R.I.P.: Hadley Caliman

Cornish College of the Arts retired faculty member and noted jazz saxophonist Hadley Caliman (born on January 12, 1932 in Oklahoma) passed away on September 8 in Seattle, after succumbing to liver cancer. He was 78 years old. Caliman joined the Cornish jazz faculty in 1984 and taught continuously at Cornish for almost twenty years. But he spent most of his life in Los Angeles.

Famous for his searing tenor saxophone sound that earned him a favored place as the sideman of choice for numerous jazz, rock, and R&B artists in the 1960s and 70s, Caliman recently reignited his recording career after retiring from teaching at Cornish in 2003.

The first Hadley's "sounds" I've heard, back in 1973, were the ones from his exquisite tenor sax intro on "Eternal Caravan Reincarnation," the opening track from Santana's landmark "Caravanserai" album. After that, I noticed him in many albums such as Flora Purim's "Stories To Tell," the self-titled debut album by Santana's percussionist José "Chepito" Areas, Patrice Rushen's "Prelusion," Johnny Hammond's "Gears" (now an acid-jazz classic) and Freddie Hubbard's "Skagly."

Hadley Caliman's memorial service, "Celebration of Life," will be held at Seattle First Baptist Church on Saturday, September 18 at 11:00am.

Seattle First Baptist Church
1111 Harvard Avenue (at Seneca)
Seattle, WA 98122

A reception at Tula's Jazz Club will follow at 2:00pm
Tula's Jazz Club
2214 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
**********
Lois Gilbert's Jazz Corner:
Hadley Caliman - R.I.P.

Very sad to report that Hadley Caliman passed away this morning after a long
battle with liver cancer.

Hadley remained active until the last few weeks, performing regularly around
the Northwest. He continued to practice daily until a week ago when he was
too weak to continue. His last public performances were in Seattle in late
August and the release performance for "Reunion" with Pete Christlieb was at
The New Orleans Cafe in Seattle on August 8.

The last 3 years of Hadley's long career were a particular joy for him, with
the release of three albums, new performing opportunities, and new
revelations he was discovering through his practice and focus on music. He
continually expressed surprise and deep gratitude for the beautiful response
he was getting from people in radio and the media, and was particularly
touched by the many musicians who gave of themselves to keep him active and
involved, including Joe Locke, Pete Christlieb, Matt Jorgensen, Phil Sparks,
and most significantly, Thomas Marriott.

A memorial is being planned.
*********
From Hadley's own official website:
http://www.hadleycaliman.com/biography.php

Tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman is part of the living history of jazz music in America.

He has performed, recorded and toured with musicians such as Freddie Hubbard, Gerald Wilson, Carlos Santana, Dexter Gordon, Elvin Jones, Mongo Santamaria, Joe Pass, The Grateful Dead, Joe Henderson, Don Ellis, Flora Purim, Phoebe Snow, Bobby Hutcherson and many others.

His influence on the sound of modern jazz music can be heard on many of his albums as a leader, including his newest release on Origin Records: Gratitude, featuring drummer Joe LeBarbera, vibraphone master Joe Locke and trumpeter Thomas Marriott.

At 77 years old and now making his home in Seattle, Hadley Caliman is an active and vibrant part of the busy Seattle music scene, and continues to tour, teach and perform throughout the world.

Just in case you’re encountering Hadley Caliman for the first time, here’s a little background. His long career in jazz began at Jefferson High in Los Angeles where his classates included Art Farmer, followed by gigs on Central Avenue in the 50s where he was known as “Little Dex” (for Dexter Gordon with whom he studied). In the 60s he played with Mongo Santamaria, Gerald Wilson’s Big Band, Willie Bobo and Don Ellis. In San Francisco in the 70s, he played and recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Nancy Wilson, Hampton Hawes, Jon Hendricks and Bobby Hutcherson and led four albums of his own. One of his high profile dates of the period was touring and recording with Santana at a time when rock bands were trying to expand their musical horizons by employing jazz musicians.

The pervasive influence of John Coltrane is noticeable in Hadley Caliman’s playing, but it’s tempered by the earlier West Coast bop experience and rounded into his own sound by the years of playing in a myriad of gigs of all description. West Coast tenorists like Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Joe Henderson, Ernie Watts, and Hadley Caliman generally have a more rounded sound than their East Coast counterparts.

It’s also true that one learns from teaching. Hadley was on the music faculty at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle for over 20 years and his influence can be heard in dozens of young saxophonists and others who studied with him. Since retiring from Cornish, he is again concentrating on his career as a performer. He regularly leads his own quartet/quintet and is a featured soloist with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.

Asian American Orchestra celebrates Coltrane

For the last dozen years, percussionist-composer Anthony Brown's innovative Asian American Orchestra has reinvented classics of American music by composers Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and George Gershwin from a Pacific Rim perspective by mixing instruments of European and American vintage with those of various Asian cultures. Now, with the September 28 release of "India & Africa: A Tribute to John Coltrane" on Water Baby Records, the 16-member ensemble brings its unique multicultural vision to 12 compositions written by and/or associated with John Coltrane.

The Asian American Orchestra will headline the 33rd John Coltrane Memorial Concert at 7:30 pm on Saturday, 9/18, at Northeastern University's Blackman Theatre in Boston. Also at Northeastern, Brown will meet with students in the Asian American Center at 11:45 am on 9/15, and will participate in a symposium on and book-signing for "John Coltrane & Black America's Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music" in the Amilcar Cabral Center at 6 pm on 9/16.

The band will return to Yoshi's in San Francisco at 8 pm on Wednesday, 9/29, to celebrate the release of the new CD; they had premiered "India & Africa" there on September 23, 2009, Coltrane's 83rd birthday. Brown also will be featured in a panel discussion on the book at 7:30 p.m. the following night, Thursday, 9/30, in the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center's Media and Education Theater, which is adjacent to Yoshi's.

