GA Russell

RIP. I will probably get an obit from ECM, and if so I'll post it. I loved his tone.

Mel Tormé - 36 All-Time Greatest Classics (3 CDs) - $5.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/55606G.html ***** Freddie Hubbard - The Art Of Freddie Hubbard: The Atlantic Years (2 CDs) - $5.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/23013O.html

The Beatles - Let It Be...Naked (2 CDs) - $6.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/15631M.html ***** The Mamas & the Papas - Collected (3 CDs) - $9.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/36995R.html ***** Silence is Golden, vol. 2 (3 CDs) - $5.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/37014R.html ***** Kenny Loggins - Triple Feature (3 CDs) - $5.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/69359P.html ***** Route 66 (3 CDs) - $6.98 https://www.oldies.com/product-view/56413P.html

Week 7 picks https://cflpowerrankings.wordpress.com/2018/07/25/cfl-week-7-picks/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/25/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-make-picks-week-7/ https://3downnation.com/2018/07/26/cfl-picks-let-bad-blood-begin/ http://www.rodpedersen.com/2018/07/week-7-cfl-picks-2018.html https://thegruelingtruth.net/podcast/cfl-weekly-pickem-show-week-7-w-robert-drummond/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/25/weekly-predictor-redemption-hughes-messam-vs-former-team/ ***** one more Week 7 power rankings https://cflpowerrankings.wordpress.com/2018/07/25/power-rankings-after-week-6-2/ ***** Week 7 game notes https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/25/cfl-ca-game-notes-look-week-7-2/ ***** Week 7 checking down https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/25/checking-coach-sherman-names-vernon-adams-jr-starting-qb/ ***** Although two of last week's games were on ESPN2, I was able to watch all four on ESPN+!

Thanks Jim!

