THE JAZZ CHILL CORNER NEW RELEASES - PIECES OF A DREAM, BILLY SHIELDS, LIN ROUNDTREE |  |
- NEW RELEASES - PIECES OF A DREAM, BILLY SHIELDS, LIN ROUNDTREE
- RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ - MISS ME
- BARBEZ RELEASES 5TH ALBUM - BELLA CIAO + PERFORMANCE AT LE POISSON ROUGE
- QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO - PACIFIC PREMIERES: NEW WORKS BY CALIFORNIA COMPOSERS
- NEW RELEASES - GUIDA DE PALMA / LEON WARE, OMAR AKRAM, BOSSA BOX SET
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Posted: 30 Aug 2013 12:15 PM PDT
PIECES OF A DREAM - IN THE MOMENT
2013 release from the veteran Jazz outfit. Joined by superstar guitarist Rhon Lawrence and up and coming saxophonist Tony Watson Jr., the group has composed 10 brilliant originals that run the gamut from "in the pocket" R&B to the kind of sensuous Smooth Jazz jams that have made them legends. Lead producer and founding member James Lloyd, who has been a go to hit maker and accompanist for such artists as Mary J. Blige, BB King, Wayman Tisdale and others, is at the top of his game here with such highlights as the funky "Steppers 'D' Light" and the romantic ballad "Misty Eyed". Additionally, co-founder Curtis Harmon's composition, the title track "In the Moment", is a joyful celebration of Pieces of a Dream's 20th album and their brilliant career.
Although not a new release (it's from 2006), I thought I would bring this one to the forefront since it contains one of my all-time favorite songs – Crystal Blue Persuasion. Originally performed by 60s group Tommy James and the Shondells, Shields' version is smooth., cool, and simply beautiful! It's got a feel-good vibe and stellar production that I am sure you will enjoy as well. Iconic producer Preston Glass has worked with a plethora of artists including Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Aretha Franklin, Earth Wind & Fire, Kenny G, George Benson, and more. The album also includes two timeless cuts from the catalogs of Van Morrison (Have I Told You Lately) and Sade (Cherry Pie). On "Have I Told You Lately," Shields delivers the right chops to bring out the beauty of the highly recognizable tune and on "Cherry Pie," he deliver with a sweet, sexy excursion of R&B grooves.
LIN ROUNDTREE - SERENDIPITOUS
The latest artist to emerge from the 'New' Detroit music scene, soul trumpeter Lin Rountree has spent his years laying a serious foundation on the local scene, honing his skills and chops for the moment that he had his opportunity to take his music to a higher level and spread it to the masses. With 'Serendipitous' his major label CutMore Records debut, Lin works now on building his musical house with this base firmly established and does so with spectacular result. Rountree is no stranger to the groove and hits high marks for hip factor as he lays them down fat and funky, giving him canvas to paint his many colors, fusing funk, soul, ambience, pop and jazz into a captivating musical portrait.. Consumers seeking to find the Zone, will find it in plenty with this assemblage of vibes moods and feels that create that kind of escapism that allows the partaker an internal getaway. The lead single 'We Chill' already burning up national radio, just oozes with hipness and is so chilled that goose bumps become a natural side effect. Scoring a role in the Whitney Houston film 'Sparkle' hasn't hurt Rountree's international profile, which helped lead to his headlining a show at the Dubai International Jazz Festival this year. Having shared sides with the likes of George Duke, Marcus Miller, Kem and Darren Rahn, it's time to step forward to the front edge of the stage and take his rightful place alongside the burgeoning crop of fresh new faces of the next generation of smooth jazz stars. ~ amazon.com
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Posted: 30 Aug 2013 11:28 AM PDT
When you think of soul music, "attitude" isn't the first thing that always comes to mind. That's not to say the genre couldn't use a little spunk though—especially in this day and age. Thankfully, Los Angeles singer Raquel Rodriguez and her band, The Big Guys, play soul how it was always meant to be played.
