Photo: Daisuke, Yoshi and myself on the Yacht 'Atlantica'
Iris Ornig is a gifted instrumentalist, a talented composer and a charismatic performer. Her compositions are swinging, stormy, melodic, sensitive, playful, angular and straight-ahead with plenty of twists and surprises. Iris is originally from Germany.
She studied jazz and popular music in St. Gallen Switzerland and went from there to the well known Guildhall School in Music and Drama in London to establish her musical skills. In 2003 she moved to New York City where she is working as an arranger, composer and bandleader. She has performed at jazz clubs and festivals all over the United States, Europe and East Africa.
She can be heard regularly at NYC’s top jazz clubs such as 55 Bar, Garage and in February at the Kitano. Since arriving in New York, Iris has had the pleasure to work with such jazz notables as Gretchen Parlato, Danny Grissett, Gene Jackson, Tony Jefferson, Rebecca Martin, Sachal Vasandani, Joel Frahm, Cecilia Coleman, Allison Miller, Roberta Picket, Stacey Dillard, Klaus Mueller. Iris is also an active teacher and clinician. She currently teaches private lessons and ensembles.
Iris Ornig Quartet,
Live at Zinc Bar on 3/10/2010,
Mike Rodriguez on trumpet,
Danny Grissett on Fender Rhodes,
Iris Ornig on bass/ composition,
Chris Benham on drums
Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Joonsam Lee started playing the electric bass guitar at age 19 after listening to the great Jaco Pastorious. Two years later he switched to acoustic bass under the influence of Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Christian Mcbride and Avishai Cohen. He privately studied classical bass with Yeong-Seok Seong of the Seoul national symphony orchestra while simultaneously playing with the Yeon Namgung jazz band in T.V shows, radio station and concert halls.
In 2007 he moved to New York City to study in New York University. While at school he had privilege of studying and performing with Joe Lovano, Brian Lynch, Ralph Alessi, Kenny Werner, John Scofield, Wayne Krantz, Don Friedman, Lenny Pickett, Andy Gravish, and Jean-Michel Pilc. Upon graduating from NYU with Masters Degree, he immediately became busy performing and recording within the city's fertile jazz and contemporary music scene.
Joonsam currently lives in New York. In his so far short time living in town, he has played with some of the finest musicians in NYC. Appearances includes some of the major venues in New York and festivals around the world such as Blue Note Jazz Club (New York), Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York), Smalls (New York), Fat Cat (New York), Jazz Gallery (New York), Grand Tour Jazz Festival (Terni, Italy), Jazz Di Marca Festival(Terni, Italy) and the Jarasum International Jazz Festival (Korea).
Joonsam has led his own group "Joonsam Lee Quintet" and has also appeared as a sideman. He is currently performing with a wide array of material and musicians. He has toured and played jazz music, broadway musical, as well as appearing with a Symphony Orchestra (NYKSO).
Joonsam Lee Quartet @ Cleopatra's Needle // Feb. 26th 2010
All tunes written and arranged by Joonsam Lee
Bass - Joonsam Lee
Piano - Jeremy Manasia
Trumpet - Greg Glassman
Drums - Lawrence Lo Leathers
"In August 1955, we began rehearsing the Five Trombones charts during the day. Those songs were very difficult for us. We were not used to doing the charts as they were written, and we weren't free to change these. Some of his chords were written so our notes fit in among the notes played by the trombones. The chords in many cases were not the ones we would have chosen.
Don [Barbour] let it bug him so much that he got uptight one afternoon, tossed a glass against the wall and stomped out. We weren't sure we'd be able to talk Don into going ahead with the album...
"We came back to Los Angeles, and on August 17 went in to record. We stood in a three-sided isolation booth so our microphone would not pick up the trombones across the room. The first night we started recording Love Is Just Around the Corner. Arranger Pete Rugolo [pictured] decided to warm up the musicians first.
"He purposefully counted it off way too fast. These trombone players had all played Rugolo charts before, and they knew each other well. George Roberts [pictured], Harry Betts, Tommy Pederson, Frank Rosolino and Milt Bernhart started to play that trombone chorus, but at Pete's fast tempo it just became a shambles. They didn't even make two bars. Pete counted it off extra fast again, with the same disastrous result.
"Finally, he said, 'Okay, let's try it real slow.' Then he counted it off with the tempo where it belonged, and they got it. Pete told them he'd actually wanted the slower tempo all along. Everybody had a good laugh, and the ice was broken. The rest of the band included Claude Williamson on piano, Barney Kessel, guitar, Shelly Manne, drums, and Joe Mondragon, bass...
"We probably sang better on the Five Trombones album than on any other because we had rehearsed and rehearsed. We knew every note. Four Freshmen and Five Trombones became the most successful album we ever made, but it also was the most difficult to complete."
—Ross Barbour, founding member of the Four Freshmen, in his memoir Now You Know: The Story of the Four Freshmen.
