OUT TODAY: Composer / Pianist Cettina Donato's 'I SICILIANI' with Actor Ninni Bruschetta via AlfaMusic

Composer and Pianist Cettina Donato Joins Forces with Actor Ninni Bruschetta on New Album I SICILIANI, Honoring Poet Antonio Caldarella

Out May 14, 2021 via AlfaMusic

Italian pianist, conductor and composer Cettina Donato is proud to announce the May 14, 2021 release of her latest album, I Siciliani, featuring renowned actor Antonio ‘Ninni’ Bruschetta. Their second collaboration, this wondrous musical portrait of Sicily comes to life thanks to Donato and Bruschetta’s remarkable synergy and expansive musical vision. Featuring eleven of Donato’s expressive compositions, I Siciliani features the work of the late Italian poet Antonio Caldarella. This groundbreaking release will be available via AlfaMusic.

Cettina Donato is an internationally acclaimed classical and jazz pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. Her highly original work often blurs the lines between genres: from jazz to classical, and from symphonic music to theatrical music. For over a decade, she has led the Cettina Donato Orchestra, a full-size jazz big band with a string quartet, featuring musicians from all over the world. Across the ocean, in Italy, Donato is the only woman that conducts classical symphony orchestras performing a jazz repertoire while also contributing with her own arrangements. Donato has conducted the Bari Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Vittorio Emanuele Symphony Orchestra, the Lucca Jazz Orchestra, the Molfetta Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the New Talents Jazz Orchestra, among others. To date, Donato has released five albums including Persistency in 2017 (AlfaMusic) with renowned drummer Eliot Zigmund.

On I Siciliani, which has already received worldwide acclaim in Italy including a feature article in Gazzetta del Sud, Donato explores the work of the late poet Antonio Caldarella alongside legendary actor and writer Antonio Ninni Bruschetta. The Messina-born actor has directed over 40 theatrical works and has appeared in a plethora of film and television projects since the late 1980’s. Along with prominent television roles in Italy, he has known for his work in Visioni Private (1989), Boris (2007), To Rome With Love (2012), and Quo Vado?, which was the highest grossing Italian film in Italy in 2016. Bruschetta received the Tony Bertorelli Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

The pair’s previous theatrical collaboration came to pass in 2019 with “Il mio nome è Caino“, a production by Claudio Fava. While “Il mio nome è Caino” moved audiences with its emotional script and powerful musical performance, “I Siciliani” offers a new facet of Sicily; the poetic and literary kind.

The artistic inspiration for this project comes from the Strait of Messina, a common homeland for both Donato and Bruschetta, and geographically speaking, the narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily and the western tip of Calabria in the south of Italy. Antonio Caldarella, whose poetry inspired “I Siciliani”, crossed the same passageway throughout his life. Caldarella was a native of Avola in Sicily and raised between Naples, Messina and “the rest of the world.”

With Ninni Bruschetta’s brilliant interpretations, Caldarella’s poetry is brought to life on I Siciliani. Striking a balance between acting and singing, the album showcases Donato’s evocative compositions while bringing her love for large jazz ensemble back to the surface. The album, produced by the AlfaMusic label, is a suite of 8 songs and 3 preludes for piano, all composed, arranged and performed by Donato’s quartet with the assistance of the world class B.I.M Orchestra.

Joining Donato is saxophonist Dario Cecchini (Lee Konitz, Natalie Cole Band, Kenny Wheeler Hot Eleven, Funk Off, Paolo Fresu, Enrico Pieranunzi, Dave Liebman), double bass player Dario Rosciglione (Cedar Walton, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, Phil Woods, Tony Scott, Danilo Rea) and drummer Mimmo Campanale (Paolo Fresu, Bob Mintzer, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Randy Brecker, Dee Dee Bridgewater). Actress and singer Celeste Gugliandolo, who has appeared on X Factor Italia in 2011 with I Moderni, is a featured special guest on one track.

Ninni Bruschetta lends his voice to I Siciliani, after performing Caldarella’s poetry for years throughout the world. Bruschetta originally began staging the poetry of his friend Antonio Caldarella at small theaters in Sicily before it became a traveling show that consistently changed form.

“Poetry became song and these are our songs, or rather our stories,” Bruschetta reflects. “Cettina’s, mine, Antonio’s and AlfaMusic’s, all together; stories of jazz, poetry, alcohol and above all stories of love.” Now, this dynamic duo is giving us the opportunity to experience their stories through record — configurations of passion, quality, and expertise that continue to evolve each time they are recorded, performed, and listened to.

1. I siciliani (4:31)

2. Le siciliane (3:36)

3. Alcol (4:17)

4. Preludio N. 1 (2:56)

5. Amico fragile (4:05)

6. Amore segreto (5:55)

7. Preludio N. 2 (1:34)

8. Amuri miu (7:36)

9. Ninna nanna (3:53)

10. Vorrei nuotare (2:11)

Preludio N. 3 (Ghost track) (2:19)

All composed by Concetta Donato

Lyrics by Antonio Caldarella

Publishing: AlfaMusic Studio (Siae)

P&C 2021 AlfaMusic – All Rights reserved

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Wolfgang Lackerschmid - Summer Changes (May 14, 2021 Dot Time Records)

Summer Changes is the new album from legendary vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid. Recorded September 16 & 17, 2018 at the Traumraum Tonstudio, Augsburg, Germany, this new album comes on the heals of several recent Dot Time Records Legends releases that have featured Lackerschmid alongside trumpeter Chet Baker, including the critically acclaimed Quintet Sessions and Ballads For Two. Each track on Summer Changes was written and composed by Lackerschmid, with the exception of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Poinciana.” The tracklist exhibits a collection of 8 tunes that nod to the unique changing of seasons — the heat of the summer in particular — and a handful of sentimental memories for the artist, including a ballad for his mother.

