2/28/15

LAS VEGAS GUITARIST JIMMY McINTOSH



Releases New Album Featuring Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood!

Courtesy of Glass Onyon PR

Featuring guest appearances by guitar legends
Ronnie Wood, John Scofield and Mike Stern!


Las Vegas, NV – As a follow up to 2006’s ‘Orleans to London’, guitarist Jimmy McIntosh once again finds himself in illustrious company on his new album ‘Jimmy McIntosh and…’ This collection of funk, rock, jazz and blues originals showcases McIntosh’s considerable six-string prowess and features the Michigan native exchanging incendiary licks with his personal guitar heroes John Scofield , Mike Stern and the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood.

The solid backbeats are supported by Toss Panos (drummer of choice for guitarists Robben Ford and Mike Landau), bassists Dan Lutz, John Humphrey and Keith Hubacher and New Orleans keyboardist Ivan Neville (of The Neville Brothers, Keith Richards’ X-Pensive Winos and Dumpstaphunk). This stellar outing was definitely a labor of love for McIntosh.

McIntosh recruited Scofield and Stern from his home base, Las Vegas. Says Jimmy, “I got to know John and Mike about 12 years ago when there was a Blue Note jazz club in Las Vegas and became good friends with both of them. The Vegas Blue Note was short-lived, but I was there almost every night for the duration of their gigs. I’ve jammed with Mike several times and asked him, ‘If I make another record, will you play on it?’ And Mike said ‘sure’! Toss Panos, John Humphrey and I went into Toss’s North Hollywood studio with Mike when he was in Los Angeles playing with his band at Catalina’s. Mike’s playing on this album is just brilliant. Then John happened to come through town with Phil Lesh & Friends just a few months ago. I had mentioned to him that I was doing this album and he said, ‘Hey, if you still have room on your CD, I’d love to play on it.’ So that came to fruition as well. It was a dream come true for me to create this CD with three major heroes of mine and who have also become very good friends over the years.”

McIntosh’s friendship with Ronnie Wood goes back to his solo debut, ‘Orleans to London’. Jimmy recalls:

“I first met Ronnie backstage at a Stones show in Las Vegas. Ronnie and Keith Richards were hanging out with Bobby Womack in the ‘Tuning Room’ were they Jam to warm up before the show. Art Neville did me a huge favor and called Jane Rose for me to meet Keith and Ronnie. It was a wedding gift as I got married a week before (This was April 1999)”.

“Anyway a few years later I recorded my first CD ‘Orleans To London’ and Art Neville, Ivan Neville, Cyril Neville and Mean Willie Green (Neville Bros drummer) played on it. As I was near the end of the project in October 2004 I got in touch with Ronnie Wood through his stepson (Jamie Wood) who was his manager at the time and told him about my project. Three weeks later my wife and I flew to London and went to Ronnie’s house in Richmond where he played on 5 tracks (first takes)”.

“Ronnie said, ‘I told Jeff Beck about your project and he might come by to play’ – I was in shock! About 2 hours later Jeff showed up and ended up playing on 3 tracks. Ronnie said as Jeff was recording, ‘You can’t believe how lucky you are, he won’t play on anything!’ I’m not sure what Ronnie told him about the Neville’s being on the record but it was amazing having both those guys on the record. Jeff is credited as ‘Hot Rod’ on ‘Orleans To London’ because his manager wouldn’t let me use his name”.

“Ronnie and I hit it off fantastically and stayed in touch so when I started a second record I was hoping he would play on it. I covered a tune from Ronnie’s latest album called ‘I Gotta See’. Ronnie plays a great solo and outro slide solo on the song. Ronnie and I also played two improvised Jams that open and close the album like bookends. The Jams are just the two of us live in the studio without the band. The Rolling Stones have been my favorite band since I was a kid so getting to work and play with Ronnie is literally a dream come true. Ronnie is truly a great artist".

“It’s amazing that all of the iconic records Ronnie has played on were mostly first takes on his part. He is really underrated as a musician. I wrote six originals for ‘Jimmy McIntosh and…’ Ronnie wrote one of the Jams ‘Fast Blues’ and we share credit on the opener ‘Slow Blues’. I covered a few tunes… ‘I Gotta See’ by Ronnie Wood, ‘Demon’ by Keith Richards, ’32 20 Blues’ by Robert Johnson and ‘Sophisticated Lady’ by Duke Ellington”.

“Duke Ellington was a friend of my family when I was a little kid and greatly encouraged my interest in music. When I played French Horn in the Junior High School band I told my mom I was going to change something in the music. She asked Mr Ellington if I should do that and he said, ‘I think you have a musician there!’”.

“The record was recorded at Toss Panos studio in North Hollywood. Toss is a great drummer I first heard with Michael Landau. John Humphrey (Scott Henderson Trio) is on bass on most of the record. Keith Hubacher is on bass on two tracks and Ivan Neville plays organ and Piano. Albert Wing who played with Frank Zappa among others plays Tenor Sax on ‘I Gotta See’ and ‘Demon’, a Keith Richards cover. Ronnie and Ivan are on both of my records which I’m very proud of. It connects the two projects.”

