Matthew Shipp - 4D

Matthew Shipp’s new solo piano CD, "4D" is the complete synthesis and culmination of all of his past Thirsty Ear releases, with the added wrinkle of standards reinterpreted as only he could muster, while combining his own brand of composition to the mix. His musical language, having been as refined, and mutated as has his career, (notably alongside Thirst Ear’s own genre defying sensibilities.) continues to grow at exponential rates, allowing Mr. Shipp to fully explore the hidden aspects of jazz.

Matthew Shipp was born December 7, 1960 in Wilmington, Delaware. He started piano at 5 years old with the regular piano lessons most kids have experienced. He fell in love with jazz at 12 years old. After moving to New York in 1984 he quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. He was a sideman in the David S. Ware quartet and also for Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory before making the decision to concentrate on his own music.

Mr Shipp has reached the holy grail of jazz in that he possesses a unique style on his instrument that is all of his own- and he’s one of the few in jazz that can say so. Mr. Shipp has recorded a lot of albums with many labels but his 2 most enduring relationships have been with two labels. In the 1990s he recorded a number of chamber jazz cds with Hatology, a group of cds that charted a new course for jazz that, to this day, the jazz world has not realized. In the 2000s Mr Shipp has been curator and director of the label Thirsty Ear’s “Blue Series” and has also recorded for them. In this collection of recordings he has generated a whole body of work that is visionary, far reaching and many faceted .

Matthew Shipp is truly one of the leading lights of a new generation of jazz giants.

Rassegna Stampa Internazionale su 4D

Every aspect of music making sets off a calculation, in real time, for Matthew Shipp. “4D” (Thirsty Ear), due out on Tuesday, is his new solo piano release, described by its maker as an artistic culmination. (Mr. Shipp has also called it his last album, but he has said that before.)

With a track listing that puts “Prelude to a Kiss” alongside original themes like “Dark Matter” and “Equilibrium,” the album refutes hierarchy; every theme is subject to revision or recontextualization. (“Primal Harmonic,” Mr. Shipp’s oblique nod to Alice Coltrane, comes bracketed by stern readings of “Greensleeves” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”) The atmosphere is somber, thick, a little messy. But in the percussive nub and tangled undergrowth of his playing, and in his penchant for provocation, Mr. Shipp is finding success on his own terms.


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AllAboutJazz / Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Shipp's initial inspiration was Bud Powell, who to a great extent is the underpinning of his music. The unfettered approach of the formidable technician and free adventurer Cecil Taylor is a potent strain in Shipp's work, but no matter how far out he goes, Shipp's sense of chord and line movement puts him closer to Powell than Taylor ever was.

That is evident throughout the solo album 4D, nowhere more emphatically than in the roiling forward movement and occasional bebop phraseology of “Equilibrium," which also has hints of Thelonious Monk and Earl Hines. In its opening bars, “Teleportation" bows even lower in Powell's direction.

Throughout the album, Shipp glimpses other presences; John Coltrane in “Dark Matter" and “Stairs," Taylor in “Jazz Paradox," Ellington in “Prelude to a Kiss." But to dwell on evidence of his influences is to ignore Shipp's originality, which is bolstered by redoubtable technique. He sometimes holds his keyboard prowess in reserve, but when he unleashes it, as he does in a joyful “What is This Thing Called Love," it can be dazzling.

In addition to the two standards named above and his compositions (or spontaneous creations; it's difficult to be certain), Shipp applies his daring, ferocity and wit to “Autumn Leaves," “Greensleeves," “What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and “Frere Jacques." “Frere Jacques?" Yes. Shipp proves that it is possible to operate out there on the edge without losing sight of the fundamentals.


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by Thom Jurek, allmusic

Jazz pianist, composer, and producer Matthew Shipp has been through many phases in his long career. Since he began his association with Thirsty Ear, he has curated its Blue Series. Through this endeavor, Shipp has not only stretched the definitions of jazz, but also exponentially advanced his own ideas about it conceptually and technically.

4D is divided roughly into halves: one is a series of original compositions; the other interpretations of standards and folk songs.

