Free Radicals Celebrate New CD “Outside the Comfort Zone" Houston 9/23 Austin 9/30

Free Radicals

Celebrate The Release of Their New CD 

“Outside the Comfort Zone"

Austin CD Release Show
Saturday, September 30th
11:00pm – 12:00am
Sahara Lounge
1413 Webberville Rd
Austin, TX 78721
(512) 927-0700
www.saharalounge.com

Artist: Free Radicals

Title: Outside The Comfort Zone

Catalog Number: RWE017

Artist Website: freerads.com

Release Date: SEPT 15, 2017

UPC Code: 654483001728

Musicians & Songwriters:

Pete Sullivan: bari sax

Jason Jackson: alto sax

Aaron Varnell: tenor sax

Tom VandenBoom: trombone

Matt Serice: trumpet & keys

Nick Cooper: drums & perc.

Al Bear: guitar

Jacob Breier: bass

Nick Gonzalez: sousaphone

About The Music

1. The Legals Have a Lunch
Free Rads originally recorded this track to be included on their all-breakbeat CD "Freedom of Movement.” Havikoro, the b-boy collective executive producing the 2015 CD felt the tune sounded too goofy for breakdancing. However, goofy was exactly what Free Rads was going for, so they kept the tune in the vault. Featured are solos and arrangements by Jason Jackson on alto sax, Tom VandenBoom on trombone, and Aaron Varnell on tenor sax. Long time collaborators jump in on the jam -- Harry Sheppard on vibes, Al Pagliuso on percussion, Pelayo Parlade on piano, Theo Bijarro on bass, and  Nelson Mills III on trumpet. Nelson played trumpet on the Tighten Up, a Houston funk tune that was the number one hit in the nation the week drummer / producer Nick Cooper was born.

‘The Legals Have a Lunch’ is an alternate title for this new CD, with its cover art showing a family of descendants of European immigrants in a diner, eating a feast and looking at their phones, oblivious to the apartheid system right outside.

2. Doomsday Clock
  ‘Doomsday Clock’ is a ska tune by drummer Nick Cooper featuring solos by Tom VandenBoom on trombone, Matt Serice on trumpet, Aaron Varnell on tenor, and Al Bear on guitar. Guest musicians Lynn Bechtold on violin, and Harry on the vibes all join in.

Since 1947, the Doomsday Clock has been updated by the members of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to represent the likelihood of a human-caused global catastrophe. 'Make America Great Again' has been a pathological escapist cultural response to a world with looming climate, military, pollution, and ecosystem collapses. Free Radicals plays ‘Doomsday Clock’ as a rejection of anti-scientific political posturing and as a tribute to the scientists who do their best to bring attention to things that really matter.

3. Chicha Revolución
Bass player Jacob Breier wrote this tune recalling 1970s Peruvian Chicha music. It starts off with a guitar solo by Al Bear and features solos by Pete Sullivan on baritone sax, Aaron Varnell on tenor, and a bridge featuring Matt Serice and Henry Darragh on keys, and Pelayo Parlade on piano.

4. Carry Me To My Grave
Trumpeter Doug Falk wrote this tune during a month when the band was playing a lot of funerals. Doug moved to New Orleans soon after writing the song, handing off the baton to trombonist Tom VandenBoom. The recording was done in a living room, and features solos by Aaron, Al B., Harry, Matt, Jason, Harry, and Tom.

Over the 21 years of Free Radicals music, ten of their musical collaborators have died (Ramesh Mishra, Greg Harbar, Zin, Little Joe Washington, Folasayo Dele-Ogunrinde, Carl Adams, Jeff Wells, Niyi, Stefan Schultz, and Joseph Jackson). With a huge extended family of musicians in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and up to Harry Sheppard at 89 years old, the Free Rads know the next funeral they play might be for one of their own.

5. Screaming
Free Radicals often tracks solos and arrangements over loops made from recordings of live improvs. Most of the material on Free Rads' 3rd CD, "Aerial Bombardment," was recorded in this manner. 'Screaming' is a hybrid mix of recordings from Sound Arts Recording Studio and two shows at at Avant Garden, the late night Houston hang-out that’s been around as long as Free Radicals (21 years). It features solos by Aaron and Al B., and percussion by Charlie Perez.

