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This Week at CaféJazz.ca

December 11th, 2011
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This Week at The Café:
… it's Konstantin in the spotlight. We're featuring a trio of tracks from the cd Groove Jazz N Chill#1 as part of the showcase segment. In the second half, we're turning back the hands of time for another exciting Vintage Collection - this installment is highlighted by Quintana + Speer and Vangelis with one of the biggest instrumental hits of the 80s. Also included are tunes by Andrew Glover and David Garfield then capping things is keyboardist Alan King. So it's lights camera action as we're ready to roll on the radio show that continues to explore new directions in jazz!
In This Issue:

SHOWCASE CD :
Groove Jazz N Chill #1 - Konstantin

VINTAGE COLLECTION:
Titles - Vangelis
E Minor Shuffle - David Garfield
Stream - Andrew Glover
False Prophet - Quintana + Speer
The Experiment - Alan King

AFTER HOURS : December Bossa
PLAYLIST: Playlist for Ed#637

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Showcase CD
Groove Jazz N Chill #1 - Konstantin:

The well-travelled Konstantin comes to us from The Ukraine by way of Venezuela and various other locales. The producer and contemporary saxophonist began his studies in jazz at the State College in Kiev before relocating to Venezuela. He had a chance to play the Montreux Jazz Festival and then by the year 2000, he'd settled in Holland. There Konstantin resumed his training while earning a Masters in Music from the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag.

Further tours through Spain, France, Germany, and other European countries, further broadened his perspectives and in due course led to a 2004 debut. In the intervening years, there have been a series of well received albums with inroads made on the smooth scene. Always a fan of Paul Hardcastle and The Jazzmasters, a couple of years back Konstantin decided to pursue a parallel path - so it was that Kool&Klean came into being - a studio project issued in two volumes.


Konstantin - Groove Jazz N Chill #1
Konstantin Konstantin
Now Konstantin launches his Chillaxing Jazz KolleKtion with a project which may be his best yet. Titled Groove Jazz N Chill #1, this latest album is a select blend of chill out, electro jazz, relaxing grooves and some of the sweetest melodies!

So it is that album & author now find themselves as the subject of the showcase feature - and to begin we have a tune with the somewhat autobiographical title of Smooth Journey. The gentle hue of Colors nicely tints the lead-off set in hour two. In the meantime the last track of the day shares the same title as an old Frank Sinatra ballad, but this Summer Wind is no fickle friend, blowin' in like a zephyr! With Groove Jazz N Chill #1 and an album that blurs the lines between electronica and smooth, Konstantin is set to move squarely into the smooth jazz lime light!

CD: Groove Jazz N Chill #1 (2011)
Label: KVK Music
Links:

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Vintage Collection: Part One
Vangelis - Chariots of Fire
Titles - Vangelis:
Academy award winning Vangelis was born Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou and with a catalogue of nearly 40 albums, he is considered one of the greatest electronic music composers of all. After gaining renown back home in Greece, he moved to Paris in 1968. Shortly after, he formed the band Aphrodite's Child and had his first major hit. He then went on to record on his own with moderate success. For a time it was rumored that Vangelis was joining the band Yes, and even though this never came to pass, he did later collaborate with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson for several albums as Jon & Vangelis. Relocating to London, Vangelis set up Nemo Studios, his own state-of-the-art recording facility. What followed was a steady stream of records, parts of which were used as the theme to the PBS series Cosmos. After scoring a couple of documentaries, Vangelis came to the attention of British director Hugh Hudson - Hudson wanted to use the 1979 tune L'Enfant as the theme for his film Chariots of Fire. Vangelis convinced Hudson he could create a new and stronger piece for the film's main title sequence. What followed was an Oscar-winning score with the soundtrack single called Titles (aka Chariots of Fire) as one of the biggest instrumental hits of the 80s!

