Judith Lorick feat. Eric Reed Trio CD Release Show: @ Smoke Thursday, October 18th Showtimes: 7pm, 9pm & 10:30pm

Judith Lorick

featuring

The Eric Reed Trio  

“The Second Time Around”

CD Release Show

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Smoke Jazz & Supper Club

2751 Broadway, NY

Showtimes:

7pm, 9pm & 10:30pm

Tickets: $15

Tickets & Info

Judith Lorick (v)

Eric Reed (p)

Dave Baron (b)

McClenty Hunter (d)

New CD September 28, 2018

“Gifted with an extraordinary voice, Judith Lorick combines charm, elegance and refinement”

“Les Nuits du Jazz” Cannes (France)

JUDITH LORICK is a vocalist we should have heard from long before now. In an era of exaggeration and pyrotechnics, Judith’s voice is a soothing reminder of what it means to have quality of tone and sophistication, all captured on her latest project, The Second Time Around, an array of popular pieces, warmly and refreshingly treated by Judith and her collaborator, multi-faceted pianist Eric Reed. Supplementing accompaniment is a diverse collection of talent including Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, McClenty Hunter on drums, Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass, and a recent arrival to the music scene, tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis. 

The Second Time Around celebrates several life events for Judith, most notably the reunion with her long lost love, Artie. To tell the story, Reed encouraged her to select songs that were intrinsic to it; not surprisingly, the most appropriate and moving songs turned out to be ballads. “Eric was in tune to the fact that singing ballads is something that I’m passionate about, and that this passion would resonate with others,” Judith recalls. This heartwarming and poignant tale is rendered through the lyrics of tireless classics like “I’ll Be Seeing You”, the title track “The Second Time Around” and rarer gems like “Why Did I Choose You”and “I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life”. Judith explains her ease with the repertoire, stating, “Interpreting ballads comes naturally to me because they resonate in my soul, and that’s where I sing from, where I live. As long as I can feel it, as long as I can react spontaneously in my interpretation and phrasing, I can relate honestly to people.”More than anything, pure and unfettered honesty pours out of this project.

Judith’s passion is not just limited to ballads, but to music in general. “My mother ‘gave me voice’. She constantly had music on in our home, so by the time I was a teenager, and began to sing jazz, I already knew three hundred songs!”she exclaims. This carefully selected program of songs is rooted in Judith’s natural proclivity towards education:“When I perform, I tend to do songs that people might not know because I feel part of my job is to make people aware of great songs that are rarely interpreted.” In the midst of music, family, and a very successful business career, Judith has found and lost love, finding it againfour decades later; she has lived every lyric sung.

A native of Philadelphia (as is her collaborator Reed), Judith has traversed the globe not only as performer, but as resident, having spent extensive time in southern California, and almost thirty years in the south of France, where she first met Eric at an after-hours jam session in 1995, where “The magic was immediate,”she remembers. “When you breathe together like that, from the first note, well, it was a musical experience one never forgets.”  When Judith returned to the U.S. in 2014, they reconnected after one of Eric’s performancesand not long after, their collaboration ensued – the secondtime around.

“Judith and I were diligent about every aspect of this project, which was a treat for me,”says Reed. “Her trust was paramount in doing this.”Their due diligence paid off in the assemblage of a masterful and sympathetic quintet, an unusual choice for a vocal recording. Judith explains, “I love what Jeremy Pelt and Chris Lewis add to the overall sound. Sometimes, we were just going for sounds and colors versus full-on solos. Eric and I were interested in scoring a storyline versus simply recording songs.”Illuminating further about her collaborator and co-producer, “Eric is amazing – talented, creative, meticulous, and sensitive. He’s not merely an accompanist here, it’s as if we’re singing together.”

Although the songs are familiar, the story of The Second Time Around, is a unique and moving saga about which Judith summarizes,“I’m glad I came home. It was time.”

