The iconic drummer, Steve Gadd releases his band's 5th project: At Blue Note Tokyo. This album follows their 2018 Grammy win of Best Contempory / Instrumental Album for the eponymous album Steve Gadd Band. At Blue Note Tokyo was recorded live at this legendary club in December of 2018. Regular band members, Walt Fowler (Flugelhorn/Trumpet), Kevin Hays (Piano/Keys) and Jimmy Johnson (Bass) are joined by an old friend and renown guitarist, David Spinozza. The album highlights live versions of tunes from previous albums. It features a couple of new tunes penned by Spinozza and two tracks with soulful vocals by Hays. At Blue Note Tokyo captures the unique appeal of this venue and reflects the special relationship Steve Gadd has had with this club over the many years.
GRAMMY-NOMINEE JOHN DAVERSA (BIG BAND FEATURING DACA ARTISTS) RELEASES “AMERICAN DREAMERS: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom” SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 ON BFM JAZZ
“The history of music in America is inseparable from the story of immigrants in America. Our brave young Dreamers embody this proud legacy, adding their vision and patriotism to make America more American.”
U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
AMERICAN DREAMERS: VOICES OF HOPE, MUSIC OF FREEDOM, the new CD spearheaded by multi-Grammy-nominee JOHN DAVERSA, is a deeply personal, emotional, and timely project. It’s a musical cri de coeur that gives voice to young undocumented people known as “Dreamers” who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country as children. They grew up here and were instilled with American culture and values.
But Dreamers now find themselves in a heated immigration debate in which they and their families face great uncertainty. In 2012, Dreamers were afforded temporary status with the Deferred Action for Childhood Early Arrivals (DACA) policy, but it was rescinded in 2017. There are approximately 800,000 DACA recipients, and 90 percent of them are in school or have a job. Many of them are also musicians, who have come together to create this production, which has received bipartisan support from both Democratic and Republican Senators.
Daversa is a trumpet and electronic valve instrument (EVI) master as well as a composer, arranger, and bandleader. He’s also the Chair of the Studio Music and Jazz Department at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. As an educator and father, he has a strong affinity for young people. And like many Americans, he cherishes the immigrant roots of his ancestors, as his grandparents came from Italy to work in canneries (and play music on the side) in California.
That’s why the plight of the Dreamers had a visceral effect on him. “I wanted to provide an opportunity for Dreamers to share their stories through music,” says Daversa. “You don’t need polemics or a bullhorn to make yourself heard. The young people I worked with are just amazing, and I want this project to reach a wide audience, so that others could be touched, as I have, by their abundant courage and hope.”
Daversa and his production team, led by Kabir Sehgal and Doug Davis, worked with several non-profit immigrant organizations to scour the country to find Dreamers who could play musical instruments and would be willing to participate in the project. They found 53 Dreamers in 17 states who fit the bill. The Dreamers originally come from 17 different countries all across the world, including Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, and Venezuela. Daversa and the team also selected professional musicians based in Miami, Los Angeles and New York to serve as the big band on this record. They chose both well-known songs, like “Living in America” and lesser-known ones like ‘Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).” Daversa is a top-notch arranger who writes intricate and demanding big band charts. Finding music students and nonprofessional musicians who could play his arrangements was one of the biggest challenges of the project. The team started discussions about the CD in November of 2017, and by the time the first recording sessions at the Frost School began in March 2018, they had found fourteen Dreamers who played a range of instruments, from the violin and flute to piano and percussion. The Dreamers’ contributions are woven throughout this recording. They performed featured solos, instrumental accompaniments, spoken word poetry, string swells, multi-layered percussion grooves, lead vocals, shout choruses, and electrifying raps. Their musical performances are rich and diverse. Each of the tunes begins with a narration by a Dreamer.
They found their first Dreamer through a story in the New York Times. The CD opens with a personal reflection by SALVADOR, a clarinetist majoring in music at Indiana University, and then launches into “Living In America.” Salvador joined Daversa’s big band in laying down each track for the CD. The piece culminates with an Afro-Caribbean groove in which Dreamers sing “I live in America” in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Urdu with JULIE, a Dreamer in Los Angeles, riffing in Korean. The next tune, “Don’t Fence Me In,” opens with a narrative by SABA, a singer, pianist, who speaks five languages and is PhD candidate in mathematical biology at Texas Tech University. She was brought to America at age eleven from Pakistan. Japanese-Americans, who were sent to internment camps in the 1940s, sang this song to provoke their American captors. In a nod to the historical use of the tune, the Dreamers sing in Japanese “Don’t take away our dreams.”
CALIPH, a Dreamer who came here at the age of seven from Senegal, earned a university scholarship but couldn’t attend because of his immigration status. His spoken improvisations on “Immigrant Song” get increasingly more pointed. At the beginning of “Deportee,” DAISY relates that she came to this country with her family when she was just 9 years old to seek medical help for her sister. The song is a heart-wrenching testament about the plane crash in California in 1948 that was carrying migrant workers. DENZEL, a trombonist who was brought to this country from Singapore at age 5, relates that he wanted to join the US armed services, but he couldn’t because of his immigration status. He introduces us to “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
JUAN CARLOS is a Dreamer from Mexico who came here at age eight. He is a self-taught organ player and his story introduces “America the Beautiful.” ALICIA, a young Dreamer from Venezuela, speaks about how drumming has been an anodyne for the anxiety she experiences because of her immigration status. Her story introduces “America” from West Side Story. It is an all-percussion track on which over a dozen Dreamers worked with professional musician MURPH AUCAMP to generate the many layers of rhythm.
