Blue Note Records, Monterey Jazz Festival, and MSN Music have teamed for the online release of eight exclusive downloads. The eight tracks, from Blue Note artists Terence Blanchard, Bill Charlap and Don Byron, are live performances recorded at this year's 47th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, California, which will be available for individual track and full album purchase through MSN Music (http://music.msn.com) beginning November 9th. A dedicated page can be found at http://music.msn.com/music/mjf2004.
“This is a great way to further extend the Blue Note brand in the digital environment" say Jeff Zakim, New Media Marketing Manager for Blue Note Records. “This is outstanding live material from top artists performed at a top festival, and we wanted to make it available to as wide an audience as possible. The launch of the MSN Music service provided us with that opportunity."
Officially launched on October 12th, MSN Music provides an easy way for people to find, discover and legally download music online. The service has an extensive library of one million licensed tracks from all major labels and from more than 3,000 independent labels.
“We're pleased to offer jazz lovers these hot live cuts from this year's Monterey Jazz Festival on MSN Music" said Rob Bennett, senior director of MSN Entertainment. “This relationship with Blue Note Records and the Monterey Jazz Festival is a great example of how we are delivering on our commitment to give music fans access to exclusive tracks from a wide variety of artists."
Bill Charlap has been leading one of the tightest-knit piano trios (with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington) in the jazz business for several years now. His recordings of American songbook composers, from Hoagy Carmichael ("Stardust") to Leonard Bernstein ("Somewhere") prompted The New Yorker magazine to declare him “an exceptional stylist poised to replace Bill Evans and Tommy Flanagan in the public imagination." Here the trio swings through a set that includes “God Child" (best known from it's incarnation on Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool), Irving Berlin's “The Best Thing For You," Vernon Duke's “Round About," and Gerry Mulligan's “Curtains."
Acclaimed trumpeter, composer, bandleader Terence Blanchard joined the Blue Note family in 2003 with the release of Bounce, which JazzTimes magazine said showed Blanchard “at the top of his game" as he led a young and dynamic band. Featured here with a sextet, Blanchard stretches out on the pulsating “Transform" (from Bounce) and the previously unrecorded “Simply Over There."
Clarinetist Don Byron's adventurous spirit was on display at Monterey, as he and his trio, consisting of young piano firebrand Jason Moran and drum paragon Jack DeJohnette, moved through a program of tunes from Byron's new Blue Note recording Ivey-Divey, a session inspired by tenor sax legend Lester Young's post-war bass-less trio with pianist Nat King Cole and drummer Buddy Rich. Featured here are the standard “I Covered The Waterfront" and Miles Davis's “Freddie Freeloader."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
