GPS, V2: Orange Afternoons

Posted by: jim on August 3, 2011 @ 4:10 pm
Filed under: CD/FLAC/MP3, Dave Douglas, Dave Douglas Releases 2011, Greenleaf Portable Series (GPS), Sheet Music, store, tues-2011-sale


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‹‹‹ Click the cover to view the full artwork ›››

The second volume of the Greenleaf Portable Series (GPS), Orange Afternoons features Dave Douglas, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Linda Oh, and Marcus Gilmore. This informal session in Brooklyn yielded six new Douglas compositions for this special quintet.

The album opener—The Gulf—begins delicately with Iyer rolling clusters and Gilmore frosting the spectrum with cymbals before the plaintive melody offers the first taste of the frontline of Douglas’ trumpet and Coltrane’s saxophone. Moving along, Valori Bollati—translated as Revenue Stamps—swings it’s way into gorgeous solos by Iyer and Oh. Solato features a simple harmonic figure floating on top of a deep groove laid down by Gilmore and Oh, and a solo from Douglas that culminates in a single long tone towering over a cymbal wash before fizzling back to the intro figure. All in all, the six tracks on this album feel immediate, with urgent playing from each of these stalwart musicians.

Personnel: Dave Douglas (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Vijay Iyer (piano), Linda Oh (bass), Marcus Gilmore (drums)
Recorded by Tyler Mcdiarmid and Geoff Countryman at 58 North Six Media Labs

Session Video: Orologi

Subscribe to watch the full performance.

Video Slideshow: Solato

Listen to a track. Look at pictures from the session.


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Rare Metals.

Posted by: Dave Douglas on July 21, 2011 @ 9:05 am
Filed under: Dave Douglas (Artist Thoughts), Greenleaf Portable Series (GPS)

Thanks to those of you who have picked up Rare Metals , Volume 1 from the Greenleaf Portable Series. Also thanks to all who have come out to the European shows going on right now and picking up the special flash drive containing both GPS Vols. 1 & 2.

A lot of Rare Metals was written during my residency at the Aaron Copland House. In particular Safeway, which was written as a response to the political violence in Tucson, Arizona which occurred the day I began my residency. Copland himself was constantly speaking to contemporary events and public engagement in his music, and I felt that influence, as well as some of his musical mannerisms, strongly as I composed.

During that month I also found myself engaged in a study of the music of Duke Ellington and as I rolled his music around in my mind this arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life emerged as something that could be potently voiced in brass. I thank the band also for deftly interpreting the re-arrangement.

Town Hall had been written the previous summer during the Tea Party uprisings of the same name. I went to a few of these meetings myself and saw the extremes of both patriotism and intolerance manifest. We live in interesting times.

Thread was written thinking of one of my musical idols, Henry Threadgill. His systems have always intrigued me and on the reissue of some of his great recordings last year I found myself thinking about his work its impact on current practice.

Night Growl was a chance to feature tubist Marcus Rojas, long the heroic purveyor of the vocalistic growl. Here he gets to work out on an unusual sort of blues. Those who have seen photos of my dog, Finley, should know that the initial inspiration lies therein.

And United Front, which I wrote during a tour with Brass Ecstasy, reflects the cohesive spirit and team play that has come define this band. We have a lot of fun playing this one, though this studio version is quite different than the one you’ll find on the album United Front: Live in Newport. Vive la difference.

Next up: GPS Vol. 2 with Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Linda Oh, Marcus Gilmore, and myself.

Cheers.
Dave


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Photo Gallery: Tea For 3 at Como Jazz Festival

Posted by: jim on July 18, 2011 @ 7:42 pm
Filed under: Dave Douglas (News), Events, Linda Oh (News), Photos, Tea For 3
Click an image to open and scroll through larger photos.

Tea For 3: Dave Douglas, Enrico Rava, Avishai Cohen (trumpets); Uri Caine (piano); Linda Oh (bass); Clarence Penn (drums).

Photos shot by Geoff Countryman at the Como Jazz Festival, 2011.


2 Comments

Photo Gallery: Tea For 3 at North Sea Jazz Festival 2011

Posted by: jim on July 14, 2011 @ 4:44 pm
Filed under: Dave Douglas (News), Photos, Tea For 3
Click an image to open and scroll through larger photos.

Tea For 3: Dave Douglas, Enrico Rava, Avishai Cohen (trumpets); Uri Caine (piano); Linda Oh (bass); Clarence Penn (drums).

Photos shot by Geoff Countryman at the North Sea Jazz Festival, 2011.


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Downbeat Critics Poll 2011, Trumpeter of the Year

Posted by: jim on July 5, 2011 @ 4:11 pm
Filed under: Brass Ecstasy, Dave Douglas (News), Indigo Trio (Updates), Nicole Mitchell (Updates), Press

Congrats to Dave for being back on top of the Critics Poll as Trumpeter of the Year.

Kudos to the critics for naming Nicole Mitchell as both the Rising Star and Flutist of the Year.

A high-five to Luis Bonilla and Nasheet Waits (both members of Brass Ecstasy) for being cast as the Rising Star Trombonist and Drummer, respectively.

And a round of applause to all the other winners, list-makers, and critics. You can view the list of winners at the Downbeat website. The full list of finalists will appear in the upcoming issue.


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Duke in the Twenties

Posted by: Dave Douglas on November 9, 2010 @ 9:19 am
Filed under: Dave Douglas (Artist Thoughts)

A couple weeks ago I was raving here about the late Ellington Suites. Still kind of mad about Such Sweet Thunder, The New Orleans Suite, The Latin American Suite, The Far East Suite. Others pointed me to their favorites from this period and from the period just before in the mid to late sixties.

