Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Chika Tanaka + Tatsuya Sakurai - Waltz of May (July 2021)

1. Where or When 02:26
2. It Might as Well Be Spring 03:35
3. After You've Gone 03:04
4. Comes Love 03:37
5. My Romance 02:58
6. How About You 01:57
7. La Vie en Rose 02:07
8. Que Sera sera 03:23
9. Solamente Una Vez 02:23
10. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most 04:15
11. Waltz of May 03:35

Vocal: Chika Tanaka
Guitar: Tatsuya Sakurai

Recording studio: Big Orange sheep, Brooklyn, NY on May 31th, June 6th 2019
Engineered by Kevin Thomas
Mixed and mastered by Chris Benham
Art Direction & Design by Dan Ichimoto
Photography by Yoko Haraoka

Nicola Guida - Speleology (2021)

Firmly steeped in tradition yet audibly contemporary, 'Speleology' is harmonically and melodically rich, rhythmically virile, and focused on in-the-moment improv. The combination of abandon and control is exceptional throughout, and a convincing demonstration of Nicola's inventive writing and prodigious technique.

London-based pianist, composer and producer, Nicola Guida is considered as one of the most inspired Italian Jazz musicians of the new generation. A disciplined virtuoso and a genre-bending musician, Guida's style is both cerebral and underground.

1. Anamnesys 06:03
2. Event Horizon
3. Sycophant
4. Come Inside
5. Maximum Depth Is Its Surface
6. L'Espace Du Dedans
7. The Blade Sensei. Suite For A Suicide Shokunin (Feat. Greg Osby)
8. L'Espace Du Dedans (Koralle Redeux) [ONLY ON VINYL]

Nicola Guida - piano, synth, vox, compositions, arrangements, prod.
Eddy Cicchetti - double bass
Dario Panza - drums
Karnival Kid - rap
Francesco Fratini - trumpet
Greg Osby - alto sax

Davide Abbruzzese - recording
Davide Palmiotto - mixing
Emanuele Bossi - mastering

Jesse Draxler - artwork design
Luis Quiroz - layout project

Karolina Wielocha - photo shooting

Emma Johnson's Gravy Boat - Worry Not (July 2021)

Worry Not is the debut from Leeds based cinematic quintet, Emma Johnson's Gravy Boat.

Emma's writing is inspired by cinematic scores as well as a wide range of jazz from hard bop to modern tenor/guitar led quintets, and this combines to create compositions that evoke imagery and emotions for the listener. The album combines strong melodies with improvised sections that give each member of the group space to shine.

As an album, Worry Not tackles themes of stress and worry and the process of overcoming those things to find a sense of calm. The imagery uses a lake setting and various weathers as a parallel to the coming and going of these emotions and the whole album is a cathartic listening experience, inspired by a place where Emma is at her most worry-free.

Written after a house flood and on the brink of the pandemic, the album (and the year awaiting it's creation) encapsulate a process of having worries, acknowledging and dealing with them, and allowing them to wash away.

Worry Not is produced with thanks to Help Musicians, the Peter Whittingham Award and a whole host of brilliant Kickstarter backers.


1. Setting Sail
2. Vertical Planes
3. Fully Fledged
4. Interlude
5. Waterlogged
6. Hold Me Tight
7. Worry Not
8. Sun Stones

Saxophone & Compositions - Emma Johnson
Electric Guitar - Fergus Vickers
Piano - Richard Jones
Double Bass - Angus Milne
Drums - Steve Hanley

Tracks 1-7 Recorded by George Atkins at 80 Hertz Studios
Track 8 Recorded by Barkley McKay at Valley Wood Studios

Mixing Engineer - Tom Orrell
Mastering Engineer - Tim Thomas
Printing - Pure Music
Artwork - Or8 Design

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Wings Of An Angel - Crystalline Coldness Of Bygone Days (2021)

1. Be Careful Not To Trigger Civilizational Collapse With Your Phenomenal Indifference 15:23
2. All Art Is A Pure Deception Of The Unexplainable Propaganda Of Living 13:20
3. Questioning Your Entire Way Of Livelihood Is Like Being A Shepherd Who Cannot Survive On Fish Alone 16:00
4. Mediocre Beauty Is Everything That Normalizes And Stabilizes Regular People 14:40
5. Your Intermediate Existence Must Be An Opaque Illusion, Just Like Guessing Mathematically Improbable Tangential Allocations 12:54

Fabien Mary & Vintage Orchestra: "Too Short" (2021 jazz&people music)

Following "Left Arm Blues", an octet-recording acclaimed by the public and the critics, Fabien Mary continues to deploy his talents by extending them for the first time on the scale of a large orchestra. Drawing on the seasoned Vintage Orchestra, the most Parisian of all big bands, the trumpeter embarked on an impressive writing work from which emerged an entire original repertoire, in the great tradition of large-scale jazz. In "Too Short", the swing never gets the short end of the stick!

