Wednesday, February 29, 2012

CD Review: “Under Fire” by Green River Ordinance

under_fire

Under Fire

The instrumentation is as original and honest as the band themselves. There’s drums, but not the usual rhythms and beats. There’s mandolins, banjos, baritone guitars,12 string guitars, upright bass, accordion, lap steel, old vintage amps and old vintage guitars and percussion instruments that are unidentifiable, but perfect in the arrangements.

There’s nothing safe and mainstream or traditional yet the harmonies are brilliant. The influences are rock, pop,roots, country and even blues but they wouldn’t fit comfortably into any of those pigeon holes. Musically, there is not a weakness. the song writing is honest, original, it’s about what they were feeling. they are heart caressing stories of love, the road, life.They are Jamey Ice (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Josh Jenkins (vocals, guitar, piano), Joshua Wilkerson (guitar, keyboard/piano,
vocals), Denton Hunker (drums, percussion) and Geoff Ice (bass,vocals). They are headed to stardom. They are the real deal and they are dead serious. Checkout the new single:

“Heart Of Me” by Green River Ordinance

I see a little Joshua Tree U2 in them, a little influence from The Byrds, The Eagles, the harmonies are that good, and maybe better. They are showmen on top of being top drawer song writers and musicians.Their ideas are fresh and welcome, inventing their own sound. And, they remain accessible to a wide audience. They are built to shock, they aren’t staging a rebellion, the are just doing it different than anyone before them. This is their third album, and it’s a masterpiece. This album may just set their course to the future. The album may  be Under Fire but this band is aiming the gun.

GRO hi res1

 

The band will kick off an extensive North American tour on March 29 in
Houston, TX, crossing the country with special guest Graham Colton.
Tickets are on sale now at greenriverordinance.com.

When they hit your city, don’t miss them.

 

GREEN RIVER ORDINANCE 'UNDER FIRE' TOUR DATES
3/29 -- Houston, TX @ House of Blues - Bronze Peacock
3/30 -- Dallas, TX @ House of Blues Main Room
3/31 -- Waco, TX @ Common Grounds
4/1 -- Austin, TX @ Stubbs Jr
4/4 -- Norman, OK @ Meacham Auditorium at University of Oklahoma
4/6 -- St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House
4/7 -- Little Rock, AR @ Rev Room
4/11 -- Birmingham, AL @ Workplay
4/12 -- Knoxville, TN @ Relix Variety Theater
4/13 -- Nashville, TN @ 12th & Porter
4/14 -- Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
4/16 -- Charlotte, NC @ Chop Shop Noda
4/17 -- Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
4/19 -- Washington DC @ Jammin Java
4/20 -- New York, NY @ Webster Studio
4/21 -- Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
4/22 -- Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Life
4/24 -- Akron, OH @ Musica
4/25 -- Columbus, OH @ Basement
4/26 -- Milwaukee, WI @ Shank Hall
4/27 -- Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
4/28 -- Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry - First Ave
4/30 -- Des Moines, IA @ Wooly's
5/1 -- Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
5/3 -- Indianapolis, IN @ "Earth House"

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Monday, February 27, 2012

Dianne Reeves at Jazz at Lincoln Center - NYTimes.com

Grandeur with refinement: that describes the aura of Dianne Reeves, whose concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall on Friday evening revealed her more than ever to be the vocal heir of Sarah Vaughan, whose voice could also travel anywhere. To call Ms. Reevesa warbler or a songbird isn’t just to trot out shopworn terms for a female jazz singer, but to point out how many of her introductions to songs are wordless, improvised exercises in tonal coloration.

Enlarge This Image

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

The singer Dianne Reeves performed on Friday at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/arts/music/dianne-reeves-at-jazz-at-lincoln-center.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

MUSIC REVIEW

A Jazz Singer Demonstrates the Fine Art of Holding Back

Dianne Reeves at Jazz at Lincoln Center

By STEPHEN HOLDEN
These preludes have the feel of preparatory meditations before Ms. Reeves plunges into fresh musical territory. Within the semi-orchestral settings of her band — Peter Martin on piano, Romero Lubambo and Peter Sprague on guitars, Reginald Veal on bass and Terreon Gully on drums — the drums kept a lower-than-average profile. Rather than punching out hard rhythm, they supplied complex textural seasoning. Instrumental solos were tasty but never ostentatious.

That lack of exhibitionism also characterized the way Ms. Reeves treated many of her songs as internal monologues. A major exception was a lusty blues rendition of “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” in which she flirted with gut-busting volume, building the song up slowly to a crest, before gradually subsiding. Even at its peak, you sensed power held in reserve. Her restraint created its own kind of suspense, as you waited to see how far she would go.

“Stormy Weather,” a song that most singers belt to the rafters, was reconceived as a private struggle; rather than dramatize her sorrow, she fought to contain it. For sheer gorgeousness there was nothing to match two numbers — Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain,” its reggae pulse smoothed out, and a playful bossa-nova-flavored “Our Love Is Here to Stay” — in which Ms. Reeves’s voice danced with Mr. Lubambo’s sparkling guitar. During a light jazz-funk rendition of Ani DiFranco’s “32 Flavors” Ms. Reeves dug deeply into this defiant feminist retort to an insult that is also a proclamation of individual complexity: “I am a poster girl with no poster/I am 32 flavors and then some.”

Prefacing her own song “Nine,” an idyllic reminiscence of childhood, Ms. Reeves remarked that she was watching the news less these days, the better to celebrate innocence. As she sang of “running endless through a field of emerald green beneath a broad open sky” and of a time when “any child could wear a paper crown and be a king or queen at 9,” you wanted to follow her back to an age “when our imaginations soared on golden wings.” As the song makes clear, it is not about escaping reality but about rediscovering a personal source of spiritual nourishment.

Red Holloway dies at 84; Versatile L.A. jazz saxophonist

Holloway's career stretched from the bebop era to 21st-century jazz fusion. He played with an array of A-list stars, including Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Red Rodney and Lionel Hampton.

