Guitarist, composer and oud master Gordon Grdina announces an eclectic trio of new releases for 2022, including two on his own Attaboygirl Records imprint

Gordon Grdina - photo by Genevieve Monro

On February 18, 2022, Attaboygirl will release Night’s Quietest Hour by Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram with special guest Marc Ribot; and Oddly Enough, a collection of solo electric guitar pieces composed by Tim Berne

 

On June 10, Astral Spirits will unveil the second album by the  Nomad Trio 

with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black

 

“What they share as improvisers is an attunement to radical possibility at any moment, and the expansive technical vocabulary to justify any digression.” 

– Nate Chinen WBGO 

"Another Edgy, Highly Improvised Masterpiece From Gordon Grdina...the rare jazz guitarist who plays a lot of notes, yet manages to find a way not to waste them." 

– delarue, New York Music Daily

The prolific Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, improviser, and master oud player Gordon Grdina has long been tireless in his pursuit of new possibilities and partnerships for his expansive musical imagination. Following the 2021 launch of his own Attaboygirl Records label and a trio of acclaimed new releases, Grdina returns with three more diverse and adventurous new releases for 2022.

 

February 18, 2022 will see the release of two new albums on Attaboygirl, each of which finds Grdina collaborating with one of modern jazz’s most innovative and creative minds. Night’s Quietest Hour documents the meeting of guitar experimentalist Marc Ribot with Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram, while Oddly Enough debuts a new collection of pieces by saxophonist/composer Tim Berne for solo acoustic and electric guitar with Midi sampler instruments. On June 10, 2022 the Astral Spirits label will release the much anticipated secondouting by Grdina’s explosive Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black.

Grdina founded Haram in 2008 with two purposes in mind: to further evolve his work with traditional Iraqi and Arabic folk music, and to convene several of his favorite Vancouver improvisers into one large ensemble. The follow-up to the ensemble’s 2012 debut, Her Eyes Illuminate, features the addition of legendary guitar wizard Marc Ribot, whose fabled career has included influential work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and John Zorn among countless others, as well as his own projects like Ceramic Dog, Los Cubanos Postizos, Spiritual Unity and the Rootless Cosmopolitans. Ribot joined the ensemble in Vancouver for a pair of concerts and a recording session shortly before the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

 

“Ribot's been a hero of mine for a long time,” Grdina says. “He added a whole lot of energy and excitement as well as a punk rock aesthetic to these pieces.”

While Night’s Quietest Hour was captured just before the world changed, Oddly Enough came into existence in the midst of the COVID lockdown. Near the outset of the pandemic Tim Berne, the influential and audacious saxophonist/composer who has led such revered ensembles as Bloodcount, Big Satan, Science Friction, Snakeoil and Broken Shadows, casually sent Grdina a new piece he’d recently penned for solo guitar. Grdina sent back a recording and Berne responded with a second piece. That back and forth continued for almost a year before Grdina had accumulated enough material for an album. To expand his sonic palette for these pieces, Grdina designed a new guitar able to simultaneously record Midi data, acoustic and electric.

 

“The pieces were incredibly challenging yet beautiful and aligned with what I had been exploring in my own writing on my last two solo albums,” Grdina says. “I’m excited by music that is harmonically complex and direct yet free, ambiguous, and open to personal interpretation. Tim’s music is personal and immediately recognizable, yet can be continuously phrased and interpreted differently… Tim has created his own world with its own sense of logic; for me, that is the most inspiring thing an artist can do.”

 

Finally, June will bring the release of Boiling Point, the second outing for Grdina’s Nomad Trio with Matt Mitchell and Jim Black, two of the most inventive and technically versatile artists in modern jazz. “I can write anything for this band,” Grdina touts. “It's very complex music, rhythmically, harmonically, melodically, and in the way every piece fits together, those guys really can do anything. Since the last album, the group has solidified its unique sound, which is exciting to hear develop on this second record.”

 

Seeking a new outlet that can keep pace with his ever-expanding roster of ongoing projects and new collaborations, Grdina launched Attaboygirl Records in October 2021. The endeavor was undertaken in collaboration with his partner, photographer Genevieve Monro, who curates the distinctive visual style of the label. The label made its debut with the simultaneous release of the first two entries in its catalogue: Pendulum, Grdina’s third solo album and the second composed for classical guitar and oud; and Klotski, the studio debut of Gordon Grdina’s Square Peg, an exploratory quartet featuring Grdina on guitar and oud, Mat Maneri on viola, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog, and Christian Lillinger on drums.

 

“I seem to be putting out more music than other labels can handle,” jokes Grdina about the new effort. “The label is a project that Genevieve and I have wanted to take on for a while now. It allows us to release projects when we want and to create a cohesive visual style for these disparate releases.”

