Alternative jazz adventurer Matt Von Roderick boldly embarks on a transcendent “Hero’s Journey”

Genuine artists and heroes share a lot in common. They don’t come along every day and when they do manifest, they come equipped with immense vision and foresight, extraordinary courage and the towering confidence to spin the world on its axis in reverse. Fearlessly utilizing a jazz trumpet, imaginative rap lyrics, modern rock angst and otherworldly tracks constructed of gurgling synthesizers and kinetic electronic beats, alternative jazz alchemist Matt Von Roderick emerges to share his larger-than-life tales of burning love, spiritual hunger, raucous rebellion and realizing dreams on “Hero’s Journey,” a twelve-tune set released Friday by Invention Records available digitally exclusively on the Bandcamp site (https://mattvonroderick.bandcamp.com). Additional digital retailers will soon carry the title and a physical CD is slated for release on February 5, 2016. 

The songs that comprise Von Roderick’s boundless and colorful world on “Hero’s Journey” are an aural listening experience unlike any other. He invites listeners into his cache of cascading melodies, progressive multiphonic trumpet harmonics, clubby rhythms, futuristic sonicscapes, and vivid storytelling rhymes and spoken word play that bites, teases, romances, provokes and satirizes - sometimes bordering on the outlandish. Von Roderick wrote the album except for a sensitive yet bright-eyed instrumental interpretation of “What A Wonderful World,” an acknowledgment of his jazz roots. He produced the collection with a half-dozen producers who helped bring his daring concept to life. 

Von Roderick had been toiling away in the studio for years, experimenting to develop the formula for “Hero’s Journey.” Occasionally, he surfaced to test the waters by staging extravagant live concert productions backed by seductive dancers, Broadway choreography and elaborate costumes that caused The Huffington Post to declare “Matt Von Roderick makes jazz dangerous again.” During that period, Von Roderick also released a couple of groundbreaking singles and playful videos such as “Let The Trumpet Talk,” which has been viewed over 4.5 million times on YouTube (http://bit.ly/1Z0pQkU). Today, he’s ready to share the album with the world, eschewing the traditional record industry model of months of setup time and trying to find a place on a label or distributor’s crowded release schedule. No, there’s a vital sense of immediacy and yearning passion along with empowering hope and optimism inherent in Von Roderick’s music that calls for a refreshingly different plan – his own.

“Hero’s Journey” is the debut album for Von Roderick, but in 2007, the artist released “So It Goes” commercially as Matt Shulman, his given name. DownBeat magazine described the session as “Taking jazz into the future” while the New York Times called him “a post-millennial Chet Baker.” The new outing is wildly more adventurous and comes after the long-time New York City resident relocated and reinvented himself in Los Angeles.

“I think we're all on our own ‘Hero's Journey’ of sorts. This is mine: receiving a vision, jumping off a cliff into the abyss of the unknown by moving across the country, taking on a stage name and making completely new music. In the process, I have learned and grown - a lot. And this album is what I have to show for it - so far. Represented within ‘Hero’s Journey’ is all aspects of me - from New York to Los Angeles, from Shulman to Von Roderick, and from my dark, abstract, esoteric and avant-garde side to my bright, fun, playful and uber commercial side. It's all in there,” said Von Roderick, who will soon announce a live performance date in Hollywood at The Sayers Club in conjunction with February’s CD release.

Hailed as a prodigy and the winner of the Jazz Artist of the Year honor at the Independent Music Awards over a decade ago, Von Roderick has shared his talent on stage or on record with an eclectic array of artists, including Neil Diamond, Music Soulchild, Brad Mehldau, Dionne Warwick, Tenacious D, John Medeski, Nnenna Freelon and the Saturday Night Live Band as well as in such esteemed venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. An innovator on multiple levels, he patented the Shulman System, which balances and supports the trumpet.     

