Critically-acclaimed Italian vocalist Irene Serra (Wynton Marsalis, Norma Winstone, US3) and guitarist LucaBoscagin (Jason Rebello, Cinematic Orchestra, Jim Mullen) announce the upcoming release of their new album “The Great British Songbook” preceded by four singles.

Album release date: Friday 29th November 2024. Pre order by clicking here

1st Single release date “Give Me The Night” : Friday 6th September 2024

2nd Single release date “There Must Be an Angel : Friday 4th October 2024

3rd Single release date “Eleanor Rigby” : Friday 1st November 2024

4th single release date “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” : Friday 29th November 2024

Album preview launch will take place on Saturday 2nd November Cafe Posk, London.

Brought together by their passion for British pop music, Irene and Luca have handpicked some of the most loved songs by famous British singer and/or songwriters of the last 70 years and created fresh-sounding, unique arrangements.

From The Beatles to Sting, Massive Attack and Imogen Heap, this album is a celebration of the most defining songs of the British music scene reimagined through their signature soulful sound.

“The Great British Songbook” is their defiant and passionate love letter to the brilliance of British music (which was one of the main reasons they both moved to London from Italy) in the face of Brexit and its aftermath.

“…sublime vocals…” - JAZZ FM

"...Irene Serra has a strong stage presence and a compelling vocal tone, which she uses to great effect…."  - JAZZWISE

“…Serra’s voice is graceful and sensual…” - ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“...Serra’s singing is superb, perhaps at its most effective when she sounds bruised and vulnerable...” - Kind of Jazz

Irene Serra

Irene Serra is a critically-acclaimed Italian Jazz vocalist and composer based in London. She is known for her varied and eclectic repertoire, masterfully performing straight ahead jazz standards, blues, Brazilian music and her own original compositions.

Irene has performed in world-class venues in and around the UK, including at the premiere of the Abyssinian Mass at the Barbican (with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra), Southbank Centre, Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Jazz Club, Union Chapel and  King’s Place.

Her poised performances have already earned her much critical acclaim: her original project, ISQ, was a ‘Time Out Critics Choice’ in 2015 and she was longlisted for “Best Jazz Vocalist” at the 2022 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. She was also a finalist at the Shure Montreux Jazz Competition in 2009. Irene is currently working on her 5th album of original music with her project, ISQ and is also set to release her first album of Jazz standards in 2025.

Luca Boscagin

Guitarist Luca Boscagin grew up heavily influenced by Rock & Jazz, and as a musician has an equally wide range of guises to play with. He moved to London in 2009, driven by a passion for the British music scene where he recorded at major studios such as Abbey Road and Real World.

The Great British Songbook

 Line up

Irene Serra – vocals

Luca Boscagin – guitar

Tracklist

1. Give Me the Night (Rod Temperton) 
2. Jesus He Knows Me (Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford)
3. There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart) (Annie Lennox, David A. Stewart)
4. Eleanor Rigby (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
5. Off the Wall (Rod Temperton)
6. Teardrop (Robert Del Naja, Elizabeth Fraser, Grantley Marshall, Andrew Vowles)

7.  Wonderwall (Noel Gallagher)

8.  Night Fever (Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb)

9.  Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap)

10. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Sting)

Follow Irene Serra on:

www.ireneserra.com      

www.instagram.com/ireneserramusic   

www.youtube.com/ireneserramusic

www.facebook.com/ireneserramusic   

www.twitter.com/ireneserramusic

RESONANCE RECORDS PRESENTS PREVIOUSLY UNHEARD LIVE RECORDINGS BY UNSUNG GUITAR GREAT EMILY REMLER

Cookin’ at the Queens, documenting Las Vegas gigs in 1984 and 1988, to be released as 3-LP set on RSD Black Friday, November 29 and as 2-CD set on Friday, December 6

