Delfeayo Marsalis’ Uptown Jazz Orchestra Releases Jazz Party

For the better part of a decade, acclaimed trombonist, producer and composer Delfeayo Marsalis has spent Wednesday nights at the helm of his sprawling Uptown Jazz Orchestra’s residency at Snug Harbor in New Orleans. With Jazz Party, Marsalis’ seventh album as a leader, he delivers an original composition-heavy set of music that showcases the same exuberant energy of those shows, complete with modernized twists on New Orleans songbook gems and musical traditions, and swinging, groove-infused homages to the contributions of modern jazz masters.

Spiked with the NEA Jazz Master’s wry wit and visionary production acumen, Jazz Party sees Marsalis – along with Roger Lewis, Terrance Taplin, Khari Lee,  and more of the Crescent City’s finest musicians – making a strong musical case for the notion modern New Orleans jazz can and should be as celebratory in nature as it is cerebral in execution. 

“Music, like all art, should have some type of contemporary relevance,” Marsalis says, joking that his decision to call 2016’s UJO recording premiere Make America Great Again missed fulfilling its “comedic relief potential” by “a few votes” in the 2016 election. 

“Jazz, the indigenous American music, is a music of celebration and optimism,” he continues. “The Uptown Jazz Orchestra is such a fun band that I wanted to capture its uniqueness. The idea was to keep the wide variety of styles that we play but to really capture the joy that is a central trademark of the band.” 

Recorded in February and May 2019 at New Orleans’ Esplanade Studios with the help of Marsalis’ longtime production partner Patrick Smith (and without the so-called “dreaded bass direct”), Jazz Party opens with a laidback and languorous title track that brings “The Voice” alum Tonya Boyd-Cannon’s gospel roots in touch with the band’s preternatural sense of groove. 

The Dirty Dozen’s Roger Lewis, an original member of the UJO, contributes another album highlight with his burning “Blackbird Special” solo as the band delivers a perfect balance of wiggle, funk and propulsive motion that urges its way forward, second line-style. 

The breezy “Seventh Ward Boogaloo” shifts gears to highlight the lasting influence of musicians who have historically called that neighborhood home, from Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet to Lee Dorsey and Allen Toussaint.

Another standout, the Marsalis original “Raid on the Mingus House Party,” turns up the tension with a dramatic horn section performance that kicks off the narrative arc implied by the title before Ryan Hanseler’s gorgeously restrained piano work guides the melody away from the proverbial cliff’s edge. According to Marsalis, it was inspired by “aspects of the current social climate in America” that seem to be continually “heightened by extreme political negativity, mass shootings and racial community divisions.” When all ten of the tune’s moving melodic parts get resolved, the music reminds us that, as Marsalis puts it, “love for humanity” really can “reign victorious” even in the most troubled and confusing times. 

The album begins and ends its second half with two takes on “Mboya’s Midnight Cocktail,” delivering the kind of funny bar banter one might overhear between sets during a UJO performance at Snug Harbor. 

Between the first incarnation and its final reprise, the orchestra serves up a hilarious riff on its hometown’s hyper-local obsessions (“I’m so New Orleans I remember when crawfish was $1.27 a pound,” Dr. Brice Miller raps on “So New Orleans”); the Scott Johnson centric jump blues meets “modern tonality” flavored “Irish Whiskey Blues” and an anthemic rendition of the Soul Rebels’ “Let Your Mind Be Free,” plus funk-laced tributes to Roy Hargrove (“Dr. Hardgroove”) and New Orleans’ cultural connections to the Caribbean (“Caribbean Second Line”). 

Jazz Party offers a deftly varied look at the role of joy, humor and straight-up fun in jazz, an artform Marsalis points out in his liner notes was created by a group of people seeking to “define life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in a “psychological vacuum” necessitated by the systematic denial of their own human rights. That one band can so compellingly reflect the many nuances embedded in that fundamental cultural concept is a major artistic achievement in itself. 

Over the course of his prolific career, trombonist, composer, producer, educator and NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalishas been hailed as one of the “most imaginative...trombonists of his generation,” a title that reflects decades of musical exploration, preparation and risk-taking, much of which began during his childhood in New Orleans, where his father, Ellis Marsalis, introduced him to jazz in the family home. Eventually, Delfeayo says, he “gravitated toward the trombone,” which felt like “an extension of my personality.” He was simultaneously developing his ear for music production after his brothers, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, piqued his interest in the process, which he continued to develop while producing their demo tapes and interning at Allen Toussaint’s Sea Saint Studio. He’s gone on to produce more than 100 recordings for artists including his brothers, his father, Spike Lee, Harry Connick, Jr., Terence Blanchard, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and others. An exceptional trombonist, Delfeayo has toured internationally with bands led by Art Blakey, Slide Hampton, Abdullah Ibrahim, Max Roach and Elvin Jones, as well as his own groups. 

Jazz Party, the trombonist’s second studio album with his 10-plus-year-old Uptown Jazz Orchestra, comes on the heels of 2017’s live album, Kalamazoo, and 2016’s UJO studio recording debut, Make America Great Again!, which uses the orchestra’s stylistic fluidity to fuse its hometown sound and musical history with songs associated with American patriotism. Other highlights in his discography include The Last Southern Gentlemen (2014), his first album-length collaboration with his father and 2010’s stunning Sweet Thunder, a fresh octet reimagination of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s suite of the same name. Pontius Pilate’s Decision (1992), his dramatic musical take on biblical tales, remains a standout. 

Delfeayo recently served as Music Producer for the film “Bolden!,” a mythical account of the life of Buddy Bolden, and has worked extensively in arts education. He holds a master’s degree in jazz performance from the University of Louisville and an honorary doctorate from New England College. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Pianist Satoko Fujii and Drummer Tatsuya Yoshida Reunite for New Duet Album Baikamo

Fifteen years after their last recording together, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and drummer Taysuya Yoshida reignite the burning intensity of their Toh-Kichi duet project on Baikamo (December 13, 2019 via Libra). Merging art-rock muscle with free jazz and contemporary classical abstractions, Fujii and Yoshida make music that is both gleefully playful and in-your-face energetic.