Jazz saxophonist

Eric Schneider, left, and Red Holloway perform with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra during a tribute to legendary South Side saxophonist Eddie Johnson at the University of Chicago in 2010., (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / April25, 2010)

By Don Heckman, Special to The Times

February 27, 2012

Red Holloway, a tenor and alto saxophonist who was one of Los Angeles' most highly regarded jazzartists for more than four decades, died Saturday in San Luis Obispo. He was 84.
The cause was kidney failure, complicated by several strokes, according to family spokeswoman Linda Knipe.
Holloway's career reached from the post-World War II arrival of bebop to 21st century jazz fusion. Whatever genre he played, the powerful muscularity of his sound, combined with his propulsive sense of swing, consistently made him one of the most listenable tenor saxophonists in jazz.
His creative focus was enhanced by far-reaching versatility. "Music to me is music," he told Jazz Journal International some years ago. "I really don't care what kind it is. I just try and figure out how I can make that particular type of music swing. That's what is important."
Holloway had already affirmed that viewpoint early in his career, when he played with an A-list of artists covering the full gamut of jazz — from Sonny Rollins and Lester Young to Red Rodney, Lionel Hampton and dozens of others.
His capacity to enhance his style with lyrical expressiveness also made him a favorite companion to singers such as Etta James, Joe Williams, Carmen McRae and Jackie Ryan.
James W. Holloway was born May 31, 1927, in Helena, Ark. His mother was a pianist and his father played violin. He and his mother moved to Chicago when Holloway was 5, where, at his mother's insistence, he began piano lessons, supplementing them with banjo and harmonica.
After taking up the tenor saxophone at the age of 12, Holloway played his first job as a professional musician in 1943 with bassist Eugene Wright's Dukes of Swing. At 19, he joined the U.S. Army, eventually serving as headmaster of the U.S. Fifth Army Band.
When he was discharged from the service, Holloway returned to Chicago, frequently playing with such artists as Roosevelt Sykes, Willie Dixon and B.B. King. And his intimate understanding of the subtleties of the blues always remained an essential part of his music.
In the early '60s, he began to achieve visibility with the wider jazz audience via a 21/2 -year run with organist Jack McDuff, working alongside newly arrived guitarist George Benson.
Holloway moved to Los Angeles in 1967. Two years later he played in the house band at the famed jazz club the Persian Room. He retained the position for 15 years, meeting and often performing with some of the biggest names in the jazz world.
From 1977 to 1982, Holloway was teamed with veteran bop alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt, recording a pair of albums together. In addition to more than a dozen albums under his own name, he recorded with McDuff, Clark Terry, Plas Johnson, Horace Silver, George Benson and John Mayall.
In the mid-'60s, Holloway moved to the Central California coastal town of Cambria, where he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2004. From the early '90s until this year , he played a prominent role in the town's Famous Jazz Artist Series. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Jazz Society in 2004.
Holloway, who was divorced, is survived by sons Michael and John; daughters Lianne Holloway, Marsha Aregullin and Denice Holloway-Rivers; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A third son, James "Binkey" Holloway, died in 1995.
news.obits@latimes.com

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

Sunday, February 26, 2012

CD Review: “Blue Moon” by Ahmad Jamal

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Blue Moon

There are few people alive who can honestly be said to have been an influence on Miles Davis. Fewer still who are named in the same breath with jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk when speaking great jazz piano players.

But Ahmad Jamal is that person. Miles once said “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.”. He introduced the concepts of space, silence and dramatic dynamics into jazz performance, proving the adage that it is often what you don’t play that is genius. And what is even more amazing is that at 81 years young, he still manages to make his music fresh, young and brilliant. Blue Moon is not just his latest album, it’s just his latest masterpiece.

As Chris May at AllAboutJazz said, “It is tempting to say that, at age 82, Ahmad Jamal carries on getting better and better, but that would be to miss the point. The pianist long ago reached a level of perfection from which it is simply not possible to get better. It is a level, however, to which he habitually returns.”

“Autumn Rain” Ahmad Jamal from the album “Blue Moon”

In this marvelous collection, Jamal turns to a place where he has not only made his own mark, but from where he has often found his favorite songs. Broadway, and the classic American Cinema. He’s also the guy who covered Clint Eastwood’s piano parts in Bridges Of Madison County.  he also includes here three of his original compositions, giving a new interpretation to “Autumn Rain” (above), “Morning Mist” and “I Remember Italy.”

The sound on this JazzVillage release is brilliant and you soon realize that those ‘Classical Music’ engineers have a trick or two. Jazz Village is the Jazz label for Harmonia Mundi. The sound captured on this disk is so ‘live’ that you’ll wonder if you aren’t sitting on stage.

The second thing you will realize is that the arrangements are so modern. Jamal is accompanied by bassist Reginald Veal, drummer Herlin Riley and percussionist Manolo Badrena. Veal has caught my ear in the past with his work with Wynton Marsalis and Joshua Reddman. These guys together just lock down the rhythm. There is no slacking, no laid back brushes and sleepy plucking, the tempo is spot on and almost pop music in style. But Jamal’s ensemble playing is swinging, flawless and masterful.

Once this one is done with you, look through JazzVillage’ small, but bound to grow catalog.

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Kirk Whalum “Romance Language”

whalum-romance-language-art

Romance Language

Grammy Winning Saxophonist’s reimagined take on the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman masterpiece.

It takes a load of talent to dare to make an iconic album and it takes a lot of confidence to dare to remake a masterpiece by the acknowledged master of your instrument. Kirk Whalum has that talent. And, apparently he backed it up since Romance Language went to number one on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Charts shortly after it’s release, naturally, on Valentines Day.

It’s also sadly appropriate that the man who toured for years as the warm up for Whitney Houston would release this album now.

Whalum is often labeled ‘smooth jazz’ but he has garnered 12 Grammy Nominations in just about every musical genre except Death Metal; with music ranging from pop to R&B to  jazz, he finally won  Best Gospel Song (“It’s What I Do”-featuring Lalah Hathaway) .

The Coltrane/Hartman classic was made in 1963. Though Coltrane and Hartman had known each other since their days playing with Dizzy Gillespie's band in the late 1940s Hartman is the only vocalist with whom the saxophonist would record as a leader. Initially when producer Bob Thiele approached Hartman with Coltrane's request that the two record together Hartman was hesitant as he did not consider himself a jazz singer and did not think he and Coltrane would complement one another musically. However, Thiele encouraged Hartman to go see Coltrane perform at Birdland in New York to see if something could be worked out. Hartman did so, and after the club closed he, Coltrane, and Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner, went over some songs together. On March 7, 1963 Coltrane and Hartman had decided on 10 songs for the record album, but en route to the studio they heard Nat King Cole on the radio performing "Lush Life", and Hartman immediately decided that song had to be included in their album. They settled on seven tracks, but “Afro Blue’ was cut from the final pressing.

