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Bassist Mark Egan and Drummer Danny Gottlieb Team Up on Electric Blue

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Bassist Mark Egan and Drummer Danny Gottlieb Team Up on Electric Blue

Longtime musical partners explore entrancing grooves and soundscapes on latest project, Electric Blue. 

Available now on CD and vinyl on Wavetone Records

After nearly 50 years of playing music together, going back to their days as students at the University of Miami through their years of touring and recording as members of the original Pat Metheny Group, with the Gil Evans Monday Night Orchestra, exploring new tones and textures with their band Elements and heading up their own individual projects, bassist Mark Egan and Danny Gottlieb have forged an indelible chemistry that transcends time and notes on a page. On their first-ever duo recording, Electric Blue, the longtime musical partners showcase their rare empathy in a revealing stripped-down setting of just drums and bass.

Interview with Bassist Mark Egan

As Gottlieb explained, “The duo music contained in this recording reflects our 49-plus years of friendship and our musical adventures together. In your musical life, and especially if you are a rhythm section player, you sometimes get lucky to find a musical partner with whom you connect immediately on the deepest level. It’s even more amazing when that person turns out to be a best friend. That is the relationship I have had with Mark since we met at the University of Miami in 1971.”

From the entrancing “Back and Forth” to the jauntily swinging “Cabareté,” the loping, lazy groover “Down the Road, the rubato soundscape “Blue Sound Bath,” the visceral funk of “Hookey” and the meditative closer “Offering,” Egan and Gottlieb showcase the results of their long musical partnership. With Egan’s distinctive singing fretless bass carrying the melodies and his layers of overdubbed fretted basses providing the harmonic content and Gottlieb shifting gears intuitively from ultra-sensitive (as on the stirring improv piece “Come What May” or the airy “Offering”) to all-out slamming mode (as on “Hookey” and the exhilarating title track), the interactive team can turn on a dime while evoking myriad spirits along the way.

“For this new recording, we wanted to document our rapport as a duo team,” said Egan of Electric Blue. “When you look at the definition of rapport, it’s ‘a harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.’ That perfectly describes how we interact as a duo.”

Weighing in on his drumming partner Gottlieb, Egan said, “Danny’s technique is incredible, which I think comes from having studied with the great Joe Morello [Dave Brubeck’s longtime drummer who was immortalized by his famous “Take Five” solo on the 1959 classic, Time Out]. He’s just got this masterful facility with his hands. But he also studied with Gary Chester [world renown New York session drummer] working on hand and foot independence. And when he combines both of those aspects of playing, he has the facility to go anywhere on the kit. So if I start to play something, he can triple it up or quadruple it up or perfectly underscore it with his tremendous musical facility. Danny has a rare combination of masterful technique and remarkable musicality.”

Recorded live at Electric Fields Studio in Connecticut over three days in June of 2019, with additional overdubbing and mixing taking place until December of 2019, Electric Blue traverses different moods, key centers, dynamics, and tempos for the two partners to negotiate.

Gottlieb explained the evolution of his duo chemistry with bassist Egan. “While playing in Pat Metheny’s band during the late 1970s, we traveled frequently to Japan, and Mark and I often would stop in Hawaii on the return trip. While there we would stay in Kauai, right on the ocean, with our friend Gina. We would play music in her living room, playing free while listening to the ocean in the background and would also play late into the night out in a valley overlooking the ocean, offering up sound waves and grooves for our friends, and to the gods! By 1982, we started the group Elements and that first album reflected many of the feelings captured during those Hawaii trips. We also started playing duo gigs and found that in the right environment, the combination of bass and drums could be magical.”

Added Egan, “Some of the things that Danny and I are acutely aware of whenever we’ve played together is the importance of the groove, listening and reacting to the entire ensemble and the use of dynamics. During our time together playing with the Pat Metheny Group there was a focus on dynamics as a compositional tool. Musicians at times forget about using dynamics in their own playing whether it be soloing or grooving. Danny and I are aware of dynamics and we instinctually utilize them when we’re playing together.”