 

Accompanied by an extensive liner notes essay penned by JazzTimes contributor Matt R. Lohr, “Hero’s Journey” contains the following songs:

 

“Seize The Night”

"A Girl Like That”

“All For You”

“Let The Trumpet Talk”

“Believe”

"Baby Got Jazz”

“Cash Money”

“Shine”

“Undeniable”

“Life Is Fun”

“Coexistence”

“What A Wonderful World”

 

Vocalist & Trumpeter Johnny Summers Releases New Album For The Holidays entitled When It's Christmas Time

Most musicians say they are lovers of great songs, but very few are able to show it in the way that Johnny Summers does! With the new holiday album, Johnny Summers: When It’s Christmas Time, 2015 winner of (3) Global Music Awards, including Best Male Vocalist, Johnny Summers shows why he has become Canada’s best kept musical secret in Jazz.

Hailing from Calgary, Alberta in Canada; for the past 10 years Johnny has been the Artistic Director of the Calgary Jazz Orchestra, a repertory orchestra which is Canada’s only year round performing large jazz ensemble. In this capacity, Johnny Summers has performed as featured trumpet soloist, and conductor during its regular season performances. With When It’s Christmas Time, Johnny continues his musical odyssey in his search of great songs, which began in his series, Piano Sessions Volume 1 & Volume 2, but this time in a holiday setting.

When It’s Christmas Time, contains a cornucopia of holiday classics and colorful original compositions written by Johnny for the season. The album comprises (11) tracks, and  Johnny brings in a “who’s who” of top Canadian Jazz musicians as special guests including Tommy Banks, Piano; Chris Andrew, Piano;  Jeremy Brown, Tenor Saxophone; Allison Lynch, Vocals; Kodi Hutchinson, Acoustic Bass; and the Calgary Jazz Orchestra.

“For a long time I’ve wanted to do an album that was geared towards the spirit of the holiday season.” says Johnny. “This was the perfect time for me to do this project. Since I was a kid, this time of year has been such a major inspiration to me. From the family gatherings, to the shared meals. From the efforts to support our troops, to the focus on helping those who are less fortunate then we might be. It’s a time of year where everyone’s focus is really on giving, sharing, and being grateful. Those are all ideas that can truly be expressed through music. With the songs I've written for this album, and the classics I've chosen to play, I wanted to just share that sense of joy, of wonder, and of truly being thankful for what we do have.”

Track Listing:  'Zat You Santa Claus?,  The Christmas Waltz, Rudolph,the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Long Way to Go, Winter Wonderland, What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?, Baby, It's Cold Outside, When It's Christmas Time, Let It Snow!Let It Snow!Le It Snow!, O Holy Night,  and I'll Be Home for Christmas.

"This Could Be That," by Drummer Brian Andres & the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel

Brian Andres, This Could Be That Drummer Brian Andres has been leading his powerhouse Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel since 2007, establishing them as a prime voice in the thriving San Francisco Bay Area Latin jazz scene. With his third album, This Could Be That, which is due for release by his Bacalao Records imprint on January 15, Andres and his Cartel exert a firm grip on the music's cutting edge, playing with confidence, poise, and rhythmic imagination.

Featuring a core octet drawn from the cream of local players, This Could Be That includes guest appearances by innovators such as Cuban-American vocalist Venissa Santi, Fania All-Stars timbalero Louie Romero, bata master Michael Spiro, Peruvian percussion star Alex Acuña, and percussion maestro John Santos. Over the past decade, the Cartel has earned a sterling reputation as a turbo-charged vehicle for interpreting challenging material, and This Could Be That includes compositions and arrangements by top-shelf writing talent from within and outside the band's ranks.

"The first two albums we did had concepts," Andres says. "Our debut Drummers Speak [2007] focused on compositions by Latin percussionists and jazz drummers. San Francisco [2013] highlighted composers and arrangers of the Bay Area. On this one, things just happened organically. Everybody wanted to contribute. We ended up with a lot of different things in the record, and there wasn't one single thread." But the album's disparate program expresses the Cartel's vivid and distinctive personality.

 Brian Andres In many ways This Could Be That embodies the Bay Area's close-knit Latin music community, which got a burst of international attention when the Pacific Mambo Orchestra won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Latin Tropical Album. The PMO's co-leaders, German-born trumpeter Steffen Kuehn and Mexico City-raised pianist Christian Tumalan, both play a significant role in the Cartel. Kuehn, who plays on about half the album's tracks, brought in a state-of-the-art timba-powered arrangement of his original "Limite," which features Cuban timbalero Calixto Oviedo as a special guest. And Tumalan, who holds down the Cartel piano chair, "and is integral to developing the sound of the Cartel" Andres says, contributed a thrilling Cubanized arrangement of Chick Corea's Elektric Band anthem "Got a Match?" that slyly references Corea's standards "Armando's Rhumba" and "Spain."