Kirk Whalum “You Are To Beautiful” from Romance Language

Here, all six tracks that were included in ‘63 are included along with four modern and romantic ballads. Covering Hartman’s original vocals is Kirk’s brother, Kevin and he does more than justice to the tunes. Kevin Whalum's sophisticated voice, are always cool  while Kirk Whalum's sax solos and fills are simply beautiful, warm and nuanced. The aural Valentine unfolds with the grace of an intimate, seductive love letter.
Genuinely heartfelt, suave, debonair and poetically passionate.

The crack musicians accompanying the Whalum's are John Stoddart
(piano, keyboards, organ, backing vocals as well as production), Marcus Finnie (drums), Braylon Lacy (bass), Kevin Turner (electric guitar), Michael "Nomad"
Ripoll (acoustic guitar), Ralph Lofton (organ), George Tidwell (flugelhorn, trumpet), and percussionists Bashiri Johnson and Javier Solis. Whalum's 83 years-young uncle, Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum, poured his distinctive, emotion-charged voice into the
broken-hearted "Almost Doesn't Count" and the poignant bonus track, "You Are So Beautiful."

In addition to the traditional CD and digital version, an extended and enhanced digital version of Romance Language will be released as the world's first complete LiveAudio optimized album for JAMBOX by JAWBONE, a leader in personal mobile technology devices. LiveAudio allows music to be enjoyed in a 3D-like, surround sound experience from a single, small Bluetooth wireless speaker. This one-of-a-kind
version of Romance Language will be available exclusively at www.kirkwhalum.com/JAMBOX.

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Saturday, February 25, 2012

The Corner of Jazz and Hip-Hop By NATE CHINEN

Chad Batka for The New York Times

Chrisette Michele singing with Robert Glasper at the Blue Note.

February 24, 2012

The Corner of Jazz and Hip-Hop

By NATE CHINEN

A FEW tracks into “Black Radio,” Robert Glasper Experiment’s hazily soulful new album, there comes an accidental manifesto, culled from studio banter among the members of the band. “People think of jazz musicians, they pigeonhole us,” this collage begins, before moving on to complaints about the coarsening of musical standards, the sway of industry “bigwigs” and the dull complacency of popular taste. It’s a pretty sour train of thought until this closing conviction: “The best thing you can do for people, I think, is just be honest, man.” (And a grace note: “Yo, we’ve got to do something, man.”)

“Black Radio,” due out on Tuesday, is the fourth Blue Note release by Robert Glasper, a pianist who has spent the last decade or so building on a dual firmament of acoustic jazz, and artisanal hip-hop and R&B. It’s the album he has been hinting at for years: an earnest confab with some of the artists in his network, like the politically minded rappers Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and the vibe-oriented singers Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Musiq Soulchild and Chrisette Michele. Strikingly, given that each of its 12 tracks features at least one guest vocalist, the album unfolds as a coherent statement rather than an all-star mishmash: Robert Glasper and friends, not Robert Glasper and Friends.

Just as strikingly, “Black Radio” is the rare album of its kind that doesn’t feel strained by compromise or plagued by problems of translation. It convincingly mirrors the texture and mood of contemporary black bohemia, largely because Mr. Glasper and his band — the bassist Derrick Hodge, the drummer Chris Dave and the saxophonist Casey Benjamin — are an integral part of that scene, with sideman credits that include not only the album’s guest roster but also the likes of Maxwell, whose most recent arena tour had the Experiment’s rhythm section at its core.

“There’s been a lot of attempts at fusing jazz and hip-hop,” said Don Was, the veteran record producer recently appointed president of Blue Note. “Many times you see the Scotch tape holding the two things together. And I think Robert’s done it seamlessly. Because that’s who he is.”

Mr. Glasper, 33, has a strong but slouchy build and the garrulous, unselfconscious air of a guy accustomed to putting others at ease. Born and raised in Houston, he grew up playing in church and attended the same arts-intensive high school that has produced so many serious young jazz musicians, like Jason Moran, another forward-thinking pianist on Blue Note. (Mr. Dave went there too, as did Beyoncé.)

“It’s totally natural. It’s home,” Mr. Glasper said of the new album’s style during an interview that began at his upstairs apartment in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. “I was playing that kind of stuff before I was playing jazz: R&B stuff, church vibe.”

And while “Black Radio” takes cross-pollination to proud extremes — its early stretch finds Ms. Badu on a head-bobbing version of the jazz standard “Afro Blue,” followed by Lalah Hathaway on a faithfully slinky cover of Sade’s “Cherish the Day” — Mr. Glasper has been pursuing this agenda virtually from the start. “Mood,” the 2003 debut that got him signed to Blue Note, features interludes and chord progressions reminiscent of hip-hop production; it also features Bilal, the eclectic soul singer whom Mr. Glasper had met during their freshman orientation at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Mr. Glasper’s first three Blue Note albums follow an arc that he now attributes to strategy: “I wanted to do a few trio records, so no one can sit there and say, ‘This cat can’t really play.’ ” His first such outing, “Canvas” (2005), suggested youthful emulation of his jazz-piano hero, Mulgrew Miller. The follow-up, “In My Element” (2007), inched closer to a hip-hop sensibility, while “Double Booked” (2009) superficially straddled the divide, with its first half involving his acoustic trio and its second half featuring the Experiment.

Respect flowed from both constituencies, sometimes in unexpected ways. Q-Tip was a regular at Mr. Glasper’s trio gigs well before they became collaborators; Lupe Fiasco first encountered his music by way of an in-flight entertainment menu. And at some point Mr. Glasper began to notice that his trio’s following skewed younger and more African-American than the current norm in jazz. “All the club owners were like, ‘Hey, we don’t usually see this kind of crowd,’ ” he said. “And I love the fact that you go to my show, you see a 17-year-old black kid and an 80-year old white woman, bopping. To Dilla.”

That would be J Dilla, the visionary producer whose exactingly elliptical innovations have resonated almost as deeply in certain jazz circles as they have in hip-hop and R&B. (He died, after a debilitating illness, in 2006.) If anyone in jazz deserves credit for his post-bop incursions, it’s Mr. Glasper, who put a tribute called “J Dillalude” on “In My Element,” and often alludes to the producer’s work even when playing standards. His arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Think of One,” from “Double Booked,” opens with a skittering refraction of the theme before the trio kicks in, gradually sidling into “Stakes Is High,” the J Dilla-produced title track from a 1996 De La Soul album.

“Nobody plays Dilla like us,” Mr. Glasper said, and then leaned toward my recording device. “End quote.” He laughed and clarified: “I’m one of the only jazz musicians who can say I worked with him. I was at the crib.” (As he occasionally reminds his audiences, he was there when J Dilla created “Reminisce,” a woozy track on Bilal’s 2001 debut.)

