tag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:/blogs/press?p=3Press2019-05-24T18:53:12-04:00Laurence Hobgoodfalsetag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/60038972019-12-11T10:53:57-05:002019-12-11T10:53:57-05:00100 best CDs for 2019<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2019.html" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/fbf36933e3beec84d022bbe010b6430dcb15d50e/original/safe-image.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">TED GIOIA's picks for the 100 best albums of 2019 (all styles, all genres). These are listed in alphabetical order. Happy listening!</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/58357802019-07-25T00:03:03-04:002019-07-25T00:03:03-04:00London Jazz News<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/8de3e4a1fb7c1d7ed47ce90f799c1b64ee760a24/original/images.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><strong>Laurence Hobgood – tesseterra </strong></span><br>(Ubuntu Music UBU0019. CD review by Mike Collins) </p>
<p>Laurence Hobgood may be best known to many people for his nearly 20-year collaboration with Kurt Elling. His playing, arranging and MD’ing for the vocal master garnered awards a-plenty. tesseterra is pure Hobgood. Recorded with his regular trio of drummer Jared Schonig and bass player Matthew Clohesy, and the string quartet ETHEL, it delivers Hobgood’s arrangements of seven classic and standard tunes, mining country, pop, jazz and hymns for material. </p>
<p>There are a lot of layers to this set, Hobgood’s arranging and approach to blending and weaving together the palette of sounds is a very significant one. It’s his playing and improvising with the trio, at the core of this album, that grabbed my attention however and made the heart leap. Whether it’s dropping into a spacious, rocking groove to etch out the melody of Wichita Lineman, the bustling momentum of the drums giving the reflective reading of Blackbird wings, or a straight ahead propulsive swing on All of You, there’s a clarity and crispness to the time feel and choice of harmony that’s arresting. </p>
<p>And Hobgood is a joyful, fluent, melodic improviser. Ideas flow into each other and are developed, connected by arcing lines or beautifully judged use of space, lighting up the most familiar of material; Georgia on My Mind, We Shall Overcome, and Sting’s Everything She Does is Magic all get a reading. </p>
<p>There is an animating concept at work in the arrangements. The string quartet is not just decoration. Hobgood has written little preludes that develop artfully into the tunes; textures are woven throughout with scripted, sometimes acerbic interjections by the strings; on All of You he has them exchanging fours with the piano. It gives the overall sound a more formal air, a deliberate blending of two approaches to music making adding depth and drama to arrangements. </p>
<p>What kept bringing me back to listen however, was the emotion and lyricism in Hobgood’s playing. That combined with the creative arranging and fine playing of the ensemble make this a release well worth seeking out. </p>
<p>ETHEL are Kip Jones and Corin Lee – violin, Ralph Farris – viola, Dorothy Lawson – cello. </p>
<p>Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bath, who runs the jazzyblogman site. Twitter @jazzyblogman </p>
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<p><a contents="PREVIEW/ INTERVIEW" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://londonjazznews.com/2016/02/18/preview-interview-barb-jungr-laurence-hobgood-cd-shelter-from-the-storm-and-uk-tour-dates-16-mar-5-apr/" target="_blank">PREVIEW/ INTERVIEW</a>: Barb Jungr/ Laurence Hobgood. CD Shelter From The Storm and UK Tour Dates 16 Mar-5 Apr </p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/58097712019-06-30T22:51:05-04:002019-06-30T22:51:05-04:00Jazz Times <p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/57085ee3a32f4b16b685511577696f2fb8996984/original/download.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Laurence Hobgood: Tesseterra(Ubuntu) </p>
<p>A review of the pianist's album that blends his trio with a string quartet </p>
<p>PUBLISHED JUNE 1, 2019 MAY 31, 2019 –STEVE GREENLEE</p>
<p>Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” first recorded by country singer Glen Campbell in 1968, has gradually become a bona fide jazz standard. Its melody and chord changes are among the most beautiful in music of any genre, and in the most skilled hands—think Cassandra Wilson’s 2002 version or the one in 2013 from John Hollenbeck’s big band—it constitutes art at its most devastating. Now comes pianist Laurence Hobgood, who takes up the first 12 minutes of his new album with an achingly gorgeous rendition that blends his trio with a string quartet. </p>
