here is a complete performance (by popular demand) in 4 parts...mixed in with pictures I took using slightly higher production value in the sync department (matching pictures to the performance) i hope you enjoy the extra work I put into this one. not a lot of work mind you....just a couple extra keystrokes. the recording is the important part. this was the finale concert for the brotzmann 70th bday celebration at the vision festival this year. everybody should go to the vision festival once in their lifetime....or in my case 10 straight times in my lifetime (from 2002-this year!). i like music.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
DAVE KING'S TRUCKING COMPANY - Artists Quarter - St. Paul, MN - 7/30/11
Haven't been to a show in 2 weeks (a world record!). here are a couple songs from dave king's trucking company with chris speed in from nyc last night. rock!
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Friday, July 22, 2011
PETER BROTZMANN / JASON ADASIEWICZ - Abrons Art Center - Vision Festival - NYC, NY - 6/8/11
This was a premiere performance at the Vision Festival of a duo with Peter Brotzmnan & Jason Adasiewicz. It turned out to be the best set of the night (even with the crazy show later in the night with Vandermark & Mars Williams!). Jason plays the vibes like a rock star and beats the hell out of them in a variety of ways. He actually makes the vibes interesting which I never thought was possible!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
DAVE KING'S TRUCKING COMPANY - Nicollet Mall - Dakota Street Festival - Minneapolis, MN - 7/16/11
The Dakota had their 2nd annual street festival this afternoon....on a day when it felt like 100 degrees. On his off days from playing with the bad plus Dave King plays in town with a few different bands...this being one of the best ones.
David King (born June 8 1970) is a drummer/ composer from Minneapolis Minnesota. He is best known for being a founding member of the jazz groups The Bad Plus (with Reid Anderson and Ethan Iverson) and Happy Apple (with Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke) although he is active in many other projects including free jazz collective Buffalo Collision with NYC "Downtown" legends Tim Berne and Hank Roberts and the electronic art/pop group Halloween Alaska as well as the noise/prog band The Gang Font with former Husker Du bassist Greg Norton.
In March 2010 King formed two new ensembles to debut at a 2 night concert celebration of his work held at the renowned Walker Art Center called The Dave King Trucking Company (with Chris Speed and Brandon Wozniak on tenor saxes, Erik Fratzke on guitar and Adam Linz on bass) and Golden Valley Is Now (with Craig Taborn on keyboards and Reid Anderson on bass and electronics). Both ensembles plan on recording in 2011. King also released a solo record titled "Indelicate" in 2010 on the Sunnyside label where the drummer plays duets with himself on piano aided by overdubbing in the studio.
He has also recorded and or performed with Dewey Redman, Jeff Beck, Boots Reilly, Dead Prez, Bill Carrothers, Anthony Cox, Atmosphere, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jef Lee Johnson, Beniot Delbec, Django Bates, Meat Beat Manifesto, Craig Taborn's Junk Magic, Tchad Blake, Tony Platt, Mason Jennings, Haley Bonar, Wendy Lewis, Chris Morissey, Ursus Minor, Peter Lang, and Craig Green among others.
King has also written and performed for modern dance with the world renowned Mark Morris Dance Group and for fashion, composing and performing live for three seasons of maverick designer Isaac Mizrahi's fashion week shows at Bryant Park NYC and for film with the award winning animated shorts "Bike Ride Story" and "Bike Race" by Tom Schroeder.
In March 2008 King appeared with The Bad Plus on the Late Night with Conan O'brien television show playing one of Kings compositions "Thriftstore Jewelry". This marked the first and only time a jazz group performed on the show in its 17 year run.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
JAGA JAZZIST - Cedar Cultural Centre - Minneapolis, MN - 6/28/11
A great band from Norway playing Tortoise-like music with extended instrumentation....2 guitars, 2 basses, trumpet, sax, tuba, pedal steel, 2 keyboards & drums. incredible mix of electronic, jazz & rock. you MUST check these guys out. Here is some background from their website:
Jaga Jazzist have become something of a musical phenomenon in Norway since they started 15 years ago. Not only is this 9 piece instrumental band regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative in Norway, the members are all involved in other musical projects and have in one way or another contributed to almost every significant recording to come out of that part of the world in the last few years. It has been this strong involvement with different projects, and different musical styles and sounds which is the key to the unique sound of Jaga Jazzist. With no boundaries and an arsenal that includes trumpet, trombone, electric guitars, bass, tuba, bass clarinet,saxes, keyboards, vibraphone and a rack of electronics, Jaga Jazzist create timeless music. Melodic, hypnotizing, delicate and subtle.
Jaga Jazzist started out in Tonsberg (a small town outside Oslo) in 1994 at which time Lars Horntveth (the main songwriter in Jaga) was only 14 years old! In 2001 they released their debut album “A Livingroom Hush” on Warner in Scandinavia to massive critical acclaim and great sales (the album sold over 15000 copies in Norway alone..). The band then signed a deal for the rest of the world through Oslo`s Smalltown Supersound. Throughout 2002 the band shocked fans and critics alike with their blistering live shows and the buzz resulted in sold out dates all over Europe and the band soon came to the attention of Ninja Tune who did a license/collaboration deal with Smalltown Supersound.