Lackershmid’s arrangements on Summer Changes embrace feelings of reflection and nostalgia that are ignited by the seasonal change. Yet, the album is as much an homage to the past as it is a motive for the future. The 8 tracks on Summer Changes reveal a glimpse of the artist’s own understanding of time, and specifically, how he has chosen to contextualize his memories and experiences through harmony.

1. Half The Way 03:31

2. Summer Changes 05:11

3. Lemon Moon 06:26

4. Mother's Dream 05:45

5. We Ain't No Magicians 06:12

6. Rosemary's Baby 07:52

7. Poinciana 05:47

8. Stundenwalzer 10:04

Wolfgang Lackerschmid – vibraphone

Mark Soskin – piano

Jay Anderson – bass

Adam Nussbaum – drums

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Meredith d'Ambrosio - Sometime Ago (May 14, 2021 Sunnyside Records)

As quiet as it is kept, vocalist/composer Meredith d’Ambrosio has become one of jazz music’s most highly regarded storytellers and performers. Her artful approach to musical interpretation has been treasured by many and has inspired numerous fruitful collaborations. Her new recording, Sometime Ago, finds her working with two masters of song, pianist Randy Halberstadt and trumpeter Don Sickler.

For nearly five decades, d’Ambrosio has been quietly but steadily spinning out new work, sating aficionados and casual listeners alike. Her beautiful voice, piano touch and song craftsmanship have been championed by many. D’Ambrosio’s unique talent can be heard on the seventeen releases recorded over three decades for Sunnyside Records.

The vocalist passes piano duties to Halberstadt on Sometime Ago. Halberstadt is a well-known pianist, composer and accompanist from Seattle, Washington. He brings his ensemble, which includes the father and son rhythm team of bassist Daryl Johns and drummer Steve Johns, to propel this tremendous session of original music from Halberstadt’s and d’Ambrosio’s pens as well as their arrangements of standards.

Sickler contributes his trumpet and production talents to help shape the album. The ensemble met at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in October of 2019 to record the program.

Naturally, it is the music that stands out, as all of those involved are highly motivated to provide thoughtful interpretations of original and cover songs.

The recording begins with Halbertstadt’s longing filled “When Springtime Turns to Fall;” d’Ambrosio’s amber tone at home in the meditative and upbeat moments. The pianist and vocalist’s “Feast Your Eyes” is playful in its lyrics and modal development, while John Williams and Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s “Moonlight” is a laid back bossa reflection. Sickler’s warm flugelhorn introduces Sergio Mihanovich’s “Sometime Ago,” a coolly performed ballad featuring Daryl Johns’s fantastic solo bass work.

Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal’s blue “May I Come In” plays into a Chet Bakeresque subtle warmth in anguish. A bouncy take on “Ralph Rainger and Dorothy Parker’s “I Wished On The Moon” brings a sprightly feel, before Halberstadt and d’Ambrosio’s “My Open Heart” provides a heartbreaking song of love and loss.

Schertzinger and Mercer’s chestnut “I Remember You” is done in an upbeat swing, while d’Ambrosio’s “Oh Well, What The Hell” finds happiness in exasperation, Sickler’s fine muted trumpet a counterpoint to d’Ambrosio’s lines. The recording concludes with Rainger and Robin’s “If I Should Lose You,” a mid-tempo Latin piece that leaves listeners wishing for more.

A true master of mood and presentation, Meredith d’Ambrosio luxuriates in a meeting of bright collaborators on Sometime Ago. Randy Halberstadt and Don Sickler help to produce a balanced and emotionally varied work of art.

1. When Springtime Turns To Fall

2. Feast Your Eyes

3. In The Moonlight

4. Sometime Ago

5. May I Come In

6. I Wished On The Moon

7. My Open Heart

8. I Remember You

9. Oh Well, What The Hell

10. If I Should Lose You

Meredith d'Ambrosio - vocals

Randy Halberstadt - piano

Daryl Johns - bass

Steve Johns - drums

Don Sickler - flugelhorn (4) & muted trumpet (9)

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SINGLE from Ches Smith's Path of Seven Colors Out Today

The single "Here's The Light" from Path of Seven Colors – the exhilarating album from Ches Smith's We All Break – is out today, May 14. The full album is slated for release June 11, 2021 via Pyroclastic Records

Melding elements of Haitian Vodou and contemporary jazz, the groundbreaking 

album offers eight evolutionary/revolutionary tracks performed by a collaborative octet of world-class musicians including Smith, pianist Matt Mitchell, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Nick Dunston, vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene, and master drummers Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene.

