Jane Ira Bloom / Mark Helias - See Our Way (April 2022)

This music was recorded in multiple sessions over several months in 2021-22. It was done at Chateau Beyond Studio in upstate NY. The mixing and mastering was completed at Radio Legs Music in NYC. The pieces were collaboratively improvised and we allowed ourselves the freedom to just be with the music and create the sound as the moment moved us. It comes on the heels of our first duo release “Some Kind of Tomorrow” in 2020. It’s hard to put into words how extraordinary it feels to collaborate with a musician who you can coax composition out of the air with. It’s exhilarating, it’s dangerous, it’s like jumping off the high board and it’s our way.

See Our Way

Multiverse 1

See Our Way 4:35

Cut to the Chase 4:13

Laser Plane 4:28

Detectives 2:59

As Close As It Gets 3:26

Multiverse 2

Perfect Memory 2:59

Hard Science 4:55

Imaginary Fences 3:48

Folks Sing 5:38

Hold the Wire 3:25

Multiverse 3

Time Shear 6:25

Quelle 2:43

Second Hand Lonely 6:27

Mark Helias Radio Legs Music /BMI

Jane Ira Bloom Outline Music/ BMI

Recorded by Mark Helias & Jane Ira Bloom

Mixed & mastered by Mark Helias

Joseph Helias – Audio Consultant

Cover Artwork “Street Lamps” by Ching Ho Cheng

© 2022 Estate of Ching Ho Cheng/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Cover Design by Christopher Drukker

PRE-ORDER

Allison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom - Tues Days (September 2021 Royal Potato Family)

In March and April of 2021 soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and drummer Allison Miller came together on five Tuesdays in March and April of 2021 to record some improvised sax and drum duets to see what might happen. They didn’t set out to make an album - they just wanted to play because they needed to improvise any way that they could. They played with complete abandon, performing remotely from their home studios in New York City in the reality of the world of 2021. Tues Days is the result of those recordings that now appear on Bloom’s Outline label and are available through Miller’s Bandcamp site, mixed and mastered by bassist Mark Helias with breathtaking fidelity. It’s a musical duet saturated in a kaleidoscope of color. The music is spontaneous composition at its best by two masterful improvisers – energetic, tactile, and alive. 

Miller’s multi-colored array of percussion augments her drumset in exquisite counterpoint to Bloom’s signature tone on the soprano sax. The music is both rhythmic and deeply lyrical - drum and sax dancing around one another until their song is sung. The compositions are Bloom and Miller making-it-up live and in the moment, taking you on a wild ride through their musical universe. From the adventurous journey of “The Wild Frontier” to the unpredictable “A & J’s Test Kitchen,” get ready for Tues Days - a story for your ears that will have your head spinning in wonder.

1. Tues Days 04:43

2. Technicolor 05:36

3. Rowing In The Dark 05:26

4. This Is It 03:16

5. Five Bells 02:16

6. The Wild Frontier 08:30

7. Light Years Away 05:59

8. A's & J's Test Kitchen 04:16

9. Crayola 06:13

10. On Seeing JP 04:19

11. Walk Alone 06:08

Allison Miller drums, percussion

Jane Ira Bloom soprano saxophone

Jane Ira Bloom Outline Music/ BMI

Allison Miller Supaphine / ASCAP

Produced by Jane Ira Bloom & Allison Miller

Recorded by Allison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom on March 2,9, 16, 25 & April 6, 2021 in NYC.

Mixed & mastered by Mark Helias

Cover Illustration Leo Holder ©2020, All rights reserved, used by permission.

Cover Design Christopher Drukker

Artist photography Erika Kapin

All compositions by Allison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom except “Rowing in the Dark,” “Light Years Away,” “On Seeing JP” and “Walk Alone” by Jane Ira Bloom (Outline Music/ BMI)

PREORDER

Jane Ira Bloom / Mark Helias - Some Kind of Tomorrow (2021)

Some Kind of Tomorrow

We didn’t have to write anything.

We didn’t have to plan anything.

We didn’t even have to talk.

We just had to play -

to connect with each other

across a distance in whatever way we could

because we had to.

It was just too hard to be a sound alone.

A sound needed another sound

- and so Mark & I began.

Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and bassist Mark Helias come together to create duets discovered in the moment in a way that is rarely heard today with Some Kind of Tomorrow. The long time bandmates, separated by space and time find a way to play in real time with one another and the results are magical. Two master improvisers and composers bring listeners up-close and personal to the first spark of their imaginations at work, recording eleven duet improvisations over the spring, summer, and fall of 2020. The music is raw, authentic, intimate, alive, and unapologetic in its passion. Their sound is deep wood and polished brass recorded with a depth that is hard to describe. They played the music, recorded it, mastered it firsthand and are now making it available to listeners for the first time as a digital download on Bandcamp. Don’t miss these fearless jazz explorers as they face the future.

“Here are the improvised duets that bassist Mark Helias and I created in the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 on the internet. The thought of a world without a live, spontaneous musical connection was too hard to imagine and so we came to these sessions over the internet with an emotional thirst that’s hard to describe. The music is discovered in the moment in a way that I’ve never recorded before. The sound is filled with everything that we felt and couldn’t say in words. There is a vibration between us that’s uncanny given the circumstances and a deep need to play what was real to us just then. It’s as real as it gets for two musicians who needed to create music together to try to find some way to mend the world.” Jane Ira Bloom

“In unprecedented times artists resort to unprecedented strategies to fulfill the need to create and relate. Being locked down has reframed my appreciation of the act of musical interaction and reaffirmed the decision that I made decades ago to explore music as a life’s work. The first time that Jane and I improvised together through Wi-Fi sometime in April or May 2020 was a very high experience on so many levels. We were sorting out the possibilities of making music remotely and assessing the technology and our relation to it. Once we made peace with the situation and the medium, listening, feeling, hearing and responding was the same as it ever was. Without a live audience we decided to complete the circle by documenting our efforts through recordings that we are now sharing with the public. This process has been enlivening in ways that I had not anticipated.” Mark Helias

1. Some Kind of Tomorrow 04:17

2. Magic Carpet 07:04

3. Early Rites 04:24

4. Willing 05:50

5. Traveling Deep 03:30

6. Roughing It 09:28

7. Far Satellites 06:07

8. Pros and Cons 05:54

9. Drift 04:56

10. Star Talk 05:18

11. First Canvas 01:02

Jane Ira Bloom - soprano saxophone

Mark Helias - double bass

© 2020 All compositions by Mark Helias & Jane Ira Bloom

Mark Helias Radio Legs Music/BMI

Jane Ira Bloom Outline Music/ BMI

Recorded by Mark Helias & Jane Ira Bloom

Mixed & mastered by Mark Helias

Cover Photography - Claudia Barritt

Cover Design - Mark Helias

Pre-order

Jane Ira Bloom “Early Americans” 2018 Grammy Winner Best Surround Sound Album

Jane Ira Bloom

“Early Americans”

2018 Grammy Winner

Best Surround Sound Album

Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom).

Label: Sono Luminus

www.janeirabloom.com

Media Contact

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Ph: 845-986-1677 / jim@jazzpromoservices.com

www.jazzpromoservices.com

"Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

Jane Ira Bloom: Early Americans BEST SURROUND SOUND ALBUM

Best Surround Sound Album

Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom). Label: Sono Luminus

www.janeirabloom.com

Media Contacts

Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services

Ph: 845-986-1677 / jim@jazzpromoservices.com

www.jazzpromoservices.com

"Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

Jane Ira Bloom Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson + 2017 DownBeat Critics Poll Soprano Saxophonist Of The Year

New Release

Jane Ira Bloom

Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson 

Jane Ira Bloom (soprano saxophone)

Dawn Clement (piano)

Mark Helias (bass)

Bobby Previte (drums)

+ 2017 DownBeat Critics Poll

Soprano Saxophonist Of The Year

(2 CD Set Outline OTL 143)

Street Date: September 8, 2017

American original Jane Ira Bloom does it again. This time the 21st-century soprano saxophonist reimagines the poetry of 19th-century visionary Emily Dickinson in two different settings. Her new 2 Cd pack showcases her jazz quartet’s interpretation of Dickinson’s poetry and includes a second version for jazz quartet and spoken word featuring readings by popular stage & film actor Deborah Rush. After the success of her 2016 trio album release Early Americans, Bloom shifts gears with Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson (OTL143) showcasing her acclaimed quartet in dialogue with poetry in her seventeenth album and first foray into music and text. Her sound is like no other on the straight horn and she lets it fly with long-time band mates Dawn Clement (piano), Mark Helias (bass) & Bobby Previte (drums).