MARIA loves the flute and jazz. You can hear the joy in her voice as she introduces the original composition “All is One.” It’s a feel-good, hopeful track that features a soaring solo on the Electronic Valve Instrument by Daversa. EDSON is a poet who was brought here from Mexico when he was eight years old. His gripping spoken word poem opens the piece “Red, White, and Remixed,” which is a creation of JAMES, a Dreamer who mashed together several tracks on the album. As the final track on this record, it presents a hopeful glimmer of the future: America’s music and people will increasingly come together.
Jazz is perhaps the greatest, intrinsically American art form and one of America's most important cultural exports. Jazz has been the music of freedom and protest, so it is eminently fitting as a vehicle for Dreamers to express their predicament. Putting aside the politics and partisanship of the current debate, all of us can enjoy the songs of our nation. Perhaps this album can inspire us to focus more on what unites rather than divides us.
Waldman’s newest project is called SUPERHEROES. Five years in the making, SUPERHEROES features the stellar rhythm section of pianist RANDY WALDMAN, drummer VINNIE COLAIUTA and bassist CARLITOS DEL PUERTO, who are joined by jazz luminaries including CHICK COREA, WYNTON MARSALIS, STEVE GADD, RANDY BRECKER, EDDIE DANIELS, GEORGE BENSON, JOE LOVANO, ARTURO SANDOVAL, CHRIS POTTER, and the vocal group TAKE 6. Waldman re-arranged theme music from his favorite superhero movies and TV shows, transforming them into fun, accessible, and exciting jazz tunes.
Waldman got the idea for this project a few years ago when he had the good fortune to be seated at an event next to actor Adam West, the original TV Batman. “We talked a lot about music,” relates Waldman. “Adam loved jazz, and the thought occurred to me that he was an actual jazz superhero. That surprising and unexpected conversation stayed in the back of my mind for years.” That chance encounter percolated in Randy’s mind, and inspiration came like a bolt out of the blue. He would make a CD of superhero theme music played by some of his jazz superheroes!
Although he works with artists across many genres, jazz is Waldman’s first love, and he’s previously produced and released three Randy Waldman Trio CDs. Wigged Out (1998) features jazz greats John Patitucci on bass (Chick Corea) and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums (Herbie Hancock, Sting), as well as several legendary musical guests, including Arturo Sandoval, Michael Brecker, Bob Berg and Freddie Hubbard. UnReel (2001) comprises a variety of soundtrack and theme music from many different films and television shows that Waldman re-arranged and presents as jazz tunes. Timing is Everything (2003) features bass player Brian Bromberg and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta.
Like most kids growing up, Waldman watched all the popular superhero TV shows, but his favorite was “Adventures of Superman,” and he included in this project the themes from both the TV show and the movies. Waldman opens the TV theme with voiceover cameos by JOHN TRAVOLTA, JEFF GOLDBLUM, JAMES BROLIN, OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, MICHAEL BUBLÉ, AND JOSH GROBAN. The track features Eddie Daniels, who leads off with a beautifully crafted tenor sax solo. Trumpeter Randy Brecker effortlessly follows up the piano solo with a harmonically rich and textured improvisation. The track culminates with a drum solo by Colaiuta that defies the rhythmic laws of physics.
Waldman captures the clash between good and evil on the “Superman Movie” theme in a musical interchange between guitar legend George Benson and bassist del Puerto.
“Mighty Mouse” was also popular in the movies and on TV. Waldman created a difficult, polyrhythmic arrangement of the theme that features an intricate drum pattern by Colaiuta and a powerful 13-piece horn section with solos by del Puerto and saxophonist Joe Lovano.
“Spiderman” movies are surely one of the most popular, contemporary superhero franchises, and the theme from the movies is instantly recognizable. The vocal group Take 6 performs an a cappella intro to the tune, arranged by MARK KIBBLE, while saxophonist Chris Potter wails over the Latin groove.
In a unique pairing, drummers Colaiuta and Steve Gadd perform together for the first time on the theme to the “Six Million Dollar Man.” The tune also features trumpet great Arturo Sandoval soaring over the propulsive Latin beat.
“Super Chicken” begins with a slow, deliberate, ascending Rhapsody in Blue-like clarinet glissando by Eddie Daniels, which quickly turns into a barn-burning 360 beats per minute number that features BOB McCHESNEY on trombone and Sandoval on trumpet.
For “The Incredible Hulk,” Waldman chose to focus on the character’s sensitive human side rather than on his manifestation as a gigantic green monster. Chick Corea, one of Waldman’s favorite pianists, joins in on this track with a signature synth solo.
The “X-Men” theme, from another popular and very contemporary movie franchise, features solos by trumpeter TILL BRÖNNER and Colaiuta. The “Batman” TV theme is backed by a supercharged 13-piece horn section accentuating the “bam,” “sock,” “pow” hits. Legendary Wynton Marsalis lends his super talents to this caped crusader’s musical mission. The “Batman” movie theme is very different than the TV theme. Waldman captures the dark and mysterious feel of the theme, which is highlighted in a solo by guitarist MICHAEL O’NEILL.
Colaiuta and Gadd bounce off each other in asymmetrical rhythms in the “Underdog” theme. McChesney’s trombone solo achieves stunning, technical articulations.
SUPERHEROES is serious music performed by superheroes of the jazz world. This is music of the highest caliber. It’s fun and accessible even for people who don’t normally listen to jazz.
Steve Smith's band, whose lineage goes back more than 30 years, has released it's burning new album, "Heart of the City." It features 12 tunes performed by six amazing musicians: Baron Browne (bass and vocals), Mark Soskin (piano and Rhodes), Vinny Valentino (guitar), Andy Fusco (alto sax), and George Brooks (tenor and alto saxes).
