Re-defining Soul Music with Relatable and Profound Music- The Jazz Catz Drop New Album “Hymn for Africa”

A soul-stirring musical experience, The Jazz Catz’s new album is an independently curated, authentic record that will be welcomed by fans of Jazz.

Cape Town, Western province, South Africa — September 8th, 2022 – A skilled and creative jazz duo, The Jazz Catz, is making themselves known with a soul-stirring, expressive, and profound new record. Titled “Hymn for Africa,” the artists’ newest CD album marks their third record after previous releases, “Timeless” and “Con Fusion,” continuing a passionate musical journey.

Having dropped on August 23rd, 2022, “Hymn for Africa” includes a series of stunning musical compositions from artists Ryan Sackanary and Boris Guderjahn. Meanwhile, the album artwork has been created by Boris Guderjahn. With an intention to create music that listeners can fully understand, appreciate, and relate to, The Jazz Catz continue charming audiences with their musical brilliance.

Independently arranging, playing, and recording all instruments, as well as controlling the mixing and mastering of “Hymn for Africa,” The Jazz Catz continue to be a one-of-a-kind artistic phenomenon.

With a formidable debut and several spectacular hits under their belt, the talented group was nominated for The Mzantsi Jazz Awards 2021 in 2 categories: Best Contemporary Jazz Album and Best International Jazz Collaboration. In 2022, the duo was also nominated for Best Jazz Album, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and Best International Jazz collaboration.

Having already received immense critical acclaim and popularity amongst listeners, The Jazz Catz’s success is a testament to their distinct sound, drawing listeners on a journey of pure joy and emotions. Their signature soundscape offers a fusion that is comparable to a mix of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and several other pop and classical elements.

“Our concept is to create music where the listener can relate to. Our music comes from the heart and soul, maybe a new definition of Soul music, which is easy to digest,” said the artists regarding their music.

The Jazz Catz is a dynamic duo of two talented individuals -Boris Guderjahn, who was born in Germany, and Ryan Sackanary, who was born in Cape Town, South Africa. The band has been producing several hits since 2017, beginning with their first album, “Timeless,” which marked their shift from contemporary to classical music.

With their latest album, “Con Fusion,” the artists experimented with different and complex sounds, taking the listener on a new adventure of emotions. The Jazz Catz have constantly been reinventing their musical style, all the while staying true to their authentic sound. Their music has harbored fans all over the world, and they are on their way to becoming one of the top jazz bands globally, with three albums already released and their newest single rising to become a top sensation.

Owen Broder | "Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1"

Saxophonist Owen Broder pays tribute to iconic jazzman Johnny Hodges, delving deep into his work with Duke Ellington and beyond. Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1, due out October 14 via Outside In Music, bridges six decades of jazz history with a stunning quintet featuring trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Barry Stephenson and drummer Bryan Carter

As influential as he’s been on the history of the jazz saxophone, Johnny Hodges is usually discussed wholly in light of his key role in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. On his second release as a leader, saxophonist Owen Broder shifts the spotlight to focus more intently on the legendary altoist. With Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1, Broder and his gifted quintet explore nine compositions associated with the Rabbit (the nickname that Hodges earned early in his career and the source of several conflicting stories), culling pieces both from the Ellington repertoire as well as from the saxophonist’s often overlooked catalogue of small group albums.

Due out October 14, 2022 via Outside In Music, Hodges: Front and Center is hardly an exercise in nostalgia. On his acclaimed 2018 debut, Heritage, Broder offered striking new interpretations of American roots music from Appalachian folk to early blues, spirituals to bluegrass. He takes a similar approach to Hodges’ music here; the interpretations are not radically altered, but Broder’s insightful arrangements honor the beauty and elegance of the originals while lending them a deeply felt modern vibrancy.

“My generation is really a product of all that Charlie Parker brought to this music,” Broder points out. “Bird was such a founding father and introduced the language that became the language of the saxophone. But Johnny Hodges has always been a big influence on my playing. I really enjoy his lyrical, melodic playing and the warm vocal quality of his approach to sound.”

Broder was introduced to Hodges’ playing while still a high school student in Jacksonville, Florida. Naturally that initial exposure came via Ellington’s music, with Hodges being one of the foundational voices that the bandleader sculpted his signature sound to fit. Only later did Broder begin to discover Hodges’ extensive small group discography, beginning with a pair of 1959 releases co-led by the two giants: Back to Back and Side By Side.

It was the 60th anniversary of those two landmark albums that instigated this project. Broder embarked on a short tour in the summer of 2019, assembling local bands in each city he visited to delve into the Hodges songbook. In the interim he recorded the video album Our Highway with Cowboys & Frenchmen, the eclectic ensemble that he co-leads with fellow saxophonist Ethan Helm. When it came time to record the Hodges project, Broder assembled a stellar group well versed in both modern jazz and the vintage styles that this album (and its follow-up second album, currently slated for the spring of 2023) investigates.

In addition to Broder on alto and baritone saxophones, the band features trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, a co-founder of the renowned brass quartet The Westerlies as well as a regular member of Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, where he takes on the Miles Davis role; pianist Carmen Staaf, who serves as musical director and pianist for singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and co-leads the band Science Fair with drummer Allison Miller, a frequent collaborator; bassist Barry Stephenson, a member of Jon Batiste and Stay Human as well as the band of drummer/vocalist Jamison Ross, a high school classmate of Broder’s; and Bryan Carter, another high school friend whose drumming has been heard everywhere from Jazz at Lincoln Center to Sesame Street.

“Some of them are old friends and some of them are new friends,” Broder says. “But because of their musical backgrounds, they all felt like the obvious choices for this band.”

The album opens with Clarence and Spencer Williams’ “Royal Garden Blues,” from Back to Back, which immediately draws the listener in with its buoyant swing and robust excitement. Any fear that this is some backward-glancing museum piece drops away with Broder’s burnished, sinuous solo, followed by Mulherkar’s rambunctious turn on the muted trumpet. Quickly realizing that the two Ellington small group collaborations were almost exclusively made of blues tunes, Broder dug deeper to find material, leading to discoveries like the strolling “Viscount,” from 1957’s The Big Sound, or Gerry Mulligan’s piquant “18 Carrots for Rabbit,” which offers a bold showcase for Broder’s supple bari attack.

Ellington is of course represented here, via a rollicking rendition of the immortal “Take the A Train” that reserves the famous theme until the song’s closing moments. The piece’s sheer joy stands in brilliant contrast to Hodges’ achingly gorgeous “Ballade for the Very Sad and Very Tired Lotus Eaters,” with Broder’s breathy, strong yet vulnerable baritone playing revealing all the nuance and lyricism that he learned from Hodges over Carter’s delicate brushwork and Staaf’s gracefully elegiac mood-setting.

Bridging six decades of musical evolution with an exuberant spirit and a shrewdly modern perspective, Owen Broder and his standout quintet have crafted a welcome reminder of Johnny Hodges’ profound soul and lyrical genius. Front and Center, Vol. 1 is both a fitting tribute and a luminous expression of the timeless state-of-the-jazz art.

Owen Broder is a saxophonist based in New York City who runs in a variety of musical circles. His American Roots Project’s debut album, Heritage, was praised by DownBeat Magazine as a “transcendent work of art,” while his quintet Cowboys & Frenchmen has received critical acclaim for its three full-length recordings. Broder is a member of the GRAMMY® nominated Anat Cohen Tentet and the Manhattan Saxophone Quartet and has performed with internationally respected artists such as Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, Trio Globo, and YouTube sensation Postmodern Jukebox. UNCSA’s 2021 Artpreneur of the Year Award and the 2018 Eastman/ArtistShare® New Artist program recognized Broder’s entrepreneurial ventures; most notably, in response to the pandemic, Broder co-founded and performed in Live From Our Living Rooms. Credited as “the first online jazz festival” by Rolling Stone, the initiative raised over $140k in support of US-based musicians whose performance careers were halted due to COVID-19. As an educator, Broder teaches Jazz Theory and Jazz Arranging at Portland State University and saxophone lessons at Pacific University.