“As Toh-Kichi, Tatsuya and I played together even after our last album, Erans, came out in 2004, but not regularly,” Fujii says. “This time, we were asked by an organizer to play a concert in Hiroshima. We wanted to play some new repertoire, so we both composed new pieces for Toh-Kichi. We made a short tour after Hiroshima and we decided to record our new compositions since we had so much fun playing together again!”

And really, for all its avant-garde trappings, Toh-Kichi is a lot of fun. Fujii and Yoshida egg one another on, daring each other to take chances and rising to the occasion every time. The music may zig and zag in many directions, melodies may explode into pure sound or clashing dissonance, but it is all a high-spirited good time, an excess of joie de vivre. For instance, Yoshida’s “Aspherical Dance,” a melodic framework that suggests areas in which to improvise without limiting options, brims with exuberant energy and even the dissonant tornados of piano notes and percussion aren’t menacing, but more like outbursts of pure joy. On Fujii’s “Baikamo,” Yoshida’s unexpected stops and starts create an asymmetric landscape over which Fujii bubbles and flows with rippling phrases buoyed by percussive chords. Sparks fly on Yoshida’s “Climber’s High” as Fujii, playing the piano like 88 tuned drums, and Yoshida, unleashing rapid fire melodic rhythms, clash and interact. “Ice Age” is one of the most evocative tone poems Fujii has ever recorded, featuring eerie vocalizing from both Yoshida and Fujii, as she elicities otherworldly drones and sparkling plucked notes from inside the piano. 

  

In addition to debuting their new compositions, Fujii and Yoshida also engage in eight free improvisations, each one distinctive and daring. On “Ajhisakdafitch” (Yoshida gave each improv its unique title), Fujii creates unusual timbres on prepared piano, which Yoshida matches with his own colorful responses. They shadow one another in an amazing display of their intuitive connection. “Ovgwebkwum” grows slowly out of strange rattles and hums, as if they are not sure where they’re going, but they are enjoying the journey. “Zpajigemfluxss” overflows with energy. They pick up ideas from one another, then blow them apart, start from a new antic rhythmic melody and bat it around between them.

  

“I think he is musically very unique,” Fujii says of Yoshida. “He has his own voice and he has no hesitation about making music with his own thoughts and feelings. I believe that is the most important thing for a musician to do. I always respect creators who follow their own voices and don’t imitate others.”

  

Drummer Tatsuya Yoshida has been called the “indisputable master drummer of the Japanese underground” and a “rhythm section gone ballistic.” Best known as a founding member of the progressive-rock drums + bass duo, The Ruins, he has also been a member of influential zeuhl bands such as Koenjihyakkei, Akaten, and Korekyojinn. In addition to being an occasional member of John Zorn’s legendary jazzcore band PainKiller, he has collaborated with other notable experimentalists such as Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide, and Richard Pinhas, among many others. Yoshida also tours and records extensively as a solo artist.

  

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She’s “a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 80 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock, and folk music into an innovative style instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific band leader and recording artist, she celebrated her 60th birthday in 2018 by releasing one album a month from bands old and new, from solo to large ensemble. Franz A. Matzner in All About Jazz likened the twelve albums to “an ecosystem of independently thriving organisms linked by the shared soil of Fujii's artistic heritage and shaped by the forces of her creativity.”

  

Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. Her ongoing duet project with husband Natsuki Tamura released their sixth recording, Kisaragi, in 2017. “The duo's commitment to producing new sounds based on fresh ideas is second only to their musicianship,” says Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz. Aspiration, a CD by an ad hoc quartet featuring Wadada Leo Smith, Tamura, and Ikue Mori, was released in 2017 to wide acclaim. “Four musicians who regularly aspire for greater heights with each venture reach the summit together on Aspiration,” writes S. Victor Aaron in Something Else. As the leader of no less than five orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and Japan (two of which, Berlin and Tokyo, released new CDs in 2018), Fujii has also established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.”

www.satokofujii.com/

New Music Releases: The Music Of Wayne Shorter: Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchester; Aretha Franklin; Eri Yamamoto Trio & Choral Chameleon

The Music Of Wayne Shorter: Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestera With Wynton Marsalis

The Music of Wayne Shorter will be Blue Engine Records’ initial physical album release of 2020. The CD, recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2015, features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis alongside 11-time Grammy Award  (including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy) winner Wayne Shorter performing. Each of the album’s 10 songs—which include “Yes or No,” “Endangered Species,” and “Teru”—is a classic Shorter composition given an invigorating new arrangement by a JLCO member. Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director, says, "Wayne Shorter is at the highest level of our music—you can’t get any higher than him. Everybody strives to have a personal sound: Wayne’s sound is definitive.”

Aretha Franklin - Atlantic Singles 1968 (4 X 7 inch box set) (2019 Black Friday Release)

The cover may look a bit scientific – but the music is plenty soulful throughout – a package that brings together four key singles from that momentous musical year of 1968 – a time when Aretha Franklin was really finding her sound at Atlantic Records! The music here represents Aretha really stretching out from the earlier years – not just in the deep soul modes that would forever put her on the map – but also with some sophisticated touches that would forever earn her a place as the first lady of soul – as you'll hear on titles that include "My Song", "See Saw", "I Say A Little Prayer", "Since You've Been Gone", "Ain't No Way", "Think", "You Send Me", and "The House That Jack Built". Great design, too – a book-style cover, with the singles in the pages!  ~ Dusty Groove

Eri Yamamoto Trio & Choral Chameleon - Goshu Ondo Suite

One of the most beautiful albums we've ever heard from pianist Eri Yamamoto – in large part because of the presence of the Choral Cameleon vocal group! The mix of piano and voice is wonderful – haunting and powerful, in a way that reminds us of some of the best Vince Guaraldi experiments of this type – but with a sharper edge, as you might guess from the piano of Yamamoto – and support from David Ambrosio on bass and Ikuo Takeuchi on drums! Sometimes the voices rise high and proud – as in a Max Roach jazz-with-voices album – other times they drift dreamily, providing more of a subtle ascendant current to the lines of the piano. Either way is great to our ears – a really wonderful record – and tracks feature the long "Goshu Ondo Suite", plus "Echo Of Echo". ~ Dusty Groove

