1. First One 05:16
2. Second One 04:17
3. Third One 06:27
4. Fourth One 07:43
Matt Renzi - oboe, Bb clarinet, tenor saxophone
Lisa Mezzacappa - acoustic bass
Jason Levis - drums
Monday, May 28, 2018
Peter Lin & The Lintet - With Respect (June 22, 2018)
"Peter Lin has been a good leader all along, even before this album was made. He also played well a lot of times before this so you know he can put some good music on the CD. Organizing a group of musicians is something he does all the time, I hope it’s a big hit!"
- Slide Hampton
Asian-American Trombonist Peter Lin releases his first album "With Respect", which pays homage to his cultural and musical upbringing. As a tribute to his mentors, family, and friends, he combines his past and present experiences within the jazz idiom. From his recent relationship with NEA Jazz Master, Slide Hampton, to his involvement in the Taiwanese-American community, he explores different paths towards creating a wholesome variety of musical arrangements and compositions.
Peter Lin, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and raised in Whippany, New Jersey, is an accomplished trombonist, arranger, and educator based in northern New Jersey, whose playing was described by Downbeat Magazine as "solid, fluid, and smooth".
On this project, he is joined by his colleagues in the musical realm, including notable artists, such as Winard Harper, James Zollar, and Anthony Nelson Jr.
"With Respect" primarily features jazz arrangements of repertoire from the Chinese and Taiwanese popular songbook, as well as an original composition and Slide Hampton's blues.
Learn more about Peter Lin at www.lintet.com
Peter Lin - Trombonist, Arranger
Anthony Nelson Jr. - Co-Producer, Tenor Sax, Soprano Sax, & Flute
Anthony Ware - Alto Sax
Benjamin Kovacs - Tenor Sax
James Zollar - Trumpet
Oscar Williams II - Piano
Charlie Sigler - Guitar
Ben Rubens - Bass
Nic Cacioppo - Drums
Winard Harper - Drums
Recorded at Tedesco Studios, Paramus, NJ, March 2, 2018
Recording Engineering: Tom Tedesco
Mixing & Mastering: James Cage
Photography: Kelvin Slade
Cover Art: Kelly Lin
Produced by Peter Lin & Anthony Nelson Jr.
Nico Gori Swing 10Tet - Swingin' Hips (SAIFAM 2018)
C’è un presentatore che non resiste alla tentazione di gettare via la cartellina con i titoli da leggere e trascina il pubblico sulle note di Cab Calloway, una cantante che rievoca tanto la swingante Ella Fitzgerald quanto le atmosfere fumose e sensuali di Jessica Rabbit, un chitarrista rubacuori che a tratti lascia la chitarra per incantare tutti con una voce alla Chet Baker, «il James Dean del jazz».
La creatività del Nico Gori Swing 10tet sta proprio nel suonare una musica nata cento anni fa in un modo attuale e non manieristico, senza voler copiare o essere nostalgici nei confronti di un passato che non c’è più, bensì modernizzando e rendendo di volta in volta sempre diversa e fresca ogni performance, soprattutto coinvolgendo attivamente un pubblico molto vario – dal giovanissimo studente universitario all’anziano appassionato del genere, dal «punkabbestia» all’impiegato di mezza età – e interagendo con tale pubblico in tempo reale, con l’immediatezza e l’autenticità che solo la musica improvvisata può fare. Ballerini che conoscono o meno i passi del Lindy Hop si muovono a tempo con noi, giocando con i momenti di stop time e seguendo le imprevedibili evoluzioni degli assoli dei musicisti, creando un happening che oggi è difficile da trovare in giro.
1 Eager Beaver 05:06
2 I've Got Rhythm 05:45
3 Scotchin With The Soda 04:41
4 All Of Me (feat. Drusilla Foer) 05:27
5 Oh Lady Be Good 05:05
6 I Want To Be Evil 05:02
7 Mack The Knife (feat. Stefano Bollani) 04:43
8 Why Don't You Do Right? 05:53
9 Four Brothers 03:21
10 Straighten Up And Fly Right 05:41
11 Just A Gigolo 05:40
12 La Sigla 04:39
Marcus Miller - Laid Black (BLUE NOTE June 1, 2018)
It’s been three years since Miller’s last album, Afrodeezia, which The New York Times called “vibrant and expressive… music that frames his playing beautifully.” Miller says: “Afrodeezia was like a musical voyage through my history. I followed the journey of my ancestors by collaborating with musicians along the African Slave route – musicians from West Africa, North Africa, South America and the Caribbean. With Laid Black, I decided to bring the music right up to the present - using elements from what’s happening in urban music today. So you’ll hear hip-hop, trap, soul, funk, R&B and jazz on this album. The music is calm but also powerful and funky, drawing on the black musical experience. Laid Black.”
