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Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Returning To LPR In May

(April 5, 2012)

Photo: Lindsay Beyerstein

On Tuesday, May 22nd at 10:30 p.m., Brooklyn-based composer-bandleader Darcy James Argue and his acclaimed big band Secret Society will return to (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York. This concert, the band’s fifth at the venue, is the last gig on its home turf before the start of a busy summer that includes stops at Brazil’s BMW Jazz Festival (South American debut) and the historic Newport Jazz Festival, and the studio session for the score to its multimedia extravaganza, Brooklyn Babylon.

In his review of Secret Society’s March concert at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, Feast of Music‘s Mike Engel wrote, “With equal respect to the swinging jazz band tradition, driving rhythms of modern rock, and unorthodox melodies and meters from contemporary composition, Secret Society left me and the rest of the audience overwhelmed by their fantastic showcase.” The Village Voice‘s Richard Gehr added, “if it’s any indication of the direction in which Argue is steering his ensemble, look out below.”

Argue, a recent GRAMMY nominee and four-time winner in the DownBeat Critics Poll, is credited with “making the big band cool again” (Time Out New York) and “reinventing the jazz big band for the 21st century” (John L. Walters, The Guardian). His music has been called “original and exciting” (Michael J. West, JazzTimes), “brimming with fresh ideas” (Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal), “a nearly perfect creative synthesis between tradition and innovation” (John Eyles, BBC) and “a wholly original take on big band’s past, present and future” (Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek).

Learn more about Darcy James Argue and Secret Society at http://www.secretsocietymusic.org

Myra Melford On Today’s Episode Of The Jazz Session

(April 5, 2012)

Today’s episode of The Jazz Session, the jazz interview podcast hosted by Jason Crane, features a 45-minute conversation with pianist/composer Myra Melford.

It was recorded back in February following her concert at The Jazz Gallery in New York, where she debuted her latest group, Snowy Egret, an interdisciplinary sextet featuring musicians Ron Miles (trumpet), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Stomu Takeishi (electric bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) as well as dancer Oguri.

Ms. Melford talks about the project, which features a book of original music inspired by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire Trilogy, including the nature of the source material, how she chose the musicians and how Oguri interacted with the rest of the ensemble.

Many other topics are covered, including another new project featuring solo piano compositions based on the drawings of the celebrated Sacramento-based artist Don Reich (1931-2010), and why she prefers to pair acoustic instruments with her piano, but the second half of the show focuses on Trio M, her longstanding collective with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson.

Trio M has been performing CD release dates since its second recording, The Guest House (Enja/Yellowbird), came out in February, and will be on the East Coast this weekend at Firehouse 12 in New Haven and The Kitano in New York.

Learn more about Myra Melford at http://myramelford.com

Tonight: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society In Washington, DC

(April 4, 2012)

Photo: Lindsay Beyerstein

Tonight at 8:00 p.m., composer/bandleader Darcy James Argue and his acclaimed big band Secret Society will perform as part of the Jazz at the Atlas series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. This will be the group’s first concert in the nation’s capital since January 5th, 2011 when it performed at both Subterranean A and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on the same day.

Since then, Argue has attended the GRAMMY® Awards as a nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, earned his second consecutive win in the Rising Star Composer category of the DownBeat Critics’ Poll, performed at a variety of prominent venues and major jazz festivals and unveiled his innovative multimedia extravaganza, Brooklyn Babylon, co-created with graphic artist Danijel Zezelj, over the course of four nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Critics have credited him with “making the big band cool again” (Time Out New York) and “reinventing the jazz big band for the 21st century” (John L. Walters, The Guardian), calling his music “original and exciting” (Michael J. West, JazzTimes), “brimming with fresh ideas” (Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal), “a nearly perfect creative synthesis between tradition and innovation” (John Eyles, BBC) and “a wholly original take on big band’s past, present and future” (Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek).

