DOWNBEAT REVIEWS “NO BOUNDARIES”

DOWNBEAT REVIEWS “NO BOUNDARIES”


“A highly effective bebop player, who also has a way with Afro-Cuban rhythms, Bass proves his mettle … displaying wit, arranging chops, and impressive pianoism…The unusual mix of bebop and Afro-Cuban music … [is] complimented by three expert Cuban percussionists, often making the album surprising and invigorating.”
Whaling City Sound
Prince of Bebop Greg Abate’s total commitment to live jazz for 3 decades

Prince of Bebop Greg Abate’s total commitment to live jazz for 3 decades

Few alto players on the post-bop scene have the whole package like Greg Abate. The globally recognized bandleader is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, an educator, as well as a true ambassador for jazz music. Through the decades, Abate has impressed enough of the real jazz folks to earn the nickname “the prince of bebop, ” which makes good sense if you’ve ever seen him perform. The trio behind his work is undeniable, the power, passion and creative ability is in full view. Abate’s emotions emerge in every note.
“Abate is not content to rely on stock bebop riffs and standard chord progressions, ” says the Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich. “Rather, the sharp angularity of his phrases and the often startling pauses in his fast-moving lines give his work a feeling of constant invention and creativity.”

To read full article, click here

For Greg Abate campaign updates, click here.

 

Terry Gibbs/WCS

Terry Gibbs/WCS

 

Click here to read the full article

Click here to read the full article

 

Terry Gibbs will go live again! This coming Sunday at 1 pm pacific time, here on Facebook live. He’ll tell stories and answer questions from anybody who’s interested. He had a really great time answering all the questions that were asked.

Click here to watch!

At age 92 years old, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs was still a musical force when he recorded 92 Years Young Jammin’ at the Gibbs House (Whaling City Sound, 2017). His son, drummer Gerry Gibbs, paid homage to him with Songs from My Father (Whaling City Sound, 2021) with the Thrasher Dream Trio band. As for this recording for his father, Gerry Gibbs says, “Recording this record with my Pops will always be so memorable because it will be his last work.” Accordingly, at the ripe age of 98 years old, Terry Gibbs has released the last album of his storied career and life with The Terry Gibbs Songbook, recorded and performed by the Terry Gibbs Legacy Band featuring Gerry and an all-star cast of players including saxophonist Scott Hamilton and vocalist Danny Bacher, who fit the bill to the tee.

Having an outstanding reed section to work with, the challenge became how to feature each player by giving them proper solo space on each track. The Brazilian flavored opener, “Let’s Go To Rio,” features Ranier on the first solo with Allen and Hamilton on two choruses of eight bars each. The following “Those Eyes, Those Lips, That Nose, That Face, That Girl,” has Allen and Hamilton supporting Bacher on vocals.

One beautiful ballad played to the heart is the gorgeous “I Was Loved,” with Hamilton doing the love solos all by himself as the vocalist displays his warmth and soul, letting it all hang out. The tempo changes dramatically on the perky “Now’s The Time To Groove,” a lively swinging number that has the shoulders moving and the fingers snapping. This is the only piece that features Terry Gibbs on vocals, trading words with Bacher on a cheery, playful piece of music.

There are other memorable songs on this session and one for sure is the melodic “The House That Might Have Been,” featuring Hamilton again on some delicious solo moments. Allen takes center stage on the slow ballad of “Nina.” The boisterous and swinging “I Can Hardly Wait for Saturday Night” has Allen and Hamilton featured on multiple four-bar solos in one of the gyrating pieces of the session.

Two of the outstanding tunes of the album are “And That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” and the swinging “Stay With Me Tonight” which features solos from Ranier, Allen and Hamilton. The Terry Gibbs Songbook is the perfect Swan Song, a final musical gesture from an unforgettable jazz legend whose music will surely live on.

 

Mondays With Morgan is a column in LondonJazz News written by Morgan Enos, a music journalist based in Hackensack, New Jersey. Therein, he dives deep into the jazz that moves him – his main focus being the scene in nearby New York City.

This week, Enos spoke with the legendary vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, active since the 1940s; to trace his development is to tell the story of a large swath of jazz history.

To read the full article click here.

 

 

Terry Gibbs, who turns 99 next October 13, has had quite a remarkable career. One of the greatest vibraphonists of all time, Gibbs was a professional by the age of 12 (back in 1936). He became famous as a member of Woody Herman’s Second Herd, worked with Buddy Rich, Chubby Jackson and the Benny Goodman Sextet, mastered bebop, and was a bandleader throughout much of his career. Gibbs led his orchestra, The Dream Band, during the late 1950s and early ‘60s, headed the regular group on the Steve Allen Show in the 1960s, and had a quintet with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. His memoirs, Good Vibes, is both quite informative and often hilarious. Gibbs was active into his early nineties before deciding to retire.

