The Pat Petrillo Big Rhythm Band | "The Power Stations Sessions"

World-renowned drummer Pat Petrillo showcases the vast spectrum of contemporary groove music on the second album by his explosive Big Rhythm Band. Due out October 7, 2022 via Autumn Hill Records, Petrillo’s jubilant The Power Station Sessions runs the gamut from New Orleans R&B, to blues, and funk– though this Jersey boy inevitably lends a distinctive East Coast swagger to the whole affair. 

Pat Petrillo has long been recognized as one of the most versatile and prolific drummers on the scene. He has worked with a wide array of artists from diverse genres, including Patti LaBelle, Gloria Gaynor, Chieli Minucci, and Ed Hamilton as well as numerous Broadway shows, from A Chorus Line, to Newsies, to the national tour of Dreamgirls. 

As keeper of the groove, Pat draws on the full range of those experiences on the eclectic but always propulsive The Power Station Sessions. His visceral, instinctive, and deep-rooted style of drumming is infectious on this outing. It also features an all-star collection of guest artists who bring their own unique authenticity to the proceedings: guitarists Nile Rodgers (Chic), Felicia Collins (Late Show with David Letterman) and Oz Noy (Chris Botti, Mike Stern); Blues Traveler frontman John Popper; saxophonist and Saturday Night Live bandleader Lenny Pickett; and famed singer-songwriter Glen Burtnik (Styx). The band also features versatile keyboardist David Cook, bassist Scott Ambush (Spyro Gyra), trumpeter Steve Jankowski (who also did wind arrangements), Tom Timko on saxes, and Plinky Giglio with additional production, B3 Organ, and mixing. 

“Although it’s a Contemporary Instrumental record, I would almost call this an Americana record,” says Petrillo. Although that term is usually associated with country and folk music traditions, the drummer has a more continent-spanning definition of the genre. 

“The Power Station Sessions is a potpourri of truly American groove styles. These songs are built on rhythms from around the country, from New Orleans Mardi Gras to R&B, funk, blues, rock, and soul. I have a lot of influences, and they are reflected on each track. But it's also got a real distinctive New York/New Jersey edge. For drummers especially, it’s a real treat. It smacks you in face with flavor from the start. It sort of defies categories.” 

The follow-up to the Big Rhythm Band’s widely acclaimed debut, The Abbey Road Sessions, Petrillo’s latest was captured in another iconic recording studio, the Power Station. Where its predecessor collected funky, horn-driven arrangements of classic Beatles songs, recorded in the famed Studio 2 at Abbey Road, The Power Station Sessions stays closer to home at the converted Hell’s Kitchen power plant synonymous with 1970s hitmakers. 

Everyone from Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and Bon Jovi, to Madonna, Paul Simon, Steps Ahead, Chic, David Bowie and Lady Gaga (the list could go on) has recorded at the Power Station – including the supergroup that borrowed its name. While the space changed hands in the late ’90s and was rechristened as Avatar Studios, it recently reopened as the Power Station under the auspices of Berklee College of Music. 

“Some of my favorite records over the years were cut there,” Petrillo says. “The studio has a lot to do with the vibe of a record. It’s the incubator of the sound. The wood that it’s built with, the flooring, the soaring ceilings, the sound absorption all come together to create the quality of that sound. The room is everything…and this studio has some serious mojo!” 

Add to the mix veteran engineer Roy Hendrickson, who has his own history with the Power Station, and you have a session that bristles with vintage NYC attitude while sounding utterly contemporary. Witness the bravado shuffle of Petrillo’s arrangement on Billy Joel’s “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” boasting a groove so wide it would fill that Manhattan thoroughfare. He learned from longtime Billy Joel drummer Liberty DeVitto that the original song was laid down at the Power Station – and Hendrickson was an assistant on the session. “I loved Liberty’s playing on that record, and I just wanted to do it justice, and in the same room!”. 

The album opens with Petrillo’s funky “48th Street,” the perfect vehicle for Chic mastermind and guitar wizard Nile Rodgers. It’s the debut single that is sure to light up the airwaves. “Between the music stores, record shops and the recording studios, 48th Street was where music lived,” the drummer explains. “It’s an homage to that old school 70’s New York City vibe that I wanted to recapture, and I had Nile Rodgers in mind from the minute I wrote this track.” Long time keyboard veteran Chris Fischer also helped arrange the track. 

Oz Noy’s virtuoso guitar work weaves elegantly through a revamped, swing funk version of the iconic “Black Cow” by Steely Dan, while Petrillo also takes the spotlight with a one take drum solo on a great arrangement of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Runnin’.” Stevie Wonder’s classic “Knocks Me Off My Feet” is given a gorgeous ballad treatment, graced by Tom Timko’s wistful soprano saxophone. 

Petrillo’s other original compositions for the album reflect some of his greatest passions. The tense “Global Warming” confronts the accelerating climate crisis by way of reworked compositions by the drummer’s longtime collaborator, late Philadelphia keyboardist Dave Falciani. “Asbury Daze” takes it a bit easier, capturing the sun-drenched whirl of the Jersey Shore, with its powerful horn riffs reminiscent of The Asbury Jukes, with the help of Felicia Collins’ breezy, melodic fretwork and Jersey native John Popper’s thrilling harmonica solo. “I wanted to take the listeners down the shore, smell the boards, the sausage and peppers, and have fun,” he quipped. 

“I have to include a Beatles song on any record that I do,” Petrillo insists. “I’m a huge Beatles aficionado and a Ringo fan since I was young.” The Big Rhythm Band’s pugilistic and rockin’ rendition of “It Won’t Be Long” features regular Petrillo collaborator Glen Burtnik on vocals, as well as Popper. The album ends where American music begins, in New Orleans with the Mardi Gras Indian chant “Hey, Pocky Way,” best known for The Meters’ immortal version (explicitly referenced during B.D. Lenz’s slide guitar solo). 

At the root of it all is Pat Petrillo’s trademark groove, electrifying enough to light up the Power Station itself. In addition to being an in-demand live and session drummer, he’s also an esteemed educator who has created popular instructional videos for Hudson Music, and the Drumeo website. Petrillo endorses Ludwig Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Vic Firth Drumsticks, and Earthworks Microphones. 

The Power Station Sessions record release show is scheduled for Sunday, October 9th at 3:00 PM at The Cutting Room, 44 East 32nd St, New York, NY.

Snarky Puppy | "Empire Central"

Four-time Grammy-winning, genre-defying musical collective Snarky Puppy debut the new single ‘Bet’ from their highly anticipated forthcoming album Empire Central, due September 30 via the band’s own GroundUP Music imprint.

Bass player and bandleader Michael League notes that, “dedicated to Dallas icon RC Williams (musical director for Erykah Badu and bandleader of RC & Tha Gritz), ‘Bet’ moves through a mixture of styles: church, soul and even Brazilian Funk”. 

Recorded over the course of eight nights in front of a live-in-studio audience at Dallas’ Deep Ellum Art Company, Empire Central consists of 16 all-new tracks heavily influenced by and paying homage to the city that gave birth to the group after they formed while studying in the fabled jazz program at the University of North Texas. The record also features the last recorded performance of ’80s funk pioneer and Snarky Puppy’s musical Godfather Bernard Wright, who passed away tragically at age 58 shortly after the Empire Central recording sessions.  

