Tim Berne - inSOMNIA (2021)

1. The Proposal 35:57

2. oPEN, cOMA 29:55

Baikida Carroll: trumpet

Michael Formanek: contrabass

Marc Ducret: 12 string guitar

Dominique Pifarély: violin

Erik Friedlander: cello

Chris Speed: clarinet

Jim Black: drums

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Renee Rosnes & David Hajdu - Ice on the Hudson (October 12, SMK Jazz)

Pianist/Composer Renee Rosnes and

Author/Lyricist David Hajdu to Release

First Album of Songwriting Collaborations

Ice on the Hudson, Available October 12 via SMK Jazz

Ice on the Hudson features vocalists René Marie, Janis Siegel, Darius de Haas and Karen Oberlin and an all-star ensemble interpreting diverse songs about the emotional complexities of adult life in today’s world.

There’s a special chemistry that’s found only in the rarest of songwriting partnerships, forever linking the names of composer and lyricist in the minds of listeners. The names Renee Rosnes and David Hajdu are already well known to music lovers: Rosnes as one of her generation’s most acclaimed jazz composers and pianists, Hajdu as an award-winning author and critic. With Ice on the Hudson, their first collaborative album of songs, the pair reveals a breathtaking synergy, crafting a collection of deeply felt and genre-defying songs that join words and music with alchemical results.

Ice on the Hudson, due out October 12 via SMK Jazz (a newly launched imprint curated by Smoke Sessions Records), brings together four magnificent vocalists: revered, GRAMMY® Award-nominated jazz singer René Marie; Manhattan Transfer co-founder and nine-time GRAMMY® winner Janis Siegel, celebrated musical-theater actor and art-song interpreter Darius de Haas; and acclaimed jazz/pop performer Karen Oberlin. Their voices are matched by a stunning ensemble, featuring Rosnes at the piano along with cellist Erik Friedlander, saxophonists Steve Wilson and Seamus Blake, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, bassist Sean Smith, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogerio Boccato.

While both Rosnes and Hajdu can boast considerable accomplishments in their respective fields, songwriting was a fairly new endeavor for both. Rosnes had had a handful of her instrumental compositions set to lyrics, and Hajdu had collaborated on a few songs with Fred Hersch and others. When Rosnes and Hajdu decided to try writing together, five years ago, “Everything clicked,” in Hajdu’s words.

“Renee is one of the most gifted, most sophisticated and most creative composers alive,” Hajdu says. “I consider myself the luckiest boy in the music world for getting to write with this flat-out genius. We both enjoy the exhilarating thrill of doing something that we care about, that draws on our professional and life experiences, but that provides a whole new set of challenges for us.”

For Rosnes, who has long drawn inspiration for her own music from sources as diverse as the natural world and the visual arts, the partnership has given her rich depths of emotion and narrative to plumb. “David is a powerful and compelling storyteller,” she says, “and each of his lyrics has many layers and great substance. It’s been a fulfilling experience to take his words and search for melodies that truly allow the story to shine through.”

Given the tantalizing complexity of Hajdu’s words, Rosnes found herself exploring a wide range of sensibilities, never concerned with genre. Ultimately, while some pieces fit comfortably into the jazz songwriting tradition of Jon Hendricks or Bob Dorough, others evoke the world of musical theater or such respected singer-songwriters as Joni Mitchell or Randy Newman. “When I embarked on this project with David, I put the idea of genre out of my mind,” she explains. “I was most interested in allowing the lyrics to inspire and move me in whatever direction that musically translated to.”

“A Tiny Seed” opens the album with a parable both timeless and timely, about a wall-building king and the seemingly small detail that grows to topple his kingdom. Marie’s wry, soulful vocal offers inspiration to those hoping to turn such fairy tales into reality. Her serpentine lines bring an exotic mystery to “Little Pearl,” a reinterpretation of Rosnes’ instrumental “The Quiet Earth.”

