Friday, September 24, 2021

NEW RELEASE: Vocalists Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Vanisha Gould Present IN HER WORDS (September 24, 2021)

Vocalists Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Vanisha Gould Present New Album
In Her Words, A Collaborative, Open-Hearted Glimpse into the Inner Lives of Women 

Due out September 24, 2021

On September 24, 2021, New York-based vocalists and songwriters Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Vanisha Gould will release their debut collaborative album In Her Words. A twelve track collection of original compositions and carefully curated standards, this unabashedly intimate recording offers a glimpse into the private lives of women told from their unique perspectives. Joining vocalists Gould and Yeghiazaryan on this intimate recording is guitarist Eric Zolan, bassist Dan Pappalrdo, cellist Kate Victor and violinist Ludovica Burtone. 

“The central goal of this project is to utilize music as a means to openly discuss the joys and pains of being a woman,” Yeghiazaryan shares. To that end, listening to In Her Words can be likened to eavesdropping on a hush-hush conversation between girlfriends over coffee as they discuss the distinct nuances of their inner lives. This authentic anecdotal variety displays a set of Gould’s compositions along with carefully chosen selections across jazz history, it’s quintessentially New York jazz sound blended with elements of swing and blues. 

Yeghiazaryan and Gould depict these stories in a unique pattern; throughout the album, the two never sing as a pair, with the exception of an interlude in the back half. With each vocalist’s words showcased back-to-back rather than aside, the album imitates a real, uninterrupted conversation. From private moments of bliss to suppressed traumatic memories, In Her Words is both a sonic storybook and a pioneering concept that women can be candid about endeavors that society otherwise and often encourages them to conceal. 
Speaking to a breadth of shared tragedies, the track “My Man,” a rendition of Billie Holiday’s 1951 signature recording, tells the story of those who remain with physically abusive men, ironically placing the singer as the messenger of love, despite she herself being loveless and forgotten by the onlookers. Another original, “Cute Boy” openly croons about a crush without the reluctance of the expected false chastity of a woman. “Love Isn’t Everything” comically outlines the dangerous game of pretend before finally revealing that we all need love while “Gypsy Feet” talks about a restless woman who gives love but can’t commit. With the range of this conversation, In Her Words provides volume to the chronicles of a woman’s love life, both dark and light, and all tinged with passion. 

This is the first recorded collaboration between the two vocalists, who are both mainstays on the contemporary New York jazz scene. Yeghiazaryan notably rose to prominence in 2019 with the release of her debut album Blue Heaven (Cellar). Originally from post-Soviet Armenia, Yeghiazaryan has established herself as a leading voice on the jazz landscape in New York and beyond with regular appearances at top venues and festivals. California native Gould has been taking the city by storm since she relocated over five years ago. Gould can be heard regularly at various clubs in New York as a featured vocalist. 

“For me, collaborating with Gould means celebrating the strength and comfort of unity between women instead of the all too prevalent rivalry,” Yeghiazaryan shares. “This album is a glimpse of the multitude of moods, thoughts, joys and disappointments of every woman. The songs and their messages are very forward and perhaps jarring at times but that’s what makes them real and my hope is that all who listen will find comfort in a song or two.”

This project was generously funded by a grant by the New York Foundation Arts 2020 Women’s Fund.

1 THE GAME 02:06 (VANISHA GOULD / ARR. CHRIS MCCARTHY)
2 GYPSY FEET 03:53 (VANISHA GOULD / ARR. DAN PAPPALARDO)
3 NOBODY’S HEART (BELONGS TO ME) 02:22 (R. RODGERS / ARR. LUCY Y.)
4 HEY BABY 03:01 (LUCY YEGHIAZARYAN / FEAT. RICHARD CORTEZ)
5 LOOK THIS WAY 02:57 (VANISHA GOULD)
6 GONE AGAIN 04:27 (C. HAMNER, C. LEWIS, G. HAMPTON / ARR. LUCY Y.)
7 TRAPPED IN THIS ROOM 03:27 (VANISHA GOULD / ARR. CHRIS MCCARTHY)
8 MY MAN 03:25 (M. YVAIN, B. HOLIDAY / ARR. LUCY Y.)
9 INTERLUDE 00:40 (VANISHA GOULD)
10 LOVE ISN’T EVERYTHING 01:21 (P. MCGOVERN / ARR. LUCY Y.)
11 CUTE BOY 03:21 (VANISHA GOULD)
12 MOMENTS LIKE THIS 02:51 (B. LANE, F. LOESSER / ARR. LUCY Y.)

Mathias Eick | When we leave | Available September 24 via ECM

Norwegian Trumpeter and Composer
Mathias Eick Returns to Musical Storytelling
with When we leave


Mathias Eick is among the most immediately recognizable soloists to have emerged from the Norwegian jazz scene, and his wistful trumpet sound and strongly melodic compositions have met with a positive response around the world. When his ECM leader debut The Door was issued in 2008, US magazine JazzTimes described the trumpeter’s tone as “plaintive and spare,” while emphasizing that, “like all good bandleaders, his focus is on the interaction of his musicians. The contrast of his restraint and the energy around him constitutes the album’s driving tension.”

Over the years, Eick has focused and strengthened his approach on both fronts, as soloist and ensemble leader, with concepts for the band adjusted to meet the needs of each project, as well as what The Guardian has described as “a cinematic interest in musical storytelling.”

Skala (recorded 2009 and 2010), for instance, introduced the two-drummer format, latterly a hallmark of much of Eick’s work. Midwest (2014), a meditation on the voyage of Norwegian music to North America, brought violin into the ensemble sound along with colours and textures from folk music. Ravensburg (2017) turned the spotlight on Eick’s own biography, looking, with affection, at his Norwegian and South German family roots. The full group heard on Ravensburg returns for When we leave, augmented by Stian Carstensen’s pedal steel guitar – last heard in an Eick context on The Door - and the saga continues.

Mathias Eick sees When we leave as “a natural continuation of Ravensburg, almost a Ravensburg 2. More of everything.” Where its predecessor drew portraits of friends and family and sketched some personal interactions, the new album follows its protagonists through a troubled year. A sense of narrative could be drawn from the interplay of titles and musical atmosphere: “The songs and titles on When we leave play upon each other, draw inspiration from each other.”

