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GA Russell

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About GA Russell

  • Birthday November 5

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Raleigh, NC
  • Interests
    eBook reading
    Canadian football

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  1. They have found someone. Sports Illustrated keeps print, partners with Minute Media (usatoday.com)
  2. Yelena Eckemoff Takes an Intriguing New Direction with "Romance of the Moon," To Be Released May 10 By L&H Production Pianist-Composer Enlists a Superlative Italian Quartet, Including Celebrated Trumpeter Paolo Fresu, To Realize 13 New Compositions Inspired by the Poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca   March 18, 2024 Pianist-composer-conceptualist Yelena Eckemoff tries something a little bit different—but no less cerebral and audacious—with Romance of the Moon, set for a May 10 release on her own L&H Production label. Always a multimedia thinker, Eckemoff has previously made albums that incorporate her visual art as well as stories, poems, and concepts from her own imagination. This time, she presents a suite of compositions inspired by the great Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, as interpreted by the formidable Italian ensemble that includes bassist Luca Bulgarelli, drummer Stefano Bagnoli, guitarist Riccardo Bertuzzi, and world-renowned trumpet icon Paolo Fresu. If this seems a departure from projects like Eckemoff’s 2023 effort Lonely Man and His Fish, based on her narrative of a human-pet relationship, or 2021’s Adventures of the Wildflower, tracing the life of a single plant, that’s because it is. Romance of the Moon has more in common with Eckemoff’s diptych of albums based on the biblical Psalms, 2018’s Better Than Gold and Silver and 2022’s I Am a Stranger in This World. Those, however, were written as vocal settings (albeit performed without vocalists). These new compositions were conceived, written, and executed as instrumental music. That’s not to say, however, that Eckemoff’s pieces are any less tightly intertwined with the Lorca poems that inspired them. In fact, the composer went so far as to translate the texts into Italian so that her sidemen “would know exactly what every composition is about,” she says. “That’s how important it was that they know exactly what the poem says. These are instrumentals, but the music still corresponds to the poems.” She translated them again, into English, for the listener’s reference. Based though it is in poetry, Romance of the Moon nonetheless has a dramatic sweep. This occurs on the level of the individual tracks—as with Fresu’s taut, suspenseful trumpet line on “Barren Orange Tree” and Bertuzzi’s carefully developing guitar solo on “Old Lizard”—and across the full album, building from the reflective opener “Bells” to the moody crest of the title track, then to the evocative, satisfying resolution of “August.” Like Lorca and other great poets, Eckemoff thoroughly understands the importance of form, both macro and micro. L. to r. Luca Bulgarelli, Yelena Eckemoff, Paolo Fresu, Stefano Bagnoli. Yelena Eckemoff was born in Moscow, where she started playing by ear and composing music when she was four. By seven, she was attending the Gnessins School for musically gifted children, eventually matriculating at Moscow State Conservatory to study classical piano. In her early twenties, Eckemoff found herself drawn to jazz—at a time when the music, or at least recordings of it, were a rare commodity in the then-Soviet Union. Soon, however, came Dave Brubeck’s groundbreaking 1987 concert in Moscow, which for Eckemoff was definitive. Jazz, she then knew, was where her destiny lay. Of course, any thorough immersion in jazz had to be done in the United States, where Eckemoff immigrated in 1991 and settled in North Carolina. Not only did the move entrench her in the land that gave birth to jazz, but it gave her easier access to players who could do justice to her intricate ideas.  Finding those players was no easy task. Finally, though, a MySpace encounter with Danish bassist Mads Vinding—combined with a bold through-the-mail contact with drummer Peter Erskine—yielded her 2010 breakthrough, the album Cold Sun. Her subsequent collaborators have included Marilyn Mazur (Forget-Me-Not); Arild Andersen and Billy Hart (Lions); Mark Turner, Joe Locke, and George Mraz (A Touch of Radiance); Mark Feldman (Leave Everything Behind); Chris Potter and Gerald Cleaver (In the Shadow of a Cloud); Ralph Alessi (Better Than Gold and Silver, I Am a Stranger in This World); and, on 2023’s Lonely Man and His Fish, Kirk Knuffke, Masaru Koga, Ben Street, and Eric Harland. Romance of the Moon is Eckemoff’s first encounter with Fresu, Bulgarelli, Bertuzzi, and Bagnoli. “In jazz, the project is only finished when recorded with jazz musicians,” she explains. “I design each project for them to be able to express themselves.” Disciplined and free, these musicians inhabit Eckemoff’s beguiling themes with the distilled intensity of Lorca’s poems. Photography: Edoardo Cantini Bandcamp: https://yelenaeckemoff.bandcamp.com/    EPK: Yelena Eckemoff | Romance of the Moon  Yelena Eckemoff Web Site  
  3. The scripts were written by John Broome, the same guy who wrote the Flash stories. After a while, I became tired of the sameness. A lot of invasions of monsters from outer space, many of which looked like The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Good artwork, though.
