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Fabian Almazan
Cuban-American pianist/composer Fabian Almazan found his musical roots as a child in Havana where he first became involved in the classical piano tradition. Most recently, Almazan can be heard in such films as Harriet, Chi-Raq, Red Tails and Miracle at St Anna.
During the completion of his jazz piano bachelor's degree at the Manhattan School of Music, Almazan immersed himself in the realm of orchestral composition studying instrumentation and orchestration with Mr. Giampaolo Bracali.
Almazan is the founder and director of Biophilia Records. Biophilia means "an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems.” In addition to creating meaningful and imaginative music, Biophilia Records artists are united by a common interest in having a positive impact on the environment and our communities. Biophilia artists collaborate with organizations that specialize in conservation, sustainability and outreach initiatives, regularly volunteering hands-on in community events.
As an environmentalist and naturalist, Almazan travelled back to his birthplace where he made field recordings of endemic Cuban birds which were then Incorporated into "This Land Abounds With Life", Almazan's most recent and 5th album as a leader. He is the founder and director of Biophilia Records and has worked diligently towards ensuring a continued dialogue of awareness concerning music and environmental justice.
As a performer, Almazan has developed a personal voice through the electric manipulation of the acoustic piano in live and studio settings. He has toured his music extensively as well as accompanied artists such as Linda May Han Oh, Terence Blanchard, Gretchen Parlato, John Hollenbeck, Mark Guiliana, Dave Douglass, Avishai Cohen and Ambrose Akinmusire among others.
Awards include 2 Grammy nominations, the SWR New Jazz Meeting commission, the Copland Fund, the Jerome Fund for Emerging Composers Award, the Jazz Gallery Residency, Rockerfeller Brothers Residency, Cintas Foundation Award in Composition and the Sundance Composers’ Lab.
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Linda May Han Oh: The Glass Hours
by Angelo Leonardi
Cinque anni dopo la registrazione di Aventurine, il suo precedente album da leader, Linda May Han Oh torna con un nuovo progetto e un nuovo organico. Sappiamo ormai che ogni disco della contrabbassista e compositrice costituisce una tappa del suo percorso esistenziale e artistico, rappresenta il risultato di profonde riflessioni e assume le forme di un concept album. Gli accadimenti e le esperienze che stanno alla base di The Glass Hours riguardano soprattutto due pause di riflessione" ...
Continue ReadingMelissa Aldana: Echoes Of The Inner Prophet
by Mike Jurkovic
Grammy-nominated saxophonist Melissa Aldana was all of maybe 21 going on 22 in 2010 when her Inner Circle Records arrival, Free Fall, caught many a discerning ear with its surprisingly earthy and assured lines and tangents. Her first for Blue Note, 2022's 12 Stars, displayed much the same but with a more resolute, restorative, established tone. As exhibited on such artistic statements as 12 Stars and 2019's Visions (Motema Music), Aldana relishes her sojourns and residencies in the ...
Continue ReadingAnthony Branker & Imagine: What Place Can Be for Us? - A Suite in Ten Movements
by Angelo Leonardi
L'avventuroso post-bop del compositore Anthony Branker, ben espresso dall'album Beauty Within del quintetto Imagine, trova nuovi e più articolati sviluppi in questo What Place Can Be for Us?. Il gruppo conferma il chitarrista Pete McCann e la coppia Fabian Almazan e Linda May Han Oh ampliandosi fino a un medio organico con alcuni dei massimi giovani strumentisti di New York: il trombettista Philip Dizack, i sassofonisti Walter Smith III e Remy Le Boeuf, il batterista Donald Edwards e la vocalist ...
Continue ReadingAdam Larson: Listen With Your Eyes
by Dan Bilawsky
Listen with your eyes. Open your ears and look. What tenor saxophonist Adam Larson has to offer here is something truly extraordinary. With horn in hand he takes us on a journey, an unforgettable trip through his wiring that's as daring as it is direct, as complex as it is approachable, and as dynamic as can be. To see and hear is to believe.Serving as Larson's debut for Ropeadope and his fifth record to date, Listen With Your ...
