"MacFarlane is the rare revivalist who knows that the Great American Songbook is more than 100 pages thick" -  Reuters Grammy-nominated artist Seth MacFarlane's love affair with standards continues with his fourth album, In Full Swing, set for release on September 15 on Verve Label Group / Republic Records.

MacFarlane wraps his rich, expressive baritone around 16 toe-tapping tunes he handpicked, utilizing his near encyclopedic knowledge of songs from the era. A connoisseur of the period, MacFarlane delighted in finding obscure gems, many first featured in musicals, to sprinkle between the better-known tracks from the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s. In Full Swing is irrepressibly upbeat about cupid's arrow finding its mark.

Blessed with an arranger's ear, MacFarlane revamped the originals with a deliberate approach, sometimes altering the tempo and structure during sessions with producer/arranger Joel McNeely. MacFarlane gives traditionally quiet ballad "But Beautiful" an uplifting bounce; he adds a sultry heft to the fluffy "A Kiss Or Two,"  and he turns "Almost Like Being In Love" into a bubbly ode. Two collaborations bolster the set: MacFarlane duets with longtime friend Norah Jones on the lovely "If I Had A Talking Picture of You" and he concludes the album with the bright and jaunty "My Buick, My Love and I," a duet with Elizabeth Gillies.

His first album of standards, Music is Better Than Words, debuted at #1 on the iTunes jazz chart and received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. His 2014 Christmas set, Holiday for Swing, also debuted at No. 1, and was followed by No One Ever Tells You, another iTunes chart topper. He's performed with composer John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl and this year, duetted with Barbra Streisand on "Pure Imagination" for ENCORE: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.

For MacFarlane, who this fall stars in The Orville, a sci-fi dramedy he created, music provides another path for his abundant talent to shine as he steps in front of the microphone to make familiar songs new again.

Brian Newman, singer, trumpeter and Verve recording artist will release his second single from his forthcoming debut record, a swinging version of “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” on November 17th, just in time for holiday season. He is also continuing his successful summer “after hours” club tour with winter dates that kick off in Houston on December 3rd. Newman is a long-time friend of Lady Gaga and has frequently accompanied her in performance, most notably on the Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga “Cheek to Cheek” Tour in 2015.  As with the summer tour, which was highlighted by two surprise appearances by Lady Gaga at both of Brian’s performances at House of Blues in Boston, these new club dates coincide with Lady Gaga’s Joanne World Tour dates.  In addition to Houston, Brian will have appearances in Austin, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.  The Brian Newman Quintet features Brian on vocals and trumpet, Alex Smith on keyboard, Steve Kortyka on saxophone, Daniel Foose on bass and Joe Peri on drums.

Brian was featured in the recent Netflix documentary, Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two in which both the personal and professional relationship between the two are portrayed: Lady Gaga attending the baptism of Brian’s first child and Brian performing on “Bad Romance” at Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday party at the Rainbow Room in New York City.

Signed to Verve, Brian Newman’s forthcoming debut solo album will showcase the diversity and originality of his musical signature, recently inspiring the New York Times to note his “swinging music…and noteworthy style.”.  A true talent on trumpet, the release will incorporate creative takes on rock classics as well as jazz standards. In addition to the Bennett/Gaga tour, he has collaborated with Jose Feliciano and Dierks Bentley. Brian has performed on Boardwalk Empire, NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center, MTV’s Video Music Awards, The Tonight Show, Watch What Happens Live, Marc Jacobs fashion shows and was featured in a national H&M commercial.

‘After Hours’ Club Dates:

12/03   White Oak Music Hall, Houston, TX

12/05   Antone’s, Austin, TX

12/16   House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV

12/17   Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles, CA

Brian grew up in Cleveland and studied music at the Cincinatti College-Conservatory of Music. In 2003, he moved to New York City to establish his music career and met Lady Gaga while bartending at the downtown club St Jerome’s. The two have remained friends ever since and when Lady Gaga reconnected with her love of jazz through her collaboration with Tony Bennett, she asked Brian to perform trumpet on “The Lady Is A Tramp,” which appeared on Bennett’s “Duets II,” as well as the “Cheek to Cheek” recording.