There has been a lot to scream about in the last year. ‘Screaming’ is an expression of the band’s frustration.

6. Dadaab
Though this song by bassist Jacob Breier references music from the Horn of Africa, when Subhendu Chakraborty came up with a great tabla part for it, producer Nick Cooper gladly recorded it (the band has never sought purity). It also features Muhammad Jafari on doumbec, solos by Tom, Jason, Aaron, Pete, and Nick C. on drum set, clavinet, and talking drums. Dadaab is the world's largest refugee camp, and Free Radicals has benefited musically, personally, and professionally from Houston's large and vibrant refugee population. Free Radicals musicians have no patience for anti refugee rhetoric, and are proud to have refugees in their group, as well as among their students, friends, coworkers, and spouses.

7. Freedom of Consumption
This breakbeat came out of an improv studio session with help from Henry Darragh on piano, Robert Chadwick on flutes, Al P. on congas, and Subhendu on tablas.

8. Angola 3
Nick Gonzalez, the Free Rads’ sousaphone player wrote this one. It’s been played at protests, weddings, funerals, and every other type of gathering the band performs. It features all the horns jamming, with Harry on vibes, and Matt on organ.

The Angola 3 (Robert King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace) were long-time political prisoners in Louisiana's Angola Prison. A long modal piece, ‘Angola 3’ is a tribute to these former prisoners and anyone who has sat in a cell for years deprived of human contact and music.

9. Manifest Dust Bunny
Pete Sullivan, the baritone sax player, wrote this piece and it immediately clicked with a recently expanded 5 person horn section. With quick alternating punk, ska, and funk parts and no solos, it is intended as an overture of music the Free Rads musicians have listened to since high school.

Unfortunately, Manifest Destiny is a worldview that is still around, clogging up Turtle Island from Immokalee to Arizona to Cleveland to Standing Rock. Free Radicals looks forward to seeing it vacuumed up once and for all.

10. Water Beats Rock
Alto sax player Jason Jackson wrote this slow jam in tribute to 70s Bruce Lee movies. The title is a reference to Rock, Paper, Scissors, cinematic boat scenes, and the taoist principle of becoming like water. It features solos by Jason, Tom, Pete, Aaron, and Al B. and alternating bass lines by Jacob and sousaphone by Nick Gonzalez.

11. Solidaridad de la Sierra
Pete Sullivan wrote this one, featuring Robert Chadwick on flutes, Al P. on triangle, and solos by Matt, Tom, Pete, and Jason. Free Rads dedicates this song to mountains and indigenous people who live on them, and intends it as a protest against the mining companies that put entire mountain ecosystems into a grinder for one-time mineral profits.

12. Audacity of Drones
This song features loops from live recordings of a show in which all three sax players brought out baritones, and something terrifying came out.

Like most US presidents, Barack Obama has a legacy of killing innocent civilians and opening up wars on new fronts should land him in front of a war crimes tribunal. The Free Radicals hopes to honor his innocent victims and to invoke the sounds of death machines whose existence taxpayers finance, and have come to accept as normal.

13. Beyond Vietnam
Jason Jackson wrote this tribute to Southeastern Asian psychedelic music from the 70s. It features solos by Jason and Al B. MLK's ‘Beyond Vietnam’ remains among the most important anti-war speeches in history. Free Radicals musicians find themselves in a weird United States that has failed to learn anything from the crucial message MLK died to deliver.

14. Space Witch
Jacob Breier wrote this reggae tune and invited friend Will Van Horn on the pedal steel. Often, Free Radicals tries to give its songs political titles or associate them with political causes, but this song is simply about a space witch.

15. Scrapple from the DAPL
 Pete Sullivan wrote this one, and it features solos by Harry and Pete. Free Rads Street Band has been honored to stand with the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline (and every other pipeline).

16. New Sanctuary Movement
Jason Jackson's song is a tribute to immigrants and those who protect them, and a middle finger to anyone who tries to demonize the immigrants who have improved our society in so many ways. It features Nick on percussion, and solos by Aaron, Jason, Tom, Pete, and Al.

