Mi” on his legendary 1979 album Rican-Struction, which is the version that Luis and I fell in love with. I had never played the song before, but Luis suggested it since he had recorded the piece as an instrumental on his album Pathways. It ended up fitting perfectly into our program. 

- La Vida Es Un Sueño: Written by the Cuban genius Arsenio Rodriguez, a revolutionary artist who changed the course of Latin-American music forever. Blinded by a tragic accident as a child, Arsenio moved to the United States later in life in hope that doctors there could find a cure to his condition. Legend has it that, shortly after finding out from his doctors that this would not be the case, he wrote this song. The last verse says it all: “La realidad es nacer y morir / Porque llenarnos de tanta ansiedad / Todo no es mas que un eterno sufrir / El mundo esta hecho de infelicidad.”

- Que Te Pedí – Immortalized by Latin diva “La Lupe” in her seminal 1965 version (recorded with Tito Puente), this song has since become an anthem for lost love and heartbreak all over Latin-America. We had performed this before, but this was the first time we played it as a duo.

- Juguete – This classic, written by the legendary Bobby Capo, was popularized by Cheo Feliciano on his 1972 album La Voz Sensual de Cheo. It’s certainly of those songs that is constantly quoted everywhere and never gets old. We’ve been playing it for a while and decided to do it a little faster here, with an extended vamp at the end to close things out.

About Miguel Zenón - A multiple Grammy® nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, Zenón is one of a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, Zenón has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American folkloric music and jazz. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has recorded and toured with a wide variety of musicians including Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson and Steve Coleman and is a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective. 

Zenón’s 2021 releases will also include the spring release of Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman featuring Zenón with Ariel Bringuez, Demain Cabaud and Jordi Rossi and the fall release of an album with his long-standing quartet. 

About Luis Perdomo - Originally from Venezuela, Grammy® nominated pianist, composer, arranger and educator Luis Perdomo moved to NYC in the early 90s and has since established himself as one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene. He has recorded and/or performed with Ravi Coltrane, David Sanchez, Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, Tom Harrell, John Patitucci, Ray Barretto, Brian Lynch, Robin Eubanks, Dave Douglas, David Weiss and The Cookers, David Gilmore, Ralph Irizarry & Timbalaye, Henry Threadgill and Steve Turre. He has collaborated with Miguel Zenón for 20 years. Perdomo has performed at festivals and venues in over 50 countries and has released nine recordings as a leader. He has also appeared on over 200 recordings as a sideman including, most recently, two Grammy nominated albums: Ravi Coltrane’s Spirit Fiction and Miguel Zenón’s Sonero. In 2002 he earned the 2nd Grand Prix at the 3rd Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in Paris.


Yoko Miwa Trio - Songs Of Joy

2020 was a trying year for all of us, and pianist Yoko Miwa suffered more than her fair share of challenges. Like most musicians during this unprecedented pandemic, she suddenly found herself without the opportunity to perform. The recording of her new album was postponed and her trio’s longtime home base, Les Zygomates Wine Bar & Bistro in Boston, closed its doors for good. Worst of all, her father passed away after a battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

So Miwa would certainly have been forgiven if her delayed return to the studio had resulted in an uncharacteristically somber set of music. Instead she emerged with Songs of Joy, a welcome dose of optimism and uplift that shines like a ray of hope through the dark clouds overhead. Due out February 12, 2021 via Ubuntu Music, Songs of Joy features Miwa’s longstanding trio with bassist Will Slater and drummer Scott Goulding, along with a guest appearance by bassist Brad Barrett, another regular collaborator. The album combines songs that have provided solace and inspiration to Miwa with five original pieces composed as a means of escape from the lockdown routine.

“Once the pandemic started, I decided to write something every day,” Miwa explains. “I just tried to sit down at the piano and play whatever I felt on that day. Of course I was frustrated, but I tried to stay positive.”

