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Posted: 18 Sep 2013 12:52 PM PDT
In the seven years since leaving his native São Paulo for Boston and then New York, guitarist Ricardo Grilli has found his voice as a distinctive jazz player and composer. His glowing debut album, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, which his Dark House label will release on October 15, chronicles that journey in rich detail.
Grilli's restless creativity is manifested in his love of odd meters, offbeat structures, and themes that keep circling back on themselves like the narrative lines in the Italo Calvino novel from which Traveler takes its name. The guitarist, now 27, began writing songs out of necessity while studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. "I figured the best way to get people to play with me was to write interesting music they would want to play," he says. "And that worked."
Among the Berklee classmates with whom he forged an especially tight bond was the pianist Christian Li, who's featured on Traveler along with saxophonist Gustavo D'Amico, a friend of Grilli's from Brazil, and the bass-drum team of Jared Henderson and Lee Fish, whom Grilli met at a Boston club.
As a composer, Grilli uses a kind of free association method, starting out with a word or phrase and seeing where it will take him musically. The germ for the wistful "Revolver" was a magazine interview with R&B singer John Legend about his album, Evolver. That led Grilli to ruminate on the word "revolver" and the mechanism of "a thing that turns." In his song, he says, "I made the chords go round almost like Bill Evans did on 'Time Remembered.'" (Revolver also is the title of his favorite Beatles album.)
"Riga," a coolly propulsive tune featuring D'Amico on soprano saxophone, was named after the Baltic city, where Grilli once attended a conference as a student representative. "The Great Escape," boasting one of Grilli's most fluid, entrancing solos and sparkling electric piano by Li, is a nod to the Steve McQueen classic. The note-tripping, modal-style "Mark I" (a play on Mach 1) was written for tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, whose 2001 album, Dharma Days, is one of Grilli's all-time favorites. That album features Rosenwinkel, for whom Grilli wrote the alternately earthy and lighter-than-air "The Abstract."
Grilli will be performing the music from his new CD at the following venues: 10/27 Rockwood Music Hall, NYC (with Gustavo D'Amico, reeds; Christian Li, piano; Edward Perez, bass; Lee Fish, drums); 12/10 The Rex, Toronto (with Kelly Jefferson, reeds; Chris Pruden, piano; Jon Maharaj, bass; Lorenzo Castelli, drums); and 2/4 Scullers, Boston (with Jason Palmer, trumpet; piano TBD; Edward Perez, bass; Lee Fish, drums).
 
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Posted: 18 Sep 2013 09:07 AM PDT
BOB JAMES - RHODES SCHOLAR: JAZZ-FUNK CLASSICS 1974-1982
Great work from a player who's maybe one of the best cats ever to handle a Fender Rhodes – and certainly one of the few who really helped push it strongly in jazz during the 70s! The package is a wonderful look at all that's great about Bob James – and brings together all the best tracks from James' years at CTI and Tappan Zee – including some of his most-sampled cuts, each of them a heavenly helping of Fender Rhodes! The set also features some great numbers from later albums that are less classic, but which still have these wonderful nuggets – and even a rare single from Italy too. Production is great, and notes are penned by Andrew Mason of Wax Poetics – who also helped produce the set too. 22 tracks in all – including "Valley Of The Shadows", "Nautilus", "Storm King", "Tappan Zee", "Heads", "Night Crawler", "You're As Right As Rain", "Take Me To The Mardi Gras", "Farandole", "Westchester Lady", "Look Alike", "The Steamin Feelin", "Angela (Taxi)", "I Wand To Thank You", "Caribbean Nights", and "Take Me To The Mardi Gras (7" edit)". ~ Dusty Groove
DUDUKA DA FONSECA TRIO - NEW SAMBA JAZZ DIRECTIONS
Drummer Duduka Da Fonseca is the leader here, but what impresses us most with the record is the album's great piano from David Feldman – a player with a fluid, soulful sound that really grabs us right away – a sense of scope and space that brings a subtle sort of majesty to the record, even if it's in different ways you might expect from the "samba jazz" title! Instead, Feldman holds sway on the keys with a commanding touch that's maybe post-McCoy Tyner, but which has some more intimate moments too – a quality that resonates wonderfully with the depth of Guti Wirtti's bass work – which is also quite a force in the record too. Duduka's drums round things out nicely, with a jagged feel that keeps the rhythms interesting – and titles include "Solito", "Zelao", "Isabella", "Alana", "Samblues", "Bad Relation", "Tete", and "Sonho De Maria". ~, Dusty Groove
DANA - LOVE, DANA
Jazz-Pop singer Dana has released her seven-track extended play record titled Love, Dana today. This sultry 50s-era throwback brings pieces of classic jazz and cinema to the forefront of the contemporary music scene. With a vibrato like Sarah Vaughan and chops reminiscent of legendary classics, Dana is introducing a new brand of soul back into the industry. Framed as a love letter, DANA sings about the ups and downs of her journey in romance. Drawing from inspirations like Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, and Jay-Z, Dana tells this story with the help of strong percussion, a delicate vibrato, and live horns. Drawing on this growing infatuation and true sense of belonging, Dana aims to revive that classic beauty through her music while also exercising her freedom as a woman of the millennium to be honest about heartache, pain, and loneliness in love.
 
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Posted: 18 Sep 2013 08:41 AM PDT
The multi-leveled musical world of Grammy nominated producer Salaam Remi takes on new dimensions with the release of Salaam Remi: On In The Chamber, and its first single, the title track "One In The Chamber." Available digitally now and released through Remi's label imprint Flying Buddha, the track is a collaboration with another Grammy nominated artist, platinum-selling R&B singer-songwriter Akon. The full album debuts digitally September 30, and features additional guest appearances by Ne-Yo, Corinne Bailey Rae, Stephen Marley and others in a fully orchestrated, richly imagined contemporary collection, encompassing a wide range of styles and musical forms.
"Loving music of all genres and collaborators who feel the same is the core of this Lp. I'm pleased to make this the first of many journeys thru the world of music. Please join me for the ride," says Salaam Remi, Head of Flying Buddha Records and the Executive Vice President of A&R/Production at Sony Music Entertainment.
As the Executive VP of A&R and Production at Sony Music, Remi works with the entire Sony Music family in addition to running his new imprint Louder Than Life, which includes the sub-imprints RemiFa and Flying Buddha. Grammy nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2013, Remi has worked with Amy Winehouse, Alicia Keys, Miguel, NaS, The Fugees, Jazmine Sullivan, Nelly Furtado, Cee-Lo Green and Usher, among others. He has also worked on a variety of film projects including Blood Diamond, Gnomeo and Juliet and Tower Heist to name a few. He scored the film Sparkle starring Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks, the Mike Tyson documentary, TYSON, and he was Executive Music Producer on the films Sex and the City 1 and 2 and Rush Hour 3.
"Salaam Remi is a total music man – as a writer, arranger, producer and now as an artist. 'In The Chamber' is a complete beautiful trip," says Chuck Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Sony Masterworks.
Flying Buddha is an imprint of the Sony Masterworks label group. Tawk Tomahawk, by the critically acclaimed Australian future-soul band Hiatus Kaiyote, was the first release from Flying Buddha/Sony Masterworks.
"Salaam has the unique ability to pull together diverse artists in a cohesive and intricate way. The outcome is extremely creative and musical. We are thrilled to be working with him," says Bogdan Roscic,
 
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