CD of the Day - Saltman Knowles: "Yesterday's Man"

CD of the Day
Saltman Knowles: "Yesterday's Man" (Pacific Coast Jazz) 2010
Release Date: January 26, 2010

Featuring:
Mark Saltman - bass
William Knowles - piano
Lori Williams-Chisholm - vocals
Jimmy "Junebug" Jackson - drums
Antonio Parker - alto saxophone
Doug Pierce - flugelhorn, trumpet
Victor Provost - soprano steel pan
Brian Settles - soprano, tenor saxophones

"Jazz combo Saltman Knowles has proven themselves a sophisticated, cohesive group that straddles the line between traditional and contemporary jazz. Their sixth release, Yesterday's Man, further blends these genres by adding a seemingly unlikely jazz instrument: the steel drum. The result is an immensely likeable album combining world influences, vocals, and elements of traditional and modern jazz styles. Jazz fans that enjoy music with a world flavor should treat themselves to Yesterday's Man. It expands listeners' horizons as to what can be considered jazz. As this album shows, the genre can encompass varied sounds and influences, even instruments such as the steel pan. Yesterday's Man represents another solid effort from Saltman Knowles, and hearing their constantly developing sound is an enjoyable experience."
- Kit O'Toole, Blogcritics.com

"Yesterday's Man is a repertoire of original tunes that glisten with the graceful curves of bebop and the plush elevating riffs of swing jazz. With Knowles at the piano and Saltman on the bass, something good is guaranteed to come from their interfacing." - Susan Frances, Jazz Times

"Yesterday's Man boasts ten original songs (five by each partner) chock full of warm, satisfying melodious craft. Their style is essentially traditional jazz. It's melodic, sentimental, hard-swinging music, with mainstream appeal and standard forms. Lori Williams-Chisholm has the sought-after combination of soul and technical prowess that reminds me of Ella Fitzgerald." - Nathaniel Rolnick - MuzikReviews.com (Four star review)

Saltman Knowles Releases Another Exciting New CD, "Yesterday's Man"
Trinidad Meets Hard-Hitting Contemporary Jazz on the Pacific Coast Jazz Label

Bassist Mark Saltman and pianist Mark Knowles present their new CD release, "Yesterday's Man," hitting the streets with a complimentary mix of jazz and world music. What makes this release most uniquely distinctive is Victor Provost's soprano steel pan instrumentation laced throughout the compositions, combining elements of the traditional music of Trinidad with the intricate and melodic song craftsmanship that represents the musical style of Saltman Knowles. Vocalist Lori Williams-Chisholm returns to provide what JazzTimes calls "her exquisite wordless vocals" encased in a sultry, smooth sound. Saltman Knowles describes the story behind the new project, "Yesterday's man dressed well, and was articulate, well-educated, and less medicated. He had sophisticated tastes, integrity, and a much longer attention span, and most of all he listened to good melodic music. Yesterday's man possessed a lot of qualities that the man of today should be striving for and some of those qualities are on this recording."

