Andy Adamson Quintet - First Light - Immediate Release

Adamson’s quintet features his original compositions; everything they perform is drawn from Adamson’s vast catalogue of original work that teems with exiting polyrhythms and richly contrasted harmonies.

Featuring: Andy Adamson: keyboards Dan Bennett: saxophone Brennan Andes: bass Jonathon Taylor: drums Ross Huff: trumpet

EARLY REVIEWS:

The saxophone solo soars and cries with abandon, and it is as if the other instruments are determined to intensify in their own ways to meet its fervor.

-Dodie Gould, Lemonwire

The band has a virile and muscular sound, while the leader’s full fisted chords charging ahead with Taylor riding on his back on pieces like the snappy “Twilight in the Making” and the loping “First Light.” Bennett’s searing alto is soulful on the latter, while on tenor he howls like late period Coltrane on the ferocious “High Street Roundabout.” Andes’ work on electric bass gives reflections of Jaco Pastorius as he gets funky with Adamson’s keyboard on the bicep flexing “Dived We Stand.” Huff’s trumpet is bright and clear on the Blue Note-inspired “Sunny Side Up” while the rhythm team shows its more mellow side as the leader floats mellow chords on “Once Through the Changes.” Fans of post modern hard

bop will have a field day with this easy pleaser.

-George Harris, Jazzweekly

Adamson likes to get wild and wooly taking the whole thing to places Brian Auger would think were out of bounds in his jazz/rock excursions. Often taking the church basement to the penthouse, Adamson and his gang sound like the kind of crew that soul easily bring the house down in a live setting. 

This stuff gets your blood flowing.

-Chris Spector, Midwest Record

Andy Adamson is a self-taught Ann Arbor native composer and musician. Starting his original band journey in sixth grade, Andy has composed music for his all original bands and played keyboards for over 50 years. Influenced by the likes of: John Coltrane, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Chick Corea, Andy has composed a vast catalogue of original modern jazz compositions. Over the years Andy has played many styles of music: jazz standards in solo and trio setting, cuban folk music with Melodioso, rockabily swing with Dick Siegel’s Ministers of Melody, funk with Norma Jean Bell and the All Stars, disco and rock with multiple Detroit based club bands, and rhythm and blues with the Ann Arbor band F.U.B.A.R. Andy’s latest release, First Light, features a collection of his traditional and fusion jazz compositions.

Jonathan Taylor is a Detroit-based drummer, improviser, composer, and educator. A tireless collaborator, he co-leads a number of original projects, including the avant-rock quartet saajtak, the multi-media sound and movement ensemble Legs, the electro-acoustic duo Says Things, and his own trio of original music featuring pianist Michael Malis and master bassist Jaribu Shahid. He has performed alongside such luminaries of creative music as: Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Liebman, Karl Berger, and Michael Formanek, and is a founding member of Polyfold, a musical arts collective. Jon earned a BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies from the University of Michigan, where he studied improvisation with Geri Allen and Ed Sarath, composition with Andrew Bishop and Evan Chambers, and performance with Sean Dobbins, Ellen Rowe, and Michael Gould. 

Dan Bennett is a saxophonist, and composer. Dan received BFA in saxophone performance/jazz studies from the University of Michigan (2004). Current associations include NOMO (ubiquity records), Colin Stetson’s Sorrow: A reimagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony, the Planet D Nonet’s Sun Ra and Township jazz projects, and many permutations of his own trio/quartet/quintet that plays regularly in Ann Arbor Mi. 