Gordon Grdina’s Haram with special guest Marc Ribot – Night’s Quietest Hour

Attaboygirl Records – ABG-3 – Recorded Feb. 29, 2020

Release date February 18, 2022

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Gordon Grdina – Oddly Enough

Attaboygirl Records – ABG-4 – Recorded April 29-30, 2021

Release date February 18, 2022

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Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio – Boiling Point

Astral Spirits – Recorded Jan. 2020

Release date June 10, 2022

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Miles Okazaki - Thisness (March 20, 2022 Pi Recordings)

"convulsive beauty, propulsive rhythm, elusive meaning...a spontaneous and unpredictable work of art, accordingly discordant, subversively accordant, a pendulum crushing the cage of temporality. This is Surrealism in practice. This is jazz. This is freedom."

- from the liner notes by Robin D.G. Kelley

Thisness is Miles Okazaki's third volume of compositions for Trickster, a quartet featuring Matt Mitchell on piano, Anthony Tidd on drums, and Sean Rickman on drums. The album is a set of themes that are shuffled and connected in different ways to make four large movements. Okazaki describes the process in the liner notes:

"Our previous albums were made up of what I would simply call "songs," but for this project I decided to expand the format. The intention was to make something like an exquisite corpse, the collective improvisations developed by the Surrealists. So for this album my job as composer was to bring in some ideas, set them in motion and then listen, trying to recognize the value of serendipitous events at transitional points in the music and lead the band down whatever path may be opening. The borderlands are where the Trickster hangs out, the undefined space where logic dissolves and creativity thrives. My hope was that the listener would enjoy the experience of passing through these boundaries between contrasting episodes."

The music draws on a few sources of inspiration that have connected creative elements: a magical "far off place" called Salt Creek, from a watercolor by Linda Okazaki, the writings on Surrealism by Robin D.G. Kelley, architectural concepts from producer David Breskin, and the poetry of Sun Ra. The idea that this band has been working toward since their first album is most fully realized on Thisness, a sound that discards notions of logic and control and strives toward something more like collective dreaming.

1. In Some Far Off Place

2. Years in Space

3. I'll Build a World

4. And Wait for You

Miles Okazaki – Guitar, Vocals, Robots

Matt Mitchell – Piano, Fender Rhodes, Prophet-6

Anthony Tidd – Electric Bass

Sean Rickman – Drums

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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

PREORDER

Oct 26: Ches Smith celebrates 'Path of Seven Colors' at Roulette in Brooklyn (live & live streamed)

© Mimi Chakarova

Ches Smith and We All Break celebrate Pyroclastic Records release

Path of Seven Colors

 

Live & live streamed on Tuesday, October 26 at Roulette in Brooklyn

 

The 8 p.m. live performance will also be live streamed. Tickets $20, live stream free

Project melds Haitian Vodou and contemporary improvisation

 

5 stars “A tour de force of jazz innovation.”

– John Fordham, The Guardian

 

4 stars “[Smith] breaks new ground with We All Break, and with no template for this hybrid model, he has created something new and extraordinary. Highly recommended.”

– Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

 

“I’ve been on the scene, and know a lot of people, but projects like this are the kind of thing you live for.”

– saxophonist and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón 

Drummer/composer Ches Smith and his extraordinary ensemble We All Break celebrate their “sublime magnum opus” (Jazziz) Path of Seven Colors with an album release concert at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 26 at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. The concert will also be live streamed free of charge on the night of the performance and archived for future viewing. 

 

The performance features the band from the album including Smith on drums and vocals, pianist Matt Mitchell; alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón; vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene; rising star bassist Nick Dunston; and Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz, and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene on tanbou and vocals. Also performing will be vocalists Tossie Long and Lalin St. Juste. Tickets $20. For information call 917-267-0363 or visit https://roulette.org/event/ches-smith-and-we-all-break-path-of-seven-colors-record-release-show/.

 

Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic Records, June 11, 2021) – a remarkable merging of traditional Haitian Vodou music and au courant composition and improvisation – is earning wide critical acclaim.

“A groundbreaking album…stunningly original and mesmerizing in its ritualistic power.”

– Allen Morrison, DownBeat

 

“Ches Smith has produced one of the most significant, beautiful and exciting works of this first part of the century.”

– Aldo Gianolio, AudioReview

 

“Drummer-composer Smith, who has immersed himself in Haitian vodou music for nearly two decades, delivers a sublime magnus opus.”

– Eric Snider, Jazziz

 

“Inviting and engaging, playing to tradition without being beholden to it.”

