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Two New Titles from Boston's Gravity Records

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BOSTON, MA -- Boston-based Gravity Records, a division of the customized dance and music education non-profit organization, Gravity Arts, Inc., is proud to announce the November 16th release of its two newest recordings, Ben Schwendener/Uwe Steinmetz's Apfelschaun (GRV 1900-7) and Ben Schwendener/Marc Rossi's Living Geometry II: Volumes 1 and 2 (GRV 1900-8). Both titles, distributed by North Country Distributors, are compilations of live performance recordings from recent tours. More information about the label and Gravity Arts, Inc. is available at http://www.gravityarts.org

Ben Schwendener/Uwe Steinmetz
Apfelschaun (Gravity Records 1900-7)

Recorded live in Boston, Berlin and Caux (Switzerland), Apfelschaun documents the highlights of pianist/composer Ben Schwendener's 2001 and 2002 tours with a variety of groups featuring German-born saxophonist Uwe Steinmetz. Their collaboration on Apfelschaun ranges from duets to numerous quartet and quintet performances of Schwendener's innovative original compositions. Credited with creating “a new sound in jazz" (Boston Globe) and “developing his own language, a mix of electric fusion and free jazz that's at once meditative and expansive" (Boston Phoenix), Schwendener's trademark miniature suites draw upon influences like modern jazz, fusion, folk music, and the drama of music for film and dance.

Ben Schwendener/Marc Rossi
Living Geometry II: Volumes 1 and 2 (Gravity Records 1900-8)

Over the course of their 10-year partnership, Boston-based pianist/composers Ben Schwendener and Marc Rossi have developed a unique and empathic musical language based on George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. They first documented this language, which uses innovative graphic scores as a coherent framework for spontaneous, genre-defying improvisation, on their 2002 debut, Living Geometry (Gravity Records 1900-6), which All About Jazz Modern Jazz Editor Glenn Astarita called “a very special endeavor." This new two-disc set documents a pair of 2003 Boston performances, including four pieces also featuring Uwe Steinmetz and the legendary Joe Maneri on saxophones.

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About Ben Schwendener
Pianist/composer/educator Ben Schwendener has been a part of the vital Boston music scene since the early 1980's. A former student of jazz legends George Russell, Ran Blake, Jimmy Guiffre, Miroslav Vitous and Joe Maneri, Schwendener is currently on the jazz faculties of both New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music. In addition to his jazz teaching and work as a leading lecturer on Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, Schwendener teaches courses on Creative and Critical Thinking at the UMass Boston and directs the arts education non-profit, Gravity Arts, which he founded in 1997. A critically acclaimed performer and recording artist, Schwendener has appeared throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, released five recordings as a leader/co-leader, and composed commissioned works for dance companies, independent film, and television commercials. He recently completed music for three Digital Picture Books for Kidzebo, and is currently working on the publication of children's music and the score for a dance production with his wife, Shari. Learn more at http://www.gravityarts.org

About Uwe Steinmetz
Saxophonist/composer Uwe Steinmetz has performed in the U.S., Eastern Europe, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey. Born in Bremervoerde, Germany in 1975, he studied at the Hanns-Eisler-Conservatory in Berlin and the Swiss Jazz School in Bern with Gebhard Ullmann, Jiggs Whigham, Andy Scherrer, Frank Sikora and George Robert. He recently received his Artist's Diploma from Boston's New England Conservatory where he studied with Ben Schwendener, Jerry Bergonzi and George Russell. A recipient of many prizes and grants (including the “Theodor Fontane Award 2000" for intercultural work and the 1st prize as best soloist at the European Jazz Competition in 2001 in Getxo, Spain), Steinmetz is the founder of the ensembles Roots, Organum, and Symbiosis. His compositions include works for string quartet and jazz ensemble, organ, guitar, saxophone and jazz orchestra.

About Marc Rossi
Marc Rossi is a versatile jazz pianist/composer, contemporary classical composer, longtime student of both Hindustani and Carnatic Indian music, and full-time professor of piano and jazz composition at Berklee College of Music. His ambitious career and inclusive compositions led Down Beat to call him “one of the dynamic few whose musical and cultural awareness travels exponentially in many different directions." He has toured with jazz legends Jimmy Guiffre and George Russell, seen his classical compositions premiered at legendary venues like Boston

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