MIGUEL ZENÓN - IDENTITIES ARE CHANGEABLE: AN EXTENDED MUSICAL WORK FOR LARGE ENSEMBLE ABOUT NATIONAL IDENTITY, AS EXPERIENCED BY THE PUERTO RICAN COMMUNITY IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA

Miguel Zenón has become one of jazz's most original thinkers. Today, at the age of 37, he's one of the best-known alto saxophonists in jazz. The quartet he leads has been working together for more than ten years, building its ensemble coherence on stages all over the world. But Zenón's more than a great musician and bandleader.

One of only a handful of jazz musicians to be chosen for the coveted MacArthur fellowships (in 2008), he's at the forefront of a new movement that in recent years has brought the composer to a new prominence in jazz. But beyond his facility at writing and playing music, there is a great intellectual subject at the center of Miguel Zenón's artistic world: the complexity of Puerto Rican culture.

Beginning with his third album as a leader, Jíbaro (2005), and continuing with Esta Plena (2009) and Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (2011) (both Grammy-nominated), and Oye!!! Live In Puerto Rico (2013), Miguel Zenón has created a series of thoughtfully framed works that interpret different facets of Puerto Rican culture. Zenón's Puerto Rico is a bit like Gabriel García Márquez's Colombia or Gilberto Gil's Brazil: the highly focused center of an imaginative universe that looks to the world while being rooted at home. It serves a springboard for his personal style: no one else's Puerto Rico - and no one else's jazz - sounds like Miguel Zenón's.

Identities Are Changeable, Zenón's powerful new composition, is a song cycle for large ensemble, with his longtime quartet (Luis Perdomo, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass; Henry Cole, drums) at the center, incorporating recorded voices from a series of interviews conducted by Zenón. Commissioned as a multi-media work by Montclair State University's Peak Performances series, it has a multi-media element with audio and video footage from the interviews, complemented by a video installation created by artist David Dempewolf. It's been performed at such prestigious venues as the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston, The SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, and Zankel Hall in the Carnegie Hall complex in New York City.

The album version of Identities Are Changeable is a labor of love, produced by Miguel Zenón without commercial backing. It will be released November 4, 2014 as only the second title on his personal label, Miel Music.

I think more and more people are realizing

that you can be more than one cultural self

at the same time,

and you're at the crossings of those.

Rather than being just squarely in one,

you'll be at the crossings.

 -- Juan Flores

The core of Identities Are Changeable is a series of English-language interviews Miguel Zenón conducted with seven New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent. His initial impetus for the project came from reading The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning, a book by cultural theorist Juan Flores based on interviews with Puerto Ricans who had returned to the island after living on the mainland. Zenón turned the tables and interviewed Flores, whose insightful commentary grounds Zenón's finished work.

Other interviewees who weave in and out of the musical texture are Miguel Zenón's sister Patricia Zenón; the young musicians Luqués Curtis and Camilo Molina; actress Sonia Manzano; poet Bonafide Rojas; and family friend Alex Rodríguez. This is speech as music: their recorded voices, speaking off-the-cuff in their own surroundings with the sound of the city around them, tell the story. Writing about it in The Wall Street Journal, jazz journalist Larry Blumenfeld quoted Zenón:

"I asked pretty much the same things to everyone," [Zenón] said, "the essential question being 'What does it mean to be Puerto Rican?'" As Mr. Zenón analyzed his footage, themes emerged: Do you speak English or Spanish? How is tradition passed on?

Zenón identified key excerpts from the interviews and grouped them into six thematically related clusters: national identity, home, blackness, language, the next generation, and music. As he began writing instrumental music to support the voices, those clusters became six fully elaborated musical movements, plus an intro and outro, making for a 75-minute work of symphonic dimensions.

I always thought I was the blackest Puerto Rican.

Because I was a Black Panther

before I was a Young Lord,

because I liked Hendrix

before I liked Hector Lavoe.

 -- Bonafide Rojas

Identities Are Changeable showcases Miguel Zenón's most ambitious instrumental writing yet. It's scored for a 16-piece large ensemble, consisting of Zenón's working quartet supplemented by five saxes, four trumpets, and three trombones.

If you think you already know what that sounds like, think again: though this pulsating, percolating music is intensely rhythmic, it's not achieved through the now traditional mambo-style section writing. It's still Latin, and it's still jazz, but this sonority - Zenón's first big-band score - presents a different kind of compositional and orchestrational challenge, and a different kind of polyrhythm. It's more like modern symphonic writing, with layered multiple meters that give new meaning to the term "harmonic rhythm" as they create a translucent texture.

Zenón explains: "all of the compositions explore the idea of multiple rhythmic structures coexisting with each other (e.g., 5 against 7, 3 against 2, 5 against 3)." Drummer Henry Cole has his hands (and feet) full holding down the simultaneous time streams, as does Zenón when he conducts the group live. The players are a selected elite team - hear John Ellis's tenor solo on "Same Fight," or Tim Albright's trombone feature on "First Language." There's no way to convey in words the impact of the orchestral effects, but reviewing the Zankel Hall performance for The New York Times, Ben Ratliff writes:

"[The] sound and language didn't directly suggest traditional Puerto Rican music or traditional jazz. Its rhythm was phrased almost completely in stacked or odd meter, with parts of the band shifting into double or half time, and Mr. Zenón's saxophone darting around the chord changes or resting on top, in long tones.

There was drama and momentum in the music's developing harmonic movement; at times a shift to a new chord felt like an event. All the music was deeply hybridized and original, complex but clear."

It's all at the service of Zenón's relentless curiosity, as he writes in the album's liner notes:

When I first came into contact with Puerto Rican communities in this country, I was shocked to meet second and third generation Puerto Ricans who were as connected to the traditions of their parents/grandparents and as proud to be Puerto Rican as the people I knew back home.  Where was this sense of pride coming from? What did they consider their first language? Their home? What did it mean to them to be Puerto Rican? What are the elements that help us shape our national identity?

  

If the music doesn't directly answer these questions, it provides a way into thinking about them. Like Zenón's other music, it's about an entire society, but it's deeply personal.

TRACK LISTING

1. ¿De Dónde Vienes? (Overture) (4:26) 

2. Identities are Changeable (11:47)

3. My Home (11:25)

4. Same Fight (12:25) 

5. First Language (12:29)

6. Second Generation Lullaby (11:20) 

7. Through Culture and Tradition (10:30)

8. ¿De Dónde Vienes? (Outro) (1:20)

PERSONNEL

Miguel Zenón Quartet: Miguel Zenón, alto saxophone / Luis Perdomo, piano / Hans Glawischnig, bass / Henry Cole, drums.

Identities Big Band: Will Vinson, Michael Thomas, alto saxophones / Samir Zarif, John Ellis (solo on "Same Fight"), tenor saxophones / Chris Cheek, baritone saxophone / Mat Jodrel, Michael Rodriguez, Alex Norris, Jonathan Powell, trumpets / Ryan Keberle, Alan Ferber, Tim Albright (solo on "First Language"), trombones.

Multiple Grammy nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón is one of a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American folkloric music and jazz. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released eight recordings as a leader, including Oye!!! Live in Puerto Rico (2013), Rayuela (2012) and the Grammy nominated Alma Adentro (2011). As a sideman he has worked with jazz luminaries such as The SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, David Sánchez, The Mingus Big Band, Bobby Hutcherson, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner and Steve Coleman. Zenón has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, as well as gracing the cover of DownBeat. 

