Prior to this album, saxophonist Gigi Gryce had never recorded on anything but his celebrated alto. We wanted to get on tape sounds and styles that have never been associated with him, said producer Jack Lazare. So, for the first time, Gryce recorded on flute, clarinet, tenor and baritone sax- in addition to alto, playing several of these instruments in the same tune through multiple tracking. Gryce also provided his group with provocative arrangements of some well known jazz standards and some originals. The rhythm section offers strong support, with pianist Hank Jones contributing not only as pianist and composer, but also in doing much to make this challenging musical venture a successful one.
At 24 years old, Donald Byrd was already among the greatest trumpeters alive at that time. Alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce, who wrote the charts for everything heard on this disc aside from "I Remember Clifford," was an exceptionally talented arranger as well as a gifted composer. Unlike the rest of the Byrd/Gryce recordings from 1957, these have extra horns: Benny Powell's trombone, Julius Watkins' French horn, Don Butterfield's tuba, and Sahib Shihab's baritone sax. The rhythm section players were exceptionally solid: pianists Tommy Flanagan, Wade Legge; bassist Wendell Marshall; and master percussionist Art Taylor. With some of the best arrangements heard in jazz and excellent solos by Gryce, Byrd, and Flanagan, Jazz Lab makes for an excellent introduction to the hard bop catalog.
Recorded for Jubilee records in 1957 and not to be confused with the Columbia record album also titled Jazz Lab. Hank Jones is the pianist for this one, as he was for New Formulas From The Jazz Lab and contributes a original tune. Donald Byrd is featured on "Isn't It Romantic" and Gigi's feature is "Imagination".
Shore-to-shore etheric dub techno bliss by Italian pioneer Gigi Masin and Detroit’s Rod Modell of DeepChord, beautifully consolidating their respective aesthetics on two durational trips.
For many listeners of a sanguine disposition, ‘Red Hair Girl At Lighthouse Beach’ is a marriage made in ambient heaven. The two pieces find them at a certain position in their career arcs where both are particularly porous to collaborative energies, and are now understandably brought together by Silentes’ 13 series. With Gigi beaming from the shores of the Venetian lagoon, and Modell transmitting from the lakes of Michigan, they arrive at a sympathetic union of floating choral castles in the sky buoyed by systolic subbass thrum and bathed in moonlight…
If you want to hear how Frank Morgan sounded during his youth, the first album to purchase is the 1955 gem Introducing Frank Morgan. After that, look for Bird Calls, Vol. 2, a reissue spotlighting Morgan in 1954 and fellow alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce in 1955. The main things that the two bop sessions have in common are the presence of drummer Kenny Clarke and the influence of Charlie Parker - Morgan and Gryce were both greatly influenced by Bird's playing yet had attractive tones of their own. Morgan was only 21 when the 1954 session was recorded, and the altoist forms a sextet with tenor saxman Walter Benton and pianist Gerald Wiggins as well as three-fourths of the Modern Jazz Quartet's original pre-Connie Kay lineup: Clarke, vibist Milt Jackson, and bassist Percy Heath…
Fresh off the heels of their critically acclaimed collaboration album, Dolphin, UK jazz metro Greg Foat and Venetian electronic luminary Gigi Masin join forces once again for The Fish Factory Sessions, an exclusive release for Record Store Day 2024.
If you think you've heard Handel's "Ombra mai fu" (known as his "Largo") so often, and in so many different arrangements, and sung by so many different voices, that you can no longer be moved or surprised by it, think again. This CD of Handel arias, mostly from his Theodora or the cantata La Lucrezia, ends with "Ombra mai fu," and as sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, it is so tender, so beautiful, so impeccably shaded, that you'll think you're hearing it for the first time. But that's only four of this disc's 67 minutes–-a follow-up to Hunt Lieberson's extraordinarily successful CD of Bach cantatas. There's not a dull or disinterested moment to be heard anywhere. As the violated Lucrezia, Hunt Lieberson alternately rages against the man who raped her and turns her grief inward; the former is terrifying in its intensity, the latter makes us almost feel as if we're eavesdropping.