Chris Potter Circuits Trio - Sunrise Reprise (14 May, 2021 Edition Records)

One of the most prolific improvisers of his generation returns with the follow up to his 2019 Circuits album: a powerful and cathartic record featuring keyboardist James Francies and drummer Eric Harland.

In Sept 2020, a small window emerged from the restrictions and saw an opportunity to record ‘Sunrise Reprise’ with his Circuits trio. It was the first time anyone in the group had recorded with other musicians in months, and for prolific musicians such as these, it resulted in an outpouring of collective creativity, energy, and spirit.

The session was a huge release from the build-up of tension over the previous months, as Chris explains; “All of a sudden we’re in the studio. It felt such a release, a sense of freedom to create and to express ourselves collectively. It’s this, that has been the central part of this album – it’s about the trio, our shared energy, reflecting our own thoughts and feelings from all that’s going on in the world. Eric, James, and I really needed to PLAY, to try to put into music all the intense feelings of the previous few months. The close bond we had developed playing this music together on the road led to what we felt as a cathartic musical experience in the studio, documented in one very special evening”. Chris Potter

1. Sunrise and Joshua Trees 5.41

2. Southbound 8.17

3. Serpentine 11.10

4. The Peanut 5.11

5. Nowhere, Now Here/Sunrise Reprise 24.27

Chris Potter - tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinets, flutes, sampler/keyboard

James Francies - piano, keyboards

Eric Harland - drums

Music composed by Chris Potter - Chris Potter Music (BMI)

Produced by Chris Potter

Executive producers Dave Stapleton and Louise Holland

Recorded by Josh Giunta at GSI Studios 19th September 2020

Mixed by Christopher Allen at Sear Sound 28th & 29th September 2020

Mastered by Huntley Miller at HM Mastering

Artwork design by Oli Bentley, Split

Photos by Dave Stapleton

Chris Potter plays D’Addario Jazz Select reeds, RS Berkeley flutes and Selmer saxophones.

James Francies is a Yamaha Artist, endorses Korg Keyboards and is an IWC Brand Ambassador. James Francies appears courtesy of Blue Note Records.

Eric Harland plays Sakae drums, Remo drumheads, Vic Firth sticks and Zildjian cymbals

Pre-Order Now!! Available as Limited Edition Coloured & Numbered Vinyl and CD

Formats Available:

– The first 200 LPs will be numbered

– All LP copies will be coloured

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Sun Ra & His Arkestra - Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Beyond Saturn) May 14, 2021

As live, late-1970s Sun Ra albums go, Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a cut above. It's similar to and contemporaneous with The Soul Vibrations of Man and Taking a Chance on Chances, two live sets also issued on Saturn in 1977 (and available in our remastered digital catalog).

Tape was not available, but we worked from a solidly transferred, clean 1977 Saturn LP (catalog #7877). As with many limited-release Saturn pressings, Somewhere Over the Rainbow offers exciting performances and solos preserved with dollar-store acoustics. Audio restoration can't add what the gear didn't capture—e.g., you can't "remix" the balance of instruments recorded with ad hoc mic placement—but these tracks here benefit from digital cleanup and sonic improvements (including phase correction, an issue with a number of Saturn releases).

This expanded Beyond Saturn edition includes two bonus tracks sourced from a stray tape from the original live 1977 dates. These tracks are not previously unreleased—they were previously and deliberately "misfiled" by the artist. That is, they were included on the A-side of a 1985 Saturn LP whose other content was unrelated.

The original 1977 release alternates four Sun Ra originals with three Tin Pan Alley favorites. It was during the 1970s that Ra began peppering his sets with Big Band-era standards, especially titles originally recorded by his heroes Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington. However, "Gone With the Wind," "Over the Rainbow," and "Take the 'A' Train" recur frequently in the career-spanning Ra discography.

Also of interest in this set is "I'll Wait for You," whose throbbing disco pulse prefigures the dance floor stylings pursued by Ra on his later albums Lanquidity, On Jupiter, and Sleeping Beauty.

The performances were recorded at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana. The discographic Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra (by Robert Campbell and Christopher Trent, 2nd ed. 2000) notes: "Michael Weiss says that the Arkestra played two nights at the Bluebird; each night consisted of two 3-hour sets. He recalls that 'the band paraded around playing "Lights on a Satellite" like on the Montreux album'. [Two] dancers were identified from two local newspaper accounts. These articles say there were 18 people in the band, and imply the presence of Pat Patrick and Vincent Chancey, plus a possible third drummer—none of them audible on these tracks. Weiss, however, is sure that Patrick and Chancey were not present."

The two bonus tracks, "Outer Reach Intensity-Energy" and "Cosmos Rendezvous," were first issued by Sun Ra on the 1985 LP known as Stars That Shine Darkly Vol. 2, and alternately called Outer Reach Intensity-Energy. There was no identifying information included with the release—typical of Ra during the 1980s, it was issued in a generic sleeve which may or may not have been adorned with hand-art and no info except track titles on the label. However, Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive found these tracks on a tape associated with the Bluebird dates.

