Congratulations to our clients on being recognized by the following 2011 polls and year-end lists!

Darcy James Argue

DownBeat Critics’ Poll: Rising Star Composer (#1)

DownBeat Critics’ Poll: Rising Star Big Band (#2)

DownBeat Readers’ Poll: Big Band (#2)

JazzTimes Readers’ Poll: Best Big Band (#3)

100 Composers Under 40
—NPR in conjunction with WQXR 

Top 10 concerts/gigs in Ottawa
—Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen 

Top 10 Concerts Of The Year (Brooklyn Babylon)
—David R. Adler, New York City Jazz Record

Noteworthy Live Shows This Year (Brooklyn Babylon)
—Ralph A. Miriello, Jazz Journalists Association

AUM Fidelity

Darius Jones

Musicians Of The Year
—The New York City Jazz Record

Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp, Cosmic Lieder (AUM066)

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Francis Davis, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Steve Dollar, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Ed Hazell, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Tim Niland, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top Albums For 2011
—S. Victor Aaron, Something Else!

Top 10 New Releases For 2011
—Tim Niland, Music and More 

Top 10 of 2011
—Stanley Zappa, Free Jazz 

Top 30 of 2011
—Andrew Forbes, THIS IS OUR MUSIC.

2011’s Ten Best New Releases
—Alain Drouot, Jazz Journalists Association

Albums of the Year: Honorable Mentions
—The New York City Jazz Record 

Top 10 Concerts of the Year
—Andrey Henkin, The New York City Jazz Record

Farmers By Nature, Out Of This World’s Distortions (AUM067)

Top 5 Albums of 2011
—Kevin Le Gendre, BBC 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—David Fricke, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—John Sharpe, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top Ten New Releases of 2011
—Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise 

Top Ten New Releases of 2011
—Daniel Spicer, Jazzwise 

Best New Jazz/Improvised Music Albums of 2011
—Steve Holtje, Culture Catch

Albums of the Year: Honorable Mentions
—The New York City Jazz Record 

Best Releases of 2011
—John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com 

David S. Ware/Cooper-Moore/WilliamParker/Muhammad Ali, Planetary Unknown (AUM068)

Jazz & Improv A-Z
—The Wire 

Record Of The Year (#34)
—Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Clifford Allen, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Larry Birnbaum, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Troy Collins, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Steve Dollar, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—David Fricke, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Aiden Levy, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Chris Monsen, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Bret Saunders, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top Ten New Releases of 2011
— Daniel Spicer, Jazzwise 

Top 10 Satisfying CDs of 2011
—Bret Saunders, Denver Post

Top 10 Albums of 2011
—Lawrence Joseph, Montreal Mirror

Best New Jazz/Improvised Music Albums of 2011
—Steve Holtje, Culture Catch

Top 10 of 2011
—Stanley Zappa, Free Jazz 

Best New Releases of 2011
—Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com 

Best New Releases of 2011
—Clifford Allen, Ni Kantu 

Top 10 New Releases For 2011
—Tim Niland, Music and More 

Best of 2011
—Antonio Terzo, Jazz Journalists Association 

Favorite 20 + 3 for 2011
—John Braithwaite, CKUT 90.3 FM

Albums of the Year: Honorable Mentions
—The New York City Jazz Record 

Darius Jones Trio, Big Gurl (AUM069)

Albums of the Year
—The New York City Jazz Record 

Record Of The Year (#19)
—Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Larry Birnbaum, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Troy Collins, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Steve Dollar, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Laurence Donohue-Greene, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Alain Drouot, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Tad Hendrickson, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Lyn Horton, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Chris Monsen, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—John Sharpe, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Jeff Stockton, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top Jazz Albums of 2011
—Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper 

Best New Releases of 2011
—Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com 

Best Releases of 2011
—John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com 

Top 10 of 2011
—Guy Peters, Free Jazz 

Top 10 of 2011
—Tony Verstraete, Free Jazz 

Top 10 of 2011
—Lyn Horton, The Paradigm For Beauty

Top 10 New Releases
—Laurence Donohue-Greene, Jazz Journalists Association

Top 10 New Releases
—Shaun Brady, Jazz Journalists Association

Top 10 for 2011
—Tad Hendrickson, Jazz Journalists Association

Best of 2011: New Releases
—Luke Stewart, Jazz Journalists Association

Favorite 20 + 3 for 2011
—John Braithwaite, CKUT 90.3 FM

David S. Ware, Organica (AUM070)

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Larry Birnbaum, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top Jazz Albums of 2011
—Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper 

Best of 2011: Jazz
—Bill Meyer, Dusted 

Best New Jazz/Improvised Music Albums of 2011
—Steve Holtje, Culture Catch

Top 30 of 2011
—Andrew Forbes, THIS IS OUR MUSIC.

