Soprano saxophonist/composer and NASA artist Jane Ira Bloom brings her trio for the first time to Brooklyn NY - ShapeShifter Lab on March 13 performing with long-time bandmates bassist Mark Helias and drummer Matt Wilson. A pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, Bloom's been leading bands into new creative territory for over 40 years. She is a multi-time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll and Jazz Journalists Award for Soprano Saxophone and recipient of the Guggenheim fellowship. The trio has always held a special fascination for musicians because "playing in threes" holds out the possibility that something can always be slightly off balance and that's just what fires the imagination of players like these. Helias and Wilson, mature composer/ bandleaders in their own right, add depth and innovation to every spontaneous choice they make. Don't miss these "fearless jazz explorers who share a commitment to beauty & adventure. SEE THE Jazz-Quad PAGE

On Monday, August 26 / Key in the morning at 11:45 am, Deutschlandfunk Kultur presents a Portrait of the soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. The soprano saxophone is not always taken for full in jazz, quite often it is additional instrument to alto or tenor saxophone. A few musicians have focused exclusively on the higher, usually unbent, saxophone. From a distance it is easy to confuse it with a clarinet, but the sound is sharper and more pressure. A musician who can only be experienced on the soprano saxophone is Jane Ira Bloom. The US saxophonist is an icon in music circles, but beyond the jazz circle she is not well known.
Author: Ulrich Habersetzer READ THE FULL Deutschlandfunk Kultur PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

For a century, jazz was a men's club. Half a century ago, the acclaimed music critic George T. Simon said everything you need to know about sexism in jazz: "Only God can make a tree, and only men can play good jazz." This gender bias has deep roots. Jazz has always been a boys' club, a macho art form reserved for brash, fast-fingered men living on the road, in cramped quarters, hustling from gig to gig. And despite playing a pioneering role in integration and the civil rights movement, jazz has had an abysmal record on gender. The pantheon of jazz giants is overwhelmingly male, comprising musicians who even neophytes know on a first-name basis: Louis and Duke, Dizzy and Miles. Women, meanwhile, have long been celebrated as exceptions. Nothing reinforces this fact better than the Village Vanguard, the legendary club in Manhattan's West Village, where the photos and posters on the dark-green walls constitute a de facto Jazz Hall of Fame. Amid the dozens of male faces there are exactly seven women: Dorothy Donegan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Shirley Horn, all pianists and singers; pianist and composer Geri Allen; bebop guitarist Mary Osborne, whose poster hangs in an unenviable spot opposite the ice machine; as well as a poster of experimental guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson, the only woman on this list who is still alive. "I'm so embarrassed to say it, but with female performers at the Vanguard, I barely need two hands to count them," admits Deborah Gordon, who since 1989 has been comanaging the club (founded by her father, Max, in 1935, and later run by her mother, Lorraine). "It's so hard being a jazz musician anyway. Why wouldn't it be harder being a female jazz musician? It's one more strike." Now a vanguard of women virtuosi reshaping this most American of art forms is Grammy-winning saxophonist-composer Jane Ira Bloom whose most recent inspiration was Emily Dickinson's poetry in Wild Lines. Bloom is one of 16 standouts featured in this Vanity Fair - Sisters of Swing edition.    PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY READ THE FULL Vanity Fair ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

Congratulations to all the winners of the 24th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. Professional Journalist Members of the JJA made open nominations in a first selection round; those who received the most nominations advanced to the final ballot. Our congratulations, also to the 2019 Nominees in all categories 2019 JJA Jazz Awards winners will receive their awards during performances or other public events this summer. 2019 WINNERS IN JAZZ MUSIC AND RECORDING INCLUDE: Arranger of the Year - Maria Schneider Historical Record of the Year - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album, John Coltrane (Impulse!/Verve) Record Label of the Year - ECM Male Vocalist of the Year - Kurt Elling Female Vocalist of the Year - Cécile McLorin Salvant Soprano Saxophonist of the Year - Jane Ira Bloom Guitarist of the Year - Bill Frisell Pianist of the Year - Kenny Barron Percussionist of the Year - Pedrito Martinez p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} SEE JJA PAGE

What happens when you combine the singular sound of award winning soprano saxophonist & NASA artist Jane Ira Bloom with the technical artistry of legendary audio engineer Jim Anderson and tonmeister Ulrike Schwarz? The surround sound Grammy winning team has upped their game to showcase excerpts from their latest project which features Bloom's albums "Sixteen Sunsets" "Early Americans" & "Wild Lines" in ground breaking Dolby Atmos at the High End Audio Conference in Munich Germany May 9-12.  The project "Above and Beyond" showcases Bloom's music the way you've never heard it before with the surround sound recording extended into full 360-degree space. The team will preview, perform, and discuss their work of combining the highest standards of artistic and technical collaboration, live and up close as guests of PMC Speakers and Dolby Atmos at the High End audio show.  In early 2019 Jim Anderson & Ulrike Schwarz went into both Skywalker Sound in Northern California to mix in 3D audio and the famous Capitol Studios in Los Angeles to mix Bloom's recordings in Dolby Atmos. The results are like no other recording you've ever heard before.  Jane Ira Bloom's immersive music will premiere in room F123. SEE THE Jazz-Quad PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Award-winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom will make her return to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut for a performance with her quartet at the Yale Jazz Festival on April 12. She will be joined by longtime bandmates drummer Bobby Previte, keyboardist Dominic Fallacaro and bassist Cameron Brown for an evening of high wire improvisations on the groove, performing selections from her Like Silver, Live Song recording project. Bloom, a Yale alumnus (B.A. ‘76, Yale Music School ‘77) has steadfastly developed her singular voice on the soprano saxophone for over 40 years creating a body of music that marks her as an American original. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz and the winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album for her trio album "Early Americans." She is the winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, the Jazz Journalists Award and Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano saxophone, the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz and the Charlie Parker Fellowship for Jazz Innovation. She is a professor at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC. SEE ALL ITEMS ON JAZZIZ PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

While thinking beyond musical genres is a hallmark of a great many of today's musical creators, Jane Ira Bloom clearly maneuvers within a genre while at the same time subverting any attempt at making generalizations about her work. The primary mode of music-making she engages in is performing her own instrumental compositions on the soprano saxophone in the company of a small group of like-minded collaborative improvisers, and those compositions are clearly indebted to the jazz tradition. But there are important exceptions to just about every detail of that description that are key to defining who she is as a musician. She primarily performs her own musical creations, but just about every album she has ever recorded, as well as most of her live performances, also include at least one example of her own extremely personal interpretations of an American standard or a classic jazz composition. But while the American songbook has been an unending fount of inspiration for her improvisations and has even informed the ways she has constructed melodies in her own compositions, she has never featured a singer in any of her projects thus far. And, with the exception of her most recent recording, Wild Lines, which includes recitations of poetry by Emily Dickinson, all her performances are un-texted instrumentals. She performs almost exclusively on the soprano saxophone (there's been a stray track here and there over the years of her on alto), but she began her musical studies on the piano, and the grand piano she keeps in her living room is the main instrument on which she composes. She has primarily performed with and composes for a small cadre of fellow travelers with whom she has worked for decades (e.g. Fred Hersch, Mark Dresser, Bobby Previte), but she has also written music for orchestra, wind band, dance and film, and has participated in improvisatory world music collaborations with Chinese pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen and South Indian vocalist and vina player Geetha Ramanathan Bennett (who died just a day after we recorded our talk with Jane Ira Bloom). Bloom acknowledges and embraces the jazz tradition, but for more than 30 years her saxophone improvisations have incorporated an electronic music component which she triggers in real time through the use of foot pedals, and sometimes the other musicians in her combos operate electronic devices as well. "I'm definitely a lateral thinker," Bloom acknowledged when we visited her to talk about her various musical experiences and how they have shaped her aesthetics as a composer and a performer. "There's no question in my mind that my strong background as a melodist, as someone who's loved and studied melody in many forms, takes me wherever I go. I'm a saxophonist who's very much interested in sound, and I've spent a long time working on a particular sound that I really invested a lot of thought in on the instrument I play-the soprano saxophone. And I'm interested in phrasing and breath. All those things travel with me wherever I go, and when I'm using the live electronics, that's where they're compelled from. It's me; it's not a black box. It's not an idea. I've learned an awful lot from the Afro-American music tradition and the American songbook, as well as exposing myself to world musics and all kinds of contemporary classical music. … I know what's authentic and real about who I am, and I take that with me wherever my imagination takes me." In addition to the aforementioned 2017 Emily Dickinson-inspired album, Bloom's imagination has led her to create a series of responses to abstract expressionist paintings by Jackson Pollock ("the freedom he was in touch with … is something that, as jazz musicians, we can tap into so easily") as well as motion-inspired melodic improvisation ("I collaborated with choreographers who were much more cognizant of this quality … you could make sound change by moving"). Her use of real-time live electronic processing in her saxophone playing has been an ongoing component of her musical explorations. Her description of it makes it seem a lot simpler than it actually sounds: Basically what I do with the electronics is I still play the saxophone, but I play through microphones that access electronic sounds that I blend and combine with my acoustic sound. And I trigger them using foot pedals, live and in the moment. Over the years, I've gotten skillful playing on one foot and tapping my toe on some pre-programmed settings that I've designed-on basically an old harmonizer and an old digital delay-and combining them in unusual ways. … I've spent some time trying to get the way I use them as an improviser as fluid as if it was a key on my saxophone. … It makes sense to me when the sounds appear and when they don't, when I choose to use them and when I choose not to use them. It's got to be fast. It's got to be intuitive, because I'm using them very much in the moment of improvising. Perhaps the most unusual place Bloom's imagination has taken her was to work with the American space program, which happened, as she explained to us, as a result of an unsolicited letter to NASA that her friend, actor Brian Dennehy, suggested she should write. "I thought he was nuts," she remembered. "But some time went by and I actually sat down and I wrote a letter in the dark-a letter in a bottle, right?-inquiring whether NASA had ever done any research on the future of the arts and space, in zero gravity environments. Something I was always fascinated with. Six months later, I get this envelope back, which has the NASA logo on the front of the envelope from a guy by the name of Robert Schulman, director of the NASA Art Program. … Bob and I corresponded for years. He was interested in jazz musicians-lucky me, you know. Eventually I posed the idea, how about NASA commissioning the first musician for the Art Program? And he loved the idea." Dennehy's "nutty" suggestion ultimately culminated in a 1989 concert at the Kennedy Space Center featuring the Brevard Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Fire and Imagination, an original work by Bloom scored for soprano saxophone, electronics, orchestra and "a whole bunch of ringers, the jazz musicians that were in the piece." Although the work has yet to be performed in its original version since the premiere and has also never been commercially recorded (though some reworkings of that material surfaced on her landmark 1992 album Art and Aviation), Bloom's association with NASA has had some unusual ripple effects. In 1998, an asteroid discovered on September 25, 1984 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of Lowell Observatory was named after her-6083 Janeirabloom! As for what her next project will be, she has no firm ideas and, as an adherent to valuing choices made in the moment, she seems to like it that way.   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE JANE IRA BLOOM: VALUING CHOICES MADE IN THE MOMENT WITH FRANK J. OTERI
SEPTEMBER 1, 2018   Video presentations and photography by Molly Sheridan
Transcription by Julia Lu

At the end of Playing Changes is a list: The 129 Essential Albums of the Twenty-First Century (So Far). I organized these by year, and then alphabetically by artist name. I'll be running them down here, in that order. (No one appears more than once as a leader, though there's ample overlap in personnel.) Jane Ira Bloom is a soprano saxophonist whose track record of excellence goes back more than 40 years. She isn't a doubler, a tenor player who also plays the straight horn; the soprano is her chosen instrument, and she has remained faithful to its sonic properties. Her sound on the horn is round and clear, and she takes every advantage of the possibilities its form presents. She likes to incorporate a sort of Doppler effect into her improvising; you can hear her do this at times on the title track to Chasing Paint, below. It also factored into her trio album Early Americans, which earned her (and engineer Jim Anderson) the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album. Bloom has also been at the forefront of contemporary improvisers engaging with a theme. Her most recent album is Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson; she has done commissioned work for NASA. Chasing Paint is a sterling example of her instinct for interdisciplinary connection; Bloom drew inspiration both from the formal properties of Jackson Pollock's canvases and the kinetic nature of his process. She urged her band to think as if they were painting with sound, and everyone seemed to grasp the idea.  READ THE FULL Playing Changes REVIEW

The Jazz Journalists Association Awards is an annual ritual for writers, musicians, and music industry types. On Tuesday evening June 13, the hundred or so people gathered at The New School's Theresa Lang Center crowded into the frame. The man with the camera (writer-photographer Michael Jackson) commanded his subjects to "squeeze in," a process that kept everyone on their toes, quite literally, and brought forth peals of laughter. There could have been no more apt scene, for an artistic community remarkable for its closeness. But it also captured what might be considered a watershed moment in jazz. Of the 29 awards given to musicians in 2018, a dozen went to women - a record number in this male-dominated field. Singer Jazzmeia Horn won Up and Coming Musician of the Year. And for the first time in the 22-year history of the awards, the award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism went to a female writer: Patricia Willard. Nicole Mitchell accepting Best Flutist at the JJA Awards on June 12, 2018. Linda May Han Oh won for Best Bassist, and cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, and baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, were present to accept their awards. After accepting her award, Bloom offered some perspective. "In the 1970s, the first women's jazz festivals shone a light on female performers and offered one idea of what they could be," she said. "Today you can see an expansiveness in the musical vision of the women here, a uniqueness, depth, intellect, and full range of expression. I'm so pleased to be in such rich and beautiful company."       See the complete list of the winners on JJA website      photo: ENID FARBER READ THE FULL WBGO ARTICLE

Also in 2017, adventurous soprano sax artist Jane Ira Bloom forayed into spoken-word with Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson. A set of understated jazz compositions inspired by poems by the Belle of Amherst, the release comes in two flavors: the music-only Disc 1, and the same pieces in a different order accompanied by actor Deborah Rush reading the poems on Disc 2. The riff-rich music, melodic, slinky, and gently fizzy, goes down easy, like a Dave Brubeck or Bill Evans set. But it's also the work of a virtuoso of that most marvelous of instruments, the listener's brain. It makes you stop and think. Flowing under Bloom's characteristic smoky sound, pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Mark Helias, and Bobby Previte on drums churn out lively beats and motifs with an almost palpable sense of joy, a feast for jazz aficionados and newcomers alike. Rush's readings on Disc 2 clarify the music's inspiration, though they're too dainty for my taste, too in line with the common and mistaken conception of Dickinson as a fragile, shrinking flower. On the other hand, they are spare and not intrusive; they don't detract from the music. Lovers of both poetry and jazz may well like these versions even more than the straight instrumentals. SEE ALL blogcritics REVIEWS p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

The spare, evocative poetry of Emily Dickinson has inspired no shortage of musical interpretation - notably by classical composers ranging from Samuel Barber to Aaron Copland to Elliot Carter. But the soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom finds a new register for this impulse with Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson, originally released on Outline Music last fall.  The album features an ace rhythm section of longtime Bloom collaborators: pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte. Joining them at times is the Broadway, film and television actress Deborah Rush, who gives voice to Dickinson's verse. Wild Lines, which Bloom composed after receiving a 2015 Chamber Music America / Doris Duke New Jazz Works commission, had its premiere the following year, in Dickinson's hometown of Amherst, Mass. There have been subsequent performances at the Kennedy Center and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Earlier this spring, WBGO was proud to present Bloom and her collaborators - with Allison Miller subbing in for Previte on drums - in a concert at the Yamaha Piano Salon. And we're pleased to share the full performance here, complete with an introduction by WBGO's Michael Bourne.     WATCH

