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CD/DVD Releases: 5 New Releases From Cuneiform Records For September

Posted on Sunday, September 04 @ 20:00:00 UTC by nightowl

Cuneiform Records announced their 5 releases for late September:

The Claudia Quintet + 1 featuring Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann - What Is The Beautiful? ($15.00): For their sixth album, What Is The Beautiful?, The Claudia Quintet brings together the acclaimed compositional approach of leader John Hollenbeck with two of the most important male singers in improvised music, Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann. Elling and Bleckmann recite and sing the poems of avant-garde/proto-beat American poet, Kenneth Patchen, an innovator in his time.

"Claudia with vocals?" Yes, Claudia with vocals, and it will probably not surprise anyone who has followed this much-loved, one-of-a-kind ensemble that that it still sounds completely like Claudia ... but different! Kurt Elling, probably the most popular male jazz vocalist today, brings to these words – words which are, by turns, funny or poignant or thought-provoking – a hipster swagger somewhere between Ken Nordine and Tom Waits. Theo Bleckmann is, as always, Theo Bleckmann; one of the truly singular and distinctive singers in jazz today. Having both vocalists on board, with their radically different styles, was a brilliant move and gives What Is The Beautiful? an tremendously wide sweep.

Formed by composer / drummer / arranger John Hollenbeck in 1997, this NYC ensemble’s sound explores the edge without alienating the mainstream, proving that genre-defying music can be for everyone. Over the past decade, the group has released CDs that are critically acclaimed world wide and whose appeal extends well beyond, as well as including traditional jazz audiences. The Claudia Quintet has amazed audiences from Alabama to the Amazon. Their unique sound has inspired dancing hippie girls at a New Mexico noise festival, the avant-garde cognoscenti in the concert halls of Vienna and Sao Paolo, and a generation of young musicians worldwide. In the course of the thousands of miles they have traveled together and hundreds of concerts they’ve played, the Claudia Quintet has evolved and grown, developing a dynamic live sound based on trust and spontaneity. They bring this powerful energy into the studio, where they record the old-fashioned way, live, playing as a band.

As on their previous CD, Royal Toast, the Claudia Quintet is again supplemented by a +1, in this case Philadelphia-based pianist Matt Mitchell. His virtuosity and spontaneity make him a perfect fit with the long-running core group – Hollenbeck on drums, Drew Gress on bass, Matt Moran on vibraphone, Ted Reichman on accordion, and Chris Speed on clarinet and tenor sax.

You can hear their music here | Purchase it here

Dead Cat Bounce - Chance Episodes ($15.00):

"Dead Cat Bounce does it all with exquisite writing, the subtle use of a bass-drum rhythm section and above all a definite sense of communication between the members that I am sure will be apparent to even the casual listener. These musicians are not just playing the music on the page, but listening and communing together." – Dave Liebman

"Think of Mingus's swirling counterpoint and rhythm shifts with the similarly rich voicings and solo/ensemble balance of the World Saxophone Quartet. What more could you ask for?" – The Boston Phoenix

"...these cats are tight and not afraid to spew out some powerful and inventive solos and intricate ensemble playing. Each of the four saxes gets a chance to stretch out on different tunes, but it is often Matt's strong writing and arrangements that stand out." – Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

With a group name presciently stripped from today's headlines, the term "dead cat bounce" denotes a small, brief recovery in the price of a declining stock ("Even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from a great height"). To the six musicians in Dead Cat Bounce, it signifies one’s dedication to creative rebirth and renewal in jazz even as times, traditions and masters move on. The group has been together for 15 years and Chance Episodes is their fourth album. They consist of Matt Steckler - saxes, flute; Jared Sims - saxes, clarinet; Terry Goss - saxes; Charlie Kohlhase - saxes,;Dave Ambrosio - bass; and Bill Carbone - drums; and is led by Matt who also composes all of the group's material. The compositions are very strong, with engrossing ensemble parts and great multi-horn writing that gives all the reedmen a chance to shine, each in their individual way. DCB are modern but not radical; they are as familiar with Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington as they are with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Steve Coleman; while there are plenty of passages influenced by free music, overall, this is a swingin' group that mixes styles from the entire continuum of jazz. In that sense, they bear a bit of resemblance - if only for their wide range of influence - to another Cuneiform ensemble, The Microscopic Septet. A quick listen to their the sample track will quickly make apparent their appeal and let you know why they were signed by us!

