We realize we’re a little late to the punch, but if you haven’t already put the finishing touches on your 2010 year-end lists for jazz or other eclectic non-mainstream music, please consider the wonderful projects we’ve worked on in one way or another this past year. 

I would like to acknowledge all of you in the media and the industry for helping us make 2010 another successful year for Fully Altered Media. And of course we couldn’t do it without our amazing clients, listed below. 

I would also like to especially acknowledge former staffer Stephen Buono, all-around utility man Nick Venti and my new assistant Maribel Gil, who recently joined the Fully Altered team part-time, as well as day-to-day helpers Russ Flynn, Andy McGhie and Will Martina.

If you haven’t yet finished your year-end Top 10 or Top 20 or Top 50 lists, please consider the albums below. I hope that my eclecticism and open ears will continue to show through in the music we send your way.

To a Healthy & Productive 2011 and Beyond,
Matt Merewitz & Maribel Gil

Here are all the records we worked in 2010 for your consideration (in chronological order by release date):

Dave Rempis & Frank Rosaly Cyrillic (482 Music)

Colorist A Square White Lie (482 Music)

Sam Sadigursky The Words Project III: Miniatures (New Amsterdam)

Steve Colson Trio The Untarnished Dream (Silver Sphinx)

Thomas Savy French Suite (Plus Loin)

Dan Weiss Trio Timshel (Sunnyside)

Allison Miller BOOM TIC BOOM (Foxhaven)

Nels Cline Singers Initiate (Cryptogramophone)

Adam Rudolph & Ralph Jones Yeyi (Meta)

Adam Rudolph & Yusef Lateef Towards the Unknown (Meta)

Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things Stories & Negotiations (482 Music)

Jacky Terrason Push (Concord)

The Claudia Quintet Royal Toast (Cuneiform)

Pete Robbins sILENT Z – Live (Hate Laugh Music)

Ideal Bread Transmit: Vol. 2 of the Music of Steve Lacy (Cuneiform)

David Weiss & Point of Departure Snuck in (Sunnyside)

Rafi Malkiel Water (Tzadik)

Barry Harris Live in Rennes (Plus Loin)

Billy Bang Prayer for Peace (TUM)

Vijay Iyer Solo (ACT)

Blue Cranes Observatories (Self-released)

Eddie Gomez & Cesarius Alvim Forever (Plus Loin)

Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green Apex (Pi)

Kellylee Evans Nina (Plus Loin)

Nels Cline DIRTY BABY (Cryptogramophone)

Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly Featuring Roscoe Mitchell Empathetic Parts (482 Music)

Scott Amendola Trio Lift (Sazi)

Dan Tepfer Five Pedals Deep (Sunnyside)

The Dymaxion Quartet Sympathetic Vibrations (Self-released)

Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore Three Kinds of Happiness (Not Two)

Jerome Sabbagh I Will Follow You (Bee Jazz)

Look for some excellent new projects for January and beyond from:

•    Trumpeter Taylor Haskins to release new album Recombination on Nineteen-Eight Records in February 2011
•    Debut album, Steampunk Serenade by Honey Ear Trio Featuring Erik Lawrence, Rene Hart & Allison Miller to be released in March 2011
•    & much much more

For more information, contact Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media/
matt@fullyaltered.com / 215-629-6155

]]> http://fullyaltered.com/fa/2010/11/22/fully-altered-media-2010-the-year-in-review-2/feed/ 0 http://fullyaltered.com/fa/2010/11/22/saxophonist-jerome-sabbagh-releases-trio-album-i-will-follow-you-bee-jazz-december-7-2010/ http://fullyaltered.com/fa/2010/11/22/saxophonist-jerome-sabbagh-releases-trio-album-i-will-follow-you-bee-jazz-december-7-2010/#comments Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:16:03 +0000 maribel http://fullyaltered.com/fa/?p=1377 Featuring Longtime Guitar Collaborator Ben Monder
And French Drum Legend Daniel Humair

Photo Credit: Emra Islek

December 7, 2010 (NYC) – With I Will Follow You (Bee Jazz), French-born, Brooklyn-based tenor and soprano saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh brings his singular vision to the fertile ground of improvised music. Bolstered by the broad color palate of virtuosic guitarist and longtime collaborator Ben Monder, and the masterful rhythmic orchestration of legendary drummer Daniel Humair, Sabbagh’s lyricism and glowing sound serve as beacons in an improvised journey at once hauntingly beautiful and aggressively unhinged.