Meanwhile the Eick band continues to grow in confidence and range. Violinist Håkon Aase, increasingly recognized as one of the outstanding improvisers of his generation (his ECM credits also include two albums with Thomas Strønen’s Time Is A Blind Guide ensemble), augments the bandleader’s solos with lines that draw upon folk traditions as well as jazz. There is mystery, too, in the way that the violin leans into the delicate swell of Stian Carstensen’s pedal steel. Eick: “Stian’s carpet of harmonies adds a feeling of depth - and the combination with the violin creates a special sound. I’m always searching for sounds that are unique and stand out of time.”
Powerful drummer Torstein Lofthus has played in contexts from pop to free jazz (including sessions with US saxophonist Sonny Simmons) and is known also for his contributions to exploratory rock group Elephant9. When Ravensburg was released, Eick explained his decision to add a second drummer: “I wasn’t trying to make the drumming bigger but rather more three-dimensional. What’s going on in the area of rhythm is very much like what’s happening between Håkon and myself, where a similar idea of shadowing and call and response is taking place.” Co-drummer Helge Andreas Norbakken digs into the textures of the music, creatively detailing the rhythm and working freely with sound as he has on ECM recordings from the Jon Balke/Amina Alaoui project Siwan to the “percussion think-tank” Batagraf or Jon Hassell’s Last Night The Moon…, as well as Mathias Eick’s Midwest.

Andreas Ulvo, a pianist of lyrical gifts, draws inspiration from classical music, in his own projects juxtaposing Satie and Rodrigo with free playing, and working across a broad range of idioms. Latterly he has been collaborating with Swiss harpist Giovana Pessi in a new project: an ECM release is in preparation. In parallel with his musical activities he is also a photographer, and has contributed images to albums by Dans les arbres and Giovanna Pessi/Susanna Wallumrød, among others.

Bassist Audun Erlien’s particular groove, informed by years of playing soul and funk music, has been part of the Eick band sound since The Door. Erlien can also be heard with Nils Petter Molvaer on Solid Ether.

Mathias Eick was born into a musical family in Norway in 1979 and took up the piano at the age of five, followed by trumpet a year later. A multi-instrumentalist, he also plays vibraphone, double bass, guitar and keyboards, although the trumpet was always “the instrument closest to my heart” as he once put it. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the including the International Jazz Festival Organization’s “International Jazz Talent” prize, the Statoil Scholarship and the DNB Prize.

When we leave was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in August 2020. It was produced by Manfred Eicher. The Eick band presents music from the album in concert at Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria, Oslo (September 17), Collage Festival, Copenhagen (October 2), Jazzfest, Brno, Czech Republic (November 1), and Schloß Elmau, Krün, Germany (November 20).

1 LOVING (Mathias Eick) 05:24
2 CARING (Mathias Eick) 06:09
3 TURNING (Mathias Eick) 05:36
4 FLYING (Mathias Eick) 05:10
5 ARVO (Mathias Eick) 05:30
6 PLAYING (Mathias Eick) 05:20
7 BEGGING (Mathias Eick) 04:54

Mathias Eick Trumpet, Keyboard, Vocals
Håkon Aase Violin, Percussion
Andreas Ulvo Piano
Audun Erlien Bass
Torstein Lofthus Drums
Helge Andreas Norbakken Drums, Percussion
Stian Carstensen Pedal Steel Guitar

CONCERTS
October 02 Mathias Eick Quintet Collage Festival Copenhagen Denmark
November 01 Mathias Eick Quintet Jazzfest Brno Czech Republic
November 18 Mathias Eick Quintet Schloß Elmau Krünb Germany

Joey DeFrancesco | "More Music" | September 24 via Mack Avenue Records

Joey DeFrancesco Offers the Remedy for a
Challenging Year, Supplementing His Organ
Virtuosity with Trumpet, Piano, Keyboard,
Vocals and, for the First Time, Tenor Sax

More Music, Due Out September 24 via
Mack Avenue Records, Debuts a New Trio with
Fellow Philadelphia Organist and Guitarist
Lucas Brown and Gifted Drummer Michael Ode

Tour Dates Announced Below

After a year of pandemic lockdown – with stages dark and nightclubs shuttered, friends and families kept at a social distance, and political and social tensions raging – the one thing we could all use right now is More Music. And who better to supply that demand than Joey DeFrancesco?
 
More Music, due out September 24 via Mack Avenue Records, is “more” in every conceivable way. It offers up ten new DeFrancesco originals, brought to life by a scintillating new trio. And the master organist, who has long supplemented his keyboard virtuoso with his skilled trumpet playing, here brings out his full arsenal: organ, keyboard, piano, trumpet, and, for the first time on record, tenor saxophone. He also steps to the microphone to croon Mario Romano’s yearning “And If You Please.”
 
Joey D isn’t the only one wearing several hats on the album. A fellow torchbearer of the Philadelphia organ jazz tradition, Lucas Brown takes on the unenviable task of sharing organ duties with his generation’s most influential practitioner. Not only does he fulfill those duties admirably, freeing DeFrancesco to juggle his other talents, but he also showcases his six-string wizardry on several traditional organ-guitar trio tracks. Michael Ode sticks to the drums throughout, anchoring the trio’s multiple configurations with muscular swing and electrifying grooves.
 
“It’s time for more music,” DeFrancesco declares. “This situation has been difficult for so many people. It's definitely time to get back at it.”
 
While this period of re-emergence from our collective quarantine turned out to be the perfect time for it, DeFrancesco had envisioned a project to showcase his multi-instrumentalism well before COVID was on anyone’s mind. The trumpet has been a feature of his repertoire for most of the organist’s career, inspired by his tenure with Miles Davis while still a teenager.
 
He first decided to try his hand at the tenor 25 years ago. His grandfather and namesake, Joseph DeFrancesco, had played tenor and clarinet and his horns were still in the family home in Philly. “One day I just decided to get his tenor out of the case and see if I could play it. So for about two weeks I practiced and it actually came pretty quick. I got so comfortable that I went down to Ortlieb's for a jam session. I got on the stage and [Philadelphia saxophonist] Victor North was standing next to me. I didn't know who he was, but he looked like Buddy Holly so I figured I'd be fine. Well, Victor North kicked my ass, and the horn went back into the case for another 25 years.”
 
His interest was renewed in recent years by a confluence of factors – primarily the opportunity to record with legendary tenor titan Pharoah Sanders, with whom DeFrancesco collaborated on his 2019 Mack Avenue Records release, In the Key of the Universe. The subsequent tour found the organist paying particular attention to the sound of his regular tenor player, Troy Roberts, and at the same time delving deeper into the music of sax icon Charles Lloyd. In November 2018, DeFrancesco approached his father and once again borrowed his grandfather’s tenor.
 