At the same time that their debut album was gaining more and more international success, Jaga recorded the follow up titled “The Stix”, their first for Ninja Tune. As with their first album it was produced by Norwegian superproducer Jørgen Træen the man behind Duper Studios in Bergen (home of Røyksopp, Kings of Convenience, Sondre Lerche et.al.) but this time Jaga wanted to push their musical limits even further and really create a sound they could genuinely call “Jaga Jazzist “. It was the perfect balance between (hu)man and machine, and it never lost the organic nature of a live 10 piece.
After heavy touring next came their most radical "What We Must" album, the result of the band going into an isolated studio out in the Norwegian woods and recording the demo now known as the Spydeberg Session. Put down in one take in one day, it was a breakthrough moment for the group. A sound that was closer to their live sound than ever before. It was their rock album. But of course Jaga's own kaleidoscopic take on rock stylings, rolling from early 90s British shoegazer guitar pop to 70s prog rock, all shot through with Jaga's own unique logic.
And now this takes us to their 6th album, "One Armed Bandit", due for release in January 2010. Lars Horntveth began writing the music in early 2008. Alongside two new band members Øystein Moen-keys and Stian Westerhus-Guitar, JAGA rented A house in the Swedish forest to rehearse new material. It could be said that it was a reaction to "What We Must". It does include the rock stylings of "What We Must" and the electronics of "The Stix" but is still very much looking forward with a new sound. The breakthrough moment was the track "One Armed Bandit", the first single from the album of the same name. Taking influence from the afro-beat stylings of Fela Kuti but funneled through their own style. The Wagner-Esque fanfares and arpeggios are intended to sound like slot machines. And this Wagner meets Fela Kuti sound became a kind of theme of the album. In December 2008 the band went to Cabin Recorders to record the album with Jørgen Træen, a man who had been a big factor in forming Jaga´s music since A Livingroom Hush and the Stix, Unfortunately after 3 weeks Træen got tinnitus. Jaga quickly thought of John McEntire of Tortoise fame. He was enthusiastic about mixing it and in April 2009, 3 members of the band went to Soma Studio in Chicago to mix the album. Interestingly one day the Norwegian garage jazz band "The Thing" were playing at a local jazz club. Jaga went down there with a microphone and laptop and recorded what was to be the intro of the album.
At heart of this collective is a restless soul, going in many directions at the same time, but always going forward. Fast. The band always pushing their boundaries, both personal and musical. That is why they are impossible to categorize. And that's why they're special. Jaga is something natural and beautiful. A necessity. For both them and us.
Jaga Jazzist have become something of a musical phenomenon in Norway since they started 15 years ago. Not only is this 9 piece instrumental band regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative in Norway, the members are all involved in other musical projects and have in one way or another contributed to almost every significant recording to come out of that part of the world in the last few years. It has been this strong involvement with different projects, and different musical styles and sounds which is the key to the unique sound of Jaga Jazzist. With no boundaries and an arsenal that includes trumpet, trombone, electric guitars, bass, tuba, bass clarinet,saxes, keyboards, vibraphone and a rack of electronics, Jaga Jazzist create timeless music. Melodic, hypnotizing, delicate and subtle.
Jaga Jazzist started out in Tonsberg (a small town outside Oslo) in 1994 at which time Lars Horntveth (the main songwriter in Jaga) was only 14 years old! In 2001 they released their debut album “A Livingroom Hush” on Warner in Scandinavia to massive critical acclaim and great sales (the album sold over 15000 copies in Norway alone..). The band then signed a deal for the rest of the world through Oslo`s Smalltown Supersound. Throughout 2002 the band shocked fans and critics alike with their blistering live shows and the buzz resulted in sold out dates all over Europe and the band soon came to the attention of Ninja Tune who did a license/collaboration deal with Smalltown Supersound.
At the same time that their debut album was gaining more and more international success, Jaga recorded the follow up titled “The Stix”, their first for Ninja Tune. As with their first album it was produced by Norwegian superproducer Jørgen Træen the man behind Duper Studios in Bergen (home of Røyksopp, Kings of Convenience, Sondre Lerche et.al.) but this time Jaga wanted to push their musical limits even further and really create a sound they could genuinely call “Jaga Jazzist “. It was the perfect balance between (hu)man and machine, and it never lost the organic nature of a live 10 piece.
After heavy touring next came their most radical "What We Must" album, the result of the band going into an isolated studio out in the Norwegian woods and recording the demo now known as the Spydeberg Session. Put down in one take in one day, it was a breakthrough moment for the group. A sound that was closer to their live sound than ever before. It was their rock album. But of course Jaga's own kaleidoscopic take on rock stylings, rolling from early 90s British shoegazer guitar pop to 70s prog rock, all shot through with Jaga's own unique logic.
