Pianist, vocalist, composer, and educator BRENDA EARLE STOKES presents MOTHERHOOD, a collection of ten original compositions that share the journey of motherhood with songs that explore identity, fear, expectations, body image, friendship, and growth. This is Stokes’ sixth album as a leader and follows Solo Sessions (2019), Right About Now (2014), Songs for a New Day (2009), and Happening (2006). Bebop Spoken Here has said, “Stokes is very much her own woman and stamps her individuality on both her singing and her piano playing.” Downbeat Magazine said, “Stokes revs up on eclecticism, centering her jazz improvisation and pop-jazz adventures that shimmer with energetic scatting and her cheery piano.”

Stokes lives and works in New York City and brought to this project some of the A-List players the city has to offer, including bassist EVAN GREGOR (Gary Burton, Dave Liebman, Phil Woods, Bob Dorough, John Fedchock), drummer ROSS PEDERSON (Snarky Puppy, Patti Austin, The Manhattan Transfer), and special guest, renowned trumpeter INGRID JENSEN. Celebrated vocalists MELISSA STYLIANOU and Grammy-winning NICOLE ZURAITIS provide backing vocals. 

A native of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Stokes started studying classical piano at the age of four. She became interested in jazz while in high school after hearing Oscar Peterson for the first time. She went on to receive the Oscar Peterson scholarship to study jazz piano at York University in Toronto and benefitted from the mentorship of her idol. After graduating, she spent a few years gigging around Toronto. She started to seriously develop her performance skills when she worked at a piano bar on cruise ships in the Caribbean. She says of the experience, “Taking requests six nights a week for several years was a deep education for me. Not only did I have to learn hundreds of songs, but I also had to learn how to hold an audience’s attention and engage with people.” After earning enough money, she decided to head to New York City, where she planned to study and immerse herself in the jazz scene. She ended up at Manhattan School of Music, where she earned a master’s degree in jazz piano and voice.

Since then, she has become a bandleader and busy accompanist, working with the likes of John Riley, Dick Oatts, Joel Frahm, Roxy Coss, Wycliffe Gordon, Maurice Hines, and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra. She has held residencies at the Kennedy Center and Banff Center for Fine Arts and was a finalist of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition. She also won the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) Sister’s in Jazz competition and was recognized as one of the top emerging jazz artists of her generation.

Stokes is also a well-known music educator and entrepreneur. She runs a busy private studio in New York City serving local students in person and, as an early adopter of online training, she has taught students all around the globe with her website, The Virtual Musician. Stokes’ YouTube channel, Piano and Voice with Brenda, boasts nearly 20,000 subscribers and over 55,000 hours of viewers per month.

 Although the music on MOTHERHOOD is rooted in jazz, Stokes drew additional inspiration from singer-songwriters, musical theater, spoken word and 1960s protest songs. Stokes shares the rich tapestry of a mother’s experience, both celebrating the experience of mothering while also being truthful about the challenges that modern mothers face. She describes what it’s like to live in a world of intense stress and fear, combined with the dangers and toxicity of social media, financial insecurity, gun culture, and the pressure to navigate all of these issues while also appearing thin and youthful.

Stokes sings about these ideas in her song “Kathleen” and explores them in greater detail in the eight-minute spoken word performance “Sharp Edges,” with bluesy accompaniment featuring Jensen on trumpet.

In “The Endless Wait,” Stokes ponders the identity of the child she carries, and ruminates on how they are connected to ancestors both known and unknown. On “Who Am I Now?,” Stokes examines how one’s identity changes when a child comes into your life and ponders whether she is equipped for the challenge of motherhood.

On “Where Are the Mothers?,” she realizes that she and her close mom-friend have hundreds of photos of their children but almost none of themselves. She thinks about the fact that the shame surrounding a mother’s changing body can cause her to hide, and in time, she literally disappears from the picture. Stokes discovered that her son couldn’t remember most of his early childhood, and in “This is Your Childhood,” sings about her epiphany that maybe his childhood really belongs to both of them. In “Loose Tooth Blues,” she shares the unique and often humorous perspective that a mother has as she views the world through her child’s eyes.

