Boston's Creative Nation Music (CNM) Productions 1st Annual CD Showcase April 10th

Eric Hofbauer (solo guitar plus special guests), Chris Allen's Central Artery Project (Chris Allen, trombone/composer; Charlie Kohlhase, alto saxophone; Nate Edgar, bass; Curt Newton, drums), and the Chuck Gabriel Septet (Chuck Gabriel, bass/composer; Charlie Kohlhase, alto saxophone; Sean Berry, tenor saxophone; Scott Grant, trombone; Eric Byers, guitar; Mark Shilansky, piano; Don Holm, drums)

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Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
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Boston's Creative Nation Music (CNM) Productions will celebrate its first year of CD releases with a showcase event at the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain on Sunday, April 10th at 8pm. Guitarist/CNM founder Eric Hofbauer, Chris Allen's Central Artery Project, and the Chuck Gabriel Septet, all veterans of the Boston-area music scene, will perform selections from their debut recordings released in the past year on CNM Productions.

Hofbauer's set will mix tracks from his solo disc, American Vanity (CNM #3), as well as music from The Blueprint Project's self-titled debut, named to best of 2004 lists in Coda among other publications. Chris Allen's Central Artery Project, one of two bands performing to feature the services of local legend Charlie Kohlhase, will celebrate their CD, Live Recordings 2001-2003 (CNM #5), recorded at various local venues as well as New York's Tonic. The Chuck Gabriel Septet, also featuring Kohlhase, will present music from their debut, Blueprints (CNM #6), which was featured in the Boston Globe in February during the band's Greater Boston-area CD release tour.

Creative Nation Music began as a Zeitgeist Gallery-based concert series in 2000, but quickly grew into a multi-faceted effort to cultivate and organize Boston's local jazz scene. In 2003, Hofbauer partnered with Allen to create Creative Nation Music Productions, a collective organization that offered a new Web site for Boston jazz groups and produced concerts at local venues including Anam Cara and Durrell Hall. By early 2004, CNM Productions began focusing less on local concerts and more on producing CDs that would introduce Boston-based groups to the rest of the world. Led by Hofbauer, the label secured national distribution through City Hall Records and released four CDs its first year. New CDs and tours by CNM artists are in the works for 2005. Find out more about CNM Productions at http://cnmpro.com/

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About Eric Hofbauer
Guitarist Eric Hofbauer has been called “the heir to the avant-Americana throne" (Jazzreview.com) thanks to his 2004 solo debut, American Vanity, a diverse, acoustic guitar-driven exploration of American cultural pride that led Wire reviewer Philip Clark to write, “His acute irreverence is powerful and expertly judged." He is also a member of the GSU and Charlie Kohlhase's CK5, which was voted “Best of Boston, Local Jazz 2003" by Improper Bostonian. Hofbauer received his Master's Degree from New England Conservatory (NEC) in 1998, and has also performed with musicians such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Allan Chase, Curtis Fuller, James Moody, and Gunther Schuller. He has four solo tours scheduled for 2005.

About The Blueprint Project
The Blueprint Project is a multi-generational ensemble combining the talents of frequent collaborators and NEC alumni Eric Hofbauer (guitar), Jared Sims (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Tyson Rogers (piano) with older musicians who have inspired them. Their 2004 debut recording, The Blueprint Project, featured bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Matt Wilson, and inspired Coda's James Hale to call the group “not only a meeting of the minds but a communion of the soul." Noted jazz critic Kevin Whitehead wrote the CD's liner notes, calling it “rich with ideas, confidently executed, melodic and inventive all at once." This fall, the group will release its second CD, featuring legendary Dutch drummer Han Bennink, and embark on its first East-coast tour.

About Chris Allen's Central Artery Project
Chris Allen's Central Artery Project, called “the best post-Ayler band in town" by Cadence writer Stu Vandermark, improvises on the compositions of its leader, trombonist Chris Allen. Founded in 1998, the group features two of the area's most prominent musicians in saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase and drummer Curt Newton, and has performed at venues and art spaces around the Northeast. Allen, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, has also performed extensively with various visual artists and choreographers, and is a former co-leader of the group Mottahead with Tony “Motts" Motta. More information is available at http://www.centralarteryproject.com

About the Chuck Gabriel Septet
The Chuck Gabriel Septet was founded in 2000 as a vehicle for versatile bassist/composer Chuck Gabriel's extended, blues-influenced jazz compositions. Gabriel, Jazz and Popular Music Chair at the Community Music Center of Boston and an educator at UMASS Lowell, has performed around New England in creative musical contexts ranging from jazz to classical for more than a decade. He is a graduate of both Berklee College of Music and Longy School of Music, and former private student of renowned jazz educator Charlie Banacos as well as bassists Rufus Reid and Donald Palma. Musicians such as Dave Newsome and Charlie Kohlhase have recorded his compositions, and he has performed live with Kohlhase, John Tchicai, Mark Elf, Issi Rosen, Steve Kirby, and the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra among many others.

More information about each of these bands is available at http://cnmpro.com/