Here are a few old press releases which I did not post at the time, which you might enjoy seeing. Arvo Pärt The Symphonies NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor Forty-five years separate Arvo Pärt’s four symphonies, and each one, as the great Estonian composer has noted, is a world unto itself. Newly recorded and heard in chronological order, they also tell us much about Pärt’s musical and spiritual journey, and the very different ways in which he has exercised his craft - from his early days as a student in 1963 to 2008, by which time he was the world’s most widely-performed contemporary composer. LISTEN / (Pre)ORDER Ravel / Franck / Ligeti / Messiaen Duo Gazzana György Ligeti Duo (1946) / César Franck A major Sonata (1886) Maurice Ravel Sonate posthume (1897) / Olivier Messiaen Thème et variations (1932) Natascia Gazzana violin | Raffaella Gazzana piano A sense of discovery is a key theme in the third ECM recital of sisters Natascia and Raffaella Gazzana. Alongside a landscape of French music for violin and piano, drawing on a multiplicity of inspirations, is a premiere recording of György Ligeti’s Duo. LISTEN / (Pre)ORDER Alexander Knaifel Lukomoriye Oleg Malov piano | Tatiana Melentieva soprano | Piotr Migunov bass Lege Artis Choir conducted by Boris Abalian The fourth New Series album from the St Petersburg-based composer Alexander Knaifel may be his most wide-ranging to date, voyaging from the sacred to the secular and back again via several inspired detours. Luminously quiet, and quietly magical. LISTEN / (Pre)ORDER © 2018 ECM Records, a Division of Verve Group. | 1755 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, All rights reserved. Stephan Micus, Inland Sea Stephan Micus balanzikom, nyckelharpa, chord and bass zithers, shakuhachi, voice, steel string guitar, genbri "Inland Sea is a beautifully textured soundscape not tied to any time or place. With airy tones and earthy twangs, Micus grows something both worldly and otherworldly—mysteriously alien but with something familiar and organic underlying it all.” - Geno Thackara, All About Jazz “There is no musician like Micus; so is the notion that there is no music like his. Inland Sea is another deep dive into sound. While Micus' discipline is rigorous, the listening offers only abundant pleasure.” - Thom Jurek, All Music Inland Sea is Stephan Micus’ 22nd solo album for ECM, each one taking his audience on musical journeys to far-flung places and unique sound worlds. For decades, he has been travelling, collecting and studying musical instruments from all over the world and creating new music for them. Micus often combines instruments from different cultures and continents that would never normally be played together, adapting and extending them, and rarely playing them in a traditional manner. The instruments then become a cast of characters that help tell the particular story of that album. While he plays nine different instruments on Inland Sea, the lead role belongs to the nyckelharpa - a keyed fiddle from Sweden, with an array of other instruments and vocals providing layers and textures throughout. © 2017 ECM | ECM Records USA | 1755 Broadway, 3rd floor | New York NY 10011 Keith Jarrett piano "the very best of the pianist's long-form solo piano releases. It's a set whose importance cannot be underestimated and should not be undervalued." –John Kelman, allaboutjazz.com A Multitude of Angels is a 4-CD set of recordings from a series of solo concerts in Italy from October 1996, documenting the conclusion of Keith Jarrett’s experiments with long-form improvisation in performances from Modena, Ferrara, Turin, and Genoa. “These were the last concerts I played having no breaks within each set,” Jarrett explains in his liner notes. The arc of the music is characteristically comprehensive: “Jazz is ever present here, alongside my deep closeness with classical music (modern and ancient, Ives and Bach).” András Schiff piano “Beethoven sonata cycles are occasions, but they don’t always make history. This one did…. The recordings are luminous. Although they were recorded live in Zurich, Switzerland, they reveal a kind of preserved freshness. An ideal piano dances in imaginary space. Everything in Beethoven can be heard, savored, adored. I recommend them without qualification.” – Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times András Schiff: “The Beethoven sonatas can be logically divided into three distinct groups: early, middle and late. To me, playing them in chronological order is most convincing and deeply satisfying. Among the thirty-two there is not one weak link. And this way the listener is able to follow the process of evolution, step by step. It is a learning experience; we are fellow travellers on a fantastic voyage.” This specially-priced 11 CD edition contains the complete piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, recorded live in concert at the Tonhalle in Zürich. It also includes encores from these concerts with works by Schubert, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Bach, as well as an extensive booklet, which re-collects all original conversations around the sonatas, and adds an insightful new text by András Schiff reflecting upon the “Encores after Beethoven”. “ Better than any other comparably sized collection, this trio of albums offers a crisp overview of 15 dramatic years in the composer’s development.” – Seth Colter Walls, Pitchfork Steve Reich has been described by The Guardian as one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history" and as “the greatest musical thinker of our time” by The New Yorker. Reich celebrated his 80th birthday on October 3, and The ECM Recordings brings together the landmark albums Music for 18 Musicians, Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase/Octet and Tehillim in a limited edition set to mark the occasion. Originally released in 1978, 1980 and 1982, each of these recordings had a decisive influence which continues to reverberate across musical idioms. The 3-CD box set includes a 44-page booklet with original liner notes by Steve Reich, a new essay by Paul Griffiths, and session photography by Deborah Feingold and Barbara Klemm. ©2016 ECM | 1755 Broadway, Floor 3, New York, NY 10019 Kim Kashkashian viola Irini Karagianni mezzo-soprano; Tassis Christoyannopoulos baritone Vangelis Christopoulos oboe; Stella Gadedi flute; Marie-Cécile Boulard clarinet; Sonia Pisk bassoon; Vangelis Skouras french horn; Sokratis Anthis trumpet; Maria Bildea harp; Katerina Ktona harpsichord ERT choir, Antonis Kontogeorgiou choirmaster Camerata Orchestra, Alexandros Myrat conductor The stage cantata David features Eleni Karaindrou’s music for a unique piece of Aegean drama, a verse play with words by an unknown 18th century poet from the island of Chios. Its text (first published only in 1979), invites a musical response and Greek composer Karaindrou rises splendidly to the challenge, imaginatively moving between past and present in her settings for mezzo-soprano and baritone singers, instrumental soloists, choir and orchestra. Kim Kashkashian’s evocative viola against strings may trigger associations with Karaindrou’s acclaimed writing for Ulysses’ Gaze. The music also draws inspiration from the world of baroque opera as singers Irini Karagianni and Tassis Christoyannopoulos are brought to the foreground. Karaindrou’s David is a work of changing music colors . Recorded live at the Athens Megaron, it was edited and mixed by Manfred Eicher and Nikos Espialdis for CD release. ©2016 ECM | 1755 Broadway, Floor 3, New York, NY 10019 For five decades, vocalist-composer Meredith Monk has explored what she calls “primordial utterance,” or non-verbal vocal sound that lay beneath and beyond language, expressing “that for which we have no words.” This exploration has led her to create music that The New Yorker describes as simultaneously “visceral and ethereal, raw and rapt,” an art that “sings, dances and meditates on timeless forces.” With her latest, multivalent ECMNew Series album, Monk aimed to address ecology and climate change, she says: “Believing that music speaks more directly than words, I worked to make a piece with a fluid, perceptual field that could expand awareness of what we are in danger of losing. On Behalf of Nature is a meditation on our intimate connection to nature, its inner structures, the fragility of its ecology and our interdependence.” Voices and instruments have equal weight: sometimes each is heard alone; sometimes they are blended to form a new, mysterious sound; sometimes they are combined to create intricate, layered, yet transparent sonic landscapes. ©2016 ECM | 1755 Broadway, Floor 3, New York, NY 10019 David Virelles acoustic piano, Hammond B3 organ, Roland JUNO-6, Vermona electric piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, prepared piano, programming, samples; Alexander Overington electronics, samples, cello; Henry Threadgill alto saxophone; Román Díazvocals; Marcus Gilmore drums, electronic percussion; Rafiq Bhatia guitar; Etián Brebaje Man vocals; Mauricio Herrera percussion; Los Seres: a fictional percussion ensemble, created and programmed by David Virelles The music of Cuban-born, Brooklyn-based pianist David Virelles conjures a hallucinatory world in which ancient Afro-Cuban rhythms and ritual reverberate in the here and now. His latest ECM offering is Antenna, music attuned to a timeless rhythmic-cultural current even as it pulses with a vibrantly urban, modernist energy. Antenna – a six-track, 22-minute EP released exclusively on vinyl and digitally – sees Virelles channel Afro-Cuban percussion into an electro-acoustic, almost psychedelic swirl, one that melds jazz improvisation and organic grooves with digital refraction, shadowy synthesizers, otherworldly field recordings and Cuban street poetry. Antenna is an undulating, throbbing, dizzying dream of sound. Mbòkó, Virelles’s ECM leader debut from 2014, featured in Best Of The Year lists in The New York Times, NPR, iTunes and The Village Voice, among others. The Guardiandescribed it as “a jazz-infused world-music project beyond categories,” adding: “Virelles looks set to make big differences in contemporary music for years to come.” ©2016 ECM | 1755 Broadway, Floor 3, New York, NY 10019

