Women in Jazz Media is excited to announce the release of the new album from Migdalia van der Hoven and the Migdalia van der Hoven Quartet, Point of Departure, which will be available worldwide on 05/04/2023.

Point of Departure

All tracks composed by Wikus van der Hoven. Album recorded by The Migdalia van der Hoven Quartet

Album recorded at Abbey Road Studio (London) and Battery Studios (London)

Track Listing:

1.  Point of departure

2.  Girl facing south

3.  Behind her mask

4.  G.M.T.

5.  PCH

6.  Savannah Rain

7.  Groove Therapy

8.  Red Skies

9.  Final destination

10. BONUS TRACK: Girl facing south (Reprise)

Personnel on each track:

Migdalia van der Hoven – Drums (Track 1-10), Percussion (Track 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10)

Johnny Mayers – Bass (Track 1-10)

Josh Stidwell – Piano (Track 1-6 and 8-10)

Wikus van der Hoven – Tenor saxophone (Track 1-10), Soprano Saxophone (Track 3 and 6),

Electronic Wind Instrument (Track 10), Synth programming (Track 3, 4 and 7), Piano (Track 7)

Point of departure is the debut album by the Migdalia van der Hoven quartet. A set of contemporary jazz fusion tracks with a wide array of styles and grooves showcasing each individual musician and instrument. It invites the listener on a journey with a satisfying conclusion and the promise of more to come.

Available here

Billie Bottle’s Temple of Shibboleth are delighted to announce the release of their eponymous debut on March 31st.

Born in lockdown, The Temple of Shibboleth started life when Billie Bottle ran away from Gifford’s Circus in 2020, and started caring for a wise woman in deepest Devon. Here, she was taught the ancient art of traditional housekeeping – it eventually became this melodic, deep and gently humorous music.

It tells the story of The Week, the most commonly and widely practiced mantra for a good few thousand years! It is a celebration of the Home and beyond. An opportunity for ritual transformation and a means to deal with the grief of these difficult times. It also features toe-tapping tunes and in-depth sonic experimentation - it's all going on!

The album is produced by hitmaker, George Shilling (Blur/Primal Scream/Yazz) and features the voice and bass of the Canterbury Scene, Richard Sinclair. Billie Bottle continues to incorporate a scintillating blend of jazz and pop in her work and The Temple of Shibboleth go in deep with a fine balance of mythic prog and psych-folk.

Billie Bottle’s Temple of Shibboleth is released worldwide on double vinyl and digital download on 31st March 2023.

Billie Bottle Bandcamp

Billie Bottle Instagram

Billie Bottle Facebook

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR TOURING PROFESSIONALS

‘I wish this book had been around when I first started touring … It should be the first thing we all pack when we head out on the road.’ Philip Selway, Radiohead

This comprehensive manual will help musicians and those working in live music to identify and cope with the various physical and psychological difficulties that can occur during, or as a result of, touring. It covers topics including mental health, peak performance and performance anxiety, addiction, group dynamics, relationship problems, dealing with the media, physical health, diversity and inclusion, crisis management and post-tour recovery.

Written by health and performance professionals, this timely and essential book provides robust clinical advice, cutting edge research, practical strategies, resources and detailed illustrations. Each chapter is underpinned with personal recollections from musicians and prominent touring personnel, including Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Philip Selway, Charles Thompson, Katie Melua , Kieran Hebden, Jake Berry, Tina Farris, Taylor Hanson, Trevor Williams, Lauren Mayberry, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Digby, Will Young, Angie Warner, Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth and many more.

Touring and Mental Health is designed to be picked up, put down, read at length and passed around the tour bus.