– Kurt Gottschalk, Stereophile

 

“Path of Seven Colors is nothing short of stunning… It would be a shame if it does not end up on multiple Best Of lists for 2021.”

– Robert Bush, New York City Jazz Record

 

“Path of Seven Colors promises to make the spirits take notice.”

– Emily Pothast, The Wire

The project features deluxe packaging including two extensive booklets with photos, track-by-track narratives, and lyrics in Haitian Creole and English; it also includes a bonus disc of the 2015 eponymous recording by the original quartet (Smith, Mitchell, Brevil, and Schwartz). In addition, the ensemble’s music and collaborative process are highlighted by a 50-minute film “We All Break,” available on the release date via the websites of Pyroclastic, Smith, and award-winning filmmaker Mimi Chakarova.

 

While the band’s first album featured a quartet of three drummers with piano (and occasional vocals), the new recording uses an octet to orchestrate the material and greatly expands the vocal dimension, pushing the band into new terrain. “There is no existing model marrying traditional Haitian songs with original instrumental compositions and contemporary improvisation in this way,” says Smith. “We just had to keep trying things, in the spirit of experimentation, until the balance was right and we’d created our own mold.”

 

Smith’s dedication to Haitian Vodou began more than twenty years ago. “My attraction was instant and strong,” he says. “In 2000 I got called to accompany a Haitian dance class. I was captivated, likely because things central in the various musics I play – polyrhythm, polytonality, improvisation, extended timbral awareness, tension and release, channeled aggression and power, and most vitally surprise – I found again, and anew, in this traditional form.”

 

His compositional vision aimed to incorporate and transform elements of this tradition. “I wanted these elements – lead/chorus song structure, polytonal relations among singers and drums, conversations between the drums, and kase (‘breaks’) – at the center of each piece,” he says. “A traditional rhythm would be the foundation of each composition, while that rhythm’s spiritual, political, and visual associations could function as deep wells of information and feeling, levering the work into a new dimension.”

 

Pianist Mitchell’s melodic and harmonic sense, improvisational talents, and keen sense of rhythm made him a natural for the band. Smith also enlisted his master-teachers, Brevil and Schwartz. “I knew they would tell me straight whether this project was flying or not,” says Smith. He also brought in Jean-Guy Fanfan Rene, co-leader with Sirene Dantor Rene of Vodou-activism group Fanmi Asòtò. Smith also had an idea to pile-drive the bottom end, bringing in Nick Dunston: “I pictured a broad, taut, multi-colored tapestry dense with rhythmic detail in the low range of the music. This sound would include the contrabass for its harmonic and time-keeping roles, but also to function, slyly, as a fifth drummer.” Serendipitously, Ches played a gig with alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, who expressed an interest in Haitian drumming. Smith says, “His playing on his own records, and his stunning compositions, told me he would be another force to push the music forward.” The final addition to the octet arose from Brevil’s suggestion to add a female voice. Enter Sirene Dantor Rene. “She sings with supreme conviction,” says Smith, “using traditional inflections in a voice wholly hers.”

 

Brevil began finding traditional Vodou songs, melodies and lyrics to nestle within Smith’s instrumental compositions. “Daniel composed many of the songs himself,” says Smith, “and fervently searched for others in the tradition, coming back with a multi-authored body of work. His curation brought up questions about the distinction between ‘traditional’ and ‘original.’ I once read that new songs may be created in a particular Vodou house and enter the tradition in that fashion. Perhaps this was happening before my eyes with Daniel’s original songs.”

 

The result is a triumphant, pioneering ascent, tracked and mixed beautifully by the legendary Ron Saint Germain. The band rehearsed and recorded for a week in February 2020 amidst mutual respect, focus, excitement, and a commitment to going all in on their trailblazing collaboration. Says Smith, “An almost uncanny feeling accompanied us the whole time. If I may be allowed a bit of speculation: if in Vodou the invisible becomes visible, here, perhaps, the inaudible becomes audible.”

PREORDER

Matt Mitchell & Kate Gentile - Snark Horse [Box Set] July 30, 2021 Pi Recordings

Snark Horse is a book of 70 highly-detailed one-bar compositions by pianist / composer Matt Mitchell and percussionist / composer Kate Gentile designed to incite inventive, multi-directional improvisation. It is also the name of a revolving cast of musicians – including Mitchell and Gentile – who have performed this music in various combinations since 2013. Mitchell's prior release, Phalanx Ambassadors, was called by Popmatters "a high watermark for the new jazz... a breathtaking jawdropper from one of the best pianists and composers now working." Gentile's 2017 debut release, Mannequins, was described by The New York Times as "full of stuttering rhythms and teetering intervallic jumps; an array of textures — sometimes chiming, sometimes abraded — disorient you even as they deepen your listening."