Verve Records and UMe will close out their year-long celebration of jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald's centennial with the ultimate present for her 100th birthday - a completely unreleased live album. More than 60 years after it was recorded, Ella At Zardi's will finally be released on CD and digital on December 1. Today, WBGO, the global leader in jazz radio, premiered the album's opening track, "It All Depends on You," both on the air and at WBGO.org, with an accompanying article. The song, popularized by Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, was never released on any of Fitzgerald's albums, making this a truly rare performance. Listen at WBGO.

Recorded on February 2, 1956 at Zardi's Jazzland in Hollywood, Ella At Zardi's features the entirety of the evening's two-set, 21-song performance, which captures an inspired Fitzgerald, backed by a stellar trio comprised of pianist Don Abney, bassist Vernon Alley and drummer Frank Capp, singing and swinging in front of an animated, adoring crowd, just days before she'd go on to record the album that would catapult her to stardom. The concert was originally recorded by Norman Granz to celebrate the creation of, and Fitzgerald's signing to, Verve Records, which Granz founded largely to give Fitzgerald the attention that he felt she wasn't receiving at her then-current label, Decca. Ella At Zardi's was planned as the label's inaugural release but shelved in favor of the now-classic studio album Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Song Book, which kicked off a best-selling, signature series of Song Book releases. The Zardi's tapes languished in Verve's vaults for six decades. Preorder Ella At Zardi's now: https://UMe.lnk.to/EllaAtZardis

Ella At Zardi's captures the brilliance and inspiration Fitzgerald's performances embodied at the time. As veteran jazz journalist Kirk Silsbee observes in the album's liner notes, "We can hear a fluid and joyous singer who operates with almost giddy authority. Ella manages to find a way of swinging almost every number, no matter the tempo. She anticipates her studio songbook albums with Duke Ellington's 'In A Mellow Tone,' Cole Porter's 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy,' the Gershwins' 'S'Wonderful' and 'I've Got a Crush On You,' and Jerome Kern's 'A Fine Romance'... Ella uses her intelligent phrasing and rhythmic sense in inventive and exhilarating ways. Her repertoire was vast and she didn't always remember the correct lyrics of a song. But the way she spontaneously redesigns the text in the most musical of ways is Fitzgerald's signature."

Ella At Zardi's caps off Verve/UMe's slate of releases in celebration of "Ella 100," which has included the four-CD set 100 Songs For A Centennial; the six-LP vinyl box set Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George & Ira Gershwin Song Books and Someone to Watch Over Me, which marries Fitzgerald's vocals with new instrumental tracks by the London Symphony Orchestra. The centennial has also seen the first-ever digital releases of her rare early singles for the Decca label.

Ella At Zardi's stands out for its history-making rediscovery of a vintage performance by one of jazz's greatest artists. As Granz enthuses in his stage introduction, "This is for real; for me she's the greatest there is-Miss Ella Fitzgerald!"

The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation 

The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation was created and funded in 1993 by Ella Fitzgerald in order to fulfill her desires to use the fruits of her success to help people of all races, cultures and beliefs. Fitzgerald hoped to make their lives more rewarding, and she wanted to foster a love of reading, as well as a love of music. In addition, she hoped to provide assistance to the at-risk and disadvantaged members of our communities-assistance that would enable them to achieve a better quality of life. The Board of Directors of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation seeks to continue Ella Fitzgerald's goals by making charitable grants serving four major areas of interest:

   1. creating educational and other opportunities for children

   2. fostering a love and knowledge of music, including assistance to students of music

   3. the provision of health care, food, shelter and counseling to those in need

   4. specific areas of medical care and research with an emphasis on Diabetes, vision problems and heart disease

American original Jane Ira Bloom does it again. This time the 21st-century soprano saxophonist reimagines the poetry of 19th-century visionary Emily Dickinson in two different settings. Her new 2 Cd pack showcases her jazz quartet's interpretation of Dickinson's poetry and includes a second version for jazz quartet and spoken word featuring readings by popular stage & film actor Deborah Rush. After the success of her 2016 trio album release Early Americans, Bloom shifts gears with Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson (OTL143) showcasing her acclaimed quartet in dialogue with poetry inher seventeenth album and first foray into music and text. Her sound is like no other on the straight horn and she lets it fly with long-time band mates Dawn Clement (piano), Mark Helias (bass)& Bobby Previte (drums). Adding the Emily Dickinson narrative to the ensemble on disc 2 is acclaimed actor Deborah Rush. Bloom composed Wild Lines when she was awarded a 2015 CMA/ Doris Duke New Jazz Works commission.

