Greg Amirault - News Blues (December 3, 2021)

Originally from Yarmouth Nova Scotia, guitarist Greg Amirault has been living and performing in Montreal for over 30 years. A long time faculty member of the jazz programs at McGill and Concordia University, Amirault is a past winner of the Grand Prix de Jazz at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Prix d’Opus. For decades, he has been a mainstay of the Montreal jazz scene, and one of Canada’s most notable guitarists.

News Blues is Amirault’s third recording as a leader. It features three of Canada’s finest jazz musicians: pianist (and Greg’s brother) Steve Amirault, bassist Adrian Vedady, and drummer Jim Doxas. This recording consists of nine tunes: seven of Greg Amirault’s original compositions, and two classic jazz standards.

This album offers a variety of moods and textures: there are straight ahead swingers like News Blues and Uninvited, more modern sounding pieces like Tribute Tune and Meeting the Master, and the folk influenced Song for Nova Scotia, an homage to Amirault’s birthplace. The recording also features two solo guitar arrangements of a couple of Amirault’s favourite jazz standards, the ballads If You Could See Me Now and Embraceable You.

These four musicians have been playing together in a variety of formations for over twenty years. This albums is a testament to the strong connection they’ve nurtured together.

“Ami raul t proves t o be a pat ient , lyr ical, straightforward improviser”

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen

1. News Blues 03:55

2. Tribute Tune 08:30

3. Sweet Way 06:19

4. Song for Nova Scotia 03:52

5. Uninvited 05:22

6. Meeting the Master 05:27

7. If You Could See Me Now 02:30

8. Reissued 05:49

9. Embraceable You 02:08

Greg Amirault - guitar

Steve Amirault - piano

Adrian Vedady - bass

Jim Doxas - drums

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Catalytic Sound: IT'S BANDCAMP FRIDAY!!

NEW RELEASES! • PRE ORDER NOW!!!

Ken Vandermark's "Momentum 5 - Stammer (Triptych)"

CD & Digital release + Audio Visual piece by Kim Alpert // Limited Edition of 500

Composer and reedist Ken Vandermark premiers an ambitious new large ensemble project featuring musicians drawn from across a wide swath of the current improvised and experimental music scenes. Called, "Momentum 5: Stammer (triptych)," it is the fifth installment in his ongoing Momentum series, and the first specifically organized to utilize visual materials. The composition is inspired in part by Alvin Lucier's piece, "I Am Sitting in a Room," and Tony Conrad's, "Film Feedback."

In addition to Vandermark, the ensemble features contributions from some of the most exciting musicians and artists working today: Kim Alpert (visuals), Tim Barnes (percussion), Katinka Kleijn (cello), Damon Locks (samples/electronics), Nick Macri (basses), Lou Mallozzi (recordings/electronics), claire rousay (percussion), and Mars Williams (saxophones/little instruments). "Stammer (triptych)" will be officially released  in a limited edition by Audiographic Records on December 10th, but pre-orders are being taken now at the following locations.

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Dave Rempis & Avreeayl Ra "Bennu"

Rippled-sky colored vinyl LP // Limited edition of 500

The winter of 2020 into 2021 was perhaps the darkest time for working musicians that most of them may ever know.  Earlier in 2020, when the COVID pandemic first hit, many of them found ways to stay active with online streams, and outdoor performances in the warmer months.  But by December 2020, that activity ended as the largest wave of the pandemic crashed upon the world, and most performance opportunities came to a halt.  It was one of the most chaotic periods in recent world history, particularly in the US, where the presidential election had just taken place, and where Black Lives Matters protestors were finally waking America up to the flagrant killings of innocent Black people by the police that have plagued this country for so long. Amongst all that, most musicians were left without a crucial means to process, reflect upon, and express their feelings and thoughts in the way they’ve dedicated their lives to doing.   So at this recording session in February 2021, saxophonist Dave Rempis and master drummer Avreeayl Ra both had a lot to say.

Rempis and Ra have worked together for about fifteen years.  Most regularly since 2012 in their trio with Joshua Abrams, which expanded into a quartet in 2016 with the addition of pianist Jim Baker.  That band is a real working unit, having performed dozens of gigs in Chicago and abroad, and releasing three critically-acclaimed records, also on Aerophonic: Aphelion (2014), Perihelion (2016), and Apsis (2019).  The diligent work these two improvisers have put in together in that context has slowly caramelized their rapport like a carbonnade.  And on Bennu, we get the unique opportunity to hear the pair’s very first duo outing, a long overdue head-to-head matchup.

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NEW ADDITIONS!

from Fred Lonberg-Holm, Dave Rempis & Christof Kurzmann

BACK IN STOCK!

Catalytic Quarterly Collection 5-8

In a very limited quantity of 25 hand-numbered sets, we present the first four issues of the Catalytic Quarterly collected in an envelope designed by our own Federico Peñalva. Get one while the stock lasts!

GET IT HERE!

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Sara Serpa 'Intimate Strangers' – Dec. 3 on Biophilia Records

Vocalist-composer Sara Serpa collaborates with Nigerian author Emmanuel Iduma on a stunning new album offering musical insight into the journeys and experiences of migrants, refugees, and displaced people

 

Intimate Strangers, due out December 3, 2021 via Biophilia Records, features vocalists Serpa, Aubrey Johnson and Sofía Rei with pianist Matt Mitchell and synth player Qasim Naqvi, creating vivid soundscapes for stories from Iduma’s book A Stranger’s Pose

"A fresh and riveting presence on the vocal-jazz landscape."