Continue ReadingAnthony Branker: What Place Can Be for Us? - A Suite in Ten Movements
by Michael Ambrosino
Ma Rainey channeled music as her ritual of singing to understand life." Congressman John Lewis leveraged music towards the good trouble" he created fighting for civil rights in an uncivil land. Anthony Branker understands music as the calculus of his life's workthe art of weaving words and sound into transcendent tapestries that explore the rich, complex, and nuanced aspects of intolerance, beauty, prejudice, spirituality, gender, equality and social justice. The composite of this artistry exists within the remarkable ...
Continue ReadingTerence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective: Absence
by Chris May
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective's Absence is dedicated to saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, who for health reasons has been obliged to retire from performing, at least temporarily. Some people celebrating their 88th birthday, as Shorter did on August 25 2021, might not welcome being the dedicatee of an album with such a title. They might consider a more appropriate choice of words to be Presence or even I'm Feeling Fine Thanks For Asking. But you never know with ...
Continue ReadingJoshua Crumbly: Rise
by Geno Thackara
Joshua Crumbly and his bass have logged a good few miles learning from a respectable number of fellow players (Victor Bailey, Terence Blanchard, Kamasi Washington and more) in his fairly young career, and it showshis debut may not be as wildly eclectic as it could have been with such a colorful history to build on, but then it's not specifically meant to be. Rise is more about portraying emotions and inner thoughts, and the variety of players and tones here ...
Continue ReadingBlueNote/ArtistShare Submits Its First Albums For Consideration In The 57th Grammy Awards
Source:
Prawit Austin Siriwat
New records from Blue Note/ArtistShare artists Fabian Almazan and Jon Cowherd, as well as ArtistShare artist Steve Wiest to be considered for Grammy Awards This year ArtistShare has submitted the first recordings from the new BlueNote/ArtistShare label, a partnership forged by ArtistShare Founder and CEO Brian Camelio, Bruce Lundvall, and Don Was, President of Blue Note Records. Blue Note/ArtistShare is the first collaboration between a crowdfunding model and a major label. Bruce Lundvall (Chairman Emeritus of Blue Note) refers to ...
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Blue Note / ArtistShare Launches Fabian Almazan's Fan-Funded Rhizome CD Project
Source:
Brian Camelio
BLUE NOTE/ARTISTSHARE LAUNCHES FABIAN ALMAZAN’S “RHIZOME” CD PROJECT - THE FIRST FAN-FUNDED RECORDING PROJECT FROM THE NEW BLUE NOTE/ARTISTSHARE LABEL THE VERY FIRST ALBUM TO BE RELEASED UNDER THE HISTORIC NEW JOINT LABEL BLUE NOTE/ARTISTSHARE WILL FEATURE YOUNG PIANIST/COMPOSER FABIAN ALMAZAN’S FAN-FUNDED “RHIZOME” CD Almazan is joined by Linda Oh on bass; Henry Cole on drums; singer/guitarist Camila Meza; Sara Caswell and Tomoko Omura on violin; Karen Waltuch on viola; and Noah Hoffeld on cello Cuban-born American pianist/composer Fabian Almazan ...
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Guitarist/Composer Nils Weinhold Releases New CD "Shapes" Featuring Fabian Almazan and Luques Curtis.
Source:
Two for the Show Media
Nils Weinhold grew up in Bad Sachsa, a small village in the Harz mountains of Germany and started playing the guitar at the age of nine. In Germany he took lessons with Andreas Jäger and German jazz guitar legend Prof. Michael Sagmeister, before attending the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 2004, where he studied Jazz Guitar with Maarten van der Grinten, Martijn van Iterson and Jesse van Ruller. In addition to his jazz studies he studied Classical guitar, under the instruction ...
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Praise
From: Songs My Mom LikedBy Fabian Almazan
The Door of No Return
From: What Place Can Be for Us? - A...By Fabian Almazan
The Elf
From: Earth MattersBy Fabian Almazan