Larry Corban - Corban Nation (October 21, 2016)
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Zerlina Devi - Inscape (2016)
This debut album consists of 7 originals that Zerlina wrote and produced herself. Her music is an unique mix of jazz, funk and soul/RnB but yet the sound is modern and fresh to the ears.
Since she was a little girl, she has always shown her interest in jazz. She would listen to jazz records owned by her dad who has always been a big jazz fan. Her dad finally decided to introduce her to the jazz world by sending her to private lessons with several great jazz musicians in Indonesia. Music was just as influential in her childhood as anything else she learned at school and soon enough it became a big part of her life. This is when she started to fall in love with jazz and realized that she was able to express herself through music more than anything else could possibly do.
Eventually she started performing and she discovered her true passion, which is to perform in public. Even though the jazz scene back in her hometown was not thriving, she would find gigs regularly in café’s and restaurants back in her hometown and capitalized on every chance to perform including performing at her school events. Zerlina along with her band Sailendra Sextet, was the first winner at the longest standing, most renowned Jazz competition in Indonesia, Jazz Goes to Campus, where she also received the award of best pianist. She also had the great pleasure of playing in the jam session that is held at the biggest Indonesian International Jazz festival, Java Jazz Festival and collaborated with different remarkable musicians such as George Benson, Tony Monaco, Maurice Brown, Greg Fundis, Michael Paulo and many more. However, with all of the lessons she took and the experience she got from performing she was still lacking in the theoretical aspect of music because her previous teachers are self-taught musicians. She finally decided that she had to get access to more formal music education because she believes by doing so she would be able to improve as a musician and grow as an artist.
Her frame of mind when it comes to music is that it can always be applied to our everyday life. Jazz has a deeper meaning rather than simply being a style of music. She believes that music is a really good tool to help people to grow as individuals and will help them to connect with people in everyone’s social life. She looks forward to being able to create music that is truthful and meaningful in the future, share her experience, to bring joy and to lift people up with her music.
01. Maya
02. Inscape
03. Crazy Talk
04. Let Go
05. No. 39
06. Mr. Freedom
07. Summit Ave
Zerlina Devi (Piano, rhodes)
Darren Barrett (Trumpet)
Matt Knoegel (Tenor Sax)
John Egizi (Trombone) - Track 5
Zach Brown (Upright, electric bass)
Oscar Suchanek (Drums, percussion)
Lex Schmidt (Percussion) - Track 2, 5, 6, 7
All tracks composed, arranged and produced by Zerlina Devi
Co-producer: Oscar Suchanek
Recording Engineer: Matthew Hayes, Matt Peiffer
Recorded at Wellspring Sound, Acton, MA and The Record Company, Boston, MA
Mixed by: Andrew Keller (Optimal Soundz, Los Angeles, CA)
Mastered by: Jonathan Wyner (M Works, Cambridge, MA)
Cover artwork by: Prajna Dewantara-Wirata
Cover design by: Jeffry Iskandar
Flying Machines - Flying Machines (2016)
Peter Jones, LondonJazzNews
"Incredible musicianship, tight and crisp"
Jez Nelson, Jazz FM
"...alchemical infusions of jazz, prog, metal and pop make for a vibrant mix of the visceral and vertiginous, combining melody and soundscape to startling effect"
Spencer Grady, Jazzwise
FLYING MACHINES play emotive and dramatic music, drawing upon influences as diverse as jazz, pop, progressive rock and metal to create an utterly unique and modern sound.
Formed by guitarist Alex Munk in 2014, FLYING MACHINES features some of the most innovative young musicians to emerge in recent years from the UK jazz scene, Matt Robinson on piano/keyboards, Conor Chaplin on electric bass and Dave Hamblett on drums. Centred on Alex's unique compositional approach, FLYING MACHINES fuse visceral, rock-out guitar improv with anthemic melodies and lusciously textured soundscapes. It's a sound shot through with the here and now of London's cutting-edge music scene, a decadent mash up of free-wheeling improvisations, prog rock energy and ambient meditations that never detracts from the emotive lyricism at the music's core.
1. Tracks
2. Bliss Out
3. As Long as It Lasts
4. Emotional Math Metal
5. First Breath
6. Lighter Than Air
7. Peace Offering
8. Stratosphere
9. A Long Walk Home
Matt Robinson - piano/keyboards
Conor Chaplin - electric bass
Dave Hamblett - drums
Dave King Trucking Company - Surrounded by the Night (2016) SUNNYSIDE RECORDS
Prolific drummer/composer Dave King is well known for his propulsive work in a number of different bands. From The Bad Plus to Happy Apple to Halloween, Alaska, each group has its own sound and approach, but all are approached in a steadfast manner. These groups are all serious units of focused players who are completely dialed in, honing a solid band sound and identity. It is King’s attraction to a strong group concept that led to his creation of his Trucking Company band and his increasing focus thereon.
