Thank You Baby!

Various Artists - Fahrt ins Blaue II - groovin´in the spirit of jazzCD / Vinyl / digitalVarious ArtistsTurn up the volume! While the first “Fahrt ins Blaue” (journey into the blue/unknown) album from ACT in 2016 offered classy songs for chilling, a great place just to hang out and relax, the new album “FiB II - groovin' in the spirit of jazz” leads us straight out onto the dance floor. From the moment it opens up, with funky jazz, gritty blues and bucketloads of soul, this compilation sets the tone for a night of partying. It’s after sunset. The DJ is starting to nudge the volume a little higher. The WDR Big Band and its unbelievably tight horn section sets this journey on its way. First there’s a classic from Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, “Moanin”. Then Torsten Goods ‘jumps that train’ and takes things on with a U2 cover, “When Love Comes To Town”. Its disco bass-lines and Wolfgang Haffner's in-the-pocket groove make it the perfect antidote to any lingering stiffness or formality, with Swedish singer Ida Sand stepping into the role which B. B. King had on the original. She’ll be singing a duet later with Raul Midón: “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother”. Viktoria Tolstoy takes us back to the easy vibe of Herbie Hancock's disco/pop phase with her take on “Paradise” from the 1982 album “Lite Me Up!” And then there are Joe Sample and Nils Landgren, and they’re really going for it. The US legend - who died in 2014 - on Fender Rhodes and Mr. Redhorn, don’t actually have a Hollywood connection between them; but what they do connect with is heavy grooves. No frills, no fuss, they take “Don't Take My Love To Hollywood” and completely nail it. An ACT classic from 1997 follows on seamlessly: “Joshua", from Bernard Purdy's “Soul To Jazz" is pure gospel funk. Magnus Lindgren's “Penny Blue” was created 20 years later. This, the newest track on "FiB II" is the finest soul-jazz, made in Stockholm. And then it's time for southern soul, the genuine article: Mighty Sam McClain, who died in 2015, brings huge platefuls of Louisiana feeling to the table. Youn Sun Nah springs a surprise on us by showing her danceable side in the Paul Simon cover “She Moves On” with US guitarist Marc Ribot. Then there’s a short pause for breath: Solveig Slettahjell's “Holy Joe” adds a soft bluesy note and Muriel Zoe sings Steely Dan's “Rikki Don't Lose That Number”, laid-back country-style. That’s followed by Nils Landgren rocking out with the complete Funk Unit. Randy Brecker on flugelhorn, supported by the WDR Big Band, blows a storm on Lee Morgan's soul-jazz hit “The Sidewinder”. That rousing finale seems to signal the end of the DJ set, but since they’re all still baying loudly for an encore… Pete York’s fat organ-funk provides it. And that really is everybody’s very last dance. “Fahrt ins Blaue II.” Fourteen tracks for grooving and boogying. You feel good, you dance the night away and you certainly don’t hold back. It’s music which gives those dancing feet energy they never knew they had. Let the summer begin.Credits: Compiled by Marco Ostrowski Cover art by Rupprecht Geiger Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Torsten Goods - Thank You Baby!CD / digital Torsten Goods vocals & guitar Roberto Di Gioia Fender Rhodes & piano Tim Lefebvre Fender Jazz Bass & double bass Wolfgang Haffner drums Since the release of his last album “Love Comes To Town“, word has it that Torsten Goods “is a master of groove“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “pop jazz hasn't felt this good since George Benson“ (Kulturnews), because he “plays the guitar like George Benson, sings like Frank Sinatra and composes like Joe Sample“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). However this 34- year -old is not one to rest on his laurels. Following an early breakthrough in his mid - twenties, he set himself new goals: a move from Nuremberg to Berlin was followed by performances with great jazz musicians like Till Brönner and further establishing his musical identity, among other things by working with pop stars such as Sarah Connor. Spirituals, blues and roots music form the creative foundation for “Thank You Baby!“ “This kind of music was familiar to me as a young lad. My Irish mum loved listening to spirituals, soul and jazz, and my dad's a blues musician, so when Siggi Loch suggested devoting my new album to this music, boyhood memories resurfaced and I was really keen. It wasn't about wallowing in nostalgia, though, but about expressing myself.