Tag Archives: guitar

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2024: PETER XIFARAS: New Album “FUSION”

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PETER XIFARAS “FUSION”
Genre-crossing Peter Xifaras is a musical wizard who is an inventive, guitarist, keyboardist, composer, and recording producer. Fusion features Xifaras’ infectious electronic rhythms, solos from trumpeter Shunzo Ohno and electric violinist Xander Nichting, and ensembles that are funky and catchy.

MUSICIANS:
Peter Xifaras – Guitar & Keys, Shunzo Ohno– Trumpet, Xander Nichting – Violin, Max Gerl – Bass, Scott Jackson – Drums & Percussion,
Czech National Symphony Orchestra

In his career, the innovative Peter Xifaras has consistently created music that has made Billboard’s classical and crossover charts, frequently featuring mixtures of genres including spoken word, symphonic music, and jazz fusion. His latest recording, Fusion, blends together Xifaras’ guitar and electronic keyboards with the great Japanese jazz trumpeter Shunzo Ohno, the versatile violinist Xander Nichting, bassist Max Gerl, and drummer-percussionist Scott Jackson, with contributions from the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.

The opener, “Chaos,” has music that is anything but chaotic. The rhythmic vamp sets an ominous atmosphere that is accentuated by Ohno’s wa-wa electrified trumpet which hints at Miles Davis circa 1973. He takes a blazing solo on “Shunzo” over the stirring ensembles and Nichting also has a rewarding
spot. The ensemble-oriented “Wild And Free” finds Xifaras and the rhythm section setting patterns with backing by the Czech National Symphony.

“B Blues” is not actually a blues but a bluesy original with a funky vamp that is one of the release’s highlights, featuring colorful trumpet, violin, guitar and bass solos. “Think Quick” is also particularly memorable including its infectious theme and the melodic solos. “While My Guitar Weeps For Mehdi Rajabian” is a showcase for Xifaras’ guitar. Joined by strings on the medium-tempo dirge, he makes a personal, warm, and emotional statement. This unique outing concludes with more wa-wa trumpet from Ohno on the warm and nostalgic “Till We Meet Again.”

Peter Xifaras has had as wide-ranging a career as his music. He began having guitar lessons when he was nine, played with a rock band as a teenager, and studied classical guitar in college. After graduating, he opened a recording studio and started his record label, Music With No Expiration®. He has since
recorded as the leader of his own symphoneX orchestra®, welcoming guest artists to many of his releases. Xifaras’ music ranges from classical and fusion to cinematic and spoken word with his playing, particularly on guitar, being strikingly original. He is most proud of Children Of Conflict, an award-winning release that focuses on the need for social justice.
Fusion is Peter Xifaras’ latest accomplishment, a continually intriguing and invigorating set that is both creative and quite accessible. For listeners not familiar with his previous work, Fusion serves as the perfect introduction to his innovative music.

Web sites:
http://www.PeterXifaras.com
http://www.Symphony-X.com
http://www.MusicWithNoExpiration.com

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2024

WorldMusicMix: Two Giants of Smooth Jazz Release Their New Single “Wake Up”

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Two Giants of Smooth Jazz Release Their New Single “Wake Up”

The upcoming June 7th will see the world of Smooth Jazz and Funk eagerly welcoming the release of “Wake Up,” the new single from two prominent European guitarists: the international artists David Margam (Spain) and Horst Lippitsch (Austria)

“Wake Up” symbolizes a rebirth, an awakening to life after difficult times, offering a message of hope and
renewal. This single stands out for its elegant sound that masterfully fuses the genres of Funk, Smooth
Jazz, and RnB, reflecting the mastery and distinctive style of both artists.

“Wake Up” is not just a musical composition, but a statement of resilience and positivity. Every note and chord is designed to inspire and motivate those who listen to this masterpiece.

“Wake Up” will be available on June 7th on all streaming platforms and for digital download.

David Margam, renowned for his virtuosity and his ability to convey emotions through his guitar, has been a central figure in the Smooth Jazz scene in Spain. Horst Lippitsch, on the other hand, is acclaimed in Austria and internationally for his impeccable technique and musical versatility.
Together, they create a unique synergy that promises to captivate listeners worldwide.

Fans of both artists and lovers of Smooth Jazz & Grooves are invited to join this musical journey
celebrating life and rebirth.