He has also toped the Rising Star Alto Sax category of the DownBeat Critic's Poll on four different occasions. As a composer he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, The New York State Council for the Arts, Peak Performances, Chamber Music America, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and many of his peers. Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world, and is a permanent faculty member at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA. In 2011 he founded Caravana Cultural, a program which presents free-of-charge jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico.

In April 2008 Zenón received a fellowship from the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Later that year, he was one of 25 distinguished individuals chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the "Genius Grant."

Identities are Changeable, his ninth recording as a leader, will be released November 4th, 2014.

For more info: www.miguelzenon.com

Miguel Zenón- Tour Dates / 2014

7/12: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Festival de Jazz en Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico

8/1: Miguel Zenón Identities Big Band @ Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI

8/30: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ UW-Stevens Point Festival, Stevens Point, WI 

8/31: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Chicago Jazz Festival, Chicago, IL

9/27: Miguel Zenón Quartet, Beantown Jazz Festival, Boston, MA

11/2: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Princeton Jazz Nights, Princeton, NJ

11/5: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ The Atlas, Washington, DC

11/6: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Outpost, Albuquerque, NM

11/7: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Clifton Center, Louisville, KY

11/8-9: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Dazzle, Denver, CO

11/10: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Earshot Jazz, Seattle, WA 

11/12: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Redwood Jazz Alliance, Arcata, CA 

11/14: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Jimmy Mak's, Portland, OR

11/15: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Broad Stage, Los Angeles, CA

11/18-23: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Village Vanguard, New York, NY

2015

2/12: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2/13: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Paradox, Tilbourg, The Netherlands

2/14: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ AMR Geneve, Geneva, Switzerland

2/18: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Pannonica, Nantes, France

2/20: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ San Severo, Italy

2/21: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Jazz Club Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

2/26: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Jazz Club Singen, Singen, Germany

2/27: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Birdland, Neuberg, Germany

3/5: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ JazzSchule Jazz Club, Basel, Switzerland

3/20: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ + Video, Hostos College, New York, NY

3/21: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Montgomery  Community College, Blue Bell, PA

3/26-29: Miguel Zenón Quartet @ Jazz Showcase, Chicago, IL

Jazz Drummer-Composer Mark Lomax Presents a Bold, Dynamic African Mytho-Spiritual Suite with the Album Isis and Osiris

The Mark Lomax Trio - with the drummer-leader joined by saxophonist Eddie Bayard and bassist Dean Hulett - have created a boldly dynamic suite on African mytho-spiritual themes with the album Isis and Osiris, to be released September 16, 2014, by Inarhyme Records. Isis and Osiris follows Lomax's lauded 2010 album, The State of Black America - which All About Jazz declared "audacious" in bridging "the firebrand music of the 1960s from today's world," walking "the roads traveled by John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Sonny Rollins, John Tchicai and Archie SheppŠ to deliver an unflinching tour-de-force." Jazz Chicago called the album "electrifying," while Lucid Culture said: "This album is a clinic in making every note count: Lomax is the rare drummer who leaves you wanting more, leading his bandmates through a strikingly terse, brilliantly counterintuitive and ultimately joyous series of explorations." And Jazzwise summed up the virtues of the previous album in a way that applies equally to Isis and Osiris: "This is an impressively conceived and executed piece of work, one in which the gravitas of the title is matched by the depth of both the composing and improvising of the trio."

Isis and Osiris - featuring melodies of deep-blues feeling and polyrhythms evoking Africa traditions - brims with thematic unity and improvisational fire in the spirit of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. The Mark Lomax Trio is a telepathic unit, colored by Bayard's moving, muezzin-like keening, Hulett's ever-earthy tone, and Lomax's detail-rich drums that drive the music with a composer's will. The tracks of the album are woven like a tapestry, with interludes that connect the sequence and feature the talents of each player solo. This is exciting, affecting music, accessible to all lovers of jazz past and present.

The release of Isis and Osiris comes shortly after the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation - an ideal time to reflect on the roots of African-American culture. While Greco-Roman mythology permeates the learning on which much of American culture has been based, the beautiful creativity at the heart of Egyptian and African mythology hasn't reached the mainstream in quite the same way. Isis and Osiris is Lomax and company's instrumental offering to help right the balance, inspired by the stories and history of Africa and its descendants.

Lomax says: "I wrote the melody of my piece 'Isis' as part of the music I composed for my wedding, and a few years later, Eddie wrote his for 'Osiris.' I always thought the themes complemented each other. Then I was talking with some composer friends about how great it would be to create music around Black African mythological and spiritual themes in the way that movies, music and literature have been created around the resonant themes of ancient Greece and Rome. I turned to working on a setting for the 'Isis' and 'Osiris' themes immediately after that conversation.

"I drew on Nubian rhythms for the opening 'Kemet,' and 'Isis' is a character piece highlighting the characteristics of wisdom, power and love ascribed to the goddess believed to be the mother of all living things," Lomax continues. "Eddie's 'Osiris' is another character piece, one that portrays the strength and majesty ascribed to the god by his followers. 'Chaos' is a group improvisation depicting the god Set, his murder of Osiris and the battle that saw him defeated by Horus. 'Love' extends the Isis theme, its melody corresponding to the quest by Isis to resurrect Osiris and undo the work of Set. 'Resurrection' represents the defeat of Set and the ascension of Osiris as supreme in the pantheon of Egyptian gods."

Reflecting on the process to create Isis and Osiris, Lomax says: "Musically, I'm inspired by such drummers as Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Michael Carvin and Ed Blackwell, as well as composers Ellington, Monk and Mingus - and Bartók and Ravel, Bill Banfield and Hannibal Lokumbe. Eddie and I worked together in much the same way as did Duke and Strayhorn. But I also used improvisation as a tool to connect the themes as Coltrane did in A Love Supreme. Eddie and Dean are musicians who believe in the power of music to make profound statements. We've been performing together for more than a decade now, and I can't think of more sympathetic artists I could be working with, musically or spiritually."

Lomax's father, Dr. Mark A. "Ogunwale" Lomax, wrote an evocative liner note for Isis and Osiris, elucidating some of the mythic fables of Africa that his son and his bandmates drew on for the album's inspiration. He concludes: "The chaos in the Kemetic divine community was brought on by jealousy, hatred, conspiracy and murder, but it was defeated by love. Love is the power that overcomes negativity and violence as ultimate realities. Love is also what allows Lomax, Bayard and Hulett to conjure the spirits of the ancestors. The drums roar and cymbals crash, resonating and putting us on a firm rhythmic foundation. The voice of the bass vibrates in frequencies deep and wide, so as to settle the soul. And the saxophone soars and laments, petitions and praises so that we are swept to heights where memory marries imagination and finds new vision."

Reflecting on the conflict and violence that seem to dominate the headlines, Lomax says: "Albert Ayler said, 'Music is the healing power of the universe.' That's true in that love is what can heal the world, and music is a loving art."

