Anya M. Wassenberg's Blog: Art & Culture Maven, page 53

From country to jazz: Kevin West - Story Of My Life (Independent / 15 June 2019)

From country to jazz:
Kevin West - Story Of My Life
(Independent / 15 June 2019)
• Check him out on Spotify

Los Angeles based Kevin West calls himself a "throwback singer-songwriter" - although he's had a busy career for a self-described anachronism.

What he does specialize in is solid songwriting in a variety of modes from country to jazz. Best of Mine definitely has the flavour of a vintage anthem, with a driving country drum beat underneath layers of guitar, organ, and vocals in harmony. His vocals are expressive with a raspy edge perfect for the music.

As a songwriter, his lyrics are personal and intimate. From One Too Many,

I woke up this afternoon, I rubbed my eyes,
I tried to wipe the cobwebs from another late night.
I don't know what time it was when I got to bed;
I don't know who this girl is that I'm lying here with...

Ah, the life of a rock star. My Only Sunshine is pure uptempo country, while Sweet Innocence takes it more slowly in a ballad. Harmony vocals by Whitney Hanna flesh out his raspy tenor for a softer effect.

Story Of My Life takes a jazzy approach, with trombone, golden guitar licks, and a languid tempo, with reflective personal lyrics about his life in music. Not For Nothin' is a jazz instrumental track, with some nice solo work on the guitar and organ.

Kevin West was the 1st prize winner of American Songwriter Magazine's lyric contest in July/August 2006. Along with playing music for a living, Kevin  has done countless performances and hands on volunteer work for many low country charities to include, Communities in Schools, My Sisters House, Happy Days And Special Times,  North Charleston Juvenile Detention Center, Make A Wish Foundation, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation and "COURAGEOUS KIDZ".

Track List:
1. Best Of Mine
2. One Too Many
3. My Only Sunshine
4. Sweet Innocence
5. Story Of My Life
6. Not For Nothin

Personnel:
Kevin West: Vocals, Electric and Acoustic Guitars; Markus Helander: Drums; Brett Belanger: Electric and Acoustic Bass; Whitt Algar: Piano and Keyboard; Jeff Caldwell: Electric Guitar; Whitney Hanna: Vocals; Steven Sandifer: Percussion' Quentin E. Baxter: Drums; Kevin Hamilton: Bass; Lee Barbour: Electric Guitar; Charlton Singleton: Trumpet; Mark Sterbank: Saxophone; Jonathan Lovett: Keyboard

Stay in touch:
https://www.facebook.com/KevinWestMusic/
https://www.instagram.com/kevinwestmusic/
https://www.kevinwestmusic.com/
https://twitter.com/kevinwestmusic
https://soundcloud.com/kevin-west-6
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCElrqTK84WVtX35iAmIvjtg?view_as=subscriber

Best of Mine:

From Rome With Love - Jazz with a Mediterranean Flavour: The Erodoto Project

With material from a release:

From Rome With Love - Jazz with a Mediterranean Flavour
The Erodoto Project
Lands, Men & Gods (2017)
Molòn Labè: Come and Get Them! (2018)
on the Cultural Bridge Indie Label
• Stream Lands, Men & Gods (2017) & Molòn Labè: Come and Get Them! (2018) on Spotify  
• Buy the CDs

If you like your jazz global, with a side order of Mediterranean cool, then let me introduce you to the Erodoto Project, based in Rome, Italy. They've got two releases under their belt, with another one in the works.

Erodoto Project was born in 2016 thanks to the meeting of Bob Salmieri and Alessandro de Angelis. The two musicians began a collaboration that resulted in their first CD - Stories, Lands, Men & Gods (Cultural Bridge 2017) - not long after. The group debuted the work at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. In the fall of 2018, they released the follow up, Molòn Labè (come and get them!)

The repertoire is composed of original pieces, and songs of the Mediterranean popular tradition, revisited in their personal style, which have as their theme journeys and migration. Songs like "Amara terra mia" made famous by Domenico Modugno or the poignant "Ti nni vai" by Rosa Balistreri thus acquire a new colour, making them even more current, and finding new protagonists in the migrants that cross the Mediterranean in our time, witnesses of the infinite epic of migrating.