Miller recorded most of the nine tracks on Laid Black with his band in a New York studio and also recruited guest artists Trombone Shorty, Kirk Whalum, Take Six, Jonathan Butler, and Belgian singer Selah Sue. Of his band, Miller says: “My guys are incredibly talented. They play everything from bebop to hip-hop. All of the special guests I called have the same vision about jazz, which made it possible to create this mix of music. Oh and if you like bass, there’s plenty of serious bass work on this album too!”
Miller has one of the most enviable and expansive musical careers in the industry. He is a two-time GRAMMY Award winner, winner of Holland’s Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement In Jazz (2013), winner of France’s Victoire du Jazz (2010), and he was appointed a UNESCO Artist For Peace in 2013.
Born and raised in New York to a musical family (legendary jazz pianist Wynton Kelly is a cousin), Miller’s characteristic bass sound can be heard on a limitless catalog of hits including Bill Withers’ “Just The Two Of Us,” Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much,” Aretha Franklin’s “Jump To It,” Snoop Dogg’s “Gz and Hustlas,” and Jay-Z’s “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” and Beyoncé’s “All Night.” to songs from Chaka Khan, Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Elton John, and Bryan Ferry, to name a few. With his distinctive style—a unique combination of funk, groove, soul and pure technical skills—Miller has been referred to as one of the most significant bass players in jazz, R &B, fusion and soul.
Miller’s rich resume of collaborations include a 15-year songwriting and production partnership with Vandross which resulted in 13 consecutive platinum albums (of which Miller co-produced seven), as well as partnerships with artists as varied as David Sanborn, Roberta Flack, Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, to name a few. Most notable, after several years of touring in Miles Davis’ band in his early 20’s, Miller composed, produced and arranged the ground-breaking album and title song Tutu, which won two GRAMMY Awards and is considered one of the definitive late Miles Davis albums.
Miller has an endless list of film and television credits to his name. Most recently, he composed the music for the Oscar nominated film Marshall (2017) directed by Reginald Hudlin and starring Chadwick Boseman as a young Thurgood Marshall and Emmy award-winning actor Sterling Brown. Miller composed the soundtrack to the now classic sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris, created by Chris Rock. Miller is also responsible for the soundtracks on landmark cultural classics such as Boomerang (featuring Eddie Murphy and Halle Berry), House Party (featuring Kid N’ Play), and he wrote “Da Butt,” the song that inspired the national dance craze from Spike Lee’s 1988 cult classic School Daze.
Miller is also the official host of several sold-out jazz cruises each year, put on by Entertainment Cruise Productions, including Blue Note at Sea, which sails next on January 26, 2019 featuring a stellar line-up including Miller, Robert Glasper, Terence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis, and more. Miller has a global tour planned behind the release of Laid Black with concerts scheduled worldwide. Visit marcusmiller.com for more details.
