Summit

Ravello Records presents SOPRANO SUMMIT from revered saxophonist Paul Cohen. Alongside his work as a performer, Cohen is known for his passionate scholarship, rediscovering long-forgotten saxophone works as well as arranging related music for the instrument. In this, his latest contribution, Cohen presents an album of music for the soprano saxophone in chamber and solo settings. The range and diversity of the soprano saxophone is stunning, from Cohen’s arrangement of Percy Grainger’s Arrival Platform Humlet (solo soprano saxophone) to Amanda Harberg’s first piece for saxophone, Feathers and Sax, (soprano saxophone and piano) and Jeff Scott’s new work The Gift of Life (piccolo, soprano/alto saxophone and piano). SOPRANO SUMMIT is both a celebration of the soprano saxophone as a concert instrument and a revelation of new, lost, revived, and beloved works.

To call this CD (a reissue of a Pablo date) an all-star session would be an understatement. Joining pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Bobby Durham are three classic trumpeters: Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, and Freddie Hubbard. They clearly inspire each other (Gillespie flew in from the East Coast specifically for this date) and the music ("Daahoud," "Just Friends," the new blues "Chicken Wings," and a torrid version of "The Champ") has plenty of exciting moments. Other performances from the same date can be heard on The Alternate Blues, another LP reissued on CD through the Original Jazz Classics imprint.

Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR will release a new song, "Interdimensional Summit", on February 23, 2018 as a seven-inch vinyl EP. The EP will also include a live version of the track "Puritania", recorded in Oslo.

The Schenker Pattison Summit is a melding of musical super powers. For the ultimate rhythm section, they enlisted help from one of rock's most well known drummers, Aynsley Dunbar (UFO, Journey, Starship, Whitesnake) as qwll as world renowned bassist Tim Bogery (Jeff Beck, Cactus). "The Endless Jam Continues" picks up where the first CD left off (and never ended) and surpasses it, containing extended versions of rock classics such as "Layla" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" which features some of the greatest guitar solos of Schenker's stellar career. Seldom does an album come together with some of the greatest talents in rock history. "The Endless Jam Continues" is such a record.

This is B.B. King's most delightful recording of the '90s. He duets with other blues greats, including Koko Taylor ("Something You Got"), Buddy Guy ("I Pity the Fool"), Etta James ("There's Something on Your Mind"), Ruth Brown ("You're the Boss"), and his dear friend John Lee Hooker ("You Shook Me"). The peaks come in his guitar shootout with Texas Telecaster slinger Albert Collins on "Call It Stormy Monday" and his high-spirited run-in with Katie Webster, who steals their performance of "Since I Met You Baby" with her saucy asides.

Violin Summit featured Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, Svend Asmussen and Jean Luc-Ponty (with pianist Kenny Drew, bassistNiels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, drummer Alex Riel) in concert (September 30, 1966)…The music came off quite well, in large part probably because the four violinists were paired in different sets with all four actually featured together on only one take, "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing."

Forceful and mystic, with a beauty and intensity that reminded him of his first hearings of Miles, Mingus, or Monk, Belgian bassist & composer Piet Verbist was pulled into his deep study of Flamenco culture several years ago through a grant from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. After a dozen immersive trips to Andalusia to study, perform, and develop a repertoire, Piet presented concerts in Belgium and Málaga with his joint Spanish/Belgian ensemble, recording this album live in Antwerp at the end of 2023. Featuring Carmelo Muriel on the Bansuriney (a Muriel-designed wooden flute), Carlos Cortés on percussion and flamenco guitar, and Juan Sainz on drums, with Belgians Tom Van Dyck on saxophones, and Verbist's son, Milan Verbist on piano, the Flamenco Jazz Summit paints a sonic portrait both exotic and popular at first sight, but the dual cultural melting-pot conceived traditions of jazz and flamenco actually combine to prove deep and inimitable.