Birdland launches Radio Free Birdland with BroadwayWorld.com

Birdland, in association with BroadwayWorld.com, is proud to present Radio Free Birdland, a pay-per-view concert series featuring a slew of exciting Broadway, jazz and cabaret performers. Each show will be filmed with three cameras, state-of-the-art sound, socially distanced musicians, and...no audience!

At press time, performers will include Paulo Szot, Kate Rockwell, Aisha de Haas, Max von Essen (with special guest Nick Adams), Julie Halston, Jessica Vosk, Jim Brickman, Nikki Renee Daniels, Billy Stritch, Matt Baker & Nicole Zuraitis, Christopher Sieber, Janis Siegel, Michael West as Kenn Boisinger, Natalie Douglas, Amanda Green, Monty Alexander, Houston Person, Telly Leung, Ken Peplowski, The Skivvies, The Louis Armstrong Centennial Band, Christina Bianco, Gabrielle Stravelli, and many more.

A new show will be aired every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm.

Each concert will kick off with a live premiere event, featuring a special chat (which will include the performer) and will then be on-demand for 30 days on BroadwayWorld Events.

The Radio Free Birdland Concert Series will be presented on the BroadwayWorld Events streaming platform. Longtime Birdland staffers Ryan Paternite produces and directs and Jim Caruso serves as producer.

A brief history about the name: During the Cold War in 1950, Radio Free Europe began broadcasting news and jazz recordings to nations imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain, sustaining morale and providing entertainment. Similarly, the producers at Birdland look forward to bringing extraordinary talent to the masses who are quarantined in their homes during the pandemic.

Birdland has been bringing live music to New York City since it's opening in 1949. The iconic club made its name booking premier jazz acts on the stage, and has since included Broadway, pop, cabaret and comedy on the roster. For the first time since quarantine started, the Birdland family is excited to be one of the first live music venues in New York City to virtually re-open for twice-weekly concerts, offering work to beloved performers, and bringing life back to West 44 Street!

For tickets and more visit events.broadwayworld.com!
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The first four performances are as follows:

David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band
Tuesday, August 11, at 7pm EDT

Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America’s own great art form. Legendary record producer George Avakian describes the band in this way:

“There has never been a band quite like this one. Most groups, past and present, stick to one style. Some current groups attempt to recreate early recordings in their entirety. These guys do neither. Inspired by divergent bands of the 1920s and 30s, you’ll hear them swing a variety of styles in music by a wide range of composers, always true to the joy and heart of the music.”

Tuba player David Ostwald leads a rotating lineup that features talents such as clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist/vocalist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Ehud Asherie, drummer Marion Felder and more!

Max Von Essen
Thursday, August 13 at 7pm EDT

Tony nominated leading man, Max von Essen, embraces his love of the golden age of Broadway and the American Songbook in this Birdland Theater solo show. Inspired by an era long past, Max works his leading man charm and breathes new life into music we’ve loved for decades. From the Gershwins to Lerner and Loewe, From An American in Paris to Jersey Boys. He’s joined by Grammy winning songwriter and famed musical director, Billy Stritch, as well as very special guest, Nick Adams.

An Evening with Monty Alexander
Tuesday, August 18 at 7pm EDT

In a rare solo performance for Radio Free Birdland legendary jazz pianist Monty Alexander shares stories and songs from his six decade career. Monty has has melded the sounds of American jazz, popular song, and the music of his native Jamaica, performing and recording along the way with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole, Bobby McFerrin, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare and many more. His recordings — over 60 albums to date — have reinterpreted the music of a diverse collection of his favorite artists including Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and Bob Marley.

Natalie Douglas: Singin' in the Wire
Thursday, August 20 at 7pm EDT

Twelve-time Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs Winner, Natalie Douglas, has been called “a true force of nature,” by Clive Davis of The Times (UK). She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Cafe Carlyle, The Town Hall, Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Pheasantry in London, and at Birdland Jazz Club where her award-winning TRIBUTES monthly residency (Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Elvis, Dolly Parton, Nat “King” Cole, Dame Shirley Bassey, Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack and more) is now in its fourth year. She has released three albums, including the MAC Award Winning “Human Heart. Natalie has also made her mark as a much sought after educator & actor – she is a Master Teacher for both the Mabel Mercer Foundation & the 2020 Eugene O’Neill Cabaret & Performance Conference. Natalie holds a Bachelor’s Degree from USC in Psychology, Theatre and Women’s Studies and a Master’s Degree from UCLA in Psychology and Theatre.

Eva Kess presents a unique, ambitious ensemble & composition on "Sternschnuppen: Falling Stars"

Bassist, composer, and bandleader Eva Kess unveils a remarkable expanded sonic palette on Sternschnuppen: Falling Stars, to be released August 28 on Neuklang Records. The Swiss/German musician heads a septet that also features pianist Simon Schwaninger, violinists Vincent Millioud and Susanna Andres, violist Nao Rohr, cellist Ambrosius Huber, and drummer Philipp Leibundgut—a wholly original take on the concept of chamber jazz.

It’s no mere matter of semantics that Kess calls her ensemble a septet, as opposed to the more common “trio plus string quartet.” The bassist did not simply fuse two working ensembles together but assembled the group from scratch especially for Falling Stars—whose nine tracks she always performs in the same sequence as is programmed on the album. The music is a complex program that depends not on strings accompanying a jazz band, but on all seven members listening to and following each other with as much care as they give to playing Kess’s written notes.

