The Mark Masters Ensemble | "Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster"

Duke Ellington was one of the most iconic and influential composers in the history of jazz, crafting indelible music that continues to be revered and revived to this day. Arguably the pinnacle of his artistry occurred between 1940 and 1942, when his revered Orchestra featured the groundbreaking bassist Jimmie Blanton and the tenor saxophone master Ben Webster. For a genius composer who famously wrote for musicians rather than instruments, this era of the Duke Ellington Orchestra – now known as the Blanton-Webster Band – proved especially inspirational to both Ellington and his frequent collaborator, composer Billy Strayhorn.

That inspiration is carried forward by the brilliant arranger and bandleader Mark Masters, who revisits the music of the Blanton-Webster Band on his latest album, reimagining these classic compositions with his own unique interpretation. In addition to his own virtuosic Mark Masters Ensemble, the project spotlights the legendary Art Baron, the last trombonist hired by Ellington himself in 1973. Baron occupied the plunger trombone chair, a standout element of the Ellington Orchestra, for the final year of the bandleader’s life, and continued with the band under the baton of the founder’s son, Mercer Ellington.

Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster, due out June 18, 2021 via Capri Records, is a generation-spanning summit meeting that offers a fresh perspective on some of jazz’s greatest compositions. In contrast to Baron’s direct link to Ellington’s storied past, special guest Tim Hagans adds a decidedly contemporary twist with his bold, modernist approach to the trumpet.

The Mark Masters Ensemble brings together a supremely gifted group of musicians to conjure Masters’ distinctive palette: four saxophones (Kirsten Edkins and Jerry Pinter splitting Webster’s tenor duties along with Danny House on alto and clarinet and Adam Schroeder on baritone); three trumpets in addition to Hagans (Scott Englebright, Les Lovitt and Ron Stout); trombonists Les Benedict and Dave Woodley alongside Baron; bassist Bruce Lett filling Blanton’s role; and drummer Mark Ferber.

“All eras of Ellington interest me,” Masters says. “But the Blanton-Webster Band represents a really remarkable period of time. Jimmie Blanton is credited with revolutionizing the role of the bass in the jazz orchestra, making it a melodic contributor instead of just keeping time and laying out basic harmony. And Ben Webster was quite simply a giant. It just so happened that the two of them were in the band at the same time, and then you add all the great Ellington and Strayhorn compositions to that.”

The project’s inception can be traced back to 2013, when Masters invited Baron to perform at an Ellington Brass Encounters concert in Southern California. “Art is one of a kind as a player and as a person,” Masters explains. “He’s a great student of the music and knows all the history, plus he’s an original with a unique sound. It was a joy to be able to craft my writing specifically for him and that plunger mute specialty.”

Hagans’ inventive sound introduces a singular element all its own to several pieces, including a stunning muted solo on Masters’ deconstructed “Take the ‘A’ Train.” As Masters describes, “Tim is another one of a kind. I’ve introduced him at concerts as ‘an improviser who has created his own language,’ and there aren't many people that do that. His language is so unique, and I thought it would be interesting to include an element that you wouldn't normally associate with Ellington.”

The material on Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster include some of the most familiar and oft-revisited titles in the Ellington-Strayhorn canon, including “Ko-Ko,” “In a Mellotone,” “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing,” “I Got it Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” and of course, “Take the ‘A’ Train,” among others. Discovering a new angle on such well-worn repertoire might prove daunting to most arrangers; but for Masters, who specializes in recomposing music – taking the composition as raw material to be reworked to sometimes unrecognizable degrees – the familiarity proved freeing. In many cases his transformations required only the most tenuous resemblance to the originals in order to evoke their spirit while becoming an entirely new piece of music.

“All of the tunes are so well known that there would be no point in just going ahead and doing another arrangement of, say, ‘Take the ‘A’ Train,” he says. “I feel like I left enough that people can hear the tunes, but recomposed them enough to make them something of my own and something worth recording again. These classic Ellington compositions have been recorded countless times over the last 25 years, and some people don't want to touch them because they are such classics. But I always want to use the source material to do something dramatically different.”

Long recognized as one of the great jazz arrangers of the last few decades, Mark Masters formed his first ensemble in 1982. He’s gone on to found the non-profit American Jazz Institute and has recorded tributes to Jimmy Knepper, Clifford Brown, Dewey Redman and other greats. The vehicle for his transformative orchestrations, The Mark Masters Ensemble, has featured some of the music’s most revered performers, including Billy Harper, Tim Hagans, Gary Smulyan, Peter Erskine, Steve Kuhn, Ray Drummond and Oliver Lake. His most recent album, Night Talk, delved deep into the catalogue of composer Alex Wilder, whose sophisticated approach blended jazz, classical and American popular song influences. Prior to that Masters reimagined works by Gerry Mulligan and Charles Mingus on 2017’s acclaimed Blue Skylight and assembled an all-star band of creative musicians to perform his own original works for Our Métier (2018). He has been named a Rising Star Arranger in the annual DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll on numerous occasions.

 

New Music: Joss Stone, Gaetano Letizia, Jon Gordon, Blue Moods

Joss Stone - Never Forget My Love

New album from Grammy and Brit-award winning artist freshly signed to Dave Stewart's Bay Street Records. Co-written and produced by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and recorded at Blackbird Studios, Nashville. Bay Street Records is proud to announce ‘Never Forget My Love’, the new album by GRAMMY Award-winning singer songwriter Joss Stone. With worldwide sales in excess of 15 million albums, Joss Stone is without question among the most iconic soul singers of the modern era, whose remarkable career now spans two decades. Produced by Bay Street Records founder Dave Stewart, and co-written by Stewart and Stone, the duo wrote every song for the album on acoustic guitar at Bay Street Studios in the Bahamas before recording them at Nashville's famed Blackbird Studios. The project marks Stone's first full length LP in more than five years as well as her first new music with Stewart in over a decade. Describing it, Joss says, "You know – think of Dusty Springfield, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick – those kinds of classy, timeless songs. Think long gloves and a dress."

Gaetano Letizia - Chartreuse

Gaetano Letizia does not like labels. The guitarist, composer, and vocalist (whom friends and fans know as “Tom”) fronts a jazz band, whose music is inflected with reggae, R&B, blues, funk, and soul.  Letizia also fronts another band, a popular blues trio, called Underworld Blues Band, that features his blazing electric solos, and slide and nylon string guitar mastery. Letizia’s newest project, Chartreuse, featuring the Gaetano Letizia Jazz Quintet, his eleventh album as a leader, is a multi-genre jazz suite of original compositions that showcases his expansive creativity and serious guitar chops. The music on Chartreuse is modern and pleasantly unpredictable. “I prefer to not try and fit in to any particular genre,” says Letizia. “I make extensive use of jazz harmonies and leave plenty of room for improvisation, but I like the freedom to explore whatever style or musical idea crosses my mind at the time.” Indeed, if you listen carefully, you can hear the influence of jazz greats like Wes Montgomery, perhaps Letizia’s favorite, as well as George Benson, Jim Hall, Grant Green, and Pat Martino, with whom Letizia was friends and took some lessons with while staying at Martino’s house. With influences of jazz, blues, funk, reggae, and classical, the music on Chartreuse does not fit easily into one category. But that is precisely what makes it so engaging. Letizia’s fluent guitar playing, improvisations and creative compositions are the work of an artist at the peak of his powers.

Jon Gordon - Stranger Than Fiction

Jon Gordon is one of the most accomplished and in demand alto and soprano saxophonists of his generation. A past winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, Gordon has made multiple appearances in Downbeat Magazine’s critics poll over the years. His past recordings have been consistently celebrated for their unique brilliance. Gordon’s new ArtistShare release Stranger Than Fiction is a nonet project of all original music. It features faculty members and former students from the University of Manitoba jazz program - where Gordon teaches - alongside special guests from across North America, including jazz greats Orrin Evans, John Ellis, and Alan Ferber, among others. Stranger Than Fiction is an incredible addition to an already remarkable catalogue of music.

Blue Moods - Myth & Wisdom

The moods here are anything but blue – as the group's got an upbeat, positive way of laying into a tune right from the start – as they take on a range of compositions by Charles Mingus, but all served up in a lean quartet formation that really helps transform the songs! Diego Rivera is often in the lead on tenor, and the rest of the group features Boris Kozlov on bass, Joe Strasser on drums, and Art Hirihara on piano – save for a few tracks where David Kikoski comes in on the keys! If you dig Mingus as much as us, you'll recognize most of the melodies – but the treatment is nicely fresh, and also not nearly as slavish as some other Mingus-related projects – really breathing new life into songs that include "Reincarnation Of A Lovebird", "Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress", "Nostalgia In Times Square", "Tonight At Noon", "Better Get It In Your Soul", and "Pithecathropus Erectus". ~ Dusty Groove

Tomas Fujiwara | "Triple Double"

Parsing out the various combinations possible within Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double feels something like wandering through a hall of mirrors. Look at it one way and you might see two horn/guitar/drum trios; turn slightly and suddenly it becomes three paired artists taking their shared instruments in radically different directions. Despite the unusual instrumentation of the ensemble, however, Triple Double is at its core a group of six distinctive individuals, each among the most innovative and singular voices in contemporary creative music – drummers Tomas Fujiwara and Gerald Cleaver, guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, and trumpeter Ralph Alessi and cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum. 

