News: May 2007
Posted May 14, 2007Not only is Yaron Herman, young and talented jazz pianist, one of the three upcoming jazz artists selected for a series of big summer festivals in France and beyond by ADAMI (a French record producers’ structure); not only has he just performed another excellent concert for the national radio station FIP in a concert hall at Radio France; but he will be playing solo at one of the two foremost classical music venues of Paris, the Salle Gaveau, on May 24 – and his next release which goes by the reflective title of “A Time for Everything”, a trio record with Matt Brewer and Gerald Cleaver, will be launched at another legendary Paris venue: Les Bouffes du Nord, an old theatre at the northern end of Paris with a great atmosphere, and great acoustics. Yaron’s trio album is scheduled for release beginning of October, just after the concert.
Jun Miyake, brilliant composer, musician and producer from the Land of the Rising Sun, who is now sharing his time between Paris and Tokyo, has finished the mastering of his forthcoming album release, which will be out on his own label in Japan in the fall with international licence/distribution in the negotiating stages. The album features a number of international artists, including Arto Lindsay and Vinicius Cantuaria, Lisa Papineau (of Pet, Big Sir, and also recently vocalist for French electronic duo AIR), the Bulgarian Radio Choir, Arthur H….
Jon Hassell, composer and trumpet player extraordinaire, has one of his compositions included in the sound track of the opening film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival: “My Blueberry Nights” directed by Wong Kar-wai and described by him as a “road movie”. The production features Norah Jones, who is making this her acting debut.
Métisse Music will be looking after the catalogue of Fabien Dettori Publishing, a new publishing company starting off in Paris. The first compositions in the catalogue are those of Argentinian composer and artist Lalo Zanelli, a resident of Paris for many years now. Lalo contributed some beautiful tangos to the film music for a recent French film release, “Ma place au soleil” (“My place in the sun”) – in fact, all of the music of the movie is part of the Dettori catalogue. After having toured with the electronic tango champions of the Gotan Project across the globe, Lalo will now prepare the recording of his next album.
ACT celebrates its 15th anniversary with two special ACT nights ! The first one will take place in Hilden, Germany. There will be various artists of the label present at the event, starring Joachim Kühn, who will perform the compositions from his new CD “Kalimba”, an amazing album with subtle oriental inflexions, recorded with guembri player and singer Majid Bekkas and drummer Ramon Lopez. This is due to be released in France end of September, followed by a concert at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris on October 22.
The other ACT Night will take place in London on May 23: bass player Lars Danielsson will perform tracks from his new album “Paso Doble” (release in France in June) recorded in duo with Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer. Guitarist Nguyen Lê, trombone player Nils Landgren and percussionist Xavier Desandre-Navarre will join the duo for a concert that promises to be phenomenal !
The next ACT release will please soul and jazz lovers; they will be seduced by Ida Sand’s warm and powerful voice, whose first album “Meet me around Midnight” will be released in France on May 31.
Concerning world music, May and June promise to be rich in events and achievements.
Our inexhaustible percussionist friend Manuel Wandji keeps on giving concerts with his great group of musicians. After Mexico, he is preparing his conquest of New York on June 14, before coming back to France for several concert dates (see Tour section).
The label Jaro is back with various projects : The Shin, from Georgia, release their first album “Egari” (That’s it!). The band combines Georgian guruli type singing, traditional instruments and fiery Caucasian dance routines. A first French tour date salutes the new collaboration with their French agent Blue Line; you can discover them on May 18 on the stage of the prestigious festival at Coutances in Normandy, “Jazz sous les Pommiers”.
Another country, another surprising vocal style: The first DVD, “Live in Munich”, by Huun Huur Tu, four musicians from Tuva in Central Asia, will be released on June 7. The music of Huun Huur Tu and their throat-singing techniques are best savoured in concert, and a French tour (see Tour section) will accompany the release of the DVD. Another DVD, this time rather in the jazz section, is released on Jaro at the same time : a concert by the excellent Moscow Art Trio, led by Russian pianist Mikhail Alperin.
And it is celebration time for Piranha (Nocturne distribution), the German based label of music from beyond, with their 20th birthday coming up this year. In order to celebrate this in style , they have given access to a selection of the label’s musical nuggets to several international DJs. Another surprise: The label releases a compilation on vinyl only, entitled ” Brass Noir, On the Trans-Balkan Highway ”, bringing together Eastern Europe’s greatest artists signed to the label. And a new release is due to May 28 : “Sevdalinka Sarajevo Love Songs”. Sevdalinka is the musical expression of Bosnian soul ; on this compilation several international musicians contribute with their personal interpretation of Sevdalinka. Amongst them is the maestro from Turkey, Mercan Dede.
Last but not least, Chava Alberstein, the great lady from Israel, is releasing a new album entitled “Lemele” (“Little Lamb”) . This was recorded in the Czech Republic, with a big orchestra and is sung entirely in Yiddish.