“This is highly contrapuntal music,” she explains, “where every player holds a high degree of melodic and rhythmic responsibility.”

There can be no doubt about that. Whether in the kicky bossa nova of “Porto Alegre,” on which the violins play as integral role in the groove as does the drummer; the bassist’s dramatic enmeshing with the other strings on the pianoless “The Subsequent Use of Yesteryear and Futility”; the every-which-way syncopation of “Experimental Dreaming”; or the bold interactions of “Penta Piece,” it’s clear that Kess’s conception is one that makes great demands on each of her musicians and gives none priority over any others.

This includes Kess herself. Except in her compositional voice, the bassist is no overweening presence on Falling Stars herself: she can emerge from the ensemble with a lustrous solo or powerful obbligato, then disappear again into the groove. “As a double bassist I’m in a team providing rhythmic as well as harmonic information,” she says. “For me it’s about the music as a whole, not only the bass.”

In the case of Falling Stars, the music as a whole is both a reimagination of strings as jazz instruments, and of the fuller possibilities of a jazz ensemble. More than that, it is a scintillating work of art.

Eva Kess was born Eva Patricia Kesselring on April 10, 1985, in West Berlin and grew up in Bern, Switzerland (after spending a few years in Porto Alegre, Brazil). As a child she played piano, advancing enough that as a young teenager she was able to perform a Bach concerto with a symphony orchestra. At 17, however, her world shifted radically. First, she fell in love with the double bass after hearing a street performance by a bass quartet; soon afterward, a friend took her to her first jazz concert, where she fell in love once again.

Taking lessons with bassist Lorenz Beyeler—the bassist she had heard at that first jazz show—and later with fellow Bern bassist Thomas Dürst, Kess made the rounds of the local jazz scene, acquainting herself with both Bern’s musicians and the American and European artists who passed through the Swiss capital. She was soon able to form her own trio. After studying at the Music Academy of Basel, she returned to her hometown where she entered the University of the Arts Bern’s prestigious master’s program in music composition and theory. Among her teachers were pianist/composers Django Bates and Guillermo Klein, both of whom became her mentors.

In 2010, Kess won a scholarship to study in New York, adding the U.S. to Germany, Brazil, and Switzerland in her array of musical and cultural experiences. That same year she also recorded her debut album, Wondering What Is Coming. After seven years came her long-awaited second recording, Flying Curly, followed by last year’s unaccompanied album Bassexperiment and, now, Sternschnuppen: Falling Stars.

“Usually, I am an optimist, so I try to see the pandemic as a time found instead of time lost,” says Kess. “A time in which it is very important to keep going no matter what. At the start I’ve been asking myself: What can I do now for my future? And then I’ve decided to write some music, going for long walks in the forest or at the river, talking more with my parents, watching movies and reading some books. Of course the jazz aspect of interactive music is not possible during social distancing, so the communal experience is missing; many things have become a bit abstract lately. Music live and music online is not the same experience. As humans we are social creatures, it is a deep human need to be around others. Yet compositional processes are still the same and composition is pretty solitary and needs a lot of patience anyway.

“So many things are happening at the same time everywhere around the globe. As creators we take and we convert outside influences as well as inside feelings, experiences, convictions, beliefs, etc. All in all it is a very unique time for creators in which it is very important to stay inspired and to be compassionate with yourself and with others.”

Mafalda Minnozzi's "Sensorial" comes out next week

Next week, NY-based Italian vocalist Mafalda Minnozzi will release "Sensorial - Portraits in Bossa & Jazz." Under the musical direction of guitarist Paul Ricci and with the help of heavyweights like pianist Art Hirahara, bassists Essiet Okon Essiet and Harvie S, drummer Victor Jones and percussionists Will Calhoun and Rogério Boccato, "Sensorial" revisits the Brazilian songbook through compositions made famous by the likes of João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, while consciously interlacing the dynamism of NYC in an imaginative blend of Bossa and Jazz. 

It’s no surprise that musical director Paul Ricci has lent his talents to the works of singers Astrud and Bebel Gilberto – wife and daughter of João.

Positive feedback on the project is already coming from Latin Jazz Net (Editors Pick!), Musical Memoirs, and the Jazz Owl, among others. Jazziz magazine premiered the first single.

Minnozzi's trajectory from clubs and TV in Rome to Rio De Janeiro launched an over 20 year career in Brazil that includes collaborations with Milton Nascimento, Leny Andrade, André Mehmari, Guinga, Hugo Fattoruso, Filó Machado, Martinho da Vila, Toquinho and so many others. Her resume includes TV shows, 15 CDs, 2 DVDs, film and TV soundtracks as both singer and composer, S. American jazz festivals and shows throughout Brazil in its most prestigious venues.

At the same time, she has performed in major Italian jazz festivals often with her “eMPathia Jazz Duo” project with Paul Ricci, and has recently brought her NY band on an Italian jazz festival tour previewing the release of "Sensorial," garnering her acclaim in JAZZIT magazine’s top 10 vocalists two years in a row in 2018 and 2019.

In NY, she has been making her name at Birdland, Mezzrow’s and Zinc bar among other venues over these last 3 years. A growing fan base and buzz from NY’s great players have made each of her appearances an event as the scene integrates with and embraces Mafalda Minnozzi’s style.

