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GA Russell
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Posts posted by GA Russell
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26 minutes ago, medjuck said:
There were very few jazz Lps in the only record store in my home town...
Joe, I thought you were from Montreal! Did you grow up in the Eastern Townships, maybe?
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6/66 - Ramsey Lewis Trio - Hang on Ramsey! - Cadet
7/66 - Ray Bryant Trio - Gotta Travel On - Cadet
10/66 - Richard "Groove" Holmes - Soul Message - Prestige
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Andrés VialExplores a LyricalCompositional & Pianistic Vision onJuno-Nominated"When Is Ancient?,"Set for Physical Release Sept. 30By Chromatic Audio RecordsMontreal-Based Pianist/Composer Presents 9 Original CompositionsIn a Trio with Bassist Martin Heslop & Drummer Tommy CraneAppearing at GigSpace, Ottawa, 10/1;L'Off Jazz Festival, Montreal (Quintet), 10/13, &10/15 (With Joe Chambers)
August 26, 2022
Lyricism is the order of the day on When Is Ancient?, the sixth album by Montreal pianist-composer Andrés Vial, releasing in the U.S. September 30 on his own Chromatic Audio label. Recorded with a trio featuring bassist Martin Heslop and drummer Tommy Crane, the album is an expressive affair packed with rumination, sensitive interplay, and stunning melody. Initially released as a streaming-only album on December 31, 2020, When Is Ancient? has already garnered considerable acclaim, including a 2022 Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy) nomination for Jazz Album of the Year.As its June 2020 session date might suggest, it’s a small miracle that When Is Ancient? happened at all. Both Heslop (Kevin Dean, Devin Brahja Waldman) and Crane (Aaron Parks, Melissa Aldana) are old friends of Vial’s, but the three had never performed together before. “Martin, who I’ve played with for 15 years, was moving to Toronto to go to law school and work at a legal clinic for refugees. I wanted to cut a record with him before he left town,” the pianist recalls. “Tommy had moved to Montreal a few years before, but he was always on tour or teaching in Italy.”The COVID-19 pandemic kept all three of them in the city, of course, but hardly encouraged a group effort. The session was scheduled, then delayed several times over. “There was so much uncertainty about even being in a room together,” Vial says.What they finally captured once together is well worth the effort. The somber tones of “La Nuit Est Un Soleil Voilé” and “Spring 2020” carry a powerful resonance, but it finds a complement in the understated joy of “Jabok” and “Mister Mystery.” This shadows-and-light balance is also studded with idiosyncratic gems, such as the Afro-Latin meditation “Senderos” and the surprisingly down-home “The Map Is Not the Territory.”
L. to r.: Martin Heslop, Andrés Vial, Tommy Crane.There are some themes running across When Is Ancient?, among them the musicians’ shared intensity after months of silence and a marking of lost time (“Spring 2020”) and people (the title track was inspired by the deaths of McCoy Tyner and Harold Mabern, along with Keith Jarrett’s loss of performing ability). The album’s true throughline, however, is its lyrical richness. Not one track is untouched by the trio’s confluence of melody, grace, and uncommon delicacy that keeps calling out to the listener well after the last notes have faded.Andrés Vial was born January 25, 1979 in Montreal. From his first memories, Andrés was seated at the piano of his father, an accomplished amateur musician, making up little songs. He eventually began taking classical lessons, also learning pop and Latin records that he heard around the house. But when he was 11 his mother came home with a copy of John Coltrane’s Blue Train, which altered his trajectory forever.
