Looks like the
Empty Cage Quartet, Saxophonist Jason Mears, trumpeter Kris Tiner, bassist Ivan Johnson and percussionist Paul Kikuchi, (
The Wire magazine has called “one of the best things in jazz to emerge in the new millennium.” ) has been extremely busy and they have two new releases out. The first, is a collaboration with the French duo of
Aurélien Besnard (clarinets) and
Patrice Soletti (guitar) called
Take Care of Floating, recently released in Europe on the
Rude Awakening label. This was sponosored in part from a Chamber Music America French-American Cultural Exchange grant
. Interestingly, the CD has two mixes, one a standard mix and the other optimized for MP3.
Take Care of Floating is available now on the
Rude Awakening website, and you can listen to an
exclusive preview at Last.fm. The album is scheduled for US release shortly.
Next up is
Gravity No. 1: Section 4 on Lisbon-based
Clean Feed Records. This recording features
Kris Tiners first series of
Gravity compositions and was recorded in two days at Park West Studio in Brooklyn. The music is comprised of two extended compositions that incorporate improvisational systems based on harmonic palindromes and melodic sequences derived from the cycles of the Mayan calendar.
Both CD's are worth checking out and feature great playing by the quartet.