From Tobias Meinhart's "The Painter" (4/30/21) on Sunnyside Records.

The creation of music shares much in common with creation in the visual arts. Both musicians and visual artists speak of and deal in colors, hues and textures in their compositional processes. Saxophonist/composer Tobias Meinhart has developed near synesthetic visualizations as he performs and hears music. His new recording, The Painter, presents his recent work of diverse, brilliant pieces meant to brighten the world’s canvas. 

The German born Meinhart has engrained himself in the New York City jazz scene over the past decade. His beautiful tone and catholic tastes have allowed the saxophonist to fit into an abundance of musical settings. Meinhart’s vision and thoughtful composing have attracted top-flight collaborators since his professional beginnings. 

The past year has provided a time of introspection and development for many. Meinhart is no exception. He found himself especially drawn to his friend, Igor Sokol, a painter. The two spoke of art and music, listened and appreciated and collected inspiration from the events that were affecting the world. Meinhart was drawn to the idea of composing and improvising as a sort of aural painting and he began to see colors and pictures when he reached a certain zone while playing.

With much to think about in craft and inspiration, Meinhart began to compose pieces that would be recorded on The Painter. The inspiration for the pieces drew from a number of sources: from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to meteors and Michael Jordan, all presenting hopeful messages of healing and progress. 

The ensemble that Meinhart assembled to record these new pieces consists of a number of the saxophonist’s favored collaborators, including pianist Eden Ladin, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Obed Calvaire. Since his recent release and collaboration with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Berlin People (Sunnyside 2018), Meinhart has been drawn to the sound of guitar, thus the addition of his neighbor and friend, Charles Altura. These musicians, in this and similar configurations, have been the saxophonist’s regular associates on stages like the 55 Bar and Birdland in New York City over the past two years. 

The frontline is completed by Meinhart’s longtime mentor and friend, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen. The two first met in Austria in 2003 at a jazz workshop, Jensen allowing the young saxophonist an opportunity to sit in with her band. They remained in contact in the subsequent years, performing together when opportunities presented themselves.

The Painter

White Bear

Tobias Meinhart - White Bear

From Stan Killian's "Brooklyn Calling" (6/24/22) on Sunnyside Records.


The events of the past two years have led everyone to be on alert for signs of the world returning to normalcy. For saxophonist/composer Stan Killian, his sign was a phone call to get back to work on his favorite occupation: Performing for live audiences. Killian enthusiastically reunited with his longtime rhythm section bassist Cocoran Holt and drummer McClenty Hunter, along with new addition, Paul Bollenbeck, on guitar. Killian’s new recording, Brooklyn Calling, presents music honed and prepared for this group as they returned to their highly polished and exciting performance style.

Originally from Texas, Killian has been a fixture on the New York City jazz scene for over a decade. It was on his second recording for Sunnyside Records, Unified, that Killian introduced Holt and Hunter as regular members of his ensemble. His undeniable kinship with these two brilliant musicians led to the evolution of Killian’s composing style and a very strong group identity. 

Killian became a fan of Bollenbeck’s playing while still in high school. Having heard the guitarist with Joey DeFrancesco and his own mentor, Gary Thomas, Killian was excited at the opportunity to invite Bollenbeck into the quartet for a gig at the 55 Bar. After that first hit, Killian knew that he needed to record this new assemblage. 

During the early stages of the pandemic, Killian left New York City for Buffalo. In June 2020, he was called to resume the jam session that he hosted at The Queens Brewery in Ridgewood, Queens and served the greater Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. Killian was ecstatic that he could return to playing so quickly and jumped at the chance to rejoin his compatriots and work on the music that would become Brooklyn Calling. 

The following May 2021, Killian led his quartet into the Superlegal Studios in Brooklyn to record. The quartet had prepared a program of Killian’s compositions, some new and some old, many of which found new special meanings through the challenging years of the pandemic.

Brooklyn Calling

Buy Back

Stan Killian - Buy Back

From Randal Despommier's "A Midsummer Odyssey" (7/15/22) on Sunnyside Records.

Building on the success of his 2021 solo debut Dio C’è (“wildly ambitious” — AllMusic) and his co-led 2018 effort with pianist Jason Yeager All at Onceness, alto saxophonist Randal Despommier returns with A Midsummer Odyssey, a captivating duo session with guitarist extraordinaire Ben Monder. The central focus is the highly accessible yet always enigmatic music of Swedish baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin (1928-1976). Alternately boppish, cool, bluesy, folkish and chamber-like, Gullin’s pieces afford the Despommier/Monder duo endless opportunities for fresh reinvention. “The goal of this project,” writes Despommier in the liner notes, “was to tap into the spirit of Gullin’s music and present it in a new way. I’m grateful to Ben Monder for joining me on this journey. He helped me hear Gullin’s music differently and added a richness and depth I did not think possible.”

