Blue Note Records Releases
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In Real Time
Release Year: 2023“Music exists in time. Without time, there is no music,” explains pianist, composer, and bandleader Renee Rosnes about In Real Time, the sophomore album from ARTEMIS. “Photographs and works of visual art are frozen time. Music is liquid time in air.”
Three years after the release of ARTEMIS’ critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, the ensemble returns with a brilliant follow-up that highlights the improvisational strength of its members as well as their respective gifts as composers. The new album showcases Rosnes, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller, and newcomers—tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover and multi-reedist Alexa Tarantino.“ARTEMIS has been a powerful and affirming experience for me,” Glover says. “I feel total empathetic support and the freedom to be as adventurous and creative as I can imagine with this band.” “There’s a striking juxtaposition between the stylistic approaches of the two saxophonists,” Rosnes enthuses. “Each one illuminates the other.” In both new members, Rosnes hears a strong sense of history and originality in their respective playing. In Glover, she detects the influences of such icons as John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, and Charlie Rouse. “Nicole has developed her own distinctive sound. She’s the type of improviser who loves to jump into the deep end of the pool,” Rosnes says while adding that “Alexa has a rich, purposeful tone on all of her instruments, and a special gift for creating lyrical melodies.”
Of course, when talking about the creative strength of ARTEMIS’ horn section, one cannot leave out the prowess of Jensen, who for the past three decades has proved to be one of jazz’s most singular trumpeters. “Nobody sounds like Ingrid. She really knows how to pollinate the music with her choice notes,” Rosnes attests. “Playing with Nicole and Alexa is a blast,” Jensen adds. “The high level of listening and give and take make for the most joyful of frontline experiences.”
ARTEMIS’ rhythm section, consisting of Miller and Ueda, is equally intrepid. Rosnes says, “There is a great pliability between the three of us.” For almost two decades, Miller has revealed herself to be a consummate drummer, capable of steering ensembles of varying styles and instrumentation. Japanese born Ueda is a profoundly virtuosic bassist whose playing is organically connected to all musical environments. She has also proven herself to be a highly skilled composer and arranger.
But it’s Rosnes, who serves as musical director and pianist, that brings the most experience to the band. Rosnes debuted on Blue Note in 1990 and released an extraordinary run of solo albums on the label throughout the decade. Before that, she was a member of Blue Note’s all-star ensemble Out of the Blue, and she’s performed with an impressive list of jazz titans throughout her career including Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, J.J. Johnson, James Moody, and Ron Carter.
Before recording In Real Time, ARTEMIS had a week-long residency at New York’s Birdland club at which the band introduced many of the compositions on the album. “From night to night as we explored the possibilities, the music morphed and grew,” Rosnes recalls.
In Real Time opens with “Slink,” a labyrinthine composition written by keyboardist Lyle Mays, who was best known for his work with guitar legend Pat Metheny. Rosnes’ arrangement of the piece contains rich layers of flute, Rhodes, piano, and voice.
The album continues with Miller’s rumbling, modal “Bow and Arrow,” which harkens back to prior eras of Blue Note Records thanks to its infectious rhythm and hooky melody. “Our recorded performance of the piece showcases the band’s evolution, and how much we love to play with one another,” Miller says.
While explaining the compositional process of her transfixing ballad, “Balance of Time,” Rosnes says she trusted the initial melodic cell and allowed the inspiration of that phrase to guide her into the next development. “Composing is improvisation but with the luxury of time and an eraser,” she adds. “So the process itself is a balance of time.”
Witnessing a meteor shower on a small, isolated island in upstate New York inspired Ueda’s prancing, “Lights Away From Home.” “I made a sketch of the piece the next morning while sitting on the same rock where I saw the shooting stars, remembering the excitement of the experience,” Ueda recalls. “My aim was to write something with a positive, upbeat vibe.”
Jensen composed the evocative “Timber,” which she explains is a doubled-sided composition. The brighter side conveys a direct relationship to the earth and forestry, while the darker side involves the loud yell lumberjacks belt after they cut trees to their death in the forest. “I wrote this on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, where my mother’s side of the family live,” Jensen says. “There were two pictures above the piano I was working at, both depicting proud loggers standing amidst a barren forest floor filled with recently slain cedar and fir trees.”