Their Jazz is the plot in which a warp made up of Myths of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Sicily is interwoven.

Erodoto - Herodotus - is considered the first "chronicler" in history, a true reporter of the ancient world, thanks to his curiosity in trying to understand the civilized world and that of which little or nothing was known, considered "barbarian". This curiosity led him to travel and see with his own eyes what was happening in the world or gathering concrete testimonies, where he could not travel in person. His stories, his chronicles of war, have spanned the centuries and have come down to us along with curiosities about the peoples encountered during his travels.

Erodoto Project is currently previewing material for Gods of Sicily, a new collection of original songs signed by Bob Salmieri and Alessandro De Angelis, which closes the trilogy of releases begun in 2017.

The songs, like the previous ones, take their inspiration from the great classic tradition of the Mediterranean, to tell the great epic of the people who cross its routes - in particular, to the events of the Mediterranean Pearl, Sicily, always the port of landing and meeting point for all peoples of the sea nostrum.

Stay tuned...

Personnel:
Bob Salmieri: tenor & soprano sax, ney, (a traditional Middle Eastern wooden flute,) tambur, daf (a Middle Eastern frame drum); Alessandro de Angelis: acoustic & electric piano; Marco Loddo: double bass; Giampaolo Scarozza: drums; Carlo Colombo: percussion.

Stay in Touch:
https://www.facebook.com/erodotoproject/

#TorontoDance: James Kudelka's AGAINST NATURE May 22-25, May 29-June 1 2019

From a media release:

#TorontoDance
AGAINST NATURE
Opera, Dance, and Theatre Seamlessly Fuse in Return of Boundary-Breaking Masterpiece
May 22-25, May 29-June 1, 2019 at 8pm
Director and choreographer: James Kudelka

• Tickets from $20 available at: citadelcie.com/tickets

TORONTO, ON — Citadel + Compagnie proudly presents the hotly anticipated return of Against Nature, May 22–25 and May 29–June 1, 2019 at the Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance. Choreographed and directed by Citadel + Compagnie’s Resident Choreographer James Kudelka, this multi-disciplinary work is a unique dance-opera-theatre hybrid that adapts French-Dutch author Joris-Karl Huysman’s 1884 novel of bourgeois excess, À Rebours (Against Nature). This powerful work is replete with rich visuals, fluid choreography that supports and strengthens the story, and a nuanced score that is hauntingly mysterious.

All disciplines beautifully combine to explore the nature of time and the challenges of love, beauty, and truth that reflects and refracts life itself.

“I’m thrilled to present the second part of a trilogy of James Kudelka’s salon-style dance/opera/theatre works that commenced with our 2013 production of From the House of Mirth,” says Citadel + Compagnie’s Artistic Director Laurence Lemieux. “I have a profound appreciation for James’s creative talent and it is always a uniquely fascinating process to return to a work we presented years earlier, discovering new colours, dynamics, and energies that only reveal themselves through time and renewed exploration. Against Nature can’t be quantified or pinned down, it is a striking mix of genres that takes its lead from an allegedly “poisonous French novel” from which Oscar Wilde and numerous other literary luminaries of the 20th century were equally appalled by and inspired with.”

Against Nature revolves around Jean des Esseintes, played by Alexander Dobson, an aristocrat who exiles himself to the countryside and surrounds himself amongst his literature, art, and the memories of his once sensuous lifestyle. Des Esseintes becomes increasingly reclusive as his disenchantment with the 18th century bourgeoisie class grows day-by-day. Curious household staff, performed by Citadel + Compagnie Artistic Director and dancer Laurence Lemieux and baritone Korin Thomas-Smith, witness and then ultimately participate in des Esseintes’ tragic downfall.

Sweeping original music by award-winning Composer James Rolfe and award-winning Librettist Alex Poch-Goldin are effortlessly melded into a sumptuously moody atmosphere. Simon Rossiter’s lighting design with projections by Jeremy Mimnagh envelop the stage like velvet wallpaper. In Against Nature, libretto, music, choreography, and visuals intertwine while an added dynamic layer comes from live performances by pianist Steven Philcox, violinist Pamela Attariwala, and cellist Carina Reeves.