Electric Blue documents the same empathetic spirit between the two players.

As Egan said, “I think there’s a special thread that goes through all of our playing on the records and projects that we’ve done. Whenever we get together, just drums and bass, it always seems to have a complete musical sense to it. We know each other’s playing so well that if one of us plays one note or a certain phrase the other one’s right on it and can either complement it or lead it into a new place. It’s a very special rapport and this is the first time we’ve recorded a complete project of it. It was so much fun recording creative music in the studio as a duo.”

Electric Blue is available on CD and vinyl on Wavetone Records

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New Album: Iron Axxis, 2286

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New Album: Iron Axxis, 2286

Iron Axxis, 2286…

New York’s metal scene is growing and mighty, and bringing the genre to new heights is instrumental metal band Iron Axxis.

Iron Axxis is gearing up for the release of their forthcoming album 2286. Due out March 29, 2024, the album highlights the band’s unique progressive, guitar-driven songwriting. “The sound is closer to Dream Theater than Van Halen, but there are some neat tips of the hat to Eddie, with some playful bends and whammy bar horse whinnies, while the track also crosses into Vai-esque meditative phrases and Holdsworthian scalic runs.” (GuitarWorld)

The band states, “‘‘2286’ is our first full-length album release. The album blends the high-risk Influences of the ‘guitar & bass guitar virtuosos’ of yesteryear and looks into the future by incorporating modern metal.. for a futuristic take on ‘guitar music. The listener will hear that ‘2286’ runs deep with their favorite metal influences with badass heavy riffage, thundering bass lines, and monstrous drum grooves, all while exploring metal through a wide cinematic lens, which ultimately takes it up a notch to an untamed guitar universe. “

Iron Axxis was forged from a friendship between Anupam Shobhakar and Phil Duke, two metal heads. They have worked together on previous recording studio projects and were in Book of Harmony, which was signed to Sony affiliates. Hailing from Brooklyn, they began to develop Iron Axxis at their studio in 2022.

Visit online at ironaxxis.live

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New Solo Album: Derek Frank, Origin Story

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New Solo Album: Derek Frank, Origin Story

Former Gwen Stefani/Shania Twain Bassist Announces New Solo Album “Origin Story”…

Veteran session/touring bassist Derek Frank is thrilled to announce the release of his new instrumental album “Origin Story” on March 25th, 2024. 

Origin Story is Derek’s third album as a solo artist, and his second album project with multiple Grammy award-winning producer Jim Scott (Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tom Petty, Wilco, Sting, Red Hot Chili Peppers). He is joined by his touring band, which includes guitarist Joshua Ray Gooch (Derek’s longtime bandmate with Shania Twain), keyboardist Carey Frank (Social Distortion, Tedeschi Trucks Band), drummer Randy Cooke (Smashmouth, Brit Floyd), percussionist Demian Arriaga (Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers), along with keyboardist Matt Rohde (Janes Addiction, The Chicks), guitarist Anthony King (Buffy Sainte-Marie), Vegas horn Section The Fat City Horns, featured guests Karl Denson (saxophone), Brent Mason (guitar), among others. 

After years of touring the world with artists such as Gwen Stefani, Shania Twain, Shakira, Air Supply, and others, veteran LA bass player Derek Frank decided it was time to take a slight detour from the life of a “hired gun” musician and focus on his own instrumental quintet. Described as “Seventies-Inspired Funky Instrumental Jams With Fewer Bass Solos Than You Would Expect”, Derek and his band blend funk, blues, soul, jazz, southern rock, and seventies soundtrack music into a genre all their own. 2020 saw the release of “Eleven Years Later”, Derek’s first solo album since his 2009 debut “Let the Games Begin…”, and now Origin Story is set for release on March 25th, 2024 on all download and streaming platforms. The 2-disc vinyl version (with bonus live tracks) will be available sometime in May 2024. 

