Blue Engine Records Announces Star-Studded Album ‘United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas’

Blue Engine Records Announces Star-Studded Album ‘United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas’

by | Feb 6, 2018 | Jazz

Blue Engine Records Announces Star-Studded Album
UNITED WE SWING: BEST OF THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER GALAS

Features Wynton Marsalis in once-in-a-lifetime collaborations with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Jimmy Buffett, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lyle Lovett, John Mayer, Audra McDonald, Natalie Merchant, Willie Nelson, Carrie Smith, James Taylor, Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Trucks 

In a Time of National Division, This Album Celebrates the Red, White and Blues and Highlights Jazz as an Art Form That Can Unify Our Country – No Matter Your Background

Available March 23, 2018 

Blue Engine Records makes the most memorable performances from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s historic gala concerts available for the first time with the release of United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas.The album—which features some of the 20th century’s biggest musical stars, including Blind Boys of Alabama, Jimmy Buffett, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lyle Lovett, John Mayer, Audra McDonald, Natalie Merchant, Willie Nelson, Carrie Smith,

James Taylor, and Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Trucks— will be available on vinyl, CD, and all download and streaming platforms on March 23, 2018. United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas is available for pre-order now on store.jazz.org and Amazon.com.

Recorded between 2003 and 2007, United We Swing finds an unparalleled array of music talent that collectively boasts 94 Grammy Awards joining Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis (a nine-time Grammy Award winner himself) and some of the world’s top jazz musicians to perform blues-inflected versions of iconic American repertoire. Their backgrounds and musical stylings are diverse, but together these artists raise their voices to highlight jazz’s importance to America’s cultural heritage and to remind us that, even in divided times, music can unite us all.

“On this recording and in these concerts, we came together to affirm common roots, to celebrate the diversity of our creativity, and to pass the reality of our best achievements on to our kids,” said Marsalis. “We were, and are, United in Swing.”

Those one-night-only, live performances have never been released before. They include Lenny Kravitz performing Wynton Marsalis’s hypnotizing, New Orleans-inflected arrangement of Kravitz’ own song, “Are You Gonna Go My Way”; Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks uniting for a stirring, infectious take on Civil Rights anthem “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”; Bob Dylan adding harmonica licks to a deeply felt, in-the-pocket rendition of “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”; and Ray Charles taking the stage for one of his final performances to play “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town.”

Marsalis and his group go head-to-head with some of music’s most legendary figures, like Willie Nelson and Carrie Smith, as well as modern standard-bearers like John Mayer and John Legend. Performances such as Natalie Merchant’s slow-burning “The Worst Thing” and Lyle Lovett’s jaunty “My Baby Don’t Tolerate” reveal how jazz and the blues unite all musicians regardless of their genre, age, or birthplace.

The concerts from which these performances are culled were produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center. These galas have become an annual tradition, and are the organization’s annual signature fundraiser for its education programs. In keeping with those concerts, United We Swing is dedicated to a great cause: 100% of the album’s proceeds will go toward introducing thousands of children from around the world to jazz, American’s greatest homegrown art form.

Along with revealing music’s power to unite us, no matter where we call home, these once-in-a-lifetime recordings offer an exhilarating snapshot of the creative process: the performances were only briefly rehearsed before being performed and captured in front of a live audience in the heart of New York City.

About Blue Engine Records
Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s platform that makes its vast archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences everywhere, launched on June 30, 2015. Blue Engine Records releases new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performance history that date back to 1987 and are part of the R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library. Since the institution’s founding in 1987, each year’s programming is conceived and developed by Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis with a vision toward building a comprehensive library of iconic and wide-ranging compositions that, taken together, make up a canon of music. These archives include accurate, complete charts for the compositions – both old and new – performed each season. Coupled with consistently well-executed and recorded music performed by Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, this archive has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concert dates. The launch of Blue Engine is aligned with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s efforts to cultivate existing jazz fans worldwide and turn new audiences onto jazz. Blue Engine’s award-winning, best-selling records include Live in Cuba, which captures the historic trip taken by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis to Havana in 2010, and Handful of Keys, which pairs the JLCO with special guest pianists for a one-night romp through 100 years of jazz piano history.

For more information on Blue Engine Records, visit blueenginerecords.org.

SOURCE:
Blue Engine Records

Jazz great, former Oscar Peterson drummer Alvin Queen, denied entry into USA.