As a drummer, Mark Lomax has led his own groups and has been featured as a member of the Marlon Jordan Quintet, Delfeayo Marsalis Sextet, Ellis Marsalis Quintet and Azar Lawrence/Edwin Bayard Quintet. He has also performed with jazz legend Clark Terry, as well as saxophonists Billy Harper, Bennie Maupin, Victor Goines and Wessel "Warm Daddy" Anderson. Lomax has also toured with many local and regional bands playing a wide variety of styles, from folk, blues and rock to funk, gospel, R&B and hip-hop. As a composer, he has written jazz, gospel and classical works, and his orchestral arrangements of gospel songs have been played by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Czech National Symphony. He has produced eight recordings for his BMR label that range from traditional and more avant-garde jazz to gospel music for children. Lomax recently completed a Doctor of Music Arts in composition at Ohio State University.

http://www.inarhymerecords.com

http://marklomaxii.com

SINGER AND SONGWRITER RANDI FAY RELEASES NEW CD "FALLING"

Rändi Fay's new CD release “Falling” is a developing genre, an all-original blend of jazz, blues, latin and swing called “lyrical jazz”, reminiscent of old standards with a contemporary flair sure to be a hit on The Jazz Network Worldwide.

Music is the core of Rändi Fay’s heart. Her latest release “Falling” captures the essence of the lyrical and melodic ambiance that compliments her vocal style. Catchy rhythms bring this collection of songs to a new way of listening to the templates of older standards with ‘new ears’.  Recorded at Rock Garden Studio in Appleton, WI and co-produced with Marc Golde, with collaborations with cellist Hans Christian and trumpeter Bob Levy added the finishing touches to a venture of hallmark steps in the development of her unique niche “lyrical jazz”.  Also featured is the fantastic musicianship of: Greg Pagel- keyboard, organ & accordion, Bob Balsey- guitar, Bob Levy- horns, Mick Maloney- bass, Kurt Risch- percussion and Kevin Crocker- drums.

"Creating a song is a rush: the inspiration might come in thought, or a scent, or a phrase and all of a sudden these intricate lyrics start to emerge, and almost simultaneously, melody, rhythm and harmonies come in to flesh it out.  Add in the textures of instrumentation and before you know it, a whole new world is created, to express an idea, a concept, an experience... that all started in your head, and yet now it can be shared with everyone." says Fay.

Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and educated in the sciences, practicing veterinary medicine and raising three children, professional singing was put on the ‘backburner‘ outside of offering her gift to her church which kept her muse happy! Shifting her career focus after a series of injuries Rändi now had the opportunity to sing with many fine ensembles in northeastern Wisconsin, which included the Dudley Birder Chorale, the Symphony Chorale/Green Bay Choral Artists, Regency Singers, Steppin’ Out, Broadway Mania and Project Pink.

In addition to composing, producing and live performances on behalf of her company Emerald Heart Productions, she performs with the acclaimed Daddy D Productions as featured vocalist for the Big Band Reunion and the Allouez Village Band.  

In 2010, Rändi began her solo career with pianist John Contratto in the jazz duo "Rhapsody."  In 2011, she established her jazz/blues ensemble "Limited Edition" for larger performing opportunities, drawing from many of Wisconsin's finest jazz musicians blending jazz, blues, latin and swing, developing the genre Rändi refers to as "lyrical jazz.".

Rändi's recording experience includes co-producing three CD's with multi-instrumentalist Hans Christian, “Close to My Heart; Love Songs and Lullabies” released November 2010, and "Noël" in October 2011.  These two projects are the result of rich collaborations with musicians Hans, George Sawyn and Woody Mankowski on both, and Tom Smith and John Contratto on the first.  In June, 2012, she released her third CD: "That Old Black Magic."  This project features Chris Salerno, John Gibson and Danny Lueck, along with Hans and Woody, playing fresh jazz arrangements of beloved standards.  

Summer 2013 brought the latest development in her career, writing and performing original music.  Solo and collaborative compositions with bassist Mick Maloney, guitarist Bob Balsley and keyboardist and composer Greg Pagel.

“Rändi has a style all her own, spearheading a unique blend of genres by way of adding the melodies and lyrics that come to her musical heart with originality and poise.” says Jaijai Jackson of The Jazz Network Worldwide.

Rändi looks forward to continuing to share her gifts, seeking opportunities to perform on music festivals across the U.S. as well as specialty performances that encourage and inspire the audience to embrace the new blend of musical artistry that she so clearly calls her own “lyrical jazz”.

  

Visit THE JAZZ NETWORK WORLDWIDE "A GREAT PLACE TO HANG" at: http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Bill Warfield Pays Homage to Influential Trumpeters and Composers on Trumpet Story, Featuring Randy Brecker

Trumpeter, composer, arranger, and long-established educator Bill Warfield's new recording, Trumpet Story, leads to an inescapable conclusion: the ears of America's youth may be in better shape than feared. True to its title, the album offers a story - one part autobiography, one part history, and one part character study, portraying one of the great trumpet players of our time - Randy Brecker.

  

As an educator, Warfield has done what hundreds of other professional jazz musicians have chosen to do - embrace academia in tandem with their creative pursuits. Having spent nearly two decades on the faculty of the music department at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, Warfield has risen to the position of Director of Jazz Studies. But even as he built an enviable career as an educator, Warfield has maintained his zeal for devising noteworthy compositions and well-crafted arrangements that show those compositions in the most flattering light.

  

In fact, it was Warfield's attention to his extra-curricular career that cemented his longstanding friendship with Brecker, the outstanding and influential trumpeter who appears as guest soloist on Trumpet Story. "For my first concert at Lehigh, we re-created Sketches Of Spain [the legendary 1958 trumpet-and-orchestra collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans]. He and I split the trumpet part on that concert, and thus started our relationship," reflects Warfield.

  

"It was a pleasure to be involved in this project from both a musical and personal perspective," notes Brecker. "Bill Warfield has been a friend, and a favorite of mine for many years, and on this CD, dedicated to trumpeters (and composers) who have influenced him, he proudly presents some of his best writing in a long while. Challenging, original, and very listenable at the same time. Likewise, the band is just first rate, and filled with guys I 'came up' with, along with a host of younger players."

  

Over the years, Warfield's appreciation for Brecker's genius and professionalism has grown into a mutual admiration, the culmination of which arrives in Trumpet Story. The album began as a four-movement suite designed specifically to showcase Brecker's brilliant solo style - which combines technical virtuosity with enviable lyricism, and has garnered Brecker six Grammy® Awards. It's a style that Warfield has enjoyed and studied since he first heard Brecker on disc in the 1960s, with such proto-fusion bands as Blood, Sweat & Tears and Dreams.

  

Three of the original suite's four movements appear on Trumpet Story, along with six more Warfield arrangements, which include the recasting of songs by several other fabled jazz names - Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Donald Byrd, and Brecker himself - who had a significant impact on his own development. Warfield has produced an album that not only flows effortlessly throughout its eclectic program, it also serves as a sonic photo album, filled with snapshots that trace his growth as an artist. With this album, both Warfield and Brecker have added new chapters to their already accomplished careers.

Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, Bill Warfield graduated from the Manhattan School of Music where he was garnered with the Maynard Ferguson Scholarship, the William H. Borden Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Jazz, and the Carmine Caruso Award for Outstanding Trumpet Performance. During that time, he studied composition with a number of jazz' most acclaimed composers - among them Hank Levy and Bob Brookmeyer - before embarking on his career as a professional trumpeter and arranger. Warfield has released nine previous albums leading his own ensembles and has appeared in the horn sections of numerous other albums, including two by the acclaimed Bill Kirchner Nonet. Over the years he has performed with such artists as Ornette Coleman, Mel Torme, Mel Lewis, David Liebman and Sonny Stitt. He received a commission from the Spanish government to arrange and produce "Hollywood Jazz" for the 1992 Olympics in that country, and has also been commissioned by the Berlin Radio Orchestra and the US Air Force "Airmen Of Note." In addition, Warfield is the founder and director of the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra as well as its offshoot, the New York Jazz Octet, and also the Lehigh Valley Jazz Repertory Orchestra.

"When Janie Takes The Stand" - The Bill Warfield Big Band

 The Bill Warfield Big Band Trumpet Story  ·  Release Date: July 8, 2014 

PRESTIGE RECORDS CELEBRATES 65 YEARS OF LEGENDARY JAZZ WITH SPECIAL REISSUES, A VIDEO SERIES AND A NEW WEBSITE

Concord Music Group will commemorate the 65th anniversary of revered jazz label Prestige Records with a plethora of special reissues, a new video series and a website dedicated to the pioneering jazz label and its incredible roster of groundbreaking artists. The year culminates with a 90th birthday celebration honoring legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who made a monumental contribution to the label and to jazz in general.
Throughout 2014, Concord is set to release hi-resolution digital reissues of sixty Rudy Van Gelder Remasters series titles along with more than thirty vinyl reissues of Prestige classics. Digital releases include Soultrane (John Coltrane); Saxophone Colossus (Sonny Rollins); Cookin’ With Miles Davis Quintet (Miles Davis Quintet); Outward Bound (Eric Dolphy),We Three (Roy Haynes, Phineas Newborn, Paul Chambers); At Ease With Coleman Hawkins (Coleman Hawkins) and more. Vinyl reissues include Mose Allison Sings (Mose Allison); The Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis Cookbook, Vol. 1 (Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis); Thelonious Monk Trio (Thelonious Monk Trio) and more. Several classic titles, the first released in April, are being made available each month through the end of the year. “These are not only some of the most influential artists and important recordings on the Prestige label, they’re also some of the most iconic artists and recordings in the history of jazz, period,” says Nick Phillips, Concord Music Group’s Vice President of Catalog Development/A&R and co-producer of the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters series. “It’s a pleasure to be reintroducing this timeless music and legendary label to jazz fans, old and new.”

In addition, Concord has produced a video series titled Prestige Lives!, which will present both contemporary and legendary artists discussing the label’s influence and the essential contribution of engineer Van Gelder. Created by Bret Primack, the videos are being made available on a special website, developed in collaboration with DownBeat magazine that is designed to provide a front row seat through the history of the iconic label. Prestige merchandise is available with select vendors around the globe, and live events celebrating Van Gelder and Prestige Records will be announced soon.

Counting some of the genre’s most classic recordings, Prestige Records is one of the most revered jazz labels in the world. Prestige founder Bob Weinstock started out as a traditional jazz fan but soon found himself standing at the cutting edge of “modern jazz.” Prestige Records helped define a classic era of jazz developing the careers of such musical giants as Miles Davis, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins. Known for its distinctive bop, hard bop and soul-jazz, Prestige was a playground of spontaneity and honest self-expression. The label further prospered through the introduction of the free jazz movement in the ’60s and into the sound of fusion in the latter part of the decade. In the early ’70s, Weinstock sold the label to Fantasy Records, which was acquired by Concord Music Group in 2004. Concord continues to honor the jewels of the label through its Original Jazz Classics series and this year highlights the incredible breadth of material this catalog has to offer.

Pianist Yelena Eckemoff Blends Jazz with Classical Influences on New Album, A Touch of Radiance - Available August 12 / Featuring Mark Turner, Joe Locke, George Mraz and Billy Hart

Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff defines radiance as "a state of happiness or confidence when everything around you is shining." On her latest album, A Touch of Radiance, she explores that idea from 10 different perspectives, drawing rich inspiration from memories, emotions, and dreams, and the inner world where all three intersect. 

In addition to the 10 musical expressions of radiance, Eckemoff also examines the concept in other media; she painted the vivid sunset on the album cover and wrote 10 short poems to expand on each piece, all of which are included in the album's liner notes. A Touch of Radiance also expands her horizons instrumentally, marking the first time that the classically-trained pianist has recorded with more than a trio. She's assembled a stunning - yes, even radiant - band for the occasion, featuring saxophonist Mark Turner, vibraphonist Joe Locke, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Billy Hart.

 "I was ready to move on," Eckemoff says. "My goals didn't change: I wanted to express in music what I feel and what I experience. But utilizing more instruments gives your music a wider angle." 

These four gifted artists respond gorgeously to Eckemoff's music, wringing bold colors and deep feeling from pieces that are both airy and intricate. "The musicians helped me to paint my musical picture," Eckemoff says. "What made the project a success is that in addition to improvising brilliantly, all the musicians were extremely respectful to my written structures, tunes and melodic lines. The combination of written and improvised music as well as totally loose group improvisations has been my chosen musical language. With each new recording I am more comfortable with this language." 

Hart responded enthusiastically to Eckemoff's extra-musical inspirations, the pianist says. He transformed his approach to evoke the sound of walking on cobblestones, the fluttering of butterfly wings, or the crackling of a wood stove. In fact, Eckemoff recalls, "On the song 'Affection' Billy asked me if I wanted him to be a little puppy or a big dog." 

Eckemoff's blend of jazz freedom and classical structure pushed even such a skilled and experienced group of musicians to stretch their limits. "She has her own thing - it is not a copy of another person's music like you run into almost all the time," says Mraz. "It was a challenge to flesh out these compositions of Yelena's," Locke feels, "and I thank her for that challenge." 

Aside from the opening track, "Inspiration," which sets the album's tone through its air of dream-like mystery, the pieces on A Touch of Radiance and their accompanying poems move chronologically through Eckemoff's life. The playful opening melody of "Reminiscence," articulated by Eckemoff and Locke, introduces a piece that harkens back to the composer's childhood in the Soviet Union, offering a glimpse of an imaginative child surrounded by a loving family. When her father enters at the poem's end saying, "I met a rabbit on my way home / And look what a tasty treat he gave me for my little girl!" it's as if the children's book and the world outside have merged, a memory that feels like a fantasy, or a fantasy that feels like a memory.

   

"I was an only child and I spent a lot of time alone with picture books," Eckemoff says. "There's a certain mood to this song that somehow connects me to a time when I was five years old, and was in my world of literature and images."

  

The aptly-titled "Exuberance," which portrays a six-year-old Eckemoff eagerly if clumsily helping her mother and grandmother cook a family feast, and the tender "Affection," about a beloved puppy, continue these warm memories of youth in a cold country. She skips forward to her own life as a parent with the frantic "Pep," dizzy with the never-ending work of a wife, mother, artist, and teacher. The shadowy mood of "Reconciliation" provides a bittersweet image of domestic life, with arguments and hurt feelings overcome by a loving reunion, and "Encouragement" celebrates the support to be found in family.