Snarky Puppy premiered tracks from the album at Glastonbury and the band will return to the UK this autumn for 4 shows as part of their world tour:

• Oct 4, 2022 - O2 Academy, Glasgow, UK
• Oct 5, 2022 - O2 Academy, Bristol, UK
• Oct 6, 2022 - O2 Apollo, Manchester, UKB
• Oct 7, 2022 - OVO Arena Wembley, London, UK 

“Snarky Puppy have been religiously unclassifiable; on their nearly dozen live or studio records, they’ve incorporated jazz, funk, and elements of world music and fusion. The Grammys they’ve collected—Best R&B Performance in 2013, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2015 and 2016, the latter for Culcha Vulcha—are themselves an indication of how wide-ranging their sound is.”—Rolling Stone 

With a lineup consisting of three guitarists, four keyboardists, two brass, two reeds, a violinist, multiple percussionists and drummers and bandleader Michael League on bass, Empire Central expands upon the collective’s wide array of influences including blues, hard rock, classic soul, modern gospel, funk, new tech, fusion and jazz. In reviewing the first of the band’s eight Deep Ellum performances from which the record was culled, the Dallas Morning News raves that “in classic Snarky Puppy fashion, the new tunes zigzagged with laser precision between jazz, funk and wigged-out prog-rock”. 

“Snarky Puppy has always been a band that prioritizes the sound of the music,” notes League. “On this record there was some collaboration in the writing process but when a song goes to the band and the players start making suggestions or changing things our collective feeling really comes through. The songs ended up being a lot more direct and funkier than those on our previous records. I think it reflects the many moods of the city’s scene”. 

“Maybe you didn’t notice, but this is Snarky Puppy’s world, and the rest of us only live in it.”—The New York Times

A musical collective featuring as many as 25 members in regular rotation, Snarky Puppy was formed by bassist and primary composer Michael League in 2004, starting inconspicuously enough as a group of college friends at the University of North Texas’ Jazz Studies program. The group has won four Grammy Awards (Best R&B Performance in 2014 and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016, 2017 and 2021) and its members each maintain busy schedules as sidemen (with such artists as Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and D’Angelo), producers (for Kirk Franklin, David Crosby and Salif Keïta) and solo artists (many of whom are on the band’s independent label, GroundUP Music).

At its core, the band represents the convergence of both black and white American music culture with various accents from around the world. Japan, Argentina, Canada and the United Kingdom all have representation in the group’s membership. But more than the cultural diversity of the individual players, the defining characteristic of Snarky Puppy’s music is the joy of performing together in the perpetual push to grow creatively.

Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch | "The Song Is You"

The Song Is You documents the inspired meeting of two master improvisers. Italian trumpeter and flugelhornist Enrico Rava and US pianist Fred Hersch share a love of the music’s history and together explore standards including Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You," Thelonious Monk’s “Misterioso” and “’Round Midnight," Jobim’s “Retrato em Branco e Preto," and George Bassman’s “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You." They also play their own tunes, Fred’s “Child’s Song” and Enrico’s “The Trial," and create music freely together. It’s a subtle and far-reaching performance: when jazz reaches this level of understanding and interplay, a performance becomes less about the material – however distinguished it may be - than what the interpreter brings to it. Rava and Hersch bring vast experience and a finely honed sense of jazz improvisation as a storyteller’s art. 

Enrico Rava has recorded for ECM since the 1970s, beginning with The Pilgrim and the Stars, now regarded as a modern jazz classic. The Song Is You is Fred Hersch’s first for the label, following albums as a leader with Nonesuch, Palmetto, Sunnyside and others. Throughout his long career as a player, Hersch has returned very often, to duo instrumentation. In his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly Hersch reflects upon his preference for the format: “The duo suited my ability to use the entire keyboard to do multiple things at once. It also let me orchestrate the music instead of just playing block chords with the left hand... I indulged my love of spontaneous counterpoint – two or more independent melodic lines going on simultaneously. I can go from roaring loud to pianissimo instantly. It’s collaborative and also intimate. You have to be compatible but also different enough for each musician to offer something unique.” (Enrico’s discography also includes some notable duos, including The Third Man with Stefano Bollani). 

The November 2021 recording of The Song Is You followed just a handful of Italian dates earlier that year. But from first of these it was evident that something special was happening. Fred Hersch: “One of the things that I really liked from the beginning was that Enrico doesn’t feel like he has to be soloing. It’s not as clearly defined. We make things together,” Fred told interviewer Nicola Ferrauto. “He lets me get in there and push him a little bit. Other times I might give him a lot of space. The best duo partnerships are the ones where you don’t have to talk about it too much. You just play. And I’m getting the feeling this is going to be a long partnership. It’s really very simpatico, and Enrico’s a great master.”

Born in Trieste in 1939, and growing up in Turin, Enrico Rava came early to jazz, inspired by Miles Davis and Chet Baker among others. Active in the international free jazz milieu of the 1960s, he contributed to historically important recordings including Steve Lacy’s The Forest and the Zoo, Carla Bley’s Escalator Over the Hill and Manfred Schoof’s European Echoes. From the outset it was clear however that Rava’s concept of musical freedom would always embrace lyricism as one of its key components and this has been a constant though all his artistic adventures. Now acknowledged as the most important representative of Italian jazz, Enrico Rava has been the recipient of many awards including the Jazzpar, Europe’s biggest prize for jazz musicians. In 2011 Rava published the book Incontri con musicisti straordinari, with reflections on fifty years of music-making. 

Recent ECM releases with Enrico Rava have included two live albums: Roma, a collaboration with Joe Lovano, and Editione Speziale; both albums also feature pianist Giovanni Guidi, one of many younger players who consider Enrico a mentor.

Fred Hersch was born in Cincinnati in 1955, and studied at the New England Conservatory with teachers including Jaki Byard and Joe Maneri. In 1977, he moved to New York, where he soon found work with Art Farmer, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz and others. His first recording as a leader, 1984’s Horizons, introduced his trio with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, and established Hersch as an independent and original voice on the piano. His affinity for duo playing has led to collaborations with Anat Cohen, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Chris Potter, Avishai Cohen and Miguel Zenon. His solo playing is widely celebrated: in 2006 he became the first artist to play a week-long engagement as solo pianist at New York’s Village Vanguard. 

Hersch has also been acclaimed for his compositions, including Leaves of Grass, his 2003 settings of Walt Whitman’s poetry, the 2010 multimedia project My Coma Dreams, and his Variations on a Folksong, which was premiered by Igor Levit at Carnegie Hall in January 2022. Fred Hersch’s memoir Good Things Happen Slowly was voted Book of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, one of many awards the pianist has received.

The Song Is You was recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in November 2021, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Ezra Feinberg, Robbie Lee & John Thayer New Self-Titled Cosmic Ambient/Improvisation LP - Earth Room

Earth Room is the self-titled debut of a new band making music in the spirit of electric-era Miles Davis, classic German space rock, and the “fourth world” studio experiments of Jon Hassell. The band is composed of three veterans of adventurous music in NYC: Robbie Lee on woodwinds and electronics, John Thayer on percussion and synthesizers, and Ezra Feinberg on acoustic and electric guitars. 

In early 2019 Ezra was asked to play a two hour set for a night called “Planetarium” at the Bushwick club Nowadays, where, instead of dancing, one Thursday each month people came to lie on beanbags. Lacking two hours worth of solo material, he asked John and Robbie to join him. The show featured wide-ranging improvisation, deep-color drones, and instrumental freak-outs, and left the bean-bagers beatific. A band was born. 

The three musicians got together throughout 2019 and pre-pandemic 2020, recording during off hours at Thump Studios where John is the in-house engineer. After the pandemic hit they got to work combing through these sessions, finding the juicy bits, seeing what worked, cutting the fat, peeling the onion, and tying the room together until there were no more overdubs or edits needed.

