Jazz singer Sanna Ruohoniemi (Fin) releases "Tales of a Stranger" on October 7th
Sanna Ruohoniemi, a Finnish jazz vocalist & composer, will be touring Finland and Sweden in October-November 2016
The album, “Tales Of A Stranger”, will be released on October 2016 via Finnish record label Eclipse Music, and presents Sanna and four Swedish musicians from the thriving jazz scene of Stockholm. It is Sanna’s debut album and will feature her as a jazz vocalist, improviser and composer.
Sanna together with her group makes a strong statement of what jazz is today. This quartet creates music that has it’s root in tradition of jazz with a mixture of the Nordic folk traditions, free improvised music and everything in between. The musical dialogue, their solid group energy, playfulness and catchy compositions draws the attention of the listener, as does the enchanting combination of delicate vocal sound with a twist of long Nordic winter’s rawness translated into music.
“Sanna is a very special singer, she will move you. With her quiet, naked persona and her truly honest musicianship she will take you to places and she will touch your heart. Sanna Ruohoniemi is a genuine jazz musician, true to her inner self, a seeker exploring the boundaries of her musical ability – very brave in her pursuit and certainly succesfull. This applies also to her group, they work really well together."– Irene Sjögren
Brooklyn-based composer-bandleader Darcy James Argue and his innovative 18-piece big band Secret Society will release their third album, Real Enemies, out September 30, 2016. Composed by Argue, Real Enemies is a 13-chapter exploration of America’s fascination with conspiracy theories; narratives behind the Red Scare, the Illuminati, Edward Snowden, and alien sightings are meticulously examined and interrogated through Argue’s dazzling score. Real Enemies debuted as a multimedia performance (co-created by Argue with writer/director Isaac Butler and filmmaker Peter Nigrini) to impressive acclaim at BAM’s 2015 Next Wave Festival. Taking its title from Kathryn Olmsted’s 2009 book Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11, the project is the product of extensive research into a broad range of conspiracies, from the familiar and well-documented to the speculative to the outlandish. Real Enemies traces the historical roots, iconography, and language of conspiracies, and examines conspiratorial thinking as a distinct political ideology. It chronicles a shadow history of postwar America, touching on everything from COINTELPRO to the the CIA-Contra cocaine trafficking ring to secret weather control machines to reptilian shape-shifters from Alpha Draconis infiltrating our government at the highest level. Real Enemies invites the listener to explore and engage with the conspiratorial mindset. Argue explains:
“Belief in conspiracies is one of the defining aspects of modern culture. It transcends political, economic, and other divides. Conservative or liberal, rich or poor, across all races and backgrounds there exists a conspiratorial strain of thought that believes there are forces secretly plotting against us. Conspiracy theories often take hold because they provide an explanation for disturbing realities.
They tell a story about why the world is the way it is. Paradoxically, it’s often more comforting to believe that bad things happen because they are part of a hidden agenda than it is to believe that they came about as a result of mistakes, ineptitude, or random chance.”
As befitting a journey into postwar paranoia, Real Enemies draws heavily on 12-tone techniques, a compositional system based on a tone rows — a sequence of all 12 pitches in the chromatic scale — devised by Arnold Schoenberg in the aftermath of World War I and embraced by American composers during the conspiracy-rich postwar era. However, Argue’s wide-ranging score exhibits a mischievous disregard for how those techniques have been traditionally deployed. Other musical touchstones include the paranoia-inducing film scores of Michael Small (The Parallax View) and David Shire (All The President’s Men), the revolutionary songs of Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, the psychedelic space-jazz of Sun Ra, the FM synth-fueled grooves of early 1980’s LA electro funk-influenced hip hop, and much more.
Significant pieces of spoken text from figures like JFK, Frank Church, George H. W. Bush, and Dick Cheney are expertly woven throughout the robust and provocative score, with a concluding voice-over narration provided by actor James Urbaniak. Real Enemies is an intense musical and sensory experience that spins and explores a web of paranoia and distrust, and resonates long after its last note.