The creative exchange between jazz and hip-hop has always worked best when jazz provided source material rather than a methodology. Miles Davis wanly flirted with the concept during the same era that yielded classic jazz-informed hip-hop by Guru, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. “The precedent was set,” Lupe Fiasco said. “It was just waiting for somebody who was a master with jazz, in its own right, to come in and bridge the gap. It was a matter of the stars aligning, and they aligned over Robert, and the Experiment. They play hip-hop and jazz, but with a mastery of both. And not a schooled mastery.”

Of course the same could fairly be said of the trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who appeared on the Holy Trinity of millennial neo-soul albums — D’Angelo’s “Voodoo,” Common’s “Like Water for Chocolate” and Ms. Badu’s “Mama’s Gun” — and later made a splash with his own “RH Factor” (Verve), which featured those artists and a handful of others. Mr. Glasper, who pulled a sideman shift on an RH Factor tour, agreed that Mr. Hargrove’s crossover effort was the obvious precursor to his own. “The difference is that I made it a bit more mainstream,” he said, citing the scarcity of solos on “Black Radio,” and its focus on songs. “And when we do our hip-hop stuff, it’s a little more actual hip-hop vibe.”

That’s true, and it has something to do with the art of reverse engineering. Playing “Stakes Is High,” for instance, also means emulating a sample at its core: the syncopated chord sequence from “Swahililand,” a 1974 track by the jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. “It’s truly a postmodern statement, in that Robert’s music is an outgrowth of the music that hip-hop used to sample,” said Eli Wolf, an executive producer of the new album. “And on top of it he’s incorporating elements from the hip-hop of that era.”

That process plays out with appreciable subtlety on “Black Radio,” which was recorded over four days in a Los Angeles studio, with minimal advance preparation. All the instrumental tracks were recorded live, often in a single take; in most cases the vocalist was there too. “It was like a freeway of artists coming in and out of the studio,” said Ledisi, who recalled seeing Bilal and King, a female R&B vocal trio, when she arrived.

“It was very, very, very loose,” Mr. Glasper said, “and very jazz in that way.” He noted another, more literal jazzlike touch: his acoustic piano filigree, which runs throughout, as accent and signature. And then of course there’s the agility of his band, with a rapport that points toward jazz even when the music doesn’t.

We’ll be seeing more along these lines, and not just from Mr. Glasper. Blue Note has committed to releasing “Live Today,” the yearningly melodic debut by Mr. Hodge. Mr. Dave said he had his own solo albums in the works. The suave young singer José James has earned a following by blending jazz, hip-hop and soul. And last year, before he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, Kris Bowers played on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne.”

A cynic might characterize this burst of like-minded activity as a function of commerce, and Mr. Glasper wouldn’t necessarily disagree. But he and his band mates, in separate conversations, also kept returning to the idea of honesty.

“If you’re honest with yourself, your influences will shine through,” he said. “And you’ll write songs that sound like you, and you’ll incorporate things that you actually like, and not feel like you have to follow these certain guidelines.”

He paused and punctuated the silence with a chuckle. “People always tell me, ‘Oh, man, you’re the future of jazz.’ I’m like: ‘No, I’m now. I’m relevant now.’ ”

On a MissionTo Celebrate The Different

The Doors : “Mr. Mojo Risin’ The Story Of L.A. Woman

Doors_Mr_Mojo_Risin_BR_sleeve_hrsmall1

Where were you in ‘71? I was one year and a few months away from joining the Army and catching the tail end of Vietnam, The Doors had performed their last live set in December (with Jim Morrison), largely because of his evermore erratic behavior. On December 12, 1970, at The Warehouse in New Orleans, Louisiana, Morrison had an apparent breakdown. Midway through the set he slammed the microphone numerous times into the stage floor until the platform beneath was destroyed, then sat down and refused to perform for the remainder of the show.

But no matter, The Doors were poised to release an album in the new year that everyone thought would see them reclaim their post as the premiere act in rock n roll. The album was finished in March and included guitar work by Mark Benno from Leon Russell’s ‘Asylum Choir’ and Jerry Scheff (Elvis Presley, The Association, et al) on bass. The album contained two Top 20 hits and went on to be their second best-selling studio album, surpassed in sales only by their debut. The album explored their R&B roots, although during rehearsals they had a falling-out with Paul Rothchild, who had produced them from the start. Rothchild denounced "Riders on the Storm" as 'cocktail jazz', he quit and handed the production to Bruce Botnick.

The Doors “Mr. Mojo Risin’ The Story Of L.A. Woman”

As soon as the album was finished, Morrison packed up and moved to Paris. Of course, Morrison died on July 3 and that meant that L.A. Woman was the last studio album. The singles "L.A. Woman", "Love Her Madly", and "Riders On The Storm" remain mainstays of rock radio programming, and the latter, as of November 25, 2009, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for its special significance to recorded music. In the song "L.A. Woman" Jim Morrison scrambles the letters of his own name to chant "Mr. Mojo Risin". During the sessions, a short clip of the band performing "Crawling King Snake" was filmed. So far as is known, this is the last clip of the Doors performing with Morrison. Morrison would, on June 16, make his last known recording. He befriended two street musicians at a bar and invited them to a studio. This recording was finally released in 1994 on a bootleg CD entitled The Lost Paris Tapes.

This fascinating, for the diehard fan as well as someone new to the band, documentary celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the release of that album. It contains rare as well as archival footage of the band on stage and in the studio. It also contains additional footage that wasn’t in the original broadcast and contains new interviews with the surviving band members, not to mention Elektra Records co-founder Jac Holzman, manager Bill Siddons, and engineer/co-producer Bruce Botnik. Filmed in HiDef, it features DTS-HD Master Audio. It’s available in Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray.

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Friday, February 24, 2012

CD Review: “Always You” by Michael Addison

Michael Addison

Always You

This transplanted Philly acoustic guitar troubadour has crafted an album of marvelous ballads, rock tinged indie pop and in places nearly epic chamber music piece. He not only blesses us with insightful, romantic song writing but a voice that reaches sweet highs and baritone lows and all in the right places.