   

Eckemoff's music has often drawn inspiration from the natural world, and she returns to that theme on "Imagination," a portrait of a snowy winter scene dreamed up on what turns out to be a sweltering summer day. "Tranquility" captures the pianist's ability to tune out the harsh noise of the city to focus on the sounds of nature, while the title track watches a moth drawn to light in the same way that Eckemoff found herself pulled in by the broader notion of radiance. And despite the nostalgic stories and memories behind the songs on A Touch of Radiance, the music doesn't indulge in manipulative or overwrought emotion. "I'm a sentimental person but I don't write sentimental music," Eckemoff says, adding with a laugh, "I know better.

  

"I'm an old-fashioned romantic," she continues. "Feelings and emotions and of course nature are always what interest me, and I still believe in melodies."

  

Eckemoff began playing piano at the age of four, studying first with her mother Olga, a professional pianist, then at the prestigious Gnessin Academy of Music and the Moscow State Conservatory. Despite the repressive atmosphere in the Soviet Union at the time, she began to explore rock and jazz music with other like-minded musicians. "Everything from the west was prohibited at that time," she recalls, "and jazz was one of those things. But there was a jazz studio formed by some activists who were also professional musicians and we studied traditional jazz. I used jazz principles in my composing, which put me on a different path from other musicians."

Eckemoff stepped away from her life as a concert pianist for several years to concentrate on raising her children. She finally left the Soviet Union with her husband, momentarily leaving her three children behind. "That was the hardest thing I ever did," she says, "but we had the drive to leave the Soviet Union. It was a very hard and scary thing to do, but it worked out and we never regretted it. It ended up helping me in my musical development because I had much deeper spiritual experiences because of it."

After returning to the piano, she turned increasingly to jazz and has now recorded several acclaimed albums with such respected players as Peter Erskine, Marilyn Mazur, Arild Andersen, Darek Oleszkiewicz, Mads Vinding, and Mats Eilertsen. "Very rarely am I surprised like I am with Yelena," enthuses Hart. "Somebody that comes out of nowhere with this much maturity and experience and musicality. You don't expect somebody that you don't know to challenge you in such an enjoyable way. In a very euphoric way it was a very satisfying project for me."

Veteran L.A.-Based Jazz Songstress Cheryl Barnes Makes It Exciting to 'Listen to This,' Her Eclectic New Indie Album Whose Singles 'Come to Me' and 'Come in From the Cold' Are Catching Fire in Different Radio Formats

A rapidly emerging, fresh and powerful voice on the contemporary jazz scene, Cheryl Barnes (www.cheryldbarnes.com) has only one request to make when people get ahold of her new multi-faceted independent full-length album: Listen to This.

Jazz and Triple AAA fans across the country are listening and loving it. Radio programmers in these formats are already over the moon over the classically trained jazz singer's vibe. Though Barnes has never considered herself a smooth jazz performer, her mystical soul-jazz ballad "Come With Me," whose intro features her dynamic scatting ability, is already receiving spins on over 60 terrestrial and internet stations in that format.
She recently released a video for the track on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJmHZ2sdgDc&feature=youtu.be) featuring her singing in many of Los Angeles' most iconic and sunny locations; the clip was directed by award-winning videographer David West, who has worked with the National Geographic Channel. It is being featured on SmoothJazz.com Global Radio and SmoothTravel Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.

Barnes' multi-format appeal has also earned her significant Triple AAA airplay for her heartfelt, jazzy rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Come In From The Cold." Over 25 non-jazz stations throughout Canada and the U.S. are playing tracks from Listen To This, including the tastemaker KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif.

The album was produced by Rahn Coleman, whose resume of legends includes Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Barry White, Ray Charles, Freda Payne, Patti Labelle, Marvin Gaye and Tom Jones. 

While headlining once at the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans, she was invited to sing at a pregame concert at the Louisiana Superdome before a Saints-Bills football game. She's shared the stage with Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Lou Rawls, J.J. Johnson and Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., who managed Barnes when she first moved to Los Angeles from Denver, where she performed as a singer, dancer and actor after graduating from the University of Denver. She also performed with symphony orchestras in Colorado, Wisconsin and Florida, and hosted the variety show "The Other Side" with radio personality Bubba Jackson.

NEW RELEASES: ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE - BLACK IS BACK; KYLE BRUCKMANN'S WRACK - AWAITS SILENT TRISTERO'S EMPIRE; TON TRIO - ON AND ON

ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE – BLACK IS BACK 40TH ANNIVERSARY PROJECT

The 40th Anniversary of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – but celebrated by a wonderfully fresh version of the group! The lineup here features the solid, soulful percussion of Kahil El Zabar – who also wrote and arranged all the music too – plus the great Ernest Dawkins on reeds and the bold Corey Wilkes on trumpet! The mixture of trumpet and saxophone is sublime – stretching out over Kahil's spacious percussion at a level that unlocks a spiritual sound that the AACM never even expressed this strongly back in the 70s – a nicely open vibe that stretches out, but still hangs inside at most moments too – a bit like some of El Zabar's famous collaborations with David Murray, but with the addition of trumpet in the mix. Titles include "The Awakening Of 2012", "Creole Peppa Stew", "Walk The Talk", "Can You Find A Place", "Black Is Back", and "Be Bop".  ~ Dusty Groove

KYLE BRUCKMANN’S WRACK – AWAITS SILENT TRISTERO’S EMPIRE

Music inspired by the works of Thomas Pynchon – served up in a special blend of jazz and avant composition by reed player Kyle Bruckmann! The work was supported by Chamber Music America – and although the lineup features many avant jazz players from Bruckmann's scene, the overall presentation also shows some deeper inspirations from 20th Century avant classical – not in a way that holds back the fiery free moments from Jason Stein on bass clarinet, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Darren Johnston on trumpet, or Tim Daisy on drums – but just at a level that works their individual energy into long pieces influenced by the books The Crying Of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow. Quite a great step forward in the mix of composition and freedom in the scene today – and also featuring Jen Clare Paulson on viola and Anton Hatwich on bass. (Packaged in a great letterpress sleeve, too!)  ~ Dusty Groove

TON TRIO – ON AND ON

Some of the greatest work we've heard so far from alto saxophonist Aram Shelton – a player who's really coming into his own these days, and whose penned some fantastic original tracks for his Ton Trio project! The group features Aram spinning out these bold, soulful lines with Scott Brown on bass and Alex Vittum on drums – picking up on the sax trio format first explored by Sonny Rollins in his bold late 50s years – but taken to new heights here by Shelton's deft work on his instrument! The tunes are wonderful – filled with dark shadows and expressive passages – already captivating even before the individual players break out with bolder energy – and the record's one that will definitely have us keeping an even greater ear out for Shelton than ever before. Titles include "On & On", "We Were Told", "Let's All Go", "Layover", "Findings", "Turncoats", and "This Reminds Me".  ~ Dusty Groove

NEW RELEASES: BENJAMIN TAUBKIN – AL QANTARA A PONTE / THE BRIDGE: BRAZIL & MOROCCO; NANCY WILSON - THIS MOTHER'S DAUGHTER; KELLYLEE EVANS - I REMEMBER WHEN