Other highlights include the (translated) title track, "Esto Puede Ser Eso," a lovely cha cha by Cartel percussionist Javier Cabanillas and arranged by Cabanillas and trombonist Jamie Dubberly, who leads one of the Bay Area's top salsa bands, Orquesta Dharma; bassist Saul Sierra's arrangement of the Daniel Ponce salsa classic "Bacalaitos," with legendary Nuyorican percussionist Louie Romero adding conga, timbales, and maraca; and the bilingual bolero rendition of "My One and Only Love," featuring Cuban-American vocalist Venissa Santi as well as Andres's father Mike Andres on alto saxophone (reuniting him with a piece he recorded years ago with Cincinnati's Symphony Jazz Ensemble).

 Brian Andres Born (in 1968) and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of professional musicians, Brian Andres started playing drums in the fourth grade. After high school, he took classes at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music but abandoned formal studies once he landed a full-time gig with veteran bluesman Cincinnati Slim and the Headhunters.

Andres was in the midst of a thriving career playing rock, funk, R&B, and blues when he experienced his clave epiphany, courtesy of the Cleveland salsa band Impacto Nuevo. "It changed my trajectory of where I wanted to go," Andres recalls. "I've often likened it to the first time I kissed a girl. I just wanted to do it over and over again. The first time I heard it done well live, it had me."

He put together a Latin jazz band of his own, and started buying up whatever albums he could find, which introduced him to leading Bay Area artists such as John Santos's Machete Ensemble, Andy Narell, and Pete Escovedo. It was Bay Area Latin jazz stalwart, the late Dutch-born drummer Paul van Wageningen, who convinced him to make the move to San Francisco rather than New York or L.A. by offering real encouragement when Andres came through town on a visit.

Landing in the Bay Area in early 1999 at the height of the high-tech boom, Andres quickly found work in an array of Latin settings, playing salsa, Latin funk, and Latin jazz. He undertook his first recording under his own name in 2007, motivated by his love of the multidimensional writing of Latin jazz pioneers Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri, and has been developing the Cartel concept ever since. This month he placed among the Top 20 drummers in the Down Beat Readers Poll, right behind Eric Harland, Dave Weckl, and Cindy Blackman Santana.

"It's an honor to have so many world-class musicians on the new album," says Andres. "That they all were willing to contribute to the recording is a testament to the high quality of music that we've created."

Lisa Dawn Miller Celebrates the Season With Her Debut Original Christmas EP, 'It's Christmas,' and Releases a Remake of 'Someday at Christmas,' the Holiday Classic Penned by Her Father, Legendary Motown Songwriter Ron Miller

Continuing to produce projects which celebrate the legacy of her father, legendary Motown songwriter Ron Miller, while emerging as a lyricist, composer and artist in her own right, multi-talented singer, songwriter and musical performer Lisa Dawn Miller kicks off the holiday season with the release of her highly anticipated seasonal debut EP, "It's Christmas," now available on iTunes and Amazon.

Miller makes her songwriting debut with "It's Christmas" and "My Favorite Time of Year," two original songs from the EP, co-written with her longtime creative partner, Mark Matson. Miller's father wrote standards such as "For Once in My Life," "Heaven Help Us All," "If I Could," "Touch Me In The Morning," "I've Never Been To Me," "Yester-me, Yester-you, Yesterday" and "A Place In The Sun."

Lisa is also releasing a new single, a remake of her father's classic, "Someday at Christmas," a fresh interpretation of the classic written by her father, which was originally recorded by Stevie Wonder in 1967 for his only recorded Christmas album, with the title of the same name. The song was recently chosen by Apple Computers for their 2015 Christmas message and commercial. The single is also now available on iTunes and Amazon.

