New Music Releases: Webster Lewis, Lee Fields, The Shapeshifters, Sun Ra Arkestra

Webster Lewis – Give Me Some Emotion – The Epic Anthology 1976-1981

For the first time on CD and LP, an anthology celebrating the work of composer, arranger, producer and pianist Webster Lewis from his time at Epic Records. The era of 1976-1981 is one of polished, luxurious jazz funk and soul, defined by Webster across his four albums at Epic supported by an array of guest musicians, lush string sections and often uncredited singers. This collection contains the artist’s signature tracks “Barbara Ann”, “Give Me Some Emotion”, “El Bobo” and recently uncovered gems from the vaults “Reach Out”, “Boston” and “Japanese Umbrella”. The CD features an exclusive essay written by Will Fox with unique insights from the legendary DJ Patrick Forge. The recently discovered recordings appear on vinyl for the first time on the LP edition.

Lee Fields – Sentimental Fool 

In early 2022, Lee reunited with Daptone Records and producer Gabriel Roth to record Sentimental Fool, a deep, blues-tinged, wholly-conceived soul album. From his first line to his final plaintive lyric, the beauty, power, and raw humanity of Leeʼs voice is on full display here; the culmination of an astounding career that has seemed to defy gravity, rising to only greater and greater heights. It was ever since the 1960’s, when he was a teenager in North Carolina sweating it out on juke joint stages, crumpled dollars hailing at his feet. It continues now that the living legend is in his late sixties, ushering in the most successful and fruitful period of his career. Like any living legend worth their salt, Fields has suffered despair, obscurity, defeat. Although he now tours stages around the world, and although he helped fellow soul legends like Sharon Jones (who was once Fields’ backup singer) and Charles Bradley (whom Fields took on his first tour) get their first break, he did not always have this position. There were years—they were known as “the 1980’s”—when Fields nearly gave up. His success these days, then has a bittersweet tinge: His dear friends Bradley and Jones have both passed, leaving Fields to outlive them and carry their legacy forth. With all these years, and all this life, comes a sort of divine wisdom, and Fields has it in spades. “I am a sinner, just like everybody else,” he says gravely. He is no “holier—than—thou guy,” he adds. He just believes in people’s ability to love and be loved, and he understands that music is the divine bridge to these places.

The Shapeshifters – Let Loose

From an aspiring b-boy to working with luminaries Billy Porter, Joss Stone, Kimberly Davis and Teni Tinks, The Shapeshifters, Simon Marlin announces the release of his brand-new studio album “Let Loose”. Wrapped in a defining optimistic mood and colourful palette, “Let Loose” plays with the friction between musical persona and influence, delivering a masterclass in Simon’s flourishing depth of integrity as a producer and admiration to those that exert their enduring influence upon him. “I’m a facilitator of talent. I’m blessed that over the years I’ve managed to put a team of people together – as a producer, that’s what I do, very much in the old school sense like a Quincy Jones or Gamble & Huff, they’re the guys I try to emulate – and make something magic out of nothing, but do it in a contemporary way. That’s what really floats my boat, and that’s what this whole project is about.” Simon Marlin – The Shapeshifters. Across the latest and long-awaited studio album “Let Loose” The Shapeshifters pledge rhythmic allegiance to the golden era disco records and their spellbinding qualities; embracing the tension often found between tradition and future to craft a euphoric, certifiable body of work presented to the devoted audience he deserves. The Shapeshifters exemplify a scene in rude health one that is now switching on an ever-younger fan base, and with Marlin being the beating heart of it it’s easy to see why The Shapeshifters are more in demand in the clubs than ever. The twelve-track album is illuminated with vocal collaborations including the recently released and debut collaboration with the Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning Billy Porter. Layers of rushing strings, flares of brass and hedonistic grooves provide refreshing dancefloor power dynamics and deliver a liberating, triumphant and inherently uplifting record. Taking an impeccably smooth course through disco-infused house, The Shapeshifters continue the rich relationship with Glitterbox and its record label; one that has yielded instant classics that epitomise the label’s ethos for preserving disco’s mission to uplift and empower.

Sun Ra Arkestra - Living Sky 

Really fantastic work from the continuing version of Sun Ra's Arkestra led by Marshall Allen – and an album of rich sophistication that definitely shows the mature version of the group really finding their own sense of voice and spirit! There's a laidback take to the music that partly recalls some of the modes that the Arkestra had in their earlier days, when they were exploring some exotica currents mixed with more avant jazz inclinations – although the expression of the sound here is more focused and majestic, with slight string touches blending in with instrumentation of a more jazz-based mode – handled by Marshall Allen on alto and kora, Knoel Scott on tenor and baritone, Michael Ray and Cecil Brooks on trumpets, Dave Davis on trombone, Farid Barron on piano, Dave Hotep on guitar, and Tara Middleton on some mighty nice flute and violin. There's a richness to the sound that comes from all the other players involved in the proceedings – and titles include "Day Of The Living Sky", "Firefly", "Wish Upon A Star", "Chopin", "Marshall's Groove", and "Somebody Else's Idea". ~ Dusty Groove

New Music Releases: Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Hill, Harold Vick, Bobby Hutcherson

Grachan Moncur III - Evolution LP (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series)

Though he first appeared on Herbie Hancock’s 1963 album My Point of View, trombonist Grachan Moncur III’s first true Blue Note introduction would come on two albums by saxophonist Jackie McLean that were recorded later that year: One Step Beyond and Destination… Out! These two great inside-out sessions presented a spacious new sound that moved fluidly between avant-garde and post-bop territory with McLean featuring Moncur’s singular compositions. Several months later Moncur returned to Van Gelder Studio to record his own remarkable debut album Evolution, which remains a marvel of the Blue Note catalog. For the date the trombonist assembled an exceptional ensemble that returned several musicians including McLean, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, and drummer Tony Williams, with the addition of Lee Morgan on trumpet and Bob Cranshaw on bass. The band delivers dynamic performances of four expansive original pieces by Moncur: “Air Raid,” “Evolution,” “The Coaster,” and “Monk In Wonderland.” This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Andrew Hill - Point of Departure LP (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series)

In Andrew Hill, Alfred Lion believed he had found another pianist and composer who had as unique and important a voice as Thelonious Monk. Hill debuted on Blue Note in 1963 with a staggering burst of creativity that produced four classic albums—Black Fire, Smoke Stack, Judgment!, and his masterpiece Point of Departure—over a period of just five months. Recorded in March 1964, Point of Departure expanded Hill’s palette with a 6-piece ensemble of diverse players that included the remarkable frontline of Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, and Kenny Dorham on trumpet, along with Richard Davis on bass and Tony Williams on drums. The robust sextet delivered thrilling performances of Hill’s extraordinary compositions including “Refuge,” “New Monastery,” “Flight 19,” and “Dedication.” This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Harold Vick - Steppin' Out (Blue Note Tone Poet Series)

Tenor saxophonist Harold Vick was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and played with R&B bands coming up before working as a sideman with soul jazz organ greats including Jack McDuff and Big John Patton. Vick made his first Blue Note appearance in April 1963 on Patton’s Along Came John, and a month later Alfred Lion brought the saxophonist back into the studio to record his own debut as a leader, the underrated soul jazz gem Steppin’ Out. For the session Vick assembled the same band with Patton on organ, Grant Green on guitar, Ben Dixon on drums, and added Blue Mitchell on trumpet. The record finds its groove from the very first soul drenched notes of the opener “Our Miss Brooks” and stays firmly in the pocket throughout this 6-song set including the hard-charging “Trimmed In Blue,” a deeply felt rendition of the ballad “Laura,” the swaggering minor blues “Vicksville,” and the buoyant title track which closes the album. 