1. We Live to Be 04:46

2. Gone with the Wind 02:47

3. Make Another Mistake 03:43

4. Take the 'A' Train 11:21

5. Amen Amen (Amen, Meni, Many Amens) 07:36

6. Over the Rainbow 07:33

7. I'll Wait for You 03:33

8. Outer Reach Intensity-Energy (bonus track) 03:53

9. Cosmos Rendezvous (bonus track) 04:19

Sun Ra: piano, organ, vocal

Ahmed Abdullah: trumpet

Akh Tal Ebah: trumpet, flugelhorn, vocal

Marshall Allen: alto sax, flute, percussion

Danny Davis: alto sax, flute, percussion

John Gilmore: tenor sax, timbales, vocals

Danny Ray Thompson: baritone sax, flute, percussion

James Jacson: bassoon, flute, Infinity Drum

Eloe Omoe: bass clarinet

ShooBee Doo [Reginald J. Fields]: bass

Tommy Hunter: drums

Luqman Ali [Edward Skinner]: drums

Atakatune: congas, percussion

June Tyson: vocals

Performers not heard:

Judith Holton [Wisteria el Moondew]: dancer

Cheryl Banks: dancer

Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 composed by Sun Ra © Enterplanetary Koncepts (BMI)

"Gone with the Wind" by Herb Magidson & Allie Wrubel © Bourne Co./Music Sales Corp. (ASCAP)

"Take the 'A' Train" by Billy Strayhorn © Billy Strayhorn Songs Inc./Reservoir Media Music (ASCAP)

"Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg © EMI Feist (ASCAP)

Tracks produced by Sun Ra

Tracks 1–6: Vinyl transfer by Timothy Stollenwerk from an original Saturn LP in the collection of Craig Koon

Tracks 7–9: Tape transfer by Michael D. Anderson, Sun Ra Music Archive

Digital audio restoration by Irwin Chusid

Cover reconstruction by I.C.

Recorded at the Bluebird, Bloomington, IN, ca. July 18, 1977

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Susan Alcorn / Leila Bordreuil / Ingrid Laubrock - Bird Meets Wire (May 14, 2021)

Ingrid Laubrock is a saxophonist/composer based in Brooklyn since 2009. Laubrock is interested in exploring the borders between musical realms and creating multi-layered, dense and often evocative sound worlds. Laubrock has worked with Anthony Braxton, Mary Halvorson, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Tim Berne, Muhal Richard Abrams and many others

1. Area 41

2. Bird Meets Wire

3. Is Is Not

4. Topology

5. Cañones (El Pueblo Unido)

6. The Fourth World

7. Indigo Blue (Wayfarin' Stranger)

Susan Alcorn pedal steel

Leila Bordreuil cello

Ingrid Laubrock tenor and soprano saxophone

All compositions by Alcorn/Brodreuil/Laubrock except Wayfarin' Stranger (Public Domain) and El Pueblo Unido (Public Domain)

Recorded by Colin Marston at The Thousand Caves, April 1 2018

Mixed by Susan Alcorn

Mastered by Ed Tretault

Executive Producer: Kevin Reilly

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MOBA: The New Project of Angelo Mastronardi out on May 14, 2021 (GleAM Records)

GleAM Records is proud to announce the release of M.O.B.A.,the new musical project by producer and pianist Angelo Mastronardi, available on CD and digital download / streaming from 14 May 2021.

In this new work, pianist and producer Angelo Mastronardi seeks a new balance between the interaction of the piano trio formed by Paolo Romano(electric bass), Gianluca Aceto(semi-acoustic bass) andPaolo Colazzo(drums) and the tonal possibilities offered. by electric instruments and synthesizers, played by the leader Angelo Mastronardi (piano, fender rhodes & synth) and by the beatmaker Bonbooze(synth & drum machine), together with the winds played by Emanuele Coluccia(alto and tenor saxophone) and by Marco Gianfreda (trumpet).

The pianist starts from seven of his compositions and involves the musicians in a process of sharing ideas and arrangements. The result is a music that perfectly blends writing and extemporaneousness. A research that goes further to redesign the idea of ​​structure and bring together different languages ​​in a new form. Ultimately an aesthetic manifesto of the GleAM label and its more transversal editorial line.

1. Here and Now

2. GleAM

3. Beyond Sight

4. From Z to A

5. No Walls

6.Far is Around The Corner

7. Know The Way

8. Five Drops

9. River

Angelo Mastronardi - piano, fender rhodes, synth

Emanuele Coluccia – alto sax (track 2,5,7), tenor sax (track 5)

Marco Gianfreda - trumpet (track 2)

Bonbooze – synth (1,2,4,5,7) drum machine (track 1)

Paolo Romano – electric bass (tracks 4, 5, 6, 8)

Gianluca Aceto – semi-acoustic bass (track 2)

Paolo Colazzo – drums & percussion (all tracks except track 1)

Recorded on november 2020 at GleAM Studio (Lecce)

Mixed & Mastered on dicember 2020 at MDLab Studio Lecce

Sound Engineer: Marco D’Agostinis

Produced by GleAM Records

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Missa Jazz from B-Side Band (May 14, 2021 Big Round Records)

Since its inception in 2006, the B-Side Band has become the premiere professional big band in the city of Brno in the Czech Republic. Now, under the direction of bandleader Josef Buchta, the band presents its newest album: MISSA JAZZ. In this latest work, the B-Side Band is joined by Chamber Orchestra Brno and the Ars Brunensis chamber choir; together, they perform Jaromír Hnilička’s Missa Jazz. As its name suggests, the work is a complete Mass, and the score for its first iteration is held at the Vatican Library. Now, the original composition has been expanded to include a chamber orchestra and several new choral parts, resulting in a total reimagining of the work. First debuted in the fall of 2008, this album is the first-ever studio recording of the final expanded version of the Missa Jazz.