Here is some more on the Manziel trade. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/21/june-jones-johnny-manziel-should-be-playing-in-the-nfl/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/09/half-of-the-nfl-has-checked-in-with-manziels-agent-about-johnny-football/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/10/landon-rice-big-part-ticats-unorthodox-o-line/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/10/suitor-alouettes-kicked-the-tires-on-manziel-deal-found-out-price-was-high/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/update-ticats-practice-new-guys-arent-yet/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/hamilton-johnny-trade-makes-football-sense-not-famous-sense/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/qa-alouettes-gm-kavis-reed-on-trading-for-qb-johnny-manziel/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/update-ticats-practice-new-guys/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/former-gm-danny-maciocia-would-not-have-made-manziel-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/alouettes-starting-vernon-adams-at-qb-not-johnny-manziel-against-eskimos/#comments ***** Manziel's successor at A&M, Kenny Hill, has also signed with the Alouettes. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/25/manziels-successor-at-texas-am-qb-kenny-hill-signs-with-alouettes/#comments ***** Mic'hael Brooks signed with the Riders. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/24/riders-sign-former-lions-dl-michael-brooks/#comments ***** The league and the union agreed to discontinue voluntary mini-camps. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/25/cfl-cflpa-cancel-voluntary-off-season-mini-camps/#comments ***** Andy Fantuz cited Ricky Ray's injury when announcing his retirement, so I looked for anything more about Ray's injury that I had not already posted, and found this one. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/27/argos-qb-ricky-ray-expected-to-miss-the-rest-of-the-2018-season-sources/#comments ***** The Eskimos, after consultation, decided not to change their nickname. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/28/eskimos-brass-on-northern-visits-to-talk-about-name-where-we-fit-in/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/03/eskimos-not-changing-name-consultations-inuit-ceo/#comments ***** Faith Ekakitie signed with the Als. He then promptly tore his Achilles tendon, and is out for the year. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/14/alouettes-sign-2017-no-1-draft-choice-dl-faith-ekakitie/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/29/faith-ekakitie-suffers-torn-achilles-will-miss-entire-2018-season/#comments ***** The Ticats cut Braden Schram, and he quickly signed with the Riders. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/28/analysis-why-the-ticats-moved-on-from-braden-schram/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/02/riders-sign-former-ticats-canadian-ol-braden-schram/#comments ***** The Riders sent Eric Striker to the Argos for a neg list name. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/03/riders-trade-lbdl-eric-striker-to-argos/#comments ***** Jeff Hecht signed with the Bombers. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/09/bomers-sign-former-riders-canadian-db-jeff-hecht/#comments ***** Solomon Elimimian hurt his wrist badly, and was put on the six-game list. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/17/32404/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/17/b-c-lions-set-pass-torch-elimimian-injury/#comments ***** Nik Lewis officially retired as a Stampeder Friday. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/18/nik-lewis-officially-retiring-stampeder/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/20/cfl-receptions-leader-nik-lewis-retires-calgary-stampeder/#comments ***** Here is the latest on Terrell Owens. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/20/eskimos-release-terrell-owens-negotiation-list/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/20/agent-for-terrell-owens-feels-there-is-interest-from-other-cfl-teams/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/21/terrell-owens-says-its-very-obvious-he-has-skill-set-to-still-play-pro-football/#comments ***** Frederic Plesius has signed with the Bombers. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/21/frederic-plesius-agrees-terms-bombers/#comments

Is that Fats Navarro between Dizzy and Shelly Manne in the Metronome "photo?" I can't read the card.

So in the next two years there will be two new leagues starting up - the Alliance of American Football and the XFL. The CFL's concern is the number of players and prospects it will lose to them. The AAF has decided to sign players to three-year deals for $250,000. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/12/players-in-alliance-of-american-football-league-to-be-paid-3-year-250k-contracts/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/players-already-opting-new-american-league-cfl/#comments ***** Week 6 results Sask 31....Hamilton 20 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2485/saskatchewan-roughriders-vs-hamilton-tiger-cats/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/nfl/saskatchewan-roughriders-hamilton-tiger-cats-1.4753981 ***** Ottawa 29....BC 25 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2486/bc-lions-vs-ottawa-redblacks/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/lions-ottawa-redblacks-1.4755914 ***** Winnipeg 38....Toronto 20 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2487/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-toronto-argonauts/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/winnipeg-blue-bombers-toronto-argonauts-cfl-1.4756551 ***** Calgary 25....Montreal 8 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2488/montreal-alouettes-vs-calgary-stampeders/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/montreal-alouettes-calgary-stampeders-cfl-1.4756554 ***** Standings https://www.cfl.ca/standings/ ***** Stats https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2018-CFL-Statistics-to-Week-6.pdf ***** Week 7 Power Rankings https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/24/nissan-titan-power-rankings-can-bridge-lead-riders/ http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/3down-power-rankings-riders-rise-now-anyway/#comments http://lastwordonsports.com/2018/07/23/cfl-week-6-power-rankings-roughriders-rising/