Brennan Andes has been a part of the Ann Arbor music community for 18 years. He has pursued music locally, nationally, and internationally. Known for his innovative work on stage and in the studio he has performed with Smokestack, Dick Siegel, George Bedard, Rootstand, Chris Good, Frontier Ruckus, Luke Windslow-King, Seth and May, Chris Bathgate, etc. He has an eight year old daughter and plans to continue his life as an active father and a full time musician 


Ross Huff is a composer, arranger, producer, and a performer on the trumpet and flugelhorn. He is a student of piano, guitar, french horn, trombone, percussion & voice. A 2004 BFA graduate with Honors from the University of Michigan School of Music Jazz and Contemplative Studies, Ross has recording credits with the Macpodz, the Tone Farmers, Rhyta Musik, May Erlewine, Friends with the Weather, Darrin James Band, John Latini, Chris Bathgate, Seth Bernard, the Go Rounds, Chris Good, Dave Boutette, Charlene Kaye, the Appleseed Collective, Lindsay Lou & Joshua Rilko and a solo EP (2009) the Muse. Ross has played all over the world the furthest - Haparanda Sweden/Tornio Finland, International Women’s Theater Festival, June 2005, with Josefina Baez at the Ay Ombe Theater (15km from Arctic Circle)! He enjoys baseball, kites, lawn sports, writing, reading & cooking, sitting at sturdy tables eating and drinking, and good talk. Ross is also an occasional freelance journalist & editor.

Adamson’s quintet features his original compositions; everything they perform is drawn from Adamson’s vast catalogue of original work that teems with exiting polyrhythms and richly contrasted harmonies. Listeners will find driving freewheeling precision in his creative pen. Adamson’s current band, featured on his latest album, First Light, includes: Brennan Andes (acoustic and electric bass), known for his innovative bass work with the Macpodz, the Ragbirds, and Vincent York. Drummer Jonathan Taylor, who has studied with pianist Geri Allen and performed with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, is guided by what he calls a “cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary approach to improvisation.”

Ross Huff (trumpet), known for his hot trumpet work with the Macpodz and the Tone Farmers, joined the band near the end of the recording session and contributed a beautiful solo on Sunny Side Up. In addition to Adamson’s fleet keyboard work, First Light provides a setting for the hard hitting, melodically inventive tenor saxophone playing of Dan Bennett, whose powerful tone and astonishing command of his instrument mesmerizes throughout. This is a tight quintet that has developed an intimate rapport. Adamson’s compositions glow with a joy earned though decades of selfmotivation and hard work. He’s clearly in his element, collaborating with creative young musicians in music that is constantly being reinvented.

1. First Light 5:41 

2. Corner Store 6:02 

3. Twilight in the Making 5:25 

4. Velvet Sunset 5:36 

5. Divided We Stand 4:54 

6. Once Through the Changes 3:24 

7. High Street Roundabout 6:21 

8. Transparent Dream 4:12 

9. Sunny Side Up 6:28

Bryant / Fabian / Marsalis "Do For You?" CD Release Show Monday, August 7th Trumpets (JAZZ PROMO SERVICES)

Bryant/Fabian/Marsalis 

"Do For You?"

CD Release Show

Monday, August 7th

Sets 7:30pm and 9:30pm

@ Trumpets

6 Depot Square

Montclair, NJ 07042

 (973) 744-2600

www.trumpetsjazz.com

Artist: BRYANT /  FABIAN / MARSALIS

Title: Do for You?

Label: CAP Records

ArtistWebsite: www.christianfabian.com

Release Date: JULY 4 2017

UPC Code: 6-30183-10572-0

Track Listings w/composer credit and track time 

1. Five Minute Blues (Fabian) 4:39

2. Never Again (Marsalis) 5:14

3. Of A Certain Age (Bryant) 6:21

4. The Cat Hatter (Bryant) 6:07

5. Do For You? (Fabian) 5:49

6. If You Never Come To Me (Jobim) 6:25

7. Resolvence of the Old (Fabian) 6:30

8. Weather Forecast (Bryant, Fabian, Marsalis) 5:46

9. Moxie Inside (Bryant) 6:21

10. Hey It’s Me You’re Talking To (Victor Lewis) 4:30

Musicians:

Lance Bryant: tenor sax and vocals

Christian Fabian: bass

Jason Marsalis: drums

Gates Thomas: keys on Track #3 & #6

Lance Bryant and Christian Fabian met in the Lionel Hampton Big Band, and were brought up like Jason Marsalis in old school jazz roots. And they religiously practice the first commandment of the old school: “Thou shalt give the audience a great show!” do for you? is proof that jazz roots grow into exciting new tunes, thrive in new times, and produce new jazz masters.

