Stories » Jane Ira Bloom's 'Sixteen Sunsets' makes No. 8 on amazon's 'Hot New Jazz Releases'

Stories for June 05, 2020

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    The Romantic theme of the wanderer runs through Seong-Jin Cho's latest solo album / WFMT: Featured New Release
     
    Posted At : June 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    The Romantic theme of the wanderer, a free spirit undertaking a journey into the self, runs through Seong-Jin Cho's latest solo album. The globetrotting Korean pianist's program includes two monuments of the 19th-century repertoire – Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor. The album also contains Alban Berg's Piano Sonata, Op. 1, a single-movement work of extraordinary intensity. All three compositions grow from a simple theme or melodic gesture which is then transformed in the course of a voyage of variation, development, and discovery. "This music looks forwards and backwards at once," notes Cho. "What fascinates me is the (three) composers' ability to create great art from just a few elements. The way they develop the works' entire fabric from a single motif is fascinating." For Thursday June 4, 2020 - Seong-Jin Cho - The Wanderer is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

  • Libera set for online concert during COVID - 19 pandemic
     
    Posted At : June 3, 2020 12:00 AM

    On Saturday 6th June, Libera were due to perform a concert in Ely Cathedral in the UK. Due to the COVID - 19 pandemic, this event has been postponed - but......... there will still be a Concert - a Mini-Concert which will be shown online! Please join us at 7 30pm UK time, when we will be singing on-line with an orchestra like we've never done before! This will be shown as a YouTube Premier and the concert will be remain on-line after that first 'transmission'. This concert is free for all to watch. But if you are able to make a donation to help us with the cost of presenting it we would be very grateful.  UK Taxpayers can donate using JustGiving.  All others can use Paypal.

  • Michael Whalen chats with 97.9:KBOG
     
    Posted At : June 3, 2020 12:00 AM

    Michael Whalen's "Sacred Spaces" is an epic recording nearly ten years in the making. Whalen said; "I have been pursuing a spiritual ‘awakening' for most of my adult life. Over the past decade, I realized that I am 100 percent responsible for whatever my relationship with a ‘higher being' might be." Filled with sonic landscapes built from hundreds of layers of sound, "Sacred Spaces" is Michael's tour-de-force electronic project, which seamlessly blends his natural gift for melody with fresh textures and percolating rhythms. Deeply inspired by Michael's film and TV work and his love for progressive rock, "Sacred Spaces" is the ambient recording of the year. Michael Whalen spoke with Oregon's KBOG Radio about the recording. Listen to the attached interview