For this new recording, Mitchell and Gentile convened eight other singular musicians – all of whom have taken part in Snark Horse performances over the years – in varying combinations. Despite the small nuggets of musical information, their approach is still jazz-oriented: the musicians first play, and then improvise on the tunes. The one-bar compositions can be looped, connected, made into vamps, transposed, inverted, alternated, played together to create other-worldly counterpoint, basically in infinite permutations. Ultimately, Mitchell and Gentile’s intention behind Snark Horse is to make a highly improvisational and expansive environment using compressed versions of the kinds of material they use in their longer pieces. The compositions help foster a unique, highly imaginative universe for the musicians to show off their individual takes on this truly idiosyncratic music. Their energy is captured in over 270 minutes of music, interwoven with 60 additional minutes of electronic material composed and constructed by Mitchell in response to the group recordings. The entire daunting project presents the musicians’ resourceful creativity to full effect. 

1. flock adulation

2. compartments | 's partial

3. hem(atoadaso)da

4. a pouting grimace | greasy puzzle

5. forn

6. pheromone quiz

7. deep recess

8. fertile pinwheels

9. key tettle | FLARDLE

10. igh | dogmacile

11. trapezoids | matching tickles

12. all tall ghosts

13. nudgelet

14. thumbly

15. asymptotic rest area

16. underblobb sys

17. feral pineals

18. torpid blather | fuck your capitalization style | pendulum wobbles

19. teeming molten holdings

20. thing-fact | theoretical muscle

21. adrenal halos | dog mma((t)t)gic

22. alphabotanical

23. bogs and silence

24. fickle laughing

25. for teens | spinal thought | peripheral drome

26. infractal sentences

27. glubz | spelling bad on purpose

28. garlic plastics

29. f tessellations | chimeric numbers

30. tooth helmet

31. Tørn

32. feebleau

33. fruit velvet

34. mind google | end of something

35. regular falutin'

36. supple bicepsual | is jingles | utter balbis

37. phoofaux | rejected names | high popes

38. startling and diaphanous | the gnostic and the spastic

39. B

40. strikes me as wanting to make me barf | clump 3

41. mad homonyms | phex

42. plungeon

43. ought gobs | T

44. breach zone

45. elegiac foldouts | gluey clamor

46. mighnutes

47. glue cubes | inkblot terrain | clock levitation | cat secrets | bludgement

48. catjinx

49. fettleau | a spree...canopy

the Snark Horsekestra:

Kate Gentile - compositions, drums & percussion

Matt Mitchell - compositions, piano, modular synthesizer, Prophet-6, MicroFreak & electronics

Kim Cass - acoustic & electroacoustic bass

Ben Gerstein - trombone

Jon Irabagon - tenor, mezzo-soprano, sopranino, soprillo, & mezzo-soprano saxophones & alto clarinet

Davy Lazar - trumpet, piccolo trumpet & cornet

Mat Maneri - viola

Ava Mendoza - guitar

Matt Nelson - tenor & alto saxophones

Brandon Seabrook - guitar & tenor banjo

All 6 discs in a clamshell style box. Comes with a beautiful 12-page booklet containing a breakdown of which musicians play on which tracks, which pieces are by Matt and which are by Kate, and words by each band member of the Snark Horsekestra and mixing/mastering wizard David Torn.

Includes digital pre-order of Snark Horse [Box Set]. You get 10 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Digital Album

Streaming + Download

Pre-order of Snark Horse [Box Set]. You get 10 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Pre-order

Mario Pavone / Dialect Trio +1 - Blue Vertical (June 18, 2021 on Out Of Your Head Records)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mario Pavone / Dialect Trio + 1 - Blue Vertical (OOYH 010)

To be released June 18, 2021 on Out Of Your Head Records

"Mario Pavone’s jazz can possibly be heard two different ways: the rhythmic and harmonic grids of bebop and all that descends from it, and the cathartic tracing-in-air of free jazz." --Ben Ratliff, New York Times

Mario Pavone / Dialect Trio + 1 - Blue Vertical (OOYH 010): Blue Vertical is to be the final recording by the legendary bassist and composer Mario Pavone, who passed on May 15 2021. Though in the final stages of a 17-year battle with cancer, Pavone pushed throughout the past seven weeks to make sure this music would be a part of his recorded legacy. On March 25 and 26 2021 he gathered his Dialect Trio with Matt Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey (an active group since 2014), and the addition of his longtime collaborator Dave Ballou on trumpet, to record the music that has become Blue Vertical. Blue Vertical is releasing simultaneously with the album Isabella (Clean Feed), both of which are dedicated to Mario's granddaughter, Isabella Pavone, a 23-year-old mother of four who died tragically in June 2020.