"The Crossing" - Deodato's forthcoming album features Jarreau, Tropea, Cobham & Airto

"The Crossing," Eumir Deodato's new solo project - his first studio album as a leader in 21 years (!) since "Somewhere Out There" on the Atlantic label in 1989 - is scheduled for CD release in Europe on November 26, distributed by Expansion (UK) and Soul Trade. This new project was produced by the Italian group Novecento, and recorded, mixed & mastered at their Nicolosi Studio in Milan.

Among the special guests are the brilliant singer Al Jarreau (who appears on the first video, "Double Face," an up-tempo urban/dance song for which the virtuoso vocalist wrote the lyrics), three former collaborators who recorded on Deodato's groundbreaking "Prelude" LP for CTI - Airto Moreira, John Tropea, Billy Cobham - and the Londonbeat group.

This new album from the Brazilian Jazz Funk maestro features Al Jarreau on two tracks – the flowing "Double Face", and the smooth jazzy-soul of "I Want You More," that also features Novecento. "The Crossing" is a funkier affair (with the horn section quoting riffs from Deodato's dancefloor jazz hit "Skyscrapers"), whilst "Night Passage" is a mellow instrumental. Novecento returns for the strong dancer "Rule My World," with Billy Cobham on drums.

Tracklist
1 "Double Face" feat. Al Jarreau
2 "I Want You More" feat. Novecento & Al Jarreau
3 "The Crossing" feat. Londonbeat & Paco Sery
4 "Night Passage" feat. John Tropea
5 "No Getting Over You" feat. Londonbeat
6 "Summertime" feat. John Tropea
7 "Rule My World" feat. Novecento & Billy Cobham
8 "Border Line" feat. Airto Moreira
9 "Double Face" feat. Al Jarreau (Radio Mix)

Complete credits:
Eumir Deodato: Fender Rhodes electric piano
Al Jarreau & Dora Nicolosi: lead vocals
Londonbeat (Jimmy Helms, Jimmy Chambers & W. Upshaw): vocals
Rossana Nicolosi: bass
John Tropea & Lino Nicolosi: guitars
Billy Cobham, Paco Sery & Mimmo Campanale: drums
Pino Nicolosi: keyboards
Airto Moreira & Marco Fadda: percussion
Leonardo Govin: trombone
Gianni Virone: tenor saxophone
Janier Isusi: trumpet
Chris Walker, J. Patrick Lundquist, Joe Turano: backing vocals
Giorgio Molteni, Fabio Nico, Livio Troiano, Federica Tarsitano: violins
Lorenzo Ravazzani: viola
Estela De Castro: cello■11月下旬入荷予定 ご予約受付中■
エウミール・デオダート。言わずと知れたブラジル人鍵盤奏者/アレンジャーの最高峰であり、古くはボサ・ノヴァの若きキャリアとして成功を収め、USに活動拠点を移した後には、ニュー・ソウル/ジャズの敏腕プロデューサーとしても開花。ソロはもとより、シナトラからクール・ザ・ギャングに至るまで、手掛けた多くの作品がマスター・ピースとして語られていることは言わずもがな。そんな世界的天才が、メロウ・グルーヴ路線の新作をリリース。2007年にブラジルでジャズ・トリオでのライブ盤を発表して以来、UKオリジナル・リリースとなる本盤は、あのCTIレーベルでのプロデュースを想起させる、ずばり80年代デオダート・ワークスへの完全回帰をテーマとしたメロウ・テイスト全開。これは往年のファンにはタマラない。

麗しいタッチのエレピ・フレーズで幕を開けるオープニング「Double Face」は、アル・ジャロウの粒立ちの良いヴォイスと絡む、先行シングルで話題にもなったハイライト・トラック。続く「I Want You More」は、ボサ・ノヴァを基調としたスタイリッシュなナンバー。♀vo.をフィーチュアしたノヴィセント・バンドとアルのコラボが甘美な世界へ誘う。タイトル・トラックM3は、90年代に活躍した懐かしい4人組シンガー・ロンドンビートと、ジョー・ザヴィヌルのグループにも参加するドラマー・パコ・セリーを迎えた濃い目のディープ・ファンク。

ウェザー・リポートの名曲をミディアムなボサ・グルーヴにアップデートした「Night Passage」、バンピーなファンク・ジャズ風のリメイクで聴かせるスタンダード「Summertime」では、CTI時代からの同志ジョン・トロペイのギターを絶妙にフィーチュア。再び、ロンドン・ビートのヴォーカル・トラック「No Getting Over You」、そしてノヴィセントとビリー・コブハムのドラムでバンピーなアレンジを施した「Rule My World」、朋友でもあるアイアートのパーカッションとオーケストラル・アレンジで独特の終焉感を演出する「Border Line」まで、まさにメロウネス・マエストロ、デオダートの業が随所に配されたドラマティックなコンテンツ。ゲスト・コラボレートの輪郭の間から響くデオダート・カラーの存在感に、改めて感服したい。

Special announcement from Other Music

Salem Listening Party Tonight at Other Music, NY

We hope you had great Labor Day weekend. Due to the holiday, we didn't send out an Update this week, but you'll see a few events listed below that we're excited about, including a listening party that we're throwing this evening from 7 to 8:30PM at the shop for Salem's new album, "King Night," which comes out September 28th, on Iamsound. So if you're in the city tonight, swing by after work or before you go out; we'll be serving up free pizza and beer which should go along quite nicely with Salem's dark, blown-out synths and thundering bass and beats.

