Cowboys & Frenchmen - Our Highway (February 26, 2021 via Outside In Music)

 Cowboys & Frenchmen offer a cohesive view of America on eclectic new video album

Our Highway, due out February 26, 2021 via Outside In Music, reflects on the balance of nature and humanity, the mundane and the spiritual, accompanied by stunning visuals of life on the road

"[Cowboys & Frenchmen] is smart, cohesive, and credible in a way like The Bad Plus or Mostly Other People Do The Killing, using virtuosic skills and rhythmic power to walk the line between irony and earnestness, with listenability as high a priority as group creativity." – Howard Mandel, DownBeat

“The swirling layers this group is able to build upon is remarkable, and when one really listens deep into the music, the interaction is breathtaking.” 

– Geannine Reid, All About Jazz 

Video Album Premiere February 26 via Live From Our Living Rooms

On their forthcoming release, Our Highway (due out on February 26, 2021 on Outside In Music), the inventive quintet Cowboys & Frenchmen reflect on the nomadic life of touring musicians while widening their gazes to take in the landscapes and byways that connect America’s towns and cities.

Recorded live at SubCulture in New York City, the “video album” juxtaposes high-definition footage of the band — saxophonist/co-founders Ethan Helm and Owen Broder, pianist Addison Frei, bassist Ethan O’Reilly and drummer Matt Honor — onstage in one of the Big Apple’s most renowned venues with beautifully shot footage taken during a cross-country tour.

The video captures the hectic pace of big cities, the majestic tranquility of nature and the unexpected surprises and tiresome aggravations that arise while hustling from nightclub to nightclub. Conceived long before the COVID pandemic, these images assume added resonance in light of a lockdown that’s kept most of these venues dark for the better part of the past year.

“Watching this video come together, I got emotional remembering how happy I was when I was the most stressed out,” laughs Helm. “It really comes across that those times when we could get out there and struggle were actually the good times. That made a huge change in the way I think about Our Highway.”

An audio-only edition of Our Highway will be released digitally on February 26, 2021. The band will also partner with venues across the country to present the full video album as live-streaming events, allowing each space to offer the experience to their audiences for a 24-hour period. While far from a typical album release tour, the partnerships offer an innovative new virtual highway for Cowboys & Frenchmen to traverse.

While Helm and Broder typically split compositional duties on the band’s projects, Helm took the lead for Our Highway, writing all of the music and envisioning the theme. Broder contributed to the concepts in the video, and the whole band took turns filming over the course of their travels. Significantly, the majority of the footage comes from one of three locations: Broder’s hometown of Jacksonville, Florida; Helm’s native Yorba Linda, California; and the band’s birthplace and home, New York City. “When you’re always in motion, sometimes you have to invent your own sense of home,” Helm points out.

Broder connects that notion with the struggles of making a life in music. “A lot of what we do has to do with finding a balance in our lives – dealing with all that comes with living in New York while piecing together the disparate elements of a freelance career, and also balancing the different paces of life. I really like removing myself from the concrete jungle and being out in nature for a little while, but I don't think that I would like either one to the exclusion of the other.”

Though it arrives during the aftermath of a divisive presidential election, Our Highway looks past politics and offers a more united, holistic perspective of America. “ “It’s a view of the country through our eyes and through the windows of our band’s minivan,” Broder says. “It’s closer to a memoir than a political position.”

“Our Highway was inspired in part by something I’ve noticed when we’ve been on tour,” Helm explains. “It’s amazing to me just how much music connects with people. We see it at every single performance; we have no idea who voted for whom when we’re on the road, but people everywhere come together and enjoy the music. I can’t help but think that’s meaningful.”

A suite collectively entitled “American Whispers” weaves through the album, representing the tension between humanity and the natural world — towering “Pines,” fast-rushing “Streams,” daunting “Mountains,” their imposing stature shaping the frenetic tempos and angular melodies of the pieces. Inspired by Alice Coltrane, “Alice in Promisedland” takes the opposite viewpoint. The piece channels the great harpist/pianist/composer’s spiritual philosophy to locate the harmony between natural splendor and encroaching civilization, illustrated here by relocating the band members to a bustling public park.

The title of “An Old Church” offers a synecdoche for those idyllic scenes of American life that a band on the move rarely has time to stop and appreciate. The somber interlude “Where Is Your Wealth?” can be heard as an accusatory demand or a spiritual challenge, in either case raising questions about what we truly value in life. “Gig Life” celebrates the funky, offbeat experiences that forge the bonds of a band, while “The Farmer’s Reason” ends the album with a gorgeously reflective slice of Americana, as mythic as it is profoundly meaningful.