In the wonderful interview Mario Pavone Makes His Final Statement with journalist Kevin Whitehead, which was featured recently in Downbeat Magazine, Mario Pavone said:

“I’m just happy to get these two releases done. It took every bit of energy, and the music is what got me through. I’ve had a great life and I’m so appreciative of all the players who jumped in and generously contributed, from the heart. I’m grateful, happy, satisfied with my life, ready to move to this next cycle.”

The recording shows his partners in the Dialect Trio (Mitchell and Sorey) to be in their typical telepathic form, following Pavone into every nook and cranny of these compositions. Dave Ballou on trumpet (who also arranged all of this music for Pavone) adds another very welcome dimension to the overall sound. The way the trumpet melodies align with Mitchell’s right hand is stunning, and Ballou is clearly an equal member of a quartet and not the fourth wheel in a trio. The band plays with a sensitivity that is appropriate for the moment, but the recording is also joyous and celebratory. Mario Pavone has released 34 albums over the course of an almost 60-year career. Blue Vertical is the testament of a life truly well-lived, and a beautiful final gift from an absolute master of this music. 

Martin Johnson wrote a heartfelt and enlightening appreciation of Mario Pavone for NPR, which is well worth a read for additional background info. You can find the article HERE

A full bio, additional info, and media spanning Mario's entire careeer are available at mariopavone.com

1. Twardzik

2. OKWA

3. Blue Poles

4. Isabella

5. Philosophy Series

6. Blue Vertical

7. Good Treble

8. Legacy Stories

9. Face Music

Mario Pavone - bass, compositions

Dave Ballou - trumpet, arrangements

Matt Mitchell - piano

Tyshawn Sorey - drums

This album is dedicated to Isabella Pavone (November 12,1996 - June 10, 2020)

All compositions by Mario Pavone (Pavo Publishing ) / BMI, and produced by Mario Pavone.

All arrangements by Dave Ballou.

Recorded on March 25 and 26, 2021 by Dave Stollar at Samurai Hotel Studio, Astoria, Queens, NYC.

Mixed by Ed Tetreault. Mastered by Michael MacDonald at AlgoRhythms Mastering.

Artwork and design by TJ Huff (huffart.com). Cover photo by Maurice D. Robertson.

Pre-order

Ches Smith & We All Break's Path of Seven Colors – Out This Friday, June 11 via Pyroclastic Records

Ches Smith’s We All Break melds elements of Haitian Vodou and contemporary jazz on groundbreaking new Path of Seven Colors

 

The recording and accompanying film showcase the band’s synergistic connection and exhilarating, alchemical mix of musical forms 

 

“I’ve been on the scene, and know a lot of people, but projects like this are the kind of thing you live for.” – saxophonist and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón

Like most great art forms, jazz developed by combining previously distinct, disparate elements into something new. The musicians of We All Break follow in this tradition on their new release, Path of Seven Colors, available June 11, 2021 via Pyroclastic Records. The album, with its remarkable merging of traditional Haitian Vodou music and au courant composition and improvisation, offers eight evolutionary/revolutionary tracks performed by a collaborative octet of world-class musicians.

The brainchild of drummer/composer Ches Smith, We All Break features pianist Matt Mitchell, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, rising-star bassist Nick Dunston, vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene, and master drummers Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene. 

The release features deluxe packaging including two extensive booklets with photos, track-by-track narratives, and lyrics in Haitian Creole and English; it also includes a bonus disc of the 2015 eponymous recording by the original quartet (Smith, Mitchell, Brevil, and Schwartz). In addition, the ensemble’s music and collaborative process are highlighted by a 50-minute film “We All Break,” available on the release date via the websites of Pyroclastic, Smith, and award-winning filmmaker Mimi Chakarova. 

While the band’s first album featured a quartet of three drummers with piano (and occasional vocals), the new recording uses an octet to orchestrate the material and greatly expands the vocal dimension, pushing the band into new terrain. “There is no existing model marrying traditional Haitian songs with original instrumental compositions and contemporary improvisation in this way,” says Smith. “We just had to keep trying things, in the spirit of experimentation, until the balance was right and we’d created our own mold.”

Smith’s dedication to Haitian Vodou began more than twenty years ago. “My attraction was instant and strong,” he says. “In 2000 I got called to accompany a Haitian dance class. I was captivated, likely because things central in the various musics I play – polyrhythm, polytonality, improvisation, extended timbral awareness, tension and release, channeled aggression and power, and most vitally surprise – I found again, and anew, in this traditional form.”

