Erik Fratzke's Fáke Accent - Four Serious Allegations (May 14, 2021 Skirl Records)

Erik Fratzke is renowned for his work as a bassist in Happy Apple and guitarist in Dave King's Trucking Co, as well as his group Zebulon Pike. Fake Accent brings his many musical interests and talents together in his own vision. Fratzke will be on guitar, joined by Nathan Hanson on saxophone and clarinet, Cooper Doten on bass, and Cory Healey on drums.

1. Fake Accent (Theme)

2. Health House

3. City Science

4. Secular Exorcist

Erik Fratzke - guitar

Nathan Hanson - tenor saxophone and clarinet

Cooper Doten - bass

Cory Healey - drums/percussion/guitar/bass

Engineered by Rob Oesterlin at the Terrarium in Minneapolis Sep/2018

Mixed by Brett Bullion

Mastered by Huntley Miller 

Original Artwork and design by Dave King

All compositions by Erik Fratzke

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Aver & Move 78 - The Algorithm Smiles Upon You (April 2021 Village Live Records)

Village Live Records is proud to present “The Algorithm Smiles Upon You”, the debut EP by Aver & Move 78.

The Berlin-based band consists of Doron Segal on keyboards, Nir Sabag on drums, Hal Strewe on bass and Aver on sampler and production.

The eight tracks of their EP are crafted from hours of studio improvisations, that have then been chopped-up, rearranged, and layered with additional strings, flute and horns. This many-layered approach has helped create the band’s signature sound: a balance between free flowing jazz and automated, programmed hip-hop.

“The Algorithm Smiles Upon You” is available to pre-order now on Limited edition transparent vinyl (100) & Black vinyl (200) (Shipping Begins Monday, April 19th)

All copies of the record will come with a hand numbered OBI strip, printed inner sleeve and gloss detail finish.

Please note, all transparent vinyl will be available exclusively via our website www.villageliverecords.com

1. Faye 04:10

2. Middling 04:32

3. Housecat 04:13

4. Daisies 03:59

5. Live From The Village 03:56

6. Pearls Before Swine 03:42

7. Sanctuary 04:34

8. Normal Jazz 03:43

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Adiela - Live Improvisations 01 (April 2021)

1. Hernandez JAM 2020-01-15 01:30

2. complacent, platitudes JAM 2020-01-15 10:17

3. Eldart street 02 JAM 2020-08-02 05:47

4. Popcorn JAM 2020-01-15 10:25

5. Nazareth JAM 2020-01-04 05:19

6. Peruse JAM 2020-01-04 06:22

Freddy Caro - Drums

Alex Quintero - Bass

Christian Diaz - Guitar

Jahi Williams - Keys, synth

Michael Hernandez - Keys, woodwinds, brass

Kajren Adielman - Vocals, FX

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Eden Giat Quartet - Crossing the Red Sea (April 29, 2021)

Eden Giat (1999) is an Israeli pianist, composer, improviser active mainly in the Israeli jazz scene. 

In the last several years Eden’s reputation has been growing after playing with some of the finest Israeli artists as Avishai Cohen (Bass), Omer Avital, “Yemen Blues” (Ravid Kahlani), and more. Likewise, he plays his original compositions with his quartet group, which introduces a new generation of Israeli jazz. Eden’s debut album is set to be out on 29th April 2021.

"A promising new talent in the contemporary jazz scene" Gundula Madeleine Tegtmeyer — The Jerusalem Report

1. Nash Didan

2. Crossing the Red Sea

3. Tnudat Hayam

4. Ha'Sultan

5. Rustle of the Earth

6. Butterflies of a New Path

7. Two Waves

Eden Giat - Piano

Yuval Drabkin - Tenor and Soprano Saxes

David Michaeli - Bass

Nitzan Birnbaum - Drums, Percussion

The Entire Band - Vocals on "Nash Didan

All tracks composed by Eden Giat

Produced by Eden Giat

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Marko Gurkan at Kicha Studios.

Assistant Engineer - Or Zigelbaum

Designed by Udi Kaslasi

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Yuma Uesaka / Cat Toren / Colin Hinton - Ocelot (2021 577 Records)

Ocelot – the new Brooklyn-based trio featuring Cat Toren, Yuma Uesaka, and Colin Hinton – presents its irresistibly vivid debut album, via 577 Records.

At a contemplative time for the world, the new Brooklyn-based trio Ocelot makes its debut on record with an album that emphasizes melody and atmosphere, whether the music is meditative or more volatile. This group features award-winning pianist Cat Toren, saxophonist/clarinetist Yuma Uesaka and drummer/percussionist Colin Hinton.

