Shannon Gunn - "On A Mountain" (Friday, October 15th 2021 on Cellar Live)

On July 31st 2020, the world lost a brilliant vocalist and composer. Shannon Gunn had been a fixture on the Canadian jazz scene for decades up until her untimely passing. Her reputation as a musician’s musician ensured a particular kind of reverence from her fans, fellow artists and several generations of students. Although her work was well known to her enthusiastic live audiences, she had never released an album of her own. On A Mountain, recorded in 2002, should go a long way toward filling this gap and allowing the world to get a rare glimpse of this compelling artist at the top of her form.

Shannon grew up in Vancouver where she studied classical piano. As her musical direction shifted to jazz she developed a successful singing career in Western Canada. She subsequently moved to Toronto where she drew the attention of many of that city’s top musicians. Shannon’s work as an educator had always paralleled her performing career. She was as gifted a teacher as she was a singer and made a huge impact on the many students who crossed her path in both cities.

Shannon’s singing demonstrated incredible facility and expressiveness, as well as a deep awareness of the musical interplay in a band. She honed a highly personal style that hearkened to the great jazz singers yet was unquestionably her own. Renee Rosnes, who served as pianist and producer for this recording, comments, “Shannon had a vulnerability that came through in her singing which translated to an emotional, truthful rendering of the lyric.”

The choice of material and musicians are a reflection of Shannon’s impeccable taste and high standards. Rosnes brought a wealth of experience and a long association with the singer: “My friendship with Shannon goes back to my late teens when we both lived in Vancouver. We shared many memories together on and off the stage. She was smart, talented, beautiful, humble, empathetic and genuine: a person who communicated from her heart with no pretense.”

Along with Rosnes, this this group contains many of the world’s top jazz musicians, all of whom were ideally suited to communicating Shannon’s vision. Swainson says, “Those qualities of empathy, honesty and courage were all there in her music. She was a fantastic musician.” Adds Turner, "I always loved playing gigs with Shannon because she would always have new material, beautiful, sometimes complex arrangements.”

On A Mountain will be released worldwide on Friday, October 15th 2021 on Cellar Live

1. From You (S. Gunn) 6:19

2. Carla’s Blues (C. Bley, N. Winstone) 5:35

3. In The Moment (R. Rosnes, S. Brown) 6:00

4. Wild Is Love (R. Rasch, D. Wayne) 6:42

5. I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face (F. Loewe, A.J. Lerner) 3:32

6. On A Mountain 4:55

7. A Felicidade (A.C. Jobim, V de Moraes) 4:28

8. Mean Joe (S. Gunn) 4:53

9. Everything I Love (C. Porter) 4:41

All arrangements by Renee Rosnes, except 2 by Brian

Dickinson and 8 by Brad Turner

Shannon Gunn - Vocals

Renee Rosnes - Piano

Neil Swainson - Bass

Billy Drummond - Drums

Brad Turner - Trumpet (2-4, 6, 8)

Pat Labarbera - Tenor Saxophone (2, 4, 6, 8, 9)

Rick Lazar - Percussion (7)

Cellar Live Website

Renee Rosnes | "Kinds of Love" | Available September 3 via Smoke Sessions Records

On Her Upcoming Album, Kinds of Love,

Pianist and Composer Renee Rosnes

Honors and Celebrates Love Through

Nine Brilliant New Compositions

The Recording Features a Stunning All-Star Band

with Some of Her Favorite Collaborators,

Chris Potter, Christian McBride, Carl Allen and Rogério Boccato

Kinds of Love is Set for Release September 3

on Smoke Sessions Records

This strange last year has been a time of reflection and contemplation for many of us, cut off from the people and the things that we love. Pianist and composer Renee Rosnes has emerged with a reinvigorated appreciation for the many different shapes that love can take. Her breathtaking new recording, Kinds of Love, is both a celebration of and a meditation on the myriad forms it’s taken in her own life – romantic love, love of family, of nature, of the arts and of close relationships she’s forged with many of her fellow musicians (including the critically acclaimed ARTEMIS, the international all-star group of which Rosnes serves as musical director).

Due out September 3 via Smoke Sessions Records, Kinds of Love is in itself a manifestation of a few of those ideas. The staggering all-star quintet that Rosnes assembled for the occasion – saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogério Boccato – represent a deep web of friendships and collaborations stretching back decades in some cases. And for many of them, the recording date marked one of their first times back in a studio after the long dry spell of 2020. Rosnes seized the opportunity to craft a full album’s worth of new compositions, conceived with these particular voices, and their singular combination, in mind.