“For us, the traveling is not separate from the art,” Helm concludes. “It’s all part of one lifestyle. Jazz musicians are really lucky because our art form allows us to place a frame around a snapshot in time. The music is always in motion, which is a special quality that we want to highlight with Our Highway.”

Cowboys & Frenchmen

New York City-based Cowboys & Frenchmen offers a new take on instrumentation, composition and orchestration for the jazz quintet. Founded by saxophonists Owen Broder and Ethan Helm, the band garnered stellar reviews with its 2015 debut, Rodeo. Their 2017 follow-up, Bluer Than You Think, received a four-star review from DownBeat Magazine, and was celebrated with an eight-market tour visiting historic stages including Blues Alley (Washington D.C.) and Cliff Bell’s (Detroit). The inspiration for the band’s name comes from a short film by David Lynch, The Cowboy and The Frenchmen — a Western with a unique, left-field interpretation of that classic genre echoed in Cowboys & Frenchmen’s inventive approach to jazz: one foot firmly planted in a genre, the other busy trying to kick down the genre’s door.

1. American Whispers: Pines

2. Alice in Promisedland

3. American Whispers: Streams - An Old Church

4. Where Is Your Whealth?

5. Gig Life - American Whispers: Mountains

6. The Farmer's Reason

Ethan Helm - alto saxophone, flute

Owen Broder - alto and baritone saxophones

Addison Frei - piano

Ethan O’Reilly - bass

Matt Honor - drums

Composer

Ethan Helm

Producer

Ryan Truesdell

Mixing Engineer

Brian Montgomery

Mastering Engineer

Sonny Nam

Jacob's Well Mastering

Recording Engineers

James Hartnett

Mac Stringer

Cowboys & Frenchmen – Our Highway

Outside In Music – Catalog # OiM2106

Recorded Sept. 29, 2019 at SubCulture, NYC

Release date February 26, 2021

Owen Broder's American Roots Project debut "Heritage"

Saxophonist/Composer Owen Broder's American Roots Project Offers a Stunning New Vision of American Folk, Bluegrass, Spirituals and Blues Through a Modern Jazz Lens

Heritage, out March 1, 2018 from ArtistShare, features new compositions and bold arrangements inspired by the American musical tradition, with pieces by Ryan Truesdell, Jim McNeely, Bill Holman and other innovative composers

CD Release concert on Wednesday, March 14 at The Jazz Standard, NYC

Our roots run deep, and keep us connected to and nourished by the soil of our birth. But they also twist, tangle and intertwine while feeding our growth and evolution. With his American Roots Project, saxophonist/composer Owen Broder explores the weft and weave of American roots music - from Appalachian folk to early blues, spirituals to bluegrass - through bold and inspired new interpretations envisioned through the perspective of another distinctively American musical tradition: jazz. On the American Roots Project's debut album, Heritage, Broder combines several of modern jazz's most acclaimed composers and arrangers with an outstanding ensemble of gifted musicians to create a striking blend of tradition and innovation.

Heritage (due out March 1, 2018 through ArtistShare) calls on the talents of an impressive roster of composer/arrangers. They offer striking new twists on familiar American folk tunes as well as their own new pieces, each inspired by its creator's deeply personal take on the country's rich musical tradition. In addition to Broder, whose two originals open and close the album, there are contributions from Ryan Truesdell, founder of the celebrated Gil Evans Project, who also produced the album; Grammy-winning pianist/arranger Jim McNeely, known for his long tenure with the renowned Vanguard Jazz Orchestra; composer/arranger Bill Holman, long associated with the legendary Stan Kenton Orchestra; in-demand trumpeter/composer Alphonso Horne; and Tokyo-born bandleader/pianist Miho Hazama, whose m_unit ensemble melds big band jazz and classical chamber music.

Broder's American Roots Project interprets these remarkable pieces through the voices of an exceptional eight-piece ensemble: Broder on woodwinds; Sara Caswell, a violinist who regularly bridges the worlds of jazz and Americana; trumpeter Scott Wendholt; trombonist Nick Finzer; vibraphonist and percussionist James Shipp; pianist Frank Kimbrough; bassist Jay Anderson; and drummer Matt Wilson. On three tracks the band is joined by the transcendent vocal trio of Wendy Gilles, Kate McGarry and Vuyo Sotashe.

"It's an amazing group of people who all have great relationships with each other," Broder says. "All of these composers really brought the musicians' personalities into their writing. I think we all prefer to write for the people that are going to be playing rather than just the instruments."

That's certainly true of the bandleader himself, whose "Goin' Up Home" begins the proceedings with an entrancing, gradually expanding piece that works as an introduction to the ensemble and the concept. Sparked by the work of contemporary Americana innovators like Chris Thile, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss, the song dawns slowly, with Caswell and Finzer intoning the folksy melody over Shipp's tick-tock pulse. As it proceeds, the song builds in complexity, layering in jazz harmonies and infectious swing rhythms. Broder just earned a 2018 Herb Albert Young Jazz Composer Award for the piece.