UPCOMING EVENTS AT OTHER MUSIC:

SALEM "KING NIGHT" LISTENING PARTY
Tonight! Friday, September 10 @ 7 to 8:30PM
Free Pizza & Beer

SUPERCHUNK IN-STORE PERFORMANCE
Sunday, September 19 @ 1PM
Acoustic performance supporting their new album, "Majesty Shredding"

MAXIMUM BALLOON (DAVE SITEK) DJ SET & SIGNING
Monday, September 27 @ 8PM
TVOTR's Dave Sitek has a new project and will be stopping by OM to spin some tunes and meet fans

TIM KASHER (CURSIVE) IN-STORE PERFORMANCE
Tuesday, October 5 @ 8PM
Celebrating the release of his debut solo album, "The Game of Monogamy"

OTHER MUSIC
15 East 4th Street
NYC, NY
All Events Free & All Ages Limited Capacity

CTI All Stars: "California Concert" to be reissued as a 2-CD set with five bonus tracks

For five consecutive years, the CTI All-Stars spent two weeks at the beginning of the summer touring the West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle. "To see each one of them individually would have been a treat; to see them together was magic," Didier Deutsch once wrote.

The first official album by the CTI All-Stars, "California Concert," recorded live at The Hollywood Palladium on July 18, 1971, during the West Coast tour of that superband, originally came out as a 2-LP set with five long tracks: Hubert Laws' gorgeous version of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" (previously recorded on Laws' studio album "Afro-Classic"), Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay," Stanley Turrentine's "Sugar," and two songs composed specially for that tour at Creed Taylor's request: "Leaving West" (a bossa-tinged number written by Turrentine & Ron Carter with an amazing dialogue between Billy Cobham & Airto) and a mainstream blues number by Eumir Deodato (who didn't play on the '71 tour) simply titled "Blues West."

The line-up consisted of George Benson (guitar), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Hubert Laws (flute), Stanley Turrentine (tenor sax), Hank Crawford (alto sax), Johnny Hammond (Hammond organ & Fender Rhodes electric piano, although he was heard only playing Rhodes on the tracks that Creed selected for the original LP), Ron Carter (acoustic bass), Billy Cobham (drums) & Airto Moreira (congas & percussion). Ray Thompson engineered the remote control console provided by Wally Heider Recordings, and Creed later took the multi-track tapes to be mixed by Rudy Van Gelder (credited as "re-recording engineer") at his famous studio in New Jersey.

When the first CD issue of "California Concert" was released in the USA by CBS back in 1987, reissue producer Didier Deutsch deleted "Leaving West" in order to present a single CD, later including that track on the compilation "The Best of Stanley Turrentine," released in 1990.

However, at the time of the first Japanese CD reissue, produced by Yoichi Nakao for King Records in 1996, "California Concert" appeared as a 2-CD set in a lovely mini-LP gatefold sleeve, including all five tracks from the original album and reproducing Leonard Feather's liner notes, on which the late jazz historian defined the event as "spectacularly successful."

Feather's text, actually a review he had written for Melody Maker, listed the other tracks performed that night, but not included in the original album. So, thousands of CTI fans around the globe spent years dreaming with the chance to listen to those numbers.

While working in the reissue of another CTI album, I found out that the master tapes of "California Concert" had been preserved and were at hand at the CBS (now Sony) archives, and mentioned it to my friend Douglas Payne, who heads a fabulous website about CTI.

Two of those unreleased tracks eventually appeared on CD, thanks to Didier Deutsch. Freddie Hubbard's pretty flugelhorn performance of the jazz ballad "Here's That Rainy Day" was included in the compilation "The Best of Freddie Hubbard" (Epic, 1990). And Johnny Hammond's killer version of Carole King's "It's Too Late," featuring one of Billy Cobham's best solos ever, was added as a bonus track to the CD reissue of Hammond's "Breakout" (Sony, 2002).

Now, these 2 tracks plus 3 other tracks never before released anywhere in the world -- John Coltrane's "Impressions" (the opening song of the concert, and recorded by Turrentine on his "Sugar" LP), George Benson's take on Miles Davis' "So What?" (that he had cut in studio for his CTI solo debut, "Beyond The Blue Horizon") and Freddie Hubbard's explosive final number "Straight Life" (the title theme of his second CTI project) -- will be available for the first time ever in the most complete edition ever of "California Concert" scheduled for October 26 release by Sony Masterworks in the USA. Actually, only Hank Crawford's soulful performance of "Never Can Say Goodbye" is missing. Anyway, already one of the top releases for 2010!
(cover of the first CD reissue, from 1987, signed to Arnaldo DeSouteiro by Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Airto, Freddie Hubbard and other members of the CTI All-Stars)

Amanda Carr live @ Sunnybrook Ballroom

Saturday, September 11th, the brilliant singer Amanda Carr helps historic Sunnybrook Ballroom celebrate another anniversary. Located in Pottstown, PA, this venue has hosted famous big bands and singers since before WWII. Amanda will be singing with the Sunnybrook Swing Band while dancers enjoy the spacious dance floor for a night sing & swing.
For more info visit www.SunnybrookBallroom.net

Hubert Laws' cultest cult album for CTI, "Morning Star" will be reissued on CD for the first time ever!

Since 1985, when King Records began to release the first CTI CDs in Japan, and since 1987, when Sony Music (then CBS) started to do the same in the USA -- and I had been invited by both companies to contribute to such reissue series as a supervisor, reissue producer, tape researcher or liner notes writer -- I've always pointed out that Hubert Laws' fourth album for CTI, "Morning Star," should be a top choice for the then-new compact disc format.

Oddly, although most of my several other suggestions were accepted, the big bosses always ignored my requests for ressurrecting the Grammy-nominated "Morning Star," despite the fact that it had been one of Hubert Laws' most appreciated albums during the CTI period, which, not coincidentally, also represented Laws' creative heyday.