“I’ve tried to look at the pandemic as a gift of time, and the knowledge that I would soon be recording with my friends inspired much of the music,” Rosnes says. “It was thrilling to experience the humanity of making music again in the moment. Each of these musicians are profound, humble virtuosos and, on a human level, enlightened spirits.”

For Rosnes, Potter and McBride, Kinds of Love is a reunion of sorts; the three last recorded together on Rosnes’ acclaimed 1997 Blue Note release As We Are Now. The new album marks Potter’s fifth recording with Rosnes, including 1995’s Ancestors, Life on Earth (2002), and the 2018 Smoke Sessions release Beloved of the Sky. While she’s performed with Allen many times over the years, she was thrilled to have him join her on this project. Boccato is the pianist’s most recent acquaintance, a meeting facilitated by their shared experience with the tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene.

“We are longtime friends who share a lot of history and camaraderie,” Rosnes says. “Having an unusual amount of quietude to work kept me creatively motivated during the past year. As I composed, I thought about each musician’s essence, and was truly inspired by all the possibilities.”

The love of family and the finer things are showcased on the album’s vibrant cover photo. Rosnes is seated on a raffia-upholstered club chair created by her nephew Aaron Aujla, the celebrated designer and co- founder of Green River Project. She’s also wearing a one-of-a-kind garment made from antique textiles, created by the award-winning Menswear designer and founder of BODE, Emily Adams Bode, who is Aaron’s fiancée.

The respect and love that these five musicians feel for one another and for the act of making music together is abundantly, joyously clear throughout Kinds of Love; just witness the boisterous groove laid down by McBride, Allen and Boccato on the fervid opener, “Silk,” or the playful back-and-forth between Rosnes and Potter on “The Golden Triangle.” The latter was named in honor of the Village Vanguard, whose iconic stage has seen its fair share of such vivid interplay.

“Silk” is a dedication to the pianist and composer Donald Brown, with whom Allen worked for a number of years. Rosnes’ longstanding fondness for Brown’s work is evident in the fact that she recorded his piece “Playground for the Birds” on her 1990 self-titled leader debut. “Donald’s music is extremely lyrical and harmonically complex but at the heart of it is always the dance of the drums,” Rosnes points out. “Carl, Christian and Rogério’s hookup drove the band from beginning to end.”

But fittingly given the album’s title, that infectious exuberance is far from the only mood explored on this rich album. The past year has also brought troubling aspects of modern life into stark relief, and Rosnes has spent her fair share of time pondering those unresolved issues. The fact that many of them are deeply rooted in people’s inability to recognize, honor or respect other kinds of love influenced her as well.

The title track aches with a fragile beauty illuminated by Allen’s cloud-like brushes and Boccato’s shimmering percussive touches; “Evermore,” which began as an improvisation on a Bach Sarabande, is an elegiac, graceful ballad as intimate as a silent prayer.

Passionately introduced by Boccato’s deft percussion, “Life Does Not Wait (A Vida Não Espera)” ponders the fleeting nature of life with an elegant pas de deux between Rosnes’ piano and Potter’s flute. And “Blessings in a Year of Exile” tenderly expresses the gratitude for what we have in light of the things so many have lost.

Love of nature has been a key element in much of Rosnes’ music, and the pandemic afforded her the opportunity to reaffirm her reverence for the flora and fauna surrounding her home. “In Time Like Air” is one result, inspired by the song of a persistent yet stubbornly unidentifiable bird that became a frequent visitor to her backyard. The Brazilian-hued piece also marks the first time that Rosnes has recorded on Fender Rhodes and on vocals, as she intones the wordless melody with Boccato.

“Passing Jupiter” moves from the earthbound to the cosmic, launching off from a phrase that Lester Young played on his 1957 Newport Jazz Festival performance of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” The celebratory mood returns on “Swoop,” with musical ideas bandied back and forth between the players like a bouncing ball. “It was a great feeling to be able to make music in the moment again,” describes Rosnes. “I think this recording reflects an explosion of creativity. You can feel the energy of our connectedness, and I think maybe there was an extra spark of love in the music too.” 