“ says Goods, referring to the preparations for the new album. If special guests and horn arrangements were a distinctive feature of “Love Comes To Town“, here a compact 4-piece line-up is a more powerful statement, since, as Torsten says “Siggi Loch put my dream band together“. That is: on drums, Wolfgang Haffner, who also produced the album. Goods observes “ With his feel for groove and musical reduction, we're definitely on the same wavelength“. Then, on Fender Rhodes and piano, Roberto Di Gioia, an old friend of Haffner's, with whom he created his legendary, funky NuJazz project Zappelbude. Goods remembers being a teenage fan of that group. “Roberto isn't only an incredible jazz pianist, one of the best in that style, but is, like Wolfgang, always open to fresh ideas and now also plays with well-known pop stars like Max Herre“. The fourth band member is none other than Timothy Lefebvre, the American bass player who reputedly so impressed and inspired Michael Wollny and Eric Schaefer that the result was the award-winning album “Weltentraum“, the most successful German jazz album in 2014. The fact that Lefebvre plays bass on supergroup Toto's new studio album and is a permanent member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band illustrates how broad his spectrum is, and how ideally suited he is for Goods' purposes. Interestingly, it was a reunion with an old acquaintance: “I met Tim during my studies in the USA in the early 2000s.“ With the band having so many things in common, it was no wonder that, as Goods mentions, “a kind of magic“ set in. “We simply tried the tunes out till we reached the point where we thought we'd got it. Then we recorded them three times, each recording being slightly different. Then we had the take. The idea was to make the music sound pure and just like a live studio perfomance, without any overdubs, exactly as they would have done it in the sixties.“ “Thank You Baby!“ convinces on that score across the board: whether it be the irresistibly rolling, archaic “Work Song“ by Nat Adderly, Ray Charles' “Hallelujah I Love Her So“, steeped in sixties charm,or the reharmonized, deeply melancholic and reduced-to-its-essence “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?“ by Lead Belly, the fully improvised standard “Afro Blue“, composed by Mongo Santamaria, or the killer swing of “How Sweet It Is“, the Motown classic made famous by Marvin Gaye. This song and its lyrics were the inspiration for the album title: “With sweet love and devotion, deeply touching my emotion. I want to stop and thank you baby“. When Siggi Loch heard this line on the master tape he knew at once that that was the theme for the whole album. For Torsten Goods and his fellow musicians have embraced the repertoire with love and devotion, to deeply touch the listener's emotion. Please don't stop....Thank you, Torsten!Credits: Produced by Wolfgang Haffner & Torsten Goods Executive Producer: Siggi Loch Recorded by Arne Schumann, April 8-10, 2015 at Hansa Studios, Berlin Additional editing by Stephan Ernst Mixed by Arne Schumann in May and June, 2015 at Schumann & Bach Studios, Berlin Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 8 "Sing Hallelujah"CD / digitalThe eighth edition of the popular series Magic Moments is a 71-minute musical joyride through the current ACT release schedule, and features not just the stars of the label but also its newcomers and discoveries. The ACT label's proprietor and producer-in-chief Siggi Loch has put together a programme of sixteen tracks, under the title “Sing Hallelujah.” Encompassing jazz, soul, gospel and Afro-American roots music, it is yet another example of the Munich-based label defining itself by the will to be different, and by steering well clear of predictable and well-trodden paths. This is music “in the spirit of jazz,” which slips effortlessly between genres. It is fresh and up-to-date, and refuses to be a slave to any pre-ordained style. Magic Moments 8, “Sing Hallelujah” places the vocal artists of ACT in the spotlight. The collection opens with soul-blues legend Mighty Sam McClain, who died very recently. He is heard here with Knut Reiersrud, the Norwegian guitarist. Reiersrud himself is also heard later on another track with singer Solveig Slettahjell and the trio In The Country. They perform “Borrowed Time” from the album "Trail of Souls,” a CD which marries the American gospel and spiritual traditions with a Norwegian sound aesthetic. The title track “Sing Hallelujah,” a song by Mike Settle, is sung by Torsten Goods. He is surrounded by an all-star band of Roberto Di Gioa, Tim Lefebvre and Wolfgang Haffner, and delivers the song with his