First Remler Release in 34 Years! Deluxe package includes liner notes by acclaimed author Bill Milkowski, plus recollections from esteemed guitarists Russell Malone, Mike Stern, Rodney Jones and Dave Stryker along with Remler advocates Mimi Fox, Jocelyn Gould, Amanda Monaco

Resonance Records proudly presents the first release in 34 years from the unsung jazz guitar great who tragically died on May 4, 1990 at the age of 32. Culled from a previously unreleased collection of performances that were broadcast on KNPR Las Vegas in 1984 and 1988 as part of Alan Grant’s weekly radio program, “4 Queens Jazz Night from Las Vegas,” Cookin’ at the Queens captures Remler in quartet performances with pianist Cocho Arbe, bassist Carson Smith and drummer Tom Montgomery (1984) and trio performances with bassist Carson Smith and drummer John Pisci (1988).

Taped live at the 4 Queens Hotel and Casino in the old part of the Vegas strip (where Resonance’s 2016 release, Live at the 4 Queens from Shirley Horn, was originally recorded), these stunning performances by Remler reveal her abiding love of her personal guitar hero Wes Montgomery and other influential players like Pat Martino and George Benson. Taken as a whole, they represent some of Emily’s most scintillating, swinging, exploratory, unrestrained and inspired playing ever.

Whether it’s burning on an uptempo bebop number like Tadd Dameron’s “Hot House” or tackling modal classics like Miles Davis’ “So What” and John Coltrane’s “Impressions,” delving into a deep blues feeling, as on Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’” and Montgomery’s “D-Natural Blues,” settling into a sublime ballad like “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” or basking in a bossa nova like Jobim’s “How Insensitive,” Remler’s sheer mastery of her instrument is readily apparent on these superb live tracks, recorded during separate engagements in the French Quarter Room of the 4 Queens Hotel in Las Vegas. They capture Remler in the joyful act of swinging in unencumbered fashion and stand as a testament to her greatness as a jazz guitarist.

Order here

“Anyone who's ever heard Emily play can immediately tell how much Wes Montgomery was part of her life,” noted bassist Eddie Gomez, who appeared on Remler’s 1983 album Transitions and 1985’s Catwalk, both alongside drummer Bob Moses. “She really had that sound of Wes’s and that feel together. She really had a great feel for the music and for that sound and that style. Other guitarists might’ve tried to play more like different guitarists, but she really got ahold of Wes. She really had that feel and that way of spacing chords and playing octaves together. If you closed your eyes, you’d think you were listening to Wes Montgomery. It was really impressive.”

Added Moses, “She out-swung most guitar players. She definitely had the feel, the groove and the soulfulness. She could do the standards and Wes Montgomery-ish stuff, but she had her own thing. And above all, she had that swing.”

Dave Stryker, who had met Remler in the early ‘80s, noted the impact she had back then. “Emily was such a good player, I think she helped inspire other musicians who came along later who might think, ‘Oh, wait, here’s another female musician that is out there doing it and dealing with this music.’ She was just one of the cats and she just happened to be a woman who played her ass off.”

Disciple Sheryl Bailey was lucky enough to have taken a guitar lesson with Remler as a developing young player. “The lesson was unbelievable, one of the best lessons ever,” she recalled. “She was a great teacher. She knew exactly what I needed and was clear about communicating it. I use everything she taught me every day. I teach it to all my students. As a player, she’s swinging, soulful, all about the melody, gorgeous tone, incredible technique, incredible control over the mechanics of the instrument. And she was a great educator.”

Added renowned jazz detective Zev Feldman, who along with Bill Milkowski co-produced this Resonance Records release, “As time goes by, some artists’ legacies get even more interesting and become more important, and I think Emily Remler is such a significant artist. She needs to be talked about and discussed more. She was a trailblazer and I hope these recordings are going to contribute to and validate her story and her importance.”

