SAADIF means in arabic "meeting" and is the result of the collaboration between Amir ElSaffar, New York multiethnic scene’s rising star, and the Italian trio HYPER+.
An original album between tradition and innovation, where the "beyond-jazz" of Hyper+ is mixed with Iraqi maqam music.
In these last years, physical and cultural borders sadly seems to be stronger than ever and cultural barriers keep on standing. Musical projects built upon the idea of make identity meet offer different ways of relationships and artistically innovative narratives in integration.
In this perspective the collaboration between trumpeter Amir ElSaffar (New York multiethnic scene’s rising star) and the platform HYPER+, that allows to Nicola Fazzini, Alessandro Fedrigo and Luca Colussi trio to work with different guests, is a stunning, expressive, meeting.
In this quartet, the original method of ElSaffar (musician who has collaborated with artists like Vijay Iyer, Don Byron, Cecil Taylor or Marc Ribot), using the microtones found in Iraqi maqam music to create an innovative approach to harmony and melody, stimulates fellow musicians (who work together in the renamed XY Quartet) to explore new acoustic and electric paths, between tradition and innovation.
Born in Chicago to an American mother and an Iraqi father, Amir ElSaffar plays the trumpet, the santur and sings traditional Iraqi music. After undergoing classical training the focus of his work has been on jazz, collaborating with great names of contemporary jazz.
After an italian tour in November 2015, the quartet has recorded (for nusica.org label) “Saadif” (“meeting”) at Casa della Musica in Trieste. Published in April 2016, the record contains original tunes, mostly composed by ElSaffar. “Saadif” carries the listener on an evocative journey, cunningly structured, rich of shades and colorful, a music where urban tensions and multicultural relationships are able to light sparkles of future sounds.
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Sometimes it takes an outsider to show the current pecking order what is amiss. There are revelations to be heard by those who distance themselves from their native tongue to find a place for themselves. A return can then be revelatory to both the outsider and the republic, as it stands….
Pianist Eric Lewis grew disheartened by the jazz music industry in the late ‘90s after a promising start in the ensembles of Wynton Marsalis and Elvin Jones. Subsequently, Lewis won the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition only to find that he wasn’t connecting to the material any longer. Lewis withdrew from the jazz world and reemerged with a new moniker and style, namely ELEW and rockjazz, a piano specific blend of contemporary pop and rock music in an aggressive acoustic improvisatory setting amplified by the artist’s endurance and intensity.
ELEW has found himself in a new world where the crossover potential of his creation opened doors for him in fields beyond jazz and beyond music. He has collaborated with world-renowned popular artists like Lil Wayne and found a partnership with the Complexions Contemporary Ballet as Composer in Residence. ELEW has also begun a foray into screenwriting and directing.
After years of distancing himself from the jazz world, ELEW has decided to make a return in a remarkable triumvirate featuring bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. His new recording, And To The Republic, features the forceful pianist’s fantastic prowess expressed in the genre that he first caught the attention of the listening public with, mainstream jazz. The recording is a sincere olive branch to jazz purists and the jazz community that he had spurned earlier.
The choice to return wasn’t one of necessity. ELEW has been successful throughout his career, which continues to branch into many streams. His intention in releasing this new recording is to reengage with the world that inspired him initially, to play with masters of the craft and to pay homage to his heroes, especially his former employer, drum legend Elvin Jones.
Who better to fill the role on drums that the great Jeff “Tain” Watts? He is a true disciple of Elvin Jones and has the power, drive and knowledge within the full scope of jazz, having been part of the Young Lion generation led by Wynton and Branford Marsalis. The fantastic Veal has just as distinguished a résumé, being another Marsalis alumni and Elvin Jones protégé.
The recording begins with the laidback yet playful “Medicine Man,” a tribute to a physician friend, which is followed by the energetic and spontaneous “Ornette,” a tribute to the legendary Ornette Coleman, who had passed on the day of recording. “Lil Luba,” named for Lewis’s nickname for his girlfriend (Luba is her mother’s name), is a gutbucket blues, featuring percussionist Ricky “Dirty Red” Gordon. The surging “Tones for Elvin Jones,” written while on tour with the song’s namesake, is an evocative tribute to the master drummer and a showcase for Watts, a drummer who proudly carries Jones’s torch.
The incredible reinterpretation of Swedish electronic duo The Knife’s “Heartbeats” is a tremendous example of ELEW’s mastery of the keyboard and modern influence. The propulsive “Quirkwork” utilizes the rhythm changes to Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” and highlights the trio’s dynamically charged relationship. Named for a short chance encounter, “Jamaica Girl” is a beautiful ballad with a hint of dance hall beat. The startling “And To The Republic” finds the great actor Harry Lennix reciting Mark Antony’s speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar over a tense improvised background.
