Blue Note Records Releases
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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 -
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 -
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 -
Higher Grounds
Release Year: 1999Gary Thomas – Tenor Saxophone and Flute
Ed Howard – Bass
Victor Lewis – Drums
Dave Kikoski – Piano, Fender Rhodes -
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 -
Vernal Fields
Release Year: 1994Steve Wilson – Alto and Soprano Saxophones
George Garzone – Tenor Saxophone
Bruce Barth – Piano
Larry Grenadier – Bass
Lenny White – Drums