The process occasionally included yoking one jam from one particular day on top of another from a different day, as on the elegiac opener “Bridges of Waves,” in which primitive synthesizers are fused with Robbie and John’s ecstatic drums and flute. The second track, “Within the Field,” is a study in percussive textures, and, with Robbie’s catchy melody and Ezra’s Can-like bass line, comes closest to a pop tune on the record. “Sound on Sound (Bass Clarinet)” is just that: Robbie improvising as John worked the sound-on-sound tape machine, fragmenting and recombining the melodies in real time. The name Earth Room comes from “The New York Earth Room,” the famous 1977 experiment by the NYC artist Walter De Maria, in which soil was laid down in a loft gallery at 141 Wooster St in Soho. It has been maintained there ever since. 

Robbie Lee has collaborated with Mary Halverson, Josef Van Wissum, Che Chen, Brian Chase and, most recently, on “Wind Bells Falls,” an acclaimed album of celeste and tape manipulation with the renowned composer Lea Bertucci. He has received numerous accolades, including in The Wire, Pitchfork, the New York Times, and Downbeat.

John Thayer produced the Earth Room album as well as countless others, and has collaborated with Daniel Carter, Zeena Perkins, Sunwatchers, Yai, and the last two releases by Arp, both for Mexican Summer, as well as his ambient compositions and field recordings under his own name. Thayer is also the in-house engineer for Thump Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Ezra Feinberg was the founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic rock collective Citay, releasing albums on Important Records and Dead Oceans throughout the 2000s. After relocating to NYC, he issued his first solo record, Pentimento and Others, on his imprint Related States as well as its follow-up, Recumbent Speech. Feinberg’s releases have garnered glowing reviews in Pitchfork, The Wire, Aquarium Drunkard, Paste, and The Fader. 

15th Annual Angel City Jazz Festival Announces Final 2022 Lineup

Luciana Souza & Vince Mendoza

This year’s fall event will host over a dozen concerts featuring live performances by Luciana Souza and Vince Mendoza: Storytellers with big band, Marquis Hill, John Escreet's Seismic Shift, David Murray Trio, Jonathan Pinson’s Boom Clap, ROVA, Battle Trance, Ben Wendel High Heart, Daniel Rotem's Wise One, Myra Melford’s Fire & Water Quintet, Nicole McCabe’s Septet, Devin Daniels' Quartet and Zoh Amba's Quartet.

Jazz never stands still. Like improvisation, it’s constantly evolving and reinventing itself. While some festivals focus with a nostalgic lens, Angel City unapologetically looks forward to encouraging and embracing metamorphosis of the genre. While providing a cradle to 1960s innovators Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Charles Lloyd, Los Angeles never consistently hosted a festival dedicated to post-traditional improvisation until innovator Rocco Somazzi founded The Angel City Jazz Festival in 2008. The festival has helped establish LA as a jazz destination through 15 years of affordable and accessible live concerts throughout the city featuring artists such as Bill Frisell, Archie Shepp, Bennie Maupin, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Vijay Iyer, Ravi Coltrane, Nels Cline, Tigran Hamasyan, Rudresh Mahanthappa and many others. 

The festival kicks off Friday, October 21 at The Ford in Hollywood with soulful Grammy-award winning vocalist Luciana Souza presenting a new arrangement of Brazilian classics by Vince Mendoza for a big band that includes many LA luminaries such as Peter Erskine, Alex Acuna, Bob Mintzer and Bob Sheppard.

The excitement continues on Saturday October 22 with a double bill featuring dynamic trumpeter Marquis Hill with Jahari Stampley, Joshua Griffin and Jeremiah Collier, followed by the CD-release party for Seismic Shift featuring the LA-based power trio of John Escreet, Eric Revis and Damion Reid. The opening weekend closes with a rare appearance by legendary sax man and PAPA alumnus David Murray with drummer Malachi Whitson and bassist Roberto Miranda at The World Stage in LA’s own Africa Town on October 23.

The following weekend, Friday, October 28, ACJ partners with LACMA to present a free concert featuring LA-based drummer Jonathan Pinson’s Boom Clap. On Saturday, October 29, two of the world’s preeminent sax quartets, ROVA from the Bay Area and Battle Trance from NYC will share the stage at 2220 Arts + Archives. On Sunday, October 30, Ben Wendel will perform material from his High Heart release at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre with an all-star band featuring Fabian Almazan, Harish Raghavan, Nate Wood and Michael Mayo. On the same night, Daniel Rotem will present a set dedicated to John Coltrane featuring Billy Childs, Darek Oles and Joe LaBarbera.

The festival’s penultimate event will see the highly anticipated new ensemble helmed by keyboard virtuoso Myra Melford with Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Lesley Mok and Ingrid Laubrock perform at Colburn’s Thayer Hall in DTLA. Opening the night is the Nicole McCabe Septet premiering a new piece commissioned by the Los Angeles Jazz Society.

The festival will conclude on November 5 with a performance by NYC-based rising star Zoh Amba, leading a quartet featuring Tashi Dorji, Dylan Fujioka and Mark Dresser. Saxophonist Devin Daniels opens the evening with his quartet that includes pianist Jamael Dean, bassist Logan Kane and drummer Benjamin Ring. 

The Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) 3LP

In 2012, Robert Glasper changed the game. After several acclaimed Blue Note albums including Canvas and In My Element that solidified his Jazz cred while hinting at his Hip-Hop leanings, the visionary pianist went all in with Black Radio, an album that laid out a new paradigm for creative music, reaching beyond entrenched genre boundaries to create a singular vision that drew from all reaches of contemporary black music and beyond. Featuring his Experiment band with Casey Benjamin on sax/vocoder, Derrick Hodge on bass & Chris Dave on drums, the album boasted a rollcall of special guests including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, Stokley Williams, and Yasiin Bey. Black Radio would go on to debut on 4 different Billboard charts peaking at #1 Jazz, #4 R&B/Hip-Hop, and even reaching #15 on the Top 200. The cherry on top came in February 2013 at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards when Black Radio was awarded Best R&B Album. Now, a special 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition presents the full Black Radio experience by expanding it to 3-LPs featuring the original album plus 3 bonus tracks previously unreleased on vinyl, and the remix EP Black Radio Recovered which featured additional contributions from ?uestlove, Solange, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, and more.

Tracklist

• A1. Lift Off/Mic Check featuring Shafiq Husayn
• A2. Afro Blue featuring Erykah Badu
• A3. Cherish The Day featuring Lalah Hathaway
• A4. Always Shine featuring Lupe Fiasco & Bilal
• B1. Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.) featuring Ledisi
• B2. Move Love featuring KING
• B3. Ah Yeah featuring Musiq Soulchild & Chrisette Michele
• B4. The Consequence Of Jealousy featuring Meshell Ndegeocello
• C1. Why Do We Try featuring Stokley
• C2. Black Radio featuring yasiin bey
• C3. Letter to Hermione featuring Bilal
• C4. Smells Like Teen Spirit
• D5. Twice*
• D1. A Love Supreme*
• D2. Fever* featuring Hindi Zahra
• E1. Afro Blue featuring Erykah Badu (9th Wonder’s Blue Light Basement Remix featuring Phonte)
• E2. Black Radio featuring yasiin bey (Pete Rock Remix)
• E3. Twice (?uestlove’s Twice Baked Remix featuring Solange Knowles & The Roots)
• F1. The Consequences of Jealousy featuring Meshell Ndegeocello (Georgia Anne Muldrow’s Sassy Geemix)
• F2. Letter to Hermione featuring Bilal (Robert Glasper and Jewels Remix featuring Black Milk)
• F3. Dillalude #2

*previously unreleased on vinyl

New Music: Rafael Zaldivar, So Long Seven, Chet Doxas, Deb Rasmussen

Rafael Zaldivar – Rumba

Cuban pianist, composer, artistic director, and educator Dr. Rafael Zaldivar has made an exceptional contribution to jazz music, receiving great acclaim from Berklee College of Music, JazzTimes and Downbeat magazine along the way. With his  new album RUMBA, Zaldivar continues to build upon his previous work, combining the holistic vibe and rhythmic circularity of Afro-Cuban music with a jazz sound. Zaldivar’s spirituality illuminates RUMBA, opening new doors to an endlessly expressive musical universe. The orchestral lyricism, intricate Afro-Cuban rhythms, and twentieth-century musical textures reveal Zaldivar’s reflective approach as the center of his compositional discourse. The term RUMBA refers to the social gatherings of the black community in Havana, Cuba. At the beginning of the twentieth century, these groups met to celebrate and praise the deceased in ceremonies full of song and dance. RUMBApromotes social interaction, cultural exchange, and the transmission of Africanism, all of which feeds into the sound of this album. Zaldivar performs his RUMBA with a world-class ensemble comprised of many of jazz and Afro-Cuban music’s leading lights, including Grammy winning and nominated artists Terri Lyne Carrington, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Miguel Zenón, Ingrid Jensen, and Amado Dedeu Garcias, alongside  many other Cuban, Canadian, and American greats.

