Larry Young -][- UNITY [BLUE NOTE, The Rudy Van Gelder Edition]

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African American, Jazz, Larry Young, Organ

Greeting jazz enthusiasts, are you ready to check out some smokin’ jazz featuring organist Larry Young from his UNITY album recored in 1965 on Blue Note Records?

Larry Young - UNITY

Larry Young -][- UNITY – [BLUE NOTE, The Rudy Van Gelder Edition, 1965]

Move over Jimmy Smith. This one really cooks. I did not know much about Larry Young when I ordered this CD sight unseen from Amazon recently – I came across it in the Penguin. The other musicians on the CD need no introduction. It features a masterful Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Elvin Jones’s intense drumming, and an effortless Woody Shaw on trumpet. And then of course Larry Young on the Hammond B3 organ. And it is Young who does it for me on this CD. There aren’t a lot of jazz organists who have made it to the top, and unfortunately Larry Young died young – like too many jazz musicians (including Woody Shaw).

Young never had any formal organ training, and he modeled his style on John Coltrane. That is apparent in the flurry of notes and key changes the listener is presented with. But the sound never gets as intense as for example Coltrane’s Ascension. It is a more laid-back sound, but with plenty of captivating audio interest. Young complements the other players and never overpowers them.

RARENOISERECORDS COLLABORATES WITH MUSIC RENEGADES BOB BELDEN, TIM HAGANS & ANIMATION ON ASIENTO, A RE-IMAGINATION OF BITCHES BREW, SET FOR APRIL 26 RELEASE IN U.S.

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Animation, Bob Belden, Jazz, Matt Garrison, Scott Kinsey, Tim Hagans

FEATURES SCOTT KINSEY, MATT GARRISON, GUY LICATA, DJ LOGIC

LIVE 2006 BBC RECORDING AT NEW YORK’S MERKIN HALL

REVISITS BAND’S GROUNDBREAKING CONCEPTS FROM

THEIR GRAMMY NOMINATED BLUE NOTE ALBUMS

Animation - Asiento

Unconventional. Unheard of. Some might add unreal. Upon first listen, you’ll be struck by the startling freshness and flat-out nerve that have become hallmark sounds of Animation, the best rock & jazz mélange you’ve never heard of.

With two Grammy nominated Blue Note CDs, animation * imagination (1999) and re*animation LIVE! (2000), the group has raised the bar for experimental music, carrying with it infectious tinges of hip-hop, trip-hop, drum ‘n’ bass, fusion and whatever your own imagination might add with each new listen.

The journey continues with Asiento, the group’s long-overdue album to be released on the UK-based RareNoiseRecords. Spearheaded by music visionaries Bob Belden (producer/saxophone), Tim Hagans (trumpet) and Scott Kinsey (keyboard/synthesizer), as well as Matt Garrison (bass), Guy Licata (drums) and DJ Logic (turntables), Animation re-imagines the landmark 1969 Miles Davis release Bitches Brew.

ACCLAIMED COMPOSER/PIANIST/SCHOLAR GERI ALLEN NOMINATED FOR A 2011 NAACP IMAGE AWARD – GERI ALLEN & TIMELINE – LIVE – “OUTSTANDING JAZZ ALBUM”

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African American, Geri Allen, Jazz, NAACP Image Awards, Piano

GERI ALLEN & TIMELINE

Composer/pianist Geri Allen has been nominated for a 2011 NAACP Image Award in the category of “Outstanding Jazz Album” for her most recent Motéma Music release, Geri Allen & Timeline – Live.

The NAACP Image Awards, currently celebrating its 42nd anniversary, are presented each year to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music and literature. In conjunction, the ceremony offers awards to individuals or groups who help promote social injustice through creative efforts. Members of the NAACP vote on the awards and the process is similar to that of the Grammys and Oscars.

For Allen, the nomination comes after a banner year in 2010, with two debut releases for Motéma Music: Flying Toward The Sound, a solo piano work inspired by Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock, as well as Geri Allen & Timeline – Live. The releases collectively have garnered critical acclaim from the media, selected on the “Best Jazz CDs of 2010” lists from outlets such as the Village Voice, Detroit Free Press, JazzTimes and National Public Radio’s “50 Favorite Albums of 2010,” among others.

The first “live” recording of Allen’s 30-year career, Timeline Live as recorded at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and Reed College, in Portland, Oregon. These two exciting live performances feature Allen’s working quartet nimbly and ferociously interacting with each other, reinventing the dialog between the dance and the drums. Timeline celebrates the dance and the music together as one, and can best be described as a radical jazz and tap dance quartet album.