On Tarantino’s protean waltz, “Whirlwind,” she opted to play the flute.“The energy of the piece is meant to ebb and flow like its title,” Tarantino says. “I love how the rhythm section flows freely under the horns during the opening section as well as the blend the horns achieve on the melody with the flute acting as an echo.”
In Real Time also features a remake of Rosnes’ thrilling “Empress Afternoon,” an intricate, fast-paced composition that first appeared on her 2002 Blue Note album Life on Earth in a version that featured stunning tabla work by Zakir Hussain. “Allison studied tabla during her time in college, and has a real affinity for Indian music,” Rosnes says, “so I thought about revisiting this piece and rearranging it for the band. Of course, she puts her own stamp on it.”
The album concludes with an impassioned rendering of Wayne Shorter’s ballad, “Penelope,” which was first featured on his 1965 Blue Note recording Etcetera. ARTEMIS’ version, arranged by Rosnes, provides a showcase for the opening freeform duet of muted trumpet and piano moving into Glover’s vaporous tenor saxophone passages. Rosnes explains, “Wayne’s melodies sound inevitable. There’s an emotional weight to every melodic and harmonic choice,” she says. “We all look to him as a guiding light and courageous creator.”
“The new album is an authentic representation of the collective and the individual,” Miller says. “Our growth as a band is clear from the downbeat. There is a trust that has become more solidified since our first recording and the chemistry is palpable. Simply put, we sound like a band!”
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Artemis
Release Year: 2020Throughout its eight-decade history, Blue Note Records has been celebrated as a home for the leading voices in jazz. The label continues that tradition with the release of the self-titled debut from ARTEMIS, the supergroup comprising seven of the most acclaimed musicians in modern jazz. Featuring pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller, and featured vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, ARTEMIS conjures a powerful collective voice from this septet of visionary bandleaders and composers.
The band initially assembled at Rosnes’ behest for a European festival tour three years ago. “I chose musicians whom I respected and wanted to make music with,” the pianist says, “and after performing together, I realized that we had a brilliant chemistry. We decided to explore the possibilities of what might develop over time. That’s how ARTEMIS was born.”
The group is distinctive not only for bringing together seven singular artists, each renowned for their own remarkable solo career; but for its multi-generational and globe-spanning line-up, with members hailing from the US, Canada, France, Chile, Israel, and Japan.
Whirlwind Recordings Releases
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Whirlwind Recordings 10th Anniversary
Release Year: 2020We’re celebrating our 10th anniversay all throughout 2020!
Over the last 10 years Whirlwind has worked with nearly 100 artists and has released over 140 titles. Many thanks to Jazzwise Magazine for supporting our landmark year with this free giveaway album that comes with every copy of the March issue (online readers can download a digital album) offering a 17-track selection from our recent releases.
Excitedly, all customers who purchase any physical item off our website will get a free sampler sent along in the post free of charge for all of 2020.
The album features music from: Scopes, Scott Kinsey, Ingrid Jensen and Steve Treseler, Natacha Atlas, Walter Smith III, Alice Zawadzki, Michael Janisch, Josephine Davies, Will Vinson, Rebecca Nash, Jure Pukl, Tori Freestone, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens ‘In Common’, Jasper Blom, Harish Raghavan, Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet and Seamus Blake.
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Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler
Release Year: 2018For trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and saxophonist/clarinettist Steve Treseler, paying tribute to the late Kenny Wheeler was a calling. The Canadian-born, British-based composer/trumpeter has almost incalculably influenced generations of musicians, working alongside a who’s who of artists including Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Frisell, John Taylor and Norma Winstone – and a famously unassuming persona belied his unequivocal prominence from the mid-1970s onwards as a free-spirited jazz pioneer.
Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler reinterprets works from his prolific catalog honed from “a list of around thirty tunes we wanted to do,” recalls Treseler. “The news of Kenny’s death had a big effect on me and I reached out to Ingrid about putting together a tribute concert, and that conversation evolved into making a record. Ingrid and I are both devoted Kenny fans and we both had the opportunity to work with him in person. Ingrid’s band – Geoffrey Keezer (piano), Martin Wind (bass) and Jon Wikan (drums) – was playing at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho, so we booked two nights at Seattle’s Royal Room, as well as the studio session. Between the shows, which were featured on NPR’s Jazz Night in America, we tracked the album (with guest saxophonist Christine Jensen and vocalist Katie Jacobson).” The energy of those performances is brought together here.
Press Highlights
“She’s [Jensen] incorporated his [Wheeler’s] balletic leaps into her own voice and repays her debt to hism with performances that find the heart of the late trumpeter’s distinctive compositions.”
★★★★ DownBeat Magazine“Jensen and Treseler’s album is a beautiful testament to this self-effacing maestro [Wheeler].”
★★★★ 1/2 All About Jazz“Jensen shows unexpected variety, from even tempered underplay to some unexpected Ellington growls and hues on ‘Old Time’.”
★★★★ DownBeat Magazine -
Infinitude
Release Year: 2016Infinitude – the concept of boundless possibility – is at the center of the music of Ingrid and Christine Jensen. Over the past twenty years or so, as trumpeter and saxophonist respectively, the West Canadian sisters have each shaped prolific careers in contemporary jazz, collaborating with influential names such as Clark Terry, Maria Schneider and Terry Lynn Carrington, working with large and small ensembles, and responding to various commissions to compose for jazz orchestras around the globe.
For their Whirlwind debut, the Jensens have realized a long-held ambition – to write for and perform in the more intimate setting of a quintet, combining their intuitive, sibling trust with the creativity of renowned guitarist Ben Monder and the foundational artistry of bassist Fraser Hollins and drummer Jon Wikan. The particular rapport within this grouping is expressed by Christine (composer of half of this album’s material), describing the environment as being less about soloing, but with an emphasis on the question, “How are we all going to dive into this pool and swim together.” The resulting immersion, recorded in the studio across two days, sounds both live and organic, with Ingrid confirming her close relationship with her sister: “It doesn’t actually feel like we’re producing. We already have this flow which continues as we perform together – we can find space, and craziness, and find our way in and out of it, as well.”
Press Highlights
“It is the combined years of experience that render the communication amongst Infinitude’s five players so fluid, so seemingly effortless and yet so intrinsically deep”.
★★★★½ All About Jazz“This is an album of fine writing and sublime musicianship.”
Bebop Spoken Here“The arrangements are filled with air and light, allowing the listener to be completely enthralled with the gorgeous tone of both horns.”
The Jazz Breakfast
As a Leader
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Spirals
Release Year: 2011“Invoking the album’s titular theme, the quintet explores the different connotations spirals suggest across an array of moods, rhythms, and textures, from the swirling drum-n-bass undertones of the ebullient anthem-like opener “Travel Fever,” to the tranquil introspection of “Yew.”
Encompassing a variety of approaches, from turbulent drama to serene lyricism, Nordic Connect’s verdant interpretations of their ancestral homeland’s rich heritage make Spiralsa compelling example of Scandinavian jazz at its most eloquent and harmonious.” – Troy Collins (All About Jazz)
Ingrid Jensen – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Electronics
Christine Jensen – Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone
Maggi Olin – Piano, Fender Rhodes
Mattias Welin – Acoustic Bass
Jon Wikan – Drums, Cajón, Percussion
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Flurry
Release Year: 2007“Words like haunting and melancholy can be used to describe the vibe of the CD; but a sense of cool optimism pervades a sense of contemplative wonder. On Jensen’s “Things I Love” you can feel a tinge of mystery. Olin plays the Fender Rhodes here, with its “icicle snapping” (Nordic?) sound, while Wikan adds a contrasting warmer color on the cajón.” – Dan McClenaghan (All About Jazz)
Ingrid Jensen – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Effects
Christine Jensen – Alto and Soprano Saxophones)
Maggi Olin – Piano, Fender Rhodes
Jon Wikan – Drums, Cajon, Percussion
Mattias Welin – Bass
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At Sea
Release Year: 2005‘I lived along the shining sea ~ Was there my true love came to me ~ In dreamy, misty afternoons~ And evenings filled with summer moons…(excerpt from the lyrics of At Sea by Ingrid Jensen)
“It’s you, it’s you. Keep it!!!”- My grade 9 English teacher wrote beneath a poem of mine that recently inspired me to write lyrics for At Sea. Her words of excitement ring loudly in my ears as I listen back to the music on this recording, my first for ArtistShare. As with life, love and learning, come many peaks and valleys, so has my journey been one of joys and pitfalls. More joy, by far, as I grow and embrace my ‘path’, documenting various episodes with music and ideas that evolve out of my many adventures.
