Elsa Nilsson charts Atlas of Sound with first series release 'Coast Redwoods 41°32’09.8”N 124°04’35.5”W' out April 22 (ears&eyes)

Flutist and composer Elsa Nilsson charts Atlas of Sound with first series release Coast Redwoods 41°32’09.8”N 124°04’35.5”W

due out April 22, 2022 via ears&eyes Records

“One of the most dynamic bandleaders in the New York jazz scene” 

— Hot House Jazz Magazine

“A musical marauder with as many interests as skills to deploy her ideas” 

— DownBeat

“[Nilsson] is the logical choice to provide a needed next step for her instrument in the world of jazz and improvised music” 

— All About Jazz 

Flutist and composer Elsa Nilsson issues Coast Redwoods 41°32’09.8”N 124°04’35.5”W on ears&eyes Records, the first release from her Atlas of Sound series inspired by human connection to locations of the natural world, on April 22, 2022. Lush and melodic, at times subversive, Nilsson’s trio recording invites listeners into dense woody thickets where breezes idle and sounds of footsteps disappear into layers of pine needle. The ten-movement suite emerged from improvised material Nilsson recorded at two sets of coordinates, a month apart from each other. When she began composing in earnest, the Brooklyn-based artist out of Sweden had in mind her personnel: Jon Cowherd on piano and Chris Morrissey on bass, two fiercely exploratory artists who intuit aspects of Nilsson’s orchestration and enter each sound grove with nimble awareness. 

“The secret is in the tempo,” says Nilsson, “how slow [the redwoods] move. For me to hear them I have to slow down, stay still. Really, really listen. When I do, I find music in every movement. There’s a melody in the rustle of leaves as the wind blows through them and they release and float to the ground, a groove in the sound of footsteps, real or imagined.” 

Another secret is in Nilsson’s treatment of leitmotif throughout the recording: “For me, an ecosystem is expressed in the similarities and connections between things.” She sought to have the gesture appear in every movement, but not wholly materialize, developing instead across the arc of the suite. “It pops up and goes away.” Elements of the motif might emerge in the bass movement, or in the piano responding to a related phrase. “When you get to the final movement, it’s familiar and you don’t know why. It’s like the feeling you get when you’re walking among trees where you’ve never walked before.” 

Certain movements, including “Old Growth,” “Hold On To Each Other” and “Proof of the Unseen,” engage the leitmotif using giant intervallic leaps. Others, as in “Sunshift Haze,” allow melodies to pass from one instrument to another: “I’ll take a piano melody and move two or three notes into the bass part — there’s a connection to every part of the ecosystem from the bottom of the roots to the top of the trees.” 

During her visit to the north end of Redwood National Park, Nilsson recorded what would become the seeds for seven movements, later recording those for “Old Growth,” “Proof of the Unseen” and “Coralie” in the Grove of Old Trees outside Occidental. “The suite depicts many different aspects of how we relate to the Redwoods and their connection to each other … It is a story of interconnectedness that spans our history and informs our future.” 

The third of her records to be mastered by Nate Wood, the Coast Redwoods opens in tender inquisition on “Sunshift Haze,” named for the morning hours when fog blooms across the redwoods before the sun breaks through. The melody develops over time, playing in totality only toward the end of the movement. “As the piece progresses, the melody becomes more and more clear, like the sun burning off the fog,” says Nilsson. “The flute represents the sun, bass and piano the fog, and together we clear the way for the day to begin. 

Throughout the suite, motivic melody passes intentionally among piano, bass and flute/ Morrissey handles its lyrical arc on “Catching Droplets,” the first movement to unveil the suite’s leitmotif in its entirety. “The bass [represents] the roots enjoying their gift of water from the fog,” says Nilsson. “The flute and piano represent the droplets falling from the canopy and running down the bark, making little rivers from the Redwood created rains.” Beautiful and somber, “Old Growth” features Morrissey’s arco as it engages the vocal quality of Nilsson’s flute song alongside atmospheric motion from Cowherd. 

Nilsson composed “The Ground is Its Own” for First Nations “that belong to the trees.” The gesture spotlights nimble spontaneity between Nilsson and Cowherd. Charting the deep-rooted symbiotic relationship between the redwoods and fungal mycorrhiza, “Proof of the Unseen” feature’s Morrissey performing lyrical ornaments around Nilsson’s long-held melodies. “Epicormic” prompts an energetic current of improvisation that settles into an almost cyclical melody, exploring fire as a natural part of the redwood life cycle. “I wrote this [movement] in the midst of lockdown when I felt my world falling apart around me in a myriad of ways,” says Nilsson. “Even when the world around us burns, there are seeds for something new to come.” Cowherd and Morrissey proffer thoughtful solos on “Fairy Rings” before Nilsson and Cowherd take out a percussive variation on the melody. 