So Long Seven – only elephants know her name

So Long Seven is a delicious mix of jazz, classical, blues, folk, and music from around the world: a funky, relentless force and an atmospheric cornucopia of sound. Nestled in the rhythmic pocket of renowned tabla player Ravi Naimpally, guitarist Neil Hendry, violinist William Lamoureux, and banjoist Tim Posgate  create an aural space without boundaries. This highly skilled quartet references many global traditions – from India, Europe, Africa, and the Americas – constructing a unique and cohesive cultural bridge. So Long Seven has performed at Canada’s top global music venue, Small World Music, and regularly plays concerts at clubs across the country. From a tour of Vancouver Island, to appearances at Victoria Jazz Festival and Ontario’s Hillside Music Festival and Sunfest, the band is truly a national force. The group has also performed internationally, with multiple concerts across Europe. On So Long Seven’s latest recording, frogs, elephants, stars and  the work of indigenous modernist painter Kenojuak Ashevak  all act as inspiration for new pieces. Produced by violinist William Lamoureux, it includes original compositions, as well as his arrangements for string quartet. The song Mara features the exceptional Hindustani vocalist Samidha Joglekar, who frequently collaborates with the band in concert and on record. only elephants know her name explores expansive new musical territory, and is a joyful salve for our complex times.

Chet Doxas – Rich in Symbols II

For Montreal born, Brooklyn based saxophonist Chet Doxas, the visual arts and music are two things that have been present throughout his entire life. The last seven years have found Doxas embracing and celebrating the ways in which the two mediums mingle, and where they intersect. “Quite simply put, when I look at paintings, I hear music,” says Doxas. “This intersection is one that I feel very fortunate to be able to experience and revel in. It is by studying this relationship that I first composed a body of work dedicated to New York City’s Lower East Side art movement of the early 1980s entitled Rich in Symbols. I am now delighted to be able to interpret seven of our national masterpieces from The Group of Seven, Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. In responding to these iconic works, I felt a wide range of feelings and the feeling that surprised me the most was one of respect for our land and how it has helped me get closer to answering the question: What does it mean to be Canadian? While I do not think that there is only one answer to this question, through composing this series of pieces, I believe that part of the answer can be found in the intrinsic role that our great landscape plays in defining our cultural identity.” Doxas composed the pieces for Rich In Symbols IIin the presence of the artwork, manuscript and pencil in hand. The paintings are also an integral part of the music’s live presentation, as the band performs alongside projections of the iconic works. The live line-up consists of Chet Doxas (saxophones, clarinet, field recordings), Jacob Sacks (piano and mellotron), Joe Grass (pedal steel, guitar and banjo), Zack Lober (bass) and Eric Doob (drums and programming.) The album also features  a spoken word poem, read by celebrated songwriter Sam Roberts.

Deb Rasmussen – Unspoken

Calgary vocalist Deb Rasmussen’s new album UNSPOKEN first began to take shape in 2019, only a few months before the COVID pandemic brought the world to a halt and reduced Rasmussen’s world to her house and music room. However, the newfound free time that came with the isolation gave her a chance to reconnect with an old love: song writing. After a few months, Rasmussen was inspired to reach out to her frequent collaborator pianist Jon Day, who arranged the new batch of songs, plus a few choice standards. Their  remote collaboration revolved around Rasmussen’s piano, a USB mic, Dropbox and email. This continued for a year and a half until they finally had a chance to play their new repertoire together. Deciding that they had to record, they enlisted Jeremy Coates and Robin Tufts – two of western Canada’s top call musicians – to lend their exceptional skill and sensitivity to the project. UNSPOKEN is a musical and emotional journey that explores the aspects of love that are often left unspoken. In the category of sweet romance, Just My Little Love Song and You Smile and were written by Rasmussen and her life partner for each other. But between infatuation (Darn That Dream), passion (I Hear a Rhapsody) and heartbreak (It Never Entered My Mind), there’s longing and loneliness (Swept Away), temptation (Unspoken), the constant balancing of love versus fear (Front Porch), and the need to draw a line in the sand (In Your Own Sweet Way). The songs explore more than just romantic love. Fly Away is dedicated to the many women who have struggled to hold their families, their work and themselves together throughout the pandemic, digging deeper and deeper inside to find the strength to carry on. Peace, Like a River is about the quest for inner solace when the world seems to be crumbling all around. The album resolves with My Best to You, a simple wish for the listener to find the love that’s best for them, whatever and wherever it may be.

Ron Bosse | "Burning Room Only"

Jazz fusion guitarist Ron Bosse blazes a path via mindset and the power of collaboration,“Burning Room Only,” produced and cowritten by Grammy winner Jeff Lorber.  

Inherently jazz is about collaboration, the sum of the whole being greater than the parts due to the magic that results from improvisation when the chemistry amongst the musicians is right. That’s the approach jazz fusion guitarist Ron Bosse took to record “Burning Room Only.” The Boston-based fretman hooked up with Grammy-winning fusion icon, keyboardist Jeff Lorber, to write and record the eleven-song set produced by Lorber that drops October 28 on the Deep Cat Records label.

Bosse views “Burning Room Only” as a mindset. Yes, musicians love to describe scorching performances as “burning,” and that certainly applies to the masterful musicianship on display throughout this collection, but Bosse takes the meaning deeper.

“On a deeper level, the name is a metaphor for how I feel about people. If you want to be successful in life, you need to surround yourself with people who share the same mindset. In essence, there’s ‘only room’ for positive people who have a ‘burning’ desire to succeed,” said Bosse.

Over the course of fourteen months, Bosse spent hours talking to Lorber about the funky contemporary jazz grooves, intense rock fusion explorations and compelling melodies they were creating. Led by the guitarist’s remarkably proficient and alacritous finger work, the set that Bosse and Lorber crafted is a team effort with this formidable team featuring some real “burners.” Lorber deploys nimble keyboard harmonies and unleashes fiery solos. Drummer Gary Novak (George Benson, Lee Ritenour, Chick Corea) anchors the beats with precision, locking into the bass lines etched by Ben Shepherd, Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets), Frenchman Hadrien Feraud, or the colorfully experimental MonoNeon (Prince). Robust horn section arrangements by David Mann add muscle and might, with two saxophonists - the Yellowjackets’ Bob Mintzer and Snarky Puppy’s Bob Reynolds - harnessing soul, power and passion in spotlight solos. 

Citing jazz guitar great Pat Martino’s “El Hombre” as inspiration for the groove-jazz style of play that proliferates “Burning Room Only,” Bosse said, “There are two songs on Pat’s album - “Cisco” and “A Blues for Mickey-O” - that are more groove oriented rather than traditional swing, yet Pat still solos with his classic linear approach of fluid eighth-note lines. Ever since hearing that album, I’ve wanted to record an album that was groove oriented, with a contemporary rhythm section, but where the guitar still had a classic clean jazz tone, and the solos were super swinging. With ‘Burning Room Only,’ I think we nailed this approach.”