ECM Mark Turner & Ethan Iverson Temporary Kings Mark Turner: tenor saxophone Ethan Iverson: piano Release date: September 7, 2018 ECM 2583 B0028859-02 UPC: 6025 673 6988 2 Mark Turner & Ethan Iverson on tour September 13 Baltimore, MD An Die Musik Live! September 15 Chicago, IL Constellation September 16-17 Minneapolis, MN Crooners September 18 New York, NY Jazz Standard September 20 Cambridge, MA Regattabar October 10 Denver, CO Dazzle October 11 Santa Cruz, CA Kuumbwa October 12 Los Angeles, CA bluewhale October 14 Portland, OR Old Church October 15 Seattle, WA Earshot Jazz Festival The initial musical connection between saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson was made in 1990s jam sessions in New York City. A decade after their first meeting, the saxophonist and pianist began an association in the Billy Hart Quartet, the two players featuring on two widely lauded ECM albums by that band. Now with Temporary Kings – their debut on record as a duo – Turner and Iverson explore aesthetic common ground that encompasses the cool-toned intricacies of the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marsh jazz school, as well as the heightened intimacy of modernist chamber music. Temporary Kings presents six originals by Iverson (such as the nostalgic solo tune “Yesterday’s Bouquet”) and two by Turner (including “Myron’s World,” which has acquired near-classic status among a generation of jazz players). There’s an off-kilter blues (“Unclaimed Freight”) and a strikingly melodic, almost Ravelian opening track dedicated to the Swiss town where the album was recorded (“Lugano”), plus an interpretation of Marsh’s playfully serpentine “Dixie’s Dilemma.” Undergirding their common history onstage and in the studio, Iverson and Turner share aesthetic enthusiasms, ranging from literary science fiction to a certain free-minded classicism in music. The sessions for Temporary Kings at the RSI Svizzera studio with Manfred Eicher were characteristically marked by deep listening and an appreciation for what Iverson calls “magical confluences” and “happy surprises,” such as the dovetailing melodic phrases in the improvisations of “Lugano.” About the atmosphere of the recording, Turner says: “The studio is essentially a small, intimate concert hall. We played in the same room and didn’t have to wear headphones. There was a peaceful, slightly austere atmosphere – ideal for the kind of music we were recording.” Iverson adds: “We were playing in a spacious, almost abstract way, not going for a hard-edged jazz sound at all. That said, there’s a blues on the album, my tune ‘Unclaimed Freight,’ and ‘Dixie’s Dilemma’ is a contrafact on ‘All the Things You Are.’ But that chamber-music vibe is there, too. The school of Tristano, Marsh and Lee Konitz has its connections to the world of modernist chamber music, and we think it’s important to underscore these connections.” Turner – whose tune “Lennie’s Groove” on the Billy Hart Quartet’s One Is the Other album was a nod to the influence of Tristano – adds: “The Warne Marsh aesthetic is part of both our worlds, and we wanted to include a jazz classic on the album, to underscore our connection to that aesthetic. I like ‘Dixie’s Dilemma’ for its dry-toned, laconic quality, a sound he shared with Tristano and Konitz. The appeal of the tune like that is based more on its content than drama, so the content has to be very strong, melodically, harmonically and rhythmically.” About their interaction as a duo, Iverson says: “Mark makes me listen harder, something I try to do all the time, but if you’re going mano-a-mano with Mark Turner, your ears have to be fine-tuned, very sharp. Mark is dedicated to truth and beauty on a level higher than most people. It’s not only what he plays – it’s what he represents, his integrity artistically and personally. That’s why, along with his great skills as an improviser, so many musicians hold him in such esteem.” For his part, Turner says: “Among the things I like about Ethan is that he makes a point of being personal, of playing things that are musically his own, particularly when it comes to the harmonic realm and voice-leading. Even if he plays the same chords as another piano player, they sound distinctive when he uses them.” Along with the deeply intricate “Myron’s World” – which Iverson calls “so challenging to play but also incredibly satisfying” – Turner also contributed the closing piece, “Seven Points,” a tone poem that has a mysterious, almost cinematic tension and a beautiful melody that at times seems to share the air, with opener “Lugano,” of early 20th-century Parisian modernism. Along with “Lugano,” Iverson’s originals on the album include the elliptical “Temporary Kings,” “Third Familiar” and “Turner’s Chamber of Unlikely Delights,” each piece having the feel of contemporary chamber music, albeit with an essentially free spirit – the two players following each other in spirals of improvisation off the written material. The purity of Turner’s tone is ideal in these pieces, with Iverson’s keyboard tracery to match. Then there is the pianist’s blues in G, “Unclaimed Freight.” Recalling the trick of capturing that distinctly jazzy piece, Turner says: “It can be hard to get the feeling of movement in the music when you’re in the studio, without the vibe of an audience. But with Ethan’s blues, I think we achieved it. You could almost hear a drummer – I felt a little wind at my back.” *** The Ohio-born, Los Angeles-raised Mark Turner is one of the most admired saxophonists of his generation, renowned for his exploratory intellect and intimate expressivity on the full range of the tenor horn. For ECM, the New York-based musician released his sixth album as a leader, Lathe of Heaven, in 2014. The quartet for Lathe of Heaven included trumpeter Avishai Cohen, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, with The Guardian describing the band appreciatively as “sounding like Birth of the Cool floated over a 21st-century rhythmic concept.” That album followed two for the label in the cooperative trio Fly with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard (Sky & Country and Year of the Snake), along with appearances on key ECM recordings by Billy Hart (All Our Reasons and One Is the Other) and Enrico Rava (New York Days). About Turner, National Public Radio has said: “He has an innovative sonic signature, a certain floating chromaticism, rhythmic mindfulness and lightness of tone, filled with subtleties. Basically, his music has personality, which keeps the best musicians ringing his phone, and the aspiring ones listening hard.” A native of Wisconsin but based in New York City since 1991, Ethan Iverson was long known as one-third of genre-bounding trio The Bad Plus, which he founded in 2000 with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King. The group produced a dozen studio albums and two live albums together before Iverson left the band at the end of 2017. Beyond that body of work, Iverson has worked with artists from Lee Konitz, Albert “Tootie” Heath and Ron Carter to Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Tim Berne, along with serving as music director for the Mark Morris Dance Group. A member of the Billy Hart Quartet since 2003, Iverson has recorded three albums with the group, including the most recent two for ECM. The pianist teaches at the New England Conservatory, and he has established Do the Math as one of the foremost blogs in jazz over the past decade. Time Out New York selected Iverson as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons, describing him as “perhaps NYC's most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition – the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.” ECM Marcin Wasilewski Trio Live Marcin Wasilewski: piano Slawomir Kurkiewicz: double bass Michal Miskiewicz: drums Release date: September 14, 2018 ECM 2592 UPC: 6025 673 8486 1 LP UPC: 6025 673 9916 2 “Wasilewski’s music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvellously melodic concept.” Jazz Journal Followers of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio have long clamored for a live album. The Polish group made this one “by accident”, unaware that their August 2016 performance at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp had been recorded by Flemish radio. On listening, they felt that it captured the soul of things rather well, “maybe because there was no awareness of playing to the microphone.” Unselfconsciously dynamic and outgoing, the trio draws an enthusiastic response from the audience. “Being out in front of an audience of 4,000 doesn’t change your playing or your skills,” Marcin Wasilewski reflects, “but with a crowd of this size you do have to project more energy, somehow. You can hear that in this recording.” Bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz adds, “I think this album nicely captures what we have developed over the years in the live playing, and the way that the music can change in concert. It’s an important document for us.” For the Wasilewski Trio, studio and live recording are complementary experiences. “Studio work takes place in quite a hermetic atmosphere,” says Marcin. “The studio is where we try to get compact, condensed versions of the pieces. And live work has to do with opening them up, adjusting the flow and communicating with an audience. We like both aspects.” Repertoire on Live is drawn largely from the program developed for Spark of Life, the group’s 2013 collaboration with saxophonist Joakim Milder, now presented in extended and cranked-up versions for piano trio. Spark of Life’s title track flows seamlessly into “Sudovian Dance” at the start of the album. Other Wasilewski originals here are “Three Reflections”, “Austin” (a tribute to the late Austin Peralta, with particularly graceful solos, in this version, by Slawomir and Marcin) and “Night Train To You” (first heard on 2011’s Faithful) which works up a tremendous head of steam. “Actual Proof” translates the energy and percolating rhythms of this Herbie Hancock piece (written for the movie The Spook Who Sat By The Door and further developed on 1974’s Thrust) into the acoustic context in a powerhouse performance by Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz. The trio members count Hancock amongst their formative influences. “Message In A Bottle” belongs to the trio’s adaptations of pop material – “we like to transcribe rock and pop in our language” – and they’ve previously recorded pieces by Björk and Prince. “Message” was also on Spark of Life, but their involvement with the old Police hit goes back much further, to teenage jamming at music high school in Koszalin, circa 1990. When they first broached it, Marcin recalls, Slawomir was playing guitar: “For us it has an emotional connection to that very early period.” “This was before my time,” laughs drummer Michal Miskiewicz, who joined the trio in 1993, completing what has become one of the most stable line-ups in modern jazz. Listening to Live it is impossible to miss the deep musical empathy of the players, the quality that The Guardian called “their ability to pick up and amplify each other’s thoughts” – it’s the kind of improvisational communication that can only be developed over time. Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz first recorded for ECM as members of Tomasz Stanko’s quartet on the album Soul of Things (2001), soon followed by Suspended Night (2003) and Lontano (2005). Previous ECM albums in trio format are Trio (2004), January (2007) and Faithful (2011), with Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder joining the musicians for Spark of Life (2013). All three trio members appear on Forever Young (2013) with Jacob Young and Trygve Seim, and Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz also play on Manu Katche’s Neighbourhood (2004) and Playground (2007). The Wasilewski Trio is touring widely this autumn, with concerts in Poland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Croatia and Luxembourg. For details of dates visit www.ecmrecords.com ECM Barre Phillips End to End Barre Phillips: double bass Release date: September 14, 2018 ECM 2575 UPC: 6025 675 1712 2 End to End is a solo bass album by one of the great pioneers of the idiom. Over the last fifty years Barre Phillips, California-born but long a resident of France, has periodically issued solo recordings, considering them the musical equivalent of diary entries (the first one, in 1968, was called Journal violone), updates on his ever-evolving relationship to his chosen instrument. This one, he says, will be the last of his albums in this format, so it is of special interest to those who have followed the story so far and, indeed, to anyone wishing to hear a masterful improviser at work, refocussing lessons learned in the course of a long, creative life. “It’s the end of a cycle,” says Barre, now 83, of the present recording. “Not a summing up, but the last pages of a journal that began fifty years ago.” Recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France, End to End juxtaposes partly-composed and freely improvised pieces. “I had five areas of ‘prepared material’, five ’songs’ I wanted to explore,” says Barre. “And the rest was approached as I approach solo performance in a concert.” Producer Manfred Eicher sequenced the pieces into three groups or movements which Barre subsequently named “Quest”, “Inner Door”, and “Outer Window”, titles with a biographical significance: “The journey [with the bass] did become a kind of quest of self-discovery, like in the zen sense, or any other philosophical tradition sense, of finding out who you are. In the process I was looking inward for a long, long time. It wasn’t until I was about 55 or 60 that I reached the point where I was looking outward in the playing.” Whether playing pizzicato or arco in the pieces here, Phillips impresses with his decisiveness: every note, every sound and texture in this music, feels carefully considered and has a cumulative emotional power. Over the years ECM has documented Barre in many musical contexts, including collaborations with John Surman, Terje Rypdal, Alfred Harth, Paul Bley, Evan Parker, Joe and Mat Maneri, Robin Williamson and more. But his first appearance on the label was the landmark recordingMusic from Two Basses with Dave Holland in 1971. In 1983 there was the acclaimed solo recording Call Me When You Get There, including music for Robert Frank’s films. For a sense of how broad the solo bass and bass ensemble genre has since become, visithttp://solodoublebass.blogspot.com. Before Barre’s Journal Violone there were no albums of solo bass improvising; now, they number in the hundreds. So End to End is also a timely reminder of how influential this endeavor has been, at an underground level. The role of the bass and its emancipation as solo instrument has been a recurring theme at ECM through the decades with examples ranging from Dave Holland’s Emerald Tears, Gary Peacock’s December Poems and Miroslav Vitous’s Emergence to Eberhard Weber’s Résuméand Björn Meyer’s Provenance. More bass music is coming in the months ahead with compositions by Stefano Scodanibbio played by Daniele Roccato and the Ludus Gravis Ensemble. In early 2019, ECM will issue The Gleaners, a solo bass album by Larry Grenadier. Scenes from the recording of End to End form part of the newly completed documentary about Barre Phillips, The Workman, by Sam Harfouche. It’s the second film to be made about the bassist’s life, following on from Accompanied Barre: A Portrait of Barre Phillips, by Ariel Pintor (2002).

