| SEAMUS BLAKE & CHRIS CHEEK Celebrate New CD “Reeds Ramble” With 3 Nights @ Smalls March 13, 14 & 15
183 West 10th Street
Greenwich Village
183 W 10th St
New York, NY 10014
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REEDS RAMBLE
SEAMUS BLAKE/CHRIS CHEEK
Seamus
Blake, Thelonious Monk Competition winner in 2002, teams up with former
Bloomdaddies band member Chris Cheek for his latest outing on the Criss
Cross label.
The
CD’s title, “Reeds Ramble”, is taken from a tune by Jerry Reed made
famous by country guitarist Chet Atkins. On the CD Seamus and Chris take
an extraordinary journey through their influences as top of the line
jazz musicians for the past 25 years.
Two
saxophones up front is not your everyday line-up, but Seamus and Chris
know each other’s playing so intimately that the results seem magical.
They shared the task of song selection, and their choices ranged far and
wide. As an opener Chris chose Chico Buarque’s “No Carreira”. Seamus
followed with an Eddie Harris tune, “!974 Blues”. Both Seamus and Chris
are big Eddie Harris fans, which should come as no surprise to those
familiar with their Bloomdaddies CDs. Seamus has done an Eddie Harris
show at Smoke for the last two years and there is talk of doing a live
recording of the 2014 gig.
Both
Seamus and Chris contribute an original tune. For Seamus it’s “All
About Me”. And no, it’s not all about Seamus, but rather a wry
reference to the Facebook generation. In an interview with Jazz
writer David Adler, Seamus notes, “Onstage I like to dedicate this to
the Facebook generation, taking selfies and posting their twerking
videos to instagram” While “All About Me” draws on bebop, Chris’
original, “Blue Moose”, was inspired by listening to country music. And
the eclecticism continues with songs by Monk, Brian Wilson and Jim
Beard.
The
outing ends with a song, “Lady in Langour” by Canadian composer Vickie
Yang. In the Adler interview Seamus comments, “I wanted harmony that
was not songbook kind of harmony, but more modern”.
SEAMUS BLAKE tenor sax
CHRIS CHEEK tenor & soprano sax
ETHAN IVERSON piano
MATT PENMAN bass
JOCHEN RUECKERT drums
1. NA CARREIRA
(Ch. Buarque) 7.50
2. 1974 BLUES
(E. Harris) 7.04
3. HOLODECK WALTZ
(J. Beard) 6.09
4. BLUE MOOSE
(Chr. Cheek) 6.27
5. DE DAH
(E. Hope) 6.23
6. ‘TIL I DIE
(B. Wilson) 7.34
7. I SURRENDER DEAR
(Clifford-Barris) 7.29
8. ALL ABOUT ME
(S. Blake) 6.34
9. LADY IN LANGUOR
(V. Yang) 6.44
TOTAL TIME: 62.32 |
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Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services
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