It’s easy to see and hear why Los Angles has adopted him as a favorite son on the music circuit. It’s also  a cinch that he’ll draw the best and brightest musicians to play his music. Here he is joined by that great drummer from the chart topping main stream band ‘Collective Soul’, Ryan Hoyle  and the veteran of Carnegie Hall (with the Houston Symphony), and sessions with Usher, Justin Timberlake, and numerous movie scores, Christine Wu on all strings. Ryan HoyleChristine Wu Larry Marciano lends his Jim Morrison-like voice, electric and acoustic guitars and production skills to the set.   LarryMarciano1

They are joined in the studio by Mikey Hachey on bass, from the ska band, Urban Legends, Carl Byron on keys and Vanessa Bryan on backing vocals.

For a debut record, Addison has shown courage in offering up songs of complex melodies and some daring vocals. The album has a mainstream feel, but still retains that Indie rock/pop vibe. With his song writing talents, musical vision and that rangy voice, not to mention some respectable guitar work reminiscent of the Goo Goo Dolls, Dashboard Confessional and The Foo Fighters, he should get a lot of mileage.

Michael Addison “Come Back To Me”

Michael Addison is starting production on his sophomore release on Leap day, February 29, so bookmark his site (follow the link above) and follow the progress, and check for any tour dates. Ad while you are at it, get the record from all the usual places. You’ll be hearing his name a lot, no doubt.

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Billy Strange dies at 81; guitarist, arranger for Presley, Nancy Sinatra

LA me.strange.jpg

Billy Strange was one of the hottest players on the L.A. studio scene. He arranged Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots Are Made for Walking' and played guitar on the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' album.

Guitarist Billy Strange once took the kind of phone call that thousands of musicians receive only in their best and wildest dreams.
"I was staying at a hotel in Nashville in 1965 when my telephone rang and this unmistakable voice said, 'Billy, this is Elvis. I'd like for you to stop by my studios and play some music with me,'" Strange told an English newspaper in 2002. "I was absolutely thrilled, so I went along and he just sat at the piano playing gospel songs. We had a lot of fun; so much so that we never got around to recording anything that first day."
That made it a rare day in Strange's life in the 1960s: He not only was one of the hottest players but also a successful songwriter, arranger and recording artist working in L.A.'s' top recording studios at what may have been the pinnacle of a long career in which he contributed to hit records by artists such as Presley, the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, the Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Willie Nelson and the Partridge Family.
Strange, who died Wednesday in Nashville at 81, is most widely known for his role as musical arranger of Nancy Sinatra's first No. 1 hit, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," in 1966 and her 1967 duet with her father, "Somethin' Stupid." Strange also was the budding pop singer's co-star on her eerie song "Bang Bang (He Shot Me Down)," on which the only accompaniment to her wistful vocal were the strums and runs from Strange's tremolo-soaked electric guitar.

Read The Full Article Here.

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Book Review: “The Spy Who Jumped Off The Screen” by Thomas Caplan

The Spy Who Jumped Off The Screen

The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen: A Novel

In an attempt to join the lofty heights of ‘Spy Fiction’ idols Ian Flemming (James Bond), Charles McCarry (Paul Christopher), John le Carré, Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy, Thomas Caplan and his Movie Star Spy, Ty Hunter aims for the sun, but like Icarus he rapidly falls.

The novel opens with a home invasion in one of rural Kansas City’s wealthiest homes belonging to one of the wealthiest men in the world. But this is no ordinary home invasion nor home invader.

The first approximately 40 pages develops a sense of place, introduces action and excellent character development, which is done so well you’ll be close to adding these characters to your Christmas card list, but, sadly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story except to introduce a minor character that the story could have done without and a freighter that you will not get to know beyond the fact it carries an elicit cargo.

It does serve as an entry for the longest preface in history.

The real story involves Ty Hunter, the worlds biggest movie star who is recruited by none other than the President of the United States to investigate the possible disappearance of nuclear missile in the decommissioning of a post Soviet Missile base. 

The suspected thief of these nuclear warheads is yet another of the worlds wealthiest men, Ian Santal. Santal made a name for himself, firstly as a man of science as a professor at England’s Cambridge University. After his academic acclaim, he turned his hand to the stock market and made billions. Now, in his third incarnation, he is an international man of mystery, and broker of illicit nuclear devices.

Another suspect is Phillip Frost, an M.I.T. Grad who decided to join Santal’s financial firm out of college and who until just recently was on the U.N. Team certifying nuclear devices as decommissioned. An unlikely and slightly fantastical pair of villains would have made Flemming blush, although clearly Caplan was paying homage to Flemming’s Thunderball (Santal owns, and a good deal of the action takes place on a super high tech yacht). Caplan even references the James Bond Movies in a supporting character who supplies our hero with high tech gadgets, but he even fails here as well mistaking ‘M’ for ‘Q’. The reader would, I think, expect a spy novelist to know this.

The first 200 pages of the novel are filled with stops and starts and a meandering plot that had me hard pressed to read a whole chapter every night, and tempted me to put the novel away and not finish it. But, after these 200 pages which seemed more like 600, the story takes off. Further, the first part of the novel will make it apparent that Caplan is the master of the run-on sentence. Sentences that will run half a page encompassing entire paragraphs. I wondered if the editor’s gave him a certain allowance of commas and he decided to use them all up here.

The protagonist , Ty Hunter sounds a worthy successor to James Bond. He is part Bond, and part Jason Bourne. He is the worlds number one box office attraction with good looks to eclipse all other Hollywood pretty boys. And his cover, once he is recruited by none other than the President, is a good one, but the character fails on many fronts.

Having been sent out in the world to find the missing nukes, the first thing Hunter does is stop off to have lunch with his mother. Then, when the action and the story start to play about the half way point, Hunter’s attempt at Bond style one liners does not come off as sophisticated, but as sophomoric.

Still, you get a glimpse of an interesting read from here to the end, and you can see it was a marvelous idea, but just doesn’t quite live up to the authors goals.

the book has an Introduction by Bill Clinton, who was a classmate of the President at Georgetown back in the early ‘60s. In the intro he does praise the novel for it’d display of the privileged life style and he does mention the all too real threat of nukes falling into the wrong hand but, fortunately, eschews any literary criticism.

Caplan is the author of three previous novels that were more in line with the historical thriller/epic genre as well as the world of high finance, and the privileged lives of other American characters. As promising a character as Ty Hunter is, Caplan would be better served not exploring the spy game in the future.