The Washington City Paper‘s Michael J. West adds, “Argue’s music is ambitious, experimental, and complex, but in a sense far closer to indie rock with its immediacy and wide-ranging palette. He also blends elements of European folk, contemporary classical, and film-noir soundtracks, yet still works in classic swing, all of them placed in extraordinary frameworks of his own creation. It’s damned exciting stuff, and still with the unique flair of the underground–enough to get any music observer fired up.”

Learn more about Darcy James Argue and Secret Society at http://secretsocietymusic.org

Fay Victor Ensemble To Perform New Music At Two Upcoming NYC Gigs

(April 4, 2012)

Photo: Gulnara Khamatova

Vocalist/composer Fay Victor and her primary working band, the Fay Victor Ensemble, will be workshopping new original material for its next recording at two upcoming dates in New York. The group, which is currently operating as a drummer-less trio featuring guitarist Anders Nilsson and bassist Ken Filiano, will play at Clemente Soto Vélez (as part of the Evolving Voice series) on April 30th and Barbès (as part of the Palimpsestic Series) on May 16th.

Ms. Victor, who composes with her husband Jochem van Dijk, recently resumed focusing on her own music after a series of performing and recording projects with Ab Baars, Anthony Braxton, the ICP Orchestra and Other Dimensions in Music over the past year. “Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and embrace new experiences,” she explains. “Working as a sidewoman with these great artists has helped me hone my own conceptual and compositional approach. I’m very excited to develop these new pieces with Anders and Ken and record them later this year.”

“Awesome, incredible, unique, overwhelming—the adjectives to describe the sheer magnificence of vocalist/poet/improviser Fay Victor could go on for days,” writes the New Haven Advocate‘s Bill Carbone. Critics have called her “restlessly creative” (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader), “artistically complete” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times), “breathtakingly original” (Jerome Wilson, Cadence), “refreshingly outside-the-box” (Time Out New York) and “a vocal artist with a real vision” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes).

Learn more about Fay Victor at http://www.fayvictor.com

Mary Halvorson Quintet On Tour May 16-19th

(April 3, 2012)

Photo: Nick Lloyd

Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson and her quintet will hit the road in mid-May to celebrate the release of their second record, Bending Bridges (Firehouse 12 Records). The group, which features Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone), Stephan Crump (subbing for John Hébert on bass) and Ches Smith (drums), will perform at Buoy Gallery in Kittery, Maine (May 16th), Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Quebec (May 17th), Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut (May 18th) and Cornelia Street Café in New York (May 19th).

Bending Bridges, Ms. Halvorson’s third release as a bandleader, follows the widely acclaimed Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12 Records), which inspired critics to call her “the real thing” (Chris May, AllAboutJazz.com), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), “the most future-seeking guitarist working right now” (Lars Gotrich, NPR.org), “a multi-faceted artist whose writing is as impressive as her improvising” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure) and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice).

“The quintet setting offers the Boston-born, Brooklyn-based guitarist entirely new harmonic possibilities,” writes Jazzwise reviewer Peter Quinn, “and the results are hugely impressive…Halvorson’s powerfully communicative music transcends the avant-garde experimental box.” The Philadelphia City Paper‘s Shaun Brady adds, “Halvorson has been steadily reshaping the sound of jazz guitar in recent years with her elastic, sometimes-fluid, sometimes-shredding, wholly unique style. Her compositions, shaped by a pop sensibility and unconstrained avant aggressiveness are ably explored by five of modern jazz’s young leading lights.”

Ms. Halvorson topped the Rising Star Guitar category in the latest DownBeat Critics Poll and was named New York’s Best Guitarist 2011 by the Village Voice. When not leading her quintet, or her other groups such as the longstanding Mary Halvorson Trio and the recently created Reverse Blue and Mary Halvorson Septet, she is the guitarist of choice for such notable bandleaders as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Curtis Hasselbring and Ingrid Laubrock. She also appears on the latest releases from the working ensembles Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone, Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up, The Thirteenth Assembly and the Tom Rainey Trio.