Album Release Concerts

• Wednesday, October 26 – Chelsea Table + Stage –  NYC
• Thursday, October  27 – PAUSA – Buffalo, NY
• Friday, October 28 – Deer Head Inn – Delaware Water Gap, PA
• Saturday, October 29 – BluJazz – Akron, OH
• November 3 – Earshot JazzFest, Royal Room  – Seattle, WA
• Friday, November 4 – Mood Indigo – Bend, OR
• Saturday, November 5 – The Jazz Station – Eugene, OR
• Sunday, November 6 – The 1905 – Portland, OR

Barrio Lindo takes folktronica into Latin jazz territory on new single featuring tenor sax improviser Camila Nebbia

In 2019, whilst touring Japan, Barrio Lindo found himself moving away from the dance floor, instead getting lost in his headphones while listening to music that dismissed genre, oscillating between jazz, chamber orchestras and electronica. As a producer at the forefront of Latin America’s folktronica scene over the last 10 years, Agustín Rivaldo, to give Barrio Lindo his given name, has proven himself more than adept at crafting soundscapes that can transport listeners, full of detail and nuance, but they always had to pander to the club and its duty to keep revellers energised. The epiphany in Japan necessitated a change in direction, to make music that people could get lost in, and which also meant he could revert to his younger self, that guy in his twenties playing guitar with his friends, just for fun. So he booked a studio on the outskirts of Buenos Aires in early 2020 and invited some friends over; the idea was simple, let’s play some music and see where it takes us.

Espuma de Mar is the result, those initial sessions refined over the intervening years, new collaborators brought in where necessary, the production crafted in the same manner as his previous electronic-focused output, but the feel here, the ambience, is completely different. Like the espuma de mar, the sea foam that gives the album its name, this music has a fleeting quality, it arrives, imperfectly, and never stops transforming; it replenishes, it diminishes, it breathes.

The biggest difference between this album and Rivaldo’s previous works is the increased tension, and the sense of space; whereas beats and sequencers, as per their design, propel constant rhythm, here every note has intent, only played if necessary to the composition. This is felt on “Llegada”, a minimal groove soothed by kalimba thumb piano and fidgety synths while layers of trumpet take the lead until a surprisingly sombre piano motif brings the song to a close. The title track has a similar feel, whereby the music sounds improvised, each instrument free to roam, yet each note hits you in the stomach; here, we get an ominous opener, spare notes of trumpet, charango, snare drum and heavily-reverbed piano taking their turn until a rhythm begins to develop, albeit a rhythm that refuses to retain its form, flutes, synths, bass and detached vocals all playing their part as the song refuses to stand still.

Rivaldo has stated that it was the sounds of German-Senegalese group Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force and the UK-based project Hidden Orchestra that had the biggest impact on the album’s sound, and it is certainly possible to see the affect of the latter in the mixture of field recordings and percussive symphonic jazz. For this record, Rivaldo has worked with a small ensemble of Nicolás Lapíne on trumpet, Ignus and drums and Federico Estévez on percussion, as well as invitees such as flautist Mariana Iturri and violinist Alex Musatov. With Rivaldo himself adding guitar, synth, bass and piano, the effect is of a modern chamber orchestra and the drama that can bring. Opening track “Seguí” is a great example with its crashing piano chords and pulsating violin, and there’s no denying the euphoria of a track like “Oasis”, whose woozy trumpets can’t help but recall prime Beirut.

But there’s a reason Rivaldo is thought of so highly within the folktronica scene, and it’s for his attention to detail. No two tracks on the album are the same, it goes from the percussion-heavy “Migrante”, whose breakbeat and jerky synths show a love for hip-hop and 80s funk, to a beguiling track like “Azufre” that has a vaguely-Caribbean cadence until a tenor sax solo from Camila Nebbia takes it into more overtly-jazz territory. Then there’s a track like “Periferia” whose use of close-mic’d percussion makes it feel like the speaker is literally shaking with rhythm, alongside “Tac Tac Tac” that is full of warm, reverberant bass notes, albeit offset by hand claps and the only-discernible vocal on the album. With this in mind, it should be no surprise that Rivaldo is also a luthier, using some of the instruments he’s created on the album; there is a meticulous mind at work.

Espuma de Mar is that rare beast, an example of an artist reinventing themselves, yet somehow sounding completely like they’ve always sounded. As Bandcamp once said in a feature on Barrio Lindo, his music is “carefully composed, revealing an underlying sense of wonder and joy”, and this continues on his latest, an album that is destined to provide someone else with an epiphany as they get lost in the music on their headphones, whether that be in Japan or elsewhere.

Espuma de Mar is released by Shika Shika on 23rd September 2022. The second single, “Azufre”, is out on Friday 16th September 2022.

Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band | "The Pan American Nutcracker Suite"

Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band returns with The Pan American Nutcracker Suite, a Pan-Afro reimagining of the Tchaikovsky classic.

If you think Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s remarkable, 1960 interpretation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet, The Nutcracker, is the final jazz word on the popular orchestral work, think again.

Performed by drummer/leader Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band, The Pan American Nutcracker Suite is what ‘60s Mad Men would’ve branded a “travelogue in sound.” Expressed in riveting arrangements, acutely brilliant solos, and McCarthy’s inventive arrangements and powerfully evocative drumming, The Pan American Nutcracker Suite is an aural tour de force, an all-encompassing, immersive sound experience.

Nine McCarthy-led recordings preceded The Pan American Nutcracker Suite, including Caribbean Jazz Project/Afro Bop Alliance featuring Dave Samuels, winner of the Latin Jazz Album Grammy of 2008. The album was also nominated in the Latin Jazz category at the 2009 Grammy Awards.

“I knew that I could come up with something that had not been done before,” McCarthy said of The Pan American Nutcracker Suite. “I was certain that no one would play it this way. I'm classically trained; in my earlier life I played the piece a billion times. But this was going to be entirely different.”

Earlier McCarthy projects include Encarnación, Una Más, Camino Nuevo, and Angel Eyes, recorded by McCarthy’s Afro Bop Alliance. Upwards and Revelation followed--McCarthy and NYABA albums which set the stage for The Pan American Nutcracker Suite.

“I did an enormous amount of study and preparation for The Pan American Nutcracker Suite,” McCarthy continued. “My job was to honor Tchaikovsky, but also make the music true to a certain sound I was hearing. We drew on influences from Venezuela, from traditional Chinese drumming, from New Orleans. In one movement we swing out of respect to Duke's version, but we didn’t copy anything. We're able to transport people to a different place.”

The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band includes some of the finest players in jazz. Session conductor Vince Norman led Nick Marchione, John Chudoba, Brandon Lee, and Alex Norris, trumpets; followed by Andrew Gould, lead alto saxophone; Alejandro Aviles, alto saxophone; Ben Kono and Luis Hernandez, tenor saxophones; and Frank Basile, baritone saxophone. Mark Patterson, Ryan Keberle, and John Yao played trombones, James Borowski, bass trombone. McCarthy, of course, handled drums, while directing the rhythm section of Luis Perdomo, piano; Vinny Valentino, guitar; Boris Kozlov, bass; and Samuel Torres, percussion.

A brilliant instructor and academic, McCarthy is foremost, a performer. This Nutcracker is like nothing you’ve heard before: primed with power, soothed with subtlety, graced by nuance, recited by McCarthy’s outstanding 18-man big band. Based on Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, The Pan American Nutcracker Suite opens with “Overture.”

“Built on a groove known as ‘Afro,’” says McCarthy, “this movement gets the ball rolling as to how we ‘heard’ this iconic masterpiece, including a brilliant solo from trumpeter Alex Norris.”

“March” begins with “the famous snare drum part from Bolero and quickly moves into mambo,” McCarthy notes. “Then into straight ahead jazz. A melting pot, for sure.”

McCarthy describes his version of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” as “cha cha meets 6/8, with a touch of adventure in the ensemble writing.”

Introduced via a kinetic McCarthy/Torres percussion break, “Trepak” is a storm-bringer, a tumultuous arrangement that enchants and drives. The intro drum break sets a mambo mood, morphing into 6/8, followed by scorching solos all around.

Gil Evans gets a nod on the dreamlike “Arabian Dance,” its tranquil mood recalling Evans/Davis’ classic Sketches of Spain, and the arranger’s landmark Out of the Cool. Beauty meets simplicity and nuance in McCarthy’s mystery-inducing arrangement and NYABA’s exquisite soloing.

