In concert at Blue Note Madrid, Thursday, March 30
“...a visionary composer, an extraordinary jazz pianist and a very bright young rising star in the jazz world”– NPR
“among the leading lights of a new breed of jazz players”– Boston Globe
Internationally acclaimed pianist Romain Collin appears at Blue Note Madrid at Only You Hotel Atocha, presented by Seagram’s Gin, on Thursday, March 30 at 9 p.m. Joining Collin are bassist Felipe Cabrera and drummer Diego Piñera. Tickets are sold out. For more information, visithttp://www.seagramsgin.es/hotel/eventos/romain-collin/#reserva
"Collin's most recent album Press Enter (ACT Music), his third as a leader, received extensive critical acclaim. A "winning new album... features an alert, ultramodern rhythm team... There is no doubting Mr. Collin's pianism, which is lucid and flowing."– Nate Chinen, New York Times
Originally from Antibes, France, Collin came to the US to study at Berklee College of Music, later earning a place at the Monk Institute. He has toured with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock and performed or recorded alongside such luminaries as Christian McBride, Lauryn Hill, and Joe Sanders. Jon Weber from NPR called him “a visionary composer, an extraordinary jazz pianist and a very bright young rising star in the jazz world.” Collin also composes for film, and his numerous credits include music for the “Words on Fire” video for The Malala Foundation, which kicked off the launch of the #standwithmalala campaign, and clocked nearly 2 million views on Facebook in 48 hours.
"My focus has always been on an even and a warm tone, known as égalité du son, regardless of what register is played or what music I play"
Guido Bäumer
FRENCH CONNECTION
duo ultima
Boasting a breathtaking array of French music – and music inspired by France – for saxophone and piano, this two-disc set takes listeners on a tour of Gallic repertoire composed or adapted for this most versatile and seductive of combinations. The breadth of styles showcased in French Connection is unified by saxophonist Guido Bäumer’s even and a warm tone.
Many of the works on this collection belong to or are related to impressionism, including stunning pieces by Debussy, Schmitt and Jolivet, although there is also music from composers such as Milhaud, who rejected and moved beyond impressionism, alongside works of the earlier, more Romantic French school. Some of these Romantic pieces have been adapted from their original incarnations for flute and piano; Guido Bäumer’s first instrument was the flute, so he is uniquely placed to interpret this material with fluency and finesse. The collection is rounded off by Argentine composer Piazzolla, whose Tango-Études combine the discipline of the French instrumental study with the unmistakeable rhythmic pulse of the tango.
The first saxophone record owned by Guido Bäumer was a collection of French music. He became so enthralled by it that he decided to become a classical saxophonist. Now, this process comes full circle as, with pianist Aladár Rácz, he pays tribute to the repertoire which so caught his imagination – and changed the course of his life.
Thanks to Kickstarter.com; Roberto’s Woodwinds/Michiko Rehearsal Studios; Jon Rosenberg; Tom Tedesco; Kaz; Lee Roth; and Steve, Joyce and Javier at Cuneiform Records.
What happens when you put the blues under a microscope? When the lens is wielded by the incisive deconstructivists of the Microscopic Septet, the musical odyssey traverses territory that’s disarmingly strange, pleasingly familiar and consistently revelatory. It takes an unusual band to make news out of the blues, and the Micros deliver a gripping investigation of the form on Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues.
The new album continues the Micros’ brilliant resurgence, storming back into action in 2006 after a 14-year hiatus to reissue its old and release new recordings on Cuneiform Records. Since then, the radically old-school new-context combo has continued to evolve, extending its reputation as one of New York’s most ardently inventive ensembles of the 1980s to being recognized as one of the 21st Century’s most accomplished, informed, and iconoclastic jazz groups. Throughout, they maintained their distinctive modus operandi: exploring and unraveling jazz’s myriad strains, the Micros re-weave a century of jazz into modern tunes of equal popular and critical appeal. Since 2006, they’ve collaborated with known cartoonists and/or illustrators for their album art, including Art Spiegelman, New Yorker cover artist Barry Blitt, Australian graphic artists Antonia Pesenti and Keith Lobue. The Micros Play the Blues builds on the band’s longstanding love of that most basic and profound musical form, bringing the same reverently irreverent and insistently playful approach to the blues that has marked the Micros’ music from the beginning. This album’s cover art is by Kaz, best known for his comic Underworld and his writing for SpongeBob SquarePants.