  4. THE MESSTHETICS AND JAMES BRANDON LEWIS SHARE NEW SINGLE CHECK OUT "THAT THANG" NOW US TOUR DATES BEGIN NEXT MONTH THE MESSTHETICS AND JAMES BRANDON LEWIS DUE MARCH 15TH VIA IMPULSE! RECORDS # Artist and Track Title Time 1. The Messthetics, James Brandon Lewis - That Thang 03:11 2. The Messthetics, James Brandon Lewis - Emergence 02:59 The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis by Shervin Lainez "That Thang" LISTEN: https://TheMessthetics.lnk.to/JBL WATCH: https://TheMessthetics.lnk.to/ThatThangVideo The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis Instrumental-trio The Messthetics and acclaimed jazz-saxophonist James Brandon Lewis share "That Thang," the second offering from their forthcoming album The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis due March 15th via the legendary Impulse! Records. "That Thang" arrives with a visualizer created by The Messthetics' Brendan Canty and follows the lead single, "Emergence," which also arrived with a Canty-created video. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis will bring their collaborative sound on the road for a string of eight performances across the country including sets at Treefort Music Fest in Boise on March 21st and Big Ears Festival in Knoxville on March 23rd, along with a date supporting bar italia in Nashville on March 25th before a run of five headline shows. In May, The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis will hit the road again for a string of nine shows. Full tour dates can be found below and tickets available HERE. The Messthetics formed in 2016 and is made up of the rhythm section from renowned DC punk band Fugazi, with Joe Lally on bass and Brendan Canty on drums, along with experimental and jazz guitarist Anthony Pirog. Praised saxophonist James Brandon Lewis hails from New York City and first joined the trio on stage in 2019 and again in 2021, which sparked inspiration for the quartet to create an album together. The nine tracks of The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis were recorded in just two days in Maryland with engineer Don Godwin. The album captures the combustive chemistry the four musicians felt on stage while performing together and expands on the collaboration in all directions. Though the configuration heard on The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis is relatively new, it builds on long-standing musical relationships. Lewis and Pirog first met around a decade ago at a session led by free-jazz drummer William Hooker and instantly hit it off, going on to work together extensively in Lewis’ own groups. “Since day one of knowing Anthony, me and him just fit,” says Lewis, now widely acclaimed as one of the most compelling bandleaders on the contemporary jazz scene. “We looked at each other after that William Hooker session, and we was like, ‘Damn, this shit is on point.’” Lally and Canty of course share a similar brotherhood, rooted in the 15 years they spent touring the world as the supple yet rock-solid rhythm section for Washington, D.C.’s iconic Fugazi. “I play differently with Joe than I play with anybody else,” Canty says. “He creates this foundation that I call a very sturdy jungle gym for all of us to play on. He keeps it dubby and rhythmic, and there’s a lot of times where there’s a sixth sense — there's things that happen between us when we're playing that there’s no accounting for except for the fact that we've been playing together for 30 years.” Lewis likens the experience of playing with Lally and Canty to his work with various jazz elders. “The way I revere them is the same way that I revere playing with Jamaaladeen Tacuma or playing with William Parker,” he says, citing a pair of esteemed veteran bassists. “It's a certain road experience that you can't get in school.” He also appreciates that he can hear the rich musical heritage of their hometown in their sound. “Growing up in the D.C. area, Brendan and Joe are familiar with go-go, with all of the stuff from the area,” he says. “So I will say that the time feel — it don't get no better than that. It's like a well-oiled machine playing with them.” That steady rhythmic backbone, coupled with Pirog’s omnivorous guitar approach — which draws freely on jazz, punk and everything in between — gave the Messthetics a huge sonic palette right from the start, showcased on both their self-titled 2018 debut and 2019’s Anthropocosmic Nest. But Pirog had always been curious what his friend Lewis might add to the band, leading to him extending the invite for the saxophonist’s initial 2019 sit-in, which took place at New York’s Winter Jazzfest. Check out “That Thang” and pre-order / save The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis above, see full album details and tour dates below, and stay tuned for more from The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis coming soon. Upcoming Live Dates * = supporting bar italia 3/21 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest 3/23 - Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival 3/25 - Nashville, TN @ Blue Room* 3/26 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl 3/27 - Asheville, NC @ Eulogy 3/28 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings 3/29 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat 3/30 - Philadelphia, PA @ Solar Myth 5/06 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe 5/07 - Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater 5/08 - Urbana, IL @ Gallery Art Bar 5/09 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club 5/10 - Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club 5/11 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 5/12 - Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon 5/13 - Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell's Eccentric Cafe 5/14 - Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground 5/15 - Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club 5/16 - Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz 5/17 - Keene, NH @ The Thing in The Spring 5/18 - Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom 5/19 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom “That Thang” single artwork album artwork The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis March 15, 2024 Impulse! Records 1. L'Orso 2. Emergence 3. That Thang 4. Three Sisters 5. Boatly 6. The Time Is The Place 7. Railroad Tracks Home 8. Aesthenia 9. Fourth Wall Connect with The Messthetics: Instagram | Facebook | X (Twitter) Connect with James Brandon Lewis: Instagram | Facebook | X (Twitter) | YouTube