“Coralie” opens in meditative warmth, unfolding in tribute to Nilsson’s niece, part of “the third generation to grow up calling these trees home.” The Coast Redwoods leitmotif emerges in the piano part on “Molted Steps,” one of the suite’s gentle yet kinetic movements. Intentional pauses and beats of non-playing reflect the feeling of walking along the fallen needles. “Suddenly you don’t hear your own feet anymore,” says Nilsson. “You feel the motion of it — you feel that things are moving — but it doesn’t sound like it.” When listeners hear “Hold On To Each Other,” the suite’s final movement, they encounter an unnamed familiarity in the resolution of the leitmotif: “It’s an exhalation. If we support each other we are all stronger. If we all hold on to each other, less of us are likely to fall.” 

Nilsson ensures each leader release includes an element of written word. The Atlas of Sound series invites listeners into the expanse of her imagination through original poetry, providing them the option of gaining a different perspective on her music and her artistic expression. “The way poetry and instrumental music complement each other,” says Nilsson, “is that they can either focus or dispel a direction. 

“Because of the abstraction of instrumental music, what I put out into the world doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to the listener. That doesn’t mean that all of the thought and all of the processing and all of the growth…everything that goes into creating art is gone. It just means that it’s taking on its own life.”

1. Sunshift Haze

2. Catching Droplets

3. Old Growth

4. The Ground Is It's Own

5. Proof Of The Unseen

6. Epicormic

7. Fairy Rings

8. Coralie

9. Molted Steps

10. Hold On To Each Other

Elsa Nilsson - flutes/composition

Jon Cowherd - piano

Chris Morrissey - upright bass

Recorded by Chris Benham at Big Orange Sheep, Brooklyn NY USA.

Mixed by Mike Tierney

Mastered by Nate Wood

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Chris Morrissey - Impact Winter Formal (December 2021 Edition Records)

Described by Chicago Reader as “casually clearing the way for one potential path for jazz to progress into the future”, Chris Morrisey is a musician with an uncanny ability to blend styles and genres. Informed as much by alternative music of the 90s like Elliot Smith and Bjork as contemporary Jazz of that era, it was the presence of Happy Apple, the hyper original punk Jazz group from Minnesota (Dave King, Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke) that installed his sense of what was possible in music.

This new set of work, his fifth record as a leader, represents his most authentic blend of all his influences in one melting pot. Here’s a musician as adept as a singer-songwriter as an improvising Jazz musician and composer.

With Impact Winter Formal, he gives up on straddling two genre worlds and instead has both feet firmly planted in a totally new one that is personal and looking-forward, complex but immediate, tuneful and inspiring. The result is brilliant, engaging and emotive featuring some of the most interesting and creative contemporary musicians in New York including Philip Dizack, Ryan Ferreira, Dan Rieser, Jon Cowherd, Josh Dion, Grey McMurray and Jason Rigby.

1. Don't Look so Serious 05:02

2. The Indigos 07:38

3. Ode to All Night 06:47

4. It's Cruel That It Ends 06:00

Chris Morrissey - Bass and Singing

Philip Dizack - Trumpet

Ryan Ferreira - Guitar

Dan Rieser - Drums

Jon Cowherd - Piano

except on THE INDIGOS, which is Chris Morrissey, Bass and Singing - Philip Dizack, Trumpet - Josh Dion, Drums - Grey McMurray, Guitar - Jason Rigby, Saxophone

All songs by Chris Morrissey (chris morrissey music, bmi)

Recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, New York between February 2019 and April 2021

Recorded and co-produced by John Davis

Mixed by John Davis at The Bunker Studio in April 2021

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John Ellis / Adam Levy / Glenn Patscha - Say It Quiet (August 13, 2021 Sunnyside Records)

Decades of friendship and the crossing of paths in the music industry does not necessarily guarantee opportunities for intimate, meaningful collaboration. Professional musicians know that the balance between making a living and pursuing dream projects usually tilts toward whatever keeps a roof over one’s head. But every so often, the chance to get a project together that is musically and emotionally rewarding comes about. Such opportunities must be grabbed.

The collaborative recording, Say It Quiet, by longtime friends John Ellis, Adam Levy, and Glenn Patscha is the result of taking advantage of such an opportunity. These three brilliant, busy musicians take the time to put together a gorgeously crafted collection of songs chosen to showcase their sympathetic personalities and musical approaches.

The Canadian born and Nova Scotia based Patscha was already working professionally before relocating to New Orleans to study with the late, great Ellis Marsalis. Patscha became one of the stalwart jazz pianists on the scene, where he met the future woodwind ace, John Ellis, who came from North Carolina. It wasn’t long before Patscha looked to the world of rock and pop music to make a living, leaving the jazz scene to record and tour with the likes of Marianne Faithful, Levon Helm, Sheryl Crow, and Bonnie Raitt.