Lisa will be performing her two new Christmas songs during the holiday tour of the long running musical "Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack Show," retitled, "Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack Christmas" for the season. The show's December performances include stops at in South Bend, IN, Thousand Oaks, CA, Santa Barbara, CA, Phoenix, AZ, Grand Prairie, TX, Birmingham, AL, Clearwater, FL and Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Lisa produces and co-stars in "Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack Christmas" (with her husband and co-star, Sandy Hackett, son of legendary comedian Buddy Hackett) and is also scheduled to perform "It's Christmas" during promotional appearances on local network affiliates ABC in Dallas, FOX and NBC in Phoenix and NBC in Birmingham, AL.

"Christmas has always been my family's favorite time of year," she says. "No matter what happened throughout the year, my parents always found a way to make Christmas special for us. I'm so excited to make my songwriting debut at Christmas. My dad's Christmas songs are beautiful. I'm very much influenced by my father's writing style. I find a common sentiment in my songs, like his -- the hope for a better tomorrow and the belief in a brighter day for all."

Lisa is currently working on several exciting new projects, including a new CD release, featuring 12 original songs, a documentary and musical about her father's life entitled, "For Once In My Life" and she will also be announcing a new musical comedy in January.

NEW RELEASES: MARIO BIONDI – BEYOND; JESSE FISCHER – DAY DREAMER; ROMAN DIAZ - L'O DA FUN BATA

MARIO BIONDI – BEYOND

Maybe the best album to date from Italian singer Mario Biondi – and easily his most soulful set to date! The album's got Mario moving past some of the retro jazz modes of his earliest records, to emerge as this universal soul star with a hell of a sound – a voice that easily moves past nation and culture to hit a vibe that could well make him one of the bigger global acts of the decade – layered with a groove that's steeped in 70s soul influences, but which has a cleaner, contemporary approach that suits Biondi's raspy presentation perfectly! Mario sings in English throughout – with this depth that maybe even rivals Barry White at his best, although with some more of the jazz inflections that Biondi had on other records. Some of these cuts are pretty damn catchy – and could win over anyone, even if they haven't followed Mario's previous records like we have – and titles include "All Of My Life", "I Chose You", "You Can't Stop This Love Between Us", "Heart Of Stone", "Fly Away", "Another Kind Of Love", "Where Does The Money Go", and "Open Up Your Eyes". Special bonus – this limited package also comes with a second CD – Mario Biondi Vs Commodores – which features Mario covering classics that include "Night Shift", "Three Times A Lady", "Lady", "Brick House", and "Easy".  ~ Dusty Groove

JESSE FISCHER – DAY DREAMER

A beautiful little record from pianist Jesse Fischer – and one that's got a much warmer sound than you'd expect from the piano key skeleton on the cover! Jesse's very well-schooled in different modes of souful expression – which means that he can create magic on an acoustic piano, but also glide even more warmly on Fender Rhodes and organ – shifting the mood from track to track as the instrumentation changes, but always keeping his core spirit wonderfully intact! There's a very positive vibe to the record – on both the instrumentals and vocal numbers – the latter of which (there's four of them on the set) feature great singing from Sarah Elizabeth Charles – one of the key guests on the album, alongside trumpeter Taukya Kuroda, and a host of other reed, guitar, and violin players too. The set features a sweet cover of Minnie Riperton's classic "Lovin You" – plus the titles "Nomads", "Mourning Dove", "Suite For The Blue Planet", "Refuge", "Heading Home", "Sanjee", and "Day Dreamer".  ~ Dusty Groove

ROMAN DIAZ - L'O DA FUN BATA

A very rootsy set of Cuban bata – and a record that almost feels like a vintage session for Folkways than some of the more contemporary music on the Motema label! The album's got a strong Yoruba bend – and features spoken passages between most of the percussive tracks – introducing different deities, who are then supported through highly spiritual performance that mixes chanted vocals with percussion by Roman and his group – with no other instrumentation at all! The notes put both the music and the references in the right sort of cultural perspective – and titles include "Agayu", "Oggun", "Elegua", "Oshun", "Shango", and "Obatala". ~ Dusty Groove

Saxophonist OCHION JEWELL overcomes police brutality to create a border-blurring masterwork VOLK

The power of music to overcome adversity is rarely as evident or compelling as it is on VOLK, the second release from saxophonist Ochion Jewell. Born in the aftermath of a violent incident of police brutality, the album is a celebration of divergent folk music from around the globe, melded together in the unique voice of one of modern jazz's most promising and inventive young artists.