Andrés joined his middle school and high school jazz bands, then enrolled in the New School in New York, where his teachers included Hal Galper, Joe Chambers, Bill Charlap, and Buster Williams. After graduation, he returned to Montreal and became a full-time musician playing jazz, funk, hip-hop, and reggae (and writing commissions for films and contemporary dance). He also became a member of the city’s Kalmunity Vibe Collective, a grassroots assemblage that welcomes players and ideas from black musical forms all over the world. Vial had the opportunity as well to perform with visiting musicians including Ingrid Jensen, Michael Blake, Greg Cohen, Bassekou Kouyate, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.Members of Kalmunity, including singer Malika Tirolien, appeared on Vial’s debut recording, 2007’s Trio/Septet. He followed it up with 2011’s The Infinite Field, a minimalist effort on which he played piano and vibraphone. While these two albums featured all original compositions, the next, conception/oblivion (2015), concentrated on a variety of American and Argentine composers, and Sphereology Volume 1 (2018) explored the music of Thelonious Monk. Vial the composer re-emerged with 2019’s Gang of Three (a trio record with bassist Dezron Douglas and Eric McPherson) and 2021’s Music for Film and Contemporary Dance Vol. 1 (a collection of Vial’s commissioned works). He continues in that vein with When Is Ancient?Andrés Vial will be performing with his trio at GigSpace, Ottawa, ON, Sat. 10/1; with his quintet at l’OFF Jazz Festival in Montreal, Thurs. 10/13; and with the Joe Chambers/Andrés Vial Ensemble at l/OFF Jazz Festival, Sat. 10/15.Photography: Nicolas Pétrowski (trio), Andi State (Vial).
Andrés Vial Trio: "Jabok" -
15 hours ago, felser said:
May be that your local A.M. station chose not to play it, and the Friends of Distinction version made the Masakela version instantly obsolete for golden oldies formats. I didn't hear "Eve of Destruction" until a few years later, as my family lived in Alabama in 1965, and it seemingly got banned there
There were three songs not played on New Orleans radio at that time.
Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction
Dion - Abraham, Martin and John
Janis Ian - Society's Child -
Dick Clark played Chet Baker on American Bandstand.
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RIP. Pat Martino's Live at Yoshi's is a favorite of mine.
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6 hours ago, JSngry said:
Those records were good for jazz in the sense that, yes, wider audience.
It was my experience living in Pittsburgh in the '70s that CTI was by far the best distributed label for jazz.
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RIP. I was a fan.
He would have been a hall of famer if he had done nothing but his bossa nova records.
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10 minutes ago, JSngry said:
Very big presence in down best in the early 70s when I started reading it.
RIP
RIP.
That's how I remember him as well.
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Kerry Politzer OffersPost-Pandemic Creative Resurgence with"In a Heartbeat,"Set for Release October 21On PJCE RecordsPianist/Composer Leads Top-Flight Portland QuintetOn Her First Album of All Original Compositions in 8 YearsAppearing at The 1905, Portland,Friday, October 21
August 22, 2022
Kerry Politzer reaffirms her high regard as both a pianist and a composer on In a Heartbeat, to be released October 21 on Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) Records. In particular, it puts Portland, Oregon-based Politzer’s writing back in the spotlight. The quintet album (featuring Portland trumpeter Thomas Barber, saxophonist/flutist Joe Manis, bassist Garrett Baxter, and drummer George Colligan) is her first in eight years to exclusively feature her own compositions and arrangements.Not to say that Politzer hasn’t kept busy in the time since 2014’s Below the Surface, her last collection of originals. The pianist is a first-call player on Portland’s increasingly rich jazz scene, as well as an educator on Portland State University’s jazz faculty. She also received grants in 2019 and 2020 to explore the work of great Brazilian pianists (one of whom was the subject of her 2019 album, Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira).Even so, writing music has remained among Politzer’s top priorities. “Composing is one of the things I enjoy the most,” she says. “I tend to be shy and I feel like I need to put myself out there, to make an emotional statement.”In a Heartbeat certainly does that. It’s a kaleidoscope of moods, grooves, and even timbre (with Manis’s rotation between flute and tenor and soprano saxes as the wild card). “Spring Day” basks in a midtempo waltz and knowing satisfaction; the gently swinging title track is both romantic and mysterious; “3 AM” is slow and unsettling, even foreboding; and “Goodbye” is all lyrical melancholia.The powerful emotions and equally powerful shifts are a reflection of the time of COVID-19, during which the bulk of the music was created. “A lot of this music was coming from my subconscious,” Politzer says. “Some of it came to me in a dream, and I’d wake up and write the rest of it down. This music is a product of the dreamlike headspace I was in during the pandemic.”If it was not a comfortable headspace in which to be, it was a remarkably inspiring one. In a Heartbeat is a glimpse at how Politzer, like any artist worthy of the name, transformed her reaction to anxious and uncertain times into bold, often haunting creative work.