Mark Ruffin celebrates 40 years in radio broadcasting with his short story collection "Bebop Fairy Tales"

Mark Ruffin, known coast-to-coast as the afternoon drivetime DJ for SiriusXM's Real Jazz channel, celebrates his 40th anniversary in jazz radio in on September 1, 2020. Ruffin, who is also the program director for Real Jazz, began his first professional job in the business -- at Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ-FM -- on September 1, 1980. In the time since, he has amassed an odyssey's worth of jobs, accomplishments, relationships, and stories, both real and imagined. (Three of the latter will be published September 1, by his Rough In Creative Works imprint, in his debut story collection Bebop Fairy Tales: An Historical Fiction Trilogy on Jazz, Intolerance, and Baseball.)

"I really have had a charmed life, man," says Ruffin, reflecting on his four decades in jazz and broadcasting. "I understood that the whole way, how fortunate I was -- but it's been amazing. I went 20 years at four jazz radio stations in one city! That's something that isn't even possible anymore -- but I did that." His career in broadcasting has brought him two local Emmys, Jazzweek's Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award, and the Jazz Journalists Association's Career Excellence in Broadcasting Award.

Ruffin can say without exaggeration that he has spent his whole life steeped in jazz. One of his earliest memories is of a robbery at his parents' record store on the West Side of his hometown of Chicago, while a Miles Davis record played on the store's turntable. "[It was] 'If I Were a Bell' -- where he starts it by saying, 'I'll play it and tell you what it is later,'" Ruffin says. "At the end the needle would come back to the beginning. I was scared, but I also remember that every time that voice came back and said that, I was okay."

It's only the first of the lifetime's worth of jazz stories and memories Ruffin has collected. Many more have come straight from the mouths of the musicians who he has interviewed over his four decades in radio: the interviews on which he's built his superlative reputation not only as a broadcaster and raconteur, but as an expert and historian of the music. What he didn't learn through his lived experience, personal and professional, he gained through his front-row seat to jazz history, soaking up the musicians' tales and lessons with the same ear for detail that he brings to programming the music.

Mark Ruffin was born September 24, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, an electrician, set up a shop on Chicago's West Side that repaired TVs and radios on one side and sold records on the other. Ruffin's Records was also where Mark (and his five siblings) gained the technical and musical knowledge that would form the nucleus of his career in jazz radio.

Ruffin's first experience in radio was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he worked on the staff of campus radio stations WSIU and WIDB. His knowledge of electronics allowed him to earn his then-required FCC license; his love of the music gave him something to do when he was operating those electronics. 

Over the next 25 years, Ruffin worked at WDCB-FM, where he started his career as an interviewer; WBEE-AM, where he brought the station ratings success for the first time in twenty years; and WNUA-FM, where he produced the nationally syndicated Ramsey Lewis Show. He then returned to WBEZ, before transitioning in the 2000s to a nationally syndicated show of his own (co-hosted with Neil Tesser), Listen Here.

Mark Ruffin Bebop Fairy TalesIn 2006, Ruffin was hired by Harpo Productions -- Oprah Winfrey's shop -- as a producer on Winfrey's channel at what was then XM Satellite Radio. Rather than a gateway out of music radio, Oprah Radio proved to be a transition from jazz terrestrial radio to jazz satellite radio: By the fall of 2007 he had moved to New York to work at XM's Real Jazz, serving as program director even after the 2009 merger of XM and Sirius Satellite Radio and continuing until today.

On another front, Ruffin in the 1990s began to pursue writing fiction -- specifically, screenwriting, eventually becoming a 2003 semifinalist in the Sundance Institute's screenplay competition. One of his early (unproduced) screenplays, a Jazz Age tale in which Fats Waller is kidnapped by Al Capone, suggested a unique, jazz-focused form of historical fiction. Ruffin reinvented himself as a writer of print stories, and from 2003 until 2020 worked at the collection that has now become Bebop Fairy Tales. "How can I explain it, other than that it's about how powerful jazz is in people's lives?" he says. "I suppose the real thread behind all three stories is, 'intolerance is stupid.'" 


Photography: Nick Carter
Web Sites: markruffin.com, bebop.markruffin.com

Arnaldo DeSouteiro - Bio 2020

Arnaldo DeSouteiro – Biografia ultra-resumida 

Produtor de discos, com cerca de 530 álbuns em sua discografia (incluindo novos CDs, reedições, coletâneas, trilhas sonoras, projetos especiais), conforme consta no All Music Guide, principal e mais acessado website sobre música no mundo. Jornalista e publicitário (formado em Comunicação pela PUC-RJ), tendo escrito para os jornais Tribuna da Imprensa (de 1979 até sua extinção em 2009, com 3.200 artigos publicados), Última Hora, O Globo e O Estado do Paraná, revistas Billboard, Keyboard (USA), Cuadernos de Jazz (Espanha), Swing Journal (Japão), Revista do CD (Brasil) etc. 

Roteirista de shows (João Gilberto, João Donato, Ithamara Koorax, Renato Piau, Marcos Valle, Eumir Deodato, Bjork, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi, Pingarilho, João Donato, Rodrigo Lima, Doris Monteiro etc) e de especiais de TV para as emissoras Globo (Antonio Carlos Jobim & João Gilberto) e Manchete (Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Chuck Mangione, Airto Moreira & Flora Purim etc) no Brasil, e também na Europa e Ásia (o especial "Bossa Nova Saúde, Saudade", Diana Krall, João Gilberto, CTI All Stars, Dave Brubeck etc). Dirigiu e roteirizou shows de Ithamara Koorax em mais de 20 países, incluindo Japão, Coréia, EUA, Inglaterra, França, Portugal, Alemanha, Sérvia, Bulgária, Finlândia etc.