Taking advantage of the adventurous setting of a trio without a bass, the players’ seamless interaction makes it impossible to discern who’s leading from who’s following, as they shepherd the listener through an ever-changing tapestry of sound. “Without a bass player, there’s less of a desire to go into time,” says Sabbagh “and it opens up new textural possibilities.”

Despite the constant risk taking – or perhaps because of it, the music is always compelling. “There’s this cliché that improvised music is hard to listen to,” Sabbagh notes. “Maybe I’m an idealist, but I find the best improvised music has a directness of expression that immediately draws the listener in.”

I Will Follow You follows three critically acclaimed efforts as a leader. North (voted Best CD of 2005 by the readers of French monthly magazine Jazzman) and Pogo (four stars in DownBeat) both feature Sabbagh’s uncanny, song-like compositions and lush tone, in a quartet that includes Monder, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Ted Poor. One Two Three (four stars in DownBeat), an album of standards played in the totemic sax-bass-drums instrumentation pioneered by Sonny Rollins, features bassist Ben Street and drummer Rodney Green. I Will Follow You represents a bold departure from the more controlled settings of these albums, yet retains the lyricism, clarity of purpose, and melodic flair that are the hallmarks of the saxophonist’s style.

The smooth ebb and flow between tracks has an appealing narrative continuity, opening with the controlled chaos of the title track, which builds in anticipation as Humair moves from brushes to sticks and Monder answers him, at the flick of a pedal switch, with ferocious distortion. Other highlights include “Comptine”, a moody free ballad with echoes of Bartok and “The Clown,” an exploration of a simple melody that becomes increasingly dense as Sabbagh and Monder improvise symbiotically in chromatic counterpoint. I Will Follow You concludes with a sumptuous rendition of “I Should Care,” the album’s only standard.

“I spent a lot of time arranging the sequence of the record, trying to make it into something that could be listened to from start to finish,” Sabbagh remarks. “The tracks are short, especially for an album that’s mostly improvised. Everything was wide open, but we all strove for concision, which was good, since dragging things out is an easy mistake to make in a free setting.”

Sabbagh composed the music with the sounds of Monder and Humair in mind. He set out to avoid prefabricated compositional patterns by writing with pen and paper only, as opposed to sitting at the piano. Coupled with the six improvised pieces, miniatures of unfettered freedom and keen interplay, the compositions endow the album with a self-contained quality, “like a little world unto itself,” he says.

Though this is the first time they play together, the three players mesh with a psychic energy that would be impressive even for a longtime working band, a testament to Sabbagh and Monder’s exceptional musical bond, and to the 72-year-old Humair’s peerless listening ability. A first-call drummer in Europe whose career trajectory took him from playing bebop with the likes of Bud Powell and Dexter Gordon to improvising with avant-garde explorers Tony Malaby and Ellery Eskelin, the protean Humair was an obvious choice for the shifting dynamic of this trio.

“Daniel is a master free player but came up swinging with the best, and he is also a painter. Form is important to him, as it is for Ben and I,” says Sabbagh. “Even when we are playing free, we are ever-conscious of creating a narrative arc in the moment.”

Sabbagh was exposed to music at a young age by an early teacher, pianist and composer Annick Chartreux, who first inspired him to transcend the confines of genre, a lasting influence. “She would play the overture to Mozart’s The Magic Flute, ‘So What’ from Kind of Blue, and some Jimi Hendrix, all in the same listening session.” Since moving to New York in 1995, Sabbagh has played with Guillermo Klein, Bill Stewart, Billy Drummond, and Victor Lewis, in addition to numerous others.

Asked about his musical values, he explains: “The keys for me are melody, sound, and interaction. Each player weaves a unique voice into the collective in a way that makes sense with the material, while staying true to their inner song. I think the process of making good music with people is similar whatever the project may be.”

I Will Follow You is yet another exciting example of Sabbagh’s musicianship, integrity and artistic vision.