Kerry Politzer was born in Washington, DC in 1971. There was music on both sides of her family, and she inherited that muse. She started playing piano at the age of four and pursued its study first at North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC, where she attended high school, then at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with Geri Allen, Bevan Manson, and Charlie Banacos.Having caught the jazz bug as a teenager, Politzer went to the music’s mecca, New York City, after completing her degree at NEC. She worked with the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, established herself on the jam session and Brazilian jazz scenes, and began cultivating a book of original compositions, made manifest on her 2001 debut album Yearning.She continued documenting her music with 2002’s Watercolor, 2005’s Labyrinth, and 2010’s Blue in Blue. The latter two featured George Colligan—the acclaimed pianist and multi-instrumentalist who became her husband in 2005—on drums. The family transplanted itself across the country to Oregon in 2011, where both Colligan and Politzer took faculty positions at Portland State University.Her music has continued to flourish and develop on the West Coast, where Politzer has also taught at the University of Portland and played in Bossa PDX, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and as a featured artist in the 25th Annual Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, ID. She has also continued recording with 2014’s Below the Surface, 2019’s Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira, and the new release In a Heartbeat.Kerry Politzer will be performing a CD release concert with her quintet at The 1905, 830 N. Shaver Street, Portland, OR on Fri. 10/21, 5:30-6:45pm.Photography: Douglas Detrick
Kerry Politzer EPK: "In a Heartbeat" -
Back Door
sax, elec. bass, drums
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Nielsen: Streaming TV now tops Cable TV for first time.
Streaming TV viewership tops cable in Nielsen measurement - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
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The season is now half over, and Winnipeg is finally getting its first bye. No Thursday game this week.
*****
Week 10 analyses and Week 11 picks
https://doorfliesopen.com/2022/08/18/cfl-beat-161/
http://17degreesports.com/index.php/2022/08/17/cfl-week-11-preview-3/
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/15/landrys-5-takeaways-from-week-10/https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/16/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-week-11-picks-are-in/
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/17/weekly-predictor-trusting-in-toronto/*****
Power Rankings
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/15/power-rankings-perfect-no-more/*****
QB index
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/16/qb-index-its-all-about-poise/*****
8/17 Checking Down
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/17/checking-down-news-and-notes-from-week-11/*****
8/18 Game Notes
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/18/cfl-ca-game-notes-a-look-at-week-11/ -
My top three would be the '40s recordings of...
Monk
Navarro with Dameron
and Bud Powell.
Next would be one of Wayne Shorter's 1964 recordings, probably Night Dreamer.
Probably #5 would be Somethin' Else.
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Last two Week 10 results.
BC 41....Calgary 40
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6248/bc-lions-vs-calgary-stampeders/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/14/nathan-rourke-wins-the-gunfight-at-the-mcmahon-corral-eight-other-thoughts-on-the-lions-stunning-rally-against-the-stamps/
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/14/stamps-blow-12-point-halftime-lead-eight-other-thoughts-on-a-41-40-loss-to-the-b-c-lions/*****
Sask 34....Edmonton 23
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6249/saskatchewan-roughriders-vs-edmonton-elks/#videos
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/elks-roughriders-cfl-recap-aug-13-2022-1.6550710*****
Week 10 Plays of the Week
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/15/kick-return-chaos-in-the-week-10-plays-of-the-week/(I don't know why, but I cannot get the link to the Week 9 Plays of the Week to come up. However, if you watch the video highlights of Saturday's Montreal-Winnipeg game (which are well worth watching) the Week 9 Plays comes up immediately after.)
*****
Power Rankings
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/15/3downnation-cfl-power-rankings-b-c-lions-bounce-bombers-from-top-spot/
https://13thmansports.ca/2022/08/15/cfl-power-rankings-week-10-2/ -
The *average* Briton suffers two 36-hour-long hangovers per month.
This works out to be an entire year of their lives hungover.
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A soldier ran up to a nun. Out of breath he asked, "Please, may I hide under your skirt. I'll explain later."
The nun agreed.
A moment later two Military Police ran up and asked, "Sister, have you seen a soldier?"
