Press

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The Arts Desk reviews Sound Prints at the EFG London Jazz Festival

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Charles Lloyd / Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas, Barbican

A jazz festival finale of rare brilliance

by Thomas Rees

It’s not easy to write about a gig when you’re still shaking with adrenaline, still less so when that gig is the grand finale of the 2014 EFG London Jazz Festival, the climax to a giddy ten days of world-class contemporary music. But it’s a cross I’ll have to bear, because last night’s performance from legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd and jazz giants tenorist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas demands it.

Read the rest at theartsdesk.com.

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Joe Lovano/Dave Douglas Soundprints – Bold And Beautiful At Barbican

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By Kevin Le Gendre

If ever gravitas was needed to close an event with a profile as high as that of the EFG London Jazz Festival then this was it. Tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd in the second set and trumpeter Dave Douglas and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano in the first was more a case of stellar double bill than headliner and support. Perhaps more importantly the combination provided fascinating food for thought on the way in which key historical figures in improvised music pervade the contemporary scene without stifling the creativity of their genuinely progressive scions.

Read the rest at jazzwisemagazine.com.

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El País reviews Sound Prints at the Barcelona Jazz Festival

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By Miquel Jurado

La sinergia también existe y tiene swing

Dave Douglas y Joe Lovano protagonizan EL concierto del Festival de Jazz de Barcelona

El Festival de Jazz de Barcelona ha pasado ya su ecuador, pero aún queda mucha música por escuchar. Pero no parece arriesgado aventurar que el concierto del pasado miércoles en el Auditori pasará a ser recordado como EL concierto del certamen. La intensidad y belleza de lo ofrecido por el quinteto de Dave Douglas y Joe Lovano es de las que hacen mella y se quedan clavadas en la historia musical. Un concierto memorable en todos sus aspectos que destiló una de las mejores caras del jazz contemporáneo.

Read the entire review here {in Spanish).

 

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Sound Prints kicks off Fall touring to preview upcoming Blue Note Records album release

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Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Kick Off Fall Sound Prints Tour In U.S. & Europe Previewing New Blue Note Album To Be Released In Early 2015

This Fall saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas will launch a 22-date tour across the United States and Europe with their co-led quintet Sound Prints featuring pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Joey Baron. Sound Prints will be previewing their forthcoming Blue Note debut which will be released in early 2015. Listen to a track from the album, which was recorded live at the 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival.

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 Shorter 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.

US

10/15 – San Diego, CA – Jazz at TSRI

10/16 – Santa Cruz, CA – Kuumbwa Jazz 

10/17 – Oakland, CA – Yoshi's Oakland

10/18 – Seattle, WA – Earshot Jazz Festival / Town Hall

10/19 – Vancouver, BC – Kay Meek Centre  

10/21 - 26 – New York, NY – Village Vanguard 

Europe

11/12 – Barcelona, Spain – Barcelona Jazz Festival

11/13 – Pontoise, France – Theatre Des Louvrais  

11/14 – Offenburg, Germany – Reithalle im KulturForum

11/15 – Bielsko Bialo, Poland – Bielskie Centrum Kultury

11/16 – Munich, Germany – Jazzclub Unterfahrt  

11/17 – Zurich, Switerland – Moods

11/18 – Rome, Italy – Sala Sinopoli  

11/20 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhagen Jazz House

11/21 – Oslo, Norway – Nasjonal Jazzscene  

11/22 – Goteborg, Sweden – Nefertiti Jazzklubb

11/23 – London, United Kingdom – London Jazz Festival / Barbican Centre

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Praise for Present Joys

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“4 stars “Alluring … a 2014 jazz highlight.””
— John Fordham, The Guardian/UK

Read what critics are saying about Dave Douglas' new record of duos with Uri Caine that explores the shape-note singing tradition:

“I felt smarter after listening to Present Joys. Along with pianist Uri Caine, Douglas’ approach on this record sounds like Nas on Illmatic or the Grateful Dead at their live shows. He opens a channel into the middle of his musicianship and just lets it all flow out without anything superfluous or presumptuous.” - Alex Marianyi, NextBop

“While Present Joys features a stripped-down instrumentation, the utterly in-sync duo of Douglas and Caine also reaches lofty artistic heights and resonances.” - Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen

4 stars … “Trumpeter Dave Douglas continues his exploration of traditional New England music with this delightful and intimate duet album, featuring pianist Uri Caine.  Though contemporary in scope, each track reflects the sparse harmonies, dignified phrasing and sense of community of a bygone era.” - Mike Hobart, Financial Times

8/10 … “Quite extraordinary. The folk tradition through jazz. I suppose it’s easy to embrace the tendency of adventurous musicians, of any artists with a taste for the edgy, to move back to lyricism and tradition. I’m wary of my affection for this recording and for Be Still for that reason, in the same way that I hesitate to laud Coltrane’s Ballads album. But these records are not retreats of bold playing at all — they are an expansion of a great artist’s sensibility, a way the artist has found to dare himself to focus, to refine, to move in new ways.  Dave Douglas and Uri Caine are good enough to stand up to making ‘pretty’ music, even traditional music. They pass the test and come out still surprising us.” - Will Layman popmatters.com

“Spiritual music, solid as Shaker furniture and often as sober as a Quaker meeting, performed by two attuned virtuosos who have worked together in various configurations for more than 20 years.   In the closing ballad ‘Zero Hour,’ Caine’s gorgeously joyous response to Douglas’s more serious reflections create[s] a brand new world in five minutes and change.” - Richard Gehr, Wonderingsound.com

 

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Troy Collins: Riverside is a "vibrant premier" - AllAboutJazz.com

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By Troy Collins

The collaborative quartet Riverside was initially founded by Montreal-based tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas to explore the legacy of groundbreaking American composer and multi-reedist Jimmy Giuffre. Long admired by fellow jazz musicians for his innovative use of counterpoint, microtonality and rhythmic freedom, Giuffre has rarely received the sort of popular acclaim his body of work deserves. 

Joined by renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas and his brother Jim Doxas on drums, the group is completed by legendary electric bassist Steve Swallow, who provides a direct link to the past, having played on Giuffre's history-making 1960s trio recordings with pianist Paul Bley, including the landmark Free Fall (Columbia, 1962), as well as the threesome's critically-acclaimed reunion albums from the early 1990s. 

Although the assembled quartet only performs one actual Giuffre composition on its self-titled debut—the vivacious bluegrass-inflected "The Train and the River," as well as a heartfelt rendition of "Travelin' Light," a standard commonly associated with Giuffre—the remainder of the tunes reflects the dedicatee's influence, especially in terms of writing and arranging.

Read the rest here.

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DownBeat's review of last week's Riverside show at the Jazz Standard

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By Ken Micallef

With his endless energy and boundless invention, trumpeter Dave Douglas takes on new projects as if changing suits—or in his case, caps. If Douglas ever chooses to settle down, Riverside (Greenleaf)—his new album (and band of the same name) with Chet Doxas (clarinet and saxophone), Steve Swallow (electric bass) and Jim Doxas (drums)—would be an ideal place to sit a spell. The quartet presented the album’s Americana-meets-jazz sounds at New York’s Jazz Standard on April 15–16.

Douglas explored hymnal jazz on 2012’s Be Still (Greenleaf), big band jazz on 2009’s A Single Sky (Greenleaf) and paid tribute to pianist Mary Lou Williams on 2000’s Soul On Soul (RCA). The trumpeter changes direction so adeptly—typically bringing to bear eclectic styles and sources on his increasingly wide-ranging music—that it is impossible to pigeonhole the musician behind the music.

Riverside is a tribute to composer-clarinetist-saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre (1921–2008). According to the liner notes, “Jimmy blazed many trails in music. He inspires us to new levels of melodic invention, rhythmic subtlety, and true freedom in the practice of improvisation.” The album consists of original compositions by Douglas and Chet Doxas, respectively, as well as one Giuffre tune (“The Train And The River”) and a cover of Johnny Mercer’s “Travelin’ Light,” the title track of Giuffre’s 1958 trio album.

Read the rest here.

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Ottawa Citizen on Riverside: "a strikingly strong and focused effort."

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Jazz fans in the United States and beyond are well acquainted with the commanding music that trumpeter Dave Douglas and bassist Steve Swallow have made over the years.

Hopefully, they’ll take Riverside, the new CD released today that features these stars, as a spur to further appreciate the art made by their full-fledged collaborators Chet Doxas on tenor saxophone and clarinet and his brother, the drummer Jim Doxas, both of Montreal. 

Read the rest here.