Mary Halvorson Octet - Away With You (FIREHOUSE 12 RECORDS 2016)

It would be sufficient for Mary Halvorson to just continue being an avant-jazz guitarist with broad influences and a distinctive style. She would stay busy and garner praise. But here, she steps up as a leader once again, this time with her biggest outfit yet.

The lineup is identical to that of 2013’s Illusionary Sea, with the addition of Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar. The other contributors are Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on alto saxophone, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor saxophone, Jacob Garchik on trombone, John Hébert on bass, and Ches Smith on drums. Under Halvorson’s deft guidance, the octet navigates eight labyrinthine compositions.

With an ensemble of such size, it would be hard to categorize this as a guitarist’s solo album. Halvorson’s voice herein is just one among many, though it makes clear statements. But not unlike Illusionary Sea, as well as her other works for larger outfits, Away With You is a composers showcase. The horns roll off of one another in counterpoint over ominous 6-string picking and chording, with Alcorn providing atmospherics, and Hébert and Smith contributing a busy low end. Themes morph and adjust until all players join in free-form blowouts, then the themes reprise once again.

In some ways, Halvorson’s compositional style is as disjointed and prickly as her playing. Channeling her inner Braxton, she makes sharp left turns when the listener is expecting straight lines, while leading the octet through dense non-linearities. On the other hand, her use of space is masterfully delicate, building tension for the inevitable chaotic release.

As noted above, guitar sometimes takes a primary role. However, this not to the exclusion of the other instruments. Duets between Alcorn and Halvorson are particular compelling, though taking up only bits and pieces of the album. Hébert also provides a long, powerful solo break. But Away With You is at its best when all eight players are working through complex charts, and soloing around the edges. The result is nothing short of exhilarating.

1. Spirit Splitter (no. 54) 06:18

2. Away With You (no. 55) 08:04

3. The Absolute Almost (no. 52) 09:59

4. Sword Barrel (no. 58) 04:41

5. Old King Misfit (no. 57) 07:34

6. Fog Bank (no. 56) 05:31

7. Safety Orange (no. 59) 05:14

8. Inky Ribbons (no. 53) 08:35

Released October 28, 2016 

Mary Halvorson :: guitar 

Susan Alcorn :: pedal steel guitar 

Jonathan Finlayson :: trumpet 

Jon Irabagon :: alto saxophone 

Ingrid Laubrock :: tenor saxophone 

Jacob Garchik :: trombone 

John Hébert :: bass 

Ches Smith :: drums

The Julian Hartwell Project - The Julian Hartwell Project (2016)

The first effort from The Julian Hartwell Project showcases a distinctive blend of high-energy original music by composer and arranger Julian Hartwell and his band of up-and-coming players. Featuring a cadre of rising talent from the Philly jazz scene, many members of the quintet/sextet group are recent graduates of Temple University's Boyer College of Music jazz studies program, and lend a youthful, vibrant approach to the varied tight-knit arrangements throughout the record. 

Cinematic, funky, evocative, soulful and swinging…this all-original debut injects fresh lifeblood into the contemporary jazz scene and points to a bright future for the promising group known shorthand as “The JHP”. 

“Well worth a sample and repeated spins, The Julian Hartwell Project offers a splendid slice of straight ahead jazz delivered with a fresh new sound…a gifted pianist leading a group of young talented players in their first recording together, this is one musical project that begs for an encore.” 
– Ed Blanco, All About Jazz 

“This is feel good music that doesn’t get too unapproachable like so many jazz groups get, making music that appeals not only to the head, but to the heart as well…It’s a fresh take on original jazz music, that somehow manages to sound like something old school AND brand new at the same time.” 
-Mark Weber, Mark Weber Music Blog 

“…A broad range of musical perception.” 
– Dick Metcalf, ‘Doctor Jazz’ of Improvijazzation Nation Blog

www.julianhartwellmusic.com

1. Street Dreams 10:06

2. Doubleshot 05:32

3. The Minotaur 07:53

4. It's The New 07:50

5. Stranger Now 05:16

6. Stay Easy Bro 07:46

7. Say No More 08:15

8. KnewBlews 10:40

Released November 5, 2016 

The Julian Hartwell Project features: 

Julian Hartwell - Piano & Rhodes 

Jake Kelberman - E. Guitar 

Noah Hocker - Trumpet 

Seth Ebersole - Tenor & Soprano Saxophone 

Harry Forlenza-bailey - Trombone 

Paul Horner - E. Bass 

Jon Cannon - Upright Bass 

Tom Cullen - Drums 

All songs composed and arranged by Julian Hartwell (ASCAP), all rights reserved. 