Meeting her six-piece band "The Big Guys" while still attending class, they collectively began pursuing their own "party" in 2011, gigging tirelessly everywhere they could. A year later, the group hit the studio to record what would eventually become Miss Me. Their 2013 full-length debut Miss Me boasts a collection of impassioned, invigorating, and irresistible songs that are as fresh as they are fiery.
Miss Me has that old school vibe which is a perfect sound for her amazing vocal delivery. Rodriguez's influences are a collection of both old and new school soul - from Sarah Vaughan to Adele. You can hear it loud and clear on the first single and title track, "Miss Me". Blending intricate instrumentation and Raquel's infectious delivery, the song is something of a call-to-arms. "It's an anthem," she admits. "It's a girl singing about a guy who took advantage of her and didn't treat her right. Now, because she's successful, he wants her back. She always warned him like, 'One day, you'll miss me'. She was right."
Elsewhere on the album, "Tell Me It's Fine" paints a poignant picture via her vivid lyrics and the music's sultry swing. "It's about a relationship where both people are really stubborn," she goes on. "Neither side wants to end it so they stick it out, stay together, and just hope that it's fine."
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Posted: 30 Aug 2013 11:28 AM PDT
Brooklyn's Barbez, sui generis luminaries of the New York music scene will be performing Wednesday, September 18th at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan, NY in celebration of Bella Ciao, their fifth full-length album. The album was recorded and mixed by the incomparable Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Herbie Hancock, Ramones, John Zorn) at B.C. Studios in Brooklyn, NY with band leader and guitarist Dan Kaufman producing. Special guests on the album include Dawn McCarthy (Faun Fables, Will Oldham) on vocals, legendary downtown experimental theatre director and poetess Fiona Templeton on voice, and former Electro-Harmonix pedal inventor Dan Coates on electronics. Bella Ciao was released by John Zorn's Tzadik label on August 27.
To open the show, Barbez will perform the New York premiere of two movements of acclaimed classical composer Yotam Haber's Roman Jewish inspired piece, "Death Will Come and She Shall Have Your Eyes." This stirring work, which will feature special guest avant-classical vocalist Dafna Naphtali, includes field recordings of Roman cantors recorded by Leo Levi (the Alan Lomax of Italy) in the 1940s and 50s and a guest appearance by the extraordinary new music singer Dafna Naphtali. Haber, whose music has been described "as deeply haunting" by New Yorker critic Alex Ross is a former recipient of the Rome Prize and his works have been performed by Alarm Will Sound, Either/Or, Flux Quartet and JACK Quartet among many others.
Haber's music is an especially fitting compliment to this record release show for it was in 2009, at a residency at the MacDowell Colony, that Haber first introduced Barbez bandleader Dan Kaufman to Roman Jewish music. While there the pair collaborated on Haber's score for a documentary about Rome's Jewish community and they have shared a deep friendship and love for this singular music ever since.
Bella Ciao is inspired by both ancient Roman Jewish melodies and the Italian Resistance during the Second World War. To help tell that timeless story of defiance, the album incorporates poems by the great Italian writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini and his renowned contemporary, the poet Alfonso Gatto. The title track, the partisan anthem "Bella Ciao," has been an international symbol of resistance for seventy years and is re-imagined here in a stunning interpretation for a new generation. As Gatto wrote many years after the war: "The Resistance ... is not an exceptional moment of being; it is the opposite-a period that endures in time and in history to form a common conscience."
As on previous efforts Barbez weaves a haunting mosaic of avant-rock, old-world cabaret, European folksong, and contemporary classical into a uniquely beautiful and personal soundscape. An unconventional line-up, a kind of rock-tinged chamber ensemble comprised of theremin, clarinet, violin, vibraphone, electric guitar, bass and drums, forges a rich, indescribable-yet beautiful-sonic tapestry that alternates between passages of quiet intensity and passionate fury.
Since its formation in Brooklyn in the late 1990s, Barbez has released five albums, each of them engineered and mixed by Martin Bisi. The group's last record, Force of Light, was an homage to the Romanian-Jewish Holocaust poet Paul Celan and was hailed by allmusic.com as "one of the most profound settings for poetry in music" of all time.
