2011 release, a collaborative effort between Joshua Redman and fellow Jazz travelers Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Eric Harland. Since they've already guest-starred on each other's recordings, James Farm is a natural progression for these Jazz musicians. James Farm made its debut at the 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival and has since performed dates in North America and Europe, garnering praise for its live set and fueling anticipation for this studio debut, which features tunes by each of the four musicians.
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When Madeleine Peyroux's debut, Dreamland, was released in 1996, its success threw her for a loop. She's taken eight years to create this follow-up, and, at age 30, she brings a confidence and resilience to this dozen-song set. She's able to move seamlessly between songs by writers as diverse as Elliott Smith and W.C. Handy, whose title track was popularized by Bessie Smith. Though American-born, Peyroux absorbed the language and culture of France growing up in Paris with her French-teacher mother. On her debut, she covered Edith Piaf, and this time out she wraps herself around "J'ai Deux Amours," which Josephine Baker sang to the Allied troops during World War II. --David Greenberger
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"If the areas of improvisation that I deal with are always `compositional' in a certain sense, in this case a very focussed compositional approach is applied, rather than allowing a broader exploration to yield a result. Throughout this recording I'm honing in on specific details. The music is really improvised: I just start. But having started, I try to relate everything that happens, like the motivic or rhythmic and textural detail, to the initial ideas as closely as I can. In terms of my own playing I try to have things emerge from the musical material itself. And a lot of that can depend on the instrument, too [in Lugano, a Steinway D]: the sound of the piano itself and what it is generating. I'm interested in the history of piano music, certainly, but I'm not hearing the instrument quite in those terms. I'm experiencing it also as a pure sound source, very aware of the tones and the overtones and how the instrument is ringing. This music is not about `transcending the piano' as much as it is about working with what is possible within it. "
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The New York Times
"A jazz singer of deep musical instincts and an appealingly effervescent style."
Gretchen Parlato's 2009 breakthrough, In a Dream, signaled the arrival of one of this generation's most inventive modern jazz singers. The recording garnered international acclaim being voted onto year-end, "best-of" polls for Jazz Times,The Boston Globe, The Village Voice and NPR among others. Billboard Magazine hailed it as "the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009" while The New York Times declared, "Ms. Parlato, a jazz singer of deep musical instincts and an appealingly effervescent style." To this day, In A Dream charts among the 200 topselling jazz albums at retail and digital service providers around the world. Now with the release of her 2011 follow-up, The Lost and Found, Parlato demonstrates that she has staying power. Co-produced by Parlato and her longtime musical collaborator Robert Glasper, the 15-track collection arrives with immediate weight and intensity, exposing a vast dynamic range in the young singer's repertoire. Original compositions, including "Winter Wind", "Circling" and the title track,prove Parlato to be a flourishing lyricist and composer. When paired alongside interpretations of material ranging from Simply Red's classic "Holding Back The Years" to Mary J. Blige's quiet storm gem "All That I Can Say" to the `60s Wayne Shorter jazz standard "Juju" (refitted with her own lyrics), it's easy to anticipate Parlato's continued upward trajectory. The Lost And Found shows all the signs of becoming the first breakout jazz album of 2011.
From one of the most nominated, most in demand artists and winner of 'Best New Artist' 2010 American Contemporary Jazz Awards, comes this revealing portrait of a young lady that has captured the attention and imaginations of fans and critics alike. With three nods, Best New Artist, Best Female Artist, Best Brass Player at this year's Contemporary Jazz Awards the accolades continue. Painted with a broad musical brush, Unscripted'doesn t play by the rules and captures the essence of the deep connection she has with her instrument as she delivers a scintillating palate of moods and flavors worthy a feast for the ears, yet one which will move the heart. Everything is on the table here as Bradley bares her soul on the heartfelt and plaintive 'Inevitable', you ll feel the pure magic and the ensuing goose bumps that happen when she and producer Michael Broening weave their own musical tapestry on the standard 'You Don t Know What Love Is', feel the fire and ice as Cindy brings the heat on the track 'Massive Transit', the ice as she blows a hip chill over the Wayne Shorter classic 'Footprints' and bask in the raw emotion that comes from the deeply personal dedication to her mom 'One Moment More' Respect has been earned, nods have been given to her predecessors and peers and Bradley has taken her rightful place among the new guard who will proudly carry the contemporary jazz torch into the new millennium. 'Unscripted is the beginning pen and chapter in hers, a story that has just begun to be written.
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