– Nate Chinen, JazzTimes

" Serpa possesses a preternatural cool, injecting weightless sophistication and melodic grace into everything she touches."

– Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

 

Album release concert Tuesday, December 14 at National Jazz Museum, Harlem

There’s no better way to connect with the humanity of a stranger than to hear their stories and to share our own. On their poignant and striking new collaboration, Intimate Strangers, the extraordinary vocalist-composer Sara Serpa and the Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma traverse the African continent, sharing the author’s personal journey and collecting the tales of fellow travelers and migrants he meets along the way. Through Iduma’s insightful text and Serpa’s transcendent music, the lens widens to explore the struggles and emotions experienced by anyone who’s left their roots behind to seek the uncertain promise of a distant horizon.

 

Due out December 3, 2021 on Biophilia Records, Intimate Strangers draws from Iduma’s 2018 book A Stranger’s Pose, which recounts the writer’s travels through more than a dozen African cities, combining travelogue, memoir and meditations on migration and displacement. The album also continues a narrative that Serpa began with her 2020 release Recognition: Music For a Silent Film, which grappled with the legacy of Portuguese colonialism in Africa via her own family’s history. Intimate Strangers is, in a way, the mirror image of that project, gazing back at colonial powers from the vantage point of Africa itself.

“There were a lot of stories in Emmanuel’s book that really resonated with me,” Serpa explains. “While Recognition dealt with my country's past relationships with Africa, I felt like his book presents a much-needed perspective of what borders actually mean. Through his travels and encounters with so many people just trying to cross into Europe, Emmanuel raises all these questions about traveling, migrating and leaving your home behind.”

 

Commissioned by John Zorn, Intimate Strangers premiered at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust in November 2018 as a multi-media performance combining Serpa’s music, Iduma’s narration, and photographs  from the author’s book. In recorded form, Intimate Strangers remains evocative, conjuring mental images in the listener’s mind as vivid as that projected footage. It helps that Serpa gathered a stellar collection of musicians able to craft such bold imaginary landscapes: she is joined by fellow vocalists Sofía Rei and Aubrey Johnson (Rei is a bandmate from Zorn’s a cappella quartet Mycale; Johnson has been a collaborator since attending NEC with Serpa), along with pianist Matt Mitchell (Tim Berne, Dave Douglas) and modular synth player Qasim Naqvi (Dawn of Midi).

Iduma writes in the liner notes that, “My collaborative performance with Sara brought me closer to understanding how words worked in a pre-literate time, when writing was yet to be invented – when stories were passed from mouth to mouth, from memory to memory… Sara’s composition distills A Stranger’s Pose to its essential groove and vital ballad.”

 

“I am always inspired by Emmanuel’s insight and his writing,” adds Serpa. “We share a very deep mutual respect for each other's work. Of course, we come from different backgrounds, but we share the same concerns regarding humanity and hospitality. So we thought a lot about how to combine our art to convey this message and honor both our skillsets.”

photo by Da Pin Luo

The two were further bonded by shared grief, as both lost their fathers within a few months of each other. José Luis Serpa, who passed away just three days after the premiere of Intimate Strangers, provided the vibrant collage that graces the album’s cover art.

 

The album is itself a journey, beginning with Iduma’s self-reflections and continuing close to home with encounters in Nigeria. It soon ventures farther, over the Moroccan border and through the desert in Bamako, Mali. In the Senegalese town of Kidira the writer is reminded of his relatively privileged status when a passport means a world of difference between him and the unnamed stranger whose life briefly becomes linked to his own. The Morocco-based Cameroonian poet Onesiphore Nembe recites a piece in French, about things left behind – a mellifluous echo of past colonialism.

At journey’s end we cast our eyes back to its beginning. “For You I Must Become a Tree” poetically conveys the reflection of the migrant on the loves and home from which they’ve embarked, now far away but always heart-achingly close. “In the mind of the traveler, those who love you don't want you to go. So that person has to become a tree, which means having your roots in one place [with branches reaching far away].”

 

Serpa weaves a mesmerizing sonic tapestry from the sparse instrumentation and especially the stunning vocal harmonies, which serve at times as gorgeous atmosphere, at others as ethereal storytellers, still others as a lush Greek chorus. “The main character is always Emmanuel,” Serpa describes. “The singing voices are sometimes spirits, sometimes ghosts, sometimes witnesses and sometimes joining him as narrators.”

 

While Intimate Strangers tells Iduma’s story, and those he gathered along the road, it is no less personal a piece for Serpa. “As a migrant myself,” she says, “albeit a privileged migrant, I recognize the feeling of being a foreigner and a bit of an outsider. As a European and someone who has been following the news of the world’s various refugee crises, I feel that the book offers a human, crucial and urgent side to the stories that continuously happen at every border. That's what attracted me to it.”