She was inspired to musically reimagine Dickinson when she learned that the poet was a pianist and improviser herself, reconfirming what she'd always felt in the jazz-like quality of Dickinson's phrasing. "I didn't always understand her but I always felt Emily's use of words mirrored the way a jazz musician uses notes. ‘Wild Lines' premiere at the poet's home in Amherst, MA was followed by performances at the Kennedy Center and the NYPL for the Performing Arts. The ensemble then headed into Avatar Studios to record in stereo and surround-sound with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson. The album features fourteen Bloom originals inspired by fragments of Dickinson poetry and prose mined from both her collected works and envelope poems "The Gorgeous Nothings." The album closes with a solo rendition of an American classic, Rodgers & Hart's "It's Easy to Remember. “Artist Gina Werfel contributes a stunning motion painting for the CD's cover image. Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson illuminates why jazz critic Brian Priestly called Jane Ira Bloom "the poet of the soprano saxophone."

Decca Records is thrilled to reveal details of the forthcoming album from Hollywood icon Jeff Goldblum and his long-time band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, entitled The Capitol Studios Sessions. The highly anticipated debut from the jazz pianist was released on November 9, 2018.

Goldblum, who has been playing the piano since he was a child, has performed with his jazz band at venues in Los Angeles and New York City over the past few decades. When he's not filming, the actor hosts a weekly jazz variety show at LA's Rockwell Table and Stage. Frequented by locals and A-listers alike, the show intersperses Goldblum's love of jazz with his passion and skills at improvised comedy.

The atmosphere and energy of these shows is captured perfectly on this album, which Jeff credits to producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Madeleine Peyroux). For the recording, Larry recreated the buzz of The Rockwell at the legendary Capitol Studios. The studio was transformed into a jazz club - food and drink was served to an invited live studio audience of Rockwell regulars, friends and family.

This album lives in that magical area where artists and audiences meet. There is a joyful sense of anything-can-happen and a spirit of creative generosity-in how Jeff speaks to his fans, how he accompanies guest singers and soloists, and especially in how Jeff comps. To Jeff, his role within the context of a jazz band is a seamless connection with his acting:

"I love improvising and that feeling of communication and interplay. It's one of the cornerstones of my acting technique. I see my music in the same way." - Jeff Goldblum

The Capitol Studios Sessions is the realization of this idea: jazz and standards presented in a manner that dares to be high-spirited and to make you feel good. The repertoire includes favorite '60s jazz numbers 'Cantaloupe Island' and 'I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)', the 1940s classic 'Straighten Up & Fly Right' with guest vocals from Irish superstar singer and songwriter Imelda May, 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' from 1930, featuring American songstress Haley Reinhart and the 1920s song 'Me And My Shadow' sung by comedian and actress, Sarah Silverman. The band is joined by the extraordinary Grammy-nominated trumpeter Till Brönner.

Jeff Goldblum and The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra deliver the feel and the swing, and they make it fun, funny, and familiar. Those are words not often associated with jazz, though they still can be, and with this album we are reminded of that.

Previously unreleased live recording of Stan Getz at New York's Village Gate to be released via Verve/UMe on June 14th GETZ AT THE GATE: THE STAN GETZ QUARTET LIVE AT THE VILLAGE GATE, NOV. 26, 1961. Features an all-star, rarely heard quartet with pianist Steve Kuhn, bassist John Neves, and drummer Roy Haynes

On November 26, 1961, saxophonist Stan Getz and his relatively new quartet of Steve Kuhn, John Neves, and Roy Haynes performed at New York's Village Gate. The show was professionally recorded, possibly for eventual release, but was soon forgotten and the tape languished in the vaults for almost 58 years. On June 14th, Verve Records/UMe will release the 2-CD, 3-LP Getz at The Gate, which includes every note recorded that night. 

This recording and this quartet both serve as a sort of "road not taken" for Stan Getz. Having just returned from living in Europe, Getz assembled a new quartet and was exploring a slightly more modern and aggressive sound with this group. Steve Kuhn had only recently finished playing with John Coltrane's quartet and a more modern music and sound - personified by Coltrane - was gaining popularity. 