“We’ve always loved the blues,” says soprano saxophonist/composer Phillip Johnston, who co-founded the Micros with pianist/composer Joel Forrester. “We’ve recorded blues on every record we’ve made. I don’t think there’s anything more sophisticated than the blues. Our only fear was that the tunes would sound too much alike, and we made a conscious effort to cast a wide net. Every tune sounds different.”
Along with the co-founders, the seven-piece ensemble features largely the same cast of improvisers with which it emerged from Manhattan’s wild and wooly Downtown scene in 1980. Drummer Richard Dworkin, baritone saxophonist David Sewelson, bassist David Hofstra, and altoist Don Davis (who replaced John Zorn in 1981) have all been along for almost the entire Microscopic sojourn, while Mike Hashim came on board for the 2006 reboot, taking over the tenor sax chair from Paul Shapiro (the only Micros spot that’s seen real turnover).
As on previous projects, Johnston and Forrester provide the lion’s share of tunes and arrangements, and they both dig deep into their voluminous catalogs for interesting material. The album opens with Johnston’s late-night cinematic joy ride “Cat Toys,” a piece inspired by Hammond B-3-driven soul jazz and originally written for the credit sequence of a short film about a San Fernando Valley-dwelling space alien with a taste for felines (seriously).
Johnston’s cascading 14-bar “Blues Cubistico” features some brawny baritone sax work by Dave Sewelson, while his cheerful soprano sax intro on “Don’t Mind If I Do” sounds like a rent party picking up steam around 11 pm on a Saturday night. Johnston repurposed “When It’s Getting Dark” from his rock band The Public Servants (which featured guitarist Bill Horvitz, vocalist Shelley Hirsch, and several Micros), and the tune retains its predatory rock ‘n’ rhythm vibe.
“12 Angry Birds” delivers a triumphant verdict on the enduring power of Ellingtonian cadences, as the piece sounds like a forgotten number from the 1927 session on Victor, complete with a deliciously squally soprano sax solo. Long time Micros fans will be delighted to hear tunes that have been in the repertoire for decades but never recorded, like “I’ve Got a Right to Cry.” While not actually a blues, the piece was a 1950 hit for the great Los Angeles R&B band Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers.
“That’s a tune we did from the very beginning,” Johnston says. “We’ve always played tunes by other people, but didn’t record a lot of them. We have a number of vocal tunes, and we never recorded any of those and I love Dave’s singing on this. ‘I’ve Got a Right to Cry’ isn’t a blues, but it fit in so well with the rest of the album.”
Forrester contributes about half of the album’s tunes, including the sensually slow drag “Dark Blue,” a feature for bassist David Hofstra (who’s walking figure guides the band even when he sits out). The pianist offers a propulsive jazz march with “Migraine Blues,” and designs a deliciously woozy and off-kilter jaunt with “Simple-Minded Blues.” In another utterly surprisingly but entirely sensible move, Forrester turns the carol “Silent Night” into a convincing blues that captures the angst too many people feel as the holidays approach. In fact, Forrester staked a claim to the song at a Christmas party where he “took it into my head to derange Silent Night, which has always struck me as close to the blues,” he says. “During the improvisation the chords were really stripped down. I wanted people to take a more primal approach.”
Whatever the music’s origin or vintage, the Micros put their indelible stamp on each piece, with loose and limber arrangements combining stellar craftsmanship and extroverted improvisation. The blues provide another avenue for the band to explore jazz history while forging a sound quite unlike any other ensemble.