On its third recording, Surrounded By The Night, the Trucking Company has solidified its identity with new material and a slightly changed lineup. The addition of the Minneapolis born, Brooklyn based bassist Chris Morrissey strengthens the Minnesota-New York connection that has been part of the identity of the ensemble, featuring the saxophone (and clarinet!) of Brooklynite Chris Speed alongside Minnesotans saxophonist Brandon Wozniak and guitarist Erik Fratzke, since its inception.
The Trucking Company was born out of the necessity to play out and out songs, music stemming from Dave and Co.’s love of jazz and the avant-garde but also rock, country and blues music. Their unique sound comes from the commingling of these influences along with the distinct instrumentation of two tenor saxes, guitar, bass and drums. All of the members have a jazz pedigree but it is their pop sensibilities that make them perfectly suited for this song-oriented ensemble.
The dual saxes allow for a singular choral sound, especially on passages where Speed, who King hears as Lester Young playing avant-garde, and Wozniak, a muscular hard bop devotee, play in unison. The effect is a widening of tone based on the microtonal differences between the two players, not dissimilar to the doubling of voice that Peter Gabriel utilizes on his records. Needless to say, Gabriel never had Fratzke, whose guitar playing can range from thoughtful strums to a powerful thrash.
The drive of the Trucking Company has renewed King’s confidence in the music. The group can handle anything that he throws at it, including his difficult charts that are memorized for performance. If it was required of the road worn legends of the past, it should be required of as seasoned musicians as are found here.
Of course, the Trucking Company lends itself to King’s favorite brands of Americana. The group’s name speaks to romantic notions of Brylcreem and the lonesome highway. The title Surrounded By The Night has a certain Bruce Springsteen je ne sais quoi. So naturally, the music, which mainly stems from King’s pen, is meant to have cinematic, Midwestern, big sky sensibilities.
The recording begins with “Delta Kreme,” a tune that blends bouncy and melancholy and takes its name from the title of a William Eggleston photo, which depicts a wholly American setting of a Cutlass fronting a Southern burger shack. The tricky “Parallel Sister Track” utilizes an ethereal melody in the horns, not to mention fantastic solos, over a seemingly disconnected rhythm section. Fratzke’s “You Should Be Watching (Art) Films” showcases the composer’s humor and guitar mastery in a bouncy jazz tune, along with outstanding performances from both Speed and Morrissey.
Harkening back to the trucking motif, “Blue Candy” is named for one of the tools big rig drivers use to stay awake on the road: speed. Evocative of a late night haul, the tune happens to be one of the earliest pieces written for the group. The rocking “Glamour Shot” takes its energy from English pop music of the 80s, conjuring The Cure and New Order, with the addition of some odd chord progressions, clarinet and a great Wozniak tenor solo.
“That Isn’t Even Worth Selling” is an older piece that appears on the first Happy Apple record and that is brought back in an unashamed, swinging Ornette Coleman vibe with a deep bass solo from Morrissey. The recording concludes righteously with “Don’t Be Suspect Of A Gift,” proving that going out with a fist pumping display of triumphant energy is always a good way to go.
The Dave King Trucking Company is now onto their third recording. Surrounded By The Night is a milestone for this ensemble that has really coalesced into a hardworking, super-solid unit that can swing, rock and otherwise.
1. Delta Kreme 02:55
2. Parallel Sister Track 06:24
3. You Should Be Watching (Art) Films 07:19
4. Blue Candy 07:19
5. Glamour Shot 04:07
6. That Isn't Even Worth Selling 03:57
7. Don't Be Suspect Of A Gift 04:20
Erik Fratzke - electric guitar
Chris Morrissey - acoustic bass
Chris Speed - tenor sax & clarinet
Brandon Wozniak - tenor sax
Wolfgang Schlüter & Boris Netsvetaev - Breathing As One (2016) SKIP RECORDS
German Jazz has brought forth only a few international stars. Vibraphonist Wolfgang Schlüter even managed to make it into the Downbeat Critics Poll. A rock of ages in the history of German Jazz, a gem “in which nearly all of the vibraphonists glimmer and shine” (M.Naura) Among his major influences you can hear Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson but to dismiss him as a King of Swing would only throw light on a partial aspect of his artistic repertoire, because there’s no doubt that he is among the key talents on his instrument in Europe and that he contributed substantially to how playing the vibes has developed over the years. On November 12th 2013 the vital instrumentalist celebrates his 80th birthday.
01. Blues for Michael
02. Summertime in Rhen
03. Julchens Dilemma
04. Hot house
05. Tekla
06. Time and tide
07. Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
08. Zoe
09. More than you know
10. Kinderträume
11. I remember Karin
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