In the meantime, Ellis established himself as one of the most in demand woodwind players in New York in the fields of jazz and pop music. Through an introduction by Charlie Hunter, Ellis met guitarist and Californian Adam Levy, who has toured and recorded with both Norah Jones and with Tracy Chapman. At the same time, Patscha had created his band Ollabelle and would cross paths with Levy at Jones’s beloved Living Room residency in New York City or the Carriage House in Boston, striking up a friendly bond.

Regular contact allowed the three to consider possible musical alliances, but it was a chance performance with Patscha as a part of Ellis’s Double Wide band that led to a revelation for the keyboardist. Having just beaten cancer, Patscha reexamined what his musical goals were and reunited with aspirations in jazz and instrumental music, having missed playing in such an open fashion with Ellis. Levy was a natural choice to be included in the project, as their musical styles and affiliations crossed over in many ways, though the three had never previously recorded all together. It was apparent to them that they would have infinite abilities to explore the possibilities in the music but it was their capacity to squeeze the soul out of the music that made the teaming so essential.

Once the three united, they decided to bring together material in a sort of potluck dinner style, with each member suggesting music they would like to play. Because of their strong pop and jazz roots, they were not overly concerned with labels for the music. The group knew that they wanted to remain instrumental only, allowing their instruments to be their voices and define the textures of the music.

In a perfect world, the group would have found a way to have a residency in a local venue and develop material as members brought new pieces in from week to week. Levy was in Los Angeles at the time and much of their initial brainstorming came from text conversations, proposing tunes and ways to arrange them. Their book kept growing and growing until a recording was inevitable.

Ellis, Levy, and Patscha convened together with bassist Chris Morrissey and drummer Dan Rieser during May 2019 at Brooklyn Recording. They brought in an eclectic collection of originals and choice cuts from some favorite composers. Using their studio time to their advantage, the group put their producing chops, honed from decades of studio time, to work, putting elements into songs that called for it, whether through layering of parts or through overdubbing. The studio’s wealth of instruments and Ellis’s own arsenal of woodwinds, including saxophones, clarinets, and flute, provided a vast palette of sounds for the ensemble to construct their own aural world from.

The recording begins with Patscha’s “Bahia,” a homage to legendary singer Milton Nascimento that shows the depth of the keyboardist’s appreciation for Brazilian music from his early forays to ultimately performing at the well-known Bourbon Street club in Sao Paulo. Stevie Wonder’s “If It’s Magic” was arranged by Ellis, whose melancholy clarinet, combined with Levy’s acoustic guitar, find beauty in the song’s simplicity. Levy brought in Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Barakaat,” a piece with intriguing movement that slowly reveals itself over the steadiness of Morrissey and Rieser’s beat. Patscha and Ellis brought in a favorite of their mentor, Ellis Marsalis, the brilliant James Black written blues, “Magnolia Triangle.”

Patscha wrote “Eleanor” for his dearly departed mother, a woman who was restless but quiet, an essence he captured in the piece and heightened by the warm but constant sound of his Oberheim synthesizer. Inspired by Grant Green and Herbie Hancock’s tension building rendition, Levy suggested “Motherless Child” to provide an opportunity for the group to set their teeth into one of Rieser’s propulsive grooves. The group comes together perfectly on Randy Newman’s “Let’s Burn Down the Cornfield,” a simple tune that Patscha had always loved.

Ellis’s glorious “Better Angels” takes its name from a line from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, a gospel-tinged musical reminder of how relevant that message remains today. Ellis’s bittersweet “Dogwood” was a tune he could never find a home for but with this ensemble, and guest Stefan Bauer’s lush vibes work, the piece truly blossoms. The recording concludes with Patscha’s “Portage La Prairie,” a sauntering blues that takes its name from a Manitoba town where Patscha had one of his first (and most harrowing) professional gigs.

Recording together for the first time, John Ellis, Adam Levy, and Glenn Patscha have created a singular recording with Say It Quiet, a record that utilizes the trio’s full musical potential across genres to create an unassuming, instrumental album of pure music. 

1. Bahia

2. If It's Magic

3. Barakaat

4. Magnolia Triangle

5. Eleanor

6. Motherless Child

7. Let's Burn Down the Cornfield

8. Better Angels

9. Dogwood

10. Portage La Prairie

John Ellis - tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet & alto flute

Adam Levy - electric & acoustic guitars

Glenn Patscha - piano, organ & keyboards

Chris Morrissey - bass

Dan Rieser - drums

Stefan Bauer - vibraphone (2, 9, 10)

Erin Donovan - vibraphone (1)

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