It sums up his musical sense, but more importantly, points to new horizons. The strident physicality of his early recordings has given way to a (somewhat more) nuanced touch and fluidity that relies heavily on counterpoint, expansive harmonics, and spaciousness. Dissonance still plays a necessary role in this work as it is heard in both aspects of the album, but it is heightened by a wonderfully complex lyricism that is now predominant.

The Monk-ish intro in “The Crack in the Piano’s Egg” offers a starting point for both harmonic investigation of theme, and a tonal pronouncement of rhythm and its relationship to his subtly expressed lyricism. He places large minor chords in the lower-middle register to push at the tune's time, contrasted by his quoting of Monk and Ellington with his right hand; then improvising with both.

The brief “Equilibrium” reveals classical notions of counterpoint and its relationship to the jazz tradition. “Teleportation” is an angular post-bop tune that nearly swings even in its labyrinthine dissonance and sophisticated technical facility.

In “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “Prelude to a Kiss,” Shipp allows the original melodies to fully inhabit his improvisations -- especially in the left hand -- even as his movement of the tunes' architectures expands their margins with an elegant --if dissonant -- harmonic extrapolation. “Frere Jacques” becomes equal parts Bartók and a musical form of French rondelet, with startlingly forceful lower-register improvisation employed as a bridge.

A mysterious improvisation called “Primal Harmonic” (touching on Bach and Art Tatum) introduces an angular, yet lovely “Greensleeves” to close out this marvelous program. On 4D, Shipp nods to history with depth perception and articulates his new direction gracefully.


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"Matthew Shipp's new solo album may be his definitive artistic statement"
- Signal to Noise


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"The pianist digs deep, often bringing a molten motion to his work -- it's thick with ideas. On the upcoming 4d,you can hear this deliberate approach unfold; every left hand depth charge and right hand squiggle justifies their existence."
-- Village Voice


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"Excellent solo piano disc -- his solos have a distinct form and logic of their own"
-- The Examiner


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"His best solo effort yet, 4D. The pieces bristle with powerful dynamic shifts and brilliant uses of space and silence."
- Chicago Reader


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Mark Stryker, Freep.com
(Detroit Free Press)

The always searching vanguard pianist Matthew Shipp goes it alone on "4D" (Thirsty Ear, in stores Tuesday), offering an inventive and remarkably concentrated set of solo performances. Shipp has always connected the dots between the avant-garde and the maverick spirit of Thelonious Monk and others, but there is a special majesty and clarity in the synthesis here.

Working through a program of epigrammatic originals -- along with a few idiosyncratic readings of standards like "Autumn Leaves" and "Prelude to a Kiss" -- Shipp spins out discursive improvisations, balancing skittering and jabbing rhythms with stream-of-consciousness melody. Some pieces sway, some swoosh, some swing, some sigh. And the lyrical chords that open "Stairs" reach for the sublime.


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"4D is a striking array of old and new allegories right and left with pianistics solely for the satisfaction immersion.It is flatly stunning."
-- Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz blog


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Christian Carey, Sequenza 21

For a while around the turn of the millennium, avant-jazz pianist Matthew Shipp threatened to stop recording. One could understand why: he’s prolific beyond belief, and one could understand that an artist in the ‘out jazz’ realm might be fearful that an overly compendious catalog might be harmful to sales and recouping recording costs. Happily for those of us who wanted MORE from Matthew, he decided not to stay away from the studio, and has continued to record prolifically.

Shipp has also served as the curator of Thirsty Ear’s Blue Series, an imprint that has served to blur the boundaries of free and neo-trad jazz, and of jazz with other stylistic categories: electronica, hip hop, and even contemporary concert music. On his latest release, 4D, he’s continued in this vein. A solo outing, it presents both Shipp originals and standards. He even tackles venerable chestnuts such as “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Autumn Leaves,” as well as the gospel hymn “What a Friend we have in Jesus.”


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"Shipp's playing is like some kind of inverted, dark-matter version of whatever you think a jazz pianist is going to sound like."

"The shape of the lines,the concept of melody,follows a strange original logic that is a tonic for so much else that deadens the ear."
--Seattle Weekly

Pura Fe' - Full Moon Risign

This is the third album on the Dixiefrog imprint from the First Nation, Tuscarora Indian poetess and folksinger, in the Wake of the remarkable Indian Rez Blues box that she recently used as an introduction to the works of her fellow Native American artists. Sailing from traditional melodies to scorching blues with her usual grâce and dedication, she adds a healthy sprinkling of rap and canoe chants to her music before leading us all the way to Southern America where the eagle meets the condor. Pure magic!

