Autumn Wind

Scott DuBois - Autumn WindCD / Vinyl / digital Scott DuBois guitar & conductor Gebhard Ullmann tenor sax & bass clarinet Thomas Morgan bass Kresten Osgood drums Eva León violin I Conway Kuo violin II William Frampton viola Sarah Rommel cello Erin Lesser flute BJ Karpen oboe Elisabeth Stimpert clarinet Michael Harley  bassoon In a period in which the boundaries between musical genres are rapidly dissolving, there still exist major differences between what we still call a “jazz” band and those of other musical classifications. Perhaps the most significant of these is that longevity in a jazz ensemble will nearly always have an entirely positive effect on the music. That’s clearly a huge factor when listening to the high-caliber international quartet put together over a decade ago by the New York-based guitarist-composer Scott DuBois. It features the in-demand NYC double bassist Thomas Morgan (the current duo partner of Bill Frisell no less), the virtuoso German multi-reedsman Gebhard Ullmann and the outstanding Danish drummer Kresten Osgood. Now 39, DuBois, who studied at the Manhattan School of Music and made the semi-finals of the 2005 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Guitar Competition, and Thomas Morgan go back a long way to DuBois' debut album Monsoon (2004) and Tempest (2006) on the Soul Note label, both featuring the master US saxophonist Dave Liebman. Ullmann and Osgood joined the quartet in 2007 and the group released the albums Banshees (2008), Black Hawk Dance (2010) which won a five-star rating in DownBeat, and Landscape Scripture (2012) which was named as one of the “Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2012” by National Public Radio. In 2015 DuBois' quartet released their stunning Munich-based ACT label debut, Winter Light. The distinguished UK-based author Richard Williams of popular blog TheBlueMoment.com remarked that Winter Light, “evokes the example of Claude Monet in his desire to capture the shifting light in changing seasons.” The new release, Autumn Wind, is a close relation; it can similarly be likened to a thematically-linked series of paintings in an art exhibition. DuBois takes the “seasons” concept to a whole new level with a series of pieces in celebration of the restless, unpredictable nature of autumn. At each step of the way, DuBois’ quartet takes us on a mesmerizingly impressionistic musical journey that is an organic yet highly cohesive mix of elements drawn from the likes of modern jazz, contemporary classical music and Americana. But this time, DuBois has expanded the instrumental palette. In the album’s sleeve notes, DuBois states the main idea: “To use three quartets to create a conversation between the world of contemporary classical composition and that of modern jazz composition and improvisation. Autumn would be my theme. Carrying out my plan, I first composed twelve pieces for my quartet and recorded them in Copenhagen. Each piece begins with a different note, generating a twelve-tone row I used in various parts of the compositions. Later, in New York, building on the fluid performances and improvisations in those recordings, I composed, conducted and recorded pieces for classical string and woodwind quartets to be superimposed on the jazz performances. The first piece is for solo guitar. Each subsequent piece adds one instrument, culminating in a finale (for twelve musicians) in which the twelve-tone row structures the entire composition. Among other compositional techniques I employed were aleatoricism, minimalism and serialized rhythms, pitches and dynamics.” On the opener, “Mid-September Changing Light,” DuBois plays without accompaniment, creating vast landscapes of sound that ripple with dark undertones and a shimmering beauty. On the tranquil “Late September Dusk Walk” DuBois is joined in duo by Thomas Morgan, one of the most remarkable young double bassists on the current New York scene. The guitarist conjures up a beautifully hazy soundscape of country-folk Americana while the bassist improvises with expressive lyricism. The first creatures appear on “Early October Insect Songs” as illustrated by the entrance of Gebhard Ullmann’s deeply resonant spine-shivering bass clarinet theme with DuBois’ and Morgan’s stark counterpoint. Osgood’s drums enter on the restless “Mid-October Migration” with Ullmann adding edgily free-jazz tenor sax punctuations along with DuBois’ atmospheric chords and virtuosic guitar improvisations, before the first of the strings enters on “Late October Changing Leaves.”String sounds continue to emerge in the imaginative, minimalistic ensemble textures on “Early November Bird Formations”, “Autumn Wind” and “Mid-November Moonlit Forest” as the soundscape is reinvigorated with the arrival of more natural lifeforms. Then the first of the winds from the woodwind quartet enters in the calm of the sensuous country-folk music-like ballad “Late November Farm Fields” with Ullmann’s gripping blues-drenched bass clarinet solo. The ensemble continues to expand with an additional wind on the blustery folk-dance-like “Early December Blue Sky And Chimney Smoke.” Contemporary classical, Lutosławski and Schoenberg-like colors emerge on the final tracks, from the peaceful “In a Silent Way”-ish soundscape on “Mid-December Night Sky,” through the twelve-tone intensity of “Autumn Aurora Borealis.” The latter’s Samuel Barber-esque strings and winds are interrupted by the surge of Osgood’s ferocious drums, DuBois’ shimmering guitar lines and Ullmann’s free jazz electricity. A reprise of “Mid-November Moonlit Forest” for string quartet ensures that, “the journey ends in quiet reflection.” When Richard Williams wrote that the previous album Winter Light would “sound good in any season,” he could have been speaking, too, about Autumn Wind, an unpredictable yet seamless, sophisticated yet approachable set of music. DuBois’ is contemporary tone poetry of the highest order.Credits: Music composed and produced by Scott DuBois Scott DuBois Quartet recorded by Thomas Vang and assistant engineer Johan Jørgensen at The Village in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 4, 2017 String quartet & woodwind quartet recorded by Ryan Streber and assistant engineer Michael Quick at Oktaven Audio in Mt. Vernon, New York on April 30, 2017 Mixing and mastering by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Scott DuBois The Art in Music: Cover art by Stanley Whitney: Stay Song 3C, 2017, by permission of the artist

