[JPL] Innova Jazz releases

[Heidi Campbell]

Innova's got some great new jazz releases that just hit the street. Check 'em out! 
If any of you writers are interested in receiving a review copy, let me know-

Best,
Heidi



Michael Farley Grain
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=372

Michael Farley is the real deal. His life and his art are one. From playing sax on the road for years with R&B bands, working with experimental pioneer Kenneth Gaburo, to becoming a professor at the edge of New York state, his genuine, singular, gentle, curious soulfulness follows wherever he goes. It is the music of late-night post-gig drives when your mind is dreamily trying to make sense of your life. 

His relatively few compositions are rare treasures of where his mind and body have traveled, connecting reflections of place that are as musically unconventional as the spirit they convey. Tape, analog electronics, sax, and voice are the methods; love and tenderness abound even in the harshest noise. 

Michael Farley’s saxophone, his voice, his film work push and probe into the GRAIN of every image, every sound. Add Barbara Phillips-Farley’s warm pianistic embrace of each note, Guy Berard’s surreal cover images and Robert Motherwell’s brush grazing ink across rice paper. It’s a rich package for the eye, ear and heart. 

But the best moments occur in “No Eyes”, based upon David Meltzer’s book-length ode to Lester Young. Farley’s tenor and voice leads us toward 

“
stuff inside
folds into layers of more stuff 

veils float throughout
broken heart thoroughfare
ensembled & assembled into one
solo after another after all hours collapse
into one moment going after another” 



David Crowell Ensemble Spectrum
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=369

On Spectrum, New York City-based saxophonist and composer David Crowell fuses strictly notated composition with jazz and ambient improvisation. A love for the music of composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Zorn merges with his roots in jazz and improvised music to create a focused and original sound. Satisfying for its diversity but coherent in its message, Spectrum travels a vivid emotional landscape. 

In “Point Reyes,” six alto saxophone parts bounce off each other with relentless abandon, creating a unique kind of counterpoint, both dense and beautiful. In “Nectar of Life”, the ensemble delivers a hard-hitting and virtuosic display of raw power. “Long Goodbye” and “Looking Deeply” are entirely improvised; sophisticated guitar loops and sensitive drumming create a space for reflection and meditation. In “Happy Nightmare,” a minimalist bass line anchors an ominous guitar and aggressive saxophone, while “Great Wide Open” explores the subtle evolution of a chord progression into free-form improvisation. 

Each member of the David Crowell Ensemble contributes a distinctive artistic vision to the music on Spectrum. Crowell’s saxophone is in turn forceful, insistent, and lyrical and Mcmurray’s haunting guitar loops help define the sections of ambient improvisation. Jason Nazary is a versatile and dynamic presence on the drums while Chiavaro’s beautiful electric bass sound is steady throughout. Guest artist Red Wierenga adds a vintage Fender Rhodes to the textures of “Great Wide Open.” 

David Crowell is a featured composer at the 2009 MATA Festival, a New York City forum for presenting the new music of emerging composers from around the world. In 2007, he was a composer-in-residence at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. David’s percussion and ensemble works have been performed at numerous venues in the U.S. and Mexico. 

A member (woodwinds) since 2007, David performs internationally with the Philip Glass Ensemble. 


Gene Segal Hypnotic
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=377

Hypnotic, the debut album of Russian born, Brooklyn based guitarist, Gene Segal, reinvents the electric organ trio for the new era. “I concentrated on two ideals when making this record. The first was writing compositions showcasing the many different musical influences in my life, while maintaining a clear flow and “group sound” where style changes don’t sound drastic or forced. I think of Hypnotic, in part, as a tribute record to some of the musicians whose work has become an integral part of my life. The second was finding musicians versatile and strong enough to pull off this concept and still add their personality to the mix. I’m very happy with the outcome of this project, from the get-go the guys embraced and supported my vision and really worked hard on learning and internalizing the music. This band sounds tight and very responsive to one another instead of a typical pickup group situation which happens all too often in jazz,” explained Gene Segal. 

True to Gene’s description, the music successfully flows through styles from odd time signature grooves to head-bopping funk and Afro-beat rhythms to melodic ballads and swinging blues. This musical journey showcases some of New York’s brightest talent: Sam Barsh, Matt Kane, Mike Sim, Jonathan Powell, and Bryan Beninghove. At first a trio, the band mutates into a sextet featuring three horns with sharp arrangements by Gene Segal and breath-taking solos by these world-class players taking the music to a very different space with a deeply passionate, high energy, performance by all. Hypnotic’s appeal reaches beyond your average jazz listener to anyone who appreciates music played with heart, soul and groove. 