On the sextet’s second album, March (due out March 4, 2022 via Firehouse 12 Records), Triple Double has also become a band in the most thrilling sense, sharing a scintillating chemistry and a sense of musical mission that remains evident no matter how far apart the various pairings and triplings stretch the music in far-flung directions.

“On the first album [2017’s Triple Double], the band was still relatively new,” Fujiwara explains. “There were a few people in the group that had never played together before. Since then we’ve spent a lot more time touring and playing together, so I feel like those connections and the rapport within the group have really deepened. That influenced my writing for this album because now I had a reference point for different places the band had gone, and I was also conscious of where else I wanted to push us as a group.”

The formation of Triple Double did bring together some new pairings – Alessi and Bynum had never crossed paths, and the drummers had never had the opportunity to share the stage despite Fujiwara’s longheld admiration for Cleaver. At the same time, the grouping also reconvened some well-established hook-ups (to borrow the name of another Fujiwara ensemble). Bynum and Halvorson are both among Fujiwara’s most frequent collaborators, in each other’s ensembles as well as (in Fujiwara and Halvorson’s case) in the collective trio Thumbscrew. Triple Double grew out of a trio that the drummer formed with Alessi and Seabrook.

“When I first put the band together I made a pretty exhaustive list of all the different combinations of the six of us,” Fujiwara says. “On this album I really wanted to hone in on the subtle shifts that can happen with the addition and subtraction of different musicians in the ensemble. It feels like there are endless possibilities, which is really exciting.”

Opener “Pack Up, Coming For You” offers perhaps the most explicit example. The tune begins with the trio of Fujiwara, Bynum and Halvorson. After they trade improvisations their counterparts emerge and the second trio takes over for a time. Finally all six combine and the full scope of the group dynamic is revealed. Like its predecessor, March includes an improvised duet by Fujiwara and Cleaver in tribute to the bandleader’s childhood teacher, Alan Dawson.

The unique combination of instruments is in some ways a challenge, offering little guidance for a composer. At the same time, Fujiwara found the lack of precedent refreshing. “Not having a blueprint can be challenging,” he explains, “but at the same time it can be quite liberating and inspiring. If you’re leading a guitar trio and want to do something personal with it, it can be difficult to get out from under the shadow of all the great guitar trios that came before. With this there isn't that history, so it takes away expectations. That challenge is fun for me.”

Fujiwara took on several disparate challenges in the crafting of March. His vibraphone playing is given a much more prominent role, while the floating, airy “Life Only Gets More” was instigated by the fact that drummers are so rarely asked to solo over ballads. The album was also recorded fairly quickly and spontaneously, despite the challenging material – an approach prompted by Fujiwara’s love of classic Blue Note Records.

“On many of the sessions they would just call in a group of musicians, they’d show up, the bandleader would have some charts on the music stand, they’d run through them and just record them. And yet they're now eternal classics that we love. I wanted to capture some of that magic.”

Like the name of the ensemble, the new album’s title also folds multiple meanings into a deceptively simple word. At its most basic, March is the month of the album release – but of course it’s a loaded date, falling exactly two years after much of the world went into pandemic lockdown and ensembles like Triple Double were suddenly indefinitely separated. The gulf has proved a long one for this band in particular, having recorded the album in late 2019.

But March also implies movement, as suggested by the felt assemblages that grace the album’s colorful artwork. The multi-hued group embracing on the cover could be dancers stepping in rhythm or protesters parading for a cause. All of those meanings danced in Fujiwara’s head as he penned the music for March, especially as he titled the tunes in the midst of the tense protests that erupted throughout 2020.

“There's something about marching that is very evocative to me,” the drummer explains. “It's a coordinated activity that always has a group intent behind it – which could be peaceful, violent, revolutionary, stifling or joyful. Marching can take on so many different forms, but it's always a group activity for a group cause that represents those intentions or feelings by a show of numbers together in one direction. Oftentimes it's not about getting from point A to point B, it's simply the act of marching and of being together that expresses the point.”

Described as “a ubiquitous presence in the New York scene…an artist whose urbane writing is equal to his impressively nuanced drumming,” Brooklyn-based Tomas Fujiwara is an active player in some of the most exciting music of the current generation. He leads the bands Triple Double (with Gerald Cleaver, Mary Halvorson, Brandon Seabrook, Ralph Alessi, and Taylor Ho Bynum), 7 Poets Trio (with Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid), and Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up (with Jonathan Finlayson, Brian Settles, Halvorson, and Michael Formanek); has a collaborative duo with Bynum; is a member of the collective trio Thumbscrew (with Halvorson and Formanek); and engages in a diversity of creative work with Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Halvorson, Matana Roberts, Joe Morris, Bynum, Nicole Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, Reid, Amir ElSaffar, Benoit Delbecq, and many others. In 2021, he won the DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Drummer, and premiered two suites of new music as part of his Roulette Residency: “You Don’t Have to Try” (with Meshell Ndegeocello) and “Shizuko” (with Bynum, Reid, Rafiq Bhatia, and Davi Vieira). “Drummer Tomas Fujiwara works with rhythm as a pliable substance, solid but ever shifting. His style is forward-driving but rarely blunt or aggressive, and never random. He has a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting up a rigorous scaffolding of restraint…A conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.”

Terell Stafford and The Temple University Jazz Band | "Without You, No Me Honoring The Legacy Of Jimmy Heath"

January 19, 2020, bears a bittersweet tinge in Terell Stafford’s memory. On one hand, Temple University’s Director of Jazz and Instrumental Studies recalls that day with a great deal of pride and celebration, as the Temple University Jazz Band took top honors in the inaugural Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

That same night, however, Stafford received the sad news that the legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath had died at the age of 93. Since their days touring together with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band, Stafford had been fortunate to call Heath a friend, a colleague, a mentor, and a confidante. 

“Jimmy Heath was an incredible human being,” Stafford says. “When I got the phone call saying that he had just passed, I was totally devastated and broken. The next day I called Temple Dean Robert T. Stroker and said, ‘I hope we can find a way to honor Mr., Heath this year.’ So, we started to prepare some music -- and then the pandemic hit.” 

Ah yes, that by now familiar refrain. At this writing, more than a year and a half later, January 2020 feels like a lifetime ago. The events of last year hardly bear repeating; no matter where you read these words and hear this music, the Covid-19 pandemic had its effect on your existence. It certainly disrupted the lives of the students and faculty at Temple, though the music, as always, found a way. 

Thanks to the tenacity and ingenuity of Stafford and his colleagues, Without You, No Me is the second new album released by the Temple University Jazz Band in the wake of the pandemic. The first, the aptly titled Covid Sessions: A Social Call, was recorded long-distance, in student’s homes across the country, via the innovative portable sound rigs devised by Grammy and Emmy Award- winning recording engineer John Harris and Temple Music Technology Professor Dr. David Pasbrig. 

Without You, No Me was captured at much closer range. The musicians were able to convene in the spacious confines of the Temple Performing Arts Center in April 2021, with filters and covers over the bells of the horn players and breaks every half hour for air exchange. The 12 feet of space and plexiglass dividers between them were less than optimal but still an improvement over the miles and days that had separated them on their previous outing. Harris and Pasbrig’s rigs were dusted off to facilitate this session’s special guests, bassist Christian McBride and organist Joey DeFrancesco. 

Whatever the obstacles presented by these most unprecedented of circumstances, it was clearly worth it to honor an artist who has meant so much to the music and to the city of Philadelphia as well as to Temple University, its students, and its director. Along with his brothers, bassist Percy and drummer Albert “Tootie,” Jimmy Heath is Philly jazz royalty, a master saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who has contributed several tunes to the jazz canon, including “CTA,” “Gingerbread Boy,” and “For Minors Only.” 

The title track of the present album, “Without You, No Me,” was originally commissioned by Dizzy Gillespie and named in the iconic trumpeter’s honor. Here it comes full circle, acknowledging the foundational influence that Jimmy Heath has had on generations of jazz musicians, Terell Stafford among them. Famous for his teasing, pun-happy nicknames, Heath christened the younger trumpeter “Staff Inflection.” 