<p>This version—like the rest of Tesseterra—requires great patience. The album’s 67 minutes contain only seven songs. Listening to it is an immersive experience; it’s music for sitting quietly with the lights off, not for commuting in stop-and-go traffic. Songs take time to develop; themes spend many minutes revealing themselves. The strings introduce “Wichita Lineman” alone, in a modern minimalist manner that suggests Arvo Pärt. Three minutes in, Hobgood lays down the familiar theme, and bassist Matthew Clohesy and drummer Jared Schonig join with the strings to create a lovely backdrop for Hobgood’s balladry.</p>
<p>Cellist Dorothy Lawson, violist Ralph Farris, and violinists Kip Jones and Carin Lee feature prominently on the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” alternating pizzicato and lushness over the first three minutes before the trio is heard, and they lead the way on “We Shall Overcome,” transforming the folk protest tune into a swelling, film-climax centerpiece. The strings serve a more traditional jazz role on “All of You,” almost fading behind the churning rhythm section, and on “Georgia on My Mind,” where they swoop in dramatically, augmenting Hobgood’s soulful playing. On the album’s most surprising treatment, the Police hit “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” acquires a complex string arrangement, a more carefully considered rhythm, and a slowed pace. It’s an entrancing reinvention, if a bit twee. </p>
<p>In his liner notes, Hobgood says he considers Tesseterra a jazz album rather than a jazz/classical hybrid. But that’s underselling the achievement. It’s a soul-soothing blend of jazz, classical, and pop that doesn’t have a name other than “music.”</p>
<p> </p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/57672392019-05-24T16:59:30-04:002019-05-24T18:51:39-04:00BBC Music Magazine <p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/b936352241d2e48b8892c63f8e31e83cc823aef2/original/bbc-music-magazine-logo-20121.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Jazz Roger Thomas's pick of recent releases, from polished originals to takes on rock JUNE ROUND-UP</p>
<p>Jazz traditionally relies on collective interaction, yet paradoxically the music's development is always described in the terms of the innovative<br>statements made by individuals, from Satchmo to Coltrane and beyond. Each of this month's discs carries the name of an individual performer,<br>but they also neatly illustrate how such roles and the notion of leadership can be seen from a number of perspectives.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/9ee41e63c39ff8de53055bb8590d9a18e491d60a/original/5-star.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpeg" class="size_s justify_left border_" />Pianist Hobgood's<em><strong> t e s s e t e r r a</strong></em> is also big on tunes but this intriguing album<br>is for the most part new and different take on the practice of raiding the pop-rock catalogue<br>for jazz-friendly material, which in this case is steered in an unexpected direction by the<br>addition of the excellent avant-contemporary string quartet ETHEL. With tunes borrowed<br>from The Police, The Beatles, and numerous other sources, the program is nothing if not diverse,<br>but ultimately it's the presence of the strings that gives the music it's unique stamp, with Hobgood's<br>arrangements expertly splicing precise and demanding compositional elements with improvised sections.<br>(Ubuntu Music UBU0019)<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/e54f58c8e10641c081af31d858af6da877827b0c/original/cd-cover250-w-credit.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.png" class="size_s justify_left border_" /><br><br> </p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/57671962019-05-24T16:25:31-04:002019-05-24T18:53:12-04:00A KIND OF JAZZ<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/a6305492cd551ae1d3a89511567e421267a5725f/original/ilfym3p-400x400.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /> </p>
<p>Saturday, 04 May 2019 17:10 Laurence Hobgood – tesseterra <br>Written by Matthew Ruddick </p>
<p>Pianist and arranger Laurence Hobgood delivers a seamless blend of jazz trio with string quartet. <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/9ee41e63c39ff8de53055bb8590d9a18e491d60a/original/5-star.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpeg" class="size_s justify_left border_" /></p>
