Filmed in the round at the Philharmonie Berlin on the 18th May 2016, with minimal staging and simple lighting, it captures Gregory Porter and his band performing tracks from across his recording career. There’s also a bonus feature interview with Gregory Porter and the members of his band about their background, influences and the way they work together as a group.

‘Gregory Porter: Live in Berlin’ is released November 18th 2016 on DVD and Blu-ray

Tracklisting:

1) Holding On
2) On My Way To Harlem / What’s Going On
3) Take Me To The Alley
4) Don t Lose Your Steam
5) Hey Laura
6) Liquid Spirit
7) Consequence Of Love
8) Bass Solo / Papa Was A Rolling Stone
9) Musical Genocide
10) Don t Be A Fool
11) Work Song / Drum Solo
12) In Fashion
13) Be Good (Lion s Song)
14) 1960 What?
15) Water Under Bridges
16) Free / Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

from www.jazzfm.com

(Published: February 22, 2017)

M.O.D. Technologies presents another stunning release as part of their digital Incunabula Series, this time with high-caliber artists Hideo Yamaki, Bill Laswell and Dave Douglas. 

Hideo Yamaki is Japan's most renown, respected and in demand drummer. He is a veteran of countless recordings and live projects with Japan's most celebrated pop / rock artists as well as many with Japanese icons such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Toshinori Kondo, DJ Krush, Akira Sakata and many others. 

Bill Laswell is a legendary, Ikonoklast, bassist / producer, who has worked with Hideo Yamaki since the eighties in many diverse and unimaginable configurations. They have been able to establish a bass and drum dialog that explodes with fluid, spontaneous blasts of telepathy, an ever expanding, dynamic matrix. 

Dave Douglas is one of the leading trumpeters of his generation, and was recognized as "Trumpet player of the year" by the Down Beat critics poll for the first time in 2000. He continued that billing 13 times in the 15 years since. He has worked with John Zorn's Masada, Horace Silver, Anthony Braxton, Joe Lovano and many others. A transcendent style and sweeping vision. 

TRACK
The Science of Imaginary Solutions (45:48)


Recorded by Hiroyuki Sanada & Fuso Murase at The Drawing Center, NY, on August 19, 2016.



AVAILABLE ONLINE MARCH 10, 2017 AND VIA WWW.MOD-TECHNOLOGIES.COM. This release is part of the digital-only Incunabula Series.

from http://www.jazzcorner.com

(Published: March 05, 2017)

Connoisseurs of jazz piano trios will welcome the release, on March 31, of Only Time Will Tell, the new trio recording by piano master Mike Longo with Paul West on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. The disc is Longo's 20th for the CAP (Consolidated Artists Productions) label, and his 26th since debuting as a leader in 1962.

Included on the CD are two compositions by Dizzy Gillespie, with whom Longo worked as pianist and musical director for 26 years, until Gillespie's death in 1993. The up-tempo "Wheatleigh Hall" was first recorded by the trumpeter in 1957 on an album with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. The gently swinging "Just a Thought," written by Gillespie in the '60s as a piano feature, had never been previously recorded.

Longo's trio-mates had their own associations with Gillespie. West had done two stints with the trumpeter -- in the '50s with Dizzy's big band and again in the '60s with the quintet that included Longo. Nash had worked with Gillespie on several occasions in subsequent years.

Longo, West, and Nash play two Thelonious Monk tunes -- "Nutty" and "Brilliant Corners" -- on Only Time Will Tell and also offer their takes on Oscar Pettiford's "Bohemia After Dark"; "Exactly Like You," delivered at an ultra-slow tempo; and Eubie Blake's "Memories of You," which closes the album. Among the Longo originals are the bossa nova-propelled "Stepping Up"; "Conflict of Interest," first recorded for a 1994 quintet album dedicated to Gillespie; and the gently waltzing title track, inspired by a documentary about Lyndon Johnson. "I started feeling sorry for him and went to the piano and wrote it," says Longo. "The point of the title is that after the passage of time, things may appear different than when you originally perceived them." 

The son of a band-leading bassist father and a church organist mother, Michael Longo Jr. was inspired as a child by boogie-woogie pianists Sugar Chile Robinson in his native Cincinnati, and Jack Fina later in Fort Lauderdale, where the Longos had moved when he was in the third grade. While in Florida, Longo was later inspired by jazz piano master Oscar Peterson, with whom he would eventually spend six months studying privately. 