RELEASE DATE: December 7, 2010

Press:

“Mr. Sabbagh played with untroubled self-assurance, and his songs had a sleek and sturdy appeal. Just as crucially, his colleagues strove for the unexpected, individually and as an ensemble. [...] Mr. Sabbagh avoided direct allusions to the saxophone totems. What he is working toward, simply and effectively, is a sincerely personal vocabulary.”
- Nate Chinen, The New York Times

“You don’t find many post-bop era musicians recording programs of all standards; fewer still choose to do them in a pianoless trio. French native Jerome Sabbagh relishes the challenge with One Two Three (Bee Jazz) and his nerve pays off. Avoiding any of the usual stylistic cliches, Sabbagh lets these compositions speak for themselves. He’s not afraid to simply play the melody, although when the spirit strikes him he can spin out inspired improvisations.”
- James Hale, DownBeat (4 stars)

“Memorable tunes with assured performances […] Pogo sounds contemporary and vital, and the band delivers one of the year’s strongest ensemble performance.”
- Peter Margasak, DownBeat (4 stars)

“A refreshing, cliché-free young tenor and soprano saxophonist. In this, his second album as a leader and one including only his compositions, he creates moods as well as lines and spaces.”
- Owen Cordle, JazzTimes

“An exceptionally assured and compelling debut as a leader [...] The music is consistently evocative, tuneful and substantial.”
- Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen

“Over the past few years of performing together, they’ve bonded, learned, and are continuing to define their sound.”
- Mark F. Turner, All About Jazz

“A startlingly good young jazz musician [...] Sabbagh chooses notes judiciously and swings firmly. And Sabbagh and North grow stronger and deeper with each listening.”
- Marc Meyers, All About Jazz

Links:

Jerome Sabbagh Official Website
Jerome Sabbagh Facebook Fan Page
Jerome Sabbagh on Myspace
Jerome Sabbagh on Twitter

For more information, please contact Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media /
(215) 629-6155 or matt@fullyaltered.com

November 30, 2010 (NYC) – There are many who embrace tradition, and jazz’s recent history is replete with acolytes of a certain era or style. Bass clarinetist Jason Stein is cut from a very different cloth however, and Three Kinds of Happiness, the new album by his trio, Locksmith Isidore, demonstrates just how deeply and completely he has assimilated the past—his own and that of the music–while maintaining his own voice, as a composer and as a performer.

The album’s title hails from Stein’s studies in philosophy at the University of Michigan, before he moved to Chicago in 2005, and even before he became a music major. “Simply put,” he explains, “It’s a Platonic concept concerning long-term relationships between happiness and sadness; for me, it’s about practicing, and specifically the idea that if I work through a problem thoroughly now, my future will be positively impacted in the process.”

Stein practices voraciously, and his dedication to his instrument is manifest in every note he plays on this, Locksmith Isidore’s third album and second with the current lineup of Stein, Jason Roebke on bass and Mike Pride on drums. Stein’s instrumental approach encompasses many shades of jazz via such influences as Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Archie Shepp. As with those masters, his playing can veer in a split second from consummate lyricism toward fire music with astonishing subtlety. “Coltrane’s later music was a formative influence on me, as he employed many of the great New Thing players,” muses Stein. “Compositionally though, Steve Lacy has been a model for me above most others.” Certainly his teachers have been formative influences, including David Murray, Charles Gayle and Donald Walden, but Lacy’s versatility is special to Stein. “I’ve tried to bring his diversity to Three Kinds of Happiness; I have a lot of respect for his ability to achieve such a broad stylistic scope while staying true to his own musical vision.”

The trio’s current emphasis on composition over improvisation constitutes a very conscious change in group aesthetics; it results from the release of Stein’s solo album on Leo Records and from the supporting tour, where improvisation guided much of the music. “I wanted to provide some more substance for us to explore,” Stein elucidates. Indeed, Stein’s ability to compose in both traditional forms and in freer structures is uncanny. From the sultry and wistful “Little Bird,” to the wicked whimsicality of “More Gone Door Gone,” he offers new wine in old bottles, expanding tradition while never leaving it. Even the intricate abstractions of compositions like “Arch and Shipp” embrace the middle ground between metered swing and the lack thereof in unpredictable ways. The trio sound is an integral component. “Michael, Jason and I have developed a real rapport,” states Stein, “and all nine of these compositions were written with their playing styles in mind.” The ensemble is Lacyesque in range, from sparseness to controlled vigor, and the track titles reflect Lacy’s love of words and humor.

