THE JAZZ CHILL CORNER The Jazz Community Mourns the Loss of Reade Street Records Musician and BMI Jazz Pioneer: Tenor and Baritone Saxophonist Charles Davis |  |
- The Jazz Community Mourns the Loss of Reade Street Records Musician and BMI Jazz Pioneer: Tenor and Baritone Saxophonist Charles Davis
- NEW RELEASES: NEIL LARSEN - JUNGLE FEVER: CLARA MORENO SAMBA ESQUEMA NOVO; ANTOINE FAFARD - SPHERE
- Adina E - the second album by Adina Even-Zohar, features originals plus 2 from Leonard Cohen
- The Mark Dresser Seven Explores New Compositions on Sedimental You
- The Magic Of New York City Inspires Lang Lang On New Album New York Rhapsody, Featuring Special Guests Andra Day, Herbie Hancock, Jason Isbell, Jeffrey Wright, Kandace Springs, Lindsey Stirling, Lisa Fischer, Madeleine Peyroux and Sean Jones
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Posted: 26 Jul 2016 08:05 AM PDT
Legendary Jazz musician tenor and baritone saxophonist Charles Davis has died on July 15, 2016. He was 83. Davis was a jazz musician, composer, performer and educator.
Born in Goodman, Mississippi, Charles Davis was raised in Chicago and graduated from DuSable High School before studying at the Chicago School of Music. Davis also studied privately with John Hauser. He played with Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Philly Joe Jones, Shirley Scott, Illinois Jacquet, Elvin Jones and Ahmad Jamal to name a few. He also performed and recorded with Kenny Dorham, with whom he associated musically for many years.
He recorded and toured the world accompanying the Clifford Jordan Big Band, Barry Harris Jazz Ensemble, Aaron Bell and the Duke Ellington Tribute Orchestra, Roni Ben-Hur and the El Mollenium Band, the Charles Davis All Stars, Apollo Hall of Fame Band and was the musical librarian for Spike Lee's Mo Better Blues. In 1964 he won Downbeat's International Jazz Critics Poll for the baritone saxophone and in 1984 he was named a BMI Jazz Pioneer.
Davis was a saxophone instructor of private students from The New School; a teacher at the Lucy Moses School and for over 25 years was an instructor at Jazzmobile and also trained students internationally. He leaves behind his legacy in his recordings and his family: daughters Linda Harris and Talya Wilkinson, sons Louis Davis and Lewis Holmes, grandchildren Chantell Harris, Danielle Walker, Fyielle Howard, Rachelle Jennings and Shakeem Jennings, seven great-grandchildren, a host of relatives, friends, fellow musicians and students.
He has released multiple albums and is featured on over 100 recordings. Recent releases include "For the Love of Lori," a tribute to his late wife Lori Samet Davis with Steve Davis on trombone, Rick Germanson on piano, David Williams on bass, Joe Magnarelli on trumpet and Neil Smith on drums released in 2014 on Reade Street Records; "Blue Gardenia," with Cedar Walton on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums, released on Reade Street Records; "Land of Dreams," with Tardo Hammer, Lee Hudson and Jimmy Wormworth, released in 2007 on Smalls Records; and "Our Man in Copenhagen," released in October 2008, on Fresh Sound Records, with Sam Yahel, Ben Street and Kresten Osgood on which they play the music of Bent Jaedig.
A memorial will be held at Saint Peter's Church in New York City on September 24, 2016.