Ocelot represents the culmination of a year’s worth of composing, rehearsing, touring and local gigging for the band – including an October 2019 residency in New Haven, Connecticut, and a tour of the East Coast and Canada that deepened the trio’s chemistry and its approach to the material recorded later that month. Remarkably, Toren was pregnant with her daughter during the entire process, a challenge made easier by the keenly supportive relationships in the band. “We’re three friends who trust each other, converse easily and have tremendous respect for one another,” Toren explains. “Our relationships are the foundation for our interactive discourse, which can vary – we’ve performed concerts that were musically very patient, and we’ve played gigs at bars that were real bangers.”

1. Daimon II 02:50

2. Factum 10:38

3. Iterations I 04:44

4. Post 05:43

5. Anemone 06:31

6. Contemptuality 10:16

7. Sequestration 08:08

8. Crocus 07:14

Yuma Uesaka: tenor saxophone, clarinets (Bb, Bass, Contralto)

Cat Toren: piano, nord

Colin Hinton: drums, percussion, gongs, glockenspiel, vibraphone

Recorded October 20, 2019 at The Bunker Studio (Brooklyn, NY) by Nolan Thies, assisted by Carlos Mora

Edited by Edward Gavitt

Mixed by Eivind Opsvik (Greenwood Underground)

Mastered by Brent Lambert (Kitchen Mastering)

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BedMakers - Tribute to an Imaginary Folk Band (Live in Berlin) April 2021 Jazzdor

This acoustic quartet breaks into the meanders of Anglo-saxon folk music. It explores, scrapes and digs into this musical matter in order to extract its musical essence and to look at it through the eyes of unlabelled improvisators. The melodies are caught into the air. We could have hummed them without thinking. We think we know them bet we’re unable to find their origins. Those melodies which are taken out of their context, finally finds themselves stacked on each other, declaimed or just suggested. Sometimes they’re buried under a rain of raw matter, sometimes they’re sowed by a minimalist blow.

Bedmakers gathers four musicians which have each singular and polymorph universes. The anglophile saxophonist / clarinetist Robin Fincker (Whahay, Vincent Courtois’ Mediums,Surnatural Orchestra) and his partner in the Whahay trio, the drummer Fabien Duscombs are joined by 8 chords in the persons of the violinist Mathieu Werchowski and his electroacoustic drifts and the Irish doublebassist Dave Kane.

1. Part I

2. Part II

3. Part III

4. Part IV

Robin Fincker, tenor sax, clarinet

Mathieu Werchowski, violin

Dave Kane, doublebass

Fabien Duscombs, drums

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Grégory Ott - Parabole, Als das Kind Kind War (2021 Jazzdor)

Cet album est une évocation, une interprétation musicale personnelle du film de Wim Wenders Der Himmel über Berlin (Les Ailes du Désir). Le piano solo est un exercice convoité mais redouté. Il offre des perspectives de liberté totale mais impose pourtant une grande exigence. Il faut pouvoir s'affranchir de ses propres automatismes et définir un univers, comme l'a suggéré Philippe Ochem à Grégory Ott : explorer un ailleurs et travailler sur des formes suffisamment ouvertes pouvant inciter au lâcher prise tout en restant dans un cadre.

C'est à travers leurs échanges que naît l'idée de travailler à partir du film de Wim Wenders. Amoureux du 7ème art, les films ont toujours été pour Grégory Ott une porte ouverte sur les émotions. Tout comme la musique, ils racontent des histoires. Dans ce film, à la fois poétique et allégorique, l'improvisation joue un grand rôle : Wim Wenders a tourné au jour le jour sans connaître lui-même la fin de sa fable.

Le réalisateur s’est abandonné à l'inconnu, à la spontanéité, tout comme l'improvisation dans le jazz laisse opérer le champ des possibles. Les thématiques universelles des Ailes du désir telles que l'enfance, l'amour, la vie ou la mort sont placées sous le signe de la foi en l'humanité et invitent à l'émerveillement et à un imaginaire qui résonnent pour le pianiste.

Cette approche de travail inédite est une source d'inspiration forte qui lui a permis de composer ce voyage musical.

"Dès le début du projet nous sommes partis ensemble, car il s’agissait de compagnonner sur ce projet, sur la piste du lâcher-prise, de l’inconnu. Il s’agissait d’éviter la zone de confort propre à chaque artiste, de se permettre si possible de remettre les compteurs à zéro et de chercher de nouvelles pistes à défricher. Nous avons partagé des musiques, parlé films, poésie, à la recherche d’un angle singulier à approcher qui pourrait ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives.