"This album is really a combination of electric and more grass roots. Because...I have so many expressions and genres and bloods within me.... I will never stop creating a little this and a little that. I feel everyghing and it is not intentional, it just ends up an indefinable find of music..."
Pure Fe'

Pura Fe' is a founding member of the internationally renowned native women a capella trio, Ulali, and is recognized for creating a new genre, bringing Native contemporary music to the forefront of the mainstream music industry.

Pura Fe' launched her solo career with the album ‘Follow Your Heart’s Desire' on the Music Maker Relief Foundation label. Her soulful voice and acoustic lap steel slide guitar, carries the ancestral message of the “Indigenous World” and the missing history that unified and separated the blood ties of Black and Indian people of the South. With a fresh new take, Pura Fe resurrects and elegantly states the common bond and the indigenous influence on the “birth of the Blues”.

Pura Fé has released two more albums including her solo album, ‘Hold The Rain’ on Music Maker Relief Foundation label and European distribution by Dixie Frog label (France) and her most recent album, ‘Full Moon Rising’. ‘Hold The Rain’ is a more personal collection of music where Pura Fé is joined by one of Seattle’s finest guitarist, Danny Godinez.

In 2006 after the release of this album, Pura Fe’ won a Nammy (Native American Music Award) for Best Female Artist. She also won a L’académie Charles Cros Award (France) for Best World Album.

‘Full Moon Rising’, released on the Dixie Frog label, ranges from traditional melodies to scorching blues with her usual grace and dedication. In this album, Pura Fe adds a healthy sprinkling of rap and canoe chants to her music before leading us all the way to Southern America where the eagle meets the condor.

Matt Wilson - That's Gonna Leave A Mark

Drummer and composer Matt Wilson describes his eighth record as a leader on Palmetto Records, That’s Gonna Leave a Mark, in terms of honesty and family. The first album by Wilson’s Quartet since 2003’s Humidity, Wilson views it as “getting a chance to have this great band record again!” Alongside Wilson, alto saxophonist D’Angelo, tenor saxophonist Jeff Lederer and bassist Chris Lightcap are all in fine form. All the members of the Quartet have played together since the late 1990s, though this marks Lightcap’s first recorded appearance with the group.

The intimate bond between all the musicians is palpable on the album. Recorded by Matt Balitsaris at Maggie’s Farm, with the band all in the same room, That’s Gonna Leave a Mark has a live and energetic sound. The air moving between instrument and microphone, and the sensation of musicians playing into the room and to each other, gives the tunes added momentum. “I think it really captures us as close to being live as you can be. You really get to smell, taste and see the sound that way. You feel it coming in your ears from the instrument, rather than the little speakers on your ears. I think it really helps with the dimensions of the sound, how people can react to the sound other than just through their ears. Like on a gig, you experience it totally differently. The decision to do that was really great and I’m so glad we did it.” Many of the tunes are first or second take, with no edits. Shouts of encouragement and enjoyment are audible throughout the record – almost as though the listener were a guest on the control room couch of Maggie’s Farm.

The album contains a wide spectrum of repertoire, with originals by all of the members. “To have everybody else contribute a song too, that makes it more special,” Wilson opines.

“I think it’s much like the player, they have distinct personalities, and we blend together, but you can always tell the personality. That’s the way the tunes work together too.”

Matt Wilson
drums
Andrew D'Angelo
alto sax, bass clarinet
Jeff Lederer
tenor and soprano sax, clarinet
Chris Lightcap
bass
The Swayettes
vocals, track 11
The Wilson Family Singers
vocals, track 11

Eric Wood - Don't Just Dance

Each soul has a voice that speaks to a mystery
Well hidden in someone’s dark spirit
Its song may well penetrate many an ear
Yet only one truly can hear it
To this one its meaning is poignant
His heart can hardly hold it
This pawn in the hand of this powerful poem
Is exalted far beyond the poet