Trumpeter John Vanore & Pianist Ron Thomas to Release Long-Lost Duo Recordings as Primary Colors

In the small, elite group of performing musicians better known as composers, arrangers and bandleaders, the trumpeter John Vanore has carved out a uniquely brilliant niche. Vanore, who was still a teenager when his life’s mission was made clear after he heard the great Oliver Nelson, is best known for helming Abstract Truth, an innovative, long-running ensemble combining the flexibility of a combo with the might of a big band. Over the past four decades, he’s earned the kind of gushing press rare for any jazz artist—much less one who directs an unconventional little-big-band. “Vanore’s touch with ensemble texture and color, and his sense of narrative timing, recall Gil Evans,” wrote Stereophile, before going on to call Vanore’s Easter Island Suite “a musical portrait of wonder.” JazzTimes has chosen hosannas like “hauntingly beautiful,” “well crafted,” “stirring orchestration” and “edgy.”

Now, after so much acclaim for his signature ensemble, Vanore is releasing Primary Colors, a compelling collection of seven sonic adventures that he recorded with the keyboardist and composer Ron Thomas in 1984 and ’85. Captured just outside the musicians’ native Philadelphia, these duo-logues provide a fascinating snapshot of both Vanore’s career and improvised music in the midst of an underrated era when so much about jazz was in flux—the music’s aesthetics, its culture, even its technology. As a showcase for Vanore the masterful trumpeter—a veteran of Woody Herman’s hard-touring band, and a devoted pupil of John Coltrane’s Philly-based mentor, guitarist Dennis Sandole—Primary Colors is at once a stunning time-capsule piece and a harbinger of more elastic, more compact and increasingly player-centric Vanore music to come.

Thomas was a sophisticated user of the (at the time) cutting-edge Yamaha DX7 synth, whose idiosyncratic sounds are the stuff electronic musicians and hip-hop producers continue to seek out. Those timbres, like the rest of Primary Colors, are an emblem of a golden pocket on jazz’s timeline when improvisation, pop, R&B and jazz-rock coalesced in wild and wonderful ways. “There was a lot going on,” Vanore says today with a chuckle, looking back on the heady period that bore Primary Colors. “There were really a lot of things converging.” 

For years he’d been a first-call trumpeter on live shows and studio dates, but those opportunities were starting to slow down, waylaid by the discotheque and the increasing computerization of music production. Suddenly Vanore had time and energy to spare, and he channeled the surplus into Abstract Truth and his snowballing interest in large-ensemble writing and direction. Galvanized by Nelson’s vibrant orchestrations, Vanore architected an unusually brass-focused lineup of horns, plus a rhythm section that achieved fresh colorations by swapping out piano for guitar. 

Thomas, however, had no problem bringing a bold new palette into Vanore’s fold. A visionary player with whom the trumpeter had gigged around town, Thomas crafted lyrical improvisations with an orchestrator’s attention to the structure of his lines—he was, after all, a direct pupil of Stockhausen as well as a lifelong disciple of Bill Evans and Miles. Vanore shared similar sensibilities, and the two friends began joining up to play exploratory duets. The setting was a rehearsal room at Widener University, Vanore’s alma mater and the institution where he made his career as an educator. Vanore was gradually outfitting the room with recording equipment, and Terry Hoffman, the trumpeter’s gifted and knowledgeable go-to engineer, played producer, refining the music’s textures by facilitating overdubs and judiciously applying then-state-of-the-art delay and reverb units. Hoffman “mixed at will,” Vanore writes in his liner notes, “creating the cinematic sound environment appropriate for the pieces to realize their emotional impact.” Vanore recovered most of the music when he was reorganizing his basement in the summer of 2019 and came across some old cassettes. He completed the extensive necessary audio restoration in his home studio.     

The sessions’ only real protocol was a willingness to experiment, in the way of sound, song form and more. “We weren’t approaching this stuff like head/solos/head,” Vanore recalls. “Our approach was more compositional.” Spontaneity was also paramount, and while there may be multiple overdubbed layers at various points, a single-take ethic was honored throughout the informal sessions. In the end, the reason Primary Colors sounds so extraordinary—daring in its sonics yet intimate and empathetic in its interplay—is that it was never supposed to be a commercial release to begin with. 

The seven tracks that make up this eavesdropped gem are distinctive environments with their own otherworldly charms. Thomas’ “Final Dawn” features Vanore’s thoughtful, singing flugelhorn lines atop elegiac piano. On the DX7, Thomas overdubs fleet, watery organ-sounding choruses. He also adds a percussive element via small cymbals and tiny drumsticks, which Vanore recalls as being “almost like chopsticks.” Through Hoffman’s close mic placement and a dollop of reverb, the metal has a crisp, potent presence. 

“Lady,” the Lionel Richie-penned smash, is reinvented as the kind of ethereal tour de force you might expect to hear on an unsung classic from ECM’s thrilling early years. Vanore first dug the melody while working a commercial gig. Soaked through with overdubs, he says, “it became a tapestry of sound with the trumpet, flugelhorn and piano making interactive comments in and around the melody.” “Yesterdays” and “A Time for Love” underscore the duo’s imaginative and seemingly telepathic way with standard repertoire. 