Assez rapidement s’est imposé le film de Wim Wenders Les Ailes du Désir (Der Himmel über Berlin) et la poésie de Peter Handke, celle dont l’esprit habite le film de bout en bout : Als das Kind Kind war. Et c’était parti ! Le studio était réservé en Octobre et Grégory a presque tout enregistré d’une traite. La force de l’évocation est au rendez-vous et la puissance poétique du film plane avec intensité sur ces pistes creusées au fur et à mesure." Philippe Ochem

1. Continuum part 1 01:17

2. Perpetual Blues 03:35 video

3. Rumeurs 03:39

4. Kind 01:19

5. Continuum part 2 01:20

6. God has disappeared 04:09

7. Landwehrkanal 04:13

8. Par-delà 01:37

9. Berlin Choral 04:04

10. Continuum part 3 00:54

11. Angel Eyes 03:24

12. Lost Circus 01:15

13. Les pensées de Marion 02:22

14. Crépusculaire 02:45

15. Marion et Damiel 01:57

16. Leben (Continuum part 4) 03:33

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RISSI / MAZZOLA / GEISSER - Anaximandros (April 2021)

The architecture of the music by RISSI-MAZZOLA-GEISSER reminds us how intellect, bravery, and raw expression are often cohorts in the cream of creative improvised music.

Greg Buium, Coda Magazine

My long-time cooperation with Guerino Mazzola started in the Summer of the year 1978; in these past years of realy wonderful team playing we formed besides other projects in the eighties the quintet/sextet FLOW UNIT, in the nineties the quartet ARTofTIME and other groups such as the Q4 ORCHESTRA until to the trio RISSI-MAZZOLA-GEISSER with the drummer Heinz Geisser who was playing with us since mid 1994 to the year 2006.

Mathias Rissi

1. Herakleitos 25:56

2. Anaximandros 10:44

3. Thales 22:26

Mathias Rissi - tenor-, alto saxophones

Guerino Mazzola - grand piano

Heinz Geisser - percussion

Compositions by RISSI-MAZZOLA-GEISSER

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Noa and Gil Dor present online the world premier of their new jazz album, "Afterallogy", live (Saturday, May 1 2021)

After 30 years of performances and recordings, Noa and guitarist Gil Dor release their first, and long awaited, true jazz album: Afterallogy

Catch the World Premiere livestream from the legendary Blue Note club on May 1

The duo’s first concert was in a jazz festival in Tel Aviv, Feb 8th, 1990, where they performed standard tunes with unorthodox arrangements, and some of Noa’s original compositions. That first night was an enormous success that set the stage for the incredible journey to come.

Their first international album was produced by Pat Metheny, one of the most highly respected jazz musicians in the world, but did not include standard tunes, rather focusing on Noa’s songwriting.

Over the years, Noa and Gil explored many different regions of music, wrote and performed hundreds of songs,  worked with ensembles ranging from acoustic trio to bass and drum quartet to symphony orchestra, explored and fused different styles, sounds and languages, always reaching for that unexplainable, unpredictable moment of magic every musician lives for.  It has always been impossible to categorize them.

Afterallogy (April 30, Naïve/Believe) is another step in their fascinating journey, where they have put the musical language they have developed and their past experience at the service of these great, classic jazz tunes, and added a few originals as well. The release of Afterallogy will be celebrated with a livestream concert via the legendary jazz club The Blue Note’s Terminal 4 in Tel Aviv on May 1.

The name, beyond paying homage to the greats that inspired them (Charlie Parkers “Ornithology”), is a statement about life and music, exacerbated by the Covid 10 crisis:

After all is said and done, after 30 years, after a pandemic which shattered, jolted and stripped the world bare, after thousands of kilometers travelled and many more thousands of notes played and sung, what remains?

A deep love and respect for great music and the greatness in music, a deep love for the humanity that is brought to life by it and elevated and illuminated in whoever experiences it.

A deep appreciation for the gift of friendship…for a unique partnership, for the power and resonance that brought and kept them together all these years.

And that curiosity and passion, that meticulous quest to unveil the deepest mysteries of music that drives them always onwards.

Afterallogy is the first part of a Noa and Gil’s jazz project. The are currently working on part 2, which will include their band and be more improvisational and experimental.

1. My funny Valantine

2. This masquerade

3. Anything goes

4. Oh, Lord

5. But beatiful

6. Something’s coming

7. Calling home

8. Darn that dream

9. Lush life

10. Eyes of rain

11. Waltz for Neta

12. Everytime we say goodbye

Noa and Gil Dor - Afterallogy (April 30, 2021 naïve records)

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Mosaic Records - 7-CD Boxed Set: 'The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946 - 66' (April 10 Mosaic Records)

Mosaic Records Announces the Release of The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946 - 66, Detailing the Jazz Luminary’s Stellar Output in His Latter Years

Mosaic Records is proud to announce the April 10, 2021 release of The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946 – 66, a 7-CD boxed set that will take listeners into the studio with Armstrong in a way never previously imaginable. Mosaic Records has long been lauded for the release of stunning, hi-fidelity limited edition collections, providing historical recordings of superb musicians to passionate jazz lovers around the globe. Here, all 29 of Armstrong’s 1946-1947 RCA recordings are being presented in superb fidelity, transferred from the original metal parts. These RCA recordings are paired along with 3 classic albums and singles from the Columbia label, creating the most intimate portrait of Armstrong, the All Stars, and producer George Avakian at work in the studios. This limited edition boxed set will be available only at www.mosaicrecords.com.