And now this takes us to their 6th album, "One Armed Bandit", due for release in January 2010. Lars Horntveth began writing the music in early 2008. Alongside two new band members Øystein Moen-keys and Stian Westerhus-Guitar, JAGA rented A house in the Swedish forest to rehearse new material. It could be said that it was a reaction to "What We Must". It does include the rock stylings of "What We Must" and the electronics of "The Stix" but is still very much looking forward with a new sound. The breakthrough moment was the track "One Armed Bandit", the first single from the album of the same name. Taking influence from the afro-beat stylings of Fela Kuti but funneled through their own style. The Wagner-Esque fanfares and arpeggios are intended to sound like slot machines. And this Wagner meets Fela Kuti sound became a kind of theme of the album. In December 2008 the band went to Cabin Recorders to record the album with Jørgen Træen, a man who had been a big factor in forming Jaga´s music since A Livingroom Hush and the Stix, Unfortunately after 3 weeks Træen got tinnitus. Jaga quickly thought of John McEntire of Tortoise fame. He was enthusiastic about mixing it and in April 2009, 3 members of the band went to Soma Studio in Chicago to mix the album. Interestingly one day the Norwegian garage jazz band "The Thing" were playing at a local jazz club. Jaga went down there with a microphone and laptop and recorded what was to be the intro of the album.
At heart of this collective is a restless soul, going in many directions at the same time, but always going forward. Fast. The band always pushing their boundaries, both personal and musical. That is why they are impossible to categorize. And that's why they're special. Jaga is something natural and beautiful. A necessity. For both them and us.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
PETER BROTZMANN 4TET - Vision Festival - Abrons Art Center - NYC, NY 6-8-11
The Vision Festival this year was nothing short of amazing with the brotzmann day being the ultimate highlight of the universe. 3 sets of pb = happy matt. if you don't know who this guy is (for shame...)
This quartet includes Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet and tenor saxophone and William Parker & Eric Revis on bass.
here is some background on the mighty bro from Wikipedia.
He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement, but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He experienced his first real jazz concert when he saw American jazz musician Sidney Bechet while still in school at Wuppertal, and it made a lasting impression.[1]
He has not abandoned his art training, however: Brötzmann has designed most of his own album covers. He first taught himself to play various clarinets, then saxophones; he is also known for playing the tárogató. Among his first musical partnerships was that with double bassist Peter Kowald.
For Adolphe Sax, Brötzmann's first recording, was released in 1967 and featured Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson.
1968, the year of political turmoil in Europe, saw the release of Machine Gun, an octet recording often listed among the most notable free jazz albums. Originally the LP was self-produced (under his own "BRO" record label imprint) and sold at gigs, but it was later marketed by Free Music Production (FMP), In 2007, Chicago-based Atavistic Records reissued the Machine Gun recording.[1]
Larger groups were put together again later, for example in 1981 Brötzmann made a radio broadcast with Frank Wright and Willem Breuker (saxes), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson (trombones), Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano), Louis Moholo (drums), Harry Miller (bass). This was released as the album Alarm.
In the 1980s, Brötzmann flirted with heavy metal and noise rock, including a stint in Last Exit and subsequent recordings with Last Exit's bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell.
Brötzmann has remained active, touring and recording regularly. He has released over fifty albums as a bandleader, and has appeared on dozens more. His "Die Like A Dog Quartet" (with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake) is loosely inspired by saxophonist Albert Ayler, a prime influence on Brötzmann's music. Since 1997 he has toured and recorded regularly with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (initially an Octet).
Brötzmann has also recorded or performed with musicians including Cecil Taylor, Keiji Haino, Willem van Manen, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Conny Bauer, Joe McPhee and Brötzmann's son, Caspar Brötzmann, a notable guitarist in his own right.
This quartet includes Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet and tenor saxophone and William Parker & Eric Revis on bass.
here is some background on the mighty bro from Wikipedia.
He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement, but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He experienced his first real jazz concert when he saw American jazz musician Sidney Bechet while still in school at Wuppertal, and it made a lasting impression.[1]
He has not abandoned his art training, however: Brötzmann has designed most of his own album covers. He first taught himself to play various clarinets, then saxophones; he is also known for playing the tárogató. Among his first musical partnerships was that with double bassist Peter Kowald.
For Adolphe Sax, Brötzmann's first recording, was released in 1967 and featured Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson.
1968, the year of political turmoil in Europe, saw the release of Machine Gun, an octet recording often listed among the most notable free jazz albums. Originally the LP was self-produced (under his own "BRO" record label imprint) and sold at gigs, but it was later marketed by Free Music Production (FMP), In 2007, Chicago-based Atavistic Records reissued the Machine Gun recording.[1]
The album Nipples was recorded in 1969 with many of the Machine Gun musicians including drummer Han Bennink, pianist Fred Van Hove and tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, plus British free-improv guitarist Derek Bailey. The second set of takes from these sessions, appropriately called More Nipples, is more raucous. Fuck De Boere (Dedicated to Johnny Dyani) is a live album of free sessions from these early years, containing two long improvisations, a 1968 recording of "Machine Gun" live (earlier than the studio version) and a longer jam from 1970.
