Recording

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Preorder High Risk!

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Preorder High Risk on iTunes now! 

Two-time GRAMMY®-nominated Dave Douglas continues his relentless musical exploration with a new record probing the possibilities of improvised jazz and electronic music. Featuring an exciting new band comprised of Jonathan Maron (Groove Collective), on electric and acoustic bass; Mark Guiliana (Beat Music, Heernt) on electric and acoustic drums; and DJ, producer and beatmaker Shigeto (Ghostly International) on electronics.

Recorded by five-time GRAMMY®-nominated Geoff Countryman (Dr. Luke, Patti LaBelle, Wu-Tang Clan, Randy Brecker, Gregory Porter, Fred Hersch) and mixed by Steve Wall (Semi Precious Weapons, Matisyahu, Meshell Ndegeocello) the album finds Douglas again walking a musical high wire. High stakes, high reward. HIGH RISK.

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4-star DownBeat HotBox review of Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints!

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“The marvelous, mercurial quintet…is one of the foremost ensembles in jazz. . .the band specializes in long-form improvisation with recurring motifs and unpredictable twists and turns. Sound Prints also burns hot, swings hard and showcases Lovano’s and Douglas’ unmistakable personalities.”
— Paul de Barros
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Dave Douglas announces new album "High Risk"

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Musical Polymath DAVE DOUGLAS Continues Past Explorations of Electronic Music With Groundbreaking Collaboration Featuring SHIGETO
 
HIGH RISK, Out June 23 on Greenleaf Music

With Producer/Beat Maker SHIGETO, 
Drummer MARK GUILIANA, And Electric Bassist JONATHAN MARON, HIGH RISK, Expands Upon Douglas' Previous Forays Into Electronic Music, 
Notably On Spark of Being, Moonshine & Freak In

The thing we call jazz and the thing we call electronic music are both fundamentally concerned with newness. Each follows its own particular, seemingly mutually exclusive path of discovery and creation, its own process toward realizing something where before there was nothing: on one hand, through the dynamic, unpredictable, in-the-moment spiritual alchemy of improvisation; on the other hand, through a meticulous, creatively probing exploration and inventive interrogation of technology’s constantly evolving potential.

HIGH RISK is all at once a new musical ensemble – a highly collaborative quartet convened by veteran trumpeter, composer and bandleader Dave Douglas; a new record on Douglas’ own Greenleaf Music imprint – a richly evocative opus, rife with intersecting currents of sound and emotion; and a new conceptual endeavor, grappling with the tricky, even treacherous, but fertile intersection of these two similarly motivated but inherently disparate streams.

While it might be tempting to superficially slot the four musicians who compriseHigh Risk into one or the other side of the jazz/electronic divide, none is exactly a neophyte to this sort of cross-pollination. Bassist Jonathan Maron, who contributes both electric bass guitar and synth (keyboard) bass to this recording, was, as a founding member of Groove Collective, a prominent figure in the fusion-oriented acid jazz movement of the 1990s, when he and Douglas first crossed paths.  Mark Guiliana (with whom Douglas first collaborated on a jointly-led project with saxophonist Donny McCaslin) may be one of the hottest, most in-demand young drummers in the jazz scene. His firepower behind the kit is on full, explosive display here – but he’s also an inveterate experimentalist who regularly incorporates electronic elements into his work with his bands Beat Music, Heernt and, perhaps most notably, Mehliana, his genre-defying duo project with Brad Mehldau.

And though Michigan-based Zachary Saginaw, who records under his middle name, Shigeto, is a producer and beatmaker who has released three full-lengths for noted American electronica hub Ghostly International (home to Matthew Dear, Gold Panda, Tycho, HTRK, etc.), and contributes here in the amorphous, hard-to-define role of “electronics,” he's also a lifelong lover and student of jazz, which undeniably informs the nuance, fluidity and melodicism of his productions. As Shigeto explains it: “Jazz has always had a place in my life, whether it was my father playing his records for me or just playing tunes with friends. Before I got into production, all I wanted was to be a jazz drummer.”

As for Douglas – whose recorded resumé stretches back to the late 1980s, including more than forty records as a leader of all manner of ensembles, and whose music has frequently reached beyond jazz to draw on classical, folk, Balkan music, Klezmer, avant grade jazz (not least as a member of John Zorn’s influential Masada quartet) and, on numerous occasions, electronic influences – he has a tendency to describe this new project in paradoxical terms. “It’s all composed, and it’s all improvised,” he says. “This is completely different from the processes that go on in my other bands, and at the same time it’s totally the same: a bunch of highly skilled individuals who bring themselves and their personality and their skills to the table, to attack these ideas and materials that I bring into the session.” And, similarly: “I try to surround myself with people who know very well what they’re doing, but at the same time have no idea what they’re doing – and then we try to dig ourselves out of the hole together. Because of the new sonic things going on with High Risk, it was especially thrilling to see everyone's voice getting integrated into the music moment by moment. Jon, Mark and Zach really went a long way towards creating what is on this record.”  