LP: Chariots of Fire (1981)
Label: Polydor Records
Links:
David Garfield - Shaft: Music From The Soundtrack
E Minor Shuffle - David Garfield:
For many years David Garfield has been one of the most respected musicians on the LA music scene. He's scored and recorded for film, he's produced over 25 albums, launched his own label, and he's appeared on about a hundred additional projects as a session player. The people he's worked with include Cher, Boz Scaggs, Larry Carlton, and many others; while for a time he toured with Earl Klugh and for 5 years in the 80s he was the musical director for George Benson, with whom he still continues to tour on occasion. Garfield is well known on the club circuit & has issued several projects under his own name. Additionally he's fronted a couple of high energy fusion bands in Karizma & Los Lobotomys. In 1997, many of these elements came together with the release of Tribute to Jeff, named in honor of the late Jeff Porcaro, formerly with the band Toto, and a top studio drummer who had played with Garfield as a member of the aforementioned Los Lobotomys. The project was a star-studded affair with 78 individual musicians contributing to the effort. From that cd we have E Minor Shuffle, a tune written by David Paich with an opening riff borrowed from Steely Dan's 'Black Friday'!

CD: Tribute to Jeff (1997)
Label: Creatchy Productions
Links:

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Vintage Collection: Part Two
Andrew Glover - Smooth
Stream - Andrew Glover:
With a career that stretches back over 30 years, Andrew Glover is a veteran musician with a diverse résumé. A graduate of Grant MacEwan Community College, in the 80s, Glover played with flute legend Moe Kaufman and then backed Bobby Curtola for a Las Vegas gig. Based in 'wild rose country', for the better part of ten years, the Edmonton Alberta native toured with the Big Miller Band while he's also appeared as part of the Alfie Zappacosta tour entourage. Active in a variety of capacities on the local scene, Glover has performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as the featured soloist; he's played with many of the best in 'the city of champions' while he's also backed Sheena Easton as principal keyboardist for the musical "Grease". In addition, his compositions have been performed and/or recorded by John Abercrombie, Jean Pierre Zanella, and Alfie Zappacosta among others. After recording as a member of the group Pazzport, Glover made his solo debut in 2005 and now has 4 cds under his own name. On this occasion we're checking the 2007 Smooth release for the easy flow of a track called Stream!

CD: Smooth (2007)
Label: Independent
Links:
Quintana + Speer - Shades of Shadow
False Prophet - Quintana + Speer:
Paul Speer met up with David Lanz in Seattle in the early 80s and the two connected for a series of critically acclaimed albums that led to the creation of Miramar Records. For his part, hailing from Modesto California, Leroy Quintana was an aspiring composer and a keyboard whiz, who could also double on percussion. In 1988, Quintana recorded a five song demo and shopped it around hoping to land a deal that would lead to the release of many albums worth of material that he had written. Eventually he inked a deal with Miramar that saw the release of Shades of Shadow and one which unfortunately proved a one off project. Heralded as one of the great new age releases of the 90s, the album presented 10 of Quintana's original and fully orchestrated compositions with contributions from Speer on guitar and Lanz on piano. From that release and the #11 new age album for the year, we present the track False Prophet, an artistic masterpiece and an atmospheric gem!

CD: Shades of Shadow (1990)
Label: Miramar Records
Links:
Alan King - The Experiment
The Experiment - Alan King:
Born and raised in Washington D.C., Alan King grew up in a home filled with the music from his mother's extensive record collection. He started piano at an early age and later followed that with Latin and African percussion lessons. In 1991, King performed at the Taste of DC festival and then in the mid-90s, he began focusing on writing and performing jazz after his father took him to see Brian Culbertson. Inspired when he saw Bob James perform with the band Fourplay, King soon became established on the DC circuit. With stylistic influences drawn from Jazz, Funk, Urban, Pop and R&B, King issued his debut in 2009. Well-titled The Experiment, the project was an inspired effort with an unexpected turn or two - from that release we have the track that lent its name to the disc!

CD: The Experiment (2009)
Label: KMG Records
Links:

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After Hours ~ Exclusive to our Site and Select Affiliates :
December Bossa: … on this chapter of show the stars are perfectly aligned. It's December and all the selections in this hour have bossa in the title - so in keeping with these facts we've dubbed the feature December Bossa. There are 13 selections including Bossalectro by Marc Antoine, David Benoit with Botswanna Bossa Nova, Who's the Bossa from Patrick Yandall, and Marcos Ariel's Bossa Love. And first off, it's Gold Coast with the very tune which lent its name to this December Bossa edition! Playlist for Ed#637

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