“Origins of Rude” arrives like a thunderbolt of crude funk. Vanore had Thomas play a beyond-funky 7/4 bassline on Fender Rhodes, which became an analog tape-loop foundation for one-take multi-tracks. The trumpeter plays blasts and bleats reflecting the rough-and-tumble phrasing of electric Miles, as Thomas offers zany stabs of DX7, conjuring up B-movie soundtracks as well as the avant-garde wing of ’80s fusion and funk. Vanore’s overdubbed snare hits provide an off-kilter kind of thrust and momentum. The tune’s title reflects its status as a sketch or seed for “Rude,” a fleshed-out work that would appear on Abstract Truth’s 2010 album, Curiosity. Even on an album filled with sounds that are so dated they’ve become strikingly fresh, “Origins of Rude” stands out as supremely evocative. When Tarantino needs score for a bar scene in a cyberpunk blaxploitation flick, this delightfully weird cut should be it. Vanore and Thomas find their way back to more elegant fare with the former’s “Return,” a gorgeous conversation between flugelhorn and Rhodes, and a creative take on “Secret Love.” With Thomas’ quirky DX7 timbres and swinging cymbals, the latter track approaches the energy and muscle of a combo at full mid-to-uptempo tilt.  

Primary Colors also provides Vanore with an opportunity to counter the very good predicament he’s created for himself. After so many extolled sessions in which his writing and arranging have defined his identity, and his playing has been tastefully submerged in his ensemble’s hues, it’s a pleasure to hear him just open up and blow again. His fluid virtuosity will remind listeners of his lifelong devotion to Miles, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer and other greats. His playing also highlights his post-collegiate months on the road with Woody Herman, and his extensive studies under Philadelphia guitarist Dennis Sandole, a mentor to John Coltrane. Vanore is an “intriguing trumpeter [who] pushes expressive possibilities,” DownBeat wrote in one article; in another, the jazz bible praised Vanore’s strength as a player and his “pristine melodic sense.” 

Ultimately, Primary Colors points a way forward. “I want my next project to be more oriented to improvisational playing,” Vanore says, “rather than subordinating that side of myself.” 

The pivotal moment in trumpeter, composer, producer and bandleader John Vanore’s career occurred while he was attending a summer program directed by Oliver Nelson, among the most significant player-composer-arrangers in jazz history. Nelson’s singular identity was so inspirational that Vanore made his decision to pursue music right then and there. To realize this goal, Vanore went on to study with Philadelphia-based guitarist Dennis Sandole, a mentor to John Coltrane, which further instilled in the young musician the importance of creating a distinctive musical personality as a composer and an improvising soloist. 

After graduating from Pennsylvania’s Widener University—where Vanore would later have a long and celebrated career as an educator—he joined the legendary Woody Herman band. That experience led to Vanore combining small-group intimacy with the firepower of the big band in his own unique large ensemble, Abstract Truth. Touting an extraordinary brass-heavy lineup, Abstract Truth has released six critically lauded albums, the most recent being Stolen Moments: Celebrating Oliver Nelson, an imaginative homage to Vanore’s foremost hero.   

Ron Thomas is recognized for the scope and breadth of his influences and interests. He attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied composition with Vittorio Giannini, Nicolas Flagello and Ludmila Ulehla. During that time, he also studied privately with M. William Karlins and later with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Heavily influenced by the music of Miles Davis and Bill Evans, Ron continued his studies in composition with Stefan Wolpe and Raoul Pleskow at C.W. Post College, Long Island University, where he received his master’s. The years since have been an extended elaboration upon these foundational elements through composing, jazz performance, recording, teaching and writing about music.

Guitarist and oud master Gordon Grdina releases "Nomad"

Adventurous guitarist and oud master Gordon Grdina brings together two of contemporary jazz’s most free-roaming music thinkers to form the Nomad Trio

Teaming Grdina with the limitless pianist Matt Mitchell and the playfully experimental drummer Jim Black, Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio refuses to set down stylistic roots throughout its debut album Nomad, due out January 10, 2020 via Skirl Records

A musician’s life is an inherently nomadic one, which can make things difficult when trying to get three of modern jazz’s most in-demand artists into one room at the same time. Vancouver-based guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina had wanted to bring together pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black for several years before their busy schedules allowed them to finally join forces. The results turned out to be well worth the wait, as Nomad, the debut from Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio, is a thrilling high-wire act of complex interplay and sparks-flying electricity.

Nomad, due out January 10, 2020 via Skirl Records, will be released shortly before Resist, a politically-charged album by the Gordon Grdina Septet on saxophonist Jon Irabagon’s Irabagast label. The Nomad Trio music was penned by Grdina with these musicians and their vast array of experiences in mind – an idea that the composer found incredibly liberating. “Knowing what Matt and Jim can do, the possibilities were wide open,” he says. “I could be as imaginative as I wanted to be, which was really exciting.”

The name of the trio definitely reflects the members’ travel-heavy lifestyles, but in the case of Grdina, Mitchell and Black it also points to the wandering tastes and wide-ranging inspirations of all three musicians. Grdina’s music explores uncommon convergences between adventurous jazz and improvisation, indie rock and classical Arabic music. His diverse projects bridge the divides between contemporary chamber music and avant-garde experimentation, combining unique artists and instrumentations to craft singular sonic landscapes in projects like Square Peg (with Mat Maneri, Christian Lillinger and Shahzad Ismaily), The Marrow (with Mark Helias, Hank Roberts and Hamin Honari) and his Quartet with Oscar Noriega, Russ Lossing, and Satoshi Takeishi.

Mitchell’s boundary-free playing roams between the acoustic and the electronic, the intricately composed and the extemporaneously improvised, meshing with the soulful strains of the Dave Douglas Quintet, the expansive labyrinths of Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, and the metal-jazz fusion of Dan Weiss’ Starebaby alike. Black’s forward-thinking approach to the drums came to prominence in the ground-breaking quartet Human Feel before joining Berne’s influential quintet Bloodcount, and has since forged a unique path splicing jazz with rock, electronica and Balkan influences through bands like AlasNoAxis and Pachora.

In Mitchell’s case, Grdina praises the pianist’s keen focus, saying, “There’s always an intensity to Matt’s playing that I love. He’s somebody that really pushes the music and is one hundred percent committed to it.” As for Black, whose playing has been an influence on both of his triomates, Grdina says, “Jim is able to take these off-kilter rhythms and make them sound cohesive. No matter how adventurous I was in my writing, he made it all groove, so that even the most complicated music feels good, like it all has a backbeat.”

