SINGLE "Canopy of Trees" from Brian Landrus' RED LIST

"Canopy of Trees” : a SINGLE from low woodwind master Brian Landrus’ upcoming album Red List: Music Dedicated to the Preservation of Our Endangered Species, via Palmetto Records

Brian Landrus © Nick Carter

Landrus’ impassioned manifesto dedicated to bringing awareness to the world’s most endangered species, Red List features Landrus with his all-star band: Ryan Keberle, Geoffrey Keezer, Nir Felder, Rudy Royston, Ron Blake, Jaleel Shaw, Lonnie Plaxico, John Hadfield, Steve Roach and Corey King. 

Hoping that Red List will help to facilitate “critical yet uncomfortable conversations about changing our global habit of destroying nature for our own gain,” Landrus is collaborating with the organization Save The Elephants and will donate 20% of all proceeds and 100% of profits to the organization, which has been helping to ensure a future for African Elephants for nearly 30 years.

Together he and his ace band create entrancing grooves, lush harmonies, evocative interludes and epic crescendos, all in the service of Landrus’ thoughtful compositions that bring attention to the plight of 13 endangered species on the planet. The Red List was compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk of animal, fungus and plant species.

The full album will be released June 17, 2022

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Braithwaite & Katz · Canopy of Trees - Brian Landrus

Rachel Eckroth - The Garden (September 3, 2021 Rainy Days Records)

Pianist, composer and singer Rachel Eckroth’s first release on Rainy Days Records unveils fresh sounds from her evolving artistry. Steeped in synth orchestration, The Garden reflects a nuanced exploration of sonic impulses and inquiries alongside Eckroth’s signature layered compositions and glimmers of trance-inducing vocals. With contributions from acclaimed guitarist Nir Felder, saxophonists Donny McCaslin and Andrew Krasilnikov and modular synth master Austin White, and a core band featuring bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Christian Euman, The Garden emerged conceptually while Eckroth was writing new music during the pandemic. “Everything on the album has a different feel to it — different colors and textures,” says the West Coast artist. “It felt like a garden. So we just rolled with it.”

Eckroth revels in new experiences across rich, diverse musical settings. The multifaceted artist continually refines her expression, frequently collaborating as a featured guest with creative visionaries who have included Rufus Wainwright, St. Vincent, KT Tunstall, Donny McCaslin, Tia Fuller and Chris Botti. But composing during the pandemic afforded Eckroth and partner Lefebvre unique opportunities to compose and perform together. From their home in Arizona, they dug in to each other’s expressions and began developing a duo sound. “Especially during Covid, we were making music pretty much every day together,” says Eckroth. When Eugene Petruhanskiy greenlit a possible release from Eckroth for Rainy Days, she and Lefebvre considered what they might create around a synth-forward recording. 

The textural-minded musicians began soundscaping across familiar territory and new domains. Almost immediately, the Prophet 6 emerged as a key element for record’s sound. “It ends up on a lot of my live gigs,” says Eckroth. “I’ve used it on all the tours I’ve played with other people. I’m a pianist, but the record doesn’t have a lot of piano. The Yamaha CP 70 served the ‘meat’ of some of the songs. And the Korg minilogue is an instrument I use really well for some reason; it’s very intuitive.

"Multifaceted artist Rachel Eckroth releases textural, mood-casting new music on Rainy Days Records “Eckroth explores difficult emotions with a deft touch, letting her soul-baring performance and swelling instrumentation form the heartfelt emotional core of the track ”

— Under the Radar

“Breathtaking vocals”

— PopMatters

“[Eckroth and Lefebvre] are two in-demand musicians who elude categorization”

