Marc Johnson | "Overpass"

With Overpass, recorded in Brazil in 2018, Marc Johnson makes a decisive and intriguing contribution to ECM’s solo bass recordings. It is an album that takes note of that tradition - Johnson has said that Dave Holland’s Emerald Tears was among the solo recordings that fired his imagination almost half a century ago - and builds upon it in a personal and imaginative way. 

The Nebraska-born bassist first came to broader attention in the late 1970s as a member of Bill Evans’s last trio where the tune “Nardis” became effectively a workshop for nightly discoveries about the bass’s potential as a lead voice. The Miles Davis tune, long associated with Evans, is revisited here. As Johnson points out, “‘Nardis’ is where solo bass explorations all started for me and this performance distills much of the conception and vocabulary I am using throughout this album.” Alex North’s “Love Theme from Spartacus”, another tune that Evans liked to play, is featured, too, in an interpretation and arrangement that honours the form of the composition. 

Johnson also tackles Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance”, whose dancing pulses have long inspired improvisers, and presents five of his own pieces. Among them is “Samurai Fly”, a recasting of “Samurai Hee-Haw”, the Eastern-tinged Western tune that Marc previously recorded for ECM with his Bass Desires band – the highly influential quartet featuring the twinned guitars of Bill Frisell and John Scofield and Peter Erskine’s drums- and with the John Abercrombie Trio. This version – one of the two tracks that deploys discreet overdubbing - is heavier than its predecessors, perhaps more Sumo than Samurai, Johnson wryly suggests, but still nimble and effective, and with a strong hint of bluegrass bass fiddle in its undercurrents. 

Marc Johnson’s music has long been open to influence from multiple sources, and “Whorled Whirled World”, for instance, with its tessellated patterning and spinning, dancing energy alludes both to a kind of earthy, global music blueprint and the mesmeric qualities of minimalistic repetition. Pulsation and drive have strong roles throughout. 

Of “And Strike Each Tuneful String” Johnson says,” In the early 80s I made a conscious choice to try to bring something primal to my sound and conception of playing. I discovered a field recording made in the late 60s of musicians from Burundi. One or two tracks in particular from that recording caught my attention. The music was played on an instrument called an Inanga which is a hollowed out log strung with ox tendons for strings. The strings were plucked in various patterns and the earthy sound and repetitiveness was quite hypnotic. With a nod towards that reference, this piece is an improvisation and short reprise of ‘Prayer Beads’ which appeared on the second Bass Desires album.” 

If Overpass addresses musical and personal history, it is also an improviser’s in-the-moment response to events. Marc Johnson’s journeys around the globe have sometimes led to meetings with remarkable instruments: in São Paulo he came across a prizewinning bass made by luthier Paulo Gomes that subsequently became his instrument of choice each time he was in the region. The sound of the bass itself with its full-bodied resonance has also been a determining factor for the nature of the music played. On “Yin and Yang” the improvisation takes off from harmonics produced by strumming all four strings of this bass. “The continuity was created by allowing the strings to decay until the next attack. I first recorded a long series of attacks and decays, and then improvised a melody and some bowed effects. This piece is the result.” 

Overpass, recorded in January and February 2018 at Nacena Studios, in São Paulo, was produced by Marc Johnson and Eliane Elias. 

Albums by Ella Fitzgerald, Freddie Hubbard, George Duke, Oscar Peterson Trio, Baden Powell, Bill Evans and Joe Henderson

The treasure trove of MPS Records album reissues that began last month from Germany’s first jazz label continued last Friday with vinyl and CD releases of albums by such luminaries as Ella Fitzgerald, Freddie Hubbard, George Duke, Oscar Peterson Trio and Baden Powell while albums by Bill Evans and Joe Henderson dropped as limited-edition colored vinyl LPs. The records arrived via Edel Germany in partnership with Bob Frank Entertainment. 

Reissued in June as limited-edition color vinyl LPs exclusively through Vinyl Me, Please, Fitzgerald’s “Sunshine Of Your Love” and Hubbard’s “The Hub of Hubbard” are now available on traditional black vinyl and CD.      

Known as the Queen of Jazz, Fitzgerald challenged herself by electing to sing an album of rock and pop classics by such artists as Eric Clapton, the Beatles, and Burt Bacharach along with a few standards. Half of “Sunshine Of Your Love” (1969) was recorded live using a big band while the other half features Fitzgerald’s longtime accompanists, the Tommy Flanagan Trio.

While on a European tour in 1969 with his world-class quintet, Hubbard trekked to the German Black Forest to record “The Hub of Hubbard” for MPS. The trumpeter had already forged a unique sound that mixed hard bop, soul and fusion. Hubbard and the band, which features saxophonist Eddie Daniels, pianist Roland Hanna and a taut rhythm section formed by

bassist Richard Davis and drummer Louis Hayes, stretch out on the four-song set that includes a 13-minute exploration of the standard “Without A Song.”

A pair of jazz-fusion albums by Duke, “Feel” and “I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry,” were reissued on vinyl and CD. When “Feel” was released in 1975, it came at a transitional time when Duke was establishing himself as a solo artist after being a noted sideman. Mixing fusion and rock, the keyboardist exhibits experimental use of synthesizers to create orchestral textures on the disc that includes appearances from frequent collaborator Frank Zappa and a Brazilian jazz expedition

alongside iconic vocalist Flora Purim and percussionist Airto Moreira.

 On “I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry” (1976), Duke diversifies his blend of fusion further while singing frequently throughout the record. He packs a punch on metal/hard rock tracks mashed up with funk, soul and blues. With the rhythm section anchored by longtime collaborator Ndugu Chancler on drums, among the guitarists who shred on the record are Lee Ritenour and George Johnson (Brothers Johnson). Purim and Moreira reappear to provide Brazilian nuances.   

Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson leads an astute trio completed by bassist Georg Mraz and drummer Ray Price on a set list that includes some of Peterson’s original compositions along with pages from the Great American Songbook on 1970’s “Walking The Line.” The vinyl and CD reissues capture the threesome reimagining timeless tunes by Cole Porter, Michel Legrand, Sammy Cahn, Richard Rodgers and Johnny Mercer.     

Powell began his nine-year association with MPS with 1966’s “Tristeza on Guitar,” and despite the title, it is far from a sad-themed outing. Deploying sambas and Afro-Brazilian rhythms, the Brazilian guitar master runs the gamut of emotion - from

intimacy and mystery to celebration and exuberance - on the reissued vinyl LP and CD.

Released as a limited-edition orange vinyl LP, Evan’s “Symbiosis” is an adventurous outing by the legendary jazz pianist who typically performed in trio settings. This 1974 album is a rare treat, pairing Evans with a philharmonic conducted by prolific composer-arranger Claus Ogerman. Whether on acoustic or electric piano, Evans’ lyrical play guides listeners through sprawling expanses ranging from big band grandiosity to minimalism, from exotic samba to jazz, and from lavish string arrangements to dramatic film music.         

Henderson’s “Mirror Mirror” garnered reissue as a limited green vinyl LP. The GRAMMY-winning tenor saxophone titan surrounds himself with greatness on this all-star 1980 recording that could have been attributed to a quartet since the musicians – pianist Chick Corea, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Billy Higgins - share the spotlight equitably.

Butcher Brown | "Encore"

Butcher Brown, celebrated for their explosive live performances opening for such acts as Kamasi Washington, Galactic, Turkuaz and Lettuce, announce the release of their aptly titled new EP, ENCORE, on Concord Jazz. 

The five tracks featured on ENCORE were recorded during the same time as their critically-acclaimed major label debut, #KingButch. The band says, "ENCORE is full of musical gems from the #KingButch sessions. With these songs, we go further into some of the directions that we tapped for the album."

