Gerald Cleaver
22 / 23
Label: POSITIVE ELEVATION / 577 RECORDS
File Under: Electronic, Techno, Experimental
Release Date: 5/26/23
Cat#: PEREC007
Format: LP/CD/Digital
Barcode LP: 736952027207
LP-PEREC-007
UPC Barcode CD: 755491268049

Gerald Cleaver’s newest album, 22/23, journeys through genre, exploring the future and recalling history, in his most place-based album yet. Born and raised in Detroit, Cleaver is a product of the Motor City’s rich musical history. Long the manufacturing capital of America, Detroit citizens have never been afraid of imagination: technological innovation, a strong labor movement, techno-utopianism or afrofuturism. This spirit of innovation is felt on Cleaver’s newest album, particularly on songs like ‘31 Julys’ which builds on dynamic house beats, or ‘Cake’ which employs saxophone to compose a careening jazz track. This marks Cleaver’s third record with 577 Records (and its sub-label Positive Elevation, dedicated to electronic experimentation and avant soul), following 2020’s ‘Signs,’ and his second album, ‘Griots.’ Here, Cleaver deftly combines his talent for electronic composition with a curious ear for the unpredictable, occasionally accompanied by singer Jean Carla Rodea. Cleaver has performed and recorded as a jazz drummer with a wide variety of artists, including Tommy Flanagan, Daniel Carter, Bill Frisell and more, contributing as a musician for nearly 20 years before exploring his own electronic-forward projects. His new album, 22/23, will be available on LP/CD/Digital in May 2023.

Gerald Cleaver: electronics, voice
Jean Carla Rodea: voice
Andrew Dahlke: alto & tenor saxophones

Mixed by Chris Castagno
Mastered by Francisco Holzmann

All images by Andrea Rodea & Eric Mares
Graphic design by Mark Smith

All music by Gerald Cleaver Music (SESAC)

This record has been made with the support of the Shifting Foundation

All music ©+℗ Positive Elevation (FIVE SEVEN SEVEN RECORDS MUSIC, ASCAP)

22 / 23

Gerald Cleaver: '31 Julys' from album '22 / 23' (Positive Elevation / 577 Records)

Instrumental jazz ballad with piano, guitar, double bass, drums, vibes and synth.

Dusk Ballad

It’s with great sadness I have to tell you that Keir Scales has passed. Alongside Tom Parsons they were TAK Records, one of my all time favourite labels and good friends for over 20 years. So of course this weekends Country Gents Radio Show is dedicated to the memory of Kier and the label. I’m busy preparing tracks and grabbing the records off my shelves.

Country Gents pay tribute to TAK Records

Trio version of 'Surfaces of Emergence' from album 'There are Neither Wholes nor Parts' (Ergodos 2013)

There are neither wholes nor parts

ScottMcLaughlin SurfacesOfEmergence TRIO Sep2013

Saxophonist Evan Parker has been described as ‘the greatest living exponent of free jazz … if you’ve ever been tempted by free improvisation, Parker is your gateway drug’ (Stewart Lee, The Guardian). After seeing the Cecil Taylor trio live in New York in 1962, Evan Parker returned to England to become one of the key players in the development of European free improvisation, extending the approaches of free-jazz saxophonists like John Coltrane and Albert Ayler into the 21st century.

180 - Evan Parker And Matt Wright

A piece for my lovely sister-in-law Bobbl 
feat. Aidan O'Rourke - violin
Petter Eldh - bass
Kit Downes - piano/guitar

(recorded remotely)
mix - Kit Downes
master - Alex Bonney

Bobbl's Song (feat. Petter Eldh, Aidan O'Rourke)

Full Dress - Tom Challenger

Tom Challenger - Saxophone
Kit Downes - Piano
Ole Morten Vågan - Bass
James Maddren - Drums

Recorded remotely
Mix - Kit Downes, master - Alex Bonney

Full Dress (feat. Tom Challenger, James Maddren, Kit Downes, Ole Morten Vagan)

Lullaby for Eniola - Kit Downes & Ruth Goller
remotely recorded, May 2020

Robert Stillman - saxophone
Aaron Parks - piano, keyboards
Adam Robinson - viola
Ruth Goller - bass
Seb Rochford - drums

edited and mix by Kit Downes, master by Alex Bonney

Lullaby for Eniola (feat. Aaron Parks, Robert Stillman)

live at Ronnie Scotts, Leo Richardson Quartet, 'Move'. October 2019

Move (live at ronnies) LRQ

Commissioned by the Land Lines Project, a soundscape meditation on 'Visualising the Nocturnal'. The soundscape uses recordings from the urban forest near my home in Huddersfield (UK).

October Nocturns

Composer-producer // sound designer // dubbing mixer // film maker // radio producer