Nascido no Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) em 1963, radicou-se em Los Angeles (EUA) em 1999. Estudou piano clássico e harmonia com sua mãe, a pianista e maestrina Delza Agricola. É membro da Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (ABI) e da Ordem dos Músicos do Brasil (OMB) desde 1979, membro catedrático titular efetivo da Academia Internacional de Música desde 1985, membro votante do Grammy-Naras (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) desde 2006, membro votante da Los Angeles Jazz Society (único brasileiro) desde 2007, e também único brasileiro que é membro votante da Jazz Journalists Association (sediada em Nova Iorque) desde 2002. Atua como consultor e parecerista para diversas empresas, centros culturais e festivais de música no Brasil e no exterior.

Também foi membro honorário e primeiro membro brasileiro da Associação Internacional de Educadores de Jazz (IAJE – International Association of Jazz Educators) durante 12 anos, até sua extinção em 2008, tendo realizado palestras e "panel sessions" nas convenções anuais realizadas nos EUA. 

Fundador e Presidente da gravadora JSR (Jazz Station Records), sediada em Los Angeles – EUA desde 2001, uma divisão da Jazz Station Marketing & Consulting. Dirige também a JSR Casting e a LaCalifUSA Pictures, empresa de cinema que produz conteúdo e trilhas sonoras (composição, produção, seleção) para filmes e séries de TV. 

Produziu discos e sessões de gravação com artistas como Luiz Bonfá, João Gilberto, Dom Um Romão, João Donato, Palmyra & Levita, Mario Castro-Neves, Claudio Roditi, Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, Dexter Payne, Bjork, Rodrigo Lima, Don Sebesky, Hubert Laws, Fabio Fonseca, Marcos Ozzellin, Herbie Hancock, Jorge Pescara, Paula Faour, Anna Ly, Pascoal Meirelles, Yana Purim, Carlos Pingarilho, Nelson Angelo, Marcelo Salazar, Ithamara Koorax, Ron Carter, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Steve Swallow, Herbie Hancock, Hugo Fattoruso, Larry Coryell, Sadao Watanabe, Jurgen Friedrich, Claus Ogerman, Gazzara, Eumir Deodato, Azymuth, Marcio Montarroyos, Sivuca, Laudir de Oliveira, Marcos Valle, David Matthews, Gene Bertoncini, John McLaughlin, Raul de Souza, Hermeto Pascoal, Jadir de Castro, Lew Soloff, George Young, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Alphonso Johnson e muitos outros. 

Como compositor e letrista, tem parcerias com Dave Brubeck (“Broadway Bossa Nova”), Francesco Gazzara (“O Passarinho”), Mamoru Morishita (“Hotaru”) e Fabio Fonseca (“Samba da Copa”, executado na cerimônia de abertura da Copa do Mundo de 2006). 

Produziu reedições de discos de Sergio Mendes, Flora Purim, Tamba Trio, Ivan Lins, Carlos Lyra, Miucha, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ron Carter, Idris Muhammad, Hank Crawford, Lonnie Smith, Johnny Hammond, Luiz Bonfá, Phil Upchurch, Tennyson Stephens, Eumir Deodato, Grant Green, Mario Castro-Neves, João Donato, Claus Ogerman, David Matthews, Esther Phillips, Joe Beck, Eric Gale e muitos outros.

Produziu as séries “A Trip To Brazil” (cujo Volume 1 chegou ao primeiro-lugar na parada de world-music na Europa em 1998, superando “Buena Vista Social Club”), “Brazilian Horizons”, “CTI: Acid Jazz Grooves”, “Jazz Club”, e retrospectivas - lançadas mundialmente entre 2006 e 2010 pelo selo Verve – das carreiras de Quincy Jones (“Summer In The City: The Soul-Jazz Groves of Quincy Jones”), Eumir Deodato (“Do It Again: The Fantastic Jazz Funk of Eumir Deodato”) e Chick Corea (“Electric Chick”).

Desde 1981, tem realizado, como free lancer, produção musical para diversas gravadoras, como RCA/BMG, Sony, Verve/PolyGram/Universal, CTI, King, Paddle Wheel, Pausa, Milestone/Fantasy, Warner/WEA, Motor Music, JVC/Victor, Sanyo, Movieplay, Imagem, Eldorado, CID, Alfa, RGE, Mr. Bongo, Terra Música, Blue Moon, Bomba, Cedar Tree, Treasure Trove, Irma, Vivid Sound, Motéma, e Huks Music, no Brasil, Europa, Estados Unidos, Japão, China, Taiwan e Coréia. 

Entre 1982 e 1984, atuou como assessor cultural do Serviço de Comunicação Social da Petrobras. Em 1983, criou, produziu e apresentou o programa "Jazz espetacular", transmitido pela Rádio Tupi FM. Em 1984, assumiu a responsabilidade da programação de bordo (musical e audiovisual) transmitida nos vôos internacionais da Varig, função que exerceu durante 14 anos. Também nesse período (1985 a 1987), participou da comissão de seleção do Free Jazz Festival. 