Adding the Emily Dickinson narrative to the ensemble on disc 2 is acclaimed actor Deborah Rush. Bloom composed Wild Lines when she was awarded a 2015 CMA/ Doris Duke New Jazz Works commission. She was inspired to musically reimagine Dickinson when she learned that the poet was a pianist and improviser herself, reconfirming what she’d always felt in the jazz-like quality of Dickinson’s phrasing. “I didn’t always understand her but I always felt Emily’s use of words mirrored the way a jazz musician uses notes.” Wild Lines’ premiere at the poet’s home in Amherst, MA was followed by performances at the Kennedy Center and the NYPL for the Performing Arts. The ensemble then headed into Avatar Studios to record in stereo and surround-sound with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson. The album features fourteen Bloom originals inspired by fragments of Dickinson poetry and prose mined from both her collected works and envelope poems “The Gorgeous Nothings.” The album closes with a solo rendition of an American classic, Rodgers & Hart’s ”It’s Easy to Remember.” Artist Gina Werfel contributes a stunning motion painting for the CD’s cover image. Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson illuminates why jazz critic Brian Priestly called Jane Ira Bloom “the poet of the soprano saxophone.”

WINNER  2017 DOWNBEAT CRITICS POLL for SOPRANO SAX

 “music of great individuality and originality that could belong to no one else”

– Nick Lea, Jazzviews

Upcoming Live Appearance

JANE IRA BLOOM  

Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson

w/Dawn Clement, Dean Johnson,

Bobby Previte, & Deborah Rush

Fri, Aug 11 @ 8:00 pm

Buckley Recital Hall

Amherst College

53 College St

Amherst, MA

(413) 542-2034

tickets $18

News & Events | Jane Ira Bloom performance of "Wild Lines" | Amherst College

www.janeirabloom.com

National Press Campaign

Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services

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"Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

Jane Ira Bloom - Early Americans (2016)

Label: Outline Records

Source: Allaboutjazz - Mark Sullivan

Saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom is one of the few jazz players to concentrate solely on the soprano saxophone. In 35 years she has recorded sixteen albums as a leader, most often in a quartet with piano. This is her first trio album, in the company of longtime playing partners bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte. Their high level of communication is evident on a tune like "Singing the Triangle," which features a recurring theme that is clearly stated by all three instruments in unison (with Previte using his toms melodically). Both the head and the band's approach recall the late Steve Lacy, another soprano saxophone specialist and experimentalist. The start-and-stop "Gateway to Progress" has a similar feel (it also demonstrates how hard this band can swing). Bloom definitely has her own sound, but Lacy is the closest comparison that comes to mind.

The aptly-named opener "Song Patrol" demonstrates just how tuneful Bloom's composing can be, a fact that may be obscured by the avant-garde tag she is sometimes saddled with. She has long had an interest in live electronics and sound design, which first appears here in the panning between the left and right stereo channels on "Dangerous Times." I believe this particular effect was achieved the old fashioned way, by simply moving the horn between the pair of stereo microphones—there is a photo in the CD liners showing her playing in the studio with tape on the floor to mark the mic placement. Bloom also employs some discreet electronic processing on her saxophone. It's especially noticeable on "Rhyme or Rhythm," which also features overdubbed hand drums and agogô bell from Previte, creating a denser group sound with a latin flavor.

"Other Eyes" goes the other way, paring things down to a gentle saxophone/bass duet. Bloom closes the album with a beautiful solo rendition of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere." The whole program is full of variety, beautiful and exploratory at the same time. The trio format works so well that it is surprising that Bloom hasn't used it before. I'd love to hear more from these three.

Song Patrol

Dangerous Times

Nearly (For Kenny Wheeler)

Hips & Sticks

Singing the Triangle

Other Eyes

Rhyme or Rhythm

Mind Gray River

Cornets of Paradise

Say More

Gateway to Progress

Big Bill

Somewhere

 

 

  Jane Ira Bloom: soprano saxophone
Mark Helias: bass
Bobby Previte: drums 

 

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