Judith Lorick The Second Time Around

(JLJ International LLC JLJ2014) 

Street Date: September 28, 2018

Vocals: Judith Lorick

Piano: Eric Reed

Trumpet: Jeremy Pelt

Drums: McClenty Hunter

Bass: Kiyoshi Kitagawa

Tenor Saxophone: Chris Lewis

www.judithlorick.com

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Kenny Barron Quintet - Concentric Circles (BLUE NOTE May 4, 2018)

On his last two on impulses! Records released albums provided Kenny Barron with small casts for magical moments. In 2014, the pianist demonstrated "The Art Of Conversation" in intimate musical dialogues with bassist Dave Holland. The recording was named the album of the year by the Jazz Journalists Association. His "Book Of Intuition" he played in 2016 again in a trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake. The extensive discography of Kenny Barron is paved with such high-profile duo and trio recordings abundantly. Following his move to Blue Note Records, Barron is back on Kitagawa and Blake on his latest album "Concentric Circles". However, the sonic palette will be greatly enhanced this time by the addition of saxophonist Dayna Stephens and trumpeter Mike Rodriguez. "I've always wanted to record with a quintet because it gives me the opportunity to compose more," Barron notes soberly.

Of course, "Concentric Circles" is by no means Barron's first album in this format. Both the 1968 published album "You Had Better Listen", on which he was named alongside the trumpeter Jimmy Owens as a co-leader, as well as his 1973 launched solo debut album "Sunset To Dawn" he had already recorded with quintet ensembles. In the 1980s he directed another quintet with saxophonist John Stubblefield, trumpeter Wallace Roney, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Victor Lewis, who recorded the critically acclaimed 1986 album "What If". Two years later, with only a slightly changed line-up (Eddie Henderson replaced Roney), the no less excellent album "Live At Fat Tuesdays".

Barron's quintet from the late 1990s, made up of Henderson, saxophonist David Sánchez, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Billy Hart, also formed the core of the ensemble, with which Barron recorded "Spirit Song" in 2000. For "Images", he completely reorganized his quintet four years later, occupying it with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, flutist Anne Drummond, Kitagawa, and drummer Kim Thompson. Concentric Circles is now Barron's first true quintet publication since Images.

Kenny Barron presents not only his latest quintet, but also some of his own original compositions never before recorded by him. He opens with "DPW", a brisk hard-bop number, in which he pays tribute to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park West, where he is at home today. With the melody and its urban harmonies played in unison by trumpet and tenorsax, this 2013 song is reminiscent of the classics known from Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers or the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-sixties. Through a first-class groove that moves between straight hard-bop and Afro-Latin rhythms, Barron beats a crystalline, yet lyrical, improvisation into the keys that makes it clear what a master of touch, phrasing and harmonic finesse he is is.

The title track "Concentric Circles" is followed by a tantalizing waltz, which is carried by the flickering rubato of the rhythm section and embellished with smooth solos by Barron, Stephens and Rodriguez. Blake's urging 6/8 rhythms drive "Blue Waters," another new Barron composition that is peppered with smart, blues-laden passages. After that, the sunny atmosphere of the first pieces in "A Short Journey" gives way to a more subdued timbre. The underworld ballad is characterized by casual brass melodies, pensive piano lines, floating cymbals and pulsating bass accompaniment.

But the mood cheers up in the next issue again. Barron surprises here with a charming reworking of Caetano Veloso and Cézar Mendes' "Aquele Frevo Axé". With this lithe samba jewel that Barron became aware of through a recording by Gal Costa, the pianist continues his ongoing love affair with Brazilian music. The contemplative mood contrasts sharply with the unpredictable nature of Barron's next original "Von Hangman," in which the piano, trumpet, and saxophone navigate through a maze of zig-zagging phrases, while the rhythm section propels them forward in a stirring gait.

Contemplatively, it is again in Barron's heartbreaking play "In The Dark", which he had originally composed in 2009 for the soundtrack of the movie "Another Harvest Moon". The song reveals Barron's talent for composing scenic music. He indulges in his penchant for Latin American rhythms again in the lively original "Baile". "L's Bop" was written by the drummer Lenny White and offers the two brass players and the leader an ideal opportunity to let off steam. In "I'm Just Sayin '", Barron provides a funky bass line that Kitagawa soon picks up before the piece hits an implied Crescent City groove.

The mind of Thelonious Monk is always present on Barron's recordings in one way or another. Here, he pays tribute to the jazz icon, which has influenced and inspired him so much, with a grand piano solo interpretation of the classic "Reflections". The pianist had recorded the number several times before, the first time in 1982 with the Monk tribute band Sphere for the album "Four In One", the - macabre coincidence! - just recorded the day Thelonious Monk died.