  • Igor Levit on Surviving a Satie Marathon / The New York Times Q&A
     
    Posted At : May 31, 2020 12:00 AM

    The pianist Igor Levit is always one-upping himself. His recordings have swollen from a collection of four Beethoven sonatas to the entire cycle; his performances, from a traditional recital to, as of Sunday, a livestream lasting over 15 hours. In an extraordinary act of musical self-flagellation, Mr. Levit played Erik Satie's "Vexations" - a mysterious and absurd work consisting only of four lines repeated 840 times - to evoke and draw attention to the difficulties facing artists during the coronavirus pandemic. (Each iteration was printed on a single sheet of paper; they will be auctioned later to raise money for out-of-work musicians.) "Vexations" performances are extremely rare, and typically presented as a roughly 19-hour relay with a long roster of pianists. But Mr. Levit - accomplishing the unthinkable, if inadvisable - did it alone in a Berlin studio, starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday and finishing at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, relatively early even with scattered intermissions. If Mr. Levit's traversal, paid for using the $300,000 Gilmore Artist Award he received in 2018, was brisk, it was only for small stretches. The tempo direction is "très lent" ("very slowly"), which he started with and often returned to. But there were flashes in which he hurriedly pecked the keyboard as if jaded and exasperated, understandably dropping notes along the way. "I got so tired that literally my fingers stopped moving," Mr. Levit said in an interview on Sunday. "Maybe a chord came a second late, but nobody died because of it. I'm OK with that; it's part of the performance." At no point, he said, did he feel like he wasn't going to finish. And he avoided scaring himself beforehand with the piece's history, like in 1970 when Peter Evans quit after 595 repetitions, claiming to have had evil thoughts and visions. Pianists who take on "Vexations," he later said, "do so at their own great peril." Mr. Levit may have felt confident, but his facial expressions betrayed frustrated exhaustion. He sometimes slouched or stared emptily into the distance, or held a palm to his reddened forehead - given a persistent sheen by sweat - as if in despair. The fascinating livestream occasionally slid into something more disturbingly voyeuristic, like witnessing a private crisis of faith and bracing for it to all go wrong. But it didn't. If anything, Mr. Levit found renewed focus near the end, returning to a slow, even drawn-out tempo for what is inevitably an anticlimax. When I heard "Vexations" at the Guggenheim Museum in 2017, the audience didn't realize it was over until the pianist stood up from his bench. There was clearer finality in Mr. Levit's performance. He had been tossing the sheet music of each repetition onto the floor, and once he got rid of the last one, he slowly closed the lid of the piano, held his face in his hands and walked away, nonchalantly picking his iPhone off a side table on the way out. He slept for only a few hours before resuming his Sunday as usual. In the early evening, still riding a high from "Vexations," he spoke about his experience with it and what might come next. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
      Where do you even start with preparing for this? From the beginning of planning to the concert was about three and a half or four weeks. And I didn't train for it at all. I tried to play it at home, but without pressure and the actual thing happening - honestly, I got bored. There was no point of just playing it. There couldn't have been any emotional preparation, but I did have a musical goal. I told myself: I am not playing performance art, not stoically in the same tempo. I wanted to just let myself go, to do as much as I could to make it like a piece, like storytelling. Did it leave you in any sort of pain? I'm not making this up: I'm feeling really good. I have no back or hand issues, no headache. What about psychologically? There were moments of anger, there were moments of fear, sadness, devastation. But these were touchable moments for me more than anything psychological. In the middle, I looked at where I was and thought: There are still 590 to go, what the heck? It took me about half an hour to get through that, but it was really the only moment where I thought, not that I wasn't going to make it, but that I was annoyed. I feel like that showed in your playing. I just let myself go. And I wasn't thinking about questions about the dynamics; it was just following my emotions. Sometimes that was just counting every single number. But there were also moments where I was thinking about how I'm playing this piece while the U.S. is burning. This country I love so much - I felt a great level of despair and anger. I can't tell you that it translated into the music, but it at least translated into me. A very long part of the performance was driven by this thought. Were you keeping up with the news during the intermissions? This was the first time since the bloody iPhone was invented that I didn't have it with me for 16 hours! But I had seen the news from Minneapolis the night before. Then what were you doing when you weren't playing? Peeing. Sorry if that's not a good answer. But I was drinking water all the time, probably five and a half liters at least. I was really sorry to have to stop. I do not like intermissions; it's really hard to stand up. I wish I could play concerts without them. What comes after something like "Vexations"? I honestly don't know. This morning, my friends came over for coffee and I opened my iPad and Googled "the longest piano pieces ever." And 90 percent of what comes out is Sorabji. Then Frederic Rzewski's "The Road," which is an incredible cycle. He once told me it's like "War and Peace" music. So you're not going to just take a break. Are you kidding? Of course not.  PHOTO: Stephan Zwickirsch

  • Sharon Isbin, Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash: "Love Avalanche" from 'Strings for Peace' makes NPR Music's No. 1 Albums And Songs Of May
     
    Posted At : June 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    At the end of every month, the NPR Music team picks their favorite albums and songs. Everyone has their passions and they vary widely, from the Atlanta rapper Deante' Hitchcock to the Australian ambient artist Madeleine Cocolas. On this week's show, we hear the No. 1 albums and songs of May as picked by our staff. There's the Portland band MAITA, which features a singer who entered our Tiny Desk contest in 2018. We also have the 20-year-old Eve Owen (who released an album produced by The National's Aaron Dessner), a team-up between classical guitarist Sharon Isbin and Indian sarod master Ayaan Ali Bangash, and Buscabulla, a duo from Puerto Rico who met in New York City and returned to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to rediscover their home. And then there's brilliant jazz guitar playing from the Kurt Rosenwinkel Trio and joy from Scotland's Vistas. "Love Avalanche" a cool East-meets-West raga featuring multiple Grammy-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin paired with the Indian sarod master Ayaan ali Bangash. - Tom Huizenga