A Midsummer Odyssey

Igloo

Randal Despommier - Igloo

From Abel Mireles's "Animo" (9/9/22) on Sunnyside Records.

A healthy relationship developed with a parent is essential to the well-being of a child. The effects of a warm word or a bit of advice can last a lifetime when it comes from someone you love. Saxophonist/composer Abel Mireles dedicates his new recording, Animo, to his father, an important influence and benefactor whose words the younger Mireles uses to inspire his music. 

Having grown up in Juarez, Mexico, Mireles and his family experienced life much differently than most of his collaborators. Mireles and his brothers were brought up in a musical household and were drawn to performing. Music was not provided in their schools, so they had to find after school programs to pursue their muse. This is where Mireles met teacher and saxophonist Fortunato Perez, who introduced Mireles to the sounds of jazz and Charlie Parker. 

Music became Mireles’s passion and, with his family’s help, he was able to continue his studies at the University of Texas El Paso, where he studied commercial music. Mireles remained in El Paso after graduating, becoming engrained in the local music scene and met his wife, vocalist Candice Reyes, on the bandstand. 

While Mireles was in El Paso, his father had retired from his factory job and had become a security guard for a day care center. One day, a drug trade related shooting occurred across from the day care. Mireles’s father witnessed the young shooters and was fired upon, getting hit in the leg. The injury eventually led to a bad turn in his health and, after a few scares, a heart attack took Mireles’s father in 2013. 

Mireles’s father had been one of his initial supporters. He had instruments for his sons to experiment on and always had a nurturing word. The title of the album, Animo, comes from a Spanish word that was regularly on his lips, meaning “cheer up.” 

In 2015, Mireles and Reyes decided to head east, the saxophonist being accepted into the masters program at William Patterson University. After school, Mireles began to find work as a musician and as a concert/event producer. He even began The Jazz Exchange, bringing jazz programming to young musicians around New York City, Texas, and Mexico. 

Mireles put together his own group to perform his music. Bassist Myles Sloniker has been a longtime friend and collaborator, beginning with their Frontera Project six years ago. Mireles has long appreciated the work of pianist Benito Gonzales and began playing with him a number of years ago. Mireles met drummer E.J. Strickland when their gigs crossed over in Mexico City, the two striking up an immediate rapport.

Animo

Listen

Abel Mireles - Listen

From Jason Yeager's "Unstuck In Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite" (11/11/22) on Sunnyside Records.

While Kurt Vonnegut undoubtedly found his true calling as an author, writing such classics as Slaughterhouse-Five, Mother Night, Cat’s Cradle, and the short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House, he once speculated about another potential career. “What I would really like to have been, given a perfect world, is a jazz pianist,” Vonnegut said. “I mean jazz. I don't mean rock and roll. I mean the never-the-same-twice music the American black people gave the world.”

The literary world can be thankful that Vonnegut stuck with the typewriter rather than the piano, but on the occasion of the great satirist’s 100th birthday, the pianist and composer Jason Yeager will gift him the next best thing: a new suite of music inspired by Vonnegut’s writings. On Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite, Yeager presents eleven new compositions vibrantly capturing the incisive wit and skewed vision of one of the 20th century’s most inventive and celebrated novelists. The album will be released by Sunnyside on November 11, 2022 to coincide with Vonnegut’s centennial, with a special release event on that date at the Vonnegut Library and Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. It marks Yeager’s seventh recording as a leader, following his recent collaborative release Hand in Hand (Club44 Records) with spouse Julie Benko, who is currently starring as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl for the month of August.

Unstuck In Time

Bokonon

Jason Yeager - Bokonon

From Tobias Meinhart Berlin People's "Dark Horse" (4/28/23) on Sunnyside Records.

It would be hard to foresee a young kid from Bavaria becoming a celebrated jazz saxophonist in New York City. Tobias Meinhart has done that, sculpting a career of brilliant recordings and world touring. One of his principal ensembles in this endeavor has been his Germany-based Berlin People, which features the revolutionary guitarist, Kurt Rosenwinkel. Meinhart and Berlin People’s new recording, Dark Horse, celebrates how far he and the ensemble have come since their inception. 

Since his arrival in New York City in 2010, Meinhart has maintained a busy schedule as a composer, performer, and touring artist. His album, Berlin People (Sunnyside, 2019), introduced the greater listening public to his Berlin-based group of the same name. Immediately, the group took to the road, playing extensively throughout Europe and South America. 

These years of touring honed the group into a tight outfit of friends and collaborators. The lineup remains Meinhart and Rosenwinkel with pianist Ludwig Hornung, bassist Tom Berkmann, and drummer Mathias Ruppnig. The influential guitarist Rosenwinkel was more than a bandmate, he was an important mentor as he helped the young musicians get comfortable on the road. 

As Berlin People matured on the road and in live performance, the music began to transform. Pieces that the group played every night began to diverge from the written page and became more free as band members began to feel more independence in their roles. Meinhart also began inviting his bandmates to provide their own compositions to be included in Berlin People’s book. 