McCarthy opens “Chinese Dance” with bizarre hammering sounds. “Traditional Chinese drumming--that’s what my opening solo drum statement is based on,” he explained. “The groove and vibe bring a retro attitude. I was fiddling with metallic sounds, that stayed on the record.”

“Now we’re off to South America!” McCarthy says of the equally relaxing and exhilarating “Dance of the Reed Flutes.” “This was inspired by the rhythms of Brazil, including a partido alto with a bit of funk and great colors from guitarist Vinny Valentino and amazing lead trumpet Nick Marchione.” Resistance is futile, the sizzling rhythm section propelling dynamic brass and guitar work.

A balm, a mellow groove, a lilting send-off that Duke, Billy, and Pyotr would’ve undoubtedly dug, “Waltz of the Flowers” closes The Pan American Nutcracker Suite.

“It’s inspired by the Venezuelan groove, Joropo,” McCarthy explains, “set up perfectly by Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo. The accents of the groove fall on beats 2 and 3, which give it a lift. Vinny solos on acoustic guitar--the perfect flavor. Beautiful woodwind doubling by our sax section and ensemble playing throughout.”

Downbeat Magazine hailed Joe McCarthy, writing “The Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band, captained by drummer Joe McCarthy, occupies a singular spot in the timeline of Afro-Cuban ensembles, at once a torchbearer of the genre’s storied history and also one of its fiercest innovators."

The Pan American Nutcracker Suite confirms Joe McCarthy’s vision: reinventing the past for the present, transporting the listener beyond.

New Music: Edgardo Cintron, Mike Di Lorenzo, Solex, Sonny Emory

Edgardo Cintron - Bon Appétit

Second generation Puerto Rican, percussion master, bandleader and composer Edgardo Cintron deliveries a savory new recording Bon Appétit, a full-length album featuring original Smooth Jazz and some of the artist’s favorite songs. Featured on the project, saxophonists Carl Cox and Andrew Neu, plus an A-List of world-class players. Mr. Cintron has performed and recorded with some of the world’s finest, including Jeff Lorber, Terence Blanchard, The Funk Brothers, Nick Colionne, Average White Band and many more. The fearsome musician will be releasing a tasty cookbook to go hand in hand with Bon Appétit, creating the perfect opportunity to play, prepare and partake! ~ www.smoothjazz.com

Mike Di Lorenzo - What We Need

When keyboardist and composer Mike Di Lorenzo set out to create his first album in over ten years, he had every intention of making it an instrumental project with a few vocals. But when he started reaching out to the world-class singers that now populate the breezy, neo-soulful, easy grooving new project, What We Need, he quickly realized that he was creating an all-vocal showcase, with his own dazzling synth, piano and arrangements. The incredible array of vocalists include Joel Kibble from Take 6, Anna Moore, Sonna Rele, Caino, and Denise Stewart. In addition to several silky, ultra-engaging originals, Di Lorenzo creates fascinating takes on tunes ranging from the Great American Songbook to contemporary hits by Charlie Puth and Justin Bieber – a set Di Lorenzo fondly calls the “East Coast Playlist.” ~ www.smoothjazz.com

Solex - Take Me There

It makes sense that most of the discussions about the musical background of Solomon Edmond (aka Solex) revolves around faith and gospel music. Concurrent with his successful 16-year career in Smooth Jazz – which includes two #1 UK hits – the preacher’s son, who started his career playing bass with his family’s gospel quartet, has been a Minister of Music for over a quarter century. Yet another relevant aspect of his resume is his formal training as a graphic designer. On Solex’s latest R&B/jazz hybrid album, the sultry, atmospheric and sensually exotic Take Me There, he blends melodic and grooving keyboard, bass, acoustic guitar, saxophone vibes with a series of guest vocalists (including Tony McClendon) to create dynamic, motion filled musical travelogues that spark powerful images of romantic adventure. ~ www.smoothjazz.com

Sonny Emory - Soul Ascension

After decades of galvanizing the groove on tour and in the studio for Earth, Wind & Fire, The Crusaders, Bruce Hornsby, Al Jarreau, Steely Dan and Bette Midler, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Sonny Emory is on one of the greatest creative rolls of his career. Following two ensemble projects (Cachet and Full Tilt) with an intensely grooving, rhythmically and stylistically eclectic and yes, spiritually-minded collection on Soul Ascension – his first official solo album in over 15 years. Vibing gracefully, and most assuredly with funk and groove, this project features a killer crew including Ronnie Garrett (bass), Vance Taylor (keys) and Lenny Castro (percussion), as well as special guests the likes of Bob James, Patrice Rushen and Bobby Lyle! Emory does it all from infectious urban jazz to breezy Latin, spirited rhumba, trippy EWF-styled R&B/fusion and even a hypnotic tribute to Herbie Hancock. ~ www.smoothjazz.com

Miró Henry Sobrer | "Two Of Swords"

Trombonist and composer Miró Sobrer offers a rhythmically charged homage to Catalonian artists with his debut album Two of Swords, a Latin Jazz-infused sojourn celebrating his late father. 

At its best, music can be a door to the wider world and a portal to one’s psyche. Providing an evocative avenue into both realms, the music of trombonist/composer Miró Henry Sobrer offers tantalizing clues and portents set to an irresistible jazz score inspired largely by Catalan poetry, the distilled lyricism of Catalan composer Frederic Mompou (1893-1987), and tarot card interpretation. Conceived in tribute to his late father, Josep Miquel “Pep” Sobrer, Two of Swords is a singular musical sojourn that’s deeply personal and wondrously universal. 

Encompassing an expansive palette of African diaspora rhythms, Sobrer’s debut release introduces an artist with an unusually broad vision and a gift for incorporating text into musical settings. As a trombonist, he possesses a huge, pliable sound that can croon, belt or cry. His compositions and arrangements–intricate but unfussy–often elaborate evocatively but not programmatically on the introductory recitation.

Two of Swords opens and closes with lines drawn from a book about tarot card interpretation by Pep Sobrer (1944 - 2015), the prolific Barcelona-born scholar, writer, and translator who spent nearly three decades as a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University. Raised in Spain at a time when dictator Francisco Franco banned the teaching and public use of the Catalan language, Prof. Sobrer devoted himself to the Romance tongue, and Miró Sobrer makes extensive use of Catalan poetry translated by his father.

Pep Sobrer’s words offer a guide to the titular tarot card: We carry our strength with ease, with surprising ease, and yet we are blind to it. The setting introduces Miró’s template, as the music rises beneath the recitation, offering elaboration and digression from the text. The heart of the album is the five-piece suite “Dream Combat,” inspired by Mompou’s song-cycle “Combat del Somni.” Each track features an English translation of a sonnet by Catalan poet Josep Janés i Olivé (1913 -1959), but instead of Mompou’s delicately refined settings for piano and voice, Miró reimagines the pieces for a Latin jazz nonet arising from spoken word recitations of the poetry.

The suite opens with persuasively surging horns on “Over you only the flowers” that suggest the introductory phrase of Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments,” but also encompasses sensuous, samba-jazz feel for “Tonight only one wind,” which seems to echo the rising excitement of the text. The 12/8 setting for the extended piece “I had a vision of you being like the sea” captures the rhythm of the shimmering waves. The relationship between text and music is often revelatory, but not in a programmatic sense. 

“There’s definitely a feedback both ways,” he said. “I was thinking of the words, choosing rhythms that would fit the poetic themes. And as my compositions developed through those rhythms, I began to rethink the words and understand them in a different way than I did before.”

The album’s other extended work is the three-part “Trinity Dance,” a fascinating confluence of Hindustani classical music, traditional Catalan dance music, and Latin jazz. The closing composition, “Bridge Over the Tiber,” opens with a subtle reference to Cannonball Adderley’s classic “Autumn Leaves” arrangement from 1958’s Somethin’ Else, but quickly departs into a joyously bouncing theme inspired by a melody Sobrer heard a Roma accordionist playing during a visit to Rome.