1. First Song

2. Lokoja- Okenne

3. How Do You Know Where To Go?

4. Bamako

5. Lejam

6. The Poet (feat. Onesiphore Nembe)

7. God’s Time

8. Kidira

9. Le Bout Du Monde

10. Note to Nephew

11. In Due Course

12. Night

13. For You I Must Become a Tree

Sara Serpa – voice, composition

Emmanuel Iduma – text, spoken word

Sofía Rei - voice

Aubrey Johnson – voice

Matt Mitchell -piano

Qasim Naqvi – modular synth

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Jacqueline Kerrod's fearless solo album '17 Days in December’ (December 3, 2021 via Orenda Records)

17 Days in December, due out December 3, 2021 via Orenda Records, features an expansive set of solo harp improvisations culled from daily explorations

 

Kerrod’s diverse credits include work with Anthony Braxton, serving as principal harpist with NY City Opera, and performances with Anohni, Rufus Wainwright and Kanye West

 

"Kerrod is a fearless improviser and experimentalist, using extended techniques in a fashion that would sound like mistakes in less sure hands."

– Mike Eisenberg, Avant Music News

 

“[The] exceptionally virtuosic and sensitive harpist Jacqueline Kerrod… drew many different tonal colors from her instrument. ” 

– Timothy Hutto, Classical Source

“I sometimes think I should have picked a different instrument,” jokes South African-born harpist Jacqueline Kerrod.

Classically trained from the age of 9, Kerrod has had a vibrant and varied career as a freelancer in New York City. She has played principal harp with top orchestras and performed with elite chamber groups, contemporary music ensembles, and pop superstars like Anohni, Rufus Wainwright and Kanye West. But although she consistently worked at a very high level, these opportunities failed to provide an outlet for her own creative voice.

 

“Although I had dabbled in improvisation and writing my own music, it took a back seat as I continued my studies in the US and began my professional career in NYC. Even so, that little voice in my head was there, reminding me of the music I was really drawn to and my desire to make it myself.”

 

Kerrod’s journey of personal sonic discovery has now yielded her debut solo album, 17 Days in December, due out December 3, 2021 via Los Angeles-based Orenda Records. The album results from a month-long series of daily improvisations on acoustic and electric harp that Kerrod undertook in the basement of her home in Princeton at the height of the Covid-19 quarantine. But its origins date back long before the pandemic, to a six-year journey in a pop duo and the inspiration of working with master composer/improviser Anthony Braxton.

 

Kerrod was initially enlisted to play with the ensemble for Braxton’s opera “Trillium J.” That led to an invitation to join the saxophone innovator on the latest iteration of his musical system, ZIM Music – the results of which can be heard on his new 11-hour recording 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017. She later joined Braxton in duo performances in Europe and the US. Their performance from Bologna was released on the Italian label I dischi di Angelica in 2020. These opportunities became a plunge into the deep end of the improvised music realm for the harpist.

 

“I found it exciting and terrifying to be inside of those performances,” Kerrod recalls. “As a classical musician the process is so much about learning things perfectly and meticulously preparing so that you lessen the odds of messing up. I rarely felt free from needing to control the outcome. Playing with Braxton was such a shift because you have to be in the moment. That feeling of being able to move through unfamiliar territory and discover new things is such an adventure. I truly rediscovered my joy for music and my instrument.”

 

Prior to crossing paths with Braxton, Kerrod was immersed in the realm of new music with the likes of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink, Alarm Will Sound and Metropolis Chamber Ensemble; and she championed South African composers with more than a dozen works written for her. She also branched away from the classical world as half of the pop duo Addi & Jacq (with vocalist Addi McDaniel), where she developed her skills on the electric harp using guitar pedals and a looper, and with songwriting.

“Having all of these experiences with different genres and approaches opened up a whole new world of music to me,” Kerrod says. “Through them I started my listening journey into the world of free improvised music, free jazz, country blues, you name it! I realized that there are no boxes that one needs to climb into. You can and should always be yourself.”

 

Kerrod set up a basic studio at home to continue her evolution, but the lockdown accelerated the process and led to the experiments that comprise 17 Days in December. The harpist set out each day with no fixed agenda or any intention of releasing the results formally. She simply set a timer for 40 minutes, started recording, and let her ideas flow. There is no overdubbing or looping on the album, and no preparations on the harp. She used a screwdriver-like harp tool on one track (“December 5: Screwed”) a small glass bowl on another (“December 28: Glassy Fingers”) and a viola bow (December 29: Rust On Bow) and used delay, whammy and distortion/overdrive pedals on her electric harp. Two acoustic tracks (December 7: Gentle Jangle and December 2: Fluttering Alberti) use software effects in Ableton. Otherwise, the improvisations make use of the natural sounds possible with the unaltered harp..

 

The shimmering opening track, “December 1: Trill to Begin,” draws directly from one of Braxton’s twelve Language Musics. The trill was Kerrod’s solution to Braxton’s Long Sounds language, sustaining a drone despite the harp’s natural tendency for sonic decay. The warped menace of “December 21: Chatterbox” introduces the unusual sounds of her electric harp. Each day’s improv wrings rich discoveries from a different notion, from abstract memory of jazz on “December 9: An Impression” to agitated frenzy on “December 8: Sugar Up” to repurposed classical technique on “December 2: Fluttering Alberti.”

 

“In retrospect, these seventeen improvisations feel like a personal celebration,” Kerrod concludes. “At the time I felt like the top blew off and the music came tumbling out. I felt an incredible amount of joy, truth, warmth, clarity, and reverence for all the sounds – including those I was taught not to make! I want to continue reveling in that feeling, alone and with others, in whatever forms that may take.”