This collection is a follow-up to Mosaic Records’ 2014 release The Columbia and RCA Victor Live Recordings of Louis Armstrong and The All Stars 1947-1958. This 2021 7-CD compilation directs our attention to the latter half of the jazz legend’s recording career. The recordings that make up this release challenge the oft-repeated notion that Armstrong’s most creative and distinctive output came from his earlier years. These recorded works featuring celebrated historic releases such as Louis Armstrong Plays W.C Handy, Satch Plays Fats and The Real Ambassadors all come from the artist’s latter years recording on both Columbia and RCA Victor. While critics and many in the jazz community looked at the older Armstrong as someone whose best years were behind him, Armstrong rebutted ““[They] don’t realize that I’m playing better now than I’ve ever played in my life,” and was even quoted as saying “How many modern trumpet players could play my solos?” he asked Gilbert Millstein in 1960. “You’d have to carry ‘em out on stretchers.”

The story of Armstrong’s entanglement with RCA Victor which brought us the 29 recordings displayed on this release begins with Armstrong still toting a big band across the country on an endless series of one-nighters. A new contract with RCA Victor began with the recording of Armstrong’s first release with Duke Ellington as part of an “Esquire All-American 1946 Award Winners” date overseen by Leonard Feather. Following this date, Armstrong delivered four sensational sides with a small group featuring Bobby Hackett and Jack Teagarden in June 1947, eventually leading to the formation of his popular small group, the All Stars.

This collection chronicles the collaboration of Louis Armstrong and longtime friend, and producer George Avakian. After several years of recording popular hits for Decca Records, elevating Armstrong’s popularity but hurting his reputation with some in the jazz world, Avakian relished the opportunity to record Armstrong in a more jazz-centric setting but couldn’t get through Decca’s ironclad contract. In 1954, this finally changed, and the result was the Avakian-produced Louis Armstrong Plays W.C Handy. This release, long regarded as the finest long-playing album of Armstrong’s entire career, featured Armstrong’s All Stars in top form. Avakian was known for his copious post-production work, splicing the best portions of each take in order to present the optimal listening experience.

The result was a critical and commercial smash. “They’re perfect—they’re my tops,” Armstrong said of the album. This was followed by another masterpiece – Satch Plays Fats which featured emotional readings of “Blue Turning Grey Over You” and “Black and Blue” and romps on Waller favorites such as “Ain’t Misbehavin” and “Honeysuckle Rose” and then ended his tenure with Armstrong after recording Louis’ monster hit “Mack the Knife”.

While assembling this set, the producers were greeted by dozens of surprises on the original session tapes. Because Avakian relied so much on editing and splicing, his albums contained very few complete, unedited takes. This set will make up for that, with over three hours of bonus material, including unissued takes, rehearsals and even studio discussions, creating the most intimate portrait of Armstrong, the All Stars, and Avakian at work in the studios. And as a tribute to Avakian, Mosaic Records is also including newly remastered transfers of the original albums in their original sequence, giving listeners the rare opportunity to hear the beloved master takes side-by-side with their unedited counterparts.

Mosaic Records is thrilled to include over 75 minutes of material not originally found on The Real Ambassadors, the 1961 groundbreaking collaboration between Louis Armstrong; Dave Brubeck; Lambert, Hendricks and Ross; and Carmen McRae. The collection features previously unissued alternate takes of each of Armstrong’s features, including multiple takes of both “Summer Song” and “They Say I Look Like God”, two of the highpoints of not just the album, but Armstrong’s entire career. With a lifetime of wisdom at his disposal and mortality now staring him in the eyes, Armstrong brought a gravitas to his work on The Real Ambassadors, a release which both Brubeck and Armstrong remained especially proud of until the end of their respective lives.

Like all Mosaic Records releases, The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946 – 66 will be a limited edition set. Including the centerpiece Columbia recordings, the 1946-1947 RCA sides, the profound The Real Ambassadors, as well as obscure rarities such as Trummy Young’s studio feature on “Tain’t What You Do”, and two sides from the obscure 1956 television production The Lord Don’t Play Favorites, this is an essential purchase for anyone interested in Satchmo the Great. In addition, the scope of this endeavor from Mosaic extends far past the collection of the included recordings. The collection includes a 30,000 word essay from Armstrong biographer Ricky Riccardi, and, with the permission from The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, over 40 photos from the collections of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, the great majority of which have never been published.