"Kinds of Love" was produced by Paul Stache and recorded live in

New York at Sear Sound's Studio C on a Sear-Avalon custom console

at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to ½" analog tape.

Available in audiophile HD format.

Renee Rosnes · Kinds of Love

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: September 3, 2021

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram

Dave Young (feat. Renee Rosnes) - Lotus Blossom (MODICA MUSIC February 15, 2019)

“To my way of thinking, Dave Young is one of the

most talented bassists on the jazz scene. His

harmonic sympatico and unerring sense of time have

kept him in the foreground of the jazz picture.”

- Oscar Peterson

Dave Young (Alex Heidbuechel)

Fresh off the heels of his 2018 JUNO-nominated album, “One Way Up” (Modica Music), Dr. Dave Young, C.M. returns with a collection of diverse jazz tunes, with an all-star selection of Canadian musicians. Recorded in Toronto on the second day of the 2016 “One Way Up” sessions at the suggestion of producer, Roberto Occhipinti, a majority of the songs on “Lotus Blossom” were selected in passing during recording breaks. 

The title track was a joint favourite of Rosnes and Young and the first to be laid down. An on-the-spot arrangement for Modinha was put together in-between takes, and that marked the first time that long-time friends Rosnes and Schwager recorded together. Both Red Cross and Fried Bananas are tunes you can often hear Dave perform live in his tributes to Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon, but this is the first time these songs have been recorded with his long-time collaborators. Cedar Walton’s Bolivia welcomes the addition of Bernie Senensky on piano and that leads to the trio of Young, Senensky, and Clarke laying down a swinging version of Jimmy Van Heusen’s classic, I Thought About You. “Lotus Blossom” ends with the unmistakable tones of Kevin Turcotte and Perry White on another jazz classic, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise. 

Order of Canada recipient, Dr. Dave Young, is one of Canada’s most celebrated and valued bassists, composers, arrangers, and educators. Originally from Winnipeg, Dave has made his name known on both the Canadian and international stages in both jazz and classical music for the last five decades, and along the way has worked with some of the world’s top artists in various fields. Known for his elegant tone, impeccable time, and immense knowledge of musical history, Dave has been a first-call bassist for the likes of Oscar Peterson, Lenny Breau, Oliver Jones, Cedar Walton, and countless others.

The Dave Young will be releasing Lotus Blossom internationally on Modica Records on Friday, February 15th, 2019. 

Dave Young (Tracey Nolan Studios)

Dave Young - Acoustic Bass

Renee Rosnes - Piano

Reg Schwager - Guitar

Terry Clarke - Drums

Bernie Senensky - Piano

Kevin Turcotte - Trumpet

Perry White - Tenor Saxophone

1. Lotus Blossom 5:25

2. Modinha 7:33

3. Red Cross 5:49

4. Fried Bananas 5:32

5. Bolivia 5:57

6. I Thought About You 6:09

7. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise 4:51

Jay Lawrence - Sonic Paragon (JAZZ HANG RECORDS 2018)

Sonic Paragon is a fantastic collaboration of the amazing drummer, Jay Lawrence, with many of the greatest jazz players on the scene today–John Patitucci, bass; Renee Rosnes, piano; Harry Allen, tenor saxophone; Terell Stafford, trumpet; Anthony Wilson, Yotam Silberstein, and Romero Lubambo, guitars! Do not miss this one!!  Sonic: Sound waves traveling at about 761 miles per hour.  Paragon: A shining example of excellence.  Sonic Paragon is a quintessential paradigm of jazz music drawing from New York to New Orleans, Bop to Brazil, and Hip hop to Swing.

1. Full Moon in Havana (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Romero Lubambo) 6:38

2. What'll I Do (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Anthony Wilson) 5:08

3. Vamonos (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Terell Stafford, Harry Allen & Yotam Silberstein) 7:32

4. Slide (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Anthony Wilson, Terell Stafford & Harry Allen) 7:06

5. Maria (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Romero Lubambo) 5:38

6. Dayspring (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Romero Lubambo) 6:51

7. From Nadir to Zenith (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen, Terell Stafford & Anthony Wilson) 4:18

8. Sonic Paragon (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Anthony Wilson) 6:26

9. Tchoupitoulas (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Terell Stafford, Harry Allen & Yotam Silberstein) 5:16

