New Releases [Jazz] … for the week of 8/2/2010

Tags

African American, Alex Brown, Jackiem Joyner, Jazz, New Releases, Piano, Steve Turre, Tim Bowman

Greetings’ fellow jazz enthusiasts, it’s hard to believe August is here with an intricate canvas of what’s -cool- and maybe not so -cool- from a optimistic perspective we don’t usually find in the diet of the chromatic pop music culture. The origin of new music featured each week encompasses various branches of jazz, which exudes a wealth of complex and distinctive styles, insinuating textures, immaculate melodies, and relentless rhythms exalted by the definitive voices of creative artists serves up sounds to quench our immutable thirst for quality music.

Featured Album of the Week

“I consider Alex the future of music; he’s amazing, particularly for such a young musician, he has real soul.” Dave Valentin, flutist

Alex Brown - Pianist

Alex Brown -\\- Pianist – [Sunnyside Records, 2010]

Jazz pianist and composer Alex Brown is quickly establishing both a national and international reputation.

In 2007, Alex joined the group of ten-time Grammy-Award-winner Paquito D’Rivera. Alex has also performed with musicians including Jane Bunnett, Jon Faddis, Slide Hampton, the New York Voices, Terell Stafford, Gary Thomas, Dave Valentin, Miguel Zenon, and Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

In January 2010, Alex was featured in Keyboard Magazine. Alex was also a 2010 Grammy nominee for his work as a part of Paquito D’Rivera’s 2009 release, “Jazz-Clazz.”

Alex has performed at a wide array of venues and events including Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, Birdland in New York, the Blue Note in New York and Tokyo, Carnegie Hall, the Heineken Jazz Festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Israel, the Panama Jazz Festival, Baltimore’s Artscape Festival, the Greater Hartford Jazz Festival, the Curacao Jazz Festival, and Blues Alley in Washington, DC.

In 2007, Alex was a winner as a pianist in the Jazz Soloist category of Downbeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards. In 2009, the group LaTimbistica, which he is a part of, won for best college group. He has also won four “Outstanding Awards” including one for his Latin-jazz arrangement of Kol Han’shama, a traditional Jewish folksong which is included on his CD, “Montrose Towing.” Alex had received the other three awards in 2005 for his piano and violin performances, and for his Big Band composition, “Superman.”

Recently in 2007, Alex received his second Honorable Mention from the ASCAP Foundation in their annual Young Jazz Composer Awards. In 2003, ASCAP awarded Alex with an Honorable Mention for his composition, “Take the T,” which was inspired by the Boston transit system. Subsequently, “Take the T” was performed in concert by the U.S. Army’s premier Big Band, the Jazz Ambassadors. In the fall of 2004, Alex was the youngest member ever accepted into the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop in New York City, which he attended for a year.

Read more about pianist Alex Brown by visiting http://www.alexbrownmusic.com

..:: Source: Alex Brown Music.com ::..

The Worst Sight by artist Kevin A. Williams (Wak)

Tags

African American, Kevin A. Williams (Wak)

Greeting’s art enthusiasts, it’s a pleasure to be with you once again to share some of the best Urban Art available on canvas by visual artists in the African American community. On today, I’m honored to showcase a masterpiece influenced from a historical perspective title “The Worst Sight“ by a dynamic young artist on the scene named Kevin A. Williams better know as Wak.

-))- The Worst Sight by artist Kevin A. Williams (Wak) – Limited Edition | Lithograph -((-

Kevin A. Williams (Wak) - The Worst Sight

“THE WORST SIGHT” by K. A. Williams /WAK captures what must have been The Worst Sight ever seen. Vingette a majestic African Queen stands on the shores of the coast of Africa looking out into the Trans Atlantic Ocean and her eyes behold The Worst Sight ever seen, a slave ship approaching. Tears well-up in her eyes, and she is overcome by a feeling of helplessness and rage as she feels evil in the air. —Grandpasart.com

..:: Source: Grandpasart.com ::..