For Stein, many of the titles also refer back to another tradition, one just as personal and just as deeply rooted as the music. They evoke his family history. The group’s name, which combines Stein’s paternal grandfather’s first name and occupation, is only one aspect of his family’s contribution to his musical development. “It was my father, who died when I was ten, that instilled in me my enthusiasm for music—not for any one type or style, but for music in general,” reminisces Stein. “I remember driving with him when I was five or six, and he was drumming on the steering wheel while listening to 1980s popular music. That made as much of an impression on me as did the music. I was overwhelmed by his love and enjoyment of music, and I wanted to understand and experience that.” Stein’s titles evoke that time and the shades of those now grown and gone. “Little Bird,” is for his little sister, and “Sammy’s Crayons,” is an homage to his half-brother’s childhood love of drawing.

In a fundamental way, these family circumstances and events have proven to be the catalyst for Stein’s current music. His move to Chicago precipitated many of the diverse working relationships he enjoys now, from his time in Ken Vandermark’s incendiary Bridge 61 to his minimal rock excursions with guitarist David Daniels. Three Kinds of Happiness is one important confluence of these seemingly disparate influences, and it places him and Locksmith Isidore in the pantheon of those who have the courage to go beyond mere mimicry and reach for the fluidity and flexibility of innovation.

RELEASE DATE: November 30, 2010

Press Quotes:

“[On Three Less Than Between] Stein’s strong tunes, which routinely dissolve the boundary between composition and improvisation, they do an excellent job switching from bristling swing to tangled outbursts of unmetered free jazz. It’s especially rewarding to listen to…”
- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

“As Stein subdivides and recombines his phrases, giving gleaming kisses to the reed, fluttering and finely twining closely-valued hues, it isn’t so much about putting an instrument through its paces as it is one artist’s affirmation of his relationship to the brush.”
- Clifford Allen, Signal Noise

“[Stein] plays pretty and raucous, taciturn and ebullient, bouncing confidently between a spectrum of emotions and dialects.”
- Derek Taylor, Master of a Small House

“..it is clear that Jason Stein has burst upon the scene as a player to be heard.”
- Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review

Links:
Jason Stein Official Website
Jason Stein on Twitter

For more information, please contact
Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media
matt@fullyaltered.com
(215) 629-6155

CD RELEASE PERFORMANCE
@ Jazz Standard
October 26, 2010
(7:30 & 9:30pm)

Exclusive Album Preview & Online Press Kit:
Dan Tepfer Trio — Five Pedals Deep
(contact us for password)

Photo: Vincent Soyez

In his forthcoming trio release, Five Pedals Deep on Sunnyside Records, wildly inventive pianist Dan Tepfer plumbs the depths of conventional harmony, engaging pop modalities, minimalism, and jazz tradition with the audacity and irreverence of a deep-sea explorer. The 28-year-old, Brooklyn-based pianist has forged a richly layered collection of lyrical, immediately accessible compositions that upon repeated listenings reveal a nuanced scaffolding of atmospheric soundscapes beneath the surface.

Beyond the eclectic influence of such vanguard groups as indie rockers Dirty Projectors and electronica maven Aphex Twin, Tepfer drew much of his inspiration for the album from Thelonious Monk. “When you listen to Monk’s music, you can put it on for anybody, it doesn’t matter if they’re into jazz, and they love it,” says Tepfer. “The reason for that is that it’s got really strong melodies, there’s a real coherence to the sound, it grooves, and there’s a strong feeling of fun that comes through in the music. I think in many ways I’m trying to do a contemporary version of that.”

The album title originates from a bibulous evening Tepfer spent with a cousin. “We were at a party, and we’d drunk five bottles of wine, and she said something like, ‘You get pretty happy when you’re five bottles deep.’ What I heard was ‘five pedals deep,’ and I thought that was a beautiful way of expressing the feeling I often get when I’m playing, a feeling of being drunk on music,” says Tepfer. “A pedal is a long bass note that ties different harmonies together, and it’s one of my favorite musical devices.”

Tepfer features the deft interplay of two eminent musical contemporaries, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Ted Poor, a departure from his longtime collaboration with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Richie Barshay, his touring trio for the past six years.