BENJAMIN TAUBKIN – AL QANTARA A PONTE / THE BRIDGE:  BRAZIL & MOROCCO

A beautiful set that delivers exactly what it promises in the title – a wonderful criss-crossing of Brazilian and Moroccan modes – all with a vibe that's quite different than previous records from pianist Benjamim Taubkin! Many tracks are long, and flow with a wonderful blend – Taubkin's piano, with warm jazzy currents – mixed with oud, gimbri, accordion, bass, and percussion – often with a modal feel in the rhythms, and qualities that take us back to some of the hippest 60s experiments in crossing western jazz with eastern styles! Titles include "O Deserto E Aqui", "Hijaz", "Quilombo", "Salsabile", and "Hamdouchia".  ~ Dusty Groove

NANCY WILSON – THIS MOTHER’S DAUGHTER

One of Nancy Wilson's hippest albums from the 70s – a great record of smooth mellow tracks produced by Eugene McDaniels, handled with some nice jazzy flourishes, and a warm soulful sound that brings out the best in Nancy's vocals! If you've dug her vocals on the Life, Love, & Harmony album, you'll find that this one's pretty similar – with some great easily grooving tunes that well mark her move into modern soul – and a sophistication that goes way beyond her work of the 60s! Titles include "China", "I Don't Want A Sometimes Man", "From You To Me To You", "Stay Tuned", "When We Were One", and "Now".  ~ Dusty Groove

KELLYLEE EVANS – I REMEMBER WHEN

Singer Kellylee Evans works here with the great Eric Legnini – the European keyboardist whose own records are always a delight, and who brings a sharp sense of funky soul to this vocal outing! Kellylee has a style that's rooted in jazz, but expressed in more contemporary soulful modes – which works perfectly for Legnini's strong sense of rhythm – especially on the original tunes that the pair co-created together! Most numbers feature a small combo, often with a romping vibe that's a nice change from the usual neo soul set – and in addition to the originals "Only You", "I Remember When", "One More Lover", "Built To Fly", and "Jungle" – the set also features remakes of "Amazing", "If I Was Your Woman", and "Lose Yourself".  ~ Dusty Groove

BOBBY WOMACK DIES AT AGE 70

(June 27, 2014) We are extremely sad to report that legendary singer and songwriter Bobby Womack has died after a lengthy series of illnesses. One of the most enigmatic and talented Soul men of all time,  Womack was a sort of Soul Forrest Gump, serving as a link from 50s Gospel to 60s Soul to 70s Rock and to some of the greatest musicians in each genre. Born in an extremely devout religious family, he was singing Gospel with his brothers Cecil, Friendly, Harry and Curtis as the Womack Brothers while he was still a child. The talented group was discovered by Gospel/Soul legend Sam Cooke, who redubbed them the Valentinos and transformed them into a teenage secular vocal group.

By the early 60s the Valentino's were touring with James Brown and scoring on the R&B charts with their first hit, "Lookin' For A Love." Cooke's death in 1964 sent the group on a spiral from which it would never recover. Also, Womack encountered some public fallout when married Cooke's widow less than a year later (even more ironic was that brother Cecil ultimately married Cooke's daughter, Linda, who became his partner in the popular writing/singing group Womack & Womack).

Without their mentor, the Valentinos faded, and Womack became principally a writer and guitarist for an A-list of 60s Soul and Rock stars, including Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and others. Interestingly, while he had established himself as a top notch songwriter, it took a 1968 cover of the pop standard "Fly Me to the Moon" to jump start his solo career, hitting the Soul Top 20. Over the next 4 years, he alternated original compositions ("What Is This," "More Than I Can Stand") and pop covers ("I Left My Heart In San Francisco," "Sweet Caroline") to stay a middling Soul charter. However, from 1972-76, a series of his own excellent compositions propelled him to the top of the Soul charts. Songs like "That's the Way I Feel About Cha," "Woman's Gotta Have It," "Harry Hippie," "Check It Out" and "Daylight" provided a Southern soulfulness that more resembled the gritty Memphis and Alabama sounds of Aretha and Sam and Dave than the silky sounds emanating from Detroit and Philadelphia. During this period Womack also hit the Pop Top 10 for the first and only time with a cover of the old Valentino's song, "Lookin For A Love." He also issued some of the great Soul albums of this period, a few of which (Communication and Understanding) are revered by a generation of Soul music lovers.

Personal problems and his inability to adjust to the changing music scene (particularly the rise of disco) left Womack virtually irrelevant in the late 70s, and by 1980 it appeared he was headed for the oldies circuit. However, he signed with the fledgling Beverly Glen label and released 1982's The Poet, a surprise #1 album and Womack's best LP in years. By that time, disco had alienated Soul Music lovers, and they found solace in Womack's seven minute masterpiece, "If You Think You're Lonely Now" and the follow-up single, "Where Do We Go From Here." Unfortunately, a fallout with Beverly Glen led to a two year delay before he released The Poet II on MCA. While not as strong as the predecessor album, Poet II included a great duet with Patti LaBelle, "Love Has Finally Come At Last," which hit Soul #3. Womack scored again the next year with the excellent So Many Rivers and its haunting hit single, "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much."

Womack continued to record sporadically over the next decade, releasing fairly good material through the mid-90s. Then, after nearly a half decade break, in 1999 Womack cut two discs, a Christmas CD called Traditions and  his first Gospel CD, the critically acclaimed Back to My Roots. 

Womack's career was immortalized in a 2012 edition of TV One's Unsung.  However, he also suffered health setbacks in 2012, first being diagnosed with colon cancer and, devastatingly, later in the year was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. But in the midst of these tragedies, he released the critically acclaimed, very modern, The Bravest Man In the Universe, an album that reached a new generation and was on many "best of" lists for the year.

It is a shame that Bobby Womack never achieved the across-the-board acclaim that his talent deserved. While revered by both Rock and Soul musicians, his popular appeal was generally limited to Soul audiences and to two periods (1972-76 and 1982-85). However the quality of his songwriting and the singularity of his emotive, soulful voice make him one of the most important Soul performers of all time. Younger music fans should seek out his extensive recorded work as representative of the best Soul music has to offer.

It would be an understatement to say that Bobby Womack will be missed. But his unquestioned influence on the development of both rock and R&B music will continue well on into the future. Rest in peace, Bobby.

By Chris Rizik
www.soultracks.com

SHERIE JULIANNE - 10 DEGREES SOUTH

Sherie Julianne's path to singing Brazilian music took many unexpected turns -- from a musical childhood in Miami to studying and teaching dance in San Francisco to working over the last decade with her mentor Marcos Silva at the Jazzschool in Berkeley. Silva, a native of Rio de Janeiro, is also Julianne's collaborator on the singer's ravishing debut, 10 Degrees South. The CD will be released by her Azul do Mar label on July 29.

  

"I can't explain exactly what it was but I fell completely, totally, and utterly in love with Brazilian music and started listening to it all the time," Julianne says. "I'm American, not Brazilian, and I wanted to find music that fits my personality, that speaks to my American roots, while being immersed in Brazilian rhythms."

  

Julianne possesses a translucent honey-amber voice ideally suited for the lithe and flowing melodies that distinguish so many Brazilian standards. Her supple sense of time and her facility at brisk tempos makes her a double threat, emotionally incisive on ballads and fearless on breakneck arrangements. She's joined by a superlative cast of musicians, including master pianist/arranger Marcos Silva, who's worked extensively with a long list of Brazilian and American jazz musicians, Leny Andrade and Flora Purim and Airto among them; veteran saxophonist/flutist Mary Fettig; and the dynamic rhythm section tandem of drummer Phil Thompson and bassist Scott Thompson (no relation). Ace guitarist Jeff Buenz, who has performed and recorded with the great Brazilian jazz vocalist Claudia Villela, rounds out the ensemble.