Thelonious Monk was obviously the inspiration for “Monk,” a compelling composition utilizing some of the unanticipated stylings of the master pianist. A radical take on the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “My Favorite Things” was played to emulate the Coltrane “sheets of sound” playing style. The recording closes with ELEW revisiting his “Philly Groove,” a laid back yet declamatory piece full of swagger.
Presenting a program of music that highlights all of his strengths, ELEW has returned to the world of modern jazz on his new And To The Republic. Reunited with the incredible rhythm section of Veal and Watts, ELEW’s trio is equal parts bombast and control, frenzy and smooth, proving that though he might have left for other musical spheres, ELEW’s still a heavy hitter in his first language, where he has found his own way.
1. Medicine Man 04:58
2. Ornette
3. Lil Luba
4. Tones For Elvin Jones
5. Heartbeats (The Knife)
6. Quirkwork
7. Jamaica Girl
8. And To The Republic: Act 3, Scene 2 Of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Avishai Cohen impressed a lot of listeners with his soulful contributions to Mark Turner’s Lathe of Heaven album in 2014. Now the charismatic Tel Aviv-born trumpeter has his ECM leader debut in a programme of expansive and impressionistic compositions for jazz quartet (trumpet, piano, bass, drums), augmented by tenor saxophone on a few pieces. Into The Silence is dedicated to the memory of Avishai’s father David, reflecting upon the last days of his life with grace and restraint. Avishai’s tender muted trumpet sets the emotional tone of the music in the album’s opening moments and his gifted cast of musicians explore its implications. Israeli pianist Yonathan Avishai has played with Cohen in many settings and solos creatively inside the trumpeter’s haunting compositions, sometimes illuminating them with the phraseology of the blues. Cohen and drummer Nasheet Waits have a hypersensitive understanding and their interaction can, from moment to moment, recall the heyday of Miles Davis and Tony Williams or Don Cherry and Billy Higgins. Yet this music, while acknowledging inspirational sources, is very much of our time. Bassist Eric Revis, a cornerstone of the Branford Marsalis quartet for two decades, provides elegant support throughout. And saxophonist Bill McHenry, a subtle modernist who has worked with Paul Motian and Andrew Cyrille, shadows Cohen’s lines with feeling. Into The Silence was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in July 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Juno award winner Gordon Grdina is a Oud/Guitarist whose sound is a combination of his interests in mainstream jazz, free- form improvisation and Arabic classical music. Out of Vancouver GG Trio, Qalandar, Haram and Peregrine Falls. Out of NYC The Gordon Grdina Quartet with Oscar Noriega, Russ Lossing, and Satoshi Takeishi, The Oud Trio with Hank Roberts and Mark Helias, and Ismaily/Grdina/Maneri.
Heralded voice/bass partnership delivers program with a focus on musical purity and universal fellowship in their first recording without other accompanists in 20 years
"Where jazz meets Latin with elegance and soulŠ" - The Boston Globe.
CD release concerts October 23 and December 13 at the Lilypad, Cambridge, MA
October 29 at The Dance Hall, Kittery, ME
Mili Bermejo Sextet performing September 23 at Beantown Jazz Festival
Since first joining forces over a quarter-century ago, vocalist Mili Bermejo and bassist Dan Greenspan have created a recorded library of timeless music with a number of cherished partners. For those fortunate enough to experience them in live performance, however, the lingering memory of this brilliantly skilled and totally compatible couple is likely to be the moments when they stand alone. "We have always wanted to make pure music," Greenspan explains, "and have always included duo tunes in our sets." On October 7, 2016 the pair releases their first all-duo program in two decades, Arte de Duo, on Ediciones Pentagrama. Bermejo, born in Buenos Aires, raised in Mexico City and a professor at Berklee College of Music since 1984, and Greenspan, a New Haven native and classically trained cellist who became one of the Boston area's leading freelance bassists, have created a unique body of music that applies jazz improvisation to original songs and music from throughout the Americas. Themes of political liberation, environmental responsibility and interpersonal commitment have defined both their music and their career and led them to a major life decison. "The business changed so much post-9/11 that we had to decide whether we should reinvent ourselves," Bermejo notes. This led to what Greenspan describes as "an entire creative undertaking of another kind" - a move to New Hampshire, where the couple built their own house. "We decided to live the right way," Bermejo says of their relocation to a nature reserve. "It has brought us closer and closer to `do it yourself,' including growing as much of our own food and making as many of our own clothes as possible. It has purified us, and removed many of our frustrations." But, Greenspan adds, "For a while, the move replaced music. Finding opportunities to rehearse in Boston when everyone we worked with had so many other gigs became hell." The bassist also turned his attention to baking and has built a growing reputation with his Dan's Brick Oven Bread, while a construction accident also left him unable to play for several months. The future of their performing partnership became unclear.