To capture the evolution of the band, Meinhart decided to record Berlin People live at the A-Trane in Berlin, the place he first heard Rosenwinkel in 2008. The A-Trane is one of the few clubs in the world that still provides musicians with a full week of performances, allowing the music to truly blossom over the weeklong residency. The pieces on Dark Horse were recorded on two separate tours in 2021 and 2022. Most of the takes were taken from the final day at the club, representing the zenith of freedom and spontaneity that Berlin People approached the pieces with.

Dark Horse

Luna Park

Tobias Meinhart Berlin People - Luna Park

It would be hard to foresee a young kid from Bavaria becoming a celebrated jazz saxophonist in New York City. Tobias Meinhart has done that, sculpting a career of brilliant recordings and world touring. One of his principal ensembles in this endeavor has been his Germany-based Berlin People, which features the revolutionary guitarist, Kurt Rosenwinkel. Meinhart and Berlin People’s new recording, Dark Horse, celebrates how far he and the ensemble have come since their inception. 

Since his arrival in New York City in 2010, Meinhart has maintained a busy schedule as a composer, performer, and touring artist. His album, Berlin People (Sunnyside, 2019), introduced the greater listening public to his Berlin-based group of the same name. Immediately, the group took to the road, playing extensively throughout Europe and South America. 

These years of touring honed the group into a tight outfit of friends and collaborators. The lineup remains Meinhart and Rosenwinkel with pianist Ludwig Hornung, bassist Tom Berkmann, and drummer Mathias Ruppnig. The influential guitarist Rosenwinkel was more than a bandmate, he was an important mentor as he helped the young musicians get comfortable on the road. 

As Berlin People matured on the road and in live performance, the music began to transform. Pieces that the group played every night began to diverge from the written page and became more free as band members began to feel more independence in their roles. Meinhart also began inviting his bandmates to provide their own compositions to be included in Berlin People’s book. 

To capture the evolution of the band, Meinhart decided to record Berlin People live at the A-Trane in Berlin, the place he first heard Rosenwinkel in 2008. The A-Trane is one of the few clubs in the world that still provides musicians with a full week of performances, allowing the music to truly blossom over the weeklong residency. The pieces on Dark Horse were recorded on two separate tours in 2021 and 2022. Most of the takes were taken from the final day at the club, representing the zenith of freedom and spontaneity that Berlin People approached the pieces with.

Sonic River

Pifilca

"Forecast" is the first track from drummer Colin Stranahan, pianist Glenn Zaleski, and bassist Rick Rosato's album "Live at Jazz Standard," out September 20, 2019 on Capri Records. 

The album reunites three of modern jazz's most in-demand rising stars for their long-awaited third album.

Live at Jazz Standard

Forecast - Stranahan/Zaleski/Rosato

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9WCRQ_4lI

“Destinations”, which is part 1 of Saraga’s New Beginnings suite for jazz orchestra, was one of sixteen pieces commissioned by the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers for winter of 2020. "The stated mission of ISJAC is: To unite and serve the international community of jazz arrangers and composers; To advance the understanding and appreciation of jazz composition; To stimulate the creation, performance, and dissemination of new works and research." It was an honor and privilege to have their support, both financially and artistically in the creation of this piece.

As the pandemic, lockdowns, protests, and financial crises continued to affect people everywhere, artists were faced with the continuous opportunity to respond in new ways. It was a chance to examine our humanity and humility, and to forge forward with optimism, love and courage in whatever ways we could. For Jonathan, it was by embracing a renewed sense of purpose and responsibility during a time when most traditional means of serving as a musician had disappeared. His desire to aid and inspire the navigation of this uncharted territory birthed the sounds of the New Beginnings suite and its first movement, “Destinations”. This is Saraga's first time leading a big band, and he has put together an incredibly diverse ensemble featuring some of New York City's most creative and brilliant players.

Composition: Jonathan Saraga
Preliminary Mixing: Jonathan Saraga
Mixing/Mastering: Dave Darlington
Video Editing: Adam DeAscentis
Soloists: Max Light - Guitar, Jonathan Saraga - trumpet
Alto 1, flute - Remy Le Boeuf
Alto 2, flute - Chris Coles
Tenor 1, flute - Sam Dillon
Tenor 2, flute - Maria Grand
Bari Sax, flute - Andy Gutauskas
Trombone 1 - Javier Nero
Trombone 2 - Seth Weaver
Trombone 3 - Beserat Tafesse
Bass Trombone - Jennifer Wharton
Trumpet 1 - John Lake
Trumpet 2 - Adam O'Farrill
Trumpet 3 - David Adewumi
Trumpet 4 - Stuart Mack
Piano - Caili O'Doherty
Guitar - Max Light
Bass - Walter Stinson
Drums - Jay Sayer
Gong - John Sevy

Pifilca

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