‘This book can add decades to a career, give wisdom to the most exhausted mind, and offer encouragement to every burdened heart.’ James Ainscough, CEO Help Musicians UK

‘[it’s] like having a therapist in your back pocket. It helped deepen my understanding of myself as a performer and how the demands of the music business can take a toll’ Siobhan Donaghy, Sugababes

‘The perfect book at the perfect time.’ Marty Hom, Tour Manager Fleetwood Mac, Shakira, Beyoncé

‘A remarkable encyclopaedia of wisdom...  This impressive book needs to be read by every single artist and every single psychological worker as well.’ Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology

Publication Date: 23.03.23
ISBN: 9781913172343
Extent: 640 pages
Format: Paperback

Tamsin Embleton is an attachment-based psychotherapist and the Director of the Music Industry Therapists and Coaches (MITC). She worked as a music promoter, tour manager, and artist manager for ten years.

Link here

Trombonist and Vocalist Hailey Brinnel issues her soaring sophomore statement Beautiful Tomorrow, due out March 17, 2023 via Outside in Music 

Outside in Music is proud to announce the March 17, 2023 release of Beautiful Tomorrow, the sophomore recording from vocalist and trombonist Hailey Brinnel. When asked to define her style, the Philadelphia-based artist, whose sound is steeped in swing and bebop, describes her effort to move the genre into new spaces: “I like pushing the limits of the idiom, while staying true to jazz.” 

Alongside her entrusted quartet with Joe Plowman on bass, Dan Monaghan on drums and Silas Irvine on piano, Brinnel presents her extraordinary comprehension of vintage material throughout this new enterprise, offering two original compositions and eight arranged standards. Special guest trumpeters Terell Stafford and Andrew Carson join the date as well as saxophonist Chris Oatts .

The release of Beautiful Tomorrow follows a milestone year for the multi-talent in 2021. That March, Brinnel released her critically-acclaimed leader debut I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, which reached #13 on Amazon’s New Release Chart and #44 on Jazz Best-Sellers. Fashioned by her warm and playful arranging expertise, the impressive collection features 8-tracks of early jazz standards. Later that June, Brinnel was named a finalist in the 2021 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. Critics have regaled the budding talent for her versatile arranging sensibilities, which remain reverent to jazz tradition yet flushed with contemporary nuance.

Gleaned from the eternal optimist Walt Disney, Brinnel launches Beautiful Tomorrow fittingly with a reimagination of the Sherman Brothers classic “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”, a  show tune popularly known as Disney’s theme song after being commissioned by the entrepreneur in 1964. Brinnel’s treatment embraces a reduced big band sound with a full horn shout section, where polished and succinct solos from Oatts and Irvine sit at the heart of the glorious arrangement.

Two original offerings make up the early tracks of Beautiful Tomorrow, both stellar showcases of Brinnel’s clever and dynamic storytelling abilities. The mischievous “I Might Be Evil” walks listeners through a whimsical tale of confidence. Playful contributions from Irvine help communicate Brinnel’s message beyond the lyrical. Hard-driving swing on “The Sound” follows, a fast-tempo episode of breathless scatting which unites effortlessly with Irvine’s keys. 

More divergent in its origins from the rest, “Walk Between Raindrops” reimagines the 1982 tune off Steely Dan member Donald Fagen’s first solo album, The Nightfly. Here, Brinnel substitutes Fagen’s original organ solo arrangement for her horn shout section, staying true to her mission to walk along the edges of the jazz frontier. Brinnel jokes that she tends to create “approachable” jazz. “I love making music that people can easily connect to, while still pus hing the genre into new spaces “

Brinnel gracefully interprets two well-known standards “Tea for Two,” with prolific input from special guest trumpeter Terell Stafford, and “I Want To Be Happy”, both written for the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette. On “Wayfaring Stranger”, a traditional tune that harkens back to the sounds of 1940s New Orleans, Brinnel offers a stunning vocal foray, tapping into her deeper register both vocally and on the trombone.

Though most of Brinnel’s musings on Beautiful Tomorrow are decidedly cheerful, the warm-toned vocalist takes a departure with the languorous ballad “A Cottage for Sale.” Irvine, fluid and diligent, follows Brinnel as she leads the venture, a parade of the quartet’s synergy.