The logistical difficulties of touring with an octet resulted in Brötzmann eventually slimming the group to a trio with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. Bennink was also partner in Schwarzwaldfahrt an album of duets recorded outside in the Black Forest in 1977 with Brötzmann's sax and Bennink drumming on trees and other objects found in the woods.Larger groups were put together again later, for example in 1981 Brötzmann made a radio broadcast with Frank Wright and Willem Breuker (saxes), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson (trombones), Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano), Louis Moholo (drums), Harry Miller (bass). This was released as the album Alarm.
In the 1980s, Brötzmann flirted with heavy metal and noise rock, including a stint in Last Exit and subsequent recordings with Last Exit's bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell.
Brötzmann has remained active, touring and recording regularly. He has released over fifty albums as a bandleader, and has appeared on dozens more. His "Die Like A Dog Quartet" (with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake) is loosely inspired by saxophonist Albert Ayler, a prime influence on Brötzmann's music. Since 1997 he has toured and recorded regularly with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (initially an Octet).
Brötzmann has also recorded or performed with musicians including Cecil Taylor, Keiji Haino, Willem van Manen, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Conny Bauer, Joe McPhee and Brötzmann's son, Caspar Brötzmann, a notable guitarist in his own right.
INGRID LAUBROCK - Cornelia Street Cafe - NYC, NY - 6/3/11
Since 2002 I've made at least 1 trip to new york city for an extended trip to see as many concerts as humanly possible. This year in 17 days I was able to catch 79 shows. sounds insane but damn its fun.
My first concert this time around was an amazing set from Ingrid Laubrock and a new band of hers with Ralph Alessi on trumpet and regulars Kris Davis on piano and Tom Rainey on drums.
Here is the bio from her website.
Originally form Germany, Ingrid started having music lessons as young as 4 years old and began to play classical piano and sing
in local choirs from the age of eight. Her first recording experience dates from that time, singing the solo voice in an arrangement
for accapella choir on the town’s record. Throughout her childhood she performed in church choirs and public concerts at the local music school.
In 1989 Ingrid left Germany for London where she took up the alto saxophone .
A year of studies with ex-Jazz Messenger Jean Toussaint followed in 1992.Soprano (now her main voice) and tenor followed shortly afterwards.
1993 she met singer Monica Vasconcelos and guitarist Ife Tolentino, both from Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Ingrid is one of the founder member of Brazilian quartet NÓIS4 and also long-time member of Monica Vasconcelos’ 9 –piece band NÓIS.
NÓIS4 has been support act for Joyce, Gilberto Gil, Brian Ferry and Airto Moreira / Flora Purim.
In the summers of 1998 and 1999, Ingrid studied with renowned saxophonist and educator David Liebman in the USA.
She was nominated as ‘Rising Star of the Year’ in the BT Jazz Awards for 1999.
Also in 1999 Ingrid completed the postgraduate jazz course at the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama.
During that year she studied and performed with David Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, Billy Cobham, Stan Sulzman and Jean Toussaint.
2004 Ingrid was awarded the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation as part of the F-ire Collective and in 2005 she was nominated for the
BBC Award as 'Rising Star'
In January 2006 Ingrid was awarded the prestigious Fellowship for Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation.
Ingrid has been interested inworking in different fields and has worked with contemporary classical group 'The Continuum Ensemble'
and and theatre director Annabel Arden as well as with dancer/choreographer Frauke Requardt who choreographed a show to Ingrid's music.
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE - Iowa City Jazz Festival - 7/3/11
I had never heard Ambrose before and he blew me away. Incredibly powerful playing and an amazing band!
Here is another recording of mine from the fest. sounds pretty good, eh?
Here is an extended bio from Wikipedia:
By the time the lone standard “What’s New?” arrives with a wink 11 tracks into trumpeter-composer Ambrose Akinmusire’s tour de force Blue Note debut When The Heart Emerges Glistening, the song’s title has become a rhetorical question. The unneeded answer: Everything. Akinmusire has delivered nothing less than a manifesto, a Search for the New Land, a personal statement of such clarity and vision that it’s bound to turn heads around towards this startlingly fresh young talent.
Co-produced by Akinmusire and his label mate and mentor Jason Moran, the album’s 12 songs (10 of which were composed by Akinmusire) feature the 28-year-old trumpeter’s young quintet (tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown), a close-knit group of longtime friends and frequent collaborators that breathes a remarkable collective identity. The New York Times wrote that the quintet “seems destined for much wider recognition,” and described their unique sound as “limber, straight-ahead jazz with mystery and pop instincts that gets around most of the old, pervasive mainstream influences, both of trumpet playing and bandleading.”
