June 29, 2005
To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected]
IRIDIUM JAZZ CLUB 1650 BROADWAY (Corner of 51st) NEW YORK, NY 10023 RESERVATIONS: 212-582-2121, www.iridiumjazzclub.com Sets at 8 & 10PM
For Immediate Release: Contact: Victoria Rose
Aug. 18-21 BEATLEJAZZ Brian Melvin, Dave Kikoski, Boris Kozlov
Jazz Virtuosos Ignite BeatleJazz
“Let me be the first to admit that I am prejudiced against jazz musicians covering the Beatles…delightful…imaginative and very, very smart. It’s a tribute to the quality of this album that my unfortunate bigotries could be thwarted." All About Jazz
BeatleJazz truly offers impressive variation of the original songs. One Way Magazine
There is something special on each track…But most of all, what is exciting is the idea of taking popular song material and touching it with the spontaneity and creativity of jazz. JazzReview.com
What happens when you put the greatest body of music in the hands of two of today's greatest jazz musicians – drummer/percussionist Brian Melvin and pianist Dave Kikoski? You get Beatle Jazz and their new CD With A Little Help From Our Friends. This third album with its inventive jazz arrangements takes classics like Imagine, Working Class Hero and And I Love Her to greater heights and enriches it with jazz' greats including Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, John Scofield, and Mike Stern in addition to filling the bass chair with Boris Koslov and Larry Grenadier.
BeatleJazz is one of the most innovative and pleasurable evenings you will experience.
Brian Melvin Bio
Brian Melvin is an internationally known drummer/percussionist/educator. He had played and recorded with many of the worlds leading musicians. Not limited by styles, he’s worked with the late Joe Henderson, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Bob Weir (The Grateful Dead), Greg Allman (The Allman Brothers) and many more. One of his main associates has been with the Hall of Fame bassist Jaco Pastorius. They were good friends and made five historic recordings together. One of their most famous was Standards Zone on Global Pacific Records, which was the No.1 jazz album for 15 weeks. Currently BeatleJazz has been in the top ten on their first two releases as well. Having lived in New York and Europe, he is no stranger to the international jazz scene. At one time he was the house drummer at the Blue Note Jazz Club’s after hour sessions, along with playing in the Mike Stern trio for two years at the famous 55 Bar. It was also during this period where Brian and Dave Kikoski started their long musical and personal friendship, which continues currently with BeatleJazz. In 1989-99 he played with Al Foster all over New York and the east coast. Recently Brian has been involved in many great projects, including BeatleJazz, Fog, Geografix, and many European projects as well. Also a resident of Tallinn, Estonia, Brian has been teaching workshops and masterclasses all over Europe as well as playing in numerous musical settings. He is very active in world music and has been playing tables and various hand drums along with electric percussion.
Dave Kikoski Bio
Born in Milltown, New Jersey, Dave Kikoski's first music lessons came from his father, a part-time musician who sat his son at the piano and taught him songs by Count Basie and Duke Ellington as well as the basics of Chopin and Beethoven. “If you start like that, when you're seven or eight, you know what jazz is, it's in you." He did attend Boston's Berklee School of Music after graduating from New Brunswick High School, where he played in the school jazz band as well as with rock bands whose repertoire ranged from Emerson, Lake & Palmer to Sly & The Family Stone.
Kikoski's fellow Berklee students in the early '80's included Branford Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Ralph Moore, and Tery Lynn Carrington as well as his future wife, Cecilia Tenconi, a reed player from Argentina. After Dave graduated in 1984 with a degree in piano performance, the couple stayed in Boston with Kikoski holding a regular gig downstairs at Ryle's. On his breaks, he would check out the other bands being featured upstairs – such as a combo comprised of drummer Roy Haynes, bassist Miroslav Vitous and guitarist Pat Metheny (Metheny’s brother sat in for the whole night, and in 1994 joined Kikoski in the recording of a new Roy Haynes album on the Dreyfus label). After Dave and Cecilia had spent several months in her native Argentina, Kikoski felt ready to take on Manhattan – still the jazz capitol of the universe.
Saxophonist Ralph Moore introduced Dave to Roy Hanes in 1986, and Kikoski is still a first-call member of Haynes’ band. Trumpeter Randy Brecker also heard Kikoski, hired him for some gigs, and eventually called him in for a recording date – the pianist’s first. That recording, Brecker’s In the Idiom (Denon) with Joe Henderson, including bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster; the latter were at that time the regular members of Herbie Hancock’s trio. “Herbie’s my favourite piano player ever, my idol. So to play with Herbie’s rhythm section, guys who had played in Mile’s rhythm section, was a real honour.”
A few days later, Kikoski made his second recording as a sideman: Roy Haynes True or False (Freelance), a live date recorded in France. The date led to the pianist’s debut recording, on the same French freelance label. Walter Becker of Steely Dan heard Dave with Randy Brecker’s band during a West Coast tour; he promptly offered to produce Kikoski’s second album, Persistent Dreams (Triloka). With his own compositions now in circulation, Kikoski began fielding calls from musicians who wanted to play in their dates in order to record his tunes. On the Latin-jazz scene, he gigged with bassist Santi Dibriano, recorded with percussionist Guilherme Franco in his group Pe De Boi, and is regular with the quartet of saxophonist David Sanchez. All these influences and more can be heard in the grooves of Dave Kikoski.