1. Trip Trap
2. Que Sera Sera (feat. Selah Sue)
3. 7-T’s (feat. Trombone Shorty)
4. Sublimity (Bunny’s Dream)
5. Untamed (feat. Peculiar 3)
6. No Limit
7. Someone to Love
8. Keep ‘Em Runnin
9. Preacher’s Kid (feat. Take 6, Kirk Whalum & Alex Han)
MARCUS MILLER – TOUR DATES:
June 1 – Capital Jazz Festival @ Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, MD
June 11 – SFJAZZ – San Francisco, CA
June 15 – Pittsburgh International Jazz Fest – Pittsburgh, PA
July 1 – Eddie Rosner Stage – Lviv, Ukraine
July 3 – Theatre Antique – Vienne, France
July 5 – Open Air Stage Jacka Hotel – Wadowice, Poland
July 7 – Ulmer Zelt – Ulm, Germany
July 8 – Prairie Du Bois D’Hyver – Fontainebleau, France
July 10-12 – Ronnie Scott’s – London, UK
July 13 – North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands
July 15 – Dracula Club – St. Moritz, Switzerland
July 17 – Scala Ludwigsburg – Stuttgart, Germany
July 19 – La Pinede Gould – Antibes, France
July 20 – Cour D”Honneur Du Chateau Des Ducs De Savoie – Chambery, France
July 21 – Anfiteatro – Pompei, Italy
July 24 – Castello Di Udine – Udine, Italy
July 25 – Anfiteatro Del Vittoriale – Gardone, Italy
July 26 – Piazza Napoleone – Lucca, Italy
July 27 – Jardin Christian Dio – Granville, France
July 28 – Parc De L’Abbaye De Leffe – Dinant, Belgium
July 30 – Circus Tent on the Rugby Stadium – Marciac, France
August 9 – BAM R&B Festival at MetroTech – Brooklyn, NY
August 11 – Long Beach Jazz Festival – Long Beach, CA
September 2 – Detroit Jazz Festival – Detroit, MI
November 8 – Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, PA
November 9 – Exit Zero Jazz Festival – Cape May, NJ
November 10 – NJPAC – Newark, NJ
November 26 – Arena Sports – Gliwice, Poland
November 27 – Poznan Congress Center – Poznan, Poland
November 28 – Arena Sports – Gdynia, Poland
November 29 – Torwar – Warszawa, Poland
November 30 – Orbita Sports Hall – Wroclaw, Poland
December 2 – Opera House – Monaco, Monaco
December 3 – Palais Des Sports – Paris, France
December 5 – Salle De La Madeleine – Brussels, Belgium
December 7 – Thonex Live – Geneva, Switzerland
January 26-February 2, 2019 – Blue Note at Sea
February 2-9, 2019 – Smooth Jazz Cruise 2019
February 23-March 2, 2019 – Smooth Jazz Cruise 2019
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams - Vanished Gardens (BLUE NOTE June 29, 2018)
“A friend had turned me on to Lucinda when Car Wheels On a Gravel Road came out,” Lloyd recalls. “Lu has worked a lot with Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz, so a couple of years ago she came to one of my Marvels concerts at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara. It was our first meeting and I sensed a deep Southern crossroads connection. Not long after that meeting she invited me to guest at her UCLA concert and then I invited her to guest at one of my concerts about a year later… It was clear we had something we wanted to explore together.”
Williams is featured on five of the ten tracks on Vanished Gardens, including expansive new versions of her well-known songs “Dust,” “Ventura” and “Unsuffer Me,” as well as a full-hearted interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Angel” that closes the album. Alternating with the vocal tracks are five sublime instrumental offerings including three new Lloyd originals and versions of Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Mood” and the Roberta Flack popularized song “Ballad of The Sad Young Men.”
“We know each other better now and therefore we can travel more freely down certain paths,” says Lloyd, reflecting upon how The Marvels have evolved since their 2016 debut I Long To See You, which NPR called “music that evokes an uncommon state of grace.” That album featured guest vocals from both Willie Nelson and Norah Jones, but the collaborative nature the band has nurtured with Williams has led them to even greater heights of expression. “Having Lucinda on five of the tracks adds a new dimension to the overall experience,” says Lloyd, “for my listeners and for hers. I think on the new recording we were able to let go and plunge deeply into the sound.”
Lloyd celebrated his 80th birthday in March, and is marking the milestone throughout 2018 with special concerts, residencies, festival performances including the Newport Jazz Festival where Lloyd will be the Artist In Residence performing three sets with different bands. Following a triumphant performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Lloyd and Williams will appear together at the Playboy Jazz Festival (June 10), Newport Jazz Festival (August 5), Monterey Jazz Festival (September 23), Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater (December 14-15), and more. The NEA Jazz Master enters his ninth decade at a creative peak in what now stands as a mountainous and formidable career, continuing his lifelong artistic journey to explore the spiritual realms of wonder and beauty.