— NPR Music’s Jazz Night in America

1. Dracaena

2. Under a Fig Tree

3. Low Hanging Fruit

4. Dried Up Roots

5. The Garden

6. Black Eyed Susan

7. Vines

8. Oil

Rachel Eckroth - Piano, Voice, Yamaha CP70, Prophet 6, Mellotron

Tim Lefebvre - Electric Bass, Guitar

Christian Euman - Drums

Donny McCaslin - Tenor Saxophone

Andrew Krasilnikov - Soprano Saxophone

Nir Felder - Electric Guitar

Austin White - Modular Synth

Written by Rachel Eckroth

Produced by Tim Lefebvre

Executive producer – Eugene Petrushanskiy

Mixed by Jason Kingsland at Frenchtown Sound

Mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant

Mastering Recorded at Sonic Ranch - Studio A in Tornillo, TX

Recording engineer - Felipe Castaneda

Additional recording at Big Orange Sheep, Brooklyn, NY by Christopher Benham

Overdubs made at Blackbird Sessions in Tucson, AZ

Additional recording made in Moscow, by Sasha Mashin

Album art – Vika Kogai

Photography by Eugene Petrushanskiy

Video by Eugene Petrushanskiy and Rachel Eckroth

Package design by – Dimitri Komedea, 271dsgn

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Ernesto Cervini - Tetrahedron (feat. Nir Felder)

I’m thrilled to be releasing this new album of music, with these world-class musicians! I’ve known guitarist Nir Felder since 2004, and I always knew I wanted to work and record with him. Since moving back to Toronto from NYC, we fell out of touch as our lives kept us busy in our respective cities, but I was thrilled to reconnect with him and have him join us for this album. I’ve been playing with Luis Deniz and Rich Brown since 2014, and I knew from the beginning that the connection was strong. We have a blast playing music together, and I’m so happy we’ve finally captured this, with the help of our wonderful producer, and my dear friend, Dan Fortin.

The music on this album is a collection of original compositions and covers, curated and/or composed especially for this group. This collection of music brings out the strengths of each musician and provides a wonderful backdrop for us to explore and improvise.

The Sneaky Two was written for a slow-moving #2 train in NYC, and Boo Radley is for the wonderful character from “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Stro was written in dedication to former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, Marcus Stroman. I’m so happy to finally be recording Angelicus, by Vince Mendoza. I discovered this song in my first year of university, and I’ve been playing it in various groups for the past 20 years!

I had an absolute blast recording this music with these incredible musicians, and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Ernesto Cervini

1. Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise 04:45

2. Forward Motion 06:58

3. Angelicus 05:51

4. Boo Radley 05:19

5. Stro 07:09

6. Summit Song 05:03

7. Wandering 04:23

8. The Sneaky Two 08:1

Luiz Deniz - Alto Saxophone

Nir Felder - Guitar

Rich Brown - Bass

Ernesto Cervini - Drums

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Matt Penman - Good Question (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS June 8, 2018)

"The music on this recording is a series of musical questions I posed to my bandmates over two days, that I might get their input on a range of subjects that interest me. Much like having prescribed topics for conversation, I wrote these tunes in the hope of starting a dialogue that could provoke reactions, new angles and corollaries that were unforeseen, yet welcome. In fact all of the musicians on this album have their own points of view and a strong opinion, as well as a natural inclination to collaborate, and these are the reasons why I wanted to record with them. This is also why the musical discussion proved to be so rich and wide-ranging." – Matt Penman 

Bassist/composer Matt Penman has spent much of the past decade developing and presenting music for the illustrious SFJazz Collective and the fantastic James Farm collective. That had left a gap between solo recordings that he felt it was time to abate. The result of his efforts are presented here on Good Question, a poignant recording of pieces meant to challenge, engage and entertain both its listeners and the musicians involved in its creation. 

Originally from New Zealand, Penman, since his arrival in 1995, has been an essential voice in the musical landscape of New York. His experience in the States has provided him with both inspiration and exasperation. He has chosen to address his feelings as a part of his new music: 

"There are a variety of musical moods and spaces, some written with these exact musicians in mind, some not; some written as a response to the cultural and political climate in the country I have chosen to make my home, and some as purely musical excavations. Overall, you could say that the album represents a general delight, bemusement, indictment and celebration of the American experiment through the eyes of a foreigner who has now lived more than half his life in the States." 