The album showcases new compositions by Bryant and Fabian, with a tune by Marsalis, and the Trio’s collective mastery and virtuosity is consistently front and center. These artists have not only mastered every corner of the tradition—they can do anything. The virtuostic Bryant on saxophone, a groovy solo by Fabian mixing funk and hip-hop flavor, expert punctuation by Marsalis on drums, lightning speed as quick and exciting as it is clean—they can do anything. Of A Certain Age by Bryant, with its nostalgic ballad feel and an artful performance by the Trio, could easily pass for a jazz standard.

The Band never loses its tightness...through impressive solo fills from Marsalis, Fabian’s gloriously clear pizzicato, pitch bends and grooves...Marsalis’ skillful Brazilian rhythms and timbres...unrelenting and funky drum and bass grooves, blazing saxophone melodies...the Band keeps surprising and amazing, and leaves us wowed.

From the liner notes by — Kabir Sehgal & Latin Grammy Award® winner New York City, June 2017

Available on iTunes

Media Contact

Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services

Ph: 845-986-1677 / jim@jazzpromoservices.com

www.jazzpromoservices.com

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

Odradek Records eNews

Award-winning pianist Muriel Chemin offers a fascinating insight into her deep love and understanding of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Muriel Chemin

BEETHOVEN

Diabelli Variations

Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations represent one of the greatest works for solo piano ever to be written. Throughout this monumental work, Beethoven dazzles us with his ability to make Diabelli’s theme become anything he wants it to be. Diabelli’s waltz has often been dismissed as rather primitive, even by Beethoven himself. The theme is, therefore, a wonderful example of the irrelevance of where a great composer’s musical material comes from, and the corresponding importance of how the composer manipulates and develops that material. Just as composers of the Renaissance could build profound Mass settings from trivial secular tunes, so Beethoven develops a vast musical edifice from an apparently unlikely source. The sheer variety of musical directions which he finds possible in a set of variations is breathtaking. At times he seems to confront, even mock, the rustic nature of Diabelli’s theme, but in the next breath transforms it into something dignified and sublime.

For award-winning pianist Muriel Chemin, these variations are really “transformations” and, alongside Beethoven’s sonatas, have become an integral part of her repertoire. She is considered one of the most convincing and original interpreters of Beethoven and Mozart, described by Hervé Pennven as: “Simply one of the best interpreters of Beethoven in the world.” 

“A superb musical personality [...]” Classica

“[...] the combination of rigour, richness and analytical awareness are astonishing”. Le Monde de la Musique

“Her clarity, precision, dynamism and artistic authoritativeness are formidable”. Repertoire

Buy on Amazon

Download from iTunes

Tom Ossana – The Thin Edge – July 26, 2017 MST 7:00 to 9:00p.m.

http://www.kzmu.org/listen.m3u ~ Use this link to access the show online.

Simon Eskildsen Trio - Introducing The Simon Eskildsen Trio (2017)

1. Goru 6:37

2. Fredet Land 6:20

3. Jeep Dirts 7:23

4. Grannystyle 3:34

5. Helle 6:43

6. Blanche 3:53

7. Sterling No. 1 7:04

www.simoneskildsen.dk

The Jazz Passengers - Still Life with Trouble (2017)

Please join us in celebrating The Jazz Passengers exciting new release Still Life With Trouble.

Enja/Yellowbird is really proud and thrilled to be part of this landmark release and hope you share our enthusiasm.

