The David Hazeltine Trio - The Jobim Songbook in New York (Sacd Hybrid Stereo) - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

As part of it's 40th anniversary celebration, Chesky Records is bringing back David Hazeltine's The Jobim Songbook In New York. Originally released in 2006 and long elusive to collectors, this masterful session features the acclaimed pianist and his premier trio-bassist Nat Reeves and drummer Joe Farnsworth-reimagining 11 classics from the architect of bossa nova, Antonio Carlos Jobim. While Jobim's timeless melodies have been recorded countless times, Hazeltine's treatment flips the script by posing a fascinating musical question What if Jobim had been born and raised in New York, writing his music specifically for a hard-swinging Manhattan jazz trio?Rather than leaning into standard bossa rhythms, the world-class trio treats the material with taste, subtlety, and constant creative daring. The album yields fresh, surprising reinterpretations that showcase the incredible flexibility of Jobim's writing. Highlights include a surprisingly boppish rendition of InchMeditation,Inch and an intricate version of InchOnce I LovedInch that evokes the sophisticated groove of Ahmad Jamal. Most notably, the legendary InchThe Girl From IpanemaInch is brilliantly transformed from a breezy seaside stroll into a driving swing tune.Backed by the telepathic chemistry of Reeves and Farnsworth, Hazeltine delivers what remains a definitive high point of his storied career. Captured with Chesky's signature commitment to pristine, live acoustic sonics in a natural acoustic space, the performance feels vivid, intimate, and completely alive. The Jobim Songbook In New York will be reissued on SACD Hybrid Stereo and 180g One-step Pressing Vinyl LP as part of the Chesky Original Masters series.

Scottish experimental/electronic musician Drew McDowall's lifelong interest in an elegiac solo bagpipe style called pibroch (ceòl mòr in Gaelic) has been an inspiration for much of his previous work (including Coil's legendary Time Machines). This form, often traditionally used for laments and for tributes to the dead, fuses modal drones with flickering dissonance and plaintive melody evoking an ancient, solemn mood.His latest work, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, both incorporates and transforms these elements via exploratory electronic processing, weaving an electro-acoustic tapestry of strings, shudders, voids, and voices, alternately disembodied and displaced. Co-produced with engineer Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn, the collection's four pieces capture McDowall at his most elevated and elusive, in thrall to Inchthe ineffable - that which refuses to be spoken.InchMcDowall's palette here is unusually eclectic, sourced from a dynamic orchestral ensemble arranged by Brent Arnold and comprised of cello, viola, violin, harp (Marilu Donovan of LEYA), and French horn. Ebbing between shrouded electronics and enigmatic, sometimes spectralist orchestration, the album moves with a seething, simmering energy, surging into elegant, uneasy crescendos. The first two pieces are inspired by a liberatory hijacking and inversion of a grim biblical story (and by a cryptic and strange UK simple syrup branding). Opener InchOut of Strength Comes SweetnessInch shivers with short echo and resonant pads, before shifting into the album's centerpiece the 14-minute saga InchAnd Lions Will Sing with Joy.Inch A murmuring electrical storm of keening strings and disorienting drones gradually grows darker and denser, until suddenly there's a crack in the clouds, revealing mutated choral voices and sparkling harp. McDowall describes the track as Inchan incantation to help ushe

Pianist David Hazeltine has a history with Criss Cross. To be specific, between 1995 and 2010, Gerry Teekens, the tag's founder, presented eight albums on which Hazeltine led trios, quartets and quintets featuring his impeccable, individualistic pianism, original compositions and arrangements; another five with the cooperative all-star sextet One For All (tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, trombonist Steve Davis, trumpeter Jim Rotondi, bassists Peter Washington or John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth), whose grooving, harmonically acute charts bear his stamp; and another 17 as a sideman with the aforementioned luminaries, trumpeter Brian Lynch, alto saxophonist Jim Snidero, and other high-level jazzfolk who now hold pride of place in the hardcore jazz ecosystem.Hazeltine returns to the fold with Blues For Gerry, his first Criss Cross leader date since Inversions (2010, Criss 1326), a lovely quintet date that included Alexander and vibraphonist Steve Nelson. Recorded in a single six-hour session on December 1, 2022, it's his third state of the art trio recital for Criss Cross with modern masters Peter Washington and Joe Farnsworth, following the equally accomplished Perambulation (2005, Criss 1276) and Close To You (2003, Criss 1247).The album was recorded December 1, 2022 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in NY. Recording engineer Mike Marciano also did the editing, mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NY. Photography by Anna Yatskevich.