Melissa Aldana - 12 Stars (March 4, 2022 Blue Note Records)

GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana joins the Blue Note Records family with the release of 12 Stars, her debut album as a leader for the legendary label following her appearance on the acclaimed 2020 album by the collective ARTEMIS. The Brooklyn-based tenor player from Santiago, Chile has garnered international recognition for her visionary work as a band leader, as well as her deeply meditative interpretation of language and vocabulary. 12 Stars grapples with concepts of childrearing, familial forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love, and was inspired by her deep interest in tarot. The album was produced by guitarist Lage Lund, who also performs as part of a remarkable quintet with Sullivan Fortner on piano and Fender Rhodes, Kush Abadey on drums, and Pablo Menares on bass.

If the digital album is purchased, you will receive the full album via email on March 4th, 2022.

Standard digital downloads are delivered as MP3 44.1khz/24-bit audio files.

Please note, digital downloads are only available in the U.S. 

1. Falling

2. Intuition

3. Intro to Emilia

4. Emilia

5. The Bluest Eye

6. The Fool

7. Los Ojos de Chile

8. 12 Stars

Hi-Res Digital Disclaimer:

FLAC files do NOT work in iTunes/Apple Music players or on most portable music players without additional software. If you’re unfamiliar with FLAC files we suggest that you download the WAV files instead. More information on FLAC can be found here or here.

Melissa Aldana: Tenor Saxophone

Lage Lund: Guitars & Gizmos

Sullivan Fortner: Acoustic Piano; Rhodes 

Pablo Menares: Bass

Kush Abadey: Drums

Follow Melissa Aldana

Facebook: https://bluenote.lnk.to/mawebID

Twitter: https://bluenote.lnk.to/matwtID

Instagram: https://bluenote.lnk.to/maigID

Listen to Melissa Aldana

Spotify: https://bluenote.lnk.to/VFUOOqFNID

iTunes: https://bluenote.lnk.to/maitunesID

Apple Music: https://bluenote.lnk.to/maappleID

Amazon Music: https://bluenote.lnk.to/maamzID

Subscribe now: https://bluenote.lnk.to/subscribe

#melissaaldana #12stars #bluenote

PRE-ORDER

Carlos Ezequiel (feat. David Binney & Lage Lund) - Circular (2017)

CARLOS EZEQUIEL é baterista, compositor e produtor musical. Com mais de 20 anos de carreira, está lançando seu novo CD Circular, apresentando composições que combinam sonoridades do Jazz e da Música Brasileira contemporânea. O disco conta com a participação do saxofonista americano David Binney, do guitarrista norueguês Lage Lund, e dos brasileiros Gustavo Bugni (piano) e Gui Duvignau (contrabaixo).

Rale Micic, John Abercrombie, Peter Bernstein, Lage Lund - Inspired (ARTIST SHARE 2017)

By Raul da Gama / jazzdagama

There has not been, nor will there likely be, a dearth of guitarists acknowledging a very large debt to and paying homage to Jim Hall. However, the nonchalant, playful charm of Hall’s musical genius can neither be masked, nor underscored with greater profundity than in the exquisite performances on Inspired by this quartet that includes John Abercrombie, Peter Bernstein, Rale Micic and Lage Lund. Each of the guitarists frames this recital with sizeable performances either solo, in duo, trio and quartet formations. In all instances the music takes the form of a vignette that is hushed and reflective, where the guitarists purr seductively and there are numerous magical moments gifted to the listener by each of the musicians throughout the recording.

One cannot help but feel that Micic, Bernstein and Lund look to John Abercrombie to lead with the sublime delicacy of his thumb and finger picking. It should come as no surprise that this should be so. Abercrombie’s artful musicianship is well-formed and well-suited for this purpose. His maturity and his style remain deceptive, his limpid, euphonious tone artfully leavening his logical, but nonetheless oblique and unpredictable melodic thinking. It’s just the kind of thing you would want to draw into the music if you were Micic, Bernstein and Lund in the first place. As if to capitalize on this priceless gift from Abercrombie each of the others adds his own warmth, swelling dynamics and subtle inflections to three of Jim Hall’s original compositions on this recording: “Dream Steps”, “Bon Ami” and “All Across the City”. In each of these three charts the Inspired guitarists prove adept at creating monumental, all-pervading ensembles while leaving – in each instance – breathing space for the voice of the individual. The pieces played solo – “Alone Together” by Micic, “My Ideal” by Bernstein, “Body and Soul” by Lund and “Embraceable You” by Abercrombie – a performances of insurmountable beauty.

