Joyce, Director of Publicity & Promotion
Cuneiform Records
joyce@cuneiformrecords.com
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- Dear Friends in Music; Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!!! Happy Presidential Inauguration Day!! Happy 2013!!! 2013 is the year for us to celebrate social and artistic VISION, and their power to make our world a better place. 2013 is a significant year in the USA: the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington (Aug. 28, 1963), a major landmark in the American Civil Rights movement and in the human rights movement worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of black Americans and white supporters travelled to Washington DC, where they assembled on the grassy, public grounds of our National Mall in a rally for justice and equal rights. The Mall is our nation's most symbolically potent ground, flanked on one end by U.S. Capitol building, sited on a hill, and on the opposite end, mirrored in the Reflecting Pool, by the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument, spearing the sky behind it. Fifty years ago, the Civil Rights marchers filled every inch of those grounds, and, looking towards the Lincoln Memorial, remained spellbound as Martin Luther King Jr., standing on the Memorial's steps, gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, envisioning a world of social equality and racial harmony. Standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, photographer Warren K. Leffler looked towards the Lincoln Memorial at the opposite end of the Mall, where King stood, and took what is probably the most iconic photograph of the March on Washington. That photograph, archived in the Library of Congress, is used by American jazz and creative music composer, improvisor, and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith as the album cover for Ten Freedom Summers, his landmark tribute to the American Civil Rights Movement, which Cuneiform released in 2012. Today – Monday, Jan. 21, 2013 – on those same symbolically-potent Mall grounds, President Barack Obama – America's first black president – will stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to be sworn into office for his second term of office. Medgar Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers-William, will give the invocation. 50 years after Martin Luther King, Jr gave his visionary speech, President Obama will face towards the Lincoln Memorial – a view similar to that in Leffler's photograph – and address the crowds assembled to celebrate American democracy and his inauguration. Progress -- whether in society, or in the arts – will only happen if we ignore the naysayers and remain true to the vision in our hearts, minds and soul. To celebrate 2013's very special Martin Luther King Day – and to celebrate social and artistic VISION – Cuneiform is giving away a free track from Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers; "Martin Luther King, Jr: Memphis, the Prophecy" [@SoundCloud] We invite you to also explore other Ten Freedom Summers tracks dedicated to Civil Rights figures, such as "Medgar Evers, A Love-Voice of a Thousand Years", available on iTunes and Amazon. Containing 4 CDs of music, Ten Freedom Summers celebrates America and the success of the Civil Rights movement. Wadada Leo Smith is one of the world's most visionary musicians, a key figure in international jazz and creative music, and Cuneiform has been honored to work with him on this musically, artistically, and historically monumental work. Since Cuneiform Records first began in Washington DC/Silver Spring MD decades ago (2014 will be our 30th anniversary), we've been honored to work with numerous visionary artists from around the world. Together, we've worked to release great music that is truly vibrant, captivating and new, music that often defies traditional genre boundaries (whether jazz, rock, classical, folk, electronic or...) to result in completely original new forms. Our ever-growing catalogue now includes over 360 albums. In 2012 alone, Cuneiform released 16 recordings in a staggering span of genres by some of the most brilliant, visionary artists on the planet. What unites them all is a willingness to challenge existing structures and follow their artistic visions. The 21st Century has brought ever-wider recognition to the forward-looking music on Cuneiform. MANY of Cuneiform's releases have appeared in 2012's Best-of-Year lists/polls in magazines, newspapers and websites worldwide; a list of some of those Year End Lists is BELOW. Recognition has also come closer to home; when the Washington City Paper published a list of noteworthy DC independent record labels, they put Cuneiform on top. We thank all of you for voting for our wonderful artists in the 2012 polls and for your ongoing support. We look forward to releasing more great music in 2013 and for many years to come. For information about Cuneiform's new Winter 2013 releases, please look here: "Cuneiform's Winter 2013 New Releases". Many of our artists are touring and performing live, world wide, in 2013; for a list of upcomingCuneiform Artist Concerts, please CLICK HERE Sadly, in 2012, three of Cuneiform's artists died: the saxophonists Andrew Carrico (Afuche); Lol Coxhill (Delivery; Lol Coxhill/Steve Miller); and John Tchicai (New York Art Quartet; Yo Miles!). May they R.I.P., and may they live forever through music. We've included more detailed information about each of them in another section of this email; click here. We are grateful to have worked with them in the past, and honored to release their wonderful music. best regards, |
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ON "BEST ALBUMS OF 2012" LISTS
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2013 Cuneiform Artist Tour Dates AHLEUCHATISTAS - BLUE CRANES Apr 3 - Portland, OR, USA - CHEER-ACCIDENT - DOCTOR NERVE - FORGAS BAND PHENOMENA - GUAPO - GUTBUCKET - CURTIS HASSELBRING - IDEAL BREAD Jan 19, 8p, Portland, ME, USA Jan 27, 8p, Providence, RI, USA - JANEL AND ANTHONY
- THE KANDINSKY EFFECT - LED BIB Feb 16 - London, UK Mar 1 - London, UK Mar 22 - Cardiff, Wales, UK - LIVING BY LANTERNS Feb 20 - Brest, France Feb 22 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands Feb 23 - Zurich, Switzerland
- ED PALERMO BIG BAND Apr 11 - New York, NY, USA Apr 12 - New York, NY, USA - PRESENT
- ALEC K. REDFEARN AND THE EYESORES - RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL - REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE Feb 12, 7:30p - Cambridge, MA, USA - ROSWELL RUDD - DYLAN RYAN / SAND Feb 11 - Sacramento, CA, USA Feb 12 - Oakland, CA, USA Feb 13 - San Francisco, CA, USA - JASON ROBINSON