Hazama's first contribution, the original "Wherever the Road Leads," is a singular meld of perspectives, coming from the sole composer who doesn't share the others' American background. Taking on the role of the inspired outsider, Hazama borrows rhythmic and melodic themes from Appalachian tunes and reimagines them via a twelve-tone harmonic progression, leading to a kaleidoscopic collage of folk idioms. For her second piece, Hazama gives Gillian Welch's "I'm Not Afraid To Die" an impressionistic gloss pierced by the gorgeous melody sung by Wendholt's flugelhorn.

Hank Williams' familiar "Jambalaya," is transposed from the Crescent City to a more urban jazz environment in Bill Holman's rendition - as Broder writes, "this swinging re-imagination of the Cajun tune has closer ties to Birth of the Cool than the streets of New Orleans." McNeely, meanwhile, drew upon his love of bluegrass music for his radical remake of the folk song "Cripple Creek," taking a narrative approach that leads the tune on an adventure through an ever-changing landscape.

Frank Kimbrough's brooding piano sets the tone for Truesdell's take on the timeless "Wayfaring Stranger," which also introduces the sublime vocal harmonies of Gilles, McGarry and Sotashe. The cleverly-titled "Brodeo" is Truesdell's version of a foot-stompin' bluegrass tune, setting the scene for a somewhat abstract rodeo. Broder, who has worked with the composer's Gil Evans Project, praises Truesdell as a bandleader, composer, and as Heritage's producer. "Ryan's a leader on a level that few others are," he says. "He's such a perfectionist and so detail-oriented, with incredibly fine-tuned ears. As a producer he was invaluable."

Horne's soaring "The People Could Fly" looks at a different side of the American odyssey, taking a piece of Bantu folk music from South Africa through the travails of slavery as it survives to find a place in the African-American church. Broder returns to conclude the album with "A Wiser Man Than Me," a looser piece that reflects the improvisational storytelling tradition through a wistful group improvisation on a simple, gospel-tinged melody.

The American Roots Project scans the history of American music and, through the inspiration that Broder finds there, discovers a new path into a profoundly personal contemporary vision. Heritage is an apt name for this moving collection, at once an inheritance and a gorgeous new link in a continually growing chain.

"The strains of American musical tradition are as deep and diverse as the lands of our forebears," Broder writes in his liner notes. "Heritage celebrates that diversity and the different backgrounds that combined to shape an American cultural identity."

owenbroder.com

Composer/saxophonist Owen Broder receives 2018 Herb Albert Young Jazz Composer Award

The ASCAP Foundation has announced that composer/saxophonist Owen Broder is one of 15 recipients of the 2018 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. The program, established in 2002 to encourage young gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30, carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Foundation’s multi-year financial commitment to the initiative. The recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 14 to 29 and are selected through a juried national competition. ASCAP Info

Based in New York City, Broder, 28, runs in a variety of musical circles as both bandleader and sideman. His jazz quintet, Cowboys & Frenchmen, received critical acclaim for its 2015 release, Rodeo, and its 2017 follow-up Bluer Than You Think. Broder is a member of the Anat Cohen Tentet and has performed with internationally respected jazz artists including Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project and Trio Globo; he has traveled with The Temptations and The Four Tops, and opened for Grammy Award-winner John Legend with his own soul band, Bitchin’ Kitchen; in musical theater, he was a member of the pit orchestras for the German tour of Grease and the off-Broadway production For the Last Time, appeared with the band in David Bowie’s Lazarus, and originated the woodwind chair in the U.S. Premier tour of The Bodyguard: The Musical. Broder holds a bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music and a master's from the Manhattan School of Music.

He earned the award for his composition “Goin’ Up Home” which opens Heritage the debut album of his all-star American Roots Project out March 1, 2018 via ArtistShare.

The recording offers a stunning new vision of American roots music - from Appalachian folk to early blues, spirituals to bluegrass - through bold and inspired new interpretations envisioned through a modern jazz lens. Performing on the recording are Sara Caswell, Scott Wendholt, Nick Finzer, James Shipp, Frank Kimbrough, Jay Anderson, Matt Wilson, and on three tracks transcendent vocal trio of Wendy Gilles, Kate McGarry and Vuyo Sotashe.

Ryan Truesdell produced the album and penned a tune; others contributing are Grammy-winning pianist/arranger Jim McNeely, composer/arranger Bill Holman, trumpeter/composer Alphonso Horne, and bandleader/pianist Miho Hazama.

Broder and the band celebrate the album on Wednesday, March 14 at the Jazz Standard, NYC.

Owen Broder Website