  • 'The Dream' from Oded Tzur - Here Be Dragons featured on Punto Radio - animajazz
     
    Posted At : June 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    In episode 921 of "ANIMAJAZZ", conceived and conducted by BRUNO POLLACCI , broadcast on TUESDAY 2 June at 20.30, on PUNTORADIO, also streaming on www.puntoradio.fm and in an immediate podcast on http: // animajazz. eu will be the protagonists of the evening, which include; "The Dream"; by ODED TZUR from "Here Be Dragons"  Here Be Dragons is the ECM debut of New York based, Tel Aviv born tenor saxophonist Oded Tzur, one of the most strikingly original musicians to have emerged from Israeli's creative jazz scene in recent years, and the leader of an outstanding group.  Oded Tzur has found a new and personal sound for the tenor saxophone. Inspired by his extensive studies from 2007 onward with bansuri master Hariprasad Chaurasia, he has mastered the graceful slides of Indian classical music and brought raga's sense of pitch fluidity and microtonal shading into a jazz context. His pieces elegantly explore and unfold their melodic and atmospheric implications in a context of subtle group interaction. Structurally, each of Tzur's compositions on Here Be Dragons sets out to develop a "miniature raga" over a moving bass, juxtaposing two musical concepts. Oded: "The dialogue between these dimensions takes us wherever it takes us." The ragas deployed in the pieces "Here Be Dragons", "20 Years" and "The Dream" are of Oded's creation, while "To Hold Your Hand" uses an Indian scale called Charukesi and operates on similar principles. He stresses, however, that "raga is, for me, a universal concept. I hear its connection to synagogue prayers, or to the blues – a marvellous creation – and to music all around the world." Ancient and modern traditions are referenced in Oded's work, including traditions of storytelling. "If music has the ability to tell stories," suggested All About Jazz, "saxophonist Oded Tzur proves himself one of the jazz world's premier storytellers." Tzur's concept is also broad enough to embrace some unexpected song choices, and the album concludes with a tender interpretation of "Can't Help Falling In Love", made famous by Elvis Presley.  We remind you that "ANIMAJAZZ" can be heard on TUESDAY at 20.30 in immediate podcast on http://animajazz.eu and the "DOWNLOAD" of the episode can be made, free of charge, from the podcasts area. Happy listening. "ANIMAJAZZ" in collaboration with the PISA ACADEMY OF ART.  SEE THE PAGE

  • Lara Downes plays npr: tiny desk home
     
    Posted At : May 30, 2020 12:00 AM

    The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit - stripped-down sets, an intimate setting - just a different space. Lara Downes thrives on collaboration. Her new album features Toshi Reagon, the vocal ensemble MUSICALITY and the string quartet called PUBLIQuartet. But in this intimate piano recital from her home in Sacramento, Calif., her only collaborators are her son Simon, who takes on cinematography duties, and her beloved pooch, Kona. The songs, all from her recent album Some of These Days, might be old, but they are strong statements that resonate in new ways. From Margaret Bonds, one of the first celebrated African-American women composers, there's "Troubled Water," a poignant riff on the spiritual "Wade in the Water" that Downes says takes a "journey from classical virtuosity to gospel, jazz, blues and back again." Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's arrangement of "Deep River," for Downes, now represents "crossing over" the coronavirus crisis, while Florence Price's "Some of These Days," is a vision of better times ahead. In a moment of vulnerability, Downes admits that not being out on the road – performing, embedded in communities and working with young people – makes her feel "not very useful." But in these performances there's a sturdiness and purpose that provide both comfort and the strength to carry on. Very useful, indeed. SET LIST "Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water" "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River" "Florence Proce: Some Of These Days" LISTEN

Top 10 for Jun

  • Ludovico Einaudi :

    12 Songs From Home

     Ludovico Einaudi today releases a special 12-track digital collection, ‘12 Songs From Home', out digitally on Decca Records on 8thMay 2020 with artwork drawn by the composer.
  • El-P :

    Capone OMPS

     Milan Records Today Releases Capone (Original Motion Picture Score) With Music By The Grammy-Nominated Run The Jewels' Producer And Rapper El-P.
  • Owen Pallett :