The initial seed for the project was planted last May at a Red Bull Music Academy event at Manhattan’s Town Hall; a live “Round Robin” of overlapping solo and duo improvisations from a wide, interdisciplinary array of musicians including, in this case, Nels Cline, Daedelus, Petra Haden, Allen Toussaint, and Wadada Leo Smith. Douglas was slotted to perform alongside Shigeto, who on this occasion opted to upset expectations and flaunt his jazz roots with a live drum set performance.  Backstage, the two struck up a conversation. Shigeto surprised Douglas by telling him he was a fan of his work; the next night, Douglas went to check out a Shigeto gig.  And from these initial sparks, the idea of High Risk was born.

Ultimately the balance between the contradictory working methods of jazz and electronic music – the instantaneous, collaborative creativity of improvisation and the lengthy, time-consuming and usually solitary process of production – came with an approach that utilized aspects of each; one that, Douglas says, “respected the process of both sides.” The recordings for the album were made on one single, highly-charged, improvisation-filled day in the studio, but that day was preceded by four careful months of preparatory work – with Douglas writing tunes, sending tracks and samples back and forth, talking to engineers, and deciding how it would all work – and followed by another four months of post-production.

Douglas credits recording engineer Geoff Countryman – a longtime collaborator – and mixing engineer Steve Wall as being pivotal and integral to the ultimate realization of the record, highlighting Wall’s post-production work in particular: “I almost wanted to credit him as a musician... in fact, he is a musician, and what he did was incredibly musical. He brought in a lot of tricky stuff, with samples, keyboards, effects, and even moving sounds around. A lot of it is obvious when you listen to the record, but a lot of it is very subtle. I am very grateful for Steve's contribution, and that of Geoff in capturing the spontaneous live session. The technology was an important part in bringing all these sounds together.”

The finished product is indeed a highly musical, and highly mutable work – one that defies easy categorization but strikes an immediate and compelling emotional connection. The record traces a loose arc from the calm, meandering, slightly surreal “Molten Sunset” through increasingly dramatic and disjointed sci-fi-delic funk grooves, reaching an apex of sorts with the majestically moody title tune before touching back down on elegantly lush and contemplative album closer “Cardinals,” a fine feature for Maron’s musing bass work. Despite the volatility of this potent confluence of players, and the considerable dynamism each of them brings to the session, there’s a sense of focus and coherence here that sets High Risk apart from the more chaotic, open-ended energy of Douglas’ earlier forays into electronically-enriched jazz, notably 2003’s Freak In and his records with ensemble Keystone, including 2007’s Moonshine and 2010’s Spark of Being.  

Comparing it to the other electronic records he’s made over the years, Douglas notes: “I find that every time I dig into a new electronic music project, the technology has changed so much that I almost have to reinvent the process of doing it. That ends up becoming part of the composition process for me.” Similarly, Shigeto describes the innovation that arose from taking an unaccustomed – you might say, risky – approach: “I was afraid I wasn't going to add anything worthwhile playing with these badass cats! In the end it was great and forced me to work in new ways.”

As Douglas sums up the project: “The biggest element is this meeting of the worlds; an openness and willingness to put everything at risk. I wanted to create a situation where we really were at risk, we were on a high wire, where the exigencies of being in the moment and creating with your wits from one second to the next was what it was about.”  High stakes, high reward. High Risk.

High Risk Tour Dates:

APRIL 20 - Impart Art Center - Wroclaw, PL

APRIL 21 - New Morning - Paris, FR

APRIL 23 - Jazz Dock - Prague, CZ

APRIL 24 - Radio Kraków - Kraków, PL

APRIL 25 - Escuela de Música Andrés Isasi de Las Arenas - Gexto, ES

APRIL 26 - Teatro Principal - Santiago de Compostela, ES 

APRIL 27 - Teatro Lara - Madrid, ES

APRIL 28 - Schuttershof - Middelburg, NL

APRIL 29 - Stadtgarten - Koln, DE

APRIL 30 - Maison Pour Tous Voltaire - Montpellier, FR

JUNE 25 - Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival - Rochester, NY

JUNE 26 - TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival - Ottawa, Canada

JUNE 30 - Montreal Jazz Festival - Montreal, Canada

JULY 1 & 2 - Constellation - Chicago, IL

JULY 3 - Iowa City Jazz Festival - Iowa City, Iowa 

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Jazz Times: Sound Prints captures Wayne Shorter's "audacity and innovation"

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Sound Prints is less about Shorter’s individual style than his audacity and innovation, and on those fronts Live triumphs. . .the band makes Shorter’s ideas wholly their own, adds its own considerable ideas on top, and does so with relish. - Michael J. West, JazzTimes

Sound Prints will release their debut recording Live at Monterey Jazz Festival on April 7. Preorder the album now at iTunes and get a free track.

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Greenleaf Music to release Donny McCaslin "Fast Future" on March 31!

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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”
— The Huffington Post

"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