Bobby Hutcherson - Stick Up (Blue Note Tone Poet Series)

Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson had a profound influence over the sound of Blue Note Records in the 1960s, with his distinctive vibes elevating a wide range of all-time classics from Grant Green Idle Moments to Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch. His fifth Blue Note session as a leader, 1966’s album Stick-Up! found Hutcherson in the company of a new band line-up with Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The versatile quintet covers a vast expanse of post-bop territory on this excellent six-song set which opens with a spirited romp through Ornette Coleman’s “Una Muy Bonita.” Five Hutcherson originals follow including the hard driving “8/4 Beat,” the dreamy ballad “Summer Nights,” and the expansive “Verse.”

 

Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen

“Leonard Cohen had been a friend since 1982 or so, and in the last 15 years of his life, he became a close friend,” says producer Larry Klein. “He was possibly the wisest and funniest friend that I had, and someone that I enjoyed, immensely, in every way. After he passed away, I found myself frequently covering his songs with other artists that I was working with. One reason, of course, is that the songs are so good—in a certain way, Leonard is the best pop songwriter ever—but the other reason was that it helped keep him in the air around me.”

So Klein decided to assemble an album’s worth of Cohen songs, matching an extraordinary line-up of guest vocalists from different genres with an equally impressive group of jazz-based musicians—or, as he puts it, “a group of the most prescient and forward-looking musicians in the jazz world.” The resulting collection, Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, is ultimately reminiscent of the concept that guided his production of Herbie Hancock’s 2007 album River: The Joni Letters, which won the GRAMMY Award for Album of the Year (and on which one of the featured singers was, in fact, Leonard Cohen).

Bringing in artists such as Norah Jones, Peter Gabriel, Gregory Porter, Sarah McLachlan, Luciana Souza, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, David Gray, and Nathaniel Rateli­ff to collaborate with the core band— guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Nate Smith with additional contributions from Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and Larry Goldings on organ—Klein set out to create a more “conversational” musical setting for Cohen’s lyrics. “What I was endeavoring to do was to not get in the way of the poetry,” he says, “because that was something that bothered Leonard about a lot of the covers that were done of his music, and even with his own versions of the songs. So I was approaching it with the musicians in a way that hopefully served as more of an underscore, more cinematically, and not something that would obscure or in any way take attention away from the poems.”

The album’s 12 tracks offer a stunning range of Cohen’s compositions, with songs drawn from his beloved 1967 debut Songs of Leonard Cohen (“Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”) all the way up to selections from his final album, You Want It Darker, released just days before his death in 2016. The set covers some of his best-known classics (“Suzanne,” “Famous Blue Raincoat”) and less familiar deep cuts, all given new life through thoughtful and unexpected arrangements and performances. To add to the challenge, the album was recorded during lockdown, with voices laid down in studios from England to Chicago, Canada to Miami.

The ambitious project is just the latest achievement in Klein’s remarkable career. The producer/musician/songwriter/composer is a four-time GRAMMY winner and ten-time nominee. He has produced albums including Turbulent Indigo by Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman’s Our Bright Future; played bass with greats from Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter to Don Henley and Lindsay Buckingham, and written songs with such giants as Warren Zevon and Bonnie Raitt.

In assembling the line-up for Here It Is, Klein went to some singers with song suggestions, while others offered ideas of their own. “One of the most important things in the process is to find songs that the singers are passionately attached to,” he says. He points to Gabriel’s performance of the album’s title track—a relatively obscure selection from Cohen’s 2001 Ten New Songs album—as an especially satisfying combination.

“When I sent the song to him, he just glommed on to it,” says Klein, noting that Gabriel is someone with whom he has toured and recorded. “We immediately agreed that the approach would need to be very, very restrained, and what he did with it vocally was exactly what I had thought would suit interpreting the song—singing it as softly as humanly possible, almost like he’s speaking it into the listener’s ear.”

Of course, though the primary intent was to serve Cohen’s magnificent lyrics, Klein’s take on the material also inevitably highlights the songwriter’s often overlooked musicality. (“When people talk about Leonard,” Bob Dylan once said, “they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius.”)

“I always loved the simplicity of his musical approach,” Klein says. “The songs were in a way naive, or at least they gave the sense of a naivety. Leonard had a great sense of humor, and at times, his way of approaching his songs had a certain kind of perverse humor to it. I felt like there was some territory to be explored by looking at the songs through a looking glass, with that kind of skewed and almost humorous aspect to it.”

The melodic power of Cohen’s work comes out most strikingly in two instrumental recordings on Here It Is—“Avalanche,” led by Wilkins, and “Bird on the Wire,” featuring Frisell. “I love the intensity in the way ‘Avalanche’ turned out,” says Klein. “The lack of virtuosic jazz musicianship suited the lyric and puts it across in a way that feels appropriate. ‘Bird on the Wire’ felt like something that had to be on the record, and I had considered a number of different ideas, but nothing came together that felt right. Bill has such a beautiful, understated lyricism to his playing that just having him interpret that simple melody would be something touching. I feel like we got at something special with that.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the hardest song for Klein to cast was “Hallelujah,” Cohen’s best-known composition, which has become nothing less than a global anthem—its story was even the subject of both a recent book and a documentary. What’s left to do with a modern standard that has been recorded for hundreds of different renditions? “I thought about having a poet reciting above a track or in combination with one other instrument or something,” says Klein. “But in talking to Sarah McLachlan, I just sensed something. There was a passion there and a hunger to sing the song. She sang it as if her life depended on it, and there’s an elegant commitment to the song that that I think is lacking in a lot of the versions that I’ve heard.”

Klein didn’t always speak to the album’s contributors about what exactly Leonard Cohen meant to them, but he felt their reverence for this master of his form. “I think they all share my feeling that in the realm that Leonard was working in, he was the man, he was the guy, and that he got at something that was so powerful and elegantly ironic,” he says. “I got a sense of profound kindred respect and admiration from all of them.

“It was an immensely gratifying experience to recontextualize these poems, and shine a different light on them,” he continues. “I hope that this musical language that we developed together, the context that we put these things in, makes the songs connect with people in a new way.” ~ Blue Note

NORAH JONES RELEASES I DREAM OF CHRISTMAS (DELUXE)

Norah Jones has released I Dream Of Christmas (Deluxe), a newly expanded 24-track edition of the singer, songwriter, and pianist’s beloved 2021 holiday album, a delightful and comforting collection of timeless seasonal favorites and affecting originals. The Deluxe edition features 11 additional songs including bonus tracks and live performances, as well as a brand-new studio recording of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” I Dream Of Christmas (Deluxe) is out now on 2-LP black, gold, or red vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

“When I was trying to figure out which direction to take, the original songs started popping in my head,” Norah explained. “They were all about trying to find the joys of Christmas, catching that spark, that feeling of love and inclusion that I was longing for during the rest of the year. Then there are all the classics that have that special nostalgia that can hit you no matter who or where you are in life. It was hard to narrow down, but I picked favorite classics that I knew I could make my own.”

The album’s release last year found Norah performing songs including her original “Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones),” the Chipmunks’ “Christmas Don’t Be Late,” and Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” everywhere from Rockefeller Center to the White House and Disneyland to the top of the Empire State Building. In fact, five of the additional tracks included on the Deluxe edition were taken from that remarkable live performance atop the iconic New York City skyscraper where Norah was joined by bassist Gus Seyffert, drummer Brian Blade, and vocalist Sasha Dobson.

The original studio album was produced by Leon Michels and features an excellent cast of musicians including Blade on drums, Tony Scherr and Nick Movshon on bass, Russ Pahl on pedal steel guitar, Marika Hughes on cello, Dave Guy on trumpet, Raymond Mason on trombone, and Michels on saxophone, flute, percussion, and more.

