Dave Guy "Footwork"
When you hear Dave Guy play his trumpet you know it is him right away. Like many of the greats before him he has a distinct tone and sensibility that sets him apart from his peers. Unless you are the type to read album credits you may never have heard his name, but you have heard him play. In fact, you have likely seen him play. Whether in person at a show or on national television he has lent his talents to a who’s who list of world famous artists both in the recording studio and on stage. And now, with his first solo LP on Big Crown Records, Dave is stepping from a band’s flank straight to the front—with a well deserved light shining directly on him and his sound.
Raised in NYC’s East Village, Dave was surrounded by hip-hop and the hustle that defined the city in the ’90s. In those formative days, he and his playing were influenced by jazz greats like Donald Byrd and Hugh Masekela but also by the Native Tongue sounds of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. His time at LaGuardia Performing Arts High School furthered this path. Dave remembers sharing playing time with Big Crown co-founder Leon Michels and drumming powerhouse Homer Steinweiss. “Being in the All-City Jazz Big Band, I would see them rehearsing all the time,” Dave recalls. “They were already doing things with the Dap-Kings back then—which was crazy.” It was here Dave’s voice as a player began to take shape and continued to be refined through his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and The New School.
After a few stints with live hip-hop group Dujeous—Dave was touring with The Sugarman 3, an organ-driven soul jazz group. Through those gigs he was recruited to play with the late great Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, touring with and recording on all of her albums until her untimely passing. During those years he lent his playing to countless records from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Pharell, The Menahan Street Band, Lee Fields, Al Green, and countless others. But fast forward to now, and you may best know Dave Guy as the trumpeter playing with Black Thought, Questlove, and the rest of The Roots crew—both on tour, in the studio, and on TV with Jimmy Fallon.
On his new record Dave steps to the front of the stage with a debut album that could have only come from a seasoned veteran. It’s a record that mixes his musical influences with the energies of the city that raised him. A New York jazz record that pushes the boundaries of the genre by incorporating shades of hip hop and soul making it both unique and modern. This is what you get when someone hones their talent for years while rubbing elbows with the best of the best. As fate would have it, a classic case of “when one door shuts, another opens” was really what got the ball rolling. “I never wanted to force my own project,” Dave explains. “There was always a lot going on between things—the timing was never right.” But then, that timing finally fell into place. The Tonight Show had to pause with the writers’ strike and unexpectedly, there was a free moment. Within days Dave started recording at NYC’s fabled Diamond Mine studio with friends and longtime collaborators Homer Steinweiss and Nick Movshon. What started out as just looking to make music and create, quickly took shape and direction and they ended up laying down something wildly special and authentic. An album of songs that capture different moods and an invitation into the world as Dave Guy sees it and feels it.
Terry Gross "Huge Improvement"
Few bands are as primed to capture their ecstatic live energy in masterful sonic detail like Terry Gross. Composed of three renowned engineer/producers whose studio doubles as their jam spot and communal gathering place, the trio are able to document their longform psychedelic escapades with granular precision. The potency of the fellowship formed by drummer Phil Becker, bassist Donny Newenhouse, and guitarist Phil Manley (Trans Am) lies in their ability to utilize their prowess as both players and recording engineers to translate feeling with immaculate clarity. On their second full-length Huge Improvement, Terry Gross embody a complex web of emotion with songs as ferocious and precise as they are agile and care-free, delighting in the catharsis of excising tension alongside one’s most trusted peers.
Huge Improvement’s tongue-in-cheek title is rightfully earned. Like their debut Soft Opening, the pieces on Huge Improvement began as improvised studio jam sessions without expectations. The trio’s ability to plug in, play and have each experiment thoroughly documented opens up unparalleled avenues for further exploration and honing. The bulk of the songs were constructed from their now tried-and-trusted process of excerpting the best sections of their lengthy jams and sculpting them into more refined shapes. “Sheepskin City”, a gallivanting ode to impermanence, runs at full-tilt, pushing repetitive riffing to sonic extremes and invoking prog-rock drum and guitar heroics. Terry Gross’s vocal melodies shine with tight harmonies that borrow from Manley and Newenhouse’s time playing in bluegrass bands. “Sales Pitch” implodes from a motorik groove into a sludgy dirge rich with textural nuance hidden in the crunch. The languid “Full Disclosure” is a testament to Terry Gross’s craftsmanship and undeniable chemistry as both a live and studio band, chronicling one of the trio’s jams in its entirety without edits or overdubs. Closing track “Effective Control” draws out an astoundingly pop-inflected edge to their rollicking thunder as it nears closer to the album’s exhilarating conclusion.
Nonpareils "Rhetoric & Terror"
Nonpareils, aka Aaron Hemphill, presents his second studio album, Rhetoric & Terror, out September 20th on CD and vinyl (limited to 500 copies worldwide).
The album follows 2018’s Scented Pictures, and finds the Berlin-based artist – previously known as co-founder and co-songwriter of Liars – compelled to write more structured music, with specific parts and intentions that allude to visual imagery and emotional states. No stranger to reinventing his approach towards composition, Rhetoric & Terror feels like we are, perhaps for the first time, opening a doorway into Hemphill’s personal life, as well as his disparate sonic influences, wide-ranging journeys through philosophy, and through that, find him reflecting on his own role as an artist.
The album features his wife Angelika Kaswalder on vocals throughout, plus multi-instrumentalist Morgan Henderson (a longtime friend since Henderson’s time in the post-hardcore band The Blood Brothers) adding woodwinds and additional arrangement on ‘Unscripting With The Snake And The Swan.’
Rhetoric & Terror, despite its intimidating name, is welcoming and playful, even during its most intense moments.
Nada Surf "Moon Mirror"
Moon Mirror, Nada Surf’s new record, has everything fans love and expect from them. Bittersweet anthems that begin quiet but explode into soaring harmonies? Check. Songs that are play-on-repeat heart punches? Check. Songs that are poetic and thought-provoking while also being absolute belt-at-the-top-of-your-voice-with-the-windows -down masterpieces? Check. It’s all here.
For the past 30 years, Nada Surf has had the same core lineup: Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, and Ira Elliot. Moon Mirror, their first for New West Records, was produced by the band and Ian Laughton at Rockfield Studios in Wales. For the recording, Matthew, Daniel, and Ira were joined by their friend and longtime keyboard player Louie Lino.
Moon Mirror is a thrilling and moving leap forward for Nada Surf. The songs on the album are true to the human experience—as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. There’s love, yes, but also grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. These are not the songs of a band in their 20s. There is hard-won wisdom here, and hard-won belief in possibility—the kind that comes from falling down and getting back up.