“Day and the Nu Shooz Orchestra strike a tasty balance between jazz informed, jet-set vintage pop and in-the-pocket shuffle-funk and the results are warm, and deliciously infectious. Day’s blithe voice — a honeyed blend of June Christy-Helen Merril cool elegance, shards of both Nancy Wilsons, and a certain Carole King-Joni Mitchell clarity — flirts easily with strings/horn arrangements that manage to evoke both the ultra suede ‘60s era Marty Paich, and the bump and pulse of modern T.O.P. orchestrated soul.” - Tim DuRoche, Jazz Journalist
“It’s always difficult to remake a classic. What NU SHOOZ has done is something that no one else has been able to accomplish: they’ve . . . done something completely different, which is exciting.” - Dennis Constantine, Program Director, KINK fm102
“Whether it’s Steely Dan-ish orientalism (“Welcome to My Daydream”) or bossa nova suavities (“Right Before My Eyes”), a version of the jazz standard “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” that challenges Betty Carter’s interpretive ownership, or a subtly transformative take on their own signature hit “I Can’t Wait,” these Shooz aren’t just new, they’re timeless.” - Marty Hughley, The Oregonian
“The compositions run the gamut of styles, displaying the knowledge and flexibility of the composer, musicians and vocalist, Valerie Day. Throughout, Valerie’s voice consistently brings the tunes to life and sets their individual moods . . .” - Mary Burlingame, Producer/host-Home Grown Live KMHD, Public Radio
About NU SHOOZ Orchestra
The SHOOZ are back!!!
More than two decades after their 1986 Top Ten Hit single, “I Can’t Wait,” took the world by storm, NU SHOOZ returns with a new album, “Pandora’s Box”, and a 10 piece orchestra Gil Evans would have loved. Formed in Portland, Oregon in the summer of 1979, their line-up has changed over time, but in all its various forms, they’ve always pushed the boundaries between pop, funk, and jazz. Now, with the release of Pandora’s Box, Portland’s favorite soul explorers take one giant leap for mankind with a brave new sound, combining their signature brand of funk with elements borrowed from Film Noir, ‘60s Spy Movies and even Tarzan.
Yes, Tarzan.
Lyrical and dreamlike, playful and sublime, PANDORA’S BOX is the latest stop in the continuing journeys of band leaders Valerie Day and John Smith. The NU SHOOZ Orchestra is our experimental music laboratory,” Day says, “and John the mad scientist of beats and chords.” This latest addition to the NU SHOOZ sonic landscape features nine new songs, along with remakes of three SHOOZ classics from the band’s 1986 Gold Record “Poolside:” an all-grown-up funky version of the Billboard Top 40 hit “Point of No Return,” a laid back “Driftin’” and a jazzy 20th-anniversary version of the band’s #3 Billboard hit “ I Can’t Wait.”
Since the ‘80s Day and Smith have both had unique and varied experiences. Day has been performing and recording jazz (www.valeriedaysings.com), and created “Brain Chemistry For Lovers”, a combination concert, cabaret and science lecture that explores the neuroscience of Romantic Love (www.brainchemistryforlovers.com). Smith has been a composer and arranger - scoring indie films and hundreds of commercials (http://www.malcocreative.com/).
NU SHOOZ was nominated for a “Best New Artist” Grammy award in 1987 and earned a Gold Record for the album “Poolside.” Their breakthrough hit, “I Can’t Wait” continues to be played on radio stations around the globe every 11 minutes. The band has been featured on MTV, VH1, and classic music programs like American Bandstand, Solid Gold, and the UK’s Top of the Pops. They’ve toured with some of the biggest names in show business, including Tina Turner, Billy Ocean, and the Pointer Sisters.
And the journey continues…
Mostly jazz standards from the Great American Songbook, but she also ventures into Latin, Brazilian, and European music, folk, rock, country, anywhere she can find a song that has a memorable melody and a lyric that tells some nugget of truth about life.
At her performances, she likes to organize at least one set around a theme - could be a composer or lyricist, an idea, shared subject matter. Lately, she's done sets featuring tunes by Johnny Mercer, words and music; Harold Arlen, well, that came right out of Johnny Mercer; and Alec Wilder, whom she wishes were better known and sung more.
Her new CD, Down With Love, features ten tunes that are not about romantic love. The second set at her September 16 gig at The Pizza Place in Yonkers is called "Strictly For The Birds". Drop by and hear what that's all about. Or if you have a guess about what tunes you'll be hearing, drop me a line at mj@mjterrito.com
When she's not singing, MJ enjoys writing lyrics to jazz tunes as well as her own songs. She is also a writer, music educator, and early childhood arts advocate.
A nice Italian-American girl from New Jersey, MJ adored coming to Manhattan with her mother and aunts for shows and shopping and used to cry quietly on the way home when she had to leave the bright lights of the big city. After college she moved to Manhattan and has lived in the New York metro area since then. Between college and now she has been an actress, cabaret singer, book editor, writer of fiction and non-fiction, Music Together teacher and licensee, and Outreach Coordinator for Music Together, LLC.
She lives in Yonkers, NY with her husband Richard, her daughter Emma and her Cairn terrier, Wee Willie.
Teaching / Writing
JAZZ JOURNEY (Created by and presented with Grammy-nominated vocalist, Janet Lawson)
An interactive experience for children ages 3 through high school. Age-appropriate adaptations of the journey allow children to participate in activities that teach them about the African roots of jazz and the evolution of America's classical music. Students, and teachers, sing, dance, drum, improvise and have a great time. For more information about Jazz Journey, paste this link into your browser http://janetlawson.hypermart.net/, scroll down to the bottom of the right hand sidebar.
PRIVATE INSTRUCTION For classical, folk and rock singers: Learn jazz repertoire, rhythms, and improvisation techniques. For instrumentalists: Learn how to accompany singers - why the words matter, how the voice is different from other instruments.
LYRICS Got a favorite jazz head you’d love to sing but there aren’t any words? Set your mood and I’ll write the words. Or let me add custom lyrics to the tune of your choice for a special birthday, anniversary or any special occasion.