For the past decade, Barbez has performed across the United States and Europe including engagements at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles (sharing the bill with the MC5 and Sun Ra Arkestra), the Festival Territoria in Moscow, Russia, and the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris, France. Over its history, Barbez has collaborated with a diverse group of musicians including the cellist Julia Kent of Antony and the Johnsons, the avant-vocalist Shelley Hirsch, and the singer and guitarist Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Faun Fables.
Barbez maintains a long-running collaboration with the experimental theatre director, filmmaker, and playwright, John Jesurun, a MacArthur "genius" grant winner, and has composed and performed scores for several of Jesurun's theatrical works, which have been staged at the Berliner Festspiele, in Berlin, Germany and the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in New York. Jesurun, who directed the groundbreaking "Last Goodbye" video for Jeff Buckley, has directed two videos for the band. Barbez has also contributed music for several dance works, including One and The Making of Americans, both choreographed by the Bessie-award winner Juliette Mapp and presented, respectively, by Danspace Project and Dance Theatre Workshop in New York.
Barbez is made up of the following members: Dan Kaufman (Rebecca Moore) guitar, Pamelia Kurstin (David Byrne, Cibo Matto) theremin, Peter Hess (Balkan Beat Box, Asphalt Orchestra) clarinets, Danny Tunick (The Clean, Bang on a Can All-Stars) marimba, vibraphone, organ, piano Catherine McRae (filmmaker Sam Green, the Quavers) violin, Peter Lettre (Shearwater) bass, and John Bollinger (Sway Machinery) drums.
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Posted: 30 Aug 2013 08:21 AM PDT
Quartet San Franciso, the acclaimed cross-genre string quartet received Grammy nominations for their 2006 Látigo, 2007 Whirled Chamber Music, and 2009 QSF Plays Brubeck. Now they are preparing to release a dazzling new CD, Pacific Premieres: New Works by California Composers, on ViolinJazz Recordings.The disc, due out September 24, delivers a program featuring two swinging new suites by noted jazz big band leader, composer, and arranger Gordon Goodwin; a breathtaking three-movement string quartet by conductor, arranger, and composer Vince Mendoza; and a gorgeous new work by legendary Hollywood composer Patrick Williams. QSF's founder and first violinist Jeremy Cohen closes the album with a brilliant piece of his own, "Guamba."
Well versed in the violin's deep jazz roots, Cohen combines his love of jazz and classical music in QSF. "As both a classically trained and improvising jazz violinist," he says, "I began to write and arrange music that had the sounds of my generation in it -- Santana, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power, and so many more. Combine this modern musical era with the chamber music tradition inside of a developing young musician, and you have the seeds of QSF's DNA. The creation of Quartet San Francisco in 2001 was a clear move to encourage, create, and perform works from this modern age of chamber music."
Recorded at Skywalker Sound in Nicasio, CA by the Grammy Award-winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones, and mixed by Judy Kirschner, Pacific Premieres rivets from beginning to end, offering an experience unlike anything else on the scene. Employing the subtle dynamics, textural acuity, and technical prowess of a top-flight string quartet, QSF maintains the improvisational imperative and emotional intensity of a hard-bop combo. Whether you call it chamber jazz, third stream, or simply new American music, the ensemble has honed a singular sound that has inspired some of the era's most celebrated composers.
"The ability to swing began to steal into the ranks of classical strings players a few years ago," critic Doug Ramsey wrote in his review of QSF Plays Brubeck. "Although they may not discuss it in the polite company of their easily-shocked older colleagues, some of them are also improvising with proficiency and joy. There is convincing evidence of both phenomena in the QSF's CD of 10 pieces by Dave Brubeck, and Paul Desmond's 'Take Five.'"
Quartet San Francisco Since QSF's last release, the band has undergone some personnel shifts, resulting in a prodigious new lineup. Through the group's work in the San Francisco Symphony's Adventures In Music program, the quartet shared some 170 performances before heading into the studio.