The Los Angeles Times recently named Akinmusire one of their 2011 “Faces to Watch,” and offered this descriptive of the quintet’s recent LA performance: “Akinmusire and his band demonstrated a remarkably fluid, adventurous interplay and patiently imaginative way with melody that sounded as steeped in the music's history as it was hard-wired with the sound of something new. With a chameleonic tone that can sigh, flutter or soar, Akinmusire sounds less like a rising star than one that was already at great heights and just waiting to be discovered.”
The discovery of Ambrose Akinmusire (pronounced ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) has been a slow and steady process. Born and raised in Oakland, California, it was as a member of the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble that Akinmusire first caught the attention of a discerning ear. Saxophonist Steve Coleman was visiting the school to give a workshop and immediately heard promise in the young trumpeter, eventually hiring him as a member of his Five Elements band and embarking on an extensive European tour when Akinmusire was just 19.
The experience proved life-changing. Coleman—considered by many to be the spiritual godfather of the current creative jazz scene—challenged Akinmusire on and off the stage. “Ambrose, what’s your concept?” Akinmusire remembers Coleman asking him on a train ride through Germany. “Concept? I’m 19, I don’t need a concept. It’ll just come one day,” shrugged Akinmusire, raising the saxophonist’s ire. “He really laid in on me. I’ll never forget it,” he recalls. “You’ve got to start thinking about it now,” Coleman told him. “Everything you don’t love, make sure that’s not in your playing.”
Akinmusire took the advice to heart, and returned to his studies at the Manhattan School of Music determined to discover his own voice. “When I got back to school I wrote a list,” he explains. “It was very specific, it had things on it like ‘I don’t want to be confined by my instrument’ or ‘I want to have a sound like a French Horn player.’ It had harmonic concepts on it. I posted it on my wall so every day I was reminded of it. It caused me a lot of trouble because if a teacher told me to do something and it didn’t really fit what was on that list I didn’t listen to them. It really made me learn who I was because I had to defend that every day.”
After returning to the West Coast to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Southern California, Akinmusire went on to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles, an experience that began to bring his quest into clearer focus. “I went from being the oddball to being surrounded by people who were just like me and having teachers that were stressing [individuality] like Terence [Blanchard], Herbie [Hancock], and Wayne [Shorter]. I learned a lot from Terence. He really got me to be 100% comfortable in the things I was hearing in my head. After the Monk Institute it was just me going for my own sound and my own concept.”
2007 was a pivotal year for Akinmusire. He entered and won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition from a panel of judges that included Blanchard, Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Hugh Masekela, Clark Terry and Roy Hargrove. That year he also won the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and released his debut recording Prelude…To Cora on the Fresh Sound New Talent label. He moved back to New York City and began performing with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding, and Jason Moran, taking part in Moran’s innovative multimedia concert event In My Mind: Monk At Town Hall, 1957. It was also during this time that he first caught the attention of another discerning set of ears, those of Bruce Lundvall, President of Blue Note Records.
“I've been following Ambrose for a while, and I believe he is the kind of musician that jazz needs more of,” states Lundvall. “He's finding a very distinctive voice on his instrument, has a fantastic sense of adventure, and is dedicated to pushing the music forward.”
Lundvall signed Akinmusire, and in September 2010 the trumpeter brought his quintet into Brooklyn Studios to begin recording. Bringing Moran on board as co-producer was a natural choice. “Over the years not only has he been a musician and an artist that I’ve looked up to but he’s been one of the most blunt and honest people I’ve ever met in my life, and I just wanted that type of energy in the studio,” explains Akinmusire. “He’s also one of the few musicians that on every record he’s given 100% and that’s what I was striving for. He’s the guy that people of my generation really look up to right now. I think knowing that he was in the control booth made everyone play harder and reach for things that we maybe would not have reached for.”
The album’s opening track “Confessions to My Unborn Daughter” immediately establishes several of the quintet’s hallmarks including their striking juxtaposition of bombast and beauty, with searing solos turning on a dime to reveal moments of touching tenderness, and the profound frontline interplay between Akinmusire and Smith. The way the two intuitively trade lines back-and-forth, finishing each other’s musical sentences, is surely a result of the 12 years that they’ve been making music together. “He and I never have any musical conversations,” says Akinmusire. “It’s amazing, it feels like he’s part of my brain and I’m part of his. I know exactly what he’s thinking, what note he’s going to end on, when he’s going to play something, when he’s going to stop.”
“Confessions” also reveals Akinmusire’s penchant for intriguing song titles, as does the album’s penultimate track “Tear Stained Suicide Manifesto” (which features Moran on piano). The titles are secret clues to elaborate storylines that he constructs as inspiration for his composing process. “I always put the title first before I write one note,” he explains. “I need a whole story to have the format for a composition.”
However, some of Akinmusire’s compositions do have explicit references. “The Walls of Lechuguilla” refers to the extensive cave system in New Mexico known for the rarity and unusual beauty of its geological formations. “Every day I practice in front of a documentary because I do long tone for an hour and a half and I have to have something in front of me. This time I was checking out the Planet Earth series on BBC and they went down into this cave that nobody had ever gone into. They shine the light on the walls, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life, and so I immediately started writing that tune and it came out just like that from beginning to end.”
