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The Will Holshouser Trio Celebrates The Release of "Singing To a Bee" on Clean Feed Records

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New CD Release from The Will Holshouser Trio
Will Holshouser (accordion), Ron Horton (trumpet) & David Phillips (bass)

Singing To A Bee (Clean Feed CF054)

The Will Holshouser Trio CD Release Performances/Celebrations: Tues., September 19 at 10:00 PM - The Bowery Poetry Club - 308 Bowery

Thurs., September 21 - The Clean Feed Festival - Barbes, 376 9th St, Brooklyn

Clean Feed Records proudly announces the release of accordionist/composer and bandleader Will Holshouser's new live recording, Singing To A Bee, featuring Ron Horton on trumpet and David Phillips on bass. Singing To A Bee is the follow up recording to The Will Holshouser Trio's debut recording, Reed Song (Clean Feed 005).

Will Holshouser's unusual chamber-jazz trio covers a broad scope, drawing its warmth from accordion folk styles, its energy and swing from jazz, and its quiet surprise from experimental music. As a composer, Holshouser's allegiance above all is to strong melodic material. Listeners familiar with Dave Douglas' small ensembles, Guy Klucevsek's accordion innovations, or Astor Piazzolla's blend of traditional and modern sounds will find themselves right at home with Holshouser's unique distillations.

This collection of new Holshouser compositions, along with the traditional tune “La Esperanza," was recorded live in Faro, Portugal during the Jazz No Inverno Festival in December 2004. It was the last concert in a ten-day tour of Portugal organized by the trio's Portuguese label, Clean Feed. The venue was the small, 19th-century Teatro Lethes - the painting on the CD's cover is from its wooden ceiling (with the addition of a few bees). The trio played without amplification in this beautiful hall designed for acoustic music. As they set up for the live recording, they were told that the theater's basement was home to a fleet of fire trucks, ready for action. Fortunately for everyone, the firefighters had no calls that night. Faro is in the Algarve region where the accordion is popular in folk music. As with elsewhere in Europe, listeners there were enthusiastic about what this American jazz musician does with the accordion, an instrument they consider their own.

The title, “Singing to a Bee," is from the novel Lovesong for the Giant Contessa by Steven Tye Culbert (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1997) and is used here with his kind permission.

Praise for Will Holshouser:

“[Holshouser] successfully showcased the range and beauty of the accordion . . . his compositions are intriguing, with wayward harmonies and soft-spoken melodies that make the accordion's thin, reedy treble range sound sweet. This could be music for some fantastical Fellini film." -- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

“ . . . a unique sound unlike almost any other in jazz." “ . . . often playful, frequently surprising and seldom predictable." - Jay Miller, The Patriot Ledger

“Accordionist Will Holshouser makes a convincing bid for recognition . . . enduring compositions . . . dynamic interplay . . . the compositional and instrumental diversity makes for a remarkably broad palette." -- Signal to Noise

“Holshouser is the secret weapon in several of the scene's most inventive and engaging bands." -- Time Out New York

“Will Holshouser plays as much accordion as there is to be played." -- The Village Voice

Singing To A Bee (excerpted from the liner notes by Gilles Laheurte) Through imagery drawn from keen personal observation, the five simple syllables that give this CD its title could well be the first part of a traditional 5-7-5 haiku. The bee, the song and the poet are all one idea composed of many, one idea that the mind of a receptive listener will surely be drawn into and reflect upon. It could also be a subconscious homage to Will Holshouser's father, Bill, a highly sensitive soul who saw and felt everything around him in his own rich personal way - in particular with nature - bringing out an enchanting mix of humor and profound emotions in his poems (check his book Naked Bread, Every Other Thursday Press, 2001).

There is more than poetry in Holshouser's music. There is much tenderness and lyricism, both utterly original. Indeed, originality is one of his main qualities. There are many accordion players out there in the so-called world of “creative music," all great creators in their own ways. But, to me, Holshouser's sound and ideas are unique, very different from Piazzolla, Galliano and Klucevsek, among the most important ones. As we know, all great musicians can be instantly recognized by the uniqueness of their sound: think of the blurry wetness of Miles Davis' trumpet, the high jumps of Eric Dolphy's bass clarinet, the incandescent light of Steve Lacy's soprano saxophone, among a few that immediately come to mind. To many fans, Holshouser's sound on the accordion is like no one else's: a few notes, and we know it's him--no small accomplishment playing a reed instrument that does not use the musician's own breath, but bellows and buttons. It's all in his phrasing, in the dreamy, nostalgic, almost romantic “hidden dimension" of his inner feelings and in his imaginative licks, at times facetious but always full of poetic passion.

Will Holshouser (accordion) grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now living in New York, he is active internationally with his own trio and as a sideman. He's played accordion with a wide variety of artists such as David Krakauer, Phillip Johnston, Lenny Pickett, Andy Statman, Dave Douglas, Matt Munisteri & Brock Mumford, Brian Dewan, Roberto Rodriguez, the Raymond Scott Orchestrette, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, NYC Opera, and others. Holshouser has also composed music for solo accordion and for short films, and has arranged music for assorted ensembles. He studied with Anthony Braxton and Bill Barron at Wesleyan University, where he received a grant to research Cajun and Creole music in Louisiana. After moving to New York in 1991, he began studying accordion with Dr. William Schimmel.

Ron Horton (trumpet) has three CDs as a leader, most recently Everything in a Dream. A member of New York's Jazz Composers Collective, he has worked with Andrew Hill, Jane Ira Bloom, Lee Konitz, Phillip Johnston, Frank Kimbrough, Ben Allison, Matt Wilson, Ted Nash, Michael Blake, the Herbie Nichols Project, and more.

David Phillips (bass) leads the group Freedance, who just released their third CD. He began learning bass from his father, Barre Phillips, then studied with Homer Mensch at Mannes College of Music and earned a graduate degree from Juilliard under Eugene Levinson. He has worked with Richie Havens, Ben Perowsky, David Johansen, Dawn Upshaw, Andy Biskin, and others.

Also by the Will Holshouser Trio: Reed Song (Clean Feed 005)

For more information: www.cleanfeed-records.com

Posted By: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

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