 The release of the Richmond, Virginia-based quintet’s latest single comes hot on the heels of a stunning NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. 

Butcher Brown is five groove merchants delivering a heady home-brew of jams and jazz, rhymes and beats—a funky, musical mix that makes one question why great music needs to be labeled as this category or that. The hybrid moniker “jazz/hip-hop” only begins to cover it. Their balance of raw energy and smooth sophistication, edgy improvisation with a generous dose of Southern roots reveals how equal opportunity they are in employing a wide range of musical styles, and how authentically they’ve absorbed it all. 

Individually, they are: producer/keyboardist DJ Harrison; drummer Corey Fonville; bassist Andrew Randazzo; trumpeter/saxophonist/MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney; and guitarist Morgan Burrs.

Starting in 2013, Butcher Brown began to release a series of recordings on their own imprint, and other independent labels as well, helping to spread the word of the group’s groove-driven consistency. On September 18, 2020, Butcher Brown released their full album #KingButch, a major label debut on Concord Records, on the Concord Jazz imprint. Their eighth album was the culmination of twelve years of dedicated focus, and commitment.

 

Alyson Murray | "The AM Session"

The soulful, smooth and tender tune "Someone Like You" is from Alyson Murray's  EP, The AM Session. The Australian-born, New York-based quixotic vocalist is carving her own vulnerable space between R&B, soul, and jazz––brilliantly painting portraits of love and loss with honest lyricism and delicate, passionate vocals.

The single encapsulates the love that fuels Murray's creativity, especially in a time of physical separation. “Writing about love in a time of isolation felt healing," says Murray. "'Someone Like You' embodies the energy and warmth I wanted to express throughout the EP, which is why I decided to release it as the first single from ‘The AM Session.’ When I write music, I want to create a sense of timelessness, in its context and composition. 'Someone Like You' feels like an homage to a classic love song, from the trumpet lines to the harmonies. I write to feel good, and I hope that transpires."

In 2019, Murray started a virtual YouTube and Instagram series, #AMsession, featuring a collection of songwriting ideas and improvisations. This series ultimately served as inspiration for the eight-track collection which was co-produced by Gregory ‘Phace’ Fils-Aime.

The singer-songwriter's debut record, Breathe, was released in 2018 to much acclaim receiving international airplay in Australia, London, Canada, and the U.S. Murray was then invited to perform in celebration of the release at the prestigious Melbourne Recital Centre for International Women's Day in 2019. Whilst celebrating Breathe, Murray also curated an intimate and exciting performance: Sassy: a Tribute to Sarah Vaughan. The sold-out show, during the Melbourne Jazz Festival, took place at renowned venue, Paris Cat Jazz Club, and featured acclaimed saxophonist Marcus Strickland. Murray then took the performance abroad, performing Sassy at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, NY and at Diese Onze in Montreal. 

Australian-born and New York-based, singer-songwriter and producer Alyson Murray is a compelling and innovative performer who blends soul, R&B and jazz. After releasing her debut record Breathe in 2018, Murray toured the record across Melbourne, and performed abroad in NYC and Montreal, Canada. Murray began a virtual series entitled #AMsession on YouTube and Instagram in 2019, which features a collection of songwriting ideas and improvisations. The #AMSession series ultimately inspired her next project, The AM Session, an EP co-produced by Gregory ‘Phace’ Fils-Aime. 

Deniece Williams Free – The Columbia/Arc Recordings 1976 to 1988

An insanely big collection of work from the great Deniece Williams – eleven full albums, plus bonus tracks more – all to sum up a decade in which she was one of the strongest forces going in mainstream soul! Williams got her start as Deniece Chandler on the Chicago scene – where she had a vocal range that rivaled that of Minnie Riperton, which had her initially stepping out here in a mode that's a bit similar on the first album or two in the set – working with sophisticated soul production that really brings out the best in her sound! As things move on, she also showcases the way she can wrap that fantastic voice around a catchy groove and a playful hook – a quality that made Williams one of the surprising crossover soul stars as the 80s moved in, with a big run of hits that are all included here on albums that still represent a well-balanced blend of chart tracks and some deeper full length material. The set features the full albums Niecy, Songbird, When Love Comes Calling, My Melody, a second Niecy album, I'm So Proud, Let's Hear It For The Boy, Hot On The Trail, Water Under The Bridge, and Good As It Gets – plus an album of duets with Johnny Mathis, titled That's What Friends Are For. The final CD is filled with bonus tracks – single mixes, remixes, and more!  ~ Dusty Groove

Durand Jones & The Indications - Private Space

Fantastic work from Durand Jones & The Indications – a group who've really come a long way in the past few years – in ways that push Durand's vocals to places we wouldn't have guessed on previous records! This set's way more than just a funk band with a soul singer upfront – as the whole thing's a fully-formed soul record through and through – with these larger arrangements that really add a lot, and open up all these righteous 70s currents mixed with a few contemporary flourishes that really give the album a very distinct sound! The songwriting is even better than before, too – and the group seems to have found a voice for themselves that's unlike any of their contemporaries. The record features guest work from Brandee Younger on harp and Joel Ross on vibes – and titles include "Love Will Work It Out", "Witchoo", "Reach Out", "Sexy Thang", "More Than Ever", "Private Space", "Sea Of Love", "I Can See", and "Ride Or Die".  ~ Dusty Groove

New Music Releases: Les Jeux Sont Funk, Chazzy Green, Gil

Les Jeux Sont Funk- A Tribute To The J.B.'s

Les Jeux Sont Funk throws in everything but the kitchen sink in paying homage to some of their favorite funk artists in “A Tribute to the J.B.s.” During a writing retreat in Trento, Italy, the newly expanded group decided to fan the flames of their budding musical chemistry and jam in the styles of The Meters, Shuggie Otis, Roy Ayers, P-Funk, and more. One of the grooves formulated on bass and guitar was augmented by tight hitting drums and touches of Latin jazz horns and it seemed to fall amongst the same lineage as The J.B.s. As the band reflected, they compared the J.B.s to figurative sherpas that helped James Brown climb to the top. Les Jeux Sont Funk penned the crafty title “A Tribute to the J.B.s,” as they were quite literally a funk band rehearsing in the mountains looking to elevate their collective sound to new levels.

Chazzy Green - Let's Go Home

On his first album in five years, “The Funky Sax Man” Charles “Chazzy” Green reconnects with his longtime pal and collaborator Ray Parker Jr., among other top line urban jazz sidemen, to create the richly emotional, alternately punchy/funky and blissfully sensual collection Let's Go Home – whose title is a wink towards the reality of remote recording this past year while in lockdown. While renowned for wide-ranging skills on alto and tenor, the Detroit bred, Howard University educated musician – who has played and toured throughout his career with the likes of Howard Hewett, Montell Jordan, Macy Gray and Bobby Womack - showcases on a few infectious tracks his equally sparkling flute skills – a callback to Green’s early classical training which also included clarinet. ~ www.smoothjazz.com

Gil - Sometimes A Man

In an inspirational video clip Gil Johnson (known professionally as Gil) posted while he was making his down deep soulful, heartfelt and uber-romantic debut album Sometimes A Man, the Detroit based vocalist - reflecting on his recent retirement from the car business after 30 years to pursue his musical dreams – offered a sage piece of advice: “Don’t let age be the reason you didn’t give that one thing you’re passionate about at least an effort.” Gil blazes these personal trails with a set of sweet soaring ballads and easy grooving mid-tempo gems – plus a super funky piano driven, guitar soaring instrumental – produced by David Lee Spradley, renowned for his work with everyone from George Clinton and Stevie Wonder to Roy Ayers and Earl Klugh. ~ www.smoothjazz.com  

Focusyear Band 21 | "Bosque"

The Focusyear Band 21 is an international group of students with an exciting new project. These musicians include: Vocalist Tatjana Nova (from Dresden by way of Moscow); saxophonists Joshua Schofield (England) and Gianni Gagliardi (Spain); trumpeters, flugelhornists, and valve trombonists Yakiv Tsvietinskyi (Ukraine) and Sebastián Greschuk (Argentina); pianist Lorenzo Vitolo (Italy); bassist Ethan Cohn (New York, by way of Montreal); and drummer Áron Tálas (Hungary). Ensemble members were selected from a large number of applications. 

