Justin Gray and Synthesis’ debut album, New Horizons, features a collection of original compositions, which feature the bass veena performed alongside an inspiring lineup of artists from around the world. Bandleader Justin Gray designed and co-created the bass veena, a multi-stringed instrument, which combines the fretless bass with elements inspired by various Indian stringed instruments. The music draws inspiration from Justin’s wide range of musical influences, including Indian classical, jazz, western classical, electronic and R&B music. Gray’s compositions synthesize these musical traditions with a unique combination of captivating melodies, rich sonic textures, and exotic grooves.
Justin Gray & Synthesis is a contemporary world jazz ensemble that explores a captivating cross-cultural blend of Indian and western music. The ensemble features Justin Gray on Bass Veena & Electric Bass, Ted Quinlan on guitar, Drew Jurecka on Violin, Ed Hanley on tabla and Derek Gray on drums, percussion & Tibetan singing bowls. Bandleader Justin Gray is an award-winning bassist, composer & producer based out of Toronto, Canada.
In 2010, Gray designed and co-created the bass veena, a multi-stringed instrument, which combines the fretless bass with elements inspired by various Indian stringed instruments. Justin is the first artist to perform on this instrument worldwide. Justin Gray and Synthesis’ debut album, New Horizons, features a collection of original compositions, which feature the bass veena performed alongside an inspiring line up of global artists.
The music draws inspiration from Justin’s wide range of musical influences, including Indian classical, jazz, western classical, electronic and R&B music. Gray’s compositions synthesize these musical traditions with a unique combination of creative melodies, rich sonic textures, and exotic grooves.
Justin Gray and Synthesis have recently been presented in feature concerts across Ontario, including: Aga Khan Museum (2016), Dundas Square (Massey Hall 2016), Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts (JPEC 2016), The Aga Khan Museum (2016), Toronto Jazz Festival (TD Jazz 2016), Richard Bradshaw Theatre (Canadian Opera Company 2016) and Princess Margaret Hospital (Jazz for the Soul 2016/2017).
Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway in her improvising, a tendency Strønen seems to be encouraging with his space-conscious writing for the ensemble, letting in more light. As on the group’s eponymously-titled and critically-lauded debut album there are excellent contributions from the string players – the quintet effectively contains both a string trio and a piano trio – and Manfred Eicher’s production brings out all the fine detail in the grain of the collective sound and the halo of its overtones, captured in the famously-responsive acoustic of Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in March 2017.
Saxophonist and clarinetist John Surman is often characterized as a quintessentially English improviser and composer, and hints of folk music and a pastoral ambience are attributes of his music on well-loved albums like “The Road to Saint Ives” or “Saltash Bells.” Yet he also has a long history of working with musicians from other countries and cultures, players united by such invisible threads as a shared feeling for melody that transcends the idioms. John Surman met pianist Nelson Ayres – known to aficionados of Brazilian jazz for his work with Airto Moreira, Milton Nascimento and Banda Pau Brasil – while on tour in South America. In Oslo, Surman came to know and appreciate the playing of Rob Waring, expatriate US vibraphonist (recently heard on ECM with Mats Eilertsen). The three musicians come together to play a new program of Surman originals – plus Nelson Ayres’s “Summer Song” – in a session recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow studio in July 2017, produced by Manfred Eicher.
The great Swedish trio of Bobo Stenson takes a stand against indecision in a decisively beautiful new album. As ever, the trio draws upon a wide range of source materials. A yearning title song by Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, Bartók’s adaptation of a Slovak folk song, a piece from Mompou’s Cançons i Danses collection, and Erik Satie’s Elégie are integrated into the program, alongside original compositions by Stenson and Anders Jormin and group improvising. So strong is the group’s character and the musical identity of each of its members that the integration of this material always feels organic and logical. Stenson’s lyrical touch, Jormin’s folk-flavored arco bass and Jon Fält’s flickering, textural drumming are all well-displayed on Contra la indecisión, the trio’s first new recording in six years. Produced by Manfred Eicher, the album was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI studio in May 2017.
'Obsidian' is a collection of Kit Downes’ solo organ works from the eponymous album released on ECM Records. It is a musical response to volcanicity, slow processes that cause extreme reactions. A mixture of written and semi-scored/semi-improvised pieces, it focusses on the nuances and unique features of both smaller chamber organs local to rural Suffolk as well as larger grander instruments from bigger cities around the UK. It is both a study of extended techniques from instruments sometimes in states of disrepair, and a connection and adaptation of the improvised tradition of the instrument, exploring themes of duration, vibration and mechanics.
Andy Sheppard's quartet extends the musical explorations begun on the 2015 release Surrounded By Sea, an album praised by Télérama for its poignant serenity. In this new program of compositions by Sheppard (plus the title track by Brazilian singer-songwriter Renato Teixeira), the drones and washes of Eivind Aarsets guitar and electronics aided by the generous acoustics of Luganos Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI help to establish a climate in which improvisation can take place.
Theres a highly atmospheric, ambient drift to the music which Sheppard clearly finds liberating, as do Michel Benita and Seb Rochford, free to move in and out of conventional rhythm section roles and to make impassioned statements of their own. Romaria was recorded in April 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Bordenave has a deceptively fragile tenor tone, of considerable emotional impact, and Lang, one of Lee Konitzs chosen duo partners in recent years, is a subtle player, patiently shoring up the whole context. Together, the members of this Munich-based band have created something new and fresh. For 2 Akis was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in March 2017, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
After two ECM albums with the cooperative trio Third Reel, Swiss reedman Nicolas Masson presents a quartet for which he is the sole composer. The group has existed for a decade with unchanged personnel, touring as Nicolas Massons Parallels, and the leaders writing for it always encourages creative responses from the players. Amid the changing musical landscapes in which these travelers move, you will encounter some of Colin Vallons prettiest ballad playing, richly melodic bass from Patrice Moret, and subtle drum commentary from Lionel Friedli. Plus, of course, plenty of Massons pure-toned saxophone and elegant clarinet. Travelers was recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano in April 2017, and produced by Manfred Eicher.