Beyond introducing a fresh and vital new voice, 10 Degrees South stands out as an unusually well informed program. Julianne's exquisite taste and persistent curiosity has led her to captivating material that has eluded other American singers of a similar bent. The album opens with João Donato and Gilberto Gil's surging "Bananeira," from Donato's 1975 album Lugar Comum. She puts her stamp on Jobim's ballad "Bonita" as well as the bossa classics "O Pato" and "O Barquinho."

At the center of the album Julianne ventures far off the beaten path, starting with "Brasil Nativo," a startlingly beautiful song by Paulo César Pinheiro and Danilo Caymmi that appears on Jobim's 1987 masterpiece Passarim. Digging into the circular melody of "Encontro," she's possibly the first American vocalist to record a piece by guitarist Chico Pinheiro, one of the most inventive composers on the Brazilian scene. Marcos Silva contributes one of his own superbly crafted songs, the deliciously aching ballad "Painting" (with a lyric translated from the Portuguese by Heather Davis). 

  

Born and raised in Miami, Sherie Julianne grew up in a close-knit family where her father's experiences soaking up jazz and Latin music in New York City reverberated through the years. She studied violin and played in various ensembles through college, and sang in her middle school and high school choruses. But by high school her primary creative outlet was modern dance. Julianne led a dance company while earning a fine arts degree from the University of Florida, and moved to the Bay Area in the late 1980s to pursue her love of dance.

  

While studying at the Oberlin Dance Collective Julianne often found herself in classes accompanied by percussionists, an experience that forged her powerful rhythmic sensibility. "It helped so much with Brazilian music," she says. "In dance, feeling the music inside yourself is essential. Your body is the art form, and the rhythm moves in you and through you."

Julianne continued to study and teach dance for many years but eventually decided that she wasn't going to attain the level she sought. Her focus turned back to singing, and she began taking lessons with the respected Bay Area jazz singer Daria. Before long she discovered Berkeley's Jazzschool (now the California Jazz Conservatory), where her studies with vocalist Stephanie Bruce soon led to Marcos Silva.

Sherie Julianne While she had less singing experience than most of the people in Silva's class, he immediately noticed that Julianne possessed excellent time and intonation. Performing regularly in class with the class band (Silva, Phil Thompson, and Scott Thompson), she gradually built up a repertoire. Attending Dennis Broughton's Brazil Camp in Cazadero, she deepened her knowledge and experience, while befriending celebrated artists like Guinga and Chico Pinheiro.

"One great thing about the Jazzschool program is that it forces you to be a performer," says Julianne, who started gigging around San Francisco with Silva and the Thompsons in Sol do Brasil. (Scott Thompson is Chico Pinheiro's touring bassist.)

Lately she's been working under her own name, and is looking forward to performing with Silva, Mary Fettig, and the Thompsons at her CD release show 11/15, at the California Jazz Conservatory.

"It's been an honor and privilege to work with these musicians, and a joy for me to share this beautiful music," says Julianne. "Through the work in developing the material for this album, I had the chance to dive deep into the music. It's a rare opportunity for many artists to devote themselves to a vision and see it through. I am extremely inspired now and am already working on another performance concept delving into the music of one Brazilian composer. I want to try something a little more unplugged with soft percussion, cello perhaps, and Marcos on piano, of course. That's what happens, I believe. You go down the path and, through the act of doing, all kinds of creative ideas and inspiration start to flow. It's exciting!"  

JASON MORAN & MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO REINVENT THE MUSIC OF FATS WALLER

Acclaimed pianist Jason Moran has announced a September 16 release date for All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller, a collaboration with the vocalist Meshell Ndegeocello that recasts the music of the legendary jazz entertainer Fats Waller as a modern dance party. The album—which was produced by Ndegeocello and Blue Note Records president Don Was—is the ninth in a formidable catalog that Moran has been building on Blue Note since 1999.

“Fats Waller is a special kind of provocateur,” says Moran. “It stems mainly from the fact that he was a singer as well as a pianist. Sometimes he was like an MC.  It has always amazed me that a pianist whose playing was so deep could sing and keep a running commentary of what was going on around him all at the same time.”

All Rise features Moran hosting a changeable cast of musicians that includes vocalists Ndegeocello and Lisa E. Harris, his longtime trio The Bandwagon featuring bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, and a funky horn-inflected ensemble anchored by drummer Charles Haynes that features trumpeter Leron Thomas and trombonist Josh Roseman, as well as guest saxophonist Steve Lehman. The album was recorded and mixed by Bob Power, known for honing the sound on classic hip hop records by A Tribe Called Quest, Common and The Roots.

All Rise is the studio culmination of a project that was born onstage in Harlem as the Fats Waller Dance Party. In 2011—nearly a year after Moran had been named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “genius” fellow and around the time he was named Artistic Advisor for Jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC—the NYC performing arts venue Harlem Stage Gatehouse commissioned Moran, a longtime resident of Upper Manhattan, to create a tribute to the Harlem stride master as part of its “Harlem Jazz Shrines” series.

"My wife Alicia had the idea that it should be a dance party, and I decided to jump at the task," says the Houston, Texas-reared pianist. “If you think about Fats, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines—all of them were making the popular sounds of their era: dance music. Unlike today, where jazz audiences generally remain seated, dancing was expected when Fats showed up to a gig.”

“The objective was to construct an evening-length performance in a space that lent itself to dancing,” explains Moran. “I asked myself what could be the extra layer, or the extra couple of layers, we might add to Fats' music to provide a number of different ways for audiences to enjoy it? That's when I reached out to Meshell. I wanted someone who could not only sing Fats' lyrics, but be free with them, and also a musician more accustomed than I am to dealing with a crowd that's on its feet. She was my only choice.”

From the propulsive afrobeat groove of “Yacht Club Swing” to the simmering slow jam reinvention of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” Moran and Ndegeocello radically recast Waller’s repertoire for our times.In concert Moran also adds a layer of performance art by donning a larger-than-life papier-mâché mask of Waller’s head created for him by the Haitian artist Didier Civil.

The same spirit of radical reinvention can be found on Ndegeocello’s 2012 dedication to Nina Simone, Pour une âme souveraine, and her presence on All Rise guaranteed that the album would be infused with the contemporary kineticism of R&B and hip-hop. “I suggested the drummer, Charles Haynes,” Ndegeocello remembers, “because he has facility and his pocket is one you cannot hear and stand still. The dance aspect of what Jason proposed really excited me.”