From…. "Let My People Go" by Eric Wood

The music of Eric Wood has been described as intense, compelling, intimate, provocative, poetic and personal by many critics in the U.S, Canada and Europe. An American amalgam of jazz, folk, country and rock meets Brazilian and Middle Eastern musical idioms in his music. Together, they weave the raiment for the poignant, lyrical writings rendered in Wood’s smoky, baritone voice on his new upcoming CD release. Simultaneously romantic & political, Wood occupies a never too far off, yet still somewhat isolated location in the American song-writing landscape. "This sounds too much like it’s really what Eric Wood’s music must be for it to be the result of some calculated gesture," a Music Reviews Quarterly writer reported. In another very recent review of Eric’s first CD, Letters From the Earth (Tangible Music TG129), in London’s MOJO magazine, Pat Gilbert writes; "As a 40something songsmith, Eric Wood ought to have some encyclopedic pedigree. But a 30-year career that started in Ohio’s coffee houses, took in Nashville in the early 70s and ended up in the bars of New York’s East Village has seemingly left an indelible blank on the pages of Guinness and Macmillian." He calls Eric’s first CD "an unhurried melt of folk, blues and wee-hours jazz, often operating over subtle Latin rhythms and unobstrusive strands of jazz instrumentation (vibes, marimbas, sax). It’s a belated solo debut that’s astonishing for it’s gleefully understated musicianship and emotional authenticity."

The new Eric Wood CD, to be released in September on Appaloosa Records /IRD, establishes his musical diversity and extraordinary lyrical prowess with a new band, in a context all its own.

Eric came from an austere background in the Appalachian foothills near the Ohio /West Virginia border. Factory workers that had migrated from mostly Eastern Europe, indigenous hillbillies, and Amish families shared both the turf and the troubles. Each group held tightly to their own beliefs, religions and types of folk music while to the dismay of them all, the radio blasted the new unholy, British invasion music to their kids. While the older music was marrow deep in Wood’s bones, it didn’t calcify until it was thoroughly saturated with the new. To the entire neighborhood’s dismay, Wood’s more than slightly "loosely wrapped" adoptive mother (as he refers to her) often listened to the music of Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles and early Bob Dylan at high volumes. These voices sounded so severe in this environment, even the most open-minded individuals in his home-town had great difficulty listening to them. Eric heard these sounds early on and never thought twice about them. They were just more music to his ears. But life with his mother’s volatile personality nevertheless proved impossible even for him. He left home in the late `60s at the age of 15 to establish a new life among the leftover Beats and newcomer Hippies in San Francisco’s Haight-Asbury district. There, more rhythmically compelling Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and Thelonious Monk influenced music, brought to his ears by local bands who were mixing it all up, exposed Wood to new currents through which he’d learn to make all those previously diverse forms flow together freely.

Soon after this crucial point in his ever-more musically enriched life, Eric Wood suffered life-changing injuries from a severe car crash that left him hospitalized and without his own brain’s memory-forming functions for more than a year. It was during that time that he turned to writing songs as a way to capture the thoughts and emotions that would otherwise escape him. Songwriting became a kind of temporary memory and a road map out of the convoluted confusion the injuries caused. This is when the songs of one of his mother’s favorites, Bob Dylan, came back to his mind. Suddenly they were the only thing that made perfect sense to him. He began to search for the recordings of other Dylan contemporaries and subsequently came to hear and especially love Tim Buckley (who Wood’s music is sometimes compared to) and Joni Mitchell.

Recovery came slowly and left Eric with a singular new direction. Within another year, he was performing his own songs nationwide at college concerts and coffee-houses. While functioning as the opening act on a Pure Prairie League tour, Kris Kristofferson heard his music and offered him a publishing deal at Combine Music in Nashville. After moving there, Eric held staff writing positions at two other publishing houses and produced 2 recordings that the country music establishment found very difficult to swallow. They were never released. Wood’s rhythmic orientation, lyrics and melodies weren’t going to lead him to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. He left for New York City in 1979. In the subsequent 20 years, Wood recorded & performed with top jazz players including Bobby Previte (Depth of Field) and Lindsey Horner (Koch Records) performing at the Bottom Line and The Knitting Factory to growing audiences. Subsequent U.S. tours with Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin and Richard Thompson brought more fans and critics to hear him. Finally in 1997, Eric was signed in New York to Tangible Music and his first CD was released. It garnered high critical acclaim from many publications including Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, The Chicago Tribune and Rolling Stone, as well as a front page, Giancarlo Susanna review in one of Rome’s largest newspapers, La Unite. More European acclaim in Musica, Late For The Sky, Muccio Selvaggio, JAM Magazine, MOJO, Rock ‘N Reel and many others soon followed. Buscadero rated it #8 in the top 10 albums of 1997. And Billboard Magazine rated Letters From The Earth #9 in a "Year End Critics’ Poll". This was quite an accomplishment for a debut record. One solo European tour and another with Wood’s entire band soon followed.