“It’s like when you’ve been married for a long time,” says Tepfer. “You just know someone so well that even if you are completely improvising, you can still hear in your head how he’s going to react. With Thomas and Ted, there was none of that. I had no idea.”

The “sound of surprise” is evident throughout, the players never relying on reflexive facility as they navigate the varied terrains of Tepfer’s original compositions, mostly written over the past two years. This ranges from the minimalist ostinato of “All I Heard Was Nothing,” to the dense drum ’n bass-inspired rhythms of “Peal Repeal,” to the languorously dissonant beauty of “The Distance,” with four minute-long interludes serving as connective tissue. Tepfer’s visceral tie to the music cuts through in the wistfully nostalgic “Le Plat Pays,” Belgian troubadour Jacques Brel’s stirring homage to his homeland.

“Growing up in Paris, my first girlfriend was a huge Jacques Brel fan,” Tepfer says. “I just remember learning the lyrics and being so captivated by that tune in particular. There’s so much meaning contained in this appearance of simplicity.”

In his solo rendition of “Body and Soul,” Tepfer includes a subtle nod to mentor Lee Konitz, conspicuous by his absence, although Konitz’s influence is deeply felt. “Nobody plays ‘Body and Soul’ like Lee does,” Tepfer says. In 2009, he released a duo album with Konitz called Duos with Lee. “One thing that’s really come up for me in the last four years now, playing with Lee pretty regularly, is the integrity of melody. I feel sinful if a phrase doesn’t get resolved.”

Born to American parents, Tepfer spent his first 18 years in Paris, beginning classical piano studies at the Paris Conservatoire Paul Dukas at the age of six. He had improvisation in his blood, though, inherited from his grandfather, West Coast jazz pianist Chuck Ruff. With a fecund intellect that extends far beyond music theory, Tepfer went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, writing his undergraduate thesis on “Numerical Simulations of Galactic Superwinds.”

While in Scotland, he also played in the Edinburgh Jazz Festival and the International Fringe Festival, even conducting a production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telphone. He later earned a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston, and has performed alongside legendary jazz musicians Steve Lacy, Paul Motian, Ralph Towner, and Billy Hart, among others.

Though at this point his passion for cosmology has taken a back seat to his musical career, it continues to inform his worldview. “I think the tone of my music reflects who I am, and who I am is somebody who is fascinated by the huge scale of the universe,” Tepfer says. “I love seeing myself on the earth from really far away, and I’m sure that comes out in the music somehow.”

Website:  http://www.dantepfer.com/
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/tepferdan

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 26, 2010

For more information, please contact
Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media
matt@fullyaltered.com
(215) 629-6155

It takes a minute for a band to hurdle growth spurts and become the eloquent ensemble it hopes to be. But striving for a truly individual sound, one that depends on the contributions of each member is a noble goal. After three years as a quintet with two saxophones up front, Blue Cranes have achieved such a victory. They prove it with Observatories.

On its third album, everything gels for the acclaimed instrumental outfit from Portland, Oregon. Working that thin line between prog-jazz improvisation and indie rock catchiness, the band arrives at a unique spot. Like forebears such as The Ordinaires and The President, and contemporaries like Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors and John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet, Blue Cranes have found ways to make exploration seem like the most enjoyable process around.

The songs and performances on Observatories are all about rewards of collective articulation. Reed Wallsmith, the group’s straw boss, saxophonist and main composer, says the new album finds them putting their best foot forward.

“Homing Patterns, the record before this, was a quintet with two horns; Sly Pig joined us on tenor saxophone a year before we made it.  But, I had conceived of a lot of the music originally for quartet.  Since then, with more time under our belts, I think our compositions more fully incorporate all five of us.  For Observatories we wrote more contrapuntal lines, not just melodies and support riffs.  I hope that the entire group unity comes through. It feels great to hear it happen.”

Blue Cranes is comprised of drummer Ji Tanzer, bassist Keith Brush, keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn, tenor saxophonist Joe “Sly Pig” Cunningham, and Wallsmith himself. The alto saxophonist says that the camaraderie of gigging on the road has bolstered the band’s unity.

photo credit: Jason Quigley

“We’ve done seven tours now, and gone out for a week and a half at a time. That kind of continuity is such a great way to get tight as a band – performing every night and being able to talk about the music every day. We have fun on the road. Sharing music on iPods, hanging out, laughing about everything. It’s such a blast to get to know each other better. It’s not just my vision driving the action anymore; it’s all of ours – which has always been my goal.”

