Monday, January 17, 2022

Seamus Blake - Solid!

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:44
Size: 144,2 MB
Art: Front

(10:07) 1. Insert Witty Title
( 5:16) 2. Moving One
( 8:10) 3. Weeks On Ed
( 6:48) 4. Writer's Block
( 8:42) 5. Rules Of Etiquette
( 6:36) 6. Chasing Fanshawe
( 8:57) 7. Fresh Fruit
( 8:04) 8. Here We Go

New York based saxophonist/composer SEAMUS BLAKE is recognized as one of the finest exponents of contemporary jazz. His music is known for its sophistication, bold improvisations and “sheer swagger". John Scofield, who hired Seamus for his “Quiet Band,” called him “extraordinary, a total saxophonist.” Throughout his 24 year career, Seamus has garnered critical praise for his masterful playing, his fine compositional skills and for his facility as a leader.

Since moving to Paris in February 2018 Seamus has been invited to perform the music of his recent CD, "Superconductor" with a number of European Jazz Bands. Beginning with the Latvian Radio Jazz Band early in 2018, Seamus has performed with the Trondheim Big Band and The Sibis Alumni Big Band (Sibelius Institute , Helsinki),in September. He is scheduled to perform his music with The Tuesday Big Band (Amsterdam) on November 6/7, and The Subway Jazz Orchestra on November 14.

In 2017 Seamus assembled a new quartet, The French Connection. The band ( Seamus, Tony Tixier piano, Florent Nisse, bass, and Gautier Garrigue, drums) recorded their first CD in Paris in November, 2017 and have toured in France and Spain. The CD will be released on the Whirlwind label. Three promo videos will be available on Youtube in January. Seamus has a busy schedule in Europe in 2018. Check the Performance page for details. Superconductor is Seamus’ most ambitious project to date and was released in December 2015. The talent includes Nate Smith, Matt Garrison, Scott Kinsey, a 7 piece orchestral ensemble as well as special guest appearances by John Scofield and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. The album marks the debut of Seamus on EWI (electronic wind instrument). Seamus plays on the 2015 Grammy nominated Camino by pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

Seamus Blake was born December 1970 in England and raised in Vancouver, Canada. At age 21, while still a student at Boston's prestigious Berklee College, he was asked to record with legendary drummer Victor Lewis. After graduation, he moved to New York, where he rapidly established himself on the New York jazz scene. In February 2002, Seamus took first place in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in Washington D. C. As the winner, he performed with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. As a leader/co-leader , Seamus has released 16 albums. He is featured as a sideman on over 70 CDs.

Seamus has played on six of of the Grammy nominated Mingus bands’ albums He continues to play and record with Bill Stewart, Kevin Hays, David Kikoski and Alex Sipiagin. Seamus is frequently featured as a guest artist. In 2010 he was guest of honor at the International Saxophone Symposium in Washington hosted by the US Navy Band. Seamus was a member of John Scofield’s Quiet Band and toured and recorded with Dave Douglas. Some of the many other artists he has worked with include Eric Reed, Ethan Iverson, Chris Cheek, and Matt Penman. https://seamusblake.com/biography

Solid!

Myron Walden - Momentum

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:58
Size: 125,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:32) 1. Of Three Worlds
(5:05) 2. The Road Ahead
(8:12) 3. Pulse
(3:52) 4. Vision Of A Visionary
(4:08) 5. Miles
(1:39) 6. When Time Stood Still
(5:25) 7. What Goes Up Must Come Down
(6:22) 8. Longing
(1:32) 9. Like A Flower Seeking The Sun
(5:42) 10. Memories
(6:05) 11. Carnage
(1:19) 12. When Time Stood Still

Sometimes a break can be the best thing a musician can take. Not getting tired by any means, if a four-year sabbatical from recording as a leader results in as strong a comeback as reedman Myron Walden's, perhaps artists should take breaks more often. A charter member of drummer Brian Blade's Fellowship Band, Walden is back with not one, but three CDs over the next couple months. The first, Momentum, is a potent modern mainstream set that takes trumpet icon Miles Davis' legendary 1960s quintet as a touchstone, but achieves reverence without sacrificing its own voice.

Walden's writing has always demonstrated a distinctive blending of front line horns that almost sounds like a single voice, but especially in the context of the Fellowship where it's a confluence of reeds. Still, even when writing for saxophone and trumpet, as Walden does here, there remains a skillful commingling, with the horns often orbiting around each other harmonically before coming together in strong unison. The relaxed yet simmering feel of "Pulse" a waltz-time ballad driven by flexible drummer Kendrick Scott's visceral, in-the-pocket groove with bassist Yasushi Nakamura provides a modal context for solos building with inevitable intensity by Walden and trumpeter Darren Barrett, while David Bryant's atmospheric electric piano pushes the band into territory somewhere between Miles' Filles de Kilimanjaro and Miles in the Sky, both from Columbia in 1968.