In other cases – music in which they perform as duos, trios or in the instance of the quartet performance – the guitarists offer individual voices, crucial textural components and complex meditations on the interactions between visceral humanity and the vitality that each of them brings to the music. Although one is hard-pressed to single out any particular song to make a case for this, “All Across the City” the one quartet piece on the album is the epitomé of this sublime interaction. It really is a flawless record where a quiet bravura element is present no matter where or to whom the listener’s ear is tuned into for, from end to end, the music seems to flow unimpeded as if gleefully egged on by the ghost of Jim Hall himself.

Michael Rosen - Sweet 17 (2015)

Michael Rosen, tenor sax

Lage Lund, guitar

Ralph Alessi, trumpet

Domenico Sanna, piano

Matt Penman, double bass

Bill Stewart, drums

At 17, one’s dreams are alive and vivid and there’s always hope that one day these may come true, as they did for American saxophonist Michael Rosen. Rosen began studying the cello at the age of seven for two years before moving to the piano, and later at eleven he moved to the saxophone.

In the following years, he was first alto saxophone with the Middle School and High School Big Bands and received numerous state and local "best Soloist" awards. Initially, his interests lay more towards “progressive” groups such as Yes, Led Zeppelin, and Talking Heads, but when in 1985 Michael Rosen moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music with renowned teachers such as Gary Burton and George Garzone, where he started to cultivate his soaring passion for the music of Charlie Parker, Joe Henderson, Miles Davis, Stan Getz and John Coltrane, and many other jazz artists who since then have been the main source of his inspiration.

Rosen has been living in Italy for almost 30 years and spends most of his time between Rome and London, highly active in the musical circles of both capital cities. Today, after 35 years of international success with 9 CDs as a leader, over 200 as a sideman, and having collaborated with leading artists of the day such as Bobby McFerrin, Sarah Jane Morris, Mike Stern, the Orchestra della Scala, and countless other American and European musicians, the seventeen-year-old boy with long and disheveled hair, now at the height of his artistic career, returns to New York, his hometown, to record his new music together with a stellar cast of jazz musicians. Sweet 17, as with all albums of the saxophonist / composer, leaves ample room for melodic beauty, fluidity and expressiveness, and introduces the more dynamic, modern and evolved compositions that Rosen has written so far, reflecting all the experience gained from the late 80s to date.

Accompanying him on this musical experience are highly-acclaimed musicians such as: Lage Lund (guitar), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Domenico Sanna (piano), Matt Penman (double bass) and Bill Stewart (drums). It can be truly said that Michael Rosen’s dream, his "Sweet 17", came true and this album is the evidence.

01 Architextures (Michael Rosen)

02 Ebb Tide (Michael Rosen)

03 Sweet 17 (Michael Rosen)

04 Fair Weather Ahead (Michael Rosen)

05 Hopefully (Michael Rosen)

06 Safe As Houses (Michael Rosen)

07 39 Belgrave Square  (Michael Rosen)

08 Yellow Barn Road (Michael Rosen)

09 Jacoby’s Ladder (Michael Rosen)

10 The Way We Were (A. Bergman, M. Bergman, M. Hamlisch)

BUY THIS ALBUM!!!

Domi

Morten Haxholm Quartet - Viridian (2015)

Morten Haxholm: bass

Lage Lund: guitar

William Larsson: piano

Morten Lund: drums

Eldritch

CNTDWN

Stella by Starlight

Frantic

Birthday Waltz

Umber

Gloria

Along Came Betty

BY PETER BACON / thejazzbreakfast

Morton Haxholm is a Danish double bass player. One of these albums was recorded in Copenhagen and the other in Brooklyn; both were released on 29 May 2015.

For Haxholm it’s his third Quartet album, though each has had a different personnel. On Viridian he has guitarist Lage Lund, drummer Morten Lund and pianist William Larsson. It’s a beautifully balanced band so although Lage Lund is the obvious star name – Haxholm first heard him on a trip to New York back in 2012 and has having him in his band ever since – the other three are equally impressive.

Most of the material is the leader’s with two standards – Stella By Starlight and Along Came Betty – included because Haxholm loves Lage’s playing on well-known tunes, and a particularly tricky Larsson piece called Cntdwn (a highly-adapted arrangement of Coltrane’s Countdown).

The moods vary but the playing is uniformly impeccable. Haxholm said he wanted to give this music a more European feel, and that’s inevitable I suppose with all the players being Scandinavian, but also retain a New York inspiration which is important to him and was more obvious on his first two quartet discs. I think he’s achieved that, though in a blind listening test I might have identified it as an American unit.

Try Birthday Waltz for a satisfying and representative morsel of the whole. Read more.

BUY THIS ALBUM!!!

Domi