10th September 2012: IT’S OFFICIAL! Jim Hart’s The Cloudmakers Trio ft. Ralph Alessi launches worldwide today!
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Whirlwind Recordings announces the official release of:
Jim Hart’s The Cloudmakers Trio: Live at the Pizza Express today!
Featuring Jim Hart: Vibes, Compositions
Ralph Alessi: Trumpet, Compositions
Michael Janisch, Double Bass
Dave Smith, Drums
The album was recorded live during Hart’s UK tour in 2010 at the famed Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho, London and includes Jim’s new working group– ‘The Cloudmakers Trio’– featuring percussionist extraordinaire Dave Smith alongside WWR’s own Michael Janisch on double bass. What’s more is that the album features the immense trumpet playing of one of the world’s preeminent creative musicians in Ralph Alessi, currently based in NYC.
PRESS HIGHLIGHTS:
“It’s clever, lyrical, immaculately performed contemporary jazz.”
4 Stars, The Guardian
“The instrumentation and the playing styles of all four guarantee lots of lovely space, and their ability to build intensity without ever shouting or getting rowdy makes for an absolutely compelling listen. The recording sound is excellent. A triumph from Whirlwind Recordings.”
The Jazz Breakfast
“The vibraphone remains one of the great unsung heroes of jazz’s arsenal but young British virtuoso Jim Hart has the wit and invention to make its mercurial charms immediately and abundantly apparent.”
The Metro
“[Harts’] flowing solos, unison lines and counterpoint passages with trumpeter [Ralph Alessi] give an indication as to why he was one of the small number of Brits nominated in this years Down Beat Poll…”
Bebop Spoken Here
“They share an interest in maze-like melodies and tricksy time signatures – but they don’t let their music’s intelligence furrow either their brows or the audience’s….what a bright idea this meeting of sympathetic minds had been”
4 Stars, The Guardian
“A classy release, with great artwork and live sound… the Cloudmakers allow once more a good hard look at Jim Hart’s outstanding vibes playing… this release will also do much to raise the profile of Whirlwind…”
4 Stars, Marlbank
“This was a gig that rewarded those listening closely enough with some exquisite moments, on a par with the finest post-bop around today”
London Jazz
“London-based vibraphonist Jim Hart and his guest, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, a leading light of New York’s jazz scene, began by stealth and within two numbers, one written by each, had illustrated the compatibility that drew them together.”
4 Stars, Scotland Herald
“The rhythmically tricky ‘Door In The Wall’ (by Hart) was negotiated with authority by this, the cream of London’s first call rhythm section players, followed by solos from both Hart and Alessi which served to demonstrate why both are regarded as some of the most exciting improvisers around.”
Jazzwise
“As at the gigs, Hart’s theme Passwords is a highlight – a rising, twisting, staccato piece over a fast pulse that loosens Alessi’s full repertoire of full-toned improv lines, before a contrasting and mercurial vibes solo by the composer. Alessi knows the jazz tradition well, but takes his pick on phrasing – he displays agility, wide range, and lines that suggest contemporary classical music as much as jazz.”
4 Stars, The Guardian