The nun replied, "He went that way."
After the MPs ran off, the soldier crawled out from under her skirt and said, "I can't thank you enough, Sister. You see, I don't want to go to Syria."
The nun said, "I understand completely."
The soldier added, "I hope I'm not rude, but you have a great pair of legs!"
The nun replied, "If you had looked a little higher, you would have seen a great pair of balls. I don't want to go to Syria either."
*****
A man was walking down the street when he was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless man who asked him for a couple of dollars for dinner.
The man took out his wallet, extracted ten dollars and asked, "If I give you this money, will you buy some beer with it instead of dinner?"
"No, I had to stop drinking years ago," the homeless man replied.
"Will you use it to go fishing instead of buying food?" the man asked.
"No, I don't waste time fishing," the homeless man said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive."
"Will you spend this on greens fees at a golf course instead of food?" the man asked.
"Are you NUTS!" replied the homeless man. "I haven't played golf in 20 years!"
"Will you spend the money on a woman in the red light district instead of food?" the man asked.
"What disease would I get for ten lousy bucks?" exclaimed the homeless man.
"Well," said the man, "I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you home for a terrific dinner cooked by my wife."
The homeless man was astounded. "Won't your wife be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting."
The man replied, "That's okay. It's important for her to see what a man looks like after he has given up beer, fishing, golf, and sex."
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Dana, I don't think the quality of play has yet recovered from the forced layoff of the 2020 season.
Did you watch that game's video highlights?
2 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:That would be the CFL in a nutshell. Since I don't take football seriously but just like to watch a little to pass the time every once in a while, that's perfect for me.
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Week 10 results
Montreal 20....Winnipeg 17
Surprise! This was a very exciting but poorly played game. In particular, both kickers were awful.
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6246/montreal-alouettes-vs-winnipeg-blue-bombers/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/12/missed-kicks-loom-large-as-blue-bombers-suffer-shocking-loss-to-alouettes-nine-other-thoughts/
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/montreal-alouettes-winnipeg-blue-bombers-recap-august-11-1.6549222*****
Hamilton 34....Toronto 27
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6247/toronto-argonauts-vs-hamilton-tiger-cats/
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/hamilton-tiger-cats-toronto-argonauts-recap-august-12-1.6550344*****
The other two games will be tonight.
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Now on to last week's games.
Week 9 results
Winnipeg 35....Montreal 20
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6242/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-montreal-alouettes/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/04/bombers-overcome-alouettes-air-horn-to-improve-to-9-0-11-other-thoughts/*****
Calgary 17....Ottawa 3
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6243/calgary-stampeders-vs-ottawa-redblacks/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/06/bo-levi-mitchell-falls-short-of-stamps-record-and-eight-other-thoughts-on-an-ugly-win-in-ottawa/
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/06/laproblem-poor-play-calling-dooms-redblacks-10-other-thoughts-on-losing-to-calgary/*****
Toronto 34....Hamilton 20
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6244/hamilton-tiger-cats-vs-toronto-argonauts/#videos
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/toronto-argonauts-hamilton-tiger-cats-recap-august-6-1.6543936
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/07/three-phase-failure-sinks-ticats-11-thoughts-on-hamiltons-34-20-loss-to-the-toronto-argonauts/*****
BC 46....Edmonton 14
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6245/edmonton-elks-vs-bc-lions/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/07/greatness-comes-in-threes-11-other-thoughts-on-the-b-c-lions-third-straight-blowout-of-the-edmonton-elks/
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/07/a-third-thorough-mauling-and-seven-other-thoughts-on-the-elks-getting-clawed-by-the-lions/
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/08/canadian-qb-nathan-rourke-sets-multiple-records-while-eviscerating-elks-in-b-c-lions-week-9-win/*****
Power Rankings
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/08/3downnation-cfl-power-rankings-rourke-lions-leapfrog-stampeders/
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/08/power-rankings-a-qb-collision-course/
https://13thmansports.ca/2022/08/07/cfl-power-rankings-week-9-2/*****
Analyses and Week 10 picks
https://doorfliesopen.com/2022/08/11/cfl-beat-160/
http://17degreesports.com/index.php/2022/08/10/cfl-week-10-preview-2/https://3downnation.com/2022/08/11/3downnation-cfl-picks-can-elks-end-miserable-home-losing-streak-against-riders/
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/09/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-week-10-picks-2/*****
*****
Week 10 Game Notes
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/10/cfl-ca-game-notes-a-look-at-week-10/*****
Week 10 Checking Down
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/10/checking-down-news-and-notes-from-week-10/ -
We're getting very behind, so let's do things in chronological order.
