Valerie Ghent - Velours (2016) JAZZ PROMO SERVICES

The Multi-Talented Singer Releases New Album

Recorded in France and NYC

Velours Release Date October 21 * Pre-Order Sept 23

POWERHOUSE NYC RECORDING ARTIST 

Valerie Ghent

“Velours” CD Release Concert

Sat. October 29, 2016 – 7:30pm

Joe’s Pub

featuring the phenomenal Bernard Davis on drums, Damon Banks on bass,

Jérôme Buigues on guitar, Pierre Sibille on keys, Gary Fritz on percussion,

Alfa Anderson & Dennis Collins on backing vocals & very special guests!

Joe’s Pub at the Public

425 Lafayette Street, NYC 10003

212-967-7555

GET TICKETS NOW!

(New York, NY) September 15, 2016 – Fresh off intensive summer martial arts training in China and ready to rumble, NYC recording artist Valerie Ghent celebrates the release of her highly anticipated new album, Velours, with a full-band performance of renowned French and American musicians at Joe’s Pub at the Public on October 29th.

Hailed by reviewers at her last Joe’s Pub performance as “Valerie Ghent is a True Rockstar at Joe’s Pub” and “Ghent's show was enthralling and pure excitement” (NY Cabaret Today), mark your calendars for this one night only performance & get your tickets today!

On her fourth solo album, Velours, Valerie draws on the full range of her talents forged over 20+ years working with music luminaries Ashford & Simpson, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, Debbie Harry & Billy Preston to deliver a breathtaking, spell-binding performance that draws the listener in and never lets go.

Returning to the smooth sound that has won her fans around the globe with her iHeart Radio #1 hit song, Love Enough for a Lifetime, Velours is sure to become Valerie’s most iconic album yet.

In this electrifying mix of R+B, funk, reggae and smooth soul, Ghent fully unleashes her 3 and 1/2 octave vocal range, powerful keyboard chops and her distinctive voice that can hurtle into the stratosphere, whisper in your ear or fall into a low croon at will. These talents, combined with her undeniable authenticity, vitality and joy, her sterling record production, the strength of her songwriting and engineering skills, and her radiant physicality as a performer shaped by years of martial arts training, make Valerie a force to be reckoned with.

Recorded in the South of France and NYC, the 11 original songs on Velours propel the listener from the transcendent luminosity and opening invocation of Love Divine to the exuberant Get Funkay, from the unstoppable New York City Streets to the heart-stopping ballad, Light in My Life.  The mesmerizing funk groove of title song Velours literally flows into the American-songbook inspired Linger (with accompanying string quartet), while future R+B classic It's Got To Be You plays smooth counterpoint to the reggae-inspired Phased and the gospel blues of 30 Days. The deep groove of On & On flows like a river, and Love Will Keep Me Strong brings us back to the source.

Backed up by a band of internationally acclaimed musicians and vocalists from NYC, France and Senegal, Velours takes the listener on a journey through smooth soul, feel-good R+B, intimate ballads, sun-drenched reggae and pure funk. With A-list musicians playing live on each song, Valerie has conjured up a hot, real, live sound that harkens back to old-school days, recording live with real musicians, delivering killer lead vocals alongside the band. As one fan aptly described, Valerie makes “music you can touch”.

Why the French spelling? “That’s a great question! My mother was born in Paris and I’ve been retracing her steps there. Velours actually began in France – we recorded six songs with my French band, then five songs in New York. The entire album was mixed in the French countryside by Jérôme Buigues, in a studio surrounded by Provençal vineyards. Plus the title song comes from French slang. So it made total sense to me to go with the French spelling.”

How do you pronounce Velours? Leave off the ‘s’ and say "veh-loooor". A French word with the same meaning in English: smooth, velvety, velour. Exactly how you'll feel after listening to Valerie Ghent. 