Available on all digital platforms on June 7, 2024

www.drfunkproducciones.com

WorldMusicMix

WorldMusicMix: Leo Courbot(Belgium)-New album: Passion at a distance

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Leo Courbot
Nouvel album Passion at a distance
Sortie le 22 mars 2024

Après un premier album remarqué (Vatic Vintage, révélation Jazz Magazine 2021) attirant des comparaisons avec Prince et Jimi Hendrix sur les ondes comme dans la presse, Leo Courbot propose un deuxième disque ambitieux, Passion at a Distance, prévu pour le 22 mars 2024.

Astronaute perché amateur de supernovas guitaristiques, le guitariste Leo Courbot suit son orbite entre galaxies funk et constellations rock. Depuis sa station spatiale bruxelloise, il écrit, compose, arrange et réalise en solo tous ses enregistrements.

Accompagné d’une incroyable équipe de batteurs comme Michael Bland (Prince, George Benson…), Gene Lake (Meshell Ndegeocello, D’Angelo, Maxwell), Stéphane Galland (Joe Zawinul, Ozark Henry…) et Pat Dorcean (Ida Nielsen, Jef Lee Johnson, Zap Mama), Leo Courbot nous transporte dans une odyssée de l’espace hendrixienne et romantique. On peut découvrir en premier extrait le clip du Cantique des Quantiques, avec en invité le batteur extraordinaire Stéphane Galland.

Pour regarder le clip de Cantiques des Quantiques feat Stéphane Galland :

Astronaute perché amateur de supernovas guitaristiques, Leo Courbot suit son orbite entre galaxies funk et constellations rock. Après son premier album, Vatic Vintage, révélation Jazz Magazine gorgée d’astéroïdes funk, et dans son dernier EP, Wormholes (Octobre 2022), réalisé en compagnie de Michael Bland, batteur star de Prince, le musicien belge annonce la sortie de son deuxième album, Passion at a Distance.

En neuf titres funk-rock originaux, l’album met en scène la quête interstellaire d’un amour authentique. D’une chanson à l’autre, les textes s’appuient sur les vocabulaires cosmique et quantique pour poser le décor: “nuages d’électrons,” “corps célestes” et “trous de vers” y décrivent les distances infimes et infinies où se jouent le désir, les plaisirs et les peines amoureuses.
Pour se détacher des boîtes à rythmes d’un premier album réalisé quasiment seul, Leo
Courbot s’est entouré des batteurs de ses idoles: on retrouve des collaborations avec Michael Bland, repéré aux côtés de Prince et George Benson, Gene Lake qui a accompagné Meshell Ndegeocello, D’Angelo, ou Maxwell), mais encore Stéphane Galland qui a joué entre autre avec Joe Zawinul et Ozark Henry, AKA Moon) et Pat Dorcean (Ida Nielsen, Jef
Lee Johnson, Zap Mama).
Côté esthétique, la musique de l’album est illustrée par une fabuleuse pochette signée Philippe Caza, dessinateur pionnier de la science-fiction des 70s aux côtés de Druillet et Moebius dans les bandes dessinées des Humanoïdes Associés et du magazine culte Métal Hurlant.
Passion at a Distance nous transporte dans l’espace avec son odyssée sonore aux accents hendrixiens revendiqués. A savourer sous les étoiles dès le 22 mars 2024.

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WorldMusicMix:

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023: Silvan Joray featuring Nadav Erlich & Jeff Ballard(USA)-Updraft

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Silvan Joray-Updraft
For Immediate Release Please
Ubuntu Music Presents

Silvan Joray
featuring Nadav Erlich & Jeff Ballard

Updraft

CD AND DIGITAL FORMATS AVAILABLE ON NOVEMBER 3, 2023.UBUNTU MUSIC – UBU0144 (THE ORCHARD) WWW.UBUNTUMANAGEMENTGROUP.COM | WWW.WEAREUBUNTUMUSIC.COM 
CD RELEASE EVENT
Threes Brewing Gowanus
333 Douglas St., Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday, November 8, 8.30 pm
https://threesbrewing.com/pages/gowanus
Silvan Joray – guitar and compositions
Nadav Erlich – double bass
Jeff Ballard – drums
New York City-based guitarist and composer Silvan Joray is proud to present Updraft, his second album as a leader and first for the Ubuntu Music label. The album showcases his forward-thinking original style characterized by a transparent tone, crispy articulation, creative rhythmic ideas and extended techniques like quarter tones and „tapping“ which are not traditionally associated with jazz guitar playing.
A follow up to his ambitious 2020 trio album, Cluster, Joray’s latest outing features once again Israeli double bass player Nadav Erlich and this time, living legend Jeff Ballard (Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny) on drums.

