Nuts And Volt 2019

Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis first met in the summer of 1971 on Chicago’s South Side, where both musicians were born and raised. Mitchell and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, had just returned to the South Side after a two-year sojourn in Europe, and Lewis was back home too, taking a break from his undergraduate studies at Yale. Since then, they collaborated very regularly, pushing each time the limits of the possible in music. This album, the latest chapter of a creative partnership spanning five decades, is a major step in their collaboration and is thus much more than just the sum of the immense talent of each of them. Recorded live … at CTM Festival on February 2nd 2018 at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany.

Famed for its interpretations of some of Handels most loved works, The Sixteen marks the start of its 40th anniversary season by releasing its first new Handel recording in five years. Handels pastoral opera is a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, based on Ovids Metamorphoses (book XIII), tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. Handels music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as Wretched lovers! and the grief felt by Galatea in Must I my Acis still bemoan. Staying true to the premiere in 1718, just five singers and nine instrumentalists feature on this intimate recording.

Following up her standards-focused 2017 debut A Social Call, Dallas-born, New York-based singer Jazzmeia Horn offers mainly originals on Love and Liberation, boldly stepping ahead as an artist. Along with her deep and effortless vocal expression and turn-on-a-dime scat solos, she proves herself an engaging writer with a lot to say at any tempo or feel. The breakneck bebop number “Searchin’” and the luxuriant ballad “Legs and Arms” are among the highlights. Pianist Victor Gould, bassist Ben Williams, and drummer Jamison Ross provide stellar backing, with Ross delivering strong vocals in tandem with Horn on the George Duke/Rachelle Ferrell cover “Reflections of My Heart” (and the intriguing spoken-word “Only You,” which directly precedes it). Tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard and trumpeter Josh Evans add spice along the way, while pianist Sullivan Fortner, brimming with old-school stylistic wisdom, lends his brilliant touch on four tracks.