The Terry Gibbs Songbook is a special final musical project in Gibbs’ career. There is one major error in the liner notes that needs to be corrected. It is stated that because Gibbs helps out with the singing and plays some two-handed piano on the humorous and nostalgic “Now’s The Time To Groove,” he is the first musician to record in eight decades. Actually Benny Carter recorded in nine; however Terry Gibbs still has the record. In addition to recording commercially in nine decades (starting in 1946), if one counts a radio show on which Gibbs in the 1930s played some classical music (tapes still exist and briefly appeared on You Tube), he is the only musician ever to have recorded in ten decades!

While Gibbs occasionally wrote songs that he recorded as instrumentals through the years, this project is a bit different. 15 of the great vibraphonist’s compositions have been given lyrics and are sung by Danny Bacher, a fine jazz vocalist who could have fit in well with jazz groups in the 1950s. Eight of the numbers have words by Michael Dees while the other collaborators were lyricists Arthur Hamilton, Bobby Troup, Steve Allen, and Jerry Gladstone with two of the songs having lyrics by Gibbs himself.

Terry Gibbs’ music has always swung and this set is certainly no exception. He gathered together pianist Tom Ranier (also heard a bit on tenor), bassist Mike Gurrola, and his son drummer Gerry Gibbs, and was able to easily talk the two great swing tenors Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen into joining the group. While each song has a Bacher vocal, there is a lot of solo space for the tenors and Ranier. The tunes range from love songs (including the touching “I Was Loved”) and wistful memories of his life to plenty of joyful swing. Such titles as “I Can Hardly Wait For Saturday Night,” “Play And Sing,” “And That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” “Stay With Me Tonight” (which during its closing part includes some Terry Gibbs vibes from decades ago), and the jazz waltz “Say Goodbye” are among the many rewarding songs on this set that could become standards in the future if heard by enough singers and instrumentalists.

Terry Gibbs has said on numerous occasions that this is his last recording. Hopefully when he turns 100, he will change his mind and do this again! In the meantime, be sure to pick up a copy of The Terry Gibbs Songbook which is available from www.whalingcitysound.com and www.amazon.com.

                                          Scott Yanow

 

Click here to read the full review!

Click here to read the full review!

 

Click here to read the full article

“Terry Gibbs Returns with Homemade Recording” interview by Kirk Silsbee in July 2017 DOWNBEAT:

“IN 2015, VETERAN VIBRAPHONIST TERRY Gibbs decided to put his mallets away for good, leaving the family musical legacy to his son, drummer Gerry Gibbs. But a funny thing happened on the way to retirement: Terry got the itch and asked Gerry to bring some players to his house for an informal jam. Gerry’s wife posted a YouTube video of the get-together, which went viral a few days later. The group then decided to have a session with the tape rolling, and the result is an album Terry never thought he’d make—92 Years Young: Jammin’ At The Gibbs House (Whaling City Sound). The loquacious Terry Gibbs was happy to talk to DownBeat about the unique circumstances behind this project and reflect on his storied career.”

 

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Terry Gibbs makes Amazon’s “Best Jazz Songs of 2017 So Far” comes in at #16! 

Click on Terry’s name above to see full Amazon list. 

Harvie S/Sheryl Bailey (Plucky Strum)/WCS

Harvie S/Sheryl Bailey (Plucky Strum)/WCS

Harvie S/Sheryl Bailey (Plucky Strum)

Whaling City Sound Website

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Plucky Strum Saint Nick

Press Release

Harvie S short bio

Sheryl short bio

Publicity: Sounds of Timeless Jazz, New Jazz Adds WTJU, Sounds of Timeless Jazz, JazzPodium Review, Jazzwise Magazine (UK), Jazziz, Improvijazzation Nation, VintageGuitarMagazineSomething Else!, Buffalo News, JazzTimes, Jersey Jazz

 

 

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Radio promo by: New World ‘n Jazz 

JazzWeek Charts

6/8 #47; 6/1 #39; 5/25 #40; 5/18 #35; 5/11 #56 Chartbound; 5/4 #103; 4/27  Most Added #155; 4/20 #260 Chart History

Promo Photos by Nick Carter: Departure cover photo, Photo 1, Photo 2

HarvieS+SherylBHarvie S2Harvie S3

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As seasoned and important players on the national and international trad jazz scenes, Sheryl Bailey and Harvie S—known together as Plucky Strum—made real impact with their recent eponymous debut, a work which showcased discerning talent and true creative craft.