characteristic cool and nonchalance. Ida Sand has one track "Hey Hey, My My,” in which she honours Neil Young. The voice of Natalia Mateo "has a story all of its own to tell,” in the words of Die Zeit. Mateo gives “I Put a Spell on You,” - sung in the fifties by American blues singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and later a huge hit for Nina Simone – a treatment which is bound to take people by surprise. Norwegian singer-songwriter Randi Tytingvåg shows her genuine class on “Steady Going,” a song with its roots in American folk and country music. Drummer Wolfgang Haffner in “Piano Man” brings vocals to his “Kind of Cool” group with the powerful soul singer Max Mutzke. The final tracks of Magic Moments 8 are all instrumentals, but they could not be more varied and contrasted. Bassist Dieter Ilg with his regular trio interpret Beethoven; Iiro Rantala plays John Lennon's “Imagine” alone at the piano; saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, a 3-time Downbeat winner in 2015, honours the great Charlie Parker with “Bird Calls. The old cowhand shout of Yippee Ki Yay….in Berlin? Kalle Kallema the Finnish guitarist now makes his home in the German capital and his trio's take on the western classic “Ghost Riders In the Sky,” by Stan Jones and the Death Valley Rangers really does bring High Noon to the mean streets of Kreuzberg. Pianist Frank Woeste, born in Hannover, is a new face on the ACT Label. He has been a major and consistent success in France where he now lives, and where he frequently performs with Ibrahim Maalouf and Youn Sun Nah. Here the singer brings her unique and inimitable voice to “Star Gazer.” “If music be the food of love, play on,” begins Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. Add the words “... and of life,” and what results is an artistic credo, the philosophy which underlies all that the ACT label does. Siggi Loch and his team have been producing nourishing music for the past 23 years with an unstinting passion and an instinct for quality. This is music which goes straight the hearts and minds of people whose ears are open to the unexpected, and who love good music. “Magic Moments 8” is 100% true to that vision.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Pete York - Basiecally SpeakingCD / digital Pete York drums & vocals Torsten Goods guitar & vocalsGabor Bolla tenor sax Andi Kissenbeck Hammond organ Special Guest on “Groovin‘ For Basie”: Wolfgang Schmid bass It all goes back to year 1965. Spencer Davis Group was recording a single for the label Phillips Germany after having released its number one hit “Keep on Running”. Alongside the guitarist and a former German teacher Spencer Davis, Steve Winwood and his older brother Muff also the upcoming drummer Pete York was a member of the band. The producer of the session was Siggi Loch. “We’ve been friends ever since,” Pete York, who turned 70 in August, reminisces. “Maybe it is Siggi’s birthday present that I got the chance to release this album on ACT.” The present is called „Basiecally Speaking“. As you might guess due to the title, the album is all about Count Basie. York explains: “Basie was almost my first connection with jazz after Louis Armstrong. When I was 15, my mother took me to see his concert. It was unforgettable, particularly due to his energetic drummer Sonny Payne. His big band had such power and dynamics. Basie used the whole language of music and was famous for his musical humour as well as for his economic way of playing the piano. Every note mattered and was swinging. I have tried to include all these things in my music. Most of all, I learnt from Basie what not to play.” Not only in this aspect is Pete York unique – there are not many drummers who can be compared with the Briton in diversity and ingenuity. York, who has been living in Bavaria since 1984, became famous in the 60s with the Spencer Davis Group and with The World’s Smallest Big Band – a duo with Eddie Hardin. Boundaries between genres have never been important to him – he has played with jazz musicians, such as Chris Barber and Klaus Doldinger, blues stars like Dr. John and rockers including recently the deceased keyboardist Jon Lord from Deep Purple and songwriter Konstantin Wecker. For the German comedian and jazz musician Helge Schneider York does not only hold the drumsticks but even recently acted in one of his films. He also created and appeared in the TV series “Super Drumming” with a number of prominent drummer colleagues. Moreover, York has also got talent as an entertainer with British humour. He once wrote TV comedy scripts alongside