“My Name Is Oscar” is a powerful piece that features Akinmusire’s spoken voice backed solely by Brown’s relentless drums. Oscar is Oscar Grant, the unarmed 22-year-old African American man who was shot and killed by a transit officer on New Year’s Eve in 2009 in Akinmusire’s hometown of Oakland. “I just want people to know the story. I don’t want it to become this ‘f*ck the police’ anthem,’” he says. “Every time I go back home I’m reminded of it, people still talk about it, it’s still such a big thing because he got off with just two years, he didn’t get charged with murder. It just really resonates with me because I feel like it could have been me or anyone. The piece begins with me observing what happens, then me talking in the voice of Oscar Grant himself.”
“Ayneh (Cora)” and “Ayneh (Campbell)” are two delicate interludes that are dedicated to Akinmusire’s mother. “’Ayneh’ in Farsi (Persian) means ‘mirror’ but more related to ‘reflection’ and I just wanted to write a piece that felt like an exhale, it’s a relaxing thing,” he says. “Then I flipped the song around, so the first bar I wrote is the last bar, so I flipped the title around and called it ‘Henya,’” which coincidentally in the Hebrew language is a name that translates as “Grace of God.”
As for “What’s New?” it isn’t meant to be entirely ironic, Akinmusire says. “Clifford Brown is one of my favorite trumpet players, and his version of that is just so amazing. So it was sort of a tribute to him, but also just in case you’re doubting that I have any type of tradition, there’s this.” “When The Heart Emerges Glistening refers to being present, emotionally invested, honest—not exclusively in our art, but in every act of expression,” Akinmusire says in explaining the album’s title. “It’s about parting our chests to reveal ourselves to one another and to ourselves, to reflect honestly the ‘everything’ of us—the ugly, the changing, the vulnerable, the fierce, the solid, the safe. The heart ‘glistens’ because it is wet, it is fresh. With every act of expression, it is a newly excavated heart, so that through listening closely, we are ultimately chronicling every present moment, and constantly re-examining our changing selves. In bearing ourselves this way, we connect more deeply with one another. The many sides of the album itself are a testament to our complexity and uniqueness as individuals, and the imperative to bare and explore honestly every coexisting side of us.”
Here is another recording of mine from the fest. sounds pretty good, eh?
Here is an extended bio from Wikipedia:
By the time the lone standard “What’s New?” arrives with a wink 11 tracks into trumpeter-composer Ambrose Akinmusire’s tour de force Blue Note debut When The Heart Emerges Glistening, the song’s title has become a rhetorical question. The unneeded answer: Everything. Akinmusire has delivered nothing less than a manifesto, a Search for the New Land, a personal statement of such clarity and vision that it’s bound to turn heads around towards this startlingly fresh young talent.
Co-produced by Akinmusire and his label mate and mentor Jason Moran, the album’s 12 songs (10 of which were composed by Akinmusire) feature the 28-year-old trumpeter’s young quintet (tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown), a close-knit group of longtime friends and frequent collaborators that breathes a remarkable collective identity. The New York Times wrote that the quintet “seems destined for much wider recognition,” and described their unique sound as “limber, straight-ahead jazz with mystery and pop instincts that gets around most of the old, pervasive mainstream influences, both of trumpet playing and bandleading.”
The Los Angeles Times recently named Akinmusire one of their 2011 “Faces to Watch,” and offered this descriptive of the quintet’s recent LA performance: “Akinmusire and his band demonstrated a remarkably fluid, adventurous interplay and patiently imaginative way with melody that sounded as steeped in the music's history as it was hard-wired with the sound of something new. With a chameleonic tone that can sigh, flutter or soar, Akinmusire sounds less like a rising star than one that was already at great heights and just waiting to be discovered.”
The discovery of Ambrose Akinmusire (pronounced ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) has been a slow and steady process. Born and raised in Oakland, California, it was as a member of the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble that Akinmusire first caught the attention of a discerning ear. Saxophonist Steve Coleman was visiting the school to give a workshop and immediately heard promise in the young trumpeter, eventually hiring him as a member of his Five Elements band and embarking on an extensive European tour when Akinmusire was just 19.
The experience proved life-changing. Coleman—considered by many to be the spiritual godfather of the current creative jazz scene—challenged Akinmusire on and off the stage. “Ambrose, what’s your concept?” Akinmusire remembers Coleman asking him on a train ride through Germany. “Concept? I’m 19, I don’t need a concept. It’ll just come one day,” shrugged Akinmusire, raising the saxophonist’s ire. “He really laid in on me. I’ll never forget it,” he recalls. “You’ve got to start thinking about it now,” Coleman told him. “Everything you don’t love, make sure that’s not in your playing.”