“My solo on this song really crystallized some of the technical approaches I had been working on for quite some time. I was going for a super streamlined and fluid way of playing eighth-note lines over funky 16th-note-based grooves, and I feel like I really locked in this approach on this song. It definitely set the tone for the solos that followed. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very dedicated to my instrument in the sense that I’m constantly practicing. In the years leading up to recording this album, and throughout the recording process, I got to a heightened level of practicing of almost 6-8 hours a day. I was really trying to push myself as hard as possible to be able to improvise as fluidly as possible without boundaries with respect to tempo. Essentially, I wanted to be able to play anything that came to my mind and be able to deliver it effortlessly,” said Bosse, who was called “Bossman” by friends when he was a kid.

Tracks from “Burning Room Only” will aptly be promoted at multiple jazz radio formats. Sweetly melodic, invitingly familiar yet grand and challenging in scope, “Kiss The Sky” will begin collecting playlist adds on the smooth side of jazz on September 26.

“To me, the song takes you on a journey through every twist and turn. The melody evolves throughout the song without much repetition, and keeps you closely engaged. The harmony is very complex and enchanting. This was one of the first songs on the album that made me see the true genius behind Jeff’s writing. He has this unique ability to write extremely rich chord progressions, yet he keeps the melody so strong and memorable that you sometimes miss how elaborate it really is. I think that with all art, this is a constant challenge – trying to balance complexity and richness with accessibility,” said Bosse.

“This is the first song on the album that we got Snarky Puppy saxophonist Bob Reynolds to play on and I love how he plays on it. His intonation on the melody in unison with the guitar is spot on, and his solo is a great blend of tasteful, bluesy playing combined with some killer jazz lines,” said Bosse admiringly.

Bosse has been playing in jazz bands and leading his own outfits ever since graduating Berklee College of Music. Guitar Player magazine voted him “Outstanding Guitarist,” saying that he’s “a master in the making.” He created the Next Level Jazz concert series in 1998, producing over a hundred shows throughout the US and Canada. Six years later, he founded the Bosse School of Music, a premier pre-college-level program for contemporary music in Weymouth, Massachusetts. In 2007, he launched Bosse Studios, a world-class audio recording and video production studio that produces content for major brands, including Disney, Paramount, Samsung, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Walmart, Harvard University, NFL, The U.S. Open Tennis Series and many others. Five years ago, Bosse paired up with Grammy-winning R&B-jazz guitarist Norman Brown on a series of duet performances and instructional videos focused on improvisation, technique, composition and production.

Meticulously attentive to details large and small, Bosse poured a lot into making an impactful statement on “Burning Room Only.” And he knew that statement would benefit in ways unimagined via collaboration. In Lorber, Bosse not only found a producer and co-songwriter, but a partner with a shared ethos who is able to coax the best performances possible from the guitarist. Lorber also played a role in surrounding Bosse with the finest musicians available. The chemistry and community formed during the recording sessions elevated the project, forging lasting bonds.    

“When I first began the process of recording this album with Jeff, I immediately noticed that we shared similar values in that we feel that all aspects of the production require a high level of attention and detail. Not only is it about the songs, it’s about the orchestration, it’s about the musicians, the solos, the way it’s recorded, how it’s mixed and mastered, the album artwork, the song titles. One of the things I think about when reflecting on the process of writing and recording the album is how collaboration can yield a result far more unique than going it alone, especially if you put the right people together,” Bosse reflected.

“This time period has been one of the most prolific for me which is a true testament to the power of collaboration. My most memorable experience throughout the process of recording this album is the camaraderie and connection with the musicians involved. It’s these personal experiences that really mean the world to me.”

Electric Beethoven Feat. Karl Denson | "New Path"

"New Path" is Reed Mathis’ rearrangement of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata #8. When saxophonist Karl Denson (Rolling Stones, Greyboy Allstars, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe) and Mathis began talking about how we would approach this classic piece of music, they hit immediately on our shared love of Charlie Parker. They decided Parker’s "Charlie Parker with Strings" album would be our model—eschewing the written melody altogether, and instead, weaving a freeform improvised melody from the emotion contained in the raw chord changes themselves. Denson and his tenor saxophone were all over it.

For the recording they made for Color Red, Mathis played the bones of the piece on electric guitar and keyboardist Todd Stoops played the bass lines on a synth. The incredible and expressive drumming is from String Cheese Incident's Jason Hann, a longtime Electric Beethoven collaborator and friend. The addition of Denson is fledged from a 20-year relationship of being a friend and mentor to Mathis. From the first moment he sat in with Mathis’ first band, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, they have bonded over a blend of funky momentum, fiery improv, and a sense of control within recklessness on stage.

"New Path" is the longest studio track Reed Mathis and Electric Beethoven have ever put out, but considering the towering lineup they assembled to record it, they feel that it is a compelling and emotional journey from start to finish, with some surprising twists and turns, and a whole lot of soul.

Hear No Evil, the group's forthcoming double LP, will contain a multitude of unreleased tracks with fellow Color Red collaborators and an entire remix series of electronically produced reconfigurations of the group’s works by esteemed producers on today’s circuit. 

New Music: Ernesto Cervini, Noam Lemish, The Harry Bartlett Trio, Gentiane MG

Ernesto Cervini - Joy

Joy is the latest record from Juno-winning drummer and composer Ernesto Cervini. Inspired by Louise Penny’s Gamache series of books (NYTimes Best-Sellers) and the qualities of goodness, decency, courage, and love that permeate them, Cervini was moved to compose music that captures the characters, landscapes and relationships created by Penny. From the opening track “Three Pines” that sets up this voyage, to a musical portrait of a duck and her cranky, poet laureate owner in “Ruth’s Rosa,” from the mercurial “Beauvoir” to the beautiful love story of “Sandalwood and Rosewater.” The album showcases Canada’s finest musicians and is the first of Cervini’s albums to feature vocalists; Two tracks feature Alex Samaras (Queer Songbook Orchestra), and an additional featuring track with Felicity Williams (Bahamas, Bernice), Emilie-Claire Barlow (2 time Juno Award winner, 6 time nominee) and Amy Cervini (Duchess)  who also co-produced the album. Featuring Ernesto’s Turboprop, Tune Town, Tetrahedron groups as well as other sonic surprises, this album is a musical journey through the soul and heart of Three Pines and the characters who inhabit it, guided by an adoring fan. Cervini’s music and personality beam with unbridled joy and this album is a true reflection of that.

Noam Lemish – Twelve

Noam Lemish is a Toronto-based pianist-composer whose music often defies categorization. In Twelve he leads a formidable jazz 12tet presenting a captivating set of six original compositions. This chamber-sized jazz orchestra – a nimble, yet powerful ensemble – features a stellar cast that includes many of Canada’s most prominent jazz artists, including multiple JUNO award winners. Growing up “in-between” cultures and places, having lived for extended periods in Israel, the United States and now Canada, Lemish’s music fuses an array of disparate influences and traditions. In Twelve, Lemish and his orchestra distill this integrated, transcultural musical life into a compelling, poignant, and joyful artistic statement. Lemish’s distinct and innovative voice as a composer permeates every facet of this recording. The six pieces that comprise Twelve stretch the conventional boundaries of the jazz idiom in more ways than one. Pushing jazz structures in new directions, the works showcase inventive, long-form, through-composed music that seamlessly integrates soaring melodies, exquisite large ensemble writing and orchestration with stunning improvised solos. Owing to Lemish’s multi-cultural upbringing and life experiences, the compositions also reveal a musical vision that embraces genre-bending as an essential feature. Lemish’s writing effortlessly blends his rootedness in jazz and western art music with the musical influences of his Israeli childhood and Eastern-European Jewish heritage. 