“Saying Goodbye” is about the bittersweet feeling of watching your child grow up before your eyes all too quickly and knowing that one day, they will inevitably grow up and leave. Rounding out the project are “The Strength of a Woman,” a gospel-influenced anthem that honors the courage and perseverance of everyday women, and “Happy Mother’s Day,” a “calling in” song that celebrates the struggle, the revelry, and the adventures that are part of the lives of mothers everywhere.

Stokes’ expressive and flexible voice is the perfect vehicle for these songs that tell tales that are poignant and hopeful, yet bittersweet and sometimes disheartening, but so very familiar to many women. Grounded in jazz but imbued with elements of pop and musical theater, MOTHERHOOD is a deeply felt, unique take on the ups and downs of raising a child from a woman’s point of view.

MOTHERHOOD was released on May 10, 2024 and is available at Bandcamp and on all streaming platforms. Click here to purchase

Click here to visit Brenda’s website

Two Jazz Visionaries, Violinist MEG OKURA and Pianist KEVIN HAYS, Release Debut Duo Album Lingering on Adhyâropa Records in Celebration of National Chamber Music Month

“Meg and Kevin connect on so many levels. The repertoire varies, from composed songs to purely improvised pieces. Kevin is in excellent form, and Meg demonstrates her wide range as one of the premier violinists, jazz or otherwise, of our time.” – Jim McNeely, jazz composer-pianist

Hailed as “the queen of chamber jazz (All About Jazz),” Tokyo-native violinist Meg Okura and American jazz pianist Kevin Hays celebrate the release of their debut album as a duo, Lingering on Adhyâropa Records. With recognition such as the highly competitive Jazz Road Tours grant, which took them over 5,000 miles to Hawaii, Okura and Hays have been collaborating for a decade since their serendipitous encounter on a New York City bus in 2014. Lingering showcases the remarkable synergy and confidence they share, evident from their transcendent exploration of musical possibility. They engage in a musical dialogue using only the raw essence of two instruments without overdubs or effects, exploring a spectrum of textures and tones, inviting listeners into unfiltered emotions of intimacy and vulnerability.

For Hays, whose discography boasts numerous duo projects with jazz contemporaries such as Brad Mehldau, Lionel Loueke, and Bill Stewart, the connection with Okura was immediate and undeniable**.** Their collaboration, unlike many others, is not born from shared musical associations or cultural backgrounds. Hays and Okura hail from disparate musical traditions – Hays, a jazz pianist with a sound steeped in the post-bop and modern jazz tradition, boasts a storied career working with luminaries such as Sonny Rollins and John Scofield, while Okura's journey from concert violinist to rising star in the world of jazz composition has earned her acclaim from the likes of the International Society of Jazz Arranger and Composers.

*“Kevin grounds me in a gentler, earthier realm, as his aesthetic is deeply rooted in traditions, extending from post-bop to Americana, and reaching farther back to the works of J.S. Bach. When playing so freely as a duo, even on written pieces, my perfect pitch becomes a lifeline, seamlessly catching every chord while my instincts anticipate his next move. When I go into the Bach-like counterpoint, Kevin catches me within two beats and starts creating his counter melody. Kevin knows how to trust his duo partners and, more importantly, his adeptness in creating music no matter what happens during a tune or lack thereof. I love this attitude and the challenge that comes with it! It’s an adventure that I welcome!” *