1. Too Short 06:01
2. The Fall 05:11
3. Sakura 07:14
4. One For Slide 08:22
5. D.P. (Song for Duke Pearson) 06:03
6. Like Thousands of Butterflies 02:22
7. Don't Look Back 05:57
8. Hell's Kitchen Blues 04:31
9. 402 04:00
10. To The Lighthouse 06:08

Music for Big Band Composed and Arranged by Fabien Mary

Trumpets: Erick Poirier, Julien Ecrepont, Fabien Mary, Malo Mazurié
Saxophones: Dominique Mandin (lead, as, flute), Olivier Zanot (as, cl), Thomas Savy (ts, bcl), Jean-François Devèze (bs,fl, cl)
Trombones: Michaël Ballue/Martin Berlugue, Michaël Joussein, Jerry Edwards, Didier Havet
Piano: Florent Gac
Double bass: Yoni Zelnik
Drums: Andrea Michelutti

Recorded by Bruno Minisimi
Mixed by Christophe Dal Sasso
Mastered by Jérémy Fach

Ein Gschlößl Pöschl mit Cavenati - Un altro, bitte ! (July 2021 Trouble In The East Records)

1. A Harvest of Friends 04:06
2. Otopis 06:58
3. Intuitive Regelung 05:19
4. Grammar III 04:54
5. Mi pequeño ciclón 07:14
6. More Open Form For Society 05:57
7. Eins Versus Zwei 02:21
8. Solo-Selbständiger! 04:35
9. Bull City 04:23

Recorded October, 23rd 2018 by Sebastian Maschat at Butterama Studios, Berlin.
Mixed/Mastered by Christian Betz (berlinaudio.de)
Graphic/Layout Design by Viola Binacchi
Coverartwork by Cristian Boffelli
Produced by Gschlößl, Pöschl, Cavenati

Antonis Anissegos - Free Radicals (July 2021 Trouble In The East Records)

1. Free Radicals 10 02:10
2. Free Radicals 19 04:54
3. Free Radicals 11 03:22
4. Free Radicals 18 01:47
5. Free Radicals 3 03:44
6. Free Radicals 4 01:06
7. Free Radicals 17 02:49
8. Free Radicals 6 01:11
9. Free Radicals 14 05:22
10. Free Radicals 1 01:39
11. Free Radicals 9 01:15
12. Free Radicals 13 03:49
13. Free Radicals 16 03:32
14. Free Radicals 2 09:09
15. Free Radicals 12 01:33
16. Free Radicals 5 01:48
17. Free Radicals 7 04:39
18. Free Radicals 15 01:22
19. Free Radicals 8 02:46

all music by Antonis Anissegos (www.enstase.com)
recorded in KM28, Berlin on june 12th 2020
mixed/mastered by Richard König
artwork/layout by Andreas Karaoulanis
produced by Antonis Anissegos
© 2021 Trouble In The East Records

Soul Supreme - SSR45/003​​004 (July 2021)

The swing hits different. No wonder, when one reinterprets productions by a man whose name also defines a complete “post-Dilla” era. Soul Supreme heads deep into his music. Technically pre-Dilla, even, as five out of six tracks on this double-donut are originally produced as Jay Dee. But let’s not waste this space on nerding over names.

After reworking songs by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest & Madvillain and passing those tests with flying colours, this double-45 feels like Soul Supreme’s ultimate thesis. Dilla revisioned the idea of ‘groove’ like no other. That—naturally—shines through in Soul Supreme’s playing on these records.

It’s the type of heartfelt tribute that puts a smile on your face. A keyboardist’s loose take on how Dilla approached sampling: pushing songs into new frontiers and reimagined compositions, with an exceptional ear for harmony. True to the original yet different.