1. December 1: Trill to Begin

2. December 21: Chatterbox

3. December 7: Gentle Jangle

4. December 9: An Impression

5. December 8: Sugar Up

6. December 16: Glare

7. December 17: Strummed I

8. December 28: Glassy Fingers

9. December 14: Broken: In 3

10. December 2: Fluttering Alberti

11. December 4: Can-Can

12. December 29: Rust on Bow

13. December 30: Strummed II

14. December 5: Screwed

15. December 13: Sunday

16. December 22: Blips ‘n’ Blops

17. December 20: Sweet Dreams

Jacqueline Kerrod - Acoustic and Electric Harp

Recorded & produced by Jacqueline Kerrod

Mixed & additional sound production (tracks 2, 3, 7,12, 17) by Weston Olencki

Mastered by Ryan Streber

Cover Art by Eron Rauch

Design by Dan Rosenboom

Photo by Claudia Paul

Jacqueline Kerrod – 17 Days in December

Orenda Records – Orenda 0093 – Recorded Dec. 1-30, 2020

Release date December  3, 2021

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Andrea Keller / Wave Riders - Systems Over​-​Ride (December 3, 2021)

Systems Over-Ride is the new album from Melbourne-based pianist & composer Andrea Keller, featuring her latest musical venture, WAVE RIDERS. The quintet performs Andrea’s music with grit and spontaneity; bringing together her somewhat disparate fascinations of free jazz and doom metal, combined with potent harmonies and yearning melodies. Dichotomous relationships abound as she grapples to reconcile the brutal and the beautiful, all the while focussed on stripping back, and connecting, within acts of kindness, and solidarity.

Recorded between lockdowns 4 & 5 at Head Gap Studio in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, the album also features a set of specially commissioned remixes. Using improvised fragments from the studio session, Nicole Lizée (CAN), Bree van Reyk (SYD), Joe Talia, Philip Rex, and Theo Carbo (MEL) contribute an exhilarating set of pieces that draw threads from WAVE RIDERS and weave them into new territory and sound worlds.

1. Linger

2. Systems Over-Ride I

3. I Missed You So Much

4. Systems Over-Ride II

5. Systems Over-Ride III

6. Silver Leaves

7. For All The Wrong Reasons

8. Trio Repercussions

9. Systems Over-Ride IV

10. I'll Wave To You From The Car

11. Systems Over-Ride V

12. In Solidarity

Scott McConnachie – saxophones

Jack Richardson – guitar

Andrea Keller - piano

Mick Meagher – bass

Rama Parwata – drum set

Recorded on June 29 & 30, 2021

Recorded at Head Gap Studio, Preston, VIC Australia

Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Lachlan Carrick

Designed by Luke Fraser/Ahr+

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ROPE - In the Moment / The Music of Charlie Haden (December 3, 2021 Hora Records)

Veteran Italian trio ROPE releases their newest record ‘In the Moment - The Music of Charlie Ha-den’ for HORA Records, an impassioned celebration of an iconic musician whose musical contributions spanned decades of creative jazz from the fifties to the present day.

A tribute to Charlie Haden's music must take into account the constantly evolving language of modern jazz: from Ornette Coleman's desperate lyricism to the militant protest music of the Liberation Music Orchestra, to some ot the most forward-looking piano trios in jazz history, Haden was a pivotal figure in numerous seminal bands which have shaped the music we know as jazz. ROPE sails these seas with love and respect, the musicians plainly at their ease as they explore each chapter of this timeless American music.

The moving voice of Petra Haden joins the trio in a memorable version of traditional song Shenandoah, a favorite of her father who recorded it in the final years of his incredible career.

1. Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing / Ramblin'

2. Bess You is My Woman Now

3. Sandino / Silence

4. Fiasco / In the Moment

5. Shenandoah (feat. Petra Haden)

6. La Pasionaria / Song for Che

7. Song for the Whales

8. Spiritual

9. In the Year of the Dragon *

10. See You at Per Tutti's / Vanguard Blues / Blues in Motion *

11. Once Around the Park *

* Does not appear on LP configuration

FABRIZIO PUGLISI piano

STEFANO SENNI bass

ZENO DE ROSSI drums, geometrikaos on Song for the Whales

featuring

PETRA HADEN vocals on Shenandoah

All compositions by Charlie Haden (Liberation Music Co., BMI) except Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson (Public Domain), Ramblin’ by Ornette Coleman (Phrase Text Music ASCAP), Bess You Is My Woman Now by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin (Gershwin Publ. Corp.), Fiasco, In The Year of The Dragon, Once Around The Park by Paul Motian (Yazgol Music), Shenandoah (Traditional, Public Domain)

Produced by Rope and Hora Records

Recorded (January 17-18, 2021), mixed (May 13, 2021) and mastered (June 2021) at Duna Studio by Andrea Scardovi except vocals on Shenandoah, recorded by Petra Haden at her home in Los Angeles (January 2021)

Artwork by Francesco Chiacchio

Design by Zeno Brunetto

Photo by Barbara Rigon

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Lior Milliger Free Improv Trio (feat. Hilliard Greene & Joe Hertenstein) - Your Comfort Zone Will Kill You (December 3, 2021 577 Records)

Lior Milliger’s Free Improv Trio has been working, performing and recording in NYC’s Free improvised music scene for years, but Your Comfort Zone Will Kill You is their first album together. Though a largely improvisational project, the tracks present fully developed musical ideas that build plot, tension and story. In their interpretation, the musicians describe each sound and intensity—Hilliard Greene’s bass, Lior Milliger’s inquiring saxophone and Joe Hertenstein’s simmering drums—as competing, interacting characters. The album’s songs are diverse, ranging from delicate and balanced compositions towards escalating tensions, the same familiar instruments transforming themselves with delightful musicality. Hilliard Greene is also a longtime member of The Telepathic Band, which has multiple releases on 577 Records. Your Comfort Zone Will Kill You will be released digitally December 3, 2021.

