The Cookers ‘Believe’ Release Party at 92Y Tribeca December 12, Broadcast live by WBGO’s The Checkout

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Billy Harper, Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, Craig Handy, David Weiss, Eddie Henderson, George Cables

The Cookers is tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, trumpeters Eddie Henderson and David Weiss, alto saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist George Cables, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Billy Hart.

The Cookers have been touring in support of their “cooking” release Believe since the summer, igniting crowds at major venues and festivals including the Playboy Jazz Festival, the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Caramoor Jazz Festival and more with DownBeat hailing the super-group “a must-see band on the festival circuit.”

[Featured Album of the Week] … “Nina” by vocalists Kellylee Evans

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Female Vocalist, Jazz, Kellylee Evans

Featured Album of the Week

***2007 JUNO NOMINEE – Best Jazz Vocal Album ***

Kellylee Evans - Nina

Kellylee Evans -][- Nina – [Plus Loin Music, 2010]

Ottawa singer-songwriter Kellylee Evans is entering the next phase of her music career with her sophomore album, Good Girl.

The alt.-soul pop recording follows her 2006 critically acclaimed urban-jazz debut, Fight or Flight, which helped garner the Toronto native Juno and Gemini award nominations in 2007 and a win for best female artist at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards. Good Girl was written and produced by Kellylee at Audio Valley Recording Studio in Perth, Ontario, with the help of engineer and co-producer Steve Foley and her trusty touring band since 2005.

“With my last CD, which I did back in 2004, I felt that I didn’t get a chance to get a lot of my ideas out. I wanted that opportunity this time to see where the songs would go on my own,” she says. “The song ‘Good Girl’ is about not wanting to live up to anybody else’s expectations. The whole album is about being true to yourself and the idea of trying to please everybody around you. It’s just this desire to not be anybody’s good girl.”

From the reflective “Questioning My Path” about searching for one’s identity to the aforementioned inspirational groove “Good Girl,” and playful eye-opener “Tonight” about not wanting to fall in love with someone, many of the new songs deal with obsession of one kind or another and an ever-evolving stance on things big and small.

“If I just look at simple things, like a month ago I didn’t wear make up and now I do everyday. A few years ago I was told I was allergic to fragrances and so I didn’t use anything that was scented and now, everywhere I go, I’m looking for a perfect scent to wear,” she chuckles. “And there are still people in my life who I haven’t seen in a while who are like, ‘Oh Kellylee, you’re eating meat. You were the biggest vegan!’”

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/kellyleeevans#ixzz11tgmX1zB

..:: Source: MySpace.com ::..

[Featured Album of The Week] … Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green -][- Apex

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Bunky Green, Jazz, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Saxophone

Featured Album of the Week

Greetings my fellow jazz enthusiasts, I’m enthralled to return with two of the most influential and innovative voices in modern jazz … composer / saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green. With Apex, both artists combine their prolific voices to create a unique marriage that accentuates the energy, creativity and dexterity realized only through the soundscape of where global music meets jazz and how it accurately impacts those who truly love music. —Rob Young | The Urban Flux

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green - Apex

Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green -][- Apex – [Pi. Recordings, 2010]

Apex is a blazing collaboration between alto saxophonists Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green that puts on display a fifty-year continuum of state-of-the-art saxophone playing. Featuring the all-star band of Jason Moran on piano, François Moutin on bass and switching off on drums, the dynamic Damion Reid and the great Jack DeJohnette, Apex shines a much-deserved spotlight on Bunky Green, a hugely influential but under-recognized original in jazz.

Mahanthappa, a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow, is widely recognized as one of the most important jazz musicians today. At 39 years old, he has perennially been on the Down Beat Critics Poll as alto saxophonist and composer and has been named Alto Saxophonist of the Year the last two years by the Jazz Journalist Association. His prior release Kinsmen (Pi 28), which masterfully combined jazz with South Indian music, was named the runner-up album of the year in the Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll in 2008 and hailed as one of the top jazz albums of the year by numerous publications. Read more …

..:: Source: FULLY ALTERED MEDIA ::..

[Featured Album of the Week] … Taylor Eigsti -][- Daylight at Midnight

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Jazz, Piano, Taylor Eigsti

Featured Album of the Week

Greetings jazz enthusiasts, I’m delighted to spotlight one of the brightest and invigorating voices in modern jazz … pianist/composer Taylor Eigsti. In fact, it seemed not long ago he was considered a prodigy and virtuoso … although he’s undoubtedly worthy of these accolades Eigsti is unafraid to express himself through a body of work that encompasses seasoned textures that are riveting, challenging and vibrant from a perspective of a young yet forward thinking artist. As you see, I’m excited Taylor Eigsti return with his fascinating excursion into new project territory on Concord Jazz appropriately titled Daylight at Midnight as our “Featured Album of The Week” at The Urban Flux. —Rob Young

Taylor Eigsti - Daylight at Midnight

Taylor Eigsti -][- Daylight at Midnight – [Concord Records, 2010]

Concord Jazz is proud to announce the release of Daylight at Midnight, the newest album from the pianist/composer Taylor Eigsti. This innovative collection includes original Eigsti compositions, as well as other remarkable musical renditions by composers such as Nick Drake, Imogen Heap, Elliot Smith and Rufus Wainwright. The 11-track collection marks Eigsti’s third Concord Jazz release.

On Daylight at Midnight, Eigsti continues to challenge the norms of what constitutes jazz today. While Eigsti pays full respect to the jazz tradition, he also exercises his passion for melodies of esteemed songwriters from his generation and explores a variety of music that piques his curiosity. In this collection, he not only finds resonance in the aforementioned top-tier, pop-oriented composers… but also brings to light a doubleheader of personal revelation: 20th-century Catalonian classical pianist Federico Mompou and up-and-coming vocalist/songwriter Becca Stevens, who sings five of the 11 tunes and adds her own flavors of the ukulele and charango. As fitting for an adventurous repertoire, the young pianist augments his unique and lyrical style with the Fender Rhodes, Rhodes PianoBass, Wurlitzer electric piano and Mellotron samples to add color and texture to the tunes.