Jazz great, former Oscar Peterson drummer Alvin Queen, denied entry into USA.

by | Oct 14, 2017 | Music News

Mount Vernon, New York native Alvin Queen was recently notified that U.S. Homeland Security will not allow him to enter the United States to perform at a prestigious, long-planned concert in Washington.

Mr. Queen, the former drummer for Oscar Peterson, whose career includes memorable collaborations with a veritable who’s who of music royalty, including Nina Simone, Horace Silver, George Benson, Ruth Brown, Buddy DeFranco, Wynton Marsalis, Billy Taylor, Wild Bill Davis, George Coleman, George Braith, Larry Young, Harry Sweets Edison and Johnny Griffin, was set to perform at a concert in Washington, DC on November 15th, 2017, at the behest of The French-American Cultural Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=423&v=LJJpXp23oj4

The evening, entitled “JAZZ MEETS FRANCE,” has Wynton Marsalis as its Honorary Chairman, and Dr. David Skorton , Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution , is Master of Ceremonies. The event marks the centenary of the US entry into WWI and specifically honors the Harlem Hellfighters . Ironically, these were the African-American soldiers who served in WWI, and who introduced jazz music to France and the rest of Europe, yet whom were never officially honored, until now.

Mr. Queen, who has held a Swiss passport for thirty years, was informed this week that, due to a run-in with the law as a youth, a half century ago, while a minor, he would have to apply for a Waiver from the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, despite the fact he was born in the USA. This would take months, making it virtually impossible to participate, barring Presidential decree, and we know that’s unlikely. But this is not “fake news.”

“Sadly, this doesn’t surprise me one bit,” comments Mr. Queen, 67, from his home in Geneva. “I’ve spent months preparing for this concert. Dozens of others are also implicated in its planning. Funny thing, I gave up my U.S. passport to make life simpler at tax time. I never dreamed I would one day be denied entry, and with such ridiculous reasoning. I am frankly disgusted to be disrespected in this way, after a half century devoted to music.”

Mr. Queen, who until 2016 held dual citizenship with the United States and Switzerland, has previously worked numerous times for the US State Department as a Cultural Ambassador, and participated in numerous tours of Brazil, Africa and Japan. Queen also performed at the American International Jazz Day in Paris several years ago.

Mr. Queen has held a U.S. passport, and regularly worked under the auspices of the American government, for over fifty years of his life. Like many citizens, he’s had brushes with the law, but these have never impeded his ability to enter and exit his native country. A one-time DWI charge and a minor drug offense both resulted in not guilty charges.

For this occasion, the US State Dept had only to apply for an “O1B Work Visa” in order for Mr Queen to enter in the United States. This was done correctly, but after the process was completed, fingerprints matching a 1967 FBI file were dredged up and presented as a reason to prevent him from entering the USA. So now we can see that the infamous “travel ban” is not limited to citizens of Sudan, Syria, and Iran. It extends to a then 16-year-old drummer who once sat in with John Coltrane.

How can you process someone fifty years later for charges that occurred when they were a youth, a mere child? And why punish this now acclaimed adult, a leading light on the international jazz scene, who is now 67 years old? He obviously forged a path and created a fabulous life for himself. Adds Queen, “I feel this is more about racial profiling than anything. It’s all about trying to control everyone. I am not a criminal and in fact never was. When I became a Swiss citizen, I “became a criminal” again in the eyes of US law enforcement. If I was undesirable fifty years ago, why have I been issued a fresh passport every ten years for the past six decades?” Indeed, this is the question.

For now, those wanting to experience Alvin Queen’s jazz mastery will need to follow him to Montreal, Canada, where he is set to give a master class with pianist Wray Downes on Fri Nov 3 at 1:00 pm (free and open to the public) at Concordia University and then a full concert with his trio the following evening, at Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill , on Sat Nov 4, for two sets, at 7:30 and 9:45 pm.

Queen has the last word. “If someone wants to apologize to me and make this right, fine. But I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, I’ll bring my music, this American art form, to every other country in the world. I know they like me in Canada. I’ll start there.”

This coming week Alvin will be featured on The Jazz Network Worldwide http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com with a sneak peek of two singles from his CD re-issues of “Mighty Long Way” and “I Ain’t Looking’ At You” slated for late fall 2017.

The official website for Alvin Queen is http://www.alvinqueen.com to learn more about his current engagements and all things Alvin.

SOURCE:
Nilva Music

The SMG Report