“Out with the old, in with the new.” —Danny Veekens

1. Let's Ride 04:01
2. Runnin' 04:25
3. Feelin' Good 04:46
4. Officially in Love 02:10
5. Still Shining 01:41

US/CANADA/AUSTRALIA/NOT EUROPE: I can now do tracked shipping for an additional 3-4 euros (depending on location) - contact me if you are interested.

Monday, July 5, 2021

Futari: Taiko Saito / Satoko Fujii - Underground (July 2021)

Taiko Saito’s solo tracks are recorded by Volker Meitz, at his studio in Berlin, Germany 2018. Satoko Fujii’s solo tracks are recorded by Satoko Fujii at her home in Kobe, Japan in June, 2021.
Mixed by Satoko Fujii, and mastered by Taiko Saito.

1. Underground 04:52
2. Break in the Clouds 04:37
3. Memory Illusion 03:24
4. Frost Stirring 02:53
5. Asayake 04:38

Taiko Saito - vibraphone, marimba
Satoko Fujii - piano

Valerie Troutt - Lean on Me: Unpolished Mixtape 2021

The music from this mixtape was written, recorded, and produced by Valerie. it's unpolished and untouched by a professional sound person's ears. It's important to me to complete a work here and there that just comes directly from the source 💯 ... and this is it. So are you ready to lean in?

1. Lean on Love 03:02 video
2. "I am" Mantra 00:28
3. Black Like Me 03:33
4. Black Woman featuring Audacious IAM 03:28
5. In the light of love 03:57
6. We are here an RJ song 04:42

bojack - Here Me Now (2021)

Here Me Now is the first instalment of tracks from the back catalogue of Bojack jam sessions late 2020. Spontaneous concoctions in origin, adumbrating future compositions or simply chance digressions.

1. Superspreader 04:59
2. Diminishing Returns pt.1 01:39
3. Pili Pili 02:11
4. Metamodule 00:54
5. 924 02:23

Sax, Flute: Isaac Robertson
Drums: Ben Grose
Guitar: Omar Hirani
Keys: Jack Elliot Barton
Bass: Indigo Pearce

Ashley Wey - Hummingbird (July 7, 2021)

With three critically acclaimed albums to her credit, this will be Ashley Wey’s first album of primarily original music. Hummingbird is a genre bending album melding Jazz, Pop, Drum ‘n’ Bass, and Hip Hop. Wey seamlessly blends her roots in acoustic music and the jazz tradition with electronic influences, pop writing, and a modern edge.

This album brings together material written over a 15 year period including songs that have been waiting for the right combination of performers to bring them to life.

The album and title track’s namesake came from a backstage conversation with Lisa Fisher (Rolling Stones, 20 Feet From Stardom) when the Ashley Wey Trio opened for her in Victoria in 2018.
Ashley wrote a song inspired by the great Lisa Fischer for this show, and it was titled by Lisa Fischer herself! The title track Hummingbird was Ashley’s reflection of Lisa Fischer’s essence in her eyes.

Wey now continues to see Hummingbirds everyday from her studio window and pulls inspiration from this incredible strong little beautiful bird.

While Ashley continues to earn respect in the jazz world, her unique genre-bending sound is what sets her apart as she masterfully mixes jazz and pop, bringing virtuosity and unpredictability to songs that are concise and catchy. True expression.

Stay tuned for more from Ashley Wey coming soon.

2. Hummingbird
3. One More Day
4. Sunrise
5. Sterioso
6. Just Squeeze Me
7. Initially and Finally
8. Destiny
9. A Gift 08:20
10. A Definite Maybe

Ashley Wey - Piano, Rhodes, Synthesizers, Organ, Vocals, Producer, Album cover design
Louis Rudner - Upright Bass, Electric Bass, Co-Producer
Nicholas Bracewell - Drums and Cymbals

Joby Baker - Mixing and Mastering Engineer
Recorded September 2020
Mixed October 2020
Mastered November 2020

Michael A. Justice - Paths and Perspectives (July 2021)

Michael A. Justice, Multi-Genre Musician/Producer. Jazz, Hip-Hop, Funk, Blues, Trap, Lo-fi, Ambient, and Underground. All music written and recorded by yours truly. Follow me on Social and other Streaming Platforms Here
1. Little Things 05:02
2. Jet Stream 03:00
3. Left Drifting(Loose Ties) 06:24
4. The Mystery Remains 03:46
5. Blocks 03:01
6. Soul Coast 04:57
7. Night Shift Blues 04:28
8. Raku Sprites 03:49
9. BottleNecked 06:33
10. Ice Cold 03:48
11. Regrowth 04:36

Saturday, July 3, 2021

Jon Irabagon - Bird with Streams (July 2021)

The sounds of birds, deer, hikers, roaring rivers, slackliners, helicopters, motorcycles and semi-trucks.