The Jazz Passengers "Still Life with Trouble". 30th Anniversary Release Reaches New Heights.

Note from Roy Nathanson: The magnificent chaos of creating this 30th anniversary Jazz Passengers CD kicked off some serious personal introspection. So, if this press release appears to double as memoir, it's no coincidence.

In 1986, when my friend Ray Dobbins suggested we call our new band "The Jazz Passengers," I thought, "that's kinda funny!" The name felt like a clever take on the alpha nature of the great iconic names: The Jazz Messengers and The Jazz Crusaders. The self-deprecating irony of the term "The Jazz Passengers" seemed about right for our eclectic crew.

Most of us had been playing in the Lounge Lizards and several of us blended our appreciation for jazz with a deep affection and involvement in the east village culture of those late 80s early 90s days: punk music and poetry, gender bending theatre, and avant musics of different types in the context of venues that allowed for real experimentation with the support of cheap rents. Somewhere in this "downtown" universe we found a political/cultural/psychological world that valued stupid jokes and serious commitment to various types of exploration equally, and it was from this world that the Passengers emerged.

Then like the rest of our money infused global city and the world, the guys and guise in the band got shoved along in a variety of separate directions. But we liked each other enough, and valued these influences enough that somehow we hung in there. Somehow we stayed deeply connected and continued to evolve. No longer centered in a geographical location we managed to nurture and grow a collective sound and sensibility that has imbued quite a list of projects, which I recently digitized and got a chance to watch and listen to.

The Fire at Keaton's Bar and Grille, 2000 (the song cycle about a mythical bar with loads of mythical guests), The Rock Concert, 2005 (commissioned by the University of Wisconsin Science Museum to contextualize their discovery of the world's oldest piece of geological material), You're the Fool, 2003, (my semi-autobiographical Radio play for NPR), Jazz Passengers in Egypt (our own 1990 Marxist ? as in the brothers - musical comedy featuring members of the downtown Ridiculous Theatre community), and tons of our live performances from 1987 to today.

Seeing all this work ? all these crazy solos and stories, jokes and nuts arrangements was something of an epiphany. What struck me most was how the work sung of community and shared language, the weight of a collective life's work. It is in that spirit we carved out time in these last 2 years to work on this 30th Anniversary CD, "Still Life With Trouble". Thankfully, deep into our late 50's and mid 60's we've managed to record a CD that is a pure representation of this very particular Passengers language. It contains nine musical stories about trouble and the passage of time that describe a Still Life of odd birds native to these parts whose calls employ a variety of pitches, words, harmonies and rhythms that collectively translate into the following sentence: If there's still life, there's certainly still trouble!

With the help of our longtime producer/engineer/friend Hugo Dwyer these nine tracks represent a new path in the Passengers journey. The original members of the band, Curtis Fowlkes (who started the JPs with me while playing for dancing elephants in the Big Apple Circus), Bill Ware, Brad Jones, EJ Rodriguez and myself are supplemented here with newish (last 10 years) violinist Sam Bardfeld and a second drummer, the wonderful Ben Perowsky. Original member Marc Ribot plays on one track. After years of trying other guitarists in Marc's absence, we finally found a different way to broaden the band's palette in this recording by adding Ben as a second drummer.

This new CD finds inspiration in the intuitive abandon that characterized our first two CDs recorded in the late 1980s. "Paris," which opens this recording, is a blues dedication to the great city whose beleaguered banlieus has been a home to our band through the wonderful Banlieus Bleus Jazz Festival. "Everybody Plays the Fool" is a rearrangement of the great R and B classic. I was always so touched by the first verse when Cuba Gooding of the Main Ingredient asks, "I hear you're even thinkin' about dyin' / but before you do anything rash / dig this!". Such a thing to say in a pop tune! I thought we should try to make our sense of that.