With VOLK, the Appalachian-born, California-educated, New York-based Ochion (pronounced "Ocean") overcomes one of the ugliest chapters in his life with a project that revels in the beauty of the world's varied musical traditions. He's joined on the album by the members of his longstanding quartet, all of whom met while students at CalArts and moved together to seek their fortunes in New York City: Moroccan pianist Amino Belyamani, Persian-American bassist Sam Minaie, and Pakistani-American drummer Qasim Naqvi. They're graced on two tracks by the distinctive voice and guitar of Benin-born Lionel Loueke, who also performs with the likes of Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock. Together they've created a brilliantly provocative, culture-spanning tour de force that should propel Jewell and his quartet to the forefront of modern jazz.

As stunning as the music on VOLK is, perhaps the most impressive aspect of the album is that it exists at all. Ochion was on his way home from the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn one early morning in 2011, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette at the train station and minding his own business, when he was approached by a group of men in street clothes. They proceeded to attack him, calling him by a different name and asking questions he couldn't answer. Thinking he was being mugged, Jewell offered the men the money from his pocket, but they refused and ultimately choked him into unconsciousness.

When he awoke in handcuffs, Ochion quickly realized that the men were plainclothes policemen who, upon realizing their mistake, suddenly produced an empty vial that had at one time contained crack cocaine. Jewell spent 27 hours in jail before a judge dismissed the charges. He subsequently was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety disorder, sued the NYPD, and finally settled out of court. His story later became one of the chapters in Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi's book about injustice in America, The Divide. "I wanted justice," Ochion says. "My goal was to get these guys' badges taken away. But the lawyer just laughed and said, 'That never happens. If you want justice in New York, go for money.'"

Determined to find something positive in this horrific experience, Jewell decided to use the settlement to create an ambitious work that he otherwise wouldn't have the resources to fully realize. The result is VOLK, which comprises four suites, each drawing inspiration from a separate region of the world. The album travels from Andalusia to Arabia, Nordic regions to North Africa, from Ukraine to the composer's own native Appalachia. These diverse influences collide into a stunning and evocative mélange of sound, a vibrantly-hued tapestry of intricate and explosive rhythms, propulsive grooves, and intoxicating hybrid melodies.

Far from a traditional "world music" concept or fusion experiment, VOLK instead reimagines each of these musics in equally wide-ranging contemporary musical settings: a traditional Nordic folk song suddenly erupts into a 5/4 rock song and then fragments into free improvisation ("Kun Mun Kultani Tulisi"); a Ukrainian folk melody is juxtaposed with John Adams-influenced contemporary classical minimalism ("Radegast"); Ewe drumming from Ghana is evoked through the entire band's respective instruments and recontextualized in a hard-bop 10-bar blues form ("The Master"). Despite his travails, Jewell obviously sees the connections that weave throughout the breadth of humanity.

"Folk music is not music for music's sake," Jewell says. "These traditions mean more than that. You have music that's been written for weddings and funerals and war and for when a boy becomes a man. This music seems to really mean something to the people and defines something about their culture, rather than just being music that you can sell tickets for. I think that's gotten a little lost in our own society."

He discovered that fact first-hand while growing up in southeastern Kentucky, a region known for its rich musical tradition - a tradition that was all but invisible to Ochion. "Through what happened with the exploitation in the coal mines and more recently with drugs and bad education and economics, it seems like that culture isn't very alive. I had to go away from it to find it."

In addition to that musical setback, the county in which Jewell was raised - and at least a dozen counties surrounding it - were dry, and where there's no liquor there tends to be no music venues. The young saxophonist was fortunate to befriend Bruce Martin, an older jazz pianist who had played with many of the greats during his time in New York and became, as Jewell puts it, his "Obi-Wan Kenobi." Jewell went on to study classical saxophone at the University of Louisville before continuing his studies at CalArts, where he was mentored by Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, and Joe LaBarbera, among others and studied Persian Ney. World music was an integral part of the curriculum and became a passion shared by his future quartet-mates.