For further information on Charles Davis please visit
For information on the memorial please contact Chantell Harris. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to support the mission of Jazzmobile: to Present, Preserve, Promote and Propagate JAZZ. https://www.nycharities.org/give/donate.aspx?cc=2674
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NEW RELEASES: NEIL LARSEN - JUNGLE FEVER: CLARA MORENO SAMBA ESQUEMA NOVO; ANTOINE FAFARD - SPHERE
Posted: 26 Jul 2016 07:27 AM PDT
NEIL LARSEN - JUNGLE FEVER
A standout set from keyboardist Neil Larsen – a record that crossed over big back in the 70s, and which still sounds pretty darn great in the 21st Century! Larsen's keys here are kind of a more mainstream take on territory Bob James was exploring a few years before – arguably hipper at this point that some of James' own recordings, and recorded in a relatively lean setting with guitar, bass, drums, and percussion – plus a bit of tenor or trumpet from time to time. The keyboards glide along gently on the spacey numbers, and get a bit more bite on some of the funkier ones – always with a good sense of space that means that Neil's never jamming too much, or getting in the way of his groove. Titles include the classic "Sudden Samba" – plus "Jungle Fever", "Red Desert", "Emerald City", "Last Tango In Paris", "Windsong", and "Promenade". (SHM-CD pressing!) ~ Dusty Groove
CLARA MORENO SAMBA ESQUEMA NOVO
Clara Moreno's jazzy samba soul take Jorge Ben's classic Samba Esquema Novo album – much more than a simple tribute record, though – it's some of her warmest grooves in years! The songs ever fresh, of course, but Clara is really doing something special here, adapting the material in a way that honors the soulful integrity Ben brought to the bossa sound in early 60s, but rather than simply covering his work with a feminine touch in a modern setting, she and arranger Paulo Malheiros take a lively (and often live sounding) jazzy approach, and it feels right at home there! There's a lot of piano in the mix,the rhythm section is solid for sure and Clara's beautiful voice is right out front. We especially love how warm and unfussy the vibe is, almost like a live session at times, and Clara could need sound any more at home with these songs. We knew we were in for something special with the unique take on "Mas Que Nada" that starts it off, and sure enough, it's as fresh and lively throughout – with "Tim Dom Dom", "Balanca Pema", "Chove Chuva", "E So Sambar", "Rosa, Menina Rosa", "Quero Esquecer Voce", "A Tamba", "Pr Causa De Voce, Menina" and more. ~ Dusty Groove
 Canadian-born and UK-based Antoine has been releasing original instrumental music for more than 15 years. He actualizes his musical vision with harmonic and melodic elements that are mostly composed on the classical and electric guitar, while special attention is always given to the rhythm. Antoine's first three albums feature world-class musicians including Vinnie Colaiuta, Jerry Goodman, Scott Henderson and Dave Weckl, who all bring their unique qualities to compositions aimed at audiences seeking instrumental music that emphasizes improvisation and innovation. Sphère is Antoine's fourth album, featuring Gary Husband on drums, lead synth and piano, and Jerry De Villiers Jr on lead guitar. The album follows Ad Perpetuum, a collection that was well received by fans and critics on its release in 2014, described by DownBeat Magazine as "a powerful example of jazz-fusion at its hardest." Sphère collects nine new original pieces featuring a blend of foot-tapping grooves, original chord progressions and creative soundscapes. The music offers plenty of space for De Villiers Jr to shine with his rich and warm guitar tone and highly melodic approach. The album also gives a platform for virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Husband to display his intensity and musicality in his highly creative approach to both drums and keyboards. Fafard gives his signature to all the music, with De Villiers Jr as co-composer on three tracks, and provides the bass frequencies and occasional solos on the electric bass. Sphere will be released in September 2016.   |
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Posted: 26 Jul 2016 07:20 AM PDT
Adina E" - the second album by Adina Even-Zohar is her most personal undertaking to date highlighting 10 original songs with lyrics written by Adina E and touching renditions to 2 additional songs - including Leonard Cohen's "That's No Way to Say Goodbye". In this album Adina E weaves a candid, poignant narrative about love found and love lost.
Israeli born Even-Zohar grew up in New York City. After completing her BA degree from a leading US university in 1977, she took a year break to live and work in Israel before going on to graduate studies in the USA. That one year hiatus has yet to end. Since then Adina has experienced several professions, notably social work, head hunting and philanthropy, and many twists and turns on her way to becoming a professional vocalist. All this has only added to the depth and passion she emits when performing.
While singing and performing have always been her first love, it was not until her mid- 40's that Adina allowed herself to pursue it professionally. But once that decision was made by her, she threw herself into it body and soul. The process began with voice lessons, soon followed by work with pianist-composer Giora Linenberg, who is her musical director and accompanist (who also tours with and composes for French singer Lara Fabian) and with whom she has collaborated on original songs which have been published in France.
As a continuation of the creative process, Adina is currently collecting material for her next album. Once again with producer Luis Lahav at the helm, the next album will contain more original songs, highlighting Even-Zohar's own lyrics. Adina is always interested in new collaborations with musicians and songwriters as well as open to opportunities to perform in other areas such as musicals.
Adina has been performing successfully for several years at various venues with leading Israeli musicians including at leading jazz clubs, music festivals, and closed events. In May 2012 Even-Zohar performed at Jazz NL – Gateway to Global Jazz Conference and the Amersfoort Jazz Festival.