After earning a bachelor's degree in classical piano at Western Kentucky University, in 1959, Longo spent two years touring with the Salt City Six, the Dixieland group, and was hired at the Metropole Café in New York as one of the club's house pianists. In his two shifts a day, he backed Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa, and Henry "Red" Allen, among many others.

Gillespie, who first heard the young pianist at the Metropole, hired him in 1966. Longo went on to make nine albums with the trumpet legend, beginning with Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac in 1967, and has also recorded with Astrud Gilberto, Lee Konitz, Buddy Rich, and Moody, to name just a few. He cut the first album under his own name, A Jazz Portrait of Funny Girl, in 1962; his last 20 have appeared on Consolidated Artists Productions (CAP), a musicians' cooperative label managed by Longo and his wife. He also has enjoyed a successful second career as an educator and creator of instructional books and videos. 

Since January 6, 2004, the anniversary of his friend Dizzy Gillespie's death, Longo has presented concerts every Tuesday evening in the Gillespie Auditorium of the New York City Baha'i Center. Longo will appear there 4/25 with his 17-piece New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble featuring Ira Hawkins. He'll be performing at Mezzrow 5/25 with Paul West.

More Information: http://www.jazzbeat.com

from  www.jazzcorner.com

New Charlie Watts Big Band Album Out April 21

Impulse!/Verve release of 2010 concert with the Danish Radio Big Band

On July 14, Blue Note will release Passin’ Thru, a new live recording by Charles Lloyd New Quartet. The album documents saxophonist, flutist and composer Lloyd, pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland on tour during summer 2016, with performances from the Montreux Jazz Festival on June 30 and a July 29 date at The Lensic in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Passin’ Thru marks the 10th anniversary of the New Quartet’s formation. In a press release sent to JazzTimes, Lloyd states, “When we come together as a unit, we find the music and love has only grown deeper. The bond of our shared experiences on and off the stage informs and expands the music. A span of 10 years covers a lot of territory, but in the time frame of the Universe, it is a mere nanosecond.”

Track list

1. Dream Weaver
2. Part 5, Ruminations
3. Nu Blues
4. How Can I Tell You
5. Tagore on the Delta
6. Passin’ Thru
7. Shiva Prayer

To pre-order the album, visit https://charleslloydus.lnk.to/PassinThru.

from https://jazztimes.com

(Published: July 12, 2017)

Drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. is releasing his latest album entitled Falling Forward (Spice of Life Records) on August 4, 2017. The album marks his fourth project as a leader and features vibraphonist Joel Rossand bassist Reuben Rogers, with special guests, vocalist Vuyo Sotasheand pianist Stephen Feifke.

Widely regarded as one of the top jazz drummers of his generation, Ulysses Owens, Jr. (Joey Alexander, Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, Gregory Porter) continues to broaden his portfolio of work, further establishing him as a noted bandleader, gifted composer, and arranger. The concept for his latest release stemmed from his desire to assemble a smaller group of musicians from whom he draws inspiration. That, in turn, led Owens to tap noted vibraphonist Joel Ross and in-demand bassist Reuben Rogers to join him to form the trio called THREE. He states, "I hadn't recorded a solo album in a few years, and really desired to record a smaller group of players that inspired me. Within the trio context is musically and sonically where I feel very comfortable, but also where I feel like I can push and go in any direction with the right guys around me. Joel Ross is such a young talent and ball of fire musically, and Reuben Rogers is an anchor and has been a musical partner of mine for the last few years. I knew that with both of them, anything would be possible for me in this new phase of my career."

The band's first album, Falling Forward, showcases a varied repertoire ranging from classic standards to upbeat, funk-driven numbers, to more dulcet, emotive pieces. Of his musical selections, Owens states, "I wanted to create a list of songs that would be accessible to the new jazz listener, but at the same time, could be appreciated by a true jazz fan. I also wish to bring more of this great music to a broader audience and hope people develop an affinity for the genre through this album. My only agenda is to make great music." Owens feels that 'Falling Forward' aptly describes his current place in life and adds, "I am at peace even in the midst of taking risks and finding balance in enjoying personal trials, because growth is born out of lack of comfort and challenging the weakest place within."

Falling Forward was produced by Keith Witty with executive producer Tomoki Sassa, and was recorded in February 2017 at Big Orange Sheep Studios in Brooklyn, NY. The album will be available for sale on August 4, 2017 via leading digital music providers; it was released in Japan on May 24, 2017, and has already received rave reviews from Jazz Japan magazine and other top Japanese publications.