Simultaneously embracing the past and the future makes perfect sense when you consider the fraught time and place that gave birth to the Microscopic Septet. In the early 1980s the New York jazz scene was bitterly divided. Irony-laced Downtown players explored new territory drawing on free jazz, rock, funk and later, Balkan influences. At the same time, other young players, following in the footsteps of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, defined mainstream jazz by looking backwards to 1950s hard bop and 1960s post bop. Rejecting allegiance to any particular camp or faction, the Micros forged their own path with an ethos succinctly summed up by Johnston: “Break all the rules and respect all the saints.”
Embracing jazz’s populist legacy, the Micros brought Uptown jazz back Downtown, where they made a compelling case that swing could look forward as well as backward. The band adopted a name that playfully alluded to its orchestral palette. As Johnston explained at the time, “The instrumentation is enough to give us a big range of colors and work compositionally in a more expansive way.” But the name also described their compositions, which often distilled the essence of an era within an artfully executed voicing. “Through its command of idiomatic detail,” opined The New York Times, “the group summons the sound of an Ellington orchestra, or the feel of a 50’s rhythm-and-blues band, with a few well-chosen phrases and sonorities.”
The band was built upon the felicitous partnership of Johnston and Forrester, who met in the early 70s and bonded over shared musical aesthetics, humor, and similarly skewed worldviews. Eager to break away from the jazz straightjacket of head-solo-head formats, they honed extended, lapidary jazz compositions that segued gracefully between different themes in a single piece, hearkening forward to forms employed by Sun Ra, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton. The music drew on the entire history of jazz, as well as polkas, tangos, antic cartoon themes, klezmer, and new wave rock. No matter how eclectic their influences, the Micros always hewed to the band’s prime directive. “It’s gotta swing, whether its Latin or R&B or straight-ahead blowing,” Johnston says. “That’s the foundation of what we do.”
Prolific composers, Forrester and Johnston had created a songbook of nearly 200 tunes by the time the band called it a day in 1992. During the Micros’ first incarnation they only got around to recording 34 pieces on four albums, which were all released on small labels to an impressive array of critical acclaim. The band’s 1983 debut LP, Take the Z Train, came out on Press Records and featured cover art by San Francisco artist Bill Paradise. “It is as if the entire history of improvisatory music is on parade,” Cadence exclaimed. A live album, Let’s Flip!, followed in 1985, recorded in Rotterdam and released by Dutch label Osmosis Records, which also released 1986’s Off Beat Glory. Stash put out Beauty Based on Science in 1988 with liner notes by “New York School” poet, Ron Padgett, cover art by painter Bob Tuska, and cartoons by Collin Kellogg.
In keeping with the band’s perverse ways, they were reaching a vast new audience when they disbanded. Forrester’s theme song for the long-running NPR show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which continues to be heard by millions of public radio listeners every day, was introduced in 1990. Cuneiform’s decision to reissue the band’s albums on two double albums in 2006, Seven Men in Neckties and Surrealistic Swing, introduced the band to a generation of jazz fans who came of age in the ensuing years. Featuring striking CD artwork by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York cartoonist Art Spiegelman, (creator of the graphic novel Maus), the History of the Micros albums contain all the music from the four original albums and 11 previously unreleased tracks.
The reception was so positive that the band reunited for a European tour, which led to the Micros returning to the studio for 2008’s Lobster Leaps In, an acclaimed Cuneiform album featuring beloved tunes and overlooked gems from the band’s original book. They followed up two years later with the masterful Monk album Friday the Thirteenth: The Micros Play Monk, illustrated with Barry Blitt’s artwork, and made another major leap back into the future with 2014’s acclaimed Manhattan Moonrise, an album that shows the Micros are still a cutting-edge ensemble forging boldly into old territory. “Neither Phillip nor I want to settle into any definite harmonic groove,” Forrester says “Coming up with an array of the blues is just a means taking the Micros into the next century.”
