News of Past Guests, Holiday 2018 Edition

It's been a while since we did a roundup of our past guests' recent activity, and after such a long pause, it's hard to catch up.  What follows, then, is more selective than comprehensive.

December is, among other things, the "Best Of" season. NPR's "50 Best Albums of 2018" include the new record by Myra Melford's Snowy Egret, The Other Side of Air, as well as Ambrose Akinmusire's Origami Harvest. (In his "Favorite Albums of 2018," former New York Times and Jazz Times jazz writer Nate Chinen, now Director of Editorial Content for NPR's flagship jazz station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey, also favored Akinmusire and Melford, as well as Cécile McLorin Salvant and Dan Weiss.)

The New York Times's "The Best Jazz of 2018" likewise includes Akinmusire and Melford, along with albums by Justin Brown (Akinmusire's longtime friend and drummer), Allison Miller (with Carmen Staaf), the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Salvant is also included among Rolling Stone's (well, veteran jazz critic Hank Shteamer's) 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2018, together with Dan Weiss's Starebaby and Still Dreaming, Joshua Redman's all-star tribute to the band Old and New Dreams, whose lineup also includes RJA alumni Ron Miles, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade.

Ambrose Akinmusire and Myra Melford are also high atop the Jazz Times Top 50, with Salvant, Still Dreaming, and Miguel Zenon not far behind.  (Other RJA vets on the list: David Virelles, Tyshawn Sorey, Dan Weiss, Noah Preminger, Martin Wind, Gilad Hekselman, and Chris Lightcap.) At the Ottawa Citizen, Peter Hum singles out Frank Kimbrough, Ben Wendel (Linda Oh's Sun Pictures), Noah Preminger (with Frank Carlberg), and Myra Melford.

Finally, Dave Sumner's "Best Jazz Albums of 2018 [on Bandcamp]" include both the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble's All Can Work and Anat Cohen & Fred Hersch's Live in Healdsburg.


Recent Interviews:
Jazz Speaks spoke to Jamie Baum, The Jazz Session hung with Helen Sung (so did WBGO's Salon Sessions), and Straight No Chaser chased down Ben Allison and Rudy Royston.  Royston was plugging a new album, Flatbed Buggy, which had a featured review in DownBeat and an Editor's Pick in Rolling Stone. Sung, meanwhile, was touting her collection of settings of Dana Gioia poems, Sung With Words, which was also featured on NPR's First Listen in the week preceding its release.





Other notable new releases include Frank Kimbrough's magisterial, multi-volume set of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk, Monk's Dreams:



and Miguel Zenón's collaboration with the Spektral Quartet, Viejo:



At WBGO, Nate Chinen previewed Viejo--and in his onlin "Take 5" column, he featured first Rudy Royston and Myra Melford, then Tyshawn Sorey and Allison Miller.

And speaking (once more!) of Allison Miller: the Thanksgiving episode of NPR's Jazz Night in America showcased the supergroup "Artemis," with Allison Miller, Anat Cohen, and Cecile McLorin Salvant.

News of Past Guests, 2016 Holiday Edition

Just in time for the holidays--well, just in time for the solstice--pianist Frank Kimbrough has released a beautiful trio album, Solstice (Pirouet), with bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Jeff Hirschfield. Here's the title track:



Pianist Uri Caine, meanwhile, has a new trio with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Clarence Penn--and a new album, Calibrated Thickness, with cornetist Kirk Knuffke guesting on several tracks. (Buy and listen to samples at CDBaby.)

And speaking of trio albums, drummer Allison Miller plays a big part in two of them just out. The first, Swivel, is by the collective Honey Ear Trio, with bassist Rene Hart, saxophonist Jeff Lederer (now filling founding member Erik Lawrence's shoes), and guest trumpeter Kirk Knuffke.  Two tracks here:



And then there's Lean, with saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh and bassist Simon Jermyn.  Here's a taste of their eponymous debut:



Meanwhile, Miller's group Boom Tic Boom (with RJA vets Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Kirk Knuffke, Jenny Scheinman, and Todd Sickafoose) released a video from a recording, made back in May, of their upcoming appearance on WBGO's The Checkout:

(As it happens, Boom Tic Boom bandmate Myra Melford appeared on the November 21 edition of The Checkout, performing solo and talking about her own band Snowy Egret.)