"I don't think there's a band out there that's as diverse as this one," Jewell says of the quartet, also featured on his 2011 debut, First Suite for Quartet. Moroccan-born Belyamani plays Gnawa and Berber music and, with Naqvi, formed the uncategorizable trio Dawn of MIDI. Naqvi's playing spans jazz, rock, electronica, and contemporary classical music, while Minaie has toured extensively with pianist Tigran Hamasyan and worked with artists such as Ravi Coltrane, John Ellis, Tootie Heath, and the Clayton/Hamilton Orchestra. All four studied with African Ewe master Alfred Ladzekpo and went on to form the Bedstuy Ewe Ensemble.

Jewell has played alongside mentors Charlie Haden and Joe LaBarbera, toured Europe and South America, and performed at PS1 (MOMA), the Alex Theater and REDCAT (L.A.) and the Palace Theater (Louisville).  He is an original member of the Pleasure Circus Band and a member of the BedStuy Ewe Ensemble, has toured with Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, and has performed on an episode of NBC's 30 Rock.

With a newfound, deeply personal insight into the police brutality that has found its way into too many headlines of late, Jewell felt not only inspired but responsible to create something monumental out of his own tragic experience. VOLK achieves that aim, revealing an open-eared masterwork that should propel him to the forefront of progressive jazz.

www.ochion.com

WAYNE WALLACE’S INTERCAMBIO EARNS GRAMMY NOMINATION FOR “BEST LATIN JAZZ ALBUM”

World-renowned trombonist, composer, arranger, and producer Wayne Wallace has earned a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Latin Jazz Album” for his CD Intercambio his tenth CD on the Patois label. The release, which topped the radio charts and earned rave reviews, is a soul-deep communion, an ongoing and never ending intra-family conversation between the extraordinarily rich African Diaspora cultures of the United States and Cuba (and various Caribbean cousins).  The project features The Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet with special guests.

This is the third Grammy nomination for “Best Latin Jazz Album” which The Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet has earned and the seventh time Wallace — a San Francisco native now splitting his time between the Bay Area and the Midwest where he’s a professor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music — has been on a GRAMMY nominated album.

“It’s an honor that distinguished peers feel that this recording is worthy of a Grammy nomination,” says Wallace.  “The Quintet would like to extend its thanks to the Academy and everyone who participated in the making of this project.”

In a career spanning four decades, Wallace has collaborated with a dazzling array of artists including Count Basie, Ray Charles, Joe Henderson, Carlos Santana, Lionel Hampton, Earth Wind & Fire, Sonny Rollins, Aretha Franklin, Tito Puente, Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, Earl “Fatha” Hines and cellist Jean Jeanrenaud. Wallace was a driving creative force behind some of the Bay area’s most creative ensembles, including the Machete Ensemble, and Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra. One of his generation’s most eloquent trombonists, he’s been named in DownBeat polls as a leading force on the horn. Known to many as “The Doctor” for his production skills, Wallace earned a place in the 2015 DownBeat poll as a rising star producer.  He is also a lauded composer and educator. He heads up Patois Records, which has released a rapidly growing catalog of acclaimed CDs, and is on faculty at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

The Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, February 15, 2016, in Los Angeles. For a complete list of nominees for the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards go to http://www.grammy.com/nominees.

photo by David Belove

Pianist Renee Rosnes Returns with Long-Awaited New Album, Written in the Rocks

Renee Rosnes takes a similarly intimate look at the wondrous sweep of the natural world on her new Smoke Sessions release, Written in the Rocks. Due out February 5, 2016, the album is built around an ambitious new suite inspired by the evolution of life on Earth, captured with a sense of awe and majesty.

A sense of discovery lies at the core of "The Galapagos Suite," which makes up the bulk of the recording and is named for the island chain that inspired Darwin's theory of evolution. From the origins of life in the ocean billions of years ago through the unearthing of the human ancestor known as "Lucy" to the recent discovery of Tiktaalik, one of the earliest animals to venture out of the sea and onto the land, the progress of evolution and our own ever-evolving understanding of it, serves to inspire Rosnes' compositional mind.

Discovery is also a key element of the music created by Rosnes and her bandmates. Saxophonist and flutist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Bill Stewart excavate the riches and mysteries from the pianist's gorgeous, densely layered compositions. "All of us have personal and musical relationships that have been growing for decades," Rosnes says. "As a band, we've developed a focused sound with a wide and nuanced palette of colors and rhythms. We play off of each other."