"But Mili insisted that we couldn't let the music go," Greenspan stresses, and the result is a new focus on the intimate artistry that had previously only been showcased on their 1997 album Duo which was released on Gunther Schuller's GM Records. "It got us back to the essence of art," he says, "and provides the best opportunity to use all of the classical information that we have." Yet the new music, developed over a series of monthly gigs at the Lilypad in Cambridge, Massachusetts, takes the pair beyond their previous achievements. "We didn't want to repeat ourselves," Bermejo adds. "Now we reduce. I think of the music like my garden, as being all about beauty after years of work. And nobody told me how to do it."
The influence of life in New Hampshire is clear in the Bermejo originals "La Casa del Arbol" ("The Tree House"), about "a secret refugeŠamong trees and stars" and "Cosecha" ("Harvest"); but she also contributes two new titles in her string of beautiful love songs, "Los que se Aman" ("Those Who Love") and "No Dejo de Quererte" ("I Don't Stop Loving You"). The duo also links Bermejo's "Décima Muerte I" from their first duo disc and "Décima Muerte II" by the Mexican poet and playwright Xavier Villarrutiga in a medley linked by a powerful Greenspan solo.
Greenspan's bass also launches "Las Orillas del Mar" ("At the Edge of the Sea"), a 13th Century feminist poem with music by Hafez Modirzadeh, the composer-saxophonist who featured Bermejo extensively on his acclaimed 2011 album In Convergence Liberation (Pi Recordings). "Working with Hafez is the most challenging thing I've done," she notes, "and it has opened both of our minds. Now I'm improvising more, though not `taking a chorus' in the traditional sense."
This new improvisational freedom is joyously displayed on "Tres Veces Heroica" ("Three Times Heroic"), written by Mexican composer Charlie Dríguez and previously heard on the 2006 live recording De Tierra (Of Earth) (Ediciones Pentagrama), and "End of the Beginning," written for the duo by the Armenian-born pianist and composer Vardan Ovsepian. "Windmills of Your Mind," by French composer Michel Legrand with Spanish lyrics by Manuel Gurria, was also arranged by Ovsepian. "Vardan's arrangement got Dan back in shape after his injury," Bermejo notes, adding with a laugh, "it also made me get back in shape."
Two works from Argentina are included, "Equipaje" ("Luggage") by Juan Quintero and "Cambalache" ("Pawn Shop") by E. Santos Discépolo. The latter, a classic tango, gives Greenspan the opportunity to display his skill with the bow. "Candombe para Gardel" ("Candombe for Gardel"), a tribute to Argentinian tango master Carlos Gardel from the Afro-Uruguayan perspective of Rubén Rada, completes the program.
Arte del Duo is Bermejo's fifth release on Mexico's Ediciones Pentagrama label, which recently received the Independence Award from the Fundación Mediterránea Mar y Tierra in Tarragona, Spain. "We've stayed faithful to the vision of [label founder] Modesto López: Independence and 35 years of support to Latin American artists dedicated to progressive social change," she notes.
The album will be released at the Lilypad on Sunday afternoon, October 23, where a new audio system created especially for the duo by sound engineer Art Steele will enhance the performance. "I asked Art for a minimal system, with just two small speakers, Greenspan explains. "Now my hands are free, just like my mother's were when she sang," Bermejo adds.
Creativity, and the magic that ensues, remain at the heart of Mili Bermejo's and Dan Greenspan's music; and Arte del Duo is their most creative and magical statement to date.
French saxophone player Faïz Lamouri began the study of saxophone and music at a very early age. After eight years of classical studies, he became interested in jazz through musicians like Paul Desmond, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane.
Faïz received a scholarship in 2008 to attend the prestigious New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York. There he refined his craft with internationally renowned jazz musicians including Mark Tuner, Reggie Workman, Abraham Burton, Joel Frahm, Vincent Herring, Wayne Escoffery and Andy Milne. Faïz graduated with honors in May 2011 from the New School.
In New York, Faïz also performed regularly with his own band in famous Jazz venues. He was notably featured at the Iridium Jazz Club as part of their Rising Stars Series. Faïz moved back to Paris in 2013 and continues to perform in Jazz clubs and Festivals around the world.
Comprised mostly of his original compositions, his debut album transports the listener into a highly captivating and creative musical universe. It also brings together world class musicians such as bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid as well as talented Italian pianist Sam Mortellaro.
Vicente and Damion play together since the early 2000's and are an essential part of today's jazz scene. Just like them, Faïz and Sam shared the stage around the world for many years. The recording of this album was thus a true dialogue between musicians who share a deep connection.