The ensemble that Penman assembled features not only the top musicians in jazz but also his regular collaborators and friends, including saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Aaron Parks and drummer Obed Calvaire. There are also guest appearances by guitarist Nir Felder, saxophonist Will Vinson and percussionist Rogerio Boccato. 

Penman’s compositions are meant to stimulate the ensemble into reactions and conversations within their framework. The pieces either present musical puzzles or are think pieces for reflection on topics, mainly natural or political. The ensemble handled the task with aplomb over three days of recording at Brooklyn Recording during the spring and summer of 2017. 

The recording begins with the shimmering “Mr. Right,” which poses questions of how much freedom is too much and do the boundaries of a closed song form encourage creativity? The challenge behind the deceptively difficult yet beautiful “Small Famous” is to make the tune’s complex harmonic form sound easily formulated. The quietly insistent “Fifths and Bayou” presents the players with defined phrase lengths and a set form with the hopes that they would transcend them, as does the soaring soprano saxophone of Will Vinson. A moving excursion on “Blues and the Alternative Truth” explores the many possibilities of the open space allowed by paring down the ensemble to a trio of piano, bass and drums. The exploratory “Cave Life” is about portraying a scene and creating a story about it, in this case spelunking. 

“Ride the Paper Tiger” is an adventurous piece that provides ample opportunity to highlight the talents of the ensemble, including guest guitar slinger Nir Felder. On “Copeland,” Penman asks the ensemble to create an aural safe haven from the traumas of modern life, “a place for political refugees, PTSD sufferers, ex-White House staffers and anyone undergoing a tax audit.” The impressively wrought “Meats” is through composed with a little solo wriggle room given to drummer Calvaire. The concluding piece, “Big Tent, Little Tent,” is a grooving, easygoing composition that frees the ensemble as it closes out the set. 

After posing his questions and framing his scenarios to his open-minded ensemble, Matt Penman has been awarded with a fascinating and moving recording in Good Question, knowing all along that there might not be any answers to his queries at all. 

"'Good question' becomes a response when we don’t actually know the answer, but are willing to ponder further."

1. Mr. Right

2. Small Famous

3. Fifths and Bayou

4. Blues and The Alternative Truth

5. Cave Life

6. Ride the Paper Tiger

7. Copeland

8. Meats

9. Big Tent, Little Tent

Matt Penman - bass

Mark Turner - tenor sax (1, 2, 5, 7-9)

Aaron Parks - piano, Rhodes, organ, vibraphone

Oded Calvaire - drums

Nir Felder - guitar (6 & 9)

Will Vinson - soprano sax (3)

Rogerio Boccato - percussion (3)

Darren Barrett’s dB-ish To Release “The Opener” 8/22

Darren Barrett’s dB-ish Presents Experimental New Release “The Opener”

Featuring Special Guest Guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel & Nir Felder

Due out August 22nd, 2017

With the help of his eight piece ensemble, dB-ish, Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Darren Barrett proudly announces the August 22nd release of his highly-anticipated new album The Opener. Featuring special guest guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel and Nir Felder, The Opener brilliantly weaves acoustic instruments with synthesis, samples and soundscapes into the fabrics of modern jazz. “Sometimes we play open, sometimes we play structured and then sometimes we play over vamps.  What I really love is there is room for melodies, room for improvisation, room for the synthesis, room for samples and soundscapes,” says Barrett on his approach to his new project. 

dB-ish features several long time bandmates including Alexander Toth on bass, Anthony Toth on drums and Santiago Bosch on piano and keyboards. The album also includes respected saxophonists Clay Lyons and Erena Terakubo, percussionist Judith Barrett and dynamic keyboardist Chad Selph. Barrett is particularly honored to be joined by world-renowned guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel on aptly-titled track “The Opener” and Nir Felder on composition “To Conversate”.

