Friday, February 9, 2018

The Thing - Bag It! (2018)


Recorded Jan 17-18th, 2008 at Electrical Audio Studios, Chicago
Mixed Jan 19-20th, 2008 at Electrical Audio Studios, Chicago
Mastered April 3rd, 2008 at Chicago Mastering Service, Chicago
Released o Smalltown Superjazz 2009

1. Hidegen Fujnak A Szelek 05:03
2. Drop The Gun 06:08
3. Bag It! 09:41
4. Snusvisan 04:54
5. Hot Doug 08:46
6. Mystery Song 04:57
7. Angels 07:03
8. Beef Brisket (For Ruby's) 30:41

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten: Bass, Electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Mats Gustafsson: Saxophone, Electronics

Rune Mortensen: Design
Steve Albini: Engineer
Bob Weston: Mastering
Roberto (Bear) Guerra: Photography

The Thing - Action Jazz (2018)


Recorded and mixed at Atlantis Studio, Stockholm
Released on Smalltown Superjazz 2006

1. Sounds like a sandwich 02:04
2. Chiasma 04:58
3. Broken Shadows 02:28
4. Ride the Sky 02:13
5. Better Living 07:25
6. Danny's Dream 07:33
7. The Nut the Light 06:38
8. Through BBQ 09:10
9. Strayhorn 07:03

Saxophone [Grafton Plastic Alto], Baritone Saxophone, Slide Saxophone – Mats Gustafsson
Double Bass – Ingebrigt Håker Flaten
Drums, Percussion – Paal Nilssen-Love

The Thing with Jim O'Rourke - Shinjuku Growl (2018)


Released on Smalltown Superjazz 2010

1. THE - If Not Ecstatic, We Replay 22:41
2. Half A Dog Can't Even Take A Shit 14:58
3. I Can't, My Mouth Is Already Full 09:19
4. Shinjuku Growl 09:29

Mats Gustafsson: Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone
Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten: Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Jim O'Rourke: Guitar

Rune Mortensen: Design
Mastering: Audun Strype
Yasuo Fujimura: Recorded

Dunmall / Schubert / Dessanay / Bashford - Sign Of The Times (FMR RECORDS 2018)


With packaging embellished by 5 images of Paul Dunmall's wood engravings, this album catches the saxophonist on soprano, alto and tenor in the company of saxophonist Frank Paul Schubert on soprano and alto, with Sebastiano Dessanay on bass and Jim Bashford on drums, performing live at Lamp Tavern, in Birmingham for an album of intertwining reeds and solid rhythmic support.

1. Sign Of The Times 31:50
2. Talbot 21:08
3. Blues Is The Colour Of My Beloved 8:18

Paul Dunmall - soprano, alto, tenor saxes
Frank Paul Schubert - soprano, alto saxes
Sebastiano Dessanay - bass
Jim Bashford - drums

Bob Gingery - Kittyhawk (FRESH SOUND NEW TALENT RECORDS 2018)


Kittyhawk, the second album from the Bob Gingery Group, will be released in early 2018 on Fresh Sound New Talent records. It features six original compositions as well as music by Thelonious Monk and Pink Floyd performed by the quartet featuring Jon Irabagon, Mike Baggetta and Jeff Hirshfield.


01. Arrival 6:03
02. Bell Curve 7:57
03. Outskirts 5:18
04. Kittyhawk 7:23
05. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part V) 4:18
06. Soft Six 6:09
07. Hornin’ In 4:36
08. Eighties 6:29

All songs composed by Bob Gingery, except #4 by Roger Waters, Rick Wright & David Gilmour, and #7 by Thelonious Monk

Jon Irabagon (tenor sax)
Mike Baggetta (guitar)
Jeff Hirshfield (drums)

Recorded at Big Orange Sheep, Brooklyn, New York, on May 4, 2016

Engineered & mixed by Chris Benham
Mastered by Pieter DeWagter at EQuus, Belgium
Cover art: Spotted Crow Dance by Chris Maynard