These colors prove ideal to paint the musical landscapes that Rosnes' writing evokes, spanning billions of years and monumental shifts in biological history. Her love of nature comes from far more personal origins, however: her childhood in the Pacific Northwest of Canada. "I've always felt inspired by nature," she explains.

"The infinite blue-green hues of coastal British Columbia are in my blood. My family's home sat at the bottom of a street that opened up into a deep ravine, and a half hour's drive from there, the city lights were dim enough to offer an astonishing view of the night sky," the pianist reminisces.

"Salty air, the smell of seaweed, the relentless pounding of waves, and the agreeable aroma of cedar - all of these provide me with spiritual nourishment and inspiration. To compose music about our planet's evolution was a stimulating concept and one brimming with possibilities."

The album begins with "The KT Boundary," a prologue for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and most other life on the planet at the time. Rosnes' slowly-dawning piece focuses not on the cataclysm, but on the blossoming of new life in its wake. The instrumental layers reflect the layers of rock that reveal our geologic history. The joyous dance of Wilson's flute, Nelson's vibes and Rosnes' piano then evoke Darwin's "Galapagos," written, the composer says, to reflect the famed naturalist's "anticipation of exploration and sense of purpose of his journey."

Building at the outset from a single note to a complex chord, "So Simple A Beginning" depicts the origins of life, with Stewart's rippling, floating brushwork providing the backdrop for this shimmering ballad. The quarter-note motifs played by Rosnes and Washington on "Lucy From Afar" represent the first tentative footsteps of the 3-foot-tall Ethiopian Australopithecus, one of our first known ancestors to walk on two legs. The title track follows, with a searching intro duet by Rosnes and Nelson that captures the wonder to be found "Written In The Rocks" of tectonic plates, fossils, volcanic rock, cave paintings and even the Rosetta Stone, through which, Rosnes points out, "we continue to learn about our species and the planet."

Tracing Tiktaalik's path from sea to land, "Deep in the Blue" represents those two worlds through a pair of interwoven melodies. "Cambrian Explosion" concludes the suite by sonically describing the sudden burst of life that gave rise to most of the species alive today. As Rosnes describes the piece, "I musically characterized the event with a spiky, atonal line that gains momentum. The focus bounces from one instrument to another, ending in a collective improvisation."

The album closes with two more Rosnes originals unrelated to the suite, though the second was inspired by a discovery no less incredible, if far more personal. "From Here To A Star" looks up from the Earth to the heavens, with a stargazing melody built on the harmony of Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is The Ocean." Finally, "Goodbye Mumbai" recalls Rosnes' first visit to India in 2013, after discovering back in 1994, that her biological mother was of Punjabi heritage.

In discussing her inspiration for this important and rewarding set of music, Rosnes quotes Picasso: "The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." On Written in the Rocks, those emotions pour forth from the natural world to resonant and lushly detailed compositions realize through expressive, vital playing by a profoundly connected quintet. And it only took a few short billion years to get here.

"Written in the Rocks" was recorded live in New York at Sear Sound's Studio C

on a Sear-Avalon custom console at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to ½" analog tape

using a Studer mastering deck. Available in audiophile HD format.

  

Renee Rosnes · Written in the Rocks

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: February 5, 2015

Trombonist Matthew Hartnett Pays Tribute to New Orleans Brass and Gospel Roots on Debut Album, Southern Comfort

Though he's based in Brooklyn, trombonist/composer Matthew Hartnett is a southern boy at heart. Those roots are unearthed on Hartnett's debut album, Southern Comfort, to be released on February 19. Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas, Hartnett's music ranges from New Orleans brass band sounds and the gospel celebration of the southern church, to Houston's homegrown "chopped and screwed" sound and the smooth soul that has landed him on stages with the likes of Talib Kweli, Lauryn Hill, Robert Glasper and Kirk Franklin.

"All the things that made me the musician that I am are derived from the south," Hartnett says. "Southern Comfort embodies my style and music in words."