1 Preludium  3:48

2 Introitus  5:36

3 Kyrie  10:21

4 Gloria  4:53

5 Graduale  5:59

6 Omnes gentes iubilate Deo  3:03

7 Credo  3:20

8 Sanctus  0:57

9 Pater Noster  1:27

10 Interludium  2:43

11 Agnus Dei  1:19

12 Communio  3:02

13 Postludium  3:57

B-SIDE BAND

trumpet

Josef Buchta bandleader

Lukáš Koudelka

František Adamík

Juraj Bartoš (solo flugelhorn 2, solo trumpet 4, 13)

trombone

Petr Hnětkovský (solo 4, 5)

Martin Henek

Pavel Semek

saxophone

Pavel Zlámal  tenor (solo 2, 4, 13), baritone (solo 3)

Petr Kovařík  tenor

Antonín Mühlhansl  alt

Lubor Pokluda  baritone

Jiří Kalousek  guitar

Tomáš Vunderle Koudelka double bass

Richard Mlynář  piano

Petr Ptáček  drums

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA BRNO

Pavel Wallinger, Maria Filová, Irena Hůrková, Jan Vašta  violin I

Leoš Zavadilík, Filip Kostelecký, Jan Rybka, Marie Pšenicová  violin II

Tomáš Kulík, Petr Pšenica  viola

Pavel Šabacký, Libor Kučera violoncello

Michal Pokorný  contrabass

Jan Ondruš  oboe

Martin Sobol  flute

Karel Hofmann, Miloš Kovařík  french horn

Pavel Sapák, Jiří Klement  clarinet

Jan Říhák  timpani

Alžběta Horská  harp

ARS BRUNENSIS

Dan Kalousek  choir master

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Matthew Halpin - Agreements (May 14, 2021)

When I first put on Matthew’s record, I felt like a kid again—lying on the floor of the living room, dreading the moment when a song would end. Matthew and his band of musicians—Kit Downes on organ, Hanno Busch on guitar, Sean Carpio on drums, and Sergio Martinez on percussion—embody present, past, and future. They expand and contract, maneuver past impossible hairpin turns, and interact with kaleidoscopic intricacy.

The result is a glimpse into Halpin’s vertiginous inner life. On “Dancing with the Devil,” Downes’s organ shrieks above the fray as the band builds into a Boschian orgy. On “To Do,” the same organ paints planar surfaces and hallucinatory shapes, weaving a retrofuturist fugue state in the song's second half. Martinez and Carpio propel “The Beach'' forward with a groove at once relentless and weightless, scintillating like the light that reflects off the water on a perfect summer’s day. In “Treetown,” Halpin and Busch’s electroacoustic bird calls remind me of the Brooklyn mockingbirds that have learned to imitate car alarms: nature adapting to technology. The track recedes like the natural world it represents, increasingly silent in the wake of destruction.

1. To-Do Today, To-Do Dismay

2. Dancing with the Devil

3. Dog Day Afternoon

4. The Beach

5. Swings and Roundabouts

6. Sit Up and Shut Down

7. Awkward Handshakes

8. Pop Fiction

9. Treetown

10. Sigh For Sam

11. Sleep

Matthew Halpin - tenor saxophone, composition

Kit Downes - hammond organ

Hanno Busch - electric guitar

Sergio Martinez - percussion

Sean Carpio - drums 

Veronika Morscher, Rebekka Salomea Ziegler, Laura Totenhagen - voices on “Sleep"

Recorded at Riverside Studios, Cologne

Engineered by Julian David

Mixed and mastered by Oliver Bergner

Artwork by Janet Cruise Halpin

Graphic design by Daniel F. Hirth

Released with Frutex Tracks

Distribution by Hey!Blau

Supported by Generations Jazz Festival and SRF

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Ahmed Warshanna - Ishta ( May 14, 2021)

Some records come to the world at their appointed moment. The heat of the contextual social atmosphere is particular enough to make us call that music “urgent” or “essential.” Those records attain musical truth via their time and place, relying on external factors to deepen their beauty. There is no shame in this, but pride and joy at crystallizing history beyond the boundaries of language.

Ishta, this debut EP from guitarist Ahmed Warshanna, is not that. Rather, this EP comes of its own accord. It is a breath of fresh air.

The five tracks on Ishta are a musical journey that could have been released at any point in the last half century and would still contain the same multitude of musical truths that they do today. By shrugging off temporal burdens, Ishta demands relevancy across historical contexts. This music necessitates itself.

Though this music is steeped in timelessness, it is not at all unmoored. Ahmed’s music is, rather, centrally grounded by its physical occupation in the world as a dual citizen of both Egyptian and American musical tradition. Place is an exploration of self. This music proves that.

Here is a call to search for meaning in the diasporic, to center ourselves at the intersections of inner-identities that can be disparate and otherwise opposed. With this music, the chains of heritage do not bind and arrest, but are jewelry, and liberate the spirit through a celebration of its weighted beauty.