Early word has it that the Argos have traded Shawn Lemon to the Lions. http://138.197.137.206/2018/07/24/argos-trade-dl-shawn-lemon-lions/#comments

ECM Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Live release date: September 14, 2018 Marcin Wasilewski: piano; Slawomir Kurkiewicz: double bass; Michal Miskiewicz: drums For years, fans of Poland's Marcin Wasilewski Trio have been asking for a live album and now, here it is. Recorded at the Jazz Middelheim Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, in August 2016, it captures the trio in energetic, extroverted mode, fanning the flames of their Spark of Life repertoire and drawing on the deep understanding Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz have established in the course of a quarter century of shared musical endeavor. As UK magazine Jazz Journal has noted, "Wasilewski's music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvelously melodic concept." ECM Barre Phillips - End To End release: September 14, 2018 Barre Phillips: double bass Barre Phillips was the first musician to record an album of solo double bass, back in 1968, and he has always been an absolute master of the solo idiom. In March 2017, Barre recorded what he says will be his last solo album, the final chapter of his "Journal Violone": it is a beautiful and moving musical statement. All the qualities we associate with Barre's playing are here in abundance - questing adventurousness, melodic invention, textural richness, developmental logic, and deep soulfulness. End to End was recorded at Studios-La-Buissonne in the south of France, and produced by Manfred Eicher. The album will be issued in both CD and LP formats.