Mar 13, 8p - Brooklyn, NY, USA - WADADA LEO SMITH - UNIVERS ZERO For more info on these artists, please visit the artists’ websites, www.cuneiformrecords.com or email: joyce@cuneiformrecords.com |
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R.I.P Lol Coxhill (George W. Lowen Coxhill) September 19, 1932 – July 10, 2012 The British soprano saxophonist and improvisor Lol Coxhill died on July 10, at age 79, after a lengthy illness. He was a brilliant musician – the All Music Guide called him "probably Steve Lacy's prime rival in getting odd sounds out of the soprano with his wrenching, twisting, quirky solos." Lol was also a kind man and a wonderfully funny, world-class wit. He was on Fools Meeting, an 1970 album by the British rock group Delivery album that Cuneiform reissued in 1999 http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/delivery.html . And nearly a decade later, in 2007, we worked with Lol again to reissue two of his collaborative albums with British pianist Steve Miller from the early '70s-- Coxhill/Miller Miller/Coxhill and "The Story So Far..." "Oh Really?" -- onto a single CD. WTF with that/those title(s)!?! How on earth do i put them on press releases or the on-line databases? !! It was wonderfully weird, wild, and fun, immensely entertaining and informative on multiple levels, both musical and cerebral... Lol was a genius whose work was rabidly admired by those in the know, particularly in the UK. His death was greeted by dozens of tributes in the music press - see below for just a few; ,more are certain to come, as his role in avant garde music is reassessed. Obits/Tributes: For press releases & quotes assembled for Lol's duo album with Steve Miller on Cuneiform: overview: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/millercoxhill.html reviews: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=26385 and http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/mar2008/story_mosher.html
Andrew Carrico (Andrew Michael Dicharry Carrico) April 4, 1986 - September 11, 2012 Andrew Carrico's death at age 26 left all at Cuneiform, and his many friends and family, saddened and stunned. A talented baritone saxophonist and composer, Andrew played in the Brooklyn-based avant rock group Afuche, whose album Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match came out on Cuneiform in Spring 2011. On Nov. 19, 2011, he and his Afuche bandmates played at Cuneifest, the festival we'd organized in Baltimore. They were amazing to see live, just awesome energy – Andrew was a powerhouse on stage. It was a great pleasure to meet Andrew and the band in person for the first time – and an honor to have them play at our festival. We chose their music as the opening track for our festival sampler: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/festival/2011/baltimore/schedule_rockday.html. Afuche info is on our website: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/afuche.html , a press release for their album is here: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/press/index.html#afuche In addition to Afuche, Andrew worked with Crown, MK Groove Orchestra and other groupings, in addition to doing solo work; videos of his various performances are on YouTube. Memorial concerts featuring dozens of Andrew's musician friends have been held in his memory in Brooklyn, NY (10/22/2012 at Glasslands Gallery) http://www.facebook.com/events/472733116081142/?ref=nf and Seattle, WA (12/23/2012 at New Orleans Creole Restaurant). Obits appeared in:
John Tchicai (John Martin Tchicai) April 28, 1936 – October 8, 2012 Danish saxophonist (tenor and alto, and bass clarinet), free jazz improvisor and composer John Tchicai died on October 8th, while hospitalized from a brain hemmorhage that struck suddenly in an airport in Barcelona. It was somehow fitting that his cause of death struck while in travel; John was a key figure in the international jazz avant garde, and had played with some of the best musicians on the globe... Based in Copenhagen for most of his life, he began playing jazz saxophone as a teenager, and studied alto sax at the Royal Danish Music Conservancy. A world-class musician, he would perform and/or record with everyone from Albert Ayler to Wadada Leo Smith(Yo Miles!); John Coltrane to John Lennon; Cecil Taylor to Roswell Rudd (New York Art Quartet, while briefly living in NYC). In the 1990s, John taught at the Univ. of California at Davis; in recent years, he's lived in southern France. John's first appearance on Cuneiform was as a member of Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's group, Yo Miles!. He is on the two double-disc, SACD, Yo Miles! recordings that Cuneiform released in 2004: Sky Garden and Upriver http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/kaisersmith.html In 2010, Cuneiform had the honor of releasing a very, very special New York Art Quartet recording, called Old Stuff – which was a previously unreleased recording of a 1965 concert in Copenhagen. http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/nyaq.html John Tchicai had been instrumental in making that 1965 New York Art Quartet concert happen; he had traveled from NYC to Denmark to look for work for the Quartet and set up the gig. The group's lineup for that night was John; Roswell Rudd; Copenhagen bassist Finn von Eyben; and Louis Moholo-Moholo - who was briefly staying in Copenhagen after just moving from apartheid South Africa (Moholo would later settle in London). When I wrote to Louis, to send condolences for John's death, he sent me this heartfelt memorium: "Well" we are extremely crushed by the sudden death of our dear brother John, who stood up to legalise the music that we love so much, may he Rest In Peace and pave the way for us all to continue his beautiful work. God Bless. Respect Moholo - Moholo, Louis. For photos etc of the 1965 New York Art Quartet gig in Copenhagen: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/press/index.html#Anchor-New-47857 There are numerous obits for John Tchicai in the international press; links to a few are here: Obits: |
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Cuneiform Records Publicity & Promotion Team
Joyce: joyce@cuneiformrecords.com (director, press & foreign radio)
Javier: radio@cuneiformrecords.com (North American & foreign radio)
tel. 301-589-8894
P.O. Box 8427
Silver Spring, MD 20907-842
[Washington, D.C.]
visit us online:
www.cuneiformrecords.com/
www.twitter.com/cuneiformrecord
www.facebook.com/cuneiformrecords
www.soundcloud.com/cuneiformrecords
www.youtube.com/user/CuneiformRecords
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