Celebrated for the exhaustiveness in their dedication to quality completeness of their definitive collections and superior value since 1983, Mosaic Records has offered exceptional packages chronicling the works of quintessential artists to discerning jazz lovers across the globe. 2021’s The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946 – 66 is guaranteed to be one of the company’s most popular releases to date. Don’t miss out on this definitive document of why Pops will always remain tops.

Derived From Liner Notes by Ricky Riccardi.

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Some of Hartford's Finest Jazz Artists, Vol. 1 - Straight from the Hart Vol. 1 (2021)

The Hartford Jazz Society is on the eve of its 61st anniversary and it's an organization that’s been all encompassing in its embrace and sustainment of America’s greatest, artistic contribution, birthed in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century and now taught and performed throughout the world. Hartford, CT has its own niche in the incubation and promulgation of this creative music. This is a pioneering effort by HJS to document some of the recent exciting musicians and older pioneers who grew musically through their tutelage at the Artists Collective, The Greater Hartford Academy For the Performing Arts, Hall High, the Jackie McLean Institute at the Hartt School of Music and other Connecticut institutions. They are now spreading both here and worldwide their musical joie de vivre and chops.

1. Steve Davis - Yesterday 05:01

2. Warren Byrd - Smilin' In The Dark 05:31

3. Dezron Douglas / Black Lion Quintet - Flowers 05:52

4. Jay Hoggard - Piety and Redemption 08:13

5. Noah Baerman - Somethin' Blue (Now!) 02:58

6. Jen Allen - Pieces of Myself 05:08

7. Zaccai and Luques Curtis - Madison 06:13

8. Frank Kozyra - Jerry's Groove 10:32

9. Trombeatz w/ Nelson Bello - Something New 05:59

10. Matt Dwonszyk - Pecan's Delight 08:25

11. Sarah Hanahan - Here For Jackie 07:14

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Alban Darche & Le Gros Cube #2 (2021 Yolk Records)

The latest from Alban Darche is a nice reminder that the fascinating eccentricities that mark his music are, in their own way, an extension of jazz tradition. The newest incarnation of his ensemble Le Gros Cube takes the form of a big band, and though the music has everything we’ve come to expect from Darche—bold harmonic surges and melodies wide as the horizon—it also channels the quirky turns of phrase and unorthodox shifts in cadence that characterize his music. Darche’s various ensembles are typically comprised of immensely talented saxophonists, and this one is no different. Jon Irabagon, Loren Stillman, and Matthieu Donarier join the fray, along with trombonists John Fedchock and Samuel Blaser, and double bassist Sébastien Boisseau.

1. A la bougie 06:44

2. Ping-pong 04:35

3. Arcane XV - Le Diable 08:46

4. Arcane XVIIII - Le Soleil 03:34

5. Le Mort Joyeux 03:50

6. Beauty and sadness II 04:10

7. Le chemin (vertueux) 06:48

8. L'oiseau qu'on voit chante sa plainte 03:33

9. Arcane XXII - Le Mat 03:22

10. Le cercle 04:15

Jon Irabagon : alto saxophone

Loren Stillman : alto saxophone

Alban Darche : tenor saxophone

Matthieu Donarier : tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

Rémi Sciuto : baritone saxophone, flute

Joël Chausse : trumpet

Geoffroy Tamisier : trumpet

Jean-Paul Estiévenart : trumpet

Olivier Laisney : trumpet

John Fedchock : trombone

Jean-Louis Pommier : trombone

Samuel Blaser : trombone

Matthias Quilbault : tuba

Marie Krüttli : piano

Gilles Coronado : guitar

Sébastien Boisseau : double bass

Christophe Lavergne : drums

All compositions & arrangements by Alban Darche

Recorded and mixed by Jonathan Marcoz at Peninsula studio in January 2020, under live conditions.

Mastered by Pierre Vandewaeter at studio Lakanal.

01. À La Bougie — 06:44

Soloists: A. Darche, tenor — J. Irabagon, alto

02. Ping-Pong — 04:36

Soloists: L. Stillman, alto — C. Lavergne, drums A.Darche, tenor — M.Donarier, tenor

03. Arcane XV — le DiaBle — 08:46

Soloists: A. Darche, tenor — G. Tamisier / O. Laisney, trumpets

04. Arcane XVIIII — le Soleil — 03:35

Soloist: M. Donarier, tenor

05. Le Mort Joyeux — 03:51

Soloist: M. Krüttli, piano

06. Beauty And Sadness II — 04:11

Soloists: G. Coronado, guitar — S. Boisseau, double bass

07. Le Chemin (Vertueux) — 06:49

Soloists: A. Darche, tenor — J. Fedchock / J.L. Pommier / S. Blaser, trombones — L. Stillman, alto — O. Laisney, trumpet

08. L’Oiseau Qu’On Voit Chante Sa Plainte — 03:34

09. Arcane XXII — Le Mat — 03:22

Soloist: L. Stillman, alto

10. Le Cercle — 04:15

Soloist: A. Darche, tenor

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Daniel Erdmann & Stéphane Payen - Bricabracomaniacs (2021 Yolk Records)

This new collaboration allows the two saxophonists to polish their speech and create this duo recorded at the National Center for Musical Creation in Reims (Césaré). The repertoire mixes personal compositions and references to melodists who have marked their paths (J.S. Bach, Steve Argüelles, Doug Hammond ...). This selection reflects their bric-a-brac, a polymorphous landscape made of multiple insularities.

