This Week at The Café:
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on this edition Rob Tardik is featured with Balance.Energy.Laughter.Love.
as the showcase release. In the second half, we're turning back
the hands of time for another exciting Vintage Collection - this
installment is highlighted by the legendary Wes Montgomery and by
the combo Young-Holt Unlimited, both with music from the 60s. Also
included is a Pharoah Sanders track from the 70s while rounding
it out are a pair of more recent release by Attila Molnar and John
Costello from the 00s. So the stage is set, the sound check is complete
and we're rarin' to roll with Acoustic Alchemy and The Ebor Sound
System! |
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Showcase CD
Balance.Energy.Laughter.Love - Rob Tardik:
In
a near two-decade career, Toronto-native Rob Tardik has established
himself as one of the real rising stars in the smooth arena. He
was awarded a music scholarship in high school and then went on
to study at York University while earning diplomas in Record Engineering
and Media Arts. For several years, Rob has worked as a guitar
product specialist for Roland Canada while for the past dozen
or so years he's edified many an aspiring young musician at the
Merriam School of Music. In 2006, Tardik released his debut, and
for 5 years he performed at the prestigious Canadian Smooth Jazz
Awards. In 2010, it was Tardik's turn, and he won CSJA guitarist
of the year honours for his sophomore cd. Hot on the heels his
Canadian smoothie comes Rob's latest effort entitled Balance.Energy.Laughter.Love
and what has become his mantra in life. Enlisting the guitar aid
of Grammy winning producer Paul Brown, as well as some high caliber
Canadian talent in the likes of Warren Hill, Gabriel Mark Hasselbach,
and Don Breithaupt, the chimes are pealing for a project that
Tardik has nick-named B.E.L.L.
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Rob Tardik
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Others
contributing to the disc are Darren Rahn, Jaared, and Carson Freeman,
who split sax duties on the remaining tracks. Three songs each out
of the album's twelve were crafted to fit into one of four categories
as spelled out by the album title and as we direct our show case
spotlight at Rob and B.E.L.L. we have three of those represented
on the show today. From the Laughter section of the disc we're starting
with the track Sunday Morning and this one features the sax of Warren
Hill. Our absolute favourite is from the Love section; it's the
gorgeous Midnight Blue with Gabriel on trumpet and Breithaupt on
keys. Meanwhile it's the Balance component that yields the show
closer, it's the playfully titled East Meets Wes with Paul Brown
and it was the first single from the disc. For years Tardik's formula
for success in life has been one of balance, energy, laughter, and
love. As in life, so it now is in music with Rob Tardik and his
cd B.E.L.L. ringing loud and clear!
CD: Balance.Energy.Laughter.Love (2011)
Label: Guitardik Music
Links: 
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| Vintage Collection: Part One |
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Soulful
Strut - Young-Holt Unlimited:
A
project from the late 60s, the combo Young-Holt Unlimited was led by Eldee
Young on bass and Isaac Holt on drums. The two had been former members
of the Ramsey Lewis jazz trio when in 1966 they started their own self-named
trio. In 1968, they revamped their line-up and released Soulful Strut
their debut as Young-Holt Unlimited. The project featured the title track
single, an instrumental take on the Barbara Acklin hit Am I the Same Girl,
which went on to became a million seller!
LP: Soulful Strut (1968)
Label: Brunswick Records
Links:
Eldee Young: 1936 - 2007
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Oceans of Sand - John Costello:
John
Costello is a Chicago native who has been based in Phoenix Arizona, since
moving there with his mother as a teen back in the 80s. Over the years,
he's become established as a composer, producer, musician, and record
label exec. From scoring for film and TV to producing and recording, Costello
also operates as president of Wild Whirled Music, Fervor Records, and
Muzik Headz. From Costello's own A Cooler Shade of Jazz and music that's
been featured on shows such as Law & Order, Malcolm In The Middle, and
Good Morning America, we've selected the sometimes fluid, sometimes granular
Oceans of Sand with Greg Anderson on guitar!
CD: A Cooler Shade of Jazz
(2006)
Label: Fervor Records
Links:
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| Vintage Collection:
Part Two |
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Astral
Traveling - Pharoah Sanders:
Saxophonist
Pharoah Sanders emerged from the groups of John Coltrane in the mid-60s,
where he was became well known for the serious aggression of his playing.
