Dave Douglas takes up residence at the famed Chicago club the Jazz Showcase tonight through Sunday. The appearance, with the Columbia College Jazz Ensemble, marks the high-point of a week-long residency in the windy city. Purchase tickets here.
Pre-order Sound Prints at iTunes!
Blue Note Records will release "Live at Monterey Jazz Festival", the debut from Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints on April 7! You can pre-order the album & get the lead track right away here.
Lee Konitz & Dave Douglas Quintet at The Jazz Standard
Dave Douglas at Tallcorn Jazz Festival
Dave Douglas will be the featured guest at this weekend's Tallcorn Jazz Festival, taking place at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Sponsored by the Beta Nu Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the festival includes masterclasses and band competitions, as well as performances by Dave on Friday and Saturday, February 20 and 21. Both shows are at 7:15 PM in Bengstom Auditorium. Tickets are available here.
Ten Years of Greenleaf Music
Dave Douglas' company Greenleaf Music celebrates its 10th Anniversary in 2015, kicking things off with a sale commemorating Mountain Passages, the label's first release, on January 25, 2005.
Greenleaf was started with the intent to make and distribute music in a different way, to provide a platform for Dave’s work as well as for artists he wants to showcase, and to create a community of like-minded fans to discover and enjoy the music. In ten years, Greenleaf Music has released over 40 different projects, including countless albums from Dave Douglas, as well as artists Kneebody, Donny McCaslin, Michael Bates, Nicole Mitchell, Curtis MacDonald, Linda Oh, Matt Ulery, Rudy Royston, Riverside and Ryan Keberle.
Read more about the history of this music company here.
“Greenleaf is a family name that goes back at least four centuries. I wanted the label to have a sense of family, both in the way we treat recordings and in the way we deal with artists. You can sit around and gripe about the music industry ’til you’re blue in the face or you can do it yourself and act on what you believe in.”
Ralph Farris' music for The Tempest on tour again
The Aquila Theatre's 2014-15 National Tour resumes this week with their production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest at the George Mason University Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Virginia. The Tempest marks the second collaboration between Aquila and composer Ralph Farris, who composed incidental music for the company's production of A Female Philoctetes at BAM.
See the company's entire tour schedule here.
Greenleaf Music to release Donny McCaslin "Fast Future" on March 31!
Saxophonist/Composer/Bandleader DONNY McCASLIN Releases New EDM-Influenced Album, Fast Future, Available March 31 via Greenleaf Music
Follows Up GRAMMY®-Nominated Album, Casting for Gravity (Released in 2012)
Further Exploration of Crossroads Between Jazz & Electronica/EDM, Influences Ranging From Weather Report & Herbie Hancock's Headhunters to Aphex Twin & Skrillex
Features Working Band Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre, & Mark Guiliana, Produced by David Binney
The only thing predictable about Donny McCaslin's first ten albums was their unpredictability. Each new release arrived with a new line-up and not infrequently a new direction, often providing the perpetually curious saxophonist/composer with fertile new ground to explore.
On the surface, what makes McCaslin's latest release, Fast Future (available March 31, 2015 on Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music), something of a radical departure from his usual M.O., is that it reprises the stunning electro-acoustic quartet from its groundbreaking, critically-acclaimed predecessor, Casting for Gravity - a project that earned McCaslin a 2014 GRAMMY® nomination for "Best Instrumental Jazz Solo" on the track "Stadium Jazz." However as the title implies, Fast Future finds McCaslin and company - keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre, and drummer Mark Guiliana, along with longtime producer David Binney - hurtling further into the relatively unexplored crossroads between jazz and electronica with virtuosic musicianship. Long influenced by fusion pioneers like Weather Report and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, McCaslin integrates those hybrid instincts with innovative modern artists like Aphex Twin and Skrillex.
“...[McCaslin] may prove to be an important portal for expanding the shrinking jazz audience”
"I really love the sonic textures and ambient vibe that you hear in a lot of that music," says McCaslin of the influence that electronica and EDM (Electronic Dance Music) has had on his music. "Having these guys improvising and interacting within that sonic landscape feels great."