Jane Ira Bloom and her quartet appeared at New York's Baruch Performing Arts Center as part of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series. She and her group performed music from her latest recording, "Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson" (on Outline). This is a double-CD set, one with just music and the other with the musicians accompanying readings from Dickinson's work. Her group on both the recording and the concert included Dawn Clement (piano), Mark Helias (bass), and Bobby Previte (drums). The actress Deborah Rush recited the poems, often imbuing the verses with a sense of wonder. The morning after the concert, The Epoch Times conducted a telephone interview with JIB. READ THE ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

College of Performing Arts at The New School is in good company, as many current faculty and alumni were recently awarded and nominated for Grammys at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Musicians, singers, and producers from Mannes School of Music, School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and School of Drama were recognized across various genres for their contributions. Faculty member and acclaimed soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom produced "Early Americans," which won for Best Surround Sound Album. READ THE FULL NEW SCHOOL NEWS ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

It is a given these days that the Grammy Awards telecast has devolved into a not very interesting TV variety show. And that most of the really interesting awards are given out off-camera the day before. The great New York City jazz label Mack Avenue Records deserved to win three Grammy Awards for records by Cecile McLorin Salvant and Billy Childs. In the audiophile world, old friend and audio engineer par excellence Jim Anderson won Best Surround Sound Album for Jane Ira Bloom's Early Americans album.  Showcasing the kinetic energy of Jane Ira Bloom's acclaimed trio, is Early Americans. With over fifty years of shared musical history together, Bloom, joined by Mark Helias on bass & drummer Bobby Previte create their unique chemistry and let it fly in both stereo and surround-sound with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson.  GRAMMY® Award-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant has had a remarkable rise to stardom in her professional career, and she's taken another big leap forward with Dreams and Daggers, her third album for Mack Avenue Records, and winner of the 2018 GRAMMY for 'Best Jazz Vocal Album.' READ THE FULL stereophile ARTICLE   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Early Americans is Jane Ira Bloom's first trio album, sixteenth as leader and sixth recording on the Outline label. Joined by long-time bandmates Mark Helias on bass & drummer Bobby Previte and with over fifty years of shared musical history together the album recording 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."  Early Americans wins 2018 GRAMMY for 'Best Surround Sound Album' Credits

Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom) -- WINNER p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

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. See Jazziz review as cover art.   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Last Call celebrates 22 years on KIOS: Omaha NE. On January 27th, Last Call will step back into the record library for a breathtaking series of performances from Jaco Pastorius and his Word of Mouth Big Band. and share with you an exciting new release from superstars Chick Corea & Steve Gadd. Plus our program will feature some of the best adventuresome jazz recordings from 2017 from Matt Wilson, Jane Ira Bloom, Vijay Iyer, and Wadada Leo Smith. Last Call started on KIOS in January 1996. Since that time Chris Cooke has been the host for this late night jazz program.  It is one of the few radio programs that present the very best of adventuresome jazz-music which generally falls outside of the mainstream of the genre, but includes some of the most creative and innovative music ever recorded by musicians anywhere. The program's host brings along with him several decades of experience and insight into jazz music as he steps into the studio to host each program. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} SEE THE SHOW PAGE

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. This is what consensus in jazz looks like now: The vote for 2017's best new recording in NPR's Fifth Annual Jazz Critics Poll, has Jane Ira Bloom - Wild LInes, Improvising Emily Dickinson coming in at #21 and #1 for Vocal with 77.5 Points on 14 Votes
SEE FULL NPR LIST

Is there a sound in jazz more instantly identifiable than Jane Ira Bloom's soprano saxophone? Even from the earliest days of her career, her ‘voice' has seemed to be resoundingly in place, and the decades since she first emerged haven't witnessed a significant alteration in that identity so much as an ongoing refinement. That her playing is at its customary high level on Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson isn't therefore what distinguishes the release, despite the considerable pleasure one derives from hearing her play. Instead, the inspiration Bloom's drawn from the nineteenth-century American poet is noteworthy for having inspired remarkable quartet performances and an exceptionally strong collection of original compositions. SEE ALL textura '2017 top 10s & 20s' REVIEWS

The use of poetry by jazz artists as inspiration or collaboration is one of the most welcome trends of the past few years. There is often a great link between the poet and the musician, as they play with shaded tones and meanings, textures and allusions, following or breaking rules as suits their artistic goals.  Jane Ira Bloom's Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson matches one of our great soprano sax players with the timeless poetry of one of America's greatest – and most enigmatic – poets, with great success. Ms. Bloom has found inspiration of her music in the visual arts and dance before, and the written word suits her as a leaping off point for composition and performance. Backed by her long-time band - Dawn Clement on piano; Mark Helias on bass; and Bobby Previte on drums – the new music has much of the bouncing sounds we have come to expect from Jane, sometimes playful and at other times with a sense of meditation. Her rhythm section steps it up on tracks like "Big Bill" and "Mind Gray River." It all comes together perfectly with "Hymn: You Wish You Had Eyes in Your Pages," with each instrumentalist "preaching" their say to great effect. Wild Lines wisely comes as a double CD set, with actress Deborah Rush providing narration over the tracks to make a different listening experience, one that enhances the music and brings home the thematic elements perfectly. For me, this is one of the best releases of the year. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; min-height: 13.0px} Podcast 604 is my conversation with Jane Ira Bloom, as we discuss the project, her life-long connection with the soprano sax, and she tells the story of the time the band performed this music in Emily Dickinson's home, with moving results. Musical selections from Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson include "Hymn: You Wish You Had Eyes in Your Pages," "One Note for One Bird," and with Deborah Rush, "A Star Not Far Enough." LISTEN TO THE PODCAST Straight No Chaser is the place for jazz lovers (and those who will soon be jazz lovers) to enjoy podcasts with their favorite music and artists. Winner of the 2017 JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast, your host Jeffrey Siegel will take you inside the world of jazz, from the new releases to the best festiva;s to remembrances of jazz legends.

After the success of Jane Ira Bloom's 2014 all-ballads release "Sixteen Sunsets" the sopranist shifted into another gear for the Sono Luminus label, showcasing the kinetic energy of her acclaimed trio on - Early Americans. Her first trio album, sixteenth as leader, and sixth on the Outline label, Bloom's sound is like no other on the straight horn and she lets it fly on every track. Joined by long-time bandmates Mark Helias on bass & drummer Bobby Previte, this trio has over fifty years of shared musical history together and shows it picking up a GRAMMY nomination in the 'Best Surround Sound Album' category.  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} Album personell - Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom). Label: Sono Luminus

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2017 Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson
Jane Ira Bloom (Out-Line)  by George Kanzler  Essentially, this is two CDs of (largely) the same music. The first is instrumental, delivered by soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom with pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte. The second CD revisits the same tunes, in slightly different order, edited and expanded to include the words of Emily Dickinson, recited by actress Deborah Rush. Enhanced winningly by the words, which reveal Bloom's inspiration for the music, the music on the second CD is more enjoyable with Dickinson's words and Rush's masterful delivery illuminating it.  Dickinson's poetry was a harbinger of modern free verse, often very short, neither rhymed nor in a regularly perceived meter, although the longest poem here, "A Star Not Far Enough", does have five stanzas of four metered lines, the second and fourth of each one rhyming. It is spoken, unlike the other 12 tracks with words, at the end of the music, in this case a lyrical, semi-rubato ballad by the duo of Bloom and Clement. The music reflects the bucolic nature of the poem and other tunes find references for the music in the words. "Singing the Triangle", a poem about a circus parade on Triangle Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, elicits a marching beat and bright, piping tune over syncopated rhythms. "Cornets of Paradise", from lines in another poem, conjures martial "Drums of the Phantom Battlements", casting the words over toms that usher in soprano evoking said cornets over an accelerating tempo, saxophone and piano trading solos as if in a race. "Mind Gray River" lays a somber ostinato bassline under the words, the band following up with the same pattern under yearning saxophone and piano soloing over and interacting with Previte's toms.  Bloom is inspired by the poetry to create singular song forms beyond usual 12-bar and 32-bar AABA forms, stretching the structure of "Say More" with unison lines and ostinati sprinkled with thematic solos. Two of the most striking and successful pieces-both as instrumentals and with poems-are "Alone & In A Circumstance" and "One Note from One Bird". The former is a fanciful depiction of a spider interrupting the poet's "circumstance"; the music, with dance- march drumming, interrupted by abrupt turnarounds during saxophone and piano solos. The latter, inspired by a very short poem (the first half is "One note from/ One Bird/is better than/a million words") has a knotty line reminiscent of Thelonious Monk, at his favorite tempo, with angular chords flirting with dissonance, prodding Bloom and Clement to their best solos on this exemplary album of poetry-inspired jazz. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 22.0px 'Book Antiqua'} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Book Antiqua'} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Book Antiqua'; color: #737373} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Book Antiqua'} p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial} span.s1 {font: 14.0px 'Book Antiqua'} span.s2 {font: 12.0px Times}

It seems only appropriate that the artist dubbed "the poet of the soprano saxophone" by acclaimed jazz critic Brian Priestly would honor one of America's iconic poets. Jane Ira Bloom reimagines the poetry of 19th-century visionary Emily Dickinson in two different settings. Her double CD showcases her jazz quartet's interpretation of Dickinson's poetry and includes a second version for jazz quartet and spoken word featuring readings by popular stage and film actor Deborah Rush. This is Bloom's seventeenth album and first venture into music and text. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} If you love the pure sound of the soprano without the screeching and honking and free from electric accompaniment, this album is for you.  The clarity of Bloom's sound is soothing, comforting and majestic.  Her distinctive sound resonates with her long-time band mates Dawn Clement (piano), Mark Helias (bass), and Bobby Previte (drums), all playing in the acoustic mode.  The Emily Dickinson narrative joins the ensemble in several passages on the second disc. Bloom composed Wild Lines when she was awarded a 2015 CMA/ Doris Duke New Jazz Works commission. READ THE FULL MAKING A SCENE REVIEW

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.  Read the JazzTimes - Review:  A wondrous two-disc set w twinned tracks featuring gorgeous instrumentals on the first and wry, spare recitation of Dickinson's work by actress Deborah Rush on the second, Wild Lines unleashes the lavish lyricism of Bloom's quartet w pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Mark Helias & drummer Bobby Previte. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial}

(Jane Ira Bloom; soprano/ Dawn Clement; piano/ Mark Helias; Bass/ Bobby Previte; drums/ Deborah Rush; voice) The idea of a modern jazz quartet taking its inspiration from the poetry of Emily Dickinson is ingenious but not obvious. By the standards of her poet-contemporaries she was deliberately unmusical–staccato, dissonant and ironical–features more readily associated with modernistic poetry or even bebop. To these features, we might add a hidden strength and a playful contrariness. Taken together, we have a banner for a band that plays serious original music without undue concern for categories or genre expectations. So what can we expect from a double cd dedicated to the Concord Solitary? The answer is to be found in a appropriately divided project that amounts to a musical encounter with the spirit of Dickenson. The first disc features 15 works (and oddly, one standard) that are titled after her poems or famous lines within. The second has unadorned reading (mercifully no singing) of the poems now attached to the musical charts, followed by improvised treatments. This allows the band to reimagine the tunes while negotiating the exacting compositions. Superb compositions for jazz quartet inspired by verses of Emily Dickinson, with ten readings integrated into alternative versions. - Fritz Balwit Audiophile Audition READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition REVIEW p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

Jazz is an international phenomenon. Musicians from all over the world are reshaping this unique art form with the spirit, culture, and creativity of their own musical traditions. Join Michael Ambrosino for The Fringe #ArtistSpotlight Series and hear these remarkable musicians speak about their art and how it's changing the landscape of Jazz! Nobody bridges the divide between modern and experimental Jazz quite like soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. Jane joins The Fringe to talk about her life long love affair with sound and her excellent new album, ‘Wild Lines – Improvising Emily Dickinson'. LISTEN TO SoulandJazz - The Fringe SEGMENT

Following hard on the heels of last years superb Early Americans, soprano saxophonist, Jane Ira Bloom does it again with another fresh and compelling album (and this time a double to boot!), taking as her source of inspiration the work of one of America's most idiosyncratic and reclusive poets, Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) she captures the spirit and musicality of Dickinson's unconventional writings. So unconventional that much of Dickinson's early published works were heavily edited to conform with accepted poetic rues of the time. It was not until nearly seventy years after her death that a complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. READ THE FULL JAZZ VIEWS REVIEW

With the Belle of Amherst as her muse, the soprano saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom has fashioned a vibrant, wholly unpretentious, double-disk project, "Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson," which translates both the introspective and the visionary nature of the great poet into exultant modern jazz. The actor Deborah Rush will again join Bloom's quartet, speaking Dickinson's abiding words. SEE The New Yorker POST

★★★ 1/2 Not unlike the hermetic poet Emily Dickinson, whose work presumably inspired or is some- how represented in this music, Jane Ira Bloom doesn't tell us much about her intentions here, other than to o er a rather cryptic subtitle: "Improvising Emily Dickinson." What we do have are two CDs. e rst is a collection of 14 "original" chamber pieces-I'll explain the quotes presently-with an unex- plained appearance at the end by Richard Rodgers on "It's Easy To Remember." It's love- ly work indeed from one of our nest soprano saxophonists. Some tunes have the bravado of a fanfare. Others have a somber re ective quality. But then there's the second CD, which is a bit of a puzzle. Each of the 14 pieces is repeat- ed virtually verbatim along with brief, tacked- on bites of Dickinson poetry read with inti- mate elegance by Deborah Rush. But without a bridge between the music and the recita- tion, it all becomes something of doleful home- work assignment associating one to the other through some thread of intent.  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} span.s1 {font: 10.0px 'PingFang SC'} Then there's the "original" music. Yes, it's all the work of Bloom-except that half the piec- es ("Other Eyes," "Singing e Triangle," "Mind Gray River," "Big Bill," three others) are peeled o her previous album, Early Americans, which was equally lovely but opaque in its intentions. Not to be too critical, but if this music is intended to con- vey Emily Dickinson, what was half of it doing on an unrelated project? -John McDonough

Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom's latest is a two-CD set inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and perhaps more importantly by Bloom's discovery that Dickinson was a pianist and an improviser. She has written 14 compositions, which appear on the first disc as instrumentals, and on the second accompanied by readings from Dickinson by actress Deborah Rush (Carol Chapman on Orange Is The New Black). The music has nothing of the 19th century about it - pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Mark Helias, and drummer Bobby Previte swing hard, though they frequently break down into abstraction (but not free jazz). Bloom's soprano playing is more clarinet-like than squawky, minimizing the soprano's more obnoxious qualities. And the instrumental and vocal versions of each piece are often very different from each other. The instrumental of "One Note From One Bird" features a strutting, thumping Previte drum line, and Bloom's solo flutters and bounces around, with occasional zooming long tones that almost sound fed through a pedal. When Rush introduces the second version, though, she's accompanied by melancholy solo piano, and it's Clement who dominates the subsequent improvisation. READ ALL Stereogum REVIEWS

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} Next Monday The Fringe celebrates the release of ‘Rediscovered Ellington,' the wonderful new album by Garry Dial, Dick Oatts, Richard DeRosa and The WDR Big Band, with a special two hour program showcasing the range of ways Ellington's music has been interpreted by traditional and modern Jazz musicians. Then on October 2nd, the Fringe Artist Spotlight features Jane Ira Bloom sharing her unique vision on creating a musical voice, creative improvisation, and incorporating poetry on her latest release ‘Wild Lines - Improvising Emily Dickinson.' All this and the usual trip around the edge of contemporary Jazz, on The Fringe and SoulandJazz.com.

