Carli Munoz - Follow Me (2018)

Carli Muñoz latest release "Follow Me" picks up where the landmark "Maverick" left off but with even more inspired nuance and influences. Whereas "Maverick" is a straight-ahead instrumental jazz CD described as “soaring” and “drop-dead gorgeous,” Follow Me adds a layer of world beats, blues, crisp production, seasoned playing, and a conscience. It makes bold musical and social statements without being heavy handed or sanctimonious. Instead, "Follow Me" does just that – inspires the listener to join a journey that feels friendly and familiar yet erudite, knowing full well where it’s been, and where we - as collective members of Carli’s musical universe - are going. Carli artfully blends a myriad of styles, from the friendly blues of "Stranger in A Strange Land" to the delightful playfulness of the "Tujunga Waltz." Both tracks, along with "Follow Me" feature Carli’s unabashed and unvarnished vocals, expertly shaken and stirred with soaring female accompaniment. These feel like mini movies; visual storytelling placed over deft playing and insanely solid, self-assured production.

The more jazz-leaning tracks "Tere" and "The Hummingbird" are the true essence of Carli Muñoz, punctuating the “joy” perceptively recognized by reviewers on Carli’s past work. Apart from being lovingly written and played, these tracks are the badly needed kick in the pants that jazz needs right now. Further, layered over top of "The Hummingbird’s" frenetic energy, Carli blends in an environmental call to action. This socially conscious invitation is neither overbearing nor preachy, simply asking the listener to enter the conversation. 

"Wangari Maathai" then takes that conversation and places it front and center. As the standout track on "Follow Me," Carli tells the story of Wangari Maathai, author and founder of the Green Belt Movement, and a 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. It is an expansive track - cinematic in scope – defiant yet hopeful, filled with intricacies that artists half Carli’s age could simply wish for. Further, it shines a light on the precarious nature our Earth finds itself in. Carli easily pivots from Wangari’s warning: “the generation that destroyed the environment is not the generation that pays the price.” - to a place of hope - “when we plant trees we plant seeds of hope.” It is this hope - and Carli's joyous playing - that gives Carli’s latest release "Follow Me," its desirous sheen. 

Note: "Follow Me" tells a story. Read and download this story on the liner notes at Carli's website: www.carlimunoz.com.

Eliane Elias - Music From Man of La Mancha (CONCORD MUSIC GROUP April 13, 2018)

Music From Man of La Mancha is a 1964 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century masterpiece Don Quixote.

The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre. The principal song, "The Impossible Dream", became a standard.

Eliane previously recorded these tracks at the request of the original composer, Mitch Leigh, Guest artists are talented and GRAMMY Award-winning jazz artists Marc Johnson (bass), Satoshi Takeshi (drums), Manolo Badrena (percussion), Eddie Gomez (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums).

1 To Each His Dulcinea

2 Dulcinea

3 What Does He Want Of Me

4 The Barber’s Song

5 It’s All The Same

6 I'm Only Thinking Of Him

7 Man Of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote)

8 The Impossible Dream

9 A Little Gossip

Bill Evans Trio - On A Monday Evening (Live) CONCORD MUSIC 2017

On A Monday Evening offers Bill Evans fans a rare treat: an unreleased (and never bootlegged!) concert recording of The Bill Evans Trio, featuring Eddie Gomez and Eliot Zigmund from Monday, November 15, 1976. Captured live at Madison, Wisconsin’s Union Theater, On A Monday Evening finds Evans at the top of his game, performing both contemporary compositions from that era, as well as his longstanding signature tunes to a packed house. New liner notes by GRAMMY Award-winning jazz historian Ashley Kahn round out the package, featuring commentary by Eddie Gomez and Eliot Zigmund.

1 Sugar Plum (Live) 5:28

2 Up With The Lark (Live) 6:06

3 Time Remembered (Live) 5:33

4 T.T.T. (Twelve Tone Tune) (Live) 5:06

5 Someday My Prince Will Come (Live) 6:14

6 Minha (All Mine) (Live) 3:48

7 All Of You (Live) 9:41

8 Some Other Time (Live) 4:47

Dado Moroni / Eddie Gomez / Joe La Barbera - Kind of Bill (2017)

Il titolo di questo tributo, "Kind of Bill", è anche il titolo di un brano di Joe La Barbera e descrive perfettamente l'intento del progetto creato dal pianista Dado Moroni, il quale non ha mai nascosto il suo amore per la musica di Bill Evans, dal bassista Eddie Gomez e dal batterista Joe La Barbera che negli anni hanno dato un enorme contributo alla musica di Evans infondendo nuova linfa nelle idee del pianista. Questo è anche un tributo a loro per quello che hanno fatto allora e continuano a fare adesso, mantenendo viva la magìa con i loro progetti e le parole "Kind of Bill" significano esattamente questo: un omaggio che non include solamente le composizioni di Bill ma anche standards che sotto le sue dita sono divenuti brani quasi totalmente nuovi e originali, e composizioni scritte da Moroni, Gomez e La Barbera.

1. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You 10:00

2. Kind of Bil  8:43

3. Funkallero 7:09

4. Forever 7:46

5. Two Lonely People  8:45

6. Solar  7:30

7. First Smile  4:30

8. Oleo  6:54

9. My Foolish Heart  5:15

Dado Moroni piano

Eddie Gomez bass

Joe La Barbera drums

Bill Evans - Another Time (The Hilversum Concert with Eddie Gomez & Jack De Johnette) RESONANCE RECORDS 2017

BILL EVANS - ANOTHER TIME: THE HILVERSUM CONCERT

Newly Discovered Album by Bill Evans featuring Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette

Recorded Live at the Netherlands Radio Union (NRU) VARA Studio 8 

in Hilversum on June 22, 1968

Only the 3rd Recording Released of this Trio Following the Internationally Acclaimed 2016 

Landmark Discovery Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest

Includes an Extensive Book with Rare Photos and Essays by Acclaimed Author Marc Myers, Zev Feldman and Noted Dutch Writer and Jazz Authority, Bert Vuijsje, Plus Exclusive Interviews with Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette and pianist Steve Kuhn

Deluxe Limited Edition LP Released Exclusively for Record Store Day (April 22, 2017) and Deluxe CD & Digital Editions Available on Sept 1, 2017

Resonance Records is proud to announce the release of Bill Evans Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, a spectacular never-before-heard live recording by the Bill Evans Trio featuring bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette recorded in Hilversum, Holland, by the Netherlands Radio Union (NRU) in the summer of 1968. Another Time is Resonance's first follow-up release to the widely celebrated Bill Evans Trio album, Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest. Resonance is pleased once again to release this entirely new Bill Evans discovery in full cooperation with the Bill Evans Estate and Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette and Universal Music Group, the parent company of Verve Records, the label Evans was signed to in 1968.

Bill Evans Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, recorded on June 22, 1968, just two days after Some Other Time, provides a fitting counterpoint to that remarkable album. Interestingly, these two recordings were made one day on either side of the summer solstice and they each seem to embody attributes of their respective seasons. Where Some Other Time, recorded at the legendary MPS studios in Villingen, Germany, is imbued with an introspective, vernal beauty, Another Time was recorded as a live concert, and is a recording remarkable not only for the three musicians' ebullience, freedom and summer-infused heat; but notable also for its exceptional recording quality utilizing the then state of the art recording techniques of the NRU. Producer Zev Feldman and Executive Producer, George Klabin, regard Another Time as the best-sounding Bill Evans album on Resonance; perhaps one of Evans's best sounding live recordings ever.

The configuration of this special edition of the Bill Evans Trio featuring Jack DeJohnette newly introduced as a co-equal counterpart to Evans and the redoubtable Eddie Gomez was not widely recorded before Some Other Time. Indeed, before Resonance released Some Other Time, only one previous aural document existed memorializing this version of the trio, which had a life-span of only six months: a live recording made at the Montreux Festival, a concert that was held roughly a week before Some Other Time and Another Time were recorded.

Marc Myers, a Wall Street Journal contributor, music columnist, and Anatomy of a Song author, writes that Another Time "is a frighteningly flawless and dynamic work by Evans." In his essay for 2016's Some Other Time, Myers noted that the trio with Jack DeJohnette represented a new model for Evans, observing "During the musical discourse between Mr. DeJohnette and Evans, we hear clearly the sound that Evans wanted on drums going forward." Dutch jazz authority Bert Vuijsje cited Brian Priestly's notes from the Montreux album, noting that DeJohnette is, "above all, a listening drummer . . . much more extroverted than Evans's previous [drummers]." And Jack DeJohnette's view of this album is sunny: "All of the tracks on this album are really cool. I liked what was happening there."

On revisiting this concert after nearly 49 years, Eddie Gomez also liked what he heard. He noted, among other things, that he "loved the way Bill plays the melodies. His exposition of melodies is really fabulous and very touching . . . I like the way he plays Very Early and Who Can I Turn To? and Turn Out the Stars. Those are just beautiful melodies and the way he plays them, he sings them out. Very few pianists can sing like that. So I like those songs just for the way he plays the melody. That always touches me and it's very emotional to hear him play those songs."

The history of this release is somewhat unusual; more unusual than is the case with most of Resonance's other releases. Our story begins in October of 2016, when Feldman received an email from Marc Myers, founder of the JazzWax.com blog. The email said Myers had received a note from a Dutch reader who said he had heard a previously unknown Bill Evans concert recording made in the Netherlands. Myers put Feldman together with the reader. Upon receiving the recording from the reader, Feldman listened closely to it with George Klabin and knew right away this was something special. Feldman proceeded to reach out to one of his "boots on the ground," the well-known Dutch jazz writer, Bert Vuijsje, to investigate further. Based on Vuijsje's, and his colleague Frank Jochemsen’s (jazz journalist and producer on various Dutch jazz productions) intelligence, Feldman felt compelled to travel to the Netherlands and meet with Bert and Frank to move things along.