SONGS Swinging, nostalgic, bluesy, romantic, name your mood or style. EARLY CHILDHOOD MUSIC INSTRUCTION As a registered Music Together teacher, I can bring this internationally-acclaimed music program to your preschool. EARLY CHILDHOOD
PUBLIC SPEAKING/EARLY CHILDHOOD MUSIC ADVOCATE I am an experienced speaker about the joys and benefits of music in early childhood, particularly for children in need and children with special needs. I am available to address preschool educators, education students, policy makers, and the general public.
THE WRITE STUFF I've published more than 20 books, fiction and non-fiction. I can ghost your book, write website and/or promotional copy. I am also available for reviews, articles, grant applications.
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
The Pizza Place,7 pm - 9 pm
92 Main Street
Yonkers New York 10701
USA 914-709-1050
Price: No Cover Charge
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Bronxville Women's Club, 8 pm
135 Midland Avenue
Bronxville New York 10708
USA (914) 337-3252
Alexa Weber Morales was born to a musical family in Berkeley, California. Her father was a stay-at-home novelist and freelance writer who loved piano rags; her mother, a university administrator and aspiring vocalist. They placed an emphasis on language from early on. “Partially due to our heritage, and to their taste for well-aged wine ,” Weber Morales laughs, “my parents started the Ecole Bilingue in Berkeley, where my two brothers and I learned French. We also lived in France briefly after my parents got divorced.”
Growing up, she alternated weeks staying on her father's sailboat in the Berkeley Marina, her ex-stepmother's artist commune, and her mother's place. She began classical piano lessons at five and sang her first solo at eight at Malcolm X Elementary, during a performance with Bobby McFerrin . “ Dick Whittington [legendary jazz pianist and music educator] was my teacher. He liked my husky alto, but when I studied classical voice later on, they called me a high soprano.
“I've been singing as long as I can remember. I can sing an aria and sight-read, but my voice is contemporary. As with everything in my life, there's a broad range: I'm drawn to the street and the intellectual, the refined and the folk.”
During her final fling with academia, Weber Morales studied languages at Bryn Mawr College. Desperate for music, however, she performed in cabaret and theater, and listened to k.d. lang . She left college in her sophomore year and took several months to drive cross-country, playing Take 6 , the Gypsy Kings , and the soundtrack to the movie Bagdad Café all the way. One evening, sitting alone on top of a green hill in South Texas, she wrote her first song.
Back in the Bay Area, Weber Morales worked as an apprentice carpenter for a salty storyteller, an auto mechanic for a saucy old Hungarian, a roofer for a randy New Englander, a translator for a crazy government agent, and a freelance writer for a frazzled magazine editor. She also delivered singing telegrams, sang on boats and in malls, performed at Renaissance Faires and cafés, soloed with chamber choirs and at Grace Cathedral, and fronted big bands. While she continued her independent music studies, she worked her way up through the Bay Area music scene:
“It's been a long road, but I'm so lucky to have played with Carlos Federico and studied with Ed Kelly , just to name two of many heroes. It seems like you're not making any headway, and then you look back and see that those first lessons with Faith Winthrop and Macatee Hollie , those kind words I received from Madeline Eastman or Mark Murphy or Nancy Wilson —there are hundreds of milestones like that on a path that has led to this pretty cool place where I am today.”
It did take years, however, to find a way to reconcile making money and making music. “I married young, and my husband told me that music is a nice hobby, but it will never be some-thing big. I told him we'd get married on two conditions: I'd have a lot of animals and eventually, I was going to make it as a singer.” Her husband was a recent immigrant who came equipped with his own Mexican cultural force-field, resulting in plenty of clashes for the newlyweds.
The insider perspective on Latin America had its positives, though, helping Alexa land a job editing a Spanish-language magazine. When the company decided to launch a Brazilian edition, she taught herself Portuguese by memorizing singer Gal Costa 's repertoire. She honed her Portuguese during several trips to Brazil, where she was often mistaken for a Carioca, or Rio native. Subsequently she traveled to Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, and Cuba.
It was in 1999, during class at Jazz Camp West taught by Wayne Wallace , that she began to understand that not only her singing voice but her songs were viable. “Wayne respected me as a musician and songwriter,” says Weber Morales. “He has wide-ranging interests and can approach a song melodically, or groove-wise, or as a lyric or a concept. I have a lot of words in my head and he has a lot of notes in his, so it works out well.”
A mother of two young boys, Alexa began preproduction on Vagabundeo while pregnant with her second child and maintained demanding recording and gigging schedules just weeks after giving birth. She once struggled with balancing art and commerce; now her priorities are motherhood and music. “I was laid off from my magazine job when I was pregnant in December 2005. Everyone wonders when to quit their day job. In my case, it quit me. Now I'm applying everything I learned from ten years in that creative business to my full-time focus as a musician.”
It appears the timing couldn't have been better. Wallace produced her first album, Jazzmérica , an eclectic brew of salsa, jazz, and Brazilian influences. Despite the fact that she had no promotion budget, Jazzmérica slowly built a buzz. Rave local and national reviews led to airplay across the nation. Its success led to profiles on such syndicated radio programs as “Listen Here” and the BBC's “Have Your Say”; guest performances with the Reno Jazz Orchestra; working with Wallace as a Monterey Jazz Festival Latin Jazz Clinician; and contributing lead vocals to The Reckless Search for Beauty (Patois Records, 2007), Wallace's latest release. Their successful collaboration continues on Vagabundeo , another exciting step in the lifelong musical journey of Alexa Weber Morales.
This new CD picks up where we left off with the critically acclaimed 2007 release, Antonio Adolfo and Carol Saboya Ao Vivo/Live.