<p>Jazz and strings can make strange bedfellows; there are numerous examples of albums where the strings feel surplus to requirements, or arranged by somebody who had never previously worked with jazz musicians. More recently, KoJ reviewed Medeski Martin and Wood’s Omnisphere, a collaboration with ‘new music collective’ Alarm Will Sound, which sounded somewhat disjointed – a strange mix of styles that didn’t work well as a whole. </p>
<p>If anyone is going to make it work, you’d probably bet on Laurence Hobgood, who worked as a pianist and arranger for Kurt Elling for over twenty years. He describes the music as “third stream nouveau”; in other words, an updated version of the “third stream” experiments by the likes of the Modern Jazz Quartet and Jimmy Giuffre in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But whilst the Modern Jazz Quartet, to my ears at least, sounded a little too stiff, the arrangements here are quite dazzling. He’s chosen to work with ETHEL, a string quartet comprised of Ralph Farris on viola, Kip Jones on violin, Dorothy Lawson on cello and Corin Lee on violin, an amazing ensemble that seem to be on the same wavelength as Hobgood. </p>
<p>Listen to Hobgood discuss the project here: </p>
<p>Hobgood is joined by his own trio, Matthew Clohesy on bass and Jared Schonig on drums. The tunes selected are primarily popular songs that are well-suited to further exploration, including Wichita Lineman, Blackbird and Georgia On My Mind, although an arrangement of Chopin’s Waltz in C♯Minor is also available as a bonus track. </p>
<p>The opening track, Wichita Lineman, is utterly beguiling, with Hobgood giving the melody an almost ‘big screen’ treatment; it’s worth mentioning from the outset that his own playing is superb, and that the engineering on this album is absolutely top-notch, too. </p>
<p>Here's a clip of Wichita Lineman, live - and without strings - but enough to give you a flavour: </p>
<p>Blackbird is barely recognisable from the lengthy intro, but when Hobgood does come in, there are echoes of Brad Mehldau’s interpretation, but that’s no bad thing. </p>
<p>My favourite track is Suite: Judy Blue Eyes; the complex shifts of the Stills original are ripe for further examination, and the stirring climax is fantastic. We Shall Overcome also works well, a seamless blending of jazz trio and strings. </p>
<p>And Tesseterra? It’s an amalgam of terra, which is Latin for earth, and tessitura, which means texture in Italian, but musically can refer to an instrument’s most pleasing musical texture. Hobgood has given us pleasing musical textures in abundance here, and his new album is highly recommended.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/57287452019-04-22T20:07:45-04:002019-04-22T20:11:13-04:00New York Times 12 Pop, Rock and Jazz Concerts to Check Out in N.Y.C. This Weekend<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/44904b8d390ca241ce8d1d54c924f38ad60d8d1f/original/3f343ffc604a6c839e31d3f052b78abfa34ab588.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" />LAURENCE HOBGOOD at the Rubin Museum of Art (April 25, 7 p.m.). As a pianist and arranger, Hobgood may be best known for his two-decade collaboration with the vocalist Kurt Elling, which came to an end a few years ago. On “tesseterra,” Mr. Hobgood’s new album, he draws upon the textural and stylistic breadth he long deployed as Elling’s musical director; the album finds him combining a jazz trio with a string quartet, playing a mix of thoroughly rearranged classic-rock tunes, jazz standards and a Chopin waltz. Two impressive things stand out: how enormous his arrangements make the string quartet sound, and how fluidly these seven musicians blend together. He will play material from the disc at the Rubin with that hybrid ensemble: Leonor Falcon and Tomoko Omura on violin, Jen Herman on viola, Brian Sanders on cello, Matt Clohesy on bass and Jared Schonig on drums. <br><a contents="laurencehobgood.com/rubin-cd-release-concert" data-link-label="Rubin CD Release concert" data-link-type="page" href="/rubin-cd-release-concert" target="_blank">laurencehobgood.com/rubin-cd-release-concert</a></p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/57185302019-04-13T12:54:42-04:002019-04-13T12:54:42-04:00ALL ABOUT JAZZ<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/3773e674622abd313445dd19fadcc8cd0f03af27/original/images.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>By ROGER FARBEY <br>April 12, 2019 </p>
