Jazz journalist James Hale writes about the Mary Halvorson Trio’s forthcoming debut, Dragon’s Head (Firehouse 12 Records), on his blog, Jazz Chronicles. The disc officially hits the streets October 28th.
On Friday, September 26th, New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will present a two set performance by the longstanding jazz collective, Conference Call. The group’s all-star line-up of creative music scene veterans includes German multi-reedist Gebhard Ullmann, pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller. Conference Call is on the road this fall celebrating both its 10th anniversary and the release of its latest CD, Poetry in Motion (Clean Feed).
“Conference Call as a whole swings with a gleeful impetuosity that’s hard if not impossible to dislike,” writes JazzTimes reviewer, Chris Kelsey. “Kinda sounds like what the late ’60s Miles Davis band might have become had they stayed the course.” Other critics have noted, “Conference Call is making some amazing music under everybody’s radar” (Jerome Wilson, Cadence), “Conference Call is a quartet comprised of adventurous and versatile musicians, each of whom are also talented composers” (Scott Yanow, All Music Guide) and “the group adroitly balances elements of traditional and avant jazz, swinging and skronking with equal fluency” (Christian Carey, Signal to Noise).
A working band since 1998, Conference Call brings together the versatile Ullmann with the nearly 25-year musical partnership of Fonda and Stevens, the core of another long-standing all-star ensemble, the Fonda/Stevens Group. Six years ago, Schuller assumed the drum chair once occupied by Han Bennink, Gerry Hemingway and Matt Wilson to create Conference Call’s most stable and longstanding line-up to date. Over the past decade, the group has demonstrated its distinctively democratic musical synergy, marked by compositions and solos from all four members, both on recordings and in concert all around the world. Poetry in Motion is the band’s second studio recording and its fifth release overall.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
On Saturday, August 23rd, veteran bassist/composer Mario Pavone’s newest ensemble, his Double Tenor Quintet, will make its New York debut at Cornelia Street Café.
Joining Pavone in this working incarnation of the group will be saxophonists Tony Malaby and Jimmy Greene, guitarist Michael Musillami and drummer Tyshawn Sorey.
The band will be previewing music from its forthcoming debut, Ancestors (Playscape Recordings), which will be released November 4th.
New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will kickoff its fourth annual Fall Jazz Series on Friday, September 19th with a two set performance by the Steve Lantner Trio. Led by Boston-based pianist/composer Steve Lantner, the longstanding group features New Haven native Joe Morris on bass and fellow Bostonian Luther Gray (Rob Brown, Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris) on drums. Its third CD, What You Can Throw (hatOLOGY 641), which includes reworkings of music by Anthony Braxton and Ornette Coleman as well as original material, was released earlier this year.
“Seamlessly integrating divergent threads of musical history into a singular style, Boston-based pianist Steve Lantner has established himself as an artist to watch,” wrote AllAboutJazz.com’s Troy Collins. “Transcending typical notions of soloist and accompanist, the trio engages in three-way conversations that veer from dark, uncertain lyricism to bursts of hyperactive turbulence. A fluidly organic interpretation of a classic tradition, What You Can Throw offers an expansive view of the current possibilities of the contemporary jazz piano trio.”
Critics have called Lantner “a tremendous piano player” (Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes), “one of the premier improvisers within the progressive-jazz realm” (Glenn Astarita, JazzReview.com) and “a genuinely original voice” (Duncan Heining, Jazzwise). Bagatellen’s Derek Taylor adds, “Lantner doesn’t so much break the mold as recognize its malleable possibilities and shape it with his own catalytic perspective.” In addition to his trio, which also recorded as a quartet with saxophonist Allen Chase, he has worked with such renowned improvisers as Fred Anderson, Joe Giardullo, Joe Maneri, Mat Maneri and Ken Vandermark.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
On November 4th, Playscape Recordings will release acclaimed bassist/composer Mario Pavone’s latest CD, Ancestors (PSR#011508), the recorded debut of newest working ensemble, the Mario Pavone Double Tenor Quintet. This recording features eight original Pavone compositions written specifically for this group and its all-star line-up of Tony Malaby (tenor and soprano saxophones), Jimmy Greene (tenor and soprano saxophones), Peter Madsen (piano) and Gerald Cleaver (drums). The band will preview this music, which Pavone has dedicated to Dewey Redman and Andrew Hill, during its New York debut on August 23rd at Cornelia Street Cafe and then tour Europe in support of the record the last two weeks of November.