“My dad said, ‘If you're going to play, you can have it. But you gotta play it.’ That's how it started, and now I have about 15 saxophones.”
The preciousness of the family heirloom means that DeFrancesco largely keeps it safely at home, but Joseph DeFrancesco’s 1925 tenor makes one appearance on More Music, for the warm, burnished solo on “And If You Please.”
 
DeFrancesco shredded on the tenor with renewed vigor, and though the influence of countless greats from Sonny Rollins to Sanders to John Coltrane to Lloyd all echoed in his mind, it wasn’t difficult to find the voice for what he wanted to express on the instrument. “What separated me from a lot of other organists was the huge influence I took from tenor saxophone players,” he explains. “So I have a certain sound that I love, and that was already in my mind. No matter what instrument I'm playing, there's a certain concept that always comes through.”
 
The next challenge was to find a player with the virtuosity and confidence to take over the organ bench while DeFrancesco focused on his other outlets. He naturally turned to Philly and found the perfect candidate in Lucas Brown, whose skills were honed over years spent with the late tenor great Bootsie Barnes. His original instrument was guitar and he remains a gifted player, making him versatile enough to fulfill multiple roles in this ever-shifting trio.
 
While Brown, a decade DeFrancesco’s junior, inevitably reveals elements of the bandleader’s pervasive influence, DeFrancesco is quick to point out, “He plays differently than I do. We don't sound alike at all, and that's important. What's the point of having somebody that's going to be playing my stuff note for note? You need somebody to bring a nice contrast and Lucas is confident about who he is, plays at a very high level and sounds like himself on the instrument. It's nice to be able to introduce another organist to the world that's got his own approach.”
 
DeFrancesco met Michael Ode (also a Philly native, though he grew up in Durham, NC) while the drummer was still a student at Oberlin Conservatory. Ode’s first major gig with the organist was a high-pressure one: the studio date for You’re Driving Me Crazy, DeFrancesco’s collaboration with legendary Irish singer Van Morrison. “He’s just cutting his teeth in the business and I really threw him into the fire,” DeFrancesco recalls. “And he nailed it. He hears every note, but Michael also brings an element of what's going on rhythmically as drummers have evolved and changed. So he keeps me current.”
 
More Music also applies to the range of stylistic choices in DeFrancesco’s original tunes for the album. “Free” opens the proceedings on a brisk, uptempo note with DeFrancesco testifying on trumpet. He makes his tenor bow with an enticing, breathy tone on the sultry ballad “Lady G,” a dedication to his wife, Gloria. Ode’s ricocheting drum intro ushers in “Just Beyond the Horizon,” which finds DeFrancesco back at the organ. He slides over to the piano to lead into the wistful “In Times of Reflection,” which features Brown playing silken acoustic guitar and a pensive DeFrancesco trumpet solo.
 
Charles Lloyd’s searching influence can be strongly heard on the spiritual jazz of “Angel Calling,” while “Where to Go” proves a highlight with the album’s sole organ duel between DeFrancesco and Brown. “Roll With It,” with Joey DeFrancesco on organ and Brown on guitar, takes off from a fleet unison melody in classic organ trio style, while the title track makes its case with a taut, mellow groove. DeFrancesco takes over the organ with Brown on keyboard for the last two tracks, the contemporary vibe of “This Time Around” and the celebratory, gospel-inflected send-off “Soul Dancing.”
 
“More music is what's needed to create positivity and wellness for everybody, regardless of what's happening in the world,” DeFrancesco concludes. “Music just solves a lot of problems. So more live music, more original music – just more music. Without that, we're in big trouble.”

1 Free
2 Lady G
3 Just Beyond the Horizon
4 In Times of Reflection
5 Angel Calling
6 Where to Go
7 Roll With It
8 nd If You Please
9 More Music
10 This Time Around
11 Soul Dancing

Upcoming Joey DeFrancesco Performances:

September 30 | Jimmy's on Congress | Portsmouth, NH
October 1 - 2 | Blue Llama | Ann Arbor, MI
October 7 - 10 | Dizzy's (Jazz at Lincoln Center) | New York, NY
October 15 - 16 | Crooners Lounge and Supper Club | Minneapolis, MN
October 21 - 24 | Jazz Showcase | Chicago, IL
October 28 | Florida State University | Gainesville, FL
October 29 - 31 | Keystone Korner | Baltimore, MD
November 5 - 6 | Jazz Kitchen | Indianapolis, IN
November 18 | Bop Stop | Cleveland, OH
November 19 | BLU Jazz+ | Akron, OH
November 26 - 27 | SOUTH Jazz Parlor | Philadelphia, PA
December 10 - 11 | Jazz Forum | Tarrytown, NY

For more information on Joey DeFrancesco, please visit:


Earl MacDonald - Consecrated (September 24th 2021 by Outside in Music)

“…a major force in the world of jazz composition”
Dan Bilawsky - All About Jazz

Outside in Music proudly announces the release of Consecrated, the seventh studio album from acclaimed jazz pianist, arranger and educator, Earl MacDonald.

Consecrated is an album of traditional hymns, brimming with poetic elegance. Unlike any of MacDonald’s previous award-winning recordings, vocals stand front-and-center, with Canadian up-and-comer Karly Epp introduced as an important, new collaborator. Her stirring vocal interpretations mixed with MacDonald’s thoughtfullycrafted instrumental underpinnings convey a wide spectrum of sentiments, ranging from reverence and gratitude to petition, pleading and lament.

Consecrated is a deeply spiritual, personal album for MacDonald, and therefore, a deeply refreshing one for the jazz listener. In both his musical artistry and in life, MacDonald clearly searches for beauty and a connection to the Divine, while comfortably exploring dissonance – both cognitive and musical.
1. Be Still, My Soul 5:32
2. O God of Love, Grant Us Your Peace 6:12
3. Sweet Hour of Prayer 6:04
4. Holy, Holy, Holy 4:03
5. By Our Love 9:08
6. Be Still 3:49
7. Take My Life, and Let It Be Consecrated 5:03
8. The Love of God 4:42
9. Be Thou My Vision 4:19
10. In His Holy Temple 2:43

Karly Epp - Voice
David Smith - Trumpet
Kris Allen - Saxophones
Alex Gertner - French Horn (5)
Sean Nelson - Trombone (5, 8)
Earl MacDonald - Piano
Karl Kohut - Bass
Rogerio Boccato - Percussion

Adonis Rose & New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (feat Cyrille Aimée) - Petite Fleur (September 24, 2021 Storyville)

The celebrated New Orleans Jazz Orchestra examines the profound relationship of its hometown to the nation of France with its September 29 release of Petite Fleur on Storyville Records. The second album under the artistic directorship of drummer Adonis Rose features ten songs, nine of them standards associated with French and New Orleans musicians. The tenth tune is an original by Cyrille Aimée, the acclaimed jazz vocalist who was born and raised in France but now lives and works in The Big Easy itself. Aimée is the NOJO’s collaborator and vocalist on the album.