This is their sixth CD on the heels of their critically admired release, "Return Of the Composer," on the Pacific Coast Jazz Label. "We're excited to have the opportunity to represent Saltman Knowles once again after the success of the last CD," says Donna Nichols, founder and president of Pacific Coast Jazz. "This new disc blends the tradition of jazz, world and contemporary sounds while maintaining a high compositional level of musicianship." Nichols' label has teamed up with SV Media Relations for publicity and radio promoter Neal Sapper of New World 'N Jazz for access to international media buying and radio promotion. Pacific Coast Jazz, founded in 2003, is an independent jazz label that also offers artist management services. All PCJ artists are distributed worldwide by MVD Audio/Big Daddy Music. For information on Pacific Coast Jazz, visit: www.pacificcoastjazz.com. For more information about Saltman Knowles visit: http://www.SaltmanKnowles.com
Saltman Knowles is a shining example of the tradition in jazz for long-term artist collaborations. This Washington DC group is known for serving up melodically alluring while rhythmically infectious music with a sincere and emotional collection of songs. Bassist Mark Saltman and pianist William Knowles, the leaders of this seamless blending of sounds, met while attending the composition program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and created a musical relationship with similar affections for the music of Billy Strayhorn, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton and Charles Mingus. The bond that binds the two is their mutual hunger for melodic content woven within a tapestry of harmonic emotional patterns. "It all starts with a singable melody because without that there is no glue. Then, we like to do something that sounds harmonically unique but has a groove. We enjoy writing music that evokes very strong feelings." Saltman and Knowles spent time as artists in residence for the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, received two grants from the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities and won the Best International Jazz song in 2007 from Toronto Exclusive Magazine. Saltman Knowles have produced five CDs to date including; Stop, Look and Listen, Dream Catcher and Sandcastles all with their first group Soulservice. Then in 2007 they recorded It's About the Melody on Blue Canoe introducing the soulful appeal of vocalist Lori William-Chisholm. Their fifth release recorded in 2008, Return Of The Composer, brought them to the Pacific Coast label where they remain today. Return of the Composer continues to receive excellent reviews hitting #8 on the Jazz World Week Radio Chart. According to Saltman Knowles "What made this record different from our past releases was the use of vocalese (using the voice as another instrument). We're lucky in the sense that we can have both an instrumental sound like a straight swinging quintet as well as a vocal sound." The CD included drummer Jimmy "Junebug" Jackson, alto sax player Rob Landham and trumpeter Alvin Trask who all brought a cohesive musical unit with a strong underlying foundation, interesting melodic lines, spirited rhythms and superlative musicianship to the project.

Saltman Knowles once again stayed true to melody and original composition on their latest recording, Yesterday's Man, to be released January 26, 2010 on the Pacific Coast Jazz label. On the heels of Return of the Composer, bassist Mark Saltman and pianist William Knowles have produced a sophisticated yet rhythmically driven statement with a fresh point of view that illustrates the importance of combining intricate song craft with introspective emotion. Lori Williams-Chisholm returns to provide what JazzTimes calls "her exquisite wordless vocals" encased in a sultry, smooth sound. But what makes this release most uniquely distinctive is Victor Provost's soprano steel pan instrumentation laced throughout the compositions, combining elements of the traditional music of Trinidad with the hard-hitting contemporary jazz swing. This amazing combination of jazz and world music textures is thematic, telling a broader story of the beauty of past traditions blending with a conscious, acoustic future. As Saltman Knowles describes, "Yesterday's man dressed well, and was articulate, well-educated, and less medicated. He had sophisticated tastes, integrity, and a much longer attention span, and most of all he listened to good melodic music. Even yesterday's gangsters pulled their pants up, and took your money-not your life. Yesterday's man possessed a lot of qualities that today's man should be striving for. Some of those qualities are on this recording."

Yesterday's Man brilliantly presents a balanced combination of instrumental and vocal personalities that represent the continued commitment to melody and original composition that began fifteen years ago, when Mark Saltman and William Knowles first met in college. According to Matt Jaworski of MuzicReviews.com, "Saltman Knowles seems to have developed anddiscovered a fresh and inviting sound. Rhythmic variety, pocket, and interaction are all executed and contained in a manner that allows melody to flow unobtrusively back and forth, cradling listeners' earsfor the long haul." DrummerJimmy "Junebug" Jackson returns on this outing and exemplifies the kind of versatility and energy that characterizes each composition, complementing the bold bass work of Mark Saltman and the tasty piano comping of William Knowles. Beautiful horn solos and unusual unison combinations of vocals and steel pan are perfectly executed by Doug Pierce (trumpet/flugelhorn), Brian Settles (tenor saxophone), and Antonio Parker (alto saxophone). "Often our music is a sketch of personal situations in our lives or of those friends who are close to us. Music is our way of commenting about life."

For more information: http://www.SaltmanKnowles.com or http://www.pacificcoastjazz.com