The other day I went back to the collection and pulled out the complete recordings from the ‘twenties. It has been a while. Right now I am geeking out on 26/27/28. Such great music — the ensemble playing, the crazy arrangements, the hilariously loony vocals, the banjo as chordal percussionist, the bass player doubling on tuba. Also when you think that these recordings for the most part were made with one microphone it’s kind of astounding.

Now I see where Mosaic is going to be releasing the Complete — No, I mean Really Complete — 1930′s Ellington Orchestra. Yes, I’ll look forward to that. It’ll be a post-tour treat.


4 Comments

Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things

Posted by: admin on October 18, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
Filed under: Chicago News, Listening

There’s a nice read over at Washington City Paper with Mike Reed, the great Chicago drummer. I’ve seen him several times but haven’t caught his band People Places and Things — check out Reed’s blog for a few pieces on the project. Sounds really great from what I’ve been listening to just these past few minutes.

But back to the WashCity Paper interview…

Washington City Paper: People, Places and Things was formed specifically to explore the music of Chicago in the mid-to-late ’50s. What is important about that era?

MR: It’s the missing piece of the puzzle. People think about Chicago jazz in terms of the AACM and the Chicago Underground of the ’90s, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the Austin High Gang, or maybe Louis Armstrong when he first came here from New Orleans. This is the link between them.

There was so much going on in Chicago at that time, from folks like Sun Ra, Frank Strozier, Booker Little, and the jam-session culture that existed there at the time. I heard a whole hourlong interview not long ago with Sonny Rollins, about when he was in Chicago and living at the Y, and one of his memories was that there were just so many more places to work, even more than in New York. And that kind of fell apart because of that myopic view that New York is the place to be, and when great Chicago musicians like Clifford Jordan and Wilbur Ware decided they had to move to New York, it killed that culture not just in Chicago but in Detroit and Philadelphia.

Also thanks for the Dave Dougals shout out, Mike. Check out the whole interview here.


1 Comment

Mike Reed's People, Places and Things

Posted by: jim on @ 2:40 pm
Filed under: Chicago News, Listening

There’s a nice read over at Washington City Paper with Mike Reed, the great Chicago drummer. I’ve seen him several times but haven’t caught his band People Places and Things — check out Reed’s blog for a few pieces on the project. Sounds really great from what I’ve been listening to just these past few minutes.

But back to the WashCity Paper interview…

Washington City Paper: People, Places and Things was formed specifically to explore the music of Chicago in the mid-to-late ’50s. What is important about that era?

MR: It’s the missing piece of the puzzle. People think about Chicago jazz in terms of the AACM and the Chicago Underground of the ’90s, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the Austin High Gang, or maybe Louis Armstrong when he first came here from New Orleans. This is the link between them.

There was so much going on in Chicago at that time, from folks like Sun Ra, Frank Strozier, Booker Little, and the jam-session culture that existed there at the time. I heard a whole hourlong interview not long ago with Sonny Rollins, about when he was in Chicago and living at the Y, and one of his memories was that there were just so many more places to work, even more than in New York. And that kind of fell apart because of that myopic view that New York is the place to be, and when great Chicago musicians like Clifford Jordan and Wilbur Ware decided they had to move to New York, it killed that culture not just in Chicago but in Detroit and Philadelphia.

Also thanks for the Dave Dougals shout out, Mike. Check out the whole interview here.


1 Comment

We Love Late Ellington Suites Madly.

Posted by: Dave Douglas on @ 8:34 am
Filed under: Dave Douglas (Artist Thoughts)

In Stanford this past summer one of their friendly drivers had Duke Ellington’s Latin American Suite in his disc player. I started to really look forward to those rides…

Photo: Roberto Polillo

The late sixties/early seventies suites like The Queen’s Suite, the UWIS Suite, The Goutelas Suite were always among my favorites. I covered from the UWIS Suite on my first recording, Parallel Worlds. They’re very different than the 20′s, 30′s, 40′ or 50′s Ellington. Billy Strayhorn must also get a nod for the richness and complexity, as well as the down to earth quality of the band’s playing.

After my summer driving experience I pulled out some of the other late suites and they have just been flooring me (again). New Orleans Suite, Suite Thursday, Latin American Suite — there’s some crazy stuff in there. The length and breadth of Ellington’s career is just astounding.


3 Comments

Nels on Miles

Posted by: jim on May 27, 2010 @ 11:19 am
Filed under: Listening, Music

A cool new podcast just posted over at jazzonline.com with Nels Cline talking about his introduction to Miles, the electric years with John McLaughlin, and it’s lasting influence on his own playing. Always great to hear artists talking about artists. Especially when it’s one of my favorite guitar players talking about my favorite Miles period.

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And that reminded me of a post from awhile back that Dave wrote on the Complete Cellar Door recordings — one of my favorite of the Artist Thoughts posts. The archives of this blog have 5 years worth of these great posts. It’s been on my list of things to do to go through and repost some of these. Here’s a start anyway.

Illuminations on the Cellar Door
April 25th, 2006 | Author: Dave Douglas

I was listening to Miles Davis’ 1970 recordings from the Cellar Door, a space in Washington, DC. These recordings went into making the album Live Evil in 1970. It is an absolute classic of an album, and yet it falls in that controversial zone that separates lovers of early Miles from those entranced by the second half of his recorded tenure, the electric years.

Much has been said about Miles Davis and his music. Sometimes too much, and for that reason I have hesitated to jump in. But in the words of trombonist George Lewis, music doesn’t speak for itself. We have to talk about it because it doesn’t talk. I imagine Miles having the last laugh because like it or not everyone is still talking about his music. I’ll at least try to be concise.

Read more >>>


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