July 17 on Resonance – Roy Hargrove / Mulgrew Miller "In Harmony" – 2-LP Record Store Day exclusive

RESONANCE RECORDS TO ISSUE IN HARMONY IN JULY 2021 FEATURING TRUMPETER ROY HARGROVE AND PIANIST MULGREW MILLER IN A CAPTIVATING DUO

Previously unreleased live recordings from 2006 and 2007, available July 17th as a limited-edition 180-gram 2-LP Record Store Day exclusive and July 23th as a deluxe

2-CD and digital edition issued in coordination with the Hargrove and Miller Estates

Elaborate booklet with rare photos, informative essay by Ted Panken, interviews and statements from Sonny Rollins, Christian McBride, Common, Ron Carter, Jon Batiste, Karriem Riggins, Keyon Harold, Ambrose Akinmusire, Chris Botti, Robert Glasper and others

Resonance Records, the award-winning label home of acclaimed archival releases by Nat King Cole, Bob James, Charles Lloyd, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery and more, is thrilled to announce the release of In Harmony, a stunning set of live performances by Roy Hargrove on trumpet and Mulgrew Miller on piano, available on July 17, 2021 for Record Store Day. In Harmony provides a rare glimpse of these two now departed and dearly missed greats, united in song and improvisational mastery in front of audiences at Merkin Hall in New York City (January 15, 2006) and Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania (November 9, 2007).

 

Co-produced by Zev Feldman and Larry Clothier with executive producer George Klabin, In Harmony is the first posthumous Hargrove release since the trumpeter’s untimely passing on November 2, 2018 at age 49. Aida Brandes-Hargrove, President of Roy Hargrove Legacy, said: “Roy’s daughter Kamala and I are excited to collaborate with Resonance and to get this great new album out to Roy’s many fans.”

 

Miller passed away on May 29, 2013 at age 57. With In Harmony, we are back in the musical company of these two greats for a short but precious time. And though the settings heard here were ticketed concerts, the vibe unfolds exactly as it might have back in the day at Bradley’s, when Hargrove was first coming up in the late ’80s and Miller loomed large from his associations with Art Blakey, Tony Williams and others. Acclaimed jazz journalist Ted Panken, in his extensive booklet essay for In Harmony, evokes that scene, and its central importance to Hargrove’s development, in vivid detail.

 

Hargrove told Panken, “Bradley’s was like going to school. It was like your masters. You go in there, and you’re playing, and there’s Freddie Hubbard at the bar! What do you do? Everything I’m playing right now I owe to that whole scene.”

Hargrove hailed from Texas, Miller from Mississippi. Each of them drank deep from the Black music traditions of their respective regions, absorbing lessons from family, the church, and blues and soul artists long before they became immersed in the language of their jazz forebears. In Harmony finds the two alluding to those great jazz legacies in many ways, from song choices to improvisational flourishes to off-the-cuff yet impeccably placed arranging details.

 

We hear Hargrove calling out to Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Blue Mitchell, and more. Yet he plays from the perspective of a prescient bandleader who burst through genre boundaries collaborating with leading lights of hip-hop, neo-soul and Afro-Cuban music, laying the groundwork for such next-generation trumpeters as Keyon Harrold and Theo Croker (both of whom are quoted in the booklet as well).

Miller, as Panken observes, had his own “fluid personal argot,” even as he drew on influences from Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett to Woody Shaw. “His concept drew on piano-as-orchestra signposts like Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and Erroll Garner, the ‘blowing piano’ of Bud Powell, the disjunctive syncopations and voicings of Thelonious Monk, and the melodic ingenuity of gurus like Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Cedar Walton,” Panken adds.

 

It’s all there, in the bright tempos of “What Is This Thing Called Love” and “Invitation,” the majestic balladry of “I Remember Clifford” and “Never Let Me Go,” or the funk of “Fungii Mama,” where one can practically hear Al Foster’s signature drum groove from the Blue Mitchell original. Which brings us to another key Panken observation: In Harmony is the only recording in Hargrove’s entire discography not to feature a drummer. Miller, for his part, has one solo album and a scant few duos in his catalog, making In Harmony an even more significant addition to the historical record.