The Alouettes made two trades last night and today. The Ticats traded Johnny Manziel, Landon Rice and Tony Washington to the Als for Jamaal Westerman, Chris Williams and first round picks of both 2020 and 2021. https://www.bing.com/search?q=Johnny+Manziel+Montreal&filters=tnTID%3a"BEF72452-D652-4c2a-8A6F-545553C7837F"+tnVersion%3a"2572743"+segment%3a"popularnow.carousel"+tnCol%3a"5"+tnOrder%3a"aaeaf169-592e-4acb-ae4a-0c564fe95ce8"&FORM=BSPN01&crslsl=0 http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/johnny-manziel-montreal-alouettes-trade-1.4757345 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-alouettes-welcome-new-quarterback-johnny-manziel-1.4758401 http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/ticats-and-alouettes-discussing-potential-johnny-manziel-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/johnny-manziel-trade-alouettes-done-deal-report/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/jamaal-westerman-one-players-involved-manziel-trade/ http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/johnny-manziel-involved-five-player-swap-alouettes-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/analysis-johnny-manziel-trade-means-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/qa-ticats-gm-eric-tillman-johnny-manziel-deal/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/alouettes-worked-johnny-manziel-last-september/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/3downnation-podcast-breaking-johnny-manziel-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/johnny-manziel-trade-means-alouettes/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/alouettes-gm-kavis-reed-feels-worries-about-manziel-around-montreal-nightlife-overblown/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/ticats-head-coach-jones-still-thinks-manziel-could-be-the-best-player-to-ever-play-in-the-cfl/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/podskee-wee-wee-episode-116/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/22/report-ticats-als-close-manziel-deal/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/22/oleary-trade-opens-immediate-playing-time-manziel/ https://www.cfl.ca/gallery/2018/07/23/lens-first-look-johnny-manziel-montreal/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/23/sherman-manziel-work-will-work/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/23/manziel-eager-build-camaraderie-new-team/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/06/04/steinbergs-mmqb-johnny/ ***** The Bombers traded Adarius Bowman to the Als for a late 2019 pick. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/adarius-bowman-trade-winnipeg-montreal-1.4758402 http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/bombers-trade-receiver-adarius-bowman-to-alouettes/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/23/montreal-acquires-adarius-bowman-trade-bombers/ ***** Last month Drew Tate retired to join the coaching staff of Coastal Carolina, which is near Myrtle Beach. https://www.cfl.ca/2018/06/01/former-stamps-redblacks-qb-drew-tate-retires/ http://3downnation.com/2018/06/01/former-cfl-qb-drew-tate-accepts-ncaa-coaching-job/#comments

“challenging, accessible and hypnotic…” - Bobby Reed, DownBeat (Editor’s Pick) LISTEN / BUY “...quietly riveting.” – Michael Agovino, The Village Voice LISTEN / BUY “an exceptional addition to Surman’s discography” – Brian Zimmerman, Downbeat LISTEN / BUY “an album of subtle power and lingering splendor.” – Jim Fusilli, Wall Street Journal LISTEN / BUY “it's an atmosphere to soak in at leisure….” – Geno Thackara, All About Jazz LISTEN / BUY “…another poetic work comprising ravishing originals and world-class interpretations of compositions” – Filipe Freitas, Jazz Trail LISTEN / BUY “meaningful tunes (played) with honesty, subtlety and emotion” – Mark Maxwell, Downbeat LISTEN / BUY “not to be missed.” – John Kelman, All About Jazz LISTEN / BUY “further chapters of this group will be eagerly anticipated. Terrific stuff.” – CJ Shearn, Jazz Views LISTEN / BUY © 2018 ECM Records, a Division of Verve Group. | 1755 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, All rights reserved. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. CJ Shearn makes ECM's press release!!!

The list of members is now so large, maybe it is the greater badge of honor not to be in it.

The Real Bossa Nova (3 CDs) - 4.99 GBP https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IMRFCL0/

More headlines: NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens is thinking about playing in the CFL. http://3downnation.com/2018/04/09/terrell-owens-spoke-with-alouettes-kavis-reed-about-a-cfl-comeback/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/19/eskimos-add-receiver-terrell-owens-neg-list/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/terrell-owens-triggers-10-day-clause-puts-eskimos-on-the-clock/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/17/3downpodcast-owens-way-bridge-man-riderville-gable-hit/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/17/terrell-owens-put-butts-seats-cfl-agent/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/18/far-cfl-concerned-t-o-might-stand-old/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/terrell-owens-believes-can-defy-odds/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/video-justin-dunk-on-tim-and-sid-talking-whats-popping-with-terrell-owens/#comments ***** Former NFL Pro Bowl returner Dexter McCluster has signed with the Argos. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/10/argos-work-out-former-pro-bowl-returner-dexter-mccluster/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/argos-officially-sign-former-nfl-former-pro-bowl-returner-dexter-mccluster/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/17/oleary-former-nfl-star-getting-acclimated-argos/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/17/argos-introduce-rb-dexter-mccluster/ ***** Andy Fantuz has retired. Remember Fantuz Flakes? http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/former-riders-and-ticats-canadian-receiver-andy-fantuz-expected-to-retire-report/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/podskee-wee-wee-episode-115/#comments http://www.3downnation.com/2018/07/19/andy-fantuz-one-best-canadian-receivers-ever-retires/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/video-andy-fantuz-discusses-winning-2007-grey-cup-riders/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/video-andy-fantuzs-full-retirement-presser/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/watching-ricky-ray-be-carted-off-convinced-andy-fantuz-to-retire/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/19/andy-fantuz-announces-retirement-12-seasons/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/19/tributes-pour-following-fantuz-retirement/ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/andy-fantuz-1.4753091 ***** Larry Robinson has died at 76. RIP. https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/cfl-stampeders-mourn-death-larry-robinson/ http://3downnation.com/2018/07/18/former-stampeders-star-larry-robinson-dies-76/#comments http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/larry-robinson-dead-76-calgary-stampeders-1.4752414