The Harry Bartlett Trio - Wildwood

Wildwood is an exciting new release by the Harry Bartlett Trio. Rooted in the jazz tradition, this album draws heavily on American Folk and Western styles. The trio’s unique, focused identity offers a fresh path through the infinite potential of improvised music. The compositions on Wildwood were written and recorded on Gambier Island BC over a 6 month period. The rugged, isolated character of the BC coast permeates into the songs, lending qualities of reverence and peace. Through this process Harry was working closely with Toronto based guitarist and composer Geoff Young who lent his wide ranging experience and razor sharp focus as an artistic advisor. The Harry Bartlett Trio features Harry Bartlett (guitars), Caleb Klager (bass and modular synthesizer), and Harry Vetro (drum set). The Trio began in 2018 with the release of a debut EP, The Harry Bartlett Trio, and has since performed extensively, appearing in major venues and festivals across Canada. The Trio was awarded the TD Niagara Jazz Festival Jazz for the Ages Award in 2020. This album is a thoroughly crafted set of music that appeals not only to the dedicated forward thinking jazz listener, but to anyone interested in creative new music of a high caliber. After the release of 2 singles, Wildwood will be made available on November 18th 2022 with a release show held at the Array Space in Toronto on November 19th.

Gentiane MG – Walls Made of Glass

Following up on the potent musical message of her first two releases Eternal Cycle (2017) and Wonderland (2019), Montreal-based pianist Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon (known as Gentiane MG) is excited to share her deeply immersive third outing, Walls Made of Glass. The album features MG’s longtime colleagues Levi Dover (bass) and Louis-Vincent Hamel(drums), both major voices of the Canadian jazz scene, in a tour de force collection of new original music. More than ever, the band shares a deep bond that obscures the boundaries between written and improvised material. Walls Made of Glass comes from a desire to capture and to share meaningful and alive moments stemming from the deep connection MG has felt with her environment: objects, animals, plants, sounds and so forth. These inspirations led to 10 enthralling pieces, bright and full of contrast. Together with Dover and Hamel, MG creates a trio sound rooted in flexibility, interactivity, rhythmic command and expressive connection, conveying strong emotion and bringing imagination and mystery to a compelling acoustic landscape. Listening to Walls Made of Glass, one can lose themselves in a musical universe that goes way beyond notes, that stands as an artistic whole before everything else. Through music and artwork, Walls Made of Glass represents MG’s growing perspective on learning to live more in the moment and on the meaning of art. “When a light glows in the dark,” she offers, “our eyes are unavoidably drawn towards its beam. The moments from which this music originated are like this light. The contrast made them unexpectedly, yet miraculously, perceptible.” Driven by her love of modern jazz and her early training as a classical pianist followed by her development as a jazz pianist, MG pilots her trio with a vibrant sense of groove and lyricism, employing impeccable technique, revealing a penchant for bold dynamic arcs and harmony rich in ambiguity and subtle dissonance. 

Ricardo Bacelar | "O Último Pôr Do Sol"

Brazilian pianist, vocalist, composer, and arranger Ricardo Bacelar recently released the first single, “O Último Pôr Do Sol,” from his forthcoming album entitled Congênito. The full album represents a departure from his previous recordings and features Bacelar as the project’s sole producer, vocalist, arranger, and instrumentalist. They are being released on his record label Jasmin Music.

“O Último Pôr Do Sol” was written by songwriters Lenine and Lula Quiroga and recounts lost love. Bacelar’s recording features a video set on a beach near Fortaleza, Brazil, a quaint fisherman village surrounded by a lush, scenic landscape, and tells the story of a man who is alone because his partner has left him. In it, Bacelar joins a fisherman at sea and sings the song’s Portuguese lyrics that reference the ocean, land, air, and the wind, all elements of the area that are highlighted throughout the piece.

Toward the end of the song, Bacelar incorporates a blend of exotic instruments, including the Berimbau, a common African instrument used by enslaved people when they were brought to Brazil from Africa. It is the primary instrument used in Capoeira, a martial arts form that incorporates dance with fighting. The form originated when enslaved people practiced fighting but camouflaged it with dance movements so it would go unnoticed by their enslavers. Later in the song, he uses a mix of Brazilian percussion and cymbals, symbolizing elements of Brazil’s culture.

The release of Congênito marks the launch of Bacelar’s fifth solo album, and is a significant accomplishment for him as he recorded, produced, and played all of the instruments on the recording exclusively. For Bacelar, it is the first solo album he created this way. He spent considerable time researching proper recording technologies, planning and writing many arrangements and determining the most suitable instruments to feature. He, along with only one recording engineer, Melk, completed the entire project. Throughout the process, he learned of the difficulties of playing each instrument and combining them to sound like a cohesive ensemble.

On his full album Congênito, Bacelar reimagines classic Brazilian music composed by numerous legendary Brazilian masters including Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Djavan, Ivan Lins, Lenine, and others. With the exception of two songs in English, all of the songs are in Portuguese.

“O Último Pôr Do Sol” was made available on all major music platforms on July 1, 2022; the full album is scheduled to be released in early August.

Alma Records Signs #1 Jazz Chart Topper MICAH BARNES To Their Artist Roster

Alma Records, the Canadian jazz label home to releases from Florian Hoefner Trio, Alfie Zappacosta, Eliana Cuevas, and Hilario Duran is excited to announce former Nylons singer Micah Barnes to their roster.

Launched 1992 by jazz performer Peter Cardinali, Alma Records discovers and develops new and original artists who choose not to be compromised by the demands of an obsessively commercial music industry.

This philosophy has been a success. Their company has a roster of exceptionally gifted musicians and artists who have recorded an enduring catalogue of albums. Their work is now available around the world via prudent licensing deals with kindred labels such as Universal, eOne, edel, JVC, Proper, Perleberg, Pony Canyon, Gallo, EMI, Scorpio, Sony, Warner, and more.

“It gives me great pleasure to welcome multi-talented singer, songwriter, musician, Micah Barnes, to the Alma family, and I look forward to making some great records together,” says Peter.

As Micah gears up for his Brampton show on September 24, it’s almost showtime on the national broadcast has also been named as Music Director for the upcoming Canada’s Got Talent season, set to air in 2023.

Born in Vienna and raised in Canada, Micah Barnes cut his teeth in the cabarets and jazz clubs of Toronto in his teen years, before joining The Nylons in 1989. Recording and touring as a member of the internationally celebrated A Capella group placed Micah firmly within the global music scene. Through managing a busy schedule of concerts and television appearances, Micah’s rich and soulful baritone was introduced to music fans around the world.

Micah says, “It's rare for an established indie artist to find a home with a label so perfectly designed to support their journey. That’s why I’m especially thrilled to be joining forces with Peter Cardinali and Alma Records. I know my next album will benefit from Peter’s extensive history as a producer, and we’re both looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and jumping into the music together! With the added support from Universal Music Canada, it feels like our audience is about to expand internationally, which adds an extra layer of excitement for all of us involved.”

In his days since the Nylons, Micah has launched an active solo career, which included touring the USA with his international club hit “Welcome To My Head” - which placed #1 on the Billboard charts. His solo career also marked his long-awaited return to the jazz genre of his early years, resulting in a series of critically acclaimed recordings, including New York Stories (eOne Music). Micah has also shared the stage with a host of internationally renowned artists, including Molly Johnson & Jackie Richardson.