Last year, after our performance at the Jazz Impression Concert presented by South Florida Jazz at the Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center, Carol and I came up with the idea of recording something similar to what we had presented there with a quartet before a wonderful audience. The song list was based on the 2007 CD and included some tunes that appear on this Lá e Cá/Here and There CD.
Then, during my visit to Rio in December 2009, we went into a studio and recorded the songs for the new CD with several great Brazilian musicians as if we were performing live. I feel that’s the very best way to play music, and that’s what we’ve done on Lá e Cá. On the other hand, during recent years I’ve been focusing my work on phrasing, especially Brazilian phrasing, and it has become a passion and even a teaching subject during classes with my music students.
About the songs:
- Cascavel (“rattlesnake”) is a song I composed in 1974. Since then it has been played and performed by many different musicians.
- All the Things You Are is a lovely song that I normally use as one of the first examples in my classes on how to phrase in a Brazilian way. It carries a very rich and seductive combination of harmony and melody and can become very Brazilian if we apply certain phrasing techniques. This tune has inspired other Brazilian composers to write melodies based on a very similar harmony.
- Minor Chord one of my most recent compositions—written less than a year ago and it has only minor chords. I’d never written a song with only minor chords before. But, as you can hear, “minor chord” doesn’t necessarily mean sad chord or sad music.
- A Night in Tunisia – Since I started playing jazz, when I was 17 years, this song has captivated me, perhaps because of the terrific combination of jazz and Latin that composer Dizzy Gillespie created.
- Time After Time– The Chet Baker recording of this song enthralled me and many other Brazilian musicians and composers during the 1950s/60s. It is safe to say that his vocal interpretations (including the one for “Time After Time”) have influenced an entire generation of musicians in Rio/Brazil who, at that time, invented one of the most important Brazilian musical styles: the famous Bossa Nova.
- Easy to Love – Cole Porter was also one of the most important composers of all times, admired by, among others, Antonio Carlos Jobim. I, too, am a passionate admirer of Cole Porter’s music. Our interpretation of “Easy to Love” recalls the sound of what we used to play in the nightclubs of the Beco das Garrafas (Bottles’ Alley) in Rio, where Brazilian musicians got together to play and discuss jazz during the 50s/60s period.
- Sabiá – The only track with a song exclusively by other Brazilian composers (Antonio Carlos Jobim and Chico Buarque), “Sabiá” is an example of the beauty found in Brazilian music, not necessarily just Bossa Nova. The original lyrics are so beautiful and talk about saudade, a feeling of loneliness and mixture of happiness and sadness found in many Brazilian songs.
- Lullaby of Birdland by the great pianist/composer George Shearing, a genius of jazz piano, who created the George Shearing style. We did this song together with Jobim’s little-known “Garoto,” in the choro style. Combined, the two songs are an example of what Brazilian musicians play in the Gafieiras (popular dance parties), normally with groups comprised of a rhythm section plus horns, especially the trombone.
- So in Love – Here we are with Cole Porter again, interpreted by the quartet plus Carol, phrasing very Brazilian as with the other songs. The combination of melody/harmony recalls, at some moments, the Jobim style.
- Round Midnight – Written by another genius of the piano, Mr. Thelonious Monk, this is one of the most beautiful jazz ballads I’ve ever heard or played. I became even more enamored of the song after watching the film with the same title.
- Every Time We Say Goodbye/Nuvens Douradas – A very passionate melody combined with a harmony that allowed me to create a very soft Brazilian arrangement, especially effective when combined with Jobim’s “Nuvens Douradas” (Golden Clouds).
- Toada Jazz (O Retirante)/Night and Day – “O Retirante” (title of the original vocal version with lyricist Tibério Gaspar), one of the first tunes I ever wrote, ends the album in an instrumental interpretation by the quartet. Back when I wrote this, I was listening to a lot of Bill Evans—another genius of the piano. Maybe the chords he used in his tune “My Bells” had influenced me. Here I’ve combined “O Retirante” with another great Cole Porter tune, “Night and Day.”
Antonio Adolfo
Abertura (Rhapsody in Blue - Aquarela - Garota de Ipanema)
Tukur spent his youth near Hanover where he finished his final secondary-school examinations in 1977. He also achieved a high school degree in Boston (USA) during an exchange of students where he met his first wife, Amber Wood. With her, he had two daughters, Marlene and Lilian. While they were dating, he finished his time with the army and began to study German, English and History at Tübingen university.
He worked as a musician to get some extra money. Someone who saw him asked him if he wanted to be in a play. Soon he became interested in acting and started to study acting at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart in 1980.[citation needed]
After finishing his studies there in 1983 he played at a theatre in Heidelberg. While he was still a student he got a chance to star in his first movie. In Die Weiße Rose, directed by Michael Verhoeven, he plays the character of Willi Graf.
In 1984 he had his breakthrough at the theatre when famous director Peter Zadek gave him a role at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin in Joshua Sobols play Ghetto. From 1985 to 1995 he was a staff actor at Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, then managed by Zadek. Here he starred in many plays, such as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as Caesar, Hamlet, and Frank Wedekind's Lulu directed by Zadek. In 1986 he was elected actor of the year by German theater critics. From 1995 to 2003 he himself was director of Hamburger Kammerspiele theatre, sharing that job with Ulrich Waller.