1. ROUGH

2. Bending Traditions

3. Metamorphosis

4. No Gaps

5. Leaning on a Leash

6. Balanced Action

Lior Milliger - Tenor Saxophone

Hilliard Greene - Bass

Joe Hertenstein - Drums

Recorded and mixed by Jason LaFarge on September 12th 2019 at Seizure’s Palace Studios

Cover photo by: Lior Milliger

Design by Mark Smith

Orbit577 is part of 577 Records

Brooklyn, New York

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"O Holy Night!" as a Samba - New Christmas Single from Duo "AS IS" (Stacey & Alan Schulman) December 3, 2021

VOCAL DUO “AS IS” (Stacey & Alan Schulman) RELEASES NEW TWIST ON CLASSIC CHRISTMAS FAVORITE

For decades, the Christmas Classic “O Holy Night” has been a staple of nearly every Holiday playlist. From its origin as a semi-sacred and traditional Christmas Carol, AS IS, the American Duo of Jazz Guitarist Alan Schulman & Vocalist Stacey Schulman have reimagined this iconic Christmas favorite into a bouncing samba-esque arrangement that’s bound to have you up on your feet and swaying to the beat. 

The single, to be released December 3rd, was arranged by the Duo AS IS and produced by former GRAMMY trustee and nominee James McKinney of Infinite Icon Productions.  The single features subtle scatting from jazz song stylist Stacey Schulman. Tasty fills are introduced by jazz guitarist Alan Schulman, while authentic accents are provided by the rhythm section of native Brazilian brothers – Bassist Leonardo Lucini and drummer/percussionist Alejandro Lucini. 

The track was recorded at Blue House Studios in Silver Spring, Maryland, where it was engineered by Jeff Gruber and mixed by Grammy-winning sound engineer Scott Jacoby of Eusonia Studios in NYC.  The single is the first release from the Billboard Charting Duo AS IS since their sophomore release “Here’s to Life” (Night Night the Elephant productions) in 2018.

DETAILS:

O Holy Night by As Is

Release Date:  12/3/21

Run time:  3:07

PERSONNEL:

Alan Schulman - Lead Guitar & Rhythm Guitar

Stacey Schulman – Lead Vocals

Alejandro Lucini – Drums & Percussion

Leonardo Lucini – Upright Bass

James McKinney – Producer, Infinite Icon

Jeff Gruber – Sound Engineer, Blue House Studios, Maryland

Scott Jacoby – Mix Engineer, Eusonia Studios, NYC

Alex Guerink – Mastering Engineer, the Netherlands

www.asisjazz.com

Sam Anning - Oaatchapai (December 3, 2021 Earshift Music)

Melbourne bassist-composer Sam Anning’s fourth album as bandleader ‘Oaatchapai’ showcases his compositional flair with references to indie rock, echoes of Charles Mingus and spoken word soundscapes. The lineup of pianist Andrea Keller, trumpeter Mat Jodrell, saxophonists Carl Mackey and Julien Wilson from the award-winning Across a Field as Vast as One is augmented by guitarist Theo Carbo and drummer Rajiv Jayaweera.

1. Tjurunga

2. Oaatchapai

3. Giant Pebble

4. Stretchroactivities

5. Urkraft

6. Ripples

7. Ochre

8. Saccade

9. Off With The Blades

Mat Jodrell (trumpet)

Carl Mackey (alto saxophone)

Julien Wilson (tenor saxophone & bass clarinet)

Andrea Keller (piano & fender rhodes)

Theo Carbo (guitar)

Sam Anning (double bass & voice)

Rajiv Jayaweera (drums)

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Various Artists - Remixes JID010 (December 3, 2021 Jazz Is Dead)

Remixes JID010

As the final chapter in the initial run of Jazz Is Dead releases, Remixes JID010 continues the creative catharsis of an exhilarating new chapter in jazz music. Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad tapped nine iconic creators to reimagine their personal favorites from Jazz Is Dead’s catalogue to-date, who created striking new versions of songs by Marcos Valle, Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, Azymuth, João Donato, Doug Carn, Brian Jackson and The Midnight Hour. Holding the line taut like a bass string, Younge & Muhammad only invited those special musical alchemists who have previously participated in Jazz Is Dead happenings, or those who are slated to share that stage soon: Cut Chemist, DJ Spinna, Georgie Anne Muldrow, Akili, Shigeto, Pink Siiffu, Dibiase, Natureboy Flako, and Kaidi Tathum. It’s a family affair.

The album blasts off with Kaidi Tathum’s reinvention of Marcos Valle’s wistful beachside stroll, transforming “Gotta Love Again” into a strutting, pulsating excursion equally at home in the club and headphones. Building off of Valle’s mellifluous vocalizations, Tathum harnesses the composition’s polyrhythms to build a soulful, jazz-house track that floats over ethereal synths and stutter-steps to a propulsive beat entirely unimaginable, yet true to the spirit of the optimistic and effortless original.