Week 7 results
Montreal 40....Ottawa 33
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6234/montreal-alouettes-vs-ottawa-redblacks/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/07/22/refs-ruin-the-rally-11-other-thoughts-on-ottawa-losing-to-montreal/*****
BC 17....Hamilton 12
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6235/hamilton-tiger-cats-vs-bc-lions/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/07/22/bailing-out-the-golden-boy-seven-other-thoughts-on-the-b-c-lions-defensive-win-over-hamilton/
https://3downnation.com/2022/07/22/red-zone-woes-doom-the-ticats-14-other-thoughts-on-hamiltons-17-12-loss-to-the-b-c-lions/*****
Winnipeg 24....Edmonton 10
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6236/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-edmonton-elks/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/07/23/blue-bombers-bend-but-dont-break-against-elks-to-improve-to-7-0-11-other-thoughts/
https://3downnation.com/2022/07/24/an-offensive-offence-nine-other-thoughts-on-the-elks-fifth-loss/*****
Toronto 31....Sask 21
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6237/toronto-argonauts-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/#videos
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6237/toronto-argonauts-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/#/preview*****
Week 7 Plays of the Week
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/07/25/special-teams-shines-in-the-week-7-plays-of-the-week/*****
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I saw a tweet last week:
Men, don't try to understand women. Women understand women, and we hate each other.
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Bordeaux Concert Documents Keith Jarrett'sLast Solo Performance in FranceThe Improvised Thirteen-Part Suite from 2016 Finds the Pianist at a Creative High Point
Bordeaux Concert documents a solo performance, the last that Keith Jarrett would give in France, at the Auditorium de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux on July 6, 2016, and finds the pianist at a creative high point.Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct character, and in Bordeaux – although the music would progress through many changing moods – the lyrical impulse was to the fore. In the course of this improvised thirteen-part suite, many quiet discoveries are made. There is a touching freshness to the music as a whole, a feeling of intimate communication shared with the 1400 attentive listeners in the hall. This time there is no recourse to standard tunes to round out the performance; the arc of spontaneously composed and often intensely melodic music is satisfyingly complete in itself. In the later concerts part of Jarrett’s achievement as an improviser has been the way in which he has not only channeled the music in its moment-to-moment emergence but implied a sense of larger structure as he balances its episodes and atmospheres.Reviewing the July 2016 performance, the French press spoke of hints of the Köln Concert and Bremen-Lausanne in the flow of things, and extended sections of Bordeaux Concert are beguilingly beautiful. Tender songs are coaxed from the air, “rousing a community of listening at the edge of silence," as Francis Marmande put it in Le Monde, “an awareness of time out from the noise and weariness of the world.”*Bordeaux’s community of listeners had long been aware of Jarrett’s music. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine capital was one of the first European cities where Jarrett presented his music, as early as 1970 - with his trio, then, with Gus Nemeth and Aldo Romano. He was back in the early 1990s, with the ‘Standards’ trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. The July 2016 concert, however, was his only solo performance in the city (made possible via the Jazz and Wine Bordeaux Festival and its director, Jean-Jacques Quesada).Previous releases from Keith Jarrett’s 2016 solo concert tour:Munich 2016“His elegance, restraint, freedom, austerity, richness, breadth of allusion, heartfelt depths, rhapsodic heights, passionate musical intelligence, rigorously disciplined expressiveness, development of forms invented in the moment, and concentrated brilliance – all executed with undiminished perfection of technique – are amazing, at times overwhelming. No one else does anything that comes close. No one ever has.”Richard Lehnert, Stereophile“Munich 2016 features Jarrett at his fluent and inventive best... The pianist re-constitutes the core ingredients of his aesthetic in fresh and unexpected ways.”Mike Hobart, Financial TimesBudapest Concert“This composite suite could be considered a concentrated compendium of his talents, of his entire career.”Jacques Denis, Libération“The second half features a few of Mr. Jarrett´s most ravishing on-the-spot compositions. Those ballads, like ‘Part V’ and ‘Part VII,' spark against briskly atonal or boppish pieces, gradually building the case for a mature expression that might not have been possible earlier in his career. A magnificent achievement.”Nate Chinen, New York Times