“Kurt is simply brilliant. His abilities are endless. Nir Felder has a wondrous approach to playing music that was so perfect for this project.”

Multi-instrumentalist Darren Barrett has had an extraordinary career. He has performed and recorded with Elvin Jones, Jackie McLean, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove Big Band, Common, Will.i.am, Myron Walden Momentum, D’Angelo and Antonio Hart. After winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for Trumpet in 1997, Barrett went on to release his first album First One Up in 1999 followed by Deelings in 2001, The Attack of Wren: Wrenaissance Volume 1 in 2004, and A Very Barrett Christmas in 2011.

He performed on the Grammy Award-winning Esperanza Spalding album, Radio Music Society in 2012 and in 2014 he released The Music of the Bee Gees (2014), with Energy in Motion and Live and Direct (2014), with dB Quintet. In 2015, Barrett released the reggae infused Trumpet Vibes and in 2016, he explored the work of the late Amy Winehouse on Trumpet Vibes: The Music of Amy Winehouse.

He now leads dB Quintet, Energy In Motion, dB-ish, and dB Treyo and is a professor in the Ensemble Department at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

The Opener is a departure from Barrett’s previous work as it explores his interest in electronic and experimental music more-so than any of his earlier projects. “I grew up with many different influences and always experimented in the electronic world so I am so happy to have finally realized a project utilizing all of these ingredients,” says Barrett. A prime example of this is the opening track, “The Opener”, which features Kurt Rosenwinkel and incorporates soundscapes, samples and drum machines synthesized with the acoustic instruments.

Barrett considers this track to be “the heart of dB-ish”. Another standout is “Throughout” which turns the traditional jazz tune on its head with orchestrated electronics. The utilization of old synths like the Prophet 5 and Oberheim Xpander help to bring the track to life.

With The Opener Darren Barrett brings a fresh approach to the genre-bending world of experimental jazz and ushers in a new era of his already expansive career.

Bob Reynolds - Guitar Band (2017)

I had a night booked at The Blue Whale—a killer jazz club in Los Angeles—but hadn’t yet selected a band. While touring with Snarky Puppy, I got talking with Mark and Sput about NAMM (a music convention held each January, south of Los Angeles). They were both going to be in town for it so I asked them to join me at the Whale. Then I asked Kaveh (bassist in Kneebody, among other bands). We'd performed together recently and I was looking for an excuse to play again. Then I found out Nir (who I'd been playing with for awhile) was going to be in town from New York. Perfect! This was my chance to experiment with a two-guitar band. 

Ever since playing in John Mayer’s band, I’d wanted to lead a guitar-based group. John had three guitarists (including himself) in his touring band. This meant a lush cushion of guitar-y goodness enveloped every solo I played. Imagine the best mattress and pillow combination you’ve ever experienced. It feels like that. But of course, it’s not just the guitar. It’s the player. 

Excited by the idea of this group, I decided to borrow a page from the Snarky Puppy playbook and film it. There was one catch: we had no time to rehearse, and barely a sound check. I’d played with each of these guys in different scenarios, but never as a unit. So we set up in a circle, surrounded by an audience and five cameras, and played these tunes together for the first time. No pressure! I thought we might get two or three good videos out of it. We got more. Alex Chaloff and his team captured not only gorgeous video but stunning audio. When I heard the result I realized this needed to be its own album. So here it is. Live. Raw. Filled with an energy that comes only from tight-rope walking in front of an audience. My younger self would hear only the “mistakes.” My current-age-self hears the magic. I hope you hear it, too. 

Bob Reynolds

1.Unlucky 

2.Blues For Charlie

3.Crush

4.Mulholland

5.Down South

6.Can't Wait For Perfect

Bob Reynolds — tenor saxophone

Nir Felder — electric guitar

Mark Lettieri — electric guitar

Kaveh Rastegar — electric bass guitar

Robert “Sput” Searight — drums

Recorded live at The Blue Whale, Los Angeles, CA, on January 21, 2016. 