17. Cabinet For Sale
 Al Bear's quick changing blues-meets-samba tune mocks the oligarchs running our nation after absurd promises to ‘drain the swamp.’ It features Al B. and the horns trading off melodies and Brazilian percussion by Charlie.

18. Stump Stomp
Aaron Varnell wrote this tune after a protest across the street from a Donald Trump fundraiser in Houston’s River Oaks. Donald Trump protests have brought out Muslims, gays, #blacklivesmatter activists, DACA recipients, minimum wage workers, and environmentalists to speak with one common voice. That's one thing for which Free Radicals thanks Trump.

19. Cheeto News Coma
 Where can we hide from the 24-hour media cycle and it's endless portrayals of our hideous president? This breakbeat features Subhendu and the sax players.

20. Survival of the Oblivious
Harry Sheppard's multiple mallet instrument tracks weave in and out of this instrumental reggae tune. It also features Pete, Aaron, Tom, Subhendu, and alternating bass lines by Jacob and sousaphone lines by Nick G..

21. Ambush ICE
Pete Sullivan's frantic tune features Harry, Robert, and Nick G. It’s an attempt to tap into the state of those living in fear of an imminent ICE ambush and chase scene, with a short interlude in a muzak elevator.

22. A Call For All Demons
After many years of playing this 1956 tune by Sun Ra and collaborating with former Sun Ra vibraphonist Damon Choice, Free Rads decided to put them together for this recording done entirely in the musicians’ homes. Damon and Harry play on this tune like little kids, which can make everyone forget that between the two, there are well over 100 years of vibraphone experience. The song features Robert on flutes, Matt on organ, and drummer Nick C. plays a funk breakdown on Brazilian instruments, including a repique he got from Damon.

23. American Food Chain
This was a piece from years ago, featuring Paul Winstanley on bass, that the Free Rads felt would close out the instrumental CD well. Free Radicals usually features vocalists, poets, and rappers, but for this album, the band went all instrumental, intending to make up for this by releasing a lyric-filled CD next.

www.freerads.com

Media Contact

Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services

Ph: 845-986-1677 / jim@jazzpromoservices.com

www.jazzpromoservices.com

"Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

Oct. 8: Benefit for Puerto Rico at Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, CA

Juntos por Puerto Rico, A Benefit Concert for the Victims of Hurricane Maria

Sunday, October 8 at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA

Featuring Obed Calvaire, Marco Diaz, Robin Eubanks, David Flores, Jose Roberto Hernandez, Zakir Hussain, Sean Jones, Rebeca Mauleon, Javier Navarrete, Rico Pabon, Pedro Pastrana, Joshua Redman, David Sanchez, John Santos, Shefali Shah, Marcus Shelby, Saul Sierra, and Miguel Zenón

Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, the worst storm to hit the island in almost a century. Today millions of Puerto Ricans don’t have electricity or running water, thousands remain trapped in their homes by massive flooding and food and medical supplies are extremely scarce. Help us to support these communities by joining us for Juntos por Puerto Rico, a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Maria on Sunday, October 8 from 1 – 4 p.m. at Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley, CA. Tickets are $60 premium advance, $40 general advance, $44 at the door.  For information call 510-644-2020 or visit http://thefreight.org/unidos-por-puerto-rico.

“I hope you’ll join us to help the people of Puerto Rico recover from this devastating catastrophe. It’s going to take years for the Island to recover, but residents need immediate help,” says event organizer saxophonist/ composer Miguel Zenón who was born and raised in San Juan.  “It’s going to be an amazing event.  We’re honored that so many incredible musicians have chosen to donate their talents to help raise badly needed resources, and that Freight and Salvage is providing a wonderful venue so that we can perform for everyone who wants to help.” 

Performing are some of the top jazz musicians in the world including Obed Calvaire, Marco Diaz, Robin Eubanks, David Flores, Jose Roberto Hernandez, Zakir Hussain, Sean Jones, Rebeca Mauleon, Javier Navarrete, Rico Pabon, Pedro Pastrana, Joshua Redman, David Sanchez, John Santos, Shefali Shah, Marcus Shelby, Saul Sierra, Miguel Zenón.