“I had been playing with Tony and Jimmy for more than eight years, but always separately, so I was keen to combine their complementary yet contrasting styles into one group,” Pavone explains. “Gerald and I have played and recorded a lot together and the great Peter Madsen, who has appeared on my last nine CDs, is almost indispensable to me. Wrapping my rhythm section around a double tenor color like this, especially one with this much grace and power, was a dream come true. I then invited three longtime collaborators, Steven Bernstein, Dave Ballou and Michael Musillami, to guest arrange two tracks each. The resulting sound seems larger than just five players and is almost orchestral. It may well be my favorite album so far.”
Critics note that Pavone “continues to move the tradition forward with every record” (John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com), calling his work “intense and absorbing” (Kenny Mathieson, Jazzwise), “exciting and stimulating” (Jay Collins, Cadence), “never less than compelling” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times) and “both joyous and serious, abrasive and complex, yet entirely inviting” (David R. Adler, All Music Guide). The Hartford Courant’s Owen McNally adds, “Sensitive and probing, Pavone’s bass playing is graced with collective empathy and individual melodic inventions that create arias amid even the most airborne flights.”
His most recent release, Trio Arc (Playscape Recordings) featuring Paul Bley and Matt Wilson, has been called “timeless and innovative” (Robert Iannapollo, AllAboutJazz-New York), “a beautiful amalgam of sounds” (Steve Greenlee, JazzTimes) and “a modern classic” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com). Jazz.com’s Ted Gioia writes, “The conversational give-and-take between the three players is fresh and exciting. This is ‘free’ jazz in the best sense of the word, free of agenda or ideology, and totally committed to collective creativity without preconceptions or limits.”
Originally an engineer by trade, Pavone dropped everything to attend John Coltrane’s funeral in 1967, where he decided on the spot to dedicate the rest of his life to music. He has since spent the last four decades defining the cutting edge of jazz, both as a sideman to legendary innovators and the leader of groups featuring some of today’s most respected young improvisers. His recordings have appeared on best-of-the-year lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, AllAboutJazz-New York, Coda, and the Village Voice among others. In addition to his ongoing activities as a bandleader, Pavone’s artwork and photography have graced the covers of dozens of recordings since the mid 90’s, and he currently serves as an educator, administrator and board member for the Litchfield Jazz Festival and Litchfield Summer Jazz Music Institute in Litchfield, Connecticut.
New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will kick-off its fourth annual Fall Jazz Series on Friday, September 19th with a performance by the Steve Lantner Trio. The weekly series will continue Friday nights through December 12th, with a one-week break on November 28th for Thanksgiving.
All performances will include sets at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m. Tickets will be $15 for the opening set and $10 for the second set. Tickets can be purchased online at http://firehouse12.com/, by phone at (203) 785-0468, or at the box office beginning at 7 p.m. the night of the show (subject to availability). A season pass for both sets of every show will be available for $150 through October 17th.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Joe McPhee and Trio X with Mikolaj Trzaska
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Firehouse 12 is an award-winning bar, state-of-the-art recording studio and unusually intimate music venue located at 45 Crown Street in New Haven’s historic Ninth Square District. For its semi-annual jazz concert series, the striking, acoustically engineered studio space transforms into an incomparable 80-seat venue critics have hailed as “New England’s premier improvised music venue” (Bill Carbone, New Haven Advocate) and “New Haven’s acclaimed avant-garde bastion of the bold and experimental” (Owen McNally, Hartford Courant).