 

“From the very first time I heard these recordings, I was immediately taken by the sheer virtuosity of these two masters’ ability to mesh with each other,” says Resonance Records Co-President and Co-Producer of In Harmony Zev Feldman. “They’re playing their hearts out. I personally find these to be some of the most daring and beautiful interpretations of classic jazz repertoire I’ve heard. It’s an honor for Resonance to be able to collaborate with the families of Roy Hargrove and Mulgrew Miller to bring this music to their many fans, and we thank them for the opportunity.”

 

Resonance Records is a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University for “Best Album Notes”) that prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance’s catalog. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Aubrey Logan, Polly Gibbons, Eddie Daniels, Christian Howes, and Donald Vega.

Pre-order

ERIC DOLPHY - Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions (RESONANCE RECORDS 2018)

The first official release of previously-unissued Eric Dolphy studio recordings in over 30 years, the project includes 85-minutes of music that's never before been released!

The Deluxe Limited-Edition, 180-gram 3-LP gatefold set will be released exclusively for Record Store Day's Black Friday Event on November 23, 2018.

The deluxe 3-CD and digital editions will be available on January 25, 2019.

Captured after leaving Prestige Records, and just before the timeless classic Out To Lunch! album, this release contains the under-appreciated masterpiece albums Conversations and Iron Man recorded in New York City in July of 1963. Originally produced by Alan Douglas, the tapes had been stored in a suitcase with Dolphy's personal belongings and given to friends Hale and Juanita Smith before he embarked on his fateful European trip in 1964. Five decades later, the suitcase was given to flutist/educator James Newton who then connected with Zev Feldman at Resonance and began working on this definitive edition of Dolphy's 1963 New York studio sessions with the only copies of these tapes known to exist. 

The project features jazz greats such as saxophonist Sonny Simmons, trumpeter Woody Shaw, bassist Richard Davis,  NEA Jazz Master vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, saxophonist Clifford Jordan, along with flutist William "Prince" Lasha, bassoonist Garvin Bushell, bassist Eddie Kahn, and drummers J.C. Moses and Charles Moffett.  The exhaustive 100-page booklet includes rare and previously unpublished photos, essays by Dolphy scholars and interviews with jazz icons.

THE PACKAGE

The LP/CD packages are beautifully designed by longtime Resonance designer Burton Yount and include exhaustive booklets replete with rare and never-before-published photos (several of which are in color!) by Chuck Stewart, Jean-Pierre Leloir, Val Wilmer, Hans Harzheim, Lennart Steen, Roger Marshutz and many others, plus reproductions of the original album covers for Conversations and Iron Man. The five essays cover different aspects of Eric Dolphy and this music, starting with co-producers Zev Feldman and James Newton’s accounts of how this album came to be and what Dolphy’s music means to this world. Newton says in his essay, “Eric Dolphy taught us to listen much more carefully to voices from all around the world, but never to forget that the substantially personal and complex feelings within field hollers remained in the mix.” Jazz scholar and author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, Robin D.G. Kelley, gives us the full historical context of these recordings and Dolphy in 1963. Japanese Dolphy scholar Masakazu Sato and Douglas label manager Michael Lemesre give us accounts of Dolphy’s impact in Japan and of producer Alan Douglas’ role in these recordings and relationship with Dolphy.

We’ve gathered a large congregation of voices to reflect, remember and reexamine the person, the music and the legacy of Eric Dolphy. The saxophone colossus himself, Sonny Rollins, recounted first meeting Dolphy when he asked to sit in with Max Roach’s band. Roach liked to embarrass young musicians who asked to sit in by playing a tune at an extremely fast tempo and running them off the stage. Of course, Dolphy was no average musician and he hung in there the whole way through the tune. From that point forward, Rollins knew Dolphy was a serious musician to be reckoned with. The sole living members of the band interviewed for this release, saxophonist Sonny Simmons and Richard Davis, remember Dolphy as being “a Saint” and “angelic” respectively. Close family friend Juanita Smith gives a detailed account of the time she and her husband, Hale Smith, spent with Eric, including the anecdote about how Eric got the enigmatic bump on his head that we see so clearly in photographs from his later years (including our Chuck Stewart photo on the album cover).