Joining Cohen on violin is Matthew Szemela, a Mannes College graduate who has performed widely in pop, jazz, chamber, and symphonic settings, including collaborations with tap master Savion Glover, vocalist Cassandra Wilson, and rapper Jay-Z; Santa Cruz-based Chad Kaltinger, an active freelancer around the Bay Area who performs widely in an array of settings and is the principal violist for Opera San Jose and the Santa Cruz Symphony; and cellist Kelley Maulbetsch, a member of the Marin, Santa Rosa, Fresno, Monterey, and Modesto Symphonies (and assistant principal cello of the Sarasota Opera Festival) who also freelances extensively and performs in the bands of major San Francisco stage productions.
Quartet San Francisco will premiere the music of Pacific Premieres at Yoshi's Oakland on Thursday 9/26 at 8:00 pm.
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Posted: 30 Aug 2013 07:07 AM PDT
 GUIDA DE PALMA & LEON WARE - A SEED IN YOU
Lisbon based singer Guida de Palma (better known as Jazzinho) has recorded a duet with music legend Leon Ware. The song, entitled A Seed In You is a preview of her new album due out soon. "I'm a mother, I'm a singer, I'm a teacher, and I'm a sinner. I play my music in the sun. My music is a mix of Jazz, Soul, MPB and Funk, often referred to as Sambalanço, a genre made popular in the 70s by artists like Banda Black Rio, Tim Maia, Sandra de Sá, Jorge Ben, Copa 7 etc…" says de Palma. For the new Jazzinho album that she is recording, she says that it's due out sometime later this year and that it will feature some hot new grooves and melodies. Her duet partner, Leon Ware, is a Motown legend, having worked alongside Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, as well as with Quincy Jones and many others. Ware is an accomplished singer and songwriter.
OMAR AKRAM - DAYTIME DREAMER
Omar Akram was the first Afghan American to win a Grammy. Akram's music reflects his multicultural roots, incorporating piano, violin, guitars, flute, Persian ney and world percussion. "The Grammy win brought me a lot of attention, both from the Afghan media and the people of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a very divided country that is made up of many different ethnicities and social groups. After being on the radio and television I heard from everyone. The people there can hardly ever unite behind anything, and after I won the Grammy award there was a shared sense of accomplishment. It was a kind of unity I've never seen that I was very happy to be a part of." —Omar Akram // "After copping a Grammy for his fourth record Echoes of Love, Omar is back with a full-on sonic assault to make sure he does it again. Not exactly pop, he does turn it up a notch loading the new age deck with pop and jazz smarts, keeping it buoyant, upbeat and winkingly sassy." —Chris Spector, Midwest Record
BOSSA: BOSSA NOVA, BALANCO, BOSSAMBA, SAMBABALANCA, SAMBOSSA
An amazing little box set – filled with 10 rare bossa nova albums from the Brazilian underground of the 60s – almost all of which we'd never heard before! The records here were mostly issued on small labels at the time – the kind of sets that never circulated widely outside of Brazil, and which often have unusual and striking sounds that are quite different from mainstream bossa work on labels like Verve or Elenco! There's a fair bit of jazz on most albums, and the instrumentation varies nicely throughout – sometimes more sax up front, sometimes more acoustic guitar, or offbeat horn arrangements, odd percussion, and lots of other sweet touches! Each CD features two full albums, completely with cover art and other details of the records – and the set features the albums Balanco E Bossa Nova by Ritmistas Da Bossa, Sambalanco by Orquesta Moderna De Samba, Isso E Bossa Nova Mesmo by Conjunto Sambossa, Saxsambando by Os Saxsambistas Brasileiros, O Balanco E A Bossa by Conjunto Masterplay, Samba Do Bom by Conjunto Samba De Balanco, Samba Pra Frente by Samba Trio, A Musica Maravilhosa De Antonio Carlos Jobim by Bossa Brass, and the self-titled 1964 album by Os Azes De Bossa. ~, Dusty Groove
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