The track listing for I Dream Of Christmas (Deluxe) is as follows:

• Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)
• Christmas Don’t Be Late
• Christmas Glow
• White Christmas
• Christmastime
• Blue Christmas
• It’s Only Christmas Once A Year
• You’re Not Alone
• Winter Wonderland
• A Holiday With You
• Run Rudolph Run
• Christmas Time Is Here
• What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
• Last Month Of the Year
• I’ll Be Home For Christmas
• The Christmas Waltz
• O Holy Night
• I Dream Of Christmas
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Christmas in My Soul / Christmastime (Live From The Empire State Building)
• Run Rudolph Run (Live From The Empire State Building)
• Blue Christmas (Live From The Empire State Building)
• You’re Not Alone (Live From The Empire State Building)
• Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones) (Live From The Empire State Building)

~ Blue Note

Bill Frisell | "Four"

Bill Frisell has released “Holiday,” a playful new track from the acclaimed guitarist’s forthcoming album Four, a stunning meditation on loss, renewal, and friendships that was produced by Lee Townsend and comes out November 11. The album convenes a new line-up of musical friends, independent spirits, and like minds with Gerald Clayton on piano, Johnathan Blake on drums, and longtime collaborator Greg Tardy on saxophone, clarinet, and bass clarinet.

The album’s first single “Waltz for Hal Willner” was a poignant tribute to Frisell’s dear friend, but Four also transmits joy, exuberance, and hope. A quirky, syncopated gesture, and feature for Blake, “Holiday” presents a compelling example of the album’s through line. “It’s just a few notes in the melody,” says Frisell. “There are these little signposts that we can hit together, but it’s pretty minimal information. It’s a structure — a jungle gym that we’re all climbing around.”

During the lockdown, like so many prolific artists, Frisell turned inward. “It was traumatic not to be with people,” he says, “so I picked up my guitar, and my guitar saved me.” For those months, he wrote stacks of melodies and compositional ideas. By the time he scheduled Four’s recording sessions, he’d amassed piles of notebooks filled with fragmented music. Laying little more than a sketch of information before his fellow artists, Frisell encouraged a kind of spontaneous, cooperative orchestration. “Everyone had the information, but it was super open as far as who plays what when,” he says. “Without a bass, it was a little scary, but I wasn’t thinking so much about the instruments. It’s always more about the chemical reaction that’s going to happen.”

Four is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and digital formats. ~ Blue Note

New Music Releases: JK Group, Designers, JazzPhil, Ivan Grebenschikov

JK Group - Rising

Multi-dimensional future-jazz outfit JK GROUP to release a new EP, 'Rising' on La Sape Records. The brainchild of award-winning saxophonist, Joshua Kelly (30/70 collective, PBS Young Elder of Jazz 2019), the band returns to the label with a follow up EP to the mind-bending 2021 release, 'What’s Real?' Where 'What’s Real?' served as a platform for wild experimentation, 'Rising' returns to a more considered and familiar format for the band, offering up 4 cohesive tracks that are deep in conception and expression, at once original and fresh. Conceived after recording an as yet unreleased body of work written whilst undergoing chemotherapy, 'Rising' celebrates bandleader Josh’s survival and eventual recovery from the intense treatment he received for lymphoma in 2020. The band stays true to their honed format of jazz traditions melding with influences from electronica and beyond. Like the first release, 'The Young Ones', 'Rising' sits comfortably in the crossover of raw, live jazz and electronic dance music, whilst also throwing an unexpected curveball to the listener expanding the palate of the bands sound to a pigment never before heard in their music.

Designers - Designers

Designers are Joachim Florent on double bass, Will Guthrie on drums, Aki Rissanen on piano. This is their debut album together, released by We Jazz Records on 2 Dec. Their music, composed by Joachim Florent, is inspired by geometry and architecture. The music flows as minimalist, postmodern piano trio jazz of the highest calibre, as evidenced by the lead single ‘Moulindjek'. Florent (from Belgium) and Guthrie (from Australia) are based in Nantes, France, and Rissanen (from Finland) also has strong ties to the city. Joachim Florent says: "As a kid I started playing music with the piano and I keep playing it every day, even if pretty poorly, and use it to compose and discover new music. In 2019 I started to write some piano studies that appeared to be pretty geometrical in a way, so I had this idea I could bring some music for the trio that would be inspired by geometry and architecture. In the meantime, I knew that we would improvise as much as possible as Aki and Will are among the most brilliant improvisers I've ever met! So the challenge for me was to write as little as possible but to make the material strong enough to suggest a particular geometric feeling for each tune. I discovered Filip Dujardin's work some ten years ago and I was struck by the power of these impossible architectures looking so familiar and totally surrealist in the meantime. I guess that's how I would love Designers to sound: both familiar and surrealist."

JazzPhil – New Delights

This is a classic jazz quartet of instruments: saxophone, piano, double bass and percussion. My second album, in collaboration with saxophonist Dmitry Semenov, we recorded in the studio under the dome of St. Catherine’s Church on Vasilyevsky Island. The jazz quartet format implies a large space for soloists and opportunities for interaction, and here the musical finds of pianist Ilya Shcheklein and drummer Artyom Teklyuk were clearly manifested. The experience of joint concert playing on St. Petersburg jazz scenes is embodied in this album. Several of my compositions written for the quartet were complemented by interpretations of works by composers from the first half of the 20th century. One of the ideas is the embodiment of musical images by means of acoustic instruments. In search of colors, we followed the traditions of the modern mainstream, but not limited to the stylistics of, for example, hard bop or modal jazz.

Ivan Grebenschikov – Photo of A Changing World

“Photo of A Changing World” is a symbol of the fact that it is impossible to see the movement of time in a static image, unless you turns on the imagination. With the help of imagination, a person connects one old photograph with another and feels the dynamics of time. I tried to convey the feeling of this dynamics in music. This album is like recorded in the last century on an audio cassette, which was lost and found only many years later. The genre of the album cannot be described in one word – Latin American jazz and hard rock, free jazz and free improvisation are mixed here. Each genre is a rung on a spiral staircase that we move from the past to the present.

Pennsylvania-Based The Frost Duo Lead Us To Seduction with'70s/'80s-Influenced "To Be With You"

Sometimes you just want to be taken on an unhurried, mellow journey of seduction, and Scranton, PA-based The Frost Duo deliver with their ‘70s/’80s-influenced smooth-jazz ballad “To Be With You” off their new LP Play Nice – available now.

Singer LeahBeth Evans’ voice slinks and shimmies through the backdrop of warm analog keyboards and velvety jazz guitar as she boldly inquires, “Can you tell me what you’re doing tonight/ Can you tell me what you’re doing next year/ Cuz I need to be with you.” And it’s hard not to melt, and succumb completely to the song’s charms, when she starts to sing about fearlessly taking a leap of faith – “Well, you know I’m not afraid to pursue/ A love greater than imagined and true.”