Daniel Erdmann and Stéphane Payen met in 2000 in Berlin during a jam session with guitarist/drummer John Schröder. But it’s only in 2012 that they first collaborated and formed Insel Musik (a quintet with Matyas Szandaï on doublebass, Rafaël Koerner and Julien Chamla on drumsets). In 2014, they also took part in the recording of the nonet lead by American saxophonist and composer Joe Rosenberg (together with Edward Perraud, Arnaud Cuisinier, Bruno Angelini, Robin Fincker ...).

In addition to this duo, Stéphane Payen currently performs with The Workshop, Thôt (whose return to the stage is imminent), Ingrid Laubrock, Guillaume Orti, Alban Darche's Orphicube, the Nautilis ensemble, etc... Daniel Erdmann currently performs with Velvet Revolution, Das Kapital, Vincent Courtois ... He received the European Musician of the Year 2019 award from the Académie du Jazz and is the winner of the SWR Jazzpreis 2020.

1. Hijacking 1 01:22

2. Hojnes na? 01:56

3. Wailing - Tidd's Place 03:37

4. Elderberries 02:16

5. 72-2 01:10

6. Les Frigos 03:51

7. 72-1 03:21

8. The Harmolodic Thing 03:23

9. Mini ensemble 02:10

10. The family thing 03:00

11. The Bold Mouse Flight 02:48

12. 1984 03:39

13. Hijacking 2 03:53

14. Native 03:26

15. One Way And The Other 04:57

Daniel Erdmann — tenor Saxophone

Stéphane Payen — alto Saxophone

Max Lance — recording, mix

Sylvain Thévenard — mastering

Recorded in Reims at Césaré (Spring 2018), centre national de création musicale

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Lara Solnicki - The One and the Other (2021)

The One and the Other: A New Art Song Project by Laras Solnicki

At times focus is on poetic imagery, with music ‘word painting’, as defined in classical music; other times the focus is on musical elements, with text falling impressionistically into the background which we call 'lyrics'; at yet other times, a guided free improvisation section may take-off from a line of poetry.

"A poet of the most advanced kind... Solnicki is a master in her own modern and post-modern poetic mode, which makes powerful use of the techniques of discontinuity, surprising imagery and juxtaposition of images, and sudden unexpected leaps of thought and mood. The originality and enigma of the language, within an overall clarity, is involving, and expresses itself first emotionally. Lara Solnicki’s great vocal range is matched by an equal emotional range, from intimacy to mystery, from sorrow to rage, exultancy to regret. "

-A.F Moritz, Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto (2019-2021), Griffin Poetry Prize Winner, Guggenheim Fellow

1. Bit Her Sweet Christopher Street 08:33

2. Idée Fixe 04:36

3. The Embrace 03:46

4. Furling Leaf, Retrocede 06:04

5. The One and the Other Part I- Pass a Glass 06:19

6. The One and the Other Part 2- Awe of the Sea 07:16

7. The One and the Other Part 3: Hollow the Need 07:46

Lara Solnicki (music, poetry, voice)

Jonathan Goldsmith (producer, keyboards, electronics, electric bass and guitar)

Hugh Marsh (electric violin)

Peter Lutek (alto sax, electro-acoustic clarinet and bassoon)

Scott Peterson (electric and acoustic bass)

Rich Brown (electric bass)

Davide Di Renzo (drums)

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Toldam / Riedel / Berg / Wiklund / Christensen - Tak for dit brev (ILK Music 2021)

“I see experiences as letters that are sent to me. With this album, I’m replying.” – Simon Toldam

The songs on Tak for dit brev (Thank You For Your Letter), the new album from Danish pianist and composer Simon Toldam, are a series of musical letters inspired by personal transformative events and a tribute to the daily shared experience of being unavoidably affected by both the positive and disheartening things around us.

On Tak for dit brev, Toldam explores a melodically-motivated sonic landscape, marking a departure from his more recent chord-centric work. He wrote most of the songs on clarinet, which applied new parameters and added new character to the process. Writing on a single-voice instrument (limited to playing one note at a time) demands and offers a different compositional approach than a multi-voiced instrument like piano does.

This opened up new structural doors to Toldam, compelling him to create the melodic material first, thereafter creating the harmonic context and arrangement around it. His marvelous ability to absorb and create music from surprising and fascinating angles is on full display here as he presents songs which orbit around strong melodies and shine with unabashed influence from Scandinavian Folk and Jazz musical traditions.