Keith Jarrett | Bordeaux ConcertECM Release Date: CD: September 30, 2022; 2-LP: October 14, 2022For more information on ECM, please visit:# # #
The Song Is You Documents the Inspired Meeting Between Italian Trumpeter Enrico Rava andAmerican Pianist Fred HerschAvailable September 9 via ECM Records
The Song Is You documents the inspired meeting of two master improvisers. Italian trumpeter and flugelhornist Enrico Rava and US pianist Fred Hersch share a love of the music’s history and together explore standards including Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You," Thelonious Monk’s “Misterioso” and “’Round Midnight," Jobim’s “Retrato em Branco e Preto," and George Bassman’s “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You." They also play their own tunes, Fred’s “Child’s Song” and Enrico’s “The Trial," and create music freely together. It’s a subtle and far-reaching performance: when jazz reaches this level of understanding and interplay, a performance becomes less about the material – however distinguished it may be - than what the interpreter brings to it. Rava and Hersch bring vast experience and a finely honed sense of jazz improvisation as a storyteller’s art.Enrico Rava has recorded for ECM since the 1970s, beginning with The Pilgrim and the Stars, now regarded as a modern jazz classic. The Song Is You is Fred Hersch’s first for the label, following albums as a leader with Nonesuch, Palmetto, Sunnyside and others. Throughout his long career as a player, Hersch has returned very often, to duo instrumentation. In his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly Hersch reflects upon his preference for the format: “The duo suited my ability to use the entire keyboard to do multiple things at once. It also let me orchestrate the music instead of just playing block chords with the left hand... I indulged my love of spontaneous counterpoint – two or more independent melodic lines going on simultaneously. I can go from roaring loud to pianissimo instantly. It’s collaborative and also intimate. You have to be compatible but also different enough for each musician to offer something unique.” (Enrico’s discography also includes some notable duos, including The Third Man with Stefano Bollani).The November 2021 recording of The Song Is You followed just a handful of Italian dates earlier that year. But from first of these it was evident that something special was happening. Fred Hersch: “One of the things that I really liked from the beginning was that Enrico doesn’t feel like he has to be soloing. It’s not as clearly defined. We make things together,” Fred told interviewer Nicola Ferrauto. “He lets me get in there and push him a little bit. Other times I might give him a lot of space. The best duo partnerships are the ones where you don’t have to talk about it too much. You just play. And I’m getting the feeling this is going to be a long partnership. It’s really very simpatico, and Enrico’s a great master.”*Born in Trieste in 1939, and growing up in Turin, Enrico Rava came early to jazz, inspired by Miles Davis and Chet Baker among others. Active in the international free jazz milieu of the 1960s, he contributed to historically important recordings including Steve Lacy’s The Forest and the Zoo, Carla Bley’s Escalator Over the Hill and Manfred Schoof’s European Echoes. From the outset it was clear however that Rava’s concept of musical freedom would always embrace lyricism as one of its key components and this has been a constant though all his artistic adventures. Now acknowledged as the most important representative of Italian jazz, Enrico Rava has been the recipient of many awards including the Jazzpar, Europe’s biggest prize for jazz musicians. In 2011 Rava published the book Incontri con musicisti straordinari, with reflections on fifty years of music-making.Recent ECM releases with Enrico Rava have included two live albums: Roma, a collaboration with Joe Lovano, and Editione Speziale; both albums also feature pianist Giovanni Guidi, one of many younger players who consider Enrico a mentor.