Released in cooperation with the Emily Remler Estate, the limited-edition 180-gram 3-LP set, mastered for vinyl from the original tape reels in the UNLV archives by Bernie Grundman, will be released on RSD Black Friday, November 29. A deluxe 2-CD set and digital download edition will be made available the following Friday on December 6.

Resonance Records is a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University for "Best Album Notes") that prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance's catalog. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Tawanda, Eddie Daniels, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega. www.ResonanceRecords.org

KIM CYPHER TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM – ‘CATCHING MOMENTS’ NOVEMBER 22nd 2024

“One of the UK's most exciting saxophonists, vocalists, & composers” -All About Jazz

British jazz saxophonist, vocalist, composer and band leader Kim Cypher releases her third album Catching Moments on November 22nd 2024. The album is a continuation of Kim’s ‘Brighter Tomorrow’, a collaborative project started during COVID lockdowns to showcase all those who work in the arts, and demonstrate their unbending passion, drive, resilience and dedication to their craft.

Kim is one of the UK’s most beloved jazz musicians. As a figurehead of independent arts in Britain, her work extends to furthering the reach of grassroots musicians by means of collaboration and independent concert promotion, working with the Women In Jazz Media collective, and her weekly radio show ‘The Big Jazz Hullabaloo’ hosted by Kim and her husband Mike every week on Jazz Bites Radio. Her charity single releases have seen thousands of pounds raised across multiple campaigns, simultaneously drawing attention to some of the most talented players residing in the UK and abroad.

“Accessible and classy music with a very wide appeal” - London Jazz News

The rich tones of Kim’s signature tenor saxophone playing offers nods to both of her mentors; the legendary jazz saxophonists Andy Sheppard and Pee Wee Ellis. The album covers a lot of genre-ground, from bossa to swing, and is already receiving attention from Jazzwise, Jazz FM, and BBC Radio 3, and she recently sold out her second Ronnie Scott’s concert.

“A bright, passionate performing light on the UK Jazz scene” – Jazz In Europe

The album is a showcase for an all-star cast of global musicians including guitarist Antonio Forcione, double bass player Raph Mizraki, percussionist Karl Vanden Bossche, drummer Mike Cypher, and special guest performers including pianist and vocalist Liane Carroll, saxophonist and vocalist Ray Gelato, and trombone player Ashley Slater. With Kim’s sublime production and tasteful arrangement giving space to each instrument, the musicians playfully syncopate and solo through this offering diverse in genre and tempo.

The twelve tracks on the album, including ten originals, are inspired by world and personal events of the past few years and focuses around catching precious moments in life. Kim and her band showcased many of these songs and more at her recent Ronnie Scott’s date.

“Always innovative and surprising” – Jazz Views

Pre order here

 For Kim Cypher website click here

Tryptique will be released worldwide on Friday, November 15th 2024 on ZSAN Records.

Buy/stream here

Tryptique is three kindred spirits with one compelling musical vision that balances the resonance of history with the here-and-now of improvisation. Their music ranges from Baroque to bop to the blues and beyond, with a particular flair for the work of several wonderful Canadian composers.

Tryptique is chamber music with a jazz soul. It is a conversation between award winning musicians and close friends Fern Lindzon (piano), Colleen Allen (flute, saxophones) and George Koller (bass). It is about exploration, taking chances, and following refined musical intuition to create a unique sound entirely Tryptique’s own.

Tryptique derives its name from the visual art world (triptych) meaning either three works intended to be shown together, or a single work of art divided into three. The three works together form a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Colleen: Fern, George, and I have been friends and colleagues for many years. In fact, our paths have crossed for my entire music career. During the pandemic, or The Grand Pause, as George called it, we were fortunate to be able to play weekly—socially distanced of course. During those sessions we amassed an incredibly diverse repertoire. Our communications are deep, flow easily and cover diverse topics, so not surprisingly, the musical language follows suit. This recording represents our diverse musical landscape through connected, conversational playing.

