Albare iTD Long Way

Albare iTD Long Way

In a cold winter morning, at the set date, at the set time, the band arrived at Systems Two Studio, ready to roar. It was a point in time that was a crossroad for an incredible bunch of musicians' careers. They gathered together because they'd agreed to create something new. Some came from quite a distance away, like George Garzone who arrived from Boston, whilst others from just around the corner, like Leo Genovese who had immigrated to Brooklyn 12 months earlier. Others travelled from Australia like Evripides Evripidou who arrived a few days earlier, whilst Albare was also from Australia, but had arrived in NYC via Europe. Hendrik Meurkens and Antonio Sanchez, are both New Yorkers, while legendary producer Matthias Winkelmann flew in from Germany. Indeed this was a recording session for Enja, the equally legendary German record label. The album produced this time is the story of a long journey…

This is a story that is best told by Matthias Winkelmann himself:
It's a long way from Morocco to Melbourne, but Albare made it, and some great music along the way.

He stopped here and there on the journey – Israel as a child, Lyon as a teenager – before, as an adult, moving to Australia. Since then he has used music – surely mankind's greatest achievement – to soar to other, often uncharted, worlds, and he has taken an array of fine musicians with him.

I first heard of Albare (off stage he is known as Albert Dadon) when a gentleman from Australia called to tell me about a guitar player, a friend of his he thought I should meet. I said I would like to and we got together in Corsica where Albare was on holiday with his family. Of course, we talked music – and discovered mutual friends. We were quickly reading from the same sheet of music.

In a busy life, music has been a constant for Albare; his mother bought him a guitar for his eighth birthday. The boy wanted an accordion, but it was too expensive. He was soon learning classical guitar, but it was on hearing Django Reinhardt's Nuages – a gypsy swing marriage made in the clouds – that Albare finally fell in love with his instrument.
'I wanted to play like Django. I still do!" he says. 'But then I wanted to play like every great guitarist – Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, George Benson . . . 'That was during my teens. When I reached my 20s I wanted to find my own voice. I did, finally, in my 30s. Call me a late developer."

In Australia he was a pioneer of acid jazz completing five highly rated albums. He also became artistic director and chairman of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, inventively bringing the acclaimed Italian Umbria Jazz event to Australia under that moniker in 2005. He produced the first recording of one of that country's finest jazz pianist, Joe Chindamo, on an album that also featured the late Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson's double bass wizard.

More recently, Albare has concentrated on playing his own compositions, sometimes sneakily complex, with a relaxed fluency that puts at ease some of the world's better musicians as they contribute in full understanding to one of the settled truths of jazz; expect the unexpected For this record Albare and his long time companion bass player Evripides (Evri for short) Evripidou took care of the compositions and I produced the project in January 2012 in my favourite studio, Systems Two in Brooklyn, and a surprising, truly rewarding album now sees the light of day.

Albare calls his ensemble iTD (International Travel Diary) and international it is indeed. 'It's a tribute to the human spirit of adventure," Albare says of what they created. 'There are African and South-European flavours here, diverse sounds, melodies and rhythms – all interwoven and fused with the jazz heritage."

The German born harmonic virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens who has been working out of New York for the last 20 years, winning many international polls, has rarely been heard with such grace and impact.

Evripides Evripidou studied mandolin, piano, clarinet, sax, guitar and bass in his native Cyprus. At 15 he migrated to Australia. Influenced by the Mediterranean culture's rhythms and melodies, the free spirit of jazz, the discipline and the elegance of classical and flamenco music, he found his sound through his compositions and performance on a wide selection of six string bass guitars.

Antonio Sanchez, three times Grammy Award winner was born in 1971 in Mexico City. He is one of the most-in-demand drummers in America working with Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Charlie Haden, Dianne Reeves and also the younger generation like Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, David Sanchez, Avishai Cohen, and Miguel Zenon.

Tenor sax player George Garzone has worked with jazz greats like Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Danilo Perez, John Abercrombie and Chick Corea. He is also a prolific teacher at the Berklee College where his students included Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Donny McCaslin.

Leo Genovese, the Argentinian born child of the 70s embraces experimental forms, having studied classical and contemporary music at home before moving to Boston. From performances at Carnegie Hall to touring with Esperanza Spalding, Genovese's prowess transforms and takes on many guises stretching out to the Chromatic Gauchos, a powerful avant-garde ensemble.

'In the studio, work with Albare and this excellent ensemble was easygoing, relaxed and successful – the way it should be!" said Matthias Winckelmann (Enja Records).

For more information, visit: Albare.info