1. Defiant
2. Dust Words
3. Vanished Gardens
4. Ventura
5. Balled of The Sad Young Men
6. We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Around
7. Blues For Langston and LaRue
8. Unsuffer Me
9. Monk’s Mood
10. Angel Words
Charles Lloyd – Tour Dates:
June 3 – Healdsburg Jazz Festival – Healdsburg, CA – Charles Lloyd & Friends
June 10 – Playboy Jazz Festival – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
June 27 – Leopolis Jazz Festival – Lviv, Ukraine – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
June 28 – Krakow Summer Jazz Festival – Krakow, Poland – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
June 30 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, Austria – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 1 – MOM – Budapest, Hungary – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Mikis Lucaks
July 3 – Associazione Cuturale Musicale – Bari, Italy – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 5 – New Morning – Paris, France – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 6 – Vijazz – Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 7 – Noches Botanicos – Madrid, Spain – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 9 – Piazza Farinata degli Uberti – Empoli, Italy – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 11 – Copenhagen Jazz Festival – Copenhagen, Denmark – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
July 13 – North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
August 3 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI – Sangam
August 4 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI – Charles Lloyd New Quartet
August 5 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI – Charles Lloyd & Friends with Lucinda Williams
September 21 – Stanford Live – Palo Alto, CA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
September 23 – Monterey Jazz Festival – Monterey, CA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
September 28 – Germantown Performing Arts Center – Memphis, TN – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
December 4 – Coates Chapel @ Southwest School of Art – San Antonio, TX – Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan
December 6 – Zellerbach @ UC Berkeley – Berkeley, CA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
December 8 – Michigan Theater – Ann Arbor, MI – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
December 10 – Carolina Theater – Durham, NC – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
December 14 – Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center – New York, NY – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
December 15 – Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center – New York, NY – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
December 16 – Berklee Theater – Boston, MA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams
R+R=NOW - Collagically Speaking (BLUE NOTE June 15, 2018)
Dream team band R+R=NOW—featuring Robert Glasper on keyboards, Terrace Martin on synthesizer and vocoder, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah on trumpet, Derrick Hodge on bass, Taylor McFerrin on synth and beatbox, and Justin Tyson on drums—will release their debut album Collagically Speaking (Blue Note) on June 15. The album is available for pre-order today on vinyl, CD or download, along with the new single “Colors In The Dark” which can be streamed or downloaded now. The band’s DNA is evident in the song’s woozy soul with Martin's robo-coo floating like a hallucination over a lush scene rooted by Hodge’s warm bass and featuring a breezy Glasper piano solo that crests in a sudden burst from Tyson.
Okayplayer wrote that “R+R=NOW consists of some of the brightest and baddest musicians in the game today,” adding that the album’s first single “Change Of Tone” “finds R+R=NOW fluidly showcasing their individual sounds as a cohesive blend… expressing hope, love, confidence, and resiliency through their respective melodies.” Stereogum declared the song “a powerful introduction to the band, highlighting each members’ skill and spirit,” while Paste called it “a hybrid encompassing all of black music—hip-hop, R&B, jazz, soul, funk—with its layered instrumental laying out black excellence.”
In an era when every headline carries some new horror or fresh worry, we need music that can clap back with immediacy, skill, and heart. We need a band so at home in its skin that it can play without ego and lead with love—artists whose very existence attests to resilience and hope. We need R+R=NOW, a supergroup assembled by Glasper but functionally egalitarian, in no small part because its members are visionary players, composers, and producers on their own. This genre-mashing outfit moves as one and, as their name reveals, with great purpose.
“R+R stands for ‘Reflect’ and ‘Respond’,” says Glasper. The idea came to him via Nina Simone while he was coproducing Nina Revisited, a companion album to the 2015 film What Happened, Miss Simone? Facing backlash for her politics, Simone was asked, more or less, why she didn't just shut up and sing. Her answer: “an artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Glasper adds: “When you reflect what's going on in your time and respond to that, you can't not be relevant. So ‘R’ plus ‘R’ equals ‘NOW’.”
In that spirit, Collagically Speaking isn't some wonky thesis on the state of the nation. It’s a raw document that seamlessly adheres neo-soul to future-funk, West Coast jazz of the moment to astral electronica, instrumental hip-hop to musique concrète, avant-garde to classical—these are single-take songs, written live in the room, that go wherever this formidable crew's mood goes. Guest voices get caught in that mix as well: actors Omari Hardwick (Power) and Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Expendables); actress Amanda Seales (Insecure); MCs Stalley and yasiin bey (f.k.a. Mos Def); and singers Amber Navran (of Moonchild) and Goapele. The themes that bind it all together are both spoken and inferred: romantic love, universal love, systemic bigotry, the women's movement, quiet power, wild creativity, personal loss and growth.