Learn more about Mary Halvorson at http://maryhalvorson.com

James Falzone To Play Quartet For The End Of Time Tonight & Sunday

(March 30, 2012)

Photo: David C. Sampson

This Sunday at 7:00 p.m., clarinetist James Falzone will take part in the fourth annual performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Chicago in collaboration with violinist Rebekah Cope, cellist Karen Schulz-Harmon and pianist Rick Ferguson.

The quartet will also perform the work, which the French-born Messiaen famously premiered in captivity at Stalag VIIA in Görlitz, Germany in 1941, tonight at 7:30 p.m. at The Musical Offering, a community music school in Evanston directed by Ferguson.

Both events will feature a post-performance discussion with the musicians.

“Messiaen’s work has stood the test of time, and continues to fascinate people because of its wonderful construction AND because that construction took place under remarkable circumstances and was inspired by remarkable concepts of time and the relationship between the temporal and the eternal,” Falzone explains. “I have learned much about my own playing, improvising and composing from my involvement in this work, chiefly what it means to infuse a work of music with meaning while maintaining the integrity of the music itself.”

He adds, “My recent project, Sighs Too Deep for Words, takes its inspiration from the solo clarinet movement, “Abyss of the birds”. The pacing of it, indeed the pacing of the entire Quartet, has influenced the way I improvise my own piece. The fact that I’ll be playing the Quartet for the End of Time and releasing a DVD of Sighs Too Deep For Words in the same month is no coincidence.”

Learn more about James Falzone, who will also perform on opening night of the John Cage Festival at PianoForte in Chicago on April 13th, at http://allosmusica.org

Tonight: Michael Musillami Trio + 4 At Firehouse 12

(March 30, 2012)

Photo: Jonathan Doster

Tonight at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m., veteran guitarist/composer Michael Musillami will celebrate his new release, Mettle (Playscape Recordings), at Firehouse 12 in New Haven. This will be his third appearance at the venue with his flagship trio featuring bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller, which marks its 10th anniversary as a working unit in 2012. For this event, as on Mettle, the group will be joined by special guests Russ Johnson (trumpet), Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone and clarinet), Jeff Lederer (tenor saxophone and clarinet) and Tom Beckham (vibraphone).

“Musillami’s trio, his alliance with his longtime friends and collaborators, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller, is a superb, finely tuned unit, empathetic, swinging and dramatically expressive of emotions sweeping from joy to sadness,” explains the Hartford Courant‘s Owen McNally in his recent feature article. “More impressive than longevity, however, is the trio’s remarkably tight, cohesive unity. Nurtured by Musillami’s celebratory music, the band functions as a musical family, a democratic clan in which everyone expresses himself.”

Critics have called the group’s music “truly original” (Michael G. Nastos, AllMusic.com), “challenging and adventurous” (Bill Beuttler, Boston Globe), “scintillating and provocative” (Bill Milkowski, The Absolute Sound) and “honest, frequently surprising and consistently exciting” (Ron Wynn, JazzTimes). “Working on an almost telepathic level,” adds Cadence reviewer Troy Collins, “they have developed an innate familiarity with each other that enables them to second guess abrupt tempo changes and harmonic detours with split second timing. Although the trio certainly doesn’t need any help navigating Musillami’s compelling tunes, they are occasionally joined by a few guest soloists, always to remarkable effect.”

Musillami’s career spans more than 25 years and includes extensive work as a performer, bandleader/composer and educator. In addition to his trio, which has performed across Europe and North America and released five other recordings since 2002, he has earned international acclaim as the leader of groups ranging from duo to octet. When not working with his own bands, he also directs the student jazz ensemble Right Brain Logic at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, and manages Playscape Recordings, the highly regarded independent label he founded in 1999. Learn more at http://michaelmusillami.com and http://playscape-recordings.com

Video of the Michael Musillami Trio + 4 performing selections from Mettle can be found on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/impcommunications/videos

Jon Irabagon Trio At The Bar Next Door April 20th

(March 30, 2012)

Photo: Bryan Murray

On Friday, April 20th, saxophonist/composer Jon Irabagon and his trio will perform three sets at The Bar Next Door in New York. The group, which features keyboardist Sean Wayland and drummer Rudy Royston, will play from a book of material that includes standards, selections from Irabagon’s 2009 release The Observer (Concord Records) and new original pieces.