A-list musicians on Velours include Tinkr Barfield (Luther Vandross, Ashford & Simpson) on bass, guitarists Robin Macatangay (Hamilton, Lizz Wright) & Jérôme Buigues (Murray Head, Sir Cliff Richard), percussionist Bashiri Johnson (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston), keyboardist/arranger Rob Mounsey (Madonna, Paul Simon), drummers Kevin Johnson (Curtis Mayfield, Cassandra Wilson), Philippe Jardin (Ray Lema, Gerard Blanc) & Franck Taieb (Daniel Levi), organist/harmonicst Pierre Sibille (Blues’ UP), vocalists Alfa Anderson (Chic, Luther Vandross), Keith Fluitt (Nona Hendryx, Roberta Flack), Dennis Collins (Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder), John James (Toto, Elton John), Ada Dyer (Chaka Kahn, Roberta Flack), cellist Dave Eggar (Coldplay, Beyonce), violinist/violist Katie Kresek (Adele, Alicia Keys), trumpeters Steven Bernstein (Hot Nine, Levon Helm) & Marc Borlet-Hôte (Massak, Keziah Jones), saxophonist Paul Shapiro (Jay-Z, Lou Reed), Nicolas Baudino (Lio, Harry Morse Project), baritone saxophonist Briggan Krauss (Eliot Sharp, Wayne Horvitz), trombonist Dan Levine (Ray Charles) and a special guest performance by Senegalese vocalist Mano Korani Camara.

What’s the martial arts connection? Valerie is longtime student of Chinese martial arts, training which helps fuel the indomitable spirit inherent in her music. Her August 2016 trip to China to train with Master Zhao Da Yuan has solidified her training and will undoubtedly add an extra ‘punch’ to her Joe’s Pub performance.

Valerie Ghent Bio: Powerhouse recording artist VALERIE GHENT wows audiences with her emotive, evocative voice, piano chops to match, and “soul-stirring, uplifting songs full of vitality and joy.” A native New Yorker with a bluesy, funky piano style and a stunning 3 1/2 octave range, it’s no surprise she has toured with music legends Ashford & Simpson and Debbie Harry and performed with artists as diverse as Dr. Maya Angelou, Billy Preston, Iggy Pop and Defunkt.

Valerie’s Day to Day Dream album launched a #1 hit song on iHeart Radio with Love Enough for a Lifetime, was added nationwide on Sirius XM, national radio in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the BBC and 100+ radio stations across the EU/UK/AU. Her single Supernatural Thing made the Top 40 on NBT Music Radio (Germany). Fans around the world eagerly await her 2016 release, Velours, recorded in France and NYC.

A native New Yorker with four acclaimed CD’s on her own label, Valerie grew up in SoHo and Greenwich Village. Born into a musical family, she began writing songs as a child, recording in her father’s electronic music studio, absorbing her mother’s string quartet rehearsals and falling asleep to the music of Ornette Coleman, who lived and rehearsed in the same SoHo building.

Longtime keyboardist, vocalist and recording engineer for legendary hit singer-songwriters Ashford & Simpson, Val worked closely with the duo for over two decades, recording their music as well as collaborations with Angelou, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Sir Cliff Richard and many others. Literally a whirlwind of musical energy, in addition to her own music career Valerie continues to perform and record with Valerie Simpson, is founder of Feel the Music!, an arts education nonprofit and travels regularly to China to further her studies of the internal Chinese martial arts.

 “Ghent sings from the guts. Her contralto rises with the smooth momentum of something out of NASA.”

- Woman About Town

“Ghent, herself, is a vocal phenomenon...she has the glistening, effervescent energy of a top pop/rock star.”

- NY Cabaret Today

Musicians on Velours:

Valerie Ghent - vocals, piano, rhodes, clavinet, Hammond B3 organ, backing vocals

Tinkr Barfield - bass

Kevin Johnson, Philippe Jardin, Franck Taieb - drums

Jérôme Buigues - guitars/backing vocals

Robin Macatangay - guitar

Pierre Sibille - keyboards/harmonica

Bashiri Johnson - percussion

Rob Mounsey - strings

Alfa Anderson, Keith Fluitt, Dennis Collins,

John James, Ada Dyer - backing vocals

Mano “Korani” Camara - guest lead vocal 

Dave Eggar - cello

Katie Kresek - violin & viola

Steven Bernstein, Marc Borlet-Hôte - trumpet

Paul Shapiro, Nicolas Baudino – saxophones

Briggan Krauss - baritone sax

Dan Levine - trombone

Produced by Valerie Ghent

Recorded in France & NYC

Mixed by Jérôme Buigues

Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound

Following her Joe's Pub performance, Valerie's Velours album release concerts in France kick off December 1 (Marseille). Additional dates to follow. 