To follow up last year's Early Americans, a vertiginously irresistible trio album cooked up with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom took inspiration from the work of American poet Emily Dickinson to mount a double-disc album containing 14 originals and a single jazz standard. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} The conception envisioned for this body of work, suggestively entitled Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson, allowed Ms. Bloom to expand her trio into a pliable quartet with the addition of the much-appreciated pianist Dawn Clement, who had given her contribution in 2008 and 2010 to the albums Mental Weather and Wingwalker, respectively. Her crisp comping and energizing improvised lines fit like a glove in the ambitious vision of the bandleader, who reserved the disc one for instrumentals and disc two for a dramatic combination of music and the poetry of Dickinson declaimed by actor Deborah Rush. READ THE FULL JazzTrail REVIEW

Jane Ira Bloom's new - Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson is a recording not to miss. The poetry of the reclusive yet visionary 19th Century poet is reimagined by the noted soprano saxophonist and composer on two CDs, with her jazz quartet and then adding spoken word readings by stage and film actor Deborah Rush. Bloom's lyrical genius at the soprano saxophone is the perfect compliment for Rush's readings of Dickinson's poetry. Together with Dawn Clement at the piano, Mark Helias on the bass and Bobby Previte on the drums, this is a sublime experience, with fourteen originals by the saxophonist  inspired by fragments of Dickinson's poetry and prose.  READ THE FULL KIOS: Omaha NE PAGE

What an astonishing figure Jane Ira Bloom continues to be. Even if her tone on soprano saxophone weren't uniquely beautiful and her technique preternaturally pliable, there would be her longtime connection with some of the greatest players in current jazz to distinguish her – pianist Fred Hersch on so many records (Dawn Clement plays terrific piano on this quartet disc), along with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte. On top of all that, there is the extraordinary creativity and idiosyncrasy that distinguishes so many of her records. What other jazz musician was virtually adopted by NASA for her love of astronauts and space travel? Who else is inspired by abstract painting on other discs and neuroscience still others? Her last disc "Early Americans" might have prepared us for the glory of this one but it really didn't. It's a jazz tribute to Emily Dickinson based on Bloom's discovery that Dickinson was not only an amateur pianist but was sometimes given to improvisation. Says Bloom "I didn't always understand her but I always felt Emily's use of words mirrored the way a jazz musician uses notes." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} One of the year's great jazz records by one of our greatest jazz poets and the brilliant friends who understand her completely. READ THE FULL Buffalo News REVIEW

Jane Ira Bloom, winner of the 65th Annual Downbeat Critics Poll Winners (2017) award in the soprano saxophone category, took as her inspiration for this recording, the writings of nineteenth century America poet Emily Dickinson. Such was her admiration for the poet that she composed the music for this double CD as a lyrical paean, made possible by a commission from Chamber Music America's 2015 New Jazz Works Program, funded through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.  Some of Dickinson's words, notably from a posthumously published collection The Gorgeous Nothings and also Emily Dickinson and The Art Of Belief, are spoken by actor Deborah Rush on the second disc. The track titles mirror each other on both CDs, but in an alternative order. On "A Star Not Far Enough" Rush recites in full the five stanzas comprising Dickinson's poem "A Murmur In The Trees-To Note." Just as effective is "Singing The Triangle" opening with the lines "The Visit To The Circus," but the music that follows is spectacular, Bloom's soprano both soaring and yet powerful. "Mind Gray River" is underpinned by Mark Helias's languid double-stopped pizzicato bass line and Bobby Previte's frenetic drumming introduces and pulsatingly sustains "Cornets of Paradise." The memorably hypnotic "Hymn: You Wish You Had Eyes In Your Pages" is just as remarkable.  READ THE FULL all about jazz REVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

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, showcasing the music through her jazz quartet's interpretation of Dickinson's poetry and a second version for jazz quartet and spoken word featuring readings by popular stage & film actor Deborah Rush. Here's the Album Review from KZSU: Stanford Radio's - Tom McCarter  "An ambitious 2-disc set with a unique concept and superb execution. Every track on the first disc could be a favorite. Each track is inspired by Dickinson's poetry. The first disc is all instrumental. The second disc incorporates actual lines from the poems. The playing shifts from ethereal to hard bop." SEE THE FULL KZSU: Stanford CA PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #ab1612} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Verdana; color: #ffffff} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana} span.s1 {color: #000000} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}

Jazz Northwest spotlights several new releases featuring northwest resident artists this week.  Seattle pianist Dawn Clement is a regular part of the New York-based quartet led by soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom whose new release features original music inspired by Emily Dickinson. JIB reimagines the poetry of 19th-century visionary Emily Dickinson in two different settings, the jazz quartet, and with spoken word featuring readings by popular stage & film actor Deborah Rush.  LISTEN TO KNKX: Seattle - Jazz Northwest SEGMENT p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Soprano saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom released "Early Americans" in 2016, a trio date with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte, both of whom she had recorded with extensively.  Her new project, "Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson" (Outline), brings back pianist Dawn Clements who recorded with this ensemble on 2011's "Wingwalker" (the pianist is also featured on Ms. Bloom's 2008 album "Mental Weather" with Helias and drummer Matt Wilson!) Ms. Bloom's latest adventure came about when she discovered that Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a pianist and an improviser, a quality the composer could see in the poetry.  After receiving a commission from Chamber Music America/Doris Duke New Jazz Works, Ms. Bloom put together the program that one hears on these two CDs.  There are 14 original compositions plus a solo soprano saxophone reading of the Rodgers & Hart classic, "It's Easy To Remember."  One might be tempted to start with CD 2 because you hear the lines of Ms. Dickinson's that prompted the compositions. Read by actress  Deborah Rush (Broadway and television), most of the pieces are read before the pieces (there are several exceptions).  But you really can hear how pieces like "Emily & Her Atoms" and "One Note from One Bird" (excerpt from "The Gorgeous Nothings") are built from the poems and poem fragments.  The latter tune does open with one note from the piano before Ms. Rush intones "One note from/ One Bird/ is better than/ a million words/...A scabbard/ Needs/ has - holds/ but one/ sword"  - listen to how the quartet expands that one note and those words outward away from its simple center into a musical meadowland with a sweeping melody and roiling drums. SEE THE STEP TEMPEST PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Together with Dave Liebman Jane Ira Bloom is among the most interesting performers of the soprano saxophone in contemporary jazz. The pre-record trio with the bass player Mark Helias and Bobby Previte on the drum now extends to quartet with pianist Dawn Clement. The music is dedicated to American poet Emily Dickinson, a singular figure (for biography) and important for American literature, whose lyrics were only published after her disappearance. The first CD is only instrumental, in the second the same compositions, but performed in different order, are performed along with the lyrics performed by Deborah Rush. These are unusual musicians, so music is one that does not go unnoticed, a track like Other Eyes shows the virtuosity of musicians, here's a trio where Mark Helias has a remarkable role. A special performance that ends with Previte's battery solo. He returns to the quartet for Singing the Triangle, a composition that stands out among the rest. Here you can see the originality of pianist Dawn Clement, his is an accompaniment outside the most common styles. To mark the solo of the leader, the protagonist of the entire double CD, animated by an ineasable fantasy in a work where there is no out of place note. All of us, among the protagonists of contemporary jazz, celebrate their music and poems by the famous lyric writer. SEE THE MUSIC ZOOM PAGE

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} I must tell you up front that I believe Jane Ira Bloom is one of the most important soprano saxophone creators on the jazz scene today… I've reviewed many of her albums, most recently in issue # 162, where she got very high marks from me (as always).  On this new album, expected to hit the stands on September 8th, 2017, she and her quartet have accomplished even bigger marvels… just listen to the spoken-word version of "Emily & Her Atoms", when it goes live (that should be within the next week or so; I'll be sure to return and update the links when it's available).  Deborah Rush does the spoken-word performance, which expands the horizons of the musical performance inestimably (in event you didn't know it, I once performed a lot of spoken-word myself). READ THE FULL Contemporary Fusion Review

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} If Jane Ira Bloom wasn't one of the singularly voiced soprano sax aces of our times, this project would have been in lesser hands and labeled the work of an art chick.  Not so here.  Bloom turns her attention to impressionistic voices from the works of Dickinson and follows that up with a second disc that follows the same suit but with vocals reading Dickinson over the music.  Rounding up some well known pros up for following her on this creative journey through the wilderness of the nu record business, the result is a perfect storm of a sitting down jazz date you don' have to be an egghead to enjoy.  Tapping into Dickinson's little known side as a jazz piano improviser, the whole thing makes perfect sense on so many levels if you just sit back and let it do it's thing.  Smoking art jazz that goes the distance. SEE THE Midwest Record PAGE

Critically acclaimed soprano saxophone player, Jane Ira Bloom, sets the words of reclusive 19th century poet, Emily Dickinson, to jazz. The project is a two-disc album called "Wild Lines." I have read my fair share of Emily Dickinson, and I have never thought to associate her with jazz. However, now that Bloom has taken on the poet's works and infused them with strains of moody jazz it makes sense. After Bloom won the 2015 CMA/Doris Duke New Jazz Works commission, she learned that the poet was a piano player. That gave Bloom the idea to set the poet's work to jazz. Dickinson's lifetime (1830-1886), predated jazz, but the improvised nature of poetry, the symbolism and unexpected images of Dickinson's work, make it logical to pair the two. Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson," will be available Sept. 8, 2017. READ THE FULL LemonWire REVIEW & WATCH THE VIDEO p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

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 and was inspired to musically reimagine Dickinson when she learned that the poet was a pianist and improviser herself. The November Hot Box includes * Vijay Iyer Sextet, Far From Over (ECM) * Mike Stern, Trip (Heads Up/Concord) * Jane Ira Bloom, Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson (OTL) * Tony Allen, The Source (Blue Note)  Reviews: * Antibalas, Where The Gods Are In Peace (Daptone) * Banda Magda, Tigre (Verve/GroundUP) * Blue Note All-Stars, Our Point Of View (Blue Note) * Brandon Seabrook, Die Trommel Fatale (New Atlantis) * Carol Welsman, For You (ArtistShare) * Chris Speed Trio, Platinum On Tap (Intakt) * Christian McBride Big Band, Bringin' It (Mack Avenue) * Dee Dee Bridgewater, Memphis ... Yes I'm Ready (DDB Records/OKeh/Sony Masterworks) * Dave Stryker, Strykin' Ahead (Strikezone) * David Lopato, Gendhing For A Spirit Rising (Global Coolant) * Dick Oatts, Use Your Imagination (SteepleChase) * Doug Beavers, The Art Of The Arrangement (ArtistShare) * Henri Texier, 30 ANS (Label Bleu)  * Jessica Molaskey, Portraits Of Joni (Ghostlight) * Johnny O'Neal, In The Moment (Smoke Sessions) * Katie Thiroux, Off Beat (Capri) * Laszlo Gardony, Serious Play (Sunnyside) * Laura Campisi, Double Mirror (Self Release) * Mário Laginha/Julian Argüelles/Helge Andreas Norbakken, Setembro (Edition) * Natasha Agrama, The Infinite Heart Of Change (World Galaxy/Alpha Pup) * Rob Luft, Riser (Edition) * Russell Malone, Time For The Dancers (HighNote) * Steve Smith & Vital Information NYC Edition, Heart Of The City (BFM) * The Pollyseeds, The Sounds of Crenshaw Vol. 1 (Ropeadope) * Tim Berne's Snakeoil, Incidentals (ECM) * Victor Wooten, TRYPNOTYX (Self Release) * Shelly Berg & David Finck, The Deep (Chesky) * Paul Jones, Clean (Outside In)  * Behn Gillece, Walk Of Fire (Posi-Tone)  * Jamie Reynolds, Grey Mirror (Fresh Sound New Talent) * Adam Larson, Second City (Inner Circle Music)   Jazz: * Ed Neumeister & NeuHat Ensemble, Wake Up Call (Self Release) * Sammy Nestico & SWR Big Band, A Cool Breeze (SWR Music) * John Vanore, Stolen Moments: Celebrating Oscar Nelson (Self Release) * Tim Hagans & NDR Big Band, Faces Under Influence: A Tribute To John Cassavetes (Waiting Moon) * Gareth Lockrane Big Band, Fistfight At The Barndance (Whirlwind)   Blues: * Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Groovin' In Greaseland (Alligator) * Greg Sover, Songs Of A Renegade (Grounded Soul)  * Mighty Joe Young, Live From The North Side Of Chicago (Rock Beat) * Julian Fauth, The Weak & The Wicked (Electro-Fi) * Eli Cook, High-Dollar Gospel (C.R.8 Records)  * Doug MacLeod, Break The Chain (Reference)   Beyond:  * Rod Melancon, Southern Gothic (Blue Elan) * The Mastersons, Transient Lullaby (Red House Records) * Calico The Band, Under Blue Skies (California Country) * Miranda Lee Richards, Existential Beast (Invisible Hand) * Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers, The Long-Awaited Album (Rounder)   Historical: * Joe Henderson featuring Alice Coltrane, The Elements (Ubuntu) * Kenny Dorham, KD Is Here: New York City 1962 & 1966 (Uptown) * Idrees Sulieman Quartet, The 4 American Jazz Men In Tangier (Sunnyside) * Oscar Pettiford, New York City 1955-1958 (Uptown)   Books: * Michael C. Heller, Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s (University of California Press)  This DownBeat November Issue is on Sale October 17 with Distribution to Subscribers + 10,000 Jazz Students, PASIC; Top Percussion Retailers p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

The winners of the 21st annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards have been announced. Professional Journalist Members of the JJA made open nominations in a first selection round; those who received the most nominations advanced to the final ballot. Congratulations Jane Ira Bloom on being named 2017 JJA Jazz Award - Soprano Saxophonist of the Year. Soaring, poetic, quick silver, spontaneous and instantly identifiable are words used to describe the soprano sound of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She's been steadfastly developing her singular voice on the straight horn for 35 years creating a body of music that marks her as an American original. She's an eight-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano sax, the Downbeat International Critics Poll, and the Charlie Parker Award for Jazz Innovation and has collaborated with such outstanding jazz artists as Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Kenny Wheeler, Julian Priester, Mark Dresser, Jerry Granelli, Matt Wilson, Billy Hart and Fred Hersch. Her 2014 all-ballads release "Sixteen Sunsets" was nominated for a Grammy Award for surround-sound. In addition she's garnered numerous awards for her creativity including a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition and the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz. JIB was the first musician commissioned by the NASA Art Program and was honored to have an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid 6083janeirabloom).

