Republic of Jazz: Joshua White

Showing posts with label Joshua White. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Chris Williams Quintet - 'Live' (February 2022 cow: Music)

Chris Ryan Williams is an interdisciplinary artist based between NYC and LA and most at home collaborating with contemporary improvisers and experimentalists. He has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, most recently with Pink Siifu and Negro'6.

Williams has collaborated with creators Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar Arkestra, gabby fluke-mogul, Jessica Ackerly, Jason Nazary, Eyvind Kang, Joanna Mattrey, Miriam Parker, Bennie Maupin, Nicole Mitchell, Fay Victor, Wendy Eisenberg, Luke Stewart, Marjani Forte-Saunders, Eric Revis, and recently Patrick Shiroishi in their duo on Astral Spirits' 'Sans Soleil' (2021).

'Live' is the first release under his name as a leader. It is also the first release of cow: Music, the audio branch of the cow arts program. cow: Music is currently a subsidiary of Astral Spirits Records.

South African writer/ scholar Nombuso Mathibila says of 'Live':

"LIVE is a product of trusted musicianship and spontaneity where the central desire is to see what people do with space collectively under conditions where there is no prescribed direction. This is a white label release under a subsidiary label called cow: Music and it comes off two hours of recording and roughly twenty-eight minutes make it into the album. Throughout this record, Williams plays a frugal acoustic role and much of his contributions take shape in the post-recording phase mainly through editing and the inclusion of electronic sound arrangements that connect the recording into a cohesive improvisational album.

He is quite clear that “there is a certain amount of composition in between the improvisation and this can be heard in the layered rhythmic arrangements in the first half of ‘side A’ before the session moves into a picking improvisational style where sound bounces across instruments in an aesthetic fashion that centers the cinematic character of each instrument."

1. 'Live' Side Aye 12:47

2. 'Live' Side Bee 15:25

Chris Williams - Trumpet / electronics / collage edit

Patrick Shiroishi - Saxophones / objects

Joshua White - Piano

Eric Revis - Acoustic bass / electronics

Guillermo Brown - Drums / electronics

Produced for release by Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn

Recorded at the Blue Whale in 2018

Engineered by Bradley Butterworth

Mixed by Jason Nazary

Mastered by: Mikey Young (2021)

Produced for release by Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn

Recorded at the Blue Whale in 2018

Engineered by Bradley Butterworth

Mixed by Jason Nazary

Mastered by: Mikey Young (2021)

PRE-ORDER

Friday, October 15, 2021

Steph Richards - Zephyr (October 15, 2021)

"A virtuoso of otherworldly trumpet sound" (Jazz Times), Steph Richards takes takes a literally transformative experience (Richards was six and a half months pregnant during the session) and shapes a concise, visceral album both in concept and in practice, exploring a more immediate connection between her body and her work. "This record expresses the idea of breathing one breath for two bodies -- moving through the world with two distinct pulses happening at the same time". Alongside pianist Joshua White, Richards found inspiration in her embodied self instead of attempting to sideline it on Zephyr’s three suites, which amount to an intense 38 minutes of forcefully original sound.

For most of her career as one of the most acclaimed improvisers working in jazz’s avant-garde, trumpeter, composer and bandleader Steph Richards worked hard to make sure that her music was considered on its own terms, rather than — as is so often the case in jazz and music as a whole — in the context of her gender.

But when she went into the studio to record her upcoming album Zephyr in 2019, Richards was six-and-a-half months pregnant. That literally transformative experience shaped the concise, visceral album both in concept and in practice, forcing the thoughtful, cerebral artist to explore a more immediate connection between her body and her work.

“I was experiencing my own metamorphosis, and thinking about the idea of breathing one breath for two bodies — moving through the world with two distinct pulses happening at the same time,” Richards explains. “It brought this a whole other color to my sound precisely because I had a different physical ability. Our bodies are full of potential, and that's something that I had never fully investigated. ”

The first suite, “Sacred Sea,” features Richards playing her trumpet in water throughout. She’s been refining that technique since 2008, but here it takes on new meaning as Richards plays on the idea that her in utero child was, in a sense, breathing underwater. One of its movements, “Anza,” is named for her daughter, whose breath can be heard on that track; other movements are named for gods/goddesses of water and wind.

“What I love about water is that it's vulnerable and unstable — you can never know exactly what sound you're going to make,” Richards explains.

As a whole, the resulting record is one of the trumpeter’s most intimate to date, both in its duo orchestration and in its tactile, focused expression.

By expressing the rootedness and inspiration she felt during her pregnancy in abstraction, Richards hopes that her listeners will hear the universality of that experience — the beauty and richness of creation — instead of its ties to any particular gender. “Your humanity is visibly evident when you're pregnant,” she says. “I hope this record reveals a sonic element to this new experience of humanity."

1. Sacred Sea: Zephyr

2. Sacred Sea: Anza

3. Sacred Sea: Amphitrite

4. Sacred Sea: Nixie

5. Sacred Sea

6. Sequoia: Cicada

7. Sequoia

8. Sequoia: Heeyyookkee

9. Northern Lights: Aurora I

10. Northern Lights: Aurora II

11. Northern Lights: Aurora III

12. Northern Lights: Aurora IV

Steph Richards (trumpet, flugelhorn, resonating water vessels)

Joshua White (piano, preparations, percussion)

Recording, Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Andrew Munsey

Artwork and Design: Michael Ramey

Executive Producer: Kevin Reilly

Produced by Andrew Munsey & Steph Richards

Recorded at Studio A, Warren Music Center, UCSD, 2019.

PREORDER

Friday, October 27, 2017

Joshua White - 13 Short Stories (FRESH SOUND NEW TALENT RECORDS 2017)

Fresh Sound Records has been synonymous with West Coast jazz since its inception back in 1983. Through the years, we have recorded many of the men who built the scene, outstanding soloists who have become part of the jazz history we know and love. Now we are back to the roots with this new branch of our New Talent series, dedicated to today's emerging generation of stalwarts, all hailing from California.

To start this exciting stage, we are proud to present one of the young lions who is working to make it a reality, the talented pianist Joshua White. His individual style and fresh jazz conception will pull you in, and we hope you enjoy his debut album at least as much we do. Welcome to the label, Joshua!