The songs that emerged from this less-than-ideal incubator reflect Miwa’s persevering spirit, her jazz-inspired spontaneity and her classically-trained virtuosity – all characteristics that have been recognized by no less an authority than legendary pianist Ahmad Jamal, one of Miwa’s idols. “At 90 years plus, I have known and heard most of the great pianists, [including] Art Tatum, Oscar Dennard, Phineas Newborn, Nat Cole, Dodo Marmarosa, Johnny Costa, Erroll Garner, and on and on,” Jamal says. “Not to mention the pianists performing the European Classical works that I have followed as well. In Pittsburgh where I was born, and where some of the aforementioned are also from, we had to study both American Classical Music as well as the European Classical forms. Yoko Miwa is the result of both worlds. She is amazing and will continue to grow.”

The Yoko Miwa Trio has been performing together regularly for a decade and a half, with a Saturday night residency at Les Zygomates for much of that tenure. For the past several years they’ve also spent Friday nights at the Cambridge sushi bar The Mad Monkfish. At least once a year they perform there with legendary singer Sheila Jordan, who introduced Miwa to Billy Preston’s “Song of Joy.” The tune, which also inspired the title of the album, is suffused with warmth and deep emotions in the trio’s intimate, reverent rendition. The idea expressed in Preston’s simple, heartfelt song – “With every note I play, I play with love… With all the happiness this melody brings” – provided the guiding spirit of the session.

The album opens with Richie Havens’ “Freedom,” which the singer-songwriter performed at Woodstock (as captured in the famed concert film). Miwa’s thunderous left hand reveals the inspiration of McCoy Tyner, and the tune’s mood channels the ecstatic spirituality of the classic John Coltrane Quartet.

Tyner is one of several formative influences to whom Miwa pays tribute through her original pieces on Songs of Joy. The boisterous swing of Bobby Timmons and Benny Green, two of the pianists whose brilliant sound was forged in the crucible of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, anchors the finger-snapping groove of “Small Talk.” The bright, dancing “The Rainbirds” was inspired by the compositional style of Kenny Barron. And the lush, elegant “Inside a Dream” bears the unmistakable imprint of perhaps Miwa’s most important idol, Bill Evans.

Naturally, Miwa’s compositions couldn’t help but be affected by the times in which they were written. The steely “Largo Desolato” feels haunted yet determined, evoking the unnaturally empty streets of New York City at the height of the pandemic. The gorgeous ballad “The Lonely Hours” is dedicated to Miwa’s father, who spent many of his final days alone due to quarantine conditions. “I couldn't go back to Japan to see him because of the pandemic,” she laments. “He was in the hospital alone; even my family couldn't be with him when he passed away. It was really sad.”

The rollicking “Tony’s Blues” was penned for Miwa by Tony Germain, former assistant chair of the piano department at Berklee College of Music, where Miwa is an associate professor. “Tony wrote this song for me right before the original recording date, and I really liked it,” Miwa says. “He just retired, so this is a great present for him.”

The work of Thelonious Monk is a constant in Miwa’s repertoire, and here she performs a muscular take on one of her favorites, “Think of One.” Sheila Jordan also provided an entrée to the blistering “No Problem,” a piece by the singer’s ex-husband, pianist Duke Jordan, that has become a staple of the trio’s sets. The album ends with a reflective take on the folk classic “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” by way of the famous Led Zeppelin version and graced by Brad Barrett’s entrancing arco playing.

Despite a few months of enforced time off, the Yoko Miwa Trio hasn’t lost a step on Songs of Joy, their exhilarating chemistry evident and lively throughout the album’s many moods. Circumstances may have been far from ideal (“This is definitely the first album I recorded with a mask on,” Miwa laughs), but it ends up offering a balm for beleaguered audiences. “When we went into the studio, it had been four months since I’d played with my trio,” Miwa recalls. “I was a little bit nervous, but once we got there I felt so excited and inspired by being together again. That joy and happiness came up from my music. Everything was joy, and I hope the listener can hear it too.”