This limited edition 2-disc set was recorded throughout the Collective’s four-night residency October 20-23, 2016 on the Robert N. Miner Auditorium stage at the SFJAZZ Center, documenting the Collective’s arrangements of the music of Miles Davis as well as their own fresh compositions.
Disc One – Music of Miles Davis
1. “So What” arranged by Sean Jones
2. “Nardis” arranged by Miguel Zenón
3. “Milestones” arranged by Matt Penman
4. “Tutu” arranged by Robin Eubanks
5. “Bitches Brew” arranged by Obed Calvaire
6. “All Blues” arranged by Edward Simon
7. “Joshua” arranged by Warren Wolf
8. “Teo” arranged by David Sánchez
Disc Two – SFJAZZ Collective Original Compositions
1. “Tribe” by Miguel Zenón
2. “Canto” by David Sánchez
3. “Your Turn” by Matt Penman
4. “111” by Obed Calvaire
5. “In the Heat of the Night” by Warren Wolf
6. “Shields Green” by Robin Eubanks
7. “Hutcherson Hug” by Sean Jones
8. “Feel The Groove” by Edward Simon
Featuring
Miguel Zenón (alto saxophone)
David Sánchez (tenor saxophone)
ean Jones (trumpet)
Robin Eubanks (trombone)
Warren Wolf (vibraphone)
Edward Simon (piano)
Matt Penman (bass)
Obed Calvaire (drums)
TOUR
March 28, Brooks Center, Clemson University, Clemson, GA
March 30, Rockport Music, Rockport, MA
April 1, Miller Theater, Columbia University, New York, NY
April 2, Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, PA
April 7-9, Blues Alley, Washington, DC
April 13, Jefferson Center, Roanoke, VA
April 15, Ferst Center for the Arts, Atlanta, GA
April 21, Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, OH
April 26-29, Jazz at the Bistro, St. Louis, MO
May 4, St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids, MI
May 5, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL
May 6, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA
From the first listen one is caught by this round sound, subtle, proper to the great jazz guitarists… Magnificent subtleties, nuances in touch, excellent musicality is served by a return to the swing and the melody that surpasses the flawless virtuosity of the guitar leader. From album to album, here the 5th as leader, Yves Brouqui is in the line of Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell… His 10 years stay in New York City, particularly at the Small’s where he met the top of the East Coast jazz scene, allowed him to assert his play and style. An album that all the lovers of the 6 strings must acquire and keep preciously on the “Best of” shelf. As for the rhythm that accompanies it … Extremely solid! ~ Christian Grimauld
Hermon Mehari’s anticipated debut album as a leader, “Bleu”, marks a new era in his career. The music covers both the ground of his contemporaries and his own original music in such a way to illustrate his current musical path. “Bleu” includes ECM recording artist Aaron Parks on piano, Blue Note recording artist Logan Richardson on alto saxophone, Peter Schlamb on vibraphone, Ryan J. Lee on drums and Rick Rosato on bass. Mehari was the recent winner of the 2015 Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition and a semifinalist in the 2014 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. In 2014 he released the CD "Our Journey" with Diverse, his second with the group. Mehari maintains a touring schedule around the world with his own group and as a sideman. He was the headliner of the 2014 Jazz en Tête Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France and was featured on the world-renowned saxophonist Bobby Watson's 2013 release, "Check Cashing Day".
Mehari was also the winner of the 2008 National Trumpet Competition and placed 2nd in the International Trumpet Guild competition in Sydney, Australia. As a founding member of Diverse, whose eponymous debut album on Seattle-based Origin Records reached the Top 40 on the Jazzweek Radio Charts, he has performed professionally with noted saxophonists Jaleel Shaw, Logan Richardson, Bobby Watson, and Ben Van Gelder. He has also performed with Joe Sanders, Hubert Laws, Randy Brecker, Tony Tixier, Dave Pietro, Clay Jenkins and many other great musicians. The band Diverse notably shared a double bill with Roy Haynes' Birds of a Feather band as headliners of the 2008 Gene Harris Jazz Festival.