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Posted: 26 Jul 2016 07:06 AM PDT
Mark Dresser makes music in a vast variety of settings and contexts, but the dauntingly prolific bassist always seeks to create space for the unpredictable play between form and freedom. On his new album Sedimental You, slated for release in early November 2016, he's assembled an astonishingly creative cast that embraces the intuitive and emotionally charged nature of his improvisational imperative. Riveting, playful and often revelatory, his compositions emerge out of a shifting matrix of specific musical personalities and the often dismaying swirl of current events.
Working with a supremely gifted septet, Dresser brings together emerging talent and revered veterans from East and West Coast scenes. In many ways, Sedimental You builds directly on orchestrational concepts he's been exploring in smaller ensembles, and relationships he's honed via telematic connections (which enable musicians in different locations to perform live in real time via high speed/high bandwidth links.)
None of the music is programmatic, but the porous nature of the compositions means that the world's joys and woes seep in. Mocking denunciations and ache-filled reveries flow into open-hearted evocations of beloved colleagues, both departed and still very much with us. Dresser notes that he always writes with specific musicians in mind, "and I really had Marty's clarinet sound in my ear. I've had lots of groups with Michael Dessen, who's a virtuoso trombonist and an invaluable collaborator in my groups and telematic projects. And Jim Black is a force of nature, who I worked with most often in New York and on Japanese tours as the rhythm section for Satoko Fujii."
Dresser started working with Nicole Mitchell after she joined the faculty up the road at UC Irvine, a relationship expanded by collaboration via telematics. He's played several high profile concerts in her ensembles, and she's become an important part of his West Coast quintet. "She's a wonderfully open collaborator, a great soloist, with superb musicianship and a buoyant musical spirit." Dresser says.
San Diego pianist Joshua White is a rapidly rising star who's toured internationally with Rudresh Mahanthappa's Bird Calls project. With a potent array of influences at his fingertips, from gospel and spirituals to free improvisation, he quickly fell in with Dresser after the bassist moved to town and discovered "an amazing talent with incredible ears and intuition," Dresser says. "He's a fearless improviser whose musical instincts I completely trust."
The album's wild card is violinist David Morales Boroff, the youngest player on the project. In a serendipitous connection, he's the son of esteemed folk guitarist Phil Boroff, who happened to give Dresser's mother guitar lessons back in the 1970s. "David's got a freaky ear," Dresser says. "I'd give him one of my tunes and he'd be at the piano reharmonizing it. He has a beautiful violin sound and a soulful lyricism that belies his age "
The album opens with "Hobby Lobby Horse," a tricky tune built from bass line up with a derisive hitch in the groove. The title track slyly refers to the 1932 Tommy Dorsey hit "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You." Drawing on the cadences of the original, he recalibrated the harmony to evoke its sound and mood. The heart of the album is "Will Well (For Roswell Rudd)," a startlingly tender piece that Dresser conceived with the trombone legend (and frequent collaborator) in mind. He first played the tune in a trio with White and drummer Kjell Nordeson, but this extended version brings out everyone's sumptuous lyricism, particularly when Mitchell's throaty alto flute winds around Ehrlich's woody bass clarinet. "It's an incantation of sorts for Roswell," Dresser says.
Dresser's strikingly beautiful tribute "I Can Smell You Listening (for the late Alexandra Montano)" evokes the boundless spirit of the extraordinary mezzo-soprano who contributed memorably on the 2005 Dresser/Denman Maroney album Time Changes (Cryptogramophone). An extended melodic line that rises and falls, fades and reappears, the tune features some of Ehrlich's most ravishing clarinet work. He offers a different kind of lament with "Newtown Char," a piece he created in response to the unfathomable massacres in Connecticut and Charleston, SC. Structurally and emotionally, it's the album's centerpiece, a plaintive unfurling melody keyed to the thick, woody sound of Ehrlich's bass clarinet. The album closes with the brief, elegiac theme "Two Handfuls of Peace (for Daniel Jackson)," a celebration of the revered San Diego tenor saxophonist who died in 2014 at 77.
Amidst a steady flow of recent albums, Sedimental You stands out as Dresser's most ambitious work as a bandleader. April saw the release of The Moscow Improvisations by Jones Jones, a volatile collective trio with Russian percussionist Vladimir Tarasov and ROVA saxophonist Larry Ochs. And in March the talent laden SLM Ensemble released Source (Liminal Music), a large group project co-led and conducted by Sarah Weaver featuring masters such as vocalist Jen Shyu, flutist Robert Dick, percussionist Gerry Hemmingway, and saxophonists Jane Ira Bloom and Marty Ehrlich.