Throughout Lingering, Okura and Hays weave a tapestry of sound and emotion, from melancholic beauty to haunting echoes to boundless expressions bursting with dynamism. The album comprises 11 short melodies by Okura, including “Seven Short Pieces” — a Jewish-influenced suite written for this duo during the Pandemic. “Waltz for Wollesen,” by Hays has previously been recorded on his 2019 album Where Are You with Mark Turner and Marc Miralta. In this duo version, the piece takes on new life, and they recorded what Okura calls the “Brahms’s version of Kevin Hays.” The album also includes two entirely improvised tracks demonstrating just how differently the duo approaches free improvisation. Even within the composed pieces, Okura leaves ample room for interpretation and improvisation. Drawing inspiration from both classical and jazz composers from Olivier Messiaen to Oliver Nelson, or Schuman to Ellington, Okura uses big classical sounds as well as tender whispers of harmonics, to col legno batuto, to the “chop” technique to create a percussive groove. As the album reaches its poignant denouement with the title track, "Lingering," Okura's single note and Hays' last chord hang in the air like a whispered promise, never fully resolving.

Meg Okura website

With 9 albums under her belt [including three with her Quintet and four solo] Gemma Farrell is an accomplished jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. While you’ve heard her aplenty on all four saxes - soprano, alto, tenor and baritone - the new album ‘Electronic’ with her Quintet is all about jamming on the EWI [pronounced EE-wee] – and it’s out now!

Gemma discovered this novel electronic wind instrument, which was invented in the ‘80s by Nyle Steiner, while studying her master’s at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2010. Back then, she didn’t (yet) feel confident improvising on it, it’s only been since her recent PhD research at the WA Academy of Performing Arts (where she also lectures in jazz studies) and which included learning how to use software synthesizers, that her masterful execution of this instrument really took off. 

“My instrument is a NuRAD EWI by Johan Berglund from Sweden,” Gemma says. “Berglund is being credited as bringing the EVI [Electronic Valve Instrument] back to life, as until his resent instrument designs, it was pretty hard to find one. His instruments, and my EWI, are 3D printed'

Gemma Farrell Quintet [GFQ] started in 2015 and its current iteration includes Perth-based musicians Sam Hadlow on trombone, Dan Garner on guitar, Ryan Daunt on drums and Lucy Browning on bass. GFQ is Gemma’s main outlet for her original music, and this third album follows up from the acclaimed ‘The View from The Top’ [2022] and ‘Organised Chaos’ [2018].

While it still features the grooves you’ve come to know and love from GFQ, ‘Electronic’ is guided by its compositional influences, exploring academic or experimental practices. But unless you have a trained ear, don’t expect to hear those deeper motives - ‘Electronic’ sounds smooth and effortless.

Featuring EWI shout choruses on ‘Abigail’s Song’, which was the first song Gemma wrote after becoming a mum; to the more contemplative jazz found in the track ‘Sixth Sense’; and the synthesizer-charged rush of the closing track ‘Aberdeen Street’, which reminds Gemma of clubbing at Perth venue The Deen in her late teens; the album explores the intersection of modern jazz and fusion, and it’s a fun and imaginative listen. 

“This project has basically ticked a major bucket list item for me and the EWI along with the sax of course will continue to be featured in the GFQ moving forward,” she says.In addition to her Quintet, Gemma also writes for a band called MFG with Cologne-based guitarist Nico Maas and Zurich-based keyboardist Thomas Goralski; and for the Artemis Orchestra, which promotes Australian jazz musicians of marginalised genders.

She also leads the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra’s ‘Progressions’ Pathways Program, which was nominated for an APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence in Music Education; was one of three finalists for the 2022 and 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards in the Humanitarian category; and was one of 16 Australian musicians nominated for the Freedman Fellowship Award in the Jazz Category in 2022.

‘Electronic’ by Gemma Farrell Quintet is out now digitally and on CD.

The album is being launched on Saturday 4th May at Lyric’s Underground, Maylands WA.

Kari van der Kloot’s third album Window draws elements from different genres of music while keeping the spirit of jazz at the forefront. Window is anchored by Kari’s ethereal vocals floating over rich, earthy layers of flutes and synthesizers, and nuanced and thoughtful playing by the rhythm section.  Featuring ten original compositions (including a setting of a poem by Pablo Neruda), the music glides seamlessly between intricately arranged ensemble playing and improvised abandon. Kari has an innate skill for crafting approachable melodies that belie the depth and complexity of her compositions. 