1. Petite Fleur
2. What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life
3. Si Tu Savais
4. I Don't Hurt Anymore
5. In The Land of Beginning Again
6. Crazy He Calls Me
7. On a Clear Day
8. Get the Bucket
9. Undecided
10. Down

Adonis Rose - Artistic Director/ Drums

Cyrille Aimée - Vocals

New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

The Cookers - Look Out! (September 24, 2021 Gearbox Records)

Look Out! is the triumphant sixth album return of jazz supergroup The Cookers, due out on September 24th on double vinyl, CD, and digital. Recorded at the iconic Van Gelder studio in Englewood Cliffs and cut using a Van Gelder-era '67 Haeco Sculley lathe at Gearbox Records, the 7-track release comprises original, fresh pieces written by Cecil McBee, Billy Harper, and George Cables which channel the heady, aggressive post-bop era of the mid-60s.

Whereas the majority of the jazz tradition’s elder statesmen head their own groups, this is one of the few jazz bands to contain legacy musicians of this calibre functioning as an equitable, long-standing ensemble. Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, George Cables, Eddie Henderson, and Billy Hart all came up in the heady era of the mid ‘60s: Hart and Henderson were members of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi group; Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s great ’60s quartet alongside Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette; Billy Harper was part of Lee Morgan’s last group, as well as being a member of Max Roach’s Quartet and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; while George Cables held down the piano chair in numerous bands including groups led by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper. David Weiss and Donald Harrison, from a more recent generation and the youngest members of the band, are experts in this forthright lingo, having gained experience performing with Art Blakey, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Roy Haynes and Herbie Hancock.

After 14 years together, again the incredibly high level of musicianship has only increased with the revisiting of their fresh, challenging, boundary-pushing music from these legendary, revered, veteran improvisers. 

1. The Mystery of Monifa Brown
2. Destiny Is Yours
3. Cat's Out The Bag
4. Somalia
5. AKA Reggie
6. Traveling Lady
7. Mutima

Billy Harper: tenor sax
Eddie Henderson: trumpet
David Weiss: trumpet
Donald Harrison: alto sax
George Cables: piano
Cecil McBee: bass
Billy Hart: drums

Produced by David Weiss
Executive Producer: Darrel Sheinman 

Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio by Maureen Sickler
Mixed by Katherine Miller
Mastered by Caspar Sutton-Jones and Darrel Sheinman at Gearbox Records

Jared Schonig - Two Takes Vol. 2: Big Band (September 24, Anzic Records)

Jazz soars with rhythmic, harmonic and melodic luminosity in a variety of settings—solo, duo, trio, quartet, quintet and so on— but there’s nothing like being swept into the frothy tides of an instrumental community in which upwards of 18 members assemble to embrace and exchange notes.

Today’s jazz scene flourishes with upstart big bands propelling the tradition forward. For his Two Takes Vol. 2: Big Band album, Jared taps into the deep well of renowned New York- and Miami-based arrangers and composers—Alan Ferber, Jim McNeely, Mike Holober, Miho Hazama, Darcy James Argue, Laurence Hobgood, Brian Krock and John Daversa explore where they could take his compositions. (He also showcased these tunes with his smaller band on Two Takes Vol. 1: Quintet.)

1. Sabotage
2. White Out
3. Climb
4. Sound Evidence
5. Tig Mack
6. NUTS
7. Eight Twenty
8. Gibbs St.

Reeds: Jon Gordon, Charles Pillow, Dave Pietro, Ben Kono, Donny McCaslin, Donny McCaslin, Troy Roberts, Quinson Nachoff, Carl Maraghi

Trumpets: Tony Kadleck, Jon Owens, Brian Pareschi, Jonathan Powell, Scott Wendholt

Trombones: Michael Davis, Marshall Gilkes, Keith O’Quinn, Alan Ferber, Jeff Nelson

Bass: Ike Sturm, Matt Clohesy, Dan Loomis
Piano: Adam Birnbaum, David Cook
Guitar: Nir Felder
Drums: Jared Schonig

Conducted by Matt Holman

Recorded by James Farber at Oktaven Studios, Mixed by Brian Montgomery, Mastered by Mark Wilder

Produced by Mike Holober and Jared Schonig


Jared Schonig - Two Takes, Vol. 1: Quintet (September 24, 2021 Anzic Records)

When at home in New York City, Schonig is a fixture in both the jazz and Broadway scene- he recently held the drum chair for the critically acclaimed Tony, Grammy and Emmy-award winning Broadway Revival of The Color Purple and is currently playing drums and percussion for Moulin Rouge! The Musical. He also is an in-demand drummer/percussionist for studio recordings, jingle sessions and other commercial music recordings. 

Jared is releasing not one but TWO impressive solo albums - his first as a band leader - featuring his own compositions. One in a quintet setting, the other with big band realizations penned by some of today’s leading arrangers including Jim McNeely, Darcy James Argue, John Daversa and Miho Hazama. This is a stunning, ambitious debut.
Jared Schonig

1. Intro to White
2. White Out
3. Climb
4. Nuts
5. Drum Interlude #1
6. Eight Twenty
7. Drum Interlude #2
8. Tig Mack
9. Sound Evidence
10. Drum Interlude #3
11. Sabotage
12. Gibbs St.

