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Spirit Songs

Anthony Branker | Ascent

Spirit Songs

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Origin Records
UPC: 0805558287626
Catnr: ORIGIN 82876
Release date: 07 June 2024
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Label
Origin Records
UPC
0805558287626
Catalogue number
ORIGIN 82876
Release date
07 June 2024
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

Composer Anthony Branker’s ninth album for Origin Records is a re-issue of his debut recording for Sons of Sound Records in 2006. This was Branker’s first recording as a composer/bandleader writing specifically for his ensemble, Ascent, the first of his three collectives that would establish him as an important emerging writer and “a force to be reckoned with in the world of modern post-bop jazz.” Spirit Songs is a bold, spacious recording that showcases Branker’s earlier compositions, rooted in modal harmonies, displaying a unique sense of lyricism and full of highly rhythmic grooves, based in the world of jazz but blended with culturally diverse musical styles. At the center of the recording is the inspired, fiery and always surprising drumming of the late, great Ralph Peterson, Jr., whom, along with trombonist Clifford Adams, Jr., this reissue is dedicated in the memory of. With saxophonists Antonio Hart and Ralph Bowen, pianist Jonny King, and bassist John Benitez, Spirit Songs marked an auspicious debut for this formidable composer whose “place in Jazz has been consistently building unique architectures that speak to the cultural reparation of allowing this art form to thrive as protest music.”
Das neunte Album des Komponisten Anthony Branker für Origin Records ist eine Wiederveröffentlichung seines Debüts für Sons of Sound Records aus dem Jahr 2006. Dies war Brankers erste Aufnahme als Komponist und Bandleader, die er speziell für sein Ensemble Ascent schrieb, das erste seiner drei Kollektive, die ihn als wichtigen aufstrebenden Komponisten und "eine Kraft, mit der man in der Welt des modernen Post-Bop-Jazz rechnen muss", etablieren sollten. Spirit Songs ist eine kühne, raumgreifende Aufnahme, die Brankers frühere Kompositionen präsentiert, die in modalen Harmonien verwurzelt sind, einen einzigartigen Sinn für Lyrik haben und voller hochrhythmischer Grooves sind, die in der Welt des Jazz wurzeln, aber mit kulturell unterschiedlichen Musikstilen vermischt sind. Im Mittelpunkt der Aufnahme steht das inspirierte, feurige und immer wieder überraschende Schlagzeugspiel des verstorbenen Ralph Peterson, Jr. dem diese Wiederveröffentlichung zusammen mit dem Posaunisten Clifford Adams, Jr. gewidmet ist. Mit den Saxophonisten Antonio Hart und Ralph Bowen, dem Pianisten Jonny King und dem Bassisten John Benitez markierte Spirit Songs ein vielversprechendes Debüt für diesen hervorragenden Komponisten, dessen "Platz im Jazz darin besteht, immer wieder einzigartige Architekturen zu errichten, die von der kulturellen Wiedergutmachung dafür sprechen, dass diese Kunstform als Protestmusik gedeihen kann."

Artist(s)

Antonio Hart (saxophone)

Jonny King (piano)

John Benitez (double bass)

Composer(s)

Anthony Branker

Composer, conductor, and bandleader Anthony Branker is an Origin Records recording artist who was named in DownBeat magazine's 63rd & 62nd Annual Critics Poll as a 'Rising Star Composer.' Dr. Branker has nine releases in his fast growing and musically rich discography that include: What Place Can Be For Us? (Origin, 2023), Beauty Within (Origin, 2016), The Forward (Towards Equality) Suite (Origin, 2014), Uppity (Origin, 2013), Together (Origin, 2012), Dialogic (Origin, 2011), Dance Music (Origin, 2010), Blessings (Origin, 2009), and Spirit Songs (Sons of Sound, 2006), which have featured Walter Smith III, Philip Dizack, Remy LeBoeuf, Fabian Almazan, Linda May Han Oh, Donald Edwards, Pete McCann, Alison Crockett, Rudy Royston, Ralph Bowen, David Binney, Conrad Herwig, Jim Ridl, Kenny Davis,...
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Composer, conductor, and bandleader Anthony Branker is an Origin Records recording artist who was named in DownBeat magazine's 63rd & 62nd Annual Critics Poll as a "Rising Star Composer." Dr. Branker has nine releases in his fast growing and musically rich discography that include: What Place Can Be For Us? (Origin, 2023), Beauty Within (Origin, 2016), The Forward (Towards Equality) Suite (Origin, 2014), Uppity (Origin, 2013), Together (Origin, 2012), Dialogic (Origin, 2011), Dance Music (Origin, 2010), Blessings (Origin, 2009), and Spirit Songs (Sons of Sound, 2006), which have featured Walter Smith III, Philip Dizack, Remy LeBoeuf, Fabian Almazan, Linda May Han Oh, Donald Edwards, Pete McCann, Alison Crockett, Rudy Royston, Ralph Bowen, David Binney, Conrad Herwig, Jim Ridl, Kenny Davis, Renato Thoms, Mark Gross, Tia Fuller, Steve Wilson, Antonio Hart, Clifford Adams, Andy Hunter, Eli Asher, Jonny King, Bryan Carrott, John Benitez, Belden Bullock, Adam Cruz, Ralph Peterson Jr., Wilby Fletcher, Kadri Voorand, and Freddie Bryant.
Dr. Branker's releases Beauty Within and The Forward (Towards Equality) Suite won Gold and Silver awards respectively at the Global Music Awards and he was a Third Place Winner in the 2021 International Songwriting Competition (ISC) in the jazz category for his composition "Joy." He has received commissions, served as a visiting composer, and has had his music featured in performance in Poland, Italy, Denmark, Finland, France, Estonia, Russia, Australia, China, Germany, Lithuania, and Japan. Dr. Branker's works have also been performed and/or recorded by the New Wind Jazz Orchestra, Sylvan Winds with Max Pollack Dance Ensemble, Composers Concordance Big Band, Princeton University Orchestra, Rutgers University Jazz Ensemble, Princeton University Jazz Composers Collective, Rutgers Avant Garde Ensemble, Orrin Evans, Steve Nelson, Stanley Jordan, Talib Kibwe (TK Blue), Curtis Lundy, James Weidman, Calvin Hill, Steve Kroon, Jann Parker, and the Spirit of Life Ensemble, and have featured such guest soloists as Kenny Barron, Eddie Henderson, Winard Harper, John Hicks, Valery Ponomarev, Joe Ford, Cecil Brooks III, Onaje Allen Gumbs, and Alex Blake.
Dr. Anthony Branker was on the faculty at Princeton University for 27 years, where he held an endowed chair in jazz studies, was founding director of the program in jazz studies, and associate director of musical performance until his retirement in 2016. Currently, he is on the jazz studies faculty at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts where his teaching responsibilities have included graduate and undergraduate courses in jazz historiography, composition & arranging, theory, improvisation, and directing the Avant Garde Ensemble and Rutgers Jazz Ensemble II. Dr. Branker has also served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at the Estonian Academy of Music & Theatre and has been a member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, Hunter College (CUNY), Ursinus College, and the New Jersey Summer Arts Institute. He was also visiting composer at the Southern Danish Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Odense/Esbjerg, Denmark; Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany; and the Estonian Academy of Music & Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia.

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