Praise for Present Joys

Present-Joys-Blog-Post

Present Joys has been out for 2 weeks and we couldn’t be more excited about the press we’ve received about this release. See highlights below and get your copy of Present Joys here.

A note from Dave Douglas:

Extraordinary for me to see all these thoughts! Much appreciated. Uri Caine and I have learned a lot touring this music. Thanks to all of you who have shared it. If you have not picked up the CD, now is a good time. And thanks for your support. We need it and appreciate it.

4 stars  “Alluring … a 2014 jazz highlight.”

John Fordham, The Guardian/UK

 

“I felt smarter after listening to Present Joys. Along with pianist Uri Caine, Douglas’ approach on this record sounds like Nas on Illmatic or the Grateful Dead at their live shows. He opens a channel into the middle of his musicianship and just lets it all flow out without anything superfluous or presumptuous.”

Alex Marianyi, NextBop

 

“While Present Joys features a stripped-down instrumentation, the utterly in-sync duo of Douglas and Caine also reaches lofty artistic heights and resonances.”

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen

 

4 stars … “Trumpeter Dave Douglas continues his exploration of traditional New England music with this delightful and intimate duet album, featuring pianist Uri Caine.  Though contemporary in scope, each track reflects the sparse harmonies, dignified phrasing and sense of community of a bygone era.”

Mike Hobart, Financial Times

 

8/10 … “Quite extraordinary. The folk tradition through jazz. I suppose it’s easy to embrace the tendency of adventurous musicians, of any artists with a taste for the edgy, to move back to lyricism and tradition. I’m wary of my affection for this recording and for Be Still for that reason, in the same way that I hesitate to laud Coltrane’s Ballads album. But these records are not retreats of bold playing at all — they are an expansion of a great artist’s sensibility, a way the artist has found to dare himself to focus, to refine, to move in new ways.  Dave Douglas and Uri Caine are good enough to stand up to making ‘pretty’ music, even traditional music. They pass the test and come out still surprising us.”

Will Layman popmatters.com

 

“Spiritual music, solid as Shaker furniture and often as sober as a Quaker meeting, performed by two attuned virtuosos who have worked together in various configurations for more than 20 years.   In the closing ballad ‘Zero Hour,’ Caine’s gorgeously joyous response to Douglas’s more serious reflections create[s] a brand new world in five minutes and change.”

Richard Gehr, Wonderingsound.com