Marquis Hill - trumpet
Godwin Louis - alto saxophone
Luis Perdomo - piano
Matt Clohesy - acoustic bass
Jared Schonig - drums & compositions

Recorded by Owen Mulholland at Sear Sound on September 17-18, 2019 Assisted by Grant Valentine Mixed by Chris Allen at The Mud Room on February 4-5, 2020 Mastered by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios in May, 2021 Artwork and Graphic Design by Madeline Sturm Band Photo by Amy Crawford

Produced by Jared Schonig and Amy Crawford

Henry Threadgill - Poof (September 24, 2021)

For over forty years, Henry Threadgill has been celebrated as one of the most forward-thinking composers and multi- instrumentalists in American music. The New York Times has called him “perhaps the most important jazz composer of his generation.” Threadgill is a recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Music for "In for a Penny, In for a Pound." Threadgill is an early member of the AACM.

1. Come And Go
2. Poof
3. Beneath The Bottom
4. Happenstance
5. Now And Then

Henry Threadgill – alto saxophone, flute, bass flute
Liberty Ellman – acoustic guitar
Jose Davila – tuba, trombone
Christopher Hoffman – cello
Elliot Humberto Kavee – drums

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - (Exit) Knarr (September 24, 2021 ODIN Records)

Quest for a sound
A story of progress and resistance, love and homesickness

You can imagine the journey of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass player and composer, as an odyssey in a Viking ship of classic ‘knarr’ construction, with its long range, high speed and strong seaworthiness in a storm. His story can also be told purely in music, as he does in the commissioned work (Exit) Knarr. The piece is divided into six destinations along the route – a tribute to the people, music and places that have shaped him.

‘Miles Ave’. Ingebrigt has always chosen the path of greatest resistance. Many of his bass playing colleagues reckon playing with gut strings is like trying to run a farm with a horse and cart after you’ve bought a tractor. The sheer willpower and physical effort required to make his instrument sing are clearly audible in the music. Another self-imposed stumbling block is the difficulty of getting work in a foreign country – but Ingebrigt has steadily worked his way towards finally obtaining the holy grail – his very own Green Card. After living for a while in the USA, a combination of music and love led him to Austin, Texas, where he spent the longest time in one place in his whole life. He got married and divorced there. He formed his band the Young Mothers, and founded the Sonic Transmissions festival. Both the group and the event carry the unmistakable Håker Flaten signature: desire and longing, zeal and melancholy, inspiration and a sweaty passion to communicate. Listen to the moment, two minutes and ten seconds in, when he kicks everything off. The tears will start running down your cheeks two minutes later, as Eivind Nordset Lønning reaches for the heavenly high notes – damn, is this what hope sounds like?

‘Brinken’. In the summer before he began studying at the influential jazz course at Trondheim’s NTNU University, he encountered two of the musicians who have stayed with him his whole life: Håvard Wiik and Paal Nilssen-Love. Together they formed Element, and later Atomic. With Paal and Mats Gustafsson he started the trio The Thing. With these, as well as bands like The Source and Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conceptions of Jazz, he has circumnavigated the globe many times. Trondheim was where he came face to face with the acoustic bass for the first time. His teacher got him hooked on Looking at Bird, the 1981 album where Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Archie Shepp teamed up to interpret Charlie Parker tunes. Ingebrigt learnt the whole thing by heart, and became a jazz player in 1992. When he moved to Oslo in 1995, he tried to find peace by joining the Hare Krishna movement, breaking away from his Protestant upringing. He would wake up in the middle of the night to bake bread and meditate in the temple. Eventually he moved on. The journey is the adventure, and all his discoveries while searching for the sound feed into the music. ‘Brinken’ contains traces of Hermeto Pascoal, Ligeti and Gil Evans. Brinken is also his new home in Trondheim – a move precipitated by a confluence of factors connected to the pandemic and his personal life.
‘Håkkåran’. Come home to Håkkåran, urged his family. When it was clear the borders were about to close, he was on a teaching assignment in Javeriana University in Bogotá. After a hasty stop-off in Austin to grab a few belongings from his Miles Avenue apartment, he found himself a couple of hours later sitting on a plane with a one-way ticket to Norway. He initially thought he would be able to return after a few weeks, but instead he found a whole new life beginning. He came back to his 90 year old mother, Åse, still living on the farm he left as a 17 year old prospective musician. His motivation to set out on this neverending journey was partly inspiration and partly a desire to escape. Escape from the pain of feeling excluded; inspiration to chase down his own unique sound. It started with piano lessons with a strict but friendly neighbor. He didn’t take to the instrument, and quit. He also tried guitar, but quit that too. Eventually he was offered the opportunity to take over as electric bassist in Credo, a children’s gospel choir. His twin brother Åsmund, born 20 minutes after Ingebrigt, also joined as the group’s pianist. The current bassist taught him to play the bass line in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. At the age of 12, he had found his calling. A few years later he was playing in the fusion trio NEON, who were heavily influenced by Mezzoforte and Koinonia. In 1986 they won a local teen band competition.

A few seconds can change a life – such as the few seconds when Palle Danielsson hands over his solo to Keith Jarrett, three minutes into ‘Country’, on Jarrett’s album My Song. These are seconds which Ingebrigt has listened to over and over again, the same way I have listened repeatedly to the transition from Ingebrigt to Oscar Grönberg in ‘Håkkåran’ – the most romantic track he has ever written. The piece is inspired by the popular Norwegian song ’Skigardsvise’ and the Afro-Colombian currulao tradition, in 6/8 time with the accent on the second and fifth beat. Norwegian pastoral romanticism meets Latin American rhythms – a hybrid that only someone with Ingebrigt’s experience could pull off, I thought, before getting lost in the guitar tones of Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir, sounding as if Marc Ribot had grown up in Ethopia. After hearing it a few times, you really notice the clapping. Olaf Olsen and Ingebrigt clap in a two-against-three pattern, just the way the bassist learnt it at the Norwegian residential high school he attended after leaving the farm with musical dreams. Everything is connected; everything has its place in the grand scheme.

‘À La Lala Love You’. Chicago, 2006: Ingebrigt relocates for love, but stays for the music. The title is a love letter to Chicago, its music and the musicians who helped form him; but also, perhaps, a tribute to the Pixies track ‘La La Love You’, and to the ride cymbal. Olaf (left channel) and Veslemøy Narvesen (right channel) swing their own patterns on the ride, but never trip each other up. On the contrary, they complete each other’s musical sentences as if they had grown up together, even though this studio date was the first time they had played in the same room. Screw your communications course – dig this instead! They raise the group to a new level, so when the wind gets under Atle Nymo’s wings in one solo, I had to play it three times in a row before I could go on, and then I had to hear Oscar’s synth solo the same number of times as well.
‘Chaos Pad’. It’s not just the uncompromising effort of plucking the gut strings that contributes to the challenges Ingebrigt faces as a musician, but also his occasional crippling stage fright. Even as a teenager, it was such a problem that he considered converting to Christianity in the hope that he could be cured. He still gets performance nerves, but what the faithful get from religion, Ingebrigt gets from music. The chance to lose yourself in a greater power – flow! He finds a use for everything he runs into. The origin of this composition is a series of sketches he had lying around since his composition classes in Trondheim in 1995. He creates something meaningful by putting together elements of his own experience and inspiration. In one of the world’s largest capitals, Mexico City, Ingebrigt has discovered lasting friendships, music and poetry. The city is vibrant, colourful and chaotic, just like this musical tribute that fires on all cylinders. Mette Rasmussen’s freedom-cries are powerful and contagious. I can hear it – a change is going to come!

