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NYC based jazz pianist Steve Hudson teams up with jazz saxophonist Claire Daly for the World Premiere of “The Mary Joyce Project: Nothing to Lose” at Juneau Jazz & Classics 2011. The concert by the Claire Daly Quintet will take place on Friday, May 20 at McPhetres Hall in Juneau, Alaska. Tickets and more information here.

Award-winning baritone saxophonist Claire Daly is releasing a new CD, a musical homage to her father’s first cousin, Mary Joyce. A pioneer who made a 1,000 mile dogsled journey from Juneau to Fairbanks in 1935-36, Joyce and her three month journey tell an amazing tale of determination, adventure, risk-taking, and fortitude.

Claire Daly and pianist Steve Hudson have composed music inspired by Joyce’s written journal of the trip. They along with bassist Mary Ann McSweeney, drummer Peter Grant, and human beat box extraordinaire Napoleon Maddox, honor this legendary woman who lived life to the fullest. “Mary Joyce was a true free spirit and her life was a remarkable improvisation. The essense of her style and spirit compelled us to create these compositions. I met her as a child but only realized how amazing shewas when my cousin published her journal two years ago.” says Daly.

The CD will be available commercially in June. In conjunction with the CD release, the group will perform at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, nightly from June 21st through the 25th at 11pm in New York City.

Six time winner of the Downbeat Critic’s Poll “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” and winner of the Jazz Journalist Association “Baritone Sax of the Year ’05” category, Claire Daly travels worldwide, performing as a bandleader and sideperson. Steve Hudson is a pianist and composer based in New York City whose style embraces the history of jazz, blues, folk, and modern classical music, all with a free spirited love of improvisation. His latest release,“Galactic Diamonds,” features Hudson’s genre bending compositions for violin, cello, piano, and drums.

Full schedule of Steve Hudson/Claire Daly events at the Juneau Festival:

Sunday, May 15
2 pm- Family Concert
7:30 pm- Puttin’ on the Ritz- 2nd set of 2-set show. (1st will be classical)

Monday, May 16
7-8 pm- Lecture at City Museum (“Meet the Composers”)

Tuesday, May 17
10:30- Radio Interview- Capital Chat w/ Sharon Gaiptman- KINY Radio

Wed, May 18
8:30-10am – DZ Middle School Jazz Band

Friday, May 20
3pm- Radio Interview KTOO
8pm- “Mary Joyce Project: Nothing To Lose” at McPhetres Hall

 

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Fresh from a tour of Italy and Austria, the Steve Hudson Chamber Ensemble will play a show at New York’s Cornelia Street Cafe at 6pm on Sunday, May 1st.

The Steve Hudson Chamber Ensemble bridges and morphs jazz, classical chamber music, tango and folk music into one cohesive and individual sound. The group performed in New York and on the east coast in 2010, and recently toured Europe in 2011 in support of their debut album, “Galactic Diamonds.” The ensemble features Zach Brock on violin, Jody Redhage on cello, Martin Urbach on cajon/percussion, and the leader on piano/melodica.

Here’s an excerpt from recent review of Galactic Diamonds by Christian Carey from the magazine Signal to Noise:

“New York-based composer and pianist Steve Hudson and his Chamber Ensemble are skilled at bending and blending genres, adroitly moving between jazz, tango, and avant-classical… Hudson doesn’t restrict himself to piano, playing…melodica on the lilting ‘Para’ and tearing it up Fender Rhodes on ‘Funky Hobbit’ …Whether pushing the envelope with energetic improvisations or crafting more gradually developing essays, the Steve Hudson Ensemble is consistently engaging.”

Admission: $10. Box office: 212-989-9319. Address: 29 Cornelia St., New York City

 

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Pianist Chie Sato Roden & chamber jazz ensemble Fire in July announce the release of their CD “Streetcar Journey,” featuring the music of beloved American film composer Alex North (1910-1991) and his magnificent, jazz-inflected score to the 1951 classic “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The CD, released April 15, 2011 on the Married Fox Label and available on CDBaby, features Chie Sato Roden, piano, and Fire in July: (Jody Redhage cello, voice, compositions, arrangements; Alan Ferber trombone, compositions; Ken Thomson clarinet, bass clarinet; Tom Beckham vibraphone; Fred Kennedy drums & percussion). Roden and Fire in July aim to tour their multimedia performance supporting the album throughout the US in 2011-12.

Chie Sato Roden, a passionate proponent of new American and Japanese solo piano repertoire, was investigating potential new pieces to program when she happened upon a 30 minute suite of sequences from Alex North’s “Streetcar” film score, arranged for solo piano by North himself. Roden fell in love with the suite of nine sequences—this was moody and evocative music, in turn languid and gritty, and remarkable as the first major film music to pull heavily on the jazz sounds of the south. Roden formulated a vision to expand the 30-minute solo suite to an evening-length performance of varied textures and instrumental colors, by having arrangements of the solo piano sequences made for chamber ensemble, as well as commissioning original compositions inspired by North’s film score and Tennessee Williams’ play as interludes between the North movements. Roden, and composers Alan Ferber and Jody Redhage have worked together to collaboratively create the concert-length project Streetcar Journey, performed live as a multi-media event with projected still images from the classic movie starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. Evoking in turn lazy southern afternoons and languid romance, versus the grit, intensity, and struggle of urban and industrial life in the mid-twentieth century deep south, Streetcar Journey celebrates the genius of one of America’s most beloved playwrights and one of America’s most beloved film score composers, re-imagined through the lens of 21st century chamber jazz performance.

Roden, who “pushes contemporary music beyond the confines of a restricted genre” (Japanese music critic, Yuji Numata), received the Ibla Contemporary Performance Award in 1998 and she now serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Ibla Foundation. She has issued two CDs, featuring the works of contemporary Japanese and American composers, under the ALM label in Japan.

