Month: August 2006

New CD from Lucky 7s

I am happy to announce the release of the Lucky 7s new CD entitled Farragut. It was recorded live in Chicago in March of 2006, mostly at the Hungry Brain, with one track coming from a performance at Enemy.

Lucky 7s cover

The musicians are: Josh Berman – cornet, Keefe Jackson – tenor sax and bass clarinet, Jeb Bishop – trombone, Jeff Albert – trombone and tuba, Jason Adasiewicz – vibes, Matthew Golombisky – bass and effects, and Quin Kirchner – drums.

The CD features compositions by Jeb Bishop, Jeff Albert and Matthew Golombisky played by some of Chicago and New Orleans’ most exciting young improvisers. There is more info about the band, and musical excerpts at http://lucky7s.org .

The CD can be purchased from the label’s website: http://www.lakefrontdigital.com .

The album can be purchased as an mp3 download at http://pepperenterprises.com . These are 256k mp3s that are DRM free.

There are also 5 tunes from these same sessions that are available as free Creative Commons licensed downloads. These can be found at http://lucky7s.org/music.php .

The band will be celebrating the release of this CD with three performances in Chicago, during the first week of September. We will perform at the Chicago Jazz Festival at noon on Sunday September 3, at The New Velvet Lounge on Tuesday September 5, and at Elastic on Wednesday September 6.

Thanks,
Jeff

The perception of Blue Note

This ties in a bit to this previous post about Blue Note.

The Daily Jazz: Trinidad Oil Company – Feelin’ Alright

i’m sure some of you will complain that this “isn’t jazz”, but, well, it’s on Blue Note, it suits my mood tonight, and that’s good enough for me

The fact that it is on Blue Note is used as an arguement to defend its “jazzness”. I don’t really care if it qualifies as jazz, as long as it sounds good, but this sort of thinking is an example of how EMI will damage its Blue Note brand by expanding it to non-jazz adult music.

Admittedly, I’m a little old school about that label. I’m still a bit irked that they quit making all of the CD faces with their standard blue and white design. Oh well, progress…

A vinyl look back

I just picked up a few used LPs from an internet friend. It is funny how our memories of things change. Every time I get involved in a conversation about CD packaging, someone mentions the good old days with vinyl and the big jackets, and all of the wondeful info they carried. That was true, sometimes.

Two of the LPs (Roswell Rudd – Inside Job on Arista, and Enrico Rava Quartet on ECM) have nothing more than basic discographical info on them. No extensive info on gatefold covers or printed on the inner sleeve. Just two panels of record jacket. They look cool, and sound great, but they aren’t any sort of liner note utopia like some folks remember LPs to be.

The other LP I picked up is Mel Lewis and Friends on Horizon/A&M from 1976. This one does have more liner note info, including this great quote from the back of the jacket.

One could hardly ask for a more stylishly swinging pianist than Hank Jones, a more aggressively attentive bassist than Ron Carter, or a more ferociously fertile trumpter than Freddie Hubbard. The fourth member, tenor saxophonist Mike Brecker, is not as widely known…

My how times change.