On his remix of Gary Bartz’s “Soulsea” Cut Chemist taps into the big-beat atmospherics of his old running partner, DJ Shadow, to craft a moody, echo-laden, percussive down-tempo saxophone meditation. Creating drama over bombastic beats, Cut Chemist layers Bartz’s searching sax refrains over sparse keyboard bars. 

Brian Jackson’s mellow masterpiece dedicated to the recently departed jazz vocalist, “Nancy Wilson”, receives an epic overhaul by producer Shigeto with help from harpist Ahya Simone and DJ Dez Andres. More than tripling the original’s duration while adding layers of new sounds, Shigeto’s remix weaves in and out of movements that alternately showcase Jackson’s soulful flute work, Simone’s sparkling harp and Andres’ bubbling percussion. Imagine if Dorthy Ashby and Hermeto Pascoal dropped in on Miles’ In A Silent Way sessions...

It might have been a foregone conclusion that Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad would give their Jazz Is Dead series the remix treatment, but that doesn’t mean this is your average remix album. Just like Younge and Muhammad fused their aesthetic with the musical masters they invited to collaborate with for Jazz Is Dead, the DJs, producers and musicians tasked with remixing songs from the catalogue tapped into the same jazz ethos, resulting in imaginative and sometimes radically reimagined versions of the originals.

1. Marcos Valle - Gotta Love Again (Kaidi Tathum Remix)

2. Roy Ayers - Soulful and Unique (Pink Siifu Remix)

3. Gary Bartz - Soulsea (Cut Chemist Remix)

4. João Donato - Desejo De Amor (Akili Remix)

5. Brian Jackson - Nancy Wilson (Shigeto Remix Feat. Ahya Simone & Dez Andrès)

6. Doug Carn - Windfall (Natureboy Flako Remix)

7. Azymuth - Quiet Storm (Akili Remix)

8. The Midnight Hour - Jazz Is Dead (Georgia Anne Muldrow Geemix)

9. João Donato - Liaisons (Dibiase Remix)

10. Azymuth Redor Do Samba (DJ Spinna Remix)

Marcos Valle – Gotto Love Again (Kaidi Tathum Remix)

All Instruments by Kaidi Tatham

Mixed by Eric Lau

Brian Jackson – Nancy Wilson (Shigeto Remix Feat. Ahya Simone & Dez Andrès)

Shigeto: drums, rhodes, synth, percussion

Ahya Simone: harp 

Dez Andrés: congas 

The Midnight Hour - Jazz Is Dead (Georgia Anne Muldrow Geemix)

Remixed by Georgia Anne Muldrow for Epistrophik Peach

João Donato - Liaisons (Dibiase Remix)

Remixed by Dibiase for 10thirty records

Azymuth - Quiet Storm (Akili Remix)

Remixed by Akili for BlackTransit Productions

João Donato - Desejo De Amor (Akili Remix)

Remixed by Akili for BlackTransit Productions

Azymuth Redor Do Samba (DJ Spinna Remix)

Remixed by DJ Spinna for Beyond Real Productions

Drum programming and additional synths  - DJ Spinna

Mixed by DJ Spinna @ The Thingamajig Lab2, Brooklyn NY

Roy Ayers - Soulful and Unique (Pink Siifu Remix)

Produced by iiyefor Pink Siifu with additional harp by Ss.Sylver

Gary Bartz - Soulsea (Cut Chemist Remix)

Remixed by Cut Chemist for A Stable Sound. Recorded at The Stable

Doug Carn - Windfall (Natureboy Flako Remix)

Natureboy Flako Remix recorded and mixed at The Healing Place

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Dave Easley - Byways of the Moon (December 3, 2021)

Dave Easley plays the pedal steel guitar, but this is not a “pedal steel guitar” album; it’s an album by a gifted musician at the peak of his career. His phrasing, sense of touch, harmonic sensibilities, and sheer virtuosity put him in a league with greatest musicians of our time. So I won’t go into how difficult an instrument to play the pedal steel guitar can be or the extraordinary coordination and control is takes to play chords with a light touch. I’ll talk about the album and the music.

I had heard about Dave Easley playing with Brian Blade in the early nineties and over the years. Whenever I encountered New Orleans musicians, the first thing they would say to me (a fellow steel guitarist) was always, “Have you heard Dave Easley?”, but I hadn’t. I finally had that opportunity in 2012 at the International Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis in a rather sterile environment, a convention and a hotel that had seen better days. I played in the main ballroom where half the audience left during the first song and Dave was playing in a conference room to fifty or sixty rapt steel guitarists hanging on to every note. I walked in just as Dave said, “People say you should play from your roots, but what if your roots are in the sky?” and lit into Roger McGuinn’s “Eight Miles High”. It was a revelation.

The pedal steel guitar, an infant in the family of instruments, is an enigma. Perhaps the last musical instrument borne of the mechanical age before the beeps, blips, and cold comforts of electronic music, it is one of the most expressive instruments on the planet and one of the least understood: a neck of anywhere from 8 to 14 strings, a set of pedals for the feet, knee levers and inside the guitar, a Rube Goldberg contraption, a Mondrian painting, a cluster of rods, levers, cogs, and springs to enable the pedals change the tension and thus the pitch.

Like all instruments, the pedal steel guitar has unlimited musical possibilities, but unlike most other instruments, these possibilities have barely scratched the surface. In the right hands, an instrument leaves an indelible mark on the styles of music it touches. This is what Dave Easley has done for jazz — and for everything else he has played. We came up listening to Buddy Emmons, Curly Chalker, and Joaquin Murphy. Now another name can be added to that pantheon.