That combination of the joyful and the cerebral is vividly on display out of the gate, as opener “Wildfire” captures the beauty and violence of animals in their natural habitat. Like many of Grdina’s compositions, its title comes from the site of its inception: “Wildfire” was composed while he was an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada, an institution renowned as much for its natural splendor as for the brilliant music it has spawned. “You’re writing music in a cabin while deer stroll right up to your window, You’re literally in the wild” Grdina recalls. “That beauty is part of it, but the song also has this fire and intensity to it.”

Opening with a knotty solo statement from the bandleader, “Nomad” offers a mission statement for the trio, its gnarled melodic line embodying the restlessness and search for a foothold suggested by the name. Mitchell’s churning solo joins with the tumultuous rumble of Black’s drums to conjure a sense of unsteadiness that bleeds into Grdina’s assertive, serrated turn. “Ride Home,” written while Grdina was wrapping up an exhausting tour with a rock band, feels laden with the edgy weariness and tense anticipation of a long-overdue return,

The haunting “Benbow” recalls a stay in a historic northern California hotel, its age present in both alluring and unsettling ways that reminded Grdina of the ill-fated Overlook Hotel from The Shining – albeit in the much more inviting summer months. The album takes a turn for the autumnal on “Thanksgiving,” written during the holiday but also in gratitude for the opportunity to play with such stellar musicians. Mitchell’s shimmering introduction to “Lady Choral” reflects the music’s origins in a dream – one in which Grdina humorously struggled to pronounce the name of fusion guitarist Larry Coryell. The slip of the tongue produced this stunning, chorale-like piece that is the album’s sole showcase for Grdina’s virtuosic oud playing.

“It feels like all of us are constantly moving, both literally and musically,” Grdina sums up. “Everybody’s always touring like mad, and musically it feels like we have to find our roots wherever we happen to be.  It’s a fascinating challenge to stay grounded while doing things you’ve never done before and moving in new directions toward places you’ve never been.”

Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award winning oud player/guitarist whose career has spanned continents, decades and constant genre exploration throughout avant-garde jazz, free form improvisation, contemporary indie rock and classical Arabic music. His singular approach to the instruments has earned him recognition from the highest ranks of the jazz/improv world. Grdina has studied, composed, performed and collaborated with a wide array of field-leading artists including Colin Stetson, Gary Peacock, Paul Motion, Jerry Granelli, Mats Gustafsson, Dan Mangan, Mark Feldman, Eyvind Kang, Matt Mitchell and Jim Black.

Satoko Fujii and Orchestra New York Bring Urgency and Brio to 11th Album Entity

The Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York, led by one of this era’s greatest big band composers, sounds as fresh and exciting on their eleventh recording, Entity, as they did on their first in 1997. Working with a 13-piece big band that includes a remarkable nine founding members, Fujii continues to inspire her orchestra—and be inspired by them. This is an album that revels in the soloing prowess of its individual members while showcasing the ever-inventive composing and arranging of its founder and leader. The album will be released on February 14, 2020 via Libra Records. 

“Since I have been playing with this band for such a long time now, I know how they play,” Fujii says. “And when I compose, I actually hear their sound. So, soloists actually support my writing. For me composing for this band is more like collaboration—when I compose I am already working with the band, even if I am in Tokyo and they are in New York. Is this strange to say?” 

Strange or not, the music is unfailingly exciting, with an urgency and brio born of the mutual admiration between performers and composer. “The music cannot be boring with these musicians,” Fujii says. “This band inspires new ideas in me and I always feel free to try something different because I know they will respond and make it sound great.”  

Fujii also found inspiration for her compositions from another source. “I am not a scholar and don’t have a deep knowledge of Buddhism,” Fujii says, “but I was reading about some of Buddha’s ideas online and learned that he had the idea of elementary particles centuries before physicists discovered them. The concept inspired me to write the pieces on this album.” 

Throughout the album you can hear the chemistry between composer and orchestra. Fujii finds all kinds of ways to frame soloists and provide full ensemble themes that set a mood, often several different moods within the same composition. “Entity” opens with an attention-grabbing blast of energy that launches guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Ches Smith into a bounding and weaving duet. As the band sets up a regular two beat pattern, guitarist and drummer dip and curl in off-kilter tandem around the pulse, beautifully highlighting their subtle sense of rhythm and texture. Tidal surges of massed horns on “Flashback” launch trombonist Joe Fiedler into a boldly phrased solo that gives way to a searching, introspective unaccompanied solo from Oscar Noriega. Trumpeter Herb Robertson’s virtuoso mute technique highlights his outing with the band’s blue-chip rhythm section. 

Fujii’s majestic “Gounkaiku” is a feature for trumpeter Dave Ballou’s elegant melodicism, while “Elemental Particle” lets Ellery Eskelin cut loose with a fire-breathing solo. “Everlasting,” a heart-wrenching ballad, pairs soloists in duets, first trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and trombonist Curtis Hassellbring, then alto saxophonist Briggan Krauss and baritone saxophonist Andy Laster. 

On occasion throughout the album, Fujii creates spontaneous arrangements to fit the moment. “While we are playing,” Fujii explains, “I can hold up Sign 1, which means play a long tone with any note, or Sign 2, which means play a glissando. There are others, too. It may be a little bit like Butch Morris, but my signs are for predetermined materials.” This can be heard in the opening moments of “Gounkaiku,” when the band plays a series of long tones that glimmer like a necklace of jeweled sounds or toward the end of “Flashback” when Fujii uses the long tones to create tension before the band plays the rollicking closing theme. It’s a part of the ongoing dialog between the composer and a seasoned orchestra fully attuned to her creativity. 

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She’s “a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 80 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock, and folk musics into an innovative style instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific band leader and recording artist, she celebrated her 60th birthday in 2018 by releasing one album a month from bands old and new, from solo to large ensemble. Franz A. Matzner in All About Jazz likened the twelve albums to “an ecosystem of independently thriving organisms linked by the shared soil of Fujii's artistic heritage and shaped by the forces of her creativity.” 

Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. Her ongoing duet project with husband Natsuki Tamura released their sixth recording, Kisaragi, in 2017. “The duo's commitment to producing new sounds based on fresh ideas is second only to their musicianship,” says Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz. Aspiration, a CD by an ad hoc quartet featuring Wadada Leo Smith, Tamura, and Ikue Mori, was released in 2017 to wide acclaim. “Four musicians who regularly aspire for greater heights with each venture reach the summit together on Aspiration,” writes S. Victor Aaron in Something Else. As the leader of no less than five orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and Japan (two of which, Berlin and Tokyo, released new CDs in 2018), Fujii has also established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.”

www.satokofujii.com/

New Music Releases: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, KVL (Quin Kirchner / Daniel Van Duerm / Matthew Lux), Nick Mazzarella Trio

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley - 11th Street Sekondi

A killer contemporary set from Gyedu Blay Ambolley – one of the Afro Funk heroes of the 70s, still sounding fantastic after all these years! The album was all recorded at Ambolley's Simigiwa Studios in Ghana – and arrangements, instrumentation, and production are all in a very classic mode – with the leader on tenor and vocals, stretching out with this nicely raspy quality that's a great evolution in his sound – as if he's found a way to put even more feeling and experience into the sound that he gives us! The rest of the lineup features keyboards, trumpet, tenor, alto, guitar, and plenty of percussion – on titles that include "Black Woman", "I No Dey Talk I Do De Lie", "Ignorance", "Little Small Girl", "Sunkwa", "Who Go Pay", "Brokos", and "Who Made Your Body Like Dat". ~ Dusty Groove

KVL (Quin Kirchner / Daniel Van Duerm / Matthew Lux) - KVL Volume 1

The debut album from a very hip trio – one that features Quin Kirchner on drums and percussion, Daniel Van Duerm on organ and electric piano, and Matt Lux on bass – plus all three members on some sort of electronics! The tunes are instrumental and experimental, but almost always have some sort of structure and rhythmic energy – a quality that maybe nods more towards the work that Lux has done on other sides of the Chicago scene over the years – as he's been one of the most diverse, adaptable, and collaborative bassists we can think of! There's some really great sounds running throughout – a record that's maybe post-jazz, post-rock, and post-improv – with titles that include "North Branch", "Bladewalker", and "Peaceable" – the last of which features guest trumpet from Jaimie Branch. ~ Dusty Groove

Nick Mazzarella Trio - Counterbalance

Alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella has really been setting the Chicago scene on fire of late – and that legacy certainly stands strong within the first few minutes of this recently-recorded live set – a searing trio date that has Mazzarella working at the height of his powers! Nick can spin out flurries of notes one minute, then hit spacious, thoughtful passages the next – energy that's really balanced out by the amazing work of Frank Rosaly on drums, and the strong placement of Anton Hatwich's sounds on the bass – served up at a level that's bold enough to match the fast-thinking creativity of both Rosaly and Nick. Titles include "The Puzzle", "Counterbalance", "Headway"," Innermost", "About Looking", and "Phonetic". ~ Dusty Groove

Trumpeter John Bailey - Can You Imagine?

In 1964, Dizzy Gillespie announced his candidacy for President of the United States. The campaign was, in the iconic trumpeter’s wry fashion, in large part satirical – particularly his proposed cabinet, which included Duke Ellington as Secretary of State, Louis Armstrong as Secretary of Agriculture, and Miles Davis as CIA Director among others. But the issues that Gillespie raised on the campaign trail, during one of the most heated periods of the Civil Rights movement, were serious, and resonate with the conflicts we still face today.

On his new album, Can You Imagine?, veteran trumpeter and composer John Bailey positions an alternate reality half a century on from a President Gillespie administration. (This is no passing fancy for Bailey; as Allen Morrison points out in his liner notes, the trumpeter’s license plate reads “DIZ4PREZ.”)

Due out, appropriately enough, on January 20, 2020 – Inauguration Day – through Bailey’s own Freedom Road Records, Can You Imagine? is also offered as a rhetorical question, a stunned response to the fact that too many of us seem not to have learned the lessons on empathy and human decency offered by our country’s artistic giants.

“It’s an open question,” Bailey says. “Here we are in 2019 and there’s a lack of compassion and basic decency in our leadership and in our culture. I’m just asking: where would our culture be today if someone like Dizzy had actually occupied the White House in 1965? Can you imagine?”

The modern world that Bailey imagines is built on a foundation of joyful swing, a melting pot of influences from throughout the jazz tradition and Latin America. It’s a celebration of fellow feeling among a knockout group of musicians well versed in making bold individual statements while melding their sounds into a harmonious whole. The core sextet includes saxophonist Stacy Dillard, trombonist Stafford Hunter, pianist Edsel Gomez, bassist Mike Karn and drummer Victor Lewis, along with guest appearances by bass trombonist and tuba master Earl McIntyre and flutist Janet Axelrod.

Leading the band is John Bailey, whose distinctive trumpet sound graced countless concert stages and record dates before he made his long overdue recording debut in 2018 with In Real Time. Over more than three decades as an in-demand sideman, Bailey enjoyed long-running relationships with Ray Charles, Ray Barretto, The Woody Herman Orchestra and Frank Sinatra, Jr., and contributed to a pair of Grammy- winning albums by Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.

The centerpiece of the album is the three-part, 12-minute “President Gillespie Suite,” which traces the candidate along the road to what he promised to rechristen “The Blues House.” While he half-jokingly relates the idea of a “concept record” to the influence of Jethro Tull’s Thick As a Brick, Bailey traces frontman Ian Anderson’s classic rock flute sound to the influence of one of his own key inspirations, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The jazz eccentric’s 1969 album Volunteered Slavery is a touchstone for Can You Imagine?. McIntyre’s classic plunger solo style is featured over its theme and others, including Stevie Wonder’s “Do Yourself a Favor” in the suite’s second movement.