Born in Los Angeles, Dresser has been a creative force since he first started gaining attention in the early '70s with Stanley Crouch's Black Music Infinity, a free jazz ensemble that included Bobby Bradford, Arthur Blythe, James Newton, and David Murray. He earned a BA and MA from UC San Diego studying contrabass with Bertram Turetzky. While on a Fulbright in Italy studying with maestro Franco Petracchi, Dresser was recruited by Anthony Braxton for his celebrated quartet with Gerry Hemingway and pianist Marilyn Crispell. Dresser made the move to New York in 1986 and spent a decade touring and recording with the reed visionary. A ubiquitous force on the Downtown scene, he worked widely with masters such as Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, and John Zorn.
A prolific composer and recording artist, Dresser developed many pieces for the Arcado String Trio, and Tambastics, while receiving numerous commissions and recording his original scores for several classic silent films, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Since returning to Southern California in 2004 to join the UCSD music faculty he's maintained creative relationships with many of his New York associates, though the move west coincided with his renewed focus on solo bass performance and telematic research. Recommitted to working with larger groups, he's once again the catalyst for a roiling creative community, work that earned him a prestigious Doris Duke Impact Award in 2015. More than impactful, Sedimental You is music to recharge your ears, agitate your soul, and open your mind.
The new album features an all-star multi-generational cast with flutist Nicole Mitchell, clarinetist Marty Ehrlich, trombonist Michael Dessen, pianist Joshua White, drummer Jim Black, and newcomer David Morales Boroff on violin.
Available November 2016 on Clean Feed.
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Posted: 26 Jul 2016 06:51 AM PDT
"I made this album because I wanted to pay homage to the city that I love," says Lang Lang of New York Rhapsody. "This city has changed the course of music more than any other in the last hundred years. It has inspired and enriched me beyond words and has become my home away from home."
New York City feels similarly about Lang Lang. They just named Lang Lang the city's first ever NYC Cultural Tourism ambassador. This is in partnership with NYC and Company in celebration of this year's official "China-U.S. Tourism Year" as designated by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama.
For New York Rhapsody, Lang Lang joined forces with Grammy-winning producer Larry Klein to create an album that embraces the musical spirit of New York in ways both surprising and traditional. Inspired by E.B. White's celebrated essay "Here Is New York," Klein assembled musical ideas and energies that both reflect New York's past and evoke its dynamic present.
The centerpiece of the album is a performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue featuring Lang Lang and multiple Grammy-winning jazz legend, Herbie Hancock in a two-piano version conducted by John Axelrod with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Surrounding it on New York Rhapsody are creative collaborations that reimagine songs reflecting the varying moods and experiences New York offers.
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, Jason Isbell gives a fresh edge to Elbow's evocative "New York Morning" and Grammy-nominated R&B singer Andra Day adds a new dimension to the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' hit "Empire State of Mind." Kandace Springs gives a new treatment to Don Henley's moody "New York Minute." Singer Madeleine Peyroux recaptures the alone-in-the-city wistfulness of "Moon River," the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer classic from the essential New York movie Breakfast at Tiffany's.
In one of the album's boldest choices, co-arrangers Klein and Grammy-winner Billy Childs marry the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim song "Somewhere" from West Side Story with Lou Reed's "Dirty Blvd" from his classic album New York. Lisa Fischer's vocal in the yearning "Somewhere" is a powerful contrast to actor Jeffrey Wright's interpretation of Lou Reed's indelible words in "Dirty Blvd."
Next, Lang Lang is joined by violinist Lindsey Stirling on a spinning version of Danny Elfman's theme for Spider-Man; and then by trumpeter Sean Jones on the West Side Story classic "Tonight" by Leonard Bernstein.
Bookending New York Rhapsody are perhaps surprising choices - quiet, contemplative pieces by New York's greatest musical poet, Aaron Copland. To open, Lang Lang and Klein chose "The Story of Our Town," from Copland's 1940 Our Town film score, to evoke the dozens of small "towns" within the big city. To close, one of Copland's last works, the rarely heard "In Evening Air," reminds us says Klein, "there are always pockets of peace and quiet beauty" in New York.
Tracklisting
1. Story of Our Town
2. New York Morning - feat. Jason Isbell
3. Empire State Of Mind - feat. Andra Day
4. Rhapsody in Blue - feat. Herbie Hancock
5. New York Minute - feat. Kandace Springs
6. Somewhere (Dirty Blvd) - feat. Lisa Fischer / Jeffrey Wright
7. Spider-Man Theme - feat. Lindsey Stirling
8. Tonight - feat. Sean Jones
9. Moon River - feat. Madeleine Peyroux
10. In Evening Air
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