By 1962, though, Getz's album Jazz Samba, with guitarist Charlie Byrd, released and motioned the bossa nova boom, followed by the groovier Jazz Samba Encore! (1963) album featuring Luiz Bonfá. Another significant Getz Verve release was Getz/Gilberto (1964) with Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, which included 1965's Grammy Record of the Year "The Girl from Ipanema." The break-out hit dictated the course of Getz's career for the next few years. 

Getz at The Gate shows us one possible musical direction that Getz may have taken had bossa nova not exploded on the pop music scene. Aside from including several pieces Getz recorded in the ‘50s (including "When the Sun Comes Out," "Like Someone in Love," and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most"), Getz at The Gate also features the only known Getz recordings of "It's All Right with Me" and "Yesterday's Gardenias." The full emotional range of Getz's playing is on display throughout with his up-tempo choruses on "Airegin" and impassioned reading of "Where Do You Go?", documenting the two poles of his genius. 

Stan Getz has over 40 titles in the Verve Label Group catalog. Prior to the bossa nova craze, 1962's Focus was described by Getz as his personal favorite. A collaboration between Getz and composer/arranger Eddie Sauter, Focus is considered a milestone in jazz recording – its use of string orchestra and jazz improvisation is a high point in the continuum of classical/jazz interactions.

Verve Records announces the release of a never-before-heard stellar live recording from the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald. The Lost Berlin Tapes were recorded – incredibly in both mono and stereo – at Berlin’s Sportpalast on March 25, 1962 and finds Ella at the top of her game with a trio led by pianist Paul Smith, Wilfred Middlebrooks on bass, and Stan Levey on drums.

The Lost Berlin Tapes will be released on Verve Records on October 2, 2020.

Pre-order the album now and listen to the second single “Taking A Chance On Love” here: https://EllaFitzgerald.lnk.to/LostBerlinTapes

There was just something about Berlin that brought out the best in Ella. In February of 1960, she gave a concert at the Deutschlandhalle, which became one of her best-known and best-selling records, Mack The Knife: Ella in Berlin. The album won her 2 Grammys, it went on to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Two years after that historic concert, Ella returned to the city at the height of her career, in the midst of her most extensive European tour to date. Flanked by her stalwart rhythm section including pianist Paul Smith, bassist Wilfred Middlebrooks and drummer Stan Levey, Ella delivers an energized, top-of-her-game set a month before her 45th birthday.

Ella Fitzgerald The Lost Berlin Tapes is a jewel in the treasure chest of impresario and Verve Records founder Norman Granz’s private collection. As Ella’s manager, he had a habit of recording Ella live – sometimes for radio broadcast, sometimes for later release, sometimes just to have. This particular recording was amazingly done in both mono and stereo – and on this March evening at Berlin’s Sportpalast, Ella delivered, singing some lesser-known gems as well as the hits.

One of those hits was “Mack The Knife.” Ella famously flubbed the lyrics in the known 1960 recording, and two years later, nails them. But – she forgets the name of the town she’s in. On the recording, she charmingly says, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so embarrassed. This is where the first time I sang Mack The Knife and when I got to the part of the town, I couldn’t think of it!” The audience is enthralled, nonetheless.

That unique charm, energy and skill are palpable throughout this live recording. She opens with “Cheek To Cheek,” followed by the rarer “He’s My Kind of Boy.”  After her behind-the-shoulder scat-heavy salute with “Jersey Bounce,” Ella shifts to a heart-wrenching ballad of the Great American Songbook, “Angel Eyes.” Ella also sings the Ray Charles hit “Hallelujah, I Love Him So,” singing a reprise that shows Ella’s improvisational skills. The full track listing is below.

This incredible performance will be released on CD/digital and LP.

Verve Records:

Founded in 1956 by impresario Norman Granz in order to create a fair and just label home for Ella Fitzgerald, Verve Records has become home to some of the most pioneering acts in music, including Ella, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, The Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, Dizzy Gillespie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughn,  and more.  Today, the label continues this rich legacy with artists such as Jon Batiste, Bettye LaVette, Diana Krall, Harry Connick, Jr., Joey Alexander, and more.