Now let's look at a few recent headlines. After an extraordinary amount of hemming and hawing, the Ticats cut Vernon Adams. The Als promptly scooped him up. http://3downnation.com/2016/11/10/vernon-adams-2016-contract-numbers/#comments http://3downnation.com/2017/08/31/podskee-wee-wee-episode-85/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/02/02/3downnations-justin-dunk-sn960-breaking-crazy-cfl-day/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/02/19/riders-ink-star-dl-charleston-hughes-extension/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/05/27/johnny-watch-injury-vernon-adams-means-reps-manziel/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/07/june-jones-says-ticats-qb-vernon-adams-will-traded-today/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/08/vernon-adams-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/12/ticats-practice-update-vernon-adams-back/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/13/scuttled-trade-vernon-adams-back-ticats-receiver/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/21/ticats-release-qb-vernon-adams/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/26/alouettes-bring-qb-vernon-adams-to-montreal/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/26/qb-vernon-adams-jr-reunites-alouettes/#comments ***** Delvin Breaux has rejoined the Ticats. http://3downnation.com/2018/03/14/new-orleans-saints-dont-tender-former-ticats-db-delvin-breaux-making-him-a-free-agent/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/18/former-cfl-star-db-delvin-breaux-returning-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/18/ticats-make-delvin-breaux-highest-paid-db-cfl/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/18/breaux-show-back-heres-means-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/19/remarkable-perseverance-delvin-breaux-died-field/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/19/ticats-make-signing-of-db-delvin-breaux-official/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/20/milton-breaux-didnt-hesitate-to-come-back-to-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/20/ticats-coach-jones-says-breaux-looks-like-he-can-play-against-eskimos/#comments http://www.3downnation.com/2018/06/21/breaux-tolliver-line-ticats-versus-esks/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/19/ferguson-ticats-db-breaux-earning-respect-across-league/ ***** Sam Giguere has signed with the Eskimos. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/23/eskimos-signing-canadian-receiver-sam-giguere/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/26/eskimos-officially-sign-veteran-canadian-receiver-sam-giguere/#comments

The Alouettes will be wearing their old helmets throughout the season, changing every four weeks or so. If you look at the Plays of the Week videos, you can see that through Week 3 they wore their pre-1970 helmet, which I associate with Sandy Stephens. They are currently wearing their "french horn" helmet with which they won the Grey Cup in 1970. ***** Week 6 power rankings http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/power-rankings-chaos-reigns-mushy-middle/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/17/nissan-titan-power-rankings-can-anyone-beat-stamps/ ***** Week 6 picks http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/week-six-picks-riders-big-underdogs/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/slam-dunk-picks-ridin-the-green-riders/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-make-picks-week-6/ https://cflpowerrankings.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/cfl-week-6-picks/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/weekly-predictor-big-bounce-back-expected-harris-redblacks/ ***** Week 6 game notes https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/cfl-ca-game-notes-look-week-6-2/ ***** Week 6 checking down https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/checking-harris-says-theres-no-need-worry-redblacks-fans/

Week 5 results (only 3 games) Calgary 27....Ottawa 3 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2482/calgary-stampeders-vs-ottawa-redblacks/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/ottawa-redblacks-calgary-stampeders-july-12-1.4745148 ***** Edmonton 16....Toronto 15 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2483/toronto-argonauts-vs-edmonton-eskimos/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-eskimos-weather-toronto-argonauts-rally-avenge-1.4747056 ***** BC 20....Winnipeg 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2484/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-bc-lions/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/lions-blue-bombers-recap-1.4747609 ***** Week 5 Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/16/burnhams-last-minute-heroics-lead-off-week-5s-timber-mart-plays-of-the-week/

Week 4 results Sask 18....Hamilton 13 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2478/hamilton-tiger-cats-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/ ***** Ottawa 28....Montreal 18 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2479/ottawa-redblacks-vs-montreal-alouettes/ ***** Toronto 20....Edmonton 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2480/edmonton-eskimos-vs-toronto-argonauts/ ***** Winnipeg 41....BC 19 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2481/bc-lions-vs-winnipeg-blue-bombers/ ***** Week 4 Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/09/josh-stanfords-clutch-grab-features-in-wk-4s-timber-mart-plays-of-the-week/

I'm looking forward to the Gustavsen and the Turner/ Iverson as well!

Never fear, I have a plan to catch up! Week 3 results Calgary 24....Ottawa 14 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2474/ottawa-redblacks-vs-calgary-stampeders/ ***** Hamilton 31....Winnipeg 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2475/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-hamilton-tiger-cats/ ***** Edmonton 41....BC 22 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2476/bc-lions-vs-edmonton-eskimos/ **** Montreal 23....Sask 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2477/montreal-alouettes-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/ ***** Week 3 Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/03/diontae-meets-ciante-in-the-wk-3-timber-mart-plays-of-the-week/