2017 JJA Jazz Awards Nominees were chosen by the votes of Jazz Journalists Association members. Nominations were made on the basis of work done in calendar year 2016, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are for a lifetime body of work. Members and others were able to submit their own work for consideration in the Photo of the Year category; a committee of JJA Members chose the nominees in that category from among the submissions. Winners of the 2017 JJA Jazz Awards in all categories will be determined by the votes of JJA Professional Journalist Members; and will be announced on May 15. This year's 'Soprano Saxophonist Of The Year' nom goes to Jane Ira Bloom SEE JJA PAGE LISTING ALL NOMINEES   p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

Sometime you gotta strip down to the basics.
Take soprano sax wizard Jane Ira Bloom-she's
worked with bassist Mark Helias and drummer
 Bobby Previte before but never in a trio setting.
While it might sound a little "spare" without the
 presence of a chordal instrument (piano, guitar),
 this threesome makes it so that such won't be
 missed. Previte, one of the most dynamic and
 eclectic drummers on the planet plays the whole
darn drum set, laying down all sorts of skittering
and resilient rhythmic clouds for Bloom to sour
amid and above. Like Matt Wilson, Previte has the 
swingin' finesse of a great jazz drummer and whomp of a rock drummer. Helias has a rippling and anchoring presence. Bloom-who sometimes augments her horn with electronics but seemingly not here-has a unique approach to the straight horn. She can be as compelling as Coltrane and Shorter yet resembles either very little. She has a somewhat tuneful approach, sometimes evoking West Coast cool (think Brubeck's right-hand sax-man Paul Desmond), other times Middle Eastern sonorities, sometimes mournful (though never dirge-like), swirling-ly swinging in earnest, always lively. (13 tracks, 52 min.) janeirabloom.com - Mark Keresman 

On Early Americans featuring Jane Ira Bloom, soprano sax/ Mark Helias, bass/ Bobby Previte, drums, renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson's 13-track session consists of a dozen originals, the drive of Song Patrol to the spare melancholy of Mind Gray River, plus a closing solo version of the classic Bernstein West Side Story number, Somewhere. The album has a stunning photo of Bloom on the front. p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} This is Bloom's first trio album, and she seems to like the slightly off-balance feel of the trio, whose members she has long worked with before. It is also her 16th album as a group's leader.  One of the tracks is under two minutes (Nearly – for Kenny Wheeler) while others are over five, including the penultimate very moving one, Big Bill. The whole session is full of plenty of variety as well as exploration. It would be a real treat of all jazz albums were as good sonics and performance is this one. SEE Audiophile Audition PAGE

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 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." SEE FULL NPR PAGE

Jane Ira Bloom, Early Americans (Outline) – Hard to believe that after sixteen albums through nearly four decades, Bloom has never before walked the high wire with nothing more than a bass (Mark Helias) and trap set (Bobby Previte). She comes through just as you'd expect: with bold, deep tones that swallow you whole and bright,supple phrases that recombine themselves into breathtaking shapes. From Helias and Previte, she gets the kind of backup an ace improviser deserves. They merge their rhythmic instincts with her soprano saxophone's probing, soaring voice to become one entity, totally in control of whatever they take on, regardless of tempo or mood. On the (literally) groovy "Singing the Triangle," they seem to take turns at the wheel with Previte's toms assuming melodic duties with his characteristic wit and bravado. When it's just Bloom and Helias, as on "Other Eyes," the colloquy is so detailed and urgent that you think you're eavesdropping on a secret plan for curing cancer, hunger and ignorance. And when it's just her, in full flight, she asserts her command of every aspect of her art whether assembling a necklace of diamond-hard chords and taking them apart ("Rhyme or Rhythm"), burrowing deep into the contours of a classic melody ("Somewhere') or blowing the blues with joyous abandon ("Big Bill"). It's now official and can be certified by any number of witnesses: There's no one like her. Anywhere. - Gene Seymour SEE ALL REVIEWS

When Jane Ira Bloom plays her soprano saxophone, her wiry body jutting and jagging to the notes popping out of her horn, vastness of her petite frame couldn't be more noticeable. And she and her quartet (Dawn Clement on piano, Kent McLagan on bass, and Bobby Previte on drums) begin with small sounds. Then Deborah Rush, actress, embodies the words of Emily Dickinson "The North Star is of small fabric but it implies much" And then the piece takes flight. Combining caesuras with wild sprees of joyous tones, Ms. Bloom brings each single note into focus. We hear breath in her sax. READ THE FULL DC Metro Theater Arts REVIEW

With her new album, Early Americans, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has taken a leap of faith and once again pushed at the boundaries of her already considerable achievements. Not content to sit back on her laurels, she is a restless explorer on her instrument and chosen idiom, and always looking for new contexts in which to place her individual and instantly identifiable saxophone sound. Coupled with her idiosyncratic compositions and impeccable choice of musical sparring partners Bloom's music is never less than absorbing and full of movement, as is the saxophonist herself as she twist and turns her body with the music, restlessly searching for the point in time when performance, composition and interaction become blurred into that perfect moment when nothing else exists except the purity of the collective creative process. READ THE FULL JAZZ VIEWS REVIEW

In talking about jazz nothing warms my heart more than hearing from a musician who says she loves the notion of being off balance, playing in the moment, and has a keen sense of rhythm. And so it goes for composer and soprano sax player Jane Ira Bloom and her marvelous new album Early Americans (Outline, 2016). The album features 13 tracks all less than six minutes, which is quite the feat for a group of musicians who love to improvise. On this record, Bloom's 16th as a leader, she's joined by Mark Helias, bass and Bobby Previte, drums yet it's only her first trio album. To put out an album of soprano sax, bass and drums immediately tells you that Bloom and her band mates are fearless by not including a piano player or a guitar player to round out the chords that put music into harmonic context. By the same token Early Americans isn't a wild and crazy record of free jazz that, unless you're in the room, has a tendency to be self-indulgent. Bloom's record is much more formal with 12 original compositions and one beautiful cover ("Somewhere" by Leonard Bernstein) gracing the disc. Each work has an emotional appeal and stands self-assured creating a short story aspect to the album.  READ THE FULL Critics At Large REVIEW

Fred Hersch, an eight-time-Grammy-nominated jazz pianist, and soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom team up at Maverick Concerts tonight, Saturday July 30. Hersch returns to the historic concert hall for the sixth time during a weekend program that features "Actors and Writers," an evening of works by Mikhail Horowitz and David Smilow at 8 p.m Friday., and the Danish String Quartet at 4 p.m. Sunday. "I play there every summer," Hersch said of the concert hall that opened in 1916. He said he returns year after year because he believes there is something special about Maverick's barn-like structure. Bloom has just released her new album - Early Americans, after the success of her 2014 all-ballads release "Sixteen Sunsets" shifts into another gear on this recording, showcasing the kinetic energy of her acclaimed trio playing with the musicians that she knows best. Her first trio album, sixteenth as leader and sixth recording on the Outline label, JIB's sound is like no other on the straight horn and she lets it fly on every track, 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 nothing short of a winner.  READ THE FULL Daily Freeman ARTICLE

This is another remarkable set from soprano maestro, Jane Ira Bloom, and even a departure for the saxophonist herself being her first trio album, and thus abandoning (temporarily at least) the quartet format in which she has made her home in recent years. Stepping away from having a chordal instrument as a harmonic crutch is often a leap of faith for many musicians, but as a specialist in the treacherously pitched soprano saxophone, you are not only confronting your own skills and intuition as an improviser but also, as the only lead voice and main soloist  having to dispel the preconceptions of others as to the wisdom of such a move. If any of the above entered Bloom's thought processes when contemplating this recording, then she certainly does not let it show. Her playing is as flawless as one has come to expect and once again she has produced music of great individuality and originality that could belong to no one else. With the somewhat small and limited legacy of fellow soprano specialist, she is beholden to no one and fearless in the way she exerts her own authority and personality upon this difficult instrument. READ THE FULL Jazz Views REVIEW

Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom does something new on her latest album, the 52-minute Early Americans. On her 16th release as a leader, she strips the proceedings down to a trio format. The result is a dozen Bloom originals (and one Broadway standard) which crackle with sustained fortitude, snap with swing and groove, and pop out from the speakers or headphones with auditory aplomb. Bloom is joined by two longtime musical friends: bassist Mark Helias (who first collaborated with Bloom in the mid-70s) and drummer Bobby Previte (who has worked with Bloom for 15 years). It's not hard to imagine the simpatico synergy which filters through each tune, and listening confirms Bloom, Previte and Helias' uncanny communication. READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition REVIEW

I'm not sure why I started hearing the late Maximillian Schell's heavily accented voice in my head the first time I listened to Jane Ira Bloom's new CD, Early Americans. I suspect it had something to do with reviewing Todd Hunter's Eat, Drink, Play just a few weeks ago and instantly declaring it the first contemporary jazz masterwork I've heard in many years. The obvious answer is that I've had my head buried in the classics for so long that I'm totally out of touch with what's going on right now in the world of jazz. The less obvious answer has to do with kismet, fate, luck, whatever you want to call it. I said one contemporary jazz classic in 2016, here are two! I should have expected no less from Jane Ira Bloom. I reviewed her last album, Sixteen Sunsets, back in 2013 and I found her to be the anti-Kenny G, the thinking jazz fan's soprano sax player. That album focused on the Great American Songbook, a softer more approachable collection of ballads that were still lightly kissed by a dry, slightly unyielding pair of lips. Those interpretations seemed to suggest that while love was in the air, we have to have a talk first. Nothing is that simple baby, especially when it comes to jazz.     Early Americans features mostly original compositions by Bloom, and for that reason it scales even higher peaks. She easily tackles the difficult task of making jazz that blazes trails without completely abandoning the more familiar structures of the genre. This is no free jazz freak-out, but carefully measured forays into a frontier. While Todd Hunter's new album is fun and energetic and chock full of flawless performances, Bloom's trio (Mark Helias on bass, Bobby Previte on drums) is more cerebral in its approach-this is a bone-dry martini compared to Hunter's lusty shot of tequila. READ THE FULL Positive Feedback REVIEW

Over a fruitful career versatile soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has demonstrated a singular artistic voice and a restlessly explorative spirit. Since 2010 she has gone from the free flowing, edgy and electrifying Wingwalker (Outline 2010) to the serene and ethereal Sixteen Sunsets (Outline 2013) and now she presents the earthy and exuberant Early Americans. Her easily recognizable sound and facile virtuosity leave her indelible mark on all these recordings, making them each unique yet simultaneously integral parts of the same body of work. The sparse trio setting makes First Americans simultaneously intimate and fiery with a primal spirituality permeating every piece. Bloom plays the melancholic melody that opens the stirring "Singing the Triangle" with reserved emotion and expressive eloquence. As the rumbling rhythms enter the spirited tune brims with joy laced with sadness. Bloom's improvisation thrills with its passion and its hints of delightful dissonance. Bassist Mark Helias handles his instrument with the agility of a guitarist. Superb acrobatics and exquisite lyricism mark his turn in the spotlight while drummer Bobby Previte thunders and gallops in the backdrop. READ THE FULL all about jazz REVIEW

Congratulations to all the winners of the 20th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards  listed below. Professional Journalist Members of the JJA made open nominations in a first selection round; those who received the most nominations advanced to the final ballot.  Jane Ira Bloom wins for 'Soprano Saxophonist of the Year' at 2016 JJA Jazz Awards. Bloom's just released - Early Americans comes after the success of her 2014 all-ballads release "Sixteen Sunsets." On Early Americans Bloom shifts into another gear showcasing the kinetic energy of her acclaimed trio playing with the musicians that she knows best. It's her first trio album, sixteenth as leader and sixth recording on the Outline label.  SEE THE 2016 JJA Jazz Awards PAGE

Here is the latest great record from a truly great jazz relationship that has been going on for many decades. Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom – one of the most distinctive players in all of jazz – has been playing with bassist Mark Helias since the 1970s. Her work with Western New York-bred drummer/composer Bobby Previte has produced phenomenal music since 2000. This is Bloom's first trio record and it's reminiscent in its magical use of musical space to some of the trio music recorded by various different configurations called The Jimmy Giuffre Three. Except for a magnificent, haunting solo soprano saxophone aria of Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere" (a Jane Ira Bloom specialty) all of the compositions are Bloom's own. The interplay of the three musicians who know each other so well is on the level of some of the greatest intimate configurations in the history of jazz – the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Giuffre Threes of both the'50s and very early '60s, the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond, The long-standing "Standards Trio" of Keith Jarrett. Previte, especially, is an amazingly imaginative accompaniment to Bloom. But then he's always been as much "percussionist" as drummer, ever since studying at UB with Jan Williams. Kenny Wheeler, the late Canadian/British trumpet player with the unique tone, is remembered in a tune called "Nearly." We're not told whom "Big Bill" is dedicated to (Broonzy?) but whoever it is, it's the kind of insinuating, simple tune that can go through listeners' heads for days. And what she, Previte and Helias do with it is marked by a thrilling unity of purpose that is like little else you'll hear in jazz these days. Truth to tell it was never very common. One of the great jazz records of the year thus far. Four stars out of four.  Jane Ira Bloom with Mark Helias and Bobby Previte "Early Americans" (Outline, released next week)  (Jeff Simon) SEE THE Buffalo News PAGE

Jane Ira Bloom, the innovative soprano saxophonist and composer, loves to tap into non-musical art forms as sources of inspiration for her bold, original music. With her passionate affinity for multiple forms of artistic expression -- everything from painting and film to theater and dance -- she transforms extra-musical elements into catalytic forces for her creative imagination as a composer and improviser. Bloom is, for example, a pioneer in the use of foot-switch operated live electronics blended with complementary body movements made while playing her gorgeous sounding soprano. Her synthesis of music and motion yields a mesmerizing blend of sound and sight, a sonic mobile creating a whirling world of kaleidoscopic shapes, colors, drama, and flowing lines all its own. In 2015, Bloom won the prestigious Chamber Music America New Jazz Works award for a new composition inspired by the iconic 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson, whose writings are a motherlode of verbal riches for the composer to mine for inspiration and illumination. Appropriately enough, Bloom presents the premiere of her new work, Wild Lines, an homage to Dickinson, a lifelong resident of Amherst, on Thursday, April 28, at 8:00 pm in Amherst at the University of Massachusetts' Bezanson Recital Hall. READ THE FULL Connecticut Public Radio PIECE

Congratulations to all the winners of the 19th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards  listed below. Professional Journalist Members of the JJA made open nominations and Jane Ira Bloom was selected 'Soprano Saxophonist of the Year.' Bloom's latest recording - Sixteen Sunsets is a beautiful CD featuring expressive interpretations from the American Songbook along with five compelling slow tempo original compositions. 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. You can help the Jazz Journalists Association continue to get the word out about jazz through programs like JazzApril and the JJA Jazz Awards. Please make a donation. Contributions of any size, no matter how small, are gratefully accepted. Or become a JJA Member. Membership is open to jazz musicians, educators, presenters, promoters, publishers or anyone who wants to support our work as well as professional jazz journalists.

Recently named a DownBeat Critics Poll favorite, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom travels through space with her Night Skywriting Trio for two special shows. It'll be the first time in a long time she's bringing back some pieces she wrote for NASA. "I'm revisiting some music that I wrote in connection with my commission for the NASA Art Program in the late '80s/early '90s, which I haven't performed in a while," Bloom said, July 29. "Performing anytime with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jerry Granelli is special for me." Both Dresser and Granelli are veterans in the field of music, with a special touch, fine technique, and limitless imagination. They're well-matched with the bandleader many in the industry view as a pioneer of surround sound, a woman who does her own thing, whether it's fashioning her own record label, or recording with mics set up everywhere as she moves around playing her sax (as she did to fantastic effect on her 2013 album, Sixteen Sunsets). See Jane Ira Bloom and the Night Skywriting Trio at the Cornelia Street Café in New York City on Sept. 14th at 8:30 p.m., and Oct. 4th at 7:30 p.m., in Flagstaff, Arizona, Coconino Center for the Arts. READ THE FULL AXS INTERVIEW.