The words and thoughts of no less than 17 musicians – from jazz legend John Coltrane to the Pulitzer prize- winning saxophonist/flutist Henry Threadgill – are represented in this deluxe tribute to Eric Dolphy and this archival discovery, and paint a complex portrait of this heralded, loved and misunderstood artist. Acclaimed flutist Nicole Mitchell says, “I don’t know if there’s a better way to start listening to someone improvising on the flute than to hear Eric Dolphy . . . He really was — bar none — one of the greatest flute players of his time, and of any time before him.” Award-winning saxophonist Steve Coleman stated bluntly about Dolphy, “He’s a virtuoso. There’s nothing else to say about that. It’s amazing that he could get that kind of fluency on different instruments. He’s the first guy I heard to play the shit out of the bass clarinet, the saxophone and the flute.”

LP/CD 1 — Conversations 

1. Jitterbug Waltz (7:18)

2. Music Matador (9:37)

3. Love Me (3:22)

4. Alone Together (13:36)

5. Muses for Richard Davis (Previously Unissued 1) (7:39)

6. Muses for Richard Davis (Previously Unissued 2) (8:31)

LP/CD 2 — Iron Man 

1. Iron Man (9:14)

2. Mandrake (4:47)

3. Come Sunday (6:28)

4. Burning Spear (11:59)

5. Ode to Charlie Parker (8:04)

6. A Personal Statement (Bonus Track) (15:02) *

LP/CD 3 — Previously Unissued Studio Recordings

1. Music Matador (Alternate Take) (8:05)

2. Love Me (Alternate Take 1) (2:27)

3. Love Me (Alternate Take 2) (3:43)

4. Alone Together (Alternate Take) (12:14)

5. Jitterbug Waltz (Alternate Take) (9:36)

6. Mandrake (Alternate Take) (6:48)

7. Burning Spear (Alternate Take) (10:31)

Personnel:

Eric Dolphy – alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet

William "Prince" Lasha – flute

Huey "Sonny" Simmons – alto saxophone

Clifford Jordan – soprano saxophone

Woody Shaw – trumpet

Garvin Bushell – bassoon

Bobby Hutcherson – vibes

Richard Davis – bass

Eddie Kahn – bass

J.C. Moses – drums

Charles Moffett – drums

Resonance Records is a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University for "Best Album Notes") that prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance's catalog. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Polly Gibbons, Eddie Daniels, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega.

Andreas Varady - The Quest (RESONANCE RECORDS April 6, 2018)

Resonance Records is Proud to Present

GUITARIST/COMPOSER ANDREAS VARADY 

THE QUEST

The Quest is the long-awaited third album from Andreas Varady, 

a protégé of the legendary Quincy Jones!

Featuring Varady's father, bassist Ondrej Bandi and brother, drummer Adrian, 

plus pianist Benito Gonzalez and saxophonist Radovan Tariska

CD & Digital Editions Available on April 6, 2018

Resonance Records is proud to announce the release of The Quest, the third recording from twenty-year old guitar virtuoso, Andreas Varady. With the release of Questions (2010) and his eponymous CD in 2014, the native of Slovakia, and resident of Ireland, emerged from thin air and put the guitar playing world on notice that there was a new force on the instrument to be reckoned with. On The Quest, Varady's artistry has reached new heights, and it's staggering to behold. His unadulterated command of the guitar, his highly-developed skills as a composer, his rhythmic facility (which speaks volumes about his roots in Gypsy music), and his ability to craft an astonishing flow of single-note lines while traversing chord changes, all by ear, has attracted the attention of many legends of this music, not the least of which is Varady's mentor, manager, producer and friend, the esteemed Quincy Jones. The Quest, available on April 6, 2018, features Varady in the company of his father Ondrej Bandi on bass, younger brother Adrian on drums, fellow Slovak Radovan Tariska on alto saxophone, and Venezuelan native (and current New York City resident) Benito Gonzalez on piano.