ECM Mark Turner / Ethan Iverson - Temporary Kings release date: September 7, 2018 Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Ethan Iverson: piano Mark Turner and Ethan Iverson on tour: September 13 Baltimore, MD at An Die Musik Live! September 15 Chicago, IL at Constellation September 16-17 Minneapolis, MN at Crooners September 18 New York, NY at Jazz Standard September 20 Cambridge, MA at Regattabar October 10 Denver, CO at Dazzle October 11 Santa Cruz, CA at Kuumbwa October 12 Los Angeles, CA at bluewhale October 14 Portland, OR at Old Church October 15 Seattle, WA at Earshot Jazz Festival The initial musical connection between saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson was made in 1990s jam sessions in New York City, with both going on to individual success - Iverson in hit trio The Bad Plus and Turner as a solo leader and in such groups as the trio Fly (recording in both capacities for ECM). A decade after their first meeting, the saxophonist and pianist began an association in the Billy Hart Quartet, the two players featuring sympathetically on two widely lauded ECM albums by that band. Now with Temporary Kings - their debut on record as a duo - Turner and Iverson explore aesthetic common ground that encompasses the cool-toned intricacies of the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marsh jazz school, as well as the heightened intimacy of modernist chamber music. The album presents six originals by Iverson (such as the nostalgic solo tune "Yesterday's Bouquet) and two by Turner (including "Myron's World," which has acquired near-classic status among contemporary jazz players). There's an off-kilter blues ("Unclaimed Freight") and a strikingly melodic, almost Ravelian opening track dedicated to the Swiss town where the album was recorded ("Lugano"), plus an interpretation of Marsh's playfully serpentine "Dixie's Dilemma."

ECM Sungjae Son Near East Quartet Sungjae Son: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet Suwuk Chung: guitar Yulhee Kim: vocal, percussion Soojin Suh: drums. with Sori Choi: traditional Korean percussion on “Baram” Release date: August 31, 2018 ECM 2568 UPC: 6025 676 5877 1 The ECM debut of the Near East Quartet was recorded in Seoul in December 2016. The group, however, has been a force in Korean creative music since 2009, when leader-saxophonist-composer Sungjae Son formed the band with guitarist Suwuk Chung. Singer-percussionist Yulhee Kim and drummer Soojin Suh joined the group in 2015, helping the ensemble get closer to Son’s original vision of a natural music informed by improvisation and drawing upon gugak, the multi-facetted traditional music of Korea. Together the four musicians play a floating music of drifting texture and slowly-blossoming sound colours, expressed through distortion saturated guitar sounds, the delicate tracery of Son’s saxophone, and abstract playing from the drums. Yulhee Kims’s evocative voice conveys messages from pansori epics and folk song. Kim also contributes to the improvisatory flow as percussionist, and on one piece, “Baram”, the quartet is augmented by Sori Choi on traditional Korean percussion. Sungjae Son and Suwuk Chung met each other as Koreans abroad, in Boston, where both were studying. Sungjae was at the Berklee School and Suwuk at the New England Conservatory. “We didn’t really talk, then,” Sungjae recalls. “I was very much into bebop at the time, and Suwuk was more into fusion guitar and some Third Stream ideas [George Russell was among Suwuk’s teachers], and we didn’t find a common interest or background. It wasn’t until many years later when we were back in Korea that we ended up playing a gig together. After the concert I talked to him about wanting to make music with a completely fresh and different approach, and that was the start of the Near East Quartet.” Meanwhile, Soojin Suh was beginning to make waves as the most interesting young female drummer on the Seoul jazz scene. Sungjae: “She was a very promising musician, and already quite famous in Korea. Everybody wanted to play with her. And then she, too, left to study in the USA. When she returned she had really grown as a player, and I just fell in love with her sound. She is the one and only drummer in Korea for me.” For the way in which she implies a beat more often than she states it, Suwuk Chung compares Soojin Suh’s drumming to Paul Motian’s. In the Near East Quartet Suh faces special challenges when paraphrasing aspects of traditional Korean music, where percussion roles proceed along a different basis from the grid-like metrical organization of jazz’s time signatures. Soojin Suh talks about the necessity of reduction in this context: “What I try to do is think about what I’m not going to play. I think about what I must remove in this or that part of the music. I listen to the very slow Korean traditional music and the way they play or pound; the way the music breathes is very attractive to me.” She emphasizes that the aspect she wanted to approximate was the often unstated “deep sense of pulse in Korean traditional music.” Sound and space and silence are important factors in traditional Korean understanding of rhythm, Suwuk Chung agrees, “and forward motion has more to do with the length of a breath than with Western ideas of time keeping. This is one of the elements we are trying to resonate in our group.” This applies both to the traditional music the group has adapted and to Sungjae’s thoughtful compositions, which sometimes take inspiration from the charged emptiness of oriental painting. Before taking off as an improviser, Sungjae majored in composition, “studying everything from Gregorian chant to Schoenberg. I spent a lot of time with 12-tone music and serial music. But I also listened to Korean traditional music, and to jazz. My graduation recital was dedicated to Ornette Coleman.” After coming back from the States and his bebop period, Sungjae Son played for a couple of years with one of the masters of Korean percussion, Kim Duk Soo of the SamulNori ensemble, known to ECM listeners for Then Comes The White Tiger, the collaboration with US-Austrian group Red Sun with Linda Sharrock, Wolfgang Puschnig and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. “Kim Duk Soo was reviving the Red Sun idea. Two different elements put side by side – it didn’t feel right to me, or it wasn’t enough. In our group I want to keep the focus on what is natural for us.” He emphasizes the importance of shaping an unforced, organic-sounding music. Yulhee Kim was “singing and dancing, playing percussion and doing something like Korean shamanism” when Sungjae first encountered her in performance. “I was very interested in the shamanic ritual music at that time, and so I asked her to join the band.” Suwuk Chung: “When we rehearsed the new music that Sungjae came up with, we had to come out of our contexts - modern jazz and improvisation on our side, and Yulhee Kim out of Korean traditional music. We tried to find a common space. That was challenging. You don’t usually listen to female pansori voice with rock guitar sound, without pulse! It was hard to frame those elements in one context. Soojin helped to find the threads between them.” European audiences will get their first opportunity to hear the group’s aesthetic blend live in November, when the Near East Quartet plays dates including the London Jazz Festival. The Near East Quartet’s ECM debut was recorded at Seoul’s Stradeum studio, then mixed at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France by Nicolas Baillard, Manfred Eicher and album producer Sun Chung.