Copyright Julian Hartwell Music 2015. 

All tracks recorded by Dash Williams at Boyer Studios, Temple University. 

Mixed and Mastered by Jeff Hiatt and Rob Shaffer at Turtle Studios, Philadelphia, PA

ESKORZO este domingo en MADRID • ÚLTIMAS ENTRADAS • Concierto Fin de Gira

ESKORZO DARÁ SU ÚLTIMO CONCIERTO DE LA GIRA "CAMINO DE FUEGO" ESTE DOMINGO EN MADRID, ÚLTIMAS ENTRADAS ANTICIPADAS A LA VENTA!

Domingo 13 Noviembre · MADRID · Sala Joy Eslava · FIESTA FIN DE GIRA

Venta Anticipada: www.ticketea.com y Bar Amor Voodoo.

Puertas 19:00h · Entrada: 18€ Anticipada - 23€ Taquilla    

+  Warm Up: DJ KAPTIN (Boom Town · Big Swing Sound / UK)

Y con las colaboraciones de EL CANIJO DE JEREZ, BOIKOT, ARCO, Ana y Chiki de CANTECA DE MACAO, ANTILOPEZ, MARIO DÍAZ, Gerardo Sanz de LA PULQUERIA y Aitor Velázquez de HORA ZULU

Consigue tus entradas aquí

Evento de Facebook

Eskorzo se despide en Madrid en una gran fiesta rodeado de amigos que colaborarán en el “concierto fin de gira” del aclamado “Camino de Fuego”.

Será este domingo 13 de Noviembre en la Sala Joy Eslava, a esta gran fiesta de han apuntado grandes artistas y amigos, entre ellos El Canijo de Jerez, Boikot, Arco, Ana y Chiki de Canteca de Macao, Antilopez, Mario Díaz, Gerardo Sanz de La Pulquería y Aitor Velázquez de Hora Zulú. Sin duda, uno de los conciertos más especiales y emotivos de su carrera que quedará grabado en la retina de todos.

Las entradas siguen a la venta en www.ticketea.com al precio de 18€, las anteriores ofertas ya están agotadas. En caso de existencias, en taquilla las entradas tendrán un coste de 23€. 

Después de 2 años intensos y más de 100 conciertos con “Camino de Fuego”, la banda nazarí pondrá punto y final a este ciclo que les ha consagrado en lo más alto del panorama musical. Y es que “Camino de Fuego” ha sido catalogado como uno de los mejores discos del siglo XXI.  Un disco innovador que ha marcado un antes y un después en la World Music, el Rock Latino, el Afrobeat y el llamado Mestizaje. Los padres del género han seguido abriendo horizontes y siguen siendo, hoy más que nunca, una banda de culto. 

Pero Eskorzo en concierto cómo sabemos rebasan los límites de lo humano, explosionan poderosamente en una invocación rítmica y lírica espeluznante, una orgía festiva y chamánica que asevera una vez más, que la formación granadina es uno de los grandes reclamos en nuestra geografía española y fuera de nuestra fronteras con varias giras europeas a sus espaldas durante estos 20 años de trayectoria.

Paal Nilssen​-​Love Large Unit - Rio Fun (EP) 2016

1. Rio Fun 24:28

Recorded May 7th, 2015 live at Bimhuis, Amsterdam. 

Recorded by: Jurre Wieman for Bimhuis Radio

Mixed and Masterd by: Christian Obermayer

Cover by: Lasse Marhaug 

Thanks to Huub Van Riel, Alexandra Mientjes

Released June 2015

Released November 8, 2016 

Thomas Johansson – cornet and flugelhorn 

Mats Äleklint – trombone 

Julie Kjaer – alto saxophone 

Klaus Holm – alto and baritone saxophone 

Per Ake Holmlander – tuba 

Ketil Gutvik – electric guitar 

Tommi KerÄnen – electronics 

Jon Rune Strøm – double and electric bass 

Christian Meaas Svendsen – double and electric bass 

Andreas Wildhagen – drums & percussion 

Paal Nilssen-Love – drums & percussion

Magnus Broo / Paal Nilssen​-​Love - Game (2016)

Magnus Broo on trumpet and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. The 6 tracks are freely improvised, and move us across a broad landscape of jazz expressiveness : from rhythmic and melodic parts to very avant-garde excursions, from slow and bluesy sounds to staccato blasts, with the real focus on the interplay between the two artists. Through Broo's playing, other trumpeters come to mind : Lester Bowie, Don Cherry, Paul Smoker. 