On Steve Lacy's birthday day (July 23), it seems fitting to write a tribute to someone playing today who has set a new standard for this, one of the loveliest and mysterious of the family of saxophones. As with many musical details, most listeners have no idea how technically challenging this particular sax is, or how musicians spend countless hours on just the mouthpiece problem--how one can find the right one to avoid the harsh grittiness that can infest a player's sound. The problem goes back and forth from plastic mouthpieces that can warm the instrument to metal ones that give it power and presence. Jane Ira Bloom (DownBeat Critics and Jazz Journalists Association Soprano Saxophonist of the Year for 2014) has solved this difficulty, given the sound of her Grammy-nominated recording Sixteen Sunsets (Best Surround Sound Album 2014); she has developed a unique sound on the instrument that manages to be warm and inviting, but still includes a bop attitude and melodic fluidity that dances through the twists and turns of harmony and expression. She does not succumb to sentiment, nor does she shy away from the highest notes, the most difficult to sustain and enunciate on this particular horn.  Rather, Sixteen Sunsets (Outline Music, 2013) creates a remarkable sense of rhythmic and melodic feel, and joyous celebration of love and loss. READ THE FULL Jazz Police REVIEW.

Jane Ira Bloom's wins Best Soprano Sax and Sixteen Sunsets places #8 best Jazz albums on this year's Downbeat Critics Poll. They write - "The beauty of Bloom's soprano saxophone tone is prominent on this program of eight classic ballads and six original compositions. Each song offers a demonstration of immaculate control and imaginative phrasing and attack."

After I listened to the music on Jane Ira Bloom's Sixteen Sunsets [Outline OTL 141], I knew I had been missing something - the music of Jane Ira Bloom was a revelation, to say the least. The CD title Sixteen Sunsets is derived from the following quotation by Joseph Allen, a US Astronaut: "The sun truly ‘comes up like thunder,' and it sets just as fast. Each sunrise and sunset lasts only a few seconds. But in that time you see at least eight different bands of color come and go, from a brilliant red to the brightest and deepest blue. And you see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every day you're in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same."   I have long thought that the ephemeral nature of Jazz was best served when the music was played as a ballad. Slower tempos give the musician a chance to think and if the tune they are improvising on has an interesting structure, they can create beautiful alternate melodies because the slower time allows them more space with which to work. READ THE FULL Jazz Profiles Blog REVIEW.

One doesn't often win an audience with royalty in any field of the arts, but we consider ourselves blessed when it happens. Such is the case with this album by soprano saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom. She's the queen of that instrument; no one else come close to her mastery.   Merely listing her career's many awards and accolades would fill several pages. She's currently a professor at New York City's New School of Jazz and ContemporaryMusic,and is a constant performer on the world's stages as a soloist, and with both small and large musical ensembles. This release features her quartet, in which she's supported by pianist Dominic Fallacaro, bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Matt Wilson.   The album title, Sixteen Sunsets, is based on a quote from U.S. astronaut Joseph Allen: "...and you see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day, when you're in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same."    As for this album, you'll never hear another musical performance like it. READ THE FULL Jazz Scan REVIEW.

Congratulations to the winners of the 18th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Music and Recording and congratulations to Crossover Media Artist - Jane Ira Bloom winning for ‘Soprano Saxophonist of the Year'

The first thing listeners notice about soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom is her gorgeous tone. But on this disc - her 15th album as a bandleader and her first devoted exclusively to ballads - there's something equally beautiful about her musical vision and interpretation. Nine of the 14 songs are American songbook classics; the other five are Bloom originals. Many have a wayward, peaceful serenity to them while captivating listeners with a style developed by a woman renowned jazz critic Bill Milkowski has described as "a restlessly creative spirit, and a modern day role model for any aspiring musician who dares to follow his or her own vision." Bloom, who has performed at most of New York's most prestigious concert halls, is a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, a winner of the Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano saxophone, and a multiple winner of the Jazz Journalists Award for Soprano Sax of the Year. - TOM HENRY

It's a jazz cliche to say that the hardest thing for a soloist to do is to play a ballad. There is some truth to it however. You are left with yourself and the song, your artistry and the need to devise a way through it that does justice to both. Jane Ira Bloom is not the first of course to put together an entire album of such things. John Coltrane comes to mind with an especially sublime offering. Yet here we are these many years later and most certainly the last word has not been said, the last note has not been played in this realm. So we have Jane Ira Bloom's Sixteen Sunsets (Outline 141). Jane comes to the forefront on her soprano, accompanied by an excellent set of musicians in Dominic Fallacaro (piano), Cameron Brown (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums). They do what they should and do it well. The set is a mix of standards and originals, all in a balladic mode.   READ THE FULL Gapplegate REVIEW  

Jane Ira Bloom says she grew up listening to standards, knew their lyrics by heart and internalized them to the point that "playing them is like breathing." And there's no reason to doubt her. Sixteen Sunsets is the veteran soprano saxophonist and composer's 15th album. The instrumental ballad standards here reveal an astute singer's interpretive grasp of the vocal line. Bloom is known for her compositional experiments with live electronics, as well as multimedia presentations and her association with the NASA Art Program. In fact, this album concept comes from astronaut Joseph Allen's comment that while orbiting the Earth, one sees "16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day." However, the performances are rooted in terra firma. Bloom presents her music in the unadorned format of the acoustic quartet (pianist Dominic Fallacaro, bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Matt Wilson), focusing on what trumpeter Ruby Braff called "the adoration of the melody." The leader demonstrates breathtaking mastery of her horn - sans electronic effects - especially in the upper register, where she maintains a purity of tone even when she's hitting the equivalent of a piano's top keys. It's not just a technical trick. Bloom structures her solos around a song's melodic core. And when she reaches for those top notes, as in the opening "For All We Know," she delivers an emotional payoff. Even at the slowest tempos, as on the usually upbeat swinger "The Way You Look Tonight," Bloom never loses the tension of the narrative line. Fallacaro's contribution proves invaluable in that regard. A couple of faster numbers round out the program. Bloom's "Ice Dancing (for Torvill & Dean)" is a gliding bolero, and her Latin-flavored "Primary Colors" is positively up-tempo. But the saxophonist's slow-tempo compositions are of a piece with chestnuts such as "I Loves You Porgy," "Darn That Dream," Good Morning Heartache," "My Ship," and Billie Holiday and Mal Waldron's "Left Alone," all of which she interprets here. In fact, Bloom's originals are ready for lyrics of their own.
- Jon Garelick

Jane Ira Bloom's Sixteen Sunsets is as compelling a record as she has ever released, showing off sincere, heartfelt ballads among a 14-track mix of standards and originals. Bloom's horn has something of a golden sound as she lets it tell the stories of these songs in a way that only someone with her level of playing can.   READ THE FULL Elmore Magazine REVIEW

Jane Ira Bloom has always been a lyrical player, but on her first ballads collection, stripped of technical enhancements, this elite soprano saxophonist reveals new depths. Leading  a killer quartet, JIB moves seamlessly between standards and originals, Sixteen Sunsets unfolds with a luminous intensity. It's difficult to recall a more powerfully contained reading of "I Loves You, Porgy." Framed by Bloom's "Gershwin's Skyline" and treated to just the right amount of blues expression, the classic radiates dignity in the face of sorrow. Bloom's slow, calmly reflective reading of "The Way You Look Tonight" hits you in a way it rarely does, stripped of sentimentality. READ THE FULL Jazztimes REVIEW.  

Jane Ira Bloom is a soprano saxophone specialist who has won many jazz polls and a Guggenheim. [Sixteen Sunsets] is her 15th recording as a leader and her first ballad album. The tunes are mostly classics from the American Songbook. Bloom sings them on her saxophone like someone who has internalized their lyrics, but also like a pure jazz improviser who reshapes them with idiosyncratic phrasing and bold additions and subtractions. This is a rapt album of deep after-midnight atmospheres, but its romanticism is sometimes edgy with passion. "For All We Know" is a naked autobiographical outpouring. "I Loves You Porgy," "Darn That Dream" and "Good Morning Heartache" are wistful but not entirely sad, because Bloom's soprano keeps sweeping free of their melodies with embellishments driven by the joy of spontaneous creativity. Sixteen Sunsets is a co-release. The renowned engineer Jim Anderson recorded and mixed it in a Blu-ray 5.1 DTS 24/96 version, and also mixed it for two-channel CD. The Blu-ray captures Bloom's physical movements as she plays, and places her in a three-dimensional ambient aural landscape.The most intriguing track is "My Ship," the only solo piece. Anderson recorded Bloom's saxophone, played it back through two speakers placed under the piano, and recorded the piano resonating in sympathy with the saxophone. The final 5.1 mix creates fields of saxophone calls and ringing piano responses. The responses emanate from a distant horizon.

The CD version is a typical high-class Jim Anderson recording, clear and detailed. But once you hear the Blu-ray you won't want to play the CD anymore.

Soprano Saxophophonist Jane Ira Bloom is a finalist nominees for the 2014 JJA Jazz Awards.

Nominees in most categories were chosen by the votes of the Professional Journalist Members of the Jazz Journalists Association. Nominations were made on the basis of work done in calendar year 2013, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are for a lifetime body of work. Members and others were able to submit their own work for consideration in the Photo of the Year and Best Shortform Video of the Year categories; committees of JJA Members chose the nominees in those categories from among the submissions. NOMINEES FOR JAZZ MUSIC AWARDS 1) LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN JAZZ Muhal Richard Abrams Herbie Hancock Phil Woods Randy Weston    2) MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR Craig Taborn Dave Douglas Gregory Porter Matt Wilson Wadada Leo Smith Wayne Shorter
  3) UP AND COMING ARTIST OF THE YEAR Cecile McLorin Salvant Jonathan Finlayson Warren Wolf Matt Mitchell   4) COMPOSER OF THE YEAR Darcy James Argue Maria Schneider Wayne Shorter
  5) ARRANGER OF THE YEAR Darcy James Argue Gil Goldstein Maria Schneider   6) RECORD OF THE YEAR Without a Net (Blue Note) Wayne Shorter Quartet WomanChild (Mack Avenue) Cecile McLorin Salvant Chants (ECM) Craig Taborn Trio   7) HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE YEAR Jack DeJohnette Special Edition Boxed Set (ECM) Miles Live in Europe 1969 (Columbia Legacy) Clifford Jordan Complete Strata East Recordings (Mosaic)   8) RECORD LABEL/PLATFORM OF THE YEAR ECM Mack Avenue Motema Music Pi Recordings   9) LARGE ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR  Darcy James Argue Secret Society Maria Schneider Orchestra Mingus Big Band   10) MIDSIZE ENSEMBLE  Jamie Baum Septet Steve Coleman & Five Elements Wayne Shorter Quartet   11) TRIO OR DUO Craig Taborn Trio Randy Weston-Billy Harper Vijay Iyer Trio   12) MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR Andy Bey Gregory Porter Kurt Elling   13) FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR Cecile McLorin Salvant  DeeDee Bridgewater Tierney Sutton   14) TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR  Dave Douglas Kirk Knuffke Terence Blanchard Wynton Marsalis   15) TROMBONIST OF THE YEAR  Roswell Rudd Steve Turre Wycliffe Gordon   16) MULTI-REEDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR Anthony Braxton James Carter Joe Lovano Scott Robinson    17) ALTO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR Lee Konitz Miguel Zenon Rudresh Mahanthappa Tim Berne   18) TENOR SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR (Sonny Rollins named Emeritus, Beyond Voting in 2013) Chris Potter Joe Lovano Wayne Shorter   19) BARITONE SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR Gary Smulyan Mats Gustafsson  Ronnie Cuber
  20) SOPRANO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR Dave Liebman Jane Ira Bloom Wayne Shorter   21) FLUTIST OF THE YEAR Charles Lloyd Jamie Baum Nicole Mitchell   22) CLARINETIST OF THE YEAR Anat Cohen Ben Goldberg Ken Peplowski   23) GUITARIST OF THE YEAR Bill Frisell Mary Halvorson Pat Metheny   24) PIANIST OF THE YEAR Craig Taborn Keith Jarrett Matthew Shipp   25) KEYBOARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR Dr. Lonnie Smith Gary Versace Joey DeFrancesco    26) BASSIST OF THE YEAR Christian McBride Dave Holland William Parker   27) VIOLINIST/VIOLIST/CELLIST OF THE YEAR Eric Friedlander Jenny Scheinman Regina Carter   28) PERCUSSIONIST OF THE YEAR Adam Rudolph Dan Weiss Kahil El'Zabar Pedrito Martinez   29) MALLETS INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR Gary Burton Jason Adasiewicz Warren Wolf   30) TRAPS DRUMMER OF THE YEAR Eric Harland Jack DeJohnette Matt Wilson   31) PLAYER OF INSTRUMENTS RARE IN JAZZ Bela Fleck (banjo) Gary Versace (accordion) Gregoire Maret (harmonica) Scott Robinson (winds, reeds, Theremin)   32) ELECTRONICS PLAYER DJ Logic George E. Lewis Jason Lindner   Rob Mazurek

Sixteen Sunsets is a showcase for soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom's rich tone and fluid expression. The disc's well-engineered sound and the smart program - six originals from Bloom and eight ballads - also showcase her thoughtful, deliberate way with melody. There's no rushing here. Bloom seems to dwell on each note, no matter the phrase it appears in, delivering each with a tonal fullness that resonates with warmth and color. When performing "For All We Know," "Darn That Dream," and "Good Morning Heartache," she works in service of the lyric, adding embellishments so natural that they seem part of the composition. On George and Ira Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy," she holds the last note of each phrase, slowly twisting its pitch in a way that adds both pathos and beauty. Much of her soprano phrasing recalls Billie Holiday's vocal phrasing, lingering and poignant, especially when she takes her sultry time with Holiday and Mal Waldron's "Left Alone." Bloom's own tunes are equally melodic and expressive. The minor-key lament "What She Wanted" gives her an opportunity to bring her glowing sound to the soprano's upper register. "Primary Colors," the recording's best feature for pianist Dominic Fallacaro, bassist Cameron Brown, and drummer Matt Wilson, is the disc's most rhythmically propulsive, full of emotional shading and tonal hues. Despite its name, Sixteen Sunsets is perfect late-night music. SEE THE Santa Fe New Mexican PAGE.

Award winning soprano saxophonist and GRAMMY nominated Jane Ira Bloom is very proud of her new release: Sixteen Sunsets. A beautiful surround-sound recording featuring expressive interpretations from the American Songbook along with five compelling slow tempo original compositions, the album is in 2 versions Blu-ray (Pure Audio) and the standard CD version on Outline. The album was recorded in 5.1 high-resolution Surround Sound at New York's famed Avatar Studio B by renowned engineer Jim Anderson who also co-produced and pushed the envelope of how a jazz quartet could sound using this technique.

The response at Radio has been very positive throughout, continues to grow, and now has moved up to #6 on this weeks Roots Music Report.

Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has always had a special feeling for ballad performances. Her beautiful new recording Sixteen Sunsets featuring pieces from the American Songbook along with 5 JIB originals was nominated for a 2014 GRAMMY. With this her 15th album as leader and her first all-ballads album, the disc pairs JIB with long-time colleagues Cameron Brown on bass and Matt Wilson on drums, and Dominic Fallacaro on piano. READ THE FULL Downbeat REVIEW.

Trombonist Ray Anderson and composer/conductor Sarah Weaver at Roulette in Brooklyn last Sunday hit a collaborative sweet spot. Their unusually mixed, all-star ensemble at Brooklyn's creative music concert hall wove highly individualized solos into a continuous 50-minute set based on loose, humorous writing and spontaneous textural swells. Bloom Lake Anderson Zollar Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, trumpeter James Zollar and Anderson himself each gave emotive meaning to the single tones they  blew and blended to Weaver's broad hand signals for crescendos, sustains, decrescendos and tone color variations.  READ THE FULL Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation - Jazz Beyond Jazz PIECE    

Jane Ira Bloom's career has been defined by experiment, whether exploring the outer reaches of space with NASA, the inner world of Jackson Pollock, or the technological cutting edge of telematics and surround sound. Her recent release Sixteen Sunsets combines the subtle artistry of ballad performance with the latest in surround sound techniques, resulting in a critically acclaimed, sumptuous collection. Ms Bloom sat down with AAJ for this Interview.

 

British figure skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have returned to Sarajevo to recreate their gold medal-winning performance 30 years after winning the 1984 Winter Olympics. The pair re-enacted their memorable Bolero routine on the same rink to mark the anniversary. Their 1984 performance saw them earn full marks for artistic impression, a feat never achieved before or since. The duo were invited back by the mayors of Sarajevo and East Sarajevo. The event was being held to launch a campaign to build a permanent ice rink in the Bosnian capital ahead of the 2017 European Youth Winter Olympic Festival. With the 2014 Winter Olympics under way in Sochi, the pair said they were honored to be invited back to perform in an arena that for them represents "hallowed ground". On her new GRAMMY Nominated CD: Sixteen Sunsets, Jane Ira Bloom, a huge fan of the Torvill and Dean wrote and recorded an original tune for the album in honor of the legendary skating duo called 'Ice Dancing.' Listen to the track here, and watch the video.

Jane Ira Bloom is marvelously mellow, reflective and subdued on this session with Dominic Fallacaro/p, Cameron Brown/b and Matt Wilson/dr for her new album Sixteen Sunsets.  READ George Harris's review@Jazz Weekly.

Jane Ira Bloom's Sixteen Sunsets has already overperformed with a 2014 GRAMMY Nomination and tons or press and radio. There's alot more to come for this gorgeous 'surround sound' CD. It's JIB's 15th album as leader, as she is joined by Cameron Brown on bass, Matt Wilson on drums and Dominic Fallacaro on piano. After going Chartbound last week, Sixteen Sunsets makes the Jazzweek chart at #40.  

Jane Ira Bloom's Sixteen Sunsets is a beautiful new recording featuring expressive interpretations from the American Songbook along with five compelling slow tempo original compositions. A 2014 GRAMMY Nominee, JIB's made the album out of her love for melody that comes directly from her earliest exposure to American Standards, and the 14 tracks feature nine classics including: Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy," Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," Arlen's "Out of This World," Weill's "My Ship," Jimmy Van Heusen's "Darn That Dream," and Billie Holiday & Mal Waldron's "Left Alone," among others. The album makes the Billboard Top Selling Jazz albums for this week.

Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has always loved ballads and on Sixteen Sunsets, her 15th album as leader, JIB has created a beautiful ballads recording covering both the American Songbook along with some of her own original tunes. Nominated for a 2014 GRAMMY in the 'Best Surround' catagory, she pairs 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. Sixteen Sunsets has been performing very well at Radio and is now Chartbound@Jazzweek.

LISTEN TO THE NPR: Fresh Air REVIEW - Here's the transcript of Kevin Whitehead's review.....When soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom plays Kurt Weill's "My Ship" on her new album Sixteen Sunsets, a pale glow around her notes comes from a simple special effect: pointing her horn under the hood of a piano whose strings are free to resonate. Bloom has always been preoccupied with sound, and has one of the prettiest, clearest tones around on soprano. She never sounds better than in ballads, and on Sixteen Sunsets she plays more than a dozen, including a few associated with Billie Holiday. You can tell Bloom knows the words to "Good Morning Heartache," even when her phrases depart from the lyric. Billie Holiday is a good role model for how to vary and honor a melody at once; how to put in heart and bring out the blues. Jane Ira Bloom can tap into the soprano's piercing quality, but her default tone is round and overtone-rich. It's almost as pure as a classical saxophonist's, but Bloom the jazz musician may custom-tailor each note, inflecting it with a distinct vibrato or shading the pitch. She may let a note linger or clip it short, play it clean or coarse, or ascend to her steely high register. Bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Matt Wilson keep those slow tempos moving on Sixteen Sunsets. The younger Brooklyn pianist Dominic Fallacaro has the sweet and sweeping stuff down, but I wish he always caught the bluesy undercurrents in the standard ballads, the way he does in Billie Holiday tunes like "Left Alone." One reason Bloom's ballads are usually so effective is the contrast with her fast numbers. On Sixteen Sunsets, only a couple of songs outrun or even approach a medium tempo. One of those is her oldie "Ice Dancing," a bright tune with a tango tinge and an ending that's catchy like a mousetrap snapping shut. In the long run, this program of non-stop beautiful ballads starts to seem like too much of a good thing. Yeah, that's right - we're complaining about an overabundance of riches.

Jane Ira Bloom's latest album, release for Outline is Sixteen Sunsets. A Grammy Nominee, the title comes from a rather curious source, a quotation from the astronaut Joseph Allen. READ THE examiner.com PIECE.

Finally another acoustic melodic "emo" album amidst all that industrious experimentation with grooves, electronics, and "outside" playing. After the genuine Boston jazz lady's Wingwalker album, comes a new pearl of a CD. Jane Ira Bloom's absolute mastery of the soprano sax (unbelievably strong and multi-faceted intonation plus her own personal sound on this instrument) has apparently not sufficiently attracted the attention of most festival promoters here, thus we miss seeing her on European stages. Bloom has chosen for a ballads album, in which she's placed six of her own compositions between an anthology of golden standards from the archives of Gershwin, Van Heusen, Fisher, Arlen, Mercer, Kern, Weill, and Waldron. Understand that making an album entirely of ballads is every bit as risky as the stubbornest experimental project, and while this disk doesn't elicit the "sparks of electricity" created by "Wingwalker", this album is made up of incredible moments of heavenly musicality. Bloom's compositions are always beautiful stories, here very successfully integrated into the standard repertoire, and she very often goes for emotion. She transforms the originally swinging tunes "The Way You Look Tonight" and "But Not For Me" into unctuous rubato pieces, and along with pianist Dominic Fallacaro, she delivers a haunting solo on Mal Waldron and Billie Holiday's "Left Alone." Also note that this CD has also been released in Hi-Res Surround Sound on Pure Audio Records and that that version has also earned a Grammy nomination. -Chris Joris

So there she is. Boston-born soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, now in her late 50s, the winner of many annual jazz polls on her chosen instrument, is up there for a 2014 Grammy next weekend. The nomination is not in any of the jazz categories, but "Best Surround Sound Album". That's the same category as the mighty Sir Paul McCartney, no less. READ THE FULL London Jazz News REVIEW.

Jane Ira Bloom was the first musician accepted into the NASA art program. After writing orchestral works for an asteroid named after her she fused her interest with space and the American Ballad to create her fifteenth album: "Sixteen Sunsets". American astronaut Joseph Allen suggests in the CD booklet, how JIB came up with this title. READ THE FULL BR KLASSIK REVIEW.  

Back when Jane Ira Bloom began, this was their chance to invent with individual play and sound something new. READ THE FULL Jazz Thing and blue rhythm REVIEW

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. 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 Sixteen Sunsets makes 'Most Added' on this week's Jazzweek Chart

Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom – who admittedly sometimes throws sound around like paint and other times plays like she's "carving silence like a sculptor" – has delivered the first all-ballad release in her 30-year career. A mixture of American songbook standards and her originals, it showcases the sheer beauty of Bloom's nuanced playing. – Marvin Leon Lake. READ THE FULL HamptonRoads REVIEW

The soprano saxophone has a naturally sweet sound and probably because of this it is favored by many smooth jazz players like Dave Koz and Jay Beckenstein. Another notable player is New York-based educator and composer Jane Ira Bloom, whose "Sixteen Sunsets" (Outline) is a collection of ballads played through a contemporary jazz point of view. The album begins with a beautiful rendition of "For All We Know" in which the bandleader improvises around the melody with a subtle back-beat from her quartet, rounded out by Cameron Brown (bass), Matt Wilson (drums) and Dominic Fallacaro (piano). She blends Gershwin's "Skyline" with "I Loves You Porgy" masterfully, and Fallacaro is featured in a gorgeous solo. The wedding reception mainstay "The Way You Look Tonight" is played as a saxophone and piano duet in a very slow tempo, allowing Bloom to stretch each note. "Good Morning Heartache" was a hit for Billie Holiday, and Bloom pays tribute to the late singer by playing it with the same mournful quality that too many performers seem to miss. "Sixteen Sunsets" is being released both in regular stereo and 5.1 high-resolution format which gives you the feeling of being inside a jazz club with the band. It is a great companion on a cold, snowy night. (Ernest Barteldes)

The soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom projects her tone as a round, silvery beam, warm and diffuse along the edges but pinpoint-clear at the center. Every now and again on "Sixteen Sunsets," her new ballads album, she softens it with a shudder of vibrato that evokes some unfortunate associations: candlelight, cheese tray, chardonnay. Best not to let those moments throw you off, then; Ms. Bloom, who's just shy of 59, isn't really that kind of balladeer. A musician of exploratory ken, at ease with electronic manipulations and open-ended questions, she has come to this album with an ideal of atmospheric restraint: Its title comes from a quotation from a former astronaut regarding one of the lovelier quirks of day-to-day life in space. Ms. Bloom, who has done commissioned work for NASA for years, surely gave this image a lot of thought. She also rigorously prepared her band - the pianist Dominic Fallacaro, the bassist Cameron Brown and the drummer Matt Wilson - with a string of ballads-centered dates in clubs over the last couple of years. The deep calm with which her quartet addresses the material, including fare like "Good Morning Heartache" and "But Not for Me," reflects this recent history. (Ms. Bloom does especially strong, haunting work on "Out of This World," which could have something to do with the song's premise.) Not counting a prelude to "I Loves You, Porgy," there are five original compositions on the album, each showing the group in a slightly different light. "Ice Dancing (for Torvill & Dean)" flirts with calypso rhythm; "Primary Colors" more than flirts with it, once the mist of a rubato introduction has cleared. "Too Many Reasons" glows with meditative intent, even as Ms. Bloom dopplers her soprano across the sonic plane. Sonic quality is more than an afterthought on "Sixteen Sunsets," which is in the running for a Grammy this month, for best surround-sound album. (The recording engineer was Jim Anderson, who produced the album with Ms. Bloom.) Without having heard the 5.1 high-resolution Blu-ray surround mix, I can only trust the authorities on this. The stereo version sounds impeccable on a regular system - and there's no shame, really, in adding that it would probably go over just as well at your local wine bar.  - NATE CHINEN

Like all sunsets, each of these ballads enraptures in different ways. READ Gene Seymour's REVIEW. Contained in image

Melodies Like Prayers + Mighty Winds    Soprano saxophonist and sound sculptor Jane Ira Bloom has been creating fascinating projects for nearly 4 decades.  Her first recording, "We Are", was a duet with bassist Kent McLagan (who now lives and plays in Colorado) issued on her own label (Outline Records) in 1978.  Over the ensuing years, Ms. Bloom has recorded for ENJA Records, CBS Records, Arabesque, ArtistShare, and, in 2008, returned to releasing on her own label. What has not changed is her commitment to moving forward, to melody, to experimentation, to having a group of like-minded musicians who do not hold back their own creativity even as they support her whole-heartedly.  "Sixteen Sunsets" refers to the number of sunsets astronauts see in a day in space and provides the title for Ms. Bloom's new CD - the program is a collection of 14 ballads, 9 standards and 6 originals (there's 1 track that blends George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" with Ms. Bloom's "Gershwin's Skyline") that finds the saxophonist in the company of bassist Cameron Brown, drummer Matt Wilson and the young pianist Dominic Fallacaro.  Fallacaro is a busy musician and producer based in Brooklyn, NY, who has toured with Kevin Mahogany and Freddie Cole plus producing CDs by younger up-and-coming vocalists.  His work on this album should win him many new fans. The program opens with "For All We Know", a song first published in 1934 and made famous by Hal Kemp and Nat "King" Cole (among many others).  The interaction of Brown's melodic bass and Wilson's ever-so-quiet brush work with the pianist's impressionistic chords allows Ms. Bloom to not only caress the melody but move freely through her improvisation. That is followed by an original, "What She Wanted" that has a melody line reminiscent of Charles Mingus's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"; there's a bluesy quality to her soprano sound and a modal feel in the piano chords that gives the entire song a feeling of being suspended in mid-air. Every melody is treated with love and close attention to details, whether it's "The Way You Look Tonight" (a duo for soprano and piano), the stunning take on Kurt Weill's "My Ship" (with the bell of the soprano sax pointed into the body of the keyboard) or the Latin tempo that drives "Ice Dancing (for Torvill & Dean)."  "The Way You Look Tonight" is also just piano and soprano; even as Fallacaro creates the lovely lines below the solo, he paints his own pictures.  One feels the longing in the unheard lyrics and the affection in the melody. "Sixteen Sunsets" is music that serves as a healing balm as the end of a long day or to help through a period of emotional distress.  The sounds caress the listener so, by the time you reach the final track, "Bird Experiencing Light", one should feel as if a heavy weight has been lifted off his shoulders.  Jan Ira Bloom has not produced a "New Age" recording; this is music that blends the search for peace with the joy of "playing." Kudos to all involved! For more information, go to www.janeirabloom.com. "Sixteen Sunsets" has been nominated for a 2014 GRAMMY (best Surround-Sound recording) and ended up on several prominent critics' "Best of 2013" list.  The digital release was in December 5, 2013 and the "physical" due date is January 7, 2014-Richard B. Kamins

There's a wonderful purity in the soprano saxophone playing of Jane Ira Bloom, and a sense of understated passion in the beautiful sounds she creates. Not only that, she is an acknowledged master of the techniques that are essential to perform with accurate tuning on this most difficult of instruments - her intonation on even extremely high notes is almost always perfect. Sixteen Sunsets is a really valuable addition to her extensive catalogue of recordings, a delightful collection of standard ballad songs including For All We Know, I Loves You Porgy, Darn That Dream, Good Morning Heartache, Out Of This World, The Way You Look Tonight, But Not For Me and My Ship. In addition, there are some graceful original ballads by Bloom herself: What She Wanted, Gershwin's Skyline, Ice Dancing (for Torvill and Dean), Primary Colors, Too Many Reasons and Bird Experiencing Light. Her rhythm section is an excellent one: Dominic Fallacaro on piano, Cameron Brown on bass and Matt Wilson on drums. The CD recording quality is very fine indeed, and the original recording was made in 5.1 high resolution surround sound at Avatar Studio B in New York. That is separately available on a Pure Audio Blu-ray disc for those with the equipment to decode it. However you listen to Sixteen Sunsets, however, an immensely pleasurable experience is guaranteed.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2013
The results of the 35th Annual Jazz Station Poll conducted by jazz journalist, jazz historian & jazz educator Arnaldo DeSouteiro is in. and The Best Jazz of 2013 is Ahmad Jamal (pictured below), Steve Lindeman, Ron Carter, Toots Thielemans, Gene Bertoncini, Mark Egan, Steve Gadd, Randy Brecker, Michael Pedicin, Ronnie Cuber, Jane Ira Bloom, Jamie Baum, Molly Holm and the late (and already much missed) George Duke are among the top artists of the year.  Only albums recorded or released in 2013 were eligible. 2013 Soprano Sax: 1º Jane Ira Bloom ("Sixteen Sunsets" Blu-ray Audio – Outline/Pure Audio Records); 2º Wayne Shorter ("Without A Net" – Blue Note); 3º Larry Schneider ("Permission" w/ Molly Holm – Rinny Zin Records); 4º Geof Bradfield ("Melba!" – Origin); 5º Sam Newsome ("The Art Of The Soprano" – SM); 6º Dave Liebman ("Circular Dreaming" w/ Quest – Enja); 7º Anthony Braxton ("Echo Echo Mirror House" – Victo); 8º Sergio Galvão ("Phantom Fish" – Pimenta Music); 9º Danny Markovitch ("Last Chapter of Dreaming" w/ Marbin – MoonJune); 10º Branford Marsalis("Bob, A Palindrome" – Bebob Music); 11º Chris Potter ("The Sirens" – ECM); 12º Joshua Redman ("Walking Shadows" – Nonesuch); 13º Mark Gross ("Blackside" – Jazz Legacy Prod.)