‘Museumplein’. A tribute to Amsterdam, friends and music. With traces of krautrock and James Blake’s ’I Never Learnt to Share’, (Exit) Knarr opens with a clapping rhythm, as ecstatic as the clapping, chanting Arabian pearl fishers’ songs Ingebrigt loves so much, who dive, holding their breath, in search of the grains of sand that, by a miracle of nature, have grown into exquisite pearls. This commissioned work culminates in a group blowout, gradually receding into meditative peace. It’s as if the ending is there to reassure me there’s more to come! More to come! The band met for the first time in Studio Paradiso on 23 March. They assembled in the same room and played live. It sounds as though they are standing right in front of us, playing a concert. I am totally sucked in, and even the first time I heard it, I realised this is one of those albums that will be played over and over again. Ingebrigt possesses the same enigmatic qualities as the gut-string-playing legends on whose shoulders he perches: Paul Chambers, Charlie Haden and Charles Mingus. He goes deep into it without disappearing into long bass solos, instead holding the band together. He sweats for the team. (Exit) Knarr represents new friendships, new music, and yet another important stop on the eternal odyssey the 17 year old Ingebrigt embarked on when he dedicated his life to a quest for sound.

Martin Eia-Revheim

1. MILES AVENUE - For Austin
2. BRINKEN - For Trondheim
3. HÅKKÅRAN - For Oppdal
4. À LA LALA LOVE YOU - For Chicago
5. CHAOS PAD - For Mexico City
6. MUSEUMPLEIN - For Amsterdam

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: acoustic and electric bass, compositions
Mette Rasmussen: alto saxophone
Atle Nymo: tenor saxophone, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet
Eivind Lønning: trumpet
Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir: vocals, electric guitar
Oscar Grönberg: piano, keyboards
Veslemøy Narvesen: drums, percussion
Olaf Olsen: drums, percussion

Chet Doxas - You Can't Take It With You (September 24, 2021 Whirlwind Recordings)

Juno-winning saxophonist Chet Doxas is a guiding voice in the world of creative improvised music. Doxas, co-leader of Riverside with trumpeter Dave Douglas and a respected collaborator of Carla Bley and Paul Bley, joins Whirlwind for You Can’t Take It With You, his ninth album as a leader and first at the head of a trio. He’s joined by two stand-out collaborators – Ethan Iverson (piano) and Thomas Morgan (bass) – for a meticulously constructed album with playful positivity at its heart.

Both the inspiration and the encouragement to put this album together can be traced back to Carla Bley. Jimmy Giuffre’s trio was a big influence on Doxas – “the way he shapes and articulates is one of a kind" - and the group regularly featured Bley’s music. An early-morning airport transfer saw Doxas discussing future plans with Bley and Steve Swallow, who advised Doxas to write “one song a month”, distraction- free for a year.

The ten tracks on the album represent a year spent writing and closely editing his compositions. That process gradually revealed his trio, selected for their personal sensibilities as much as their outstanding technical capabilities. “Ethan and Thomas’s tones are very inspiring. I wanted to let myself be guided by their sound palettes, and focus on phrasing in a way that's a little more multidimensional.”

Doxas’ music is serious in both its commitment to humour and in its quest to find a deeper positivity beyond the tongue-in-cheek. “The whole album is playing with the universal joke of how seriously we can take ourselves versus how serious things really are." ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ is suitably macabre, lowering incrementally over the course of the track. ‘Lodestar (for Lester Young)’ is a nod to the single note rhythmic fantasies Young was fond of late in his career; in typical Doxas fashion, it meets the music of Louis Andriessen head on, as Iverson ventures inside of the piano. ‘Cheryl and George’ is a take on Body and Soul and a tribute to his parents, ending a trio of tracks with a chromatic focus. ‘Part of a Memory’ is a meeting of timbres, an exercise in bass and saxophone matching tones half-remembered from a dream.

‘Twelve Foot Blues’ is a whimsical tribute to Mark Twain, before ‘The Last Pier’ creates “the soundtrack to a scene that doesn’t exist”. ‘Soapbox’ flexes a political muscle, taking aim at America’s frustrating news covering and channelling Ornette Coleman in speech-like patter- tones. There’s a strong imaginative streak running through the album, inspired by youthful energy of Bley, Swallow and guitarist Jim Hall – ‘Up There In The Woods’ is the tune Doxas “would have taken to Jim Hall’s house”, while ‘All The Roads’ is based on a Mr Rogers non-speech – a track with a single focus that asks for grateful reflection. ‘View from a Bird’ concludes the album in a creative take on the art of Joan Miro.

Eminently imaginative in inspiration, construction and delivery, Doxas’ trio gels immediately to create a varied emotional palette.

1. You Can't Take It With You
2. Lodestar
3. Cheryl & George
4. Part of a Memory
5. Twelve Foot Blues
6. The Last Pier
7. Soapbox
8. Up There in the Woods
9. All the Roads
10. View From a Bird

Chet Doxas - saxophone
Ethan Iverson - piano
Thomas Morgan - bass

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon NY (Sept 27, 2019)
Mixed by Eivind Opsvik
Mastered by Dave Horrocks
Produced by Chet Doxas
Executive Producer Michael Janisch
Photography by Evan Shay and Julien Capmeil
Album Artwork by Chet Doxas
Graphic Design by Dave Bush

David Sanford - A Prayer For Lester Bowie (September 24, 2021 Greenleaf Music)

“Music from a [person’s] innards will systematize that gut-bucket spillage on its own terms.” - Greg Tate

Tate’s intention was to place the guitarist Pete Cosey in the creative lineage of Cecil Taylor and Miles Davis, and we can add Lester Bowie to that canon as well. The sense of adventure in Bowie the soloist, composer and bandleader was such that the listener assumes that at any moment, truly anything could happen. The same essence of limitless possibility infuses the work of Hugh Ragin, who, as a young musician, spent ten days studying with Bowie and the Art Ensemble of Chicago at the Creative Music Studio intensive in Woodstock, NY, and in recent years he has frequently performed with the Art Ensemble and other members of the AACM.

