Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Francesco Geminiani - ColorSound (AUAND RECORDS March 9, 2018)


The sound of Colors, the inspiration directly coming from what is around us that then reflects into the music… At the core of this new work there are brief compositions born from an improvisation, a thought or a sensation. Accompanying him on this journey there are two great musicians: Mark Schilders on Drums and Rick Rosato on Bass.

01 Agata Blu
02 Agata Rossa
03 French Blues
04 It Could Happen to Everyone
05 Ambra
06 Mountain Pirates
07 Theme for Ernie
08 Lastone

Rick Rosato double bass
Mark Schilders drums

Produced by Francesco Geminiani
Executive Producer: Marco Valente
Recorded at Bunker Studio, Brooklyn, NY, USA on April 13, 2015
Engineer: Nolan Thies
Cover Photo: Maria Trofimova


Edna - Born To Be Why (AUAND RECORDS February 9, 2018)


01 Villipendolo
02 Life on Mars
03 Born To Be Why
04 Iride
05 Hiccups
06 Piani Inclinati
07 Gomma Blues
08 Tiro al Bersaglio
09 Pure Immagination
10 BiGi



Produced by EDNA
Executive Producer: Marco Valente
Recorded at Play Studio, Bricherasio (TO) – Italy on January 9-11,2017
Engineer: Alberto Macerata
Cover Photo: Stefano Risso


Francesco Fiorenzani - Silent Water (AUAND RECORDS 2018)



Il chitarrista e compositore Francesco Fiorenzani pubblicherà il suo album d’esordio Silent Water il 12 gennaio per l’etichetta Auand (distribuzione Goodfellas). Fiorenzani è alla guida di un quintetto composto da Achille Succi (sax alto/clarinetto basso), Luca Sguera (pianoforte), Francesco Ponticelli (contrabbasso) e Bernardo Guerra (batteria). 

La scelta dei membri del gruppo è stata motivata dalla loro esperienza e dalle affinità musicali riscontrate con Fiorenzani. Achille Succi vanta una lunga carriera di collaborazioni e lavori brillanti, ma è stata la sua ‘voce’ ineguagliabile a rendersi una costante fonte di ispirazione indispensabile per la trama imbastita da Fiorenzani. L’incontro con Luca Sguera è avvenuto da studenti all’interno della Siena Jazz University. 

E’ un giovane pianista molto promettente, dotato di una sensibilità rara per i timbri e i respiri nella musica che l’hanno reso sapiente nel dialogo con la chitarra. Francesco Ponticelli al contrabbasso, rappresenta per Fiorenzani l’ideale di bassista: background musicale aperto a 360 gradi ed estremamente dotato di solidità strumentale ma soprattutto di immaginazione. Infine Bernardo Guerra alla batteria, anche lui giovane ma ormai lanciato nel panorama jazz italiano, un musicista di sostanza che sempre mette le proprie idee al servizio della musica.

Il progetto nasce nel 2016 e la vittoria del concorso per giovani compositori sponsorizzato dall’U.N.C.L.A. e dal Ministero della Cultura Italiana, ha contribuito alla sua uscita discografica.

Il repertorio è composto esclusivamente da brani originali composti da Fiorenzani, dove emergono le influenze che hanno segnato la sua personalità nell’iniziare questo percorso. Il jazz è certamente il linguaggio a cui le composizioni fanno riferimento, soprattutto nell’intenzione ritmica e nello sviluppo formale del repertorio.

Sono inoltre chiare le influenze provenienti della scena newyorkese dagli anni ’90 ad oggi, dove l’ispirazione arriva dai lavori di artisti come Kurt Rosenwinkel, David Binney e Ambrose Akinmusire.

Il risultato è una musica che trova un’equilibrata sintesi tra melodie orecchiabili ma raffinate e una costruzione sapiente di armonie ad esse legate simmetricamente.


Produced by Francesco Fiorenzani
Executive Producer: Marco Valente
Recorded at Entropya Studio, Perugia – Italy on May 22-24, 2017
Engineer: Gabriele Ballabio and Stefano Bechini
Cover Photo: Ester Scapini


OSU Jazz Orchestra (feat. Michael Dease) - Solid Gold (2018)


Solid Gold is the first commercially released recording by the Oklahoma State University Jazz Studies Program. The CD features two-time GRAMMY winning trombonist/composer Michael Dease backed up by the eighteen students of the OSU Jazz Orchestra.