members of Monty Python. York’s openness, relaxed attitude and excellent entertainment qualities coincide with Siggi Loch’s understanding of music. Love for tradition is also important for both. “A lot of young musicians are not acquainted with the history of jazz. You can’t have a future without knowing and honouring the past,” says Siggi Loch. This was the starting point for “Basiecally Speaking”. In spring Loch received the Škoda Lifetime Achievement Award on the Jazzahead fair in Bremen. He took the prize money, doubled it and invested it into a project in which young upcoming musicians would play together with an experienced star. And who would better fit the role of the leader and mentor than Pete York. That is why Pete York does not play with „old cats“ on „Basiecally Speaking“ but rather with „Young Friends“. First of all, there is Gábor Bolla, the newest ACT star on saxophone. “That was Siggi’s idea, since I didn’t know him before. I was all the more amazed how extremely well Gabor plays the high-power tenor saxophone that was also very important in Basie’s band, with musicians such as Lester Young, Hershel Evans or Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. For a drummer it is exciting that Gabor can play with rhythmic accuracy at high tempos, relax over the medium tempos and be beautiful on ballads . Andi Kissenbeck, the specialist for groovy Hammond organ, whom York had already met, received an important role on the project. “If you don’t have a brass section, Hammond organ is almost the only alternative. I’ve played with many organists, such as Wild Bill Davis and with rock colleagues including Brian Auger, so I can recognise and appreciate how wonderfully Andi plays.” And finally, there is Torsten Goods, who has shown on his ACT albums “Irish Heart” and “1980” that he plays the classic jazz guitar with unique technical brilliance and style. He can play that all-important Freddie Green rhythm guitar, change to deliver an astonishing solo or punch up an ensemble and he also has a wonderful swinging voice that can be heard on “Gee Baby”. This session is a milestone in the varied career of Pete York. "I think I've been heard on around 200 albums in the last 50 years and now I've come back to my first love, the happy swing of Count Basie. What really knocks me out, apart from Siggi wanting me to do this at all, is the way the Young Friends just dived into this project and made such a great sound right off the bat. With guys like these around me I feel as young as they are. Basie’s old hits, such as “Cute”, “Jumpin’ At The Woodside” and “Splanky”, are grooving and swinging, making “Basiecally Speaking” a true pleasure. Or, as York puts it in his funny Denglish when things go well together: “Uh, what a Geschmack!” Credits: Produced by Siggi Loch, Pete York & Torsten Goods Recorded at Mastermix Studio Munich, September 9 - 12, 2012 Mixed & mastered by Klaus Scheuermann The Art in Music: Cover art by Gert & Uwe Tobias, by permission of the artists

Torsten Goods - Love Comes To TownCD / digital Torsten Goods vocals & guitar Jan Miserre piano, fender rhodes, wurlitzer Christian von Kaphengst fender jazz bass, acoustic bass Wolfgang Haffner drums Horns: Till Brönner trumpet Nils Landgren trombone Magnus Lindgren saxophone, flute Ingolf Burkhardt trumpet on 04, 09 & 11 Ida Sand vocals on 02 & 07 Viktoria Tolstoy vocals on 10 & 13 Felix Lehrmann drums on 14The drums provide the heavy groove, the Fender Rhodes tunes in with a resilient theme, a tender brass section fills in excitingly, then the clear soul voice resounds through the song, accompanied by the mellow sound of a jazz guitar and both support the song “You Wind Me Up” up, ending in a final improvisation. Right from the start, Torsten Goods’ CD ”Love Comes To Town” is cool, funky and energising. Since his first ACT album “Irish Heart”, a homage to his Irish mother, it has been no secret that he is an outstanding multitalent, who grew up in Franconia, matured during his studies in New York and was nurtured by the “masters of the jazz guitar” such as George Benson, Les Paul, Bireli Lagrene or Mike Stern. While the “Evening Standard” once wrote about his “talent galore”, experts couldn’t agree which to give preference to: the virtuoso guitarist, the endearing singer and entertainer or the songwriter Torsten Goods. This question is of no further interest once you have listened to “Love Comes to Town”: effortlessly mastering all these fields, Goods has never been more laid-back. It could mainly be because Goods, who gives the impression of being an easygoing showman, is in reality