10. Golden Ratio (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Yotam Silberstein) 5:59

11. Crosstown Traffic (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci, Harry Allen & Yotam Silberstein) 4:41

12. My Winsome Consort (feat. Renee Rosnes, John Patitucci & Harry Allen) 5:39

www.jaylawrencedrums.com

www.jazzhangrecords.com

Renee Rosnes & David Hajdu - Ice on the Hudson (October 12, SMK Jazz)

Pianist/Composer Renee Rosnes and

Author/Lyricist David Hajdu to Release

First Album of Songwriting Collaborations

Ice on the Hudson, Available October 12 via SMK Jazz

Ice on the Hudson features vocalists René Marie, Janis Siegel, Darius de Haas and Karen Oberlin and an all-star ensemble interpreting diverse songs about the emotional complexities of adult life in today’s world.

There’s a special chemistry that’s found only in the rarest of songwriting partnerships, forever linking the names of composer and lyricist in the minds of listeners. The names Renee Rosnes and David Hajdu are already well known to music lovers: Rosnes as one of her generation’s most acclaimed jazz composers and pianists, Hajdu as an award-winning author and critic. With Ice on the Hudson, their first collaborative album of songs, the pair reveals a breathtaking synergy, crafting a collection of deeply felt and genre-defying songs that join words and music with alchemical results.

Ice on the Hudson, due out October 12 via SMK Jazz (a newly launched imprint curated by Smoke Sessions Records), brings together four magnificent vocalists: revered, GRAMMY® Award-nominated jazz singer René Marie; Manhattan Transfer co-founder and nine-time GRAMMY® winner Janis Siegel, celebrated musical-theater actor and art-song interpreter Darius de Haas; and acclaimed jazz/pop performer Karen Oberlin. Their voices are matched by a stunning ensemble, featuring Rosnes at the piano along with cellist Erik Friedlander, saxophonists Steve Wilson and Seamus Blake, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, bassist Sean Smith, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogerio Boccato.

While both Rosnes and Hajdu can boast considerable accomplishments in their respective fields, songwriting was a fairly new endeavor for both. Rosnes had had a handful of her instrumental compositions set to lyrics, and Hajdu had collaborated on a few songs with Fred Hersch and others. When Rosnes and Hajdu decided to try writing together, five years ago, “Everything clicked,” in Hajdu’s words.

“Renee is one of the most gifted, most sophisticated and most creative composers alive,” Hajdu says. “I consider myself the luckiest boy in the music world for getting to write with this flat-out genius. We both enjoy the exhilarating thrill of doing something that we care about, that draws on our professional and life experiences, but that provides a whole new set of challenges for us.”

For Rosnes, who has long drawn inspiration for her own music from sources as diverse as the natural world and the visual arts, the partnership has given her rich depths of emotion and narrative to plumb. “David is a powerful and compelling storyteller,” she says, “and each of his lyrics has many layers and great substance. It’s been a fulfilling experience to take his words and search for melodies that truly allow the story to shine through.”

Given the tantalizing complexity of Hajdu’s words, Rosnes found herself exploring a wide range of sensibilities, never concerned with genre. Ultimately, while some pieces fit comfortably into the jazz songwriting tradition of Jon Hendricks or Bob Dorough, others evoke the world of musical theater or such respected singer-songwriters as Joni Mitchell or Randy Newman. “When I embarked on this project with David, I put the idea of genre out of my mind,” she explains. “I was most interested in allowing the lyrics to inspire and move me in whatever direction that musically translated to.”

“A Tiny Seed” opens the album with a parable both timeless and timely, about a wall-building king and the seemingly small detail that grows to topple his kingdom. Marie’s wry, soulful vocal offers inspiration to those hoping to turn such fairy tales into reality. Her serpentine lines bring an exotic mystery to “Little Pearl,” a reinterpretation of Rosnes’ instrumental “The Quiet Earth.”

Siegel’s voice seems to float into a whimsical daydream on “I Used to Like to Draw,” a tender reminiscence of the childhood days when we all gave vent to our imaginations, before the supposed reality of adult life quashed such fancies. Siegel also sings “The Passage,” which takes the natural splendor that inspired Rosnes’ instrumental piece “Gabriola Passage” into the realm of transcendence. On the title track, “Ice on the Hudson,” she takes the bizarre fact that the Hudson River flows both upstream and downstream as a metaphor for the often contradictory aspects of grown-up reality – one of several instances of complex ideas that stem from the collaboration between two artists with a wealth of life experience.