***Fern:***Tryptique, it's how we finish each other's phrases. It's about trust, beauty and exploration. Of sound, tonality, and form. it's about going on a journey together. Listening, reacting, and being immersed in a whole that's greater than the sum of our three parts.

George: I simply love the vibes with Colleen and Fern. In the Tryptique trio we create chamber jazz with full use of space, allowing for free exploration while working within forms. Our repertoire is unlimited in scope with diverse styles and genres, and we often put the spotlight on Canadian composers in our live performances. It is playful and textural, sometimes referencing counterpoint and simultaneous interplay that one might hear in contemporary classical, Dixieland or third-stream jazz.

Track Listing

Wondering (Doug Wilde) 5:07

Canarios (Fern Lindzon) 4:02

Retrato em Branco e Preto

(Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque) 7:10

Satin Doll (Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn) 6:40

Eucalyptus (Steven MacKinnon) 6:21

Compassion Blues (George Koller) 5:47

Themes (Freddie Stone) 5:24

Do Look (Fern Lindzon) 6:20

Zeynebim (Karl Berger, trad. Turkish) 4:28

A Flower for Amadeus (Moe Koffman) 4:40

Après un Rêve (Gabriel Fauré) 6:41

News for Bob (George Koller) 4:43

Information shared by Ernesto Cervini at Orange Grove Publicity

Acclaimed vocalist Sara Serpa explores her own story of migration, family, birth, loss, music and home on her breathtaking, autobiographical new album. Encounters and Collisions, out November 15, 2024 on Biophilia Records features saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Erik Friedlander and pianist Angelica Sanchez

“Serpa possesses a preternatural cool, injecting weightless sophistication and melodic grace into everything she touches.” – Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

“Sara Serpa is a vocalist wielding an instrument as favorably unadorned and pure as any in jazz... literally, she sounds as if she must sing whenever she speaks.” – Phil DiPietro, All About Jazz

Order here

The voice of Sara Serpa possesses an innate intimacy, so subtle and graceful as to feel like a whispered confession no matter the lyric, or whether there’s a lyric at all. Writing about Night Birds, Serpa’s 2023 duo album with her husband, guitarist André Matos, Nate Chinen said that the music, “feels like a peek inside a private conversation; the depth of their musical interplay, an extension of their personal bond, has the sense of something irreplaceable and precious.”

Despite that, Serpa has long avoided writing her own lyrics because, she says, “they're so personal and show so much about you.” With her breathtaking new album, Encounters and Collisions, she changes course, embracing the art of intimate revelation with the most autobiographical music of her career. The album, due out November 15, 2024 via Biophilia features Serpa’s longtime collaborators Ingrid Laubrock on saxophone and Erik Friedlander on cello, joined by pianist Angelica Sanchez.

The themes that Serpa explores as the story of Encounters and Collisions unfolds will undoubtedly resonate with many of her listeners – compelling tales of migration, home, family, motherhood, loss and art. Not only does the singer reveal her experiences and emotions through her poetic, impressionistic lyrics, but she relates her personal history explicitly through an accompanying set of short narrations, as well as a collection of hand drawn comic strip-style illustrations that will be available for purchase in person or via the Biophilia website.

“The lyrics are an exercise in discovering how can I simplify the ideas and still make them somehow poetic or beautiful,” Serpa explains. “I wanted them to be not just plain text, but also reflect a very specific mood, emotion and feeling.”

Serpa didn’t originally set out to create such an autobiographical work. Her original intention was to adapt another writer’s work along the lines of her acclaimed 2021 album and multimedia performance Intimate Strangers, a collaboration with the Nigerian writer and critic Emmanuel Iduma. The new project proved frustrating, however, and she discovered during the process that the ideas that she was responding to in other authors’ work were the ones that reflected her own journey. The focus immediately shifted.

“The elements of the story that I connected with were things like migration, being in a new country, dealing with languages, missing home, losing some kind of identity and having to build a new one,” she relates.