  ..."Top Ten" seems a rather arbitrary number, so here are my favorites out of about a thousand CDs which came my way last year. The selection is a personal choice based  on musical merit and not necessarily popular appeal, sales, or airplay elsewhere. This is  not a ranking, CDs are listed more or less in order received. Grammy nominees are indicated with * except in the reissue/ historical section. The Grammy eligibility year is October through August, thus some of this year's nominees appeared on our list last year, and some on this list may be nominated next year. 'Jazz After Hours' is a Syndicated Radio Show through PRI.  host and producer -  Jim Wilke.  Here's the list
  Jane Ira Bloom – Sixteen Sunsets – Outline 
Joe Lovano UsFive – Crossculture- Blue Note    Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Hagar's Song – ECM    Tomasz Stanko – Wislawa – ECM    Dave Douglas Quintet – Time Travel – Greenleaf    Ryan Keberle & Catharsis – Music is Emotion – Alternate Side    Michael Dease – Coming Home – D Clef    Joe Locke – Lay Down My Heart – Motema   Frank Wess – Magic 101 – IPO    Eddie Daniels & Roger Kellaway – Duke at The Roadhouse – IPO    Miami Saxophone Quartet – Four of a Kind – Fourtitude    Etienne Charles – Creole Soul – Culture Shock   Ryan Cohen – The River – Motema    Gary Burton – Guided Tour – Mack Avenue    Jim Hall Quartet – Live at Birdland – Artistshare    Kenny Burrell – Special Requests – High Note    Kenny Wheeler – Six for Six – CAM Jazz    Steve Turre – The Bones of Art – Highnote    Joe Fielder's Big Sackbut – Dackbut Stomp – Multiphonic Music    3 Cohens – Tightrope – Anzic    Brian Lynch – Unsung Heroes, Vol 2 – Holistic Musicworks   

Acclaimed soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom brings thirty-plus years of experience to her fifteenth recording and first all-ballads album Sixteen Sunsets. She's covered standards before-Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's "Lost in the Stars" on Art and Aviation and Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington's "The Nearness of You" on The Nearness, to cite but two examples-but does so even more plentifully on Sixteen Sunsets, which complements nine American songbook classics with five of her own compositions. But don't think for a moment that Bloom has phoned in, so to speak, these performances. Though she's no doubt played the pieces countless times, the material sounds startlingly fresh on this recording, and alive, too, due to the amazing multi-dimensional clarity the surround sound recording brings to her playing (the saxophone was literally surrounded by an array of microphones for the sessions), something especially audible in her solo saxophone treatment of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's "My Ship." Bloom less plays the melodies in the standard so much as caresses them and lovingly at that. In that regard, there's maybe no more exquisite moment on the recording than the sound of Bloom wrapping her voice around the heartfelt melodies in "I Loves You Porgy," and though she delivers the songs' themes with deep feeling, she goes deeper in the solos where it truly feels like she's trying to penetrate into the material to get at its heart (one example of many: her solo in Billie Holiday and Mal Waldron's "Left Alone"). One of the recording's great pleasures comes from observing how Bloom straddles the line between hewing closely to a given song's melodies and straying from it with soloistic embellishments. Put simply, her handling of the album content suggests not only an acquaintance of long-standing but one of deep affection, too, all of which makes Sixteen Sunsets noteworthy for presenting some of the most emotional playing of Bloom's on record. Though she has become well-known for the application of live electronics to her playing, Sixteen Sunsets features her soprano saxophone playing in its pure form. Pianist Dominic Fallacaro, bassist Cameron Brown, and drummer Matt Wilson provide tasteful support, their relative unobtrusiveness not unwelcome in a date of this kind. Fallacaro stands out for the elegance of his playing, but so too do the others; consider the magnificent support the trio gives Bloom for her haunting rendition of Jimmy Van Heusen's "Darn That Dream" as evidence. Highlights are plentiful, and from the first moments of "For All We Know," the tender side of Bloom's playing is on full display, and what a wonderful a thing it is to witness. Her own bluesy composition "What She Wanted" exudes such a classic ballad quality, it feels perfectly at home within such esteemed company, especially when the also-bluesy "Good Morning Heartache" and "Left Alone" are also featured. She covers a standard of her own in featuring a new version of "Ice Dancing (for Torvill & Dean)," which originally appeared on the late-‘80s Slalom and whose lilting swing and serpentine melodies sound as good today as they did then. Her breezy "Primary Colors" also adds a welcome moment of uptempo swing to a recording whose focus is otherwise on slow tempi. One of the most well-known historical precursors to Sixteen Sunsets is, of course, Coltrane's Ballads, which likewise features a sax-led quartet interpreting an album's worth of timeless romantic standards. Fifty years after Coltrane's recording first appeared, Bloom perpetuates the tradition with a beautiful one of her own that can't be praised too highly. January 2014         TEN QUESTIONS WITH JANE IRA BLOOM
The soprano sax has enjoyed a long and distinguished history in jazz, with figures such as Steve Lacy, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter having established clearly recognizable voices on the instrument. Jane Ira Bloom established her own voice on the instrument at a rather early stage in her career: by the time her third album, 1982's Mighty Lights, appeared (on which she was auspiciously joined by Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell as well as pianist Fred Hersch, with whom she's enjoyed a long-standing musical partnership), Bloom's distinctive voice, both as a player and composer, had come into clear focus. She certainly wasted no time in making a name for herself as both a composer and player. Her first solo album, We Are, a nine-song duet date recorded in March 1978 with bassist Kent McLagan, features seven Bloom originals, while her love for timeless standards was already evident in the inclusion of Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" on her debut and Weill and Anderson's "Lost in the Stars" on Mighty Lights. There's a warmth and lyrical quality to her playing that's present on those early recordings, and such qualities blossom to an even greater degree on her latest, a beautiful set of ballads titled Sixteen Sunsets. Bloom has also received a considerable number of honours and awards over the years. She was the recipient of the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz, is a six-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Award for Soprano Saxophone, and a winner of the Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano sax. Currently a professor at NYC's New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music, Bloom has had such a huge impact that The 2009 Bloom Festival, a Brooklyn-based jazz festival devoted to cutting-edge woman artists, was named in her honour; she is also the first musician to have been commissioned by the NASA Art Program and even had an asteroid named after her by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid 6083janeirabloom). 01. Near the beginning of your recording career, you were joined by Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell on 1982's Mighty Lights. What was the experience like for you playing with such revered figures? It was an opportunity to play with my dream rhythm section. I was scared out of my mind but excited at the same time. You know like the Chinese definition of a crisis-it was "a dangerous opportunity." Playing with Charlie and Ed was like surfing an amazing rhythmic wave. They had a way of making anything you played sound right. 02. Was it intimidating or did you feel at home, so to speak, in such company? And was there anything in particular you took away from the recording experience that was especially valuable? I was so lucky to have had the experience of playing with them. The kind of feel that they created is completely unique. That recording also marked the beginning of my collaboration with pianist Fred Hersch, which continues to evolve to the present day. Looking back at that recording reminds me of what a creative nexus the whole experience was. 03. You also seemed to find your voice at a preternaturally early stage in your career. How did you manage to do so when other artists sometimes take years to do so? It's really been a journey. I suppose choosing the soprano-an instrument that you could develop a sound on with the luxury of being stylistically under-influenced had something to do with it. I also think "having a sound" is something that was ingrained in my thinking from the time I began studying the saxophone with woodwind virtuoso Joe Viola. The saxophone is one of the instruments that is closest to the human voice and so making a sound on it should be as personal and unique as your own voice. 04. Obviously most of the standards you've included in Sixteen Sunsets are ones that have been played and recorded countless times, and I'm presuming you've played them many times as well. Having said that, your performances of them on the recording strike me as so fresh they sound like performances by someone almost new to them. How did you manage to make the renderings of the songs sound so fresh, given that you've played many times before the recording sessions? If you're in a relaxed frame of mind, the best way to play anything is completely fresh to the moment so that every sound you make is a discovery to your imagination. As improvisers we practice this kind of spontaneity-a provocative juxtaposition of concepts, don't you think? With the album, I picked songs that really resonated with me and then tried to record them in a way that was conducive to relaxation. We never really recorded in the studio for more than three or four hours at a time, which helped keep everything fresh. 05. The other thing that strikes me about the performances of the ballads on Sixteen Sunsets is how powerfully emotional your playing is, especially in your solos. Were you consciously setting out to dig deeper into these songs to get to their emotional core or is that simply something that naturally comes out when you're playing such melodically rich material? You know as you get older, you just get more comfortable with yourself and eliminating all the things that get in the way of singing in your natural voice. I've learned a lot from listening to vocalists. I'm very happy that the emotional reach of the music is audible. It's one thing to play that way in concert and another thing to let yourself go in the studio. I think great melodies do most of the work for you. 06. One of the things that comes through clearly as I listen to Sixteen Sunsets is the unqualified joy it seems to me I hear when you playing something as magnificent as "I Loves You Porgy" and "The Way You Look Tonight." Am I correct in assuming that as a musician one of your greatest satisfactions is simply the experience of having such exquisite material speak through you? It's like an exquisite synchrony. There's something in feeling and thinking about the lyrics of a song and what they're saying and then transforming that through your own voice. It's such a simple concept for an instrumentalist to play a song thinking about what that song means but you'd be surprised how quickly the transformation to an instrument can confuse that. 07. In 1996, Herbie Hancock released The New Standard, his attempt to argue on behalf of songs like The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" and Nirvana's "All Apologies" as contemporary standards. Those covered on Sixteen Sunsets, on the other hand, are classics of decades-long standing like "Darn That Dream" and "Good Morning Heartache." Can you think of any contemporary standards that hold up next to the ones you covered or is there some truth to the cliche "They don't write'em like that anymore"? There are great songs in all eras of music. In addition to the American songbook, I grew up listening to Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, etc... Who knows, maybe someday I'll revisit that music. My students interpret the music of their time in 2013 in a way that is completely natural to them because it's of their generation. 08. In a Dec. 7th, 2013 review of new biographies on Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Martin Levin states that jazz is "widely thought a dying art form" (even though at the close of the paragraph he writes, "one hopes, that rumours of the death of jazz are highly exaggerated"). What's your own take on jazz's current state of health? Looking at the wallpaper in his bedroom near the end of his life Oscar Wilde was quoted as saying "One of us has got to go." Maybe it's the critics and their dire predictions that need to take a rest. The music always has and always will continue to evolve and develop in its own way regardless of its observers. 09. No doubt you've attended a great many concerts in your life. Are there any that stick out as particularly memorable, even life-changing? Listening to Sonny Rollins play a capella solos live is a life-changing experience. Hearing Aretha Franklin singing "Respect" at the Kennedy Center a few years ago was surreal and an experience I'll never forget. 10. As Sixteen Sunsets was recorded in early summer 2013, I'm guessing that you're currently pondering what your follow-up to it will be. Any thoughts as to what your next recording will be like and how it might differ from the latest one? Not really. I tend to let more time go by between projects so that ideas can evolve in their own time and not according to when I would like them to happen. You never know where a good idea can come from or when it might appear so sometimes you just have to be patient with your own creative process. JANE IRA BLOOM January 2014

You loved jazz in college, but these days, do you really have time to follow it? Maybe I'm only talking about myself. The jazz scene I loved so much in my early twenties begins to recede unless I make an affirmative effort to go charging toward it. So at this time of year, every year, we consult with jazz savants and musicians and ask them about the best music they heard all year.

Today on Connecticut Public Radio's Colin McEnroe Show, two jazz mavens in studio will be asking three of our favorite musicians, Jane Ira Bloom, Joel Frahm and Noah Baerman about their new recordings. These 3 albums made our '2013 Jazz Picks By Jazz Fanatics' and in the midst of all the getting ready, I gradually realized that Jane Ira's brand new release, sixteen Sunsets, may wind up being my own favorite this year.  

Soprano saxophone virtuoso Jane Ira Bloom's intensely intimate and simultaneously cinematic Sixteen Sunsets is quite different from her preceding albums, Like Silver, Like Song (Artistshare, 2005), Mental Weather (Outline, 2008) and Wingwalker (Outline, 2010). Gone are the edgy flirtations with freer styles as well as the provocative, electrifying compositions. Instead the material is mostly standards and a few originals that are in the essence of those time honored songs, all interpreted with a lush lyricism laced with elegant spontaneous flourishes. READ THE FULL All About Jazz REVIEW.

 

Congratulations to Crossover Media Artist: Jane Ira Bloom on her 2014 GRAMMY Nomination for 'Sixteen Sunsets' in the 'Best Surround Sound Album' category. The 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards will air Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, on CBS. Sixteen Sunsets Blu-ray version is a co-release between Pure Audio Records and Outline Music. The album was recorded in 5.1 high-resolution Surround Sound at New York's famed Avatar Studio B by renowned engineer Jim Anderson who also co-produced and pushed the envelope of how a jazz quartet could sound using this technique. On the session, the saxophone was surrounded by a satellite array of mics and ‘Surround' was a perfect match for the soprano sax because the sound doesn't emanate directly from the bell of the horn, it radiates out in all directions from the instrument in a more diffuse way. JIB said: "I've always been interested in the doppler-like effect created when the bell of the horn passes the microphones."

The standard CD version of Sixteen Sunsets will be released on January 7, 2014 through Outline.