While the music circles the globe, the album’s cohesive feel stems partly from the deep ties shared by the players, who spent their formative years together. Sobrer’s young cast is drawn from his closest creative collaborators at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The core of the band features pianist Ellie Pruneau, bassist Hannah Marks, drummer Rocky Martin, percussionist Cole Stover, trumpeter Zach Finnegan, tenor saxophonist Tim Kreis, and baritone saxophonist Jimmy Farace. They’re joined on several tracks by Ana Nelson on soprano saxophone and vocalist Elena Escudero.

“I recorded this project just after I graduated,” Sobrer said. “I’d known everyone for at least four years and developed a really nice relationship playing in numerous ensembles. All the people who recorded were my absolute favorite musicians and I knew I wanted to include them on the project.”

Sobrer co-produced the album with veteran trombonist, composer and educator Wayne Wallace, his Jacobs School of Music mentor. Devoted to Afro-Cuban music and wider Afro-Caribbean musical idioms, Wallace is a multiple Grammy Award-nominated recording artist who’s collaborated with many of the most influential figures in jazz, R&B and Latin music, including Count Basie, Ray Charles, Joe Henderson, Carlos Santana, Earth Wind & Fire, Sonny Rollins, Aretha Franklin, Tito Puente, Pete Escovedo, Stevie Wonder, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and former Kronos Quartet cellist Jean Jeanrenaud. Over the past 15 years his Patois Music label has released a series of Grammy-nominated albums expanding the Latin jazz lexicon, and Two of Swords fits snugly into that rich catalog.

“I cannot overstate the influence that Wayne has had on me and my music,” Sobrer said. “And not just music, but life and history and politics. One-hour lessons turned into two or three-hour hangs. He’s such a well-rounded guy and he brings humanity into his music. I became engrossed in Latin music and studied it all four years. I was the Latin trombone guy. It wasn’t a major, but I made it my thing.”

Born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, Sobrer has been immersed in music all his life. Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, J.J. Johnson, and the Buena Vista Social Club were all regularly featured on the family stereo, while his older siblings also introduced him to the Beatles and seminal hip-hop groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. By grade school he was participating in children’s choir and band programs, playing bass and trombone. And by his early teens he was studying and performing music whenever possible. Upon graduating high school Sobrer was offered full scholarships to both the Jacobs School of Music for classical and jazz trombone, as well as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to study classical trombone performance. He enrolled at SFCM.

The conservatory was stimulating, but after a year he longed for a wider range of study like the diverse array of music he grew up on. Around the same time, he received the dismaying news that his father’s cancer had come back and he had bravely decided to forgo further treatment and end his suffering. Miró took a leave of absence from school and returned home, where his father constantly advised him, “follow your passion.”

Transferring to IU’s Jacobs School of Music, Sobrer found what he was looking for. He learned about Indian classical music from the legendary sarod player Amjad Ali Khan. He deepened his appreciation for rock, soul, funk, and hip hop in Wallace’s contemporary jazz and soul class, and plunged into Latin music via Wallace’s Latin Jazz Ensemble (LJE) and Afro-Cuban ensembles led by Wallace and percussion maestro Michael Spiro. Miró developed an intense interest for writing and arranging under Wallace’s mentorship, and eventually had his arrangements performed by the LJE.

Miró has also performed alongside notable jazz artists including Jeff Hamilton, Tamir Hendelman, Michael Rodriguez, Walter Smith III, Rachel Caswell, John Raymond and Murray Low. He contributed trombone on a track of Wayne Wallace’s and Michael Spiro’s Grammy-nominated album Canto América, and on several tracks on Wallace’s most recent album, Rhythm of Invention. With Two of Swords Miró Sobrer has come into his own as a player, composer and bandleader inspired by his Catalan ancestry and a rhythmic heritage that continues to shape the world.

Yotam Silberstein | "Universos"

Guitarist Yotam Silberstein, living in Brooklyn since 2005, and racking up credits over the years with The Heath Brothers, Roy Hargrove, James Moody, John Patitucci and many others, offers up a powerful representation of, and testament to, his ongoing love affair with global musical folklore. “It’s common these days for jazz musicians to record an album and share it with the world...Far more impressive is to record the world and share it in an album,” said Brian Zimmerman in Jazziz Magazine about Silberstein’s 2019 recording, Future Memories. Following this blueprint, Silberstein has hit another one out of the park with his new recording, his seventh as a leader, Universos, available November 18 on jazz&people. 

Silberstein has always proclaimed that he feels strongly, in parallel to his penchant for jazz, a profound attraction for folklores, which has led him to document and to assimilate numerous musical traditions with a near-anthropological meticulousness. His talent and his guitar-playing have enabled him to assimilate both the seeds and fruit of numerous global musical traditions, always at their very sources, encountering musicians on his voyages who are open to sharing and exploring with him. For example, a candombe procession Uruguyan musicians took him to during his last visit to Montevideo; Brazilian peers who invited him to choro clubs in São Paulo, and after playing together, declared him a “chorão” (one of their own). In 2019, Silberstein was even invited to Brasilia to celebrate the twenty year celebration of the Clube do Choro, an institution dedicated to preserving this music. 

On Universos, Silberstein’s constellation of original compositions is based on his experiences on voyages around the globe, influenced by musical traditions of Brazil (including Choro, Frevo and Samba), Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Andalousia, the Near East, as well as blues, jazz, and rock. The album also displays Silberstein’s exceptional talent, whose guitar playing delivers this universe of music to our ears. “His tone dark and lush, his music struck through with passion and intimacy. Silberstein’s soulfulness is tempered by a seriousness that gives his music tremendous weight, as his innate talent burns through every bar… A true polyglot with an adroit skill set, Silberstein is on a journey to watch.” said Ken Micallef in JazzTimes Magazine (reviewing Future Memories). 

Universos features Silberstein’s Trio with Brazilian pianist and accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, and the Israeli drummer and percussionist Daniel Dor. Special guests are, Israeli flutist Itai Kriss, Argentinian multi-instrumentalist/composer Carlos Aguirre, and the Swiss harmonica player Grégoire Maret. 

“If the guitar is the ideal nomadic instrument, Silberstein’s playing has retained, from his travels around the globe, a variety of impressions that are superbly expressed in a rousing and inspired album…and opens like so many windows on the beauties of the world and the memories of the emotions they evoke in each of us.” – Jazz In Europe (on Future Memories). 

More on Universos:

Brooklyn Frevo: originating in Northeast Brazil, and the State of Pernambuco in particular, the frevo rhythm – which Silberstein says he is addicted to, inspired the Brooklyn-based guitarist for this composition, which features Itai Kriss’ dancing flute and Valerio Filho on the pandeiro. 

Dada: dedicated to drummer and percussionist Daniel Dor, a longstanding accomplice of Silberstein’s, and a subtle and sensitive musician who shares the guitarist’s passion for the world of rhythms. 

Samba pro Vitor: a homage to pianist and accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, and based on a samba worthy of Rio de Janeiro. It is a grand gesture of friendship to the musician to whom Silberstein owes much for his knowledge of Brazilian culture. 

Requiem for Armando: is dedictaed by Silberstein to two of his heroes who passed away during the Covid pandemic, Diego (Armando) Maradona, and Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea, who through their virtuosity, their talents and their panache, inspired him, and made him dream. 

Etude #2 (merengue): originally composed as a study for guitar technique, this piece is based on a merengue rhythm from Venezuela. 

Parana (Entre Rios): named after the city in Argentina where the guitarist spent a great deal of time with his friend and musical accomplice Carlos Aguirre, this song is inspired by the traditional chamamé rhythm highly popular in the Argentinian province Entre Rios. 

Candombe para Ruben Rada: inspired by the legendary Omár Rubén “Negro” Rada Silva, the percussionist, composer and singer who popularized the candombe by blending traditional rhythms played on Uruguyan tamboriles drums, with rock, pop and jazz. Carlos Aguirre is featured here, playing four different percussion instruments. 

Chorão: a self-portrait and a celebration of his love for Brazilian choro. Itai Kriss is featured on alto flute. 

Safta: a homage to Silberstein’s grandmother who died at the age of 96, this nostalgic duo with Vitor Gonçalves is a very moving waltz. 