Internationally acclaimed pianist/composer Yoko Miwa is one of the most powerful and compelling performers on the scene today. Her trio, with its remarkable telepathy and infectious energy, has brought audiences to their feet worldwide. Their latest CD, 2019’s Keep Talkin’, showcases Miwa’s fine playing and artful compositions and the trio’s uncanny musical camaraderie. DownBeat gave the recording four stars, calling it “a beautifully constructed album” and noting “the drive and lyricism of a pianist and composer at home in bebop, gospel, pop, and classical.” For more than a decade Miwa’s trio has played regularly at major jazz clubs in their home city of Boston, as well as venues around the world. A favorite of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Miwa was chosen to play on “Marian McPartland & Friends,” part of the Coca-Cola Generations in Jazz Festival. Miwa also appears regularly at New York’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club as well as Birdland and has performed and/or recorded with a wide range of jazz greats including Sheila Jordan, Slide Hampton, Arturo Sandoval, George Garzone, Jazzmeia Horn, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kevin Mahogany, John Lockwood and Johnathan Blake, among others.


Benoît Delbecq - The Weight of Light

Internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Benoît Delbecq issues The Weight of Lighton Pyroclastic Records, his first solo release in more than a decade. Following intentional exploration and years of extended research, confronting the smooth and the striated within his playing, the Paris-based artist now offers open-eared listeners new, deeply personal connections to the music inspired by movement-centric perspectives on shadow and light.  

Within trancelike chambers and subtle interluding halls, Delbecq conjures the mysterious ecstasy of transitional imagery. Nine tracks of original music pivot across contemplative brightness and ethereal darkness. Serving spontaneity, each gesture reflects a translation of feeling and invites listeners to engage their own emotional responses to the music, as they listen in real time.  

Ever curious about visual representation of music, Delbecq has been enhancing versions of his own graphic notation for years. But as he composed music for The Weight of Light, he began recognizing how hanging mobiles wield influence over his relationship to music and, more broadly, artistic expression. “That was totally unconscious,” he says. As a child, he’d regard a mobile casting shadows in his parents’ bedroom for minutes at a time. “The idea likely came from way back, but who can say?”  

From that buried memory, Delbecq began drawing the image that would become his album cover for The Weight of Light. “I drew the record cover pretty fast, but the shadow took me days,” he says. “I wanted to render something mysterious about the shadow of this mobile.” That unnamed mystery rests at the consciousness of The Weight of Light and includes both physical and figurative interpretations.  

Some 35 years ago, Delbecq’s physicist brother centered his Ph.D. around proving that light has a mass. At the time, the idea fascinated Delbecq. “Hardly any people know that light has a mass,” he says. For the album, he took poetic license to change “mass” to “weight,” intent on exploring what that concept might sound like on a piano.  

Inspired by what he calls “real presences” within his artistry, Delbecq considers features of architecture when composing new music, including how different structures interact with light. One partly sunny morning, he found himself inside the Notre-Dame de Ronchamp chapel by Le Corbusier, observing the light coming through the stained glass windows. “A cloud passing by, revealing the sun inside the chapel, of course will change your relationship with the space you’re in,” he says. His Poe-like appraisal of light influencing emotional response to physical surroundings persists across The Weight of Light. “In that sense, that’s also weight of the light,” he says.  

Delbecq regards piano as a vessel for expansion. His expert manipulation of the instrument presents patterns, pauses and un-patterns as on “Pair et Impair,” as well as sonic illusions such as left-hand “loops” on “Anamorphoses” and “The Loop of Chicago” that take shape and reshape throughout the compositions. Providing plenty of opportunity for listeners to experience starkness of time and space, Delbecq engages openness on “Au Fil de la Parole” and “Dripping Stones” the latter beginning as a cluster of tightly packed colors, primed for expansion. And he concludes in notes of dark and doleful lushness tinged with inquiry on “Broken World.”  

For these renderings, Delbecq turns to perhaps the most prominent textural characteristic of his sound: prepared piano. And his love for those sounds emerged from his fascination for drummers he heard live, namely Kenny Clarke, Paul Motian, and Ed Blackwell. Textural possibilities serve his unique compositional development, particularly for The Weight of Light. “When I’m composing, it’s exactly like I’m looking at inventing the future shape of an object,” he says, “so I look at it from different places. It’s like a 3-D way of conceiving things that has to do with optical phenomena. If I move around it, it will reveal shapes that are hidden at other angles.”  