“To Be With You” is included on the duo’s five-song EP Play Nice, a sonic rollercoaster of emotion. From a lyrical aspect, Play Nice takes the listener not only through the consciousness of the composers LeahBeth Evans and Christian Gratz themselves, but it also introduces us to the friends and acquaintances who have filled Evans’ and Gratz’s  ears with their own experiences of finding love and experiencing loss, anger, and even impending doom from the recent global crisis we’ve all experienced. From a sonic aspect, Play Nice is a celebration of the duo’s love of smooth jazz, traditional compositions, and even rock music. They will be embarking on a small tri-state tour in support of the EP, and dates are as follows:

• October 29, 2022             The Hotel Hershey                      Hershey, PA
• October 30, 2022             Ad Lib inside Hilton Harrisburg   Harrisburg, PA
• November 19, 2022         Crystal Springs Resort                 Hamburg, NJ
• December 3, 2022            Lackawanna Winterfest               Scranton, PA
• December 31, 2022          Skytop Lodge                              Skytop, PA

The Frost Duo consists of multi-instrumentalist and composer Christian Gratz and lead vocalist/songwriter LeahBeth Evans. In 2015, LeahBeth and Christian met through mutual Facebook friends and began corresponding about their love of music. Soon, they began casually dating, and after about a month, Christian invited LeahBeth to sing a few songs at a gig he booked in Dunmore, PA, at an Italian restaurant called Russell’s. After the night was finished, the owner requested that the two perform twice a week for the rest of the summer, and they agreed. After that regular gig, the two lovers decided that the sky was the limit, and that they would continue to make beautiful music together.

Throughout the years, the duo has performed at some prestigious and renowned American venues, including Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Club Macanudo in New York City, and the Crystal Springs Resort. After years of traveling, The Frost Duo decided that they wanted to dive deeper into their love for smooth jazz, and so they began writing and recording. Since then, they have had recordings land on the iTunes jazz charts and the BDS/Neilson Smooth Jazz “Most Added” listings.

Their new single “To Be With You” is available now.

New Music Releases: Bob Baldwin, Terry Wollman, Eliane Elias, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Bob Baldwin - B Positive

Bob Baldwin’s 34th studio offering is a continual stay-at-home event. The 33rd offering was a live record recorded in Elmsford, NY (The live ‘Stay-at-Home Series’). The latest offering, “B Positive” is a road map on how to keep your chin up high. “Having faced near-death family illness, I’m glad I can take away some things that I can share with my listener,” says the native New Yorker Pianist. “Chances are, if I’ve gone through it, so has a lot more people”, says Baldwin. “If you just look at the titles, you’ll clearly see what my intent is…simply don’t lose control of the ship, no matter what goes down”. Here’s Baldwin’s further takes on some of the project below: This record feels more like a rejuvenation of his old projects like “Cool Breeze”, hearkening back to fun and bouncy melodies, with just enough harmonic tension to make the hair on the back of your neck tingle and tickle. In closing, my influences of Herbie, Joe Sample, George Duke, as well as inspirations from the old schoolers of jazz make this a cool listen, in my opinion. The bass flows, drums are solid, Phil Hamilton’s funky stroke on guitar throughout the project push the syncopation to nice head-nodding spaces. Hopefully, another cd for your driving pleasure for sure! We once thank you for taking this musical journey with Bob Baldwin. We hope ‘B Positive’ delivers the healing, soothing and blessings you were hoping to expecting, without even listening, the titles themselves make one’s mood better already. Tell a friend!!”

Terry Wollman - Silver Collection

Extraordinary musician Terry Wollman offers up a 25 year musical retrospective with his album “Silver Collection” which includes this artist’s very best songs since 1988. The album is a blend of smooth jazz, latin-salsa, world beat, and adult contemporary pop… all served up in a single consistent sonic landscape. This spectacular recording features Wollman’s friends Dave Koz, Joe Sample, Mindi Abair, Gerald Albright, Michael McDonald, Keb’ Mo’ and a world-class band. Track Listing: 1. Welcome To Paradise 2. Buddha's Ear 3. Our Love 4. Bimini 5. Dear Dad 6. Buckwheat Sample 7. A Little More Music 8. Survive 9. Brother Q 10. Scorchin' 11. Obrigado 12. Reflections 13. This Day 14. Mandela.

Eliane Elias - Quietude

Hot off her 2022 GRAMMY win for Best Latin Jazz Album, Mirror Mirrorwith Chick Corea and Chucho Valdés, superstar pianist, singer, composer and arranger Eliane Elias returns to her Brazilian bossa nova roots with her forthcoming album Quietude.   A luscious collection showcasing her alluring vocals with her virtuosic instrumental jazz and piano mastery, the recording features songs by such legendary composers as Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Dorival Caymmi along with Dori Caymmi who joins her on vocals for the closing track of the recording. Includes: Você E Eu (You and I); Marina; Bahia Com H (Bahia with H) SÓ Tinha Que Ser Com Você (This Love That I've Found); Olha (Look); Bahia Medley: Saudade Da Bahia/Você JÁ Foi Á; Eu Sambo Mesmo (I Really Samba); Bolinha de Papel (Little Paper Ball); Tim-Tim Por Tim-Tim; and Brigas Nunca Mais (No More Fighting).

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley - Gyedu-Blay Ambolley & High Life Jazz

A really great record from West African 70s legend Gyedu-Blay Ambolley – and a record that definitely offers up plenty of the jazz promised in the title! Back in the day, Ambolley had a style that was much more steeped in funk and soul – but here, the tracks are longer and more spiritual – with really wonderful instrumentation that includes plenty of solos on the tenor pictured on the cover, mixed with plenty of percussion, keyboards, and other great horn work too! There's a richness to the record that maybe makes it the greatest one that Gyedu-Blay has given us in recent years – and titles include great remakes of "Love Supreme", "Footprints", "Round Midnight", and "All Blues" – plus "Yekor Ye A Yeaba", "Enyidado", "Asamansudo Groove", and "Sankumagye Love Life". ~ Dusty Groove

Merlon Devine | "Stirred"

Gifts. Talents. Blessings. All to serve a specific purpose that serves others. And they are to be utilized fully to fulfill that function. That’s how soul-jazz saxophonist Merlon Devine sees it, using his to write and record contemporary jazz that is church derived. His new upbeat instrumental R&B single “Stirred” goes for playlist adds on October 24.

“I believe everyone has a gift. Every person on earth has something they were given - from God - to help them fulfill their purpose while on earth. There’s a scripture in the Bible that talks about each person ‘stirring’ their gift. In other words, your gift should not collect dust, but each person should make sure they keep their gift sharp and in use. I feel we are most effective and happy when we use the gift we’ve been given,” said Devine about the feel-good song he wrote with producer Matt Godina (Darren Rahn, Julian Vaughn, Nicholas Cole, Lin Rountree).

“Stirred” is the third single from Devine’s eighth album, “Soul Jazz,” which dropped last year. Emoting passion, inspiration and grace, Devine plays saxes and flute on the track. Godina adds keyboards, guitar and programming to the ebullient harmonies. The midtempo groove is anchored by bassist Kevin “Mr. Kevin Jerome” Stancil and drummer Lester Estelle, Jr.

It’s natural for Devine to turn to his faith when it comes to composing music. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas to parents who pastored a church, the household was always filled with music, primarily gospel. While Devine’s nine siblings could all sing, he found his voice via saxophone. Church informed his spirituality, but discovering contemporary jazz informed his music. From Jesus and the Apostles to Groover Washington, Jr., Najee, George Howard, Kirk Whalum and other saxophone greats, Devine found a creative path for his artistic expression to incorporate both pillars in his life.  

“My love for contemporary jazz grew as I grew as a player. Listening to these saxophonists, mixed with the soulful and heartfelt riffs I was hearing at church, shaped me into what I am today. When I started writing songs, it was contemporary jazz. It evolved into a wonderful opportunity for me to provide churches with instrumental music in the style of contemporary jazz during sacred worship gatherings. I consider myself a contemporary jazz ambassador to the church,” said Devine who lives with his family just outside of Washington, DC.