“He was almost like a father to me,” Stafford explains. “When I started at Temple, he was the first person I called. He gave me such great advice: ‘Just teach yourself,’ he said. ‘Teach who you are. Figure out what you do, how you do it and teach that. And that will be what the students will need.’ He would constantly call to check on the students and came to the school whenever he could to conduct master classes and give concerts at Temple.” 

In the same spirit Todd Bashore, a former student of Mr. Heath’s at Queens College, composed album opener “Passing of the Torch” in honor of his mentor. Heath’s compositional gifts are further represented by “The Voice of the Saxophone,” rendered in lush and vibrant hues by this stellar ensemble. 

Tragically, Jimmy Heath was not the only loss that Philadelphia endured over the past year. The great tenor saxophonist Bootsie Barnes, a linchpin of the Philly jazz scene, passed in April at the age of 82. The young saxophonist and bandleader Jack Saint Clair, a Temple alumnus, composed the rollicking “Bootsie” in Barnes’ honor, its muscular yet relaxed swing offering a knowing portrait of the wryly laconic jazzman. 

Saint Clair also contributes a brassy rendition of the standard “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone” and a sultry arrangement of a piece from another Philly jazz giant, organist Shirley Scott, with whom Bootsie shared the stage many times. Both tracks showcase the clarion vocals of Danielle Dougherty while Scott’s “The Blues Ain’t Nothin’ (But Some Pain)” encourages the band to dig deep into their own blues to capture the tune’s sense of heartache and remorse. 

Hall of Fame basketball coach John Chaney, who led Temple to 17 NCAA tournaments during his 24 seasons at the University, was another icon in the city whose influence reached far beyond the court. The night he died in January; Christian McBride called Stafford to suggest an homage to Chaney. The bass great composed “The Wise Old Owl,” inspired by the school’s avian mascot as well as the coach’s reputation as a sage counselor to so many of his students. The tune unfolds with a nail-biting dramatic arc that vividly conveys Chaney’s grace under pressure, an elegant demeanor that suddenly erupts into kinetic action. 

McBride lends his robust voice to John Clayton’s vigorous arrangement of the classic “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” engaging in a spirited dialogue between his nimble, eloquent bass and the joyous ensemble. To close the album, he’s reunited with lifelong friend Joey DeFrancesco (albeit remotely) for a brisk romp through living legend saxophonist Larry McKenna’s arrangement of Juan Tizol’s “Perdido,” which prompts blistering turns from both virtuosic Philly natives. DeFrancesco’s jaw-dropping organ skills are on full display on his own “In That Order,” which the great pianist Bill Cunliffe arranged for the occasion. 

The title Without You, No Me acknowledges a debt to the past, one that is paid by keeping memories alive. While it’s safe to say that much about this album falls under the category of the unforgettable – recorded during an unforgettable period in history, undertaken in honor of some of the city and the music’s most unforgettable visionaries – it nonetheless repays that debt with dazzling enthusiasm and gratitude. As Jimmy Heath once wrote about his relationship to Dizzy Gillespie, the experience is “like being on a musical mountaintop or hitting a high note.” 

Jo Harrop | " Everything's Changing"

Jazz vocalist and songwriter Jo Harrop has released her new single ‘Everything’s Changing’, the third release from her hugely anticipated new studio album, The Heart Wants. Recorded in London and produced by Hannah V (who has worked with everyone from JP Cooper to Stormzy), Everything’s Changing was written by Harrop, Hannah V, Sam Watts and Natalie Williams and features Tony Kofi (saxophone), Andy Davies (trumpet) and the Debs White String Quartet.

“’Everything’s Changing’ was written mid-lockdown when confusion and frustration were setting in and people had been cooped up in their homes - some not seeing another soul for months,” says Harrop. “It’s a song that was inspired by that time, but it also transcends it.”

“During lockdown, like most people, I was struggling. I wanted to write a song that gave some sense of hope. Whatever it is you’re going through, no matter how scared you are, reach out and hang in there, because you are not alone. I often write songs about love and relationships, but a song about hope and supporting each other during hard times seemed important.”

Born in Durham and raised on a heady musical diet of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin, Jo Harrop cut her teeth as a session singer, working with a host of iconic artists including Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart and Gloria Gaynor.

After moving to London, she quickly established herself as one of the most unmistakable voices in British jazz. Having signed to London-based jazz label, Lateralize Records, she recently received a raft of rapturous reviews for Weathering The Storm, her debut with guitarist, Jamie McCredie. The Guardian dubbed it “a little gem of an album: simple, modest and perfect,” whilst BBC 6 Music’s Iggy Pop fell in love with her voice, calling her “a very fine jazz singer.”

Alex Norris | "Fleet From The Heat"



Trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and educator Alex Pope Norris is one of these artists. However, the cognoscenti has long been fully aware of Norris’ prodigiousness, and it is high time the world got hip to an artist who has conquered the unwieldiness of the trumpet and brought forth music worthy of our attention in the process. Norris is a true melodicist, and an improvisor who eats up chord changes in a Freddie-like and Lee-like fashion. His solos have an easy elegance that belies their rigorous architecture. His technique doesn’t call attention to itself; instead of flashy showboating, his craftsmanship allows the busiest passages to develop without advertising the dexterity they require. All that, plus a lambent, radiant tone, makes him an exceptionally lyrical but no less fiery improviser. 

Alex Pope Norris, who has appeared on close to 90 recordings as a sideman (many of them on Steeplechase), now celebrates the ten-plus year anniversary of his Quintet, with Fleet From The Heat, his debut on Steeplechase Records, and his third recording as a leader. The album is comprised of a combination of old and new material, much of it workshopped and performed at Smalls in NYC since 2008. The members of the band, Norris’ “go-to Quintet,” tenor saxophonist Ari Ambrose, pianist Jeremy Manasia, bassist Paul Gill and drummer Brian Floody, are all veteran New York City jazz musicians. “We’ve known each other in various contexts for more than 25 years,” Norris states proudly, and you can hear their history in how the musicians breathe and connect; the way that one solo dovetails with the next; and the seamlessness of the rhythm section, which provides a supportive springboard for dazzling improvisations. 

If these virtues recall the classic bands of Horace Silver and Art Blakey, and recordings by Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter, mission accomplished. Norris worships that sound, and capturing the spirit of those bands was a goal for Fleet From The Heat. Norris explains, “most of my career in jazz has been as a sideman. I have played in many of the top big bands, countless small group projects ranging from the traditional to the highly complex and experimental, covering a wide range of styles, and have been deeply involved with a plethora of Latin Jazz projects over the years. With this Steeplechase release, I’m trying to represent a side of my playing and writing that draws on my love for swinging, straight-ahead Jazz, with an old spirit for an ever-changing world.” 

The opportunity for Norris to record his Quintet came directly from Nils Winther, owner of Steeplechase. “He knew my playing through my sideman appearances on other Steeplechase sessions by George Colligan, Ari Ambrose (who appears on this recording), and saxophonist Gregory Tardy. In fact, it was Tardy who recommended to Nils that he record me as a leader for Steeplechase,” explains Norris. 

Fleet From the Heat – Norris composed the title track in 2008 upon his return to New York City after living in Miami, Florida for four years. “I look at this tune as a reclaiming of New York City as my home, physically and artistically.” 

No Fair, It’s Mine – A jazz waltz composed circa 2013, on the piano while visiting his father in the D.C. suburbs. “I was hearing some kids play ball outside, and one of them exclaimed, ‘No Fair, It’s Mine,’ which seemed like a good title to me. 

Tracks 3-6 (“What Normal,” “Quarandemic,” “Ballad For 2020,” & “Dude, Where’s My Deli”) comprise a suite that Norris calls, “The Famous Original Pandemic Suite.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek title, as many musicians and artists created works during the COVID lockdown of 2020 with references to COVID (such as, “The Pandemic Suite,” “The COVID Suite,” “The Pandemic Symphony,” “The Lockdown Opera,” etc . . .). “I was thinking about how in New York there are (or were) many pizza shops all over Manhattan claiming to be the “Famous Original Ray’s Pizza,” or same variation. I never knew which Famous Original Ray’s was the original! So, I decided to title this suite of new tunes the “Famous Original Pandemic Suite,” knowing full well that it’s not the first . . . that’s how it is tongue-in- cheek!” In naming the suite as he did, Norris affectionately tweaks this minor absurdity of New York life – a small detail that helps solidify Fleet From the Heat as an unsentimental love letter to New York City, in rough times as well as good. 

What Normal? – Norris’ reaction to the plethora of news bearing the advice or instruction about how we all have to get used to this “new normal.” “I thought to myself . . . we’re Jazz musicians, we have no normal. What Normal?!?! 