Smith’s dedication to Haitian Vodou began more than twenty years ago. “My attraction was instant and strong,” he says. “In 2000 I got called to accompany a Haitian dance class. I was captivated, likely because things central in the various musics I play – polyrhythm, polytonality, improvisation, extended timbral awareness, tension and release, channeled aggression and power, and most vitally surprise – I found again, and anew, in this traditional form.”

His compositional vision aimed to incorporate and transform elements of this tradition. “I wanted these elements – lead/chorus song structure, polytonal relations among singers and drums, conversations between the drums, and kase (‘breaks’) – at the center of each piece,” he says. “A traditional rhythm would be the foundation of each composition, while that rhythm’s spiritual, political, and visual associations could function as deep wells of information and feeling, levering the work into a new dimension.”

Pianist Mitchell’s melodic and harmonic sense, improvisational talents, and keen sense of rhythm made him a natural for the band. Smith also enlisted his master-teachers, Brevil and Schwartz. “I knew they would tell me straight whether this project was flying or not,” says Smith. He also brought in Jean-Guy Fanfan Rene, co-leader with Sirene Dantor Rene of Vodou-activism group Fanmi Asòtò. Smith also had an idea to pile-drive the bottom end, bringing in Nick Dunston:  “I pictured a broad, taut, multi-colored tapestry dense with rhythmic detail in the low range of the music. This sound would include the contrabass for its harmonic and time-keeping roles, but also to function, slyly, as a fifth drummer.”  Serendipitously, Ches played a gig with alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, who expressed an interest in Haitian drumming. Smith says, “His playing on his own records, and his stunning compositions, told me he would be another force to push the music forward.” The final addition to the octet arose from Brevil’s suggestion to add a female voice. Enter Sirene Dantor Rene. “She sings with supreme conviction,” says Smith, “using traditional inflections in a voice wholly hers.”

Brevil began finding traditional Vodou songs, melodies and lyrics to nestle within Smith’s instrumental compositions. “Daniel composed many of the songs himself,” says Smith, “and fervently searched for others in the tradition, coming back with a multi-authored body of work. His curation brought up questions about the distinction between ‘traditional’ and ‘original.’ I once read that new songs may be created in a particular Vodou house and enter the tradition in that fashion. Perhaps this was happening before my eyes with Daniel’s original songs.”

The result is a triumphant, pioneering ascent, tracked and mixed beautifully by the legendary Ron Saint Germain. The band rehearsed and recorded for a week in February 2020 amidst mutual respect, focus, excitement, and a commitment to going all in on their trailblazing collaboration. Says Smith, “An almost uncanny feeling accompanied us the whole time. If I may be allowed a bit of speculation: if in Vodou the invisible becomes visible, here, perhaps, the inaudible becomes audible.”

1. Woule Pou Mwen 02:41

2. Here's The Light 09:05

3. Leaves Arrive 09:39

4. Women of Iron 06:07

5. Lord of Healing 13:35

6. Raw Urbane 07:05

7. Path of Seven Colors 08:56

8. The Vulgar Cycle 11:29

Sirene Dantor Rene vocals

Miguel Zenón alto saxophone

Matt Mitchell piano

Nick Dunston bass

Daniel Brevil tanbou and vocals

Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene tanbou and vocals

Markus Schwartz tanbou and vocals

Ches Smith drums, percussion and vocals

We All Break dedicates this album to the memory of pi bon zanmi nou Eddy Jean (1970—2020).

Music composed by Ches Smith (Preposterous Bee Music, BMI)

Song lyrics and melodies by Daniel Brevil (BMI) and traditional

Recorded at Power Station New England by Ron Saint Germain in February 2020

Assisted by Patrick Smith and Evan Bakke

Mixed by Ron Saint Germain at Saint’s Place

Produced by David Breskin

Mastered by Scott Hull

Album Design & Layout

by Spottswood Erving & July Creek for Janky Defense (logo)

Cover photo by Mimi Chakarova

Translation assistance by Markus Schwartz and Daniel Brevil

Text editing assistance by David Breskin and Markus Schwartz

Pictured Drum and Writing by Jérôme “Junior” Simeon

Pre-order

SINGLE from Ches Smith's Path of Seven Colors Out Today

The single "Here's The Light" from Path of Seven Colors – the exhilarating album from Ches Smith's We All Break – is out today, May 14. The full album is slated for release June 11, 2021 via Pyroclastic Records

Melding elements of Haitian Vodou and contemporary jazz, the groundbreaking 

album offers eight evolutionary/revolutionary tracks performed by a collaborative octet of world-class musicians including Smith, pianist Matt Mitchell, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Nick Dunston, vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene, and master drummers Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene.