One of the reason's I like the album a lot is that both musicians demonstrate that it's possible to be creative, innovative, avant-garde, free and still be deeply emotional. Despite the limited possibilities of the duo, they manage to captivate the attention from beginning to end. This is intense, direct and raw music, but beautiful ...

1. Marching 09:08

2. Stomping 08:29

3. Cut Loose 08:11

4. CodA 06:16

5. Mas 13:30

6. Brown Sugar, Sweet Rice  05:43

Released 2008

Released November 8, 2016 

Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums 

Magnus Broo: Trumpet

Ryan Blotnick - Kush (SONGLINES 2016)

“Blotnick has an original and distinctive voice on the guitar…a great late-night album and a goldmine of inspiration for guitarists in a wide range of styles.”

– Delarue, Lucid Culture (Reviewing Solos, Volume 1)

In his new album of original compositions, East-coast guitarist Ryan Blotnick mines a bittersweet melodic/harmonic vein balanced by an African-influenced rhythmic elan. Conceived as an antidote to the more aggressive forms of New York jazz, Kush offers freshly-minted waltzes, haunting ballads and more than a touch of Frisellian Americana, as well as a variety of grooves combining jazz and African feels. Ryan comments: “I think a lot of ‘modern’ cats look outside of themselves for direction and this music is more introspective even though it reaches out to the audience very directly.” New York saxophonist Michael Blake (with three releases on Songlines, most recently Fulfillment), a longtime Blotnick mentor and collaborator, is the perfect foil, contributing his own blend of lyricism, heat, and harmonic depth. Also integral to the record’s success is the buoyant yet laid-back rhythm team of Scott Colberg, bass (Calexico) and RJ Miller, drums.

The album repays close attention for its subtle details while also rewarding listeners more attuned to moods than solos.

Blotnick has two acclaimed releases on Songlines (Music Needs You, 2007 and Everything Forgets, 2009) and a self-released solo guitar record (Solo, Volume 1, 2012) praised by the New York Times for its “intensely thoughtful design”.

After 10 years in New York he moved back to Maine in 2015 to give himself more space to deepen his connection to his playing, and began performing a weekly gig in a trio with RJ Miller.

They looked for ways to combine the aesthetics of ambient music (sampled loops and hypnotic grooves) and the more direct language of jazz. “When we were workshopping this music we were also playing RJ’s music (check out Ronald’s Rhythm on Loyal Label), and he was trying to break me out of a certain way of thinking. 

RJ wanted the music to simmer and just keep expanding as opposed to my natural inclination to sort of tell a succinct story and then step back. Alice Coltrane’s music (e.g. Journey in Satchidananda) is a great example of this – it doesn’t register as a series of solos and I think it has a lot in common with West African and possibly Indian classical music that way.

I think RJ’s playing on this record has a constant variation that is really hard to pull off the way he does it. The groove is always very much there even if he is playing all around it. I see it as an extension of what Paul Motian and Ed Blackwell have contributed to the music.”

Among the inspirations for Kush Blotnick cites guitarists Jacob Bro (“Lunenburg”), Ali Farka Touré (“May Day”) and Marc Ribot, Alice Coltrane (“Kush”, “May Day”), Billy Strayhorn (“Spring”), Wayne Shorter and Bill Evans (“Delaware”, “And Bright Snow”), Fela Kuti, and Niger’s most popular band Tal National (“DX7”). Ryan is a member of New York’s Akoya Afrobeat and has performed in South African saxophonist Duke Mseleku’s groups. 

“Afrobeat is an amazing synthesis of West African and African-American musics. Playing with Akoya put me deep in the rhythm section where I was stuck with one rhythm line for the whole twenty-minute song. At first it felt like jail time but after seven or eight years I found some freedom there! I guess the main thing with African music is that every style has its own rhythmic fingerprint that goes way beyond anything you could put down on paper.