Blue Cranes’ music is refreshingly diverse. They may be a left-of-center instrumental outfit, but their book has lots of room for old-fashioned beauty. Wallsmith’s “Grandpa’s Hands” is a bittersweet anthem with a luminous theme that boasts echoes of Steve Reich. Cunningham’s “Broken Windmills” is an evocative lament that could easily snuggle up to an Ornette Coleman ballad. Waxing rustic isn’t forbidden with Blue Cranes, and that decision widens the record’s emotional palette. On “Yellow Ochre,” the group sounds like The Band sauntering its way through The Beatles’ “Let It Be.”

“Tim Young, the guitarist from Wayne Horvitz’s band, made a comment I liked,” says Wallsmith. “He said ‘You guys aren’t afraid to just play melodies.’ I think that’s true. ‘Yellow Ochre’ feels old fashioned to me. ‘Maddie Mae,’ too. I’m proud of that tone. But the album wouldn’t work if it was full of tunes like ‘Yellow Ochre.’ We wanted to make it flow, to have the pretty stuff move right into the in-your-face stuff.”

Indeed, Observatories does strike a balance between genteel and rambunctious. Crescendos crop up in all sorts of places, and the physical thrust of the rhythm section gives several moments a wonderfully vicious clout. “Richie Bros.” has an intricate pounding intro, a dreamy head, and an explosive middle. “We don’t get super mathy, but ‘Richie Bros.’ is aggressive,” Wallsmith concurs. “I like the power of it, but I also like the fact that it’s followed by the softness of ‘Maddie Mae.’

Sly Pig also played and recorded with indie rock superheroes, The Decemberists. It seems he and Wallsmith have found the perfect formula for cogent abstraction.

“From the first day we started playing, I felt unexpectedly in-synch with him,” says Wallsmith. “We started at an all-improvised gig, and when we played together, I had this feeling that we were long lost brothers.’ I’ve never really met another sax player who approaches music like me. Wherever we’re coming from, it’s a similar same place. We work as a team.”

The Blue Cranes have received kudos from a few key contemporaries. They’ve shared bills with keyboard icon Wayne Horvitz (his “Love Love Love” is part of Observatories) and he’s now a fan.  Wallsmith was a Happy Apple zealot when he was in college in Minneapolis and when drummer Dave King, now of The Bad Plus, posted a “don’t miss John Hollenbeck’s tour” missive on the The Bad Plus’ blog, Wallsmith made a point to catch the drummer-composer. “After the gig I gave someone at the venue a CD to give to John.  He later contacted me out of the blue to say that, although he didn’t expect to, he really liked it.  What an honor!”  Blue Cranes have since shared the stage with bands as diverse as Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet, the dub/hardcore Mi Ami, trumpeter Cuong Vu and violinist Michael White.

Ultimately Observatories is about breadth. Blue Cranes is a band that sees things from various perspectives. A toy piano is the first sound you hear on the disc; a baby’s voice is the final. Variety is central to the action. Tanzer is the go-to guy when it comes to album titles; he’s named the previous Blue Cranes albums. But it was the band’s friend and Tanzer’s band mate, Spinanes leader Rebecca Gates, who came up with the current moniker, and one thing’s for certain: Observatories is dead on, because the Blue Cranes are here to show us all sorts of things.

RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

For more information, please contact Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media / (347) 527-2527 or matt@fullyaltered.com

Release Shows Scheduled For
May 28 at Tea Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn
May 29 at Cornelia Street Cafe in East Village

Live recordings may be a cliché in rock music, but in jazz – as bandleader Pete Robbins notes – they are the very measure of the music. They reveal exactly what a group is made of, fully embracing the “first thought, best thought” Zen of improvisation and human chemistry that inspires electrifying moments on the bandstand.