Escreveu textos de contracapa para discos de diversos artistas, como Toots Thielemans, Ella Fitzgerald, Eliane Elias, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jeff Kinsky, Paulo Bellinati e Carlos Barbosa Lima, entre outros. Assinou textos para divulgação ("press releases") de artistas como João Gilberto, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Pat Metheny, Bill Evans, Jimmy Smith, Elvin Jones, Stanley Turrentine e Tony Bennett.

Atuou como entrevistador - entre 1979 e 2018 - em depoimentos prestados para o Museu da Imagem e do Som (Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo) por João Donato, Stellinha Egg, Maestro Gaya, Eumir Deodato, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Carlos Barbosa Lima, Wanda Sá, Bebeto Castilho e Chico Batera, entre outros. Em 2001, recebeu o prêmio de International Man of The Year, concedido pelo International Biographical Centre, de Londres. Foi o primeiro brasileiro a receber essa premiação, oferecida anteriormente a apenas quatro outros produtores: Arif Mardin, Tommy LiPuma, Quincy Jones e Phil Ramone. Ainda nesse ano, a JSR (Jazz Station Records), de sua propriedade, foi considerada uma das cinco melhores gravadoras de jazz do mundo, em relação publicada na edição de dezembro da revista especializada norte-americana "Down Beat", premiação que se repetiu por quatro anos (7º lugar em 2003, 9º lugar em 2004, 5º lugar em 2005 e 6º lugar em 2006).  

Foi entrevistado em vários programas de TV, seriados (incluindo os documentários "Laurindo Almeida, Muito Prazer" exibido pelo canal GNT no Brasil, e "Bossa Nova Saúde, Saudade!" para FUJI Television Network no Japão) e filmes como o premiado "Beyond Ipanema", no qual foi entrevistado ao lado de Creed Taylor, Lalo Schifrin, Wayne Shorter, Gene Lees e Norman Gimbel. Depois de apresentado em diversos festivais de cinema nos Estados Unidos e Europa, "Beyond Ipanema" foi transformado em série de televisão transmitida em território brasileiro pela emissora Canal Brasil em 2014. 

Trabalhou como roteirista, consultor e entrevistador para o documentário "LA + Rio", em 2017, entrevistando nomes como Arthur Verocai, João Donato, Alex Malheiros (Azymuth), Wanda Sá, Chico Batera, Ricardo Silveira, Dori Caymmi, Hermeto Pascoal, Laudir de Oliveira, Raul de Souza, Marcos Valle e Cesar Camargo Mariano. É especialista também em gestão de carreira e gerenciamento artístico, tendo trabalhado em 2017 e início de 2018 com a cantora Zanna.

Também em 2018 escreveu a letra da música "Until We Meet Again" para o álbum "Mamoru Morishita Songbok" lançado no Japão pela Universal Music; produziu novos discos para Daniel Migliavacca, Jorge Pescara e Ithamara Koorax; fez o roteiro para o show de lançamento da caixa "A Mad Donato" (de João Donato) no Blue Note-Rio, e para os shows de Ithamara Koorax na Sala Baden Powell e no Blue Note-Rio; e criou/dirigiu a série "Discos Históricos da MPB" que incluiu shows de João Donato ("Quem É Quem") e Wanda Sá ("Vagamente") realizados na Sala Baden Powell-Rio de Janeiro. Ainda em 2018, foi também um dos entrevistadores da série "Depoimentos Para A Posteridade", realizada no Museu da Imagem do Som-RJ e focalizando as carreiras de nomes como Wanda Sá, Bebeto Castilho (Tamba Trio) e Chico Batera.

Jazz Station Records (JSR), a division of Jazz Station Enterprises
CEO & Founder · Los Angeles/Rio de Janeiro

            (Arnaldo DeSouteiro during a recording session in 2014)

"People are going to talk about you, especially when they envy you and the life you live. Let them. You affected their lives, they didn't affect yours... you will eventually lose someone you love & love someone you never thought you'd find..."

Arnaldo DeSouteiro - Short Bio

Music Producer (with over 530 albums to his credit according to the All Music Guide), Voting Member of NARAS-GRAMMY and Jazz Journalists Association (NY), Member of LAJS (Los Angeles Jazz Society), Musical Philosopher, Journalist, Jazz & Brazilian Music Historian, Publicist, Public Relations, Composer (having written successful jazz & pop songs, some dance hits like "O Passarinho" for the Italian TV reality show "La Pupa e Il Secchione", and "Samba da Copa" for the "2006 World Cup" in Germany, plus many other soundtracks for movies, soap operas & TV series in the USA, Europe and Asia), Lyricist (he wrote lyrics to Dave Brubeck's "Broadway Bossa Nova" at the invitation of Brubeck himself, among other songs), Arranger, Percussionist, Keyboardist, Programmer, Educator (conducting clinics and panel sessions worldwide as the first Brazilian member of IAJE-International Association of Jazz Educators during its existence). He has also acted as consultant for several companies and jazz festivals all over the world.

Founder and CEO of JSR (Jazz Station Records), a Division of Jazz Station Marketing & Consulting - LA, Calif. Most recently, founded LaCalifUSA Pictures and JSR Casting in 2007 for movie & TV productions featuring music & fashion.

Produced the acclaimed CD compilation series "A Trip To Brazil," "CTI Acid Jazz Grooves," "Brazilian Horizons," "Focus on Bossa Nova," "Focus on Brazilian Music Grooves", "Bossa Nova Singers," "Bossa Nova Guitar","Jazz Rock" etc.