For me, the strangest fact is that "Morning Star" has never been reissued on CD not even in Japan. Throughout the years, I was even able to convince King Records, Japan's CTI distributor, to reissue albums even by artists they didn't "like", such as Urbie Green, Randy Weston, Yusef Lateef and Gabor Szabo. However, "Morning Star" never made the final lists. Something that also happened to Lateef's "In A Temple Garden," Stanley Turrentine's "The Sugar Man" and many of Joe Farrell's killer sets ("Penny Arcade," Upon This Rock" and "Canned Funk.")

They also refused to reissue George Benson's "Pacific Fire" on CD, alleging that they didn't have the rights for any of the CTI albums originally released after 1982. But, they allowed me to include tracks from "Pacific Fire" on such best-selling compilations as "CTI Acid Jazz Grooves" and"Best of Benson".

[Not to mention that, back in 1990, at the time of the "Rhythmstick" release (ie, the third CTI ressurrection under the aegis of Creed Taylor's himself), during a lunch we had in October 1990 at the Gotham Restaurant in New York (at 12th Street, between University Place and 5th Avenue, near the CTI office at University Place) I suggested Creed to start a reissue program with the "old" CTI masters he hadn't lost to Sony, still owning their rights. Albums like Jim Hall's "Studio Trieste," Urszula Dudziak's "High Horse," Claudio Roditi's "Red on Red" and Les McCann/Houston Person's "Road Warriors," among others. Creed's short answer: "I'm not interested in reissuing any old material"... Some time later, though, he did all that mess on Hall's "Youkali" spending a lot of money with studio fees and paying triple scale to musicians like Dave Weckl to overdub tracks from "Studio Trieste" and "Gershwin Carmichael Cats." But that's another story.]

Four of Hubert's eight albums recorded for CTI in the '70s were reissued on CD in the USA, under the supervision of producer Didier Deutsch, who had worked as publicity director for the label during the '70s: "Crying Song" (originally released as CTI 1002 in 1969, reissued with a different cover in 1970 as CTI 6000), "Afro-Classic" (CTI 6006), "The Rite of Spring" (CTI 6012), "In The Beginning" (CTXC 3+3, a massive 2-LP set also released as single albums under the titles "Then There Was Light Vol. 1" as CTI 6065, and "Then There Was Light Vol. 2" as CTI 6066), plus "The San Francisco Concert" (CTI 7071), on which Didier did a great job, adding many previously unreleased tracks and recreating the concert on its entirety. Didier also produced the compilation "The Best of Hubert Laws," released on the Epic label in 1990, on which he included two tracks from "Morning Star": the title song and "Amazing Grace."

In Japan, except for "Morning Star" (CTI 6022), all other Hubert Laws' albums for CTI eventually became available on CD: "Carnegie Hall" (CTI 6025), "The Chicago Theme" (CTI 6058) and Laws' 1982 collaboration with Jim Hall & Chet Baker, "Studio Trieste" (CTI 9007).

Besides his solo efforts, Laws' presence as sideman in more than 50 CTI/Kudu albums and as one of the key members of the several CTI All-Stars groups formed between 1971 and 1975, turned the best jazz flutist ever into one of the quintessential CTI artists alongside Ron Carter and George Benson. Curiously, after their last studio session in 1982, Laws and Creed Taylor resumed their collaboration 27 years later, when the producer assembled a new CTI All-Star Band that toured Europe in the Summer of 2009. Although the too much announced DVD filmed at the Montreux Jazz Festival has not yet been released, two other concerts -- filmed at the San Javier Festival (Spain) in July 2009 and at Burghausen (Germany) in March 2010 -- are available on the web as bootleg DVDs.

All this talk happens to announce that, next October 12, under the new catalog number Masterworks 8869776833, "Morning Star" will be seeing the light of the day on CD for the first time ever. Anywhere in the world! For this reason, despite the high level of all other albums selected for this new CTI reissue program created by Sony, "Morning Star" stands out as the indispensable star of this series.

Recorded from September to November, 1972, at Van Gelder Studios, "Morning Star" (graced by an unmistakable Pete Turner photo) reached the Billboard charts as #2 among the "Jazz Albums" and #148 in the Pop list of the "Billboard Top 200." The third Hubert Laws CTI LP arranged by the great Don Sebesky, finds the maestro employing a larger instrumentation than the chamber-jazz combos heard on their previous collaborations "Afro-Classic" and "The Rite of Spring."

After the basic tracks were cut with Bob James (Fender Rhodes), Ron Carter (acoustic bass) and Billy Cobham (drums), Creed Taylor invited Ralph MacDonald, Dave Friedman and John Tropea (btw, on his most subtle studio work ever!) to add unobstrusive percussion, vibraphone and guitar touches. Then, Sebesky overdubbed strings and brass, assembling veteran studio masters as multi-reedmen Romeo Penque & Phil Bodner, trumpeters Marvin Stamm & Alan Rubin, trombonist Garnett Brown, harpist Gloria Agostini, and strings concertmaster Harry Lookofsky, my favorite violin player ever. At Laws' request, background vocals (by his sisters Eloise Laws & Debra Laws, plus Tasha Thomas & Lani Groves) were also added on two tracks, anticipating the pop vocal direction he would follow on later albums for Columbia such as "Say It With Silence" and "Land of Passion."

My personal favorite moment on the entire album is the superb title track, composed by the underrated pianist Rodgers Grant, who had previously recorded for CTI, alongside Laws, on Benson's 1969 "Tell It Like It Is," returning to Van Gelder Studio in 1974 for Laws' "In The Beginning" sessions, which included another Grant masterpiece, "Reconciliation."