In September 1999, the Eric Wood group’s 1998 summer tour will finally come to an end with the new release on Appaloosa /IRD Records. For Eric and the rest of his band (T. Xiques, Carlo DeRosa, Jeff Berman & Luis Perdomo), it actually began in the spring of `98 in the Brooklyn rehearsal space /apartment of string bassist DeRosa. The next two months were spent rehearsing and performing for audiences at The Living Room in NYC where they worked up new songs Eric planned to record as well as older material from Wood’s first CD for their scheduled upcoming tour dates in northern Italy. Then, during the Eric Wood group’s Italy `98 tour, an impromptu live recording session was arranged at B&B Production Studios near Ferrara, Italy. It was only a couple of days before their headline performance date at the Sotta Le Stella festival at Ferrara (Dylan headlined the year before). But the band had too little studio time left to listen back to the tracks before another band came in. The tapes were subsequently stashed in a gig bag and not heard until Eric later returned to the states. While still in Italy, Franco Ratti at Appaloosa /IRD Records suggested to Eric that he record his new CD for that label. Wood agreed, not knowing he was already carrying the crucial tapes in his bag. Later, the project was completed at World Studios in NYC. During one of his 1998 performances in Italy, singer-songwriter Cristina Dona’ ("Tregua" Mescal-Mercury) joined Eric onstage. The memory of her magic voice singing with him prompted Eric to send some of these newly recorded tracks back to Italy for Cristina to sing on.

Martial Solal - Live At The Village Vanguard

Martial Solal is a nuclear physicist of the piano. He tinkers with the subatomic structure of compositions, moving elements around, pulling them apart, and smashing them together in ways that both surprise and delight. Solal was born Algiers in 1927, settling in Paris in 1950 where he worked with Django Reinhardt and American expatriates Sidney Bechet and Don Byas. He has maintained an impressive creative profile for the past 50 years that involves solo, small group, and big band formats. Solal has also been a successful movie soundtrack composer, producing music for Les Acteurs (2000) and Ballade a blanc (1983).
Now in his 80s, his performances take on the aire of a grand event. As such, it is fitting that his October 12, 2007 solo appearance at New York City's Village Vanguard was captured and released as Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love. His previous live recording at the Vanguard, NY1: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 2003) was met with much adulation as was the show that generated it in the wake of September 11, 2001.

Relaxed and amiable, Solal banters with the crowd in his French-accented English, explaining that they both must be good as he is making a live recording. He then proceeds to stroll through a recital of seven standards are two original compositions in what can only be described as in a very post-modern, deconstructionist manner. His command of the material is paradoxically dense and atomized with playing that betrays a knowledge of all styles of jazz piano, which he picks and chooses to employ at his creative whim. That "whim" is very informed. "On Green Dolphin Street?" he turns the familiar melody inside out, re- harmonizing and redefining the piece well beyond its early 20th Century origins.

Solal transforms the interrogative "Lover Man" into a declarative statement of fact and strains the brains of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" through modernity's defining sieve, exposing all of the soft underparts Monk didn't. Solal extends the language of Monk further than any other pianist. His two original compositions, "Centre De Gravite" and "Ramage" are no less compelling, acting as an extension of Solal's artistic command. Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love is as perfect a jazz recording as we could hope for. Few giants remain, so let us honor Martial Solal

All About Jazz




"Mr Solal returns to the Vanguard without a bassist or a drummer, becoming only the second pianist to headline a week at the club as a solo act. It will be an occasion not just for admirs but also for new converts. And as far as pianism goes, it will probably stand as one of the jazz events of the year"

