AKANEWS #2 - 2021 | Europe Jazz Network

newsby

AKAMU

AKANEWS #2 - 2021

All upcoming concerts, new releases, new interviews and stories, videos, awards and top releases of artists collaborating with Akamu

INDEX

1 - What's up

2 - Coming soon

3 - Recent releases/concerts/events

4 - Press reviews

5 - Extra-news

1 - What's up

Time to celebrate! Let's forget for a moment the pandemic and lets think on what we can calebrate during 2021

After Elliott Sharp's 70th birthday, we want to celebrate other artists in our roster in their 85-80-75-70 and 50:

- Ermeto Pascoal (85) - Ted Gioia celebrates with an article full of incredible anecdotes. Like the punch in Miles Davis's face. Or his impro with the dentist tools. Or when he performed with some frogs. Real frogs.

- Dave Burrell (80) will celebrate it with a tour in Europe between the end of October and the beginning of November. Soon detailed infos

- Famoudou Don Moye (75) celebrated with two sold out solo concerts in Paris (Pinault Collection) on June 09 and 10 and with a cover story on Citizen Jazz at the beginning of June.

- Anthony Davis (70) celebrates also a new 2021 Academy Art and Letters Inducteealong with Henry Threadgill. It's one of the nation’s most exclusive and prestigious cultural awards for sustained artistic excellence and innovation.

- and Liberty Ellman (50)

Happy birthday then!

We'd like to celebrate also Henry Threadgill, new 2021 NEA Jazz Masters! Here the Jazz Master Conversation

Keep on being positive and trying to understand better the "composite reality" lets read Anthony Braxton words in a very recent interview by Nate Chinen

2 - Coming soon

Next releases

*
Steph Richards is working on a record coming out in October (the duo project Amphitrite)

*
Jessica Pavone is set to release her new album "Lull" on October 22, 2021. There will be a release concert at Roulette on November 19, 2021. It’s a string octet that features Nate Wooley and Brian Chase as guest soloists.

*
Next concerts

July 04 - Palazzo Marino - Milan - Pánico Duo
July 04 - Milan - Amirtha Kidambi and Lea Bertucci
July 08 - Venice - Pánico Duo
July 18 - Grand Théâtre Romain – Lyon – Stefano Bollani
July 21 - TBA – Ferrara – Yamandu Costa
July 22 - Rocca Sforzesca – Imola – Yamandu Costa & Martin Sued
July 24 - Emilia Romagna Festival – Faenza – Yamandu Costa
July 24 - "Superpark" Trento Gabriele Mitelli solo
July 25 - Casa del Jazz – Roma – Yamandu Costa & Martin Sued
July 25 - Musica sulle Apuane – Monte Folgorito – Gabriele Mirabassi Trio + Davide Riondino
July 26 - Albinea Jazz – Albinea – Yamandu Costa
July 26 - Albinea Jazz – Albinea – Gabriele Mirabassi & Simone Zanchini
August 19 - 20 - 21 - Gabriele Mitelli for Curva Minore sicily
August 20 - Camerino Jazz – Camerino – Yamandu Costa
August 21 - Jazz an einem Sommerabend – Krefeld – Mofaya!
August 22 - MuKu – St. Johann in Tirol – Luke Stewart
August 27 - 28 - Gabriele Mitelli "ai confini tra Sardegna e jazz” festival
August 27 - Isola Musicale d’Europa – Isola d’Elba – Gabriele Mirabassi & Simone Zanchini
August 28 - "ai confini tra Sardegna e jazz” festival - Gabriele Mitelli, Enrico Terragnoli, Gabrio Baldacci, Cristiano Calcagnile
August 28 - TBA – Mantova – Luke Stewart
August 29 - S. Anna Arresi - Dudù Kouate
August 29 - "ai confini tra Sardegna e jazz” festival - The elephant - Gabriele Mitelli, Pasquale Mirra, Cristiano Calcagnile
Others

- Tony Malaby with Ben Monder, Micheal Formanek, and Tom Rainey at the Vision Festival July 24, 2021

- Thumbscrew (Mary Halvorson, guitar - Tomas Fujiwara, drums - Micheal Formanek, bass) Tour - Europe July 4-16, 2021

3 - Recent releases/concerts/events

Ches Smith, released Path of Seven Colors in June 11, 2021 with his project We All Break. It features: Sirene Dantor Rene: vocals - Miguel Zenon: alto sax - Matt Mitchell: piano - Nick Dunston: bass - Daniel Brevil, Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene, and Markus Schwartz:Haitian drums and vocals - Ches Smith: drums and vocals. This group of forward-thinking musicians synthesize new jazz and the continually evolving and dynamic music of Haitian Vodou.
The making of the recording is the subject of a beautyful 50 minute film by Mimi Chakarova.

Here some early press reviews:
- The Wire by Stewart Smith

- A 5-star, "album of the month" review in The Guardian

- Londonjazznews.com
- Allaboutjazz.com
- Marlbank.net
- Paris-move.com

and the first two radio broadcasts:
- Jazz Anthology on Radio Popolare - Popolare Network by Marcello Lorrai
- Radio Bremen Zwei by Harald Monkedieck

We All Break plays October 26, 2021 at Roulette in NYC and January 29, 2022 Sons D'hiver in Paris.