To celebrate such event, I've asked my dear friend Douglas Payne, CTI's top connoisseur in the world, to provide some insightful comments about “Morning Star.” His brilliant text follows:

Morning Star is a lovely and too-little known orchestral jazz classic that got lost in the shuffle of flautist Hubert Laws’s prodigious CTI output. Recorded between September and November 1972 and issued early in 1973 between Laws’s well-known The Rite of Spring (CTI, 1971) and the lesser-known performance feature Carnegie Hall (CTI, 1973), Morning Song is among the flautist’s most assured albums.

There is a perfectly sublime amalgamation of sound present here, as Laws is beautifully partnered on various flutes with Bob James on electric piano, Ron Carter on acoustic bass and Billy Cobham on drums. Laws and company are then set against some of Don Sebesky’s loveliest orchestral flourishes, as ever as complimentary and as much a part of the conception of the performance as any of the soloists.

Unlike almost every Hubert Laws record that came before it, Morning Star, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1973 (as was Freddie Hubbard’s Don Sebesky-arranged “In A Mist”), also ranks among the leader’s most consistent and consistently engaging programs. As before, Laws explores a mix of jazz, the classics, pop, funk and spirituals. But here the fusion works so considerably that each track doesn’t feel like a jump in genre.

Laws traverses jazz and the classics with the title track, written by the flautist’s piano partner in the Mongo Santamaria band, Rodgers Grant, and his own “What Do You Think of This World Now,” featuring sister Debra on vocals. The latter features such a prominent and unusual orchestration from Don Sebesky (similar to what he did in his “Bird And Bela in B Flat” several years later) that a co-composer credit would seem much in order here.

We’re on more familiar ground with the very solemn and meaningful reading of the traditional “Amazing Grace,” which was significant enough to factor on two CTI LP compilations back in the day, Fire Into Music and The Power, The Glory and The Music, and Ralph MacDonald and William Salter’s “Where Is The Love,” the huge 1972 hit from the Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway album, which features many players, including Laws, present on this album and also includes the “Come Ye Disconsolate” that Laws would cover on his 1975 album In The Beginning.

Laws also revisits two of his earlier compositions, “Let Her Go,” originally heard on his second album, Flute By-Laws (Atlantic, 1966) and the chilled-out funk of “No More,” originally voiced by Melba Moore on the 1968 Atlantic album Laws Cause, which also featured Ron Carter’s distinctive bass.

This leads to the remarkably exquisite sound that engineer Rudy Van Gelder captured on Morning Song. By the time of this recording, Van Gelder had mastered an utterly unique sound for CTI that was very different to the truly unique Blue Note, Prestige and Verve sounds the legendary engineer had crafted in years past. The sonority and balance are so gorgeously perfect here that it’s hard to imagine what a lesser engineer might have done with this quartet, two percussionists, seven horn players, 13 string players and (on two cuts) three vocalists. It might even be fair to say that Morning Star is the best sounding album CTI ever made.

Needless to say, Hubert Laws is inspired to play at the very peak of his abilities throughout Morning Song and there’s little doubt that any track off this record could be recognized very much as his own in any blindfold test. In addition to some of Bob James’s loosest and loveliest accompaniment and soloing throughout, the lyrical and like-minded Ron Carter is an asset to Laws’s singular performance, guiding with a subtlety that almost feels as if it is the bassist leading the charge.

Diana Krall's Rolex ad campaign in Asia

Scot Alberton Quartet live @ Blueberry, Sept. 23

CD of the Week - "Tohpati & Ethnomission: Save The Planet"

CD of the Week
Tohpati & Ethnomission: "Save The Planet" (MoonJune) 2010

Tohpati is one of the most famous guitar players in Indonesia, the fourthmost populous country in the world. He is known as solo and session artist and member of various jazz, fusion, pop and rock projects.

Tracklist:
1. Selamatkan Bumi (Save The Planet) 9:07
2. Bedhaya Ketawang (Sacred Dance) 8:31
3. Drama 1:47
4. Ethno Funk 8:38
5. Gegunungan (Gateway Of Life) 2:56
6. Hutan Hujan (Rain Forest) 8:42
7. Biarkan Burung Bernyanyi (Let The Birds Sing) 7:27
8. Inspirasi Baru (New Inspiration) 4:13
9. Perang Tanding (Battle Between Good & Evil) 8:16
10. Pesta Rakyat (Festive People) 5:10
11. Amarah (Anger) 2:34

TOHPATI electric guitar, midi synth guitar; INDRO HARDJODIKORO bass guitar; DIKI SUWARJIKI suling (Sundanese flute); ENDANG RAMDAN Indonesian percussion (kendang, gong, kenong); DEMAS NARAWANGSA drums, Indonesian percussion (rebana, kempluk).

Composed, Arranged & Produced by Tohpati.
Recorded in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2010.

To most global listeners, the words ‘Indonesian music’ bring to mind the intricate metallic rhythms of that nation’s venerable gamelan orchestral tradition, or the sinuous strains of female singers like Idjah Hadidjah who perform songs in the kliningan, celempungan, and jaipongan idioms. Ever since Claude Debussy famously became enchanted with Javanese gamelan music at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition, Indonesian music has become synonymous in Western minds with an idealized and exotic East, a place of lush, timeless landscapes and sensuously swaying dancers.

But Indonesia has not remained frozen in time, and in this age of instant communication and rapidly collapsing cultural boundaries, Indonesian musicians have come to embrace the full spectrum of global musical offerings, at the same time enriching these adopted musical streams with their own unique sensibilities and suggesting new ways forward. A case in point is Indonesia’s surprisingly fertile jazz-rock fusion scene, whose prime movers include the remarkable MoonJune Records recording artists simakDIALOG, who update the electric keyboard–driven post-Miles continuum in strikingly original ways, in particular by substituting a traditional Indonesian percussion section for the customary trap set.