The atmosphere morphing form the calmest, most picturesque day to torrential wind and hailstorms.

The peaceful meditation found from the utter chaos that led to this album.

My family escaped COVID-stricken New York City in March 2020, retreating to the in-laws' place in South Dakota. I started looking for a practice space away from Zoom conference calls and neighbors accustomed to a quiet life. I discovered Falling Rock-- a secluded canyon on the outskirts of town that offered peace, solitude, fresh air and an opportunity to work on innumerable musical ideas-- all with varying kinds of reverb as a backdrop, depending on where I chose to open the saxophone case that day. Our weeklong stay extended into a month, then eight. Thankfully, this ravine became my home away from home away from home, with unbound inspiration for composition, exploration, study and introspection to be-- in hindsight-- thankful for.

You have in your hands just one of the outcomes from these isolated experiments-- a work that would not have been made otherwise. Charlie Parker's centennial birthday came and went during my time at Falling Rock; his music, ideas and meaning were consistently bubbling up to the surface of my thoughts and practice. This album represents a fight against nature, both viral and atmospheric. Recording this album was my attempt to grow and learn while the world went haywire and lost its damn mind. Thank you for taking this journey with me, six feet away.

Jon Irabagon

1. Anthropology 01:32
2. Sippin' at Bells 03:27
3. Bebop 05:11
4. Ornithology 03:56
5. Now's the Time 04:03
6. Donna Lee 02:45
7. Hot House 04:23
8. B. Schwifty 05:29
9. Mohawk 03:11
10. KC Blues 03:10
11. Get Schwifty 01:36
12. Segment 03:22
13. Moose the Mooche 02:25
14. Blues for Alice 03:31
15. Quasimodo 05:42

Recorded in different locations in Falling Rock, South Dakota, at the edge of the Black Hills National Forest, over the late summer/early fall of 2020.

Produced, recorded and edited by Jon Irabagon

Mixed by Ben Rubin at House of Cha Cha, Brooklyn

All tracks by Charlie Parker (Atlantic Music Corp) except
Sippin' at Bells by Miles Davis (Screen Gems-- EMI Music Inc.),
Bebop by Dizzy Gillespie (Universal-- MCA Music Publishing),
Anthropology by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (Atlantic Music Corp/Music Sales Corp),
Ornithology by Charlie Parker and Benny Harris (Atlantic Music Corp),
Hot House by Tadd Dameron (WB Music Corp) and
B. Schwifty and Get Schwifty by Jon Irabagon (F Magellan Music, ASCAP)

The Zone - The Zone (July 3, 2021 STUDIO III RECORDINGS)

The Zone is a concept album written by Italian composer Daniele Del Monaco for a band of performers fom New York City who are usually affiliated with avant-jazz and free improvisation.

Through the interaction of the five musicians, guided by Del Monaco’s experimental sensibility on keys and sound generators, this recording turns out a unique and ambitious combination of Fay Victor’s urban jazz vocals, Marco Cappelli’s guitar, combining elements of classical music and free improvisation, the at times extreme dynamics of Satoshi Takeishi’s performance on the drums, and the virtuosity of bassist Ken Filiano.

Del Monaco’s radical approach to creating music is rooted in a slow process of working through a score with classical musicians and free improvisers, balancing meticulous compositions with the setting of parameters for free improvisation.
In his lyrics, Del Monaco appropriates the words of Persian poet and mystic Farid al-Din‘Attar’s epic ‘The Conference of the Birds’ and Andrei Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ to create a narrative in which the ideas and imagery of poets and philosophers interact. Byron, Keats, Diogenes, Thoreau and Buddha all meet within the framework of ‘Attar’s journey in search of truth and the Stalker’s journey through ‘The Zone’. The search for the mythical room within is capable of granting a person their innermost desires. The result is a set of seven songs filled with allusive and symbolic imagery, exploring the relationship between beauty and possession.