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Article first published as Book Review: The Spy That Who Jumped Off The Screen by Thomas Caplan on Blogcritics.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

PDX Jazz Fest RUSH Tickets Available for Dee Dee Bridgewater and Roy Haynes - $15 Day of Show, PCPA Box Office Only

PDXJazz2012/4PanelPhoto Header

Dee Dee Bridgewater and Roy Haynes

to Headline 2012 U.S. Bank Portland Jazz Festival

Presented by Alaska Airlines at Newmark Theatre

RUSH Tickets Available! $15 starting at 10AM on the day of the show

Available exclusively at the PCPA box office at 1111 SW Broadway

For seating in 2nd Balcony only



  Photo Credit: Mark Higashino                            Photo Credit: Carol Friedman

Bridgewater to Pay Tribute to Billie Holiday - Thursday, February 23 at 7pm

Haynes to Make Portland Debut as a Leader - Friday, February 24 at 7pm

Three-time GRAMMY® Award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater will perform repertoire from her recent GRAMMY® Award winning project, in a program titled "To Billie with Love: A Celebration of Lady Day" paying homage to Billie Holiday on Thursday, February 23 at 7pm at the Newmark Theatre. Bridgewater has been a torchbearer for female vocalists in the tradition of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan for the past 40 years. The former Tony® Award winner, awarded for her role in The Wiz on Broadway, will be joined by pianist and music director Edsel Gomez, saxophonist Craig Handy, bassist Kenny Davis, and drummer Lewis Nash.

Holiday's influence as a jazz icon looms large, and in the case of NEA Jazz Master Roy Haynes there is a direct historical link. Haynes, now 86, joined Lester Young's band in 1947, and that year Billie performed with them in New York, and in 1959, the indefatigable Haynes played on Holiday's last show. Haynes will make his much anticipated and long overdue Portland debut as a leader with his Fountain of Youth band, which he has led for the better half of the last decade, on Friday, February 24 at 7pm at the Newmark Theatre.

Newmark Theatre & PCPA Box Office

1111 SW Broadway (at Main Street)

Walk up sales only, 10AM - 5PM

www.pcpa.com/newmark

(503) 248-4335

www.pdxjazz.com

For media information, contact:
Maureen McFadden @ maureen@dlmediamusic.com

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Monday, February 20, 2012

The Cornelia Street Cafe–Greenwich Village - February 20-27, + Announcing a New Series at The Cafe!

Cornelia outside
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

cornelia street cafe logo

The Cornelia Street Café is a true New York City landmark, an epicurean destination, an artist's café that cultivates and inspires, and one of the few remaining Greenwich Village bastions for creative music, spoken word, art, theatre, cabaret and much more

The Cornelia Street Cafe is Proud to Announce

"Spotlight On New Talent"

A NEW monthly series, dedicated to showcasing some of the most brilliant up-and-coming jazz musicians

March 22 - Trumpeter John Raymond Kicks off the series with a CD release celebration for Strength & Song (produced by Jon Faddis), featuring Jon Raymond (trumpet), Gilad Hekselman (guitar), Javier Santiago (piano), Linda Oh (bass) & Obed Calvaire (drums)

April 12 - Drummer Devin Gray CD Release featuring Ellery Eskelin, Mike Formanek & Dave Ballou!

# # # #  

This Week at The Cafe, February 20-27:

Tuesday, February 21, 8:30 PM 
ARTHUR VINT QUARTET 

Arthur Vint, drums; Matt Vashlishan, alto sax; Jesse Elder, piano; Steve Whipple, bass

Tuesday, February 21,  10:00 PM 
ERIC BURNS QUINTET, FEATURING RICH PERRY 

Rich Perry, tenor sax; Eric Burns, guitar; Chris Pattishall, piano; Adrian Moring, bass; Arthur Vint, drums

Wednesday, February 22, 8:30 PM 

THE JOSTEIN GULBRANDSEN TRIO, CD RELEASE: RELEASE OF TENSION

Jostein Gulbrandsen, guitar; Ike Sturm, bass; Ronen Itzik, drums

Thursday, February 23, 8:30PM 
JIM BLACK TRIO, CD RELEASE: SOMATIC ON WINTER & WINTER

Jim Black, drums; Teddy Klausner, piano; Chris Tordini, bass

Friday, February 24, 9:00 PM  

MARIO PAVONE, MYTHOS SEXTET 

Tony Malaby, tenor sax; Dave Ballou, cornet, trumpet; Craig Taborn, piano; Philippe Crettien, soprano sax, tenor sax; Gerald Cleaver, drums; Mario Pavone, bass, compositions

Saturday, February 25, 9:00 PM 
DAVE LIEBMAN, RICHIE BEIRACH DUO

Sunday, February 26, 8:30 PM 
CARNATIC SUNDAYS FEATURING RAJESWARI SATISH
Rajeswari Satish, vocals; Arun Ramamurthy, violin; Akshay Anantapadmanabhan, mridangam

Monday, February 27, 8:30 PM 
CLASSICAL AT THE CORNELIA: NOVA
Gina Izzo, flute; Erika Dohi, piano  

# # # #

"LIVE FROM CORNELIA STREET" PODCASTS

NOW AVAILABLE - Click Here to check out live performances from The Cafe

Awards & Distinctions:

"A CULINARY AS WELL AS A CULTURAL LANDMARK"

Proclamation, City of New York, 1987

One of Top 150 Jazz Venues in The World - DownBeat

Jazz Venue of The Year, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011 

- The NYC Jazz Record 

Zagat Nightlife - Award of Distinction

New York Post's Must Bar

Poetry Calendar's Best Poetry Series in New York

Time Out's Top 100 Restaurants

The Village Voice's Best of New York Food

Village Arts Award Inspired Cuisine

Where Magazine Best Neighborhood Ambiance

Waterford Crystal Award of Distinction Best Wine-By-The-Glass Program.

RESONANCE RECORDS TO CELEBRATE WES MONTGOMERY AT INDIANAPOLIS' JAZZ KITCHEN, MARCH 6

Resonance Logo

HOMETOWN EVENT WILL COMMEMORATE RELEASE OF
ECHOES OF INDIANA AVENUE & LATE GUITARIST'S 88TH BIRTHDAY

Look For The Review Of The Long Awaited Album, Here, On The Dirty Lowdown


FIRST FULL ALBUM OF PREVIOUSLY UNHEARD 

MONTGOMERY MUSIC IN OVER 25 YEARS

RESONANCE & MONTGOMERY FAMILY DONATING
CHARITY AUCTION PROCEEDS TO AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