“The concert is such a big part of the experience,” Robbins says. “You have great musicians who play the same songs totally different every time.” As the alto saxophonist discovered making his first live recording – siLENT Z LIVE (Hate Laugh Music) – featuring his stellar working ensemble siLENT Z, the experience opens up dimensions of sound and spontaneity that rarely exist in the studio. “My last record [Do the Hate Laugh Shimmy (Fresh Sound New Talent)] was very scripted. We spent a whole day in the studio, very tightly scheduled and the arrangements were predetermined I felt like I could keep tweaking it until I got what I wanted. But with the live record I can’t do anything.  Shimmy came out great but it lacked the intensity of our live shows. I thought the next logical thing was to record this band live.

And what a band it is. As New York audiences who have seen Robbins and his cohorts perform at venues such as The Cornelia Street Café and the Tea Lounge in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood know, the electro-acoustic quintet is one of the city’s best working outfits. “Pete has a surprising amount and type of creativity,” says Joe Morris, one of Robbins’ teachers during his formative college years and himself a brilliant, dogged composer and improviser on guitar, bass and banjo. “He’s a great and unique writer and alto player. He’s brave and his music is fun but also artistic.”

Critics also have been impressed.  “Robbins composes like a jazz musician but envisions a broader jumble informed by various indie genres,” wrote critic David Adler in Time Out New York. “Highly developed harmony, complex meter and searing improv merge with a world of experimental loops, ambient soundscapes, hard beats and general abandon. The ’70s term jazz-rock doesn’t cut it, so the best description of a project like siLENT Z is probably the artist’s own: ‘Brooklyn prog-modern (post)jazz’.”

siLENT Z features Robbins on alto, Jesse Neuman on cornet and effects, Mike Gamble on guitar and effects, Thomas Morgan on bass, Tyshawn Sorey on drums, and special guest pianist Cory Smythe. It’s a cross-section of young talents with remarkable verve, ideally suited to Robbins’ purposes as a composer.  “Even without the effects, Jesse is an incredible musician,” Robbins says. “His sense of melody is so strong he can play anything and make it sound beautiful. And he has such a great sense of what effects to use, when and how, that he never ceases to amaze me. I went to the New England Conservatory with Mike in the late ‘90s. He’s great with all the delays and effects. He lends that rock feel my tunes cry out for sometimes, but he can also play quote-unquote jazz guitar.”

Bassist Thomas Morgan is, simply, “one of the best musicians I know,” Robbins says. “He can sight-read anything and makes everyone around him better.” And Sorey, a drummer and composer who leads or participates in several celebrated ensembles, including a trio with Robbins and bassist Mario Pavone, is “a complete savant.”

Robbins offers an example: “Tyshawn can sit at the piano, and I’ll say, ‘Play the B section from the second track of my second record and he’ll just play it. He’s a genius that way. Like Mike, he can take any style and make it authentic.” Sorey’s impending “sabbatical” from regular live performance as he pursues an advanced degree in composition also was a motivation for Robbins’ to capture siLENT Z’s playfully complex mojo in a club setting. Robbins approachs each of the album’s tracks as a particular challenge. The opening number, “edit/revise,” started out simply enough.  “I really wanted to write something in 4/4. I haven’t done that in a long time,” he explains. “I guess I halfway succeeded.” But the piece shifts into a more complex second part that translates the influence of UK electronic pioneers Autechre, via Sorey’s astonishingly nimble percussion.

The touching “his life, for all its waywardness” is a prime slice of siLENT Z and its wide-open best. The piece opens with the bittersweet atmospherics of Gamble’s guitar and effects, seemingly drifting in a sublime manner before the mood shifts, crackling with a fiery dialogue between Robbins’ horn and Sorey’s fast-rattling stick-work. “Jazz these days can get so bogged down in harmony and the subtleties of chord progressions and to me, if I really want to analyze a song, then I can appreciate those things, but I feel like in my head that idea is very much tied up with the ivory tower of jazz consumption: musicians making music for other nusicians,” Robbins says. “So the idea was to make this really simple harmonically, just totally in the key of C. And all white keys pretty much. Keep it kind of droney and moody, but also substantial underneath with this guitar lick in 15/8 and also a 4/4 bass line. I can’t keep it too simple. My brain won’t let me do it. But I wanted to make it accessible and also interesting.”