After nearly six decades, a private recording of a rare, nightclub performance by John Coltrane of his magnum opus, A Love Supreme, is set for commercial release. Recorded in late 1965 on the culminating evening of a historic week-long run at The Penthouse in Seattle, A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle is a musical revelation of historic importance, capturing Coltrane as he began to expand his classic quartet—adding Pharoah Sanders on second saxophone and Donald Garrett on second bass—and catapulting him into the intense, spiritually focused final phase of his career. Today, you can listen to A Love Supreme, Part IV – Psalm, watch the visualizer here. The full album A Love Supreme Live in Seattle is for release October 8, on Impulse! Records/UMe. Pre-order now.

The significance of A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle is heightened by the fact that Coltrane seldom performed his four-part suite after originally recording it in the studio in 1964. Composed and created as a public declaration of his personal spiritual beliefs and universalist sentiment, it became a best-seller and received a GRAMMY nod the next year. For more than six decades, it seemed the only recorded public performance of A Love Supreme took place at a French festival at Juan-Les-Pains in July 1965 and was released almost twenty years ago. The tape reels containing this performance from October 1965 sat in the private collection of Seattle saxophonist and educator Joe Brazil, heard by a few fortunate musicians and friends—and largely unknown until now.

A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle is a fascinating and rare performance of the full suite, marked by a looser and more improvisational approach, and a overriding sense of communal participation—much like a Sunday church service; the lineup featured John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders on saxophones, McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison and Donald (Rafael) Garrett on basses. Carlos Ward, then a young saxophonist just getting started on the scene, sat in as well.

As music historian Ashley Kahn puts it in the liner notes, A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle “offers the first evidence of the master of spiritual expression performing his signature work in the close confines of a jazz club…on October 2, 1965, a Saturday, in Seattle, the necessary elements were in alignment: music, players, venue, a spirit of connection, a certain political charge. Coltrane chose to perform it, and significantly, the moment was recorded.”

Kahn’s extensive liner notes tell the story of A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle not only through the words of the musicians themselves, but also through a number of witnesses whose lives were changed by Coltrane’s visit to Seattle in 1965 (his sole visit to the city as a leader), including Brazil, Ward, and bassist David Friesen, who states: “I’ve always pursued the spiritual aspect of the music and I still do. I remember sitting with Coltrane during one break that week and…what touched me was the way he treated other people. He showed mercy and kindness to people from what I could see around me for the week that I was there.”

The music on A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle was recorded with a two-microphone set-up onstage, connected to an Ampex reel-to-reel machine, and the only copies of the tapes were well cared for, yielding a remarkably clear and distortion-free recording. “What’s remarkable is that tapes from this era often suffer over the years from heat or moisture damage, or simply being stacked horizontally,” writes engineer Kevin Reeves who produced this release. “However, these tapes are in excellent condition… and the results are among the best amateur recordings of John Coltrane we’ve had the pleasure to work on.”

The story of the A Love Supreme suite is the story of John Coltrane—his musical journey, and his spiritual path. It has become one of the most celebrated and influential recordings to come out of the jazz canon, revered and studied by musicians far beyond the jazz realm. Rolling Stone magazine consistently lists it among the top albums of all time. “Of his many musical creations, Coltrane looked upon A Love Supreme in a very special light,” Kahn notes in the liner notes to A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle. “He called A Love Supreme a ‘humble offering to the Divine; no other composition or recording was similarly offered nor did he append his signature to any other work. A Love Supreme was as much an individual testament as it was a public statement—a sermon of universalist belief.” A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle now expands the story of both a great musician and a timeless piece of music.

A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle

A Love Supreme, Pt. 1 – Acknowledgement (Live in Seattle/1965)
Interlude 1 (Live in Seattle/1965)
A Love Supreme, Pt. II – Resolution (Live in Seattle/1965)
Interlude 2 (Live in Seattle/1965)
A Love Supreme, Pt. III – Pursuance (Live in Seattle/1965)
Interlude 3 (Live in Seattle/1965)
Interlude 4 (Live in Seattle/1965)
A Love Supreme, Pt. IV – Psalm (Live in Seattle/1965)

Recorded by Joe Brazil at The Penthouse, Seattle WA
Restored and Mastered by Kevin Reeves at East Iris Studios, Nashville, TN

Guitar and Me is the debut solo release from New York based guitarist Aleksi Glick. The album plays as a genealogy of the guitar, weaving through various musical styles that have been crucial to the guitar’s evolution as well as influential to Glick’s own journey with the instrument. While still rooted in jazz and blues, the album pushes the boundaries of genre by seamlessly floating through an eclectic mix of other styles including R&B, folk, rock, and bossa nova.