1. Inty Omry – Ahmed Warshanna (9:33)

2. Alf Leila - Ahmed Warshanna (9:13)

3. Samaka – Ahmed Warshanna (6:58)

4. Azra’ – Ahmed Warshanna (8:24)

5. Intisar – Ahmed Warshanna (9:39)

Guitar, Ahmed Warshanna

Trumpet, Hart Guonjian-Pettit

Tenor, Saxophone Dominic Ellis

Trombone, Daniel Sperlein 

Piano, Josh Miller

Bass, Thomas Owens

Drums, Charlie Seda

Record Label: Tiber River

Recorded and Mixed By: Noah Maruyama 

Mastered By: Alan Wonneberger

Production Coordination: Alan Wonneberger, Matt Belzer, Tom Lagana

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Nick Kerkhoff Quartet - Here and Now (May 14, 2021)

1. Here and Now

2. Intro

3. Almada

4. Last Train Home

5. Could Have Been You

6. Siluae

7. Could Have Been You (Reprise)

8. Leaves

9. The Voice of a New Generation

George Panaite – drums

Emanuele Pellegrini – piano

Jesse Schilderink – saxophones

Nick Kerkhoff – bass

All compositions written by Nick Kerkhoff

Recorded on August 25, 2020 at Fattoria Musica, Germany

Recording – Steffen Lütke

Mixing – Udo Pannekeet at Wedgeview Studios, The Netherlands

Mastering – Nathan James at Vault Mastering, U.S.A.

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Brian Donohoe - Soundtracks For Trying Times (2021)

This album, which was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, started as kind of an accident. I was initially trying to make an album of ambient electronic music, drawing inspiration from artists like Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, and soundtrack composer Adam Lastiwka, but it turns out I’m not patient enough to make an album like that. The music morphed into the record that I had been trying to make for over a dozen years, since I first started learning how to record and produce my own tracks: it’s my collision of Wayne Shorter, the Postal Service, the Legend of Zelda, and every cartoon soundtrack of the 1980s that burned its way into my childhood brain.

The pandemic caused significant financial hardship for everyone who makes a living in the performing arts. But the isolation, the inability to play or hang with creative friends, quickly became even more painful. As my attempt at an ambient electronic album transformed into a stack of complex electro-jazz-funk-rock tunes (as, you know, happens) it dawned on me – largely thanks to the advice of my brilliant wife – that this was an opportunity to involve my friends in the process. We were forced onto new avenues of remote collaboration that led to something better than anything I could have planned.

Seven of these eleven tracks feature musicians I love and respect a great deal. We were able to collaborate thanks to the technological advances in music and communications over the last two decades: having been stripped of our ability to make money performing live, we’ve learned how to be our own recording engineers and send each other bulky high-resolution audio files. Every musician who contributed to this album is also credited as a composer and engineer.

The past year has been the most challenging in living memory for most people in the developed world. Working on this album, using it as a chance to collaborate with some of the best people I know, made it significantly better for me. I hope it can be a useful soundtrack for some trying times in your life, like it’s been for mine. 

1. Good Evening Thank You 02:24

2. Ninety-Nine 05:27

3. Temple In The Trees (feat. Carter Arrington) 05:56

4. More Salt (feat. Darius Christian) 05:04

5. Slacker Sauce (feat. Chris McQueen) 04:28

6. Disaster Area (feat. Brandon Scott Coleman) 04:36

7. Princess Grumpy 05:07

8. Maze (feat. Nick Clark) 04:52

9. The Icy Aftermath 03:20

10. Bright (feat. Akira Ishiguro) 05:32

11. Time To Rebuild (feat. Matt Muehling) 04:54

Brian Donohoe: alto and tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, keyboards, synthesizers, electric bass, electric guitar, acoustic and electronic percussion, composer, producer, recording engineer

Carter Arrington: electric guitar, composer, and recording engineer on “Temple In The Trees”

Darius Christian: voice, trombone, composer, and recording engineer on “More Salt”

Chris McQueen: electric guitar, composer, and recording engineer on “Slacker Sauce”

Brandon Scott Coleman: electric guitar, composer, and recording engineer on “Disaster Area”

Nick Clark: electric bass, Moog synthesizer, composer, and recording engineer on “Maze”

Akira Ishiguro: electric guitar, composer, and recording engineer on “Bright”

Matt Muehling: electric guitar, composer, and recording engineer on “Time To Rebuild”

Jared Stone: visual artwork and layout design

Recorded between March 2020 and February 2021 in Austin TX, Brooklyn NY, Cincinnati OH, and London England

Mixed and mastered by Brian Donohoe at Tied At 54 Studios in Austin, Texas

Pre-order

NEC’s Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients

New England Conservatory Announces 2021 Speaker 

and Honorary Degree Recipients for its 150th

Commencement Ceremony

Commencement Speaker

Mavis Staples, gospel and soul singer

Receiving Honorary Degrees:

Carl J. Atkins, Founding Chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department

Emanuel Ax, pianist

Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic 

Wu Man, pipa virtuoso

Mavis Staples, gospel and soul singer

150th Annual Commencement Exercises to be held on May 23, 2021 and streamed on NEC’s website

Streamed Pre-Commencement Concert Will Showcase Graduating NEC Students from the Classes of 2020 and 2021 on May 22, 2021

New England Conservatory announces gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples as its 150th annual commencement speaker at its commencement exercises on Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. ET. The ceremonies will take place in historic Jordan Hall and be streamed on NEC’s website (necmusic.edu). NEC will also bestow honorary Doctor of Music (hon. D.M.) degrees on five distinguished musicians: Carl J. Atkins, Founding Chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department; Emanuel Ax, classical pianist; Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic; Wu Man, pipa virtuoso; and Mavis Staples.  