Its label arm, Firehouse 12 Records, is known as “one of the most interesting and innovative labels this side of the Atlantic” (Marc Medwin, Cadence). Since its inception in early 2007, the label has released a succession of acclaimed recordings, including a 10-disc box set from legendary saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, new music from celebrated young talents, trumpeter/composer Taylor Ho Bynum and flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell, and the recorded debuts of highly regarded newcomers, trumpeter/composer Peter Evans and drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey. This fall, it will release Dragon’s Head, the long-awaited debut of guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson’s working trio featuring bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith, as well as download-only recordings of performances from past series at Firehouse 12.
A new interview with guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson is now posted at Glowing Realm, the Web site/blog of the avant-garde jazz group, Glows in the Dark.
Halvorson’s Dragon’s Head, the recorded debut of her trio with John Hebert and Ches Smith, will be released on Firehouse 12 Records on October 28th.
The Chicago Reader’s Peter Margasak discusses the evolution of Taylor Ho Bynum’s work as a bandleader, including recent and upcoming concerts, on his blog, Post No Bills.
William Parker’s Double Sunrise Over Neptune (Arts for Art/AUM Fidelity AUM047), a live recording of his two-part, long-form composition of the same name, officially hits the streets today.
This is the third in a three-part series documenting the world premiere performances of specially commissioned works at the 12th annual Vision Festival in June 2007. This series, which also includes The Roy Campbell Ensemble’s Akhenaten Suite (AUM045) and Bill Dixon’s 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (AUM046), is supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Critics have called Double Sunrise Over Neptune “as compelling as anything released so far this year” (Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com), “as stunning as any Parker has devised in his career” (Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide) and “one of the year’s few truly profound recordings” (Bill Shoemaker, PointofDeparture.org).
Composed and conducted by Parker, Double Sunrise Over Neptune is an extended work for 16 musicians that combines Indian-themed mantras, worldly rhythms, collective improvisation and multicultural instrumentation into a cohesive whole. The piece was performed by a diverse cast of musicians, including renowned Indian vocalist Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, who traveled from India for the world premiere on the opening night of Vision Festival XII on June 19th, 2007.
In addition to Parker, who played double reeds and doson’ngoni, and Bandyopadhyay, the orchestra featured Lewis Barnes (trumpet), Rob Brown (alto saxophone), Gerald Cleaver (drums), Bill Cole (double reeds), Hamid Drake (drums), Shayna Dulberger (bass), Brahim Frigbane (oud), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Sabir Mateen (tenor saxophone and clarinet), Joe Morris (guitar and banjo), Jessica Pavone (viola), Dave Sewelson (baritone saxophone), Mazz Swift (violin) and Shiau-Shu Yu (cello).
It’s time once again to have your say in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
Listeners with a little imagination are especially encouraged to vote.
The deadline is August 24th.
Obama for America and the New England Steering Committee invite you to attend a jazz concert with Eric Hofbauer & The Infrared Band.
Wednesday, August 13th at 6:00 p.m.
Precinct Bar
70 Union Square in Somerville, MA
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance or at the door
Please call 617-548-8493 or send an email to beantownforobama@gmail.com to purchase tickets in advance
Please make checks out to “Obama Victory Fund”
All proceeds go to the Obama for America campaign
CD Baby founder Derek Sivers talks about the recent sale of the company to Disc Makers on his blog.
Chicago-based vibraphonist/composer Jason Adasiewicz talks to correspondent Dan Bindert about his instrument, his career and his new CD, Rolldown (482 Music), on today’s episode of Chicago Public Radio’s Eight Forty-Eight.