Born on October 14, 1958 in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Jimmy McIntosh grew up in the small town of Temperance, Michigan. After graduating from high school in 1976, Jimmy attended the Berklee College of Music for two years. Over the years McIntosh has played with R&B singer Doris Troy, Billy Preston, Little Anthony & The Imperials, and backed up Buddy Hackett and Ben Vereen, Since 1990, McIntosh has played regularly in the popular Lon Bronson All-Stars Band, a powerhouse horn band.

The Lon Bronson band had a longstanding weekly residency at the Riviera, where they entertained crowds ’til the wee hours and featured such special guests sitting in as former Doobie Brothers guitarist and producer Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, guitarist Joe Walsh, Members of TOP, comedian (and sometime trumpeter) Drew Carey, bassist-magician-comedian Penn Jillette and former “Tonight Show” guitarist, bandleader and Jay Leno sidekick Kevin Eubanks.

In 1999, following his longstanding engagement with the “Legends” show, McIntosh moved to the Rio Hotel to perform in a show with pop stars Sheena Easton and David Cassidy, then worked for the following two years in Cassidy’s touring band. He has subsequently played with pianist-composer David Foster, Donna Summer, Kenny Logins, Gloria Gaynor and played in musical theater productions of “Mamma Mia” and “Jersey Boys.”

And now, after several years, Jimmy’s long awaited sophomore album is now available! In closing Jimmy has this to impart, “My new album ‘Jimmy McIntosh and…’ is a real labor of love and hope people enjoy it!”

To purchase ‘Jimmy McIntosh and…’:




For more information you can visit Jimmy’s website at:

Press inquiries:
Glass Onyon PR,
PH: 828-350-8158


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2/20/15

DRUM LEGEND BILLY COBHAM



To Release Two Live Albums 
From 1992 Tokyo Concert

For Immediate Release
Courtesy of Glass Onyon PR

Los Angeles, CA – Much to the excitement of drummers and jazz aficionados worldwide, drum legend Billy Cobham will be releasing two live albums on Cleopatra Records. The first is 'Mirror's Image' on February 17 (CD & VINYL), follwed by 'Reflected Journey' on April 28 (CD). The albums are 2 parts of the same show recorded in Tokyo on February 15, 1992.

What an amazing career Billy Cobham has had. From his auspicious start in the late '60s touring and recording with the great Miles Davis to his groundbreaking work with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early '70s, Cobham built a reputation for complex and soulful drumming. But it wasn't until 1973 and the release of his first solo album 'Spectrum' that he took the title of jazz fusion's preeminent drummer with a style and technique all his own, one that has been a major influence on drummers worldwide ever since.

A stream of further albums would follow, both under his own name and in partnership with a host of allies. And each one pushed towards fresh frontiers as Cobham marched on through the 1970s and 1980s. He played with Jack Bruce, Mark-Almond, a revived Mahavishnu, Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead, and was even behind a Dead tribute band; Jazz is Dead, realigning the sound of the Dead for a whole new audience. Cobham's own band, Glass Menagerie, cut two truly luminous albums, and as a new decade, the 1990s, dawned, the drummer was as busy as he had ever been.

In 1992, working under the auspices of UNICEF, Cobham set out for Brazil, where he would be working with autistic outpatients and street children in Santos, a suburb of Sao Paulo. “The street children fell into my realm of operations almost by chance, as it was not part of my original mandate,” he explained. “But due to the unavoidable specter and shadow cast by so many little personalities with big hearts and so much time to ponder life without parental direction, it was inevitable that I would find myself working with them… some of the brightest minds harboring raw talent that I have ever witnessed to date. The shame of it all was that many would never have the opportunity to use their gift.”

A new project came into being, a band in which the voices and talents of the street children would be harnessed alongside the talents of Cobham's latest combo, the visionary trio that he put together with the then all-but unknown Ira Coleman on double bass; and Australian Joe Chindamo on piano. This was the grouping captured together on 1993's so-acclaimed 'Traveler' album. But another song informed by the Brazilian sojourn, “Street Urchin,” found its way onto 1992's 'By Design', and it was with that album fresh on the shelves that the trio set out on tour.

February 1992 saw Cobham, Coleman and Chindamo arrive in Japan, and it was there, in Tokyo on February 15, that they performed the breathtaking show from which these two albums have been drawn. Japanese audiences, says Cobham, are among his favorite in the world, and the feeling was clearly mutual. The audience's enthusiasm never lapses, and he rewarded them with a selection of songs that traveled back across his entire career - “Crescent Sun,” reaching all the way back to 1974's sophomore effort, 'Total Eclipse'; “Shabazz,” from the 1975 album of the same name.