TICKETS

Tom Harrell - Moving Picture (Highnote Records 2017)

It has been written that Tom has participated in 260 recordings but they may include arranging as well, which is another (sometimes overlooked) facet of his prodigious talent. Since signing with HighNote Records in 2007 Tom has been working primarily with a quintet but kept things fresh with a quartet recording , 'Trip', a two-bass sextet on 'Colors Of A Dream' and the critically acclaimed 'First Impresssions', which featured a nearly classical chamber ensemble playing the music of Debussy and Ravel.

With 'Moving Picture' Tom leads a quartet where he is the only horn, giving his legions of fans the pleasure of hearing more of his solo work backed by this venerable jazz format.

www.tomharrell.com

Playlist for Tom Ossana – The Thin Edge – September 27, 2017 MST 7:00 to 9:00p.m.

http://www.kzmu.org/listen.m3u ~ Use this link to access the show online.

Lovisa Jennervall Quartet - Come Closer (DO MUSIC RECORDS 2017)

Fronted by young but exceptionally talented jazz singer Lovisa Jennervall, her exciting quartet, consisting of pianist Hampus Andersson, bassist Alfred Ringstad and drummer Julia Schabbauer, presents a unique, jazzy and imaginative sound on their debut Come Closer. Jennervall's vital approach to her music, be it her flawless timing, her direct expression or instantly fetching melodic improvisation, lends a pleasant consistency to how she has drilled her band as well as arranged her performance. Jennervall's rendition of Swedish troubadour Olle Adolphson's hopeful Nu Är Det Gott Att Leva is particularly touching. Don't miss this first powerful statement of a young Swedish jazz singer certain to impact jazz listeners for a very long time.

1. Ode To Olof

2. Intakt

3. Off You Go

4. Come Closer

5. Nu Är Det Gott Att Leva

6. Inte Mycket Väsen

Lovisa Jennervall, vocals

Hampus Andersson, piano/vocals

Alfred Ringstad, double bass/vocals

Julia Schabbauer, drums/vocals

Cécile McLorin Salvant – Dreams and Daggers (MACK AVENUE RECORDS 2017)

Shortly following Cécile McLorin Salvant’s emergence on the music scene, New York Times critic Stephen Holden stated, “As Cécile McLorin Salvant spun songs into a brilliant silk tapestry, I thought, if anyone can extend the lineage of the Big Three -- Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald -- it is this 23-year-old virtuoso.” Downbeat added emphasis to Holden’s sentiment by awarding Cécile top position in an unprecedented 4 categories in its 2014 Annual Critics Poll. And Wynton Marsalis commented “you get a singer like this once in a generation or two.”

With her 2016 Grammy Award winning album For One to Love, Cécile McLorin Salvant revealed that she is not just a sublime vocalist, but a supremely gifted storyteller and composer as well. Cécile is being embraced by music lovers at major festivals and clubs throughout the world. Her remarkable voice and striking ability to inhabit the emotional space and turn every song she performs into theater make her an artist of consequence to be celebrated and enjoyed.

Astrid Kuljanic Transatlantic Exploration Company - Riva (11/10/2017) + Carnegie Hall album RIVA Release Concert, October 24

On the Adriatic island of Cres, a certain sheltered cove harbors a small pier. “I have my spot there, at least, I consider it my spot!” laughs singer, arranger, and songwriter Astrid Kuljanic, whose parents both grew up near that cove. It’s a place swept by the world’s tides and sounds, where Italian and Croatian blend, where the strange and new quickly ceases to be exotic and simply becomes “our music.”

This deeply rooted yet organically syncretic place has shaped Kuljanic’s voice and work, which embraces jazz standards, Brazilian samba and bossa nova, and traditional songs from Cres, as part of her new project, the Transatlantic Exploration Company. The quartet’s debut album Riva (“Pier”; release: November 10, 2017 on One Trick Dog Records) and Carnegie Hall celebration will showcase the singer’s facility for flowing between Caribbean and Brazilian beats and racy Croatian ditties, between heartfelt ballads and upbeat romps.