For the recording session at Stockholm’s Atlantic Studio in June of 2019, Toldam invited legendary Swedish bassist and composer, Georg Riedel (born 1934). Among other things, Riedel is known for his celebrated collaborations with Swedish pianist Jan Johansson (appearing on the timeless masterpiece, JAZZ PÅ SVENSKA), as well as having scored several Astrid Lindgren films, including Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Maple Hills, and many more. The rest of the band includes some of the most original voices and instrumental story-tellers in Scandinavia – Nils Berg on bass clarinet, Tobias Wiklund on cornet, and Anders Christensen on bass.

Tak for dit brev is Toldam’s 15th album as leader and co-leader. He is a recipient of the prestigious 3-year Working Grant from the Danish Arts Council, and a winner of5 Danish Jazz Grammys (Danish Music Awards), most recently “Jazz Album of the Year” in 2019 for his trio recording, OMHU.

1. Mor 03:54

2. Nu sejler vi 04:23

3. Måneløb 05:33

4. Luft 00:59

5. Et postkort 06:40

6. Opdrift 04:41

7. Den Blå Stol 04:31

8. Alberts Tic Tac 04:38

9. Godmorgen træ 04:16

10. Gå Gå Gå 03:44

11. Dansk Kulturarv ? 05:41

12. To virkeligheder 03:17

Simon Toldam - piano / clarinet

Georg Riedel - bass

Nils Berg - bass clarinet

Tobias Wiklund - cornet

Anders Christensen - bass

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FUR - Boîte noire (2021 Suite)

The trio FUR travels through wide landscapes, following a dangerous and sinuous path towards a utopian and magical place, but stops at night for social bonding and a shared warm coffee.

1. Avant 04:07

2. Otanitso 06:19

3. Kaplan 02:34

4. L'Allusion 03:12

5. Prétexte 02:12

6. L'illusion 03:59

7. Lichen 02:58

8. Texture 03:29

9. Le grand partir 03:56

Hélène Duret: clarinet, bass clarinet, compositions (1, 5, 8 & 9)

Benjamin Sauzereau: guitar, compositions (1, 3, 4, 6 & 9)

Maxime Rouayroux: drums, compositions (1, 2, 7 & 9)

Dries Van Ende: recording & mixing

Recorded on December 19th 2020 in Brussels

Mathieu Pion: mastering

Pauline Chassain: artwork

Printed at Chez Rosi, Brussels risograph

Suite Website

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Paul Bedal - Cerulean Stars (2021 Bace Records)

On Cerulean Stars, classical leanings and jazz formalism intersect with the post-freedom aesthetic of Chicago’s storied avant-garde. But don’t expect some sort of dialectical mashup; you won’t have to confront some split-personality collision of opposing forces. Instead, pianist Paul Bedal and company have seamlessly blended their diverse experiences, investing his fully structured compositions with liberating energy. He provides the blueprint, and his cohorts color outside the lines.

“It’s amazing to have musicians like Nick, Matt, and Charles with me,” Bedal says, referring to the members of this quartet – the same lineup that recorded his previous album, In Reverse. “They already have such a strong presence of their own, leading their own groups, that I’m excited to have them melding into this music. I think the album would come across as totally different with other sets of players, and I just like this kind of edge that Nick and Charles bring to it.”

That would be altoist Nick Mazzarella and percussionist Charles Rumback, who spend most of their time on the outskirts of the jazz mainstream. Even when such artists travel “back into town,” they usually can’t help but express lessons they’ve learned while away; and when they adapt those lessons to the music at hand, the sparks can fly.

Mazzarella’s work on Cerulean Stars may surprise listeners who know him primarily as a post-freedom improviser, ensconced on the busy and influential Chicago avant-garde landscape. He has appeared in ensembles led by new-music giants Ken Vandermark and Mike Reed; in duos with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Tim Daisy; and leading or co-leading several small ensembles. But the saxophonist (who has appeared on some 35 albums to date) has recently expressed a desire to move toward more structured formats – his original love – and Cerulean Stars, like its predecessor, serves as a showcase for this side of his artistry. In return, Mazzarella’s intense adventurism, buoyed by his neon tone, lights Bedal’s compositions from within.

For one example, turn to the opening track, “Iris,” an off-kilter melody that reflects the writing of Keith Jarrett, one of Bedal’s main influences. The melody rides atop a complicated, unorthodox harmonic scheme, and even months after the recording, Bedal remains impressed with Mazzarella’s approach to soloing on these chords – “especially some of the ways he tackled the harmonies, which I don’t think many other people would do around here,” Bedal says. “It’s kind of like sheets of sound, but it’s still handling all the harmonies.”