This album features a stellar cast of New York based musicians:  flautist Elsa Nilsson, keyboardist Jamie Reynolds, bassist Gary Wang and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell. This is an ensemble that has been working together for years, and it certainly shows. Kari’s longtime rhythm section plays with a masterful level of communication. The addition of flute phenom Elsa Nilsson to the quintet adds a unique and unexpected layer to Kari’s songs. Together, these five musicians establish an atmosphere of trust and freedom throughout the album. Each musician’s individual voice shines through clearly in each song while they weave a multi-layered musical tapestry together. 

With an inquisitive and searching tone, Kari vulnerably lays it all on the line. Many of these songs were written during the early days of the pandemic in New York City: Kari’s deeply personal lyrics reflect on the difficult balance between isolation and the needs of a community, as well as the growth that can come from periods of solitude. Totem was inspired by the work of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and features a swirling, fast-moving onslaught of chords with fleeting moments of repetition. The song Trust Exercise explores trust issues while featuring a mysterious, hard-to-grasp intro of layered flutes and vocals.  Sprout shows the ensemble communicating at its best, revisiting past trauma and the growth it inspires. The album culminates with Keeping Quiet, a setting of Pablo Neruda’s poem A callarse. A stunning duet between Kari and pianist Jamie Reynolds, Neruda’s text implores us to take the time to be still in our lives. 

Window is available here

Kari van der Kloot - Voice, Compositions 

Elsa Nilsson - Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Flute 

Jamie Reynolds - Piano, Synthesizers 

Gary Wang - Bass 

Nathan Ellman-Bell - Drums 

http://www.karivanderkloot.com

http://www.facebook.com/karivanderklootjazzvocalist

http://www.instagram.com/karivanderkloot

Rebecca Trescher was born in Tübingen in 1986. She lives and works as a freelance composer, clarinetist, and bandleader in Nuremberg and Berlin. Driven by boundless curiosity and the joy of experimenting with both jazz and symphonic contemporary music, she has acquired an outstanding reputation in the German and international jazz scene. Her compositional ideas are closely related to nature: her music is both grounded and ethereal. Her role models include musicians as varied as Björk, Bob Brookmeyer, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Radiohead, Maurice Ravel, Wayne Shorter, Igor Stravinsky, and Questlove. In her compositions, Trescher creates a unique sound world that is associative and organic rather than provocative. Critics and audiences alike have been fascinated by her ability to use only a few notes to transform a serene musical atmosphere into poetic arcs of tension at a symphonic scale.

Rebecca Trescher is a frequent guest at prominent festivals. Her concerts are regularly recorded and streamed by the Bavarian Radio and Arte. On international concert stages, she performs most frequently with the Rebecca Trescher Tentet and the Rebecca Trescher Quartet, but also as a soloist and as a duo with the Greek guitarist Giorgos Tabakis. She has received numerous prizes and scholarships, including the German Jazz Prize for “Composition of the Year 2022”. In that same year, she won DownBeat magazine’s international critics’ poll as “Rising Star Clarinet”. 

About 'Character Pieces'

At high altitudes, it’s comforting when a melody inspires trust. Wild dreams begin peacefully. Cloud travelers move forward with uneven meters. But what would a night without harp be like? Layer by layer, new and constantly changing vistas open. In the riverbed, wild frothing waters run deep. And what is the mustard maker doing? 

 In the character pieces that Rebecca Trescher composed for her Tentet, there is much to hear, to experience, to think about. Subtly orchestrated symphonic sound colors merge into one another. Arcs of tension stretch to the horizon, full of intensifications, changes of direction, and rhythmic transformations. All of this is interspersed with spaces for improvisation as well as seamless transitions between combo passages and multi-voiced activity – always with great clarity. Rebecca Trescher plays the clarinet and loves melodies. Melodies are not linear. In the contexts where she employs them, they have a shimmering ambiguity. Trescher’s Tentet is an experienced team. Every member contributed an idea to this project. The bandleader used these ideas to make something of her own and returned them to the group, where the material fell on fertile soil – the result of the group’s years of working together.  