Geoffrey Keezer – Piano, Fender Rhodes, Keyboards
Jon Wikan – Drums, Cajón, Palmas, Percussion
Matt Clohesy – Acoustic Bass
Lage Lund – Guitar on Tracks 5 & 8
Hugo Alcázar – Cajón, Batajón, Djembe on Track 7Engineered by Joe Ferla and Eric Troyer
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Now as Then
Release Year: 2003“Among the highlights are two Wikan/ Jensen cocreations: “Silver Prelude/Silver Twilight,” a waltz featuring Steve Wilson’s alto flute; and “R Hour,” a mellow swing chart with a devil or two in the details (namely a nine-bar A section and an AAB form).” – David R. Adler (JazzTimes)
Ingrid Jensen – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Jon Wikan – Drums
Christine Jensen – Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone
Steve Wilson – Alto Flute, Alto Saxophone
Gary Versace – B-3 Organ (Hammond)
Seamus Blake – Tenor Saxophone
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Higher Grounds
Release Year: 1999Gary Thomas – Tenor Saxophone and Flute
Ed Howard – Bass
Victor Lewis – Drums
Dave Kikoski – Piano, Fender Rhodes
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Here on Earth
Release Year: 1997Gary Bartz – Alto and Soprano Saxophones
George Colligan – Piano, Electric Piano
Dwayne Burno – Bass
Bill Stewart – Drums
Jill Seifers – Vocals
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Vernal Fields
Release Year: 1994Steve Wilson – Alto and Soprano Saxophones
George Garzone – Tenor Saxophone
Bruce Barth – Piano
Larry Grenadier – Bass
Lenny White – Drums
As a Player
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Aire
Release Year: 2023The work of an artist often suggests that of an alchemist. In her new album, Aire, Mexican singer and composer Magos Herrera transformed the grief, fears, and loneliness of a deadly plague into a luminous collection of songs representing a celebration of our humanity and the healing power of music. Aire features twelve songs and includes her new compositions, commissioned by Chamber Music Americas New Jazz Works, and gems from the Great Latin American Songbook, such as “Alfonsina y el Mar” and “Gracias a la Vida.” Those two classics suggest bookends of the experience in Aire, “Alfonsina …” as an acknowledgment of impermanence and death; “Gracias a la Vida” as a prayer of gratitude for the many gifts of life. But for two exceptions Magos sings over a musical canvas provided by her jazz trio augmented by the celebrated New York orquestra The Knights.
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Blauw
Release Year: 2022Marius Van Den Brink – Piano/Rhodes
Ingrid Jensen – Trumpet
Doug Weiss – Double Bass
Jeff “Tain” Watts – DrumsAll compositions by Marius Van Den Brink
Published by Highline Music NYC
Produced by Marius Van Den BrinkRecorded by Michael Brorby at the Acoustic Recording Studio, BK
Mixed by James Farber at Shelter Island Sound, NYC
Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, NJ
Spacing/isrc encoding by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering
Edited by Michael Brorby and Ray AldacoAlbum photography and design by Mariana Meraz
Studio photography by Anna YatskevitchThe project is funded in part by the Pathways To Jazz Grant, a donor advised fund of the Boulder County Arts Alliance.
The project is funded in part by the SENA Performers Muziek Productiefonds.