At just twenty, Varady has already performed at major festivals and venues around the world. The next exciting new chapter in the journey of this uber-talented musician begins with the release of The Quest. Varady has expressed that this album, comprised of all original music, feels very much like his first fully realized artistic statement, and indeed it showcases Varady's evolution from child prodigy to consummate artist, one with an abundance of fresh, bold energy. "I feel like I'm giving you a piece of me on this album," said Varady. The album title, which also reads like a mission statement is, "about this whole quest that I'm on in music seeking cool things, playing cool music in cool places, enjoying it all and having fun and doing what you wanna do," said Varady. The album is also his debut release on the boutique non-profit jazz label, Resonance Records, which signals a departure from his self-titled major label debut on Verve in 2014. Two other Quincy Jones protégés, Justin Kauflin and Alfredo Rodriguez, will also be releasing new albums in 2018.

Resonance EVP/GM (and executive producer on The Quest) Zev Feldman said about first hearing Varady, "Upon first listen, I was struck by his talent and artistry. Then getting a chance to meet him in Ireland, and spending some time talking with him, he just fits the mold of what Resonance is all about in terms of promoting younger artists and sharing their music. We're very happy to have him on the label. It's also a great honor to work with Quincy Jones and his team, and partnering with them to get Andreas' music out there is something we're very proud of. Resonance believes strongly in living artists also, not just those from a bygone era, and it's going to be very exciting to continue to watch him develop and we're thrilled to be able to add a chapter to his legacy on our label."

Varady has many influences. As expected, guitarists such as George Benson, Django Reinhardt, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Peter Bernstein have greatly impacted his playing, but Varady explains, "I've always been obsessed with saxophone players. I get as much influence listening to John Coltrane as I get from guitar players. But at the end of the day, I could list every musician that I've ever listened to as an influence. I act like a sponge that way. Whatever I listen to I always pick up some things, no matter if it's Radiohead or A Tribe Called Quest or Trane. It can be from hip-hop to rock and jazz everything kind of all inspires me and influences me."

More about Andreas Varady: 
A child prodigy of Hungarian Roma descent, Varady picked up guitar at age four and quickly revealed his uncommon gift, learning Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa" by ear. At age nine, he moved with his family to Ireland and by age 11, having already absorbed the influences of George Benson and Django Reinhardt, he began busking with his father on the streets of Limerick and Cork. Gigs around Ireland soon followed, mainly with drummer-producer David Lyttle, who produced Varady's first album, 2010's Questions. In 2011, at age 13, Andreas appeared with guitar master Martin Taylor at the Inishowen International Guitar Festival in Culdaff and later that year became the youngest headlining artist at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. Invited to play at the 2012 Montreux Jazz Festival by founder Claude Nobs, he performed for and met Quincy Jones, who signed him to his management company. He was signed to Verve Records in 2013 and his stateside debut, executive produced by David Foster and Quincy Jones and produced by Toto's David Paich, featured guest appearances from singer Gregory Porter and trumpeter Roy Hargrove.

More about the music on The Quest : 
(with excerpts from the album's liner notes by Bill Milkowski) 
The opener on The Quest, "Lost Memories, " serves as a kind of mini-overture as Varady unleashes a fusillade of notes over the engaging theme. Up next is the dynamic "Radio Joint" establishing the flexible group chemistry while also showcasing urgent solos from Varady and Tariska over a driving 12/8 groove. Gonzalez pushes the envelope in his harmonically probing solo here, which is fueled by Adrian's intense, whirlwind attack around the kit. "He's in a huge growing place right now," says Varady of his younger brother. "He has this kind of ballsy playing style that I felt was the right thing for the tunes on this album." The 15-year-old further showcases his considerable drumming skills on the modal "Follow Me, " which culminates in a kinetic call-and-response between the brothers. (By the way, that's Andreas playing double bass on the hip-hop flavored tag).

Varady combines speed and finesse combine on the driving 6/8 composition, "The Time Is Now" and utilizes some Frisellian backwards guitar effects on the evocative interlude "Patience. " The adventurous title track is a centerpiece for this compelling album. Opening with a rubato free section that has Gonzalez playing inside the piano while his band mates add provocative colors and textures, it resolves to a buoyant theme with Andreas and Radovan tied together in tight unisons while navigating a tricky time-shifting terrain. "He's a great player," says Varady of the Slovakian saxophonist, "and I like his strong, darker sound."