As “Stirred” arrives, hopefully motivating listeners to put their gift to work, Devine continues his musical ministry this month at the following concert dates:

• October 22 / Grand Opening Event /  Waldorf, MD
• October 23 / Crossover Church /  Hyattsville, MD
• October 30 / First Baptist Church / N. Brentwood, MD

Joe Louis Walker | "Weight Of The World"

On February 17th, Forty Below Records will release Weight of the World, the new album by award-winning Blues and Roots musician Joe Louis Walker. The first single and title track will be premiered by American Blues Scene on Wednesday, October 19th, and released to all digital streaming platforms on Friday, October 21st.

A Blues Hall of Fame inductee and six-time Blues Music Award winner, NPR described Walker as "a legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues." His 2015 release, Everyone Wants a Piece, was nominated for the Contemporary Blues Grammy. In addition, Walker dueted with B.B. King on his Grammy Award-winning Blues Summit album and played guitar on James Cotton's Grammy-winning album Deep in the Blues. 

Recorded with Producer Eric Corne (John Mayall, Walter Trout, Sugaray Rayford), Weight of the World showcases the depth of Walker's influences and the prowess with which he commands different genres; be it Soul, "The Weight of the World," "Is it a Matter of Time," "Don't Walk Out That Door," Gospel, "Hello, it's the Blues," Funk, "Count Your Chickens," New Orleans 2nd line, "Waking Up the Dead," Indie Blues "Root Down," Rock N Roll, "Blue Mirror," Contemporary Blues, "Bed of Roses," or Jazz, "You Got Me Whipped." 

It's a compelling album that displays a master at the height of his game. They say Roots musicians age like fine wine, which certainly rings true with Walker. Weight of the World is a resounding statement and quite possibly the beginning of the most remarkable chapter of a storied career.  

Recorded just outside of Woodstock, NY, with musicians Scott Milici (Keys), John Medeiros Jr.(Drums), Geoff Murfitt (Bass), Eddie Jackson (Bongos), Marc Pender (Trumpet), David Ralicke (Saxophone), Eric Gorfain (Violins), Gia Ciambotti (Background Vocals) and Producer Eric Corne (Background Vocals, Guitar), who also engineered and mixed the album. Walker and Corne split writing duties on the album. 

The title track is a metaphor for the times we live in. "Out here at the edge of the world / It's starting to curl / We've upset the big shareholder." As the pandemic lingers on, the cost of doing business rises, and global temperatures soar, musicians like Walker have felt the impact as much as anyone.  

Another standout track, "Hello, it's the Blues," portrays a virtual conversation between the Blues in the form of a guardian angel and the listener, "I've been here all the time, in your heart and in your mind." The track features a breathtaking string arrangement by Eric Gorfain (Neil Diamond, Roseanne Cash, Dionne Warwick,) a riveting nylon string guitar solo, and moving Gospel-influenced vocals with Gia Ciambotti (Joe Walsh, Bruce Springsteen.)

Walker's "Is it a Matter of Time" and "Don't Walk Out That Door" are classic Stax/Hi Records style songs with beautiful harmonies and punchy horns over Walker's brilliant harmonic changes and deft guitar playing. Corne counters with two sharp-tongued numbers, "Waking Up the Dead" and "Count Your Chickens." The former is driven by a propulsive 2nd Line meets Bo Diddley groove with a snaking slide guitar seemingly representing the song's main character."  It's masterfully written," says Walker. The latter is a fox in the henhouse tale of warning with a smoking funk arrangement by Walker and his sneaky great band. 

Walker's output spans the gamut of American Roots music, and he is regarded as one of his generation's greatest bluesmen. Billboard found that his playing "blows all over the map…gutbucket blues, joyous gospel, Rolling Stones-style rock crunch, and aching R&B. Walker's guitar playing is fine and fierce."  

A brilliantly lyrical guitarist, soulful singer, and prolific songwriter, Walker has toured extensively throughout his career, performing at some of the world's most renowned music festivals, such as Glastonbury and Montreux, as well as on national television, with appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Don Imus Show and Later With Jools Holland in the UK, earning him a legion of dedicated fans along the way.  

Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper, opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate of Mike Bloomfield. 

Walker's 1986 debut album Cold Is the Night on HighTone announced his arrival in stunning fashion, and his subsequent output for Verve, Alligator, HighTone, and others only served to further establish Walker as one of today's leading bluesmen. The New York Times raved, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice. His guitar solos are fast, wiry, and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." Rolling Stone called him "ferocious."  

A myriad of organizations have recognized Joe for his achievements. He's a member of the Blues Hall of Fame, was named a USA Fellow by United States Artists, won multiple W.C. Handy Awards and Blues Music Awards, has been a recipient of San Francisco's prestigious Bammy Awards, and was also awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Mississippi Valley Blues Society. 

Referred to as "A musician's musician," Walker has earned his rightful place among the pantheon of legendary electric blues singer/guitarist/songwriters like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. Herbie Hancock called Walker "a national treasure." Chick Corea glibly referred to him as "The Chick Corea of Blues," and Aretha Franklin called him "The Bluesman." 

There is no shortage of praise; Blues Revue calls Walker "one of contemporary blues' most dynamic and innovative. musicians release consistently exciting, soulful, heartfelt, and spellbinding music." Living Blues stated, "His fretwork is indelibly stamped with his trademark blend of emotional heat and impeccable precision. Even at his most flamboyant, Walker sounds like he's playing ideas, not just notes." 

Walker plans to tour extensively to support the new record, effusing, "The band and I are chomping at the bit to play these songs live!"

Samantha Fierke | "Mirage"

So much of jazz singer-songwriter Samantha Fierke’s world was not as it appeared as they worked on their debut album in the midst of the pandemic. Still a teenager at the time, Fierke had not yet been diagnosed as autistic and was “finding their place in the world through their queer identity,” all while fear, economic uncertainty and civil unrest gripped the US. Writing poignantly about the contrasting feelings of hope and despair amidst chaos and turmoil, Fierke composed the resonant lyrics to the arresting “Mirage,” the title track to the acoustic jazz vocal album produced by Loyd Warden receiving its national release on November 18.  

When they began crafting “Mirage” in 2020, Fierke had deferred their first year at Berklee College of Music and also had to push back recording the album due to pandemic restrictions. The delay afforded Fierke’s music time to mature, songs that explore the pain they endured while masking their autism in an abusive relationship; fantasizing romantically about a woman; express the rage and power of their generation in response to the politics of our times; the pain and anger of betrayal; and emerging from darkness with hopeful anticipation.

As restrictions eased last year, Fierke entered bassist Mickey Jamieson’s home studio in Columbia, Missouri where they recorded live accompanied by a trio comprised of Jamieson, keyboardist Samuel Luetkemeyer, and Warden on drums and percussion.

Taking stunning command of the mic to sing and scat like a seasoned and skilled veteran, the eight songs on “Mirage” pour from the twenty-year-old singer’s being rife with raw emotion, intimacy, intensity and brazen authenticity. Despite difficult and deeply personal subject matters, Fierke shares their poetic narratives while peeling back the protective layers. Their voice never waivers, exhibiting astonishing beauty, poise, strength and grace amidst the embers of heartache and glimmering rays of optimism. Working with melodies and rhythms constructed from jazz, fusion, global folk, funk and sophisticated pop, sonically the tracks on “Mirage” are artfully assembled, sparsely rendered tapestries that provide dramatic shading, sensual grooves and moody melodic enhancements illuminating Fierke’s tales.

“Mirage” opens with a tribute to Chick Corea on the astutely rhythmic “Kick It Loose.”

“Chick died as I was still writing it and immediately, I knew it was for him.  It is a song for the musician’s soul, to remind us that we are not simply a commodity to be bought and sold. Music is not between audience and performer, but among a communal group,” said Fierke who released a five-song EP of standards in 2018 titled “Sam.”