    Spaceship Earth

     Milan Records announces today's release of SPACESHIP EARTH (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by composer, violinist, keyboardist and vocalist OWEN PALLETT.
  • Uno Helmersson :

    The Painter and the Thief OMPS

     Milan Records today releases THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by award-winning composer Uno Helmersson.
  • John Scofield :

    Swallow Tales

     Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 - "old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it.
  • Grigory Sokolov :

    Beethoven * Brahms

     Typically, one half of a Sokolov programme enters his concert repertoire in October, the other half in February.
  • Aska Matsumiya :

    Betty

     Milan Records and HBO today release BETTY (HBO ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK) with music by composer ASKA MATSUMIYA.
  • Nicola Benedetti :

    Elgar Violin Concerto

     GRAMMY award-winning Nicola Benedetti's new album on Decca Classics explores music by Britain's best loved composer, Edward Elgar.
  • Bear McCreary :

    Outlander

     Sony Music today releases OUTLANDER: SEASON 5 (ORIGINAL TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK) with music by EMMY® and BAFTA award-winning composer BEAR MCCREARY.
  • Tom Holkenborg :

    White Lines - Music From The Netflix Original Seri

     Milan Records announces the release of WHITE LINES (MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES) with music by multi-platinum producer, musician, composer and educator TOM HOLKENBORG aka JUNKIE XL.

Jane Ira Bloom's 'Sixteen Sunsets' makes No. 8 on amazon's 'Hot New Jazz Releases'

Posted: December 18, 2013 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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Crossover Media Projects with Jane Ira Bloom

  • Jane Ira Bloom

    Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson

    American original Jane Ira Bloom does it again. This time the 21st-century soprano saxophonist reimagines the poetry of 19th-century visionary Emily Dickinson in two different settings. This new 2 CD pack, has the quartet (Dawn Clement (piano), Mark Helias (bass)& Bobby Previte (drums) interpretating Dickinson's poetry both instrumentaly and in spoken word settings that feature readings by popular stage & film actor Deborah Rush. After the success of her 2016 trio album release Early Americans, Bloom shifts gears with Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson. Bloom composed Wild Lines when she was awarded a 2015 CMA/ Doris Duke New Jazz Works commission. She was inspired to musically reimagine Dickinson when she learned that the poet was a pianist and improviser herself.

    309 TOTAL
    SYND:     PRI/Jazz After Hours, Jazz FM
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Cleveland, Portland, Seattle, Detroit, Austin, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Albuquerque, Berkeley CA, San Antonio, Louisville, Knoxville, Orlando, Madison WI, Long Island NY, Omaha, Hartford CT, WV(Statewide), OR(Statewide), ME(Statewide), Honolulu, Vancouver, Berlin, Pisa, Oslo
    INTER: Canada, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Austria, Norway, Russia, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
    Online: MOJA, Jazz From Gallery 41, Downbeat, Soulandjazz.com, salt peanuts, Contemporary Fusion Review, LEMON WIRE, Midwest Record, Green Arrow, Jazz Views, Radio Valencia, Jazzandrock.com, Keys and Chords, era jazzu  

    14 Jazzweek ADD's

  • Jane Ira Bloom

    Early Americans

    You never know what American original soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom is going to do next. After the success of her 2014 all-ballads release "Sixteen Sunsets" Bloom shifts into another gear showcasing the kinetic energy of her acclaimed trio playing with the musicians that she knows best on Early Americans (OTL142). It's her first trio album, sixteenth as leader and sixth recording on the Outline label. Her sound is like no other on the straight horn and she lets it fly on every track. She's joined by long-time bandmates Mark Helias on bass & drummer Bobby Previte and with over fifty years of shared musical history together the album is sure to be a winner. Bloom's collaboration with Helias dates back to the mid 70's in New Haven CT and her unique chemistry with Previte has been ongoing since 2000. She brought the group together in summer 2015 to Avatar Studio B in NYC to capture their breathtaking sound in both stereo and surround-sound with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson. The album features twelve Bloom originals ranging from the rhythmic drive of "Song Patrol" and "Singing The Triangle" to the spare melancholy of "Mind Gray River." She closes the album with a signature solo rendition of the American songbook classic, Bernstein & Sondheim's "Somewhere." World-renowned portrait photographer Brigitte Lacombe contributes a stunning cover image of Bloom. "Playing in threes" has always held a special fascination for jazz artists - it offers the possibility that something can be slightly off balance and that's just what fires the imagination of players like Bloom, Helias, & Previte. With Early Americans Jane Ira Bloom stands in the vanguard of her generation carving out new territory in the heart of the jazz tradition. Don't miss this trio of "fearless jazz explorers who share a commitment to beauty & adventure."