New York Time

The Pianist Mortial Solal opened his week at the Village Vanguard on Tuesday night by rolling through tunes that jazz musicians have been amusing and sharpening themeselves with for 50 years or more... One of the world's most imposing jazz musicians - being 80 has not dimmed his agility or his imagination - he interpreted easch passing moment of the songs as a provocation : spinning out a quick cycle of chords from just one, or interrupting the shape of a melody to add on a whole new structure, invented at breathtakin speed... "

New York Time

Martial Solal's early set at the Village Vanguard tonight was as exuberant as expected. The ghost of Tatum was riding high, as the French pianist, celebrating his 80th brithday with only his third appearance in New York city in the past 44 years, mad-dashed through a dozen or so standards in ways that no one has ever heard them, carving up the scores like a cubist ( more braque than Picasso, with shards of Duchamp tassed in for wit ), stretching and squeezing bars, yet somehow sustaining the tempo and the melody with tenuous but seamless aplomb. His music might be a mere virtuosic lark, were it not for his harmonies - brooding, bristling, caramel-rich chords, clusters of them, alternately embellishing, paring down, or playing against the conventional changes. The Vanguard was as packed as I've ever seen it on a weeknight..."

Stereophile

It was appropriate that Mr Solal chose "Here's That Rainy Days" as his third number : As 9 p.m. approached during his opening set on Tuesday, the Vanguard was packed to the walls with clods like myself, who, in our unrestrained zeal to catch Mr Solal in a rare New York appearance, neglected to bring our Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The Room was so full that no one apart from Mr Solal Himself and a few slim waitresses could even move.... a great quality of some of the best musicians in that you can hear the whole history of the music in their playing, and while that's certainly true of Martial Solal, what's even more remarkable is that you can get a sense of the future of the jazz piano as well, and it's hard to image a brighter one"

The New Yorker Sun

To label Martial Solal the greates European Jazz pianist does him disservice, the cognoscenti know he's the world champ. The Algerian native, who moved to Paris when he was twenty-two, celebrates his eighteth birthday here, presenting his staggering virtuosity and proudly idioisyncratic style in a week of solo performances. A live reconding is promised, but you'll be pleased to tell your grandchildren you witnessed the Master in Action

The New Yorker

Ray Wylie Hubbard - A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment ( Hint : There is no C)

It wasn’t that long ago that Ray Wylie Hubbard allowed to an acquaintance that he wouldn’t mind being a hybrid of Guy Clark and John Lee Hooker. Now, I’m no seer or mystic, but my instincts suggest that wish came true. And then some. A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is no C) confirms it.

Ray Wylie Hubbard writes the kind of songs that make you want to ride along no matter where he’s going, because you know it’s gonna get strange somewhere along the way. The references to Muddy Waters being as deep as William Blake (“I really do believe it,’’ Ray says) and lipstick pickups, resonator slides, the dreams of drunken poets, deceased call girls, opium, wasp’s nests, clouds growing a tail, his ability to segue seamlessly from primal exclamations of carnal lust into songs about salvation without pausing for irony;
and a craftsmanship that manages to rhyme mescaline and gasoline and Volkswagen with dragon while painting vivid portraits of characters both real and unreal, all evoke a sense of place that is larger than life but in no way made up.

Anyone who’s followed Ray Wylie Hubbard over the long and winding path he has traveled already knows he possesses the kind of exceptional gift for observation that any songwriter yearns for. His sense of wonder is tempered by an accumulated wisdom and knowledge that comes with experience that has elevated him into the Wylie Lama of Texas Music, freely imparting songwriting verities to all kinds of aspiring musicians, which allows him to lay all his cards on the table and let the listener decide what it all
means.

In case you’re wondering where he’s been since his last album Snake Farm, Ray’s been writing, only he moved out of the song category to test his chops as a screenwriter, conceiving an outlaw western straight out of the Peckinpah school of blood and vengeance (“set in 1912 so we can have a Buick and a motorcycle and automatic weapons well as horses”). That his first screenplay actually got funded, filmed and slated for release is a testament to the caliber of his writing, the fact that Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, and Lizzy Caplan appear among the ensemble of accomplished actors speaks volumes of the respect he has earned among his peers.

Besides the movies, a weekly Tuesday radio show and constant touring as well as producing other artists, his focus remains fixed on the song - constructing and performing stories set to music that resonate like no one else’s. Not for nothing is he the dark literary, cat daddy of Americana songsters who was outlaw long before it was cool.