Quarandemic – A portmanteau combining quarantine and pandemic. “I have the rhythm section repetitive ostinatos representing the sameness and repetitiveness of life during lockdown times, with a floating melody overtop representing the search and desire for change in the monotony.” 

Ballad for 2020 – 2020 was a devastating year for people around the world; from the loss of lives to the upheaval of our ways of life, sources of income, and being closed off from friends and family. “I’ve never written a ballad before, so I felt this was a good opportunity to challenge myself, artistically, to write a piece of music in dedication to everything we all went through.” 

Dude, Where’s My Deli? – “I had a deli across the street from my apartment. It was overpriced and funky, and it was open 24 hours, always there when you needed it! Like so many businesses in my neighborhood, it closed during the pandemic. This song, a boogaloo (a groove that I’m a fan of) is an homage to the little spots in NYC we loved that left us during the pandemic. 

Holiday Blues – Norris composed this during the Winter of 2008, close to Christmas, and it serves as an ad-hoc homage to Norris’ Seasonal Affective Disorder. Simultaneously, it’s a simpler tune from Norris that’s obviously fun to play. 

Night Bus – “This tune was written in the 1990’s. I came up with the opening three-note motive while riding on a bus at night. The next day, when I was able to get near a piano, I was able to develop the rest of the tune with a productive flow that I haven’t been able to replicate yet.” 

The Untamed Land – Norris created this theme while touring the Midwest. “The theme sort of overlaps itself, which reminds me of the rolling fields of the Midwest that seem to overlap each other. I was also inspired by Jackie McLean’s writing on this one.” 

Grapple With A Snapple – As most people who know jazz can guess, it’s a line composed over the changes to “Scrapple From the Apple” (Norris hates the word “contrafact”).

Le Coq Records Presents The Jazz All Stars Vol. 2

Few jazz labels are able to launch with as impressive a roster already in place as Le Coq Records did when it released The Jazz All Stars Vol. 1 last January. A year later the imprint has more than lived up to the audaciously high bar set by that inaugural release, having built a stunning catalogue of releases by such greats as bassist John Patitucci, pianist Bill Cunliffe, saxophonist Rick Margitza, and vocalists Andy James and Tommy Ward.

To kick off what promises to be an equally remarkable year two, the label will release a second volume of its trademark “honest jazz” featuring its ever-growing family of brilliant musicians. Le Coq Records presents The Jazz All Stars Vol. 2, showcases not only the virtuoso musicianship of many of contemporary jazz’s most in-demand players, but this time out shines a brighter spotlight on the compositional gifts of Le Coq contributors like Cunliffe and keyboardist/arranger John Beasley, alongside aptly-chosen standards and jazz classics.

“The Jazz All Stars Vol. 2 shows a little of everything Le Coq is about, from its compositional temperament to the high sonic quality,” says label founder Piero Pata. “, “There’s quite a mix of sounds and styles, and I feel that the album really shows off the talents of our wonderful artists. John Patitucci holds everything together magnificently so that Andy James’ gorgeous vocals and the dazzling solos of Chris Potter, Rick Margitza and Terell Stafford – just to name a few – can shine.”

Much of the roster on the new release has returned from Volume 1, including Cunliffe and Beasley; bassists Patitucci and Chris Colangelo; drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Marvin “Smitty” Smith; percussionist Alex Acuña; trumpeter Terell Stafford; saxophonist Margitza; guitarist Jake Langley and vocalist James, among others.

Volume 2 bolsters the line-up with such heavy hitters as saxophonists Chris Potter and Bob Sheppard; bassist Ben Williams; drummers Marcus Gilmore and Terreon Gully; trombonist Michael Dease; keyboardist Jon Cowherd; guitarists Russell Malone and Paul Jackson Jr.; and trumpeter Rashawn Ross.

This staggering stable of in-demand artists harkens back to the music’s golden age, a time when (jazz) giants walked the earth and crossed paths in myriad combinations under the auspices of their shared labels. Pata conceived of that model when he dreamed of gathering the greatest modern musicians to record for Le Coq.

“We wanted to get back to the old adage of having a pool of artists that could achieve anything the label required for its next goal,” Pata explains. “There are obviously many wonderful players we at Le Coq would love to record with. That will come, I hope!”

Like its predecessor, The Jazz All Stars Vol. 2 features the label’s unique take on some classic favorites, both arranged by the Grammy-winning Bill Cunliffe and featuring the entrancing vocals of Andy James. The Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach standard “Yesterdays” is given a bold treatment perfect for James’ unsentimental nostalgia, highlighted by an eloquent Chris Potter solo. Horace Silver’s “Doodlin’” is propelled by the robust swing of bassist Chris Colangelo and drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith, wonderfully matched by James’ sassy playfulness.

In addition to his striking arrangements, Cunliffe contributed most of the original compositions for the album and has been a key contributor to Le Coq since its early days. “Bill Cunliffe has been the backbone of the label’s writing talent since its inception,” Pata says. “He has been essential to the label’s vision of ‘honest jazz.’ His value has been enormous, especially on the big arrangements. He is wonderful at this style of writing. Maybe he has a foot in the past – but with a modern twist.”

Marcus Gilmore’s rollicking drums kick off the album on Cunliffe’s original piece “Whatever You Say,” soon joined by the sparring of Chris Potter’s tenor and Terell Stafford’s on trumpet. The composer’s arrangement summons the vigor and brio of a big band from the ensemble, setting the stage for the dancing agility of Cunliffe’s piano solo. Margitza’s breathy tenor conjures the mysterious atmosphere of “Witches,” a mood picked up and carried forward by Colangelo’s probing bassline. Cunliffe comps delightfully for Margitza’s sinuous solo.

The pianist makes direct reference to the pre-pandemic era on his wistful “The Before Times,” with its aching melody expressed beautifully by Terell Stafford. Grammy winner John Beasley contributes the funky, sauntering “Freddie’s Blues,” featuring incisive solos by guitarists Russell Malone and Paul Jackson Jr., a blistering turn by Dave Matthews Band trumpeter Rashawn Ross, and a bass solo by Ben Williams that digs deep.

Jake Langley’s shimmering guitar, Alex Acuña’s multi-hued percussion and Vinnie Colaiuta’s rock solid drumming lay the foundation for “Balinda,” with Margitza weaving the mesmerizing melody before spinning inventive variations in his solo. Patitucci and Marcus Gilmore take Cunliffe’s “Around the Corner” for a laid-back but robust stroll, with interlaced horn lines over top. The album closes with the lovely, swaying “Danse,” evoking lyrical solos from Colangelo, Cunliffe and Langley.

With a core of amazing talent now joined by a host of incredible new voices, Le Coq Records presents The Jazz All Stars Vol. 2 offers a vibrant calling card for a label quickly taking its place at the vanguard of modern jazz. Best of all, there’s plenty more to come in 2022.

Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves | "Reconvexo"

Brazilian 7-string guitarist Marcello Gonçalves and New York-based, clarinetist , turn their attention to the deep well of music from the Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) songbook.

Artists around the world responded to the forced isolation brought about by the 2020 pandemic in various ways. In Brazil, superstars such as Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil (who, amazingly, will all be celebrating their 80th birthday in 2022) shared performances from their homes, performing their hit songs for their fans. Performing in this new format, for people in need of healing and comfort that music can provide, further strengthened the already deep impact these melodies and lyrics had on Brazilian culture. 

Among those fans were Anat Cohen and Marcello Gonçalves, quarantined in Rio. As Marcello puts it: “I've been dreaming of Anat singing those words through her clarinet, imagining how her unique way of interpreting melodies would powerfully convey the message of the lyrics to anyone familiar with them, even when played instrumentally.” When listening to these quarantine-era performances, “each one of these concerts reminded me of songs that I could play with Anat, so this project made even more sense to be done at this moment.” 

Against the backdrop of a country and a world turning inward, distilling the importance of music in the lives of so many, the duo set out to record an album inspired by the beauty of Brazil, and the spirit of its people. The result is at once intimate and virtuosic, mournful and hopeful, soaked with the feeling expressed uniquely in the Portuguese language as saudade – bittersweet, at once deeply happy and sad, and full of emotion. 

The songs chosen for  come from Brazil’s greatest composers and song-smiths, including the aforementioned Veloso, Nascimento and Gil, and also from Dorival Caymmi, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, as well as Venezuelan Heraclio Hernandez, and closing out the album, “Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” by Stevie Wonder.  