Joining Hartnett on the album is a skilled band made up of the cream of the trombonist's first-call colleagues. Sharing the frontline with him are several members of "#TeamHornSection," the franchised line-up of crack horn players (with a branch based in Europe as well) that can deliver sharp playing and impressive dance moves on demand. Propelling them is a deeply funky rhythm section featuring keyboardist Ondrej Pevic, bassist Dmitri Gorodetsky, guitarist (and fellow Lake Charles native) James Lewis, and drummer Adam Jackson.

The precision of that band is shown off to full effect on a tune like "No Patience," which Hartnett suggests could also bear the alternate title "How I Feel About New York." The song's frenetic pace and anxious, stuttering rhythms capture the metropolis' vigorous energy at its most alluring, but Hartnett hasn't always found the adjustment from the friendlier, more laid-back south to be an easy one. He traces that tension, and the breadth of his journey, throughout Southern Comfort.

"Culturally, it's completely night and day," Hartnett says of the contrast between his two home cities. "Everything in Houston is easy and comfortable; there's not much struggle going on. In New York, you have to fight every second and money drives everything, but in the south the culture is more about family. What I like about Brooklyn is the opportunity to be around a bunch of other young, progressive, cultured black people."

Hartnett originally picked up the trombone in 6th grade band. Originally attracted to the clarinet, peer pressure necessitated a switch when he found himself surrounded by girls in the band room. After making his way to the more testosterone-heavy low brass section, he quickly established himself as first chair trombonist, a position he maintained throughout his school years. Hartnett continued his music studies at Texas Southern University, where he was a proud member of the renowned Ocean of Soul marching band. Those days are commemorated in the muscular "Pump and Drive," whose title refers to one of the band's signature drill moves.

Unlike many of his peers, Hartnett wasn't obsessed with music as a kid. As he says, "I wasn't a music geek growing up; I was an athlete and kind of a thug. When my colleagues were 16 they were learning about Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. I didn't know nothing about that stuff. I knew about football, I knew about the streets, and I listened to Swishahouse."

For the uninitiated, Swishahouse is a North Houston record label dedicated to the city's "chopped and screwed" hip-hop sound, innovated by DJ Screw and characterized by slowed-down tempos and skipped beats. Southern Comfort closes with a sharp turn into screwed music with "Da Crib," featuring samples from some of Hartnett's favorite songs and vocals by LaChrisha Brown. "That track is probably not for everybody," Hartnett allows, "but if you're from Houston you're gonna know what's up when that track come on."

On the flip side of Hartnett's upbringing is his dedication to the church, which is the source of several compositions. "I Surrender All" opens the album with some deeply felt testifying on trombone, accompanied only by organ. The robust grooves of "Thursday Night" were inspired by Houston's citywide church rehearsal night. "If you're a working musician in Houston, on Thursday night you're busy," Hartnett laughs.

"New Sun Light Lake Charles" is named for the church Hartnett attended in the city of his birth, where he spent his summers growing up. Both it and "Glory Glory," a compendium of gospel melodies set to a brass band beat, reflect the second line rhythms of New Orleans. While the Crescent City is on the opposite side of the state from Lake Charles, Hartnett didn't have to travel far to glean its influence: both before and especially after Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleanians relocated to Houston, bringing their brass band culture with them.

"If you go to Dallas or Austin you're not going to ask for gumbo or crawfish or étouffée," Hartnett says. "That doesn't exist anywhere in Texas except Houston. All the things that you know and love as a product of Louisiana you can get in Houston. That's my comfort zone."

From the time he landed his first professional gig in a Houston nightclub, Hartnett quickly established himself as one of the go-to sidemen for artists traveling through the city. He carried that reputation with him when he relocated to New York City in 2010, and has since accompanied countless R&B, gospel, and hip-hop superstars. "In and Out" shows off his more soulful side, in the musical sense; in the personal sense, he bares his soul on "She's in Spain" and "Summer 2011," which movingly chart his relationship with his now ex-wife.

Southern Comfort features an adept band playing a wide range of styles, but Hartnett wasn't looking to show off his diversity, he insists. "That's always been my musical preference. I guess it's just in me. We tend to gravitate toward things that resonate with us, and from gospel and Negro spirituals to R&B, that music resonates with me. I feed the music and the music feeds me." 

Matthew Hartnett · Southern Comfort

D2LAL MMC · Release Date: February 19, 2016

www.MatthewHartnett.com