<p>"Jazz with strings" is a phrase that sometimes invokes a heart-sink feeling amongst reviewers. Happily this is not one of those occasions. Laurence Hobgood has released a half dozen records under his own name but many more for vocalist Kurt Elling with whom he's been musical director, co-producer and accompanist for over twenty years. During that time Elling was a nominee for his three Blue Note releases and both Hobgood and Elling were named 1995 Chicagoans of the year in the Arts by the Chicago Tribune. Hobgood is a true virtuoso who began formal training on the piano from the age of six. In addition to his jazz trio, his other accompanists here, the string quartet ETHEL, are no strangers to popular, jazz and contemporary music and have recorded or performed with the likes of Ornette Coleman, Sheryl Crow and Roger Daltrey to name just a few. </p>
<p>The linear string introduction to "Wichita Lineman" seems singularly appropriate given the melancholic nature of the song. The relaxed trio approach to the melody backed by the string quartet is a masterpiece in understatement, but as the piece evolves it transmutes into a florid exposition of the tune. As with other numbers on the album, Hobgood's playing oscillates seamlessly between rubato and strict tempo on tunes like Paul McCartney's timeless "Blackbird," but, crucially, always integrates feelings of space and serenity. Crosby Stills and Nash's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" reflects the multi-layered original but also incorporates a spectacular solo and a joyous ensemble rendition of the most famous later section of the tune. Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind" is given an sumptuous, bluesy treatment, the string quartet providing an almost choir-like backing, first played arco then with delicate pizzicato, returning to bowing and finally ending with a memorably plangent piano coda. From its initial statement of the familiar melody to "We Shall Overcome," the piece morphs into a dreamy string-powered reverie. </p>
<p>Cole Porter's "All Of You" is defined by the jazziness of the strings working in counterpoint with the piano, resulting in a sublime version of this elegant standard. On Sting's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," the ensemble weaves its way through the song combining Hobgood's dexterous playing with the neo-classical string arrangement and yet the number still properly swings. The choice of such well-known numbers is presumably a deliberate ploy on Hobgood's part in order to reinvent them in an entirely new and dynamic context. This tactic works satisfyingly well as do his imaginative deconstructions of the songs. Hobgood has produced here an exceptional debut album for the ever-burgeoning Ubuntu Music label, which augurs very well indeed both for the pianist and the record company. </p>
<p>Track Listing: Witchita Lineman; Blackbird; Georgia On MyMind; Suite: Judy Blue Eyes; We Shall Overcome; All Of You; Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. </p>
<p>Personnel: Laurence Hobgood: piano; Matthew Clohesy: bass; Jared Schonig: drums. Plus ETHEL: Ralph Farris: viola; Dorothy Lawson: cello; Kip Jones: violin; Corin Lee: violin. </p>
<p>Title: Tesseterra | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: Ubuntu Music</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/57128672019-04-09T11:08:46-04:002019-04-09T11:08:46-04:00BIG ISLAND MUSIC MAGAZINE<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/02683f95cc4e6a75c198338fd1c5363342169c0d/original/big-island-logo.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/fb2d53240598216daf4db24ce949d28c1e3c32d3/original/hobgood-banner.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><strong>Because Every Note Counts… Laurence Hobgood Trio at the Kahilu </strong></span></p>
<p>BY STEVE ROBY ON APRIL 8, 2019</p>
<p>Grammy-winning Jazz pianist Laurence Hobgood and his amazing trio — Jared Schonig, drums, and Matthew Clohesy, bass — made their Kahilu Theatre debut last Sunday, and the music is still playing in my head. Jazz is a rare commodity here on the island, and we have the Theatre’s Artistic Director Chuck Gessert to thank for bringing in not only Hobgood, but the Harold López-Nussa Trio this season. </p>