There is plenty to love in this album - the lyricism displayed on “My Foolish Heart” and “Ruby My Dear”, a version of “In a Silent Way” that Brian Wilson would love and an interpretation of “In My Room” that I think Miles Davis would have approved of; and, of course, John Coltrane’s formidable composition “Giant Steps”. The deft and tasteful ensemble-like accompaniment of drummer Chad Taylor and double bassist Dave Tranchina. Cathlene Pineda’s piano rhapsodic solo on “Jesus Maria” and more. This is one of the very few albums by a pedal steel guitarist that simply takes my breath away, and I, as surely will you, will treasure this record, returning to it again and again through the years, each time discovering something new. - Susan Alcorn, Baltimore, Maryland 

1. Jesus Maria

2. Giant Steps

3. My Foolish Heart

4. Battle of Evermore

5. Ruby, My Dear

6. In A Silent Way / In My Room

Dave Easley - pedal steel guitar

Cathlene Pineda - Wurlitzer electric piano

Chad Taylor - drums

Dave Tranchina - double bass

Produced Chris Schlarb

Mixed by Chris Schlarb and Devin O’Brien

at BIG EGO, Long Beach, CA.

Recorded January 7, 2016

at All Welcome Records, Inglewood, CA.

Engineered by Devin O'Brien

Assistant engineered by Jeff Lewis and Steve Krolikowski

Mastered by JJ Golden

Cover artwork by M P Landis

Composition Two: for Dave Easley (2021)

Mixed media on paper, 72 x 72”

Cover photograph by Gary Lowell

Back cover photography by Ian Souter

Layout by David J. Woodruff

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Andrew Scott Young / Ryan Jewell / Ryley Walker - Post Wook (December 3, 2021 husky pants records)

The sound a craigslist punisher on long island hears as they exhale their last breath in the house their dad built in 1956. goodbye earth. we are post wook.

1. Randee 08:56

2. Pegasus 05:09

3. Guzzardo 07:22

4. Hennessy 04:50

5. Crazy Music 03:36

6. Childers 05:49

7. Allegro 04:07

andrew young- fretless bass/double bass

ryan jewell - drums/percussion

ryley walker - electric guitar/acoustic guitar

cooper crain - mixing

jack callahan - mastering

ariel shafir - engineer

michael vallera - photography/design/layout

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Mars Williams Presents An Ayler Xmas Vol. 5 (December 3, 2021 Astral Spirits)

1. The Divine Peacemaker Plays Dreidel In Frightful Weather

2. The Angels Sing With The Old & New Ghosts In The Manger

3. Did You Hear They Found Light In Darkness

Mars Williams - Sax, Suona, Toy Instruments

Josh Berman - Cornet

Jim Baker - Piano, Viola, Arp Synth

Brian Sandstrom - Bass, Guitar, Trumpet

Steve Hunt - Drums

Peter Maunu - Violin

Kent Kessler - Bass (Tracks 1 & 2)

Krzysztof Pablan - Bass (Track 3)

Track 1 & 2 Recorded by: Dave Zuchowski 7/28/21

Track 3 Recorded Live at Constellation Chicago 12/19/20

Mixed & Mastered by: Hermey at Island Of Misfit Toys Studios

Design by Rich Good

TRACK 1 CONTAINS MUSIC WRITTEN BY ALBERT AYLER (BMI) “Divine Peacemaker” (Railroad Town Music / BMI) Additional Songs: “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” By Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne © Imagem Music /Cahn Music and Chappell and Co. / Producers Music Publishing Co.

TRACK 2 CONTAINS MUSIC WRITTEN BY ALBERT AYLER (BMI) “Ghosts” (Railroad Town Music / BMI) “New Ghosts” © Spurt Music (BMI); Railroad Town Music / BMI) Additional Songs: “Feliz Navidad” By: José Feliciano © BMG Gold Songs / J&H Publishing

TRACK 3 CONTAINS MUSIC WRITTEN BY ALBERT AYLER (BMI) “Light In Darkness” (Railroad Town Music / BMI) Additional Songs: “Do You hear what I Hear” By: Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker (Jewel Music Publishing Co. Inc.)

ADDITIONAL HOLIDAY SONGS: PUBLIC DOMAIN MUSIC ARRANGED BY: MARS WILLIAMS (Music From Mars /BMI)

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Tubby Hayes Quartet - The Complete Hopbine '69 (December 3, 2021 Jazz In Britain)

The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 7

Previously only issued in fragmented form and long out of print, these recordings catch Hayes in transition. Less than a month after they were taped just before Christmas 1969, he was to collapse on a gig, signaling the beginning of the final phase of his tragically foreshortened career.

But on this night, buoyed and stimulated by his regular working quartet of pianist Mike Pyne, bassist Ron Mathewson and drummer Spike Wells, Hayes wasn't only on form he was on FIRE! Indeed, coming so close to the end of a decade in which his star had burned brighter than those of virtually any other figure on the UK jazz scene, it marks a fitting capstone to his most creatively fecund period.

Remastered direct from the original tapes, unearthed in Ron Mathewson's archive, and issued for the very first time in pristine audio and unedited, this sumptuous double-CD release is packaged with rare photographs and gig memorabilia and an extended booklet essay by Hayes' biographer, saxophonist Simon Spillett which includes the memories of the only surviving member of the Tubby Hayes Quartet, Spike Wells.