Kirk was also the inspiration for Victor Lewis’ “From the Heart,” one of two compositions from the legendary percussionist/composer, the other being the soulful “The Touch of Her Vibe.” Dillard contributed “Elite State of Mind,” its lilting melody beautifully voiced by virtuoso flutist Janet Axelrod.

Can You Imagine? opens with “Pebbles in the Pocket,” which Bailey says references the “pebbles of wisdom” that we each carry around with us from loved ones, mentors, or anyone who’s gone before and left behind those crucial nuggets of knowledge that it would behoove us to heed. “Ballad from Oro, Incienso y Mirra” is an excerpt from a suite that showcased Bailey with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at the Apollo Theater in 2016, an evening that also featured Dr. Cornel West.

Bailey describes Chico Buarque’s “Valsa Rancho,” with Axelrod on bass and alto flute, as “an iconic selection from the Elis Regina songbook,” another of the trumpeter’s wide-ranging passions. The album ends with a wistful rendition of the classic “People,” in which Bailey’s warm, embracing tone reminds us of our shared humanity.

Ultimately, that message is what Bailey hopes listeners come away with from Can You Imagine? The album is not meant to bemoan our current turmoil but to offer a better alternative, one in which we rise to our better natures. “Positive change is an important theme in this album,” he concludes. “I’m a patriot. I love my country. I want to enlighten people, to have them contemplate not just Dizzy for President in 1964 but any number of opportunities we’ve had, and will have, to champion compassion, dignity and civility. I’m a little frustrated that we’re not there yet, but I believe we will achieve social justice and I am compelled to serve the cause.”

Known as one of the most eclectic trumpet players in New York City, Bailey is an in-demand musician and teaching artist in all forms of jazz, R&B, pop and classical music. He became a member of the Buddy Rich Band while still in college, and his career has included tenures with Ray Charles, Ray Barretto and New World Spirit, The Woody Herman Orchestra and Frank Sinatra, Jr. He has performed and recorded with James Moody, Kenny Burrell, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Barrett Deems and many others. His work with Arturo O'Farrill won two Grammy Awards, for the albums The Offense of the Drum and Cuba - The Conversation Continues. He has played on more than 75 albums and, as a jazz educator, has taught at the University of Miami and Florida International University.

THE CALIFORNIA ROOTS MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCE ITS SECOND WAVE OF ARTISTS FOR 2020

After an impressive round one lineup including Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Ice Cube, Jimmy Cliff, Chronixx and more (https://californiarootsfestival.com/line-up), the California Roots Music and Arts Festival is proud to announce its second wave of artists including Rebelution, Atmosphere, Sean Paul, Tribal Seeds, Collie Buddz, The Green, The Expendables, Cultura Profética, The Movement, Keznamdi, EarthKry, Artikal Sound System, The Elovaters, and Arise Roots. The eleventh edition will take place May 22-24, 2020 at the Monterey County Fair and Event Center, and will continue to celebrate the strong community of roots, rock & reggae music lovers, who are dedicated to environmental awareness, sustainability, and a positive lifestyle.

For the past decade, Cali Roots have paved its own unique way in the festival circuit, leading by example on how their event can do more than just entertain. Cali Roots has become synonymous with a lineup heavy with the top performers in the genre, unique, cultivated fan experiences, dedicated to greening initiatives and a commitment to giving back to incredible non-profits. Cali Roots’ ethos is to reduce their impact on the environment by aligning with other like-minded organizations, making earth-wise choices regarding the products purchased, promoting environmental awareness to fans, staff & artists, and continuing to set the bar higher each year in their commitment to sustainability. Their efforts have been recognized by FestX, which selected the event as a finalist for “Outstanding Green Festival” for two years in a row!

“It’s amazing to see how much the festival has grown in the past decade without losing its sense of community.” states festival Co-Producer Dan Sheehan. He adds, “There’s something magical to see fans coming back year after year with more friends and now kids; introducing a new generation to the Cali Roots experience.”

Round Two Artist Line-Up Announcement:

Rebelution

Atmosphere

Sean Paul

Tribal Seeds

Collie Buddz

The Green

The Expendables

Cultura Profética

The Movement

Keznamdi

EarthKry

Artikal Sound System

The Elovaters

Arise Roots

FESTIVAL DETAILS

The 11th Annual California Roots Music and Arts Festival

Dates: Friday, May 22, 2020 – Sunday May 24, 2020

Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 pm PDT

Venue: Monterey County Fair and Event Center

Address: 2004 Fairground Road, Monterey, CA 93940

Admission: Varies

Age restrictions: All Ages

Bobby Hatfield - Stay With Me: The Richard Perry Sessions

Unfinished lost album from former tenor of blue-eyed soul duo The Righteous Brothers.

In 1971, record producer Richard Perry was at the beginning of his long ascent into superstardom as one of popular music’s most legendary and successful producers. During the previous 12 months, Perry had struck gold with Barbra Streisand (Stoney End), produced two albums by the seminal all female rock band Fanny, and finished his masterwork, Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson, an album that would receive worldwide critical and commercial success with Top 10 singles (“Without You,” “Coconut”), Grammy® awards and Gold and Platinum records.

Bobby Hatfield had achieved huge success as a member of The Righteous Brothers. In the mid-’60s, with partner Bill Medley, Hatfield scored numerous Top 10 records, most produced by iconic producer Phil Spector and sang on one of rock’s true great standards, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” a song that has amassed a record 8 million performances according to BMI. By early ’71 Hatfield had left The Righteous Brothers looking to establish himself as a solo artist.

So it was fortuitous that these two popular music heavyweights should meet and record together. Unfortunately, most of what they did in the studio did not see the light of day—until now. Omnivore Recordings is proud to announce the release of Stay With Me: The Richard Perry Sessions, a collection of material recorded by Hatfield and produced by Perry that was primarily recorded at Apple Studios in December of 1971 with an all-star cast of musicians that include Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, and Al Kooper.