*
James Brandon Lewis released on May 07, 2021 a new album "Jesup Wagon" by his Red Lily Quintet: James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone, composition / Kirk Knuffke: cornet / William Parker: bass, gimbri (on tracks 2 & 7) / Chris Hoffman: cello / Chad Taylor: drums, mbira (on track 6).
Giovanni Russonello talks to saxophonist James Brandon Lewis about the importance of respect in his life and music, about some of his essays and poetry, about the influence of his hometown Buffalo, New York, on his art, about making a mark on the New York scene in the 2010s, as well as about his latest album "Jesup Wagon", a tribute to scientist and inventor George Washington Carver on NYT

*
The day before, June 1oth, RR GEMS Record released "Resilient Vessels Live At The Cell" again James Brandon Lewis (saxophone) and Ches Smith (drums) along with Patrick Holmes (clarinet) and Josh Werner (bass)

*
Firehouse 12 Records have released Anthony Braxton's 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 which is the first documentation of his ZIM Music. The release is already getting some press from outlets such at The New York Times, Chicago Reader, and All About Jazz. The new release from New Braxton House Records Quartet (Standards) 2020 will be digitally released in 2 weeks. The physical deluxe box set won't be ready until late summer, but we think it will be worth the wait!

The Locals Play The Music of Anthony Braxton is an exciting live performance recorded at the festival Konfrontationen Nickelsdorf in 2006, featuring six early compositions by Anthony Braxton arranged for the band by Pat Thomas.

*
Roscoe Mitchell performed a new audiovisual work on April 30, 2021 at Harvard with his The Roscoe Mitchell Quartet: Roscoe Mitchell, woodwinds, percussion; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Junius Paul, bass, percussion; Vincent Davis, drums, percussion.

*
Luke Stewart has recently released Upright Bass and Amplifier, II (Astral Spirits) and "Calling Forth The Spirits" with the rapper Raw Poetic

*
Marco Colonna's talks about his recent releases.

Rhizomatic Structures This work is the last published. This is music based on graphic tables (and the tables keep increasing ... I suspect that numerous recordings dedicated to the Rhizomatic Structures series will follow). I share this recording with Mario Cianca, a young double bass player I met in my classes of improvisation techniques at Siena Jazz. I found in him a boy with a devastating desire to learn. Sensitive to poetry, to gesture, to the search for detail. Prepared enough not to be scared of the unknown, free enough of "praxis" to be incisive in these recordings." Released on May 04, 2021

About Colombo Lenoci 1996 Marco says "I am proud to host these recordings on my page. Eugenio Colombo is a sort of older brother who has often accompanied me on my journey as a young musician, and I mourned the premature death of Gianni Lenoci as a devastating loss for contemporary music. Having access to these recordings in which, now 25 years ago, two wonderful young musicians (at my present age) devote themselves to beauty with such obstinate and poetic stubbornness, is a privilege and an irreplaceable teaching." Release March 16, 2021

*
Mirabassi-Balducci-di Modugno Trio will release tomorrow 30 March 2021 the new CD "Tabacco e Caffè" Dodicilune.

Before and since her 2018 debut album as leader (Fullmoon, Relative Pitch), trumpeter Stephanie Richards had hoped to present her 2020 album's full multi-sensory experience via live performance, but the pandemic has those plans on halt. Instead, she has a month-long daily live-stream duo with Ken Thompson throughout April. And May

Wayne Horviz re-released “Dinner at Eight” LP (1986) re-release on Abstrakce Records. Originally released in 1986 and long out of print; this record brings drum machines and synthesizers to Wayne Horvitz’s unique approach to cutting edge experimental music combining free-improvisation, conduction and composition. In addition to being an important document of Wayne Horvitz’s musical work; “Dinner at Eight” is an icon of New York City’s incredibly fertile and influential Downtown creative music scene that excited in the 1980’s.
As fresh and vital as the day it was released, “Dinner at Eight” features Wayne Horvitzon DX-7 and drum machine, Elliot Sharp on guitar and bass, Chris Brown on gazamba, Doug Wieselman, tenor saxophone and clarinet, and Joey Peters on electronic drums.

*
Elaine Mitchener and Guests. Live at Gilmore Hall held on April 13, 2021

*
"Mexico: Photographs" by Thomas Sayers Ellis, edited with an Introduction by Ben Mazer. 88 color and black & white illustrations, 100p, oversize perfect bound.
Crank Shaped Notes released on June 6th, 2021. This book of photos, poems, and essays chronicles like never before the inner world of GoGo, Washington D.C.’s official music. Thomas Sayers Ellis masterfully captures the rhythms, beats, and souls of a culture which is ever expanding beyond the beltway of our nation’s capital. This is a must-have volume.

4 - Other press reviews

A long interview with Micheal Formanek by Troy Collins. Part 1 and Part 2

Some reviews of Imperfect Measures (Solo bass) by Micheal Formanek on Intakt Records

Dyads (Michael and Peter Formanek Duo) reviewed on All About Jazz by Mark Corroto

5 - Extra-news

Lets close this AkaNews with a little gift for you: The Official Robert Wyatt Fan Club

Ciao