25th August 2014: Bobby Avey’s ‘Authority Melts From Me’ Press Update: Worldwide Acclaim from Magnet Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Downbeat Magazine, JazzTimes Magazine, Jazz Thing Germany, Sound und Musik, Jazz Magazine (France), and more + DEC Euro Tour

Authority Melts from Me is the fascinating new album from Bobby Avey, praised by the New Yorker magazine as “A young pianist of invention and refinement.” Winner of the 2011 Thelonious Monk Competition for composition, Avey also received the 2011 “New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development Grant” from Chamber Music America, which enabled Avey to travel to Haiti to record a Vodou Ceremony in the small village of Soukri and subsequently create an hour-long suite grounded in rhythms found in Haitian Vodou drumming. This compelling suite of new music pays homage to the Haitian Revolution and features the immense talents of Miguel Zenón, Ben Monder, Thomson Kneeland, and Jordan Perlson.

Bobby’s album has made a big impact this year and the response from the worldwide press is a testament to just how special his album is.  Here’s some of the many recent highlights:

 

Magnet Magazine feature (left photo)

JazzTimes Magazine article can be read here

Los Angeles Times mention can be found here (and scroll down)

The Jazz Breakfast weighed in here

Downbeat Magazine featured Bobby here

London Jazz reviews the album here

Sound and Image (Germany) review here

Musik Reviews (Germany) gives the album 4 1/2 stars here

Music und Sich with a glowing article here

Der Horspiegel review can be read here

And below check out the reviews from Germany’s Jazz Thing and France’s Jazz Magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here’s the highlight quotes so far from the international press:

 

“Authority Melts From Me is, indeed, powerful music with a message about the costs of freedom and the perils of foreign neglect and/or intervention. The music does not sweep away the misery but acts as a reminder of the power of native traditions in the time of upheaval.”
Step Tempest

“Backed by a band that includes saxophonist Miguel Zenón and guitarist Ben Monder, Avey delivers an engrossing listen that, like the best of jazz, transcends borders.”
The Los Angeles Times

“He has created a cliche-free work of progressive jazz that’s virtually cinematic in its intensity… It’s Authority Melts From Me that sees Avey break free as a composer of sophistication and depth.”
4 1/2 Stars, Downbeat Magazine

“Bobby Avey is one of those young jazz pianists who is not only equipped with high technical ability, but also with a musical understanding that is necessary to give rise out of notes real music that can touch the listener. And that’s exactly what he achieves with his new album Authority Melts From Me.”
Music und Sich (Germany)

“Bobby Avey’s visit to Haiti proved to be a life-changing experience.”
JazzTimes Magzine

“It’s as emotionally rich as it is intellectually complex, inspired by the Haitian Revolution of 1791-94, the first time slaves successfully rebelled against their white masters.”
Magnet Magazine (+ featured article)

“A suite of music that is powerful, not only in the stark originality of the writing, but also in the solidarity it shows for an oppressed people. Bobby Avey is a pianist on a steep upward curve.”
4 Stars, The Irish Times

“A thrilling ride from the off.”
The Jazz Breakfast

“Authority Melts From Me is a rare album in contemporary jazz; a musician using art for controversy; a suite used as a musical beacon against division and repression, with breathtaking instrumental performances.”
Musik Reviews (Germany)

“A fascinating new album.”
CD Aktuell, (Germany)

“An intense album with its own character that asks the listener to get in touch with the background of the music as much as the music itself.”
Horspiegel (Germany)

“An intense and brilliant pianist and composer who reaffirms the capacity of jazz music to integrate musical traditions without mimicking them, as well as the social role of the musicians to keep consciences awake.”
Jazz Magazine (France)

“A virtuosic quintet album.”
Jazz Thing, (Germany)

“Free improvisation, zigzag meters, expressive and instrumental acrobatics sprawling, multi-layered sound collages, to compassionate descriptions of a culture that Bobby Avey actually knows from personal experience. A straight-thinking American shows solidarity for this country [Haiti] by means of music. ”
Sound & Image (Germany)

“You can’t help but wonder where the last hour went. As you restart the recording, you realize that you just don’t care. Some masterful ensemble work.”
Something Else Reviews

“This is clearly a deep and rich resource, within and beyond music, given that these rituals fueled by drumming have been practized in some communities on the [Haitian] island for centuries.”
London Jazz

“In addition to writing a musical piece dedicated to Haiti, a country, says Avey, whose government, aided by the U.S., “has presided over eight years of human rights abuses,” he is, in addition to making a political statement, hoping “to add something to the legacy of jazz that stays true to the aspirations of that music while incorporating a style that up to now has not been explored in this way.” A style hypnotic, percussive, slashingly dissonant and yet enormously disciplined.”
Buffalo News

“Zenón is superb in the quiet, voicelike overtures to his solo on the rhythm-bending, delicately impressionistic Kalfou; Avey unveils his subtlety with dynamics, patience and harmonic imagination on the unaccompanied Piano Interlude; and the climactic Louverture and Cost boil with complex polyrhythms of single-note sax hoots, metallic guitar sounds, and lashed percussion accents.”
The Guardian

“Authority Melts From Me is made up of three lengthy pieces—”Kalfou,” “Louverture,” and “Cost,” each running between 13 and 18 minutes—and two three-minute interstitial pieces, one for piano and one for drums. It plays out as a single seamless work, by a band made up of Miguel Zenón on saxophone, Ben Monder on guitar, Avey on piano, Thomson Kneeland on bass, and Jordan Perlson on drums. It shifts, moment by moment, from agitated bursts of counterpoint to spacious solos to almost orchestral swells, always moving forward, restless and impetuous.”
Burning Ambulance

“It’s an absorbing quite superb listen, the suite inspired by Haiti’s 1791 slave revolt at its core. A significant achievement.”
4 Stars, Marlbank

“Zenón has never been more affectingly intense on record.”
Downbeat Magazine

 

and look out for Bobby and band on the road later this year:

Dec 2 – 12 2012 European Launch Tour

Bobby Avey’s “Authority Melts From Me”
ft.
Miguel Zenon, Ben Monder, Michael Janisch, Jordan Perlson

Dec 3 Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dec 4 Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, London, England
Dec 5 CBSO Center Birmingham, England
Dec 9 Band on the Wall Manchester, England
Dec 10 Leeds College of Music Workshop AM, Performance PM, Leeds, England

more dates tbc