Dan Weiss - Starebaby (PI RECORDINGS 2018)

Starebaby is the upshot of drummer/composer Dan Weiss’s long-running dream to bring together some of the most accomplished players on the jazz scene to play music that combines the improvisation nature of that music with the power of heavy metal and electronic new music. One of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, Weiss performs with such disparate artists as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chris Potter, John Zorn and Jen Shyu, evidence of the breadth of his artistry. As with his two critically-acclaimed previous releases — Fourteen, which was named one of the best releases of 2014 by The New York Times, and Sixteen: Drummers Suite, — Starebaby is a decidedly original work that is largely without precedence, reflecting the power of conviction coming from a single, brimming wellspring.

Weiss has wanted to put this particular project together for over a decade. As with his prior output, it reflects his catholic taste in music, where jazz improvisation, doom metal, electro-acoustic music, Indian beat cycles, and innumerable other influences are all compounded into an outpouring of personal expression completely beyond musical boundaries. Starebaby, though, definitely tilts towards the heavy, and Weiss, in particular, cites as influences metal bands such as Meshuggah, Burning Witch, High on Fire, Gorguts, early Metallica, Wormed, and Confessor; electronic and electro acoustic composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernard Parmegiani, and Luc Ferrari; and every type of jazz ranging from Sidney Bechet to Threadgill. It is also inspired by Season 3 of the television show Twin Peaks, whose surreal, ominous emotional landscape helped shape the overall feel of this music. The music ebbs and flows, surging to thundering swells of foreboding doom before tempering to quiet reflection, finding a deep space where brutal aggression meets ghostly vulnerability. The expansive soundscape ranges from fortissimo to pianissimo, grave to presto, and dense, roiling dissonance to exquisite, pellucid melodies.

All of the musicians: Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell on keyboards, piano, and electronics, Ben Monder on guitar, and Trevor Dunn on bass, along with Weiss – some of the heaviest hitters in the jazz/improvised music scene – share a love for heavy metal. It’s an astonishment to hear them play in this distinctly different setting, but perhaps the absolute authority they display should not be a complete surprise. Weiss played with the doom metal band Bloody Panda a dozen years ago and Dunn was a member of the experimental rock bands Mr. Bungle (with Faith No More singer Mike Patton) Fantômas (also with Patton), and Secret Chiefs 3. Weiss’s thundering gestures and Dunn’s shuddering, sludgy bass serve as the backbone of this music. Mitchell and Taborn are well known for their adroit experimentation on electronics, and they deliver to the music a huge variety of swirling textures and color. Monder’s own music usually tilts toward the spacious, so it’s somewhat of a surprise to hear him outright shredding with overdriven distortion. Together, they perform this music with complete conviction, melding meticulous precision, prodigious power, and masterful improvisation.

According to Matt Mitchell: “One thing I admire about Dan’s composing it’s how he manages to transcend stylistic issues. Although heavy music is undoubtedly the primary inspiration for this batch of material, I notice here many updated examples of forms that I associate with Dan’s composing: strong, direct melodies; long cycles allowing for building towards ecstatic climaxes; multiple instruments asymmetrically orbiting each other. Unique to this project is the combination of a very strong and distinctive compositional voice and extensive contribution from each of the musicians. Although this is Dan’s music through-and-through in a very specific way, he asked for a lot of input, especially regarding timbre, and he provided many novel spaces in which to improvise or act as a sonic free agent. All these qualities taken together result in an extremely powerful and multifarious musical message, one in which it is a privilege to take part.”

1. A Puncher's Chance 03:10

2. Depredation 05:32

3. Annica 09:04

4. Badalamenti 06:53

5. Cry Box 06:20

6. The Memory of My Memory 10:18

7. Veiled 04:23

8. Episode 8 14:28

Dan Weiss (drums, compositions)

Ben Monder (guitars)

Trevor Dunn (electric bass)

Craig Taborn (keyboards, piano)

Matt Mitchell (keyboards, piano)

Tim Berne / Matt Mitchell - Angel Dusk (2018)

1. Perception/reception 12:02

2. Not Too Two 02:26

3. Exeception/pest 07:23

4. Concepción 05:08

5. Starfish Blues 03:01

6. Chance 05:43

7. Snail's Pace 05:03

8. Petulance 04:54

Matt Mitchell - Piano 

Tim Berne - Alto saxophone

Matt Mitchell - A Pouting Grimace (PI RECORDINGS 2017)

A regular member of Tim Berne’s Snakeoil and the Dave Douglas Quintet, pianist / keyboardist / composer Matt Mitchell has recently appeared on Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls (2015) and Jonathan Finlayson’s Moving Still (2016). Mitchell has worked with a broad array of top-name artists including Steve Coleman, John Hollenbeck and Mario Pavone. Mitchell is a chameleon, able to take on completely different musical personas across of fast array of situations. His own Vista Accumulation (2015) was one of the most highly regarded releases of that year. Frequently in demand, he has managed to produce ten albums as a leader or co-leader. The most recent, A Pouting Grimace, is an eclectic collection that defies categorization.

