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NEXT Collective - COVER ART Concord Jazz, a division of Concord Music Group, releases an exciting new project by NEXT Collective titled Cover Art - an ensemble recording by the next generation of jazz greats exploring their own interpretations of songs by such contemporary artists as Bon Iver, Drake, N.E.R.D, Little Dragon and more. Today, iTunes provides a sneak peak of the album (full album due for release February 26, 2013) with three singles that exemplify the diverse and often daring album. The ensemble is comprised of saxophonists Logan Richardson and Walter Smith III, guitarist Matthew Stevens, keyboardists Gerald Clayton and Kris Bowers, bassist Ben Williams, drummer Jamire Williams, and special guest trumpeter Christian Scott (aka Christian aTunde Adjuah). NEXT Collective represents the new wave of highly skilled improvisers, melodists, and arrangers and who are closely connected as colleagues and as friends. The range and feel of the tunes on Cover Art speak both to the arranging talents of the members, and also to the diversity of their collective tastes. Hip-hop and punk-funk, singer-songwriter, guitar-pop, electro-R&B and alt-rock are all integrated and explored by these jazz innovators. Sr. Director of A&R for Concord Music Group Chris Dunn conceived, coordinated and produced this debut recording along with the members of NEXT Collective. Speaking to the album's development, Dunn states, "It began as a way of introducing three new artists on Concord-Richardson, Smith, and Stevens - they are all great writers but doing a recording of their originals, when not using your own band members, and all three having very different styles as leaders is a tall order musically. It could make for a very disjointed experience no matter how great the playing. Instead I thought it would be cool to do a project of covers from their generation and make a super group of the same." Complete Album Listing: 1. Twice (Little Dragon) 2. No Church In The Wild (Jay Z and Kanye West) 3. Africa (D'Angelo) 4. Fly Or Die (N.E.R.D) 5. Oceans (Pearl Jam) 6. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Stereolab) 7. Marvins Room (Drake) 8. Come Smoke My Herb (Meshell Ndegeocello) 9. Perth (Bon Iver) 10. Thank You (Dido) Produced by Chris Dunn and NEXT Collective http://www2.concordmusicg...Cover-Art/ Music for adventurous listeners tA  Tribal Records"Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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Nice--I'm diggin' their sound!!!
Too many people do covers of Pop hits (an exception for folks like Dirty Loops--they can do all the covers they wanna, LOL!), but I really like the arrangement and playing here, which (IMO) lifts this album far and above the usual 'Jazz artist doing contemporary covers ' stuff...
BTW, didn't Matt Stevens also play in Christian Scott's group? I remember that distinctive guitar playing standing out before....
... [Edited 3/21/13 10:53am] " I've got six things on my mind --you're no longer one of them." - Paddy McAloon, Prefab Sprout | |
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That's him. "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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Interesting project | |
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I particularly dig all the soundbites which appear after the 1:27 minute mark. Good to see that the jazz tradition is continued by the fellas in the video. Seeing Me'shell's name appear in the tracklist has me going back to a wellfare project in the 90s, somewhere in 1996 iirc, when Me'shell recorded a collaboration with Herbie Hancock called "Nocturnal Sunshine". The title of her contribution to "Cover Art" sounds promising 
. Wish that she also will be invited someday to perform a smashing solo song or collaboration for a Prince tribute, as that is happening much lately (Me'shell's own tribute shows, the recent tribute night in this year's month March, other perormances by the group Princess, etc).