Micah’s latest release, 2020’s “Vegas Breeze” entered the jazz charts at #1. The music (including singles “When in Rome” and “End of a Love Affair”) transports listeners back to the days of the legendary Vegas showrooms, featuring songs first recorded by jazz luminaries Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, and Peggy Lee.

At his home base in Toronto, Micah is a busy Vocal, Performance and Career Strategy Coach whose international clients include GRAMMY nominated 

New Music: Nils, Bruce Barth Trio, Ed Calle, The Jazz Defenders

Nils - Cool Shades 

In 2021, as his #1 hits “Caught in the Groove” and “Outta Sight” were spinning regularly – ultimately making him Billboard’s #1 Smooth Jazz Airplay Artist of the Year – guitarist, composer and producer Nils was going through a rough personal time, traveling back and forth from L.A. to his original home of Munich to care for his ailing parents. The stylistically, eclectic gems written for his latest album Cool Shades (which he dedicates to his late father Kurt) alternately reflect the heavy emotions of this time, the importance of musical catharsis and the need for joyful, infectious and funky jams to balance the sadness and brighten up the world. Not surprisingly, Nils works his bluesiest excitement ever – a point emphasized by his clever jazzy arrangement of a Jimi Hendrix classic. ~ www.smoothjazz.com

Bruce Barth Trio - Dedication

On his seventeenth album as a leader (and his first since 2019), Dedication, pianist and composer Bruce Barth brings thirty-five years of experience performing and recording at the highest level to bear in a heartfelt tribute and homage to a dear friend and partner in music, drummer Montez Coleman. Barth also pays tribute with compositions for Tommy Flanagan, McCoy Tyner and George Floyd. “’Live at Smalls’,” an engrossing record made over a few nights of gigs last fall by Mr. Barth’s trio at that tiny New York jazz club, makes his case better than I’ve ever heard it before: as a composer, a bandleader, an improviser, and a musician of modesty and patience…his music descends from the straight-ahead jazz piano-trio tradition since the late 1950s: Sonny Clark, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Tommy Flanagan. In practice, he’s a player who can find essence underneath style; he connects the fragments of his band’s sound and melts into them.” ~ Ben Ratliff, The New York Times. 

Ed Calle - Soulful Nights with Jon Secada & KC

If you want to know what the multi-faceted musical city of Miami sounds like in 2022, listen no further than Soulful Nights, the latest seductive, snazzy, pop, funk and Latin jazz driven album by Latin Grammy winner and five time Grammy nominated saxophonist Dr. Ed Calle. Calle’s silky, uber-romantic and punchy tenor is the delightfully infectious emotional through-line on the compelling originals and imaginative covers of classics by Stevie Wonder, Bobby Caldwell and Marvin Gaye. Yet at heart, this multi-faceted project is a full-on celebration of the saxophonist’s hometown, featuring guest vocals by two pop greats that make their home there (KC of the Sunshine Band and the bilingual Jon Secada) as well as ace production and arrangements by legendary behind the scenes figures Hal Batt and Mike Lewis. ~ www.smoothjazz.com

The Jazz Defenders - King Phoenix

The Jazz Defenders are a group borne out of a deep love for Blue Note Records – specifically the hard bop recordings of Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Art Blakey. Those records were highly regarded for a reason – catchy horn lines and incredible musicianship combined with Rudy Van Gelder’s engineering skills mean they will forever be regarded as classics of the genre. The Jazz Defenders are a group that would ‘defend’ the legacy of those recordings whilst creating its own original identity and distinctive flair. The group is the brainchild of vibrant pianist and composer George Cooper who in 2015, set about choosing the right musicians for the individual qualities and style that they would bring to the group. Featuring some of the UK’s finest players the line-up is Nick Dover (tenor saxophone), Nick Malcolm (trumpet), Ian Matthews (drums), Will Harris (bass), and George Cooper (piano). As session musicians in their own right, the five members of the band have worked with a variety of internationally acclaimed artists such as Kasabian, Nigel Kennedy, Hans Zimmer, Massive Attack, The Haggis Horns, Pee Wee Ellis, Andy Sheppard, Get The Blessing, Simon Spillet, Alan Barnes, Rodriguez & Nostalgia 77, as well as playing at venues including Ronnie Scott’s, The Jazz Cafe and The 606 Club. Alongside an intense schedule of live gigs the band began laying down their own tunes, effortlessly channelling the spirit of the golden Blue Note era of jazz. The result of these efforts was debut album “Scheming“ released at the end of 2019 on Haggis Records. The album puts its own unique twist on classic bebop and hard bop, giving a modern soul jazz slant to the traditional sound and proving once and for all that jazz is far from dead.

New Music: Al DiMeola / Jean-Luc Ponty / Stanley Clarke, Carl Stone, The New Mastersounds

Al DiMeola / Jean-Luc Ponty / Stanley Clarke - Rite of Strings - Live at Montreux 1994

Mercury Studios is proud to release for the first time on CD Rite Of Strings: Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival 1994 on October 28. Previously released on DVD in ’05, the brilliant interplay between three virtuoso musicians—Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke—is on full display. The nine-track two-CD set features such deep cuts as “Renaissance” and “Memory Canyon” along with six others. Violinist Jean-Luc Ponty had never played with guitarist Al Di Meola. Their special on-stage chemistry is all over this sterling performance. Di Meola—dubbed “Best Jazz Guitarist” by Guitar Player magazine for five consecutive years (’77-’81)—is on fire. His solos on acoustic guitar sting in a non-stop dizzying flurry of notes while bassist Clarke slides up, over and underneath his every riff with alarming dexterity. The absence of drums frees each master musician to fill in the spaces with pure technique. At 21, Clarke first played Montreux with Stan Getz. Later in his career, his “slap” technique became a funk standard. His solo School Days, in ’74, cemented his rep as a fusion icon. Jean-Luc Ponty exploded out of Europe to join Frank Zappa and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Known for being the first violinist to fully integrate electronics and effects into his playing made him the Jimi Hendrix of the Violin. Here, in an acoustic format, his playing is sweet, swift and fully supportive. The CD starts in the key of Coltrane: “Song To John” a Clarke/Corea composition from Clarke’s ’78 Modern Man. Clarke’s “La Cancion De Sofia” is a portend of things to come as it would prove to be the highlight of this trio’s subsequent album together a year later. Solo spots then ensue climaxing with Ponty’s “Eulogy To Oscar Romero” off his 1983 Individual Choice. A folkloric South American groove permeates Di Meola’s “Chilean Pipe Song” as all three spiral upwards to a whirlwind conclusion. Since the spectral presence of Chick Corea hangs over this night, a second version of “Song To John” ends the proceedings as guest pianist Monty Alexander perfectly recreates what Corea himself might have added. But the crowd hadn’t had enough, demanding a second encore “Indigo.”

Carl Stone - We Jazz Reworks Vol.2

Volume 2 in the series happens with Carl Stone, a legendary figure in creative music. His career spans decades of unlimited musical innovation. Stone’s recent output on Unseen Worlds, the label who has also been instrumental in issuing some of his remarkable earlier work, ranks among the most original art of our time and renders notions such as ”genre” virtually meaningless. Here, We Jazz originals by Terkel Nørgaard, OK:KO, Jonah Parzen-Johnson and more are met here with a fresh sense of discovery, spun around and delivered ready for the turntable once again. Carl Stone says: ”It was wonderful that We Jazz gave me carte blanche to work with any materials from the set of ten releases in its catalog. This freedom to work with everything could have been a mixed blessing though, as it could be a challenge to try to deal with so much musical information. In the end I did what I almost always do: Let my intuition be my guide and to seize upon any musical items that seemed to fit into an overall approach.” ”To make a new piece I usually start with an extended period of what really is just playing, the way a child plays with toys. Experimentation without necessary expectation, leading to (hopefully) discovery of things of musical interest, then figuring out a way to craft and shape these into a structured piece of music. Each track uses a different approach, which I found along the way during this play period.” This conceptual approach becomes complete with the design, in which album graphics are treated in a similar fashion, reworking what’s there. This time around, the artwork is reinvented by Tuomo Parikka, a great friend of the We Jazz collective and a regular cover collage contributor for the We Jazz Magazine. 