Since 1989 he has been recording and touring as a musician. In 1995, he founded the dance band "Ulrich Tukur & the Rhythmus Boys" together with Kalle Mews (drums), Ulrich Mayer (guitar, vocals) and Günther Märtens (contrabass, guitar, vocals).Ulrich Tukur is married for the second time. Since 1999 he and his wife, the photographer Katharina John, have been living in Venice (Italy), on Giudecca island. In the Sino-German co-production movie on the Nanking massacre named "John Rabe" he had played the part of John Rabe. In Kommissar Rex he had played the psychopath Kurt Hauff, a killer who killed police officer Richard Moser (Tobias Moretti)
John was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and moved to Syracuse, New York when he was still a toddler. He started playing piano at age six and alto saxophone in the fourth grade. In fifth grade his elementary band director, Fred Straub, switched him to tenor saxophone which he plays to this day. A few years later he started private instruction with the father of all the Syracuse saxophone players, Jerry Sante. Those years were unusually rich with exceptional musicians in the schools he attended.
The Henninger High School Band in the seventies counted among its members, local saxophone stand-out, Joe Carello, Tom Brigandi (Chuck Mangione), Roland Wilcox (The Tonight Show) and many more. John received his BM in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in 1984. For the next five years, he worked as a music educator in the Syracuse City Schools, and began playing and studying around the Syracuse-Utica area with the likes of Joe Magnarelli, Sal Amico, Jimmy Johns, Joel Weiskopf and Rick Montalbano.
In 1989, in an effort to broaden his abilities as both a teacher and a performer, John moved to New York City to attend Queens College where he studied with Jimmy Heath and Donald Byrd and received an MA in Music Performance. While in New York, he worked as an instructor and supervisor for Paul Effman School Music Service, the largest provider of Catholic school music programs in the New York City Metropolitan area.
Desiring a return his CNY roots, in 1993 John left New York City. Shortly thereafter, he and Joe Carello started an elementary, instrumental music teaching program, called The Band Bus, which continues to this day, and provides most of the private schools in the area with band programs. Johns performance credits include the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Jane Monheit (Concord Recording Artist), the Central New York Jazz Orchestra w/ guest soloists Clark Terry, Bob Mintzer, Slide Hampton etc. and a variety of touring shows such as The Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra Jr. Recordings with Danny D’Imperio, Los Blancos, Eye Level, and Rick Montalbano. He is also a private music instructor at Cornell University and Le Moyne College.
"...the singer has made it known that she's one to watch. With better known vocalists like Diana Krall, Gretchen Parlato, and Norah Jones at the forefront of the contemporary jazz vocalist movement, Harms will be in good company on her rise to the top." - Bridget Arnwine, ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Bassist Lindsey Horner is one of the more versatile musicians in jazz and modern music. He has most often been heard with musicians on the cutting edge recording and performing with artists such as Greg Osby, Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte, Dave Douglas and Muhal Richard Abrams, to name but a few.
As a leader, he has recently completed a new recording project called UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY through the innovative company ArtistShare whereby listeners and fans of the music can participate directly in its realization. He has also produced four previous recordings, NEVER NO MORE, MERCY ANGEL, BELIEVERS and DON'T COUNT ON GLORY.
He was a member of the co-operative group JEWELS AND BINOCULARS which focused on improvised takes of the music of Bob Dylan. Their final recording, SHIPS WITH TATTOOED SAILS, found its way onto many critics' "best of the year" lists.
Through the ‘90’s he performed as a member of the Myra Melford trio, an association which yielded four highly acclaimed discs.
He also has deep roots in Irish music having toured and recorded extensively with singer/songwriter Susan McKeown, Scottish fiddle master Johnny Cunningham and traditional Irish music legend Andy Irvine.
Andy Goessling Trio playing at the Garden State Folk Festival at the Morristown Community Theater on 1/31/2010
The Andy Goessling Trio is:
Andy Goessling - Accoustic Guitar, Mandolin,
Lindsey Horner - Bass, Whistle, Flute
Sara Milonovich - Fiddle
Video by Tyler Curtis
"Christian Howes—a classically trained violinist who has turned his hand to all kinds of music from orchestral to Latin, and jazz to fusion—is doing his bit to revive the violin as an authentic voice of the blues. His just released second album for Resonance Records, Out of the Blue, is an exploration of the intangible essence of the blues and a passionate calling card from one of the most talented violinists of any genre of music".
"The violin is widely considered as the most expressive of instruments, closely approximating the human voice. It depends, however, to a large degree, on whose hands the instrument is in. Christian Howes is that rare breed of musician who makes the violin talk; using the idiom of the blues on Out of the Blue, Howes gives a virtuoso performance, as full of emotion as it is technically dazzling. Joined by guitarist Robben Ford , who lends his jazz-inflected accent to these blues, Howes’ quintet fairly rips through an eclectic selection of covers which run from gospel and funk to New Orleans, by way of Ornette Coleman. The energy levels are high, and Howes’ stirring displays must surely rank him as one of the very best violinists on the scene". -
Joel Harrison is one of the most adventurous artists in modern music. Guitarist, composer, arranger, vocalist, songwriter, bandleader – Harrison deftly juggles all of these roles while venturing across stylistic divides. Melding influences from jazz, classical, country, rock, and world music, his expansive sound fits equally well in jazz clubs and concert halls - and the occasional dive bar across town.
For brevity’s sake it would be safest to call what Harrison does “jazz,” a descriptor that mutates to fit a staggering array of styles and approaches. He finds inspiration from music too often barred from admission into the jazz consciousness, taking his place in a tradition of exploration and interpretation that reaches through the open-eared reinventions of Miles Davis and Charles Ives to the American rhapsodies of Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac, or Hank Williams. Photo credit: Joerg Grosse Geldermann / ACT
In the spirit of those innovators, Harrison sees no reason to sort his music into jazz, classical, or any such divisions. “Ultimately you’re just trying to arrive at great music,” he says. “Sometimes the best methodology is to leave people to their own devices and sometimes it seems like the best thing to do is to write everything down. It’s really that simple.”