 Born and raised in Switzerland, Joray embraces both the openness of European as well as the rootedness and swing of American jazz. While the music on Updraft is clearly influenced by the American jazz tradition, it doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not and is totally content with being in its own category.
Renowned jazz bassist Larry Grenadier states: “Silvan along with Nadav and Jeff have made a musical statement together that has at its core a sense of history and at the same time moves the music towards the future with bold playing and fresh compositions. Sonically beautiful and captivating music.“
Ballard, Joray, Erlich  © Victor Hege
The recording includes seven original compositions and two short, freely improvised tracks. The serenity of joyful straight eighth grooves, as heard in “Kokodrillo“ or “Kaeppeleview“, complements the swinging energy of pieces like “Updraft” and “Kurtish”. Joray is also passionate about playing jazz standards and pays tribute to two masters of the genre, Cole Porter and Andrew Hill, with “At Long Last Love” and “Subterfuge“. 

Starting in September 2020, the trio had the chance to refine its band sound and interplay over the course of two years before going into the studio. At the same time, humanity faced some new challenges that heavily impacted everyone’s life. Updraft is Joray’s personal way of dealing with these difficult times and presents a collection of compositions that strive to lift our spirits and elevate our perspectives. The title of the album beautifully encapsulates this sentiment, and Joray’s innate gift for melody and lyricism shines through both in his playing and compositions.
TRACKS
1. Kokodrillo 7:09
2. Kaeppeleview 6:33
3. Updraft 6:39
4. Morning Breeze 0:34
5. Very Sweet Stuff, But Nice! 5:43 
6. Subterfuge 5:50
7. The Liar 4:56
8. Kurtish 5:01
9. Something Ahead 4:31
10. Evening Breeze 1:00
11. At Long Last Love 6:25 

All compositions written by Silvan Joray
except for tracks 4 and 10 (improvised)Track 6 (Andrew Hill) and track 11 (Cole Porter)

Produced by Silvan JorayCo-produced by Roman Hošek (SRF2 Kultur)Executive Producer: Martin Hummel

Recorded by Daniel Dettwiler at Idee und Klang Studio Basel on June 11 and 12, 2022Second engineer, tracking and editing by Josua DillierMixed and mastered by Daniel Dettwiler at Idee und Klang Studio Himmelried.

Front cover photo: George Korunov
Designed by Rumney Design
ABOUT SILVAN JORAY
Silvan Joray is currently based in New York City. He has gained recognition in the jazz community, having won special prizes at the UNISA International Strings Competition in South Africa 2022 and the Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition 2019 in Poland. He has performed at prestigious jazz festivals including the Krakow Summer Jazz Festival, Offbeat Jazzfestival Basel, and International Jazz Festival Bern, and has toured in Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Israel. Silvan will be touring throughout the year – please see his website for details: www.silvanjoray.com 

ABOUT UBUNTU MUSIC
Ubuntu Music, a division of Ubuntu Management Group, is a progressive recorded music label that is committed to bringing quality, accessible jazz and related music genres to increasingly wider audiences. Their approach includes collaborative efforts with an array of performing artists who have a passion for jazz and who possess unique and diversified talents. 
www.weareubuntumusic.com 

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023: António Silva Music new album – “Blessings and Inspirations”

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António Silva-Blessings and Inspiration

António Silva Music new album – “Blessings and Inspirations”

Blessings and Inspirations is a compilation of 12 original compositions by António Silva, from styles so diverse as Jazz, Fusion, Classical, Pop and World Music. To give life to this music he was helped by several musicians from 5 different countries. The album is divided into 4 elements. Blessings and Inspirations will be available the 1st of September 2023 to buy and stream in full from Bandcamp here – https://antoniosilvamusic.bandcamp.com/

Further Info and Bio.
António Miguel Dias da Silva was born in Coimbra, city where he began studying the guitar when he was 14 years old. He went on to study Jazz at Bachelor and Masters levels in Lisbon, Helsinki, Stockholm and Aarhus and also the composition system “Equal Interval System” with American teacher Glenn Jordan.
He has recorded 4 albums: Ararur, Mielikki, Up Lift and Súnapsis. Blessings and Inspirations is António Silva newest creation.