With his new MoonJune release "Save the Planet," simakDIALOG’s gifted guitarist Tohpati—in other contexts, one of the best-known and most highly regarded guitar players in all Indonesia—ventures out on his own with his crackshot unit Ethnomission. Bolstered by the highly simpatico team of bass guitarist Indro Hardjodikoro, percussionists Demas Narawangsa (just 16 years old at the time of this session) and Endang Ramdan (also of simakDIALOG), and suling (Indonesian wooden flute) player Diki Suwarjiki, and augmented by vocalist Lestari on the track “Bedhaya Ketawang,” Ethnomission serves up an exhilarating and wholly original program of instrumental compositions that set a new high-water mark for Indonesian fusion.

Make no mistake—this isn’t your ibu’s (mother’s) Indonesian music. As a guitarist, Tohpati references such impeccable influences as Terje Rypdal (the opening “Selamatkan Bumi”), John McLaughlin (the Mahavishnu-inflected arpeggios and ripping Lifetime-esque single-note bursts of “Bedhaya Ketawang”), and Robert Fripp (“Drama,” reminiscent of King Crimson’s classic carpal-tunnel recipe “Fracture”). Yet Tohpati is every bit his own axeman, equally at ease unspooling fleet-fingered chromatic runs (“Inspirasi Baru”), pointillist intervallic leaps (“Gegunungan”), pastoral melodies (“Hutan Hujan,” with its sunny flute lines suggestive of Irish traditional music), buoyant fusion (“Biarkan Burung Bernyanyi”), sinister metal crunch (“Amarah”), country twang (“Perang Tanding”), and enigmatic, freely improvised soundscapes (“Pesta Rakyat”).

Possessed of a soulful, meaty tone suggestive of John Scofield, Tohpati spices up the proceedings through sparing and tasteful use of pitch shifter, ring modulator, delay, and MIDI guitar synthesizer, all the while retaining an emotive, organic quality. Bassist Indro Hardjodikoro proves every bit as dexterous as Tohpati in his solo on “Biarkan Burung Bernyanyi,” while the percussion tandem dazzles on “New Inspiration.” Highlights of "Save the Planet" include “Ethno Funk” and “Perang Tanding,” the two pieces that most explicitly channel Indonesian traditional music, with its fiendishly intricate stop/start rhythms.

With "Save the Planet," Tohpati serves notice that he is a force to be reckoned with on the world musical stage, and demonstrates that jazz-rock fusion is as vital and relevant as ever, with many fascinating musical mergers yet to be explored. Save the Planet is a most welcome remedy for a planet desperately in need of saving.

New Sony series celebrates the 40th Anniversary of CTI Records

Although CTI was founded by Creed Taylor as a production company in 1967 (as a kind of jazz division of A&M Records), and became an independent label in late 1969, when its first releases hit the U.S. stores, only in 2009 the 40 years of the label were celebrated in Japan with the "CTI RVG Collection," a SHM-CD series of 20 items produced for reissue by Creed's himself and remastered by the legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder, with liner notes provided by such jazz historians like Ira Gitler and Arnaldo DeSouteiro.

And only now, in late 2010, the 40th anniversary of CTI will be celebrated in the USA thanks to Sony Music, that controls the rights of the heyady of Creed Taylor's catalog between 1970 and 1980.

Twelve classic CTI albums from the 1970s will be reissued, most of them remastered for the first time using original two-track ¼-inch analog master tapes. They will be packaged in softpack sleeves that replicate the original LPs.

Six titles will be issued on October 12, 2010 by Sony Masterworks, all previously released on CD with different mixes (except Hubert Laws' Grammy-nominated "Morning Star") and all featuring Ron Carter:

Freddie Hubbard: "Red Clay" (featuring Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Lenny White)Stanley Turrentine: "Sugar" (feat. George Benson, Ron Carter, Butch Cornell, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard "Pablo" Landrum, Freddie Hubbard)Chet Baker: "She Was Too Good To Me" (arranged by Don Sebesky, feat. Paul Desmond, Bob James, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd, Jack DeJohnnette, Hubert Laws et al)Antonio Carlos Jobim: "Stone Flower" (arranged by Eumir Deodato, feat. João Palma, Ron Carter, Urbie Green, Harry Lookofsky, Joe Farrell, Hubert Laws, Airto Moreira, Everaldo Ferreira et al.)Hubert Laws: "Morning Star" (arranged by Bob James, feat. Billy Cobham, Ron Carter, John Tropea, Ralph MacDonald et al.)Kenny Burrell: "God Bless the Child" (arranged by Don Sebesky, feat. Hugh Lawson, Richard Wyands, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Airto, Ray Barretto et al.)
Then, on January 25, 2011:
George Benson: "White Rabbit" (arr. by Don Sebesky, feat. Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Airto, Hubert Laws, John Frosk, Gloria Agostini)
Deodato: "Prelude" (feat. John Tropea, Jay Berliner, Ron Carter, Stanley Clarke, Ray Barretto, Airto, Hubert Laws, Marvin Stamm, Bill Watrous)
Milt Jackson: "Sunflower" (arr. by Don Sebesky, feat. Freddie Hubbard, Jay Berliner, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Ralph MacDonald)
Paul Desmond: "Pure Desmond" (feat. Ed Bickert, Ron Carter, Connie Kay)
Jim Hall: "Concierto" (arr. by Don Sebesky, feat. Roland Hanna, Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd)
Ron Carter: "All Blues" (feat. Joe Henderson, Roland Hanna, Richard Tee, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham)

