Svetlana Marinchenko - Letters to My Little Girl (April 30 2021 Losen Records)

How well do you know yourself? Are you sensitive to your synapses, fond of your feelings?  Have you ever attempted an extended, a profoundly personal journey – to discover the inner YOU?!

Russian-born pianist Svetlana Marinchenkohas. Through her music. Composed and performed with the utmost grace, dexterity and style, Letters to My Little Girlis a remarkably courageous expedition and constructive expression of such a journey.

Creative activity, such as music, offers a source and outlet for emotional self-expression.  It can have a productive, nurturing function that paves the way to a deeper understanding of former, repressed issues. This album might then be regarded as a form of bridge building; from basic but essential childhood structures to fully-formed, skilfully operated and hopefully rational adult associations. These liner notes therefore, will not benefit from an attempt to analyse or deconstruct the music, track by track. The music speaks for itself and is rich in tension and release, peaks and troughs, the traditional and the experimental.

Svetlana: “The protracted path we take during our lives…there is no black and white.  I wish these compositions to reflect a way of discovering/recalling a more authentic self, leading to a more profound acceptance of life.”

Letters to My Little Girl, with its well-placed, sensitive and innovative vocal contributions from Mongolian-born Enji Erkhembayar (Billy Hart, Johannes Enders, Paul Kirby)and Swiss-born Fiona Grond(worked/studied with Sheila Jordan, New York Voices) is impressively aided by the influence of distinctive (studio-induced, but always ‘musical’) effects produced by Mattheus von Schlippe.

We are also treated to an elevated level of musicianship provided by virtuosi Israeli-born Ofri Nehemya (Avishai Cohen, Shai Maestro)on drums and Slovakian-born Peter Cudek(tutored by Ron Carter) on bass.

Svetlana: “The album is a reflection of my inner personal development.  Each composition is a story, a statement, a step.  The album is dedicated to my inner child and it’s full of love, support and hope.”

The emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the unique history of our childhood can be of impactful significance to emotional stability and well-being in our adulthood.  Built on a thrillingly diverse, multi-cultural background, Letters to My Little Girloffers us a musical roadmap to the centre of a solo soul.  Welcome aboard! David Fishel

1 Bear Can Dance

2 Hide 'n' Seek

3 Letters to My Little Girl

4 The Threads

5 Dive

6 Michael

7 Morning Alone

8 Lighthouse

9 Release

Svetlana Marinchenko piano

Peter Cudek bass

Ofri Nehemya drums

Fiona Grond vocal tracks 3 & 9

Enji Erkhembayar vocal tracks 4 & 7

Mattheus von Schlippe effects all tracks except track 2

Shai Maestro / Jorge Roeder / Ofri Nehemya / Philip Dizack - Human (ECM Records)

In its review of pianist Shai Maestro’s ECM leader debut The Dream Thief, All About Jazz spoke of “a searching lyrical atmosphere, emotional eloquence and communal virtuosity that serves the music.” All of which also applies to Human, where Maestro’s outgoing, highly-communicative band with fellow Israeli Ofri Nehemya on drums and Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder becomes a quartet with the inspired addition of US trumpeter Philip Dizack. Shai’s expansive pianism is well-matched by Dizack’s alert, quick-thinking approach to improvising. And, as ever, Maestro is taking the music forward while also respecting its sense of tradition. Near the end of a programme comprised almost entirely of Maestro originals, exploring a range of temperaments, the quartet offers its own take on Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood”, while Shai’s tune “Hank and Charlie” pays tribute to the musical empathy shared by the late Hank Jones and Charlie Haden. Human was recorded at Studios la Buissonne in the South of France in February 2020, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