Blessings and Inspirations
Chronicles Vol. 1
Air
1 – O espetáculo vai começar
António Silva – Guitar
2 – The chosen one
António Silva – Guitar and Voices; Francisco Brito – Doublebass; Luciano Cuviello – Drums
3 – Glory Day
Sanna Ruohoniemi – Vocals; António Silva – Guitar; Francisco Brito – Doublebass; João Rijo –
Drums
Earth
4 – The Magic Number
António Silva – Guitar; Inês Ochoa – Eletric Bass; João Santiago – Drums
5 – Metal Jazz Groove Thing
António Silva – Guitar; Anatole Buccella – Baritone-guitar; João Rijo – Drums
Water
6 – Ela
7 – Intro
8 – Floating underwater
9 – Cuida de mim
10 – Classical
Tomomi Kato – Piano
Fire
11 – Fantasma
António Silva – Guitar and Voice; Manuel Maio – Violin; Luciano Cuviello – Fretless Bass and Snare
12 – So in Love with You
António Silva – Guitar and Voice

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JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023: Manuel Muzzu (Italy)- Album: From T(h)ree to Four

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Manuel Muzzu-From T(h)ree to Four

New bass player Manuel Muzzu‘s album it’s been released and it’s available for digital purchase and for streaming. The album it’s a concentrate of much of music contamination starting fron jazz, fusion jazz, smooth jazz, latin jazz, where the bass guitar have a most important role playing rhythm part and also melodic part. Played with different techniques, with a different sounds colours.

Last One

“Last one” it’s a pretty simple listening track with a great smooth jazz influence and it’s the first song of my last album. The album it’s a concentrate of a different styles of jazz starting from smooth jazz, fusion jazz, Latin jazz, swing and classic jazz. Awesome played by spectaculars musicians, where the bass guitar in all his shapes (4-5-6 strings fretted and fretless) have the dominant part .

Website CD Store

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023: David Margam feat. Carlos Camilo(Spain) – Album: Immune

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David Margam-Immune

David Margam presents “Immune” single ahead of his debut album. “Immune” is the perfectly sparkling new gem from multitalented guitarist/songwriter David Margam, one of the leading pioneers of the Smooth Jazz and Funk genres in Spain! Delivering an uplifting and refreshing vibe, “Immune” is the new single ahead of from 2023, the eponymous title of his debut album that is in its final mixing phase, scheduled for release in the coming months.

“Immune” is the perfectly sparkling new gem from multi-talented guitarist/songwriter David Margam one of the leading pioneers of the Smooth Jazz and Funk genres in Spain! Delivering an exhilarating and refreshing vibe, “Immune” is the new single for 2023 , the title of his debut album, which is in its final mixing phase, scheduled for release in the coming months.

“Immune” is the new composition by David Margam produced by the Cuban pianist and producer Carlos Camilo who provides some stimulating piano arrangements that raise the level of the song to a higher state with a catchy and seductive melody, the collaboration of the Spanish guitarist Andrés García on Spanish guitar brings great sensitivity to this relaxing and uplifting new piece of music. Without a doubt, a great start to the year for guitarist David Margam who finished last year in the TOP20 of the most listened to guitarists of 2022 through the Smooth Jazz Universe platform.

Guitarist David Margam is a Spanish musician from the new generation of Contemporary Jazz, known as much for his affable personality and generous spirit as for his musical taste. Born in Granada, Spain, he attributes his musical career to having worked with some incredible musicians from around the world.

Website

JazzWorldQuest 2023

World Music Mix: Strunz and Farah (USA)-Album: Syncretic Strings

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Strunz and Farah-Syncretic Strings

Syncretic Strings
AVAILABLE MARCH 2023
Grammy-nominated acoustic guitar greats Strunz & Farah are releasing their 21st album, Syncretic Strings, in March 2023. Their blend of Latin, Middle Eastern, jazz fusion, and acoustic rock elements has been highly influential among guitarists worldwide.

Recognized for their astounding technical brilliance, melodic eloquence, and colorful and sophisticated compositions, Strunz & Farah have created a new collection of ten studio tracks full of energy and beauty. One cut, “This Could Only Be”, features surprise special guest Al Di Meola on percussion.

As the title suggests, the music offers an exuberant diversity, blending many elements into their unique guitar vision, transcending categories, and further expanding the possibilities of contemporary guitar. A new refreshing feast of color, melody, and driving rhythm from these guitar masters, among their very best yet.

“Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah play with the swiftness of a desert wind and the burning passion of a Gypsy campfire…In addition to being talented arrangers and composers, their technical mastery of the instrument – especially in terms of speed – tests the boundaries of the human capability.” – Guitar Player

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World Music Mix