In conjunction with the release of Wes Montgomery's Echoes of Indiana Avenue and the late guitarist's 88th birthday, Resonance Records announces an album release and birthday celebration event on Tuesday, March 6 at The Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis. The event will begin at 6:30pm and pay homage to the guitarist in his hometown, featuring performances by the The Indy Jazz Guitar Summit, as well as speeches by special guests, including Dr. David Baker, Robert Montgomery (Wes' son), Melvin Rhyne & Mingo Jones (both of whom are featured on the album), Duncan Schiedt (jazz photographer) and Zev Feldman (Echoes of Indiana Avenue producer and Executive Vice President & General Manager of Resonance Records). Additionally, WICR-FM host Chuck Workman will serve as the master of ceremonies for the event.
"I can't think of a better way to pay homage to Wes than to celebrate the new album and his birthday in his hometown," states Feldman. "We're honored to have the Montgomery Family's support and delighted to organize this event with the individuals who knew Wes and were a part of his life."
Additionally, Resonance Records recently commenced an eBay auction for the album, benefiting The American Heart Association (AHA). The winner will receive LP #0001 of a hand-serialized limited first edition pressing of 1,000 (which are already sold-out), as well as a sealed copy of Echoes of Indiana Avenue in CD format (with deluxe digi pack). All proceeds from the auction will benefit The American Heart Association in their ongoing efforts to raise awareness and prevention of heart disease (in honor of Montgomery, who died of a heart attack). The auction will end on Friday, February 24 at 20:42:31 EST.
Resonance & the Montgomery Family will present a check for the auction proceeds to Lynne Griffin (Cultural Health Initiatives Director for The American Heart Association) at the March 6 event.

CLICK HERE FOR AUCTION DETAILS

**
With a lot of sleuthing and a team of experts on the case, long lost tapes of Wes Montgomery have been discovered and restored. Resonance Records will release Echoes of Indiana Avenue - the first full album of previously unheard Montgomery music in over 25 years - on March 6, which would have been Montgomery's 88th birthday. Over a year and a half in the making, the release will provide a rare, revealing glimpse of a bona fide guitar legend. The tapes are the earliest known recordings of Montgomery as a leader, pre-dating his auspicious 1959 debut on Riverside Records. The album showcases Montgomery in performance from 1957-1958 at nightclubs in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, as well as rare studio recordings. The release is also beautifully packaged, containing previously unseen photographs and insightful essays by noted music writers and musicians alike, including guitarist Pat Martino and Montgomery's brothers Buddy and Monk.
**

Wes Montgomery

Album Release & Birthday Celebration @ The Jazz Kitchen

Tuesday, March 6 · 6:30pm

*$10 cover at venue*

*Call for advance dinner reservations*

5377 N College Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Phone - (317) 253-4900
Web - thejazzkitchen.com

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL PROJECT EPK ON YOUTUBE:

Wes Montgomery · Echoes of Indiana Avenue

Resonance Records HCD - 2011 · Release Date: March 6, 2012

For further information on this and other Resonance Records releases, visit: ResonanceRecords.org

Resonance Records is a program of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation,

a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

For media information, please contact:

DL Media · 610-667-0501

Jordy Freed · jordy@dlmediamusic.com

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Friday, February 17, 2012

CD Review: “Stories From The Steeples” by Mary Black

mary Black

Stories From the Steeples

Mary Black could have named this album, Stories from the Hall Of Fame. She I join for duets on three tunes by the revered vocal likes of Janis Ian, the Irish legends, Finbar Furey and Imelda May, who has topped the Irish charts more than once.

And the tunes. Ahh, the tunes. The song writers are amongst the best breathing. “Fifi The Flea” by the Hollies, Graham Nash, Tony Hicks and Allan Clarke, Australia’s own Paul Kelly. There’s three tunes written by the lead singer of the Irish Pop/rock group The Coronas, proving that Danny O’Reilly is more than just a rocker.

And it’s fitting that Black receive this kind of support. Mary Black was a star in Ireland in the late ‘70s as a member of general Humbert, and in the early ‘80s she went solo. But it wasn’t until 1990, after winning the Irish Independent Arts Award For Music, that she crossed the pond. In ‘89, she cut the multi-Platinum album, No Frontiers. She was gaining audience and critical acclaim throughout the world. With sellout crowds in the U.S., England, Europe, and Japan under her belt, she cut the album The Holy Ground, which was certified Platinum the day it hit the streets.

That success brought the opportunity to not only bring her music to America, but a chance to headline along side legendary performers such as Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter and fellow countryman, Van Morrison.

 

“Ring Them Bells” Mary Black & Joan Baez

You can tell from the video above that Mary Black sings traditional and contemporary folk songs. This isn’t the “new age” Celtic songs of Enya, nor is it the pop/rock of Sinead O’Connor, though in Ireland she is considered as much of a star female vocalist as either of them.

The songs on Stories From the Steeples are brilliant and  beautiful, celebrating love, life, loss and struggle. Black’s voice is at once, strong yet fragile. It is so pure that it is easy to see why in the UK it is used to compare the fidelity of other musical offerings. When she sings a song like the anti-war plea, “All The Fine Men’ you can feel the sorrow, but also the hope. In the Ricky Lynch penned “Marguerite And The Gambler” you can feel the longing and lust in the doomed love affair. An innocent, beautiful girl is in love with a rogue gambler, and her father tries to save her.

When she sings the Imelda May Irish chart topper, “Mountains To The Sea” she makes it her own. And one of my favorite is the Paul Kelly tune (who we reviewed last summer, here on these pages), “the Night Was Dark And Deep”. Black turns this tune into Irish Soul music.

The album comes in two beautifully produced editions, Stories From the Steeples is the standard CD complete with a booklet where Black talks about what each song means to her, and she credits a long line of musicians as well.

Stories Spcl Ed

And Stories from the Steeples: Special Edition which a Special 'book' edition includes three bonus tracks. It is beautifully created by Blix Records, who brought Black to the states way back when.

The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

Quad-core iPad 3 to be announced March 7?

ipad-rumor-mill

If the rumors prove true, an LTE, quad-core, Retina display iPad 3 will be announced on March 7 - but it's a big if!

It's been a busy week on the iPad 3 rumor mill, and things have progressed considerably with "reliable sources"  suggesting an official iPad 3 announcement is likely on March 7. Further, the same sources indicate that the next iteration of Apple's tablet could be powered by a quad-core processor and include - as we already suspected - a Retina display. The Retina display like on the iPod Touch & iPhone 4, is the sharpest, most vibrant, highest-resolution display technology. There's some suggestion that the device could feature LTE connectivity (through AT&T)- though this latter point seems shrouded in uncertainty. Time to take the cautious stick to the iPad 3 rumor cauldron ...

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Free eBook for American Readers from Mike Faricy!