Simple to define, perhaps, but much harder to accomplish. Harrison’s success can be seen in the accolades he has received: he was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2010, is a two-time winner of the Jazz Composer’s Alliance Composition Competition, has received four grants from Chamber Music America and other commissions and grants from Meet the Composer, the Flagler Cary Trust, NYSCA, and the Jerome Foundation.
Growing up in 1960s Washington D.C., Harrison became enamored with the inventive guitarists who were blazing the era’s new trails, such as Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, and Pete Townshend, all composers as well as players. In his twenties, after graduating from Bard College, Harrison undertook what he calls “the classic Jack Kerouac search for America,” hitchhiking cross-country and exploring the rich diversity contained between its coasts. “I wanted to figure this country out,” he says now. “When you’re older, you wouldn’t dream of something so naive, yet that search still resonates in my music.”
Harrison exists at a crossroads where seemingly disparate genres meet in surprising ways. His groundbreaking Free Country ensemble reimagines country and Appalachian folk music, while his Fojoto Trio with banjo player Tony Trischka and West African kora player Foday Musa Suso ties American roots music to traditional African songs. The new project Skin and Steel is a duo with the young Indian sarod master Anupam Shobhakar in which Harrison plays a National Steel guitar, not only a unique pairing but quite probably the first meeting of the two instruments.
A gifted arranger, he has also delved into the work of other composers – Beatles guitarist George Harrison, for instance, on 2005’s Harrison on Harrison, or legendary drummer Paul Motian, whose repertoire Harrison arranges for string quartet and two guitars on his latest CD, String Choir. No matter the source material, it is filtered through Harrison’s individual perspective, more an act of recomposition than arrangement.
Harrison’s most important mentors have encouraged his inclusive approach. He has studied western classical music with Joan Tower, Hindustani classical music with Ali Akbar Khan, jazz with Charlie Banacos, and the fusion of approaches with W.A. Mathieu and Ran Blake.
Perhaps the most vivid examples of his own take on such experiments can be found on Range of Motion (1997) and The Wheel (2008), which bridge Harrison’s interests in classical and jazz. The former was written for an octet with woodwinds featuring Paul McCandless and bassoon player Paul Hanson; the latter also integrates the composer’s country and world music influences, replacing the winds with a string quartet that includes violinists Todd Reynolds and Christian Howes, violist Caleb Burhans, and cellist Wendy Sutter.
The boundaries are further blurred in Harrison’s latest project, Singularity, which utilizes the techniques of contemporary classical composers like John Adams, Charles Ives, and Olivier Messiaen in compositions for a septet of modern jazz’s finest instrumentalists. The ensemble includes Christian Howes (violin), Donny McCaslin (saxophone), Dana Leong (cello), Gary Versace (piano), Stephan Crump (bass), and Clarence Penn (drums), taking their place alongside the likes of Nels and Alex Cline, David Binney, Norah Jones, Dave Liebman, Uri Caine, Jamey Haddad, and Dewey Redman on Harrison’s impressive list of collaborators.
Life Force, a collection of duos for cello and violin performed by Wendy Sutter and Tim Fain, marked Harrison’s first album consisting entirely of non-improvised music, released on Philip Glass’ Orange Mountain Music label. He has also written extensively for percussion, a 2007 solo for marimba winning first prize in the Percussive Arts Society’s worldwide competition.
Private Lessons and Clinics:
Joel Harrison has taught guitar privately since the age of 16. He welcomes all styles but specializes in Jazz and Singer/Songwriter styles. Any students who are at least at the novice level and over the age of ten are welcome. Lessons are available via the internet and phone as well.
Joel has done clinics at High Schools and Colleges in the U.S. and Europe including University of North Carolina, University of New Mexico, and University of Vermont. Subjects include composition, guitar practice, working with multiple traditions (i.e. jazz/classical) and creative musicianship. He has a relaxed, conversational style that puts students at ease, but at the same time he challenges them to the core. He can make the toughest issues simple, and because of his varied background can relate to a wide cross-section of students.
Born May 4, 1963 and raised in Detroit, Gerald is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, drummer John Cleaver, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school, and trumpet in junior high school and high school.
As a teenager he gained invaluable experience playing with Detroit jazz masters Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood. While attending the University of Michigan as a music education major, he was awarded a Jazz Study Grant, from the National Endowment for the Arts, to study with drummer Victor Lewis. Photo: KCH, A2 photo by Patricia Lay-Dorsey
He graduated in 1992 and began teaching in Detroit where he worked with Rodney Whitaker, A. Spencer Barefield, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Wendell Harrison, and with visiting musicians Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Frank Foster, Cecil Bridgewater, Ray Bryant, Eddie Harris, Dennis Rowland, Howard Johnson, Diana Krall and Don Byron.
In 1995 he accepted an appointment as assistant professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 also joined the jazz faculty at Michigan State University. He moved to New York in 2002. He has performed or recorded with Franck Amsallem, Tim Ries, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Lotte Anker, Reggie Workman, Marilyn Crispell, Matt Shipp, William Parker, Craig Taborn, Kevin Mahogany, Charles Gayle, Mario Pavone, Ralph Alessi, Jacky Terrasson, Jimmy Scott, Muhal Richard Abrams, Dave Douglas, Tim Berne, Jeremy Pelt, Ellery Eskelin, David Torn and Miroslav Vitous, among others.