You Dig?
Solid Gold
Decisions
Out Front
Gorgeous Gwen
Discussao
Good and Terrible
After You’ve Gone


Tommy Poole: director
Ryan Hatcher: trumpet
Matt Herron: trumpet
Kevin Kamau: trumpet
Tyler Murray: trumpet
Noah Mennenga: trumpet (8)
Charlie Chadwell: alto sax, flute
Ashley Krogstad: alto sax (1, 3, 5, 7)
Marcos Alvarez: alto sax, flute (2, 4, 6, 8)
Sydney Pointer: tenor sax, clarinet
Eric Stults, tenor sax, clarinet
Matthew Floeter: baritone sax (1-3, 5, 7, 8)
Hayden Anderson: baritone sax, bass clarinet (4, 6)
Jacob Eyler: trombone
Kyle Hunt: trombone
Paul Bussert: trombone
Dorien Tate: bass trombone
Dylan Shadoan: piano
Bradley Spears: guitar (6)
Mickey Webster: bass
Matt Durkee: drums

Featuring
Michael Dease: trombone


Mopo - Mopocalypse (WE JAZZ RECORDS January 26, 2018)


Mopo, a trio of sax, bass and drums from Finland, has been on the radar of international tastemakers already for a while thanks to their unique blend of jazz, punk, and inpisration from the Finnish nature. Now the trio of saxophonist Linda Fredriksson, bassist Eero Tikkanen and drummer Eeti Nieminen is set to release their fourth album on Helsinki's We Jazz Records. 

"Mopocalypse", a highly flammable mix of rough-around-the-edges jazz and melodic songwriting, is the remarkable next step for one of Finland's most potent exports. Mopo swing, grind, drive hard, and slow down with an impeccable sense of dynamics. Their music is raw and beautiful.

1. Tökkö 03:40
2. My Best Friend
3. Riisto
4. Ruusu
5. Mustafa
6. Niin aikaisin 04:44
7. Sinut muistan ainiaan
8. Noita
9. Panama

with: Otto Eskelinen, Farfisa organ

Produced by Mopo & Matti Nives
Recording, mixing and editing: Joonas Saikkonen & Abdissa ”Mamba" Assefa
Mastered by: Pauli Saastamoinen
Additional mastering for vinyl: Jukka Sarapää

Rajada (Pedro Sousa / Miguel Mira / Afonso Simões) - Rajada (MULTIKULTI PROJECT 2018)



Rajada - strong gust of wind, a machine gun burst, movement or impulse, something which is clearly fast. 

The most prominent representative of the European improvised music scene, Evan Parker, has an innumerable amount of students and followers of the innovative approach to playing the saxophone. Perhaps one of the most receptive among the group is Portuguese saxophonist Pedro Sousa, who complements the grammage of truly liberated improvisation with youthful enthusiasm, vigor and temperament derived from the experiences in the field of post-electronic music.


What can a cello change when placed among a free jazz trio instead of a double bass? Could it lead the tenor to a higher plane? Could it make the drummer’s work lighter and sensual? If, while in Motion Trio, supporting Rodrigo Amado, Miguel Mira's cello sets the tenor in a position to take off, in Rajada it aims to set it right in the skyline. 

You are about to experience an epic, hour long, genuinely portuguese story carrying numerous plots and far from few dramatic turns. If the album “Casa Futuro”, which Sousa recorded with Johan Berthling and Gabriel Ferrandini is frequently in your music players, you should definitely get this album.

Andrzej Nowak - Trybuna Muzyki Spontanicznej

1. Atazana 22:14
2. Desata 36:17

All music by Rajada


Recorded at Estúdios Interpress by Afonso Simões, August 2015
Mixed and mastered at Noise Precision by Rafael Toral
Cover Design by Witold Oleszak 
Producers: Pedro Sousa, Miguel Mira and Afonso Simões
Executive producers: Tomasz Konwent & Andrzej Nowak

Painting by Miguel Mira, 2016

Rajada would like to thank Andrzej Nowak, Rafael Toral, friends and family

The Multikulti Project/ Spontaneous Music Tribune Series is dedicated to iberian free improvised music.


I Hold the Lion's Paw - Abstract Playgrounds (EARSHIFT MUSIC February 2, 2018)



Melbourne psychedelic jazz collective I Hold the Lion's Paw present their debut studio album, Abstract Playgrounds. 

Led by trumpeter-composer Reuben Lewis, I Hold the Lion’s Paw (IHTLP) is an eight-piece collective that features some of Melbourne’s most exciting musicians. The music is born out of an organic cross-over of afro-beat, jazz and outré electronics. Expect to hear as much as electro-acoustic noise, slowly evolving soundtracks, afro-beat inspired grooves and psychedelic free jazz.  