You can hear a track from their record here | Purchase it here

Bill Laswell/Raoul Björkenheim/Morgen Ågren - Blixt ($15.00): Blixt is the first release by a phenomenal new power trio of three seasoned, world class musicians. Their music touches on many aspects of the most creative history of the power trio in rock music; the unbelievable sounds wrested from normal instruments that the Jimi Hendrix Experience gave to the world, the singular freedom used by Guru Guru and the grafting of together of rock, progressive, jazz and punk that was pioneered by Massacre (and the group in which Bill pretty much began his career). If Cream was the first guitar-led supergroup, Blixt is its present-day aftershock. Five decades on, the sound is heavier and darker, the mix of ingredients more transgressive, the origins of the musicians more global, and the harmonic and rhythmic palettes more complex. But at the core of both Cream and Blixt is an unholy marriage of rock and jazz, riffs and improv, the viscera and the cerebrum. And both bands, at their most confrontational, can peel the ears clean off your head. The three players contribute really nice, simple and powerful heads that the band use as a springboard for their powerful improvisations around the themes. Recorded almost completely live in the studio, the emphasis is on the spontaneity and great musicianship of the players. Guitarist Raoul Björkenheim emerged from Finland in the 1980s with Edward Vesala, started his own group Krakatau who recorded two self-released albums and then recorded two more albums for ECM. We're long-time supporters of his work, having worked with Raoul on Cuneiform for over 15 years. As anyone who has ever seen him perform can tell you, Raoul is a seriously major – if under-appreciated – guitar hero. Most recently, he has kept an active profile with Scorch Trio, with whom he has released 4 albums.

Bassist Bill Laswell has been a major figure in creative music for 3 decades as a performer as well as a producer. Emerging as one of the earliest figures in the unbelievably creative "downtown" sound movement in the late 70s, he produced early "punk/jazz" classics with Curlew, Material and the aforementioned Massacre. The list of major names in jazz and rock he has worked with since that time is voluminous; his productions and/or the releases he has appeared on have sold millions of copies and some have directly changed the face of popular music. His stamp is on literally hundreds of albums, the majority of them characterized by a sound fusing the energy of punk with the bone-rattling rhythms of dub and funk.

Drummer Morgan Ågren was voted the #1 best fusion drummer in the Modern Drummer Readers Poll of 2010! A Grammy Award-winning musician on both sides of the Atlantic for his work with Zappa's Universe, He's one of the most amazing drummers out there today; and there are a lot them vying for that title!. He has worked with keyboardist Mats Öberg as Mats/Morgan for over 30 years (since he was 14 and Mats was 10!) and together they have released 8 albums.

You can hear a track from their album here | Purchace it here

Mats/Morgan Band - Live ($15.00):

"Swedish jazz/prog rock outfit Mats Morgan Band owe a lot to the more exploratory flirtations between jazz and rock through the 60's and 70's, especially in John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, and more significantly Frank Zappa's work ... totally ridiculous fun." – The Silent Ballet

"...the playing is unbelievable. These guys are top performers and their chops are brilliant .... absolutely a must for fans of experimental music and latter day Zappa." -All About Jazz.com

Keyboardist/vocalist Mats Öberg and drummer Morgan Ågren have been playing together for over 30 years, since Mats was 10 and Morgan was 14! They were "discovered" at a very young age by Frank Zappa and they are musical legends in their native Sweden and beyond, known for their wild and funny musical performances. Live was Mats/Morgan Band's fifth album, the first by the extraordinary expanded lineup of the group (Mats, Eric Carlsson and Robert Elovsson - keyboards, Jimmy Agren - guitar, Tommy Thordsson - bass and Morgan - drums) and the first that I heard by them. Professionally recorded in 1999 at Sweden's well-known Club Fasching, they dazzled the audience with their unbelievable chops and musical audacity, taking the music to the next level! They take their influences and blend them up for something that resembles the metrically difficult music of Egg combined with very adventurous jazz/rock and Zappa influences but performed at blinding speed with insanely assured musical authority...and it's a LIVE recording! If you don't know this group and you only know their reputation, or you have seen all the amazing quotes from other musicians about how great they are, but you didn't know where to get your feet wet, you should definitely start here!

You can hear a track from their record here | Purchase it here

São Paulo Underground - Três Cabeças Loucuras ($15.00):

"Limitless in its possibilities." – Rolling Stone

"Post digital, post industrial psychedelia." – The Wire

"A modern approach to Brazil's tropicalia, that takes into account advances in sound manipulation and engineering. It is street music from the Brazilian subterranean avant-garde and it is confusingly wonderful." - All About Jazz

