In for a Penny, In for a Pound is the latest installment in saxophonist/ flutist/composer Henry Threadgills ongoing exploration of his singular system for integrating composition with group improvisation. The music for his band Zooid his main music-making vehicle for the past fourteen years and the longest running band of his illustrious forty plus-year career is no less than his attempt to completely deconstruct standard jazz form, steering the improvisatory language towards an entirely new system based on preconceived series of intervals. His compositions create a polyphonic platform that encourages each musician to improvise with an ear for counterpoint and, in the process, creating striking new harmonies.
New Orleans' Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews knows the music biz inside out. Hounded for years by friends and music business types to jump into the game, he understood the lessons of his lineage elders: too many had been been ripped off and discarded. He took his time, assembling, rehearsing, and touring Orleans Avenue, a band steeped in brass band history, jazz improv, funk, soul, rock, and hip hop. He finally signed to Verve Forecast and released Backatown in April of 2010. Entering at number one on the jazz charts, it stayed there for nine straight weeks, and was in the Top Ten for over six months. For True hits while Backatown is climbing again. Chock-full of cameos it is an extension, but sonically different. It's production is crisper, but the musical diversity more pushes further. In addition to trombone, Shorty plays trumpet, organ, piano, drums, synths, and, of course, sings…
Felix Cavaliere is lead vocal in those amazing "Young Rascals" and "The Rascals" mega-hits from the fabulous musical sixties on through to early seventies…first solo effort self-titled "Felix Cavaliere" is a fantastic collection co-produced by Todd Rundgren featuring Utopia, amazing there were not chart-topping mega-hits and multiple Grammy Awards, guess brain-dead radio had no idea to program this amazing singer and sadly appeared music industry didn't have a clue who this awesome singer was at the time…leaving "The Rascals" seemed the name Felix Cavaliere didn't ring a bell, yet for hard-core fans it did and big time!