GREGORY PORTER NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY AWARD

Nov 25 2020

GREGORY PORTER with HIS FIRST EVER CHRISTMAS ALBUM ‘CHRISTMAS WISH’ 

A UNIQUE FESTIVE SELECTION, CHOSEN BY GREGORY PORTER &  3 BRAND NEW SONGS, WRITTEN BY THE MAN HIMSELF

RELEASED GLOBALLY FRIDAY 3^RD NOVEMBER 2023 VIA BLUE NOTE/DECCA RECORDS

FIRST SINGLE ‘EVERYTHING’S NOT LOST’ OUT NOW, LISTEN HERE

 

At last! With his customary class, elegance and sophistication, Gregory Porter today announces his first ever Christmas album, to be released on Friday 3^rd November 2023 via Blue Note/Decca Records. Entitled ‘Christmas Wish’ it is a loving tribute to his favourite time of year – and to great songwriters, singers and interpreters including Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, Dinah Washington and Nat King Cole. In addition to this list of world class names, Mr Porter himself has added to the Christmas catalogue with three original tracks, soon to be favourites for the festive season.

Backed by his long-time band and produced by repeat collaborator Troy Miller, with orchestral contributions recorded at Abbey Road, the album features inspired interpretations of carols, jazz-age standards and soulful sixties deep-cuts including ‘Silent Night’, ‘Little Drummer Boy’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Purple Snowflakes’, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Someday At Christmas’ and Frank Loesser’s ‘What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?, which features a powerhouse guest vocal from double Grammy-winning sensation Samara Joy.

The theme of sharing and caring at Christmas, and the sense of renewal and revival that comes when the year draws to a close, is all here in Porter’s most personal contribution – his trio of new, self-penned songs, ‘Christmas Wish’, ‘Heart For Christmas’ and first single, ‘Everything’s Not Lost’, released today (listen: here). This elegant piano ballad is Porter’s persuasive plea to remember those less fortunate than ourselves. “I’m always thinking of balance” he explains. “That has been instilled in me and it keeps coming up in a lot of my music. At your highest, at your greatest, at your most pleasant time, don’t forget about other people who are suffering.”

Gregory will further extend his love and talent, warming up the winter months as he tours the world with his band. In December 2023 he will be back touring five major cities in Germany presenting his new album as well as his greatest hits.

 

Order the album here

 

TRACKLIST

1. Silent Night
2. Christmas Waltz
3. Everything’s Not Lost (Written by Gregory Porter)
4. Someday at Christmas
5. Purple Snowflakes
6. Little Drummer Boy
7. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – feat. Samara Joy
8. Christmas Wish (Written By Gregory Porter)
9. Cradle in Bethlehem
10. Do You Hear What I Hear?
11. Christmas Time is Here
12. Heart for Christmas (Written by Gregory Porter)

 

While many have re-interpreted the classic jazz compositions of our time, few have done it in such innovative and creative ways as Stockholm based quartet Ellas Kapell, if critics and audiences are to be believed. We are very happy to announce Ellas Kapell third album „FOR ALL WE KNOW“ , release on the 10th of November on Naxos Prophone Records.

The four members met in 2016 and have gone on to release two critically acclaimed albums, win the Golden Album Reader’s Choice Award (JAZZ/Orkesterjournalen), be named the Vocal Jazz Act of the Year by Lira Music Magazine, garner over four million streams, and collaborate with some of the biggest names in Swedish Jazz including Karin Hammar and Magnus Lindgren.

‘For All We Know’ follows their 2021 release ‘What’s It All About’, and continues in their quest to breathe new life into the standard repertoire of the 20th Century. This time around, the quartet set out with the goal of creating a musical atmosphere that allows the listener to both rest in the familiar as well as discover the unknown.

The record’s sound is sorrowful with glimpses of hope, enabling light and positivity to permeate the cracks in their Scandinavian-noir tone. Creative reharmonization, thoughtful arrangements and a European jazz sensibility are the primary tools used to provide modern contexts for songs any jazz fan will be all too familiar with.

With a playful, improvisatory aura, Lovisa Jennervall’s effortlessly powerful vocals carry the quartet through melodic solos, deconstructed jazz standard forms, melancholic harmony synonymous with the Scandinavian jazz idiom and a wide-reaching array of grooves bridging the gap between American and European approaches to the genre.

With an undeniable passion and respect for the tradition at the ensemble’s core, Ellas Kapell achieve balance between capturing the timeless sound of the music they fell in love with and the fresh, contemporary energy of a band striving to reflect their 21st Century musical identities into the artform.

 

 

 

 

Photo by Elvira Glänte
Cover by Frida Krafft

We are happy to announce the first single from Kat Eaton’s second album – Honestly  -released in March 2024.

 

Listen here Bad Advice

Last night the 65th Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles.

We are delighted to announce that John Beasley and his collaborators Magnus Lindgren & The SWR Big Band Featuring Martin Aeur were the winners for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella with „Scrapple From The Apple.“

 

Here you can watch the complete ceremony.

„The Human Seasons” is an album of musical improvisation by the Argentinian pianist Gustavo Beytelmann, produced with Philippe Cohen Solal. The title comes from a poem by John Keats and is a metaphor for the four seasons of our existence. It is also about the life that we improvise from day to day.

Here the acoustics and electronics interact in a unique musical ping-pong. The 2 musicians cross over between the human seasons, between “field recording” and “spoken word”, to deliver an instrumental performance that is sometimes serene and sometimes powerful.Philippe Cohen Solal started collaborating with Gustavo Beytelmann in 1999. He is the pianist that features in Gotan Project. The maestro also accompanied the group on their world tour of “La Revancha del Tango”, which has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. One evening, in the middle of a concert, the two computers with all the rhythmic sequences broke down. But the show must go on: Gustavo and Philippe then start to improvise, in a long suspended and magical moment. From this technical incident a beautiful artistic surprise was born.

It took almost 20 years for them to find themselves, both in the studio, with the firm intention of putting themselves in danger and recreating that magic.Sound landscapes, pianistic melodies, poetic interventions and solid rhythms are summoned to take us, during 45 minutes of electro and acoustic improvisation, to an incredible musical elsewhere.”

Summer – Official Video

We are excited to announce the new album titled „We Da People“ from the multi-GRAMMY Award nominated and winning drummer, producer and educator Emanuel Harrold.

The album folows his recent EP „Funk La Soul“

 

℗ 2022 Gearbox Records

 

Video – We Da People

 

Listen this the wonderful song Capacity to Love – Video

The late Leonard Cohen could certainly be a formidable performer, but he endures primarily because of his songs – richly poetic, nuanced and evocative pieces of aural literature composed with enough considered space to leave them open for eclectic interpretations. His „Tower of Song“ came with flexible blueprints, which is why Cohen has been the subject of so many often excellent tribute albums, both during his lifetime and since his 2016 death.

Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen is a worthwhile entry in the large pile of salutes and serves as a complement to 2022’s illuminating documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song and the companion compilation Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah & Songs From His Albums. It hosts a crew of top-shelf artists taking on a dozen Cohen pieces, many established favorites but also a few deep digs, with producer Larry Klein’s jazz-tinged arrangements providing the sonic thread to sew them all together.

Gregory Porter, one of the great jazz vocalists of the moment, delivers a soulful version of Suzanne that hews to its original melodies but allows the jazz artists accompanying him to interpolate and offer their own flights.

 

Suzanne – Video