On their follow-up, the aptly named Departure, Harvie and Bailey dig a little deeper, engaging in some creative improvisation and interplay. Those familiar with their work—Harvie has played with many of the greats, including Jim Hall, Larry Coryell, Pat Martino, Gil Evans and Thad Jones—will love how they’ve enhanced the adventure here, filtering in Sheryl’s electric guitar with subtle electronics, clever bebop excursions and some stellar, simpatico interplay that takes the duo into exhilarating sonic regions.

All in all, Departure is accomplished and masterful. The material is bravely selected and boldly performed. The recording is balanced and skillfully produced, with lovely mixing and mastering. Interpretations, like CSN’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” with Harvie’s bowed bass lines and Sheryl’s tactile exploration, is one example, but there are many equally wonderful examples on the record, all of which deserve to be heard. This is major league stuff, brilliant and beautiful.

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SHERYL BAILEY GETS PLAYFUL AND  VIRTUOSIC AT THE BULLS HEAD

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Plucky Strum cover picture

 

Introducing Plucky Strum

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfqix5HoVk

Sheryl Bailey – Saint Nick

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-bpJLQpD0

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 1.19.17 PMPlucky Strum
(Whaling City Sound)

Although guitarist Sheryl Bailey and bassist Harvie S have been neighbors for years and have gigged together, recording a duo session together is an idea that didn’t materialize until Bailey acquired a new, custom-made acoustic guitar. An informal jam one day lit the spark, and the heartfelt, intimate and stylistically diverse Plucky Strum is the result.

The relaxed mood that permeates most of the tracks is particularly evident on Bailey’s “Broken Glass,” a ballad rhythmically tied to gently sashaying bossa pulses. The guitarist leads the way throughout, her lustrous chords and single-note soloing sketching the tune’s meditative theme while the bassist remains in a supporting role. On Harvie’s good-natured “Bluzin’ F,” he and Bailey partner on tight unison lines that lend the piece a sense of formal structure. Throughout the album, though, the duo mostly switch between lead and supporting roles while milking the blues dialect to full effect. Bailey’s folksy “Woods Talk” finds the guitarist at her most expressive, spinning off steely chords and blues-inflected solo lines while Harvie displays the full tonal range of his double-bass, from plucked staccato notes in the outer limits of his instrument’s upper register to the rich, resonant tones at the bottom end.

Plucky Strum cover picture

Two tributes are album highlights. “To Bea,” written by Harvie to honor his late mother, is a vivacious, up-tempo bossa romp. “Charlie Haden,” another work by the bassist, is an homage to the late jazz legend that radiates a happy, upbeat spirit.
Regardless of their stylistic orientation, the 10 performances captured on Plucky Strum are uniformly warm-blooded, refreshingly spontaneous and occasionally truly virtuosic. —Mark Holston

– See more at: https://www.jazziz.com/harvie-s-sheryl-bailey/#sthash.JY0LTFA3.dpuf

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~A nice review written by editor, Dan Forte~

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WHALING CITY SOUND
“HARVIE S-SHERYL BAILEY/Plucky Strum:  The cover art could trick you into thinking this is a Grant Geissman set.  Fun thing is, the playing could as well.  With the guitarist and the bassist playing friendlier music that either of these chopmeisters is usually associated with, they might only be a duo with no augmentation, but they know how to raise a proper racket.  With killer technical skills between them, they actually sound like they are putting that aside to have a good time.  Never coming off like the master class it really is, this is just two cats working it off the clock that invite you to string along for a good time.”

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Announces April 7th release of

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Whaling City Sound is proud to announce the release for the debut acoustic project from bass virtuoso, Harvie S and “sizzling guitar goddess” Sheryl Bailey

CD Release Performances

Boston:

April 12 3-5 p

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April 14

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New York:

April 17, 6p

Screen shot 2015-02-16 at 1.31.22 PM55 Christopher St. (Sixth/Seventh Avenue) New York (212) 929-9883

April 23, 6:30p

Screen Shot 2015-02-19 at 5.25.15 PMScreen Shot 2015-02-19 at 5.56.04 PMGET TICKETS HERE

 Plucky Strum, featuring ten original tunes by Sheryl Bailey and Harvie S, is an extraordinary pairing that weaves together intimate musical story lines.
It is in a category ‘beyond’ Jazz, utilizing a myriad of musical styles.
Made up of Sheryl’s acoustic guitar and Harvie’s acoustic bass,
the two explore the joy of creative improvisation through lush harmonies, beautiful melodic lines, and captivating rhythms.

Pluck Strum #1 - Credit Nick CarterVisit Harvie S Client page

Email mixedmediapromo@cox.net to request advance copies for review.

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