Fernando Benadon Intuitivo
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=371

Seven superb improvisers from different geographic and aesthetic regions come together – virtually – in this fiery kaleidoscope of free improvisations. The band is in sync but the parts were improvised and recorded separately. Fernando Benadon carefully assembled the tracks by trimming and juxtaposing the players’ improvisations, highlighting their individual subtleties of rhythm and color. The result is a sophisticated and forward-looking take on the classic symbiosis between composition and improvisation. 

The genre is as multidimensional as the musicians’ pedigrees: violinists Courtney Orlando (Alarm Will Sound) and Evan Price (Turtle Island String Quartet), violist Kurt Rohde (Left Coast Chamber Ensemble), bassist Michael Formanek (Mingus Big Band), clarinetist Marco Mazzini (Thelema Trio), percussionist Christopher Froh (San Francisco Contemporary Music Players), and drummer Nasar Abadey (Supernova). 
Praised as “engagingly forward” by The New York Times, Fernando Benadon studied jazz arranging at Berklee and composition at UC Berkeley. Intuitivo is his debut album. 
Players:
Courtney Orlando, violin
Evan Price, violin
Kurt Rohde, viola
Marco Mazzini, clarinets
Michael Formanek, bass
Christopher Froh, percussion
Nasar Abadey, drums



Bill Banfield Band Spring Forward
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=374

Midwest Record Review
A Detroit jazzbo, this guitar slinger has as much civil rights jazz on his DNA as he does Earl Klugh. With a bit of an AACM vibe in the laminar flow underpinning this set, Banfield and his crew want to include rather than exclude but they want to do some teaching and horizon expanding as well. A low key kind of exciting release that those looking to lean to the left of smooth jazz without getting hit over the head will enjoy.
-by Chris Spector


And of course recent releases;


Rudresh Mahanthappa Apti
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=345

Apti, the groundbreaking debut album of Indian-American alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition, clearly blazes new trails into the future of jazz in the 21st Century. Synthesizing jazz with the astutely improvised musical forms of South Asia, this trio with guitar virtuoso Rez Abbasi and tabla star Dan Weiss is turning heads internationally in both the jazz and world music scenes. While most attempts to engage jazz and South Asian music often feel incoherent, with musicians from neither side able to comfortably bridge the musical divide, the music on Apti clearly transcends any previous notion of 'Indo-Jazz fusion'. In melding Indian concepts of melody and rhythm with his inventive style as a jazz composer and improviser, Mahanthappa has masterfully provided a compositional context that has brought out spectacular interplay within the ensemble. Apti is a major achievement in cross-cultural musical creativity and a landmark contribution to modern music that bears no precedent. 

Rudresh Mahanthappa - Alto saxophone
Rez Abbasi - Guitar / Sitar-guitar
Dan Weiss - Tabla 


Adam Niewood & His Rabble Rousers Epic Journey, Volumes I & II
http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=339

"A trend I notice all too often, is that a group will be learning the music either a couple days before the recording session, or reading it for the first time in the studio. I am proud to say this is not the case with my next recording." says Saxophone player and composer Adam Niewood. 

Four years after his debut recording, Manhattan based saxophone player and composer Adam Niewood finds a new home for his music on the Innova Recordings label: releasing a double CD of mostly original and some free compositions, featuring a crew of New York City's finest up and coming creative musicians: Kristjan Randalu, Jesse Lewis, Chris Higgins, Matt Brewer, Rohin Khemani, Greg Ritchie. 

Drummer and record producer Bill Goodwin (who produced Adam's first recording as a leader in 2004) noticed a large volume of original compositions growing in Niewood's book. Many of the songs having specific moods, grooves, and structures all their own. 

"We had been playing a lot of this music for the past two to three years. Due to scheduling, different musicians had rotated through the band. When it came time to record, there was more than one person for each role in the rhythm section who had put in serious time learning the music, and performing it. I wanted to include all the musicians who were active in the growth of the sound of the band and my compositions. Serendipitously, for three consecutive days all of my favorite musicians and best friends were all available!!! When we recorded, everyone was extremely familiar with the repertoire, no one was reading. There was a lot of listening and communication. It was a great experience, my creative vision made a reality, and I am really proud of the final outcome." 





Heidi Campbell
Marketing Director
Innova Records
www.innova.mu
Heidic at composersforum.org
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