From: Ralph A. Miriello - This year was a particularly fertile year for new, contemporary music by young composers. If the music has to be categorized at all it probably falls into that all encompassing genre we call " jazz.," a label that many consider too limiting. It was also a year when some of the more seasoned players brought their "A" game to the studio with predictably satisfying results. I personally have an affinity for a good melody,  good rhythm and lyricism and yet sometimes good music may lack an identifiable melody or contain rhythmic diversity that is so complex that it can only be  savored by a mathematically attuned brain. Music can be so arrhythmic as to cause  the internal rhythms of our bodies to react as if we are mainlining adrenaline. Some music is so atonal and dissonant that it can strain credibility with the listener, mimicking purposeful cacophony, but yet bringing with it a sense of expression, creativity  and occasionally a  sense of majesty. Acknowledging that it is all part of artistic expression, not everyone will find all the choices to be to their liking, but one thing is for sure they are all worthy of consideration. To paraphrase Duke Ellington's famous tome there are just two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. I believe these selections all fall into the good category. So go out and listen and support these talented artists.

With that in mind I offer my picks for the best of Jazz's New Music in  2013. My apologies to those fine offerings that I didn't have a chance to listen to this year and are necessarily excluded from my list.

Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has always had a special feeling for ballad performances and she's finally released a project that showcases her expressive interpretations of American songbook standards and slow tempo originals. Sixteen Sunsets is her first all-ballads album, her 15th album as leader and fifth recording on the Outline label. The project pairs Bloom with long-time bandmates Cameron Brown on bass, drummer Matt Wilson, and newcomer pianist Dominic Fallacaro. She had been working on this slow tempo repertoire in concerts in NYC in the two years since her last "Wingwalker" release and then brought this band together to record in May 2013. Sixteen Sunsets was recorded in 5.1 high resolution surround sound at Avatar Studio B in NYC with renowned audio engineer and co-producer Jim Anderson. The album features nine American songbook classics including Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" and Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight" in addition to five originals from Bloom's own ballad book. Photographic legend Jay Maisel contributed the breathtaking image for the album cover artwork. Available in 5.1 high resolution surround sound on Pure Audio Blu-ray Pure Audio Records 55017 and in stereo on Outline Records (OTL141). 5.1 hi-res surround-sound available on Pure Audio Blu-ray Sept 29, 2013

Ms. Bloom and the band will celebrate the release @Jazz at Kitano in New York TONIGHT!! Sat. Nov 23@8 & 10. 

Jane Ira Bloom moves when she plays. With soprano saxophone in hands, she begins to sway and dance, varying the distance of her instrument from the microphone. The result is an intense sensory experience, a surround sound with Doppler-like qualities. Beyond creating a signature sound, the technique is also a part of the pedagogy she uses as a professor at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York. 'School's Research Radio' caught up with JIB to talk about her approach in an arts edition called: Popsicle Stick. Listen to the podcast. READ THE FULL ARTICLE.

'Being Here,' a book of interviews by Radhika Philip focuses on the values and practices of improvisational musicians. The author uses some of New York City's finest musicans as her subjects, and joining Jane Ira Bloom are Andy Bey, Ben Monder, Billy Hart, Bill Frisell, Brian Blade, Butch Morris, Chris Potter, Dafnis Prieto, David Binney, Dave Douglas, Gregoire Maret, Henry Threadgill, Jason Moran, Kenny Wollesen, Maria Schneider, Mark Turner, Robert Glasper, Steve Coleman, Thomas Morgan, and Vijay Iyer, William. Ms Philip disusses composing, improvising and bandleading, as well as the relationship between the art and the audience.   Radhika Philip was born in Bombay, India, and came to the United States to study anthropology. From the moment she set foot in New York City, she has felt inextricably bonded to it.  Jazz came into her life serendipitously many years later.  She came to value the art as an unorthodox space of great diversity, a culture of creativity and risk taking.  With this appreciation of the culture, she began interviewing contemporary New York City musicians about their values and practices, ideas and relationships, and the scene's ideological and operational dynamics and interactions.  Her intent, documentary, was also practical-to share stories about the creative and collaborative spirit with each of us. Being Here is the first volume of her interviews.

Crossover Media's innovative soprano sax player Jane Ira Bloom even has an asteroid named after her. 6083 Janeirabloom is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 25, 1984 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of Lowell Observatory. Named in her honor, the Minor planet citation?6083 was issued on Feb. 11 1998. As the first musician in the NASA Art Program, Bloom has composed in the stars many times including for her recording 'Most Distant Galaxy' and she wrote 'Einstein's Red/Blue Universe' as a commission from the American Composers' Orchestra. 6083 is in a 3.35-year elliptical orbit around the sun ranging in distance from 275.6 million km (at perihelion, closest point to the sun) to 394.8 million km (at aphelion, furthest point from the sun). The next perihelion passage will occur on 2015 Jan. 8.2 UT.
The orbit is inclined by 5.7 degrees to the ecliptic plane (the plane of the earth's orbit about the sun). You will need a telescope to see it. The diagram in the photo shows the orbit in relation to the major planets in the inner solar system. This view of the inner solar system is seen from the north ecliptic pole. The sun is the yellow star at the center of the image. The blue orbits represent, in increasing distance from the center, the major planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. The position of each major planet at the date indicated at the bottom of the plot is shown by the large circled cross. The orbit of the minor planet is shown in red, with the location of the minor planet (at the date indicated at the bottom of the plot) shown as a white circled cross. From this vantage point the planets revolve around the sun in a counter clockwise direction. The vernal equinox is off to the right. The portion of the minor planet's orbit that is below the plane of the earth's orbit is shaded grey. The perihelion point of the minor planet's orbit is at the end of the white straight line through the sun indicated by "P". If you are wondering about how minor planets are named, the discoverer of a particular object has the privilege of suggesting a name to a committee that judges its suitability, so go out and discover one! Read more about how minor planets are named.

Crossover Media's innovative soprano sax player: Jane Ira Bloom even has an asteroid named after her. 6083 Janeirabloom is a main-belt asteroid, discovered on September 25, 1984 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of Lowell Observatory. Issued on Feb. 11 1998, the Minor planet citation 6083 was named in Ms. Bllom's honor. She is the first musician commissioned by the NASA Art Program and has composed pieces such as: 'Most Distant Galaxy' and 'Einstein's Red/Blue Universe,' a commission from the American Composers' Orchestra.  here's some important info:    6083 is in a 3.35-year elliptical orbit around the sun ranging in distance from 275.6 million km (at perihelion, closest point to the sun) to 394.8 million km (at aphelion, furthest point from the sun). The next perihelion passage will occur on 2015 Jan. 8.2 UT.The orbit is inclined by 5.7 degrees to the ecliptic plane (the plane of the earth's orbit about the sun). You will need a telescope to see it. The diagram in the photo shows the orbit  in relation to the major planets in the inner solar system. If you are wondering about how minor planets are named, READ MORE

Multiple Grammy-winning jazz producer Jim Anderson (Patricia Barber, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Mingus, Sonny Rollins) and former AES President, presented tracks and answered questions about Jane Ira Bloom's recently released Sixteen Sunsets album from this year's (35th) AES Convention in New York, which took place October 17-20. Anderson discussed and demonstrated the 5.1 surround project recorded at Avatr Studio B in New York, in front of a member packed seminar composed of international audio industry experts.

Jane Ira Bloom is, perhaps, the anti-Kenny G. I've listened to a couple of seasoned musicians discuss why they liked Kenny G so intensely, and one of them mentioned how easy it was to play the soprano sax. "It takes relatively little air to hit the notes," he explained, which seemed to suggest that Kenny G didn't put forth an effort. I don't buy that; it's a matter of taste and that's it. Listening to Jane Ira Bloom will convince you otherwise--she infuses so many complex emotions into her music that you simply can't absorb its sheer loveliness into your being, you have to ponder it deeply. On her new album, Sixteen Sunsets, Bloom tricks you into thinking you're listening to serene, gorgeous selections from the "Great American Songbook" that are meant to be listened at dusk. But the silence that surrounds her gorgeous notes are brimming with an unease and longing you won't discover while listening to something like "Songbird." READ THE FULL Vinyl Anachronist REVIEW

Award-winning soprano saxist Jane Ira Bloom has collaborated with Jim Anderson in producing this terrific Pure Audio Blu-ray album. She been a leading voice on the soprano sax for over 30 years now, pioneering the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, and has collaborated with such artists as Fred Hersch, Marc Copland, Charlie Haden and Kenny Wheeler.  The album title comes from astronaut Joseph Allen's quote about seeing 16 sunsets and sunrises each day when you're in the space station. READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition REVIEW

Jane Ira Bloom releases brand new CD TODAY!!: Sixteen Sunsets. Expressive interpretations of Standards and Original compositions on Blu-ray 5.1 High-Resolution Surround-Sound. Released through Pure Audio and Outline Music. Features Cameron Brown on bass, Matt Wilson on drums, and Dominic Fallacaro on piano "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.

JIB's love for melody comes directly from her earliest exposure to American Standards. After the release of her ‘Wingwalker' CD, she noticed of the fact that the two or three ballads she would regularly include in live settings attracted special attention from the audience. This led to the idea of ‘all ballads' programs in her concert and club performances, and is what ultimately informed the concept for Sixteen Sunsets. She recalls: "It feels completely natural to combine some of my own slow tempo pieces with the standards - my way of trying to say something about being an instrumental song singer in 2013."

The fourteen tracks on Sixteen Sunsets feature nine American songbook classics including: Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy," Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," Arlen's "Out of This World," Weill's "My Ship," Jimmy Van Heusen's "Darn That Dream," and Billie Holiday & Mal Waldron's "Left Alone," among others. There are also five originals from Bloom's ballad repertoire including: "What She Wanted," "Ice Dancing" (for Torvill & Dean), "Gershwin's Skyline," "Too Many Reasons," and "Bird Experiencing Light." Photographic legend Jay Maisel contributed his breathtaking image: "Maine Forest At Dawn" for the album cover art. He picked the image from his archives after listening to the CD and the synchronicity is startling.

Sixteen Sunsets is a co-release between Pure Audio Records and Outline Music with the Blu-ray version coming out on September 29 through Pure Audio, and the standard CD version releasing on January 7, 2014 through Outline. The album was recorded in 5.1 high-resolution Surround Sound at New York's famed Avatar Studio B by renowned engineer Jim Anderson who also co-produced and pushed the envelope of how a jazz quartet could sound using this technique. JIB felt that ‘Surround' was a perfect match for the soprano sax because the sound doesn't emanate directly from the bell of the horn, it radiates out in all directions from the instrument in a more diffuse way. The saxophone was literally surrounded by a satellite array of mics for the sessions, and JIB's playing style was very well suited to the technique since she is always moving when playing. She recalls: "I've always been interested how sound changes when it moves and thedoppler-like effect that I create when I sweep the bell of the horn past the microphones really comes through vividly in surround-sound."Sixteen Sunsets will be submitted for consideration in the 2014 Grammy sound surround category.

Bloom has been developing her unique voice on the soprano sax for over 30 years. A six-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Award for Soprano Saxophone, winner of the Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano sax,and recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship, her music is lyrical and provocative.

NASA musician soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has taken to the air again with the release of her latest CD Wingwalker on the Outline label (OTL140). Long known for her unique sound and daring compositions, Bloom offers her 14th album as leader reuniting with fellow barnstormers Bobby Previte on drums, bassist Mark Helias, and pianist Dawn Clement. Logging two years since her last release "Mental Weather" (OTL139), she brought the quartet into Avatar Studio B in NYC in June 2010 to record new air-dancing compositions that she wrote during a Guggenheim Fellowship. With legendary audio engineer Jim Anderson at the board, the band recorded eleven Bloom originals and a solo sax rendition of Lerner & Lowe's classic "I Could Have Danced All Night."  Whether expressing a ballad with spare simplicity like "Adjusting to Midnight" or cruising in time to "Freud's Convertible" with full-throated electronic abandon, her soprano sound always shines "crystal clear like a full moon on a starless night" - jazzweekly.com. The Cd also includes an mp3 downloadable track Wingwalker Singularity that rearranges highlights of songs on the album into a 5 minute and 49 second soundscape. Bloom writes "There's something different about the way the music revealed itself to the band in this recording.  We didn't have a lot of preconceptions and that allowed a certain freedom to open up and move the music in unexpected ways.  All we had to do was to let it happen."

    Navigating the spaceways is nothing new for Bloom who has performed her music in venues as far reaching as the National Air & Space Museum's Einstein Planetarium and the Kennedy Space Center. In the past few years she has performed at jazz concert series at Yale University, Cornish College of the Arts, The Rubin Museum of Art and the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center.  A highlight of her schedule included taking part in "Resonations" International Telematic Music Concerts for Peace at the United Nations performing new compositions in real time with renowned musicians from around the world via the internet using telematic music technology. A documentary webcast of the project can be viewed at:

http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2010/12/wafunif-arts-for-peace-worldconcert-2010-an-international-telematic-music-concert-for.html

    A strong visual thinker, Bloom's affinity for other art forms has lead to collaborations with other innovative artists.She has curated a discussion/ performance series on improvisation at the Philoctetes Center for the Multi-Disciplinary Study of Imagination in NYC, presenting programs that included performing with dancer/ choreographer Carmen deLavallade (Moving & Playing: Jazz Improvisation & Dance) and pianist Fred Hersch (The Art of the Ballad). Videos of the events can be viewed athttp://philoctetes.org/past_programs/. She also scored the music for the upcoming "Feiffer Dancer Films" – a series of short films that re-imagine cartoonist Jules Feiffer's "modern dancer" character. The piece created during a 2009 residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center brought Jane into collaboration with renown choreographers Larry Kiegwin, Susan Marshall, writer Jules Feiffer, and Merce Cunningham dancer Andrea Weber.

    A pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, Bloom has garnered numerous awards for her creativity including the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Jazz Journalists Award for soprano saxophone. She's the first musician commissioned by NASA and has an asteroid named in her honor. A new jazz festival in Brooklyn, NY featuring cutting edge woman artists was named in her honor (The Bloom Festival). She has been recording and producing original music since 1977, founding her own record label & publishing company (Outline Music) in 1976 and later recording for ENJA, CBS, Arabesque, and Artistshare Records. She's currently a professor at the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York City. Perched on the edge of the jazz tradition Wingwalker puts Bloom's musical imagination on display, crafting moments of beauty and adventure.

Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has a new album on an old label. After thirty years Jane has returned to her original LP label that she began when she first started her career in New Haven, CT – Outline Records. Her electro-acoustic band brings together fellow 70's New Havenite Mark Helias on bass, drummer Matt Wilson, and Seattle new comer Dawn Clement on keyboards for Bloom's 13th and most recent recording. The band recorded Mental Weather after premiering the piece in NYC with the support of the Chamber Music America/ Doris Duke new jazz works program. Then Bloom brought the band into Avatar Studio B with audio engineering legend Jim Anderson for two days in June and laid down nine thrilling tracks, from the exquisite ballad "A More Beautiful Question" to the kinetic romp of "Electrochemistry" to her signature solo performance of Richard Rodger's classic "This Nearly Was Mine." The CD also features an mp3 downloadable version of the music played as one continuous set the way the band performs in concert. Jane Ira Bloom is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz as well as the possessor of "one of the most gorgeous tones and hauntingly lyrical ballad conceptions of any soprano saxophonist - Pulse." She's the winner of the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Jazz Award and the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship. She's the first NASA commissioned musician and has an asteroid named in her honor. She writes music inspired by outer and now inner space.