Recorded and mixed by Alex Chaloff & Bucket’s Moving Company. 

Mastered by Scott Kinsey. 

All songs by Bob Reynolds, Mufala Music, ASCAP. 

Special thanks to Nir, Mark, Kaveh, and Sput for their brilliant musicianship (and willingness to cliff dive with me in front of an audience, cameras, and microphones). Thanks to Joon Lee for the incredible music club you’ve built and sustained in LA. Thanks to Alex & team for the phenomenal job capturing it all in such high definition.

The Wee Trio - Wee + 3 (2016) BIONIC RECORDS

The Wee Trio, James Westfall (vibes), Dan Loomis (bass) + Jared Schonig (drums), proudly announce the September 30, 2016 release of their fifth recording, Wee + 3, recorded at Systems Two in Brooklyn, NY, and featuring three musicians who are near and dear to the members of the Trio; the legendary trumpeter/composer Nicholas Payton (tracks 4, 5 & 6), guitarist/composer Nir Felder (tracks 1, 10 & 11), and pianist/composer Fabian Almazán (tracks 2, 3 & 9). Inviting guests to join this established, working group was born out of the band’s collective love of collaboration.

Wee + 3 is an album about relationships. Dan Loomis is from Middle America, Jared Schonig is from the West Coast and James Westfall is from the South. Together they have traveled to every corner of the country and the songs on this album celebrate their individual roots and their travels together. The bonds that The Wee Trio formed as a band happened very soon after they all moved to New York City and has strengthened over the years. In short, musically and personally, they are thick as thieves, and their camaraderie is fully explored and realized on the band’s previous four recordings, Capitol Diner Vol. 1 (2008), Capitol Diner Vol. 2 – Animal Style (2010), Ashes To Ashes – A David Bowie Intraspective (2012) and Live at The Bistro (2013). With Wee + 3, the fans are bearing witness to the first expansion of the trio as they welcome in three critically acclaimed, world-class musicians to the fold. Each guest artist has a unique personal relationship with the individual members of the band and all of the music on this record was composed for each of these guest artists, creating a stylistic spectrum that takes the listener through three different worlds, but all within the galaxy of The Wee Trio.

The guest artists also represent three distinct narrative points in the history of the band. Dan Loomis explains further, “Nicholas Payton is the prelude to our story as a band. We say that the trio connects so well because we had listened to so many of the same records. Mr. Payton’s music was definitely an important part of all our lives. His playing, his intention as a bandleader, and his compositions were important building blocks for all of our own musical conceptions and development. Nir Felder is the present tense in the story of the band. We all met Nir very soon after we moved to the city and played with him a lot in our first years here. Our encounter with Fabian Almazán is a look to the future. Jared has known Fabian for a several years, but James and I just started playing with him for this project. Fabian plays with relentless creativity that really brings out the best side of the band. We love to play familiar material and take a lot of risks with it – push it to see what new options we can find hidden in it. With Fabian we got a chance to expand that approach to a quartet setting and bring it some new material that we wrote especially for him. We think the results are magical!” In drummer Jared Schonig’s words, this record was, “really a dream for us to make, both compositionally and musically. We had many long discussions over two years, deciding who our guests would be, and we feel that we made such great choices. To add a fourth musical voice was like taking cake and putting more frosting on it just for the fun of it.”

 More about the music on WEE + 3:
“R T 3” (feat. Nir Felder) – This song is the sound of the ocean as nearly as bassist Dan Loomis can capture it. You can hear the seagull cry in the intro. “My mother grew up in California and spent a lot time exploring the Pacific coast. I was born in Redwood City but raised in the Midwest. I always loved my trips back to California and I never feel right visiting without at least one visit to the ocean,” said Loomis.

“Titan UP” (feat. Fabian Almazán) – Westfall grew up in Houston, Texas and was an avid Houston Oilers fan. In the mid 1990’s the Oilers packed their bags and relocated to Tennessee changing their name to the Titans. Since Westfall’s recent arrival to his new home in Nashville, he has re-adopted the NFL franchise that moved away from him.