Guitar and Me features thirteen original compositions and solo arrangements of guitar based classics that Glick recorded while in isolation at the height of the Covid pandemic. The album starts off with a burner, “With Ease,” an original bluesy hard bop tune that came to Glick after a memorable Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The bossa and R&B infused title track “Guitar and Me” follows as Glick’s own love letter to his guitar. A mix of originals, jazz standards, and classic songs follow. Other highlights include an arrangement of the Grateful Dead fan favorite “Casey Jones” and the timeless classic “Georgia on My Mind.” “A Tune for Vic,” is a moving tribute to Glick’s recently deceased mentor, the late great Vic Juris. The album concludes with another original, “Rebirth” which is an homage to Glick’s early love of classic rock and finally “Long Black Veil” one of two tracks that Glick sings on. With each track you can hear the different influences on Glick’s playing from the classic tones of Wes Montgomery to the modern techniques of John McLaughlin, to the dynamic energy of Jimmy Hendrix.

On this intimate debut, Aleksi Glick pushes the boundaries of solo performance and showcases his own journey through music with a deep understanding and reverence for the roots of the guitar.

Guitar & Me Tracklist:

1. With Ease (3:11)

2. Guitar and Me (5:42)

3. God Bless the Child  (3:48)

4. Path (3:52)

5. Darn That Dream (4:33)

6. Casey Jones (3:45)

7. Still Crazy after All These Years (3:57)

8. MTA Blues (3:44)

9. Georgia on My Mind (4:51)

10. Danny Boy (4:31)

11. A Tune for Vic (3:52)

12. Rebirth (5:05)

13. Long Black Veil (4:56)

About Aleksi Glick: When you play the most popular instrument in the world, having an “original” sound is a near- impossibility, but the young New York virtuoso Aleksi Glick has done just that.

As a member of a musical family, Aleksi has been exposed to virtually all styles of music since birth, from jazz to classical, folk to rock and a half dozen other stops in between some of those genres. He’s listened to everyone from Jimi Hendrix to John Scofield, Derek Trucks to Wes Montgomery. His guitar speaks an authoritative language and yet, there is a relaxed feeling and an inbred admiration of music’s many faces. The sound is warm, round and full, the phrasing is like a smooth-flowing brook, bubbling here, charging there, but always reflecting his basic understanding of what his instrument is about.

As any good New York artist does, Aleksi plays with the best and brightest across the creative landscape. From films to radio, pop to jazz, on tape or video, he maintains an ideal balance of adaptability and uniqueness.  He’s played and/or or recorded with Snack Cat (The Funk-Soul band he leads), Roberta Flack, Jersey Boys, J Hoard, Bailen, the Broadway cast of Aladdin, The Seth Weaver Big Band, Bailen, Peter Bernstein, Sam Dillon, Paul Bollenback, Augie Haas, Benny Benack, Vic Juris, Mike Glick (his pops) plus dozens of regional and nationally known bands and artists. He has also worked with major labels and publishing companies including Warner Chappel, Warner Music, Ropadope, APM, EMI and Outside in Music.

In Flower, In Song is the debut album from Trio Xolo, an improvising group composed of Mexican-American bassist Zachary Swanson, Baltimore-based saxophonist Derrick Michaels, and Lithuanian percussionist Dalius Naujo. With a telepathic ear toward musical interplay, Trio Xolo performs free-flowing stream of consciousness improvisations. The result is true, in the moment composition. The trio moves together dynamically as their voices simultaneously overlap and converge into one. In Flower, In Song was recorded live in one room and unveils a warm, organic sound: Swanson's distinctive use of gut strings produce a dark, woody tone, Michaels draws robust color from a vintage saxophone, and Naujo expresses a nuanced control of energy and dynamics. Through explorations of melody, atmosphere, and texture, they can either embrace or dispel the traditional hierarchy of the trio format. At its core, Trio Xolo creates music that seeks to capture the essence of the moment through deep listening.

TRACKS:
1. Texcoco 4:50
2. In Ruins 3:53
3. Anchored in Peace 5:55
4. Ritualistic 5:17
5. A Mobius Strip 6:16
6. Cropsey 2:12
7. Gravesend 4:43
8. Vantablack 3:01
9. Obsidian Eucalyptus 6:58