Ben Tweedt - Life Cycle - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Album Tracks 1. Lullaby 2. Open Road 3. Dark Stains 4. Gone Tomorrow 5. Obey 6. Sleepers 7. Letting Go of Childhood Dreams 8. Raven Raven 9. Come on Honey 10. Rant

Highly regarded among guitarists and other musicians for his virtuosity and dedication, New York guitarist Ben Monder assembled a program of original compositions, including three solo pieces, for his debut CD as a leader. Rooted in jazz improvisation, his music integrates wide-ranging influences, notably twentieth century classical (Bartok, Stravinsky, Carter) and rock, reflecting his experiences as a player and listener. The trio explores forms and textures, elaborating Monder's evocative melodies and distinctive harmonic language, often sweetly dissonant. The solo works, which are through-composed, guitaristic, and rhythmically challenging, sometimes bring to mind the complexity-within-simplicity and cyclic feel of process music. Monder plays electric guitar throughout but doesn't employ a panoply of effects; rather, his tone and attack bear the authority of one who has honed his approach to concentrate on the essential. Album Tracks 1. Muvseevum 2. Flux 3. Food for the Moon 4. Red Shifts 5. Jello Throne 6. Don't Look Down 7. Orbits 8. O.K. Chorale 9. Lactophobia 10. Propane Dream

For a decade, the trio of Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas, and Ted Nash has coalesced into a singular ensemble highlighting impressive group interplay and creative interpretations of the music of their favorite composers. After years of focusing on the music of others, the drummer-less trio found it the right time to take on the compositions of it's members on the new recording, Triological.The relationships between Allison, Cardenas, and Nash have spanned decades. Woodwind master Nash enlisted Allison for the bassist's first professional gig in 1990. Their bond deepened later in the decade as they became members of the Jazz Composers Collective. Guitarist Steve Cardenas was brought into Allison's orbit in 2004, the two discovering a deep connection evidenced on the many projects they have worked on together. The trio came together when Cardenas and Allison were approached with a gig in Upstate New York. For the performance, they decided to focus on the music of guitar legend Jim Hall. After a first rehearsal, Cardenas and Allison decided to add a horn to the mix in homage to the revolutionary trio of Jimmy Giuffre, which had featured Hall and bassist Ralph Pena. Their choice of Nash as the woodwind voice was inspired and the trio has been impressing listeners ever since.The configuration of the trio may owe much to the model of that Giuffre group. They reference, but do not intend to duplicate, that trio's example, as the instrumentation has allowed for an openness to explore any musical direction, from free to folk, all in the most conversational of manners. Naturally, the group's first recording, Quiet Revolution (Newvelle and Sonic Camera Records, 2016/2018), featured their arrangements of Hall and Giuffre. Their next recording, Somewhere Else West Side Story Songs (Plastic Sax Records, 2019) presented the trio's takes on the music of Leonard Bernstein's beloved musi