“Then throughout that process, becoming a mother with all the victories and losses that accompany that process. I realized that maybe I was writing about myself rather than someone else, and it started to make sense that I would write about my story.”

Encounters and Collisions charts the almost two decades since Serpa moved from her native Lisbon, Portugal to the United States to attend Berklee College of Music. Originally intending to stay for a year and then move home, she’s since established a home and a family in New York while garnering acclaim as one of the most captivating and inventive vocalists in modern jazz.

The album begins with “Language,” in which the singer contends with the necessity of translating oneself into an adopted tongue. The idea becomes woven through the remainder of the album, at times explicitly – as in her story of becoming a mother, when a fellow Portuguese speaker at the hospital puts her at much-welcome ease – but also implicitly, as she sings her lyrics in English. Serpa is widely hailed for her gorgeous ability to sing wordlessly, often becoming an ethereal instrument within the various ensembles in which she plays. Encounters and Collisions is her most lyric-heavy project to date, and the English words reveal her gift for expressing herself in a language not wholly her own.

The frantic “Visa,” accompanied by a chaos of pointillist sounds, captures the overwhelming confusion and fear of navigating the bureaucracy of a foreign government. The oppressive piano chords of “Things Must Move Quickly” depict the more high-pressure tempo of life in the States as compared to Portugal. “Between Two Worlds” settles into the purgatory of acclimating oneself to a never completely comfortable new country while losing the connection to home: “Your roots vanishing like fog.”

“Labor” and “A Mother’s Heart” bristle with the tension and joy of motherhood, the former a frenzied, angular portrait of childbirth, the latter a stunning love letter from mother to son. The stark “The Phone Call” recalls the shocking, sudden death of Serpa’s father, a devastating loss that severed one of her remaining ties to her native Lisbon. “Music Makes Me Who I Am” revels in the art form, before concluding with the uncertain wisdom of “Two Cities, Many Homes.”

To create the multifarious elements of Encounters and Collisions Serpa drew upon her early training in visual arts, recent classes at the New School on Illustrated Journalism and Memoir, and her deeply felt personal experiences. With all of that, her initial presentation of the music on stage was nerve-wracking – until she began to feel the connection she achieved with audiences.

“The most humbling thing is discovering that suddenly it's not about me anymore,” she says. “It's about all of us, and how we humans share so many experiences.”

Sara Serpa

A native of Lisbon, Portugal, Sara Serpa is a singer, composer and improviser who explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Serpa has been working in the field of jazz, improvised and experimental music since moving to New York in 2008. Her ethereal music draws from a broad variety of inspirations including literature, film and visual arts as well as history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released ten albums, the latest being Intimate Strangers (2021) and Recognition (2020). Serpa has been described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by JazzTimes as “a master of wordless landscapes.” She has collaborated with an extensive array of musicians including John Zorn, Nicole Mitchell, André Matos, Okkyung Lee, Guillermo Klein, Linda May Han Oh, Kris Davis, Dan Weiss, Matt Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Mark Turner, David Virelles and Tyshawn Sorey, among many others. Serpa has been active in gender equity in music and is the co-founder (along with fellow musician Jen Shyu) of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), an organization created to empower and elevate women and non-binary musicians.

saraserpa.com

saraserpa.bandcamp.com

Information provided by Ann Braithwaite at Braithwaite and Katz PR.

3 years in the making, the new album from multi-award-winning vocalist, pianist and composer Laila Biali offers a cinematic set of winter-themed original songs that feature JUNO-winner & GRAMMY- nominee Jane Bunnett, the Venuti String Quartet and chamber orchestra.

Release Date: November 1, 2024 (Independent Release)

Stream/purchase here

18 months after the release of her critically acclaimed and JUNO-nominated jazz standards album, Your Requests, Laila Biali is back with an entirely fresh and original offering, marking her 10th recording as a bandleader. Composed from a cabin surrounded by snow-capped mountains during a writing retreat in the heart of Canada’s Rocky Mountains, ***Wintersongs ***is Biali’s musical love letter to winter.

