An album the size of a planet: World Citizen Band ‘Antares’

-

The global nature of musicians and the music they produce is something that has always fascinated me. From my own early days playing in orchestras and big bands, I've always loved finding out about the context in which music is produced. With Antares, World Citizen Band have produced an album of original jazz that reflects the background and influences of each member of the quintet.

Each track on Antares takes the listener on a journey around the planet we call Earth, but with a sense of the planet Antares, which is also known as the heart of the scorpion. This really is a huge album in all senses of the word, reflecting the influences and heritage of each member - individually and collectively.

WCB was formed in Berlin in 2013 with the goal of uniting cultures through music, featuring Uri Gurvich - New York, from Israel (saxophone), Ramiro Olaciregui - Berlin, from Argentina (guitar), Marcos Merino - Madrid, from Spain (piano), Kenneth Dahl Knudsen - Aalborg, Denmark (double bass) and Rodolfo Zuniga - Los Angeles, from Costa Rica (drums).

If you like the music of McCoy Tyner, Brad Melhdau or Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, you'll find something to like on Antares.
Collaborations like this allow each member of the quintet to contribute both in composition and in performance and the various global homes and heritage of each comes to the fore. These are musicians steeped in the jazz world across North and South America, Europe and the Middle East and it shows.

The virtuosity of each of the five shines through, not least on the opening track - Uri Gurvich's sax solo on his Orient Express is breathtaking in the mixture of simplicity and complexity. There are dates across Spain, France, Denmark, Lithuania and Germany through October, so check them out and try to get along to one of the gigs - I might see you there!


Track Listing 

1. Orient Express (Uri Gurvich)
2. Samba Pra Kuki (Ramiro Olaciregui)
3. Day One (Kenneth Dahl Knudsen)
4. Verás Mijín (Marcos Merino)
5. Bolinchas (Kenneth Dahl Knudsen)
6. Antares (Rodolfo Zuniga)
7. ¿Y Las Palabras? (Marcos Merino)
8. Lotus (Ramiro Olaciregui)
9. St. Sulpice (Rodolfo Zuniga)
10. CM’s Blues (Ramiro Olaciregui)
11. Magic Carpet (Uri Gurvich)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

-
Image
Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...
Read more

The Darius Brubeck Quartet live at Jazz Cafe Posk

-
Image
My first visit to Jazz Cafe Posk in London's Hammersmith coincided with the 60th anniversary of Posk - The Polish Social and Cultural Association - and the first performance in the club by pianist and composer Darius Brubeck. Photo credit @ Hilary Seabrook Darius was 10 when he joined his father on a historic tour of Poland. The Dave Brubeck Quartet toured Poland from 6 to 18 March 1958, just three years after the communist regime's ban on jazz was lifted. Without a doubt, this was the biggest jazz event in post-war Poland, with the archetypal and hugely successful outfit of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Sixty years later, in  2018, Darius took his own quartet - the same one he brought to Posk in May 2024 - to Poland for a significant tour, recorded and released as the Live in Poland album. Several of the tracks from this album were in the set at Posk and this quartet displayed in depth the benefits of playing to...
Read more

‘Memory in Motion’ with The Jazz Defenders

-
Image
A packed Pizza Express in London’s Soho was blasted by The Jazz Defenders as they unleashed their new album on the world - celebrating International Jazz Day 2024 in style. The Jazz Defenders Memory in Motion is a great album, out now on Haggis Records , with touches of Horace Silver and tinges of Herbie Hancock. There was something slightly disconcerting about an electronic keyboard sitting on top of the wonderful Dean Street Steinway and George Cooper handled them both with a dexterity and panache that made it all make sense. A talented bunch, The Jazz Defenders take their influences from wherever they choose, including some of the other ensembles in which they strut their stuff.  Horns are courtesy of Jake McMurchie (tenor sax) and Nick Malcolm (trumpet) and they are as much at ease on stabbing and intricate lines as they are on solos through the tracks. A solid rhythm and added excitement comes from Ian Matthews (drums) and Will Harris (double bass and bass guitar). Matthews ...
Read more