Curtis MacDonald -][- Community Immunity [Greenleaf Music]

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Curtis MacDonald, Jazz, Saxophone

Curtis MacDonald, Community Immunity

Curtis MacDonald -][- Community Immunity – [Greenleaf Music, 2011]

Greenleaf Music is proud to release saxophonist/composer Curtis MacDonald’s debut album, Community Immunity, April 5, 2011. Greenleaf president and trumpet luminary Dave Douglas notes, “The pieces on this recording are like little puzzles with moving parts that fit together in the strangest ways. The moving parts lock in with uncanny seamlessness.” Throughout the recording, strong and catchy melodies are supported by rhythmic motifs that churn each piece in an often cinematic style. Macdonald and his ace crew of players create effortless buoyancy as they bounce off the parameters of each new conundrum.

Macdonald grew up near one of the most desirable artist communities in North America, the Banff Centre for the Arts—a carefully balanced, fertile environment tailored exclusively for community development within the arts. In 2007, he graduated cum laude from the New School University in NYC where he immediately became faculty. Through his research of sound, acoustics, and digital audio processes, Curtis has begun to exploit natural aural phenomena within his compositions, such as binaural beating in the form of a modified rhythmic vibrato heard in his piece “Childhood Sympathy.” A quick look at his website will reveal his probing creativity on the cutting edge of computer music technology.

Based in Brooklyn, Macdonald is part of the next generation of great saxophonists. Community Immunity is the first of what will surely be many great Curtis Macdonald projects in the years to come.

Personnel: Curtis Macdonald, Alto Sax; Chris Tordini, Bass; Greg Richie, Drums; Jeremy Viner, Tenor Sax/Clarinet; David Virelles, Piano; Michal Vanoucek, Piano; Travis Reuter, Guitars; Becca Stevens, Voice; Andrea Tyniec, Violin.

..:: SOURCE: Greenleaf Music ::..

PIANIST/COMPOSER MYRA MELFORD CONTINUES INNOVATING, EXPANDING BOUNDARIES IN A YEAR HIGHLIGHTED BY NEW CD FROM TRIO M

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Jazz, Myra Melford, Piano

Myra Melford

After more than 20 years at the cutting edge of creative music, pianist Myra Melford is still pushing boundaries and her music continues to move in new directions. Not only is she leading her own bands, including the critically acclaimed sextet, Be Bread, but she is also exploring the use of new technologies in performance, and working with an ever-widening circle of improvisers in collaborative groups. At 54, Melford is busier than ever and working at a creative peak that promises to keep her at the forefront of new music.

This year, one of the most celebrated of the collective groups she participates in, Trio M, will release a follow up album to their 2007 debut recording Big Picture (Cryptogramaphone) and tour extensively in the US and Europe. The all-star trio, featuring bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson, is “not only one of the most virtuosic playing today, but one of the most consistently engrossing,” according to Derk Richardson in The Absolute Sound. A sort of new music Non-Standards Trio, they play with “with a loving commitment to the jazz avant-garde, especially as it was expressed in the 1970s, a sort of frontier era,”
says Nate Chinen in the New York Times. They will start their crowded 2011 schedule at the Bay Area’s legendary jazz venue, Yoshi’s, and an appearance at the Brubeck Festival in late March. Soon after that, they head into the studio to record their sophomore effort that will be released in the fall by the venerable Enja label as part of its 40th anniversary celebration. A weeklong tour of Europe in May and a North American tour in the fall in support of the new disc are also in the works.