Reconvexo (Caetano Veloso) – Caetano was in Rome and saw cars full of dust. He was impressed when learning that it was the Saharan dust, and later came up with this phrase that starts the song: “I am the rain that casts the Saharan dust on Rome's cars / Eu sou a chuva que lança a areia do Saara sobre os automóveis de Roma.” Caetano was born in Recôncavo Baiano, a Region in the State of Bahia. Salvador, the capital of Bahia, is known as The Black Rome. It’s the city with the most African descendants outside of Africa. If Rome is the capital of Catholic Church, Salvador is the capital of Afro-Brazilian religions. This song is a samba de roda, a musical genre born in the Afro-Brazilian culture of Bahia. Samba de roda is kind of the opposite of Bossa Nova. While Bossa Nova simplified the rhythm of samba and enriched the harmony, samba de roda has a simple harmony but a complex rhythm. In our duo version, the syncopation is challenging since there is no percussion to hold down the rhythmic pulse. 

Ânima (Zé Renato/Milton Nascimento) – Zé Renato composed the melody of this song and sent it to Chico Buarque to write the lyrics. However, on a visit to Nascimento’s house, he played this melody and the rest is history. With Chico’s approval, Nascimento ended up writing the lyrics and it became one of his hits. In Jung’s philosophy, Anima is the feminine part of a man, and symbolizes virtues as sensibility, inspiration and creativity. This song talks about a man that, on a quest, after traveling and experiencing many things, realizes that, the “soul goes beyond everything our world dares to perceive, or, Alma vai além de tudo que o nosso mundo ousa perceber.” Not being able to travel, the year of 2020 offered a moment to focus on our own souls. In the pianissimo parts of our version, Anat is singing Alma with her clarinet. Alma means Soul. 

O que é que a baiana tem? (Dorival Caymmi) – This song talks about the beauty of the woman from Bahia, the Baiana, and asks repeatedly, “What does a baiana have?” Caymmi described a whole new world in Bahia that the rest of Brazil didn’t know. Caymmi, one of the fathers of Brazilian music, crafted this tune which became a hit for Carmen Miranda. Considered one of the best singers from Brazil, Miranda was actually born in Portugal. Born outside of Brazil as well, Anat sings it through her clarinet with a perfect Brazilian accent! 

Andar com Fé (Gilberto Gil) – Andar com Fé means to walk with Faith. The lyrics say that faith is everywhere: in a woman, in a coral snake, in a piece of bread. It also says that even for those who have no faith, it often walks with them, just in case . . .

In the middle of the uncertain time of the 2020 quarantine period, these words became extra meaningful. On Gilberto Gil’s 78 birthday, a video clip of this song was released, showing various artists singing from their homes, wishing Gil a happy birthday and reminding all of us to walk with faith. We couldn’t help but sing the lyrics, so this is our short vocal debut! 

Maria Maria (Milton Nascimento/Fernando Brant) – At Nascimento’s concerts, “Maria Maria” is always a moment of a collective catharsis, with the whole audience singing together. I wanted to invite Anat to this ritual, not only letting her sing the beautiful melody with her clarinet but also to open a free part in the middle of the song for her to improvise inspired by this energy. During the recording, inspired by this powerful melody, magic happened in the free part so we left with the first and only take we did. Brazilian singer Elis Regina used to say that if God sang, it would be with Milton’s voice. I think God borrowed Anat’s clarinet for a moment. 

Correnteza (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Luiz Bonfá) – On our recording sessions we usually record our parts as we would be playing them in a performance – playing our instruments, one clarinet and one 7-string guitar simultaneously. On this version of Correnteza we had fun adding a few layers of clarinet and bass clarinet inspired by Jobim’s version. We aimed to keep it simple and beautiful, as love could be, as expressed in the phrase of the lyrics that says, “I fell asleep smiling, dreaming of our love”. 

Paula e Bebeto (Milton Nascimento/Caetano Veloso) – Nascimento composed this melody to a couple named Paula and Bebeto, when he learned they were breaking up. He believed they would be together forever. After he spoke with Caetano Veloso about Paula & Bebeto, Veloso wrote the lyrics. One phrase of the lyrics expanded the subject of the couple and transformed the song into a hymn of free love: “Any form of love is worth loving / Qualquer maneira de amor vale amar”. 

El Diablo Suelto (Heraclio Hernandez) – The first time Anat came to Rio was in the year 2000. It was an optimistic period in Brazil, when many were rediscovering their own culture. Those days there was a small bar in Rio de Janeiro’s Lapa, called Bar Semente, where young musicians, Brazilians and non-Brazilians, used to gather and play Choro, Samba, Forró and other Brazilian genres. Soon after, the Latin community in Rio joined in and a Latin night was added to Semente’s calendar. Semente vivid energy and exciting cultural exchanges were influential for everyone who attended. In 2020 we streamed a concert for an online festival celebrating Bar Semente and we played this Venezuelan waltz titled, ‘El Diablo Suelto’ (the devil on the loose), remembering those Latin nights and the era of Semente. We enjoyed playing it and relished the memories it brought to light and decided to include the concert version on Reconvexo. 

Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer (Stevie Wonder/Syreeta Wright) – The year of 2020 showed how important it is to have music in our lives and how the same song can have different meanings at different times. This album includes songs that accompanied us during this year, and this song gained a different meaning when we listened to it in 2020. Stevie Wonder appears last on the video clip of “Andar com Fé,” celebrating Gilberto Gil’s 78 birthday. We love Stevie and this connection inspired us to end our album with one of his songs. 

The Greyboy Allstars | "Get a Job: Music from the Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream"

The Greyboy Allstars have announced the April 1st release of Get a Job: Music from the Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream—the sixth studio recording to date by the quintet comprised by Karl Denson (saxophone, flute), Elgin Park (guitars), Aaron Redfield (drums), Chris Stillwell (bass) and Robert Walter (keys). To be issued via the band's own imprint, Knowledge Room Recordings, the album was captured live in the studio during The Greyboy Allstars' 2021 Soul Dream live-stream series on Nugs.net. The set notches up the band's own jazz-funk and boogaloo narrative by spotlighting ten unique, never-before-released covers that have become an integral part of their famed live performances for nearly three decades, including songs by Gil Scott-Heron, Gene Ammons and Burt Bacharach. The first single and its accompanying video, "I've Got Reasons," (listen/watch/share), a rendition of the rare-groove, deep-cut originally recorded by Mary Jane Hooper, is out today. Additionally, a 21-date "Get A Job" tour in support of the collection beginning this March has been announced. Six of the shows are on-sale now, while the remaining 15 dates go on-sale this Friday, February 4 at greyboyallstars.com

"We keep a running master list of around 70 tunes. From those I picked a mixture of tried-and-true live staples and songs that weren't always in common rotation," says band keyboardist Robert Walter of the Get a Job set. "Usually, for gigs I propose a list and then the other members edit and tweak it. For the taping, we wanted each episode to have a theme: two of them focused on originals and the other two were covers: live favorites, and music that came out on Prestige Records. The tunes on this release are the best of the covers."

"The covers come from the tradition of the artists we love and how they would grab the pop tunes of the day, most likely to broaden their listening base. George Benson, Grant Green, and Kenny Burrell all did Beatles and Bacharach tunes," continues band guitarist Elgin Park, of GBA's tapping of the tradition of savvy jazz legends exploring the then-expanding "fake book" of mid-20th-century pop songs. "Also, everyone is coming with different levels of seriousness to the music at different times."

The resulting album finds The Greyboy Allstars in full flight, in performances both raucous and reverent to the formative music that shaped them, while adding their own funky imprint to each song's arrangement and legacy. There is a generosity of spirit that runs through Get a Job. The band's decision to take the tragedy of Covid-19 lockdown and open their studio space for a kind of digital communion with their fans is evident throughout. Yet even in the delivery of these covers, both classic and obscure, there is an ease of playing that gives service to the song, rare in a band of such heavyweight soloists.

"The more we play together, the more I enjoy listening to the other guys," concludes Park. "It seems like a simple idea but finding a place in the mix is what’s important: not the solo. Weave a thread inside the fabric."

The Greyboy Allstars

"Get A Job" U.S. Spring Tour

3/9 - Asheville, NC - Salvage Station

3/10 - Charleston, SC - The Pour House

3/11 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

3/12 - St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine Amphitheatre

3/30 - St. Louis, MO - The Big Top

3/31 - Milwaukee, WI - Shank Hall

4/1 - Chicago, IL - Park West

4/2 - Covington, KY - Madison Theater

4/3 - Columbus, OH - Woodlands Tavern

4/5 - Pembroke, MA - Soundcheck Studios

4/6 - Woodstock, NY - Bearsville Theater

4/7 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl

4/8 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl

4/9 - Philadelphia, PA - Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia

4/10 - Washington, DC - The Hamilton

4/15 - Crystal Bay, NV - Crystal Bay Club Casino

4/16 - Crystal Bay, NV - Crystal Bay Club Casino

4/21 - Venice, CA - Venice West

4/22 - Denver, CO - Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom

4/23 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater

4/30 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina’s

361 Valley View, Kingston, New York 12401, United States

Mathias Eick | "When We Leave"

Mathias Eick is among the most immediately recognizable soloists to have emerged from the Norwegian jazz scene, and his wistful trumpet sound and strongly melodic compositions have met with a positive response around the world. When his ECM leader debut The Door was issued in 2008, US magazine Jazz Times described the trumpeter's tone as "plaintive and spare," while emphasizing that, "like all good bandleaders, his focus is on the interaction of his musicians. The contrast of his restraint and the energy around him constitutes the album's driving tension."