Mitchell’s previous albums have been elatively small formations -solo through quartet and so the twelve- person ensemble on a A Pouting Grimace is new territory for him, as a leader. In that company of players are exceptional names. Saxophonist Jon Irabagon (Mostly Other People Do the Killing), flautist Anna Webber and percussionists Ches Smith and Dan Weiss are on hand, and Tyshawn Sorey serves as conductor on two pieces.

The very brief “Bulb Terminus” is a bit of programmed reverie that leads to the loosely structured “Plate Shapes,” a multifaceted maelstrom of cadences and noises with an impulsive sense of movement. Irabagon and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck spend much of the time searching for their own alternate routes. “Brim” is the centerpiece of A Pouting Grimace as it provides a platform for the development of the surrounding compositions. At the core of “Brim” is a phantasmagorical, full-ensemble mélange that feels omnidirectional and free-flowing. The longest piece on the album, “Sick Fields” is an episodic anomaly that moves in fits and starts; it is as unstoppable as it is—at times—impenetrable. “Ooze Interim” concludes the album with a floating, solo electronics performance from Mitchell.

The free nature, density and complexity of A Pouting Grimace does not give way to blowout solos or overall chaos. The musicians wander a marauder’s map, at times, interacting with each other, or occasionally looking for their own opening. This is an album focused on detail; it can be identified in slight, contrasting hues and in unflinching statements. It is certainly a unique and challenging listen.

1. bulb terminus 01:10

2. plate shapes 08:12

3. mini alternate 05:32

4. brim 06:49

5. deal sweeteners 01:38

6. squalid ink 00:15

7. gluts 04:28

8. heft 04:16

9. sick fields 09:10

10. ooze interim 05:07

Produced by David Torn and Matt Mitchell 

Mixed and mastered by David Torn 

Matt Mitchell - piano, Prophet 6, electronics 

Kim Cass - upright bass 

Kate Gentile - drums, gongs, percussion 

Ches Smith - vibraphone, glockenspiel, bongos, timpani, gongs, Haitian tanbou, percussion 

Dan Weiss - tabla 

Patricia Brennan - vibraphone, marimba 

Katie Andrews - harp 

Anna Webber - flute, alto flute, bass flute 

Jon Irabagon - sopranino sax, soprano sax 

Ben Kono - oboe, English horn 

Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon 

Scott Robinson - bass sax, contrabass clarinet 

Tyshawn Sorey - conductor

Matt Mitchell - Matt Mitchel plays Tim Berne: Førage (SCREWGUN RECORDS 2017)

The compositions of iconic saxophonist/bandleader Tim Berne have earned renown for their intensely kinetic, dizzyingly intricate quality as performed around the world by his various groups over the past four decades. With the album førage – available digitally and on CD from Screwgun – listeners have the chance to experience Berne’s music as never before, in versions for solo piano. Virtuoso pianist Matt Mitchell, a member of Berne’s hit band Snakeoil, has explored the full range of the composer’s songbook. In fact, Berne says: “No one knows my music better than Matt.” On førage, Mitchell devises mash-ups of multiple compositions, improvises new angles off the music, and often slows it down to reveal heretofore hidden beauties – limpid harmonies and ruminative melodies, like dark pearls unspooled.

Studio maestro David Torn – a longtime sonic co-conspirator with Berne, as well as producer of Mitchell’s past two albums – helmed the recording of førage. The cover artwork and distinctive CD package is by Steven Byram, who has worked hand in glove with Berne for decades (including the recent Screwgun publication of their joint art book, Spare).

1. PÆNË 04:15

2. TRĀÇĘŚ 09:56

3. ÀÄŠ 13:26

4. RÄÅY 07:09

5. ŒRBS 05:07

6. CLØÙDĒ 13:08

7. SÎÏÑ 04:58

MÅTT MITCHELŁ(TÌM BERNĘ) FØRAGE 

All tūnes tīm bernë pãrty musįc bmï 

Sonic föraging:davîd torñ 

Engineered by dāniel goødwin 

Assistant:Michael Santoli 

Stevę Bÿram/ærty rėnderings 

Fôtos:Tīm Bernę 

Matt's fingérs:Daniel Goodwin 

Recorded at systems two brooklyn