Top 10 New Releases
—Shaun Brady, Jazz Journalists Association

James Falzone

DownBeat Critics’ Poll: Rising Star Clarinet (#4)

Great Arts Events I Was At 2011
—Janis Hashe, Chattanooga Pulse

KLANG, Other Doors (Allos Documents)

The year’s best jazz CDs
—Neil Tesser, Examiner.com 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Lyn Horton, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Derek Taylor, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Favorite 20 + 3 for 2011
—John Braithwaite, CKUT 90.3 FM

Albums of the Year: Honorable Mentions
—The New York City Jazz Record

Best of 2011
—Antonio Terzo, Jazz Journalists Association

Top 13 of 2011
—Neil Tesser, Jazz Journalists Association

Mary Halvorson

DownBeat Critics’ Poll: Rising Star Guitar (#1)

Best Guitarist 2011
—Village Voice, Best of New York

100 Composers Under 40
—NPR in conjunction with WQXR 

Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone, Departure Of Reason (Thirsty Ear)

My favorite albums of 2011
—Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader 

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Lyn Horton, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Top Albums for 2011
—Mark Saleski, Something Else!

Top 10 of 2011
—Lyn Horton, The Paradigm For Beauty

Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evans, Electric Fruit (Thirsty Ear)

Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Alain Drouot, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

2011’s Ten Best New Releases
—Alain Drouot, Jazz Journalists Association

Fay Victor

Other Dimensions In Music featuring Fay Victor, Kaiso Stories (Silkheart)

Vocal Releases of the Year
—The New York City Jazz Record 

Best Vocal Album (#6)
—Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Record Of The Year (#40)
—Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Vocal Release of the Year
—John Szwed, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Vocal Release of the Year + Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Laurence Donohue-Greene, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Vocal Release of the Year + Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Ed Hazell, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Vocal Release of the Year + Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Robert Iannapollo, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Vocal Release of the Year + Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Chris Monsen, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Vocal Release of the Year + Top 10 New Releases of 2011
—Derek Taylor, Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll 

Albums of the Year
—Laurence Donohue-Greene, The New York City Jazz Record

Best of 2011
—Derek Taylor, Dusted

Vocal releases of 2011
—John Szwed, Jazz Journalists Association 

Top 10 New Releases + Vocal releases of 2011
—Laurence Donohue-Greene, Jazz Journalists Association 

Top 10 of 2011
—Guy Peters, Free Jazz

Top 10 of 2011
—Stanley Zappa, Free Jazz

Favourites for 2011
—CKUT 90.3 FM 

Favorite 20 + 3 for 2011
—John Braithwaite, CKUT 90.3 FM 

Another year is almost in the books, which means it’s time for critics and fans alike to start compiling their best-releases-of-the-year lists.

For your reference, here’s a list of our clients’ 2011 recordings.

AUM Fidelity

Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp, Cosmic Lieder
Farmers By Nature, Out Of This World’s Distortions
David S. Ware/Cooper-Moore/William Parker/Muhammad Ali, Planetary Unknown
Darius Jones Trio, Big Gurl (Smell My Dream)
David S. Ware, Organica (solo saxophones, volume 2)

James Falzone

KLANG, Other Doors (Allos Documents)

Mary Halvorson

Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evans, Electric Fruit (Thirsty Ear)
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone, Departure of Reason (Thirsty Ear)
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet, Apparent Distance (Firehouse 12 Records)
The Thirteenth Assembly, Station Direct (Important Records)

Eric Hofbauer

Eric Hofbauer & The Infrared Band, LEVEL (Creative Nation Music)

Playscape Recordings

Ted Rosenthal Trio, Out Of This World

Fay Victor

Other Dimensions In Music Featuring Fay Victor, Kaiso Stories (Silkheart)

More news about 2012 releases coming soon!

Photo by John Rogers

Today’s landmark 300th episode of The Jazz Session features a 45+ minute interview with the improvising collective, Planetary Unknown.

The group, which brings together saxophonist David S. Ware, pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist William Parker and drummer Muhammad Ali in one ensemble for the first time in their long and distinguished careers, had just walked off stage following its debut performance at Vision Festival 16 in June.

Host Jason Crane and these master elder musicians discuss a variety of topics, including how the quartet first came together, physical stamina and the musician as a vessel for the spirit of the music, Ware’s tacit leadership vs. the collective nature of the group, the concept of starting with the formless, and advice for younger musicians trying to find their own voices.

Although its life as a collective unit has only just begun, the trailblazing paths the members of Planetary Unknown took to reach this crossroads have already influenced generations of musicians. All told, the group draws on a combined pool of experience that spans the early days of free jazz in the late 1960′s through the jazz loft and expatriate scenes of the 1970′s through the beginning of the Vision Festival era in the mid-1990′s through today.