A Night in Sevilla: this composition validates the friendship between Silberstein and the Sevillian guitarist Dani de Morón. It demonstrates his attachment to the flamenco tradition and represents the collaboration between these musicians that was put on hold by the global pandemic. 

Tal and Gil: dedicated by to his sons, this lullaby concludes the album in a lovely way, thanks in particular to Grégoire Maret’s superbly emotive harmonica playing. 

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Michael Perez-Cisneros at Big Orange Sheep, Brooklyn, NY, May 2021.

Bordeaux Concert Documents Keith Jarrett's Last Solo Performance in France

Bordeaux Concert documents a solo performance, the last that Keith Jarrett would give in France, at the Auditorium de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux on July 6, 2016, and finds the pianist at a creative high point. 

Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct character, and in Bordeaux – although the music would progress through many changing moods – the lyrical impulse was to the fore. In the course of this improvised thirteen-part suite, many quiet discoveries are made. There is a touching freshness to the music as a whole, a feeling of intimate communication shared with the 1400 attentive listeners in the hall. This time there is no recourse to standard tunes to round out the performance; the arc of spontaneously composed and often intensely melodic music is satisfyingly complete in itself. In the later concerts part of Jarrett’s achievement as an improviser has been the way in which he has not only channeled the music in its moment-to-moment emergence but implied a sense of larger structure as he balances its episodes and atmospheres. 

Reviewing the July 2016 performance, the French press spoke of hints of the Köln Concert and Bremen-Lausanne in the flow of things, and extended sections of Bordeaux Concert are beguilingly beautiful. Tender songs are coaxed from the air, “rousing a community of listening at the edge of silence," as Francis Marmande put it in Le Monde, “an awareness of time out from the noise and weariness of the world.”

Bordeaux’s community of listeners had long been aware of Jarrett’s music. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine capital was one of the first European cities where Jarrett presented his music, as early as 1970 - with his trio, then, with Gus Nemeth and Aldo Romano. He was back in the early 1990s, with the ‘Standards’ trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. The July 2016 concert, however, was his only solo performance in the city (made possible via the Jazz and Wine Bordeaux Festival and its director, Jean-Jacques Quesada).

Mortimer returns with his latest single, “Whole Heap"

Mortimer returns with his latest single, “Whole Heap,” the first taste of music from his highly-anticipated debut full-length dropping on Overstand Entertainment/Easy Star Records. “Whole Heap” blends a reggae bassline and traditional Rastafarian Nyabinghi percussion with an R&B sensibility that keeps evolving Mortimer’s sound.  

After some high profile collaborations on Protoje albums (“Protection” from Ancient Future and “Truth & Rights” from the GRAMMY-nominated A Matter of Time), Mortimer’sFight The Fight EP (2019) continued the buzz that had been heating up around this talented singer/songwriter. Fight The Fight made an impact by debuting in the top 3 of the Billboard Reggae Chart and hitting #1 on the iTunes Reggae Chart. The first two singles from the EP made waves in the reggae world with “Careful” being championed by BBC Radio’s David Rodigan and selected by Apple Music Editors as one of only two Jamaican records to be featured on their “Best of 2018” Editorial Playlist. The second single, “Lightning,” quickly became a summer anthem as a classic down-tempo reggae love song with a modern update. The endearing video directed by Pete Beng premiered at The Fader and has reached over 16 million views and climbing. The single also earned him awards for “Breakthrough Artist Of The Year” and “Song Of The Year” at the 2020 Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) Honour Awards. 

Mortimer continues to push his sound and it’s evident in “Whole Heap,” produced at the legendary Tuff Gong Studios with long-time collaborator and GRAMMY-nominatedproducer Winta James. He explains the inspiration behind the song as, “simply the whole heap of things I've been through....The things I've experienced and observed within my own life and around me. Life’s lessons. The absence of tears isn't the absence of pain, neither is the absence of scars to the naked eye equivalent to the absence of experience.” The song has an accompanying video, also directed by Pete Beng, which is set to premiere soon after the single release. Mortimer eloquently adds, “We all go through various things in our lives and we all face them differently. Some give up without a fight. Some fight to stay alive. We should be patient with ourselves and others, and be careful never to project our insecurities on another. Love and be loved. Dare to dream. People will say and people will do, but it all comes down to you. So press on and keep your head above water.” 

Mortimer recently finished his European tour, playing notable reggae festivals in Austria (Hill Vibes), Switzerland (Rote Fabrik), Sweden (Uppsala), Germany (Reggae Jam), Netherlands (Paradiso), and Belgium (Reggae Geel), and looks forward to more touring to support the upcoming album in early 2023. 

Mortimer concludes, “I write songs to express what’s in my heart and on my mind. I wanted to make this body of work – this single and the upcoming album - just as honest as my thoughts were in the moment. I'm aware that we all struggle from time to time and I want people to know that they're not alone.”

 

Josh Sinton | "Steve Lacy’s Book of Practitioners, Vol. 1 “H”

For the past twenty years, baritone sax master Josh Sinton has explored and honed the complex, demanding etudes of composer Steve Lacy. On August 12, 2022, he’ll release the first volume of them on Steve Lacy’s Book of Practitioners, Vol. 1 “H” via Form is Possibility Recordings (FiP). According to Lacy, "These pieces were written for my own use, as exercises and studies for the saxophone.” Sinton extends Lacy’s intended use to create an album that explores some of the furthest reaches of what’s possible on the baritone saxophone. In the wake of his solo album, b., Sinton stakes out some unexplored territory in the vast zone of solo saxophone work. 

Sinton began work on these toughly mysterious, austere pieces in 2002, when he was studying with Lacy at New England Conservatory. To get help with the interpretation of the fourth etude, “Hustles,” Sinton peppered Lacy with questions. “I asked him if I could transpose ‘Hustles,’ if the repetition of each section should be literal, how I should approach the improvised section of the piece and so on. Most of his replies were friendly but terse. What I do remember him saying is that he didn’t think it’d be possible to play it on the baritone saxophone. After I finished playing it he just sat there rubbing his chin and said, ‘Well, I guess you can play it on the baritone...’” 

Lacy described the etudes’ forms as “constant: after a brief introduction, a series of repeated patterns unfolds in strict sequence, then the introduction returns, leading to the improvised middle section, which is based on the mode implicit in the introduction. When this section has been filled to the brim, the main set of motifs returns.” Sinton found that even after he had the pieces under his fingers, he still wondered what they were about: “Steve said that each piece was a ‘portrait’ of somebody to whom he owed a debt of gratitude for their inspiration. I spent several years trying to hold a musical image of these people in my mind as I played each piece, but that didn’t seem to get me anywhere. The pieces still sounded inert.” 

What seemed to “crack the code” of these etudes was the element Lacy always advocated for: time. Sinton says, “I spent a lot of time just playing the pieces. When I moved to NYC I used them as busking material in the subways, I used them as warmup material and I tried playing them as duos with saxophonists, drummers, all sorts of musicians. I made a couple of stabs at recording them. I would take several months off and then come back to them. I played them and then I played them again. I tried to approach them the way Steve said he approached music, as a materialist. And somehow, I found versions I could live with.” 

Sinton’s approach to improvising within these pieces also takes a cue from Lacy’s approach, something Sinton says the soprano saxophonist called "poly-free, because at any moment one can change their point of view.” 

Sinton begins his improvisation on “Hubris” using short staccato bursts and gradually extends these into contorted funk and R&B phrases. “Hallmark” opens as an extended meditation on one of the minor keys implied by the introduction but quickly moves into a two-way conversation the baritone saxophonist has with himself. “Hurtles” starts with insistent knocking at single notes that changes into vocal cries and smears. 

It’s appropriate that the high-point of Vol. 1 “H” comes just after the disc’s midway-point with the fourth etude, “Hustles.” Clocking in at over eleven minutes, it’s one of Sinton’s most organically comprehensive statements to date. Starting with delicate and abstract fluttering, his improvisation moves into delicate puffs of air to droplets of notes to wavy tremolos to lyrical movements up and down the entire compass of the baritone saxophone. “Hocus-Pocus” showcases Sinton’s debt to both James Brown and Charles Mingus. At the close of the disc, “The Heebie-Jeebies” flies by on long waves of held notes and guitar-like arpeggios. 