Produced special compilations for Quincy Jones ("Summer in the City - The Soul Jazz Grooves of Quincy Jones"), Chick Corea ("Electric Chick") and Deodato ("Do It Again - The Fantastic Jazz-Funk of Eumir Deodato"), all released by Verve/Universal. His latest CD for Verve is "Bossa Nova USA," featuring Dave Brubeck's title track performed by Quincy Jones.

Supervised and/or Directed TV specials featuring João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dizzy Gillespie, Chuck Mangione, Flora Purim & Airto Moreira, Dom Um Romão, Eliane Elias, Diana Krall, Eumir Deodato, Bjork et al. Worked with producers Creed Taylor, Yoichi Nakao, Susumu Morikawa, Matthias Kunnecke, and photographers Pete Turner, Victor Skrebneski, Robert Mappelthorpe, Duane Michals.

Mr. DeSouteiro has also worked in his native Brazil for TUPI-FM radio station (as musical programmer-DJ as well as hosting his own radio show, "Jazz Espetacular"), Manchete TV network (anchoring & supervising the "Terça Especial" series for which he interviewed such jazz giants as Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Chuck Mangione, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim etc), Globo TV network (screenplay, coordination and mix for the TV special "João Gilberto & Antonio Carlos Jobim - O Grande Encontro" in 1992, the last time these 2 geniuses performed together, plus the texts and screenplay for the "Minuto da Bossa" series), and as the jazz columnist for the "Tribuna da Imprensa" (Press Tribune) daily newspaper during 29 years (from 1979 to 2008). Before moving to the USA, he also worked as Brazilian correspondent of "Keyboard" magazine (from 1985 to 1994), as a free-lancer to Billboard, Cuadernos de Jazz, Swing Journal and International Music Magazine, and as entertainment-in-flight programmer for several airline companies like Varig Brazilian Airlines (from 1983 to 1998).

Produced over 530 albums and sessions featuring: Luiz Bonfa, João Gilberto, Dom Um Romão, Thiago de Mello, Dexter Payne, João Donato, Palmyra & Levita, Mario Castro-Neves, Jorge Pescara, Paula Faour, Fabio Fonseca, Claudio Roditi, Rodrigo Lima, Hermeto Pascoal, Ithamara Koorax, Don Sebesky, Sammy Figueroa, Bjork, Anna Ly, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Pascoal Meirelles, Yana Purim, Pingarilho, Nelson Angelo, Marcelo Salazar, Ron Carter, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Steve Swallow, Herbie Hancock, Hugo Fattoruso, Larry Coryell, Sadao Watanabe, Jurgen Friedrich, Eloir de Moraes, Gazzara, Deodato, Jadir de Castro, Azymuth, Marcio Montarroyos, Sivuca, Laudir de Oliveira, Marcos Valle, Jay Berliner, George Young, David Matthews, Lew Soloff, Alphonso Johnson, Gene Bertoncini, John McLaughlin, Claus Ogerman, Raul de Souza, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and many others.

Produced and supervised CD reissues of albums by Ron Carter, Hank Crawford, Johnny Hammond, Sergio Mendes, Hubert Laws, Grant Green, Idris Muhammad, Joe Beck, Esther Phillips, Lonnie Smith, David Matthews & Whirlwind, Phil Upchurch, Tennyson Stephens, Miucha, Flora Purim, Carlos Lyra, Tamba Trio, Ivan Lins, Raul de Souza, Trio 3-D and many others. As annotator, he wrote liner notes and press releases for albums by Toots Thielemans, Hank Crawford, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, Pat Metheny, Eliane Elias, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Jeff Linsky and dozens of others for labels like RCA, CTI, Kudu, Milestone, Fantasy, Verve, Columbia, Irma, Alfa, JVC, Caju, Sonet, Paddle Wheel, JHO, Mercury, Imagem etc.

Worked as musical director and/or screenplay writer for concerts by Joao Gilberto, João Donato, Ithamara Koorax, Marcos Valle, Renato Piau, Deodato,  Bjork, Pingarilho, Wanda Sá, Rodrigo Lima, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi etc.

Mr. DeSouteiro also had the honor to be associated with some of the world's greatest photographers like Pete Turner (who did the cover photos for Rodrigo Lima's "Saga" and Jorge Pescara's "Grooves in the Temple," released on his own JSR label and featured on Turner's new book "The Color of Jazz"), Victor Skrebneski (the CD reissue of "Upchurch/Tennyson"), Bruce Weber (Esther Phillips' "For All We Know"), Robert Mappelthorpe ("Brazilian Horizons"), Alen MacWeeney, William Cadge, and Duane Michals (many of the CTI CDs) and so on.

He has appeared in several movies and TV series such as the Award Winning documentary movie "Beyond Ipanema," for which he was interviewed alongside Creed Taylor, Lalo Schifrin, Wayne Shorter, Gene Lees and Norman Gimbel. In 2017, he contributed to the "LA + Rio" documentary as screenplay writer, interviewer and consultant, interviewing such artists as Arthur Verocai, Cesar Camargo Mariano, Dori Caymmi, Hermeto Pascoal, Wanda Sá, João Donato, Laudir de Oliveira, Raul de Souza, Ricardo Silveira, Chico Batera, Alex Malheiros (Azymuth) and Marcos Valle. In 2018, worked with singer Zanna, wrote songs for Mamoru Morishita, directed concerts by João Donato, Wanda Sá and Ithamara Koorax, and produced new albums for Daniel Migliavacca, Ithamara Koorax and Jorge Pescara.