When the players improvise, they are not necessarily playing jazz. Every member of the group is able to take on a constantly shifting array of roles, languages, and personal characteristics. Each player contributes their own version of the developing collective narrative, and all of these paths point in the same direction. 

In Rebecca Trescher’s music, things are never as one might expect. No trusted formulas, no predictable changes, no hastily constructed comfort zone. It’s more complex. Always. A number of people, musical approaches, ideas, and dynamic or rhythmic proclivities are consistently involved, often simultaneously. And everything is significant. 

Band:

Rebecca Trescher – Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Composition, Arrangement, Conception

Julian Hesse – Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Joachim Lenhardt – Tenor Saxophone, Flute

Markus Harm – Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Clarinet

Anton Mangold – Concert Harp, Alto Saxophone, Flute

Juri Kannheiser – Cello

Andreas Feith – Piano

Roland Neffe – Vibraphone

Christian Diener – Double Bass

Silvio Morger – Drums

More information about Rebecca Trescher Tentet: www.rebeccatrescher.com

Award-winning, Selmer-endorsed saxophonist, composer and bandleader, Hannah Horton releases her brand new live album ‘Live In Soho’ at Toulouse Lautrec on April 26! Tickets here

Recorded at the iconic Pizza Express Jazz Club inSoho in front of a sold-out audience, ‘Live in Soho’ is full of energy, intoxicating excitement, with a beautiful flow of tracks. It features a selection ofHannah’s own compositions alongside her interpretation of songs that she holds close to her heart. Hannah’s baritone playing is both cheeky andlyrical. Listen to Las Vegas Tango to be transported toa smoky club in sin city, or the Horn Dance if you want to experience how a Morris Man on speed would feel, then cheer yourself up by soaring with the birds on Surfing Thermals.Hannah Horton’s band is a vibrant and energised quartet. As well as Hannah on baritone and tenor saxophone, it features Tim Lapthorn on piano, RobStatham on electric bass and Nic France on drums.The synergy between these razor-sharp musicians is apparent on first listen.

Hannah Horton is an artist who goes her own way. Herstrong, clear tone, powerful rhythmic sense and compelling sense of melody make her an unmistakable voice on the scene. As a bandleader, she has been working with the same group of talented musicians for fifteen years: as composer, she released her second album Inside Out in 2021to overwhelmingly positive reviews, receiving aParliamentary Jazz Award nomination for Best Newcomer:as a performer, she’s played at all of the UK’s most prominent jazz venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The RoyalFestival Hall, the Barbican, and the 606 Jazz Club, selling out her London Jazz Festival shows. Recognition from the musical establishment has come in the form of awards,endorsements and diplomas, but it’s the way that audiences respond to her unashamedly positive, uninhibitedly personal music, and the emotional honesty of her accessible,engaging take on jazz that delivers the definitive accolade.Hannah’s music always prioritises melody and a sense of playfulness to create a very personal take on jazz that is informed equally by a strong affinity to groove. There are echoes of some of her favourites like Mark Lockheart andKeith Jarrett, and classical composers like Gerald Finzi - but ultimately there’s no-one else who sounds quite like her - aMelodic Maverick.

“There’s a deeper dimension to her art” – BBC Music Magazine

“Hannah is real. She is authentic. She is an artist who draws you in, engages you, inspires you and captivates you” Jazz in Europe

“There’s bold and gritty playing, on both baritone and tenor sax” - Jazz Wise

“Hannah makes the big beast of a baritone sax sound like an angel” – Ian Shaw

Produced by Hannah Horton
Recorded at Pizza Express Jazz Club, January 2023
Mixed by John Prestage
Mastered by Fluid Mastering

Hannah Horton website click here