“Everyone in this band is a six-foot-tall black guy who didn't come from an affluent background,” says Scott. “In order for us all to make it into that room together, we've had to go through some hell, fight for some things, build up a lot of armor, and do a lot ourselves to forge our realities, to become who we are. We're all very aware of that, so anytime we get together, it's a celebration.”
R+R=NOW will celebrate with U.S. album release shows in Atlanta (Variety Playhouse, June 15), Washington DC (DC Jazz Fest, June 16), and Brooklyn (BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, June 22) before launching an extensive European summer tour. The band will return to the US for additional dates in the late-Summer and Fall including an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 3. Further dates will be announced shortly.
R+R=NOW – TOUR DATES
June 15 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
June 16 – DC Jazz Fest – Washington DC
June 22 – BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn – Brooklyn, NY
June 28 – Leopolis Jazz Festival – Lviv, Ukraine
June 30 – JazzTM – Timisoara, Romania
July 1 – La Defense – Paris, France
July 4 – Vienne Jazz Festival – Vienne, France
July 5 – ICE Krakow Congress Center – Krakow, Poland
July 6 – Istanbul Jazz Festival – Istanbul, Turkey
July 7 – Locus Festival – Locorotondo, Italy
July 8 – Montreux Jazz Festival – Montreux, Switzerland
July 11 – Vicar Street – Dublin, Ireland
July 13 – North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands
July 14 – Dour Festival – Dour, Belgium
July 15 – Citadel Festival – London, UK
July 16 – Shephed’s Bush Empire – London, UK
July 17 – Nice Jazz Festival – Nice, France
July 18 – Mode Jazz Festival – Molde, Norway
July 20 – Pori Jazz Festival – Pori, Finland
July 22 – Black Sea Jazz Festival – Batumi, Georgia
July 24 – Jazz Festival at Barts – Barcalona, Spain
July 26 – Heineken Jazzaldia – San Sebastian, Spain
August 3 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI
August 29-30 – Billboard live – Osaka, Japan
September 1 – Tokyo Jazz Festival – Tokyo, Japan
January 26-February 2, 2019 – Blue Note at Sea
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Satoko Fujii, Joe Fonda & Gianni Mimmo – TRIAD (LONG SONG RECORDS 2018)
“Fujii exhibits a kind of boundless exploration that finds her often in new pairings or with new lineups, a never-ending pursuit of new sounds, new groups, and new collaborations.” – Lee Rice Epstein, The Free Jazz Collective
“Joe Fonda is a real virtuoso and composer of the highest order.” – Anthony Braxton
“Mimmo’s music . . . is based on balance. Not only the moment-to-moment balance of register, phrasing, dynamics, and articulation, but a larger, more fundamental balance of abstraction and direct lyricism.” – Daniel Barbiero, Avant Music News
Fujii and Fonda were planning a European tour in October 2017 and asked Long Song label owner Fabrizio Perissinotto, who released their 2016 album, Duet, if he knew of any opportunities to perform in Italy. Perissinotto talked with his good friend Mimmo and a concert and recording session were arranged. (In July, Long Song will release another Fonda-Fujii duet album recorded later on the same tour.) They had never heard Mimmo before, but “Joe and I listened to his music and we both had the feeling this would be great,” Fujii says.
They were wise to trust their feelings; the album is consistently engaging. The music they make transforms and flows effortlessly while always maintaining focus. There is no sense of Mimmo intruding on established duo partners, but instead there’s a beautiful, almost classical, balance to the ensemble, with each musician engaging equally in an intimate conversation. The centerpiece of the album is the 40-minute long improvisation “Birthday Girl,” a title which highlights Fujii’s youthful spirit. The music evolves organically as the trio splits into different instrumental combinations and shifts between lyricism and abstraction, highly rhythmic passages and gently flowing ones.
“It’s just amazing how we can communicate with other musicians even if we don’t speak the same language,” Fujii says. “Of course, there are certain things we only can say with spoken language, but musical language is a more direct communication between soul and soul.”
“I think all my musical experience prepares me for improvisations like this album,” Fujii says. “Practicing and composing both feed into improvisation. I just need to trust myself and accept myself. Actually, my whole my life is practice for free improv.”