The majority of the album was recorded between 2018 and 2019 by Alessandro Benedetti in Rome, Italy. Benedetti tragically passed away before the sessions were finished, at which point Martin Bisi in Brooklyn, NY took over the recording work. The album’s journey then continued on to Sheffield UK, where it was completed and mixed by producer Thomas Lebioda for Studio III Recordings in 2020.

Throughout its development, a number of guest musicians have accompanied Del Monaco for live performances of The Zone: Blixa Bargeld, Theodosii Spassov and Marco Ariano joined the LCP Percussion Quintet in October 2014 for a first performance at Centro Campania in Caserta, IT. In November 2018, Marc Ribot joined the Band for a rendition at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, IT, organised and produced by RomaEuropa festival. 

1. A Loud Noise 11:05
2. Look At The Stalker 07:16
3. Into The Zone 05:28
4. We Are Lost 05:01
5. Seven Valleys 12:08
6. What Am I Doing Here 06:55
7. The Room 09:35

recorded by Alessandro Benedetti at Loadistrict, Rome, Italy
and by Martin Bisi at BC Studio, Brooklyn, NY
mixed by Thomas Lebioda at The Laundry Rooms, Sheffield, UK
mastered by Karsten Deutschmann at Gentle Art, Hamburg, Germany
lacquers cut by Noel Summerville, London UK

The Changes Sessions Vol.2 - La Gran Trompetada (July 3, 2021 The Changes Music)

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice:

- “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

Revelation 8:1-13 

1. El Corn de l'Abundància 03:50
2. In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee
3. Barry Harris
4. Propietat Intel·lectual
5. Pay Day
6. Warm Valley
7. Jeannine
8. The Last One

Side 1
EL CORN DE L’ABUNDÀNCIA (Oriol Vallès)
IN THE LAND OF OO-BLA-DEE (Mary Lou Williams)
BARRY HARRIS (Oriol Vallès)
PROPIETAT INTEL·LECTUAL (Oriol Vallès)

Side 2
PAY DAY (Pol Omedes)
WARM VALLEY (Duke Ellington)
JEANNINE (Duke Pearson)
THAT LAST ONE (Joan Casares)

Pol Omedes, Joan Mar Sauqué, Oriol Vallès - trumpet
Xavi Torres - piano
Giuseppe Campisi - upright bass
Joan Casares - drums

Recorded at Vertigo Studios el 12 de gener de 2021
Sound Engineer - Ferran Donatelli
Mix & Mastering - Quim ‘Kato’ Puigtió
Cover art - Joan Casares
Photography - Joel Codina

Riopy - Bliss (July 3, 2021 Warner Classics)

Riopy

Nouvel album Bliss

Sortie le 02/07/2021 chez Warner Classics

Dans la même lignée que Max Richter, Nils Frahm, ou Olafur Arnalds, Riopy impose ses mélodies inspirées et captivantes grâce à son jeu de piano hors norme.

Son univers musical lui a permis de toucher une très large audience à l’international à travers le cinéma, la télévision ou la publicité. Sa musique a des vertus physiques autant que mentale. La méditation et composer à cet effet est d'ailleurs un des moteur artistique de Riopy.

"Jouer du piano est un besoin physique et mental pour moi. Je crée toujours de la musique, et quand j'entends quelque chose dans ma tête, je dois le sortir et mon piano m'aide à le faire, combinant les notes jusqu'à ce que je trouve la mélodie parfaite."

A chaque clip, Riopy nous entraîne dans un nouveau voyage. Après Sky Opus Fire, Epiphany, et La Vernatelle, le pianiste nous mène avec Sweet Dream, nouvel extrait de l'album Bliss, dans un nouvel éveil aux frontières de l'inconscience.
Rejetant les artifices d’une musique sur-produite, leur préférant la pureté et la puissance d’un extraordinaire piano Fazioli, Riopy s’est inspiré pour cet album des héros discrets de la vie quotidienne. Il leur rend hommage avec une collection de miniatures qui laissent dans la mémoire de l’auditeur de profondes traces d’un calme et d’un bonheur sereins : le Bliss.

