Cornerstone Records proudly presents Very Well & Good, a new recording by bassist Richard Whiteman’s longstanding quartet, featuring master guitarist Reg Schwager, pianist Amanda Tosoff and drummer Morgan Childs. The quartet is joined on several tracks by tenor saxophone giants Pat LaBarbera and Mike Murley.
Richard considers this recording his finest and most personal to date because it successfully combines the directness and groove of straight ahead swinging jazz with the lyricism and textural beauty he loves in classical music and in the music of pianist Bill Evans.
The program includes nine striking Whiteman compositions, one standard, and one tune each from Amanda Tosoff and engineer/drummer/pianist André White.
1. Very Well and Good (R. Whiteman) 5:20
2. Not so Early (R. Whiteman) 4:38
3. Re-enRe-entry (A. Tosoff) 6:06
4. Waltz for Zeke (R. Whiteman) 3:47
5. It Is What It Is - for John Sumners (R. Whiteman) 2:11
6. Selohssa (R. Whiteman) 7:05
7. Residue (André White) 5:32
8. Mangoes (D. Libbey, S. Wayne) 4:36
9. Pat and Mike (R. Whiteman) 7:26
10. La Belle Époche (R. Whiteman) 4:30
11. Right Here, Right Now, with You (R. Whiteman) 4:23
Merging the deep, powerful messages of poetry with adventurous modern jazz, Toronto-based pianist/composer Amanda Tosoff leads a hybrid ensemble with strings and seven rotating vocalists on Earth Voices, the follow-up to her Juno Award-nominated 2016 release Words (“a grand achievement” – CBC Radio). The album is being released by Empress Music Group, a label and company founded by award-winning vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow.
Earth Voices is Tosoff’s sixth album as a leader and the second to feature vocals. But whereas Words featured the marvelous singing of Felicity Williams straight through, Earth Voices adds six additional vocalists to the lineup in turn, each ideally suited to the song at hand. The compositions and orchestrations are sonorous, texturally rich, with a string quartet, guitarist Alex Goodman, and guest saxophonists Allison Au and Kelly Jefferson augmenting the lineup. The performances, full of eloquence and fire, are centered by Tosoff’s assured and lyrical pianism, revealing an artist at the peak of her powers.
Featuring the poetry of: Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Rumi, Pablo Neruda and more; plus Tosoff’s arrangements of songs by: Joni Mitchell, Mike Ross (Soulpepper Theatre), and Yo-Yo Ma’s Goat Rodeo Session project.
"With Words, she's raised and broadened her game, and delivers lots of sonic beauty with an album that blurs pop, classical, folk and jazz. The disc's level of craft is very high, the music's very moving.”– Peter Hum (Ottawa Citizen)
”Its very title warns jazz purists to expect they’re about to discover a whole lot more than jazz. That’s precisely what’s to be expected from emerging composers like Tosoff whose career, mostly lots of “straight ahead modern jazz” early on, has evolved. Words speaks vigorously about that evolution and about jazz’s evolution as well.” – Peter Goddard (Toronto Star)
