Over the course of the past three decades alto saxophonist and composer Jim Snidero has been constantly pushing himself to explore new territories and expand his outlook. In 1989 his extraordinary album Blue Afternoon made its way into The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums.
Later on he made his mark in the sax-with-strings department, not only playing at the top of his game, but also composing and arranging all of the music on the project. Most recently he's impressed more than a few listeners with a spate of fine albums on Savant.
On this his latest release, Snidero tackles open modal forms and uses his unfettered imagination as a portal into free(r) territory, and takes his soloing to the next level by working an inside/outside approach that's rooted in the structure and style of each song but radical enough to move in wildly unexpected directions. This is a musical promised land where revelations, whether subtle or seismic in nature, are guided by revolution.
Chicago Musician Fuses His Memoir with Piano Composition
for a Unique Reader-Listener Experience
via a Custom-Designed iOS App and Universal Web App
Composer-pianist-author Peter Saltzman conceives a new form of memoir writing for the digital world, infusing his life story—Blues, Preludes & Feuds, A Musical Memory—with a seamless blend of original solo piano tracks for a transformational reader-listener experience via a smartly designed iOS app (available on the App Store) and universal web app. The hybrid album-ebook morphs into a vehicle that carries the reader-listener on a discovery journey filled with multi-textured sounds and funny, in-the-reflective-now storytelling. Blues, Preludes & Feuds’ memoir and accompanying music can be enjoyed together or separately—with the music-only version available at Bandcamp, CDBaby, and most digital download and streaming services.
Blues, Preludes & Feuds—with its mélange of highly structured and improvisational music—purposefully disturbs the air as Saltzman reveals his tale of being an artistic soul in search of its unique self, often feeling out of sync with the conventional world. He traverses his early years in a Jewish-American home during the politically charged times of 1960s Chicago to becoming a budding teenage jazz musician, and eventually, a composer whose works—hailed as “powerful stuff”—are performed and recorded globally.
“My life and music have been hard to pigeonhole, so Blues, Preludes & Feuds grew as a way to explain myself to myself. Since piano was my first personal connection to music, it was important to make this hybrid album-ebook centered on live solo piano work. It was done in my home studio’s customized recording environment to ensure there was an organic flow between the music and the text. My goal was and is to push forward and understand the true implications technological trends have on art and vice versa,” Saltzman said.
That motivation, says Saltzman—a former adjunct professor of music at Columbia College Chicago, where he developed and taught a series of courses entitled “Technology for Musicians”—led him to release Blues, Preludes & Feuds as an app. His longtime investigation of technology-music interactions helped him better realize how technology is altering the very nature of what artists create and how their work is presented. His app delivers an online format, specific to his artistic needs.
Saltzman’s goal is to bring his art—the fusion of words and music—to reader-listeners in an experience where they might see, hear, and feel the world in a different way.
“I’ve spent a great deal of time searching for meaningful ways to present my work. CDs have long been irrelevant—and other platforms, such as Spotify, provide random choices to the listener. I like thinking in larger formats that reflect my musical values and best represent how I feel the music, writing, and technology come together. That’s why the technology developed for this project will be the basic platform for my future work,” Saltzman said.
Parts 1-4 of Blues, Preludes & Feuds is available now. The next segment is scheduled for a late 2016 release. In the interim, subscribers to the Blues, Preludes & Feuds app have access to Saltzman’s live streaming concerts, excerpts from upcoming musical and ebook segments, as well as special postings and offerings to keep them connected.
With a deep jazz-and-blues core, Peter Saltzman has produced a broad career in the music industry as composer, pianist, singer-songwriter, and entrepreneur. Various ensembles have performed and recorded his work globally—the Czech National Symphony Orchestra recorded his orchestral dance suite “Walls” (1996), and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre performed “Walls” during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The Dallas Morning News reviewed Saltzman’s music as “powerful stuff.” His second album, Kabbalah Blues/Quantum Funk (2000), earned critical acclaim for its jazz/classical/pop fusion, hailed as “ambitious, richly layered, wonderfully accessible.” Saltzman studied jazz at Indiana University (Bloomington) and composition at Eastman School of Music. He was an adjunct professor of music at Columbia College Chicago, where he taught music technology and piano.
His concert works are published by Oxford University Press; his film and television works are published by Wild Whirled Music. Saltzman’s music has been licensed for television shows, jingles, and industrials, including My Name is Earl (NBC, 2006). In 2016, he designed and launched a hybrid album-ebook app for his memoir, Blues, Preludes & Feuds, A Music Memory.
There will be the premiere live performance of my new album-eBook, Blues, Preludes & Feuds. In the live performance I incorporate projected imagery and recorded audio voiceovers to help evoke the feeling of the story. Advanced tickets are available on PianoForte’s site.