Brinnel’s veneration of the piano trio format is most evidently brought forth on the playful and didactic “There Will Never Be.” Monaghan, Plowman and Irvine quickly establish a rhythmic phrase that, matched with Brinnel’s heartfelt phrasing, creates an unbridled sense of elevation and intimacy.

The album closes by the command of Plowman’s bass on “Candy.” The brief vocal/bass duet is sweet in every essence, acting as a lullaby to close the record while reminding listeners that tomorrow’s forecast is full of swing, tradition and most importantly, beauty.

Hailey Brinnel website

The premiere concert of the new album Ytinamuh from singer, improviser, composer Natalia Kordiak will take place on March 17, 2023 during the Jazz Jantar Festival at Klub Żak in Gdańsk.

The cycle "Ytinamuh" (Humanity) consists of six pieces connected by open improvisations of musicians in various configurations. Instead of trying to describe the music from the album, I would just like to say that I like to think of it as a story in which what is written in the score intertwines with the madness of improvisation, and sometimes as a way, sometimes safe and orderly, sometimes risky and dangerous, but always beginning and ending with a deep breath. Natalia Kordiak

Natalia has been nominated for the "FRYDERYK 2020" award of the Polish Phonographic Academy in the PHONOGRAPHIC DEBUT OF THE YEAR - JAZZ category. Leader of her own band, who she has been working since 2019 (Natalia Kordiak Quintet "Bajka", Hevhetia, 2019) and co-founder of the TANŌK band, which she co-created with the Ukrainian jazz pianist Kateryna Ziabliuk. In music, she values ​​the authenticity of dialogue, being present and creating a space where the line between reason and madness blurs, and reality becomes an abstraction.

Natalia Kordiak - voice & live electronics

Przemysław Chmiel – tenor & soprano saxophone

Mateusz Kolakowski - piano

Alan Wykpisz - double bass & bass guitar

Grzegorz Pałka - drums

All music by Natalia Kordiak.

Recorded live on June 29th, 2022 at the Academy of Music in Katowice by Mateusz Sołtysik.

Mix & master by Grzegorz Piwkowski

Cover & design: Anna Kulikowska

Photos: Przemysław Kleczkowski

Produced by Natalia Kordiak.

Executive producer: Maciej Karłowski.

To follow, support and purchase the album, follow these links

Brava Jazz Publishing Creates a Platform for Women Composers and Arrangers in the Field of Big Band Jazz!

The new publishing company, a collaboration between jazz composer/arrangers Annie Booth and Alan Baylock, launches in Spring 2023 with a diverse catalog of big band music for all ability levels from middle school to professional, composed and/or arranged by women.

DENVER, March 8, 2023 – The first jazz publishing outlet of its kind, Brava Jazz is on a mission to support and champion women composers and arrangers in the field of big band jazz by creating a platform for their music to be widely published and distributed.

In pursuit of music that would diversify the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band’s setlists, Alan Baylock (composer, arranger, conductor) discovered that the major publishing outlets offered very few, if any, big band charts composed and/or arranged by women. In considering how he could lend his strengths in jazz arranging, copywork, and bandleading to help the visibility of women in the field, he formed the idea of a publishing company.

Brava Jazz Publishing began to grow roots when Alan met Annie Booth (composer, arranger, pianist), whose experiences in advocacy for women and young women in jazz inform a meaningful part of her career. Her experience as a big band composer, coupled with her entrepreneurial spirit, made her a terrific match in this endeavor.

Brava Jazz Publishing boasts an impressive and diverse artist roster with some of the brightest voices in jazz composition and arranging today. With a diverse array of music for all ability levels from middle school to professional, Brava Jazz provides a definitive resource for jazz ensemble directors to diversify their setlists effortlessly through the performance of the highest quality music composed and/or arranged by women. Aiming to expand the recognition and number of women composing and arranging for big bands Brava Jazz Publishing is making jazz herstory.

For more information about Brava Jazz Publishing, its catalog, and its artists, visit the Brava Jazz website https://bravajazz.com.