Called an “adventurous cello songstress” by Time Out NY, and now a member of Grammy nominated Esperanza Spalding’s band, Jody Redhage (cellist, composer, and vocalist) has a passion for setting 20th and 21st century American poetry into art song, and she principally composes for her ensemble Fire in July.  Redhage’s compositions meld the detail and finesse of chamber music with the energy and drive of jazz improvisation and more popular genres. With tinges of Medieval chanson and hints of Weill, Redhage creates a captivating blend of genres that comes across as her unique voice.

Known internationally as a jazz trombonist and composer, Alan Ferber is a member of the Asphalt Orchestra and leads four of his own ensembles: the Nonet, Nonet with Strings, his Big Band, and a Quartet. His new recording, Chamber Songs, received four stars in Downbeat and was included in their “Best of 2010” list. Alan has recorded and toured with a vast array of artists including Charlie Hunter, Don Byron, Kenny Wheeler, Sufjan Stevens, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, and is on faculty at the Peabody Conservatory and Montclair State University.

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San Francisco-based Baroque ensemble Musica Pacifica, described by the press as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell), unveils their newest recorded and live touring project, Dancing in the Isles, which highlights Baroque and traditional music from England, Scotland, and Ireland. This recording features the illustrious talents of sought-after early music players Judith Linsenberg, recorder and whistle; Elizabeth Blumenstock and Robert Mealy, baroque violins; David Morris, baroque ‘cello, and viola da gamba; Charles Sherman, harpsichord; Charles Weaver, theorbo and baroque guitar; and Peter Maund, percussion.

A merry detour for a group whose previous recordings have focused on Baroque giants such as Bach, Vivaldi, Scarlatti and Telemann, the music on this CD reflects the variety of crosscurrents that made the musical culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Great Britain such a rich and diverse one. At that time, a vivid range of musical styles included Scots and Irish tunes which appealed to the sophisticated London audiences as an emblem of their native culture; centuries-old Irish and Scottish culture was being preserved in the rural villages of the rugged hinterlands, where Celtic languages are spoken to this day. With compositions by James Oswald, Matthew Locke, Nicola Matteis, Francesco Veracini, and Henry Purcell, Dancing in the Isles also includes English country dances arranged by Musica Pacifica as well as traditional Scots and Irish tunes arranged by core ensemble member Elizabeth Blumenstock.

The eighth album by Musica Pacifica as well as the first to be released on the Solimar label, Dancing in the Isles was recorded in Mountain View, CA; and is available for purchase at www.musicapacifica.org, www.amazon.com, www.magnatune.com, and on iTunes.

Musica Pacifica has, since its founding in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990, garnered a widespread reputation as one of America’s premier baroque ensembles by bringing together virtuosic musicianship with imaginative programming and a spirited performing style. Called “the crème de la crème of the West Coast early music scene” by Alte Musik Aktuell (Regensburg, Germany), these highly accomplished musicians are masters of their repertoire who regularly perform with Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, and other prominent early music ensembles in the U.S. and around the world. Musica Pacifica has been featured at the Berkeley Early Music Festival three times, and has appeared on many of the most prestigious concert series in the U.S. and abroad, including Music Before 1800 and the Frick Collection (NY), Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg), the Getty Museum (LA), the Cleveland Art Museum, the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society, the Seattle Early Music Guild, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Cambridge Early Music Society (MA), among many others. Its seven prior recordings have been lauded in the classical music press. The Telemann CD was described by Early Music America Magazine as “superbly elegant…exemplifying the finest in historical performance today;” this disc went on to win the 2003 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award. The Mancini recording was cited in 2000 as a “Noteworthy Disc” at the International Antonio Vivaldi Awards for Italian Early Music in Venice. Their “Fire” CD was a featured recording on Minnesota Public Radio, who reported “If you’re looking for a dynamic Baroque recording featuring virtuoso performers at the top of their game, this is it.” Online, Musica Pacifica may be heard on radio station 1.fm, and on Last.fm; and seen on youtube.com/MusicaPacificaSF.

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Languages Lost and Found: Speaking & Whistling the Mamma Tongue is a short film by Iris Brooks and Jon H. Davis, featuring music by John McDowell, celebrating diverse linguistic and cultural practices from around the world. Watch a short preview, or click on the image above.

This film screening and discussion will be held on Sunday, April 10 at 2:00 at the LIFT NYACK Wellness Center, located at 42 Main Street in Nyack, NY. It is scheduled just before John’s weekly drum circle event. Admission is $10 and more information is available at 845 709 1634.

In footage spanning five continents–from rainforest longhouses in Borneo to dramatic mountaintops in the Canary Islands–dynamic visions of art, music, and dance are woven into a vivid, global mosaic. The way we think, speak, and express our ideas is a reflection of our language. This film reminds us of how quickly some languages are disappearing while introducing the native tongue as an all-important vehicle for maintaining culture, sharing traditional wisdom, and envisioning the future.

Academy award-winning actor William Hurt narrates the film, which features music by composer John McDowell, known for his evocative score for the Oscar-winning documentary, Born Into Brothels. Iris Brooks and Jon H. Davis (co-producers and directors) are cultural reporters and explorers who pursue everything from rituals to royalty in far-flung destinations around the world, while keeping their eyes and ears open to the unexpected. At Northern Lights Studio, Brooks and Davis tell tales of exotic travel and culture infused with a refined sensibility through a variety of media: video documentaries, text, photos, graphics, music, and art.

“The melody of this cultural collage is soul-piercing; if we lose our mother tongue, we may lose the essence of who we are.”
-Juliette Blevins, Director of Endangered Language Initiative