While there’s a touch of whimsy on the swinging “I Remember Butterflies,” the lyric reveals lost innocence.     

“My childhood was outdoorsy and playful, thanks to my mom and her garden. I recently noticed that the swarms of butterflies that used to greet me every summer are now down to one or two pairs of wings at a time. It is a mourning.”

Jamieson literally got down on his hands and knees to record the sound of water droplets to provide interesting percussive texturization on “Shower Song.”

Fierke explains, “Sometimes life - or some sour soul - hits you like a brick with so much force that all you can do is let the water wash it away until you are well again. I wrote this to process the pain and anger handed to me by someone I called a friend.”

The journey of self-discovery became very real for Fierke a little over a year ago when they finally received their autism diagnosis. Five years earlier, they began writing the lyrics to “Color Me,” even without knowing what they were fully about.

“They were the heartbroken words from a young me drowning to change myself, mask myself, in desperation that the abuse I was receiving in a relationship would stop. The song is not as cheery as it seems and that is precisely the point,” Fierke said about the track that was issued last spring as a “teaser single.”

“My autism was harder to identify at first due to my ADHD, which can sometimes make the behaviors look different via opposite extremes competing for exposure. When I received my diagnosis, all the sudden my life and all my experiences made sense. Putting the pieces together was extremely liberating in some ways, but it also revealed a lot of deep pain and heartache that I’ve experienced due to being autistic. And it hurt to realize that if I had supports in place all along, I may have lived a very different life and avoided a lot of trauma.”

The haunting and unsettling “Mirage” is the session’s centerpiece. The track varies in tone and tempo, propelling the experience along.

“When I began writing ‘Mirage,’ it became clear how heavy it was. This song wrote itself and I simply uncovered it. I cannot explain it properly other than to describe it as desperation and perseverance. In the process, I saw my songwriting solidify into something that felt more authentic and sacred to me than anything I had ever written. Though the words were simply revealing themselves to me without much literal understanding on my part, I knew what it was about. I knew the feeling of the mirage. It is a reflection on the desperation to hold onto hope. It is a timeless feeling but writing it during this momentary ‘falling apart of our world’ felt so heavy. The song speaks of a journey through a desert that seems to never end even as the lyrics beg to keep going. It is simultaneous hope and despair. Once I felt how this song lingered in my stomach, I began to build an album around it — some old and some new tunes, but all my own songs. Even still, I’m connecting the dots that my intuition already put together, linking all the songs together back to the center of ‘Mirage.’”  

The amorous “Sweet Girl” finds Fierke daydreaming about a queer romance.

“It was a peaceful image in my mind come to life through song written with a heart full of love by a young queer soul. It is a fantasy of peaceful feminine domesticity. Nothing close to what I was told of domesticity. It is a painting of queer love with no distinct names or faces,” said Fierke who identifies as bisexual and gender queer.

“When People Speak” has roots dating back to 2016, which Fierke wrote in response to the emerging political climate of the time that continues to this day. 

“This song grew and festered in me, built out of rage and power with hope for what could be. It is the overwhelm our generation is far too used to. It wasn’t intrinsically political, but it was definitely a reflection on what it felt like in the world at the time. Still feels similar. It’s just four chords, but it’s an immensely complex and intimate song. It takes so much trust to play it the way it’s meant to be,” said Fierke.

The set closes with “Smile Again,” a lilting groove anchored by Luetkemeyer’s nimble keys. Conceived while vacationing on a goat farm with her lover, Fierke wrote as he slept.

“My partner deals with a lot of really intense mental health issues and sometimes my role is to see the hope that he’s struggling to find. The song is more about celebrating the inevitability of happiness. It’s not explicitly for or about him, but he’s the biggest influence, especially in the later verses,” Fierke shared.

During the “Mirage” recording and arranging process, Fierke received guidance from Grammy nominated jazz vocalists Gretchen Parlato, Jane Monheit and Oleta Adams as well as Grammy winner Taylor Eigsti, mentors and role models who have taken an interest in the promising singer-songwriter. Last June, Fierke finally shared the album in two cities: their hometown (Columbia, MO) and Boston where they’re now a college sophomore. Another Grammy winner, Brother Paul Brown (The Waterboys), got hold of the collection and submitted the album for Grammy consideration in five categories (Jazz Vocal Album, Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, Album of the Year; Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals; and Best New Artist). Encouraged by the buzz and critical acclaim in Fierke’s two homebases that was growing organically, a plan came together to take “Mirage” national.

Two days after “Mirage” drops, Fierke will perform at The Jungle near Boston on November 20.

Urban-jazz harpist Mariea Antoinette is “So Amazing”

It was a million-dollar wedding and the bride-to-be commissioned urban-jazz harpist Mariea Antoinette to play her down the aisle. As she pondered what to perform, Antoinette came upon the Luther Vandross classic “So Amazing” and the bride loved it. Antoinette teamed with longtime producer Allan Phillips to craft a beautiful and soulful arrangement for the occasion. When the bride arrived at the altar, spontaneous applause broke out. Encouraged by the reaction, Antoinette decided to record the rendition as a single. Her sublime “So Amazing” just dropped and is presently receiving more than one hundred spins per week from dozens of radio outlets, including SiriusXM’s Watercolors.

“So Amazing” continues Antoinette’s mission of placing the harp in unexpected settings, proving that the ancient stringed instrument has soul and can groove. With Antoinette dexterously playing delicate notes and strumming mellifluous harmonies, the single is illumined by lush orchestration provided by string and horn sections, including violins, violas, cello, trumpet, saxophone, flute, trombone and celestial background vocals. Phillips’s keyboards and percussion anchors the track flanked by guitarist Evan Marks, bassist Nathan Brown and drummer Tiki Pasillas.

“This wedding was for a bride who has everything. In speaking with her about song selection for the ceremony, she wanted an R&B song that was powerful. She indicated that she loved Luther Vandross, Kem and a host of other R&B singers so I started looking through their catalogs. When I heard Luther's ‘So Amazing,’ I knew that was the one. The song lends itself to the harp,” said Antoinette who remains a fan of Vandross and was inspired after seeing him perform.

“I've been to three of Luther’s concerts. He was/is ‘so amazing.’ I loved his style, professionalism and stage presence. Seeing Luther’s shows was a master class in performance.”

“So Amazing” will serve as the title track of Antoinette’s fourth album, which she anticipates releasing next spring, perfectly timed for wedding season. In December, she’ll shoot her first PBS special with her band and a string section at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, which will be titled “An Intimate Evening with Mariea Antoinette.”

Antoinette is an award-winning artist who performed for President Barack and Michelle Obama, shared the stage with Ne-Yo at the BET Awards, toured extensively with Jazz in Pink, and has served as principal harpist for the Los Angeles Southeast Symphony Orchestra. She’s had records that hit Billboard’s top five, paving the way to performances at major jazz festivals and events, including Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival, Capital Jazz Fest and the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards. Antoinette has won honors from the Black Women in Jazz and the Arts, a Black Music Award, and a San Diego Prestige Award for best instrumentalist. Her activism includes partnering with Daughters Lives Matter, a nonprofit organization stressing the importance of healthy father-daughter relationships and positive imagery.        

New Music Releases: Heather Ferguson, Lauren Falls, Avi Granite’s In Good Hands, Dan McCarthy’s Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded Atavistic Freakout

Heather Ferguson – Lush Life

Called a “jazz sensation” by Monday Magazine, Heather Ferguson’s journey to music has been long and winding. The sultry-voiced singer, now based in Victoria, Canada after many years in Toronto, is fast becoming known for her interpretations of the great songs of the 20th century. Her debut album, Lush Life – to be released in November 2022 – is a showcase for her beautiful phrasing and remarkable gift for storytelling. With the help of many of Vancouver Island’s finest musicians, Ferguson pays homage to some of history’s finest songwriters, interpreting classic songs that still resonate with audiences decades after they hit the charts. A dynamic and consummate performer with a smouldering sound, Heather Ferguson is a wonderful addition to the vocal jazz scene.

Lauren Falls – A Little Louder Now

A Little Louder Now is the phenomenal new album from Toronto bassist and composer Lauren Falls. This album takes the listener on a musical journey through a beautifully curated collection of seven original compositions, plus a classic standard from Victor Youmans. Falls’ second album as a bandleader, A Little Louder Now demonstrates her growth as a musician and composer since the release of her  2013 debut album, The Quiet Fight. A Little Louder Now features several of Canada’s most sought-after musicians, including saxophonist David French, guitarist Trevor Giancola, pianist Todd Pentney, and Falls’ brother Trevor on the drums. Each musician brings something unique and enticing to the record’s sound. Falls had each musician’s specific musical voice in mind while writing the material for this album. The title A Little Louder Now speaks to Falls’ personal evolution, and her journey becoming more confident and courageous as both a musician and a person. These compositions are reflections of her life experiences, both good and bad, and the artistic growth that has accompanied them. The sonic textures created for the listener inspires feelings of hope and inspiration, bringing comfort to those who are also in the midst of their own personal journeys.

Avi Granite’s In Good Hands

Canadian composer and guitarist Avi Granite celebrates his musical roots by spotlighting some of Canada’s finest musicians in solo performance. Based in New York City, Granite returned to his native Toronto in the fall of 2021 to record Avi Granite’s In Good Hands. Granite is a seasoned improviser, but in this context we focus on his work as a composer. With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Granite recruited the talents of several of his musical mentors and friends. A cross section of Juno Award winners and Toronto music scene mainstays, In Good Hands offers an intimate glimpse into the work of 11 incredible instrumentalists as they interpret and reimagine Granite’s distinctive compositions. The opening piece Like A Magazine features a gorgeous performance by jazz legend Pat LaBarbera in his only known solo recording. Each track offers a unique listening experience as a different instrumentalist takes the stage. Avi Granite’s In Good Hands is perhaps the most texturally dynamic recording you’ll hear this year. It’s an invitation into a musical space like no other, and an intimate portrait of a composer painted by some of the artists that shaped his work.

Dan McCarthy’s Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded Atavistic Freakout

Dan McCarthy’s Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded, Atavistic Freakout is an album of music inspired by the writing of political journalist and general dingbat Hunter S. Thompson. A lot of the jangled madness that makes up this band’s repertoire comes from a new compositional style created specifically for this band called the ‘Gonzo Cypher’. The cypher allows you to take a word, phrase, or even paragraph of Hunter’s writing, submit it to the cypher, and what you are left with is a weird and likely obnoxious ‘tone row’, which is then used to compose the music – serial music rules apply. The sound of the band is inspired by the Gary Burton Quintet from the 1970s on ECM Records, which was weird in its own right. It featured Burton on vibes, along with two guitarists (Metheny and Goodrick), bass (Steve Swallow), and drums (Bob Moses). This mess of chordal instruments allows for the creation of thick tapestries of sound, and also allows the band to get weird and intense, not unlike The Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix. Perhaps Songs of the Doomed will achieve fame equal to those artists… Or maybe not. But, the uniqueness of this project leads me to believe that audiences everywhere will clammer for more. T

Verve Records/UMe and Third Man Records have partnered to resurrect the popular reissue series, Verve By Request

Verve Records/UMe and Third Man Records have partnered to resurrect the popular reissue series, Verve By Request, with a vinyl twist. Focusing on rare gems and fan-requested jazz albums from the Verve Label Group's stable of iconic labels, the series will offer two titles per month – each hand-picked by Verve and Third Man Records. The records will include both long-out-of-print titles from the vault as well as the first-ever vinyl pressings for albums released in the '90s and aughts that were only originally released on CD.  

Verve Records/UMe and Third Man Records have partnered to resurrect the popular reissue series, Verve By Request, with a vinyl twist. The series launches on November 11 with a nod to Third Man’s birthplace with two of Detroit’s finest: Alice Coltrane’s "Ptah, the El Daoud" (1970) and Roy Brooks’ long out-of-print "Beat" (1964).

Albums will be newly remastered from original analog sources, when available, and pressed on audiophile-quality, 180-gram vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit. Each month, a limited Third Man Edition yellow color variant of each LP will also be available exclusively via Third Man Records and uDiscoverMusic. Each of the Third Man Editions will come in a limited edition, two-color, screen-printed jacket on archival French cover stock, custom printed and assembled in Detroit. The series launches on November 11 with a nod to Third Man's birthplace with two of Detroit's finest: Alice Coltrane's Ptah, the El Daoud (1970) and Roy Brooks' long out-of-print Beat (1964).

Recorded at Motown's legendary Hitsville USA studio for Workshop Jazz – Berry Gordy's short-lived jazz imprint – Beat marks Roy Brooks' debut as a leader and finds the innovative drummer fusing his hard bop roots with a Motor City soul-jazz groove. Brooks, who served as a sideman for Horace Silver, Yusef Lateef, and Chet Baker, among others, is joined by fellow Detroit natives George Bohannon (trombone) and Hugh Lawson (piano), along with his Horace Silver Quintet bandmates: Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Junior Cook (tenor saxophone), and Eugene Taylor (bass). Together, they deliver a high-energy set that features tracks written by Brooks, Joe Henderson, and Duke Pearson. Notably, the track  "Soulsphere" was composed by Alice McLeod (erroneously credited as "McCloud" on the sleeve), who would blaze a new musical path a few years later as the incomparable Alice Coltrane. Hailed by All Music as "a record of uncommon scope and reach," Beat is the first official reissue of any Workshop Jazz album.

Following the death of her husband John Coltrane in 1967, Alice Coltrane continued to forward the musical and spiritual version they set out on together and started to release records on her own as  composer and bandleader. The hypnotic Ptah, the El Daoud, was the fourth album to bear the pianist and harpist's name released between 1968-70, which also included her joint album, Cosmic Music, partially recorded with John a year before his death. The transcendent Ptah, the El Daoud, recorded in the Coltrane home studio in 1970 and released later that year on Impulse! Records, features an all-star line-up on the four compositions, including Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson (both on tenor sax and alto flute). A masterpiece of spiritual jazz, the album's title track is an ode to the Egyptian God, Ptah (the El Daoud meaning "the beloved"), while many moments on the record can best be described by the Hindu word "Turiya," which Coltrane defines in the liner notes as "a state of consciousness – the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life." 

The releases continue on December 9 with Chicken Fat, the 1967 Impulse! debut by blues guitarist Mel Brown. Brown's clean picking style – honed while playing alongside John Lee Hooker, Bobby Bland, and T-Bone Walker – marinates deliciously with the swinging soul-jazz organ of Gerald Wiggins. Featuring the simmering lament "I'm Goin' to Jackson," the electrifying "Greasy Spoon," and the standout title track, Chicken Fat is quite possibly the funkiest and most unique album ever released on the label. 

Also available in December is James Brown's Soul on Top. Originally released in 1970 via King Records,  the album was a dream project for the Godfather of Soul, a fan of big-band jazz who is provided the full treatment with an 18-piece band, led by drummer Louis Bellson and arranged by Impulse! star Oliver Nelson. Joined by his soul consigliere, saxophonist Maceo Parker, Brown offers up a swinging set of jazz and pop standards, while revisiting several of his classic hits, including "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." This reissue features a new mix of the original album by legendary bassist and James Brown superfan Christian McBride and UMe A&R Vice President Harry Weinger.

Future Verve By Request titles, which are listed below through June 2023, will include vinyl debuts of Wayne Shorter's Footprints Live! (2002) and Herbie Hancock's The New Standard (1996), plus reissues from Pharoah Sanders, Ahmad Jamal, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and many more.

Verve By Request Releases (November 2022 – June 2023):

• November 11, 2022: Roy Brooks – Beat
• November 11, 2022: Alice Coltrane – Ptah, The El Daoud
• December 9, 2022: James Brown - Soul On Top
• December 9, 2022: Mel Brown – Chicken Fat
• January 13, 2023: Ahmad Jamal – The Awakening
• January 13, 2023: Archie Shepp – Kwanza
• February 10, 2023: Dorothy Ashby - The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby
• February 10, 2023: Gábor Szabó - The Sorcerer
• March 10, 2023: Blossom Dearie - Blossom Dearie
• March 10, 2023: Eartha Kitt - Bad But Beautiful
• April 28, 2023: Yusef Lateef – Psychicemotus
• April 28, 2023: Pharoah Sanders - Black Unity
• May 26, 2023: Wayne Shorter - Footprints Live!
• May 26, 2023: Herbie Hancock - The New Standard
• June 30, 2023: Albert Ayler - Love Cry
• June 30, 2023: Sun Ra - Space Is The Place

Benny Bock | "Vanishing Act"

Music flows through Benny Bock like the crisscrossing freeways of Los Angeles. On his debut album, Vanishing Act, the keyboardist conjures the contrasts of living in big city and small town environments, infusing ambient jazz and folkloric arrangements with bristling electronic urgency. During improvised recording sessions with producer/engineer Pete Min (The Strokes, Orvile Peck) at his studio, Lucy’s Meat Market, Bock and a group of acclaimed musicians created a spellbinding instrumental cycle, channeling the feelings of existing in spaces of chaos or calm.

“As a whole, the album speaks to the interaction of rural and urban landscapes,” Bock explains. “I was just coming back to LA from my studies at Oberlin Conservatory in the Midwest when I started making the record, so that transition was a big thing on my mind. I incorporated a lot of open, pastoral motifs that bump up against jagged, fast-paced sounds.”

This tension is apparent in the contrast between the album’s two opening songs. “Erwin’s Garden” – named for one of Bock’s first teachers, the jazz musician Erwin Helfer – is a sparse piano piece draped in sighing string arrangements by Daphne Chen. “Dynamo” adds the frenetic pulse of a drum machine, before integrating prepared piano, plucked pizzicato, and warm synth squelch. “I’m trying to join the synthetic and organic worlds as much as possible,” says Bock.

“Eight Below Zero” continues his electroacoustic juxtapositions. On this song, Bock’s melancholy synths are accompanied by Rich Hinman on pedal steel, Abe Rounds on drums, CJ Camerieri on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Logan Kane on upright bass. “That song was written about a certain day where I had to say goodbye to a friend when it was literally eight degrees below zero in Ohio,” Bock says. “It was freezing. The title is also a nod to the Sonny Boy Williamson song ‘Nine Below Zero.’ There are some blues themes in there.”

Vanishing Act is the young artist’s debut album, yet he has already worn many hats: jazz pianist, session musician, sound designer, producer, and composer for film and television. Shortly after graduating high school, Bock began working with Tom Oberheim, the synth innovator whose last name should be uttered alongside Moog and Buchla. More recently, Bock’s collaborations have included Blake Mills, The Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston, and The Weeknd, for whom he co-wrote the Dawn FM song “Here We Go…Again” (featuring Tyler, The Creator). 

These experiences set the stage for his improvised recording sessions with producer Pete Min, which found Bock playing a laundry list of keyboard instruments such as Steinway grand piano, Oberheim Four Voice synthesizer, pump organ, and celeste. He cites influences including the orchestral studio albums of David Axelrod and Brazil’s Arthur Verocai, the bedroom productions of Juana Molina, and the playful jazz experiments of his LA contemporary Sam Gendel. The album will be released by Min’s new label, Colorfield Records, in which spontaneity and reaction are integral to the process of creation. Like the freeways of LA, Vanishing Act’s instrumental songs introduce a vast range of possibilities, where the destination is only part of the journey. ~ Jesse Locke 

35th-Anniversary Expanded Edition of Sting's stunning second solo album ...Nothing Like The Sun

A&M/UMe releases a digital-only 35th-Anniversary Expanded Edition of Sting's stunning second solo album, ...Nothing Like the Sun. The album title was lovingly adopted from Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun").

The 26-track Expanded Edition features the original 12 songs on the album plus 14 bonus tracks that consist of B-sides, remixes, alternate versions, and instrumentals.

Building on the momentum of his 3x platinum debut solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, ...Nothing Like the Sun tackled a litany of deeply rooted and profoundly personal subjects. As Sting reflected in the liner notes, "I look back on this album, and I realize that the record is about my mother, although I didn't see it at the time. It's about mothers and daughters, mistresses and wives, sisters... Every song has one of these themes. It surprised me." Sting's mother sadly passed away in late 1986, not long before four months' worth of intensive recording sessions for the next album got underway in earnest at AIR Studios in Montserrat in early 1987.

As a result, ...Nothing Like the Sun, which was Sting's first digital recording, is, for the most part, a subdued and reflective album with the exception being the up-tempo lead single, "We'll Be Together," an instant chart hit featuring Annie Lennox among its stellar background vocalists. Other key songs on the album showcased Sting's development as an acclaimed solo artist. The quirky, jazz-inflected "Englishman in New York" tipped its bowler to English ex-pat and expert storyteller Quentin Crisp, while "Fragile" paid homage to an American civil engineer killed in Nicaragua by the Contras. Some of the album's subject matter was born out of what Sting became aware of while participating in Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope Tour in 1986. Narrated in stirringly vivid detail, "They Dance Alone" recounts the actions Sting observed of wives and daughters of certain men in Chile who were tortured and murdered by the then-military dictatorship. These wives and daughters would dance the country's traditional dance known as the Cueca by themselves, with only photos of their missing loved ones pinned to their clothing.

Produced by Sting, Hugh Padgham, Bryan Loren, and Neil Dorfsman, ...Nothing Like the Sun featured a variety of A-list guitarists, including former Police-mate Andy Summers on the album's moving opening track "The Lazarus Heart," Hiram Bullock on the heartfelt cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," and the triple threat of Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Fareed Haque on "They Dance Alone." Another notable topline ...Nothing Like the Sun collaborators include keyboardists Gil Evans and Kenny Kirkland, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and drummer Manu Katché. In addition to handling arrangement duties and singing all of the album's lead vocals, Sting played bass and double bass, as well as Spanish guitar on "History Will Teach Us Nothing" and acoustic guitar on "Fragile."

...Nothing Like the Sun has been certified 2x platinum by the RIAA, topped the album charts in two countries, the UK and Japan, and also peaked at No. 9 on the US Billboard 200. The album's aforementioned lead single, "We'll Be Together," had a strong chart impact upon its release, ultimately reaching No. 7 on the US Hot 100. The album's second single, "Be Still My Beating Heart," was nominated for two Grammy Awards, including  Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1989, and climbed to No. 2 on Album Rock Tracks, No. 15 on the Hot 100, and No. 37 on Adult Contemporary. The album's other three singles were "Englishman in New York," "Fragile," and "They Dance Alone." In the US, ...Nothing Like the Sun garnered three Grammy nominations in 1989, including Album of the Year. In the UK, ...Nothing Like the Sun received the BPI's Brit Award for Best British Album of the Year in 1988.