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To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected]
IRIDIUM JAZZ CLUB 1650 BROADWAY (Corner of 51st) NEW YORK, NY 10023 RESERVATIONS: 212-582-2121, www.iridiumjazzclub.com Sets at 8 & 10PM
For Immediate Release: Contact: Victoria Rose
Aug. 18-21 BEATLEJAZZ Brian Melvin, Dave Kikoski, Boris Kozlov
Jazz Virtuosos Ignite BeatleJazz
“Let me be the first to admit that I am prejudiced against jazz musicians covering the Beatles…delightful…imaginative and very, very smart. It’s a tribute to the quality of this album that my unfortunate bigotries could be thwarted." All About Jazz
BeatleJazz truly offers impressive variation of the original songs. One Way Magazine
There is something special on each track…But most of all, what is exciting is the idea of taking popular song material and touching it with the spontaneity and creativity of jazz. JazzReview.com
What happens when you put the greatest body of music in the hands of two of today's greatest jazz musicians – drummer/percussionist Brian Melvin and pianist Dave Kikoski? You get Beatle Jazz and their new CD With A Little Help From Our Friends. This third album with its inventive jazz arrangements takes classics like Imagine, Working Class Hero and And I Love Her to greater heights and enriches it with jazz' greats including Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, John Scofield, and Mike Stern in addition to filling the bass chair with Boris Koslov and Larry Grenadier.
BeatleJazz is one of the most innovative and pleasurable evenings you will experience.
Brian Melvin Bio
Brian Melvin is an internationally known drummer/percussionist/educator. He had played and recorded with many of the worlds leading musicians. Not limited by styles, he’s worked with the late Joe Henderson, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Bob Weir (The Grateful Dead), Greg Allman (The Allman Brothers) and many more. One of his main associates has been with the Hall of Fame bassist Jaco Pastorius. They were good friends and made five historic recordings together. One of their most famous was Standards Zone on Global Pacific Records, which was the No.1 jazz album for 15 weeks. Currently BeatleJazz has been in the top ten on their first two releases as well. Having lived in New York and Europe, he is no stranger to the international jazz scene. At one time he was the house drummer at the Blue Note Jazz Club’s after hour sessions, along with playing in the Mike Stern trio for two years at the famous 55 Bar. It was also during this period where Brian and Dave Kikoski started their long musical and personal friendship, which continues currently with BeatleJazz. In 1989-99 he played with Al Foster all over New York and the east coast. Recently Brian has been involved in many great projects, including BeatleJazz, Fog, Geografix, and many European projects as well. Also a resident of Tallinn, Estonia, Brian has been teaching workshops and masterclasses all over Europe as well as playing in numerous musical settings. He is very active in world music and has been playing tables and various hand drums along with electric percussion.
Dave Kikoski Bio
Born in Milltown, New Jersey, Dave Kikoski's first music lessons came from his father, a part-time musician who sat his son at the piano and taught him songs by Count Basie and Duke Ellington as well as the basics of Chopin and Beethoven. “If you start like that, when you're seven or eight, you know what jazz is, it's in you." He did attend Boston's Berklee School of Music after graduating from New Brunswick High School, where he played in the school jazz band as well as with rock bands whose repertoire ranged from Emerson, Lake & Palmer to Sly & The Family Stone.
Kikoski's fellow Berklee students in the early '80's included Branford Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Ralph Moore, and Tery Lynn Carrington as well as his future wife, Cecilia Tenconi, a reed player from Argentina. After Dave graduated in 1984 with a degree in piano performance, the couple stayed in Boston with Kikoski holding a regular gig downstairs at Ryle's. On his breaks, he would check out the other bands being featured upstairs – such as a combo comprised of drummer Roy Haynes, bassist Miroslav Vitous and guitarist Pat Metheny (Metheny’s brother sat in for the whole night, and in 1994 joined Kikoski in the recording of a new Roy Haynes album on the Dreyfus label). After Dave and Cecilia had spent several months in her native Argentina, Kikoski felt ready to take on Manhattan – still the jazz capitol of the universe.
Saxophonist Ralph Moore introduced Dave to Roy Hanes in 1986, and Kikoski is still a first-call member of Haynes’ band. Trumpeter Randy Brecker also heard Kikoski, hired him for some gigs, and eventually called him in for a recording date – the pianist’s first. That recording, Brecker’s In the Idiom (Denon) with Joe Henderson, including bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster; the latter were at that time the regular members of Herbie Hancock’s trio. “Herbie’s my favourite piano player ever, my idol. So to play with Herbie’s rhythm section, guys who had played in Mile’s rhythm section, was a real honour.”
A few days later, Kikoski made his second recording as a sideman: Roy Haynes True or False (Freelance), a live date recorded in France. The date led to the pianist’s debut recording, on the same French freelance label. Walter Becker of Steely Dan heard Dave with Randy Brecker’s band during a West Coast tour; he promptly offered to produce Kikoski’s second album, Persistent Dreams (Triloka). With his own compositions now in circulation, Kikoski began fielding calls from musicians who wanted to play in their dates in order to record his tunes. On the Latin-jazz scene, he gigged with bassist Santi Dibriano, recorded with percussionist Guilherme Franco in his group Pe De Boi, and is regular with the quartet of saxophonist David Sanchez. All these influences and more can be heard in the grooves of Dave Kikoski.
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For more information contact All About Jazz.