  • Jane Ira Bloom

    Sixteen Sunsets

    "I grew up listening to these songs and knowing the lyrics. They were a part of my earliest listening experiences so playing them is like breathing to me. As time's gone by it's been easier to let the meaning of the songs come through the horn."- Jane Ira Bloom

    Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has always had a special feeling for ballad performances. So much so that she has now finally released: Sixteen Sunsets, a beautiful new recording featuring expressive interpretations from the American Songbook along with five compelling slow tempo original compositions. With this her 15th album as leader and her first all-ballads album, Sixteen Sunsets pairs JIB with long-time colleagues Cameron Brown on bass and Matt Wilson on drums, along with an exciting new pianist we will all be hearing a lot more from: Dominic Fallacaro.
     

  • Jane Ira Bloom

    Mental Weather

    After thirty years, Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has returned to her original label, Outline Records, for a disc employing an electro-acoustic band which brings together fellow 70's New Havenite Mark Helias on bass, drummer Matt Wilson, and Seattle new comer Dawn Clement on keyboards for Mental Weather. After premiering the piece with the Doris Duke new jazz works program, Bloom then brought the band into Avatar Studio B in NYC with audio engineering legend Jim Anderson and laid down nine thrilling tracks.

    4 New 'ON' this week: 198 'Total
    SYND:     NPR: Fresh Air PRI: All That Jazz, WFMT Net: Jazz with Bob Parlocha, CMJ & Jazzweek Charts
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Wash DC, Philadelphia, Seattle, Minneapolis, Miami, Atlanta, Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Portland, Las Vegas, San Diego, New Orleans, Buffalo, Albuquerque, Berkeley CA, Louisville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Honolulu, Buffalo, Omaha, Raleigh, Toledo, Santa Fe, San Jose, San Antonio, Knoxville, Stanford CA, Puerto Rico
    CANADA: Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Quebec
    INTER: France, The Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, New Zealand, Russia, Austria, Columbia
    Charts: CMJ & Jazzweek
    Press includes: Downbeat, All About Jazz, JazzTimes

  • Jane Ira Bloom

    Wingwalker

    Whether adventuring into interior or outer space in her music, award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom continues to navigate her unique musical path with creative abandon. Wingwalker, her 14th album as leader and fourth album on the Outline label reunites Bloom with long-time bandmates Dawn Clement on piano, bassist Mark Helias, and drummer Bobby Previte. After two years since Bloom's last release "Mental Weather," she brought the band together in June 2010 to record new compositions written during time made possible by a Guggenheim Fellowship. Wingwalker was recorded in Avatar Studio B in New York City with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson. The album features eleven Bloom originals and a solo sax rendition of Lerner & Lowe's classic "I Could Have Danced All Night." From the groove inspired "Life on Cloud 8" to the spare simplicity of "Adjusting to Midnight," Jane has journeyed further into jazz dimensions without a safety net. The CD also features an extra mp3 downloadable version of the music condensed into a 5 minute 49 second event.

    8 New 'ON' this week: 336 Total
    Synd: Voice Of America, PRI/Jazz After Hours
    Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Wash DC, Philadelphia, Seattle, Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, Portland, San Diego, Detroit, Long Island NY, Austin, Milwaukee, Memphis, Albuquerque, Orlando, Tampa, Puerto Rico
    International: Canada, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan
    Online: The Jazz Session, Moja, Live 365, Taintradio, Jazzweekly.com, All About Jazz, amazon, Aggie Radio, UKJazzRadio, Jazz Virtuosa, Hot House, Cory Weeds, Jazzreview.com, Jazz Police, PopMatters, Big Butter and the Eggman, IAJRC