Over the years, Eick has focused and strengthened his approach on both fronts, as soloist and ensemble leader, with concepts for the band adjusted to meet the needs of each project, as well as what The Guardian has described as "a cinematic interest in musical storytelling."

Skala (recorded 2009 and 2010), for instance, introduced the two-drummer format, latterly a hallmark of much of Eick's work. Midwest (2014), a meditation on the voyage of Norwegian music to North America, brought violin into the ensemble sound along with colours and textures from folk music. Ravensburg (2017) turned the spotlight on Eick's own biography, looking, with affection, at his Norwegian and South German family roots. The full group heard on Ravensburg returns for When we leave, augmented by Stian Carstensen's pedal steel guitar – last heard in an Eick context on The Door - and the saga continues.

Mathias Eick sees When we leave as "a natural continuation of Ravensburg, almost a Ravensburg 2. More of everything." Where its predecessor drew portraits of friends and family and sketched some personal interactions, the new album follows its protagonists through a troubled year. A sense of narrative could be drawn from the interplay of titles and musical atmosphere: "The songs and titles on When we leave play upon each other, draw inspiration from each other."

Meanwhile the Eick band continues to grow in confidence and range. Violinist Håkon Aase, increasingly recognized as one of the outstanding improvisers of his generation (his ECM credits also include two albums with Thomas Strønen's Time Is A Blind Guide ensemble), augments the bandleader's solos with lines that draw upon folk traditions as well as jazz. There is mystery, too, in the way that the violin leans into the delicate swell of Stian Carstensen's pedal steel. Eick: "Stian's carpet of harmonies adds a feeling of depth - and the combination with the violin creates a special sound. I'm always searching for sounds that are unique and stand out of time."

Powerful drummer Torstein Lofthus has played in contexts from pop to free jazz (including sessions with US saxophonist Sonny Simmons) and is known also for his contributions to exploratory rock group Elephant9. When Ravensburg was released, Eick explained his decision to add a second drummer: "I wasn't trying to make the drumming bigger but rather more three-dimensional. What's going on in the area of rhythm is very much like what's happening between Håkon and myself, where a similar idea of shadowing and call and response is taking place." Co-drummer Helge Andreas Norbakken digs into the textures of the music, creatively detailing the rhythm and working freely with sound as he has on ECM recordings from the Jon Balke/Amina Alaoui project Siwan to the "percussion think-tank" Batagraf or Jon Hassell's Last Night The Moon…, as well as Mathias Eick's Midwest.

Andreas Ulvo, a pianist of lyrical gifts, draws inspiration from classical music, in his own projects juxtaposing Satie and Rodrigo with free playing, and working across a broad range of idioms. Latterly he has been collaborating with Swiss harpist Giovana Pessi in a new project: an ECM release is in preparation. In parallel with his musical activities he is also a photographer, and has contributed images to albums by Dans les arbres and Giovanna Pessi/Susanna Wallumrød, among others.

Bassist Audun Erlien's particular groove, informed by years of playing soul and funk music, has been part of the Eick band sound since The Door. Erlien can also be heard with Nils Petter Molvaer on Solid Ether.

Mathias Eick was born into a musical family in Norway in 1979 and took up the piano at the age of five, followed by trumpet a year later. A multi-instrumentalist, he also plays vibraphone, double bass, guitar and keyboards, although the trumpet was always "the instrument closest to my heart" as he once put it. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the including the International Jazz Festival Organization's "International Jazz Talent" prize, the Statoil Scholarship and the DNB Prize.

When we leavewas recorded at Oslo's Rainbow Studio in August 2020. It was produced by Manfred Eicher. 

Anthony Coleman / Brian Chase | "Arcades"

Composer, improviser and pianist Anthony Coleman (John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Marc Ribot, Shelley Hirsch, Roy Nathanson, and many others) and composer, improviser, independent record label owner and drummer Brian Chase (Drums and Drones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chaikin Records) announce Arcades, their inaugural recording. Impeccably recorded and mixed by Jeff Cook at 2nd Story Sound, NYC, produced by Coleman, Cook and Chase and mastered by Scott Hull with album artwork by Sarah Klein and David Kwan (www.sarahklein.com and www.davidkwan.net), Arcades captures two world-class improvisers at the pinnacle of their respective crafts providing a mind-bendingly deep and playfully eccentric offering of 21st century free-form experimentalism. 

For Coleman and Chase, two distinguished figures of the avant-garde, the path to Arcades was years in the making. Their journey goes back about two decades when Chase, the fledgling twenty-something drummer of Brooklyn, New York’s post-punk outfit Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a passionate devotee of NYC’s ‘Downtown’ music scene, discovered Coleman’s music.

Chase recalls having first been exposed to Coleman: “I came across Anthony in the early '00s when I was a recent Brooklyn resident. Anthony's reputation and visibility served as a precursor to hearing his music: I would see his name listed at the popular venues for this music at that time - Tonic and The Knitting Factory (on Leonard St.) - and in conjunction with all of the top players: John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, etc. His name was on pivotal albums like Zorn's The Big Gundown and Glenn Branca's first record, Lesson No. 1.” Chase continues: “The first time I heard Anthony’s music was actually on a WFMU live session in 2005. I loved his style as a performer and composer - a true mix of the intellectual and instinctual infused with a big dose of joy.” 

In characterizing the wildly ecstatic, freewheeling and deeply expressionistic sprawl that is Arcades, the same description of Chase’s initial draw to Coleman’s music similarly applies: Arcades, naturally, is also “a true mix of the intellectual and instinctual infused with a big dose of joy.” All of Coleman’s creative hallmarks - the remarkably original piano wizardry of which long ago affirmed his place in the upper echelons of the avant-garde jazz landscape - in tandem with the technical dexterity and musical supportiveness of Chase, is illuminated on the stunning Arcades, which was recorded pre-pandemic.

Clocking in at 47 minutes with five epic improvisations that either eclipse ten minutes or inch ever-close to that mark, the fittingly titled Arcades is just that: a kaleidoscopic and euphoric set from start to finish. The melodious and abstract constellations of Coleman ping-ponging apace with the distinctive drumming of Chase which, for drums as an instrument, features a heightened melodic sensibility and elaborate tonal palette.

Regarding the compositional frameworks behind the pieces of Arcades, Chase explains, “Some tracks are energetic and hinge on radical shifts of contrast – like in the lead track ‘Arcades’ - while others are more introspective and take time to explore the sonic color of specific resonances – like in ‘Crepuscule.’” He continues: “Having this breadth of complementary differences was important to us. In our playing together, improvisation is the primary method of composition: emphasis is placed on our dialogue of playing and the unfolding of the music itself as opposed to premeditated structures. The way we interact and respond is essential to the development of the music and hence functions as a key entry point of engagement for the listener. This process is ultimately subservient to the music itself for which we are its devoted shepherds.”

Listening to Arcades, it’s apparent these two luminaries were born to play with one another as evidenced by the intuitive bond that is conveyed on Arcades. They share a synergistic interplay that is ingrained in their DNA since they first connected spontaneously at a New Year’s Eve party way back in 2008 at Issue Project Room’s former Gowanus location. “I remember that we had an unexpectedly strong chemistry from that first impromptu meeting,” Chase recalls. “A few years later we played together in a somewhat similar scenario: this was at The Stone in 2012 for an improv night hosted by John Zorn. A large group of musicians were involved and also asked to play in spontaneously arranged combinations. Anthony and I ended up playing together in a trio with bassist James Ilgenfritz. Again, the chemistry was there. When we finished our set, we remarked how great it felt and Zorn suggested that we continue playing together. And, we did...” In the subsequent years, Coleman and Chase have furthered their psychic-level connection through a series of free-improv performances at various venues and spaces in New York City, ultimately arriving at Arcades. 