Various Artists - Magig Moments 10 "In The Spirit of Jazz"CD / digitalThe anniversary sampler Magic Moments 10 gives an insight into the current album releases from the ACT catalogue. 14 tracks, over 1 hour of the best jazz infotainment "in the spirit of jazz".Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Scott du Bois - Winter LightCD / Vinyl / digital Scott DuBois guitar Gebhard Ullmann tenor saxophone & bass clarinet Thomas Morgan bass Kresten Osgood drums American jazz guitarist and composer, is one of the most important figures on the young New York jazz scene. The New York Times has praised the way that DuBois “has begun to make waves” with his “exploratory yet melodic sensibilities, serious compositional ambitions,” and “cohesive looseness against complex subtleties.” DuBois studied at the Manhattan School of Music. He made his first mark alongside saxophonist David Liebman, who appeared on DuBois's albums for the Soul Note record label, “Monsoon” (2005) and “Tempest” (2007). DuBois's quartet, with whom he has now been working for the past decade, consists of some of the world's most in-demand improvising musicians: German saxophonist and bass clarinetist Gebhard Ullmann, American bassist Thomas Morgan, and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood. This regular working band performs DuBois's masterfully-crafted original compositions which point to future trends. Their focus is to present these powerful works with dynamic group improvisation and interaction, creating massive, colorful landscapes and a spiritual intensity that cuts straight to the heart. The guitarist's first five albums have received major critical acclaim. “Black Hawk Dance” earned the maximum 5-star rating from DownBeat Magazine. His next album, “Landscape Scripture,” was one of the "Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2012" as selected by the highly influential coast-to-coast American network, National Public Radio. The New York City Jazz Record has described DuBois's writing as “captivating music for the meditative thinker.” This telling expression goes quite some way towards unlocking its essence, since the guitarist composes in an associative way, through pictures. Indeed, “Winter Light,” which marks his debut as an artist on the ACT label, has a strongly programmatic concept running right through it. The listener is taken on a journey through a winter's day. As we witness the progression from before daybreak right through to the depths of night, DuBois draws the listener in with sounds vividly portraying myriad shifts in the balance of light, leading us through different landscapes, and even making us feel the ever-changing patterns of the weather. Scott DuBois, theNineteenth-century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson called art an “expression of nature.” “Winter Light” transports the listener on a day’s journey from earliest dawn into deepest night, illustrating the day’s changing light through varied landscapes and weather conditions. I have loved representations of this evolution in visual art, especially in the paintings of Claude Monet, who often worked on several canvases at once in order to track the day’s shifting light. “Winter Light” captures such visions in sound. “First Light Tundra” opens with the earliest glimpse of light over a cold, desolate landscape as birds awake, call, and fly off into the distance. In a battle between darkness and light, fierce crashing winds obscure the approaching sunrise with flying snow. The sun triumphs in the end. “Early Morning Forest” introduces a stately pine forest soon pierced by rays of light dazzling snow-filled branches and the white forest floor. Animals call one another to enter the mass of trees. Deeper in the forest, in the darker thick brush, an ominous cold mist fills the air. The animals call again after slowly emerging from the forest into the warmth of the unobstructed morning sun. “Late Morning Snow” conveys the elegance and peaceful nature of light on newly fallen snow. A progressively cold stinging wind rises. “Noon White Mountain” begins with the day’s most powerful light on majestic snow-capped mountains. They are slowly overtaken by dark clouds. A distant storm transforms into a passing gentle freezing rain. Then bright noon light returns. “Afternoon Ice Fog” evokes mysterious light reflections from the tiny ice crystals suspended in the air. In “Evening Blizzard” the light is shrouded by the intensity of a snowstorm. Peace and tranquility return in “Night Tundra” where moonlit snow glows in the darkness. I hope you enjoy the journey. Scott DuBoisCredits: Recorded by Thomas Vang at The Village in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 29, 2015 Mixed by Walter Quintus Mastering by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Scott DuBois All compositions by Scott DuBois © 2015 / SESAC Cover art by Sarah Charlesworth, Simple Text (Seven Colors), 2005 Photo by Arek Wyderka