The evening also looked towards the future - “Reflected Journey,” a magnificent piece that would later title one of Chindamo’s own solo albums; “Prime Time,” “Key Jane”…. And all of them reworked and rearranged for the demands of the night, and the skills of the three pieces.

On record, Cobham habitually introduced fresh players, fresh instrumentation, and allowed their interpretations to flavor the individual compositions. In concert, whole new rearrangements were called for, and it was a mark of the talents with which he surrounded himself that every fresh revision felt somehow definitive; every one opened new doors through which the improvisations could stroll. Tonight in Tokyo, those doors were open as wide as they have ever been.

Cobham remembers the night, hot and tight before one of his favorite audiences in the world. His latest album, 'By Design', was still fresh on the shelves and of course it would dominate the show, the epic “Mirror's Image,” the raucous “Street Urchin” and the playful “Kinky Dee” taking off from the CD for fresh destinations unknown. On record, Ernie Watts' sax was an integral part of the show; on stage, the trio moved in fresh directions and the music soared accordingly.

MIRROR'S IMAGE

1. Mirror's Image
2. Street Urchin
3. Kinky Dee
4. Leeward Winds
5. Mirror Crack'd [CD ONLY]
6. Layed Back Lifestyle [CD ONLY]

To purchase Mirror's Image on CD:


To purchase Mirror's Image on vinyl:

To download Mirror's Image on iTunes:


REFLECTED JOURNEY

1. Prime Time
2. Key Jane
3. Reflected Journey
4. Crescent Sun
5. Shabazz
6. Improvisation

Billy Cobham's official website:


Press inquiries:
Glass Onyon PR
PH: 828-350-8158

CLEOPATRA RECORDS, Inc.

11041 Santa Monica Blvd #703
Los Angeles CA 90025

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2/10/15

"RISE FROM THE GROUND"



The New EP By TKG
(Theodore Kalantzakos Group)
To Be Released Worldwide
On March 4TH, 2015
Courtesy of TKG

Review By Adriana Rubio



TKG is Guitar Virtuoso Theodore Kalantzakos Group, a brothers’ trio metal-fusion-jazz band from Athens, Greece. Theodore and his TKG band have played a vast number of venues across Europe since 2007 to the present days.

In a recent interview with Theodore, he openly gave us some interesting clues on TKG upcoming EP “Rise From The Ground”.

“TKG new EP counts with 3 new compositions with ambient textures and ethnic/world elements as I made an extended use of fretless guitar in these recordings. Fretless guitar is a great instrument for making world/ethnic music. It tends to become my main instrument”.
For readers not yet familiar with fretless guitars, here is a brief explanation to get the essentials of what it is about so you can then appreciate even more the guitar playing style, sound and technique of Theodore Kalantzakos.

The beauty of playing a fretless guitar is the range of sounds the guitarist can create during the composition process. This is highly linked to freedom, the freedom of creating sounds outside the Western music scale since frets are not there spacing strings.  

The freedom a fretless guitar provides is also useful for composers who are particularly attracted to play the exotic scales as well as ethnic-world sounds that are not the same when trying to reproduce them on a fretted guitar.

Playing a fretless guitar requires real practice to truly reach the goal of producing the fretless sound while playing. The guitarist’s fingers perform fluidly “like” sliding the precious notes to please the listener’s ears with the “unique” warm sound.

“Rise From The Ground” transports the listener to a scenario where the music sounds like a warm invitation to fly.

“Our desires are the gravity in our dreams. They look like ropes which hold a hot air balloon. Humans are born with their feet on earth and their hearts facing the sky. We wish we could fly, like planes over the storms of life. Cut your will and rise from the ground…”

Track Listing:

1. Rise from the Ground
2. Night's First Silence
3. Hot Air Balloon

Bonus Track

4. No Shortcuts (Electro Swing version, based on Antonio Machado’s poetry lines, "Wanderer there is not road, the road is made by walking").


For a pre-listen and to pre-order “Rise From The Ground”, please follow the link below to the band’s official store:

https://tkgofficial.bandcamp.com/album/rise-from-the-ground

For further info on TKG upcoming tour dates, news releases, interviews and more please feel free to visit the band’s official website at:

http://tkgofficial.com/

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/theodorekalantzakosband

REVERBNATION:

http://www.reverbnation.com/theodorekalantzakosgroup
  
Note:
Famous Fretless Guitar Players are Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Pat Metheny and Adrian Belew amongst some others. Frank Zappa played fretless guitars in the early and mid 70s. So congratulations Guitarist Theodore Kalantzakos on your instrument choice!

“RISE FROM THE GROUND”
The EP By
TKG
Outstanding guitar playing!
Moving!
Epic!

https://tkgofficial.bandcamp.com/album/rise-from-the-ground


To read the entire interview with Guitar Virtuoso Theodore Kalantzakos, please follow the link below:

http://writeradrianarubio.blogspot.com.ar/2015/01/theodore-kalantzakos.html

 
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