Hermon Mehari received his BM in Jazz Performance from the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance in 2010. In addition to performing, he dedicates himself to being a serious educator and has participated in clinics and panels around the world.
It’s no coincidence Jasper Somsen’s 3rd (and later this year 4th) Challenge Records album features an international piano trio line up. Recent years performing and/or recording in trio with a.o. Enrico Pieranunzi, Joey Calderazzo, John Beasley, Jeff Ballard, Justin Faulkner and André Ceccarelli, he is much sought after by (especially) pianists. The former New York, now Montreal-based French master pianist and composer Jean-Michel Pilc and one of Jasper's all-time favorite French drummers André Ceccarelli joined him for this diptych.
At their first encounter ever, this trio with Jean-Michel Pilc - piano and André Ceccarelli - drums recorded A New Episode in Life Part I & A New Episode in Life Part II in just two days! The music is an intriguing and exciting exploration in the hearts and minds of these three wonderful musicians. A New Episode in Life Part II will be released in autumn 2017
Sous influence des musiques qui l’on fait voyager, le pianiste ravit avec ce nouveau disque les amoureux du swing. Avec son nouvel album This Way Please, ancré dans la tradition du jazz, Laurent Marode livre une fresque musicale aux arrangements raffinés, inspirée des musiques de films et des mélodies qui l’on fait voyager. Cette ode à un jazz populaire alterne compositions et reprises jouées par un nonet puissant et réjouissant. « This Way Please ramène à la vie un jazz universalisant, exigeant et offre un vaste terrain de jeu dédié à l’hommage et à la création ». Pour se faire, Laurent Marode s’est entouré de musiciens de haut vol qui donnent au swing ses lettres de noblesse : Fabien Mary à la trompette, Luigi Grasso au saxophone alto, David Sauzay au saxophone ténor, Frank Basile au saxophone baryton, Jerry Edwards au trombone, Laurent Marode au piano, Nicholas Thomas au vibraphone, Fabien Marcoz à la contrebasse et Mourad Benhammou à la batterie. Particulièrement touché par le Hard Bop et la période des années 40 à 60, Laurent Marode a fondé un sextet avec lequel il enregistrait son premier disque en 2005, I mean. Sa passion pour le cinéma le mène à diriger des comédies musicales et des projets théâtre et musique (Bonheur en 2003, Novecento en 2005, Pygmalion, BB Initials en 2013 etc.). Il se produit aussi régulièrement en ciné-concerts.
This Way Please est un projet qui réunit des musiciens exceptionnels! FABIEN MARY . DAVID SAUZAY . FRANK BASILE . LUIGI GRASSO . JERRY EDWARDS NIHOLAS THOMAS . LAURENT MARODE . FABIEN MARCOZ . MOURAD BENHAMMOU Cette configuration permet à Laurent Marode d’utiliser des techniques d’arrangement a priori éloignées l’une de l’autre : le Big Band mais également celles des grands quintets et sextets de l’histoire du jazz, ainsi que des techniques ayant trait à la musique classique. Passionné de musiques de films et de belles mélodies, les compositions et morceaux choisis réveillent et réhabilitent un jazz oublié : populaire, onirique et fédérateur, loin des carcans élitistes des compositions complexes destinées aux oreilles averties ou du jazz déambulatoire de fanfare. Dans cet espace intermédiaire de création, This Way Please ramène à la vie un jazz universalisant, exigeant et offre un vaste terrain de jeu dédié à l’hommage et à la création. This Way Please… est une ode à ce que le jazz a de plus précieux et singulier, une évidence intemporelle et voyageuse. Du Swing ! Du Bounce !