Oberlin offers a bit of culinary respite from the world’s divisiveness on the playful “I Like Pie” and a bit of romantic perspective on “I Still Feel the Same.” The moving “All But You” builds from scraps of both songwriters’ biographies to paint a picture of living with a missing someone. Rosnes suggested a song based on her experience as an adopted child wondering about her birth parents, which Hajdu countered with his own background. “Renee said it felt strange growing up not knowing who her biological parents were, but my father sat at the dinner table with me every night my whole life, and I don’t know who my father was either. We share that feeling of a hole in your life, that there are people who could have been there who were not.”

Hajdu based “To Meet My Brother” on the tragic loss of his sister and the feeling of wanting to be reunited, whatever the cost. Darius de Haas brings tender yearning to that piece and an urgent sensuality to “Confound Me.” His knack for theatrical drama illuminates “Trotsky in Mexico,” a Sondheim-like musing on the Russian revolutionary’s fling with Frida Kahlo.

A five-time winner of the JUNO award, Renee Rosnes is one of the premier jazz composers and pianists of her generation. Upon moving to New York City from Vancouver, Canada, she quickly established her enduring reputation as a creative original and versatile collaborator, touring and recording with such masters as Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, BobbyHutcherson, J.J. Johnson, James Moody, and Ron Carter. With 16 recordings as a leader, Rosnes has grown ever more ambitious musically, as her most recent album, Beloved of the Sky (Smoke Sessions Records), attests. 

David Hajdu is an award-winning author, critic, and songwriter. A three-time winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for Music Writing as well as a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Hajdu is the author of five books, including Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street, and Love for Sale: Pop Music in America.

reneerosnes.com

www.davidhajdu.com

Renee Rosnes - Beloved of the Sky (SMOKE SESSIONS RECORDS April 6, 2018)

There’s a painting by Emily Carr that evokes much of what I admire most about Renee Rosnes, and it’s not the painting Rosnes had in mind when she named this album.  She selected the title in homage to one of Carr’s best-known works, an expressionistic landscape that Carr called “Scorned As Timber, Beloved of the Sky.”  Painted in 1936, when Carr was 65 and at the peak of her creative powers, the titular canvas depicts a hilly swath of largely barren land in western Canada, an area ravaged by merciless lumbering.  We see rows of rotting tree stumps, which Carr conceived of as tombstones, elegies to the forests slaughtered for timber.  In the center of the canvas, surrounded by the stumps, is a stalwart surviving tree — reed-thin and branchless but standing tall, impossibly tall.  At the tip of the trunk, piercing the clouds, the tree is in full bloom.  It towers above the despoiled landscape in mournful defiance of human cruelty, a testament to the resilience of nature and the hope it can instill in those attuned to it.

Renee Rosnes is, as Carr was, a native of the Canadian northwest, and she shares Carr’s deep connection to the natural majesty of the area.  “Carr’s canvases of Canadian coastal landscapes and deep woods are familiar territory, and evoke a strong emotional response in me,” Rosnes says.  “She was an environmentalist ahead of her time, and created several paintings that dealt with her concern for the environment, and specifically the clear-cutting of forests.”

Carr painted another canvas in 1912, after she returned to Canada from a visit to Paris, where she had studied at the Academie Colarossi and discovered the Fauvists and Impressionists.  Titled “Gitwangak,” the original name for a part of British Columbia that English settlers renamed the Queen Charlotte Islands, the work captures a scene in a small village of First Nation longhouses along a riverbank.  We see three people in the foreground: one dressed in red, wearing what appears to be a white headdress; and two others, one adult and a child.  Nine tall totem poles, carved with renderings of emotive faces, loom amidst the structures.  In the water, in the distance, a steam ship floats by.  The sky sparkles with painterly dabs of vermillion, silver, white, and gold.