You can buy tickets here!

“It’s an exploration. I love exploring my roots and I love learning about other music,” says Kuljanic. “You can take inspiration from all sorts of places and over time, it becomes part of you.”

It’s no accident that Kuljanic wound up making music in an island city of multitudinous influences. She grew up in Rijeka, in what was then Yugoslavia, listening to her family sing and play music. Her older sister prodded her to sing, as the girls heard music from Italian pop to American rock to Yugoslav hits pouring through the radio. Her native region had switched empires and then countries several times, though its seafaring folk remained staunchly committed to their mixed identity and dialect.

As an adult, Kuljanic expanded her connection to her family’s home island, Cres. She founded a jazz festival there, meeting local artists and artisans like Vesna Jakic who created the felt dress Kuljanic wears on the album cover, made from island wool.

She explored Cres musically as well. One night, she gathered her parents, her aunt, and her talented cousin around a kitchen table and launched on an epic song sharing session. She was shocked at the striking diversity of language, scales, and other elements she discovered as her relatives belted out song after song, like “Oj vi mlade,” which Kuljanic arranged with a reggae sway. “I was like, ‘You’re kidding me!’ They said, ‘This is what we used to sing! this is it, this is ours!’ Yet the songs were all so different and so mixed. Their island identity is strong, but they embrace other influences as their own.”

Kuljanic found herself taking a similar tack, though by way of Italy and America. Trained as a chemical engineer, Kuljanic decided after college she had to pursue her first passion, music and song. She started bands with friends on the Zagreb scene, including Mildreds, a gentle and folky acoustic group that cut two albums together. But Kuljanic longed for a more formal education in music, which took her first to the Trieste Conservatory, the only music school in her area offering jazz, and eventually to New York, to the Manhattan School of Music.

Jazz is only part of Kuljanic’s creative foundations. “One of the things that brought me into jazz is the freedom, the improvisation,” she reflects. “Beyond that, it’s hard for me to figure out what my favorite style of music is. I’ve always loved rock and pop. I fell for folk. I love beautiful ballads and crazy fast pieces. You can hear it on this album, which has different energy from song to song.”

Kuljanic’s band does find a common sonic thread to tie the variety together, built on close musical friendships. She has on ongoing duo project with bassist Mat Muntz, an expansion of an Ableton Live-powered electronic set that later turned acoustic. Their engaging musical conversation transforms “Portrait,” “The Very Thought of You,” and “Wild is the Wind.”

She studied Brazilian music and percussion with Rogerio Boccato, professor at the Manhattan School of Music and master percussionist. “I finally worked up the nerve to ask him to play with me for my final recital,” Kuljanic recalls. “We had such a great time, we’ve collaborated ever since,” on songs like Edu Lobo’s “Upa Neguinho.” Boccato’s playing also propels the grooves Kuljanic brought to another lusty Cres song, “Divojčice Rožice.”

To complete her unconventional take on the jazz trio, Kuljanic decided to replace the piano with a more mobile and distinctive accordion, just as she had exchanged percussion for the usual drum kit. She invited a friend of a friend she had played with several times, Benjamin Rosenblum, to join the Exploration Company.

They played together frequently, in this and other permutations, and Kuljanic loved that energy. She wanted to keep it alive in the studio. Many of the tracks on the album were recorded in the heat of a single day, with all their organic vigor and rough edges. “I didn’t want things too polished,” she muses. “These are song we play all the time,” and she wanted to keep the immediacy.

Kuljanic has harnessed this immediacy to speak across boundaries difficult to cross back home, but more permeable in New York, while bringing Croatian tradition to a non-Croatian audience. “Everything about this band and album represents the symbolic path I’ve taken from Croatia to New York, to explore the music of the world while staying connected to the place from which I embarked,” Kuljanic reflects. “I know every stone, tree, and shell in that bay. That the destination of this journey will be Carnegie Hall is something I never dreamed possible when I was leaving Croatia. It’s such an honor to get to share Cres’ treasures, Croatian culture, and the many other sounds I’ve made my own along the way.”

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