a hardworking, wholehearted and introspective artist: Five years ago, after his second ACT-album “1980” and the following tour, he decided at just 28 to reexamine his fast moving career. Stepping back from further album offers for a while, he took a chance to make guest appearances with the German HR and SWR radio big bands, with Till Brönner's band as well as Larry Coryell. He left jazz territory to play R&B with Narada Michael Walden and with Sarah Connor. "I always had the urge to break out of the world of jazz a little. But after playing in big venues I knew that I belong just there but with my own projects. That’s who I am at heart”, says Goods looking back. "Love Comes To Town shows exactly who I am and what I want". His tribute to the small every day pleasures is best expressed in “Freedom Every Day”. Another effect of his time out was that Goods has composed more than ever before. “I wrote more than 40 songs: Two years ago I spent some time in London to compose in different surroundings - working with other composers was very inspiring”. So out of this rich store he was able to create “Love Comes To Town”. From the exhilirating sunshine-and-ice café anthem “Summer Lovin’” to the driving guitar instrumental “Weekend At The A-Trane” there’s no song that hasn’t what it takes to become a standard. His seven originals easily meet the standard of the seven cover versions. Goods knows about his qualities as a performing artist as well as a composer. However, never before has the spectrum of the material been wider: Whether you think that the easy marching version of Joe Sample’s Crusaders’-Hit “Put It Where You Want It” or the modern adaptation of Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away From me” still sounds typically Torsten Goods, you would never have reckoned with a “jazz-is-in-the-air club revival version” by Willie Nelson’s country-ballad ”Night Life”. The same goes for the pop song “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx or Goods’ spectacular and totally reduced Blues version of Adele’s “Someone Like You”. Goods sings the heavy soul tune “Brutal Truth” as well as his title piece with the composer: Ida Sand. Sand is only one example of the pure competence that Torsten Goods has brought on board for this project. Starting with the European “funk man“ Nils Landgren, who Goods got to know as a producer, playing on Mo Blow’s “For Those About To Funk” and who has now produced Goods’ album. Landgren heads up the guest-horn section with trumpeter Till Brönner and saxophonist Magnus Lindgren (who plays a sensational flute solo on “Put It Where You Want It”) as well as Ingolf Burkhardt, who are all hard to top in the present jazz scene. Drummer Wolfgang Haffner, Germany’s unerring “groove metronome“, and Victoria Tolstoy, whose clear voice demonstrates in two songs why she is the star she is, complete the “Landgren clan”. Last but by no means least, Goods’ own “musical family”. As pianist, keyboarder and co-composer since way back, a good friend and companion, indispensable for Goods, the great Jan Miserre. Rounding off the rhythm section, Christian von Kaphengst is a celebrated producer, composer and arranger – Goods’ man for the low notes ever since he moved to Berlin seven years ago. Felix Lehrmann from Berlin, the young shooting star on drums, appears on one title, too. These three form Torsten Goods’ live band. Berlin! City life acts as a guiding theme throughout the album. “This wasn’t planned, it just turned out that way”, Goods says, but there is no such thing as coincidence. Berlin’s seething jazz scene including clubs like the A-Trane show an unmistakable, new influence in Torsten Goods’ music: A vital, vibrating, enviably young element, not least found in “Berlin P.M.”, the closing title of the adventure “Love Comes To Town”: An adventure that is a delight to listen to, accomplished by this mature, ambitious artist. Credits: Produced by Nils Landgren Co-produced by Torsten Goods & Jan Miserre Executive Producer: Siggi Loch All band arrangements by Torsten Goods & Jan Miserre Horn arrangements: 01 by Jan Miserre, 02, 03, 05, 07 & 08 by Magnus Lindgren and 09 & 11 by Nils Landgren Recorded by Arne Schumann, Oktober 30 – November 1, 2012 at Hansa Studios Berlin Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

70 minutes of the best jazz infotainment through the current ACT line-up at a special price.

"Torsten Goods plays the guitar in a way that need not shy away from comparisons with George Benson. A huge talent is maturing here!" - MANNHEIMER MORGEN

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