As heard in the music, the Focusyear Band 21 found its own sound, with an emphasis on improvisational risk-taking. After many intensive weeks with prominent instructors, the eight young musicians crafted a selection of original compositions created throughout the year. They are interactive, sonically aware and original, devoted to discovering – and advancing – the language of jazz.

Bassist Almog Sharvit's 'Get Up Or Cry'

Innovative composer and bassist Almog Sharvit releases his debut album as a leader, Get Up Or Cry, today via Unit Records. Together with his band members Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Brandon Seabrook (guitar & banjo), Micha Gilad (piano, keys, synths) and Lukas König (drums), Sharvit creates a startingly imaginative record. Get Up Or Cry signals the arrival of a fresh, significant New York artist. It’s an album that appeals to both jazz purists and neophytes, a crossover record that stuns any casual listener.

Sharvit, a 28-year-old conservatory-trained musician, born and raised in Israel and based in Brooklyn, creates surreal, maximalist compositions that combine both acoustic and electronic textures. In New York, he has established himself as a creative force; his jazz trio Kadawa has received accolades from the New York Times, Indie Current and Vancouver Sun, among others. Sharvit has also toured internationally with various acts across 12 countries, and performed at storied venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Detroit Jazz Festival, the Blue Note, Jerusalem Jazz Festival, and many more.

Get Up Or Cry reflects genre-pushing creativity, textural innovation, and a striking balance between form and freedom. The album blurs electronic music, psychedelic rock, bluegrass, 20th-century classical music, and of course, jazz, into dizzyingly beautiful, wholly unique songs. Sharvit composed, arranged, and produced every single track – the only additional writing credit belongs to one Vladimir Nabokov, whose poetry serves as the lyrics to the eponymous track “Get Up Or Cry.“

“I intended to create an album that you can turn to when you feel joy and sorrow at the same time,” says Sharvit. “I wanted to make an album that is beautiful in an odd way, a space where humor interacts with moving, complex, and crazy songs. They express how we all feel sometimes – overwhelmed with information, short on focus, caffeinated as hell, but at the same time having moments of joy, intimacy, sadness, and freedom.”

Get Up Or Cry was recorded in a single day at Wonderpark Studios in Brooklyn. In post-production, Sharvit applied experimental techniques usually found in pop and electronic music to the songs – the record features filter sweeps, heavy distortion and compression, and creative automation and panning that he gladly says “will knock the dust off your stereo.”

Curt Ramm Releases "Rogue Island"

Curt Ramm is excited to announce his newest album, Rogue Island, due out this July on Rocktorium Records. Born in the throes of 2020’s COVID-19 shutdowns, the new album is a beacon of positivity and uplifting vibes. This instrumental soundscape is set to be the perfect Summer soundtrack, and is available now everywhere you stream music. 

Curt Ramm is one of the preeminent horn players in rock and roll. As well as being an in-demand studio session player, Curt’s playing has kept him very busy over the years with electrifying live performances throughout the US, Europe and Japan. Some of his recording and performance credits include Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen Sessions Band, Nile Rodgers and CHIC, They Might Be Giants, Radiohead, The Levon Helm Band, Glen Hansard and Little Steven. 

Curt is certainly no stranger to jazz either. From his roots in Kansas City, playing lead trumpet with the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation Jazz Orchestra, through the release of his album “Foundations” with fellow jazz luminaries Bill Cunliffe and Dan Moretti, jazz music is never far from Curt's heart or playing. 

Touring has for many years been a mainstay of Curt's musical career, but road work came to a screeching halt in the Spring of 2020. Curt recalls “the Damn-Panic was in full swing, so I had to face the fact that, for the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t be playing live shows, and definitely not touring.” 

Around that time, he was working with his long time friend and Rhode Island Music Hall of Famer, producer, musician, Ray Gennari ( Akae Beka (Midnite), Turbulence, Protoje, Roomful Of Blues, The Temptations, Lustre Kings Productions) to orchestrate and play instrumental versions of songs by Clatta Bumboo (aka Sheldon Townsend), a Jamaican born, and now RI based, reggae artist. “This collaboration was a joy and a success,” says Curt, “and with the pandemic at its peak, as a way to keep playing and have some fun, Ray and I started to create new songs, similar in style to what I had worked on with Sheldon's Project.” 

Unable to gather and perform with other musicians due to pandemic restrictions, Curt Ramm and Ray Gennari took a different and unusual approach to the recording process of Rogue Island. Tapping into Ray's recording experience with notable reggae artists they reimagined drum tracks from Aston Barrett, Jr. (The Wailers) and Brady Robinson (Pentateuch Movement) from earlier Rocktorium Records projects, and the heart of Rogue Island was born. 

Curt recalls “Ray would play bass, guitar, and some keyboard parts to set up the arrangement and vibe, and send the track to me to write horn melodies and background brass parts. We bounced the ideas back and forth, sometimes three or four times - changing the form, adding a bridge, and deciding on endings. Being unable to work together in the studio in person, we talked constantly on the phone until the song was feeling complete.” 

To round out the album, Curt and Ray decided to incorporate remotely recorded performances from friends on the record, and eventually, when Covid restrictions eased, to invite local musicians and friends to record in person to finish up Rogue Island. 

Reflecting back on the process, Curt comments, “Ray and I were both thankful to have a fun and creative escape from the pressures of the pandemic, and the few people we had shared our creations with really loved the positive and uplifting vibe of the songs.” 

From those sessions emerged Rogue Island, an eleven track LP, packed full of collaborations and standouts. Included on the new album are performances from Bill Holloman (Nile Rodgers, Danny Gatton) on saxophone, and Charlie Giordano (E Street Band) on piano and accordion. Noted reggae producer Andrew “Moon” Bain (Lustre Kings, Zion I Kings) contributed guitar to a song, and Andrew “Drew Keys” Stoch (Shaggy, Common Kings) played piano and organ on another. Curt's son, Gerard, even plays the sax solo on the album's opening song. Rogue Island was mixed by Ray Gennari and mastered by Robert Vosgien at Robert Vosgien Mastering.

Leading up to the album's release, Ramm unveiled four singles, all of which have received much praise. "Pontchartrain" mixes Curt’s swinging horns with classic reggae riffs to create an ode to the Big Easy and the resilience of the city. Topshelf Music hailed "Smugglers Cove" as a song to put wind in anyone’s sails, and the upbeat ska vibe of "Surfers End" makes it the feel good summer song we need right now!  Most recently Ramm released the music video for "Smuggler' Cove" which premiered on Reggaeville. 

The new record leans deep into its reggae influences but also showcases the diversity and versatility that has defined Curt's musical career, and his gift for melodies and horn arranging brings the album to a unique musical place. An album that takes the listener through a range of emotions and vibes ranging from the bouncing energy of “Smuggler's Cove” to the lazy New Orleans stroll of “Pontchartrain” to the slow burn of “Blue Wave.” The album closes with “From The Baseline” the track that started it all- Curt's instrumental version of Clatta Bumboo's vocal track “Baseline.” 