His 2001 recording "Adjust" (Fresh Sound New Talent) was nominated in the Best Debut Recording category by the Jazz Journalists Association. "Gerald Cleaver's Detroit" (FSNT), is an homage to his hometown and to the late, great Detroit drummers Roy Brooks, Lawrence Williams, George Goldsmith and Richard "Pistol" Allen. Cleaver leads the bands Violet Hour, NiMbNl, Uncle June and Farmers By Nature.
Influences:
Mom & Dad, Jean Carla Rodea, Miles Davis, Tony Williams, Victor Lewis, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Andrew Hill, John Bonham, Billy Hart, Jack DeJohnette Ringo Starr, Sun Ra and Craig Taborn, to name a few, have all changed my life.
As a college student in Chapel Hill, N.C., Scott Lee switched from a tennis career to a commitment to jazz. Upon finishing college, he dove into music by studying from books, band stand training, and taking lessons from the likes of Charlie Banacas, Dave Holland and Homer Mensch.
Arriving in New York in the late 70’s, one of Lee’s first gigs was touring and recording with Chet Baker. He went on to work with Lee Konitz, Zoot Simms, Al Cohn, Red Rodney, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Werner, and Joe Lovano. Also, he accompanied many singers such as Nancy Wilson, Chris Conner, Morgana King, Betty Buckley, Helen Merrill, Susannah McCorkle, and Anita O’Day.
In the orchestral world, Scott has shown his versatility by being part of the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s performance of Puchini’s “Gianni Schicci”, to the World Premiere of Charles Ives’ “Universe Symphony”. He has also toured and recorded with the Andy Statman Quartet playing the music of the Jewish Mystics.
Recently, he has been leading his own group featured on his CD “With Ease” recording and playing with the Loren Stillman Quartet, and staying active in New Music Ensembles in the New York area. Currently he can be heard on Joe Lovano’s Blue Note release “Viva Caruso” and just completed another European tour with Joe.
Scott has finished his first book, Playing the Body Playing the Bass, practices Qi Gong daily and is a Reiki Master.
He lives with his wife Sue Anne and daughter Aria in Manhattan and Bucks County, PA., where he is a faculty member in the Music Dept. at Kutztown University.
Upcoming Events
Nov. 22 @ 9:00 & 10:30 PM Cornelia St. Cafe
Scott Lee Quintet CD Release
Dec. 13 7 p.m. CW ensemble W/ Joe Lovano and Scott Lee 9 p.m. Scott Lee Quintet
Brooklyn Music Wide Open, 401 Atlantic Ave., ( Belarusian Church )_2 Bond St.
Teaching Experience
Berklee College of Music, Boston, Visiting Artist
1978-1994
Master Classes – Qi Gong for Musicians
Berklee College of Music, Eastern Music Festival, UNC-CH, Kutztown U., UNC-G, New York University
Private Bass Instructor, New York & Boston
1997 – present
Adjunct Professor – Kutztown University
2003 – present
Books: Just completed – Playing the Body Playing the Bass Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – 1972 BS Honors, American Studies Major
Private Studies: Tiny Martin ( Boston Symphony Orchestra; Homer Mensch ( New York Philharmonic); Dave Holland (Jazz Virtuoso); Charlie Banacas (Jazz Harmony)
In addition to his own groups, Brad Shepik has performed and/or recorded with Paul Motian, Joey Baron, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Dave Douglas, oud/violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen, Yuri Yunakov’s Bulgarian Wedding Band and others.
Born in Walla Walla, Washington and raised in Seattle, Brad Shepik began playing guitar at age 10, when he picked up his father's instrument. He continued to play both guitar and saxophone in school bands and studied guitar with Al Galante and Dave Petersen. He earned a B.F.A from Cornish College of the Arts and a Masters in Jazz Performance/Composition from New York University. Photo by C. Mardok
Since arriving in New York in 1990, Shepik has been involved several bands including Dave Douglas' Tiny Bell Trio, Matt Darriau's Paradox Trio, Pachora w/Chris Speed, Jim Black and Skuli Sverrisson, and BABKAS. He has also performed with Carla Bley's Escalator Over the Hill, Charlie Haden's Liberation Orchestra and toured and recorded with Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band for 5 years. Concurrently, the guitarist extended his interest in world music idioms by performing and recording in such groups as Yuri Yunakov's Bulgarian Wedding Band and Simon Shaheen’s Quantara. Shepik’s first two records as a leader, The Loan and The Well, were praised for their marriage of world music styles and jazz.
Shepik also co-led two world music tinged trios; Triduga with accordionist Yuri Lemeshev and Tony Scherr on bass balalaika, and Lingua Franca with Peter Epstein and Matt Kilmer. In 2000 Shepik began re-examining the traditional guitar/bass/drums format with drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Scott Colley. They recorded two cd’s, Drip and Short Trip, both of which were critically acclaimed and featured on NPR.
Shepik's current working band is a trio with Gary Versace, organ and Rainey, drums. The band has performed at festivals across Europe and North America. Their latest release “Places You Go” received a 4 star review in Downbeat and appeared on several “Best CD’s of 2007” lists. Shepik also continues to tour with drummer Joey Baron’s Killer Joey, udist/violinist Simon Shaheen, George Schuller's Circle Wide, Matt Darriau’s Paradox Trio, Alexis Cuadrado Puzzles Quartet, Arthur Kell Quartet, Combo Nuvo, Bob Brookmeyer’s Quartet East and others.