1. TIME (Shai Maestro) 03:23

2. MYSTERY AND ILLUSIONS (Shai Maestro) 08:32

3. HUMAN (Shai Maestro) 02:34

4. GG (Shai Maestro) 04:44

5. THE THIEF’S DREAM (Shai Maestro) 07:53

6. HANK AND CHARLIE (Shai Maestro) 04:41

7. COMPASSION (Shai Maestro) 03:24

8. PRAYER (Shai Maestro) 04:26

9. THEY WENT TO WAR (Shai Maestro) 05:22

10. IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Manny Kurtz) 05:47

11. IMA (FOR TALMA MAESTRO) (Shai Maestro) 05:32

Shai Maestro: Piano

Jorge Roeder: Double Bass

Ofri Nehemya: Drums

Philip Dizack: Trumpet

CONCERTS

April 08

Shai Maestro Trio Theatre de la Manufacture Nancy France

April 15

Shai Maestro Trio Tourcoing Jazz Tourcoing France

April 16

Shai Maestro Trio La Briqueterie Schiltigheim France

Pre-order

Shai Maestro / Jorge Roeder / Ofri Nehemya - The Dream Thief (ECM September 28, 2018)

The first ECM leader date for Shai Maestro (following his label debut with Theo Bleckmann on Elegy) features the gifted pianist fronting his superlative trio with fellow Israeli Ofri Nehemya on drums and Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder, and also playing alone. A solo interpretation of Matti Caspi’s “My Second Childhood” opens the curtain on a programme of characteristically thoughtful Maestro originals, each one with a story to tell.  “Hearing the Shai Maestro Trio is like awakening to a new world”, All About Jazz has suggested. “Expressions of joy, introspective thoughts and heightened intensity all come to the fore.” Maestro’s differentiated touch is special; he can convey a range of fleeting emotions in a single phrase. A deconstruction of “These Foolish Things”, the album’s sole standard, serves as a prelude to “What Else Needs To Happen”, a sombre meditation on inner city violence and its aftermath.  The Dream Thief was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in April 2018, and produced by Manfred Eicher, and issued on the eve of a European tour with concerts in Spain, Germany, Netherlands,  Sweden, Belgium, Italy, France, and Switzerland.

Shai Maestro, Piano

Jorge Roeder, Double Bass

Ofri Nehemya, Drums

1 MY SECOND CHILDHOOD (Matti Caspi) 04:39

2 THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE (Shai Maestro) 06:21

3 THE DREAM THIEF (Shai Maestro) 08:29

4 A MOON'S TALE (Shai Maestro) 02:36

5 LIFELINE (Shai Maestro) 03:54

6 CHORAL (Shai Maestro) 03:50

7 NEW RIVER, NEW WATER (Shai Maestro) 06:59

8 THESE FOOLISH THINGS (REMIND ME OF YOU) (Jack Strachey) 04:24

9 WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO HAPPEN? (Shai Maestro) 06:56

Omer Avital - QANTAR (2018)

QANTAR is OMER AVITAL’s dream quintet. Since forming in 2016, the improvisations they created around Avital’s compositions jelled in an immediate and uncanny way, as if the musicians were traveling along the same tightrope, aloft and daring, with an incredible solidarity held together by a bond that went far beyond performing the notes and letting go in the solos. That bond seems to have been formed from their individual careers criss-crossing so many times since leaving Israel. Indeed, all are Israeli expatriates, all living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, all then hanging out at Omer’s sharing dinner and Turkish coffee. There is a friendship these musicians enjoy which definitely penetrates the performances. This shared history, even though years apart, imbued this quintet with the key to Avital’s music: his ability to bring the various rhythmic and harmonic vocabularies underpinning 20th and 21st century hardcore jazz expression to flow with a polyphonic attitude and musical multilingualism.

1. One Man's Light Is Another Man's Night 07:16

2. Hamina 04:39

3. Dabel Elay Africa 05:22

4. Beauty And The Beast 06:52

5. Immigration 06:05

6. Bambolero 05:09

7. Turkish Coffe Blue 06:47

8. Cool Song 06:07

9. Know What I Mean?! 03:53

Omer Avital - Bass and Compositions

Eden Ladin - Piano and Keyboards

Ofri Nehemya - Drums

Alexander Levin - Tenor Sax

Asaf Yuria - Soprano and Tenor Sax