“I’m not sure how much I caught the spirit of each of these pieces, of their sources,” Sinton says, referring to the dedicatees of the etudes: Babs Gonzalez, Sonny Stitt, Karl Wallenda, Niccolo Paganini, Harry Houdini and James P. Johnson. “But I know I feel like myself when I play them, and it took a long time to find that,” he says. “I don’t repeat myself if I can help it, but playing these pieces helped me reconsider that approach.” 

Josh Sinton’s work on Steve Lacy’s Book of Practitioners, Vol. 1 “H” further establishes the uniqueness of his musical conception as well as the limitless potential of the under-explored baritone saxophone. 

Sinton’s other 2022 releases include: 

June 3, 2022 – Josh Sinton, Jed Wilson, Tony Falco Adumbrations – Free, lyrical and inspired music, Adumbrations is an utterly unique documentation of the twenty-year-long friendship between Sinton, (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, alto flute), Wilson (piano) and Falco (drums), who have known each other since their student days at New England Conservatory in the early aughts. Even though they have stayed in touch over the years, it wasn't until August of 2021 that they finally came together and spontaneously created their debut recording. Adumbrations celebrates the importance of friendship and the solace and comfort it provides. 

October 28, 2022 – Josh Sinton’s Predicate 4 freedoms – Musically responding to the sudden growth of historic consciousness in the United States brought Sinton to new musical terrain that he had only hinted at in his past work. 4 freedoms articulates a musical vision of the world where all people help all people to be free of fear, free to be themselves, free to love and free from advertising. Predicate features Sinton with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer Tom Rainey.  

New Music: Jennifer Hartswick, Dennis Coffey, Will Sessions, C’ammafunk

Jennifer Hartswick - Something In The Water 

Reprising her studio collaboration with renowned bassist and dear friend Christian McBride, the highly sought-after singer and trumpeter interprets nine new tracks comprised of original repertoire and fresh arrangements of familiar songs alongside her core ensemble and featured guests. Co-written with guitarist and album producer Nick Cassarino, Something in the Water presents a tender portrait of the human condition, brimming with humor and vulnerability. “We wanted to celebrate the human experience,” says the Nashville-based artist. “We wanted to write about all facets of love and life and loss and gain. There’s definitely an arc of someone’s life in this album.”

Dennis Coffey - Electric Coffey

Mad funk from Dennis Coffey – and the follow-up to his landmark Evolution album! It's interesting to note that Coffey's group is listed as the "Detroit Guitar Band" – which kind of foregrounds their link between the city's two strongest music sides of the late 60s: the hard heavy rock of groups like The Stooges and MC5, and the still-strong soul industry, of which Coffey was a seminal part. But note also that Coffey's the only guy playing guitar on the record, thanks to the magic of overdubs! The album features a funky follow-up to Coffey's earlier hit, called "Son Of Scorpio", plus plenty of other funky guitar numbers like "Capricorn's Thing", "Lonely Moon Child", "Twins Of Gemini", and "The Sagitarian". ~ Dusty Groove

Will Sessions - Electromagnetic Reality

A full funky set of tracks from Will Sessions – a record that more than lives up to the group's previous legacy, but also seems to take them into this cool cosmic territory – maybe even the "electromagnetic reality" promised in the title! There was always raw funk energy at the Will Sessions core, but this time around it's almost as if it's wrapped up in some sweet spacey sounds that echo the 70s revolution of artists like Lonnie Liston Smith or Larry Mizell – which, as you can imagine, only makes the elements at the core even sound better! The whole thing's great – and titles include "Coffee Cup", "Lil Picasso", "Seagulls", "Out Done", "Yeah Yeah", "Phase Shift", and "Planet Jumper". ~ Dusty Groove

C’ammafunk - Bouncing

With one foot firmly planted in the past and their eyes set on the future, C’ammafunk are a sextet characterized by an explosive and energetic sound, perfectly showcased in their debut full-length Bouncing. Bouncing owes its title to an expression the band uses frequently: “let the bounce be with you”, which encapsulates the group’s mission of creating captivating grooves and contagious feel-good music. The album was anticipated by two singles, uptempo funk burner “Funkshovit” and neo soul / rap blend “Fly High” feat. Canadian rapper L. Teez. Elsewhere on the full-length you’ll find the fast-paced funk-fusion of “Pachyphytum”, or jazzy, instrumental hip hop vibes like in “DAM”, with its sophisticated Rhodes chord progressions. The album’s titletrack starts with a psychedelic intro which is then enriched by synths and effects, up to the final vamp that references rock sounds. In “N.O.E.L (No One Escapes The Loop)” the band pays homage to James Brown, using samples, loops and a badass bass. “This Is What You Got” provides some lighthearted, uplifting vibes, using panned guitar to give the song a rollicking quality. And finally, “Dundalk” closes the album and highlights the solo skills of C’ammafunk’s rhythm section, while laying a hard-hitting and slightly psychedelic beat. Irresistible grooves, fluid melodic lines and improvisation are what characterize C’ammafunk’s sound. Bouncing is not just the expression of this vision, but also a launching pad from which the band hopes to soar to new heights, thanks also to the collaboration with historical Italian label IRMA Records.

Jeff Denson, Brian Blade and Romain Pilon | "Finding Light"

The first time that bassist Jeff Denson and guitarist Romain Pilon got together to record with drummer Brian Blade felt like a lightning strike. Like so many musicians before them, the longtime friends from their days as standout students at Berklee experienced what’s often been described as the Blade Factor, a sudden, clarifying jolt that illuminates the musical moment. Captured in the studio on the 2019 Ridgeway Records album Between Two Worlds, the trio’s debut introduced an uncommon communion that seemed destined for further adventures.

Even two years of pandemic angst hasn’t been able to dim their brilliant chemistry. If anything, the trio’s second album, Finding Light, blazes all the more brightly as an antidote to isolation, anxiety, and despair. Slated for release on Denson’s Ridgeway Records label on September 23, 2022, the project beams with the palpable pleasure the musicians take in each other’s company as they explore new music together in glorious trialogue.  

Denson spent the first 18 months of the pandemic keeping the California Jazz Conservatory running online as dean of instruction. Though two years had elapsed between the trio’s last tour and regrouping to record Finding Light, they picked up where they left off, exploring a “sound that evolved because we did a lot of playing and travelling together in 2019 and 2020,” Denson said. “Each time we played together the band kept growing and our sound and direction evolved. Our connection kept intensifying.”

That intensity is evident throughout Finding Light. The trio’s new music reflects both the unbridled joy of gathering together again and the small pleasures (particularly the fur-bearing variety) that eased the surreal passage of pandemic time. The album opens with Denson’s “Daily Jubilee of Dancing Herbie D.” an odd-meter tune inspired by his miniature schnauzer, a smart little dog with a big personality. Bouncing with an irresistible groove in the vicinity of New Orleans, it’s an invitation for an outdoor romp written with Blade and Pilon in mind.

Denson’s title track is a sinuous, singing melody and an imperative. The dance between his bass and Blade’s brushes is so deft and exquisite that the tune builds tension to a delicious peak while maintaining an almost whispered dynamic. When Pilon reenters the conversation, “Finding Light” answers its own call. The light we need is embodied in the musical connection. Denson says, “With this tune, I really wanted to encapsulate a sense of hope ­– a sense of finding much need light amidst these dark times we’ve all been living through.”

It’s only kind of a coincidence that Pilon’s first tune is also a paean to his pooch. “This Way Cooky” is a slyly grooving number “inspired by some of the funk music I rediscovered during the pandemic,” he said, thinking particularly of Blade’s work with Joshua Redman. With its fierce determination and sinewy rhythmic feel, Cooky is clearly a handful. “On walks I’m always trying to direct him, ‘this way, Cooky,’ and he never goes the way I want,” Pilon explains.