“David S. Ware plays with such solemn power and majesty that his soloing begs comparisons to mountains or waterfalls,” writes Point of Departure reviewer Ed Hazell. “In fact, it’s hard to avoid ecological metaphors when discussing his latest album, Planetary Unknown, so completely do Ware, pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist William Parker, and drummer Muhammad Ali create their own world of sound, a landscape in which one can sense the presence of the divine in much the same way that Walden inspired Thoreau or Yosemite John Muir. Listening to this quartet makes Transcendentalists of us all.”

Learn more about Planetary Unknown and its AUM Fidelity debut at http://www.aumfidelity.com

The track “Last of the Chicken Wings” from eminent New Orleans tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan’s 2006 AUM Fidelity recording Palm Of Soul, featuring bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, will be used in this Sunday’s episode of the HBO series Treme.

“Kidd Jordan plays the saxophone like a master storyteller,” writes Offbeat reviewer Todd A. Price. “Like any well-told tale, Palm of Soul only gets better each time it’s heard.”

We’ve been informed the music will play during the scene in which character Davis McAlary visits WWOZ.

Learn more about Jordan, and his long and influential musical history in New Orleans, in this 2008 NPR story connected to his lifetime achievement award at Vision Festival XIII.

DownBeat‘s August issue is reaching subscribers now and with it the results of the 59th Annual Critics Poll.

We’re very pleased to report that our clients are well represented and in more categories than ever before.

AUM Fidelity earned the number nine spot on the Jazz Album of the Year list with William Parker’s I Plan To Stay A Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield, while its recording artists Darius Jones (Rising Star Alto Saxophone) and David S. Ware (Tenor Saxophone) made strong showings in their respective categories.

The members of Farmers By Nature, who recently released their second AUM Fidelity record, Out Of This World’s Distortions, also made some noise for their recent individual accomplishments. William Parker and Gerald Cleaver were recognized in the Bass and Rising Star Drums categories respectively, and Craig Taborn scored a hat trick with wins for Rising Star Piano, Electronic Keyboard and Rising Star Organ.

Darcy James Argue got the most votes in the Rising Star Composer category and his GRAMMY® nominated big band Secret Society grabbed the second spot for Rising Star Big Band. He and the group were also recognized in the Arranger, Rising Star Arranger, Composer and Big Band categories.

James Falzone, who appeared on three very different recordings in the past year (KLANG’s Other Doors, Allos Musica Trio’s Lamentations and Vox Arcana’s Aerial Age), was fourth in the Rising Star Clarinet category.

Firehouse 12 Records and Mary Halvorson share the credit for Saturn Sings‘ number eight spot on the Jazz Album of the Year list.

Ms. Halvorson also went on to win for Rising Star Guitar while also being recognized in the Rising Star Jazz Artist category. Her longstanding trio, featuring Rising Star Bass winner John Hébert, finished fourth in the Rising Star Jazz Group category.

Last but definitely not least, Fay Victor, who has been impressing critics and fans alike in recent months with her own bands as well as collaborations with Other Dimensions In Music and the ICP Orchestra, was recognized in both the Rising Star Female Vocals and Female Vocals categories.

Congratulations to all the musicians and labels on this recognition of their work and thanks to all the voters for their attention and support of our clients and their music.

Photo by John Rogers

BBC 3′s Jazz on 3 returned to the Vision Festival this year and Monday’s episode features live recordings of three of the highlights, including improvising supergroup Planetary Unknown’s entire hour-long set celebrating the release of its self-titled debut on AUM Fidelity.

Host Jez Nelson and special guest correspondent Nate Chinen liken the significance of this first-ever performance by the all-star quartet, which features saxophonist David S. Ware, pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist William Parker and drummer Muhammad Ali, to members of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and The Clash all getting together for a concert at the UK’s historic Reading Festival.

Poet and Vision Festival fixture Steve Dalichinsky, the third member of the conversation, described the set as “pure improv, almost one continuous breath. After what David has gone through physically, to see the immense strength of this playing after his illness is incredible.”

Chinen adds, “There is a current of the jazz avant-garde that is very in touch with the sanctified, a notion of the spirit moving, and I think David is certainly a proponent of that, and the Vision Festival feels to me very aligned with that idea. So, to have these musicians delivering a set like this really hits the sweet spot of the Vision Festival.”

Streaming audio of Planetary Unknown’s performance, which begins at the hour and nine minute mark of the program, following excerpts of sets by Pulverize The Sound and Paradoxical Frog, is available online for another six days.

Learn more about Planetary Unknown, and its members’ other recordings, at http://www.aumfidelity.com

“Roots tributes seldom get as fascinating or as cultishly seductive as Kaiso Stories,” writes reviewer Lloyd Sachs in the July/August issue of JazzTimes, ”on which Brooklyn-based singer Fay Victor teams with the free-jazz collective Other Dimensions in Music to revisit, reinvent and audaciously retool songs from her Trinidadian youth.”

