In The Language of Dreams - A Small Dream In Red, a minimalist innovative voice and saxophone duo.  http://www.asmalldreaminred.com

Spirit Driven, is a long awaited project that was conceptualized by the great Jorge Sylvester.  I am delighted to have contributed one of my original compositions and all the lyrical and poetic content to the project. It was an honor and a joy to work with these outstanding artists and the music is extremely rhythmically exciting and soulful. It  has a strong and deeply spiritual message that speaks through us from the ancestors.

The ACE (Afro Caribbean Experimental) Collective is a group of improvising musicians created and led by saxophonist/composer/arranger Jorge Sylvester.  An extension of the ACE Trio (alto saxophone, electric bass and drums), the ACE Collective includes three additional independent rhythmic and melodic elements: the voice, trumpet and piano expanding its harmonic colors, its scope of sound and its textural capacity.  The music is original, new and experimental and draws from the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora, jazz and the free music art forms.

The Jorge Sylvester ACE ( Afro Caribbean Experimental) Collective

Jorge Sylvester – Alto Saxophone and Compositions

Nora McCarthy – Voice, Poetry and Compositions

Waldron Mahdi Ricks – Trumpet

Pablo Vergara – Piano

Donald Nicks – Electric Bass

Kenny Grohowski – Drums and Percussions

THE MUSIC:

Afro-Caribbean rhythms and their relationship to the avant-garde music form have not been documented. Unlike the work of composers such as Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and others who used Afro-Caribbean rhythms in their works without experimenting with their rhythmic pulse, the compositional structure of the music of the ACE Collective goes beyond an absolute interpretation, and delves deeper into the core of the rhythms breaking them down and expanding the pulse into a myriad of complex configurations that tap into the original primal properties of the music itself, reflecting its history and its origin, unraveling its many transmutations and adaptations over time and discovering new possibilities and applications within the tradition itself that are related to the avant-garde.

The poetry reflects the message of the compositions by telling the story of each piece and its historic relevance to the music adding an important educational dimension.  Other compositions that are significant to the history of jazz music are also occasionally introduced into the performance highlighting certain lesser known but meaningful composers from the Caribbean.

Toward the Hill of Joy.

Composer, Conductor, Arranger, Trombonist George Brandon and his Septet

George Brandon, trombone/compositions

Jorge Sylvester, alto saxophone

Nora McCarthy, voice

Josh Evans, trumpet

Neil Alexander, piano

Joshua Wolff, piano

Calvin Hill, bass

Rudy Walker and Emmanuel Herrold, drums

This is an extremely beautiful project created by George Brandon. All original music, extended intense compositions that are both personal and mystical. The CD has an air of mystery and an underlying spirituality at one end of it's broad spectrum and at the other, there is a playfulness and joy that balances ever so nicely the intense gravity of the other pieces. It is a blend of the contemporary with old school, bebop, straight ahead swinging jazz. I found the music on this project to be solely unique and masterful. George Brandon has emerged at this point in his life as an excellent composer of much depth and these compositions are a refreshing addition to the music that is being brought out today.

Download it now. Interview begins on page 10. 

In a word...he's fabulous!!

Nora has recently become a member of Jazz Inside Magazine's staff of writers and is sharing lots of interesting viewpoints about singing, the music business, the music scene and other things voice related in her column, Vocal Perspectives. 

Once again, big thanks to the best, most informative and diverse Jazz magazine in NYC and US -