Even Coleman is in awe over their musical kinship, so much so that he tries not to dissect it. He just goes with whatever sonic flow the ride is taking them on. “From the first time we played together I have never understood how Brian manages to hit those overtones that exactly match and echo the chords and sonorities that I'm playing,” he says. “It’s uncanny and so inspiring. It's probably much better if I don't really understand it. But it's no secret that synergy is the essential quality of good duo improvising. And there are many kinds of synergy in this world. Some are more obvious than others. But without getting much deeper into the question I'm just going to say that it's this intricate sonic combination that creates something that’s way more than the sum of its parts. I'm not saying this is everything - but it's a lot!”

Moppa Elliott’s Mostly Other People Do the Killing Presents Disasters Vol. 1

Hot Cup Records is proud to present Disasters Vol. 1, the second release by the piano trio configuration of Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Disasters Vol. 1 features eight new compositions by bassist/composer Moppa Elliott written in the fall of 2019, just before the pandemic struck. Each composition on the album is named after a small town in Pennsylvania that experienced  disasters ranging from floods and fires to mining accidents. These disasters are cautionary tales, potent metaphors, and excellent examples of how people measure risk and reward.

Elliott’s compositions, as performed by the MOPDtK trio including pianist Ron Stabinsky and drummer Kevin Shea, are deliberately simple so that they can be spontaneously taken apart and reassembled, a hallmark of MOPDtK dating back to the band’s inception in 2003. The melodic material is often blues-based and firmly rooted in the Jazz tradition unlike much of the electronic orchestration, improvised transitions, and non sequiturs that frequently derail the written composition. The opening track “Three Mile Island,” for example, is a bugaloo, a form that serves as the lynchpin or opening number of so many classic jazz albums. Beginning with dense improvised material, the composition slowly takes shape around a bass line and harmonic progression before the recording concludes with the full statement of the theme.  

MOPDtK’s frequent collaborator, Leonardo Featherweight, has penned liner notes explaining the connection between each song’s title and the music it inspired. True to form, he often deliberately misses the point, yet accidentally reveals important points. While each piece was written with the town and its specific disaster in mind, also focused on disasters as metaphors for the conflicts we encounter every day as we navigate the joys and sorrows of our social, romantic, and familial obligations. Ultimately, the origins and inspiration behind each piece are less important than the recorded performance and interaction between the musicians in real time.

After the release of Paint, the first MOPDtK album in the piano trio format, Elliott recorded three albums of his compositions for three different ensembles. JazzBand/RockBand/DanceBand featured his straight-ahead jazz quintet Advancing on a Wild Pitch, his rock band Unspeakable Garbage (which performed at the Heineken Jazz Festival in San Sebastian, Spain), and his dance band Acceleration Due to Gravity featuring his long-time friends and collaborators Mike Pride and George Burton. The range of styles included on this album solidified Elliott’s reputation as one of the great composers working today.

Over the past sixteen years, MOPDtK, led by bassist/composer Moppa Elliott, has earned a place at the forefront of jazz and improvised music, performing in a style that is at once rooted in the jazz tradition and highly improvised and unstructured. Billed as a “Bebop Terrorist Band,” their music melds history and tradition with cutting-edge vibrancy and the underlying imperative that jazz is alive and well, and most of all, fun. Their initial albums explored the intersection between common practice hard bop compositions and free improvisation, incorporating a kaleidoscopic wealth of other influences from pop music to the classical European repertoire. In 2010, Elliott expanded the group’s framework and began exploring specific eras of jazz, resulting in 2011’s Slippery Rock (an investigation of smooth jazz and fusion styles) and 2012’s Red Hot (featuring an expanded lineup recalling the jazz and blues recordings of the late 1920s and early 1930s). 

2014 saw the release of Blue, a note-for-note recreation of Miles Davis’ classic album, Kind of Blue that evoked a wide range of strong responses from both the public and critics and will likely be a part of the discussion of the state of jazz in the 21st century for years to come. In 2015, the band returned to a quartet format for the album Mauch Chunk, which explored the hard bop styles common in the 1950s. Since the release of Mauch Chunk, all four members of the core quartet have released solo recordings including Moppa Elliott’s Still, Up In the Air, and pianist Ron Stabinsky’s Free For One, both on Hot Cup Records. In February 2017 MOPDtK the band released the septet album Loafer’s Hollow to wide critical acclaim.

Pianist Ron Stabinsky is a member of the legendary indie-rock band The Meat Puppets, Peter Evans’ Quartet and Quintet, Charles Evans Quartet (no relation), and in 2016 recorded his first solo album Free For One on Hot Cup Records.

Kevin Shea was named “Best Drummer in New York” by the Village Voice and regularly tours with the noise-rock-improv duo, Talibam! Talibam! was named the “Artists in Residence” at the Moers Festival in Moers, Germany for all of 2021 and have spent the year collaborating with a wide variety of artists from around the world.

Bassist Moppa Elliott teaches music at Information Technology High School in Long Island City, NY.  He also produces and releases albums on Hot Cup Records including his solo bass recording Still, Up in the Air and a three-album release entitled JazzBand/RockBand/DanceBand.

Jo Harrop announces 'The Heart Wants' Tour

Although she has built a reputation as an intuitive interpreter of other people’s songs, Jo Harrop would be the first to admit that she always lacked the confidence to reveal her own songs to the world. With no shows in her diary, she started working on what would eventually turn out to be her first album of original material with producers Hannah Vasanth (known for her work with everyone from Stormzy to JP Cooper) and Jamie McCredie alongside a guest list of world-class musicians including Christian McBride, Jason Rebello and Troy Miller.

“We wrote and recorded the songs for The Heart Wants before we had a chance for people to hear them live, which is the ultimate litmus test,” Harrop explains. “Songs don’t really come alive until you play them to an audience, so I’m incredibly excited to finally be able to bring them to life on stage for the first time. Music has always had the power to transport me and to move me deep inside, and I want to create the same emotional connection with people who hear my songs.”

“An extraordinary talent” – Jo Whiley – BBC Radio 2

Born in Durham, and raised on a heady musical diet of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin, Jo Harrop cut her teeth as a session singer, working with a host of iconic artists including Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Enrique Iglesias and Gloria Gaynor. After moving to London, she quickly established herself as one of the most unmistakable voices in British jazz, performing everywhere from the Royal Albert Hall to the Sunset Sunside Jazz Club in Paris.

‘A rare mix of delicacy and boldness. Sheer perfection.’ Dave Gelly – The Guardian

Having signed to London-based jazz label, Lateralize Records, she recently received a raft of rapturous reviews for Weathering The Storm, her debut with guitarist, Jamie McCredie. The Guardian dubbed it ‘a little gem of an album: simple, modest and perfect,’ whilst BBC 6 Music’s Iggy Pop fell in love with her voice, calling her “a very fine jazz singer.”

The Heart Wants 2022 Tour Dates

12th February – Hampstead Jazz Club, London

19th February – The Bear Club, Luton

25th April – Ronnie Scott’s, London

12th May – Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle

14th May – Hexham Jazz Festival, Hexham

17th May – Hare and Hounds, Birmingham

19th May – Matt & Phreds Jazz Club, Manchester

21st May – Peggy’s Skylight, Nottingham

22nd May – Watford Jazz Junction Festival, London

29th June – Pizza Express (Soho), London

10th July – Swanage Jazz Festival, Swanage

Eli Degibri | "Henri ANd Rachel"

On his self-released ninth album, Henri and Rachel, titled for his parents, Tel Aviv-based saxophonist-composer Eli Degibri again reveals his ability to convey profound emotions in the language of notes and tones. Joined by his immensely talented working Israeli rhythm section, the 43-year-old maestro spins an intimate, impassioned love story, portraying the personalities and idiosyncrasies of his tight-knit family – his parents, his fiancé, his closest friend. Towards that end, Degibri contributes eight soulful, erudite, unfailingly melodic songs and an ingeniously reconfigured standard, uncorking a succession of impassioned declamations, ascendant and nuanced, that uphold the remark a teacher made to him during the 1990s, when he was attending Berklee School of Music: “You play old in a new way.”

Recorded on March 9, 2020, days before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Henri and Rachel is Degibri’s first album of original music since 2015, when he recorded Cliff Hanging, which earned a 5-star review from DownBeat (a 2018 release, Soul Station, was a tune-for-tune homage to tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley’s an iconic 1960 Blue Note album of that name).

During those years, Degibri, an only child, was preoccupied not only with his musical production, but with caring for his aging and ailing parents, who both emigrated to Israel following World War 2. His father, Henri, a native of Bulgaria who passed away in the fall of 2020, developed cancer; his mother, Rachel, born in Iran, developed Parkinson’s Disease and dementia. Although Degibri was not thinking consciously of them or of his other dedicatees during the gestation process, their essence suffuses his compositions.