  5. Police Procedural. Better writing than the pulp fiction I've been reading lately.
  6. George Bernard Shaw: "Marriage is an institution that allows two people to endure together the troubles they wouldn't have had if they had remained single."
  7. Today I went to the store, and learned that both lottery jackpots are big. Powerball - $559 million Mega Millions - $792 million
  8. Rest in Peace, Bill! Bill was one of the members whom I followed. Every day I would receive an email stating that Bill had given his thumbs up approval to a record someone else was listening to. I remember the time he was tickled to announce that he had been mentioned in Marc Myers' Jazzwax column!
  9. Jazz Ensemble of Memphis Playing In The Yard Impacting March 29th, 2024 Format: Jazz "These kids are incredible! I’m so grateful to be a tiny part of their world. And it is indeed their world now." Kirk Whalum — Memphis Musician The Jazz Ensemble of Memphis’ Playing in the Yard has made me one happy Jazz-camper this day! Having just finished reading the biography of one Thelonious Monk, who made it a habit of “playing in the yard” with his historically adventurous, ingenious, yet playful music, I’m smiling from ear to ear as I listen! I’m feeling extra blessed to note the high level of creativity in the writing/arrangement, and of course the improvisation. Yes!! This is such a welcome discovery because mediocrity creeps in unannounced far too often in these endeavors. “Hey we’re only teenagers…” We forget that Monk & his cronies (Dizzy, Parker, et al) were also in their teens and early twenties when they innovated an exalted art form that remains at the center and top of all popular music. Globally. And these kids are bringing that excellence to fore with that unmistakable Memphis seasoning which sets them apart, and in the rarified air of other Memphis giants. George Coleman, Phineas Newborn, Herman Green and so many more — left here with hopes that exactly this would happen! Bravo!!! - Kirk Whalum — Memphis Musician This record began as a conversation between Memphis International Records owner, Jeff Phillips, his father Johnny and producer David Less about the 1959 album, Downhome Reunion: Young Men From Memphis. Recorded in New York, it featured Memphis Jazz legends George Coleman, Booker Little, Phineas Newborn, Jr. Calvin Newborn, Frank Strozier, Jamal Nasser and others before they were famous. The Phillips’ asked Less to produce a new version, recorded in Memphis, of some of the top young jazz musicians that, like on the original record, were at the beginning of their careers but showed promise of future greatness. The Jazz Ensemble of Memphis was not a working group and some met for the first time at these sessions. Their ages range from 17-26. Playing The Yard is that album. This album is dedicated to all of those great Memphis Jazz musicians that came before us. We stand on your shoulders. The Players: Drums: Kurtis Gray was 17 years old at the time of recording this album. Trumpet: Martin Carodine, Jr. was 19 at the time of this recording. Bass/Electric Bass: Liam O’Dell was 21 years old at the time of recording. Keyboards/Percussionist/Vibes/Congas: DeAnte Payne was 25 years old at the time of this recording. Tenor Saxophone/Flute: Charles Pender II was 26 years old at the time of this recording MIR2042-on...
  10. I'm not the man I used to be. Why should I pay off his debts?
  11. Eric Carmen has died at 74. RIP. Eric Carmen, 'All By Myself' singer and frontman of the Raspberries, dies at 74 (msn.com)
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