 

Ms. Staples will give her virtual commencement address to the combined graduating classes of 2020 and 2021.

 

“We’re thrilled to celebrate NEC’s Classes of 2020 and 2021 at our 150th commencement ceremony,” says NEC President Andrea Kalyn. “The past year has tested us all, and I am especially proud of our NEC graduates, who have prevailed in developing and sharing their artistry—whether streaming a concert from their home or from Jordan Hall, performing private virtual concerts for COVID patients, or teaching online lessons to front-line workers. They advance humanity through their music, and I am excited to see the impact they will have on the broader world.” 

 

This year’s recipients are honored for their lifelong commitment to the performing arts and their remarkable contributions to the field. Recent past recipients include: Jessye Norman (2019); Herbie Hancock (2018); André Previn (2017); Leonard Slatkin, (2016); Ahmad Jamal (2015); Carla Bley (2014); Philip Gossett (2013); George Shirley (2012); Steve Reich (2011); and Quincy Jones (2010). Full list of past Honorary Doctor of Music Degree recipients here. 

 

190 graduating students from the classes of 2020 and 2021 will be awarded degrees and diplomas including the Bachelor of Music, Graduate Diploma, Master of Music, Doctor of Musical Arts, and Artist Diploma.

 

A pre-Commencement streamed concert will showcase NEC students from the graduating classes on May 22, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Further details will be announced on the NEC website in advance of the performance.

Honoree Biographies

Carl J. Atkins, Founding Chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department

In a career that spans more than 50 years, Carl Atkins has been a woodwind specialist, conductor, composer, ethnomusicologist, administrator, consultant, and teacher, in both “Jazz” and Western European music. A native of Birmingham, AL, Atkins received a Bachelor of Music in woodwinds from the Indiana University School of Music, a Master of Music in conducting from New England Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. His major teachers were Eugene Rousseau, Joseph Allard, and Harry Houdeschel in woodwinds; Frank Battisti, Gunther Schuller, Donald Hunsberger, and David Effron in conducting; Robert Cogan, Gunther Schuller, George Russell, David Baker, and Samuel Adler in composition; and master drummer/dancer Kwaku K. Obeng in West African music. 

Atkins has performed on saxophone, clarinet, and flute, and as a conductor, with many noted musicians and organizations including Gunther Schuller, George Russell, pianist Bill Evans, Jaki Byard, William Thomas McKinley, and Herbie Hancock; the American National Opera Co., the Boston Opera Co., Boston Musica Nova, the Columbus (Ohio) Pro Musica, the Swedish Radio Jazz Orchestra, and Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.  

As a composer, Atkins has written music for solo artists, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, and documentary films. His research into West African and African American music and culture was the basis for the script of the award-winning documentary, “Didn’t We Ramble On: Tracing Processionals and Marching With Music in the African Diaspora.” He has recently completed the musical score for a documentary on the August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh, PA.

Atkins was the Founding Chair of the Afro-American Studies and Jazz Department at New England Conservatory, where he also taught woodwinds, African American Music History, and conducted jazz and wind ensembles. He has served as President & Executive Director of the David Hochstein School of Music and Dance (Rochester, NY), President of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Co-Director (with noted Jazz bassist Ron Carter) of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at NEC, Associate Dean for Advanced Studies at NEC, and taught courses in Music History. From 2002 to 2018, Atkins was Professor of Music at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, where he served as Chair of the Department of Performing and Visual Arts from 2012 to 2018. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 2018. 

Emanuel Ax, pianist

Born in modern day Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

 

Highlights of the 2019/20 season included a European summer festivals tour with the Vienna Philharmonic and long-time collaborative partner Bernard Haitink, an Asian tour with the London Symphony and Sir Simon Rattle and three concerts with regular partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall in March 2020.

 

Additional recitals and orchestral appearances last spring were postponed due to Covid-19 and like many artists around the world, Mr. Ax responded to these unprecedented circumstances creatively. He hosted “The Legacy of Great Pianists,” part of the online Live with Carnegie Hall highlighting legendary pianists who have performed at Carnegie Hall. Last September, he joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a series of surprise pop-up concerts for essential workers in multiple venues throughout the Berkshires community.

 

Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, his most recent being Brahms Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Leonidas Kavakos. He has received GRAMMY® Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004/05 season Mr. Ax contributed to an International EMMY® Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano).

 

Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, Yale University, and Columbia University.

Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic

Deborah Borda has redefined what an orchestra can be in the 21st century through her creative leadership, commitment to innovation, and progressive vision. She became Linda and Mitch Hart President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic in 2017, returning to the Orchestra’s leadership after serving in that role in the 1990s. Upon her return, the Orchestra established a new vision that included the introduction of two contemporary music series and Project 19, the largest-ever women composers’ commissioning initiative, to celebrate the centennial of American women’s suffrage. Ms. Borda has held top posts at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She currently also serves as Chair of the Avery Fisher Artist Program.