The guitarist shows his urbane side on "Story" and the uplifting, melodic number "Her Dream." Then he swings unabashedly on the up-tempo "Radiska, " a burner that also turns Tariska loose and has Gonzalez channeling his inner McCoy Tyner. "His soloing is swinging and very interactive," says Varady of the gifted pianist, who turns in a monstrous solo here. "That's the thing with all of us we're very interactive on the album. No one is told, You do this, you do that.' It's more of a sketch and then see where it goes from there. So it was a natural process. This album was really open, like pure jazz straight in the moment. That's what I was going for."

The closer, "Outro," featuring more backwards effects over a simple, serene melody, serves as a bridge to what Varady plans to explore in more depth on his next recording. "I thought it would be interesting to just add some of the elements that would be for my upcoming music," he explains. "I'm into a lot of electronic music, I'm into a lot of hip-hop. That's also a part of me, and I thought it would be cool to add that color to the album. It's almost like my one foot is solidly in jazz and on my other foot, my toes are in something else. And it's not like I'm crossing genres, it's more of like going from one of my styles to this other style and merging it all together to create this ultimate thing."

Lost Memories

Radio Joint

Follow Me

The Time Is Now

Patience

The Quest

Story

Her Dream

Radiska

Outro

Bill Evans - Another Time (The Hilversum Concert with Eddie Gomez & Jack De Johnette) RESONANCE RECORDS 2017

BILL EVANS - ANOTHER TIME: THE HILVERSUM CONCERT

Newly Discovered Album by Bill Evans featuring Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette

Recorded Live at the Netherlands Radio Union (NRU) VARA Studio 8 

in Hilversum on June 22, 1968

Only the 3rd Recording Released of this Trio Following the Internationally Acclaimed 2016 

Landmark Discovery Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest

Includes an Extensive Book with Rare Photos and Essays by Acclaimed Author Marc Myers, Zev Feldman and Noted Dutch Writer and Jazz Authority, Bert Vuijsje, Plus Exclusive Interviews with Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette and pianist Steve Kuhn

Deluxe Limited Edition LP Released Exclusively for Record Store Day (April 22, 2017) and Deluxe CD & Digital Editions Available on Sept 1, 2017

Resonance Records is proud to announce the release of Bill Evans Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, a spectacular never-before-heard live recording by the Bill Evans Trio featuring bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette recorded in Hilversum, Holland, by the Netherlands Radio Union (NRU) in the summer of 1968. Another Time is Resonance's first follow-up release to the widely celebrated Bill Evans Trio album, Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest. Resonance is pleased once again to release this entirely new Bill Evans discovery in full cooperation with the Bill Evans Estate and Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette and Universal Music Group, the parent company of Verve Records, the label Evans was signed to in 1968.

Bill Evans Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, recorded on June 22, 1968, just two days after Some Other Time, provides a fitting counterpoint to that remarkable album. Interestingly, these two recordings were made one day on either side of the summer solstice and they each seem to embody attributes of their respective seasons. Where Some Other Time, recorded at the legendary MPS studios in Villingen, Germany, is imbued with an introspective, vernal beauty, Another Time was recorded as a live concert, and is a recording remarkable not only for the three musicians' ebullience, freedom and summer-infused heat; but notable also for its exceptional recording quality utilizing the then state of the art recording techniques of the NRU. Producer Zev Feldman and Executive Producer, George Klabin, regard Another Time as the best-sounding Bill Evans album on Resonance; perhaps one of Evans's best sounding live recordings ever.

The configuration of this special edition of the Bill Evans Trio featuring Jack DeJohnette newly introduced as a co-equal counterpart to Evans and the redoubtable Eddie Gomez was not widely recorded before Some Other Time. Indeed, before Resonance released Some Other Time, only one previous aural document existed memorializing this version of the trio, which had a life-span of only six months: a live recording made at the Montreux Festival, a concert that was held roughly a week before Some Other Time and Another Time were recorded.