200 Millions… 200 millions de fois un être humain a pris le temps d’écouter un morceau de piano composé et joué par le pianiste français Riopy sur une plate-forme de streaming. Cette audience lui permet de se maintenir au top des meilleures ventes classiques aux Etats-Unis, comme en atteste Billboard depuis plusieurs mois, audience qui s’étend au monde entier et en particulier en Chine, où il s’est produit plusieurs fois.

Incarnation de la maxime selon laquelle nul n’est prophète en son pays ? Peut-être car s’il a signé des musiques pour des marques aussi prestigieuses qu’Armani, Samsung ou Peugeot, Riopy suit sa voie en dehors des sentiers battus, de toutes les écoles, et en marge du mouvement néo-classique dont il ne fait pas vraiment partie. Jaillie du cœur, forgée par sa pratique de la méditation, sa musique immédiatement visuelle et cinématique est reçue de par le monde comme une force réparatrice bienvenue dans la période que nous vivons, comme en atteste son titre Méditation 66 déployé avec un immense succès sur l’application Calm.

C’est l’histoire inouïe d’un artiste que le monde entier écoute mais que son propre pays connaît très peu que son nouvel album, Bliss, invite à découvrir.

Friday, July 2, 2021

Klaxon Gueule - Klaxon Gueule (​+​3) 2010 (July 2, 2021)

This album is a live multitrack recording of the concert Klaxon Gueule gave at l'Envers on November 5th 2010

1. impression d'enjambement 04:37
2. excroissances plâtreuses 04:30
3. PET-scan glucose 05:27
4. Ours Debout Raide 03:42
5. assouvissement BINGO 04:50
6. stupeur bras ballants 05:57
7. formes de vies non montrables en l'état 04:05
8. JUMP-cut hors jouissance 06:38

Klaxon Geule
Bernard Falaise, guitare électrique
Alexandre St-Onge, basse électrique & électronique
Michel F Côté, batterie

+

Jean Derome, sax alto, flûte, petits instruments (4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Ellwood Epps, trompette (4, 5, 6, 8)
Philippe Lauzier, clarinette basse, sax alto (4, 5, 7, 8)

Recording : Dom Girard
Mixing & mastering : Côté
Cover design : Michel & Fabrizio

UFO.Ω
© 2021, UFO.Ω (UFO.w67.p406)

David Boykin - Transolo (July 2, 2021)

Transolo

Solo explorations across time, space, and place from Potolo to the pyramids to Port-au-Prince to the projects to the penultimate
from the primordial to the present to the future infinite
from the cosmic to the diasporic
spanning across the earth (transglobal)
spanning across the omniverses (transomniversal)

A conversation between oneselves on two instruments
bass clarinet and drumset
Trading Fours
four corners of the earth/globe
four quadrants of space

1. Track 1 06:14
2. Track 2 07:41
3. Track 3 08:35
4. Track 4 08:36
5. Track 5 04:13

Kevin Hays / Ben Street / Billy Hart | "All Things Are" | CDs Available July 2 via Smoke Sessions Records

Kevin Hays, Ben Street, and Billy Hart
Collaborate on Strikingly Telepathic Performances,
Which Resonate Profoundly After Months of
Pandemic-Induced Isolation
Recorded in December 2020 at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club
to Commemorate Billy Hart's 80th Birthday

On June 4th, Smoke Sessions Records proudly releases All Things Are, a collaborative encounter between pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street and drummer Billy Hart. Performed on the bandstand of an otherwise empty Smoke Jazz Club, the album features seven pieces, six composed by Hays, who contributes three original melodies and three ingeniously crafted contrafacts of canonic standards.

The proceedings transpired on the first weekend of December 2020, when Smoke proprietors Paul Stache and Molly Johnson – who have made herculean efforts to sustain the club as a viable venue during the COVID-19 pandemic – booked the trio for two livestream concerts in celebration of Hart’s 80th birthday. “The setting and the circumstances were unique, and the guys were eager to play again,” Stache says. “The music was so incredible that we all thought we should cut a record from these tracks.”

These jazz all-stars from different generations, convening for the first time as a unit, achieved this sublime recital in an empty room, after a single rehearsal. That they were able to coalesce so fruitfully in this environment stems not only from their rarefied musicianship, but also mutual trust built on long-standing relationships.