Jazz is created in the moment and with great complicity. It is an essential condition for it to convey sincere and intense emotions to the listener. And that’s exactly what Wonders do.
Collection of original compositions and two reinterpretations by New York Jazz artists. Chamber Jazz combines traditions from Jazz with Classical Music and their many sub-genres. In addition, the influence of world music is present. Influence from specific artists such as Miles Davis, Beethoven, Milton Nascimento, Jean Sibelius, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman.
Jazz and Classical hybrid style also drawing from traditional folk and world music.
1. Thread 08:12
2. En Etsi Valtaa Loistoa (Julvisa) I Seek No Power or Glory 06:38
3. ECMish 10:06
4. Wandina 07:53
5. Mood Swing 08:27
6. Jazz, Classical Music, Miles Davis, Beethoven, Milton Nascimento, sibelius, World Music, - Beethoven 06:45
Pianist Michel Reis, bassist Marc Demuth and drummer Paul Wiltgen formed the Reis-Demuth-Wiltgen Trio in 1998 while still in high school and performed on a regular basis in and around Luxembourg (their home country) for a couple of years. The trio reunited in 2011 and released their self-titled first album on Laborie Jazz (France) to widespread critical acclaim. Since the release, the band has toured extensively throughout the world and has appeared at major international jazz festivals in Europe and Asia. The band's sophomore album "Places In Between" was recorded in New York City and released on the German label Double Moon Records (Laborie Jazz/France, Mocloud Records/Japan).
Reis Demuth Wiltgen are presented with the kind support of the Consulate General of Luxembourg in New York.
Reaching into the heart of improvised music has become second nature to British tenor saxophonist Tori Freestone and perennial colleagues Dave Manington (double bass) and Tim Giles (drums) on their latest Whirlwind release El Barranco. Following their warmly-received 2014 release In the Chop House and subsequent live appearances, the trio have relished the opportunity to reconvene in the studio to record this collection of intuitive explorations (often first takes) of predominantly original compositions, including a pair of London Jazz Festival commissions.
The challenge of the wide-open chordless format is enthusiastically embraced by this trio, offering an improvisational prospect which constantly evolves, thanks to their innate ability to share ideas and spontaneously flex in new directions. Tori Freestone’s characteristically voluble tenor delivery is a key factor in this artistic process: a continuous channel of flowing, tumbling lines arriving from a seemingly limitless, spring-like source; and the quicksilver responses and diversions of both Manington and Giles are so genuinely realised. All of this combines in creating delightful group unpredictability, via a mutual, carefully crafted musical vocabulary, which happily hovers on the periphery of delineated structure.
Freestone clearly revels in the recording aspect: “Whenever we go back into the studio, it’s so great to have a couple of days enjoying making music together. The more we tour in the UK and internationally the more the new ideas start to flow and develop, taking us up onto another level to where we can’t wait to put this down on a new album.”
The concept of creative spaciality is reflected in the saxophonist’s album title and own sleeve illustrations, referencing the beautiful, mountainous terrain of Tenerife – in particular, El Barranco de Masca – which, for many years, has remained especially close to her heart. Thus, the inspiration for opening title track ‘El Barranco’ arrived almost instantaneously, its airy nonchalance a perfect vehicle for the liquid, intertwined phrasing of tenor and bass, buoyed by an expressive lightness of touch from drummer Tim Giles. The first of two commissions, 'The Press Gang' echoes Freestone's musical roots with a suitably dark interpretation of the gloomy folk-tune tale (reprised as the album's end-piece, in appropriately traditional guise, by way of a haunting vocal-and-violin solo performance); and the full-tilt exuberance of contrasting partner piece 'Identity Protection' further reveals the trio's enthusiastic abandon.
Elsewhere, Dave Manington makes two compositional contributions, the thrummed, ‘60s soul bass riff of his ‘Challenger Deep’ setting up a distinctively alternative groove; and ‘Quetzalcoatlus’ (purportedly the largest prehistoric flying animal that ever lived) becomes increasingly wild, jagged and audaciously airborne. Arthur Attman’s familiar standard, ‘All Or Nothing At All’, is skilfully threaded between the players, Freestone’s mellow tenor fluidity as heartfelt as ever; and the snappy, complex, changeable moods and rhythms of ‘Cross Wired’ speak volumes about a trio whose creative understanding (contrary to its title) is so impressively fine-tuned.
Expounding on their now-established approach, Tori says, “We love that the freedom we enjoy creating in our playing can reach people in so many different ways. At one concert, someone who was new to jazz expressed to me that our music had taken them on a journey they never knew they could experience; so it’s lovely that somehow we have formed a language which, rather than being intellectual or inaccessible, can be both contemporary and relevant – and we really look forward to engaging audiences with the new material on this album.”