<p>In his intro, Gessert explained his connection to Hobgood from his college years when he heard him regularly play at a tiny Urbana, Illinois, club called Nature’s Table. Hobgood is well-known for his recordings with singer Kurt Elling, with whom he worked extensively from 1995 to 2013. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/ea27dc83686bb61a417d4b71900e120a50a60b62/original/hobgood-trio.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />Sunday’s setlist focused on Hobgood’s most recent CD Honor Thy Fathers. The music honors many influences in Hobgood’s life and career (teachers and jazz heroes), including “Sanctuary” was written and dedicated to his father. Nat King Cole’s 1943 hit “Straighten Up and Fly Right” got special treatment. Played in 7:4 time, Hobgood reframed the boogie-woogie tune with numerous jazz elements. </p>
<p>Hobgood also featured a few songs from his upcoming release t e s s e t e r r a (out April 26). The new album was arranged for his current trio and a string quartet. Hobgood said the album spotlights iconic songs, not necessarily jazz songs, but songs that deserve jazz treatments. The new recording will cover Cole Porter, Stevie Wonder, the Gershwins, Sting, Joni Mitchell, Michel Legrand, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among others. </p>
<p>I got lost in Hobgood’s dreamy arrangement of Glen Campbell’s 1968 hit “Wichita Lineman,” written by the great Jimmy Webb. The outro, “…still on the line,” swerved, tumbled, before making a gentle landing as the final notes escaped from that sweet-sounding Yamaha piano. It’s one of those tunes you want playing in the car as you’re making that scenic drive out to Hawi – a soaring soundtrack that matches the breathtaking landscape! </p>
<p>Hobgood talked about his father’s gift of his first jazz record at 15, Oscar Peterson’s 1970 album, Tracks. Up until that point, the young pianist was playing blues and classical music, first in Dallas, before moving to Urbana. Hobgood updated Peterson’s recording of “Give Me the Simple Life,” giving his drummer, Jared Schonig, the opportunity cut loose several times. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/71ce2641546e2ce17801656cdf1f32eb66f5e767/original/jared-schonig2.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> Jared Schonig </p>
<p>Like Hobgood, Schonig is also a Grammy winner. It was a thrill to watch him play on “If It’s Magic.” Using mallets, brushes, drumsticks, and even his fingers, Schonig summoned a variety of unusual sounds from his kit – a brand new set of Yamaha drums the Theatre recently purchased, and unboxed for this performance! </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/9142f8966efd5719c4896e32961fa9c53ccfd3a0/original/matthew-clohesy-bass2.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Matthew Clohesy </p>
<p>Rounding out the Hobgood Trio is bassist Matthew Clohesy. He’s formerly from Melbourne and now calls New York City home. “Shirákumo No Michi (White Cloud Way),” featured several furious solos in the middle. The song shifts time signatures rapidly, but Clohesy kept a steady bottom pulse on his upright bass. This is another tune found on Honor Thy Fathers, which Hobgood dedicated to saxophonist Wayne Shorter, whom he calls “The reigning Bodhisattva of the jazz world.” </p>
<p>Hobgood and band ended with an outtake that didn’t appear on the Honor Thy Fathers album: “Poinciara.” In his commentary, Hobgood said his arrangement was a tribute to piano giant Ahmad Jamal’s version. Toward the end, Laurence reached into the piano to mute strings, for nuanced notes. There was a standing ovation and cries for a Hana Hou, but the trio returned to the stage only to take a bow. An informal meet-and-greet followed in the lobby, where fans had CDs signed, and questions answered. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/9982086725de8caeff1f8815e53eee9538160706/original/56578088-796679894023818-8475910309872140288-n.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />Hobgood will be touring Australia in July, joined by Big Island’s vocal artist Rhiannon. She and Hobgood collaborated on a 2018 performance called The Two of Us at Richard Russell’s Jazz Barn in Hawi. </p>
<p>Hobgood said he hopes to follow Tessatera, with Honor Thy Mothers, paying tribute to the many musical “mothers” who influenced him! </p>
<p>Mahalo to Paul Buckley, the Theatre’s Technical Director for the awesome sound at this concert. While we have a small, but emerging jazz scene here on the Big Island, I’d like to say thanks to Richard Russell, Jesse Snyder, Bub Pratt, Amy Lee, Gary Washington, Brian McCree, and many others for keeping jazz alive here. </p>
<p>Setlist <br>Sanctuary | Straighten Up and Fly Right | Wichita Lineman | Give Me The Simple Life | Shirákumo No Michi (White Cloud Way) | Black Bird | Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) |If It’s Magic | Poinciara </p>