Walden deserts his usual axe in favor of tenor saxophone, proving himself as thoughtful yet fiery a player on the bigger horn as he is on alto, and using the instrument's lower register to accomplish many of the ideas he'd normally play on bass clarinet (also left in its case). Miles may be the touchstone, but Walden's charts are far more challenging to navigate—especially "Carnage," an up-tempo burner featuring Scott's marvel of in-the-moment, polyrhythmic invention.

With plenty of solo space for everyone, Walden also contributes three largely through-composed miniatures, serving as rallying points throughout Momentum's 55-minute set. "Like a Flower Seeking the Sun," with Nakamura's evocative, chordal intro, is redolent of Shorter's enduring title track to Davis' Nefertiti (Columbia/Legacy, 1967), with its repeated front line motif a foundation for Scott's imaginative, polyrhythmic invention. Two versions of "When Time Stood Still" bookend five tunes, ranging from the indigo-tinged "Longing" to the barnstorming "Carnage"—managing, both in less than 100 seconds, to provide brief yet definitive solos spots: the first, some empathic in-tandem free play from Walden and Barrett; the second, a closing statement supporting Scott's ongoing emergence as an increasingly ubiquitous post-bop powerhouse of choice.

On its own, Momentum would be enough to say that Walden is back, and with a vengeance. As part of a triptych that will ultimately conclude with the reflective In This World and funk-driven Countrified (both due out on Walden's Demi Sound Records in January, 2010), it's but one of three that will paint the broadest picture of Walden's expansive interests yet; a document of one of the modern mainstream's most provocative saxophonists, composers, and bandleader.~John Kelmanhttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/momentum-myron-walden-demi-sound-records-review-by-john-kelman

Personnel: Myron Walden: tenor saxophone; Darren Barrett: trumpet; David Bryant: electric piano; Yasushi Nakamura: bass; Kendrick Scott: drums.

Momentum

Kazumasa Akiyama - Dig My Style

Styles: Piano Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:48
Size: 99,6 MB
Art: Front

(7:50) 1. I Believe in You
(4:48) 2. Summer Dreamer
(3:46) 3. Got That Feeling
(4:34) 4. Keep on Loving
(6:10) 5. Dig My Style
(5:14) 6. Gettin' on
(4:05) 7. Shining Guitar
(4:16) 8. Mother Eyes - Estate

Kazumasa Akiyama Tokyo, 1955 is a Japanese fusion and jazz guitarist. Kazumasa Akiyama played in the Tokyo jazz scene from the 1970s, including with Isao Suzuki's sextet, with whom he also made his first recordings. He also collaborated on recordings by Mikio Masuda, Noriko Miyamoto and Yasuaki Shimizu. In 1978 he made his debut album Dig My Style (Flying Dog) with Yasuaki Shimizu, Mikio Masuda, Masanori Sasaji, Kazuya Sugimoto, Hideo Yamaki and Tatsuji Yokoyama. In 1979 the fusion record Beyond the Door followed, in which Masanori Sasaji, Motohiko Hamase, Akira Doi, Noriko Miyamoto and singer Jimmy Satoshi Murakawa participated. In the 1980s and 1990s, Akiyama worked with Yasuko Agawa, Tatsuya Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, Chin Suzuki, Mari Nakamoto, Chie Ayado and the Kosuke Mine quintet, among others.

According to discographer Tom Lord,the jazz and fusion guitarist participated in 21 recording sessions between 1976 and 1998. He also worked as a studio musician on recordings by, for example, Noriko Miyamoto and Lisa Ono. More recently, he played in a quartet with Hikari Ichihara, Koichi Inoue and Nori Shiota, as well as in a sextet by Hironori Suzuki (with Shota Watanabe, among others). He also recorded Quiet Storm (2005) and Dr. Rain (2008).Translate By Google https://www.wikipe.wiki/wiki/nl/Kazumasa_Akiyama

Dig My Style

Dick Sisto, Fred Hersch - American Love Song

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:21
Size: 153,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:04)  1. Falling in Love with Love
(5:13)  2. Everytime We Say Goodbye
(7:53)  3. My One and Only Love
(5:34)  4. Doxy
(5:30)  5. Little Dancer
(4:35)  6. Moments Notice
(6:11)  7. Beautiful Love
(8:00)  8. Monks Dream
(4:54)  9. Summer's Gone
(6:17) 10. If I Should Lose You
(7:05) 11. Some Other Time

Vibraphonist Dick Sisto has spent much of his adult life away from the recognized jazz centers, but his swinging approach with the Fred Hersch Trio belies this fact. This private issue covers great standards by classic songwriters, including "Falling In Love With Love" and "Beautiful Love." Sisto also successfully explores jazz compositions by John Coltrane ("Moment's Notice"), Tom Harrell ("Little Dancer"), and Sonny Rollins ("Doxy"). His soft ballad "Summer's Gone" fits right in with this enjoyable outting. ~ Ken Dryden https://www.allmusic.com/album/american-love-song-mw0000925464

Personnel: Vibraphone – Dick Sisto; Bass – Drew Gress; Drums – Tom Rainey; Piano – Fred Hersch

American Love Song