*Fred Hersch was born in Cincinnati in 1955, and studied at the New England Conservatory with teachers including Jaki Byard and Joe Maneri. In 1977, he moved to New York, where he soon found work with Art Farmer, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz and others. His first recording as a leader, 1984’s Horizons, introduced his trio with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, and established Hersch as an independent and original voice on the piano. His affinity for duo playing has led to collaborations with Anat Cohen, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Chris Potter, Avishai Cohen and Miguel Zenon. His solo playing is widely celebrated: in 2006 he became the first artist to play a week-long engagement as solo pianist at New York’s Village Vanguard.Hersch has also been acclaimed for his compositions, including Leaves of Grass, his 2003 settings of Walt Whitman’s poetry, the 2010 multimedia project My Coma Dreams, and his Variations on a Folksong, which was premiered by Igor Levit at Carnegie Hall in January 2022. Fred Hersch’s memoir Good Things Happen Slowly was voted Book of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, one of many awards the pianist has received.*The Song Is You was recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in November 2021, and produced by Manfred Eicher
Enrico Rava & Fred Hersch | The Song is YouECM Release Date: September 9, 2022For more information on ECM, please visit:# # #
On The Next Door, Julia Hülsmann Returns with the Quartet from 2019’s Not Far From Here, and Presents Her Unique Pianistic Voice in a Varied Program of Almost Exclusively Original MusicFeaturing Saxophonist Uli Kempendorff, Drummer Heinrich Köbberling and Bassist Marc Muellbauer
“Our various responsibilities within the quartet are more open and free than in the trio. Even though there’s an additional player, assigning stricter roles isn’t necessary. There’s plenty of room for me to move around on piano, manoeuvre from contributing unison lines to melodic accompaniment, then switch to playing basslines – all seamlessly, because we are always listening to each other. That’s our first and foremost priority” – Julia HülsmannThe follow-up to 2019’s Not Far From Here sees Julia Hülsmann reconvening with the same line-up as last time, in Studios La Buissonne, and entering into intense interplay with a band that has been extensively worked-in on the road. The Guardian called the quartet’s debut “a standout, for understated reinvention of the familiar and cool virtuosity” and spoke of “clever, thoughtful, inquisitively contemporary jazzmaking." These virtues have been further refined and new idioms added to the blend on the quartet’s second stance, with each member – tenor saxophonist Uli Kempendorff, Heinrich Köbberling on drums, Marc Muellbauer on bass and Julia – contributing original material to The Next Door.“Since the last album we’ve been on the road a whole lot," Julia notes. “We’ve had time to further develop our rapport as a quartet and, as a result, our interplay has become even more intuitive.” Even when most live-activity was intermittently shut down, Julia and her quartet participated in alternative performance projects and spent many weeks vigorously rehearsing new material. The fruit of their labour, presented on this album, is as multi-facetted as it is uncompromising, with a strong emphasis on an intimate ensemble sound. Flashes of jazz’ tradition, somewhere between '60s modal customs and post-bop swing, pull through The Next Door like a guiding light, but it’s how the group subsequently transforms these notions and makes them their own that stands out.“Empty Hands," the album’s pensive opener, is a blank canvas, gradually filled in with tender key strokes, searching melodies and delicate accompaniment. As Julia, who wrote the song, explains: “When your hands are full, you have to juggle everything back and forth, you’ve too much to deal with simultaneously. Empty hands, on the other hand, are like a clean slate – you have all the possibilities in the world to do what you please”. “Made of Wood” contrasts this impressionist design with an earthy tone, set in a modal frame and propelled forward by straight-ahead swing: “Time and again I feel like writing something solid, conciliatory in a way. This piece refers to my inner foundation, which I associate with something made of wood, something comforting.”The pianist’s brief duo exposition in exchange with saxophonist Uli Kempendorff on “Jetzt Noch Nicht” – later reprised as a variation with all members of the group – is a moody theme with a twisty melody, inviting the players’ most expressive playing. On Julia’s “Fluid” the band presents a tight, spirited unit in a mesmerizing performance of a smooth, steadily crescendoing arc: “This piece is based around the thick, layered piano sound that’s introduced after a couple of bars. Melodies can crystallize over this fluid tapestry and flow on in waves. Water is an important element to me, which frequently appears in my images.”Uli’s