Kurt Rosenwinkel & Melissa Aldana news

Photo shows Kurt Rosenwinkel, Melissa Aldana & Peter Bernstein, and was taken in Xalapa, Mexico at the Jazzuv Festival on Oct. 25, 2013.

Kurt Rosenwinkel: 

Following some great dates – first a Solo performance at the Akbank Jazz Festival in Istanbul, Turkey – and then 2 performances in Germany with the HR Big Band, performing all-new arrangements (by the great Mike Holober) of a number of Kurt’s compositions (different songs than those that appear on Kurt’s big band album “Our Secret World“), Kurt Rosenwinkel is about to hit the road again for some Solo and New Quartet dates + special guesting with some old friends.

On October 22 & 23 he will be in Quebec, Canada giving a master class and playing a Solo concert at the Jazz Quebec Festival. The Solo concert is a double bill with The Bad Plus, a band whose members Kurt has had a long friendship with, and whom he appeared with at the JVC Festival a few yeas back at Carnegie Hall. And they are scheduled to appear together again, although not at Jazz Quebec. In November Kurt will travel to Japan with The Bad Plus for 4 shows in Tokyo. 2 of them will be at the Cotton Club and 2 at Blue Note Tokyo.

Prior to that Kurt will perform a number of Solo & New Quartet shows of his own:

Solo Tour:

Oct. 23: Jazz Quebec, Canada
Oct. 25: Jazzuv Festival in Xalapa, Mexico
Oct. 27: Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, Mexico
Oct. 31: German House in NYC, USA

After these performances Kurt heads straight to Europe to perform a number of New Quartet dates:

New Quartet Tour:

Nov. 2: Porgy & Bess, Vienna, Austria
Nov. 3: Lantaren-Venster, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Nov. 4: Moods, Zurich, Switzerland
Nov. 6: Barcelona Jazz Festival, Barcelona, Spain
Nov. 8: University de Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain

Speaking of New Quartet: Did you get your Star of Jupiter T-shirt yet? The t-shirt is white, reflecting the album artwork, and is made by Alternate Apparel = better quality than your average merch t-shirt, smoother & feels nicer on the skin.

Initially we offer the shirt in medium and large for women (slim fit), and small, medium, large & XL for men (Regular fit). Simply pick a size (small, medium, large and XL) and a style (female or male) and then a quantity, add to cart and then pretty soon you’ll be able to show your passion for this music in public.

The Star of Jupiter album itself, if you don’t own it yet, is available here.

Kurt Rosenwinkel will return to the US again in January to perform at the Jazz Standard with his New Quartet on January 8-12, 2014 (during APAP) as well as at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on January 16.

Melissa Aldana: 

It has been a hectic time for Melissa Aldana following her historic win of the 2013Thelonious Monk Intl. Jazz Competition!

On Oct. 9 Melissa & Crash Trio played a great event at Berklee College of Music that was captured by WBGO – you can watch a video of Melissa & Crash Trio playing “You’re My Everything here. She also conducted a masterclass on that same day, and Boston Globe reviewed that eventhere.

Performing at Berklee was like a home coming for Melissa, who studied at Berklee on a Presidential Scholarship the school gave her after seeing her perform at Panama Jazz Festival (Danilo Perez, who is the artistic director of the festival, had invited her after he heard her in Chile).

Melissa is now in Xalapa, Mexico for the Jazzuv Festival. She has a number of exciting performances coming up there. Tonight she will perform with Crash Trio feat. Pablo Menares & Francisco Mela, tomorrow Oct. 22 she will perform as a guest with Bob Moses Band, the following day she will special guest with Peter Bernstein’s Quartet and on Oct. 25 she will have a final performance at the festival as a special guest with Rafael Alcala Quartet.

Then Melissa returns to NYC to appear with the fabulous Mingus Big Band at Jazz Standard on Oct. 28. This storied band obviously performs music by the master himself, and has had a history since it’s inception of featuring some of the greatest jazz musicians in the world.

On Nov. 12 & 13 Melissa returns to Jazz Standard again, this time to present her Quartet featuring Glen Zaleski on piano, Pablo Menares on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums. You can find tickets to the event by clicking the dates above. They will perform a variety of originals and standards.

On November 20 Melissa will perform at the Barcelona Jazz Festival in Spain as a special guest with Spike Wilner’s Trio, and in late December she heads to the famous Umbria Winter Jazz Festival in Orvieto, Italy for a series of concerts: 2 will be with her fronting a trio consisting of David Wong on bass and Carl Allen on drums, and she will also play 2 shows as a special guest with Christian McBride’s Inside Straight band.

In January Melissa will have a number of other exciting performances, including a trip to her native Chile to perform at one of the most important Jazz Festivals called Providencia Jazz as well as some other cities and venues. And recently Melissa was featured as the cover story in a Chilean lifestyle magazine called Ya Magazine (sort of similar to GQ Magazine in the US). You can read it (in Spanish) by clicking here.

There are already many other live dates confirmed for Melissa in 2014, including at some major jazz festivals and various European dates. We will tell you more about these in our next Newsletter – until then you can track her live schedule here.