Siegel’s voice seems to float into a whimsical daydream on “I Used to Like to Draw,” a tender reminiscence of the childhood days when we all gave vent to our imaginations, before the supposed reality of adult life quashed such fancies. Siegel also sings “The Passage,” which takes the natural splendor that inspired Rosnes’ instrumental piece “Gabriola Passage” into the realm of transcendence. On the title track, “Ice on the Hudson,” she takes the bizarre fact that the Hudson River flows both upstream and downstream as a metaphor for the often contradictory aspects of grown-up reality – one of several instances of complex ideas that stem from the collaboration between two artists with a wealth of life experience.

Oberlin offers a bit of culinary respite from the world’s divisiveness on the playful “I Like Pie” and a bit of romantic perspective on “I Still Feel the Same.” The moving “All But You” builds from scraps of both songwriters’ biographies to paint a picture of living with a missing someone. Rosnes suggested a song based on her experience as an adopted child wondering about her birth parents, which Hajdu countered with his own background. “Renee said it felt strange growing up not knowing who her biological parents were, but my father sat at the dinner table with me every night my whole life, and I don’t know who my father was either. We share that feeling of a hole in your life, that there are people who could have been there who were not.”

Hajdu based “To Meet My Brother” on the tragic loss of his sister and the feeling of wanting to be reunited, whatever the cost. Darius de Haas brings tender yearning to that piece and an urgent sensuality to “Confound Me.” His knack for theatrical drama illuminates “Trotsky in Mexico,” a Sondheim-like musing on the Russian revolutionary’s fling with Frida Kahlo.

A five-time winner of the JUNO award, Renee Rosnes is one of the premier jazz composers and pianists of her generation. Upon moving to New York City from Vancouver, Canada, she quickly established her enduring reputation as a creative original and versatile collaborator, touring and recording with such masters as Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, BobbyHutcherson, J.J. Johnson, James Moody, and Ron Carter. With 16 recordings as a leader, Rosnes has grown ever more ambitious musically, as her most recent album, Beloved of the Sky (Smoke Sessions Records), attests. 

David Hajdu is an award-winning author, critic, and songwriter. A three-time winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for Music Writing as well as a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Hajdu is the author of five books, including Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street, and Love for Sale: Pop Music in America.

reneerosnes.com

www.davidhajdu.com

Erik Friedlander - ARTEMISIA 3 10" LP BOXSET (Arconomx Music / Skipstone Records 2018)

Sparked by viewing Pablo Picasso’s mysterious absinthe glass sculptures at MoMA, renowned cellist Erik Friedlander and his new band Throw A Glass - Uri Caine on piano, Mark Helias on bass, and Ches Smith on drums - spent the next year and a half writing and recording Artemisia (April 11 / SkipStone), a concept album on the murky history of absinthe and its use as a brain-bending hallucinogen.  “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about one of my projects,” says Friedlander, who composed both hypnotic meditations on obsession and songs that optimistically chase euphoria and the "green fairy."

“That sense of never-ending intrigue and discovery is one of the most redeeming qualities of Friedlander as a person and a player,” writes Pitchfork.   “On first look, the glasses were kind of pretty, innocent,” Erik remembers.   “But as I looked more closely, I saw that Picasso had torn away the fronts of the glasses, revealing their insides.  Was Picasso commenting on the effects of absinthe?  Does it tear away one's exterior?” 

Described as an “ingenious cellist who makes an art of soulful rusticity” (The New York Times), Friedlander formed Throw A Glass for a gig at The Stone in New York City.  “I was blown away by the chemistry,” adds Erik, who got his start in New York City’s avant-garde Downtown music scene and has performed with everyone from The Mountain Goats, Mike Patton and Courtney Love to John Zorn, Dave Douglas and Wynton Marsalis.   The quartet recorded Artemisia in May of 2017, during a productive two-day session at The Bunker in Brooklyn.

Artemisia is a record about inspiration and where it comes from.  “So often we're looking for 'the great revelation' and missing the daily miracle that's there in plain sight,” says Friedlander.  “Moments of synchronicity, miracles of counterpoint, things that have never happened before and will elude you if you try baldly go after them again.  These are things to cherish. The so-called "revelation" is fool's gold."

ARTEMISIA 3 10" LP BOXSET

ARTEMISIA IS HERE!

