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Your Friends at Motema Music
Lynne Arriale - Nuance
Critically acclaimed for her 'singular voice' as a pianist, leader, composer, arranger and for “putting the heart back into jazz" (London Times), Lynne Arriale has captured the imaginations of jazz and mainstream music lovers through her recordings and prestige venue performances for nearly 20 years. Her CD and CD/DVD releases have topped every notable jazz chart, with back to back #1 Jazz Week radio hits, a #17 debut on Billboard's Jazz Chart, the top ten “Best Of" lists of The New Yorker, United Press International and twice named as 'Best Jazz CD of the Year' by The German Record Critics Association. Long established as elite artist on the international jazz circuit, Arriale has met the mainstream with lan, through featured performances on the nationally televised PBS program, Profile of a Recording Artist, and on the widely heard NPR programs Weekend Edition, Jazz Set, and Piano Jazz with Marion McPartland...
Charnett Moffett - The Art of Improvisation
Throughout his 25 years on the scene, Charnett Moffett has been a man on a mission. As he states, “I'm trying to bring people together on the planet through music. That's part of my calling here in life." That sentiment, coupled with his extraordinary virtuosity on the bass, has resulted in a string of superb outings as a leader as well significant contributions to stellar recordings by such jazz luminaries as Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis. On The Art of Improvisation, his 10th as a leader, Moffett explores his creative muse with a pure, free-spirited approach on his three chosen instruments -- upright bass, fretless electric bass guitar and piccolo bass. “Each is a separate voice," explains the innovative, multi-directional bassist and prolific composer. “And when I incorporate the bow or a wah-wah or distortion effects, I can channel even more voices...“
Oran Etkin - Kelenia
The music that Oran Etkin creates with his Group Kelenia is an aural reflection of the new global landscape, painted by a young clarinetist and saxophonist born in a small town in Israel, now living in New York and leading a band comprised of Malian and American musicians. Etkin's distinctive sound is honest and unforced, infused with the constant presence of ancient influences - reverberations from the Malian Empire and the ages-old cry of the Jewish prayer. At the same time it resonates with an urban vibe and the energy of the modern New York jazz scene. “I love the contrast of old and new: of a tradition that has evolved over centuries and the creative individual expression of one man playing his own approach, in his own way, against that tradition and toward it," states Etkin...
Tessa Souter - Obsession
On her stunning new recording, Obsession, London-born, New York-based Anglo-Trinidadian Tessa Souter (soo-ter) presents a multicultural banquet that reflects her conjoined African, Indian, and English bloodlines. Her first CD, Listen Love, won critical raves for her “crystal clear voice and diamond cut phrasing" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “direct, soulful sound" (Village Voice). “One of the most imaginatively programmed vocal sets of recent memory," said the Los Angeles Times, in a rave review of her California debut at the Catalina Bar and Grill in 2002. The Philadelphia Inquirer praised her “amazing" debut CD Listen Love and her “crystal-clear voice with diamond-cut phrasing." Soul jazz singer Jon Lucien said of Listen Love. “Magnificent! I couldn't stop playing it over and over. She blew me away!" Her mentor Mark Murphy says of her, “She is a complete musician ... extraordinary and moving." Sheila Jordan says, “There aren't many, but Tessa Souter is a natural born singer. She really moves me." Jazz tuba legend Howard Johnson says she is “an important musician... whose brilliant lyrics and songs make her stand out from the pack so very much, not to mention how well she sings other people's material...“
For more information contact All About Jazz.