“We are so proud and excited to be releasing Curt Ramm's Rogue Island. To work with such an incredible musician was an honor and a joy, especially on such an amazing record,” comments Ray Gennari, album producer and owner of Rocktorium Records. Rogue Island is available now on all streaming platforms. Signed CDs and digital downloads are available now at Curtramm.com. 

Michael Mantler | "Coda"

Michael Mantler, who was born in Vienna in 1943, explains that reworking his earlier compositions has been an essential part of his modus operandi over the decades. “Re-using material from my own musical universe has, as a matter of fact, been my compositional procedure for a long time. Musicologists could have an interesting time divining what in my music has come from where and how it might have been re-shaped and recycled… Almost always, when I start a new composition, I begin with materials from previous work. More often than not, that procedure would spark or beget a new line of musical thought from which to continue.”

With the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Update, issued in 2014, Mantler made his work method the subject of a new release. Reassessing, re-contextualizing and reshaping material written for his iconic album The Jazz Composers Orchestra in the 1960s, he was able to illuminate the music in new ways. DownBeat hailed the outcome as “pretty fantastic.” “Update is really what it says. Not a reproduction or look back, but a new take on this music… This unique counterpart album is quite simply required listening for anyone with a scintilla of interest in large-scale modern jazz,” London Jazz News emphasized.

Now Coda takes its concept further, as Mantler newly arranges and refashions music from several phases of his career – a personal “best-of “– into musical suites conducted by Christoph Cech. Where the large ensemble on the Jazz Composers Orchestra Update was an augmented jazz big band, here the orchestra is comprised primarily of classical players, although the presence of jazz soloists, including pianist David Helbock, guitarist Bjarne Roupé, and Mantler himself on trumpet “anchors the music in an environment clearly coming from jazz.” The focus is on Mantler compositions premiered between 1975 and 2010, and previously recorded – in very different form – on the WATT albums 13 & 3/4 and Alien, and the ECM albums Cerco un Paese Innocente, Hide and Seek, and For Two. The Coda transformations, complete in themselves, will send the attentive listener also back to the originals: old and new versions each have their own integrity, and Mantler’s compositional signature is unmistakable, then and now.

“I have always considered myself an orchestral composer,” says Michael Mantler, “even when circumstances dictated smaller ensembles. This time I did not retain the original instrumentation but settled on what seems to be my current favourite – a chamber orchestra consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, guitar, piano, marimba/vibraphone, plus a string section…” explains Mantler.

The chamber orchestra fleshes out ideas sketched on the skeletal original version of “Alien” performed just by Mantler and keyboardist Don Preston back in 1985. Now the composer’s distinctive trumpet moves against evocative, otherworldly strings on the “Alien Suite”, with Bjarne Roupé’s tense guitar also contributing to the uneasy atmosphere. The Swedish-born guitarist has been an important contributor to Mantler’s music of the last 25 years, featured on a number of albums including the 2011 release For Two. The present album opens with the “Two Thirteen Suite” incorporating material from 1975’s 13, which featured two orchestras plus Carla Bley on piano. Expanding and contracting his instrumental forces, merging elements from pieces written in different phases of his life, and featuring Roupé and David Helbock as soloist-interpreters, Mantler signals at once that these Orchestra Suites are indeed new music. 

The “Folly Suite” similarly brings fresh orchestral colours into play, building upon the template of 1992’s Folly Seeing All This. The “Cerco Suite” and the “HideSeek Suite” present music originally created to envelop the words of, respectively, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Paul Auster, with vocal lines assigned now to the instrumentalists. 

The Orchestra Suites were premiered in September 2019 at Vienna’s Porgy & Bess, where 

Coda was recorded, with additional recording and mixing taking place at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in November 2019 and June 2020. 

Joey DeFrancesco | "More Music"

After a year of pandemic lockdown – with stages dark and nightclubs shuttered, friends and families kept at a social distance, and political and social tensions raging – the one thing we could all use right now is More Music. And who better to supply that demand than Joey DeFrancesco? 

More Music, due out September 24 via Mack Avenue Records, is “more” in every conceivable way. It offers up ten new DeFrancesco originals, brought to life by a scintillating new trio. And the master organist, who has long supplemented his keyboard virtuoso with his skilled trumpet playing, here brings out his full arsenal: organ, keyboard, piano, trumpet, and, for the first time on record, tenor saxophone. He also steps to the microphone to croon Mario Romano’s yearning “And If You Please.” 

Joey D isn’t the only one wearing several hats on the album. A fellow torchbearer of the Philadelphia organ jazz tradition, Lucas Brown takes on the unenviable task of sharing organ duties with his generation’s most influential practitioner. Not only does he fulfill those duties admirably, freeing DeFrancesco to juggle his other talents, but he also showcases his six-string wizardry on several traditional organ-guitar trio tracks. Michael Ode sticks to the drums throughout, anchoring the trio’s multiple configurations with muscular swing and electrifying grooves. 

“It’s time for more music,” DeFrancesco declares. “This situation has been difficult for so many people. It's definitely time to get back at it.” 

While this period of re-emergence from our collective quarantine turned out to be the perfect time for it, DeFrancesco had envisioned a project to showcase his multi-instrumentalism well before COVID was on anyone’s mind. The trumpet has been a feature of his repertoire for most of the organist’s career, inspired by his tenure with Miles Davis while still a teenager. 

He first decided to try his hand at the tenor 25 years ago. His grandfather and namesake, Joseph DeFrancesco, had played tenor and clarinet and his horns were still in the family home in Philly. “One day I just decided to get his tenor out of the case and see if I could play it. So for about two weeks I practiced and it actually came pretty quick. I got so comfortable that I went down to Ortlieb's for a jam session. I got on the stage and [Philadelphia saxophonist] Victor North was standing next to me. I didn't know who he was, but he looked like Buddy Holly so I figured I'd be fine. Well, Victor North kicked my ass, and the horn went back into the case for another 25 years.” 

His interest was renewed in recent years by a confluence of factors – primarily the opportunity to record with legendary tenor titan Pharoah Sanders, with whom DeFrancesco collaborated on his 2019 Mack Avenue Records release, In the Key of the Universe. The subsequent tour found the organist paying particular attention to the sound of his regular tenor player, Troy Roberts, and at the same time delving deeper into the music of sax icon Charles Lloyd. In November 2018, DeFrancesco approached his father and once again borrowed his grandfather’s tenor. 

“My dad said, ‘If you're going to play, you can have it. But you gotta play it.’ That's how it started, and now I have about 15 saxophones.”

The preciousness of the family heirloom means that DeFrancesco largely keeps it safely at home, but Joseph DeFrancesco’s 1925 tenor makes one appearance on More Music, for the warm, burnished solo on “And If You Please.” 

DeFrancesco shredded on the tenor with renewed vigor, and though the influence of countless greats from Sonny Rollins to Sanders to John Coltrane to Lloyd all echoed in his mind, it wasn’t difficult to find the voice for what he wanted to express on the instrument. “What separated me from a lot of other organists was the huge influence I took from tenor saxophone players,” he explains. “So I have a certain sound that I love, and that was already in my mind. No matter what instrument I'm playing, there's a certain concept that always comes through.” 

The next challenge was to find a player with the virtuosity and confidence to take over the organ bench while DeFrancesco focused on his other outlets. He naturally turned to Philly and found the perfect candidate in Lucas Brown, whose skills were honed over years spent with the late tenor great Bootsie Barnes. His original instrument was guitar and he remains a gifted player, making him versatile enough to fulfill multiple roles in this ever-shifting trio.

 While Brown, a decade DeFrancesco’s junior, inevitably reveals elements of the bandleader’s pervasive influence, DeFrancesco is quick to point out, “He plays differently than I do. We don't sound alike at all, and that's important. What's the point of having somebody that's going to be playing my stuff note for note? You need somebody to bring a nice contrast and Lucas is confident about who he is, plays at a very high level and sounds like himself on the instrument. It's nice to be able to introduce another organist to the world that's got his own approach.” 