Marc Myers, a Wall Street Journal contributor, music columnist, and Anatomy of a Song author, writes that Another Time "is a frighteningly flawless and dynamic work by Evans." In his essay for 2016's Some Other Time, Myers noted that the trio with Jack DeJohnette represented a new model for Evans, observing "During the musical discourse between Mr. DeJohnette and Evans, we hear clearly the sound that Evans wanted on drums going forward." Dutch jazz authority Bert Vuijsje cited Brian Priestly's notes from the Montreux album, noting that DeJohnette is, "above all, a listening drummer . . . much more extroverted than Evans's previous [drummers]." And Jack DeJohnette's view of this album is sunny: "All of the tracks on this album are really cool. I liked what was happening there."

On revisiting this concert after nearly 49 years, Eddie Gomez also liked what he heard. He noted, among other things, that he "loved the way Bill plays the melodies. His exposition of melodies is really fabulous and very touching . . . I like the way he plays Very Early and Who Can I Turn To? and Turn Out the Stars. Those are just beautiful melodies and the way he plays them, he sings them out. Very few pianists can sing like that. So I like those songs just for the way he plays the melody. That always touches me and it's very emotional to hear him play those songs."

The history of this release is somewhat unusual; more unusual than is the case with most of Resonance's other releases. Our story begins in October of 2016, when Feldman received an email from Marc Myers, founder of the JazzWax.com blog. The email said Myers had received a note from a Dutch reader who said he had heard a previously unknown Bill Evans concert recording made in the Netherlands. Myers put Feldman together with the reader. Upon receiving the recording from the reader, Feldman listened closely to it with George Klabin and knew right away this was something special. Feldman proceeded to reach out to one of his "boots on the ground," the well-known Dutch jazz writer, Bert Vuijsje, to investigate further. Based on Vuijsje's, and his colleague Frank Jochemsen’s (jazz journalist and producer on various Dutch jazz productions) intelligence, Feldman felt compelled to travel to the Netherlands and meet with Bert and Frank to move things along.

Feldman and the team immediately set to work to fast track this project starting, as usual, with obtaining all necessary rights; something we do with all the recordings we issue. Fortunately, we were quickly able to consummate deals with all of the parties holding rights in the recordings. However, we were thrown a curve when, unbeknownst to us, another company also had the music and had plans to issue it, but who had not obtained the rights from the rights-holders. Of course, they could not have obtained those rights because Resonance already had them. Nevertheless, we at Resonance felt the urgency to release this recording, a high-resolution transfer from the original tape, as soon as possible before any unauthorized illicit release could see the light of day and cause confusion in the marketplace.

This project had something of an international espionage quality to it, as we follow an American jazz investigator on an international mission to find a lost tape, wherein he discovers its possibly fallen into the wrong hands, which leads to heated discussions, exchanges and ultimatums. As producer Feldman explains, "We were literally racing against the clock to put this out before it became bootlegged. We ve never rushed a project through all the channels as fast as this one. It was a very stressful exercise, and emotions were running high. I was locked up in hotel rooms day and night, going back and forth with my European colleagues and my Resonance team in LA. It's all about respecting and protecting the intellectual property, and honoring the musicians and the others involved in creating this recording in this case protecting the legacy of Bill Evans and rights of Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette. But make no bones about it, if you see this recording on another label besides Resonance, it is an unauthorized bootleg!"

Once again, consistent with our mission to honor the traditions of great American music, Resonance Records has pulled out all the stops in creating this release. The deluxe CD package includes an extensive book, presented in a beautifully designed digipak by Burton Yount, with an extraordinary cover image by noted British photographer David Redfern. Also featured in the package are rare photos by Chuck Stewart, Jan Persson, Lee Tanner and others, as well as essays by Resonance producer Zev Feldman and acclaimed Dutch jazz writer Bert Vuijsje, a profile of concert producer Joop de Roo by Vuijsje, plus interviews with Bill Evans Trio members Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette and an interview with noted jazz pianist Steve Kuhn. The images included in the album package are based on exhaustive research and include rare images of the actual recording venue. The limited-edition, hand-numbered LP pressing on 180-gram black vinyl will be released on Record Store Day, April 22, 2017. The LP version has been mastered by the legendary engineer Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI).