The track listing for All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller is as follows:

1.Put Your Hands On It

2.Ain’t Misbehavin’

3.Yacht Club Swing

4.Lulu’s Back In Town

5.Two Sleepy People

6.The Joint Is Jumpin’

7.Honeysuckle Rose

8.Ain't Nobody's Business

9.Fats Elegy

10.Handful Of Keys

11.Jitterbug Waltz

12.Sheik Of Araby /  I Found a New Baby

NEW RELEASES: OTIS BROWN III - THE THOUGHT OF YOU; LIRA – RISE AGAIN; SANDRA ST. VICTOR - ETERNALLY: OYA'S DAUGHTER REMIXES

OTIS BROWN III - THE THOUGHT OF YOU

Drummer Otis Brown III – an invaluable sideman with the likes of Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano, Terence Blanchard, Oliver Lake, Somi, and others – has announced the release of his debut album The Thought of You, which will arrive August 26 via Revive/Blue Note, a new partnership between Revive Music and Blue Note Records. Brown’s maiden voyage features an impressive roll call of artists including a core band consisting of pianist Robert Glasper, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, saxophonist John Ellis, and bassist Ben Williams, with organist Shedrick Mitchell and guitarist Nir Felder making special appearances. Singers Bilal, Gretchen Parlato, and Nikki Ross contribute standout performances that underscore the sentiments of the album’s co-producer, Derrick Hodge, who says, “Otis has become one of those drummers who once you hear him play, his experience becomes your experience in the moment.”

LIRA – RISE AGAIN

South African singer/model Lira is a platinum-selling star in Africa and like Sade before her, blends R&B, Jazz and African elements into a sensual, appealing pop music sound with global appeal. Lira has appeared on more than 20 magazine covers in Africa and Europe and has been a spokesperson for such brands as Audi. She has won numerous SAMA awards, the South African equivalent of a Grammy. Essence Magazine named her one of “five unique artists to change music.” Rise Again, her U.S. debut, is a wide-ranging collection of her best work to date, including the smash hit title track, which shows off her soulful, jazzy and African-oriented sides. Included is a version of “Something Inside So Strong,” which she performed at ceremonies honoring Nelson Mandela.

SANDRA ST. VICTOR - ETERNALLY: OYA'S DAUGHTER REMIXES

Sandra St. Victor is a powerful R&B/Soul/Rock singer and songwriter who has sung and toured with Chaka Khan, Roy Ayers, Freddie Jackson and others. As lead vocalist of critically acclaimed Funk/Soul/Rock band The Family Stand, which scored a #3 R&B hit with “Ghetto Heaven,” Sandra won a fervent fan base. Her songs have been recorded by Prince, Chaka Khan and Tina Turner. In September of 2013, Sandra St. Victor released Oya’s Daughter, a tour-de-force produced by cult favorite DJ/re-mixer/producer Mark de Clive-Lowe, who has done work for Lauryn Hill, Jody Watley, Omar and many more.  Now, in June of 2014, SSV is back with Eternally (Oya's Daughter Remixes). Pairing up with some of the freshest DJs/Remixers on the scene today - DJ Spinna, Nicolay, Ty Macklin and QB Smith, Sandra St. Victor has crafted an energetic, creative reboot to Oya's Daughter.

 

THE JARIBU AFROBEAT ARKESTRA RETURNS WITH ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ECLECTIC AFRO TUNAGE

This guitar player definitely wears acoustic blinders. Single note lines and riffs similar to early James Brown recordings, executed with amazing perfection – one can’t imagine a more stoic performance, especially considering what’s happening at the same time: Blazing horns in unison and a slightly awry choir come together, work in opposite directions, completing a true rhythmically woven carpet with the tight rhythm section’s network: multi-layered, close-knitted and nearly impenetrable. You can’t escape from those tunes! Arms, legs and hips have to follow the pulse: one moment light-footed, the next heavy and uncompromising, fitting the distinct messages, criticizing worldwide “social absurdities” (JariBu).

The eight Japanese Musicians led by Masamichi Ishikawa play more Funk and Jazz than the Nigerian Afrobeat originals Fela Kuti and Tony Allen did: a swift flute, a blazing trumpet playing and extensive solos from the very beginning – just check out the opener, it runs more than nine minutes! Occasionally there’s a nasty fuzz guitar which reminds one of the 1970ies, accompanied by tape hiss and amp noise. You’ve gotta love it!

Since 2009 there have been four long players by JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra. However the new “JariBu” is, similar to “Mediacracy” (Tramp Records 2012) the Tokyoites’ second Record, distributed internationally. But they have been more than well received in the past few years – the Japanese Afrobeat word has been spread in the past and will be spread even more in the future! (words by Martin Buerkl – Basement Jazz Radio Show, Munich)

“A wonderful LP, from the beginning to the end!” – The Flying Carpet radio show, Spain

“Another piece of eclectic Afro tunage from JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra well worth the wait people!” – Anthony “Aja” Allsop

Tracklisting:

01. Devil (Pt.1&2)

02. One By One

03. KEW

04. Wild Pansy

05. Afro Rodeo

06. Witness

07. Unrevealed Truth

08. Yellow Joint

09. Dancers In The Darkness

10. BOMB

The album JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra “JariBu” (Tramp Records) is going to be released June 27, 2014. ~ Groove Attack

NEW RELEASES: SCOTT WILKIE - ALL IN; MICHAEL DEASE - RELENTLESS; WADADA LEO SMITH / GEORGE LEWIS / JOHN ZORN – SONIC RIVERS

SCOTT WILKIE - ALL IN

Making an explosive re-emergence onto the contemporary urban jazz scene, Scott Wilkie is truly All In, melodic and funky as ever on his highly-anticipated new album, which marks his first full ensemble recording in over ten years. It's a dynamic and diverse collection featuring his own longtime live band which plays regularly throughout his home base of Southern California - and a true dream list of all-star guests and friends: Jay Beckenstein, Jimmy Haslip, Jeff Lorber, Jay Graydon, Paul Jackson Jr., Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Sprague and Jeff Kashiwa.  Includes Summer Song, Canyon Song,  Blues Cruise,  Beach Hut,. Put It Where You Want It, Emma's Groove, America the Beautiful,  Isn't She Lovely, and  The One

MICHAEL DEASE - RELENTLESS

A stunning large ensemble set from trombonist Michael Dease – the first we've ever heard from him in this format, and a record that brings us back to some of the most inventive bigger bands of the late 60s – such as groups by Duke Pearson, or the team of Thad Jones & Mel Lewis! No surprise, Dease starts out with a great version of Pearson's "Is That So" for the record – really grabbing us right away with his deft intepretation of the soulful classic, which is presented in newly shimmering tones by his own arrangement. Michael then continues to wow us with his work on all other tracks as well – a mix of his own compositions, and a few newly-remade classics – featuring solo work from Greg Gisbert on trumpet, Todd Bashore on alto, Diego Rivera on tenor, Miki Hayama on piano, Etienne Charles on trumpet, Sharel Cassity on tenor, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, and the leader's own instrument on a few key solo moments as well. Titles include "Is That So", "Force", "Relentless", "The Takeover", "Little Lucas", and "Roppongi".  ~ Dusty Groove

WADADA LEO SMITH / GEORGE LEWIS / JOHN ZORN – SONIC RIVERS

An excellent session from trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, with trombone and electronics by George Lewis, and alto sax by John Zorn! It's got the jagged, freely experimental vibe you'd expect from such a trio, but it moves with a deliberate sonic flow, hence the title, albeit with some sharp edges. Plenty of muscular interplay amongst the trio, with Lewis's occasional electronic flourishes serving as an exciting wild card element, but there's a roominess and an overall sense of restraint here that works really well. Great stuff! Includes "Cecil Taylor", "The Art Of Counterpoint", "North", "South", "East", "West", "Screaming Grass" and "The Culture Of Gun Violence In The US". ~ Duty Groove