“Victor,” he continues, “assures you from the start that neither ‘Maryanne Revisited’ (as in ‘down by the seaside’) nor the rest of these songs will indulge in turntable nostalgia…she reawakens cultural history, addressing political and religious topics as well as boy-girl and life-and-death themes with manic chants, raspy shouts and patois-inflected spoken recitations.

Sachs adds, “Having emerged as a vocal artist with a real vision, Victor rises to a higher level of inspiration here.”

Learn more about Fay Victor and her various musical projects at http://www.fayvictor.com

Photo by John Rogers

Farmers By Nature, featuring pianist Craig Taborn, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver, kicks-off its six-city European tour tonight in Amsterdam.

The four year-old improvising trio is celebrating the release of its second AUM Fidelity recording, Out Of This World’s Distortions, with performances in The Netherlands, France and Slovenia.

Friday, June 24th at 8:30 p.m.
Bimhuis
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Saturday, June 25th at 6:00 p.m.
musée du quai Branly
Paris, France

Sunday, June 26th at 7:00 p.m.
Jazz Agricole Day
Puimichel, France

Monday, June 27th at 9:00 p.m.
Cité de la Musique de Marseille
Marseille, France

Tuesday, June 28th at 8:30 p.m.
Petit Kursaal
Besançon, France

Wednesday, June 29th at 9:15 p.m.
Klub CD
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Critics have called Out Of This World’s Distortions “a conversation at an otherworldly level” (S. Victor Aaron, Something Else!), ”a deeply wistful, bracing musical adventure” (Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise), and ”a novel variation on an enduring format that transcends customary expectations through considered interplay and empathetic unanimity” (Troy Collins, Point Of Departure).

“Like on the previous album,” adds Free Jazz blogger Stef Gijssels, “this piano trio again demonstrates that it’s one of the best around…one of those rare piano trios that manages to create a common sound, rather than being just a piano plus rhythm section. The music is intelligent, creative, expressive, incredibly well-paced and precise.”

Learn more about Farmers By Nature and its members’ other AUM Fidelity releases at http://www.aumfidelity.com

The July issue of Jazzwise features four-star reviews of the two latest AUM Fidelity releases, Farmers By Nature’s Out Of This World’s Distortions (AUM067) and David S. Ware/Cooper-Moore/William Parker/Muhammad Ali’s Planetary Unknown (AUM068).

In his review of the former, Kevin Le Gendre notes the trio’s trademark “contrast of high energy sonic exuberance and meditative delicacy.”

“Creating a developmental arc in a song that is more about understated, incremental movements rather than outright ‘chapter headings’ has been practiced by many in jazz over the years,” he writes, “but it is done with consummate authority here, and the title track is the high point of this extreme attention to detail in the touch of every member of the band. The result is a deeply wistful, bracing musical adventure.”

“The four musicians had never worked together as a group when they gathered in Brooklyn in late 2010,” explains Marcus O’Dair in his review of Planetary Unknown, “but the seven tracks they laid down are gravity-defying.”

He adds, “Both Ware and Parker have worked with Cecil Taylor, while Ali—who hasn’t recorded for 30 years—played with Albert Ayler; the spirits of both forefathers are evident here, alongside that of Coltrane at his most ecstatic. Despite its debt to the blistering, transcendent spirit of the 1960’s, however, the album feels fresh.”

Farmers By Nature kicks off its six-city European CD release tour tomorrow in Paris and Ware will play back-to-back solo sets this weekend in New York at AUM Fidelity’s two-week series at The Stone (Friday) and Undead Jazzfest (Saturday).

Learn more about AUM Fidelity, its artists and its releases at http://www.aumfidelity.com

Tonight at 8:00 p.m., Farmers By Nature will celebrate its latest AUM Fidelity release, Out Of This World’s Distortions (AUM067), with a performance at Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival.

The group, which features Craig Taborn (piano), William Parker (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums), will then head to Europe for a six-city tour of France, Slovenia and The Netherlands beginning on Friday.

“Like seeds planted in the fertile ground of inventiveness,” writes AllAboutJazz.com’s Mark F. Turner, “the trio’s ideas germinate into enthralling music that is organic and spontaneous.”

Reviewers have called them “three of the most accomplished improvisers to be found anywhere” (Eric Snider, Creative Loafing), “a testament to rumination” (Jim Macnie, Village Voice), and “a group that has a language all its own” (Bill Meyer, DownBeat).

“Sensitive and subtle,” adds Jazzwise contributor Kevin Le Gendre, “the group dynamic is as impassioned as a Brötzmann juggernaut yet as delicate as sashimi.”

Learn more about Farmers By Nature and its members’ other AUM Fidelity releases at http://www.aumfidelity.com