More Information: http://www.ulyssesowensjr.com

from www.jazzcorner.com

Dee Dee Bridgewater Releases New Album Memphis...Yes, I'm Ready On September 15th Via DDB Records/OKeh Records

Inspired by Bridgewater's Return to Her Birth City of Memphis and the Exploration of Her Musical Roots and Influences

NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Every picture tells a story; every journey begins differently.  The story of Dee Dee Bridgewater's stunning new album, Memphis...Yes, I'm Ready, begins in that city, where she was born at Collins Chapel Hospital, located not far from where the album was recorded at Producer Willie Mitchell's historic Royal Studios.  Dee Dee's father, a trumpet player affectionately known as "Matt the Platter Cat" was a DJ at WDIA, the top Memphisradio station, and even when the family moved to neighboring Flint, Michigan, the young Dee Deecontinued to listen to the great sounds of the Memphis music scene by tuning-in late night from across state lines.  And oh what a music scene it was!

"Even as a young girl the music moved me, inspired me, made me dance with joy and cry with emotion.  My life journey may have started in Mali, West Africa, as a descendent of the Peul tribe and the Fulani of Nigeria (explored on her 2007 recording, "Red Earth" recorded in Mali) but it certainly was nurtured by my childhood in the South and all of the amazing music that I was being exposed to."

To Memphis and her roots, the 2017 NEA Jazz Master, three-time Grammy and Tony award winner, NPR host and UN Ambassador for the Food And Agriculture Organization knew that she would have to come back home to do it right.  The album was co-produced by Memphis native and Grammy-winning musician Kirk Whalum, and Willie Mitchell's grandson - Grammy-winning Engineer Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell. It was recorded at Royal Studios in Fall 2016 after multiple visits by Bridgewater to Memphis over a period of several years, during which time she absorbed as much of the music, culture, heart and soul of the city as she could possibly consume.

"Working in Memphis at Royal Studios is like magic," says Bridgewater.  "There's so much history that has been recorded in those walls.  I just felt I could take this journey in that city with Kirk and Boo.  They are my two kingpins and the two helped me realize this project and bring it to fruition."

Dee Dee was determined to recapture the same magic and history of the Blues, R&B and Soul classics in the recordings that were originally made in or associated with Memphis.  "I wanted people to be able to recall the original versions, but I also wanted them to have a more modern feeling while respecting those originals.  I'm doing B.B. King's 'Thrill Is Gone,' Bobby Blue Bland's 'Going Down Slow', Otis Redding's 'Try A Little Tenderness,' Al Green's 'Can't Get Next To You,' Ann Peebles' 'I Can't Stand The Rain' and The Staple Singers' 'Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)' - it just doesn't get any better than this in terms of material. The opportunity to make them my own was an opportunity and a challenge I felt honored to take on."

In reality, Bridgewater even prayed her project was on the right path.  She said her prayers were answered when, out of the blue, Memphis' own Stax Records singing legend Carla Thomasdropped by Royal Studios just after Dee Dee had finished mixing Thomas' hit, "B.A.B.Y." 

"Being able to play 'B.A.B.Y.' for Carla and listening to her share stories about my father playing with her father, Rufus Thomas, and talking about life in Memphis in general was the final affirmation that I needed for the project…the icing on the cake."

The result of this recording is an album that sounds like Memphis and feels like Memphis but also, sounds and feels as only a Dee Dee Bridgewater album can, imbibed with her own fierce passion, originality and incredibly dynamic take on the tracks. 

"I want to honor Memphis, which we call Soulsville, because it has brought joy to so many people around the world," says Bridgewater. "It has always been a part of me. The more I come back, the more at home I feel. I will eventually move back here.  Much of my heart and soul are here."

The release of Memphis...Yes, I'm Ready will be accompanied by tour dates worldwide - visit www.deedeebridgewater.com for information.  Watch Dee Dee talk about the making of the project here: Grammy, Tony Award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater returns home to Memphis to record new album.  

Track Listing:

1. Yes, I'm Ready
2. Giving Up
3. I Can't Get Next To You
4. Going Down Slow
5. Why?  (Am I Treated So Bad)
6. B.A.B.Y.
7. Thrill Is Gone
8. The Sweeter He Is
9. Can't Stand The Rain
10. Don't Be Cruel
11. Hound Dog
12. Try A Little Tenderness
13. (Take My Hand) Precious Lord  )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from  www.prnewswire.com           

Brownswood Collect The Cream Of UK Jazz On 'We Out Here'