Exactly forty years ago, when some of the earliest ideas for this band were being formed, Ragin, performing with the University of Northern Colorado’s Lab I big band, played a brief but uncommonly dramatic solo at the start of Clare Fischer’s “In the Beginning” (which also featured a very young Mike Christianson introducing his formidable Grey- and Nanton-inspired plunger technique to a wider audience). Ragin had been featured on Anthony Braxton’s Composition 98 and Roscoe Mitchell’s Snurdy McGurdy and her Dancin’ Shoes at that time, and became a primary influence on the direction and ideology of the band, which would begin performing some twenty-two years later under its now former name, the Pittsburgh Collective. In 2010 Hugh began playing regularly with the group, which already included nineteen brilliant and imaginative musicians, and has effected a far greater and more direct impact on its evolution.

Ragin’s musical homage to Bowie, a conduction that he directs himself, is the centerpiece in this collection of eight works composed and arranged over the last eighteen years. While they differ in genre and approach, they interconnect and elide as “spillage”, or, per Gustav Mahler, as components of a world and embracing everything. Or, maybe by extension, as Lester Bowie himself said of the AACM, “…it’s life itself that this is about”.

- David Sanford
1. Full Immersion
2. Subtraf
3. Woman In Shadows
4. popit
5. A Prayer For Lester Bowie
6. Dizzy Atmosphere
7. Soldier and the CEO
8. V-Reel

SAXOPHONES
Ted Levine and Kelley Hart-Jenkins - alto saxophones
Anna Webber (tracks 1, 2, 7, 8),
Marc Phaneuf (tracks 3-6) and
Geoff Vidal - tenor saxophones
Brad Hubbard - baritone saxophone

BRASS
Brad Goode (tracks 1-7), Tony Kadleck (track 8),
Tim Leopold, Wayne J. du Maine,
Thomas Bergeron and Hugh Ragin - trumpets
Mike Christianson, Jim Messbauer,
Ben Herrington (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6-8)
and Mike Seltzer (tracks 3, 5) - tenor trombones
Steven Gehring - bass trombone
Raymond Stewart - tuba

RHYTHM SECTION
Dave Fabris - electric guitar
Geoff Burleson - piano
Dave Phillips - electric and acoustic bass
Mark Raynes - drums
Theo Moore - percussion

CONDUCTORS
David Sanford (tracks 1-4 and 6-8)
Hugh Ragin (track 5)

Production Credits:
Executive Producer: Dave Douglas
Produced by Tom Lazarus and David Sanford
Recorded June 6-7, 2016 at Sear Sound, New York, NY
Recorded and mixed by Tom Lazarus
Assisted by Owen Mulholland and Jeff Citron
Mastered by Joe Lambert at Joe Lambert Mastering
Cover painting by Chris Pouler
Graphic design by Lukas Frei

All music composed and arranged by David Sanford (David Sanford Music / BMI)
except:
“A Prayer For Lester Bowie” composed and arranged by Hugh Ragin (HURA Music / ASCAP)
“Dizzy Atmosphere” composed by John “Dizzy” Gillespie (Universal Music Corp. / ASCAP)

Soloists:
1. Full Immersion (12:48)
Soloists: Theo Moore (congas), Jim Messbauer (trombone), Anna Webber (tenor sax), Geoff Vidal (tenor sax)
2. Subtraf (9:30)
Soloists: Mike Christianson (trombone), Dave Fabris (guitar)
3. Woman in Shadows (8:01)
Soloists: Ted Levine (alto sax)
4. popit (2:50)
Soloists: Hugh Ragin (trumpet)
5. A Prayer For Lester Bowie (13:38)
Soloists: Hugh Ragin (trumpet), Ted Levine (alto sax), Geoff Vidal, (tenor sax), Marc Phaneuf (tenor sax), Mike Christianson, Mike Seltzer, Steve Gehring and Jim Messbauer (trombones)
6. Dizzy Atmosphere (6:29)
Soloists: Wayne J. du Maine (trumpet), Brad Goode (trumpet), Marc Phaneuf (tenor sax), Dave Phillips (bass)
7. Soldier and the CEO (7:19)
Soloists: Kelley Hart-Jenkins (alto sax), Dave Fabris (guitar), Brad Hubbard (baritone sax)
8. V-Reel (8:45)
Soloists: Geoff Burleson (piano), Ted Levine (alto sax), Ben Herrington, (trombone)

Calum Builder - Messe (You are where you need to be) September 24, 2021 ILK Music

This album came about as I reconciled with the deconstruction of my faith. This work is dedicated to those who are also in between worlds or have not known where they belong or what they believe. It can be quite disorientating. However, I have become increasingly aware that in this life to have true faith is not to be resolute, but to sit in the tension of it all and watch the mystery unfold. It’s an openhanded faith, honest and broken — and therein is where the beauty lies.

1. Pater Noster
2. Kyrie
3. Gloria
4. Credo
5. Sanctus
6. Epiclesis
7. Agnus Dei

Calum Builder (Alto Saxophone; Composer; Conductor)

Saxophones:
Cosimo Fiaschi (Soprano), Albert Cirera (Soprano), Jonas Engel (Alto), Miguel Crozzoli (Tenor), Nana Pi Larsen (Tenor), Michał Biel (Baritone)

Voices:
Therese Aune (Soprano), Susana Nunes (Soprano), Thea Wang (Alto), Lucie Szabová (Alto), João Neves (Tenor), Kenneth Reid (Tenor), Josh Herring (Bass)

Basses:
Jesper Nordberg, Asger Thomsen, Mark Gregersen, Piotr Dubajko, Aurelijus Užameckis, Tomo Jacobson, Rafał Różalski

Additional Conductor: Håkon Guttormsen

Recorded by Gediminas Sudnikavičius at Sankt Augustins Kirke, Copenhagen
Mixed & Mastered by Simon Mariegaard
Edited by Gediminas Sudnikavičius & Turkman Souljah

Artwork & Design by Luis Power

NEW RELEASE: Gabriel Zucker's LEFTOVER BEATS FROM THE EDGES OF TIME is due out September 24, 2021 via ESP-Disk’

Gabriel Zucker presents Leftover Beats From The Edges Of Time, a new album with The Delegation, out September 24, 2021

“Zucker creates a compelling, mysterious world that is as beautiful as it is elusive…” 
— All About Jazz

Leftover Beats From The Edges Of Time, the latest release from polymath and musical maximalist Gabriel Zucker, is a sprawling and ambitious achievement. Five years in the making, the 90-minute record defies categorization or synopsis, featuring complex mixed-meter jazz, virtuosic chamber music, electronic soundscapes, and indie art rock — performed with emotion and urgency by Zucker’s virtuoso large ensemble The Delegation. Leftover Beats From The Edges Of Time will be available on September 24, 2021 on ESP-Disk’. An album release show will take place at Roulette, located at 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, on Tuesday, October 5th at 8:00 PM.