Ontario-native Kudelka is among today’s most versatile and innovative choreographers. He began choreographing while training at Canada’s National Ballet School, and continued throughout his dancing years with The National Ballet of Canada (1972-1981) and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (1981-1990). He is renowned for distinctive versions of such classics as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Cinderella, all signature works of the National Ballet of Canada where he served as Artistic Director (1996-2005). He has choreographed for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, as well as for smaller contemporary troupes for whom he excels in making smaller-scaled dances that are outwardly abstract yet rich in psychological implication and human drama.

In 2008, Kudelka became Citadel + Compagnie’s Resident Choreographer and has created several works for the company, including From the House of Mirth, Against Nature and a remount of The Man in Black. An artist known for his distinctly Canadian sensibility, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005.

Toronto composer Rolfe has performed in Canada and abroad, and has been commissioned by soloists, ensembles, orchestras, choirs, theatres, and opera companies. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the K. M. Hunter Music Award, and the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. The Canadian Opera Company, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company, Tapestry New Opera, and Toronto Masque Theatre have commissioned and produced his operas. His recent new version of Gogol's The Overcoat, created with writer Morris Panych, premiered in 2018 to critical acclaim.

Librettist Poch-Goldin was born and raised in Montreal. He has worked on stages across the country, and extensively in film, television, and radio. As a dramaturg, director, actor and writer, Poch-Goldin has worked with some of the finest writers in Canada. His work as an opera librettist includes The Shadow (Tapestry New Opera), and James Kudelka’s first opera-dance-theatre hybrid, From the House of Mirth.

Classic Jazz Vocals: Kalya Ramu - Living in a Dream (Independent / May 14, 2019)

Classic Jazz Vocals:
Kalya Ramu - Living in a Dream
(Independent / May 14, 2019)
• Buy the CD

Toronto's Jazz Bistro was packed with a noisy crowd for the CD release part of vocalist Kalya Ramu's Living in a Dream. The 25-year old Toronto based singer was backed up by a capable band, including Ian Wright on drums, and Ewan Farncombe on piano, with special mention to the nimble fingers of Connor Walsh on the upright bass, and Jacob Gorzhaltsan's stellar sax and clarinet chops.

Kalya has a pure and fluid soprano that is perfectly suited for the classic golden age jazz songs and vocal style she favours. She includes a nice selection of lesser known vintage tunes along with classics like Tea for Two and It's A Good Day, and original compositions on the release. Her original songs have the same musical flavour, with the addition of lyrics with a more contemporary flavour.

She Drinks Alone - an original song


Influenced by the greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Ramu has the technical facility to pull off a fluid interpretation of Tin Pan Alley style. She ably covers songs like Nat King Cole's Just You, Just Me, and Four or Five Times, a song by Byron Gay and Marco H. Hellman that was published in 1927. She has a nice fluidity in the upper register and a lovely tone that will please afficionados of classic jazz.

Kalya Ramu has been singing since the age of 12, and has written and sung with a number of Toronto bands, including her blues-rock band Angora, The Bettys, her own band Kal’s Hot Four, along with a number of others.

Tea for Two - a duet with Nathan Fleet that she recreated at the CD launch party

Celebrate Fet Gede / Day of the Dead in Haiti October 29 to November 3 2019

From a media release:

Celebrate Fet Gede / Day of the Dead in Haiti
October 29 to November 3, 2019
Haiti: Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince
US Departure

• Email Postmambo for More Information

Haiti: Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince. If you haven’t partied with the dead, you haven’t partied. Gede are the spirits of the dead, and their days are occasions for music, dancing, and ceremonies.
View of Port-au Prince from Hotel Montana29 March 2007, 08:02:00 by Elena Heredero
Postmambo has an incredible itinerary lined up for the trip, on top of  a major popular festival celebrating Gede. Fet Gede shares the date of October 31 with Halloween, but it's not Halloween, it's something beyond.