“Iris” also provides a fine introduction to Charles Rumback, Mazzarella’s fellow traveler on Chicago’s contemporary music scene, which boasts a fluidity that allows and even impels improvisers to move freely among genres. His resume includes several highly-regarded albums under his own name, as well as recordings by the groups Stirrup and Colorist, saxophonists Caroline Davis and Dustin Laurenzi, and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm’s Lightbox Orchestra. Rumback’s style emphasizes texture and nuance. Rather than barge and bash with untrammeled force, he fills his playing with nuanced colors and novel beats, which seep into the nooks and crannies of his fellows’ improvisations. On “Iris,” his steady beat creates an interior counterpoint to the rhythm of the melody: an idea from the edge? Whatever its origin, it adds complexity to the tune, and particularly to Bedal’s solo, which drops pieces of the theme like bread crumbs for the listener to follow.

Balancing all this is Matt Ulery, whose reputation as a composer – of jazz tunes, art songs, jazz-folk hybrids, big-band charts, orchestral works, and cinematic themes in search of a movie (among others) – almost overshadows his versatility as a bassist. His adaptability has allowed him to collaborate with the GRAMMY-winning classical ensemble Eighth Blackbird on the one hand, and hip-hop/jazz instigator Makaya McCraven on the other; he has also led 10 wide-ranging albums of his own. Bedal considers Ulery an inspiration for his own writing: “Just listening to Matt’s music, and recently playing in a lot of his groups, made me try to write things that I know the players would appreciate,” Bedal notes.

The pianist’s relationship with Ulery and Rumback stretches back nearly a decade, giving these disparate artists the chance to establish a comfort level – an ease, but without complacency – that becomes one of the disc’s real joys over repeated hearings. Since 2016, this rapport has encompassed Mazzarella as well, and it plays a vital role in Bedal’s compositions: deceptively challenging songs that sound less knotty than they ought to, thanks to Bedal’s ingenuity and to the tight mesh of the band.

Bedal gravitates toward pure melody, as befits a pianist who cites not only Jarrett but also Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, and especially Bill Evans among his jazz heroes. But the clear-cut forms of Thelonious Monk’s compositions are another touchstone, along with light touches of Latin rhythms, which he picked up while studying at University of Miami (Florida), and which reinforced his early exposure to the infectious drive of pianist Michel Camilo, a favorite of Bedal’s musician father. Hints of the Caribbean show up on “Citrine,” but Bedal and Rumback employ this element with extreme subtlety. It isn’t garishly slapped onto the tune, but rather infused into the performance’s DNA, where it becomes one of many strands.

On “Panorama” and “Compass,” two of his more recent compositions, Bedal chose to set certain parameters rather than let the song come to him. “Panorama” builds upon varying permutations of the opening strains, which culminate in the ascending/descending motif first heard fully at 00:30; the ebb and flow of these permutations creates a swirling momentum during the solos that follow. On “Compass,” Bedal devised a formula to determine the intervals guiding the movement of the bass line, and then constructed the chord progression upon that. The piece has a majestic sweep epitomized by Mazzarella’s soaring solo – it mixes lyrical stretches with fluttering flights – and a piano solo of particular depth.

Bedal shines again on “Summer Fade,” the melody of which finds commonground with both Keith Jarrett and another longtime favorite of Bedal, the Armenian-born pianist Vardan Ovsepian. Ovsepian’s compositions tend to be more self-consciously pianistic, and that influence figures in Bedal’s solo, which emphasizes the interaction between left- and right-hand movement; after that, Mazzarella channels some inner Coltrane (and a bit of Eddie Harris’ highly evolved funk, too). The album concludes with the aptly titled “Free,” a slow-moving lullaby underscored by Rumback’s chittering brushwork, which leads to a section of unstructured improvisation.

That leaves only the brooding mystery of the title track, which at first recalls the main theme from the “Harry Potter” films. Its clockwork melody would seem to offer the tightest restrictions for improvising of any of these tracks. But the tune opens up into a full-blooded swinger, as Ulery and Rumback propel the melody’s stutter-step rhythm into an asymmetrical but irresistible force. “It started out as more of a piano piece,” Bedal says, “and then I kind of fleshed it out for the group.” That makes “Cerulean Stars” the outlier, since Bedal has so clearly conceived most of this repertoire for the quartet as a whole. But it speaks to that very wholeness – the valence that binds this band together – that this one fits right in. NEIL TESSER

1. Iris 06:27

2. Cerulean Stars 07:33

3. Citrine 05:59

4. Panorama 07:32

5. Compass 06:33

6. Summer Fade 06:33

7. Free 04:21

Paul Bedal - piano/compositions

Nick Mazzarella - alto saxophone

Matt Ulery - double bass

Charles Rumback - drums

Recorded at Pro Musica by Ken Christianson on January 20th, 2020

Artwork and design by Marine Tempels Black

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