Street’s been a first-call bassist for everyone who’s anyone in New York’s progressive jazz circles since the late 1990s, when he and Hays first intersected on a private gig at Ahmet Ertegun’s Long Island house. They’ve subsequently worked together with Kurt Rosenwinkel and other ensembles led by luminaries of their generational peer group. He’s played alongside Hart in Hart’s working quartet with Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner since 2006.

Hays – whose c.v. includes 16 albums as a leader, a host of collaborative duos and trios, and consequential side artist work with such luminaries as Eddie Henderson, Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, Chris Potter, and Roy Haynes (and an engagement at Smoke Jazz Club in March 2020 with Ron Carter and Al Foster that was attenuated by the onset of COVID restrictions in New York) – first played with Hart in 1987.

Then 18, Hays was in Madrid, on tour with [drummer] Tony Moreno, who brought him to a club where Hart was playing with Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach and Ron McClure. “Tony introduced me to Billy, and without skipping a beat, Billy said, ‘I’m curious about you. You want to play?’ It was an amazing experience. He didn’t know me, and he didn’t have to do that, but if you know Billy Hart, he does stuff that he doesn’t have to do.”
On All Things Are, Hart decisively imprints his personality on the flow. “It seemed like Billy was playing with Kevin like a singer, which inspired me to think of Kevin that way and guided everything,” Street says, perhaps thinking of Hays’ mid-career choice to showcase his considerable singer-songwriter chops on albums like the eponymous trio recital New Day (2015), the Hays-Lionel Loueke duo Hope (2017), and a duo with vocalist Chiara Izzi titled Across the Sea (2019).

Street continues: “Playing next to Billy, there’s a feeling that he’s searching again and again for this thing he already knows, that could be out of reach but is worth reaching for. This beautiful human drive is inspiring. It takes you out of the mundane self-judgment process of ‘am I playing well or not?’”

Hays concurs. “Every time I’ve played with Billy, it sounds like everything is freshly minted in that moment, even though, of course, there’s such history behind it,” he says. “He’s constantly listening and responding to you; there’s a tremendous amount of conversation going on.”

Hart regards All Things Are as an opportunity “to play with two of my favorite players.” He describes Street as “unique – my epitome of a contemporary bassist; what he takes as normal, I think is extraordinary.” He continues: “I love the way Kevin plays. I played with Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner and Richie Beirach, and I don’t use the word ‘love’ lightly. Kevin reharmonizes on that level, and I love his touch.”

Consider Hart’s remarks as you absorb Hays’ ingenious melodic formulations on the contrafacts “Unscrappulous” (“Scrapple from the Apple”), “All Things Are” (“All the Things You Are”) and “Twilight” (“Stella by Starlight”); or the lovely melody and beautiful chord changes of “Elegia” (which debuted on Modern Music, Hays’ two-piano recital with old friend Brad Mehldau) and “Sweet Caroline.”

Then consider how “the sound of surprise” suffuses this iteration of “New Day,” the anthemic leadoff track. “After we finish the head, we’re suddenly in outer space,” Hays says. “Ben somehow knew it was time to go somewhere else, and he stopped playing, then Billy took it – and we were off. I wouldn’t have expected it to go completely left. But at that moment, BOOM, this ‘big bang’ happened, and we now had to evolve.”

That telepathic interplay, which these exemplary improvisers perhaps might have regarded as their quotidian norm before COVID, resonated deeply after months-long pandemic-imposed isolation. “I’ve been practicing more than maybe ever, which I enjoy – but it’s me alone at home,” Hays says. “Perhaps I’ve improved, but I’d also fallen out of practice of playing with other musicians. For this date, I was excited to interact with other musicians again, that it wasn’t just me and my own musical thoughts.

“This is the way I like to play. As someone who loves improvisation, I do my best to not repeat myself. I like the unplanned and I tend not to be directive – these musicians already have a direction, which tends to be open. This isn’t a free trio; we’re not playing free jazz. But we’re playing with the tabula rasa spirit, with as little as possible figured out other than the bare bones.”

"All Things Are" was produced by Paul Stache and Damon Smith,
recorded live at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, NYC on December 4-6, 2020 and
mastered to ½” analog tape using a Studer mastering deck.

Kevin Hays, Ben Street, Billy Hart · All Things Are
Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: June 4, 2021

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