Fete Gede also goes by the Feast of the Dead or the Festival of the Ancetsors. It is a celebration for practitioners of traditional Vodou - or Vodouisants. It honours the ancestral dead, and is usually held during the first two days of november. Think of it as a kind of combination of Mardi Gras, Halloween, and the Day of the Dead - you'll see people dressed in costumes on the streets, leaving gifts of food at the cemeteries where their ancestors lie. It's about honouring the spirits.

In Vodou, Papa Gede (also called Guédéor Ghede) is the old man who waits at the crossroads, ready to take the souls of the dead into the afterlife. He's psychic, and has a wicked sense of humour. The Gede are a family of Loa or spirits that govern both death and fertility, and all have a dance or rhythm associated with them.
Ruins of the Sans-Souci Palace in Haiti, built by Henri Christophe between 1810 and 1813.Iconem 7 septembre 2014, 17:52:24
The celebrations include plenty of music, dancing, food, and drink to be enjoyed. For this trip, musical performances will include RAM, Boukman Eksperyans, Orchestre Septentrional, and special guests galore. You’ll visit Henri Christophe’s palace Sans Souci and fortress Citadel, high atop a mountain in northern Haiti; and pay a spiritual visit to Temple N’a-Ri-VéH with Jean Daniel Lafontant, Executive Director of the Haitian Cultural Foundation.

Note: Limited space available; contingent on conditions in Haiti. Please note the website is undergoing renovations, so please email at the link above for more info.

About Postmambo
We don't do tourism. We do educational travel that necessarily uses the logistical structures of tourism. We've transformed travelers' lives -- they tell me this repeatedly -- and musicians always want us to return. Our travelers include distinguished scholars and academics, musicians at all levels from beginner to master, artists, students, and producers of all description, as well as working people, retired people, and the culturally curious in general.

Rock/Jazz/Pop Fusion: Sundogs - Legends In Their Own Minds (Independent / 5 March 2019)

Rock/Jazz/Pop Fusion
Sundogs - Legends In Their Own Minds
(Independent / 5 March 2019)
• Stream the Album from their Website

Jazz rock fusion mixes with thoughtful poetry on this interesting release by Seattle based Sundogs on their latest studio recording. It's an album that looks back to the golden era of guitar pop-rock and fusion with ear worm hooks and a genuine groove.

Fallen Hero epitomizes their distinctive sound. At first, you assume that the rock heavy rhythm section and guitars mean a strictly classic rock approach. But, then it veers into a piano solo, with jazzy rhythms and chord changes. On top of it, a clear tenor sings in a melodic mode.

Growly vintage guitars are a signature sound for the group, mixed with a variety of influences. In Snowman, a jazzier rhythm and melody weave in and out of an edgier voice (which is whose is not clear with both Stan Snow and Jed Moffitt on vocal duty on the release).

On Johnny, Snow's guitar work is prominent in more of a country rock mode. The stylistic variation keeps it interesting, with tasteful musicianship that results in the nicely loose, organic sound of musicians who know each other well. The lyrics focus on storytelling. From the piano-driven ballad Land of Broken Dreams,

The halcyon days of platinum and vinyl;
You could lay down your dollars and be part of a rock star's dream.
You'd thumb through the pictures of the princes
Who rose to the top of the rarefied air in this pyramid scheme...


Did It Really Happen


This is the second release for the veteran Seattle studio musicians, and will be a video album, with three videos released so far.

Track List:
1. Fallen Hero
2. Snowman
3. Johnny
4. Castle
5. Hope
6. Alive Tonight
7. Already Gone
8. Land of Broken Dreams
9. Did It Really Happen
10. Intro
11. Sahara
12. End of The World

Musicians:
Stan Snow: Songwriter, Producer, Vocals and Guitars, etc...
Jed Moffitt: Songwriter, Co-Producer, Vocals and Keyboards

Fallen Hero

Classical New Music: Paul Elwood: Émissions Transparents: Ombres et Poussière (« Shadows and Dust ») (Innova Recordings - January 25, 2019)

Classical New Music:
Paul Elwood: Émissions Transparents: Ombres et Poussière (« Shadows and Dust »)
(Innova Recordings - January 25, 2019)
Composers: Paul Elwood; Christian Wolff
Performers: Paul Elwood; The Callithumpian Consort; Stephen Drury; Eddie Prevost; Iowa Percussion; Daniel Moore; Aly Olson; Rose Chancler; Cary Fridley

• Buy the CD

Delicious atmospheric, and always unexpected, in Émissions Transparents banjo player, composer, and improviser Paul Elwood takes listeners along on his journey from Colorado to Marseille, Iowa City to London and Boston, with plenty of musical adventures along the way.