You’re Gonna Hear from Me (4:30)

Very Early (5:14)

Who Can I Turn To? (5:36)

Alfie (5:29)

Embraceable You (5:05)

Emily (4:22)

Nardis (8:34)

Turn Out the Stars (4:53)

Five (2:26)

Jaco Pastorius - Truth, Liberty & Soul - Live in NYC: The Complete 1982 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording Coming from RESONANCE RECORDS (2017)

Previously unreleased live album by electric bass genius Jaco Pastorius and the 

Word of Mouth Big Band featuring special guest, harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans 

Recorded at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC on June 27, 1982 

as part of George Wein's Kool Jazz Festival

First official release authorized by the Jaco Pastorius Estate, 

Warner Music Group and NPR Music 

of the Entire Concert from start to finish, including over 40 minutes of material 

not aired on the original NPR Jazz Alive! broadcast

Includes a massive 100-Page book with NINETEEN written pieces! 

Essays by Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, producer Zev Feldman, Jaco Pastorius authority 

Bill Milkowski, original recording engineer Paul Blakemore; plus interviews with Jaco 

son 

John Pastorius, musicians Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker and more.

Deluxe limited edition 3-LP boxed set available for Record Store Day on April 22, 2017 

& deluxe 2-CD set and digital editions available May 26, 2017.

Resonance Records proudly announces the release of Jaco Pastorius: Truth, Liberty & Soul Live in NYC: The Complete 1982 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording , a first-time release comprising more than 130 minutes of extraordinary, high-fidelity, ground-breaking music presented from beginning to end exactly as it happened at Avery Fisher Hall on June 27, 1982. This is the second historical release from NPR's Jazz Alive! radio program, following 2016's acclaimed Sarah Vaughan Live at Rosy's, which captured "the Divine One" in New Orleans on May 31, 1978.

The brightest star in the electric bass firmament, Jaco Pastorius burst onto the national scene in 1976 with his audacious self-titled album on Columbia Records, featuring a lineup of top jazz musicians. With his extraordinary fretless electric bass playing as the centerpiece, Jaco Pastorius created an immediate sensation with the public and the media. Jaco was a revelation; no one in jazz had ever played electric bass that way before.

In Jaco's work with Weather Report and beyond, the self-described "greatest bass player in the world" (an assessment shared with virtually the entire music world) established a new identity and role for his instrument and became the torchbearer for a new way of playing both technically and conceptually. But behind it all was an ever-present R&B and Latin-influenced groove and a screaming rock-'n'-roll attitude that he refined and incorporated into sophisticated jazz harmonic structures.

His legacy as a bass innovator continues to this day, nearly thirty years after his death in 1987. In addition to his extraordinary virtuosity, Jaco was also developing into an accomplished and sophisticated composer and arranger and those talents that are gloriously on display on this album.

Resonance is able to release this album thanks to the work of Tim Owens, producer of Jazz Alive!, a weekly syndicated NPR program that aired on public radio stations across the U.S. from 1977 to 1983. Jazz Alive!'s mission was to record the best live jazz being performed around the country and present those recorded performances to the public over the air.

In 2011, noted jazz producer and label executive Michael Cuscuna introduced Resonance's Zev Feldman to Owens. When they met, Feldman saw a piece of paper with a list of tapes on it and at just quick a glance the words "Jaco Pastorius" leapt right off the page.

Feldman loves Pastorius's music; he regards Jaco as a hero. From the moment he noticed there was a recording of the Jaco Pastorius Kool Jazz Festival concert out there, he was determined that Resonance would release it. Now, more than six years later, after negotiations with all the many parties who held rights to the music and the recording including NPR, Warner Music Group and the Jaco Pastorius estate Feldmans dream is finally coming to fruition. And we at Resonance could not be more thrilled.

We were blessed to have the original recording engineer, multi Grammy award winner Paul Blakemore, on board to revisit and remix from the original 24-track tape reels more than three decades after capturing it live at Avery Fisher Hall. And in addition to the exceptional sound quality, were elated to say the set includes more than 40 minutes of music that was not broadcast on Jazz Alive! at the time, therefore has never been available to the public, even in bootleg form. This is the complete concert, start-to-finish.