Benoît Delbecq is a multi-awarded Parisian pianist and composer, engaging new textures and pulses on prepared piano. His musical force weaves compelling works inspired by varied sources including mathematics, poetry and architecture. Delbecq's works have received acclaim from legendary musicians such as Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy and György Ligeti, as well as from a long list of critics, peers and festival curators. He studied improvised music with Alan Silva, founder of the Institute for Artistic and Cultural Perception in Paris, later receiving mentorship from Waldron. At the Banff Centre, Delbecq studied with Steve Coleman, Dave Holland and Muhal Richard Abrams, among other masters. He also studied composition and music analysis with Solange Ancona. Besides being a performer, composer and producer, Delbecq served as founder of the Hask Collective Paris (1992-2004) and is presently a founding member of Bureau de Son Paris (2008) and the dStream label.

Pianist-composer Kris Davis founded Pyroclastic Records in 2016 to serve the release of her acclaimed recordings Duopoly and Octopus with the goal of growing the label into a thriving platform that would serve like-minded, cutting-edge artists. In 2019, Davis launched a nonprofit to support those artists whose expression flourishes beyond the commercial sphere. By supporting their creative efforts and ensuring distribution of their work, Pyroclastic empowers emerging and established artists — including those on its 2021 roster: Benoit Delbecq, The Weight of Light (Feb 12th); Ches Smith, We All Break (Spring 2021); Mary Halvorson/Sylvie Courvoisier Duo (Spring 2021); and Sara Schoenbeck Duos (Fall 2021) — to continue challenging conventional genre-labeling within their fields. Pyroclastic also seeks to galvanize and grow a creative community, offering young artists new opportunities, supporting diversity and expanding the audience for noncommercial art.


Cowboys & Frenchmen - Our Highway

On their forthcoming release, Our Highway (due out on February 26, 2021 on Outside In Music), the inventive quintet Cowboys & Frenchmen reflect on the nomadic life of touring musicians while widening their gazes to take in the landscapes and byways that connect America’s towns and cities.

Recorded live at SubCulture in New York City, the “video album” juxtaposes high-definition footage of the band — saxophonist/co-founders Ethan Helm and Owen Broder, pianist Addison Frei, bassist Ethan O’Reilly and drummer Matt Honor — onstage in one of the Big Apple’s most renowned venues with beautifully shot footage taken during a cross-country tour. The video captures the hectic pace of big cities, the majestic tranquility of nature and the unexpected surprises and tiresome aggravations that arise while hustling from nightclub to nightclub. Conceived long before the COVID pandemic, these images assume added resonance in light of a lockdown that’s kept most of these venues dark for the better part of the past year.

“Watching this video come together, I got emotional remembering how happy I was when I was the most stressed out,” laughs Helm. “It really comes across that those times when we could get out there and struggle were actually the good times. That made a huge change in the way I think about Our Highway.”

An audio-only edition of Our Highway will be released digitally on February 26, 2021. The band will also partner with venues across the country to present the full video album as live-streaming events, allowing each space to offer the experience to their audiences for a 24-hour period. While far from a typical album release tour, the partnerships offer an innovative new virtual highway for Cowboys & Frenchmen to traverse.

While Helm and Broder typically split compositional duties on the band’s projects, Helm took the lead for Our Highway, writing all of the music and envisioning the theme. Broder contributed to the concepts in the video, and the whole band took turns filming over the course of their travels. Significantly, the majority of the footage comes from one of three locations: Broder’s hometown of Jacksonville, Florida; Helm’s native Yorba Linda, California; and the band’s birthplace and home, New York City. “When you’re always in motion, sometimes you have to invent your own sense of home,” Helm points out.

Broder connects that notion with the struggles of making a life in music. “A lot of what we do has to do with finding a balance in our lives – dealing with all that comes with living in New York while piecing together the disparate elements of a freelance career, and also balancing the different paces of life. I really like removing myself from the concrete jungle and being out in nature for a little while, but I don't think that I would like either one to the exclusion of the other.”

Though it arrives during the aftermath of a divisive presidential election, Our Highway looks past politics and offers a more united, holistic perspective of America. “ “It’s a view of the country through our eyes and through the windows of our band’s minivan,” Broder says. “It’s closer to a memoir than a political position.”