The exquisite new 3LP boxset of Erik Friedlander's newest project, "Artemsia" has finally arrived and is available now.  Artemisia comes in a jet black slipcover, containing 3 absinthe-green LPs, featuring the amazing performances by Throw A Glass, artwork by Akino Kondoh, and design by Rob Jones.  Pick it up now!

Produced by Erik Friedlander

Engineered and Mixed by Scott Solter

Recorded May 25-26, 2017 at Bunker Studios, NYC

Mixed August 2017 at Orient Street in Durham, NC

Mastered by Steve Berson at Total Sonic Media

Original Artwork by Akino Kondoh

Design by Rob Jones

Project Supervised by Dexter Dine

All Music Composed by Erik Friedlander (ASCAP)

Performed by Throw A Glass: Erik Friedlander, cello; Uri Caine, pno; Mark Helias, bs; Ches Smith, dr

www.erikfriedlander.com

©2018 Arconomx Music LLC

Sara Serpa's new trio CD "Close Up," feat. Ingrid Laubrock & Erik Friedlander (CLEAN FEED RECORDS March 16, 2018)

Singer/composer Sara Serpa releases Close Up, a conceptual album inspired by experimentation and changing identities

Close Up, out March 16, 2018 via Clean Feed, presents Serpa's new trio with saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and cellist Erik Friedlander exploring an exposed and hyper detailed soundscape of original compositions.

"Serpa is 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

"Serpa moves easily between traditional jazz vocalism, improvisation, and new music, and has one of the most elegant and beautiful voices on the scene." – George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail

Through a series of critically acclaimed releases over the past ten years, Lisbon, Portugal native, singer and composer Sara Serpa has continually defied the limitations of genre, implementing a singular instrumental approach to her vocal style. Her new album, Close Up, presents the compelling configuration of voice, saxophone and cello, exploring Serpa's own compositions. Accompanied by a stellar new trio, Serpa finds her partners in two innovative improvisers with distinct musical personalities: saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, one of the most significant voices in contemporary jazz and improvised music, and Downtown veteran cellist Erik Friedlander.

"The configuration of voice, saxophone and cello exposes each instrument with a precise vulnerability" says Serpa. "From within this exposure, we look for cohesion and collective sound. I write the material, but the music takes shape in the process of our rehearsals and the time we spend together, through discussion and collective experimentation."

The result is an album that resembles a high resolution photograph, a mesmerizing play on the idea of close-ups: the compositions, the musicians and their roles within the trio, and the recording process.

"The compositions also reveal close-ups of different episodes in my life," Serpa explains. Take the example of the poignant song "Woman," using the French philosopher Luce Irigaray's text. "It exposes the invisibility of motherhood. Because that experience is recent to me, the text resonated with my thoughts and feelings," Serpa offers. "Writing this song was part of a healing process, as I dealt with the realizations of the lack of support women artists receive as mothers, and of the paradoxical loneliness one can feel in one of life's most beautiful events."

All the compositions present striking atmospheres, glimmering with melodic and dissonant sounds, unified and transformed by the trio. Serpa, Laubrock and Friedlander play with their roles, alternating in creating backgrounds, to holding down bass lines, or to playing extremely long tones that become textures. "To find our place without a harmonic instrument was an interesting challenge and I enjoyed learning how to be independent, to be featured as soloist, or to act in ensemble, whatever each song was calling for." Laubrock and Friedlander are valuable partners in these roles; shifting with their unpredictable phrasing, extreme versatility, and attentive ears.

Iranian film director Kiarostami's film Close Up is cited as an influence in the album's liner notes. "The movie (a masterpiece itself) plays with the idea of actors who are in fact not actors but become actors of a fictitious film, providing a common thread between the film and the music I was creating at the same time I was watching it."

The quality of being still, of observing as nature unfolds, comes across in the song "Storm Coming," highlighted by Ingrid Laubrock's masterful solo improvisation. In the dark and ambient section, each instrument blends into the other, rendering the piece an impressionistic sonic experience, an image of dark clouds slowly gathering before a storm.