"Trouble" is a multi-meter piece of mine with a blues head that moves between solo set-ups to give several of us a well-organized opportunity to complain with some eloquence. Brad's tune "Gleis, Spoor, Binario" is dedicated to all these years of European touring that have enabled so many of us to continue to play this eccentric heartfelt music. Next is my Passengers style pop tune, "Wake Up, Again," an off kilter groove in 5/4 featuring Curtis' mellifluous voice. Curtis wrote the next tune, "Where's Lonely Junior" and it features his distinctive loping trombone, one of the great delicacies of this peculiar world we all live in.

The seventh song "We're All Jews" references Lenny Bruce's perfect description of New Yorkers. True, no? The last two tunes are by Bill Ware whose vibes and arrangements have provided a whole lot of sheen on all of our work. Bill claims that the first of the two, "Friends", was given to him in a dream by Louis Armstrong, and who am I to quibble? The last tune, "Spring Flowers" celebrates the miracle of chemical enhancement.


Simply put, I'd like to share the joy and enthusiasm I feel about this CD - and about being a passenger on this 30 year ride with these very special odd musicians - and to offer you a seat.

Fernando Benadon - delight / delirium (NEW FOCUS RECORDINGS 2017)

Fernando Benadon has a rich background as a composer, saxophonist, improviser, and scholar. He brings this experience to his most recent recording project, delight/delirium, particularly to the final two tracks, Búgi Wúgi and Rhythmensional, both of which engage with the boundaries between improvised and notated music in interesting ways. For Rhythmensional, Benadon recorded an improvised drum solo by acclaimed Cuban jazz drummer and composer, Dafnis Prieto. Benadon then composed a through composed piece to be performed along with the recording of Prieto’s solo essentially turning Prieto’s improvisation into fixed media. As a scholar, Benadon has had an enduring interest in the field of “microtimings” (for a very different look at “microtimings”, see Richard Beaudoin’s New Focus release of the same name, FCR125 using the microscopic temporal inflections of iconic recordings as the basis for new composition), which investigates the aspects of time in a performer’s performance that go beyond notation, particularly as they relate to different styles. By recording Prieto and then placing his playing at the foundational level of the piece, in a sense, Benadon has frozen the microtimings in the improvisation while guaranteeing micro-variation in the rhythmic realization of the score by the live performers playing along with Prieto’s track. Búgi Wúgi consciously goes in the opposite direction, achieving the looseness of early jazz piano masters Earl Hines and Bubber Miley and the post-modern sensibility of contemporary experimental improvisors like Ethan Iverson and Vijay Iyer by keeping the left hand steady and meticulously notating improvised “sounding” material in the right hand.

Cotxes in inspired by the visual imagery of Barcelona, as this unique quartet of sax, vibes, harp, and piano spin out lush, impressionistic harmonies through notated lines that again sound improvised. delight/delirium opens with material that perhaps could be improvised, but reveals itself clearly as a fully through composed piece when we hear tightly coordinated unisons between clarinet and piano near the one minute mark. Nevertheless, the work often falls forward like an improvisation, with a sense of structure that is less oriented towards managed development of material than it is towards a journey whose changes of directions are suggested each moment anew. Cosmicomics is the odd man out aesthetically on the recording, not only because it is the only large ensemble work, but also because it inhabits a more conventionally composerly sound world. The work ebbs and flows between the gently pulsating, impressionistic chords of the opening and more explosive moments that bristle with orchestral color. Cosmicomics is a more direct look at Benadon’s material palette apart from his engagement with exploring the subtle boundaries between improvised and notated music.

1. Cotxes 09:15

2. delight/delirium 07:35

3. Cosmicomics 10:01

4. Bugi Wugi 07:27

5. Rhythmensional 11:47

Track 1,2,4,5 recorded at American University 

Track 3 recorded at University of Illinois 

Track 5 recorded at Systems Two 

Produced with support from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American University’s College of Arts and Sciences 

Mix: Rogerio Weis Naressi 

Mastering: Yana Sakellion