Chow For Now Spcl

For all my US readers. Today thru Saturday Amazon is offering a FREE download of Chow For Now. Crime fiction written with a sense of humor and even a little romance. Please get your copy and then tell 2-300 of your closest friends. Thanks, The US link follows Get It Now, Free!

“Sometime private eye, Dickie Mullins would be a lot better off if only he ignored ex-wife Rae Nell's get rich schemes. But then, that's not how Dickie operates. Rae Nell has just been hired by rip-off artist Terry Taggert to promote his unique line of steaks. What better way to introduce the dining public than an open house at Dickie's Emporium of Dance, a meat market of a slightly different nature. By the time the open house is concluded Rae Nell's fling with her boss Terry Taggert has erupted into a very public affair and Terry's wife, heiress Helen Hardy, is looking for justice. Meanwhile, Terry's assistant, Luther Suggs, is increasing the body count just as the health department closes down Dickie's Emporium of Dance. Did we mention the fur coat scandal? Fortunately for Dickie his girlfriend D.J. is still talking to him, and eventually he listens.
You're hooked from the first page to the final word of this hilarious read. Hang on tight for plot twists and turns sprinkled with wonderful surprises along the way. Another magnificent cast of Faricy's madcap characters and incredibly fast moving action make this a must read.”

Mike Faricy

"Faricy is America's hottest new mystery writer..." The Dirty Lowdown
"Lucky us - A hilarious tale, completely entertaining..." The Irish Gazette
"Delightfully amazing... You have to wonder what's going on in there..."
The Crime Wave
"Suspenseful crime fiction with a sense of humor and romance... Faricy is the Carl Hiaasen of Minnesota." Jail House Talk !

 

The Dirty Lowdown

Monday, February 13, 2012

BASSIST CHRISTIAN McBRIDE RECEIVES FIRST GRAMMY® AWARD AS LEADER FOR THE GOOD FEELING - "BEST LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE ALBUM"

Mack Avenue logo

BASSIST CHRISTIAN McBRIDE RECEIVES
FIRST GRAMMY® AWARD AS LEADER FOR
THE GOOD FEELING - "BEST LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE ALBUM"

The Good Feeling

Mack Avenue Records bassist Christian McBride received his first GRAMMY® Award as a leader at the 54th Annual GRAMMY® Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. McBride won in the "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album" category for his big band debut, The Good Feeling.  

"The project couldn't be more aptly titled," states McBride, reflecting on the win. "That's exactly how I feel!"

"As one of the most prolific musicians of his generation, Christian has won several GRAMMY® Awards as a sideman but had never been nominated as a leader," states Denny Stilwell, President of Mack Avenue Records. "When news broke that he received his first nomination for the ambitious big band project, we were thrilled for him. And now that he has won, we are even more thrilled. Congratulations, Christian!"

In 2011, in addition to The Good Feeling, McBride also released the critically-acclaimed album, Conversations With Christian (on November 8).

**
For over 20 years, McBride has appeared in numerous musical settings with just about any musician imaginable in the jazz as well as R&B and pop worlds. From playing with the likes of Milt Jackson, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny; to playing with and/or arranging for the likes of Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan, Lalah Hathaway, Sting and the legendary James Brown, what has always been unique about McBride is his versatility. In addition to his work in the neo-soul arena with The Roots, D'Angelo, Queen Latifah and others, the Philadelphia native has also led his own ensembles: The Christian McBride Band, A Christian McBride Situation and his most recent group, "Inside Straight" (fresh off their critically acclaimed 2009 effort, Kind of Brown). There are many sides to the musical persona of McBride, and The Good Feeling has him realizing another one: as the leader, arranger and conductor of his big band.
McBride's first foray into the world of big band composing and arranging dates back to 1995, when he was commissioned by Jazz At Lincoln Center to write Bluesin' in Alphabet City, featured on The Good Feeling and originally debuted by Wynton Marsalis & The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra. Since that time he has composed a number of pieces for larger ensembles including The Movement Revisited, a five movement suite dedicated to four of the major figures of the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
At McBride's core is The Good Feeling, his first full-fledged big band recording, that is presented in a truly impressive fashion. He sought the advice of some of the most accomplished arrangers around, such as Jimmy Heath and John Clayton; and referenced material by the likes of Oliver Nelson, Duke Ellington, Thad Jones and Don Sebesky, among others The album features classic, "staple" tunes along with original McBride compositions (the perfect balance and platform on which to showcase the band).
** 

CHRISTIAN McBRIDE'S RECENT CRITICAL RECOGNITION:

NPR "All Things Considered" Interview

Associated Press Review

WNYC "Soundcheck" Interview & Performance

Los Angeles Times Review

Boston Globe Review

Philadelphia Inquirer Review

DownBeat Interview

UPCOMING CHRISTIAN McBRIDE U.S. PERFORMANCES:
All performances to feature McBride's Inside Straight group unless otherwise noted.
+ February 18 | August Wilson Center | Pittsburgh, PA
February 24 | University of North Carolina/Memorial Hall | Chapel Hill, NC
March 27-31 | Birdland | New York, NY
April 5-8 | Jazz Alley | Seattle, WA
*April 21 | Touhill Performing Arts Center | St. Louis, MO
*May 10 | Tribeca Performing Arts Center | New York, NY
June 8 | Flynn Center for the Performing Arts/Discover Jazz Festival | Burlington, VA
*June 16 | Hollywood Bowl/Playboy Jazz Festival | Los Angeles, CA
*June 17 | Herbst Theater/SFJAZZ Festival | San Francisco, CA
June 23 | University of Charleston Grounds/Wine & All That Jazz Festival | Charleston, WV
June 30 | 35th Annual Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival | Saratoga Springs, NY
August 4 | Newport Jazz Festival | Newport, RI
**August 19 | Seiji Ozawa Hall/Tanglewood Recital Series | Lenox MA
+With Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra
*Christian McBride Big Band
**Christian McBride Trio
For additional worldwide performances, please visit: Ted Kurland Associates

(McBride's book agency). 

Christian McBride · The Good Feeling and Conversations With Christian
Mack Avenue Records · Release Dates (respectively): Sept. 27, 2011 & Nov. 8, 2011

For more information on Christian McBride, please visit: christianmcbride.com

For media information, please contact: 

DL Media · 610-667-0501

Jordy Freed · jordy@dlmediamusic.com

For press materials on Christian McBride, Mack Avenue artists or

Mack Avenue Record labels in general (including album covers, promotional photos and logos), please visit: media.mackavenue.com

MACK AVENUE · the road to great music · mackavenue.com

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