Elwood lists the the New York School of composition from the 1950s and 60s - John Cage, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, and Earle Brown - among his influences. He blends electric guitar, played by Pablo Gomez Camo, with mellotron, piano, percussion, cello, and electronics on the titular composition, a piece in five parts. It's an unusual instrumentation where the divergent colours come together seamlessly.

Two tracks on the recording were improvised with percussionist Eddie Prévost of the legendary AMM ensemble. For Arthur S. Wolff: London Improvisation(s) 4a and 4b combine bowed banjo with Prévost’s bowed percussion.  Banjo Player, by Christian Wolff, spotlights Elwood's prowess on the five-string banjo. It's a kinetic composition that showcases the banjo as a worthy solo instrument in a new music mode.


Among Elwood's musical interests are both traditional folk music and futuristic electronica. He blends them on Ashe County Lament, featuring pianist Rose Chancler and vocals by Carrie Fridley, singing the Appalachian folk tune The Girl I Left Behind. The track mixes live piano with manipulations of Fridley’s voice.

Aly Olson with the University of Iowa Percussion Ensemble sings text written specifically for this project by poet Albert Goldbarth, two-time National Book Critics Circle Awards winner on Plutonic Winds - a sci-fi world where the frozen winds of Pluto blast across the Kansas plains.

It's an eclectic release with a unique and distinctive approach to new music.

Plutonic Winds

World Music: Nirmala Rajasekar / Maithree: The Music of Friendship (Innova Recordings - Oct 26, 2018)

World Music
Nirmala Rajasekar / Maithree: The Music of Friendship
(Innova Recordings - Oct 26, 2018)
Composers: Turlough O’ Carolan, Nirmala Rajasekar, Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi, Pat O’ Keefe, Vasant Desai, Haydar Tatliyay, Sri Annamacharya, Michelle Kinney, Peter Linman
Performers: Nirmala Rajasekar, Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi, Michelle Kinney, Pat O’Keefe, Tim O’Keefe

• Buy the CD

World music is a term that's often used with some exasperation - after all, are we not all creating music of the world? But, some of the most exciting music being produced today defies categorization, and perhaps it's the only term that's remotely apt for recordings like this one, that take Indian percussion, Western instruments, Irish, and Turkish influences in a mash-up that Nirmala Rajasekar, the creator of Maithree, the ensemble, describes in a media release.


These are more than just songs. They are a rhythmic, melodic & harmonic convergence of many diverse souls & spirits into one expressive creation. What comes from the heart reaches the heart. The Maithree experience makes our hearts beat together as one.

The album features both original compositions and rearrangements of traditional Indian, Irish, and Turkish songs. The results are lively and compelling, with a mesmerizing quality that is fueled by the emphasis on percussion. The addition of clarinet and cello creates some truly intriguing musical fabric, like in Pentatonic - New Beginnings, a track that was originally written for a duo and now encompasses the five members of Maithree, who each take a turn at centre stage.
Nirmala RajasekarIn Prism, based on the raga Amruthavarshini, classic South Indian melodies meet Western style counterpoint for a fresh take on both. Each track offers a new musical experiment.

Maithree, the ensemble, was formed when Nirmala Rajasekar, Indian veena virtuoso, invited some friends to play music together. With visiting South Indian drum guru Boopathi, cellist Michelle Kinney, and brothers Pat (clarinet) and Tim O’Keefe (world percussion) - in Minnesota, of all places.

New Music: D.J. Sparr: Electric Bands (Innova Recordings - January 25, 2019)

New Music:
D.J. Sparr: Electric Bands
(Innova Recordings - January 25, 2019)
Composers: D. J. Sparr
Performers: D. J. Sparr; Kristina Bachrach; Hajnal Kármán Pivnick; Brianna Matzke; Momenta Quartet; Karen Strittmatter Galvin; Shawn Galvin; Kimberly Sparr; Jake Wenger; Mark Morton

• Buy the CD

Electric Bands brings together four of Baltimore-bsaed guitarist/composer D.J. Sparr's works for what he calls electronically-improved chamber ensembles. The creative format results in fascinating combinations and effects.