For more than 10 years, Alberta’s **Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity **has been a creative haven for Biali, who expresses deep gratitude for the intensive independent residencies that have allowed space for the genesis of new work:

“The Banff Centre is where I go to meet my muse. I have been fortunate to spend time there in every season, but I was especially surprised at how much I loved winter. I was offered a 2-week residency as part of their Fleck Fellowship and arrived on campus in late November of 2021. Every day from dawn to dusk, all I could see and hear was music – in the awe-inspiring sunrises and sunsets behind mountain silhouettes, in the wind as it rose up through towering trees, and in snow that constantly shape-shifted from stillness to storm. Those images and that experience fill this suite of songs.”

With funding support from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, Biali and her team moved this ambitious project from concept to realization. As new production ideas emerged, the vision for ***Wintersongs ***expanded to include not only Biali’s usual collaborators – like her longtime co-producer, drummer and husband Ben Wittman – but also one of the most in-demand orchestrators, Rob Mathes (Sting, Bruce Springsteen).

Biali comments, “Rob Mathes has been on my dream-list since I first heard his early work.. There was magic in his writing. He and (GRAMMY nominee) Drew Jurecka really brought grandeur and a spirit of play to Wintersongs through their string treatments.”

Another fresh collaborator for Biali is the highly-decorated flutist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett, who will join Biali on an extensive tour in support of the album’s launch this November and December. Bunnett sparkles as she adds sweeping improvisational phrases and solos to both Rocky Mountain Lullaby, Biali’s ode to the majestic peaks of Banff National Park, and Dance of the Pines, a sonic journey inspired by flora, fauna and the aurora borealis. Other guests include the acclaimed trumpeter Kevin Turcotte, organ wizard Sam Yahel and the Detroit-born singer Wade O. Brown.

Together, they elevate one of the album’s more epic tracks, Outside (a Biali original) with such irresistibly hooky melodies, romantic imagery and opulent orchestration it could well become a contemporary seasonal classic.

The spirited original romp, Keep on Moving, takes off with soaring vocals from Joanna Majoko, Genevieve Marentette, and Jackson Welchner. Here the Venuti String Quartet (Rebekah Wolkstein, Drew Jurecka, Shannon Knights & Amahl Arulanandam) add their trademark virtuosity to George Koller’s formidable bass, Ben Wittman’s dynamic drums and Biali’s blistering piano. It is a stunning contrast to the album’s tender opening number, Drifting Down Ice, a warm invitation into a world of winter wonders as Biali’s vocalise floats overtop shimmering strings and **Lori Gemmel’**s lilting harp.

Gemmel makes an enchanting reappearance ensconced by Mathes’ ornate orchestral voicings on the lyrical ballad, Snow.

Winter Waltz is a charming instrumental version of the French chanson she co-wrote with Sonia Johnson, released last year as Belle nuit de Noël. It’s a whimsical nod to Vince Guaraldi (A Charlie Brown Christmas) that shines a spotlight on the Venuti String Quartet, with a masterful arrangement and bandoneon playing from Drew Jurecka. The album concludes with Jesus, He is Born (Iesous ahatonnia’), a 17th-century carol first attributed to Jean de Brébeuf that most listeners will recognize as “The Huron Carol.” Following extensive conversations with the Wendat artist, Andrée Lévesque Sioui, who is decolonizing this traditional song with her own brilliant re-written verses, Biali felt it was crucial to strip away John Middleton’s English lyrics, to offer an instrumental arrangement she hopes will help create space and open up dialogue about Lévesque Sioui’s important work.

Wintersongs draws us into an organic experience that feels entirely new and yet achingly familiar – uncharted terrain that resonates with the strong echoes of home.

Upcoming Performances click here