Gilad Atzmon “With Strings” Tour

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Saxophonist Gilad Atzmon will soon be touring with his strings project in support of his latest album "In Loving Memory Of America"

GILAD ATZMON with STRINGS UK TOUR
featuring the Orient House Ensemble and the Sigamos String Quartet

21 Oct - Wiltshire Music Centre 8pm/ £16/ 01225 860100
29 Oct - RNCM Manchester 7.30pm/ £15/£12/ 0161 907 5555
30 Oct - Belfast International Queens Jazz Festival 8pm/ £15/ £12/ 028 9097 1197
31 Oct - Sage Gateshead 8pm/ £113.50/ 0191 443 4661
6   Nov - Cadogan Hall, London 7.30pm/ £20/  020 7730 4500
28 Nov - Norwich Playhouse 7.30pm/ £17.50/ 01603 598598

??the music here is subtle, ambiguous, often beautiful - and features a saxophonist playing deep from the heart.? The Times

?the fiery Atzmon took his show from a demure chamber-music lilt to a Coltrane-inspired roar and back, and the crowd was right there through it all.? The Guardian

??as sweet romance morphs to modernist uncertainty, the bittersweet balance and rich emotional palette equally impress.? Financial Times

Charlie Parker with Strings is one of the biggest selling jazz albums of all time. This special homage features adaptations of tunes such as Everything Happens to Me, April in Paris, I Didn’t Know What Time It Was, and If I Should Lose You, from Parker’s original 1949 Verve recording, as well as especially composed new works. These all feature on Atzmon’s most recent album In Loving Memory of America which was released earlier this year to rave reviews. The combination of Atzmon’s unparalleled bebop virtuosity with the easy swing of the Orient House Ensemble’s expert rhythm section and stunning string arrangements led one critic to declare the project as perfect a jazz marriage as you could wish for.

?When I was seventeen, as I was preparing myself to join the Israeli army, the unexpected happened. On an especially cold Jerusalem night, I heard Bird playing ?April In Paris’ on a Radio program. I was literally knocked down. It was by far more organic, poetic, sentimental and yet wilder than anything I had ever heard before. Bird was a fierce libidinal extravaganza of wit and energy. The morning after, I decided to skip school, I rushed to the one and only music shop in Jerusalem. I found the jazz section and bought every album they had on the shelves. It was that moment when I fell in love with Jazz, it was that moment when I fell in love with America.
For many years I considered America as my promised land. As a young Jazz musician I was pretty convinced that it was just a matter of time before I’d settle in NYC. My Mecca was Downtown Manhattan, my shrine was the Village Vanguard and my holy scriptures were the old Blue Note and Prestige vinyl. My priests were named Coltrane, Bird, Cannonball, Miles, Duke, Dizzy, Bill Evans and others.
I do realise that ?things have changed’. I do grasp that Jazz is not exactly a form of resistance anymore. It is not even a revolutionary art form. America isn’t my promised land either. As much as Jazz has always been a call for freedom, America is not exactly a free place anymore.
This album is In Loving Memory Of America, in memory of the America I had cherished in my mind for many years. This album is a tribute to America’s greatest heroes. The people who have been liberating themselves through beauty. It is about Bird and the real Swans who flew far higher above anyone else. ?Gilad Atzmon