The trio really hit a high point on their tour in February 2020 reaching a new level of interaction and connection that is clearly evident in their live concert videos from the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Feb. 11, 2020. “That tour was a like a musical dream – the trio was on another level!” Denson recalls. “And then less than a month later the world went into a surreal nightmare with the onset of COVID.”  “A Moment in Time” was the first piece composed for the album and with it, Denson paints a sonic surrealist landscape of the unknown – inspired by the novelty of the imposed silence and naivety that it would only last a few weeks. “In those first three weeks of the shelter-in-place, like everyone, I was somewhat in shock, and had no idea it would last for such a long time. Sitting alone in my home studio I kept hearing Romain and Brian in my head from our tour in February and their sound mixed with the silence of the world around me and the feelings of bewilderment brought this piece clearly into focus for me.”

Denson transformed his song “Wishing Well,” which he recorded with his vocals on his 2016 album Concentric Circles, into a mysterious instrumental ballad that fits snugly into the trio’s exploratory mission. His piece “The Tipster” is a briskly swinging tune inspired by a frisky feline companion who long kept his mother company, and passed away this past fall. Swing is central to Denson’s musical identity, “and who can swing like Brian?” he says. “I could hear the melody and like ‘Finding Light,’ there’s all this intricate harmony, and all these rhythmic shifts, which kind of reflects Tippy’s personality. He was a wild, playful guy.”

Drawing on his Virginia roots, Denson improvised the bass intro to Pilon’s “Terre,” evoking a bluesy Americana melody and feeling. The tune itself, which means “Earth” in French, is a loving, sometimes ominous ode to our endangered planet inspired by the striking landscape Pilon and his family have inhabited since a pandemic-induced move from Paris to the Brittany coast. The album closes with a disparate pair of Pilon compositions. “Espoir,” which means “hope,” is a spacious anthem that evokes the search for silver linings. With its rock edge and lean beat, the track offers his distilled take on Brian Blade Fellowship, the drummer’s gospel-and-folk-music inspired band. Finding Light concludes with “Sixto,” a piece inspired by the story of Sixto Rodriguez, the musician whose astonishing story was featured in the award-winning 2012 documentary Searching For Sugarman. For a project that’s all about breaking through darkness, the tune’s stutter-stepping ascent evokes a sense of immanent, luminous possibility.

The creative sparks that kindled Finding Light first ignited back in 2017 when Denson joined a tour anchoring Joel Harrison’s Spirit House quintet, which the guitarist/composer built around Blade. “Brian and I clicked right away,” Denson says. “Immediately we were throwing the ball back and forth really quickly. As a bassist, to have a drummer I can completely react and do anything I want and he’s right there throwing ideas back, well, that’s not a given.” Something about their chemistry prompted Denson to reach out to Pilon, an old friend from Berklee he hadn’t had a chance to play with much in recent years. “He’s a bad dude,” Denson said. “A virtuoso player, but very sensitive and very musical—the same exact words I would use to describe Brian. It just seemed like a perfect fit.”

Jeff Denson

Born on December 20, 1976 in Arlington, Virginia, internationally renowned bassist, vocalist, composer, and educator Denson grew up in the Washington, DC area. Musically inclined, he switched from saxophone to bass and vocals in high school and went on to study music at Virginia Commonwealth University and Northern Virginia Community College, all the while freelancing regularly on the DC jazz scene. Transferring to Boston’s Berklee College of Music to complete his degree, he co-founded the trio Minsarah, touring and recording with the band for 15 years. Via the trio he also became an accompanist for legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz, a relationship that spanned four albums and more than a dozen years. In the meantime, Denson completed a master’s degree at Florida State University and a DMA at UC San Diego. Denson relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011 to become a professor at the California Jazz Conservatory, where he now serves as Dean of Instruction. He released his first solo project, Secret World, in 2012 and has earned wide critical acclaim for his performances and recordings. DownBeat magazine cited Denson’s “considerable gifts as an improviser, interpreter and sonic trailblazer...” earning him spots for the last four years on the DownBeat Rising Star Poll for Bassist, Male Vocalist and winning the Electric Bass category in 2021. Germany’s Jazz Podium magazine noted that “Denson is breaking new ground…(he is) one of the leading bassists of contemporary jazz.” Denson has released 16 albums as a leader or co-leader and performs widely with his own groups as well as with the San Francisco String Trio (Denson, guitarist Mimi Fox and violinist Mads Tolling), among others and has worked with some of the brightest stars in jazz such as Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Edward Simon, Mike Clark, Omar Hakim, Rachel Z, Walter Smith III, Warren Wolf, Jane Ira Bloom, Cuong Vu, Ralph Alessi, Dayna Stephens, and many more.

Denson has brought his many pursuits under one umbrella with Ridgeway Arts, a nonprofit designed to enhance and fortify the Bay Area scene, and to make a strong contribution to the national landscape of jazz and the arts in general through a four-pronged plan of expression, education, presenting and documentation. The label has become an essential conduit to an international cast of musicians, including pianist Edward Simon, and the portal to Denson’s multifarious musical imagination. Commissioned by the Portola Vineyards Summer Jazz Festival, his next project involves recording an ambitious new work featuring Chinese pipa master Wu Man, reed legend Paul McCandless, and drum great Gerald Cleaver. 

Romain Pilon

Described by Jazzwise as “a brilliant improviser,” French guitarist and composer Romain Pilon has earned a glowing reputation in the jazz guitar world. He took up the instrument at 10, exploring all kinds of music throughout high school before going to conservatory in his native France and eventually earning a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. After his US sojourn (where he won three awards and was chosen with his group to open for Pat Metheny out of 1,000 guitar students) he lived between Paris and New York City, performing with some of the world’s greatest improvising musicians. Pilon has recorded three albums as a co-leader and five as a leader: NY3, Colorfield, The Magic Eye, Copper and the most recently, Falling Grace, collaborating with some of the world’s top musicians: Ben Wendel, Walter Smith III, Jeff Ballard, Seamus Blake…His talent both as an improviser and composer has earned him kudos in the international press as one of France’s standout jazz artists. Jazz journalist and curator Vincent Bessieres wrote, “Romain is a guitarist whose flow of imagination sets high standards, and whose guitar tone is one of the most elegant around….” His ability to play all forms of jazz, from swing and bebop to modern and avant-garde, makes him an in-demand sideman. In addition to his performing and recording career, Pilon is an esteemed pedagogue. He’s given masterclasses in France, the US, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany, Slovenia, Malta… Over the years he has taught hundreds of private students, many of them now respected musicians in their own right. 

Brian Blade

Brian Blade was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first music he experienced was gospel and praise songs at the Zion Baptist Church where his father, Brady L. Blade, Sr., has been Pastor since 1961. In elementary school, music appreciation classes were an important part of his development, and at age nine he began playing the violin. Inspired by his older brother, Brady L. Blade, Jr., who had been the drummer at Zion Baptist Church, Brian shifted his focus to the drums throughout middle and high school. During high school, while studying with Dorsey Summerfield, Jr., Brian began listening to the music of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Elvin Jones and Joni Mitchell. In 1988, at the age of 18, he moved to New Orleans to attend Loyola University. Over the next five years, he was able to study and play with many of the master musicians living in New Orleans, including Johnny Vidacovich, Ellis Marsalis, Steve Masakowski, Bill Huntington, Mike Pellera, John Mahoney, George French, Emile Vinette, Germaine Bazzle, David Lee, Jr., Alvin Red Tyler, Tony Dagradi, and Harold Battiste. In 1997, Blade formed The Fellowship Band with pianist Jon Cowherd, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1998, Perceptual in 2000, Season of Changes in 2008, Landmarks in 2014, and Body and Shadow in 2017, all on Blue Note Records. While continuing to work with The Fellowship Band, Blade has been a member of the Wayne Shorter quartet since 2000. He has recorded with Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Kenny Garrett, Ellis Marsalis, Marianne Faithfull, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan, among many others. In 2009, Blade released his first album as a singer-songwriter, Mama Rosa, featuring songs dedicated to his grandmother and family, written from experiences about his life so far.

WESLI EXPLORES THE ROOTS OF HIS AFRO-HAITIAN CULTURE ON TRADISYON

Tradisyon is the first of a two-part project that retells the story of Haiti’s past and imagines its future.

“You have to know where you’re from to know where you’re going,” says Wesli, the acclaimed Montreal-based winner of the prestigious 2019 JUNO Award. Overflowing with 19 songs, Tradisyon explores traditional chants from the voodoo religion, explosive carnival rara rhythms and lilting, folksy twoubadou songs.