NEW HAVEN, CT — Firehouse 12 Records is proud to announce the October 28th release of Dragon’s Head (FH12-04-01-007), Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson’s debut recording as a bandleader. Recorded in February at the label’s state of the art studio in New Haven, it features ten new original compositions written specifically for her longstanding trio with bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith. She has previously composed music for recordings with her chamber music duo with violist Jessica Pavone and the avant-rock duo, People, with drummer Kevin Shea, but this is her first release alone at the helm of her own ensemble.
“I have always gravitated towards the guitar/bass/drum trio format,” writes Ms. Halvorson in the liner notes. “It is a perfect context to express the versatility of the guitar as a solo and rhythm section instrument, and to hear the subtleties of all three instruments as they interact. I have wanted to write for this instrumentation for years, but this project is the first time I have actually attempted it. This trio is also a great excuse to work with two of my favorite musicians; I wrote all of these songs with Ches and John’s playing in mind. I also took it as an opportunity to experiment with different compositional forms, as well as varying harmonic, melodic and rhythmic components. The interplay between composition and improvisation is important; even within structured sections there is freedom for each musician to alter the feel, mood or energy of the piece.”
Regarded as one of the most versatile and innovative young musicians on the New York scene today, Ms. Halvorson was recently profiled in Guitar Player and the New York Sun and her trio’s February 2008 gig at Brooklyn’s Tea Lounge was reviewed in the New York Times by Ben Ratliff. “It took only a few seconds to see the good sense in the band,” he wrote, “no matter how abstruse the music can get, it rested on a strong, simple principle of balance and contrast.” Guitar Player’s Elliott Sharp adds, “While the group uses acoustic bass and clearly lies within the ‘jazz’ camp, it sounds like no other…dissonant arpeggios melding into pounding odd-meter repetitive grooves, spidery textures becoming cracked melodies, and jazzy vamps fragmenting into vicious free-form interactions, with Halvorson wrenching blistering lines and rude sounds from her guitar.”
“Halvorson, a stunning talent on the rise, employs a timbre, tone and phrasing on guitar all her own,” writes AllAboutJazz.com reviewer Troy Collins. “Her angular, repeated refrains explore uncharted territory with a mixture of pliant warmth and prickly assertiveness. From pointillist, acoustic mutterings to hard-scrabble, distorted scrawl, her singular approach is utterly unique.” Critics have called her “truly amazing” (Thom Jurek, All Music Guide), “consistently one of the most fascinating and satisfying guitarists in town” (Time Out New York) and “a thoughtful and increasingly prominent presence on the avant-garde landscape” (Nate Chinen, New York Times). “She plays guitar in a way that fractures conventions,” declared Steve Dollar in New York Sun, “restlessly inventing her own paradigms.”
A veteran of the ensembles of esteemed saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, as well as such working groups as Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant and the Taylor Ho Bynum Trio/Sextet, Ms. Halvorson has been active in New York since 2000, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. She has also performed alongside Nels Cline, Tony Malaby, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Oscar Noriega, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp and John Tchicai. In addition to her trio, and duos with Pavone and Shea, she performs regularly in ensembles led by Jason Cady, Brian Chase, Curtis Hasselbring, Tatsuya Nakatani, Ted Reichman and Matthew Welch. So far this year she has appeared on the Anthony Braxton 12+tet’s (Victoriaville) 2007 (Victo Records), the self-titled debut of the Stephen Haynes and Taylor Ho Bynum Double Trio (Engine Records) and Opulence (UgEXPLODE), a live recording with drummer Weasel Walter. Learn more at http://www.maryhalvorson.com
A sampling of the reviews of this intriguing new CD from AllAboutJazz-New York, All Music Guide and Jazz.com.
Guitarist/composer Eric Hofbauer talks about about the Boston music scene, the Creative Nation Music label and his latest CD, Myth Understanding, in a recent article by the Boston Herald’s Bob Young.
AllAboutJazz.com’s John Sharpe offers the fifth and sixth sections of his six-part review of Vision Festival XIII.
He also reviews the festival in this month’s issue of AllAboutJazz-New York, available now.