Akinmusire took the advice to heart, and returned to his studies at the Manhattan School of Music determined to discover his own voice. “When I got back to school I wrote a list,” he explains. “It was very specific, it had things on it like ‘I don’t want to be confined by my instrument’ or ‘I want to have a sound like a French Horn player.’ It had harmonic concepts on it. I posted it on my wall so every day I was reminded of it. It caused me a lot of trouble because if a teacher told me to do something and it didn’t really fit what was on that list I didn’t listen to them. It really made me learn who I was because I had to defend that every day.”
After returning to the West Coast to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Southern California, Akinmusire went on to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles, an experience that began to bring his quest into clearer focus. “I went from being the oddball to being surrounded by people who were just like me and having teachers that were stressing [individuality] like Terence [Blanchard], Herbie [Hancock], and Wayne [Shorter]. I learned a lot from Terence. He really got me to be 100% comfortable in the things I was hearing in my head. After the Monk Institute it was just me going for my own sound and my own concept.”
2007 was a pivotal year for Akinmusire. He entered and won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition from a panel of judges that included Blanchard, Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Hugh Masekela, Clark Terry and Roy Hargrove. That year he also won the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and released his debut recording Prelude…To Cora on the Fresh Sound New Talent label. He moved back to New York City and began performing with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding, and Jason Moran, taking part in Moran’s innovative multimedia concert event In My Mind: Monk At Town Hall, 1957. It was also during this time that he first caught the attention of another discerning set of ears, those of Bruce Lundvall, President of Blue Note Records.
“I've been following Ambrose for a while, and I believe he is the kind of musician that jazz needs more of,” states Lundvall. “He's finding a very distinctive voice on his instrument, has a fantastic sense of adventure, and is dedicated to pushing the music forward.”
Lundvall signed Akinmusire, and in September 2010 the trumpeter brought his quintet into Brooklyn Studios to begin recording. Bringing Moran on board as co-producer was a natural choice. “Over the years not only has he been a musician and an artist that I’ve looked up to but he’s been one of the most blunt and honest people I’ve ever met in my life, and I just wanted that type of energy in the studio,” explains Akinmusire. “He’s also one of the few musicians that on every record he’s given 100% and that’s what I was striving for. He’s the guy that people of my generation really look up to right now. I think knowing that he was in the control booth made everyone play harder and reach for things that we maybe would not have reached for.”
The album’s opening track “Confessions to My Unborn Daughter” immediately establishes several of the quintet’s hallmarks including their striking juxtaposition of bombast and beauty, with searing solos turning on a dime to reveal moments of touching tenderness, and the profound frontline interplay between Akinmusire and Smith. The way the two intuitively trade lines back-and-forth, finishing each other’s musical sentences, is surely a result of the 12 years that they’ve been making music together. “He and I never have any musical conversations,” says Akinmusire. “It’s amazing, it feels like he’s part of my brain and I’m part of his. I know exactly what he’s thinking, what note he’s going to end on, when he’s going to play something, when he’s going to stop.”
“Confessions” also reveals Akinmusire’s penchant for intriguing song titles, as does the album’s penultimate track “Tear Stained Suicide Manifesto” (which features Moran on piano). The titles are secret clues to elaborate storylines that he constructs as inspiration for his composing process. “I always put the title first before I write one note,” he explains. “I need a whole story to have the format for a composition.”
However, some of Akinmusire’s compositions do have explicit references. “The Walls of Lechuguilla” refers to the extensive cave system in New Mexico known for the rarity and unusual beauty of its geological formations. “Every day I practice in front of a documentary because I do long tone for an hour and a half and I have to have something in front of me. This time I was checking out the Planet Earth series on BBC and they went down into this cave that nobody had ever gone into. They shine the light on the walls, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life, and so I immediately started writing that tune and it came out just like that from beginning to end.”
“My Name Is Oscar” is a powerful piece that features Akinmusire’s spoken voice backed solely by Brown’s relentless drums. Oscar is Oscar Grant, the unarmed 22-year-old African American man who was shot and killed by a transit officer on New Year’s Eve in 2009 in Akinmusire’s hometown of Oakland. “I just want people to know the story. I don’t want it to become this ‘f*ck the police’ anthem,’” he says. “Every time I go back home I’m reminded of it, people still talk about it, it’s still such a big thing because he got off with just two years, he didn’t get charged with murder. It just really resonates with me because I feel like it could have been me or anyone. The piece begins with me observing what happens, then me talking in the voice of Oscar Grant himself.”
“Ayneh (Cora)” and “Ayneh (Campbell)” are two delicate interludes that are dedicated to Akinmusire’s mother. “’Ayneh’ in Farsi (Persian) means ‘mirror’ but more related to ‘reflection’ and I just wanted to write a piece that felt like an exhale, it’s a relaxing thing,” he says. “Then I flipped the song around, so the first bar I wrote is the last bar, so I flipped the title around and called it ‘Henya,’” which coincidentally in the Hebrew language is a name that translates as “Grace of God.”