Fujii’s unprecedented birthday bash continues in June with 1538 by This Is It!, a trio featuring Fujii with Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and Takashi Itani on percussion. Fujii and bassist Fonda follow up their acclaimed 2016 duo album with MIZU in July. Look for a concert recording by Quartet Mahobin, featuring Fujji, Tamura, saxophonist Lotte Anker, and Ikue Mori on laptop in August, and Fujii’s duet with Australian keyboardist Alister Spence in September. Later in the year, a new recording by Orchestra Tokyo and the debut of a new piano-bass-drums trio will arrive and there will be one more coming before the end of 2018. All together it’s an unforgettable outpouring of musical riches.
Joe Fonda “is a serious seeker of new musical horizons,” says the Boston Phoenix. From 1984 to 1999, he was the bassist with composer-improviser and NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton. Fonda also has been an integral member of several cooperative bands, including the Fonda-Stevens Group with Michael Jefry Stevens, Herb Robertson, and Harvey Sorgen; Conference Call, with Gebhard Ullmann, Stevens, and George Schuller; the Fab Trio with Barry Altschul and Billy Bang; and the Nu Band with Mark Whitecage, Roy Campbell, and Lou Grassi. He is currently a member of The 3dom Factor, Altschul’s trio with saxophonist Jon Irabagon, and guitarist Michael Musillami’s trio, among others. He has led some truly unique ensembles of his own including From the Source, which features four instrumentalists, a tap dancer, and a body healer/vocalist; and Bottoms Out, a sextet with Gerry Hemingway, Joe Daley, Michael Rabinowitz, Claire Daly, and Gebhard Ullmann. He has released twelve recordings under his own name.
Improviser and composer Gianni Mimmo has built an international reputation for his unique treatment of musical timbre and his exploration of advanced techniques on the soprano saxophone. Based in Milan, Italy, Gianni is known for his innovative cross-disciplinary projects with poetry, photography installations, and film, as well as solo performances and international collaborations with improvisers in the US and throughout Europe. He has worked in duos with US cellist Daniel Levin, Basque guitarist Xabier Iriondo, English violinist Alison Blunt, pianist Gianni Lenoci, and fellow soprano saxophonist Harry Sjöström. He is a member of improvising ensembles the Shoreditch Trio and the Wild Chamber Trio. He performs improvised scores for film, composes graphic scores for chamber quintets and of poetry and spoken word texts. He has operated Amirani Records since 2005.
Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She’s “a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 80 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock, and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black, the Min-Yoh Ensemble, and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. Her ongoing duet project with husband Natsuki Tamura released their sixth recording, Kisaragi, in 2017. “The duo's commitment to producing new sounds based on fresh ideas is second only to their musicianship,” says Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz. Aspiration, a CD by an ad hoc band featuring Wadada Leo Smith, Tamura, and Ikue Mori, was released in 2017 to wide acclaim. “Four musicians who regularly aspire for greater heights with each venture reach the summit together on Aspiration,” writes S. Victor Aaron in Something Else. She records infrequently as an unaccompanied soloist, but Solo (Libra), the first of her 12 birthday-year albums, led Dan McClenaghan to enthuse in All About Jazz, that the album “more so than her other solo affairs—or any of her numerous ensembles for that matter—deals in beauty, delicacy of touch, graceful melodicism.” As the leader of no less than five orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, Fujii has also established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.”
ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO // Legendary African Orchestra celebrate 50-year anniversary with UK + Ireland Tour
“Angular melodies, punchy horn lines, psychedelic guitar, an injection of funk and insistent, powerful percussion-beaten out on drums, gourds, bells and shakers. It’s music you can’t ignore.” THE GUARDIAN
"A punchy horn section and superb percussionists who drawn strongly on Benin’s powerful ‘voodoo’ rhythms to create the Poly-Rythmo sound." THE EVENING STANDARD
In what is set to be a unique set of shows, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are the longest-running African Orchestra, who released hundreds of songs and EPs throughout the 60s and 70s as well as being rediscovered in recent years by cult labels Analog Africa and Soundway.
Their mixture of utterly danceable rhythms with punchy brass choruses and spidery guitar riffs makes for a celebration of the all best things about West African music.
Blending traditional Beninese music, American soul and funk, Nigerian afrobeat, Congolese rumba, Ghanaian high-life, French pop and Afro-Cuban rhythms in their own unique style, their magnificent live show and unparalleled musical output shows them truly worthy of their full name: Le Tout Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou (The All Powerful Polyrhtyhmic Orchestra of Cotonou).