Sony will also be releasing, on Oct 12, the 4-CD box set "CTI Records: The Cool Revolution - A 40th Anniversary Collection," with each track remastered using the original two-track LP masters, containing 39 tracks on 4 themed CDs ("Staright Up," "Deep Grooves/Big Hits," "The Brazilian Connection," "Cool and Classic") and lavishly illustrated 20-page LP-sized booklet with rare photos and new liner notes.Featuring the label’s legendary roster of jazz stars, the four discs offer an overview of the golden decade (1970-80) in which CTI’s signature sound and style were born, with each disc highlighting an aspect of CTI’s personality.Then, the most eagerly awaited item, scheduled for release on October 26:
"The California Concert,” the legendary Hollywood Palladium concert of 1971 – a CTI All-Stars live event featuring most of the amazing CTI roster – returns in a newly remixed and remastered two-disc edition that includes 90 minutes of music rarely heard and never-before released.October 26 also brings 180-gram vinyl LP reissues of 4 classic CTI albums using the original gatefold sleeve designs accompanied with digital download cards: Red Clay by Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine’s Sugar, White Rabbit by George Benson and Prelude by Deodato.
************
Press Release:
CTI RECORDS 40th ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATED BY MASTERWORKS JAZZ WITH MULTIPLE RELEASES

CTI Records: The Cool Revolution deluxe 4-CD box set available October 12;
New 2-CD version of 1971’s The California Concert arrives October 26
Albums from CTI greats George Benson, Ron Carter, Deodato, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Stanley Turrentine and more

Masterworks Jazz celebrates the 40th anniversary of CTI Records, the beloved jazz label founded in 1970 by producer Creed Taylor, beginning October 12 with the release of CTI Records: The Cool Revolution, a deluxe 4-CD multi-artist box set retrospective. Two weeks later on October 26, the double-CD restoration of The California Concert (1971) will be released with 90 minutes of music rarely heard and never before available. The 40th anniversary commemoration will also include reissues of 12 classic CTI albums, plus several collectible vinyl LPs in the coming months.

CTI Records: The Cool Revolution will contain four hour-long-plus discs, each presenting a thematic overview of a particular aspect of CTI: Straight Up Jazz, Deep Grooves/Big Hits, The Brazilian Connection, Cool and Classic. The 39 tracks in the box set – as well as all CTI anniversary edition titles – are remastered (by engineer Dave Darlington) for the first time from the original analogue ¼-inch tapes.

The 2010 edition of The California Concert is the most complete version of the historic Hollywood Palladium all-star concert recorded July 18, 1971. It doubles the content of the original five-song LP release with five additional tracks - three of them previously unreleased - and restores the original concert sequence for the first time. Creed Taylor hand-picked a dream team of CTI artists for the occasion: Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Hank Crawford, Stanley Turrentine, Johnny Hammond, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham and Airto Moreira.

There will also be a full slate of classic CTI album reissues packaged in eco-friendly softpack sleeves that replicate the original gatefold LP design and their iconic covers with some photos by Pete Turner. Six titles will arrive on October 12: She Was Too Good To Me by Chet Baker, God Bless the Child by Kenny Burrell, Red Clay by Freddie Hubbard, Stoneflower by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Morning Star by Hubert Laws, and Stanley Turrentine’s Sugar. Upcoming January 2011 CD releases include White Rabbit by George Benson, All Blues by Ron Carter, Prelude by Deodato, Pure Desmond by Paul Desmond, Concierto by Jim Hall, and Milt Jackson’s Sunflower.

In the 1970s, CTI, its music, its style and its discriminating quality transformed contemporary jazz. The roster worked almost like a repertory company, in which great musicians took turns in the spotlight and accompanying each other. The albums they and their colleagues created set new standards in their look as well as their sound. “[Creed Taylor’s] plan was ingeniously simple, yet famously maverick: record top-tier musicians, keeping their artistic integrity intact while also making their art palatable to the people. CTI thus achieved that rare balance of jazz and commercialism,” writes Dan Ouellette in the liner notes. CTI surpassed the majors and fellow indies to be named the #1 Jazz Label of 1974 by Billboard. The immediate success of CTI’s recordings has echoed across the decades in a profound influence on jazz, pop, R&B and hip-hop.

CD of the Day - "Juliana Aquino: DiscoBossa"

CD of the Day
Juliana Aquino: "Discobossa" (LAB 344)

Produced by Tuta Aquino
Featuring: Marcio Montarroyos, Leo Gandelman, Wilson Simoninha, Celso Fonseca, Jurandir Santana, Torcuato Mariano, Michel Freidenson, Conrado Goys, Mauricio Germano, Thiago "Big" Rabello, Marcelo Elias, Marcio Arantes, Rubinho Ribeiro, Maguinho, Luis Rabello, Silvinho Mazzucca, Beto Paciello, Ricardo Finazzi, Marcos Levy, Edson Guidetti, Vinicius Dorin, William Magalhães, Graça Cunha, Tatiana Parra, Mafram do Maracanã, Nahor Gomes, Sidnei Borgani, Cassia Carrascoza, Zé Godoy, Paulo Calasans, Cida Souza, Rita Kfouri, Bernardo Goys, Amilcar Rodrigues, Miguel Rocha, Felipe Venancio, Vitor Rocha, Sandro Hiroshi, DJ Memê

Panda Bear Ticket Give Away

With the recently released "Tomboy" single on Paw Tracks and Domino Recording Co. about to drop another teaser single later this month (all leading up to the upcoming Tomboy full-length), our old friend Panda Bear is back in the States to perform a few dates, which includes a stop at Governor's Island on Saturday, September 11, with Teengirl Fantasy and Portugal's Gala Drop, as well as a DJ set from Animal Collective's Avey Tare. And yes, we've got a pair of tickets up for grabs, which you can enter for by emailing giveaway@othermusic.com. They'll notify the winner on Tuesday, September 7.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
THE BEACH @ GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, NYC

Sony Holland live @ Charlie O's, tomorrow nite!