“Our Highway was inspired in part by something I’ve noticed when we’ve been on tour,” Helm explains. “It’s amazing to me just how much music connects with people. We see it at every single performance; we have no idea who voted for whom when we’re on the road, but people everywhere come together and enjoy the music. I can’t help but think that’s meaningful.”

A suite collectively entitled “American Whispers” weaves through the album, representing the tension between humanity and the natural world — towering “Pines,” fast-rushing “Streams,” daunting “Mountains,” their imposing stature shaping the frenetic tempos and angular melodies of the pieces. Inspired by Alice Coltrane, “Alice in Promisedland” takes the opposite viewpoint. The piece channels the great harpist/pianist/composer’s spiritual philosophy to locate the harmony between natural splendor and encroaching civilization, illustrated here by relocating the band members to a bustling public park.

The title of “An Old Church” offers a synecdoche for those idyllic scenes of American life that a band on the move rarely has time to stop and appreciate. The somber interlude “Where Is Your Wealth?” can be heard as an accusatory demand or a spiritual challenge, in either case raising questions about what we truly value in life. “Gig Life” celebrates the funky, offbeat experiences that forge the bonds of a band, while “The Farmer’s Reason” ends the album with a gorgeously reflective slice of Americana, as mythic as it is profoundly meaningful.

“For us, the traveling is not separate from the art,” Helm concludes. “It’s all part of one lifestyle. Jazz musicians are really lucky because our art form allows us to place a frame around a snapshot in time. The music is always in motion, which is a special quality that we want to highlight with Our Highway.”

New York City-based Cowboys & Frenchmen offers a new take on instrumentation, composition and orchestration for the jazz quintet. Founded by saxophonists Owen Broder and Ethan Helm, the band garnered stellar reviews with its 2015 debut, Rodeo. Their 2017 follow-up, Bluer Than You Think, received a four-star review from DownBeat Magazine, and was celebrated with an eight-market tour visiting historic stages including Blues Alley (Washington D.C.) and Cliff Bell’s (Detroit). The inspiration for the band’s name comes from a short film by David Lynch, The Cowboy and The Frenchmen — a Western with a unique, left-field interpretation of that classic genre echoed in Cowboys & Frenchmen’s inventive approach to jazz: one foot firmly planted in a genre, the other busy trying to kick down the genre’s door.


 

Dan Blake - Da Fé

Pondering the existential crises that face humanity today – global climate catastrophe, poverty, hunger – can be overwhelming, especially when compounded with the more mundane trials we face every day. Social activism, despite its daunting challenges, is fundamentally an act of faith: faith in a better future and in our species’ capacity for positive change. On his inspiring new album, Da Fé, saxophonist and composer Dan Blake pays tribute to the spiritual leaders and political activists who’ve offered him hope while adding his own singular voice to the optimistic chorus of those crying out for solutions.

 

Due out March 12, 2021 via Sunnyside Records, Da Fé is an outgrowth of Blake’s own activism. A practicing Buddhist since his college years, Blake has served since 2015 on the board of Buddhist Global Relief, an organization dedicated to combatting chronic hunger and malnutrition around the world. He has also organized concerts to benefit other charitable organizations, including Extinction Rebellion, the Poor People’s Campaign and Show Up for Racial Justice. While he’s quick to downplay his own role in favor of those who dedicate their lives to activism, his music follows a socially conscious path blazed by the likes of Max Roach and Alice Coltrane before him.

“Climate catastrophe is an issue that I've been concerned about for a while,” says Blake, who credits moving to Mount Kisco, New York and raising his two young daughters as inspiration. “Moving away from the city provided some perspective and made me much more aware of nature in my day to day life. Becoming a parent was another causal factor in bringing more urgency to my own personal awareness of this issue. As humans, our relationship to nature can be so sympathetic, but then something like the California wildfires reminds us how our collective abuse of the natural world has become incredibly dangerous to our survival as a species.”

Da Fé translates to “of faith,” and stems from the phrase “auto da fé,” which refers to the burning of heretics during the Spanish Inquisition. While Blake changed the term to avoid direct reference to that historical context, he does see a connection in the fires blazing across millions of acres in California. “There's a certain violence to this time that we're in, as we seem to be sacrificing ourselves at the altar of commodities. But there's still a possibility of realizing a better future that we can put our faith in. That's where these activist organizations come in.”