Beautifully spare and evocative, I Can Hear Her Through The Thin Wall Singing pairs soprano Kristina Bachrach with Sparr on the electric guitar. It's a piece that shimmers with emotion, and the seemingly curious juxtaposition of growling electric guitar and Bachrach's gorgeous pure tone blends quite well in reality. Brooklyn poet Patrick Phillips provides the lyrics for this reimagining of a Debussy song cycle with contemporary electric guitar.

Meta444 combines violin, piano, and electronics has a hypnotic quality, meant to act as a kind of ritual music for an imaginary religion. It was inspired by a conversation between Killer Mike and Stephen Colbert on the latter's show. Earthcaster Suite includes banjo, Tibetan bowls, mandolin, organ, and strings, and was composed for a documentary about artist Thomas Sayre.

His string quartet, Avaloch, for the Momenta Quartet, was inspired by Avaloch Farm Music Institute, New Hampshire, with its apple orchards. The piece envisages that farm as a stress-free place of joy and peace.

Sparr has composed for and performed with renowned ensembles such as the London Symphony, Cabrillo Festival, New World Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Eighth Blackbird. His music has received awards from BMI, New Music USA, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Sparr is a faculty member at the famed Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire.

Avaloch

Pop EP Release: CALVERT - This Beautiful Life, Vol. 1 (Independent / January 17, 2019)

Pop EP Release:
CALVERT - This Beautiful Life, Vol. 1
(Independent / January 17, 2019)
• Stream or Buy

Calvert's background in musical theatre lights up this fresh, fun EP, his second release, spotlighting his scintillating and expressive vocals. He offers a tantalizing - and too short - collection of accomplished pop in a variety of genres.

Please With a Cherry is a bouncy track with an irresistible groove and catchy lyrics (and sound effects!) In Heartbeat, he ventures into a classic keyboard-driven pop ballad, with a lush orchestral arrangement that highlights his vocals. He's got an impressive range, and a fluid quality that can be strident or soft.

Move On features acclaimed EDM artist Jonathan Mendelsohn of Reckless Wonder Music Publishing Company. Calvert's melodic vocals spin a tale about leaving the one you used to love over a hypnotic beat. It's a highlight of the album that ventures into a trippy and psychadelic vibe.

Wanna Be is a strong ballad in an anthemic mode, showcasing the high end of his range in a tragic love song. This Beautiful Life takes the romantic ballad to a more optimistic side. It's a radio friendly ode to the power of love.

Beautiful Life:


Calvert's first recording, Kiss The Air (with Scot Alan,) achieved international buzz, with over a hundred thousand plays of the song in video form alone. Danny Calvert was already well known as a singer, largely due to his his previous credits including RENT and Altar Boys. Kiss The Air has been optioned twice by the television show So You Think You Can Dance. Previously, Calvert was a backup vocalist for Mariah Carey, Harry Connick Jr, Patti Labelle, Shoshana Bean, and Gloria Estefan. His voice can be heard singing jingles in commercials for cheapundies.com, and he's a member of the Grammy nominated gospel choir Broadway Inspirational Voices whom lent their voices for the film, The Greatest Showman. Not surprisingly, he's based in New York City.

Calvert toured the world as a member of The Broadway Boys. Their album debuted in the Top Ten on iTunes. He is an Ovation Award nominee and an LA Drama Critics Circle Award winner for Best Lead Performance. Here's hoping he'll be touring and/or releasing more polished pop soon.

Track List:
1. Please With a Cherry
2. Heartbeat
3. Move On (feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn)
4. Wanna Be
5. This Beautiful Life

Stay in Touch;
https://www.iamcalvert.com/
https://www.instagram.com/i.am.calvert/
https://twitter.com/IAMCALVERTmusic
https://soundcloud.com/user-133797168/sets/this-beautiful-life-vol-1

Please With A Cherry: