Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Pierrick Pédron, nouvel album Unknown, réalisé par Laurent de Wilde


Pierrick Pédron
Nouvel album Unknown
Sortie le 15/09 chez Fo Féo Productions / Caroline
En concert les 23, 24, 25 Octobre 2017 au Duc des Lombards


Pierrick Pédron est l’un des meilleurs saxophonistes alto du jazz français et un compositeur de talent toujours en quête de singularités musicales. En plus de 15 ans de carrière, Pierrick Pédron a joué dans de multiples formations, fait des propositions artistiques toujours plus audacieuses flirtant parfois avec le rock, la pop, le funk mais aussi le psyché... et collaboré avec un grand nombre de musiciens à travers le monde.

Aujourd’hui, cette acteur incontournable de la scène jazz française revient avec Unknown, un neuvième album puissant et inspiré. Pour donner vie aux huit compositions originales et à la reprise du groupe Depeche Mode (Enjoy the Silence), Pierrick Pédron a rassemblé un quartette comprenant son ami de toujours le contrebassiste Thomas Bramerie, le talentueux et non moins célèbre batteur New-Yorkais Greg Hutchinson et le brillant jeune pianiste français Carl-Henri Morisset. Ce nouvel album de Pierrick Pédron se classe entre le post-bop et le pre-free. Il a été entièrement réalisé par le méticuleux pianiste Laurent de Wilde.


Depuis son premier album « Cherokee », enregistré en 2000, nous sommes nombreux à suivre avec grand intérêt la carrière discographique d’un des saxophonistes les plus passionnants de l’hexagone : Pierrick Pédron. Une discographie qui est loin de ressembler à une ligne droite, car comme tout breton qui se respecte, Pierrick aime changer de cap et chercher de nouveaux horizons. Il aime se ressourcer et défricher des terrains vierges à travers son goût de l’aventure, empreint d’un grand sentiment de liberté et d’indépendance.

Au fil de ses huit précédents albums, Pierrick s’est aventuré sur le terrain de l’impressionnisme, des standards de Broadway, de la pop tendance Pink Floyd, de l’orientalisme d’Oum Kalsoum, des fanfares d’harmonie, du répertoire de Monk, du gothisme de Cure, du funk, de l’ethio-jazz….mais il n’a jamais perdu son amour du jazz, sa culture jazzistique, son incroyable feeling, son goût de l’écriture et sa grande faculté à improviser. Sa sonorité unique à l’alto et son discours musical volubile et terriblement narratif, a toujours fait de lui un conteur hors-pair. Pierrick Pédron n’a jamais cessé de nous raconter des histoires (de plus en plus belles et sensibles) et avec le neuvième chapitre de son grand roman discographique, intitulé sobrement Unknown, il revient au jazz acoustique dans la formule classique du quartette, mais avec toujours cette volonté de nous surprendre et de bousculer nos habitudes, afin de mieux nous séduire et surtout de nous émouvoir !

Pour ce neuvième album, Pierrick Pédron a écrit un répertoire tout neuf qui comprend neuf morceaux (dont huit compositions et une reprise) et autant de nouvelles histoires à nous raconter, entouré d’un quartette inédit, où l’on retrouve son vieux compagnon, le contrebassiste Thomas Bramerie, le célèbre batteur New-Yorkais Greg Hutchinson (qui a joué avec Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, et beaucoup d’autres…) et enfin Carl-Henri Morisset, un jeune pianiste français de 25 ans, brillamment diplômé du CNSM, qui vu son immense talent, ne restera pas longtemps inconnu !

N’oublions pas de mentionner le cinquième membre de ce quartette, en la personne de Laurent de Wilde, qui a pour l’occasion quitté les touches de son piano, pour endosser le rôle de directeur artistique. Laurent et Pierrick se connaissent très bien et Pierrick a pu apprécier les bons conseils de Laurent concernant l’exécution, l’interprétation, et le timing des morceaux. Des propositions toujours pertinentes d’un ami précieux dont on connait la générosité, l’écoute attentive et le professionnalisme.

Ce neuvième chapitre des aventures discographiques de Pierrick Pédron, donne naissance à un album mature, sincère, exigeant, et particulièrement sensible et émouvant. Et puis surtout, il donne naissance à un nouveau groupe, une formation hors du commun : un quartette de rêve ! Et si nous ne manquerons pas de continuer à suivre de près l’évolution discographique de Pierrick Pédron, il ne nous semble pas impossible, qu’il poursuive l’aventure de ce groupe, désormais connu, qui de Unknown se transformera en Known, pour le bonheur de tous ! Lionel Eskenazi.


LINE UP
Pierrick PEDRON - Saxophone Alto
Thomas BRAMERIE - Contrebasse
Carl-Henri MORISSET - Piano
Greg HUTCHINSON - Batterie
DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : Laurent De Wilde

En concert les 23, 24, 25 Octobre 2017 au Duc des Lombards

Oct. 12–15: Wadada Leo Smith's "Ten Freedom Summers" premieres in Southern U.S.


SOUTHERN US PREMIERE FOR LEGENDARY COMPOSER/TRUMPETER WADADA LEO SMITH’S CIVIL RIGHTS MASTERPIECE

TEN FREEDOM SUMMERS

Thursday, Oct. 12 in Austin, TX  
Friday, Oct. 13 in Houston, TX
Saturday, Oct. 14 in New Orleans, LA   
Sunday, October 15 in Tuscaloosa, AL

Best Jazz Artist, Trumpeter and Jazz Album of the Year – DownBeat Magazine’s 65th Annual Critics Poll, August 2017

2017 Musician of the Year – Jazz Journalists Association

Smith was 2013 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Music for Ten Freedom Summers

“A stunning achievement, with the dramatic sweep of the trumpeter’s writing (for both a chamber orchestra and his own small group)… It merits comparison to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in sobriety and reach.”
— Francis Davis, Rhapsody Jazz Critics Poll

“Ten Freedom Summers was as striking a display of his expansive vision and his vitality. He still plays trumpet as he always has: with little vibrato and a tone that can be either boldly declarative or soft to the point of breaking… Mr. Smith had made his own statement through instrumental music. And it sounded complete." — Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal


Boldly original trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Wadada Leo Smith brings his soul-searching Civil Rights tribute Ten Freedom Summers to four southern US cities October 12 – 15, 2017 paying homage to heroes such as Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  This will be the first time this epic work, for which Smith was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has been performed in the South.   

Performing are Smith’s Golden Quartet featuring Smith, pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg, and drummer Pheeroan akLaff, the RedKoral Quartet with violinists Shalini Vijayan and Mona Tian, violist Lorenz Gamma and cellist Ashley Walters, plus video artist Jesse Gilbert.

The first three performances, which together comprise the entire work, are presented in collaboration with The New Quorum, Nameless Sound and Epistrophy Arts and are supported by the Presenter Consortium for Jazz, a program of Chamber Music America funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. They include:

Thursday, October 12, 2017 – First Collection from Ten Freedom Summers 
– Austin, TX
8 p.m. – Tickets $25; $15 for students, seniors and artists.   
Boyd Vance Theater at the George Washington Carver Museum, 1165 Angelina Street, Austin, TX
Presented by Epistrophy Arts. www.epistrophyarts.com

Friday, October 13 – Second Collection from Ten Freedom Summers
– Houston, TX
8 p.m. – Tickets $13; $10 for students.  
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston, 3400 Main St. Houston, TX  
Presented by Nameless Sound. www.namelesssound.org

Saturday, October 14 – Third Collection from Ten Freedom Summers
– New Orleans, LA
8 p.m.  Tickets $20; $15 for students.
Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall, Loyola University, 6363 St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA  
Presented by New Quorum. Tickets through www.newquorum.org

In addition, selections from Ten Freedom Summers will be presented:
Sunday, October 15 – Mixed Collections from Ten Freedom Summers
– Tuscaloosa, AL
7:30 p.m.  Admission is free.
Moody Music Building Concert Hall, The University of Alabama, 810 Second Avenue, Tuscaloosa, AL
Presented by The University of Alabama’s Sonic Frontiers Concert Series http://sonicfrontiers.ua.edu/


More than a three-performance musical event, Ten Freedom Summers is a multimedia project that incorporates archival news footage and evocative but abstract cinematic imagery edited with a self-consciously musical sensibility. The production was inspired conceptually by August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, in which each play chronicles one of 10 decades of African-American life in the 20th century. “I own all 10 of Wilson’s plays and have studied them over the years,” Smith says. “Much like Wilson, what I’m trying to do is give a full impression, show the psychological transformation that America achieved. Each piece has its own motivation, and what ties it together is the psychological thread. Rather than taking 10 decades, I took 10 freedom summers.”

Ten Freedom Summers has received rave reviews for performances worldwide. Reviewing the collection’s premiere at REDCAT in LA, Larry Blumenfeld wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “Ten Freedom Summers was as striking a display of his expansive vision and his vitality. He still plays trumpet as he always has: with little vibrato and a tone that can be either boldly declarative or soft to the point of breaking… Mr. Smith had made his own statement through instrumental music. And it sounded complete." 

Ten Freedom Summers received equal acclaim on CD. Released in May 2012 on the Cuneiform label, it earned a place as the #3 jazz record of the year in the Rhapsody Jazz Critics poll, where respected critic Francis Davis wrote: “A stunning achievement…. It merits comparison to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in sobriety and reach.” National Public Radio included the CD in its Top 50 albums of 2012 and it placed eighth in the 2012 JazzTimes Critics Poll, while music criticism aggregator MetaCritic hailed it as the #1 under-the-radar album of 2012.

The recording has been heralded as “stirringly beautiful … an astounding aesthetic achievement,” (Michael Casper, Oxford American), “an emotional and intellectual luxury, a chance to commune with greatness,” (Josh Langhoff, Pop Matters), “the work of a lifetime by one of jazz’s true visionaries.…Triumphant and mournful, visceral and philosophical, searching, scathing and relentlessly humane, Smith’s music embraces the turbulent era’s milestones while celebrating the civil rights movement’s heroes and martyrs.” (Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery), and “his magnum opus; it belongs in jazz's canonical lexicon with Duke Ellington's Black Brown & Beige and Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite.” (Thom Jurek, All Music Guide). As Stuart Broomer writes in Point of Departure: "If one had to answer quickly what work will matter most this year in American music…Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers would trip readily to the tongue."

Throughout his career, Wadada Leo Smith, 75, has been recognized for his groundbreaking work. Transcending the bounds of genre or idiom, he distinctly defines his music, tirelessly inventive in both sound and approach, as "Creative Music."  A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, he received the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and earned an honorary doctorate from CalArts, where he was also celebrated as Faculty Emeritus. In addition, he received the Hammer Museum's 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement "honoring brilliance and resilience."

In addition, in 2017 Smith topped three categories in DownBeat Magazine’s 65th Annual Critics Poll: Best Jazz Artist, Trumpeter of the Year and Jazz Album of the Year and was featured as the subject of a cover story in August 2017. The Jazz Journalists Association also honored Smith as their 2017 Musician of the Year as well as the 2017 Duo of the Year for his work with Vijay Iyer.  The JJA also named him their 2016 Trumpeter of the Year, 2015 Composer of the Year, and 2013 Musician of the Year. In 2013 he was also selected as DownBeat Magazine's Composer of the Year.  

In October 2015, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago presented the first comprehensive exhibition of Smith's Ankhrasmation scores. In addition to igniting creative sparks in the musicians who perform them, their use of non-standard visual directions makes them works of art in themselves. In 2016, the scores were also featured in the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. exhibition, and at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and Kadist in San Francisco, among other places.


Born December 18, 1941 in Leland, Mississippi, Smith's early musical life began at age thirteen when he became involved with the Delta blues and jazz traditions performing with his stepfather, bluesman Alex Wallace. He received his formal musical education from the U.S. Military band program (1963), the Sherwood School of Music (1967-69), and Wesleyan University (1975-76).

For the last five decades, Smith has been a member of the legendary AACM collective, pivotal in its wide-open perspectives on music and art in general. He has carried those all-embracing concepts into his own work, expanding upon them in myriad ways.  In April 2017 Smith presented the first-ever CREATE Festival, a two-day celebration and exploration of his music that featured classic works alongside world premiere performances. The event took place in New Haven, CT.  Smith brings CREATE to San Francisco on December 15 and 16.

Smith has released more than 50 albums as a leader on labels including ECM, Moers, Black Saint, Tzadik, Pi Recordings, TUM, Leo and Cuneiform. His diverse discography reveals a recorded history centered around important issues that have impacted his world, exploring the social, natural and political environments of his times with passion and fierce intelligence. His most recent recording America’s National Parks (October 2016, Cuneiform), a six-movement suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes, earned Smith the designation “National Treasure” from DownBeat Magazine and was heralded as one of the year’s best by the New York Times and many others.    

TUM Records will release two new recordings by Smith on October 20, 2017. Wadada Leo Smith: Najwa showcases Smith with guitarists Michael Gregory Jackson, Henry Kaiser, Brandon Ross and Lamar Smith, plus Bill Laswell on electric bass, Pheeroan akLaff on drums and Adam Rudolph on percussion. Also on TUM will be Alone: Reflections and Meditations on Monk, a solo recording.

RUDI RECORDS News: Tiziano Tononi & Daniele Cavallanti Nexus - Experience Nexus! (2017)



Nexus is a variable setting project that during his long history - 37 years up to now - has been able to change according to the times, neverthless keeping being faithful to its founding principles, the same ones that the two leaders, Tiziano Tononi and Daniele Cavallanti, set back at the beginning of their adventure in 1980. On behalf of their tenth album with Nexus, Tononi and Cavallanti have riunited a line-up of excellence in the field of avant-music in Italy, setting up a confrontation between their own musical experiences and concepts, and the ones of the newer generations, without loosing tracks of their signature treats...among these, a fertile relationship with the best tradition in Afro-American music, a deep Blues feeling, the integration of different musical languages in the production of original material, the collective idea of music making through the revitalization of an ancient jazz tradition, now dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, a group sound that was intended to have a preminent role in affirming a stylistic identity, both solid in its principles and at the same time everchanging in the way these same ones keep being reproposed. In this regard, the choice of these Nexus version's "actors" has been quite interesting, all of them gave a deep contribution to the realization of this new musical painting, everchanging, multi-faced, in which all of them found their own personal balance between individual identity and the necessity to underpone this aspect to the greater picture and to collective project.


Some of them were more "trained" in working with us, the likes of Emanuele Parrini, Francesco Chiapperini and Silvia Bolognesi, while others were totally newcomers, Gabriele Mitelli, who's played with us here for the first time, and Pasquale Mirra...Read More



Playlist for Tom Ossana – The Thin Edge – September 13, 2017 MST 7:00 to 9:00p.m.


http://www.kzmu.org/listen.m3u ~ Use this link to access the show online.




OUT NOW: A Tribute To Les Paul: Live From Universal Studios Hollywood



OUT NOW:
On DVD
A Tribute To Les Paul:
Live From Universal Studios Hollywood

A live concert tribute to the "godfather of the electric guitar" Les Paul, 
featuring the world's best guitarists.

Attention Media


With a legendary career as a hit-making musician, solid-body electric guitar trailblazer, and an inventor of unprecedented recording techniques, he has impacted and influenced the many facets of the music industry like none other. Filmed live at what was then the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on February 8, 2006, A Tribute To Les Paul: Live From Universal Studios Hollywood gives viewers a front row seat for an unforgettable night of powerhouse performances, as some of music's biggest names come together to honor the ultimate icon. The night is headlined by show-stopping numbers from an all-star slate of Paul disciples, that includes Slash and Edgar Winterteaming up on the Stevie Wonder staple "Superstition;" Toto axeman Steve Lukather's rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing;" and Joe Perry and Buddy Guy closing the night with a soulful blues set. Other highlights include spirited performances by Joe Satriani, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Neal Schon, and more.

As part of the night's festivities, A Tribute To Les Paul: Live From Universal Studios Hollywood also features rare commentary taken from several of Paul's final interviews recorded at New York's landmark Iridium Jazz Club, as well as at Paul's home in Mahwah, New Jersey. The special event was held to raise funds and awareness for the South Central charity A Place Called Home, designed to give at-risk youth a safe and secure environment they can thrive in.

The program is produced by Icon Television Music, Inc., HD Net (now AXSTV), and In Touch Entertainment and distributed by MVD Entertainment Group. The award-winning production team includes Charles Carlini ("Les Paul's 90th Birthday Concert at Carnegie Hall"), Bob Cutarella ("Les Paul & Friends"), Howard Lipp ("Les Paul 90th Birthday Concert at Gibson Amphitheater"), and Glenn Aveni ("Les Paul Chasing Sound").

Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation stated, "It is without a doubt that Les Paul is the 'Father of Modern Music' and that musicians from every corner of the globe and in every genre of the music industry stand upon his shoulders. He was an inventor, an award-winning musician, an innovator and most importantly a very special man I also had the privilege of calling my friend. The artists and producers who have made this tribute program possible give us every reason to remember that Les Paul was a man who influenced our music industry profoundly. I am thrilled that viewers everywhere will have the chance to witness his greatest through the performances and storytelling of this wonderful program."


To pre-order the DVD go HERE.

NEW VELLE RECORDS: Presenting our fourth record of Season Two from Chris Tordini

We are very proud to be shipping our fourth record of our Second Season.
 Chris Tordini's Midnight Sun is  a stunning record of standards featuring the crystalline vocal talents of Becca Stevens and the masterful guitar work of Greg Ruggerio.


Midnight Sun

"Chris starts and ends this record with songs from the great Ornette Coleman.  “What Reason Can I Give” which has some fragmented, beautiful lyrics from Ornette himself, and Chris’s solo interpretation of “Peace.”  “Peace” is from Ornette’s iconic album The Shape of Jazz to Come, and its boldness is derived from its clarity and simplicity.  It’s the kind of melody that feels discovered more than composed.   As Chris plays it, it’s a simple story, clearly told.  A truth spoken. "--excerpted from the liner notes by Elan Mehler


Next month we're releasing a solo record from the incredible Cuban pianist Arúan Ortiz.  This is a record of Cuban "classical" music given Arúan's unique touch.  We can't wait for people to hear this one..

Our last record in our Second Season set is from legendary bassist Rufus Reid.  This is an original set of music from Rufus featuring his trio along side of the acclaimed "Sirius Quartet."  Rufus's writing for strings is startling in its originality and beauty.


Season Two:

John Patitucci Trio Featuring Yotam Silberstein and Rogerio Boccato  

Kevin Hays and Lionel Loueke Duo 

Jon Cowherd Quartet featuring Steve Cardenas, Tony Scherr and Brian Blade 

Chris Tordini Trio featuring Becca Stevens and Greg Ruggerio 

Aruán Ortiz revisiting the music of the great Cuban classical composers

Rufus Reid Trio with Steve Allee and Duduka Da Fonseca and featuring the Sirius Quartet 

All of our cover and interior photographs for Season Two come from the astonishing French Collective Tendance Floue.  Our Recording Engineer on all six records is the incomparable multi-Grammy winning Marc Urselli.  Mastering engineer is the brilliant Alex Deturk .  Jim Hoppin and Sarah Enid Hagey shot lovely video for us at these sessions.  All video editing is by the award-winning Ben Chace.  Jordan Kleinman shoots all our studio photos.  Our web team is run by French genius Aymeric Auberger.  Social Media management by Jessye Mehler.  Newvelle is run by:  Elan Mehler and Jean-Christophe Morisseau