Guitarist Rez Abbasi appeared in a live webcast from New York City's Asia Society on Friday, December 16 with his band Invocation, featuring fellow RJA veterans Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, Johannes Weidenmuller, and Dan Weiss. The concert of music from the band's upcoming release Unfiltered Universe was previewed with a profile and interview in the Village Voice, and you can watch an archive of the webcast (the band comes on around 12'30"):

Finally: the 2016 Jazz Critics Poll, facilitated as always by Francis Davis and hosted (for the 4th year in a row) by NPR, may be dominated by what Davis calls the "avant elders."  But the Top 10 also include records by past guests Vijay Iyer, Michael Formanek, Nels Cline, and Matt Wilson.  Keep going into the top 50 and you'll see Tyshawn Sorey, Tom Harrell, Fred Hersch, Donny McCaslin, Frank Kimbrough, Melissa Aldana, The Cookers, Jeff Parker, and Allison Miller.  (Rene Marie tops the special "Vocal" category; Camila Meza is #3.)  We--and 139 of the world's most knowledgeable jazz writers--can't be wrong. Right?  Happy Holidays!

Photos for the Kimbrough-Preminger Show

Bob Doran does it again.

The Redwood Jazz Alliance Needs Your Help!!!!

Dear Friends,

The following note is our latest missive to the world:


We wrote a week or so ago with a preview of coming attractions, namely
the artists you can expect to hear in the RJA’s coming season: Dave
Douglas Brass Ecstasy, Third Man Trio (Michael Moore, Will Holshouser
& Han Bennink), Ralph Alessi & This Against That, Myra Melford’s Be
Bread, Frank Kimbrough with Noah Preminger, Antonio Sanchez &
Migration. More details soon.

Talent like that doesn’t come cheap, we said. And that’s why we're
writing again tonight.

Part of what lets us keep ticket prices low is avid, open-eared jazz
fans like you who become members. Some of you signed on as "charter"
members last year, and for that we owe you our abiding thanks. (And a
few of you, we still owe a letter and a membership card—soon come!)

Summer is our fundraising season, and the more members we can line up
now, the firmer footing we'll be on in the fall. None of needs
reminding what tough times these are, and it’s already clear that some
of the good folks who’ve given us money in the past—local businesses,
Humboldt State—just may not be able to come through this year. But
you can make up the shortfall.

Seriously: if millions of small donations can send a jazz-loving
president to Washington (what other recent chief executive can you
name who has Coltrane on his iPod and brings Esperanza Spalding to
play the White House?), then dozens of small donations can keep world-
class jazz coming to Humboldt.

For a $40 tax-deductible contribution (we’re a registered 501 (c)(3)
charity), you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve played an
extra-ordinary part in bringing some major players on the contemporary
jazz and improvised music scene to the North Coast. And on the theory
that one good turn deserves another, four local merchants who are
friends of the RJA have volunteered to extend special favors to RJA
members. Present your 2009-10 membership card at our ticket outlets
all season long and receive

• 10% off jazz CDs at The Works (Arcata & Eureka locations)
• 10% off featured CDs by RJA guest artists at People’s Records
(Arcata Plaza)
• 10% all purchases at Missing Link Records (8th & J in Arcata, behind
the Co-Op)

Plus get 10% off one purchase of any amount at Northtown Books in
Arcata.

And starting this year, we’re bending our strict egalitarian principles
—just slightly—by offering members, donors, and sponsors a crack at
reserved seating (rather than our customary general admission) at all
shows they attend.

If you became a member last year: thanks again—really. Can we count
on you to renew? (If you joined at our after our final show of
2008-09, we’ll automatically extend your membership through 2009-10.)

If you’ve come to our shows and/or workshops without becoming a
member, and you feel as though you can spare a bit beyond the price of
a cheap ticket now and again: please join! (Or make a donation in
any amount that seems right.)

And if you or your business are in a position to plunk down a bit more
cash and become a bona fide sponsor, we’d love to talk to you about
that, too.

You can become a member, donor, or sponsor online at
http://www.redwoodjazzalliance.org/underwrtg.htm, or you can post a
check to: Redwood Jazz Alliance, P.O. Box 4443, Arcata CA 95518. If
you’ve got questions, please direct them to
rja@redwoodjazzalliance.org and we’ll gladly get back to you.

In any event: thanks for coming out to hear great music and signing
up for our list. It’s responses like yours that make us appreciate
what an amazing community we live in. Happy summer—and stay tuned for
news about Jazz Night at the Humboldt Folklife Festival and RJA Discs
of the Month.

Dan, Michael, Thomas, Eric, Michael, Loralei, and David
Redwood Jazz Alliance Board of Directors