Serpa, whose natural instinct is to sing wordlessly -"When I lack words, I sing sounds, and emotions are conveyed through those sounds" - uses literature as inspiration in several of this album's pieces: Luce Irigaray for "Woman," and Virginia Woolf in "The Future." Portuguese poet Ruy Bello's "Pássaros," Birds, is the backbone for an eccentric and energetic piece. "The poem is about how birds are tree's fruits, and how birds make the trees sing. Imagining the trees singing is an inspiring image," the singer explains.

"Object," "Quiet Riot," and "Sol Enganador," exploratory and complex in their compositional nature, are all instrumental pieces, in which the voice functions as an equal to the cello and the saxophone.

Close Up reveals Serpa's voice as never before - her sound is full, consistent, and expressive. "Cantar Ao Fim," at the end of the album's journey, starts with a vocal improvisation that makes one wonder whether Serpa is singing right next to your ear, intimate and quotidian. "This song came out of an improvisation I recorded on my phone when I was out in the mountains, at night. That moment stayed with me, looking at the mountains and singing without thinking or judging what was coming out. There is something very powerful in singing alone in the nature."

Sara Serpa

Lisbon, Portugal native, Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser who implements a unique instrumental approach to her vocal style. Recognized for her distinctive wordless singing, Serpa has been immersed in the field of jazz, improvised and experimental music since first arriving in New York in 2008. Described by JazzTimes magazine as "a master of wordless landscapes" and by the New York Times as "a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook," Serpa started her recording and performing career with jazz luminaries such as Grammy-nominated pianist Danilo Perez, and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow pianist Ran Blake. Her ethereal music draws from a broad variety of inspirations including literature, film, visual arts as well as history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released seven albums; the latest being "All The Dreams" in collaboration with guitarist André Matos. Serpa has collaborated with an extensive array musicians including John Zorn, Mycale Vocal 4tet, Guillermo Klein, Mark Turner, Zeena Parkins, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Derek Bermel, Aya Nishina, Tyshawn Sorey, Nicole Mitchell, among many others.

Erik Friedlander - Rings (2016)

Rings is the latest cd from my new trio Black Phebe, with me on cello, pianist and accordionist Shoko Nagai and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi. Rings comes at you from different angles: There are times when the band plays with exhuberance and other times the trio works to create an atmosphere of loneliness and insecurity. The unifying theme of the project are the cycles each piece follows. Each piece has repetition built in. These cycles or rings are the building blocks of the project, sometimes long and sometimes short as a few seconds. 

Black Phebe is really many trios. Shoko Nagai’s charismatic performance on accordion and piano changes the feel of the group. When she plays accordion the band is a world-music band playing virtuoso, mixed meter works (“Risky Business”) or sweet folk songs (“Small Things”). On piano the band is a jazz piano trio (“Black Phebe”, “Fracture”) or a classical chamber group (“A Single Eye”). 

At the heart of the cd are the Rings. 3 pieces that use live looping as a compositional process captured in the recording. In these pieces I create the composition as the trio improvises with me and around me. The Rings are a new thing for me. I’ve never been a fan of looping as a compositional technique but I turned around on it when I tried it with this band. I create the ring as we improvise and the result is hypnotic and beautiful..but organic.

01. The Seducer 04:14

02. Black Phebe 06:22

03. A Single Eye 03:37

04. Fracture 08:45

05. Risky Business 06:40

06. Tremors 03:22

07. Small Things 03:21

08. Solve Me 06:13

09. Canoe 04:51

10. Waterwheel 05:41

11. Flycatcher 07:16

12. Silk 06:02

Releases June 10, 2016 

Produced by Erik Friedlander 

Recorded by Scott Solter at Story Sound in New York City 

Assisted by Jeff Cook 

Mixed by Scott Solter in Durham, NC 

Mastered by Steve Berson at Total Sonic Media 

Design by Vanessa Maynard 

All music composed by Erik Friedlander. 

All rights reserved. 

Erik Friedlander, cello 

Shoko Nagai, piano, accordion, electronics 

Satoshi Takeishi, percussion

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