Jazz Station Marketing & Consulting, JSR Casting, LaCalifUSA Pictures
CEO & Founder: Arnaldo DeSouteiro

Jazz Station Records (JSR), a division of Jazz Station Enterprises
CEO & Founder · Los Angeles/Rio de Janeiro

(PLEASE, DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED MATERIAL; any unsolicited CD or promo packets will be returned. If you wish to submit material, please contact us through comments on this post or through Facebook. Thx!)

People are going to talk about you, especially when they envy you and the life you live. Let them. You affected their lives, they didn't affect yours... you will eventually lose someone you love & love someone you never thought you'd find... 

Latin Jazz CD of the Month - "Brian Andres Trio Latino: Mayan Suite"

Latin Jazz CD of the Month
Brian Andres Trio Latino: "Mayan Suite" (Bacalao Records 004)
Rating: *****

Produced by Brian Andres.
Recorded at 25th Street Recording. Oakland, California on April 20 and 21, 2019.
Engineered by Gabriel Shepard.
Mixed by Greg Landau at Patio de Ochun Studios.
Mastered by John Greenham.
Cover Art and Graphic Design by Javier Cabanillas.
Photos by Ben Torres.

Featuring: Brian Andres (drums), Christian Tumalan (piano) and Aaron Germain (bass).
Album Art: Javier Cabanillas.
Liner Notes: Kabir Sehgal.

Songs by Tumalan, Germain, Chick Corea (superb version of "Got A Match?", originally dedicated to Joe Farrell), Mike Mainieri, Bronislaw Kaper etc.

The best of Michel Camilo Trio + the best of Chick Corea Akoustic Band=Brian Andres Trio.
One of the best albums of the year!

(L. to r.: Aaron Germain, Brian Andres, Christian Tumalan)

Drummer Brian Andres unleashes an electrifying new project with the release of Mayan Suite, the inaugural recording of his Trio Latino, on Bacalao Records. Though it finds Andres stepping back from his longtime leadership of the eight-piece Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel, the new trio (featuring pianist Christian Tumalan and bassist Aaron Germain) shows itself to be every bit as musically rich as the larger ensemble. What's more, the album's striking originals and zesty interpretations find the band equaling that richness with audacity.

Indeed, Andres created the trio in the hope of finding just such an emboldened style. With fewer voices, he says, "There's much more space to explore, for creative expression, and with that freedom there's greater responsibilities for all three of us."

In fact, Tumalan and Germain fulfill both their freedom and their responsibility in supplying all of Mayan Suite's original compositions. The pianist brings three -- including the title track, a five-part series of hard-grooving miniatures that packs fully realized statements as well as satisfying improvisations into a remarkable seven-and-a-half-minute journey. Yet Tumalan shows no less ambition in the adrenaline rush of "Viento Solar" or the wistful tenderness of "Si Tu Vez." Germain, meanwhile, presents dazzling, dancing Latin syncopation on "Escucha" and a light-stepping aura of mystery on "Higashi Nakano."

That is not, however, to understate the merit of the musicians' playing. Andres, Tumalan, and Germain balance their considerable chops with invention and eloquence, whether on the thrilling originals or the fiery renditions of Chick Corea's "Got a Match?" and the standard "On Green Dolphin Street." It's not happenstance that all three are rhythm players: Trio Latino's prowess on Mayan Suite, collectively and as soloists, comes in the service of irresistibly kinetic grooves drawn from the Afro-Latin jazz canon.

"Whether it's bomba or mambo, whether there's a hand drummer or not, those rhythms are represented," Andres says. "Aaron and Christian are steeped in those traditions. One of the things about this trio, I wanted us individually to have a voice of our own." Of that, Mayan Suite leaves no doubt.

Brian Andres was born Nov. 7, 1968 in Cincinnati, Ohio to musical parents: His father played woodwinds, his mother piano and vocals. The younger Andres naturally followed their example, taking up the drums at the age of nine. He continued through high school and into the College-Conservatory of Music before beginning his most intensive education, playing the blues with Cincinnati Slim and the Headhunters. It was the first of many gigs, in many styles.

Yet it was while hearing someone else's band -- a salsa band -- that Andres's life was changed. The neck- and shoulder-twisting polyrhythms took him over completely; he immediately formed his own Latin jazz outfit and began consuming the grooves wherever and whenever he could. He was particularly drawn to the concentration of musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of whom, Paul van Wageningen, was so friendly and inspiring that Andres soon made the move to Northern California himself.

It was there that Andres found his groove, so to speak. He jelled with Latin musicians of all stripes, found work in multiple projects, and fronted his own Afro-Latin Jazz Cartel -- with whom he recorded his first album, Drummers Speak, in 2007.

He has continued at the head of the octet for over a decade: they have received critical acclaim, recorded two more albums (San Francisco, 2013; This Could Be That, 2016), and worked with the cream of the crop of Latin jazz talent in the Bay Area. The Cartel's rhythm section -- the nerve center of the band -- comprises Andres's Trio Latino. The smaller ensemble has taken on a life of its own, one which Andres has now documented with the recording of Mayan Suite.