01. You Are Here 08:06
02. The Enemy Within 04:37
03. Dark Alliance 07:04
04. Trust No One 05:20
05. Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars 06:47
06. Best Friends Forever 04:26
08. Casus Belli 05:37
09. Crisis Control 07:02
10. Apocalypse is a Process 05:47
11. Never a Straight Answer 07:27
12. Who Do You Trust? 04:17
13. You Are Here 06:01
14. Best Friends Forever (single) 04:26
Dave Pietro - piccolo, flute, alto flute, bass flute, soprano sax, alto sax
Rob Wilkerson - flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax
Sam Sadigursky - Eb clarinet, Bb clarinet, A clarinet, tenor sax
John Ellis - clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax
Carl Maraghi - clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone
Seneca Black - trumpet, flugelhorn
Jonathan Powell - trumpet, flugelhorn
Matt Holman - trumpet, flugelhorn
Nadje Noordhuis - trumpet, flugelhorn
Ingrid Jensen - trumpet, flugelhorn
Mike Fahie - trombone
Ryan Keberle - trombone
Jacob Garchik - trombone, tuba
Jennifer Wharton - bass trombone, tuba
Sebastian Noelle - acoustic & electric guitar
Adam Birnbaum - acoustic & electric piano, FM synth
Matt Clohesy - contrabass & electric bass, bass synth
Jon Wikan - drum set, cajón, misc. percussion
James Urbaniak - narrator on "Who Do You Trust?" and "You Are Here" reprise
The unexpected and open-minded quartet of Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tilbury and Wadada Leo Smith performing live in Italy at the Angelika Festival in 2011, presenting the three part improvised work "Nessuno"; delicate, virtuosic, rewarding music from 4 masters.
As the excitement continues to build around Entertainment Cruise Productions' inaugural sailing of The Contemporary Jazz Cruise, Don Was of Blue Note Records and Steven Bensusan of Blue Note Jazz Club today announced a five year partnership with ECP for that cruise. The partnership will result in a re-branding of the cruise as Blue Note at Sea.
With six Blue Note artists among those performing on the cruise, it's interesting to note that the meeting that led to Entertainment Cruise Productions' partnership with Blue Note actually had its origins not on Entertainment Cruise Productions' The Jazz Cruise (the first and only full ship charter in the world dedicated to "straight ahead" jazz, which is celebrating its 16th consecutive year of operations in 2017) but on another of the company's charters, The 80s Cruise, on which Blue Note President Don Was performed with his band Was (Not Was). Later the discussions were expanded to include the world famous Blue Note Jazz Clubs led by Steven Bensusan.
"This partnership between Blue Note Records, Blue Note Jazz Club, and Entertainment Cruise Productions launches a musically historic undertaking! Over the last 4 decades, our friends at the Blue Note clubs have become synonymous with integrity and quality in the presentation of live jazz - it's an honor to launch a cooperative venture involving our two companies," said Was. "And, having sailed with Entertainment Cruise Productions as both a performer and a passenger, I can tell you first-hand that they run the greatest musical expeditions on the high seas. Blue Note at Sea will be The Mother of all Jazz Cruises....I'll dig you there!"
"Entertainment Cruise Productions is excited and honored to be associated with Blue Note Records and Blue Note Jazz Club, two of the truly iconic brands in the world of jazz," notes Michael Lazaroff, President and Owner of Entertainment Cruise Productions. "That we will be renaming The Contemporary Jazz Cruise to be Blue Note at Sea is both fitting and fabulous in that the identity of this cruise is now crystal clear to jazz fans throughout the world. Being able to work with Don Was, on a personal basis, may be one of the most rewarding episodes in my 17 year career as a cruise producer. And I look forward, finally after years of trying, to work with Steve Bensusan of Blue Note Jazz Club, a true giant in this industry."
"Our customers around the world consistently inquire about premium jazz-centric travel opportunities, specifically cruises. To that end, we're proud to partner with Michael Lazaroff's ECP team along with our good friend Don Was and Blue Note Records on this historic cruise offering," says Steven Bensusan, President of Blue Note Entertainment Group. "This is a dynamic partnership that uniquely fuses ECP's extensive cruise operating experience and Blue Note Records iconic roster with our global customer base and track record in the live entertainment space."
The current Blue Note artists booked for Blue Note at Sea are Marcus Miller (the cruise's Musical Director,) Terence Blanchard, the Robert Glasper Trio and Gregory Porter, along with Blue Note alumni Dianne Reeves and Chucho Valdes. They are part of a roster of the 34 exceptional artists, who collectively have earned over 50 Grammy® Awards among them, performing on the cruise.
Blue Note at Sea will sail from February 4 through February 11, 2017, departing from Fort Lauderdale, FL and traveling to the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, and Haiti on The Celebrity Summit. The Celebrity Summit features a sleek rooftop terrace, Canyon Ranch Spa, world class dining, and elegant cabin design. Fares begin at $2400 per person and include tickets to all concerts, all gourmet meals, special events throughout the voyage, and all port charges.
For more information or to book a cabin, visit www.bluenoteatsea.com or call 888-852-9987.
Entertainment Cruise Productions is the world's leader in full ship charter music cruises. Beginning more than a decade ago, Entertainment Cruise Productions, through its various programs, has produced more than 50 full ship charters featuring music themes as diverse as Rock 'n Roll, Elvis, R&B, Pop, Gospel and Jazz, as well as the upcoming 2017 Star Trek: The Cruise. Entertainment Cruise Productions' formula for success remains constant among its various programs. Entertainment Cruise Productions is dedicated to providing the finest music and entertainment cruise experience in the world.