At the core of even the most adventurous soundscapes on Fast Future - McCaslin's fourth album for Greenleaf and the first release during the company's 10th anniversary year - are similar sensibilities that have fueled McCaslin's acoustic music, namely vigorous melodies, taut interaction, and the leader's instantly recognizable, brawny tenor voice. Take "No Eyes," a cover of a song by Baths, the alter ego of L.A.-based electronica artist Will Wiesenfeld. Atop the electronic synth-bass throb sits a gorgeous, singable melody, which Binney enhances via transcendent wordless vocals (an element that was not previously highlighted on Casting for Gravity). "Sometimes in the electronica realm there's not enough harmonic movement or melody for me," McCaslin says. "But that song is a beautiful tune in and of itself and you could play it in a variety of ways." It is in this overall spirit that Fast Future showcases McCaslin in a slightly more commercial context, featuring production tendencies that are more often reserved for non-jazz projects. "Greenleaf has again provided an opportunity for me to experiment and that comes from the openness and sensibility of Dave Douglas," says McCaslin, who was a member of Douglas' quintet.
McCaslin is well known for his standout playing in the Maria Schneider Orchestra (having recently been featured on the David Bowie/Maria Schneider collaboration, "Sue") and Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project, and he compares the feeling of playing amid lush electronic environments to soloing against those vivid big-band backdrops. "Standing and playing in front of this bed of beauty is such a joy," he says. "It's so awesome to be surrounded by such deep music."
The members of McCaslin's quartet have been incredibly busy in the two years since the release of Casting for Gravity. Lefebvre, already in-demand for Hollywood soundtrack work and subbing on Saturday Night Live, joined the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a touring juggernaut that has kept him almost constantly on the road. Lindner remains a commanding presence on the NYC jazz scene, leading his renowned band Now Vs Now and its large ensemble spin-off, Breeding Ground. Guiliana joined with pianist Brad Mehldau to form the electronic duo project Mehliana and founded the independent record label Beat Music Productions, which recently launched with the release of two of his own new projects.
All of those experiences converge when these individually inventive artists come together in McCaslin's quartet, now with multiple years of experience as a working unit. The saxophonist calls Lefebvre "the DJ of the band," the breadth of his stylistic and sonic range driving the band into different territories from one moment to the next. With his own background in production, drum and bass, and electronic music, Guiliana easily transcends the genre boundaries traversed by McCaslin's music and is so crucial to the band's sound that the bandleader has said, "this record is a drum solo." And McCaslin praises Lindner's "stylistic malleability," noting his gift at finding "these sounds that feel right and are edgy, but he's also able to be so in the moment and so organic."
Saxophonist/composer/producer Binney, McCaslin's longtime friend, collaborator, and basketball partner, is the fifth member of the quartet. Months before he sets foot in the studio for any project, McCaslin consults with Binney and the two shape a vision for his next project. "I can't overstate the significance of Dave's contribution to this record," McCaslin says. "It was a real partnership. He was never more of an influence on a record than he was on this one."
One example that McCaslin cites is the haunting spoken word interlude on "Love What is Mortal," performed by Jana Dagdagan, intertwined above McCaslin pristine soloing and treatment of melody. An integral component of the song's melancholy atmosphere, the dialogue was entirely Binney's idea, and he presented it complete and already edited into the track when McCaslin entered the studio one day. "I thought it was perfect," McCaslin says. "How lucky am I to have a friend like that?"
From the bombastic grooves of the title track, through the lustrous ballad "Midnight Light" and the frantic free-jazz mutation of Aphex Twin's "54 Cymru Beats," to the final dub-tinged stealth of closer "Squeeze Thru," which evokes McCaslin's youth in Santa Cruz, seeing reggae legends like Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Mighty Diamonds, and Burning Spear live, Fast Future offers a thrilling vision of the shape and redefinition of jazz to come.
Upcoming DONNY McCASLIN Performances:
All dates to feature the Donny McCaslin Group unless otherwise noted.
Personnel for each date varies.