warm tone complements Julia’s trio with exceptional warmth, entering into a natural symbiosis with the piano’s subtle action, and his own piece, “Open Up," is among the set’s highlights: “When writing ‘Open Up’ I was exclusively focused on the melody’s forward-motion. The line dancingly weaves its way through three octaves. The bass part is notated and creates a counterpoint, while piano and drums are free to interject, comment and mingle at will. There’s much room for free interpretation and alteration throughout.”Marc Muellbauer’s compositional contributions go through various pulsations – “Polychrome” being a rubato exercise built around a, mostly, diatonic melody that wants to escape its tonal framework. “Wasp at the Window” on the other hand finds the group conspiring in an extensive workout in nine-time with an ostinato bending and bulging to the quartet’s beat. Again different by design, Marc wrote the bossa nova “Valdemossa” with composer Frédéric Chopin in mind: “It is based on the harmony of Chopin’s well-known Prelude No.4 in E Minor, from his cycle of 24 Preludes, op.28. I wrote a new melody expanding the harmony’s chromatic suggestions and exploiting its ambiguity in modulating into two other, far removed keys. It is named after the beautiful place in Mallorca where Chopin wrote his piece…”With a playful and slightly deconstructed inclination, drummer Heinrich Köbberling’s first original in the programme, “Lightcap," initially suggests the sketch-like framework of a Paul Motian tune. Actually, the piece is inspired by Köbberling’s early trio endeavours in the '90s with saxophonist Lisa Parrott and bassist Chris Lightcap, giving the song its name. The drummer’s other composition is “Post Post Post” – a subtle group improvisation with a veiled melody that has occupied the drummer for several years.It has become customary for Julia’s records to highlight revamps of known songs from the pop world and with Prince’s “Sometimes it Snows in April” the quartet uncovers another neat treat. The piece’s catchy melody, immediate harmonic hook and laid-back groove are thoughtfully explored by the entire band, with Julia’s gentle touch at the centre of attention.The Next Door, recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in March 2022, is issued as the quartet embarks on a European tour, with concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Norway.
Julia Hülsmann Quartet | The Next DoorECM Release Date: August 26 2022For more information on ECM, please visit:# # #
2025 @CFL Season
in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
Posted
It's Labour Day Weekend! I'll catch up on the past two weeks, but first let's look at the big games this week.
Analyses and Picks
https://doorfliesopen.com/2022/09/01/cfl-beat-163/
http://17degreesports.com/index.php/2022/08/31/cfl-week-13-preview-2/
https://3downnation.com/2022/09/02/3downnation-cfl-picks-will-there-be-a-labour-day-upset-on-tap/
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/09/01/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-labour-day-weekend-picks/
*****
Power Rankings
https://3downnation.com/2022/08/29/3downnation-cfl-power-rankings-maier-of-calgary-leads-stampeders-to-no-2-spot/
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/29/power-rankings-a-hard-to-peg-race/
*****
8/30 QB Index
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/30/qb-index-a-new-maier-in-town/
*****
8/31 Checking Down
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/31/checking-down-news-and-notes-from-labour-day-weekend/
*****
9/1 Game Notes
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/09/01/cfl-ca-game-notes-a-look-at-labour-day-weekend/
*****
The Plays of the Week have a habit of disappearing. So before it's too late, here are last week's Plays of the Week
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/29/diving-into-the-week-12-plays-of-the-week/
And here are Week 11's Plays of the Week.
https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/22/thrilling-finishes-in-the-week-11-plays-of-the-week/
*****
Friday (9/2) result
Ottawa 38....Montreal 24
https://www.cfl.ca/games/6258/ottawa-redblacks-vs-montreal-alouettes/#videos
https://3downnation.com/2022/09/03/the-good-outweighs-the-bad-10-other-thoughts-on-the-redblacks-beating-montreal/
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/cfl-ottawa-redblacks-montreal-alouettes-recap-sept-2-1.6572051
Ottawa made Nick Arbuckle their starting quarterback, and they have won both games! Montreal may be in disarray. First they fire their coach for no apparent reason. Now this week the team's owner has resigned from the league's Board of Governors.
https://www.tsn.ca/montreal-alouettes-sale-a-test-of-cfl-s-revamped-business-model-1.1843874