When the music is passed down from generation to generation there is a subtlety about how to place accents and how to feel certain rhythms that gets lost in music that is passed down in writing…I always try to simplify my music to the point where it is memorizable – I also think it speaks to the audience more directly this way.” Lee Konitz is another mentor figure: “He tried to get me to think about where the note starts – does it start in the fingers? Or the heart? Or the brain? I didn’t really get what he was talking about at the time but I think I understand it better now…When Lee plays he lives and dies with each note but it is also not forced – it is very heavy yet still light at heart.”

As for the title: “Kush was a club in New York where I first met Michael Blake when I was sixteen, on my way to freshman orientation at William Paterson. He was playing with Ben Allison and Jeff Ballard and it really sent my friend Ned Ferm and me through the roof. Also, the bass line of ‘Kush’ is based on a middle-eastern rhythm [in 17/8] that Duncan Hardy showed me called “Khush Rank” – I thought that was an interesting coincidence.”

01. Kush

02. Lunenburg

03. May Day

04. Churchy

05. Delaware

06. And Bright Snow

07. DX7

08. Spring

Ryan Blotnick, guitar

Michael Blake, tenor and soprano sax

Scott Colberg, bass

RJ Miller, drums

Special guest: Jonny Lam, pedal steel (2)

All compositions by Ryan Blotnick

Bastien Picot en concert le 12 novembre @ La Maroquinerie en 1 ère partie de Bernhoft !

Trio Bobo - Pepper Games (NADIR MUSIC 2016)

Miscelando sonorità tipicamente jazz a rock/progressive e ritmiche afro e brasiliane, il Trio Bobo ha creato un sound unico e personale, ormai inconfondibile e, in più di quindici anni di intensa attività live, ha acquisito una fanbase affezionata che ne segue instancabilmente tutti i movimenti sia in Italia che all’estero.

01. Fast Boulitch

02. Sogno di Bub

03. Soona

04. Echapaya

05. James Bobo

06. Viagem para Norte

07. Wah Wah Termidor

08. Some Other Time (Electro@Remix)

09. Mbobo-Eh

10. James Bobo (Radio Edit)

Alessio Menconi - guitar

Faso - bass

Christian Meyer - drums

NADIR MUSIC

Tino Tracanna's Double Cut - Double Cut (2016)

Art Up Art

Ralph Peterson's Aggregate Prime - Dream Deferred (2016)

Since it was first published in 1951, Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem,” has been a source of awe and inspiration for generations of African American artists, notably Lorraine Hansbury, whose most famous play “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959), borrowed its title to enhance its theme of black families’ fraught and frustrated pursuit of the American Dream.

* * * * * * * * * * *

LANGSTON HUGHES, “Harlem”

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

* * * * * * * * * * *

Ralph Peterson-percussionist, trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator-has called upon Hughes’ iconic poem to give both title and theme to Dream Deferred, his 20th album as a leader and his sixth on his own label Onyx Music.  Dream Deferred is also the first to feature his new quintet, Aggregate Prime, comprising the powerful, all-star tandem of saxophonist/flutist Gary Thomas, guitarist Mark Whitfield, pianist Vijay Iyer, and bassist Kenny Davis.

“The album speaks to the question of that final question Langston Hughes asks in ‘Harlem’ and whether we as a society are close to answering it,” says Peterson. “The answer is already there in that if we don’t do the right thing, all of our hopes and dreams will explode.”


Peterson: “The ability of the sword to cut cleanly comes from what seems to be abusive extremes and that’s how we’re all tested by life. When life is heating up on you, your own tensile strength becomes more resilient until things cool down for a while before getting hot again. It’s these extremes that are ideal for stress test in strengthening metal…and your own mettle as well.”

1. Aggregate Prime - Iron Man

2. Emmanuel The Redeemer

3. Dream Deferred

4. Aggregate Prime - Monief Redux

5. Aggregate Prime - Father Spirit

6. Aggregate Prime - Fearless

7. Strongest Sword/Hottest Fire

8. Aggregate Prime - Queen Tiye

9. Aggregate Prime - Who's In Control

Ralph Peterson (d)

Mark Whitfield (g)

Kenny Davis (b)

Gary Thomas (ts/f)

Vijay Iyer(p)