Produced by Bob Gingery
Executive producer: Jordi Pujol

Lucky Dog - Live at the Jacques Pelzer Jazz Club (FRESH SOUND NEW TALENT RECORDS 2018)


01. Knock Knock (Frédéric Borey) 7:21
02. Manzana Mood (Yoann Loustalot) 9:03
03. Trouble (Frédéric Borey) 9:25
04. C’est tout (Yoann Loustalot) 4:57
05. The Game (Frédéric Borey) 9:18
06. Waterzooï Suite (Yoann Loustalot) 7:29
07. Wake Up Panda! (Yoann Loustalot) 9:11
08. Instant I (Yoann Loustalot) 7:39
09. Faits Divers (Frédéric Borey) 7:17
10. Old and New (Frédéric Borey) 4:02

Frédéric Borey (tenor & soprano sax)
Yoann Loustalot (trumpet & flugelhorn)
Yoni Zelnik (bass)
Frédéric Pasqua (drums)

Recorded live on February 7 & 8, 2017

Sound engineer: Laurent Walgraffe
Mixed & Mastered by Antoine Polin at Vintage Panda Studio, France
Design & cover art: Vincent Marco

Produced by Jordi Pujol


Bill McHenry Trio - Ben entrada la nit (FRESH SOUND NEW TALENT RECORDS 2018)


From the beginning of my musical associations with Eric Revis and RJ Miller,
alongside our professional duties came a fast friendship—the kind where
post performance we’d join the social environment, and often continue after
in someone’s house or hotel room with spirited conversion, information,
laughter, and sharing music, film or basketball. As we went well into the
night, the bluest and brightest moments were all accepted, and we were able
to fully enjoy the dignity of good company, like so many musicians have and
will forever.

Here we have the example of that passing in music. This is the recording of
the very first notes (and last, so far) played together by Eric Revis and RJ
Miller over a couple days in the fascinating Catalan city where I live,
Barcelona. For our first 3 songs we start in a musician-loved venue named
for its address—Robadors 23—with a live audience, and later we transition
for the rest of the album to saxophonist Sergi Felipe’s recording studio
Underpool in the beautiful hills surrounding the city, and continue well into
the night, or in Catalan they would say “Ben Entrada La Nit”.

-Bill McHenry (From the inside liner notes)

01. Ben Entrada la Nit (William McHenry) 13:45
02. Dancin', Ya'll Come (William McHenry) 14:58
03. Ain't Seen You Since Last Time (William McHenry) 10:30
04. The Elephant (Eric Revis) 6:59
05. John Daniel (William McHenry) 3:35
06. El Mapa (William McHenry) 3:40
07. Mean to Me (Fred H. Alert) 4:28


Recorded live at Robabors 23, Barcelona, November 9, 2015 (#1,2 & 3), and Underpool Studios, Barcelona, November 10 & 11, 2015 (#4,5,6 & 7).

Recorded & mixed by Sergi Felipe
Photos by Joan Carles Abelenda & Isabel Carderia

Produced by William "Bill" McHenry
Executive producer: Jordi Pujol

Janne Mark - Pilgrim (ACT MUSIC 2018)


Janne Mark: reinventing the hymn in Denmark in the spirit of jazz 

Janne Mark writes hymns. And yet there is nothing about her that is stuck in a fusty tradition. She writes in the here and now, she is socially aware and committed, and in her work she draws on the freedom of jazz and all of the breadth of the Scandinavian folk tradition. And that is how her songs have established their place outside the canon of sacred music and in the secular space. As she explains herself, “the music of ‘Pilgrim’ is written for people who are unfamiliar with the church as well as for those who know it well.” 

The music of the Christian church and jazz have always been closely related. Spirituals and then gospel music were both a fertile nurturing ground for jazz and an important source of inspiration. Janne Mark has enlisted the participation of Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Henriksen is an important figure in Nordic jazz, and is also known for his work with Lars Danielsson on projects such as the “Liberetto” albums. Henriksen’s unique flute-like trumpet sound with all its emotion and expressiveness fits in superbly. In fact Mark had wanted to incorporate it into her music for a long time. “Arve’s sound reaches into the deepest layers of human existence,” she says. “When I first heard it, it affected me so completely and totally, I knew I had to follow the path of that sound.” 