As a young musician in 7th grade, Robbins tried his hand at other instruments, like the clarinet, but found his destiny one day when his father, a jazz and classical enthusiast, sat him down and played him three records. “Miles, Bird and Dexter Gordon,” he says. “Dad told me, ‘Trumpet, alto or tenor. Those are your options.’ Charlie Parker stuck out for me because he played so fast.” Later revelations came when, as a high school student, Robbins heard the late saxophonist Thomas Chapin at one of his final gigs. “It was a whole other way to play jazz, and it really turned me on.” Likewise, the discovery of the prolific altoist Tim Berne’s quartet Bloodcount proved a real turning point.

“I didn’t know what was going on the first time I heard it,” Robbins says, referencing the triple-live CD Unwound. “I knew something incredible was happening but had no idea what it was.” What it was, he now relates, was “Jim Black’s drumming and the way that he and [bassist Michael] Formanek played together. Their time together was like this giant monster brainy groove. The thing I’d been looking for forever. That and way they would go in and out of more abstract, semi-structured improv and very rock-heavy odd-meter grooves that are not really tonal. It was exactly what was appealing to me.”

Though the music Robbins invents with siLENT Z almost insists on evading easy definition, the bandleader gives it another shot. “Even now, that’s what I’m trying to accomplish, covering free stuff and odd meter like prog-rock influence jazz nerdy grooves … or something.”

Release Date: May 25, 2010

Links
Pete Robbins’ Website
Pete Robbins on MySpace
Pete Robbins on Facebook
Pete Robbins on Twitter

For more information contact:
Matt Merewitz
Fully Altered Media
215-629-6155
matt@fullyaltered.com

January 12
Dave Rempis & Frank Rosaly – Cyrillic (482 Music)
(saxophone & drums duo)

January 19
Colorlist – A Square White Lie (482 Music)
(Chicago minimalist electronic duo; 180-gram vinyl or download only – no CDs)

January 26
Greg Burk Quartet – Many Worlds (482 Music)
(new recording from 482 Music stalwart; American pianist based in Italy)

Sam Sadigursky – The Words Project III: Miniatures (New Amsterdam Records)
(poetry by Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, Léon de Greiff, Maxim Gorky, Fernando Pessoa + ensemble featuring vocalists Michael Leonhart, Heather Masse, Christine Correa, Jamie Leonhart, Monika Heidemann, Sunny Kim, Sadigursky + more)

FEBRUARY

February 02
Steve Colson Trio – The Untarnished Dream (Silver Sphinx Records)
(featuring Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, Iqua Colson)

MARCH

March 19
Thomas Savy – French Suite (Plus Loin Music)
(bass clarinet-led trio recording featuring Scott Colley & Bill Stewart)

March 26
Allison Miller – BOOM TIC BOOM (Foxhaven Records)
(featuring Myra Melford, Todd Sickafoose + special guest Jenny Scheinman)

APRIL

April 13
Nels Cline Singers – Initiate (Cryptogramophone Records)
(Disc 1: Studio; Disc 2: Live; featuring Scott Amendola, Devin Hoff + special guests David Witham, Yuka Honda, Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Satomi Matsuzaki, John Dieterich; engineered by Ron Saint Germain)

April 27
Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things – Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)
(3rd installment of trilogy of recordings devoted to the remarkable, but often overlooked period of 1954-1960 in Chicago jazz; featuring Greg Ward, Tim Haldeman, Jason Roebke)

MAY

May 04
Jason Ajemian’s Daydream Full Lifestyles – Protest Heaven (482 Music)
(featuring Tony Malaby, Rob Mazurek, Jeff Parker, Chad Taylor)

Other Upcoming Projects

- several recordings on the Finnish label TUM Records including Juhani Aaltonen, Kalle Kalima & K-18, Billy Bang Quintet, FAB Trio, Andrew Cyrille’s Hatian Fascination + many more (March-June)

- a new recording by drummer/composer Scott Amendola (one featuring guitarist Jeff Parker) to be released on his own label (April/May)

- a live recording by alto saxophonist Pete Robbins’ sILENT Z on his new label Hate Laugh Music (May)

- a new recording by the trumpeter/composer/arranger/bandleader David Weiss’s Point of Departure Quintet (featuring JD Allen, Nir Felder, Luques Curtis, Jamire Williams) to be released on Sunnyside Records

- an electro-jazz record by trumpeter Taylor Haskins’ Recombination (featuring Henry Hey, Ben Monder, Todd Sickafoose & Nate Smith) to be released on Nineteen-Eight Records (Summer or Fall 2010)