The New Mastersounds - Deplar Effect

It's hard to go wrong with the New Mastersounds – and even after so many years, and so many records, these guys are still totally at the top of their funky game – one of the tightest, hardest, sharpest combos around – one of the first in the 21st century generation of deep funk acts, and still one of the best! Eddie Roberts, as always, is a monster on guitar – both in terms of his solos and his sense of riffing rhythms – and the group features plenty of C3 organ and other keyboards from Joe Tatton, plus some guest vocals on a few cuts from Lamar Williams. Titles include "Gonna Get In My Way", "Hot Tub", "Let Me In From The Cold", "Georgie Famous", "Meet You In The Sunshine", "Northern Lights", "Before", and "High On The Mountain". ~ Dusty Groove

Jeremy Rose & The Earshift Orchestra | "Disruption! The Voice of Drums"

Jeremy Rose is a two-time ARIA nominated Eora/Sydney based woodwind specialist, composer, band leader, label and festival director, whose music explores the intersection of socio-culture and genre, creating interesting and unique collaborative projects that span the globe. His music has been performed at festivals around Australia, Europe and the UK, has toured extensively in Australia, in Europe recently with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and The Vampires in collaboration with Lionel Loueke. 

On October 14th, Jeremy Rose and the 8-piece Earshift Orchestra bring a thrilling tribute to the timeless, visceral and disruptive power of the drum - Disruption! The Voice of Drums, featuring extraordinary drum virtuosi Simon Barker and Chloe Kim. Premiering to wide acclaim at the 2021 Sydney Festival, this major new work offers an opportunity to reflect on the current disruptive challenges we face, with bush fires, a global pandemic, civil unrest and a growing ecological disaster.

Alongside the voice, the drum is the most elemental form of human expression. From prehistory to the present we have used drums to conjure spirits, create ecstatic states of mind, bring communities together and put fear into the hearts of enemies. “I have always been fascinated by the power of drums,” explains Jeremy. “Drums can create ecstatic states of mind and alter our brain waves.” Drums have been used in ancient rituals, religious ceremonies and to instill discipline in the military. More recently, drums have been the élan vital of music whose purpose is to disrupt, featured in protest songs across the world from Hong Kong, to Russia and the United States.

Versed in jazz, drummer Simon Barker has played with many international touring artists including Tim Berne, Marilyn Crispell, Joe Lovano, Sheila Jordan, Gary Smulyan, John Hicks and Carlos Ward. He has spent years investigating traditional music from Asia and the Pacific. His collaboration with Korean Pan Sori singer Bae Il Dong and trumpeter Scott Tinkler is internationally recognized. “Simon has developed ways of playing things on the drums that are technically impossible for ordinary drummers,” explains Jeremy. Another drummer has emerged in recent years that has been one of the first to embrace Simon’s ideas whilst creating her own distinctive voice - Korean-born Chloe Kim, finding a musical path of discovery of rock, hip-hop and jazz through her Korean-informed approach. 

“In searching for material to draw upon for a possible collaboration between the three of us,” explains Jeremy, “I turned to their respective solo drum music to arrange music for; Chloe’s Right Turn, and Simon’s Urgency! (Vol.1 & Vol. 2), On Running, 1 & 2, amongst others.” This body of work highlights their respective musical backgrounds whilst demonstrating a quest to create new languages to themselves. In particular, Simon’s use of dense, fast rhythms and rhythmic variants (‘entangling’) posed exciting compositional opportunities. Disruption! was therefore begging to be created.

“The challenge of composing music for solo drums was that harmony and melody typically dictated the direction of the music and how I wrote for the ensemble,” explains Jeremy. “For Disruption!, drum parts became the foreground, with the other instruments moving in and out of focus.” Harmony and chords often had the reverse effect of diminishing rather than adding to the music. “I navigated this by creating layers of sound that need not lock in with the drums. These layers served to enhance and provide space for Simon and Chloe’s performances.”

The music of Disruption!, along with powerful images by video artist duo Peachy Mosig, provides a soundtrack to the year that’s been – 2020. Whilst challenging us all, we hope this work offers an opportunity to reflect. 

New Music: Gloria Scott, Emmet Cohen, Connie Han, Lee

Gloria Scott - So Wonderful

In June 2022, Acid Jazz announced the signing of Gloria Scott, with an amazing response to the 7” single ‘Promised Land’ – an elegant, soulful cover of Joe Smooth’s Gospel-House classic. We are delighted to present her upcoming album ‘So Wonderful’, out 30 September, leading with the new single ‘All Of The Time, You’re On My Mind’ out now on streaming platforms. While Gloria Scott might not be a household name, she has her own distinguished story in the history of soul music. She was discovered as a recording artist by Sly Stone, before working in Ike and Tina Turner’s backing vocal group ‘The Ikettes’ and touring with ‘The Supremes’. She also recorded her own classic, collectible soul records, collaborating extensively with Barry White. Tracks included ‘(A Case Of) Too Much Love Makin’’ from the album ‘What Am I Gonna Do?’ (1974). ‘All Of The Time, You’re On My Mind’ is one three tracks included on the album from her period working with Barry White, alongside a collaboration with P.P. Arnold, and co-writes with producer Andrew McGuinness. ‘Promised Land’ closes out the record, making Gloria Scott’s first album for 48 years one of the most exciting soul releases of 2022.

Emmet Cohen - Future Stride 

Emmet Cohen’s time has come. Since his debut Mack Avenue release Future Stride, Cohen has toured the world consistently - bringing the joy of music to people in need during a global pandemic — all while hosting weekly livestream concerts from his home in Harlem, NY. These livestreams provided a sense of community and a home to the displaced musicians of New York, reminiscent of the 1920s rent parties. On Uptown in Orbit, his sophomore release for Mack Avenue, Cohen brings the tradition of jazz to the forefront while providing the modern twist needed for the current times. Featured on this release is trumpeter/educator Sean Jones, saxophonist Patrick Bartley, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole.

Connie Han - Secrets Of Inanna

Rising star pianist/composer Connie Han brings the ancient Sumerian culture to the present day by channeling Inanna -- the ancient Sumerian goddess of love, beauty and war — on her third release for Mack Avenue Records. Featuring Katisse Buckingham (alto flute and piccolo), John Patitucci (bass), Rich Perry (tenor saxophonist) and drummer Bill Wysaske, Secrets of Inanna creates a new world open to interpretation, harkening back to the ethereal soundscapes of 1970s spiritual jazz with the modern composition Han has received praise for since her 2018 debut Crime Zone,creating a truly unique soundscape of great depth.

Lee - Maybe Now

Lee's always been one of the most compelling artists in the neo soul underground – from his early work in Square Egg, to the handful of solo albums he's given us over the years – and although it's been awhile since we heard from his last, the singer seems to have honed his craft even more, to a point where the strength of his music might be more than enough to finally give him a bit of mainstream exposure! The set's a double-length album – and Lee uses all that extra space to move into modes that move between acoustic and electric soul, with some jazzier stops along the way – and a surprising array of catchy tunes delivered with a real depth of style. Titles include "Mr Smith", "Long Way To Go", "Feel Thangs", "Room 101", "It Ain't Fair", "Harrison Bergeron", "Calle", "Good Times", "I Love The Rain", and "Rich Man's War Poor Man's Fight". ~ Dusty Groove