Feldman and the team immediately set to work to fast track this project starting, as usual, with obtaining all necessary rights; something we do with all the recordings we issue. Fortunately, we were quickly able to consummate deals with all of the parties holding rights in the recordings. However, we were thrown a curve when, unbeknownst to us, another company also had the music and had plans to issue it, but who had not obtained the rights from the rights-holders. Of course, they could not have obtained those rights because Resonance already had them. Nevertheless, we at Resonance felt the urgency to release this recording, a high-resolution transfer from the original tape, as soon as possible before any unauthorized illicit release could see the light of day and cause confusion in the marketplace.

This project had something of an international espionage quality to it, as we follow an American jazz investigator on an international mission to find a lost tape, wherein he discovers its possibly fallen into the wrong hands, which leads to heated discussions, exchanges and ultimatums. As producer Feldman explains, "We were literally racing against the clock to put this out before it became bootlegged. We ve never rushed a project through all the channels as fast as this one. It was a very stressful exercise, and emotions were running high. I was locked up in hotel rooms day and night, going back and forth with my European colleagues and my Resonance team in LA. It's all about respecting and protecting the intellectual property, and honoring the musicians and the others involved in creating this recording in this case protecting the legacy of Bill Evans and rights of Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette. But make no bones about it, if you see this recording on another label besides Resonance, it is an unauthorized bootleg!"

Once again, consistent with our mission to honor the traditions of great American music, Resonance Records has pulled out all the stops in creating this release. The deluxe CD package includes an extensive book, presented in a beautifully designed digipak by Burton Yount, with an extraordinary cover image by noted British photographer David Redfern. Also featured in the package are rare photos by Chuck Stewart, Jan Persson, Lee Tanner and others, as well as essays by Resonance producer Zev Feldman and acclaimed Dutch jazz writer Bert Vuijsje, a profile of concert producer Joop de Roo by Vuijsje, plus interviews with Bill Evans Trio members Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette and an interview with noted jazz pianist Steve Kuhn. The images included in the album package are based on exhaustive research and include rare images of the actual recording venue. The limited-edition, hand-numbered LP pressing on 180-gram black vinyl will be released on Record Store Day, April 22, 2017. The LP version has been mastered by the legendary engineer Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI).

You’re Gonna Hear from Me (4:30)

Very Early (5:14)

Who Can I Turn To? (5:36)

Alfie (5:29)

Embraceable You (5:05)

Emily (4:22)

Nardis (8:34)

Turn Out the Stars (4:53)

Five (2:26)

The Girshevich Trio - Algorithmic Society (2016) TAPESTRY / CAPRI RECORDS

The Girshevich Trio releases debut recording Algorithmic Society

August 19 on Tapestry Records

Featuring 12-year-old drummer Aleks Girshevich with legendary bassist Eddie Gomez and veteran pianist Vlad Girshevich

“Pianist/composer Vlad Girshevich is a thrilling and adventurous talent.” – Bass Players United

“Folks on the Colorado music scene have been talking for years about the tremendously talented drummer Aleks Girshevich, who was born in 2001.” – All About Jazz

Algorithmic Society, the debut recording from the Gershevich Trio, brings together three generations of musicians: 12-year-old drum prodigy Aleks Girshevich, his father veteran pianist Vlad Girshevich and legendary bassist Eddie Gomez.  Their mutual respect shines through on this album of originals written by the father and son team with Aleks creating the grooves and Vlad penning the melodies.
Aleks was greatly inspired by the Grammy winning Cuban percussionist Horacio “el Negro” Hernandez. The tunes incorporate influences of great composers from the history of music while also integrating more modern ideas. 

The music is augmented by a string section on several tracks and on Healing the Chaos, Rony Barrak plays Darbouka, Rig and Dal adding a Middle Eastern flair. 

A classically trained pianist from Uzbekistan, Vlad Girshevich began his training at the age of 4 years old. He became interested in jazz as a teenager and never looked back. He moved to Colorado in the early 90’s and has performed with a wide range of jazz greats: Bob Berg, Stanley Jordan, Ernie Watts and, while at the Thelonious Monk Institute at Jazz Aspen/Snowmass, he performed with Jerry Gonzales, Arturo Sandoval, and the legendary drummer Horacio “el Negro” Hernandez.  He has performed at numerous jazz festivals including the Rostov Jazz Festival, Santa Fe Jazz Festival, Vail Jazz Festival, and the Windham Chamber Festival among others. His son Aleks joined his trio when he was only 10 years old. 

Aleks Girshevich released his first trio CD at age 11 entitled Tomorrow which received “a first rate 5 star release” from Critical Jazz and 4 ½ stars from All About Jazz. He was named one of the Best Student Musicians of 2015 in DownBeat Student Music Awards in the category of “Jazz Soloist – Drums.”

www.vladgirshevich.com