Raised in a musical family in Little Rock Arkansas, in the late 50s, Pharoah
attended Oakland Junior College in the San Francisco Bay Area where he
began playing bebop, rhythm & blues, and free jazz with many of the region's
finest musicians. In 1961, he moved to New York and as a struggling musician,
he pawned his horn for a time and would occasionally even sleep on the
subway. During this period he played with luminaries such as Sun Ra; it
was in fact Sun Ra who dubbed him Pharaoh, a twist on the title of ancient
Egyptian kings and his given name of Ferrell. Notwithstanding, the raw
emotion he exhibited early in his career, Sanders' tone was always harmonically
rich and, in the years after Coltrane's death, he explored some gentler
avenues in jazz … a case in point, the spacey Astral Traveling from 1971!
LP: Thembi (1971)
Label: Universal Distribution
Links:
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California
Nights - Wes Montgomery:
The
importance of Wes Montgomery in bringing jazz to the masses cannot be
underestimated! He was simply one of the most influential jazz guitarists
to have ever lived and his style has inspired generations of players.
Montgomery was self-taught and didn't start to play guitar until 1943
at the rather late age of 19. Perhaps that's why he used his thumb rather
than a pick and why he incorporated the use of octaves in his music. Montgomery's
talent led him to a 2-year touring gig with Lionel Hampton in 1948 but
for most of the next decade, he worked in relative obscurity in his hometown
of Indianapolis. Most evenings were spent playing at local clubs while
a day job helped to pay the rent. Towards the end of the 50s, Wes recorded
with his brothers, Buddy and Monk, and with organist Melvin Rhyne but
it was the release of his 1960 debut, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes
Montgomery that made him famous the jazz world over.
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During the final years of his life, Montgomery enjoyed great commercial
success - during 1967-1968 he recorded three best-selling albums
based on pop melodies that received air play on AM radio. Unfortunately,
Montgomery succumbed to a heart attack in 1968 while at the height
of his success - he was only 45. From 1967 and from one of his final
studio project, we have California Nights and a tune that had been
recorded by Lesley Gore that same year.
LP: A Day in the Life
(1967)
Label: A&M Records
Links: 
Wes Montgomery: 1923 - 1968
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The
Best - Attila Molnar:
Since
his 1997 move from the stately capital of Hungary to Washington DC, the
capital of the United States, Attila Molnar's rise is the stuff that Dreams
are made of. As a boy, he was trained in modern classical music but graduated
as a jazz pianist. For a couple of years he played with a 4-piece combo
called Happy Family but by 1992 he'd already formed his own group. It
took eight years to get his green card but in the meantime Molnar was
already well-connected in the DC-area. He played keys in Jaared's touring
band and performed with him in the UK and at the Dubai International Jazz
Festival - in 2010, the latter proved a coming out party for the former
bopper from Budapest as he was one of the featured performers. Having
also played with Slim Man, Tim Bowman, Marion Meadows, and most recently
with Peter White at The Pizza Express in London, Molnar released his debut
in 2009. |
For a variety of reasons, the project never really received the
promotional push that it deserved. Air play was limited but with
a new album in the works and with a couple of years more seasoning
under his belt, Molnar's future now appears limitless. Indeed the
best is yet come and from that initial release, we have Attila with
a tune which no doubt alludes to that very fact!
CD: Dreams (2009)
Label: Attimusic
Links:
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| After Hours ~ Exclusive to our
Site and Select Affiliates : |
Contrary to the title of the segment, this is take two in
our cover tune series. All the selections are cover tunes taken from pop
or jazz or from somewhere in between. We have 14 tracks and these include
Crystal Blue Persuasion by Jill Jenson, Greg Adams with Smooth Operator,
and Fields of Gold by Tommy Emmanuel. We're calling the feature Take Five
after a read on the Dave Brubeck classic by Acoustic Alchemy, and to the
best of our knowledge, this is the only cover the Alchemy gang ever recorded.
So, from the cd Reference Point, it's Greg Carmichael and the late Nick
Webb with the tune that gave its name to this edition!  |