In concept, Origin Story is an instrumental homage to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the city where Derek was born, grew up, discovered his love for music, and decided what he wanted to be when he grew up. 

For more information, visit online at derekfrank.com 

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New Album: Tom Kennedy, New Start

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New Album: Tom Kennedy, New Start

Tom Kennedy, New Start…

Autumn Hill Records is pleased to announce the March 22nd release of Tom Kennedy’s New Start.  Autumn Hill Records is a worldwide leader in instrumental music, boasting 11 billion streams and counting, and Tom Kennedy ranks as one of the top electric and acoustic bass players on the planet.  The new album features the Grammy-winning and Modern Drummer Hall of Famer Dave Weckl, as well as performances from Eric Marienthal, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Bill Evans and others. It is the sixth solo album from Tom Kennedy.  New Start will be available digitally on all major streaming and download platforms March 22nd, 2024. 

Kennedy writes that “The legendary pianist Keith Jarrett once said of his recorded music, ‘If there were words to express it, there would be no need for the music.’ Ironically, Keith’s sentiment provided the perfect verbiage for describing the process I’ve experienced in creating the music for this album.  These compositions did not come to me in complete thoughts, but rather as bits and pieces of melody, harmony, or rhythm to build from, much as in a live improvisation.  A single note or chord could inspire a pathway to a new section or critical transition of a song, and at times a completely orchestrated idea would just pop into my head.  No method, no foresight…just the music.”

Kennedy’s musical roots were on the acoustic bass, an instrument he started playing at age 9 and took to so naturally that within a few years, he was performing with internationally known players such as Freddie Hubbard, James Moody, Nat Adderley, Sonny Stitt and Stan Kenton. At age 17, Tom would create a musical alter ego when he began playing the electric bass. Intrigued by the endless possibilities of the instrument, he began developing his now signature style best described as deep, soulful grooves merging seamlessly into acrobatic, horn-like soloing.

Gaining a reputation that soon traveled beyond his native St. Louis, Tom relocated to New York City, where he quickly gained work with multiple groups. Further accolades came through a recording with guitar great Bill Connors and tours with tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker in the world-renowned jazz-fusion group Steps Ahead. Additional tours and recordings with Brazilian pianist Tania Maria and guitarist Al DiMeola followed. In 1998, Tom became an integral part of Modern Drummer Hall of Famer Dave Weckl’s band, a group he toured, composed and recorded with for over nine years. Tom and Dave have continued to perform and record together on various of Tom’s own albums as well as projects for other artists, including Mike Stern, Didier Lockwood, Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour.  They’ve been performing this music live for the last two years during tours of The Dave Weckl/Tom Kennedy Project.

Visit Online

www.autumnhillrecords.com
www.tomkennedymusic.com

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New Album: EZRA’s Self-titled Debut Album

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New Album: EZRA's Self-titled Debut Album

EZRA released their self-titled debut album with Adhyâropa Records…

Founded by award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Jones, EZRA is a collective of classical, jazz, rock, and bluegrass musicians focused on the creation of genre-crossing and style-inclusive new music. The ensemble consists of world-renowned mandolinist Jacob Jolliff, banjo virtuoso Max Allard, and bassist extraordinaire Craig Butterfield, with Jones on guitar- and keyboard-related instruments.

EZRA’s debut album EZRA includes nine works by Jones, and was recorded while Jones was on a one year sabbatical from his composition professorship at Oberlin Conservatory. Jones, who is also a luthier, used much of his sabbatical to build some of the instruments he plays on the album. He then invited longtime collaborator Butterfield, together with Jolliff and Allard, for an intense week of rehearsals and recording in Oberlin. It was the first time all four musicians had been in the same room, much less played together, but things fell into place from the first notes.