Blues, Preludes & Feuds is a seamless blend of original solo piano music and story, presented in an innovative platform, delivering deep technology-art interactions.
The music skillfully wends around the narrative in an organic flow, telling the story in its own way: Improvisational. Structured. Meaningful.
The story? A funny, reflective tale of growing up in the politically charged times of 1960s Chicago, becoming a budding teenage jazz musician, and later, a composer.
Blues, Preludes & Feuds is also available as an app two formats: an iOS version and a Web version. If you have a compatible iOS device, please download the app (free) from the App Store. If not, please follow the link to the Web version. Note that the web version is entirely responsive, so works seamlessly on Android (and iOS) phones and tablets as well as on standard browser pages on laptops and desktops.
We're happy to announce Dinosaur will appear on the front cover of the October issue of UK's Jazzwise Magazine.
What the critics have said:
'Imagine the impressionistic electric-jazz moodiness and glistening keyboard textures of Miles Davis’s In A Silent Way seamlessly wrapped around Celtic folk melodies, Django Batesian idiom-swaps, and interwoven with American, Scottish and north African drumming – and you might have a feel for this superb set from Laura Jurd' GUARDIAN ***** (Five Stars)
‘Dinosaur is a new British jazz "supergroup"’. ALL ABOUT JAZZ (UK)
‘Surely rank as one of the best debut albums for years, a remarkable fusion of thoughtful compositions, skilful musicianship and visceral energy'. ALL ABOUT JAZZ (UK)
"Apparently there's a jazz revival going on! Here's Dinosaur...let's just call it social music." BBC 6 MUSIC GILLES PETERSON (UK/INTERNATIONAL)
"Such a great record!" BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC GILLES PETERSON (UK/INTERNATIONAL)
“This band are going to be huge…” JEZ NELSON, SOMETHIN’ ELSE (UK)
"...a powerful and bold album...Laura [Jurd] skilfully blends elements of folk, rock and jazz and I think she's really developed a unique style of her own..." BBC RADIO 3 CLAIRE MARTIN
“That’s pretty much punk rock by jazz standards…” NICK LUSCOMBE, BBC RADIO 3 LATE JUNCTION (UK)
“Rechristening her regular quintet Dinosaur gave fair notice of their thrilling power live, where they’re as likely to fly into souful Sly Stone or JB’s terrain. Their debut album, though, is a considered studio production, with a sense of space and shape...” JAZZWISE (UK)
“Despite it’s influences this is not a repetition of the old, as freshly and intensively as the quartet plays.” VALONKUVIA (FI)
“…impressive young trumpeter Laura Jurd’s Dinosaur offered up some savory, funk-fueled neo-fusion grooves…” DOWNBEAT (USA)
"Most of the solo work is carried by Jurd’s inventive, expressively mobile trumpet and the general ensemble components are imaginatively arranged, all contributing to a lively and productive album of originals from this high-level British group." THE AUSTRALIAN (AUS)
Legendary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith creates a new masterwork inspired by the country's most stunning landscapes
The epic America's National Parks, out October 14 on Cuneiform, features Smith's newly expanded Golden Quintet
The New York Times- Nate Chinen, DownBeat's 80 Coolest Things in Jazz Today
"A trumpeter and composer of penetrating insight." -Bill Meyer,"Smith uses his magisterial instrumental voice, his inspirational leadership and his command of classical, jazz and blues forms to remind us of what has gone down and what's still happening."
With America's National Parks, visionary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a six-movement suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country's public landscapes. Writing for his newly expanded Golden Quintet, Smith crafts six extended works that explore, confront and question the preserved natural resources that are considered the most hallowed ground in the U.S. - and some that should be.
The two-CD America's National Parks will be released on October 14 on Cuneiform Records, shortly before Smith's 75th birthday in December. It arrives, coincidentally, in the midst of celebrations for the centennial of the National Park Service, which was created by an act of Congress on August 25, 1916. The spark for the project, however, came from two places: Smith's own research into the National Park system, beginning with Yellowstone, the world's first national park; and Ken Burns' 12-hour documentary series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.
"The idea that Ken Burns explored in that documentary was that the grandeur of nature was like a religion or a cathedral," Smith says. "I reject that image because the natural phenomenon in creation, just like man and stars and light and water, is all one thing, just a diffusion of energy. My focus is on the spiritual and psychological dimensions of the idea of setting aside reserves for common property of the American citizens."
His 28-page score for America's National Parks was penned for his Golden Quintet, a fresh reconfiguration of the quartet that's been a keystone of his expression for the last 16 years. Pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Pheeroan akLaff are joined by cellist Ashley Walters, affording the composer and bandleader new melodic and coloristic possibilities. "The cello as a lead voice with the trumpet is magnificent," Smith says, "but when you look at the possibilities for melodic formation with the trumpet, the cello, the piano and the bass, that's paradise for a composer and for a performer. My intent was to prolong or enhance the vitality of the ensemble to live longer."