His latest recording is "Human Activity Suite" a 10 movement piece about climate change for jazz quintet. It features Shepik on guitars, saz and tambura as well as Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Gary Versace (piano, organ, accordion), Drew Gress (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums). "Human Activity Suite" was released in February 2009 on Songlines Recordings.
B.F.A, Cornish College of the Arts. Masters in Jazz Performance/Composition, New York University; Studies with Gil Goldstein, George Garzone, Marc Consoli, Jerry Granelli, Julian Priester, Dave Petersen, Dave Peck, James Knapp and Ralph Towner. Currently teaching at The School for Improvisational Music, New York University, New England Conservatory, City College of New York. Former faculty of The New School, Long Island University.
Itinerary
Miles Cafe
November 20th, 2010 | 9:30
New York, NY, US
NYU World Ensemble
Cornelia St
December 1st, 2010 | 8pm
New York, NY, US
Brad Shepik Quartet w/ Tom Beckham, Jorge Roeder and Mark Guiliana -CD Pre release concert for "Across the Way"
St. Bonaventure University
December 4th, 2010 | 8pm
Buffalo, NY, Us
Literary Free Jazz, Liberated Diva: Ntozake Shange and Multi-Octave Singer M. Nahadr Find Creativity in the Moment Together in For Colored Girls Film and Several Shows at NYC’s Nuyorican in November
Improvised sound and free spirits. New York-based performance artist, composer, and stunning vocalist M. Nahadr (also known as Mem Nahadr or just "M") and critically acclaimed poet/playwright Ntozake Shange channel both, with distinct, diverse voices that compound and confound notions of difference and identity. From a silent meeting sprung a sonically rich friendship, now culminating in collaborative performances on the big screen and the intimate stage.
“Our friend Claude wanted to introduce us and asked me to pick Ntozake up at JFK,” M. recalls. “We completely, immediately resonated and it was wordless. Our meeting was completely wordless, and it was wonderful.”
Shange and M. have nurtured this silent tie and bring their unique understanding to multimedia fruition. Shange’s words inspired M.’s uplifting, swirling anthem, “I Found God In Myself (Ntozake's Song),” featured in Tyler Perry’s film adaptation of one of Shange’s most revered works, For Colored Girls (Lionsgate; November 5 release), featuring Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, and Macy Gray, among others.
M. and Shange will share the stage at the film premiere, and for a series of spoken word and improvised free music performances at the Nuyorican Poets Café (November 8-17, 2010 at 7 PM; www.nuyorican.org).
M.’s distinctive looks and multi-octave powerhouse of a voice set her apart, yet also led her to a revelation of our shared humanity, our common difference. “I was a little girl that looked like Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap, living in an all African-American neighborhood in America,” she recollects. “What I experience on Planet Earth as a person with albinism is the oneness of one story told. Everyone has the experience of being different. Period. That’s the lowest common denominator.”
This insight, this embrace beyond identity politics blossomed into innovative off-Broadway performance pieces—some with Shange’s participation—as well as striking albums (EclecticIsM, 2009) that rush gracefully between hard-grooving funk and freewheeling, tender ballads.
"When I first hear her, I thought that M. had fallen from the sky; her voice was tying the heavens to the ocean, because of the range of it and the holiness of it,” Shange explains. “I don't mean holiness in a religious sense, but the inescapable ‘sacredness’ of her voice, as if there were a holiness in her voice that could lift you off your feet."
At the heart of M.’s work lies something she found she shared with Shange: the spark kindled by free jazz and its invitation to open improvisation. They will explore this approach further at the Nuyorican, as part of Shange’s acclaimed stage work, Lillianne: Resurection of The Daughter.
Internationally acclaimed Performance Artist, M. Nahadr - Voice, James P. Nichols - Bass, Meg Montgomery - Trumpet........
Performing FreeJazz during a preview of M's new album entitled: "Eclectic Is M" on LiveWired Music, April 2009.
“I found it so interesting, our shared interest in free jazz,” reflects M. “Ntozake is so highly educated and her work is so respected, but her inspiration was free jazz, creating in the moment.”
This improvisational urge, while sparking a creative friendship with the poet, pushed M. into a heartfelt response to Shange’s words, to the closing poetry of her complex, polyphonic exploration of women’s lives and fates. Shange had invited M. to compose something for that critical moment, something Shange felt truly represented the essence of her poetry. The resulting song was eventually woven into Perry’s film version.
The task proved daunting at first. “I meditated on it for a few months. It felt agonizing,” M. smiles. “I did take my time, however; I didn’t want to create something that was contrived. I waited for the inspiration. One day, at the eleventh hour, I woke up at 8 am, wrote the song, and immediately felt relief. I was so happy: I knew it was honest.”
M.’s soulful reaction to Shange’s glorious declaration of acceptance and love falls squarely in the r ‘n’ b realm, while keeping M.’s signature edge. “I Found God In Myself (Ntozake's Song)” moves from Shange’s words to M.’s, in a gospel-inflected statement of discovered joy.
This song, dedicated to Shange, will be exclusively available on iTunes November 1.
Beyond her work with Shange, M.’s deep-digging voice and unique beauty will be featured in an upcoming independent French film starring Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of the notorious Serge) and produced by Lars von Trier, scheduled for release in January 2011. Hot on the heels of her film appearance is a new album, Mem, due out in April.
Until then, M. is savoring her work with Shange. “I get to sing to and with a healing poet,” she sighs. “It was an act of trust on Ntozake’s part, because of our shared resonance, and I love honoring that.”
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