But don’t take my word for it. Ray Wylie is far better versed explaining how the sacred and the profane, the yin and the yang, the eternal and the now, the hippies and rednecks, the saved and the damned are all part of the same conversation.“I like to look at both enlightenment and endarkenment,” he declares. “I feel comfortable observing each.

Now I really feel like I gave up the right to judge anybody a longtime ago. With my behavior back in my twenties and thirties, I don’t have that right. I really don’t.” That doesn’t stop him from taking note of what’s going on around him. “It’s so turbulent right now,” he says. “Like the idea of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That’s pretty strong and scary stuff, especially since I try to stay here in this Pollyanna world of hope and idealism I’ve created, but I’m able to get in that mind set and look at it and write it from the point of view of one who believes it.”

“In ‘Rise Up,’ I can go in there and see the need for that kind of Salvation and understand why that need is there but then read about Chet Baker and heroin and think, yeah, man, it does make the deep things appear (which he captures in ‘Opium). “I feel very fortunate, being able to see that, but not really go there.”

“Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and “Rise Up,” two straight up gospel pieces that could be sung in a four square church are “straight, basic fundamental Pentecostal Bible,” Ray explains with a sly grin. “Then all of a sudden I write about a naked woman in ‘Drunken Poet’s Dream.”

So what’s up with the unusual title song? “It is my honoring Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven,’” he says, breaking into a conspiratorial smile. “That is my favorite poem of all time. It still is. I re-read it and as I was going to bed I thought, I should write something like this. I couldn’t use a raven so I used a black sparrow. And it started. It was so weird, just laying in bed thinking, OK, here’s Edgar Allen Poe, he’s drinking, he’s just lost the most precious thing in his life and all that. What would happen if I was in that frame of mind and suddenly this bird lands by my bed? What would it say? 'A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C).' ''

He continues “ Finally, a little bit later, came the line I’d heard my grandmother say when I was a kid, ‘Heaven pours down rain and lightning bolts’– that line kind of sums it all up for me as far as everything, really... Heaven is this beautiful place and yet it pours down rain and lightning bolts on both the just and the unjust. So being mindful of this, I was reminded of one of my wife Judy’s spiritualisms ‘the days I can keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, those are good days,"’

“When it’s all said and done and the record is released whether I ride through the streets in a chariot with rose pedals falling upon me and thousands cheering my name or I find myself standing against a wall being asked if I want a cigarette and a blindfold, I am extremely grateful for each of these songs. And if the truth be known, after every song I write I always say, 'thanks' '' With a keen eye of observation and a wise man’s knowledge, Ray Wylie Hubbard composes and performs songs that couldn’t spring from anywhere else but out of his fertile rock and roll bluesy poet-in-theblistering- heat southern noggin.

Hint: the answers are all within A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment.

Giovanni Falzone - Around Jimi

"I always heard about a musical encounter between Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, which unfortunately never occurred. Likewise, I always wondered what may have resulted, happened, emerged, if it had really occured.
Regrettably, due to the premature death of Hendrix, this meeting never took place. So, fascinated by these two musical icons and always having been intolerant of musical barriers, I decided to undertake a kind of imaginary journey around this "encounter" on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix death, by creating and arranging an alternation of my compositions with those of Hendrix and Davis.
For me, this project represented not only a way of satisying my great curiosity about music on a full scale, but also a different, alternative way of understanding the immense universe of Jazz, a musical genre that still retains that magic of continually metamorphosing its great wealth."
Giovanni Falzone


Trumpeter and composer Giovanni Falzone began playing the trumpet at the Municipal Band School of Music in Aragona, at the age of 17. He then enrolled in the V. Bellini Conservatory in Palermo, where he graduated in a short period of time under the tutelage of G. Ciavarello. In addition, he graduated, with the highest honors, from the Jazz Studies Program (arranging, historical-formal analysis, and improvisation) at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He won first prize as "Best Talent at Umbria Jazz, 2000", earning a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music, in Boston. He also participated as a soloist in a workshop/concert held by Wynton Marsalis at the Morlacchi Theater in Perugia, and in a modern-jazz seminar held by saxophonist Dave Liebman.