“Jon Irabagon has a smart tone, a shrewd technique and a catholic grasp of the jazz tradition,” writes the New York Times‘ Nate Chinen. Critics have called him “one of the most promising and versatile sax players in New York” (Eyal Hareuveni, AllAboutJazz.com) and “a consistently outstanding altoist who excels at both high-wire experimentalism and muscular swing” (Time Out New York).

The winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, Irabagon has since topped the Rising Star Alto Saxophone category in the DownBeat Critics’ Poll and been named one of Time Out New York‘s 25 New York City Jazz Icons. When not leading his own bands, he is an integral member of such notable ensembles as Mostly Other People Do The Killing and the Mary Halvorson Quintet. He’ll also be performing in New York in April with Mike Pride’s From Bacteria To Boys, the John Yao Quintet and Bryan and The Haggards.

Learn more about Jon Irabagon at http://jonirabagon.com

Thumbscrew Coming To Sycamore In Brooklyn April 29th

(March 29, 2012)

On Sunday, April 29th at 8:00 p.m., the Underground Works series, curated by members of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground and Connection Works, will present Thumbscrew, a collective trio featuring guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson, bassist/composer Michael Formanek and drummer/composer Tomas Fujiwara, at Sycamore in Brooklyn.

“Already there seems to be a very special energy and ease of communication within the band, so I am looking forward to developing it and seeing where it goes,” says Ms. Halvorson of the new group, which played its first two gigs in New York and Baltimore earlier this month.

Each member of the band is a well-known composer and bandleader in his/her own right, and contributes compositions to this project, which traces its beginnings to a chance collaboration in one of cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum’s ensembles last year. Since coming together on their own shortly after, the trio has been rehearsing regularly and creating new music they hope to perform more often and record later this year.

Learn more about the musicians on their Web sites at http://maryhalvorson.com, http://www.amibotheringyou.com and http://tomasfujiwara.com

Trio M In Santa Fe Tonight, Albuquerque Tomorrow Night

(March 28, 2012)

Photo: Cory Warner

Trio M, the all-star jazz collective featuring pianist Myra Melford, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson, will perform at GiG Performance Space in Santa Fe tonight and Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque tomorrow night in support of its new release, The Guest House (Enja/Yellowbird).

The record, which officially hit the streets last month, features compositions by all three musicians, including pieces inspired by such diverse muses as the poetry of Rumi and Al-Jawahiri, the prose of Yvonne Vera, the comedy of Don Knotts and the music of Albert Ayler. Also included are selections written for the band’s 2010 collaboration with chef Paul Canales and a benefit concert for The Relay For Life, which celebrates lives affected by cancer.

“They’ve always been tight,” explains DownBeat reviewer Jim Macnie, “but this disc finds them bringing the interaction to a superb level.” The New York Times‘ Nate Chinen adds, “The Guest House, the group’s excellent second album, doesn’t feel tethered to any era or dialect. With compositions by all three members, it’s a crisp, engaging ride, variously roiling or reflective, with high-wire interplay at almost every turn.”

Founded in early 2006, Trio M brings together three of the most respected veteran musicians in jazz and improvised music. Critics have called the group “always exploratory and collaborative” (Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen), “one of those rare units that can be both wildly creative and surprisingly user-friendly” (Alexander Varty, Georgia Straight) and “not only one of the most virtuosic playing today, but one of the most consistently engrossing” (Derk Richardson, The Absolute Sound).

The New York City Jazz Record’s Laurence Donohue-Greene writes, “The exploratory Trio M…continues to turn out one mesmerizing set after another, revealing their deep empathy while equally balancing composition with improvisation. Each member is readily equipped to do anything at any given moment, from soloing to laying out to changing tempo, the three moving as one, always.”

Learn more about Trio M at http://myramarkmatt.tumblr.com