LA-based vocalist Sony Holland returns to Charlie O's this Tuesday, September 7 @8PM. With Theo Saunders, Ryan McGillicuddy and Kendall Kay.
Charlie O's: 13725 Victory Boulevard- Van Nuys, CA 91401-2325

Melena live @ Steamers, tonite!

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
MELENA & HER LATIN JAZZ BAND
WITH RAMON BANDA, CARLOS ORDIANO, EDGAR HERNANDEZ, BRIAN SWARTZ AND KAMASI WASHINGTON
LIVE @ STEAMERS THIS SAT, SEPT 4 CALL 714-871-8800 TO RSVP!

Steamers Jazz Club and Cafe
138 W. Commonwealth Ave
Fullerton, CA 92832
714-871-8800
Music is in her blood. Shaped from the rhythms that dance through her veins, Melena Francis Valdes, born in Havana Cuba, has mastered the traditional rhythms that have traveled from Africa to Cuba, to the dance floors of America. Her Afro/Cuban sound is a conversation of me...lodies which she plays with fierce passion, whether on Congas, Timbales, Batas or a range of other percussion instruments. As her musical vision is broad, she combines her talents with those of some of the most accomplished musicians performing today in genres that range from Jazz to Pop.

Melena's formal training began on the drums when she was a teenager. Master percussionist Luis Conte was instrumental in shaping her early development. In 1988, Melena returned to Cuba for the first time since leaving as a child. While in Cuba, Melena studied with the "Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba". She has also studied with the legendary percussionists and folklorists Mario Jauregui, Regino Jimenez and Lazaro Ros. This experience gave her a solid foundation, offering her a unique sound which is distinctly her own.

During the years 1989 through 1994, Melena started to sit in with various local Latin groups in Los Angeles. Papo Conga was a most essential and important mentor. He first hired her on Congas and later on timbales giving her the opportunity to develop her skills as a percussionist. In 1995, Melena began to work with the late Kenny Kirkland and Jeff "Tain" Watts in a band designed to feature her abilities and that of bassist Nedra Wheeler. This era proved to be a turning point in that it challenged her desire to reach for greater dimensions and expand her percussion abilities in a jazz setting. In the following year, Melena would be found on a world tour with Barry White, which continued for two years.

In August of 1997, Melena returned to Cuba to continue her studies for six months. Her stay in Cuba afforded her the privilege of studying with Roberto Vizcaino Guillot, Miguel "Anga" Diaz, Jose Miguel Melendez and with Master percussionists of Conjunto Clave y Guaguanco. Upon returning from Cuba, Melena recorded a PBS special with John Tesh in Europe called, "One World". From there she toured with Pop/R&B vocalist Macy Gray followed by Julio Iglesias.

In the fall of 2000, Melena returned to Cuba for the third time. This time she traveled to Matanzas and focused her studies on bata drums with Master Daniel Herrera. In Havana she studied congas with Yaroldy Abreu and Adel Gonzales, percussionists with Chucho Valdes and Irakere. Jose "Pepe" Espinosa, percussionist with the Afro Cuban All Stars is also a good friend and mentor. She also had the privilege of playing with the group Irakere as well as several of the local Timba groups in Havana.

In May 2002 Melena conducted a clinic and concert performance at the Percussion Festival in San Juan Puerto Rico. Backup musicians for her live performances included Eric Figueroa, piano and musical director of Batacumbele. She also had the opportunity to play with friends like Richie Flores, Paoli Mejias and Javier Oquendo.

In the year 2004 Melena toured internationally with Latin Pop Artist, Chayanne. In 2005, Melena had the wonderful opportunity to perform at the NBA Finals and several live concerts with the legendary Stevie Wonder. Melena was also blessed to share the same stage with her biggest inspiration, Giovanni Hidalgo. Melena performed with her Afro Cuban band at the Ninth Annual Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival in Texas and also conducted a clinic at the Brownsville University. In 2006, Melena recorded with Peru Negro and was a guest musician on a Live DVD recording with Eva Ayllon. In addition, Melena conducted a master class and performance at the 2006 Montreal Drum Festival. In 2008/2009, Melena peformed alongside JC and Tor Dietrichson and gave two Master Classes at the Seattle World Rhythm Festival.

In 2009, Melena was a featured percussionist on the Fox Television Hit "Prison Break" dancing and playing congas alongside actor Amaury Nolasco. Melena is also a featured percussionist with singer/songwriter Janel Parrish, who plays Jade on the Bratz movie.

Her dream is to travel the world and to be a major contributor to the Afro/Cuban music legacy, sharing the richness of this culture with others. Festivals she has performed in the past fronting her own Cuban Jazz Band include: Jazz at Drew, African Village Festival, Latin Music Festival, Puerto Rico Percussion Conservatory, Montreal Drum Festival, Altadena Summer Concert, and more. Melena also conducts workshops and clinics nationally and internationally. She has specialized her studies in the Afro-Cuban tradition and on the Sacred Bata Drums and has taught her students the importance of the history and knowledge of Afro-Cuban drumming and language of the Batas. Melena is someone to be recognized as one of the most accomplished and proficient female percussionist in the music community.

CD of the Day - "Cibele: Las Vênus Resort Palace Hotel"

CD of the Day
Cibelle: "Las Vênus Resort Palace Hotel" (Crammed Discs/ST2) 2010

Produced by Cibelle & Damian Taylor
Featuring: Apollo Nove, Mike Lindsay, Fernando Catatau, Kristian Craig Robinson, Simon Ribchester, Jacob Smedegaard, Matt Robertson et al

Scot Alberton releases "Vibination" @ Live Green Connecticut Festival on Sept. 19

I Love Dubai! Part 1