The two singles that were released in the spring and fall of 1972 (“Stay With Me” and “Oo Wee Baby, I Love You”) are included here in addition to multiple takes of six additional songs. Here rhythm and blues tinged versions of George Harrisons’ “What Is Life” and “Sour Milk Sea,” a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Baby Don’t You Do It,” and a stunningly gorgeous version of the Cole Porter classic “In The Still Of The Night.”

Stay With Me: The Richard Perry Sessions is primarily a collection of previously unissued work. Some tracks are complete, some are works in progress. But the record gives the listener an opportunity to be a fly on the wall while great music is being made. So sit back, and return to December, 1971—you are there!

New Music Releases: Spring NYC Soul, Torcuato Mariano, Jim Richter

Spring NYC Soul (Various Artists)

New York label Spring, and its Event and Posse subsidiaries, were very active from 1967 up to the late 80s. They specialised in the city’s black music and tried most variations, including soul, gospel, disco, show tunes, funk, harmony and later electro and rap. Here on the collection you will find the most soulful tracks that have so far not appeared on Kent CDs and have found six completed recordings that were previously unreleased. Two of these are ballads, one of which is Maxine Weldon’s stunning version of Ray Godfrey’s song ‘I’m The Other Half Of You’ and there is a new unknown, sweet soul song from one-time Tavares member Victor Tavares. Ray Godfrey features heavily with two unissued dance tracks – the Joe Simon-covered ‘I Love You More Than Anything’ and the previously unheard song ‘Hold On’. The Determinations’ opener ‘Save The Best For Me’ is another of his great songs, previously only on a rare LP. Other 70s dancers come from Ronnie Walker, Act I and the Joneses. More ballads are provided by Joe Simon, Leroy Randolph and, surprisingly, the Fatback Band. 60s uptempo soul comes from Prince Harold, Little Eva Harris and Richard Barbary. The offerings of the Internationals, US and Vernon Brown are harder to categorise; quirky and worthy but in their own individual styles. The great songwriter Phillip Mitchell went funky on his “Jody” song ‘If We Get Caught (I Don’t Know You)’ as did Phil Flowers with his heavy guitar-infused ‘Kill The Monster’. Philly girls the Equations sing the poppy and catchy ‘Boiling Like Water’, Jackie Verdell gives us gospel in a modern soul setting and C-Brand take us into the 80s with their two-stepper ‘Plenty Of Love’. This is a catholic selection for lovers of soul through its most interesting eras.

Torcuato Mariano  - Escola Brasileira

Veteran guitarist, producer and composer Torcuato Mariano was born in Argentina but has been living in Brazil, working with many of its top jazz musicians since the late 70s. He celebrates 25 years as a recording artist with ESCOLA BRASILEIRA – literally “Brazilian School” - a dynamically textured, rhythmically eclectic romp through a multitude of that culture’s sophisticated and exotic jazz-related styles. Backed by lush strings and horns, Mariano surrounds his snappy playing with guest performances by Brazilian greats, singer-songwriter Djavan, pianist Cesar Camargo Mariano, bandolinist Hamilton de Holanda and harmonica player Gabriel Grossi. Also featured is renowned American vocalist Toni Scruggs. ~ smoothjazz.com

Jim Richter - Breezy Day

Getting back to making music full time after years where other priorities took precedence, guitarist, keyboardist and composer Jim Richter taps back into his rock/blues roots with a mix of deep soulfulness, playful buoyancy and fiery intensity on his new album BREEZY DAY. Hitting all the infectious yet artsy-cool sweet spots of Steely Dan and Larry Carlton, he offers dreamy ballads, funk jams, island delights and bluesy grit – in addition to playful titles that pay homage to Bill Evans and Weather Report. ~ smoothjazz.com

Veteran trumpeter John Bailey imagines a world inherited from a President Dizzy Gillespie administration on his celebratory second album. ~ smoothjazz.com

New Music Releases: Luxury Soul 2020, Juewett Bostick, Phaze II

Luxury Soul 2020 – Various Artists

The leading independent soul label Expansion Records commences each year with one of the label’s most anticipated collections, “Luxury Soul”.  The success of the series comes down to the quality of tracks sourced from independent soul music artists, often unsigned or with recordings previously unissued or on limited release elsewhere.  Included on this unique collection is an exclusive Glenn Jones track “Better Man”, first time on CD releases by Tyra Levone, Alex Puddu featuring Breakwater’s lead singer Gene Robinson Jr, St. Paul (formerly of The Time), Tompi (produced by Incognito), Blue Soul Ten, Paul Johnson and Incognito themselves with “Jakarta Dreams”. The Rockie Robbins version of “Together” is from 1979, Halo’s “Let Me Do It” another ‘rare groove’ to accompany the contemporary soul by an impressive array of artists.

Juewett Bostick - Shades of Blu

True to the fascinating, multi-faceted title concept of his latest album Shades Of Blu, masterful guitarist Juewett Bostick – whose fluid, funky axe has backed recording royalty including Grover Washington Jr., Nancy Wilson, and Barry White – soulfully blends his cool, urban jazz style with elements of the classic blues & jazz as well as neo soul jazz. Bridging beloved traditions with current musical innovations, Bostic creates a rich, colorful sonic world featuring female vocals, exotic vocal textures, spoken word conversations, state-of-the-art technology and global rhythms. These caress a blend of buoyant originals and re-imagined classics by Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley. ~ smoothjazz.com

Phaze II - No Cover Charge

Phaze II’s fifth and latest album boasts the clever title No Cover Charge, but their kind of finely honed, supremely cool eclectic magic is worth any price! Now well into their third decade lighting the jazz, funk, Latin and R&B fires in their hometown of Washington, DC, the six-piece super-ensemble Phaze II – onetime winners of the Capital Jazz Challenge Competition - alternates their flow between silky, seductive cool, fiery, wild energy storms and infectious, easy grooving mid-tempo tunes. They balance their more muscular, rocking offerings with dreamier pieces clearly and designed to melt the heart.  ~ smoothjazz.com