December 1, 2016

Valerie Ghent Velours Album Release

Espace Musical Hyperion, Marie 4/5

2Bis Avenue du Maréchal Foch, 13004 Marseille, France

+33 4 91 49 27 88

VALERIE GHENT WEBSITE

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JIM EIGO, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES

272 State Route 94 South #1, Warwick, NY 10990-3363

Phone: 845-986-1677

Cell/text: 917-755-8960

Skype: jazzpromo

jim@jazzpromoservices.com 

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Sonus Inenarrabilis: Nine Live Plays the Music of John Clark November 22nd 7:00pm Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 3

Sonus Inenarrabilis

Nine Live Plays the Music of John Clark

November 22nd 7:00pm

Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 3

196 Allen Street (between Houston St & Stanton St) NYC

212-477-4155

 $10 plus 2-drink minimum

Purchase Tickets Direct Link  

Featuring

John Clark: French Horn

Dan Cooper: 7-string Electric Bass

Lynn Bechtold: Violin

Patricia Billings: Clarinet

Michael Rabinowitz: Bassoon

Cesare Papetti: Drums

Carlton Holmes: Piano

Jennifer DeVore: Cello

Earl Maneein: Viola

Sonus Inenarrabilis: Nine Live Plays the Music of John Clark

Though its name translates as “undefinable sound,” 

Sonus Inenarrabilis delivers an exciting and soulful blend of jazz, classical, funk and more.

Some music just won’t be pigeonholed, including the collection of compositions presented in Sonus Inenarrabilis. To do justice to this adventurous and haunting melding of diverse influences, you have to apply the immortal Duke Ellington’s highest compliment: It’s beyond category.

Sonus Inenarrabilis, soon to be released on Dave Soldier’s Mulatta Records label (www.mulatta.org), features six jazz-inflected compositions by John Clark, rendered by a nonet starring instruments more commonly associated with symphonic music, including French Horn, Bassoon, Viola, and Cello. Album highlights include:

“Die Kreuzotter,” a moody, noir-ish piece with a slightly dangerous 2 a.m. feel.

“Eviter les Contrefaçons,” which translates to the wise advice “avoid imitations.” With a sensuous Mediterranean vibe that occasionally evokes Moorish Spain, this is the real thing.

“Freedom's Delight” has a sweeping, almost pastoral beauty.

The stately, mysterious “Outage” features dramatic strings. Listen carefully, you won’t want to miss a note.

“Sibilia Colubri” delights with a beautiful, rich piano intro, great rhythm, and a graceful flow.

“Turbulence” takes the listener on a sonic adventure. Its deeply funky feel and great bass line contribute to the tune’s tons of swagger.

All of the music is written and arranged by French Horn master John Clark, who has released a series of jazz albums as a leader; his latest recording The Odd Couple Quintet +1 was pre-nominated for a 2015 Grammy.

Clark secured his jazz bona fides early on, playing with NEA Jazz Masters McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, George Russell, and Gil Evans: Clark was a mainstay of Evans’ renowned Monday Night Orchestra, which reigned supreme at Sweet Basil in the 1980s. He has played with luminaries including Joe Lovano, Julius Hemphill, Jaco Pastorius, the Mingus Orchestra, and has done extensive pop, Broadway, classical, and studio work.  Ensembles who have performed Clark’s compositions include the Gil Evans Orchestra, the McCoy Tyner Big Band, the Paul Winter Consort, Composers’ Concordance, Genghis Barbie, Imani Winds, and the Pugh-Taylor Project. Clark earned an advanced degree from the New England Conservatory, and is currently on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music.

Joining Clark in the versatile and adventurous Nine Live cohort, co-directed by Dan Cooper, are:

Violinist Lynn Bechtold: Equally at home onstage at the Blue Note, Alice Tully Hall, Joe’s Pub and Merkin Hall, Lynn plays with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, East Village Opera Company, the Absolute Ensemble and is concert master of the Composer’s Concordance orchestra. A contemporary music advocate, Bechtold holds degrees from NEC, Tufts, and Mannes College of Music.

Cellist Jen DeVore: Along with Lynn Bechtold, DeVore is a member of the Lumina Quartet and half of the duo Zentripetal. The duo’s repertoire ranges from Philip Glass to Adele, John Cage, Astor Piazzolla, and “Tico Tico.” DeVore holds degrees from Harvard and NEC, and worked with John Cage, Ornette Coleman, and John Zorn, plus records and performs with Il Divo, DJ Spooky, Josh Groban, and Suzanne Vega as well as the Jose Limon Dance Company, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Violist Stephanie Griffin: Principal violinist of the Princeton Symphony for 10 years, this skilled improviser worked closely with Butch Morris for more than a decade. She’s also played with Adam Rudolph’s Go: Organic Orchestra and the Brooklyn Infinity Orchestra. As a member of Tony Prabowo’s New Jakarta Ensemble she creates avant-garde compositions alongside traditional musicians from Sumatra. She has a doctorate from Juilliard, and has done residencies at Cornell, NYU, and Eastman School of Music.

Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh: Kinan has been lauded by The New York Times and New Yorker magazine and played in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Opera Bastille, the Kennedy Center, and Alice Tully Hall. Azmeh has appeared with Zakir Hussein, Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, and the Berlin Philharmonic; he’s artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Music Ensemble, and a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Azmeh has also appeared as a soloist with the NDR big band.

Bassoonist Michael Rabinowitz: Anyone who claims you can’t play bop on a bassoon hasn’t heard Rabinowitz in action. He’s appeared with the Mingus Orchestra, including playing the debut of Mingus’ symphony, “Epitaph,” and with Ryan Truesdell’s Grammy-winning Gil Evans Project, plus countless sideman gigs. As a leader, the bassoonist has released five jazz CDs with band mates such as jazz stalwarts John Hicks, Rufus Reid, and Victor Lewis.

Keyboardist Rob Stephens: This versatile musician is trained in both classical music and jazz. He brings to the table extensive experience in gospel and R&B, and a strong background in theater and choral work. The Virginia Symphony’s Chamber Ensemble has performed his arrangements, as have giants of gospel music such as Queen Esther Marrow and the Harlem Gospel singers. A skilled educator, Stephens has taught in the New Jersey public school system and has numerous private students.

Bassist / Nine Live co-director Dan Cooper: This native New Yorker is a master of the seven-string electric bass; he’s been acclaimed by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Time Out New York and numerous other publications. Cooper studied at Columbia, NEC, Princeton, Conservatoire de Nice, and Fontainebleau. He also received an Aaron Copland composition fellowship to Tanglewood. Cooper has extensive international performance credentials, at venues such as CBGB, Town Hall, Massey Hall, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Teatro Albeniz Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana, Sydney Opera House, and Royal Albert Hall.

Drummer Cesare Papetti:  Since studying classical percussion at Purchase College in New York and Music Education at Hofstra University, Cesare has played orchestral percussion with Regina Opera, Camerata Orchestra, Staten Island Philharmonic, Centre Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic, and the South Shore Symphony and is a founding member of Occasional Noise Trio, Just Music duo, and Firebird Art Rock.

The album’s title, Sonus Inenarrabilis, recognizes the diverse influences, expression and musical experiences that come together here. But Clark’s music practically requires the invention of new superlatives by those aiming to define it. Duke Ellington said there are only two kinds of music, good and bad. A single listen to this eclectic new offering from Nine Live confirms that it belongs firmly in the first category.

John Clark Sonus Inennarabilis (Mulatta Records MUL033) Street Date: October 7, 2016

Mulatta Records website:

www.mulatta.org

www.ninelive.nyc

John Clark website:

www.hmmusic.com

BUY THIS ALBUM

Media Contact

JIM EIGO, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES

272 State Route 94 South #1, Warwick, NY 10990-3363

Phone: 845-986-1677

Cell/text: 917-755-8960

Skype: jazzpromo

jim@jazzpromoservices.com 

www.jazzpromoservices.com

“Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

Carol Liebowitz / Nick Lyons - First Set (2016 LINE ART RECORDS)

New Release from

Carol Liebowitz & Nick Lyons

“First Set”

Line Art Records

Carol Liebowitz and Nick Lyons’s duo is an embodiment of go-anywhere in-the-moment improvisation. Their spontaneous lyricism, adventurous harmonic and textural palettes, and the natural ease with which their sounds merge results in a musical beauty and complexity that “expands and fills up corridors after each opened door” (Mark Weber). 

The free improvisations retain something of the swinging momentum of the tunes, and the tunes have an ever-unfolding and intrinsic form that is more commonly found in free-form playing. Tracks 1–7 are from a live concert, one of an informal series on Sundays that took place at Connie Crothers’s loft beginning January 2011, continuing into 2012.

Pianist Carol Liebowitz brings a uniquely expressive and personal sound to the jazz and free improvisation scene. 