To provide his music with the tension and urgency it required, Blake enlisted a remarkable cross-generational band. He initially recorded with a quartet featuring pianist/keyboardist Carmen Staaf, bassist Dmitry Ishenko, and veteran drummer Jeff Williams. The latter was a member of the pioneering world-jazz fusion band Lookout Farm led by DaveLiebman, one of Blake’s mentors in both music and activism. He then teamed with longtime collaborator Leo Genovese, with whom he worked in Esperanza Spalding’s band, to reimagine the music in post-production via additional piano, synths and multiple saxophone lines.

“I wanted to take full advantage of the studio on this album,” Blake explains. “My model for that is Wayne Shorter's work from the 1980s – his mid-period albums like Atlantis, Phantom Navigator or Joy Ryder, where he interacts with himself playing multiple parts to realize a bigger sonic landscape from the horn. I was envisioning a sax chorus through a reflective, hall of mirrors idea.”

Staaf opens the album solo with the prayer-like, through-composed “Prologue – A New Normal.” Unsettling, static-like electronics ultimately consume the meditative piece, suggesting the threats that lie ahead, especially if we continue to accept increasingly dangerous new normals. The modal “Cry of the East” evokes John Coltrane’s yearning work on soprano sax on a dedication to the plight of the Palestinian people and, as Blake says, “all the unseen, unheard souls whose suffering has been caused by the actions of Western powers and policies.”

The turbulent “Like Fish in Puddles” takes its title from a piece in the Atthakavagga, a collection of Buddhist poems. The piece’s desperation cries out for a shift in perspective; many of us, it suggests, believe we’re swimming in the ocean while we’re simply flapping around in our limited puddles, with limited time and resources to draw upon. Opening with a strident solo by the composer, “Pain” draws on both universal and personal strife, inspired by the recent loss of Blake’s father and grandmother. The dark-hued “The Grifter” hardly needs much explanation, given the looming con-man presence who’s preoccupied our thoughts in recent years.

Blake particularly enjoys exploring vamps with Williams, as they do on “The Cliff,” whose rhythmic complexities feel like striding uncertainly along the edge of a jagged precipice. “Doctor Armchair” is a satirical look at the tendency towards offering unearned “expertise” as a solution to every issue – not strictly medical, though the notion has taken on additional weight in the midst of a contentious pandemic. Genovese’s cosmic synths layer on the hypnotic atmospherics for the title track, before the album ends with the meditative coda “Epilogue: It Heals Itself” – a suggestion not to ignore problems, but to pause a moment in our frantic activities to allow healing to begin.

“I’m very inspired by the ideal of compassionate action,” Blake says. “Activism is very important to my musical creativity, and is the impetus for this album. I believe musicians and artists can play a powerful role in these dangerous and urgent times by awakening a compassionate vibration in others, one that can spur action. I also believe artists like myself have a lot to learn from the dedicated activism and leadership of others who sacrifice so much to do the good work that must be done to wrest power from corrupt politicians and place it into the gentle and loving hands of the people.”

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Dan Blake has developed a wide-ranging career as a contemporary composer, performer and educator that “regards tradition as a welcoming playground best approached with a sense of wonder and adventure” (The Boston Globe). Blake’s music has been called “stunning” (All About Jazz), and his most recent release, The Digging, was described as “a creative essay on what can be done in the trio format” (Ottawa Citizen). In addition to his work as a leader, he has toured and recorded with three-time Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding, NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton, and Velvet Underground founding member John Cale, among many others. In his extended multi-disciplinary compositions, Blake weaves together his interests in world music, contemporary improvisation, animation, and performance art. This genre-bending catalog of works has earned him support from the Jerome Fund for New Music, ASCAP, and New Music USA. A musician keenly interested in bringing music together with social justice causes, Dan Blake produces the annual Concert To Feed The Hungry, a fundraising event celebrating the struggle to end hunger and malnutrition in poor communities around the world. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York and is currently on faculty at the New School for Social Research, and at the Conservatory at Brooklyn College.

 

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