To prepare for his ambitious new musical project, Tradisyon, the uniquely talented Haitian-Canadian songwriter, guitarist and producer Wesli (Wesley Louissaint) had to return to his roots. He embarked on a multi-year musical pilgrimage to explore often hidden facets of Haitian traditions. Wesli traveled across his homeland, visiting lakous, gathering places and community groups for practitioners of Haiti’s voodoo religion, to learn songs in African languages brought to Haiti hundreds of years ago. He honed his skills at a wide range of local musical instruments, from powerful interlocking rara horns to intricate drums in all shapes and sizes, not to mention folk instruments such as the Haitian banjo. And he reconnected with the profound spirituality and rich life philosophy of Afro-Haitian beliefs, which represent the inspiration and motivation, indeed the very soul, of Haitian culture. 

The result of this ambitious research is Tradisyon, the sixth album of Wesli’s celebrated career, and the first of a two-part set that retells the story of Haiti’s past and imagines its future. The encyclopedic first album features 19 songs, original compositions and treasures from the expansive Haitian music repertoire. By drawing on these traditions, Africa inevitably emerges -- through the rara, petro, nago, congo and yanvalou rhythms, and the lyrics sung both in Creole and the African languages of Yoruba, Ewe and Fon. They are all accompanied by local instruments such as the bamboo, the kata, the segon, the boula, the manman and the banjo, an originally African instrument that had been adopted by European colonizers. 

Of Haitian origin and Montreal adoption––but above all a citizen of the world––Wesli is one of those rare artists capable of exploring different sounds while keeping his identity and his roots firmly anchored in his traditions. Ever since the release of his first album Kouraj in 2009, Wesli’s creativity has been unstoppable, leading to the acclaimed album Liberté dans le noir in 2011, the star-studded ImmiGrand and the more traditional Ayiti Étoile Nouvelle in 2015 and an expanded version of ImmiGrand in 2017. Only a year later, the prolific artist released Rapadou Kréyol, an exploration of African rhythms and instruments Wesli believes Haitian musical culture has neglected as it is increasingly drawn towards the commercial music encouraged by globalization. In 2019, the astonishing album was awarded the prestigious JUNO award for World Music Album of the Year. For Wesli, winning the JUNO award proved to him that the musical and cultural value he brings to the world had been accepted and welcomed, a message he hopes other young Haitian musicians will see as a sign that they too can inspire change with their craft. 

The Tradisyon project, named after the Haitian and African diasporic traditions it honors, is a continuation and deepening of the goals of Rapadou Kreyôl. This previous album “was something that I wanted to do for the Creole culture” Wesli explains, “but I did so much research into the culture, I felt like one album wasn’t enough.” After years spent visiting various Haitian villages, learning lyrics in new languages, and recording the album’s percussion tracks in Haiti to capture a truly authentic, island sound, Wesli returned to Montreal to finish putting the epic albums together. When asked about the immense scope of the project, Wesli reflects, “I wanted to write a story, but a story that I didn’t create, because the story has been there for hundreds of years. I’m talking about the traditions, the core elements of a great culture: the Haitian culture.” In Tradisyon and the upcoming Tradisyon, Vol. 2, Wesli accomplishes the incredible feat of weaving this magical musical story through complex and ambitious arrangements. 

Wesli has himself been a character in the epic story of Haitian culture. Born in 1980 to a poor family of seven children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wesli built his first guitar at the age of eight by stringing an old oil can with nylon fishing line. His musical adventure began at a young age when he sang alongside his mother in the gospel choir of the local church. His father, Henri Louissaint, was a well-known banjo and percussion player of twoubadou, a popular Haitian folk music style. Inspired by his parents, Wesli began playing the guitar as his primary instrument along with banjo and a wide range of traditional percussion. Growing up in a poor household, Wesli was often told that he had to be seven times better than anyone else to make it out of poverty. After experiencing the joyful, passionate music played around him as a child, both by his parents and his broader community, he dreamed of becoming a professional musician. He likes to say, “music chose me to share its spirit.” 

His own spirit was challenged at a young age, when his family fled to a Cuban refugee camp during the violence that erupted after the 1991 Haitian coup d'état. Just 11 years old at the time, this difficult experience taught him “resilience, reconciliation and forgiveness” in the face of conflict. “No matter what,” Wesli says, “you can rebuild yourself and give yourself a positive direction, and make yourself into a new person that is useful to the society that you are living in.” This desire to serve his society has driven Wesli throughout his life, encouraging him to create change and bring Haitian culture to new audiences through the power of his music. 

At the age of 21, the musical prodigy won a scholarship contest sponsored by the Canadian government which allowed him to study arrangement and percussion in Montreal. Since then, Wesli has made Montreal his home, a process of integrating his home culture with an unfamiliar world which he describes as difficult but transformational: “I always like to say that I have two hearts. I have one heart in Haiti and I have one in heart Montreal, and that makes me who I am now.” 

Wesli put both of his hearts into the making of Tradisyon. The album starts with the thrilling call of the koné, a metal trumpet used in carnival parades. The opening song “Peyizan Yo” is a rallying cry for the farmers of Haiti who form the core of the island’s economy. Inspired by arrangements of voodoo music from the 1990s, the song asks people not to steal land from the farmers, who provide the nation with its sustenance. 

That is followed by “Fè Yo Wè Kongo Banda,” a traditional song used in the beginning of Lakou Congo ceremonies to call the spirits to gather. Sung by a Samba, preachers of the Afro-Haitian cultural tradition, the song often begins a Capella before the entire community lifts their voices and pounds their drums in celebration. 

A number of the songs on Tradisyon pay tribute to legends of Haiti’s musical past. “Samba” is an homage to Azor Rasin Mapou, one of the most influential artists in voodoo culture, while the rara composition “Wawa sé rèl O” celebrates the efforts of roots musician Wawa Rasin Kanga to pull the shroud of secrecy from Afro-Haitian traditions. “Konté M Rakonté M” sings the praises of Éric Charles, one of the founders of the band Haiti Twoubadou, which in the 1990s revived the twoudabou folk music style. 

Tradisyon features a number of banjo-led twoubadou tracks, notably “Kay Koulé Trouba” in which Wesli describes a leaking house––a metaphor for his interpretation of the fragile condition of Haiti’s cultural values in the present day. “Makonay” is a call for unity, singing of the circle created by the coming together of people from all the provinces of Haiti who each bring their own values to create a diverse, unified culture. “Trouba Ewa” aims to elevate the twoubadou musical style by bringing together a modern lover’s story with the traditional sounds of Haitian folk music, creating a unique, captivating arrangement dedicated to present-day Haiti.

The upbeat reggae-influenced song "Le Soleil Descend” was the first single of the album and its colorful video launched the Tradisyon project in June 2021. Featuring Quebec singer-songwriter Paul Cargnello. the two artists sing about uniting under the sun. As Wesli says, “The sun breaks down all cultural, social and political borders and barriers. Under this sun we are all one people because it is this same light that inspires us and illuminates our paths.” 

Congolese drummer Kizaba joins Wesli in “Peze Café”, which blends the igbo rhythm with the classic folk song about a child sent to buy coffee for his family before being wrongfully arrested on his way home. Sung in Haiti during the dictatorship of François Duvalier to protest military brutality, this age-old song and the parable it tells gathers new meaning and power each time it is performed. In Wesli’s rendition, his striking vocals take center stage, backed by his stripped-down guitar accompaniment and Kizaba’s expert cajón playing. 

Overflowing with these and other highlights, Tradisyon honors and reveals Haiti’s rich musical history. The upcoming follow up, Tradisyon, Pt. 2, explores the new directions for the island’s music, blending traditional genres with electronic music, Afrobeat, soul, funk, hip-hop and more to create a rich, festive and uniquely engaging sound. Always thinking about the future and the legacy he leaves, Wesli’s aim with Tradisyon Pt. 2 is to give young Haitian musicians a “formula to merge ancient and new sounds. We are coming from somewhere, now we are somewhere else. You have to know where you’re from to know where you’re going. Tradisyon is where we’re coming from, and Tradisyon, Pt. 2 is where we’re going.”

Wesli will be touring in Europe and North America in 2022 and 2023.