“Climb” (feat Fabian Almazán) – An epic composition written by Schonig to feature both Almazán’s creativity and Loomis’ strength moving around the bass. The title represents the climb to the top that we all inevitably face daily in life.

“Sabotage” (feat. Nicholas Payton) – One of the nation’s best venues is in St. Louis, MO (Loomis’ hometown), Jazz at the Bistro. The Wee Trio played there many times and even spent a weekend recording a live album there (Live at The Bistro from 2013). Loomis explains, “The second night of the recording we went to play our first set only to discover (mid-song!!) that the microphone cables had been cut!! We never found the culprit but clearly someone set out to sabotage the band! Thus Jared had a title for his new song.”

“No Justice” (feat. Nicholas Payton) – This song is a tribute to Loomis’ hometown, St. Louis, and particularly the suburb of Ferguson. “We have all been angered and saddened by the senseless violence by police against so many black youth across our country. But these events take on another dimension when they happen close to home. In the aftermath of tragic events like these, one thing that we can do is come together to make our voices heard against a culture that allows such actions. My partner and young boys have been to many demonstrations protesting these events and my kids’ favorite chant at these demonstrations is ‘No Justice, No Peace!’” said Loomis.

“Belle Femme De Voodoo” (feat. Nicholas Payton) – “As a former resident of New Orleans, this piece was written as a homage to the city. I spent the better part of 15 years living there and the city’s influence will always be burned in my personality. One of the city’s biggest musical influences today is Nicholas Payton. I’ve had the privilege of sharing the stage with him about a dozen times while living there and each of those gigs was a huge learning experience that I never took for granted. Having him be a part of this record was an honor. It was only fitting that Nicholas would be featured on a song written for New Orleans. Nicholas’ style is the perfect blend of Old New Orleans and New World,” said James Westfall.

“Lola” – This is a composition by Meshell Ndegeocello that Schonig arranged for the band. Schonig says “The band originally decided against having covers on this recording, but made an exception for an exceptional artist that we all admire.”

“Sound Evidence” – The lone original trio composition comes from Schonig after he sought out to write something both rhythmically interesting yet open enough for the harmonic instruments to have complete freedom while improvising. The title comes from Schonig’s brother, who made an astute observation during a game of ping-pong with the band to prove a certain shot had hit the table!

“Redwood” (feat. Fabian Almazán) – This is a tribute to Redwood groves in Northern California. “Walking through them you can have a feeling in an endless horizontal and vertical space. This song tries capture that expansiveness,” said Loomis.

“Gibbs Street” (feat. Nir Felder) – Schonig and Loomis met at Eastman School of Music in downtown Rochester, NY. This piece by Schonig is a homage to his experience there, balancing all that life is throwing at you. “Sometimes college can seem incredibly chill and then one moment chaos can ensue; whether it be with schoolwork, gigs, relationships- I tried to encapsulate all of that in this piece,” said Schonig.

“Apparition” (feat. Nir Felder) – “Nir is one of our favorite guitarists because, like The Wee Trio, he’s not afraid to rock out. Performing the song quartet gave us the opportunity for me to personify a wraith during the melody. The composition’s simplicity gave the trio enough room to stylistically take the direction in a more organic world that is true to our influences. The composition is one big launching pad for a shredding Nir Felder solo meant to kick ass and melt faces,” said Westfall.

 01. RT3 6:31
02. Titan Up 3:15
03. Climb 6:30
04. Sabotage 4:58
05. No Justice 7:20
06. Belle femme de voodoo 5:23
07. Lola 3:51
08. Sound Evidence 4:16
09. Redwood 6:31
10. Gibbs Street 6:10
11. Apparition 7:53

James Westfall (vibes)

Dan Loomis (bass)

Jared Schonig (drums)

Special Guests
Nicholas Payton (trumpet)
Nir Felder (guitar)
Fabian Almazán (piano)