"Covid-19 and the resulting Shelter in Place order has made life very difficult for everyone," says Andres. "Many musicians, myself included, feel a profound sadness during this time, because we are deprived of our most cherished activity -- performing for an audience. Thankfully we can still connect with our instrument alone, in study and practice, which keeps the spirits up, but there is no substitute for performing. Because of this, Trio Latino is looking to do a live online performance sometime soon. We are working out the details now to be able to provide the best presentation possible."   

Photography: Ben Torres (trio), Javier Cabanillas (Andres)

Instrumental Jazz CD of the Month - "Ian Carey: Fire In My Head"

Instrumental Jazz CD of the Month
The Ian Crey Quintet + 1: "Fire In My Head - The Anxiety Suite" (Slow & Steady SS 12)
Rating: ****

Bay Area trumpeter and composer Ian Carey has long aimed to blend the swing and virtuosity of jazz with the dense compositional textures of chamber music, but for his latest multi-movement creation, he turns that ambition towards a more personal topic. Fire in My Head (The Anxiety Suite) is the centerpiece of his new album, released by San Francisco’s Slow & Steady Records on April 24. Carey himself did all the artwork. The sessions took place at Tiny Telephone Studios (Oakland, CA) on August 7 & 8, 2019, engineered by Jacob Winik.

“Normally I write a piece and try to figure out what it’s about later,” Carey says, referring to his previous long-form work, Interview Music (released in 2016 on Kabocha Records). But when he received a grant from Chamber Music America to compose a new suite, he decided to pick a subject close to his heart: anxiety. It’s an affliction he’s long been familiar with, but for the last few years—since the election of 2016, to be exact—it’s one he shares with almost everyone he meets. That includes the members of his band, the Ian Carey Quintet+1: alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen; bass clarinetist Sheldon Brown; pianist Adam Shulman; bassist Fred Randolph; and drummer Jon Arkin. “The emotions behind the piece were not a stretch for any of us,” Carey says. “That helped—maybe not so much for our mental health, but for the music.” (The advent of COVID-19 has put to rest any hope of that state of anxiety ending any time soon.)

The piece, which was premiered at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco in 2018, is a 50-minute, five-movement tour de force and Carey’s longest composition to date. It is a vehicle for both his intricate writing and the improvisational chops of his group, previously heard on Interview Music and 2013’s Roads & Codes, which received praise from DownBeat and NPR and appeared on many critics’ best of 2013 lists.

(L. to r.: Jon Arkin, Adam Shulman, Ian Carey, Fred Randolph, Sheldon Brown, Kasey Knudsen)

The album opens with the evocative chorale of “Signs and Symptoms,” which segues into a loping 5/4 groove featuring improvisatory introductions from the band, intertwined with increasingly tense variations on the theme. Inspired by a run by Carey on the “undeservedly beautiful” morning after the shattering 2016 election, the movement ends with an explosive drum solo, which sets the stage for the aggressive swing of “This Is Fine,” with its instantly identifiable roots in the “Young Lions”-era bop of Carey’s youth. The title refers to KC Green’s ubiquitous cartoon featuring a dog calmly drinking coffee as flames surround him; appropriately, the tune is a burner, with solos by Shulman, Carey, and Randolph.

From its obsessive Fender Rhodes vamp to its expansive bass clarinet solo and combative trumpet/alto dialogues, “Thought Spirals” evokes the mental maelstrom of its title. Describing the movement’s genesis, Carey recalls, “I just threw my hands on the keyboard, looped it, and happened to like the way it sounded—that got me thinking about ‘spirals.’ It reminded me of what goes through my head when I’m trying to sleep!”

While a peaceful three-part canon sets the mood of “Internal Exile”—a portrait of withdrawal into oneself for self-care during anxious times—that mood soon dissipates in the movement’s twitchy, nagging central passage: a reminder that despite efforts to detach from the world, we still have to live in the reality of it.

Tense but with flashes of rousing optimism, “Resistance” marks the acceptance of reality and the determination to grapple with it. “It sums up everything that’s happened and corrals it into something like a protest anthem: ‘Get up, brush yourself off, let’s go,’” says Carey. After revisiting themes from earlier movements and offering final solo statements, the suite ends with a pyrotechnic display from Knudsen over what a bassist friend of Carey’s called a “classic garage-band bass line.”

Born in upstate New York, Ian Carey, 45, lived in Northern California before moving to New York City in 1994, where he attended the New School (studying composition with Bill Kirchner and Maria Schneider, and improvisation with Reggie Workman and Billy Harper). During a productive seven years in New York, he performed with musicians as varied as Ravi Coltrane, Ted Curson, and Eddie Bert. After relocating to San Francisco in 2001, he soon met the musicians who became the core of his ensemble (heard on 2005’s Sink/Swim, 2010’s Contextualizin’, plus Roads & Codes and Interview Music), while hustling day work as a designer/illustrator—expertise he used to create this album’s vibrant comic-art–inspired cover, featuring visual portrayals of the piece’s five movements as regions of his own flame-engulfed brain.

While politics were a catalyst in the composition of Fire in My Head, the work is not specific to that context; it’s an examination of the psychological and physical experience of anxiety, now more than ever a widely relatable topic. Carey’s extended forms are stacked with hooks, grooves, and improvisational smarts that can be as universally appreciated as the subject itself.  •

Fire in My Head has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works program, funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.