Tres Cabeças Loucuras is the third album by Sao Paulo Underground. It's a very catchy, jazz + electronics album filled with sunny melodies, beats, noise, sounds and songs. The group formed around Rob Mazurek (cornet and electronics), a key player in the Chicago post rock/modern jazz scene, who has played with everyone from his own Exploding Star Orchestra and Chicago Underground projects to performing and/or recording with Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, Pharoah Sanders, and many more and whose work reflects a keen interest in modern, interesting music, both from the jazz and rock traditions. He spent several years living in the Brazil and developing a music that reflected those experiences. While in Brazil he met the co-founder of the group, Mauricio Takara (drums, percussion, cavaquinho [the "miniature guitar" of Brazil], electronics). Performing and recording their first album as a duo, the gravity of the ensemble pulled in two other musicians: Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics, samplers) and Richard Ribeiro (drums). Each of the musicians is an example of the new vanguard in music; Rob in contemporary jazz and forward-looking rock and the 3 Brazilian musicians in updating and modernizing Brazilian musical forms. São Paulo Underground embodies a fascinating musical mixture of Sun Ra-esque cosmic noise and rhythms and phrasing from samba, maracatu, rock and free jazz traditions. The album has a huge, modern, laptop-laden psychedelic sound which launches Brazil's "Tropicalia' into a new, heavily electronic millennia. One of it's charms is that it is very clear and direct and accessible, but it's also utterly filled with sound! This is the rare, ground-breaking effort that can be absorbed and enjoyed effortlessly; it's just a corker!

You can hear a track from their record here | Purchase it here

São Paulo Underground - Três Cabeças Loucuras (vinyl lp with download card; due to size and weight, this price for the USA only -- $20.00; outside the US -- $27.00): This is an extremely high-quality vinyl version of this great album; I gotta say that it came out beautiful! It includes a download coupon for the digital version of the music. Limited edition, one time-only pressing of 500 copies, but 300 went directly to the band and there are only 200 for us to sell! Note that both their previous albums had vinyl releases and both vinyl releases sold out in a matter of a few months!

Purchase it here (US only) | Purchase it here (outside US only)

Plus, there's one reprint of an otherwise out of print classic:

Heldon - Allez Teia ($15.00): Allez Teia, originally released in 1975, was Heldon's second album. It is rightly considered an early, trance-inducing, electronic masterpiece. It is also the only album in the Heldon cannon to feature acoustic guitar and while it isn't the predominant instrument, there's some nice sounding work. Overall, I'd say that this is the most trippy and spacey Heldon material, it basically begs for you to break out the bong! It features the trademark 70s Heldon/Pinhas instrumental sound: waves of fuzz-tone, post Frippian guitars, ARP and VCS3 synthesizers, tape loops and mellotron, all building towards a monstrously delirious denouement. A absolutely stone(d) classic of the progressive rock scene of the 70s – searing, instrumental spacemusic, bridging electronics and psychedelic guitar in a legendary fashion. Originally first reissued on CD in 1992 and out of print for several years, this is reissued here in newly upgraded packaging that closely approximates the original, collectable album release.

You can hear a track from their album here | Purchase it here

NOTE: We offer special pricing for people buying the five new releases on the label; if you are interested, please see the front of the store and look for the happy piggy bank!

Among the other new or restocked titles at Wayside Music (the store arm of Cuneiform) - listed below - there's this, that we at PW will hightlight... just because:

Proto-Kaw - Forth (Numavox, $11.00): After we [Cunieform] worked with guitarist/keyboardist Kerry Livgren on the compilation and release of his early Kansas recordings (see: Proto-Kaw - Early Recordings From Kansas), much to everyone's surprise, including, I think, Kerry's, the band got back together with many of the same folks and recorded two, new and well-liked albums for Inside Out. After a long silence, Proto-Kaw have returned for a new album. Happily, much of the original 1971-1972 cast is here: Lynn Meredith - vocals, John Bolton - sax and flute, Dan Wright - organ and keyboards and Kerry Livgren - guitar, piano and keyboards, vocals + newcomers Jake Livgren - vocals, alto sax, Craig Kew - bass and Mike Patrum - drums. The sound is less exploratory than it was 40 years ago, but Lynn has such a distinctive voice and John's saxwork and Dan's organwork also retain their sound after all of these years. Nice to hear from them again! Purchase it here

- Jeremiah Cymerman - Fire Sign (Tzadik, $13.00; Purchase)
- Gurumaniax - Psy Valley Hill (Bureua B, vinyl lp, $19.00 price for USA only; outside USA adjusted accordingly; Purchase)
- In The Country - Sounds & Sights (Rune Grammofon, 2LP + all region PAL DVD, $30.00 price for USA only; outside USA adjusted accordingly; Purchase)
- Moha! - Meiningslaust Oppgulp (A Singles Compilation) (Rune Grammofon, $18.00, Purchase)
- Ikue Mori/Mark Nauseef/Evan Parker/Bill Laswell - Near Nadir (Tzadik, $13.00, Purchase)
- Jamie Saft - Borscht Belt Studies (Tzadik, $13.00, Purchase)
- Ske - 1000 Autumni (Fading, $18.00, Purchase
- Sunbirds - Sunbirds (expanded, Garden Of Delights, $23.00, Purchase

[Source: Cuneiform Records/Wayside Music]

Posted in Album Release News