DeFrancesco met Michael Ode (also a Philly native, though he grew up in Durham, NC) while the drummer was still a student at Oberlin Conservatory. Ode’s first major gig with the organist was a high-pressure one: the studio date for You’re Driving Me Crazy, DeFrancesco’s collaboration with legendary Irish singer Van Morrison. “He’s just cutting his teeth in the business and I really threw him into the fire,” DeFrancesco recalls. “And he nailed it. He hears every note, but Michael also brings an element of what's going on rhythmically as drummers have evolved and changed. So he keeps me current.” 

More Music also applies to the range of stylistic choices in DeFrancesco’s original tunes for the album. “Free” opens the proceedings on a brisk, uptempo note with DeFrancesco testifying on trumpet. He makes his tenor bow with an enticing, breathy tone on the sultry ballad “Lady G,” a dedication to his wife, Gloria. Ode’s ricocheting drum intro ushers in “Just Beyond the Horizon,” which finds DeFrancesco back at the organ. He slides over to the piano to lead into the wistful “In Times of Reflection,” which features Brown playing silken acoustic guitar and a pensive DeFrancesco trumpet solo. 

Charles Lloyd’s searching influence can be strongly heard on the spiritual jazz of “Angel Calling,” while “Where to Go” proves a highlight with the album’s sole organ duel between DeFrancesco and Brown. “Roll With It,” with Joey DeFrancesco on organ and Brown on guitar, takes off from a fleet unison melody in classic organ trio style, while the title track makes its case with a taut, mellow groove. DeFrancesco takes over the organ with Brown on keyboard for the last two tracks, the contemporary vibe of “This Time Around” and the celebratory, gospel-inflected send-off “Soul Dancing.” 

“More music is what's needed to create positivity and wellness for everybody, regardless of what's happening in the world,” DeFrancesco concludes. “Music just solves a lot of problems. So more live music, more original music – just more music. Without that, we're in big trouble.”

Upcoming Joey DeFrancesco Performances:

July 29 | Rockport Jazz Festival | Rockport, MA

August 28 | Oshkosh Jazz Festival | Oshkosh, WI

September 30 | Jimmy's on Congress | Portsmouth, NH

October 1 - 2 | Blue Llama | Ann Arbor, MI

October 7 - 10 | Dizzy's (Jazz at Lincoln Center) | New York, NY

October 15 - 16 | Crooners Lounge and Supper Club | Minneapolis, MN

October 21 - 24 | Jazz Showcase | Chicago, IL

October 28 | Florida State University | Gainesville, FL

October 29 - 31 | Keystone Korner | Baltimore, MD

November 5 - 6 | Jazz Kitchen | Indianapolis, IN

November 18 | Bop Stop | Cleveland, OH

November 19 | BLU Jazz+ | Akron, OH

November 26 - 27 | SOUTH Jazz Parlor | Philadelphia, PA

December 10 - 11 | Jazz Forum | Tarrytown, NY

Wendell Harrison Tribe - Get Up Off Your Knees

Fantastic new music from Detroit reedman Wendell Harrison – working here with a renewed version of the Tribe Records scene, at a level that makes the album one of his best in many years! Wendell blows tenor and bass clarinet, and his group here is mostly younger, lesser-known players – but who soar with Harrison in a mix of spiritual jazz modes and a few more rhythmic currents – all with the kind of powerful, progressive vibe that made the Tribe Records material of Harrison and his contemporaries so important in the 70s! Other musicians include Vincent Chandler on trombone, Steve Woods on flute, Luis Resto on piano, Walter White on trumpet, and Jacob Schwantz on guitar – although players shift often from track to track – and frequent Harrison partner Pamela Wise also provides a bit of keyboards, and the set features both sung vocals on two tracks from Pathe Jassi, and a recitation from Mbiyu Chui on another. Titles include "Revoltuion", "Siera", "Wandering Thoughts", "Samoulen Khale Yi", "What's Up", and "Saga Of A Carrot". ~ Dusty Groove

Tony Allen - There Is No End

A very different album than some of the more recent efforts from the legendary drummer Tony Allen – and a set that shows that, as the title proclaims, there is no end to the creative talents of the mighty musician – even after he departed our planet! This set has Allen working with a variety of singers and MCs – serving up tunes that mix Afro Funk elements with a heavy dose of hip hop – thanks to contributions from a shifting lineup of guests that includes Sampa The Great, Tsunami, Nah Eeto, Zelooperz, Koreatown Oddity, Danny Brown, Marlowe, and others! Co-production and other instrumentation are from Vincent Taeger and Vincent Taurelle – working here strongly alongside core contributions from Allen, and clearly helping shape the creative sound of the record – on titles that include "Mau Mau", "Coonta Kinte", "Rich Black", "Gang On Holiday", "Stumbling Down", "Tres Magnifique", "Cosmosis", and "My Own".  ~ Dusty Groove

Phyllis Hyman: Old Friend – The Deluxe Collection 1976 to 1998

An insane tribute to one of the greatest female soul singers to emerge in the 70s – the magnificent Phyllis Hyman, a vocalist who first began in jazz, then moved to soul music to help chart a whole new sound for the future – a new sort of sophistication that was key to a shift in the way that female soul singers came across – with plenty of pride, maturity, and subtle power that really comes through in these recordings! Right from the start, Hyman was very much her own artist – as you'll hear in this set, which begins with some of her earliest, jazziest work, and includes a few contributions with Norman Connors – then moves through a rich legacy of full length albums before Phyllis was taken from our planet all too soon! The set features nine full albums, most with some bonus tracks – and albums include Phyllis Hyman, Somewhere In My Lifetime, You Know How To Love Me, Can't We Fall In Love Again, Goddess Of Love, Living All Alone, Prime Of My Life, I Refuse To Be Lonely, and Forever With You. 119 tracks in all!  ~ Dusty Groove

Too Slow To Disco Presents Yacht Soul – The Cover Versions

An incredibly cool collection – one that offers up all sorts of weird and wonderful soul music covers of mainstream mellow 70s hits – new versions of the famous tunes that pull them strongly over to the world of R&B, often with results that are better than the original versions! The set is both a great demonstration of how much soul there was lurking in the original AOR productions of the mid 70s, and how strongly those currents could be unlocked even more in the right hands – as you'll hear in these sublime takes on tunes by Hall & Oates, Toto, Seals & Crofts, The Doobie Brothers, and other 70s pop giants. Titles include "Dirty Work" by Pointer Sisters, "Minute By Minute" by Peabo Bryson, "Georgie Porgy" by Side Effect, "He's Gone" by Dee Dee Bridgewater, "Summer Breeze" by Main Ingredient, "Lazy Nina" by Greg Phillinganes, "In The Way" by Brothers Johnson, "This Is It" by Millie Jackson, "Takin It To The Streets" by Quincy Jones, "I Hope You'll Be Very Unhappy Without Me" by Tavares, "God Only Knows" by Betty Lavette, "Let Em In" by Billy Paul, and "A Love Of Your Own" by The Ebonys. ~ Dusty Groove

Adam Nolan Trio | "Prim Aand Primal"

A fresh new concept album based on contrasting personalities and approaches to free jazz. One is clean, tidy, polite and humble while the other is aggressive, bold, raw, risky and wild. Each track is based on reflecting scenes called out by Adam Nolan before the take.

"Some of my influences leading up to this recording session included Ornette Coleman, Kaoru Abe, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Garrett, Bobby Watson and Sam Rivers.

1: This first track I really wanted to bring elements of Elvin Jones's swing feel with Ron Carters urban sound whilst breaking out of a set tempo and creating a new version of that 60's sound. I feel we took it beyond the original idea and stretched the music out to new levels of expression.

2: Inspired by modern trios and that room sound recording free jazz. I remember I was watching some cool bands online including Michaël Attias New York Trio 'Renku' and it did inspire me. I also was watching the German double bassist Peter Kowald Chicago free jazz documentary which featured some of my favourites including the great saxophonist Fred Albert who inspired my previous album 'The Great Conjunction'

3: Coming up to the recording session Stan Getz kept coming to my mind, however I didn't listen to him as I was listening to other styles at the time. When it was time to record this track I decided to bring elements of latin jazz into this piece but with a complete new contemporary edge. I explained this to the guys and Derek Whyte expressed haunting contemporary harmony while Dominic played in a bossa inspired style. One of my favourites!

4: I have always been fascinated by the Mayans and the tropical jungles of the ancient world. Didn't I notice in the recording session that there was a mayan art rug used to dampen the drums sounds. This was something I had to incorporate into this track. I really like to use what's in an environment to create/express scenes. One of my favourite movies is also Mel Gibson 'Apocalypto' which really gave me great visual images of hunt scenes in the jungle as was in my teenage years.

5: Visualising the three of us in a desert. Thirsty and dying for a drink of cold water we spot a magic carpet flying past in the air realising if we can somehow catch and tame it we can save ourselves and find an oasis sanctuary.

6: Looking for something to really define the whole album concept this scene came to my mind just before we decided to record the final track.

The Kung Fu Master Vs The Ape in a smoking area and they are the same strength! Just so it's an even fight! This scene really expresses the wild raw power of an ape along with a Kung fu masters precision, awareness and discipline complimented by the rustle and tumbles of a smoking area along with a bewildered crowd experiencing this bizarre scenario."

Brandee Younger | "Somewhere Different"

Today Harpist and Composer Brandee Younger announces her major label debut album, Somewhere Different, set for release August 13 on Impulse! Records.  The genre-busting set is a seamless fusion of classical music, R&B, hip-hop, jazz and funk with the new bounce-infused single "Reclamation" out now.

Recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studios and in New York City from November 2020 to February 2021 Somewhere Different expertly showcases Brandee's ethos of weaving genres that pay homage to her predecessors while forging new sonic ground. The eight-track collection, Produced by Dezron Douglas, features Allan Mednard on Drums, Rashaan Carter on Bass, Trumpeter Maurice Brown, Tenor Saxophonist Chelsea Baratz, Flutist Anne Drummond, and Drummer & Drum Programming by Marcus Gilmore. The set also features a Special Appearance by legendary Bassist Ron Carter on "Olivia Benson" and "Beautiful is Black", and Guest Vocals from Tarriona "Tank" Ball from Tank and the Bangas on "Pretend." 

Overall, the album touches on a vast number of themes without losing focus.  The lush soundscapes of the musical tracks encapsulate the contemporary musical hybrid that represents Brandee's newfound artistic liberty.  As told to music journalist and author Marcus J. Moore, who wrote the liner notes for the record, Younger states, "I hope it is enjoyable to listen to, not hard to listen to, nothing to be analyzed or over-analyzed, but that people will just enjoy it. Everything has a groove, and that's me." 

Widely recognized as a musician who is willing to push boundaries, Brandee has shared the stage with jazz leaders and popular hip-hop and R&B luminaries including Ravi Coltrane, Maxwell, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders, Common, and Lauryn Hill. Her original composition "Hortense" was also featured in the Beyoncé documentary Homecoming.  Recently, she was featured on Apple's 2021 unprecedented Juneteenth Album, collaborating with Grammy Award Winning Artist Terrace Martin.  

Impulse!: For nearly sixty years, Impulse Records has stood as a label of musical integrity and lasting cultural significance. Known as the "house that Trane built" in honor of its best-selling artist John Coltrane, the label produced music exciting in its experimental charge, and spiritual in its priority. Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Max Roach, Ray Charles, Alice Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, and Pharoah Sanders were but a few of the legendary musicians who helped define the label's sound and message. To this day, Impulse continues to proudly wear its distinctive orange-and-black color scheme, and is home to the new vanguard of creative musicians including Brandee Younger, Shabaka Hutchings and his groups Sons of Kemet, Shabaka & the Ancestors, and the psychedelic jazz trio The Comet Is Coming. 

Jonathan Bauer | "Sings & Plays"

Multitalented trumpeter, singer and composer Jonathan Bauer - most notably from the Grammy award-winning New Orleans Jazz Orchestra - returns with his highly anticipated sophomore release, Sings & Plays.

A distinctive new musician on the rise, Bauer has been widely celebrated for his dark and buttery trumpet sound, often mistaken for that of the mellower flugelhorn. As a singer, his voice is filled with an earnest joy, instantly connecting with all audiences. Along with an A-list cast of some of New Orleans’ most swinging musicians, Sings & Plays is dripping with energy from the city they call home. Early listeners have described the new album’s aesthetic as "New Orleans meets Chet Baker."

Part of this album was recorded in January of 2020, just before to the onset of the COVID pandemic. In spite of all of the uncertainty they faced, Bauer and his band were determined to keep Sings & Plays from being shelved. Ultimately, the losses and obstacles of the last year bred new depths of appreciation for the music and each other, making this project all the more special.

Sings & Plays will be released worldwide on Friday, August 13th 2021 on Slammin Media.

Carmela Rappazzo | "Love And Other Difficulties"

While experiencing covid lock down in New Orleans Carmela wrote and recorded her seventh project "Love and Other Difficulties" an exploration of the many aspects of love. 

The thirteen tracks are comprised of six original songs of Carmela's and three collaborations with pianist and composer Oscar Rossignoli. There are also three standard covers and a cover of New Orleans singer songwriter Paul Sanchez.

The standards chosen were Cole Porter's "So In Love" with it's tango-esque arrangement and it's sense of longing, Billy Strayhorn's "A Flower is a Lovesome Thing" his love song to flowers, and Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark" another beautiful song of longing.

New Orleans's own Paul Sanchez's "Empty Chair" about a lost love rounds out the cover songs with it's own form of heartache.

Carmela's original compositions also represent many types of love and some are a departure from her usual jazz influences. "Cicada's" childhood memories of summer was inspired by one of Duke Ellington's "Queen Suites", "Lightning Bugs and Frogs". "Dancer ", inspired by Eric Satie's Gnossienne No.1 is a tale of a love that may disappear as quickly as a ballerina's pirouette. "Love Tune" is the musing of how one would cope without love, and has some additional voicing contributed by Oscar Rossignoli, yet "Love Tune 4 Real" is about true love. "Ursula (redux)" is a new arrangement of a song of her's about the reluctant bride and the groom who loves her."Keep Your Distance", a free form piece, about obsessive love, and "Sweet Sleep" a lullaby about an ideal fantasy love round out the original compositions.

When Carmela heard Oscar Rossignoli's compositions the dark and richly textured "Heartbeat" and "Endless Fall" with its overtones of melancholy she wrote lyrics for both.

The musicians chosen for this project all bring a unique perspective and sensibility to their playing and their contributions were invaluable. None are ‘strictly jazz' players, which was an important criteria for the material.

Carmela has been playing and recording with Honduran pianist and composer Oscar Rossignoli since she arrived in New Orleans and he was a natural fit for this record having both an extensive back round in jazz, Latin and classical music. He also served as Musical Director on this project. 

Martin Masakowski, bass, is from a New Orleans musical family and his style and training span across jazz, classical, experimental, Eastern European and Indian cultures. He brings a unique musicality to this project.

