ANFTD #66: Sam Newsome
Dave talks to Sam Newsome about being a solo soprano saxophonist, how he creates his recordings, and the basic underlying decisions that guide his work. Sam also talks about smooth jazz, as well as about his more recent interest in balloon sculpting and the new areas that is taking his music. Sam's new record, Chaos Theory: Song Cycles For Soprano Saxophone, was released on June 3, 2019 on the Some New music imprint. In the podcast EXTRA, they talk about Wayne Shorter and his development of the soprano saxophone as a solo instrument.
Please support this podcast and Greenleaf Music by subscribing to our exclusive series of recordings. Join us and join all our artists and creative endeavors sustainably and equitably here.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // ENGAGE: Sanctuary Cities - Track 6
ENGAGE Five: Sanctuary Cities
We are not full. We are a growing, breathing, expanding country enriched by our diversity and a warm welcome of all people. We operate in an interconnected world in which no country can pretend to "go it alone." Our music and art demonstrates the curiosity and openness of our hearts, and this piece is dedicated to everyone working to keep families united and defending our laws at the border. This would be a good time to support RAICES Texas for the awesomely inspiring work they do.
Greenleaf Subscribers can stream and download “Sanctuary Cities“ on Bandcamp (make sure you're logged in). Learn more about the ENGAGE Subscriber Series here.
Recorded and mixed by Tyler McDiarmid at The Bunker Studios, Brooklyn, NY December 3, 2018.
And join us as a subscriber to gain access to this series and much more.
ANFTD #65: Ryan Keberle introduces 'The Hope I Hold'
Special edition: This is a recording made by NY trombonist Ryan Keberle about his new record The Hope I Hold, which we're releasing on June 28. So great to hear Ryan's insights on how the music came together. Enjoy the music!
Please support this podcast and Greenleaf Music by subscribing to our exclusive series of recordings. Join us and join all our artists and creative endeavors sustainably and equitably here.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
ANFTD #64: Fay Victor
Fay Victor comes to visit the podcast with music in many collaborations - from Other Dimensions In Music (Roy Campbell, Jr., Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Charles Downs) to her own Chamber Trio with Marika Hughes and Darius Jones. She and Dave talk about her idea of Freesong and how it has grown out of songs, forms, and improvisation. They also talk about her use of language and sound, as well as their former colleague, Misha Mengelberg.
There They Are (Fay Victor Chamber Trio)
Barn Songs (yet to be released)
Fay Victor - voice, composition
Darius Jones - alto saxophone
Marika Hughes - cello
Creative Folks
Wet Robots (Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK, 2018) ESP Disk
Fay Victor - voice, text, conception
Joe Morris - electric guitar
Sam Newsome - soprano saxophone
Reggie Nicholson - drums
An Open Letter
Kaiso Stories (Fay Victor w Other Dimensions in Music, 2011) Silkheart
Fay Victor - voice, conception
Ray Campbell - trumpets
Daniel Carter - reeds
William Parker - double bass ++
Charles Downs - drums
Gunk
Absinthe & Vermouth (The Fay Victor Ensemble, 2013) Greene Ave Music
Fay Victor - comp, voice, lyrics
Anders Nillson - electric guitar
Ken Filiano - double bass
Join us as a subscriber to hear all these episodes and plenty of exclusive music at greenleafmusic.com/subscribe.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // ENGAGE: Where Do We Go From Here - Track 5
ENGAGE Five: Where Do We Go From Here
Urgency will be required. We’re joined by both Riley Mulherkar and Dave Adewumi on trumpets here. This is an urgent march to the polls. It also means a fight for fair voting nationwide, including all our disenfranchised brothers and sisters.
The relentless drive of the beat represents that urgency, and is supported by great playing all around. This month’s track from ENGAGE supports Black Voters Matter Fund and their commitment to voter registration, enfranchisement, and get out the vote training and practice.
"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Where Do We Go From Here", 1967
Greenleaf Subscribers can stream and download “Where Do We Go From Here“ on Bandcamp (make sure you're logged in). Learn more about the ENGAGE Subscriber Series here.
Recorded and mixed by Tyler McDiarmid at The Bunker Studios, Brooklyn, NY December 3, 2018.
And join us as a subscriber to gain access to this series and much more.
ANFTD #63: Roxy Coss
This month's episode visits Roxy Coss, composer, saxophonist, and activist. Roxy talks with Dave about her composing, her background and her activism, both its origins and recent developments as director of Women In Jazz Organization. Roxy also talks about other organizations doing the work of improving conditions for women in jazz. She mentions Key Change, Institute for Gender and Jazz Justice and El Paso Jazz Girls, as well as talking about the how and why of her championing of women's empowerment in music and jazz. Listen to the music and hear the conversation here.
Join us as a subscriber to hear all these episodes and plenty of exclusive music at greenleafmusic.com/subscribe.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // ENGAGE: One Sun, A Million Rays - Track 4
ENGAGE Four: One Sun, A Million Rays
We're grateful for the warmth of the sun over the centuries, and we're grateful for the support systems whereby we help each other and support those in need. This tune is built on a steady but indefinite rhythmic underpinning, over which all unfolds. Dave Adewumi and I solo together. Anna plays a gorgeous solo, Jeff and Tomeka create an eerie atmosphere to the whole proceeding. And Nick and Kate hold it down through endless variations on a riff. Having watched organizations serving the needs of immigrant women around the country, this piece points to and supports the crucial work of CasaLuz in Memphis, Tennessee.