Reuniting in 2008, they recorded the 2011 album ‘Cotonou Club’, remarkably, their first ever studio album, but were hit with tragedy with the death of their leader, Mélomé Clément before singer Vincent Ahehehinnou revived the band for the 2016 album, ‘Madjafalao’.
Their music has since found new audiences around the world.
Catch Orchestre Poly-Rythmo at the following venues:
Fri 15th LONDON Jazz Café
Sat 16th DUBLIN Sugar Club
Sun 17th LIVERPOOL Africa Oye
Tue 19th NORWICH Norwich Arts Centre
Wed 20th LEEDS Opera North
Thur 21st MANCHESTER Band on the Wall
Fri 22nd GLASGOW Jazz Festival
Valeria Matzner - Anima (2018)
Telling a Gentler Story: Grunge-Born, Jazz-Inspired Singer-Songwriter Valeria Matzner Finds the Tender Side of her South American Soul on Anima
Matzner went in and nailed it, crafting the tender ballad “Amor y Soledad.” The track channels vulnerable sway and intimate appeal of Anima (release: May 16, 2018), Matzner’s first solo album and first recording after immigrating to Canada and diving into jazz. The Montevideo native explores the softer side of her musical soul, filtered through a firm commitment to songwriting and a new-found perspective on her South American past.
“A lot of the songs on this album took a lot of reaching to write. I found myself able to write faster, upbeat songs easily. But writing ballads, I resisted that,” she muses. “I had to embrace the tender and vulnerable part of me. In this part of my life, I’m getting more in touch with that side.”
When the Seattle sound swept the world thanks Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Matzner knew what she had to do. She started her own band, Blue Angel, with friends. Playing in a band meant writing your own songs: “If you played someone else’s music, you were considered a fake. You weren’t contributing anything,” recounts Matzner. “I showed some ideas that I had to a friend of mine, and I started writing my own music.” Over time, the band’s sound morphed to incorporate more local elements--even Ecuadorian folk music--into the grunge.
It was tough to earn respect as a female bandleader, but Matzner did it. The band played all over, from small holes in the wall to big festivals, even at SXSW. Then Matzner fell in love, married a fan, and wound up in a remote part of northern British Columbia. She found her music career on hold in her new homeland and her identity shifting as she adjusted slowly to life in Canada.
After some years, some heartbreak, and some moving around, Matzner found music calling her again. This time, she decided to pursue training in jazz. “I decided to go to music school,” says Matzner. “I got into something new, jazz and electronic music composition. Electronic music guided me in ways you may not hear at first,” but that pop in intriguing ways in Anima’s production choices, including an unexpected cover of Radiohead deep cut, “Lotus Flower.”
Jazz did, too, and its impact is readily apparent (“Illusion”). Yet as with rock, Matzner did not want to stick with singing standards. She began to write her own songs, eventually finding pianist and songwriter Scott Metcalfe to collaborate with. Matzner and Metcalfe both had a long history of writing across genres and styles. Together, they captured a variety of moments, sounds, and beats, like the feel of a newly democratic, musically bubbling Buenos Aires in “Contemporaineo,” where Matzner spent several years as a young woman.
Reaching into South American sounds came naturally to Matzner as part of her ongoing adjustment to life in a new, very different country. “I realized I was getting deeper into my roots as I worked more and more in jazz,” recounts Matzner. “Musical exploration and memory became a way of finding myself more and more in a culture.” Digging deep also meant surfacing an emotionally tense tenderness in songs like “For My Father,” a song connected to Matzner’s restored connection to her father as an adult.
These intense subjects and stories channelled with a gentle touch are steps toward a new, more mature songwriting style, an achievement honored by a recent Global Music Award. Songs like “Broken Landscapes” point in this direction: “I’m drawn more and more to a philosophical way of looking at things and writing songs,” muses Matzner. “It’s painful to have to dig into yourself for inspiration. It’s very self-absorbed. I want to sing more outwardly, about stories outside of me.” Matzner instead strives to sing about the world, via the lens of a resonant soul, to the beat of the Latin pulse she imbibed from childhood.
1 - Contemporaneo
2 - Ilusion
3 - De Amor y Soledad
4 - For my Father
5 - Lotus Flower
6 - Cor
7 - Broken Landscapes
8 - Lua Cheia
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