With "Concentric Circles," Kenny Barron, who turns 75 in June, underscores that he does not intend to rest on his laurels. Because as he shows on this album with eight own compositions and three fabulous interpretations, he still has a lot to tell his audience.

01 DPW

02 Concentric Circles

03 Blue Waters

04 A Short Journey

05 Aquele Frevo Axé

06 Von Hangman

07 In the Dark

08 Baile

09 L's Bop

10 I'm Just Sayin'

11 Reflections

Kenny Barron, piano

Dayna Stephens, saxophone

Mike Rodriguez, trumpet bugle

Kiyoshi Kitagawa, bass

Johnathan Blake, drums

Satoshi Inoue & Kiyoshi Kitagawa - Second Round (2016)

Label: Indie Japan

Source: Space Shower Music

2002年、ニューヨーク　アップタウンにあるスモークにおける伝説のライヴ作品「Live At Smoke」から12年、ジャズを追求してきた二人が再会、さらに熟成を重ねた二人が描く究極のデュオ世界をじっくり味わえる前作を凌ぐ傑作が生まれた。
ベースの北川潔は現在、ケニー　バロントリオを始めニューヨークで活躍しているトップミュージシャンとの共演も多く、世界各国を飛び回る程多忙なミュージシャンの一人である。
一方の井上智はニューヨークで、ジャズギターの巨匠ジム　ホールの愛弟子として21年間活躍し数多くの足跡を残し帰国し国内外で精力的に活動。
この二人が再び日本で相見え、音楽性よく歌うギターと重厚な音色で力強くスイングするベース，白熱したインタープレイを展開しジャズギターとアコースティックベースのデュオ作品に新たなページが加える。
収録曲もマニアックなものではなく魅力溢れるジャズ・スタンダードの名曲が勢揃いでジャズファンにはたまらない作品に仕上がっています。

01 The Surrey With The Fringe On Top           
02 Equinox           
03 You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To           
04 I'm In The Mood For Love           
05 Ask Me Now           
06 Soul Eyes           
07 Freight Trane           
08 All The Things You Are           
09 Peace 　           
10 The Everywhere Calypso 

Satoshi Inoue - guitar
Kiyoshi Kitagawa - double bass

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Kenny Barron Trio - Book Of Intuition (2016)

Kenny Barron, the 72-year-old Philadelphia-born virtuoso, is the kind of jazz pianist whose resources are familiar and much-covered by mainstream swing players, but whose joyfully extravagant execution is a rarity today. That quality transforms this trio set from being a canter through a smooth-jazzy assortment of soft ballads, Latin smoochers and glossy swing. Barron has absorbed an encyclopaedia of jazz methods from a life on the road with legends such as Ella Fitzgerald and Stan Getz, and it pours out in these tracks. Magic Dance, with its glistening chords and Latin-jazz tick, sounds smooth at first but unleashes an impulsive torrent. Ballads such as In the Slow Lane display his impeccably light touch and Thelonious Monk’s Shuffle Boil isn’t Monkishly lateral but swings furiously. The jangling Lunacy is a collective bustle prodded by bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake, while Nightfall is delicate drift through slow chords. There might be too many notes for some on this record, but it’s almost all affectingly musical just the same.

If you have been vaguely wondering what happened to wholehearted, outgoing jazz piano in the grand manner, just listen to this album’s opening track, Magic Dance. It has everything – attractive melody, unbuttoned swing, virtuosity and enough rhythmic sleight-of-hand to keep you wide awake. Among the dozen or so most admired pianists in jazz today, Kenny Barron strikes me as the one who wears his mastery most comfortably. From a languid piece such as Dreams, to Thelonious Monk’s fiendishly tricky Shuffle-Boil, there’s a gentle firmness to his playing. In some mysterious way he makes the piano sound bigger too. Bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake follow every move with seamless subtlety.

Magic Dance

Bud Like

Cook's Bay

In The Slow Lane

Shuffle Boil

Light Blue

Lunacy

Dreams

Prayer

Nightfall

Kenny Barron, piano

Kiyoshi Kitagawa, double bass

Johnathan Blake, drums

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