With “Gitwangak,” Emily Carr brings to mind, for me, all that Renee Rosnes achieves as a composer and pianist.  It honors a long and rich tradition: in Carr’s case, the way of life of the original people of the Pacific Northwest; for Rosnes, the deep and complex legacy of jazz music.  At the same time, both the painting and Rosnes’ music are keenly steeping in their own time and utterly contemporary in feeling — in some ways, in fact, radically so.  The visual style of “Gitwangak” is boldly post-Impressionistic, with color effects and textures suggestive of Van Gogh.  As Rosnes makes clear with the first piece on this album, “Elephant Dust,” her work is fearlessly daring and original.  Rosnes, in all her music culminating in Beloved of the Sky, has proven to be a composer and musician of the rarest kind, a master of a tradition that she carries forward toward the future through the force of her authority, her passion, and her individuality.

David Hajdu is the music critic for The Nation and a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Elephant Dust (Rosnes)

Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky (Rosnes)

Mirror Image (Rosnes)

Rosie (Bobby Hutcherson)

Black Holes (Rosnes)

The Flame and the Lotus (Rosnes)

Rhythm of the River (Rosnes)

The Winter of my Discontent (Alec Wilder/Ben Ross Berenberg)

Let the Wild Rumpus Start (Rosnes)

Renee Rosnes, piano

Chris Potter, tenor sax, soprano sax, flute

Steve Nelson, vibes

Peter Washington, bass

Lenny White, drums

UPCOMING SHOWS

Apr 03, 2018 - Apr 08, 2018

Renee Rosnes Quartet in New York, NY at Village Vanguard

Apr 13, 2018 - Apr 14, 2018

Gary Smulyan in Tarrytown, New York at Jazz Forum

Apr 18, 2018

Renee Rosnes & Bill Charlap Duo in New York, NY at Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center

May 04, 2018 - May 05, 2018

Renee Rosnes Quartet in Tarrytown, New York at Jazz Forum

May 14, 2018 - May 16, 2018

Ron Carter Quartet in New York, NY at Blue Note Jazz Club

Jimmy Greene: Flowers – Beautiful Life, Vol. 2 (MACK AVENUE RECORDS 2017)

Every musician, I assume, has a prime source for inspiration. For saxophonist and composer Jimmy Greene, that’s been his daughter Ana, who had given him that inspiration during her life and in the aftermath of her shocking, tragic death that made international news. More than four years after the Sandy Hook massacre that cut short Ana Greene’s life, Ana continues to be a muse for her father. Flowers – Beautiful Life, Volume 2 (April 28, 2017, Mack Avenue Records) finds Jimmy Greene in a better spot in his life, because he chose to turn misery and grief into music that’s a celebration of the spirit of Ana and the forces of good.

Thusly, Flowers isn’t a low key affair that A Beautiful Life was at times, but jazz through the cheerful, carefree lens of a six year old. Greene, rest assured, is still making the same polished, attenuated music that endeared himself to us back in ’09. The difference now is that he makes the music a little more playful and lighter on its feet, music that someone at both six and sixty could dance or at least bob their head to.

You can hear him having a good time recording the 6/8 Brazilian samba festival tune “Stanky Leg” or the Nola-inspired second line “Stink Thumb” (apparently putting forth a notion that if it smells bad, it must sound good). On the former, pianist Renee Rosnes spins a tastefully flowing piano solo and the latter is livened up by Ben Williams’ pocket aware bass and Otis Brown III’s jumpin’ snare drum. On both, Greene delivers a happy, prancing soprano sax.

Other songs are inspired by Ana’s own words: “Big Guy” is what she called her 6’6″ father and the song of that name swings in a unique, dynamic way. “Fun Circuits” (“Don’t let them suck your fun circuits dry, Mom!”) has complex rhythms and Mike Moreno’s guitar with Rosnes’ Fender Rhodes give it a rock-jazz flair but also characterizes childlike exhilaration and unpredictability.

“December” is a song with a multidimensional complexion to portray the range of emotions that occur at the Greene household during this month every year (holiday season without Ana, anniversary of the Newtown massacre). But even here Greene is pushing forward; the song works through the mixed emotions with vigor and Brown’s drums make sure of that.

Sometimes words are needed to fully explain the feeling, and accordingly, a couple of vocal turns are included. Sheena Rattai takes on the task on the titular “Flowers” with words inspired by Ana’s book of flower drawings intended as an expression of love to her father. Greene offers what he calls “some humble advice to parents” as conveyed by Jean Baylor on the sweet ballad “Someday” while Greene’s cool, assuring tenor sax flutters around.