Greenleaf Subscribers can stream and download “One Sun, A Million Rays“ on Bandcamp (make sure you're logged in first). Learn more about the ENGAGE Subscriber Series here.
Recorded and mixed by Tyler McDiarmid at The Bunker Studios, Brooklyn, NY December 3, 2018.
And join us as a subscriber to gain access to this series and much more.
ANFTD #62: Tomeka Reid
Tomeka visits the studio to talk with Dave about her quartet with Mary Halvorson, Jason Roebke, and Tomas Fujiwara and their upcoming release on Cuneiform. They also talk about the AACM, Chicago, her new membership in the Art Ensemble of Chicago, improvising and composing, Abdul Wadud and Billy Bang, Artifacts Trio with Nicole Mitchell and Mike Reed, and much more. Tomeka also appears on this year’s subscription series recording, ENGAGE. Enjoy.
Join us as a subscriber to hear all these episodes and plenty of exclusive music at greenleafmusic.com/subscribe.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // ENGAGE: How Are The Children? - Track 3
ENGAGE Three: How Are The Children?
Rev. Traci Blackmon brought my attention to this expression from the Maasai. It resonates on so many levels. It came to me around issues towards sensible regulation of firearms in this country. To save lives. A majority of us want it. We have to fight for it by calling our representatives and joining groups like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America in the legislative battle. We need to take care of our children. This is an issue that intersects with so many others. So we stand up to make sure that Our Children Are Well.
Dave Adewumi is the guest trumpeter extraordinaire. He takes the solo here. Anna Webber also plays tenor sax here. Tomeka Reid, Jeff Parker, Nick Dunston and Kate Gentile shine.
Greenleaf Subscribers can stream and download “How Are The Children?“ on Bandcamp here. Learn more about the ENGAGE Subscriber Series here.
Recorded and mixed by Tyler McDiarmid at The Bunker Studios, Brooklyn, NY December 3, 2018.
And join us as a subscriber to gain access to this series and much more.
ANFTD #61: Anna Webber
Dave and Anna talk about how she develops her elaborately wrought compositions and her surprising sources and inspirations. Her path as a player of flutes and saxophones. Highlights her new release on Pi Recordings, Clockwise. Anna has a good radio voice.
About Anna:
Anna Webber is a New York-based flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work live the overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. Her new album, Clockwise, featuring a septet comprised of several of the most creative musicians working in New York’s avant-garde, will be released on Pi Recordings in February 2019.
Webber’s other projects include her Simple Trio, with John Hollenbeck and Matt Mitchell, and a big band co-led with Angela Morris. She has performed and/or recorded with projects led by artists such as Dan Weiss, Jen Shyu, Dave Douglas, Matt Mitchell, Ches Smith, John Hollenbeck, and Geof Bradfield, among others.
Webber is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. She has additionally been awarded grants from the Shifting Foundation (2015) and residencies from the MacDowell Colony (2017), the Millay Colony for the Arts (2015), and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (2014). In 2014 she won the BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize as a member of the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop. Webber is originally from British Columbia.
Join us as a subscriber to hear all these episodes and plenty of exclusive music at greenleafmusic.com/subscribe.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
Photo by Peter Gannushkin
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // ENGAGE: In It Together - Track 2
ENGAGE Two: In It Together
This second piece in the ENGAGE suite forefronts the struggle for wealth equality worldwide. Inequality is one of our most pressing problems, exacerbating many of our other challenges.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) works on these issues in institutions, with public financing towards sustainable economic growth, ‘green growth’ strategies and equality in the workplace. The OECD recent Secretary-General's report says we have reached a tipping point. Inequality can no longer be treated as an afterthought. We need to focus the debate on how the benefits of growth are distributed.
As we play this piece, we stay engaged in this common goal for all global citizens, our commitment to pitch in on the enormous tasks in front of us. All of us.
As a composer, I foresaw the music being released track by track. I like the idea that a listener would focus on a single track for several weeks, perhaps reflecting on its inspirations, and be open to the news of the next track as it is revealed. Hope this mode of release resonates.
Anna Webber plays bass flute on this track.
Recorded and mixed by Tyler McDiarmid at The Bunker Studios, Brooklyn, NY December 3, 2018.
Greenleaf Subscribers can stream and download “In It Together“ on Bandcamp here. Learn more about the ENGAGE Subscriber Series here.
And join us as a subscriber to gain access to this series and much more.
ANFTD #60: Kate Gentile
Extraordinary drummer, composer, percussionist Kate Gentile talks with Dave about her compositions, her album, Mannequins, and her wide ranging collaborations with Matt Mitchell, Adam Hopkins, Jeremy Viner, Dustin Carlson, Snark Horse and others. Also covered: her use of technology, singing into her phone, pronunciation of her name, the syncopation of Brooklyn heating pipe noise, and more. Kate is wearing the Agoraphobic Nosebleed hoodie in the ENGAGE band photo.
Join us as a subscriber to hear all these episodes and plenty of exclusive music at greenleafmusic.com/subscribe.
Edited by Geoffrey Countryman
Photo by Anna Yatskevich