As for “What’s New?” it isn’t meant to be entirely ironic, Akinmusire says. “Clifford Brown is one of my favorite trumpet players, and his version of that is just so amazing. So it was sort of a tribute to him, but also just in case you’re doubting that I have any type of tradition, there’s this.” “When The Heart Emerges Glistening refers to being present, emotionally invested, honest—not exclusively in our art, but in every act of expression,” Akinmusire says in explaining the album’s title. “It’s about parting our chests to reveal ourselves to one another and to ourselves, to reflect honestly the ‘everything’ of us—the ugly, the changing, the vulnerable, the fierce, the solid, the safe. The heart ‘glistens’ because it is wet, it is fresh. With every act of expression, it is a newly excavated heart, so that through listening closely, we are ultimately chronicling every present moment, and constantly re-examining our changing selves. In bearing ourselves this way, we connect more deeply with one another. The many sides of the album itself are a testament to our complexity and uniqueness as individuals, and the imperative to bare and explore honestly every coexisting side of us.”
JOHN ELLIS DOUBLEWIDE - Iowa City Jazz Festival - 7/3/11
Here is a short bio of John Ellis, the leader of the group:
Saxophonist John Ellis is a forward-thinking jazz musician with a bent toward mixing New Orleans jazz, R&B, and funk into his sound. Born in North Carolina, Ellis studied piano growing up and also played the clarinet. Eventually, Ellis spent time living in New Orleans and later earned a degree in music from the New School in N.Y.C. Ellis has performed with a variety of musicians including pianist Ellis Marsalis, and was a longtime member of guitarist Charlie Hunter's band. Ellis released his debut solo album, The Language of Love, in 1996. Roots, Branches and Leaves followed in 2002, after which Ellis released One Foot in the Swamp in 2005 and By a Thread in 2006. In 2008, Ellis released his first album with his Double-Wide ensemble, Dance Like There's No Tomorrow. John Ellis & Double-Wide then released Puppet Mischief in 2010. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi
KNEEBODY - Iowa City Jazz Festival - 7/2/11
I go to the Iowa City Jazz Festival over the 4th of July weekend each year and this year was no exception. I didn't take any videos but I did take a few photos and I recorded everything....so here is part of one song from the first band I saw, Kneebody, accompanied by a few photos I took. These guys were amazing....drum & bass/jazz/rock...you name it they played it. here is a short review of a few of their releases from their website:
Cohesion is the truest constant in the music of Kneebody, a band that inhabits the borderland abutted by post-bop, indie-rock and hip-hop, without seeming to give much thought to the borders. The group released an ethereal album of Charles Ives songs last year, earning an unlikely Grammy nomination in the classical crossover field. “You Can Have Your Moment” (Winter & Winter), the follow- up, takes a screeching turn in the direction of groove. At the album’s core is a lean but darkly woozy rhythm section composed of Adam Benjamin on Fender Rhodes piano, Kaveh Rastegar on electric bass and Nate Wood on drums. The trumpeter Shane Endsley and the saxophonist Ben Wendel make up the front line, though not always with respect to melody. Everyone proves himself a resourceful improviser, but over the course of a dozen thoughtful originals — ranging from the sober hum of “The Entrepreneur” to the stuttering lunge of “No Thank You Mr. West” — their clout registers as a cogent whole.
Cohesion is the truest constant in the music of Kneebody, a band that inhabits the borderland abutted by post-bop, indie-rock and hip-hop, without seeming to give much thought to the borders. The group released an ethereal album of Charles Ives songs last year, earning an unlikely Grammy nomination in the classical crossover field. “You Can Have Your Moment” (Winter & Winter), the follow- up, takes a screeching turn in the direction of groove. At the album’s core is a lean but darkly woozy rhythm section composed of Adam Benjamin on Fender Rhodes piano, Kaveh Rastegar on electric bass and Nate Wood on drums. The trumpeter Shane Endsley and the saxophonist Ben Wendel make up the front line, though not always with respect to melody. Everyone proves himself a resourceful improviser, but over the course of a dozen thoughtful originals — ranging from the sober hum of “The Entrepreneur” to the stuttering lunge of “No Thank You Mr. West” — their clout registers as a cogent whole.
Monday, July 11, 2011
HUMANIZATION QUARTET - Audio for the Arts - Madison, WI - 7/8/11
Drove to Madison to see Rodrigo Amado & Luis Lopes from Portgual with Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez from Dallas. They performed at a small recording studio in Madison, Wisconsin as part of their extensive 2011 tour. There wasn't a great turnout but they still rocked the house for all 6 of us there to see them. Madison is about a 4 hour drive from West Saint Paul and this is an example of concerts I try and take advantage of on the weekends (and otherwise!). I attached a video for you to check out. Rodrigo is an amazing sax player and I was much more impressed with him than Luis. ...but Lopes compositions were cool so everybody played an important role in the overall whole of the group. Stefan and Aaron are best known as part of Yells At Eeels with their father Dennis Gonzalez. They are more punk rock than jazz but I do like the crossover projects they have with numerous jazz musicians. Check out the video. Sound isn't the greatest but you get the point. Great improvisation with groove-oriented tunes. very cool.
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