January 29 - 31 / University of Mary (Guest w/ Univ. Big Band) / Bismarck, ND
February 12 / Regattabar / Cambridge, MA
February 14 - 15 / Venues TBD (w/Maria Schneider Orchestra) / Istanbul, Turkey
February 20 - 21 / University of Wisconsin -
River Falls (Guest w/ Univ. Big Band) / River Falls, WI
March 7 / The Jazz Bakery / Los Angeles, CA
March 12 - 15 / Cuesta College / San Luis Obispo, CA
March 16 / El Cerrito High School (Guest w/ High School Jazz Band) / El Cerrito, CA
March 19 / Jazz en Rafale (Donny McCaslin Trio
w/ Scott Colley & Jonathan Blake) / Montreal, QC
March 25 - 28 / Mondavi Center / Davis, CA
April 1 / Humber College (Artist-in-Residence) / Toronto
April 3 / Kent State University (Guest Artist) / Kent, OH
April 7 - 8 / The Jazz Standard / New York, NY
April 12 - 18 / Jaazar Festivel (Guest Artist) / Aarua, Switzerland
April 21 - 25 / Reno Jazz Festival (Guest Artist) / Reno, NV
April 28 - May 3 / Village Vanguard (w/ Enrico Pieranunzi Group) / New York, NY
May 14 - 17 / Jazz Standard (w/ Gil Evans Project - CD Release / New York, NY
June 2 - 6 / Birdland (w/ Maria Schneider Orchestra) / New York, NY
July 18 / Kuumbwa Jazz Center / Santa Cruz, CA
July 19 / Stanford Jazz Workshop / Stanford, CA
Dave Douglas to perform at Purdue University
Dave Douglas will take part in Purdue University's 25th Anniversary Jazz Festival this weekend in West Lafayette, Indiana. Among the scheduled events at the sold-old festival are a masterclass on composition and improvisation and a concert of Dave's big band music from his album A Single Sky with the Purdue Jazz Band and drummer Carl Allen.
Blue Note Records announces Sound Prints release date!
JOE LOVANO & DAVE DOUGLAS ANNOUNCE APRIL 7 RELEASE DATE FOR THE DEBUT RECORDING FROM THEIR CO-LED QUINTET SOUND PRINTS
LIVE AT MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL FEATURES TWO NEW COMPOSITIONS WRITTEN BY THE BAND’S PRIMARY INSPIRATION WAYNE SHORTER
Saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas have announced an April 7 release date for Live at Monterey Jazz Festival, the debut recording from their co-led quintet Sound Prints featuring pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Joey Baron. The album features the debut of two new compositions written for the band by the band’s primary inspiration: Wayne Shorter. Sound Prints will be performing at Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City on May 15 & 16 in The Appel Room as part of their Wayne Shorter Festival. Further tour dates will be announced shortly.
For almost twenty years, Lovano and Douglas have been prime moving forces in the jazz scene, their paths crossing often on stage and occasionally on record. Douglas appears on Lovano's 2001 Blue Note album Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition Two and they overlapped as members of the SFJAZZ Collective for three seasons during which the band performed the repertoire of Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, and their mutual touchstone: saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter.
Sound Prints takes their inspiration from the music of Shorter – the band's name is a nod to his classic "Footprints" – however the quintet’s focus is on new original compositions by Lovano and Douglas, as well as new Shorter compositions in direct collaboration with the composer himself. The band is fueled by a desire to push the boundaries of their music as far as they can stretch, similar to the expansive role Shorter has played in jazz since his debut with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1959.
In the album’s liner notes Shorter exclaims: "Onward! Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Lawrence Fields, Linda Oh and Joey Baron! It’s not often when a combination of musicians such as the aforementioned elect to immerse themselves in an explorative adventure without hesitation or reservation. May they continue forging ahead on the trail less trodden. Onward!”
"The defining trait of Sound Prints," wrote Nate Chinen in The New York Times in a 2012 review of their engagement at the Village Vanguard, "is the tangled crosstalk of its front line: an urbane, on-the-fly counterpoint brimming with crooked urgency, like a choice bit of dialogue in a David Mamet play."
In the summer of 2011 Sound Prints opened for Shorter's Quartet on a European tour. They weren't performing any of his tunes yet but time spent with the legend and his band made a big impact on the group. When Sound Prints appeared on the bill with Shorter at New York's Town Hall in June 2013 he presented them with the new scores of "Destination Unknown" and "To Sail Beyond The Sunset," two pieces commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival. "The music came handwritten - very detailed, very precise," says Douglas.
Sound Prints' debut album was recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 21, 2013. Lovano and Douglas contributed two songs apiece to the set and the Shorter compositions were given their public debut that day. "The recordings are the very first performances of the newly commissioned tunes," said Douglas. "We all were at a heightened state of paying attention. Shorter took a lot of risks exploring elements of change. It was such a high to play it for him." "The music moves from today into tomorrow," adds Lovano. "Wayne told us the melody was just a suggestion – tell your own story with it."
Dave Douglas Quintet featured in NY Times coverage of Winter Jazzfest
Read the entire piece here, but don't miss the chance to see this show tonight at 9:15 at Judson Church. Tickets are available at the Winter Jazzfest website.