The album was produced by Reuben Lewis and edited by sound-artist Mark Shepherd, who assembled a day of live jamming in the studio to prepare material that would later be dissected, abstracted and re-composed into a single-take long-form improvisation and an electro-acoustic remix. Originally conceived as an LP in two chapters, side A is an unedited studio take performed without any pre-planned structure or set-list. Side B reimagines the IHTLP concept through an interconnected series of electro-acoustic pieces. 

Lewis says of the music; “I have always wanted to develop a band that could traverse any of the sound worlds I inhabit, and to go one further, bring these worlds together in a way that enables a constantly evolving dialogue through improvisation. Abstract Playgrounds is a voyeuristic glimpse into the development of the IHTLP concept and the first of many musical chapters to come.” 

“Abstract Playgrounds conjures its own unique rhythmic universe, spurred on by an unfettered belief in improvisation and group dynamics. It’s a high-wire act, made possible by the fact that IHTLP is awash with first-rank improvisers.” - Des Cowley


ABOUT THE MUSIC 

(SIDE A) 

(outtakes from the) sets the tone for what’s (possibly) to come. A muddy, gloriously chaotic mass of sound evocative of the blues with a “Live Evil” twist. 

Snake Charmers' Convention was initially inspired by the Jogi Snake Charmers of Pakistan's Sindh province. Having been converted to wax, transported to Preston and played through an old turntable, it’s safe to assume that a few fundamental principles of the folk tradition were lost in translation. 

Shithead is dedicated to the loved ones past and present who we rely on to keep ourselves healthily unstable. You know, the ones who first introduced you to albums like “On the Corner” or “Zombie”. 

(SIDE B) 

(intakes from the) Snake Charmers reprises and reinvents the opening themes from Side A in a manner that is best described by imagining Ry Cooder in a thunderstorm. 

Deleuzian Lawn Bowls “Here we have made use of everything that came within range, what was closest as well as farthest away. We have assigned clever pseudonyms to prevent recognition. Why have we kept our own names? Out of habit, purely out of habit. To make ourselves unrecognizable in turn. To render imperceptible, not ourselves, but what makes us act, feel, and think.” (Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari) 

Forest Song takes inspiration from the Yelli songs of the Baka women in the south-eastern rain forests of Cameroon. However, this particular sonic representation of a lengthy obsession with their music more closely resembles a “Deep Forest” compact disc after 3 minutes in a microwave. 

Afro 1 “This ferment came to the forefront and made itself heard in its own right; and, through the molecular material thus wrought, it made audible the nonsonorous forces of the cosmos that have always agitated music – a bit of Time in the pure state, a grain of absolute intensity . . .” (Deleuze/Guattari) 

Afro 2 is a tribute to the music of Fela Kuti & The Africa ‘70 that is about as cooked as Prince’s guest appearance at James Brown’s Beverly Theatre gig in 1983. 

Time with Black Water “. . . the black nothingness, the indeterminate animal in which everything is dissolved – but also the white nothingness, the once more calm surface upon which float unconnected determinations like scattered members: a head without a neck, an arm without a shoulder, eyes without brows.” (Deleuze) 

Remember what we Said “As Deligny says, it should be borne in mind that these lines mean nothing. It is an affair of cartography. They compose us, as they compose our map. They transform themselves and may even cross over into one another. Rhizome.” (Deleuze/Guattari)

I hold the Lion’s Paw 
Whenever I dance. 

I know the ecstasy of the falcon’s wings 
When they make love against the sky, 

And the sun and moon 
Sometimes argue over 
Who will tuck me in at night. 

If you think I am having more fun  
than anyone on this planet 
You are absolutely correct.

- Hafez

1. (outtakes from the)
2. Snake Charmers' Convention
3. Shithead
4. (intakes from the) Snake Charmers
5. Deleuzian Lawn Bowls
6. Forest Song
7. Afro 1
8. Afro 2
9. Time with Black Water
10. Remember what we Said


Jordan Murray – trombone
Geoff Hughes – guitar
David Brown – electric bass
Tom Lee – double bass
Mark Shepherd – double bass
Christian Windfeld – drums
Ronny Ferella – drums

Recorded on February 4th, 2017 by Myles Mumford at Rolling Stock Recording Rooms 

Mixed & mastered by Myles Mumford 
SIDE B remixed by Mark Shepherd 
Produced by Reuben Lewis 
artwork by Dianne Fogwell 

In loving memory of Mavis June Fogwell 

Selected recordings produced with support from the 2017 Ivan Oliver Listening Musician Award, VCA/MCM Faculty Graduate Student Assistance Grant & VCA/MCM Faculty Small Grants Scheme


I Hold the Lion’s Paw from Reuben Lewis on Vimeo.