The only song Greene didn’t compose came instead from Level 42. Greene had revealed to us before that there was “something about Ana” so you might say he turned this 1986 hit “Something About You” into a message about her. Greene gets really creative with the middle of it, practically making up a whole new section where he again drops down chops from his soprano sax.

There’s talent galore on this album: besides Rosnes, Moreno, Williams and Brown, there are also appearances by Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, John Patitucci, Rogerio Boccato and Kevin Hays. They all do their part to help make Flowers – Beautiful Life, Volume 2 a worthy successor to Greene’s gorgeous tribute Beautiful Life. But Jimmy Greene’s biggest help comes from within. Inside his heart, where Ana Grace Greene lives and thrives.

1. Big Guy

2. Stanky Leg

3. Flowers

4. Second Breakfast

5. Fun Circuits

6. Stink Thumb

7. Someday

8. December

9. Amantes

10.Something About You

11.Thirty-Two

Jimmy Greene

Renee Rosnes

Mike Moreno

Ben Williams

Otis Brown III

Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts

John Patitucci

Rogerio Boccato

Kevin Hays

Renee Rosnes - Written in the Rocks (2016)

Label: Smoke Sessions

Source: Axs, Carol Banks Weber

Why don’t we hear about jazz pianist and composer Renee Rosnes more? She’s just as good, if not better, than most of her male counterparts. Her February 5, 2016 album,Written In The Rocks, on Smoke Sessions Records puts her up there as one of the most in-flux, fluid, fantastic artists around.

Everything on this new record seems to rush at you, in a hurry, with some urgency, but rounded out with a fleshy magic. Her quartet is scheduled to debut Written In The Rocks at a CD release celebration February 5-7 of next year in three sets at New York City’s Smoke Jazz & Supper Club.

This is no ordinary release, built on the whims and aspirations of a jazz artist in flux. The Canadian expat found inspiration in nature, building seven of the nine compositions to “The Galapagos Suite.”

Nature has always played a major role in Rosnes’ life growing up in beautiful British Columbia. “The infinite blue-green hues of coastal British Columbia are in my blood,” she explained in a recent DL Media press release. “My family's home sat at the bottom of a street that opened up into a deep ravine, and a half-hour's drive from there, the city lights were dim enough to offer an astonishing view of the night sky. Salty air, the smell of seaweed, the relentless pounding of waves, and the agreeable aroma of cedar — all of these provide me with spiritual nourishment and inspiration. To compose music about our planet's evolution was a stimulating concept and one brimming with possibilities.”

With Rosnes on this natural journey are her bandmates: Steve Wilson (sax, flute), Steve Nelson (vibes), Peter Washington (bass), and Bill Stewart (drums). “All of us have personal and musical relationships that have been growing for decades,” Rosnes continued. “As a band, we've developed a focused sound with a wide and nuanced palette of colors and rhythms. We play off of each other.”

Her bandmates play no small role on her album. That’s Nelson’s vibes all over the place on “Lucy From Afar,” touching on the intriguing discovery of humankind’s ancestor amongst the ruins of civilization. In the opening, “The KT Boundary,” her entire band joins in, notably drummer Stewart with Wilson on flute and soprano sax. Together, they posit the possibilities of new life from the end of the dinosaurs in a kind of mass, avant-garde hysteria that never quite takes leave of its senses.

On the title track, Nelson’s vibes gently make way for Rosnes, as she displays the kind of tranquil feminine touch missing in a lot of the slam, bang macho posturing found amongst the Millennial boys’ club nowadays. Yet, there’s the still life of a Bill Evans, a man who knew how to tap into his softer side for a melodic drowning, the fervor of the dying’s last wish. She contemplates the wonder, the history, the secrets beneath those age-old rocks, gently tapping at the grains of arctic sands, every note a forestry, a surging series of waves.

Outside “The Galapagos Suite,” Renee Rosnes and her band find common ground in the solid, straight-ahead jazz contemplation, “From Here To A Star,” and the hopefully nostalgic “Goodbye Mumbai.”

1. The KT Boundary
2. Galapagos    
3. So Simple a Beginning
4. Lucy from Afar    
5. Written in the Rocks
6. Deep in the Blue (Tiktaalik)
7. Cambrian Explosion    
8. From Here to a Star    
9. Goodbye Mumbai

Renee Rosnes - piano
Steve Wilson - saxophone & flute
Steve Nelson - vibraphone
Peter Washington - double bass
Bill Stewart - drums

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