Yet another key piece in the jigsaw of understanding this most fabled of Brit-jazz legends legacy, 'Complete Hopbine '69' contains a powerful reminder of the brimming potency of Tubby Hayes' later music, all the more so for being recorded at a juncture in which the noisy fashions of fusion were fast taking hold. - Simon Spillett 

1. For Members Only

2. Off The Wagon

3. Where Am I Going?

4. What Is This Thing Called Love

5. Mainly For The Don

6. For Heaven's Sake

7. Vierd Blues

8. Walkin'

Tubby Hayes - tenor saxophone

Mick Pyne - piano

Ron Mathewson - bass

Spike Wells - drums

The Hopbine, North Wembley, Tuesday December 23rd 1969

From the Ron Mathewson tape archive

Tape Transfer by Matt Parker

Original recording by Ted Lyon

Liner notes by Simon Spillett

Executive producer - John Thurlow

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NORI - NORI (record / ​​vinyl) December 3, 2021

Nori To Release Their Self-Titled Album 

on December 3rd

The First Vinyl Release from the Band!

Nori, the genre-bending Neo Jazz band has curated a collection of their favorite songs on their upcoming album. The self-titled release, NORI, showcases their diverse sound and pointed lyrics on the 10-song deep record due out December 3rd. The new album will be available on vinyl with two new singles to be released to streaming platforms along with the songs from previous albums. Pre-order here: https://nori.bandcamp.com/album/nori-record-vinyl

Nori is an Austin, TX based quintet and has been hailed “a five-person gift from Austin, TX” by Festival Peak. The band is comprised of talented professional musicians including Akina Adderley on vocals; Erik Telford on trumpet and alto horn; Nick Litterski on Fender Rhodes, piano, and prepared piano; Aaron Allen on acoustic bass; and Andy Beaudoin on drums and percussion. Together their music is aesthetically and deeply rooted in both American jazz and folk music traditions. The ensemble playfully weaves together a myriad of global influences with current and topical social commentary giving rise to a seamless synthesis of sound that is Nori.

The new album transcends time with a collection of songs written from 2015 – 2021, but yet addresses important topical themes of identity, activism, racial tensions and racism, and love. The band curated the collection from their catalog along with some new material. Included are six songs from their first two albums World Anew and Bruise Blood and also “Tumbao,” a single released in 2017, along with the newly released single “I See You” out this past December. They also masterfully composed a new rendition of Nina Simone’s “Four Women.” The aptly self-titled new release is steeped in observations and personal plight and gracefully highlights the balance of story-telling traditions with wide-open improvisations that echo the transcendent tones of Nina Simone, Bill Frisell, John Coltrane, and Joni Mitchell.

The album opens with a stunning and somber song “The Garden.” The lyrics were written by Akina and are a powerful metaphor for the life cycle of a black child. The song follows as he grows in the womb and transitions into the loving and nurturing arms of his mother – only to have life tragically cut short at the hands of a racist brute. The pointed new arrangement features special guests, the wonderful string trio, Leigh Wallenhaupt on violin, Leah Nelson on viola, and Rylie Harrod-Corral on cello. Another powerful standout is a cover of Nina Simone’s song “Four Women.” Nori says, “Nina Simone has been our guiding inspiration since the conception of the band. She’s an eclectic musician. She’s a master storyteller, and she’s a fierce activist. These are all things Nori aspires to be. We have been incorporating this song in our live set for a number of years and wanted to record it as a way to provide an exclamation mark at the end of the album!” This song is a dedication to Nina Simone.

All the songs on the album were recorded by John Michael Landon at their home base studio, Estuary Recording in Austin. Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Studio (New York, NY) mixed most of the songs with additional mixing by Erik Telford (“The Garden,” “I See You,” and “Four Women”). The new album was mastered for vinyl by Erik Telford.

NORI will be released exclusively and for the first time on vinyl! Reflecting back on the new project, the band comments, “This is our first vinyl release. We wanted to create a document of our young history and make it available for physical release. In many ways, we consider ourselves “old souls,” so vinyl is the perfect format for the occasion.” It is due out on December 3rd.

1. The Garden (With Strings)

2. Wildfire

3. Undertow

4. Waiting to Fall

5. Tumbao

6. The Walk

7. Lullaby

8. Arirang

9. I See You

10. Four Women

The full album is available in its entirety exclusively on vinyl via the merch link.

NORI

Akina Adderley - vocals

Erik Telford - trumpet, alto horn

Nick Litterski - Fender Rhodes, piano, prepared piano

Aaron Allen - acoustic bass

Andy Beaudoin - drums, percussion

SPECIAL GUESTS

Leigh Wallenhaupt - violin

Leah Nelson - viola

Rylie Harrod-Corral - cello

Andrew Noble - viola (Tumbao)

Sara Nelson - cello (Tumbao)

Recorded by John Michael Landon at Estuary Recording

Mixed by Dave Darlington and Erik Telford

Mastered by Erik Telford

Artwork by Dayva Beaudoin & Byoung Sun Lee

Legal Services provided by David Beaudoin

Lyrics by Akina Adderley (A1-5, B1-2, B4)

Music by Andy Beaudoin (A2, A4-5, B2, B4)

Music by Erik Telford (A1, A3, B1)

String Arrangements by Erik Telford

Arirang arranged by Andy Beaudoin

Four Women by Nina Simone

Produced by Andy Beaudoin and Nori

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