That's an enticing prospect given the vigor and daring on bold display throughout America's National Parks. Where many composers would be seduced into romantic excess by the sweeping vistas and majestic panoramas of Yellowstone's grand waterfalls or Kings Canyon's towering redwoods, Smith takes a far more investigative and expansive view, with inventive and complex scores that prompt stunning improvisations from his ensemble. In fact, he has yet to visit many of the parks paid homage in the pieces, opting instead for thorough historical research.
"You don't really need to visit a park to write about a park," Smith insists. "Debussy wrote 'La Mer,' which is about the sea, and he wasn't a seafaring person. I would defend his right to do that, and I would contend that 'La Mer' is a masterpiece that clearly reflects his psychological connection with the idea of the sea."
The idea of the parks, rather than their physical and geographical beauty, is central to Smith's conception for this music. In its marrying of natural landmarks and political challenges it can be traced back to both of the composer's most recent epic masterpieces, The Great Lakes and especially Ten Freedom Summers. "It became a political issue for me because the people that they set up to control and regulate the parks were politicians," Smith says. "My feeling is that the parks should be independent of Congress and organized around an independent source who has no political need to be reelected. So it's a spiritual/psychological investigation mixed with the political dynamics."
Smith's suite also takes inventive liberties with the definition of a "national park;" half of its inspirations aren't, technically speaking, considered as such. The album opens with "New Orleans: The National Culture Park," which argues that the entire Crescent City deserves to be recognized for its influential contributions to American history and culture. "New Orleans was the first cultural center in America and therefore it produced the first authentic American music," Smith says.
The second piece, "Eileen Jackson Southern, 1920-2002: A Literary National Park," takes an even broader view, suggesting that the African-American musicologist, author and founder of the journal The Black Perspective in Music, to which Smith has contributed, should be honored for her efforts to document a musical common ground shared by all Americans. Another piece represents the "Deep and Dark Dreams" of the Mississippi River, which Smith calls "a memorial site which was used as a dumping place for black bodies by hostile forces in Mississippi. I use the word 'dark' to show that these things are buried or hidden, but the body itself doesn't stay hidden; it floats up."
His 28-page score for America's National Parks was penned for his Golden Quintet, a fresh reconfiguration of the quartet that's been a keystone of his expression for the last 16 years. Pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Pheeroan akLaff are joined by cellist Ashley Walters, affording the composer and bandleader new melodic and coloristic possibilities. "The cello as a lead voice with the trumpet is magnificent," Smith says, "but when you look at the possibilities for melodic formation with the trumpet, the cello, the piano and the bass, that's paradise for a composer and for a performer. My intent was to prolong or enhance the vitality of the ensemble to live longer." That's an enticing prospect given the vigor and daring on bold display throughout America's National Parks. Where many composers would be seduced into romantic excess by the sweeping vistas and majestic panoramas of Yellowstone's grand waterfalls or Kings Canyon's towering redwoods, Smith takes a far more investigative and expansive view, with inventive and complex scores that prompt stunning improvisations from his ensemble. In fact, he has yet to visit many of the parks paid homage in the pieces, opting instead for thorough historical research. "You don't really need to visit a park to write about a park," Smith insists. "Debussy wrote 'La Mer,' which is about the sea, and he wasn't a seafaring person. I would defend his right to do that, and I would contend that 'La Mer' is a masterpiece that clearly reflects his psychological connection with the idea of the sea." The idea of the parks, rather than their physical and geographical beauty, is central to Smith's conception for this music. In its marrying of natural landmarks and political challenges it can be traced back to both of the composer's most recent epic masterpieces, The Great Lakes and especially Ten Freedom Summers. "It became a political issue for me because the people that they set up to control and regulate the parks were politicians," Smith says. "My feeling is that the parks should be independent of Congress and organized around an independent source who has no political need to be reelected. So it's a spiritual/psychological investigation mixed with the political dynamics." Smith's suite also takes inventive liberties with the definition of a "national park;" half of its inspirations aren't, technically speaking, considered as such. The album opens with "New Orleans: The National Culture Park," which argues that the entire Crescent City deserves to be recognized for its influential contributions to American history and culture. "New Orleans was the first cultural center in America and therefore it produced the first authentic American music," Smith says. The second piece, "Eileen Jackson Southern, 1920-2002: A Literary National Park," takes an even broader view, suggesting that the African-American musicologist, author and founder of the journal The Black Perspective in Music, to which Smith has contributed, should be honored for her efforts to document a musical common ground shared by all Americans. Another piece represents the "Deep and Dark Dreams" of the Mississippi River, which Smith calls "a memorial site which was used as a dumping place for black bodies by hostile forces in Mississippi. I use the word 'dark' to show that these things are buried or hidden, but the body itself doesn't stay hidden; it floats up."