[Classic Jazz Revisited] … jazz pianist McCoy Tyner’s “The Real McCoy” [The Rudy Van Gelder Edition]

Tags

African American, Jazz, McCoy Tyner, Piano

Flux Classic Jazz Revisited

McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy

McCoy Tyner -//- The Real McCoy – [BLUE NOTE, 1965]

This was the first of 6 albums McCoy Tyner recorded for Blue Note records in the late 60s and early 70s. His earlier records for Impulse (Inception, A Night of Ballads and Blues, etc.) were generally more conservative recordings in the piano trio format. But on Real McCoy he went for the explosive, wide open modal sound of the 60s Coltrane quartet.

Tyner had played with Elvin Jones for over five years in Coltrane’s group and by this point they were joined at the musical hip; as usual, Jones is a polyrhythmic monster on “Passion Dance” and “Four by Five”. Joe Henderson had played in front of Tyner and Jones several times, including the classic quartet date Inner Urge (also on Blue Note); this is among his best playing of the 60s, along with Larry Young’s Unity. His mixture of mainstream playing and wild avant-gardisms is on perfect display. Ron Carter provides a strong, flexible anchor. McCoy’s playing would get denser and heavier over the next few years, but his powerful sound (dark, left hand chords and fast, unpredictable right hand lines) is well featured here.

Flux Music [Jazz] Essentials … features [Cabrera, Hancock, Marsalis, Mehldau & Weather Report]

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African American, Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, Jazz, Weather Report, Wynton Marsalis, Yosvany Terry Cabrera

Flux Music Essentials

Greeting’s fellow jazz enthusiasts, I’m back in the mix with another tantalizing yet satisfying blend of original jazz that’s shaken and stirred to perfection from the shelves of “Flux Music Essentials.”

Yosvany Terry Cabrera - Metamorphosis

Yosvany Terry Cabrera -//- Metamorphosis – [Kindred Rhythm, 2006]

Yosvany Terry Cabrera’s debut album, “Metamorphosis,” showcases his musical virtuosity and energy that he has pursued in his career with passion and dedication. Metamorphosis debuts Terry’s talents as a bandleader, composer, arranger, and powerful musician and features some of New York’s finest jazz musicians.

“Metamorphosis” is the perfect word to describe Terry’s musical journey and this fresh collection of compositions. Each track musically expresses a different experience he has had along the way. Havana, New York City and beyond: all of his influences can be heard on this album. The compositions and improvisations flow from rhythmic, energetic avant-garde to mellifluous lyricism.

Terry has now given the world a collection of contemporary jazz tracks which will open many ears, fusing the richness of his Afro-Cuban roots with the brightest, new sounds and spirit in the world of jazz. —Amazon.com

Gabriele Tranchina -||- A Song of Love’s Color [Jazzheads]

Tags

Female Vocalist, Gabriele Tranchina, Jazz

Gabriele Tranchina – A Song of Love’s Color

Gabriele Tranchina -//- A Song of Love’s Color – [Jazzheads, 2010]

It appears that exacting pitch is not really important in the grander scheme of things, for Gabriele Tranchina’s singing. Although it seems likely that if she really wanted to this vocalist could nail the exacting pitch of the notes themselves with perfection, Tranchina eschews the exactitude of notation to scale impossible heights of emotion. In this respect she is like a storyteller who uses lyric passages to let tales of longing and other elusive emotions unfold with the songs she sings. As a vocalist Tranchina often coaxes her voice to stretch beyond its contralto comfort zone. This is no mean feat as there appears to be no strain at all. On the contrary, Tranchina never fails to surprise with the manner in which she is able to hold onto notes higher than her normal vocal range.

Another important feature of Gabriele Tranchina’s singing is that she is able to sing with stylish facility in French, Portuguese, Spanish and English as well as in her native German. On A Song of Love’s Color Tranchina even manages to navigate through a wonderful Sanskrit chant, “Asato Maa (Sat Chit Ananda).” This, of course, has everything to do with her Germanic roots—Sanskrit and German having the same linguistic origins. Nevertheless, the haunting rendition is memorable. Her version of “Today,” seemingly written almost exclusively in a diatonic mode is also quite exquisite as the song seems perfect for her method of intonation. And this is probably Gabriele Tranchina’s main vocal strength. —Raul da Gama /LatinJazzNet.com

Go here, to read the complete review by Raul da Gama.

..:: Source: LatinJazzNet.com ::..