Doug Belote is a South Louisiana native who grew up in Cajun country immersed in the sounds of jazz, funk, R&B, Cajun, Latin, and second line drumming and that versatility brought a perfect amount of spice to this project.

Recorded at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans, mixed by Pete Snell in Los Angeles and mastered by Robby Hunter at The Attic Studios in southern New York, this collection represents Carmela Rappazzo's newest endeavor. It's title "Love and Other Difficulties" was inspired by a collection of poems by Rilke. 

The record was produced by Carmela Rappazzo and co-produced by Tony Award winning producer Barbara Manocherian. 

Harley Cortez | "An Inventory Of Music: Vol. II"

If we were only to focus on Harley Cortez’s forthcoming second chapter in his four-album “An Inventory of Memory” recording series, it would be like having a phone conversation with someone with spotty cell service that allows you to hear every fourth word. The Los Angeles-based musician turned painter, filmmaker and writer utilizes the full scope of his artistic gifts to communicate his messages and themes. Set to release “An Inventory of Memory: Vol. II” on August 13, Cortez’s examination of genetic memory has been the muse of his multidisciplinary art for several years, but this musical exploration delves deeply into loss and how to process it after the passing of his mother and nephew with the goal of turning loss into beauty.   

The evocative, cinematic music Cortez composed for “An Inventory of Memory: Vol. II” is indeed beautiful. He wrote and performed the eight Avant-classical tracks that he brought to life with the aid of accompaniment by Modeste Colban on flute and saxophone, violinist Andy Baldwin and Nancy Kuo’s (Janelle Monae) strings.

The album opens with the minimalist “Metaphors,” a soothing, electronic vibrational mantra. The gentle piano cadence on “Y” and its gorgeous melody intimately convey raw emotion, planting the seed of renewal and the blossoming of hope in its radiance and simplicity. “How We Become Butterflies” is transcendental, nurtured by airy piano passages, a plunging upright bass line, and gentle dancing upon a ride cymbal. A string quartet illumines “Be Still,” turning it into a sweeping, emotionally poignant meditation. A somber majesty reigns on the contemplative “Seven Mountains” while “After the Tz’utujil Ceremony in Atitlan” includes an audio sample from a Mayan tribe recorded in Cortez’s mother’s native Guatemala. A serene interlude, “Selected Memories” feels transitional, offering comfort and optimism. The recording closes with a “How We Become Butterflies” (Reprise) on which Colban’s moody saxophone plunges to vaster depths than on the original.   

“After a hard year of many losses, I decided to resume finishing these albums. The thing I realized is that we all experience loss in some form, but it’s a whole other thing to create beauty from it. I suppose the job of the artist is to be the vessel, one that the traumatic experience can filter beauty from,” said Cortez, who has exhibitions of his paintings and sculptures opening in Mexico City at the Museo Tamayo in October and at another venue (to be announced) in the same city in November.

“The album series title comes from an idea of genetic memory —it has been a focus of mine for a few years now and a narrative that is at the center of a lot of my exhibitions. It’s usually an attempt to dissect ancestral language in some way. Art for me is a way to call on the duende (or soul). I sometimes think souls speak a language that is beyond human understanding, and so we have art.”

The music heard on the “An Inventory of Memory” series is vastly different from Cortez’s earlier career, which included solo, duo and group projects as part of Just an Animal, Red Cortez and the Weather Underground as well as touring as the opening act for Morrissey. This four-part series is entirely instrumental.    

“As I have explored the world of classical and ambient music and less pop, lyrical music, it has become something I have been exploring more. I decided to release a series of albums not just because I had so much material, but because I wanted to gather it and split it up in a way that felt like individual experiences. Each volume has its own field recording from different places I’ve been to around the world. Usually, these field recordings have a spiritual or religious ritual specific to that place such as on ‘After the Tz’utujil Ceremony in Atitlan,’ which was recorded in Atitlan, Guatemala,” said Cortez, who will release a companion book of short stories, poetry and other recollections titled “An Inventory of Memory” early next year.

Cortez grew up in Los Angeles and Queens and lived for a short time as a young kid in Guatemala. His paintings, drawings and abstract pieces have exhibited in Los Angeles, New York City and Tokyo. As a filmmaker, he’s released short films, experimental films and music videos. In fact, “How We Become Butterflies” from “Inventory of Memory: Vol. II” is the theme song to the film he made about his experiences with his younger brother, who is schizophrenic.

Emma-Jean Thackray | "Yellow"

Bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Emma-Jean Thackray was born and raised in Yorkshire but is today a resident of Catford, south-east London. Her 2020 EPs Um Yang 음 양 and Rain Dance marked Thackray out as standard-bearer of a spiritually-minded, dancefloor-angled take on jazz that stood at a slight remove from the broader UK scene. But Yellow - released on Thackray’s own Warp Records-affiliated imprint, Movementt - feels like a further step into a fresh and distinct space. Its 14 tracks bloom with brass and strings, choral segments and ecstatic chants. But this deeper, richer sound is not at the expense of immediacy. “The groove is the most important thing,” says Thackray. “Even if it's a tune that's really mad and free, all kinds of crazy shit happening, there's usually a groove there - an anchor, locking it down.” 

If Yellow sounds like an ecstatic live experience, that is intentional. Still, it conceals much about the way it was created. It features performances from Thackray’s long-term band – drummer Dougal Taylor, pianist Lyle Barton and tuba player Ben Kelly - caught in sessions between London and Margate. But it was in large part concocted in her home studio, Thackray cutting, splicing and multitracking vocal and instrumental takes until the finished compositions bore little resemblance to what went down in the studio. Take a track like “About That”. Its jockeying horns and licks of Rhodes give it the feel of an improv jam, but besides sampling from her drummer, it’s Thackray playing all the parts and lacing them together. Really, you might best understand what Thackray does through reference to auteur figures like Brian Wilson or Madlib, who straddle instrumentation, arrangement and production in order to bring the sound in their head to fruition. “My band don’t really get an opinion,” she laughs. “It's kind of like, ‘Thank you for this bit, I'm gonna take that away now.’ And then they don't see me for months. But there’s a love, and a trust, there.” 

Yorkshire is famous for its brass bands, a culture with its roots in the region’s coal mining communities. Thackray started her musical journey in primary school, playing a cornet her parents had bought her from a second-hand music shop, and by the age of 13 she was principal cornet in a local brass band. One day, downloading brass band recordings, she came across the Gil Evans arrangement of Miles Davis’ take on “Concierto De Aranjuez”, and it was an instant ‘mind blown’ moment. Soon, she was voraciously collecting jazz - Miles, Coltrane, anything with a cool sleeve. Still, her time in a brass band taught Thackray the power of a communal approach to music. “Sometimes in jazz, there can be ego. And it's, like: ‘How can I play my best stuff, how can I come off as being the winner of this?’ That was never my musical roots – it was always about making a nice sound together, as a unit.” 

Yellow is as rich lyrically as it is musically. Shot through with references to astrology and the cosmos, tracks like “Third Eye” and “Sun” grapple with ideas of spirituality and expanded consciousness. From her father, Thackray learned Taoism, an ancient eastern philosophical tradition, and became a student herself. “I was learning how to meditate from being a child,” says Thackray. “I picked up all these philosophical ideas. Like, everything is cyclical, life is cyclical. And the universe is in balance - this perfectly balanced system that’s all around you.” You can hear this in the two tracks that bookend Yellow, “Mercury” and “Mercury (In Retrograde)”. The latter is the former, reversed - the chord sequences, basslines and melodies spun backwards, the kick drum literally reversed to add to the sense of psychoacoustic disorientation. 