Danish hymns are unique. The works of Denmark’s greatest hymn writer N.F.S Grundtvig (1783-1872) have a resonance which reaches well beyond the confines of Denmark. Within the heritage of Scandinavian song, they are a constituent part which is very much alive. Like Grundtvig, Janne Mark grew up in Jutland, but she has spent most of her adult working life in Copenhagen. The Danish hymn tradition is agrarian. Most hymns were written in the countryside where the majority of Danes used to live, but Mark incorporates the urban space into her hymn-writing more than any other modern practitioner, and has found a unique way to reinvent the Danish hymn-writing tradition. Indeed she has been described as being like a musical cornflower at the hub of the city.

Since 2000, Mark has been singing in the Brorsons Church, in the centre of Copenhagen. It is in a neighbourhood teeming with different cultures, and where the media has been known to report clashes between local gangs. And yet the church serves as a sanctuary amid this commotion, and also happens to stand right next to the cemetery where two of Denmark’s most prolific writers are buried, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and the writer of fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen. This is a place from which Janne Mark derives strong creative inspiration. 

In traditional hymns, the lyricist and the composer are different people, and the role of the music is to express the words with straightforward intensity. As lyricist, composer and singer, Janne Mark has a different approach: “For me,” she explains, “the melody almost always emerges before the lyrics, often accompanied by the first line, an idea for a title or some other bit of text that provides either a melodic and rhythmic impetus.” She finds inspiration in many different places – her local community in Copenhagen, literature and music. Her music emanates from a person who listens to herself, to others and to God; all of that can be heard in it. Perhaps the best way to understand Janne Mark’s hymns is as one long prayer for more light in the darkness. She writes about creating light for those who have lost their way, and also about letting a light shine on the shadowy regions of the soul. And it is as if Janne Mark uses both her words and her lingering notes to send light from the serenity of the church and out into life with all its cracks and imperfections. 

“The church is the house of slowness,” she says. “I am interested in slowness, silence, the sounds of slowness and silence. The sound of the world in the form of a hymn. The sound of the world in the form of a church.” And her songs do indeed convey the stillness of meditation. 

“Pilgrim" is an engaging and thoughtful album with plenty in it to discover. It is a haven of peace and quiet in a world beset with restlessness and uncertainty. It is also the portrait of a fascinating artist who is little known as yet outside Denmark. Janne Mark has embarked upon a path between hymns, songwriting, folk and jazz, and has done so with great success. 


01 Igen berørt (Touched once again) 4:19
02 Verden er en salme (The world is a hymn)* 4:47
03 Pilgrim 5:39
04 Intro 0:48
05 Gå stille og tyst (Walk quietly, hushed through the world) 4:28
06 Elsket favnet, husket savnet (Wanted, cherished, remembered) 3:57
07 Syng for alverdens urolige hjerter (Sing for the hurt in the hearts of all people) 5:36
08 Vinter (Winter) 5:28
09 Julen i hjertet (Bethlehem) 4:59
10 I verden uden for verden (Both in the world and yet outside it) 3:48

Janne Mark / vocals
Arve Henriksen / trumpet
Henrik Gunde Pedersen / piano & celeste
Esben Eyermann / bass
Jesper Uno Kofoed / drums
Gustaf Ljunggren / lap steel

Music and lyrics by Janne Mark except:
04 Intro composed by Arve Henriksen
05 Gå stille og tyst, lyrics by Halfdan Rasmussen translated by Christina Thyssen
01 - 03 arranged by Esben Eyermann
05 & 10 arranged by Henrik Gunde Pedersen
*In memory of Hildegard von Bingen 

Recorded by Lars Nilsson at Nilento Studios, Kållered (SE), May 4 & 5, 2017
and by Boe Larsen at MillFactory Studios, Copenhagen, May - June 2017
Mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson
Produced by Esben Eyermann and Janne Mark
Vocals produced by Boe Larsen