 

The first arts executive to join Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership as a Hauser Leader-in-Residence, she now serves on Oxford University’s Humanities Cultural Programme Advisory Council. Recipient of honorary doctorates from the Curtis Institute of Music and Manhattan School of music, her recent accolades include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2018), being named a Woman of Influence by the New York Business Journal (2019), and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Women in Classical Music Symposium (2020). 

Wu Man, pipa virtuoso

Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso, Wu Man is a soloist, educator, and composer who gives her lute-like instrument—which has a history of more than 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. She has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create global awareness of China’s ancient musical traditions. Projects she has initiated have resulted in the pipa finding a place in new solo and quartet works, concertos, opera, chamber, electronic, and jazz music as well as in theater productions, film, dance, and collaborations with visual artists. She has performed in recital and with major orchestras around the world, is a frequent collaborator with ensembles such as the Kronos and Shanghai Quartets and The Knights, and is a founding member of the Silkroad Ensemble. She has appeared in more than 40 recordings throughout her career, including the Silkroad Ensemble’s Grammy Award-winning recording Sing Me Home, featuring her composition “Green (Vincent’s Tune).” She is also a featured artist in the 2015 documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. 

 

Born in Hangzhou, China, Wu Man studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she became the first recipient of a master's degree in pipa. At age 13, she was hailed as a prodigy and became a nationally recognized role model for young pipa players. She subsequently received first prize in the First National Music Performance Competition, among other awards, and participated in premieres of works by Chinese composers. She moved to the U.S. in 1990 and was awarded the Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University in 1998. She was the first Chinese traditional musician to receive the United States Artist Fellowship (2008) and the first artist from China to perform at the White House. In 2013, she was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year. She is a Visiting Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a Distinguished Professor at the Zhejiang and the Xi'an Conservatories.

Mavis Staples, gospel and soul singer

“I’m the messenger,” Mavis Staples says. “That’s my job—it has been for my whole life—and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”

 

Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She’s both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer; a civil rights icon; a GRAMMY Award-winner; a chart-topping soul/gospel/R&B pioneer; a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient; and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, and sang in Barack Obama’s White House.

She’s collaborated with everyone from Prince and Bob Dylan to Arcade Fire and Hozier, blown away countless festivalgoers from Newport Folk and Glastonbury to Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, performed with The Band at The Last Waltz, and graced the airwaves on Fallon, Colbert, Ellen, Austin City Limits, Jools Holland, the GRAMMYs, and more. At a time when most artists begin to wind down, Staples ramped things up, releasing a trio of critically acclaimed albums in her 70’s with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy that prompted Pitchfork to rave that “her voice has only gained texture and power over the years” and People to proclaim that she “provides the comfort of a higher power.” Staples’ most recent album We Get By, written and produced by Ben Harper, is a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy and is a timeless appeal to the better angels of our nature.

HARVARD BOOK STORE PRESENTS A Virtual Event: David Sulzer Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music

HARVARD BOOK STORE PRESENTS

A Virtual Event:

David Sulzer Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music

Friday

May 14, 2021

7:00 PM ET

Location

Join our online event (or pre-register) via the link in the event description.

Tickets

Free - $5 contribution suggested at registration

About Music, Math, and Mind

Why does a clarinet play at lower pitches than a flute? What does it mean for sounds to be in or out of tune? How are emotions carried by music? Do other animals perceive sound like we do? How might a musician use math to come up with new ideas?

This book offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music in a way that readers without scientific background can follow. David Sulzer, also known in the musical world as Dave Soldier, explains why the perception of music encompasses the physics of sound, the functions of the ear and deep-brain auditory pathways, and the physiology of emotion. He delves into topics such as the math by which musical scales, rhythms, tuning, and harmonies are derived, from the days of Pythagoras to technological manipulation of sound waves. Sulzer ranges from styles from around the world to canonical composers to hip-hop, the history of experimental music, and animal sound by songbirds, cetaceans, bats, and insects. He makes accessible a vast range of material, helping readers discover the universal principles behind the music they find meaningful.

Written for musicians and music lovers with any level of science and math proficiency, including none, Music, Math, and Mind demystifies how music works while testifying to its beauty and wonder.

Praise for Music, Math, and Mind

"If you ever suspected that musicians belonged to a secret society, this is the book that blows the mysteries wide open. Using a potent cocktail of math, physics, history, biology, and neurology, Dave Sulzer explains why music is the medicine most of us can’t live without. This is a book written for the initiate and the noninitiate about the universal way sound and music connect us, both human and nonhuman." —Peter Gabriel, singer-songwriter, musician, and activist

"Dave Soldier’s excellent book turns into an encyclopedia of our tonal imagination as it catalogues the nefarious passion that gives our creativity its edge." —John Cale, songwriter, composer, performer

"If you think you love music as much as you possibly could, think again. Music, which is so hard to define, and which connects to everything, has yet to reveal every level of its joy to you. This book will help you experience music as an animal, a neural pathway, or a mathematical principle." —Jaron Lanier, writer, computer scientist, and musician

sulzerlab.org