Thackray has always been a little bit out on her own. At the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama, she studied jazz under the free improviser Keith Tippett, all the while trying to turn her coursemates onto the sounds in her headphones (“Everyone wanted to like play bop – I was like, ‘Yeah, but have you heard this guy Madlib?’). After the Royal Welsh, she took a master’s in jazz orchestral composition at Trinity College alongside future names like Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia. But she says, she still “felt like an outsider”.  She formed her own band, and by 2016 she was playing rapturously received live shows across the capital. But she really found her sound alone, holed up in the instrument-packed home studio that occupies a room of her South London flat. Her 2018 EP Ley Lines found Thackray playing all the parts herself, including a clarinet she’d picked up for the first time 10 minutes before recording. 

It’s an unconventional approach, but one that gives Yellow a distinct vantage point, allowing Thackray to speak with honesty and truth. And there is real talk here. “Spectre” channels the language of a haunting to confront the harsh reality of depression. “Say Something” is an entreaty to empty vessels, a plea for people to talk with meaning, not just volume. But overwhelmingly, Yellow speaks the language of positivity. “Our People” and “Venus” feel in tune with some higher power, feats of communion that long to be experienced out on a dancefloor. On her 2020 track “Movementt”, Thackray chants her musical mantra  “Move the body, move the mind, move the soul”. It’s a principle by which she creates all her work – and Yellow is its boldest, brightest manifestation to date. 

 

Andrew Cyrille Quartet | "The News"

Andrew Cyrille’s album The News carries forward the story from The Declaration of Musical Independence, the 2014 ECM recording described by Down Beat as “an unabashed exploration into time, pulse space and atmosphere…ambitious yet simple, rich yet stripped-down, challenging yet infinitely satisfying.” The New York Times cited the album as evidence of a “late career renaissance” for the drummer.

A force in improvisation for more than sixty years, Cyrille has played across the landscape of jazz from Coleman Hawkins’s The Hawk Relaxes to Cecil Taylor’s Unit Structures, led his own bands, and worked extensively with Milford Graves, Walt Dickerson, David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and many, many more. His first ECM appearance was on 1970’s Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, Marion Brown’s album with Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, Bennie Maupin and Jeanne Lee. Half a century later Cyrille appeared with his Lebroba trio with Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Frisell at Lincoln Center’s 50th birthday tribute to the label.

For The News, recorded at Sound on Sound Studio in New Jersey in August 2019, David Virelles was drafted as last-minute replacement for old associate Richard Teitelbaum, whose involvement had been ruled out by ill-health. Virelles had previously played with Cyrille and Ben Street in contexts including the group Continuum. Gently guiding from the drums, Cyrille gives his revised line-up plenty of freedom while also shaping, subtly, the group’s sonic identity with his flowing sense of pulse.

The title track “The News” revisits a conceptual piece that Andrew first recorded on a solo percussion album, The Loop, made for the Italian Ictus label in the late 1970s. Here a newspaper is placed over the snare drum and toms and played with brushes. In the quartet version, Frisell, Virelles and Street all impressionistically extend its rustling, whispering textures on their own instruments.

“Leaving East of Jordan” is a tune by AACM-associated pianist Adegoke Steve Colson. Cyrille has previously played it both with its composer and with the group Trio 3 with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman. Cyrille’s “With You In Mind” is also a piece that has gone through diverse interpretations: there are earlier recorded interpretations in trio with Hentry Grimes and Bill McHenry and in duo with Greg Osby. Here the music takes off from Andrew’s unaccompanied spoken word introduction with the band amplifying its sentiments, with a particularly tender guitar solo from Bill Frisell.

The guitarist has three tunes here “Mountain”, “Baby” and “Go Happy Lucky”, the last of which, as an abstracted blues, has a distant kinship with Duke Ellington’s “Happy Go Lucky Local.” Frisell has recorded extensively for ECM, from early leader dates such as In Line and Rambler to the recent duet projects Small Town and Epistrophy with Thomas Morgan. Along the way there has also been a long association with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano documented on recordings from Psalm (1981) to Time and Time Again (2006). Frisell has also contributed to other recordings of enduring significance including Paul Bley’s Fragments, Kenny Wheeler’s Angel Song, Marc Johnson’s Bass Desires, Jan Garbarek’s Paths, Prints and Gavin Bryars’s After the Requiem. 

David Virelles. who contributes the tune “Incienso” to the programme and shares composer credits with Cyrille on the exploratory “Dance of the Nuances”, first appeared on ECM with Chris Potter in 2011. Albums with Tomasz Stanko followed (Wisława, December Avenue) as well as Virelles’s own recordings Mbókò, Antenna and Gnosis. 

Ben Street and Andrew Cyrille have collaborated in contexts including the trio of Danish pianist Søren Kjærgaard. The bassist’s ECM credits include albums with the Billy Hart Quartet (All Our Reasons, One Is The Other) the Ethan Iverson/Tom Harrell Quartet (Common Practice), and the Aaron Parks Trio (Find The Way).

Gregory Goodloe | "Somewhere Out There"

After releasing the single, “Cool Like That,” R&B-jazz guitarist Gregory Goodloe attempted to stay calm early in the COVID-19 pandemic despite the uncertainty and concern for his mother’s health. As we move closer to the other side of the pandemic, the man of faith ventured out earlier this year with a single, “Step’N Out,” that he wrote with fellow Billboard chart-topping guitarist Adam Hawley. Combining their energy felt so good that the pair reteamed to write the hopeful new single, “Somewhere Out There,” which drops August 27 on Hip Jazz Records ahead of its August 30 radio add date.  

As the world continues to recover and reemerge from the coronavirus, the Denver-based Goodloe is focused on moving forward. Produced by Hawley, Goodloe co-wrote “Somewhere Out There” to encourage and inspire. With a midtempo groove anchored by drummer Eric Valentine and bassist Melvin Brown, Goodloe’s lyrical fretwork and cool-toned electric jazz guitar calisthenics evoke his iconic influencers: George Benson and Wes Montgomery.  

“The title ‘Somewhere Out There’ came to me as a reflection of hope in an ever-changing world. Adam and I wrote the song with inspiration in our hearts, determined to face what’s ahead positively, and with hope for a brighter tomorrow. We wrote the track purposely to be an upbeat, feel-good tune. The song is bright and just feels so good, with its toe tapping steady groove and arrangement,” said Goodloe, who recently made his return to live concert performances at the Keystone Wine & Jazz Festival in Keystone, Colorado.

Two years ago, Goodloe scored his first Billboard No. 1 single, “Stylin’,” a collaboration with GRAMMY-nominated songwriter-producer-saxophonist Darren Rahn that has garnered more than three million Spotify streams. After a successful outing last year with urban-jazz keyboardist Bob Baldwin on “Cool Like That,” which was Billboard’s No. 1 most added single in its debut week, the guitarist began a fruitful creative relationship with Hawley. 

“Adam Hawley is a genius arranger/producer with a feel for music that is extraordinary,” gushed Goodloe who wrote, produced and performed his debut recording project, “It’s All Good” (2016), entirely on his own.

Since the self-taught musician and US Army veteran arrived on the scene, Goodloe has performed with or opened for a wide variety of R&B, jazz and gospel headliners, including Howard Hewett, Tank, Ben Tankard, Norman Brown, Dave Koz, Brian Culbertson, Michael McDonald, James Ingram, Roy Ayers, Shirley Caesar, Angela Spivey, John P. Key, The Rance Allen Group and fellow Denver native Larry Dunn of Earth, Wind & Fire fame. Goodloe has also served as musical director for R&B-pop group Surface and soul-jazz singer Aysha.

With the upcoming release of “Somewhere Out There,” Goodloe has his sights firmly set on the promise that lays ahead, saying “We can believe in our dreams and hold on to hope for a brighter tomorrow.”