“When I write songs, I don’t usually know what the reason is,” Degibri says. “Only after it’s done, I think about the melody and ask myself what it means to me or who I see and feel when I hear it.” He applied the same process when, reviewing the title track, an anthemic refrain sandwiched on both ends by a vocal chant, he noticed that the first and second melodies were identical but in different keys. “I realized that it’s basically a love song between two keys – Henri and Rachel, my dad and my mom, who are the main keys in my life. They’re not singing together, but right after each other, and they blend together perfectly.”

The slinky beats and “Pink Panther”-ish changes of “Gargamel” evokes the villainous wizard whose consistently thwarted attempts to eat and transform into gold the tiny protagonists of the Smurfs amused Degibri as a child of the 1980s. “He was funny to me, and had the same silhouette as my father,” Degibri prefaces his description of the piece. “I’m coming from the school of Bebop – swinging, big sound. This slow-medium tempo is probably the hardest to play. It’s going back to the roots – everything that I compose or play is coming from there, even when it’s not in swing tempo.”

The truth of that statement comes forth on the Jimmy van Heusen standard, “Like Someone In Love.” “It was a thinking exercise of how Johann Sebastian Bach would play this song in 5/4,” says Degibri, who has studied classical piano and counterpoint for the last four years. Pianist Tom Oren admirably represents that description; drummer Eviatar Slivnik makes the 5/4 meter flow like water.

That tune and the three that follow – “Longing,” “Noa” and “The Wedding” – reference Degibri’s relationship with his fiancé. He addresses her directly on “Noa,” stating his feelings with clear lines and burnished tenor saxophone tone; he displays his considerable command of the soprano saxophone, singing through the horn on the nakedly yearning “Longing” and the brisk, jubilant “The Wedding.”

“I want to play odd meters in a way that, when you listen, it isn’t difficult or obvious, you don’t have to crunch your teeth and count,” Degibri says. “The melody can be advanced, but I want it to touch you.”

That’s a good description of the gentle “Don Quixote,” a well-disguised 5/4 contrafact of “Lover” that refers to his idealistic father, who passed away in the fall of 2020; the stalwart line of “Ziv,” dedicated to Degibri’s manager and best friend; and “Preaching To The Choir,” a soulful, chorale-like refrain that, per the title, has the feel of a Black church sermon.

Degibri has been preaching to the international jazz community since 1999, when Ron Carter – a mentor at the Thelonious Monk Institute, who in 2009 recorded on Degibri’s Israeli Song with Brad Mehldau and Al Foster – recommended him to Herbie Hancock for what would be a 30-month stint performing repertoire from Hancock’s Grammy-winning Gershwin’s World album. He further refined his artistry as a member of Al Foster’s group from 2002 until 2011, and as the leader of bands that included such internationally acclaimed musicians as Aaron Goldberg, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Street, Jeff Ballard, Kevin Hays, Gary Versace, Gregory Hutchinson, and Obed Calvaire.

After moving back to his homeland from New York in 2011, Degibri began forming bands culled from Israel’s large pool of young hardcore jazz practitioners. He’s worked with his current rhythm section – Tom Oren on piano, Alon Near on bass (the most recent member), and Eviatar Slivnik on drums – for the last four years.

“I feel connected to them, because each one moved to New York, and they hear the New York-American-Black American style – which is similar to the way that I hear music,” Degibri says. “When they were still there and we’d meet on the road, I felt I was experiencing their growth every time we played. People with kids talk about the shock of seeing them all grown up, and that’s how I feel about them. They’re working hard and paying their dues in the most difficult city to live in, where they can best learn this language and this music. When they play, you can hear it.”

As is sometimes the natural order of things, Degibri reversed roles with his own parents as they declined. “I’ve spent so much time with my mother that I decided to bring a keyboard there to practice,” he says. “Myself and her caregiver put her in a wheelchair and brought her to the living room to see it, and she asked me to play her something. I played ‘Henri and Rachel.’ All of a sudden, my mother – who couldn’t remember who my father was the day he died – was singing the melody in 5/4. Now, she’d heard the recording of this song for many months, but it still was like a miracle. I said, ‘Wow, you’re singing so beautiful. What’s the name of the song?’ She said, ‘Of course – it’s ‘Henri and Rachel.’ Great. My job is done.”

Jean-Michel Pilc | "Alive: Live At Dièse Onze, Montreal"

Spontaneity may well be the most important element of jazz expression … the immediacy of creativity in its purest and most adventurous manifestation. For the extraordinary pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, the live performance represents the pinnacle of that level of spontaneity. In his outstanding new release on Justin Time Records – Alive – Live at Dièse Onze, Montréal – Jean-Michel and his bandmates Rémi-Jean LeBlanc and Jim Doxas on bass and drums respectively, splendidly offer proof of this concept. In his liner notes, he describes this state as “improvising musicians in their natural habitat, the jazz club, playing music for the sake of music, never repeating themselves, and creating sounds that they will never replicate.”

At its higher levels jazz tells vivid stories, and those told by the trio are fascinating, multi-nuanced, intricately woven tales of rich texture, color and unexpected plot twists. This concert, recorded in June 2021, marked the trio’s first performance since the onset of the COVID pandemic. “The music was vital, to us and to the audience, and we experienced the full gamut of human emotions.” Reflecting this, the music travels roads that are remarkably winding and varied in steepness and direction, but always totally focused on the ultimate destination. Through this journey – as Jean-Michel goes on to say “unpredictability becomes evidence.”

As intense as the emotions may have been, the music is brilliantly crafted and totally cohesive – a testament not only to the mastery of the musicians, but also to the deep understanding and sensitivity to each other and the pursuit upon which they embarked as a unified force. It’s also an example of collective improvisation at its highest level. “Since a while ago, all my concerts are totally improvised - no set list, nothing prepared, just let the music lead the way. I come on stage as a newborn, ready for a new life, a new journey, a new experience every time. My bandmates are part of that experience as much as I am myself, every note they play becomes part of this life we are living together on the stage.”

Collective improvisation is often dismissed as a method of haphazardness and serendipity, hoping that things may work out and expecting the audience to simply enjoy the adventure. But in the hands of superb musicians united by purpose, the results can be exhilarating, utterly captivating and tremendously uplifting. That is certainly the case here. As the legendary Harry Belafonte has said of Jean-Michel: “Beyond all that can be said about his masterful technique and his beauty of touch, it is the unpredictability that is central to his remarkable talent.”

The music here contains endlessly delightful surprises woven seamlessly into the intricate fabric within the individual pieces themselves. Two Miles Davis classics provide excellent examples … from the sheer simplicity of lyricism in Nardis, like a consistently evolving, but persistently gentle snowfall of filigreed delicacy; to the rumbling and rolling All Blues, escalating into a two-fisted romp that culminates in a scalding rapid-fire explosion of breathtaking intensity and ferocity.

The Hammerstein/Romberg song that became a jazz standard Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise passes through so many stages of musical evolution, from its fragments of melody Tristano-ish opening through thunderous crescendos that never lose the sensitivity of the song, and culminating in a tantalizingly slow bluesy swing evoking the territories explored by Bud Powell and Herbie Nichols.

A pair of Pilc originals are also included – 11 Sharp, a highly rhythmic, somewhat Monkishly grooved excursion, consistently evolving in melodic variety and emotional intensity; and the title piece Alive, an evocative, persistently explorative foray in gently insistent lyricism, which ends this wonderful album on a subtly provocative note.

Music like this can only be achieved by such consummately impeccable musicians as these three gentlemen. LeBlanc and Doxas are not simply sidemen by any means, as Pilc’s music demands far more ownership of the music by all the collaborators. Throughout the album, the bass and drums solos are never just there to give them some playing space, but are fully woven into the textural fabric of each piece.

The concert was recorded in its entirely and the remainder of the music is available in digital form only. You can find the complete 2nd set on your favorite streaming or download site. For more information, please go to: www.justin-time.com/collections/jean-michel-pilc.

Seven additional exceptional pieces cover a wide spectrum, including three more Miles Davis affiliated items - a highly exciting spin on Eddie Harris’ Freedom Jazz Dance and two standards, a jauntily swinging Someday My Prince Will Come and an appropriately moody, atmospheric My Funny Valentine; along with a complex take on Lennon & McCartney’s Eleanor Rigby; a delightfully whimsical version of Jerome Kern’s All the Things You Are; a lovely version of Rodgers & Hart’s My Romance; and a dynamically Latin-tinged and often explosive journey into John Coltrane’s Mr. P.C.

Enormously prolific and multi-faceted as composer and pianist, including musical directorship for Harry Belafonte; a duet performance with operatic legend Jessye Norman; a large-scale commissioned work based upon a major inspiration Charlie Chaplin; and over a dozen albums as a leader and almost as many as co-leader, Jean-Michel Pilc has become one of the most highly respected pianist/composers of the past 25 years. This is Jean-Michel’s first Justin Time album.