Her recent CD, “Payne Lindal Liebowitz.” a trio with clarinetist Bill Payne and violinist Eva Lindal on Line Art Records, was chosen by Art Lange as one of the Top Ten Jazz CDs in the NPR 2015 Jazz Critics Poll. Defined by “high caliber musicianship and intelligent, electrifying artistry” (Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz), Marc Medwin in Cadence Magazine writes “Simply put, they sound like no one else. . . . The recording is superb.” After focusing on classical repertoire at the High School of Performing Arts and NYU, her musical direction turned to improvisation and she began studying with Connie Crothers. 

Other influential teachers have included Sal Mosca, Jay Clayton and Sheila Jordan. She has performed in Europe and throughout the New York City metropolitan area in venues such as Roulette, The Stone, Cornelia Street Cafe, ibeam, The Firehouse Space, Arts for Art, Spectrum, Galapagos and Birdland. In addition to frequent solo concert appearances, Carol has worked in various groups—from duos to sextet—with musicians including Daro Behroozi, Adam Caine, Daniel Carter, Bill Chattin, Claire de Brunner, Maryanne de Prophetis, Andrew Drury, Ken Filiano, Birgitta Flick, Guillermo Gregorio, Ratzo Harris, Ron Horton, Will Jhun, KenYa Kawaguchi, Adam Lane, Eva Lindal, Nick Lyons, Adam Melville, Don Messina, Ryan Messina, Kevin Norton, Bill Payne, John Pietaro, Lorenzo Sanguedolce, John Wagner, Michael Wimberly, Andrea Wolper, and dancer Michiru Inoue. Carol also has two releases on the New Artists label: “Waves of Blue Intensities,” a duo with tenor saxophonist Bob Field, and “Time on My Hands,” a duo with Andy Fite.

Alto Saxophonist Nick Lyons has been called “one of the most important and original alto saxophonists on the improvisation scene” (Manhattan Users Guide, 2015) and “definitely a young jazzer to watch” (Time Out–NY). 

His collaborations, based around spontaneously improvised music, have included performing with guitarist Adam Caine, pianists Carol Liebowitz and Connie Crothers. Lyons leads various trios which have included drummers Roger Mancuso and John Wagner and bassists Adam Lane, Hilliard Greene, and Ratzo Harris. Of his 2009 solo performance at The Stone (a pick in Time Out–NY), Mark Weber commented on “his ability to go inside himself and find meaningful lyric inventions, curling out line upon line,” adding that the concert was “magnificent.” 

In 2015 Nick was a featured guest on WKCR’s “Out to Lunch,” performed in Berlin at clubs A-Trane and B-Flat and appeared on Cheryl Richards’s CD “If Not For You” on New Artists Records. He has been a regular performer in concert series presented by Arts for Art, the NYC fixture which produces the annual Vision Festival, most recently in Spring 2016 in a quartet with Carol Liebowitz, percussionist Andrew Drury and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter. He has recently performed in groups led by tenor saxophonist Jimmy Halperin (who cited Lyons as one of his favorite young musicians in New York City, JazzTokyo.org), Connie Crothers (The Stone), pianist Harvey Diamond (Boston area), and Aaron Johnson (Dizzy’s Club); and he has led groups with pianist Kazzrie Jaxen and bassist Ken Filiano, and pianist Virg Dzurinko, trumpeter Ryan Messina, and drummer Federico Ughi.

Artists: Carol Liebowitz, Nick Lyons 

Label: Line Art Records (LA1002) 

Artist Websites: CarolLiebowitz.com 

Release Date: January 6, 2017

UPC: 888295505161

All selections by Carol Liebowitz and Nick Lyons except Carol’s Dream and Roy’s Joy (Connie Crothers, C&C Jazz, ASCAP).

Tracks 1–7: live concert, Brooklyn, NY, May 20, 2012 (Connie Crothers, engineer);

Track 8: recorded August 10, 2007, Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY (Max Ross, engineer).

CD Mastering: Jim Clouse, Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY.

Carol Liebowitz, piano

Nick Lyons, alto saxophone

1. Carol’s Dream

2. Turquoise Echo

3. Twain Shall Meet

4. The Very Thing

5. Ephemera

6. Reverie on a Sunday Afternoon

7. Roy’s Joy

8. Another Time

www.CarolLiebowitz.com

www.lineartrecords.com

MEDIA CONTACT

JIM EIGO, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES

272 State Route 94 South #1, Warwick, NY 10990-3363

Phone: 845-986-1677

Cell/text: 917-755-8960

Skype: jazzpromo

jim@jazzpromoservices.com 

www.jazzpromoservices.com

“Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”