This speaks to the musicianship and camaraderie of all involved, but it is also due to the fact that Jones had been collecting these pieces for years, waiting for the right moment, and the right musicians. Jones says, “I sat alone in my living room for at least a decade playing through the dozens of compositions I had in my head. When I met Craig, who shared a lot of similar classical, roots, and folk interests, I decided to stretch myself and see if I could hang (musically) with a world-class musician like him. We hit it off, and from 2013 through 2019 we co-wrote and recorded three albums as a duo. I grew immeasurably as a musician as a result.”

Jones continues, “When the pandemic closed everything down, I found myself back in my living room, writing tune after tune alone with my instruments. In 2021, I fortuitously reconnected with an old friend, the phenomenal mandolinist Jacob Jolliff, and around the same time became acquainted with banjo wunderkind Max Allard. I jumped on the chance to get these guys together and record nine of the tunes I had lying around. The result was beyond what I could have imagined and was heaps of fun to rehearse and record.”

“Fabulous playing! So great to hear the next generation of string wizards dive in and continue the tradition forward.” — Mike Marshall

Jones began building instruments in 2020, studying with Alan Chapman of Chapman/Fisher Guitars. In the last year and a half, Jones has built a variety of instruments, including a quarter-tone Irish bouzouki, a 13-tone small instrument, a Pardessus, several steel string guitars, four classical guitars, two ukuleles, three mandolins (two of them experimental, single string designs), and a mandola.

On the track “Jarrah,” Jones plays the banjo-tuned guitar he built using jarrah wood, a deep red wood he particularly enjoys working with: “I have just a small block of it and used it for the rosette/headstock — when I got the instrument up and running, a tune fell from it into my hands, and I named it “Jarrah” after the wood.”

Jones explains that a lot of his compositions come about that way: “I play a lot of different instruments, and when I go down the rabbit hole on one of them (say the banjo in double C tuning), I tend to fall into several new tunes, almost by accident — Banjaleena, Dix-Neuf (at least the 4/4 melody part), Smoke in the Valley, and Garden Gate all came as I was searching and discovering new shapes and sounds on the banjo (the parts Max plays). “Cowboy Walks” just emerged from the first classical guitar I made.”

Though Jones wrote all nine compositions for the debut album, EZRA’s focus is centered around collaboration. Working up the arrangements together was part of the process (and the fun). Recorded and engineered by Paul Eachus at First Church in downtown Oberlin and mastered by Dave Sinko (Punch Brothers, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer), EZRA’s debut album captures lightning in a bottle.

EZRA is available on all services. For more information, visit online at ezraquartet.com

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New Album: Alberto Rigoni, Unexpected Lullabies

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New Album: Alberto Rigoni, Unexpected Lullabies

Alberto Rigoni, Unexpected Lullabies…

In an exhilarating revelation, the musical genius Alberto Rigoni has announced his latest masterpiece, “Unexpected Lullabies”, set to hit the airwaves on June 4th, 2024.

This album isn’t just any release; it’s a bold exploration of sound, merging the soothing essence of lullabies with the raw energy of rock-metal to create a musical hybrid that’s absolutely groundbreaking. Rigoni’s latest venture is a heartfelt ode to the circle of life, dedicated to newborns everywhere, symbolizing hope and the beautiful continuity of life with the poignant message: “There are no just tragedies in this world, life is going on!”

*A Stellar Lineup of Musical Legends*

What makes ‘Unexpected Lullabies’ even more exciting is the assembly of musical titans. The album features the legendary bassist Michael Manring, the keyboard wizardry of Alessandro Bertoni (of the Graham Bonnet Band) and Vitalij Kuprij (known for Artension and Trans-Siberian Orchestra), and many more yet-to-be-revealed guest artists.

Unexpected Lullabies is now available on pre-order from Shop Sliptrick at deadpulse.com/product/alberto-rigoni-unexpected-lullabies/

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