Despite its stylistic variety, Leftover Beats musically coheres as a single, carefully crafted composition, portions of which were premiered at Carnegie Hall and Roulette in 2017 and 2019. Written primarily between 2015 and 2018, during several stints Zucker spent living and performing in England and throughout Europe, the record reckons with time, and with the competing impulses of a backwards-looking nostalgia and a forwards-looking futurist belief in progress. “It’s something Americans have been talking about for generations, but the age and gravity of the so-called Old World is always so striking and so palpable,” says Zucker. “As a New Yorker, you find yourself among these ancient buildings in the old capitals of Europe, struck by their beauty, and yet always missing New York’s dynamism.”
“Zucker’s advanced compositional work is knotty, unpredictable, and utterly satisfying.” 
— JazzTrail

Zucker’s classical training shines as he effortlessly recycles six primary leitmotifs in seemingly endless permutations. Just moments after we first hear the titular ‘Leftover Beats’ melody in the first movement, “Requiem I: Leftover Beats,” it shows up again as a fragmented, perpetual-motion texture in the horns in “Such Closer I” — a sign of the iterations to come. Each movement is a collage of half-familiar characters, in ceaseless organic development.

The work is split into four sections of three movements each. The section names — “Past,” “Autumn 2016,” “Present,” “Future” — tell us we are moving forward in time, but the eclectic journey is anything but linear or predictable. The “Past” is manic and alive, culminating in the contrapuntal chamber-music romanticism of “How To Keep, Forever.” “Autumn 2016” opens with “Someone to Watch You,” which reaches its grand climax in a cycle of irrational meters that the band renders warm and sweet. But the section focuses mainly on November. “This notion that progress isn’t linear and forwards motion can be illusory played out so blatantly and painfully on November 8 — right as I was in the middle of composing,” Zucker says. The night of the election is grotesquely illustrated at the end of the record’s sixth track, “Confidence White.”

The “Present” that comes next feels subdued and chastened in its aftermath, with the James-Blake-inflected synth pop of “Songbird” and the hyper-produced prog jazz stylings of “Shallow Times.” And the “Future” is a dreamscape of synthesizer and sound collage nightmares punctuated by a Mahler-esque climax in “Requiem III,” before we close on Zucker’s solo piano in “How to Know, Forever,” drifting off into the sands of time.

Part of the structural conflict of Leftover Beats is built on a dialogue between two different ensembles: Several movements are performed by a chamber ensemble of Zucker, Mariel Roberts (cello), Joanna Mattrey (viola), Kate Gentile (drums), Yuma Uesaka (clarinet), and Nolan Tsang (trumpet), while the rest feature a larger ensemble of horns, rhythm section, and voices. More firmly rooted in jazz, this latter ensemble prominently features the playing of Adam O’Farrill on trumpet and Anna Webber on tenor saxophone.
Photo of Gabriel Zucker by Michael Yu

“Piano firebrand.” 
— Brooklyn Rail

The live bands were tracked in 2017 and 2019, but Zucker didn’t fully return to the recordings until the pandemic year, which he spent living nomadically in the desert of New Mexico. Far from other musicians and from the city, he turned to the tools at hand, weaving a dizzying array of synthesizers, samples, field recordings, and effects over the raw performances — disorienting waves of sound that constantly threaten to and sometimes entirely overwhelm the instrumentalists and singers. Many artists have Zucker’s skill and creativity as composers, performers, or producers — but few have such simultaneous ambition in all three.

Yet through all of the grandiose themes and overwhelming sounds, Leftover Beats is intensely personal and vulnerable — a record of confessional songs. Zucker’s rich and nuanced lyrics range from the esoteric to the direct, circling around short, emotional, aphoristic appeals repeated like mantras. The record’s first half features the effortless and beautiful vocals of Artemisz Polonyi and Lorena Del Mar, but as the album progresses the lyrics are increasingly sung by Zucker himself, in an intimate baritone over the chaos.

Leftover Beats is the second studio album with The Delegation, and Zucker’s fifth overall. It follows 2016’s Evergreen (Canceled World) with the same ensemble, which received 4.5 stars in Downbeat; 2018’s Weighting with a riveting quartet featuring Tyshawn Sorey, which won Best Debut in the New York City Jazz Record and 4.5 stars in All About Jazz; and two records with indie art rock band underorder, in 2017 and 2020.

Eunhye Jeong - NOLDA (September 24, 2021 ESP - Disk')

Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong is a game-changer. She’s jazz from a different perspective. She’s a pianist who doesn’t sound like anyone else on the scene.

In her liner notes for the release, Jeong writes, “I made my first solo piano recording under the name Chi-Da. Chi-Da and Nolda can both be translated as “play.” While Chi-Da refers to physical motions that produce sounds by crashing together two objects, Nolda is more associated with playful activities. One may interpret this word as a fun, free-flowing action on the piano. That is partly true, but I dare ask: who can have fun and experience true freedom without “knowing thyself”? Nolda means transcending the physical reality without abandoning it at all, which is made of body, mind, and the world. We music creators are artists who work with invisible and intangible energy forms as ingredients to create. Nolda, in this sense, is the magic of music-making.”
1. Perspective Shifts
2. Strange Rocks
3. Blue Sun
4. Columnar Jointing
5. Rooted
6. Ultraviolet-lightly Coated
7. Emerging Islands
8. Threading Stories
9. If I Were

Eunhye Jeong, piano

Recorded at Futura Productions, Roslindale, MA on January 8, 2021
Mixed and mastered by Travis Karpak