Toward the end of 1980, Jaco began recording his second album as a leader, Word of Mouth, which was more oriented toward his own compositions than his debut album had been. The Word of Mouth album features several musicians who also appear on this album: Peter Erskine, Toots Thielemans, Don Alias, Othello Molineaux, Howard Johnson and John Clark, as well as showcasing two Pastorius compositions,"Three Views of a Secret" and "Liberty City."

By 1982 Jaco and Peter Erskine had left Weather Report, and the concert captured on this release represents Jaco with the New York version of his new Word of Mouth big band. The occasion was special for him because Word of Mouth often performed as a sextet with just the core members: Jaco, Peter Erskine on drums, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Bob Mintzer on tenor sax, Othello Molineaux on steel pans and Don Alias on percussion.

On this occasion, Jaco and the core members were joined by a bevy of top-flight New York musicians who were also Jaco's close friends: saxophonists Bob Stein, Lou Marini, Frank Wess, Howard Johnson and Randy Emerick; trumpet players Alan Rubin, Lew Soloff, Jon Faddis, Ron Tooley and Kenny Faulk; trombonists David Taylor, Jim Pugh and Wayne Andre; French hornists John Clark and Peter Gordon; tubist David Bargeron; plus the special guest soloist, harmonica icon Toots Thielemans.

Peter Erskine, Jaco's rhythm partner for the most productive years of Jaco's career, expressed his view of the crucial importance of this release: "I think that this recording more than any other I've heard epitomizes the vision Jaco had for the Word of Mouth band. And that's what's great about it. I would dare say that theres no finer version of what Jaco's musical vision was than this particular concert and recording."

The great bassist Victor Wooten assessed Resonance's release of this album this way: "This is a rare find; like finding a never-before-seen Picasso or Van Gogh painting."

Resonance Records a multi-Grammy Award winning label (most recently for John Coltrane's Offering: Live at Temple University for "Best Album Notes") prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance's catalog. Such is the case with Jaco Pastorius: Truth, Liberty & Soul Live In NYC: The Complete 1982 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording.


Available as a limited-edition, 3-LP, 180-gram vinyl boxed set exclusively for Record Store Day (April 22, 2017), followed by the deluxe 2-CD and digital sets on May 26, 2017, this release includes more than 130 minutes of music. The CD edition includes a 100-pg book with photos by Tom Copi, Don Hunstein, Rene Perez and Donna Ranieri, and is presented in a 6-panel digi-pak beautifully designed by Burton Yount. The limited edition 3-LP boxed set contains all the same graphic materials and writings contained in a multi-page 12"x12" insert.

Disc One

1. Invitation (13:04) 

2. Soul Intro/The Chicken (9:10) 

3. Donna Lee (13:18) 

4. Three Views to a Secret (6:38) 

5. Liberty City (10:10) 

6. Sophisticated Lady (7:43) 

7. Bluesette (5:31)

Disc Two

1. I Shot the Sheriff (6:55) 

2. Okonkolé y Trompa (15:07) 

3. Reza/Giant Steps (Medley) (10:19) 

4. Mr. Fonebone (10:37) 

5. Bass and Drum Improvisation (14:05) 

6. Twins (2:53) 

7. Fannie Mae (5:55)

WORD OF MOUTH BIG BAND 

Jaco Pastorius - bass, vocals 

Bob Mintzer - tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet 

Randy Brecker - trumpet 

Othello Molineaux - steel drums 

Don Alias - percussion 

Peter Erskine - drums 

SAXOPHONES

Bob Stein - alto saxophone

Lou Marini - tenor saxophone

Frank Wess - tenor saxophone

Howard Johnson - baritone saxophone

Randy Emerick - baritone saxophone

TRUMPETS

Alan Rubin

Lou Soloff

Jon Faddis

Ron Tooley

Kenny Faulk

TROMBONES

David Taylor

Jim Pugh

Wayne Andre

FRENCH HORNS

John Clark

Peter Gordon

TUBA

David Bargeron 

Special Guest:

Toots Thielemans

(harmonica on "Three Views of a Secret," "Liberty City," "Sophisticated Lady,""Bluesette," "I Shot the Sheriff," "Mr. Fonebone" and "Fannie Mae")