Miguel Ângelo Quarteto apresenta o seu segundo álbum "A VIDA DE X", constituído por dez composições inspiradas em personagens fictícias ou em histórias imaginárias ou reais a que o quarteto deu vida e espera que cada ouvinte crie a sua própria visão e, desta forma, ganhe uma nova vida.
A VIDA DE X não é uma simples vida, é um emaranhado delas!...
«This is an album that beguiles gradually rather than being an instant infatuation. It is like the friend you feel comfortable with, who is unobtrusive yet steadfast, and whose worth is proven over time. Those are the people to keep close, and this is an album to value—great stuff.» @ AllAboutJazz by Phil Barnes
«...Miguel Ângelo assina dez temas com personalidade bem definida... o contrabaixista segue as linhas que já tinha exposto no disco de estreia, Branco - uma música franca, directa e intensa.»@ Publico.pt by Nuno Catarino
A VIDA DE X foi eleito pelo crítico Phil Barnes e pela revista Jazz.pt como um dos melhores discos de Jazz de 2016.
PRÓXIMOS CONCERTOS SALA PORTA-JAZZ
Sábados 19:00 & 22:00
1 Abril - João Mortágua "Dentro da Janela"
João Mortágua - saxofones alto e soprano
José Pedro Coelho - saxofone tenor
Miguel Moreira - guitarra
José Carlos Barbosa - contrabaixo e baixo elétrico
José Marrucho - bateria
8 Abril - A Incerteza de Um Trio Certo
AP - guitarra
Diogo Dinis - contrabaixo
Miguel Sampaio - bateria
15 Abril - Tonom Trio
Julius Gabriel - saxofones
João Paulo Rosado - contrabaixo
José Marrucho - bateria
22 Abril - Quarteto de Vasco Agostinho
Rui Teixeira - saxofones
Vasco Agostinho - guitarra
José Carlos Barbosa - contrabaixo
Marcos Cavaleiro - bateria
29 Abril - Ricardo Coelho Quartet
Ricardo Coelho - Vibrafone
Mané Fernandes - Guitarra
Contrabaixo
Bateria
PRÓXIMOS LANÇAMENTOS CARIMBO PORTA-JAZZ
Auditório da FEUP
- entrada livre -
27 março, 21:30
Rui Filipe Freitas Sexteto - "Axis Mundi"
Rui Filipe Freitas - vibrafone
José Pedro Coelho - saxofone tenor e clarinete-baixo
João Mortágua - saxofone alto e saxofone soprano
Mané Fernandes - guitarra
Filipe Teixeira - contrabaixo
João Martins - bateria
18 abril, 21:30
The Nada
João Guimarães - saxofone
Eurico Costa - guitarra
Simon Jermyn - baixo
José Marrucho - bateria
18 maio, 21:30
AP Quarteto
AP - guitarra
Carlos Azevedo - piano
Filipe Teixeira - contrabaixo
Acácio Salero - bateria
19 junho, 21:30
João Mortágua "AXES"
João Mortágua - saxofone alto e soprano
José Soares - saxofone alto
Hugo Ciríaco - saxofone tenor
Rui Teixeira - saxofone barítono e clarinete baixo
Pedro Vasconcelos - bateria e percussões
Alex Lázaro - bateria e percussões
CICLO JAZZ DE SANTO TIRSO
Centro Cultural de Vila das Aves
- entrada livre -
1 abril, 21:30 - Renato Dias Trio
Renato Dias - guitarra
Filipe Teixeira - contrabaixo
Filipe Monteiro - bateria
16 junho, 21:30 - AP Quarteto
AP - guitarra
Carlos Azevedo - piano
Filipe Teixeira - contrabaixo
Acácio Salero - bateria
1 julho, 21:30 - Rui Filipe Freitas Sexteto
Rui Filipe Freitas - vibrafone
José Pedro Coelho - saxofone tenor e clarinete-baixo
