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Felipe Salles: Tiyo's Songs Of Life
by Jack Bowers
Talk about remarkable origins; the music on Tiyo's Songs of Life, performed by tenor saxophonist Felipe Salles' quartet, was written by Tiyo Attallah Salah-El while he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Pennsylvania prison. In spite of his circumstances, Salah-El never lost his love for life, an upbeat frame of mind that is ever-present in these nine sparkling originals. While imprisoned, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees and founded the Coalition for the Abolition ...
Continue ReadingFelipe Salles, Zaccao Curtis, Avery Sharpe, Jonathan Butler: Tiyo's Songs Of Life
by Dan McClenaghan
Embarking on an errant path in his youth led saxophonist Tiyo Attallah Salah-El to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. That is about as grim as it gets, but Salah-El, rather than giving in to defeat, turned himself into a behind-the-bars composer, author and activist. He passed in 2018, but his music came to the attention of saxophonist Felipe Sallas via prison abolitionist Lois Ahrens, who had befriended the imprisoned saxophonist Salaah-El, and even provided him with fifty ...
Continue ReadingThe New World Jazz Composers Octet: The Next Stage
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The jazz octet has long been somewhat of a “Swiss Army Knife" for composer-arrangers. Consider, for example, the great Dave Pell, Ornette Coleman, David Murray, and the J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding Octets. In the hands of great arrangers, the eight-piece format allows arrangers to leverage the flexibility and creativity of a “Messengers" frontline with the total sonic impact of a classic big band. The Next Stage from The New World Jazz Composers Octet is a superb ...
Continue ReadingFelipe Salles: The New Immigrant Experience
by Angelo Leonardi
The New Immigrant Experience è un lavoro multimediale, che combina musica orchestrale e proiezioni video, ispirato all'esperienza dei Dreamers, persone protette dal programma Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Accanto al compact disc musicale il progetto include quindi un DVD (curato dalla regista Fernanda Faya) in cui Felipe Salles intervista giovani immigrati, raccogliendo storie di vita spesso dolorose. Quelle testimonianze sono servite al bandleader da ispirazione per questo nuovo lavoro col Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble, una big band di 20 elementi ...
Continue ReadingThe Awakening Orchestra: Volume II: To Call Her to a Higher Plan
by Angelo Leonardi
Tra gli orchestratori e bandleader emersi di recente Kyle Saulnier è uno dei più interessanti. Il suo esordio con l'Awakening Orchestra nel doppio This Is Not the Answer (Innova 2014) ha rappresentato una sorprendente rivelazione per padronanza di scrittura e spregiudicata sintesi di elementi diversi, inclusi il free e il rock. Con un taglio espressivo un po' diverso, il successivo Atticus Live! (Biophilia 2016) ha confermato la versatilità del leader nel coniugare altri mondi musicali (ovvero le musiche ...
Continue ReadingFelipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble: The New Immigrant Experience
by Jack Bowers
Is it mere coincidence, or does the rise in the number of “concept" albums by jazz big bands signal that the trend is here to stay? Trumpeter Brian Lynch won a 2020 Grammy Award for his Journey Through Literature in Music, and there have been other tenet-based enterprises within the past year by Dan Jonas, John Bailey, Eric Weiss, the WDR Big Band, Marcus Shelby, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Chris Jentsch and others. Now comes The New Immigrant Experience, ...
Continue ReadingFelipe Salles: The Lullaby Project
by Angelo Leonardi
Nato a São Paulo, il compositore e bandleader Felipe Salles vive negli Stati Uniti dal 1995 e insegna dal 2010 all'università di Amherst, Massachusetts. Come molti brasiliani della sua generazione fonde i contenuti musicali assorbiti nell'infanzia con le molteplici influenze ricevute da adulto nell'attività professionale. Ha pubblicato già vari album, dimostrandosi artista eclettico che non teme di spingersi lontano. Nel disco Ugandan Suite (Tapestry 2014) ad esempio, ha infatti coinvolto il chitarrista Lionel Loueke in un ammaliante percorso di ...
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