<p>Keep up with Laurence Hobgood’s busy tour schedule, music, and more via his website: https://laurencehobgood.com/home </p>
<p>Steve Roby is a music journalist, best-selling author, and originally from San Francisco. He’s been featured in the NY Times, Rolling Stone, and Billboard Magazine. Roby is also the Managing Editor of Big Island Music Magazine. </p>
<p>Photos: Steve Roby </p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/56840712019-03-18T10:24:07-04:002019-03-18T10:27:56-04:00Talking Story with Jazz Pianist Laurence Hobgood<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.bigislandmusic.net/talking-story-with-jazz-pianist-laurence-hobgood/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/02683f95cc4e6a75c198338fd1c5363342169c0d/original/big-island-logo.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<h3>BY STEVE ROBY | MARCH 17, 2019</h3>
<p>Laurence Hobgood is one of the most accomplished jazz pianists working today. The talented musician is noted for his nearly 20-year collaboration with singer Kurt Elling, a combination that garnered 10 Grammy nominations. He’s also a top-notch jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and producer, as well as a Yamaha artist and Grammy winner for his 2009 CD,<em> Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane And Hartman. </em></p>
<p>Hobgood will be releasing a new CD on April 26 titled <em>tesseterra</em>. The recording combines his love of jazz trio and composing for string quartet with uplifting arrangements of what he calls the “expanded songbook” – repertoire ranging from Cole Porter to Sting, Hoagie Carmichael to Paul McCartney, Chopin to Crosby Stills & Nash. </p>
<p>The Laurence Hobgood Trio will be performing at the Kahilu Theatre on Sunday, April 7 at 4 p.m. Ticket info can be found below. </p>
<p>I caught up with Laurence Hobgood via a phone interview during a writing session he was doing in New York City. </p>
<p>Aloha, Laurence. We’re looking forward to your upcoming show in Waimea. How is your current tour going? </p>
<p>The current tour is a beautiful combination of two things for me because the trio that I have with Jared Schonig, on drums, and Matthew Clohesy, on bass, is very special to me. I don’t think it’s putting it too mildly to say that in a lot of ways I’ve waited my whole life to have these particular personnel and part of the joy is that they really are into it. They’re both very in demand, New York young players that offer a broad spectrum of styles, and they’re both touring internationally regularly with different people. I had to plan far in advance to make sure that I’ve got them when I’m doing what I want to make happen. Getting to go out on the road, play on the West Coast, and then come to Hawaii and play a trio concert and at the Kahilu Theatre will be wonderful. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/132f6ebe091ef34003fe1aab3bf2bc500333ea66/original/header-trio.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>Matthew Clohesy, Laurence Hobgood, and Jared Schonig </strong></span></p>
<p>Besides touring and recording, you also teach theory, composing and arranging. What are students looking for when they take your course? </p>
<p>They take the course for a variety of reasons. One might be to get a very analytical nuts and bolts awareness that there’s structural information out there about how music works and to gain more variety with what they’re trying to do with music. They’d like to learn more about how others approach the exact same thing, but from a very intuitive place. One of the things I tell my private students in their very first lesson, I always say, ‘My goal as a teacher is to make myself obsolete. Your goal as a student should be to get to the point where you know music well enough that you can answer all of your own questions. And it’s the complexity of those questions that tells you what kind of musician you’re going to be.’ </p>
<p>What was it like working with Kurt Elling for so many years? </p>
<p>It was an amazing education on several different levels. One of them certainly was seeing something being built from literally the ground up. When I met Kurt, he was moving furniture and paying off student loans, and then he started to attack the Chicago jazz scene particularly on the South Side… there’s like a whole different culture down there. Kurt was really part of that, and that’s when I met him. I got to learn all that stuff, not in a two-year university environment, but in a twenty-year real-life experience. I’m very grateful for the time that I had to learn the craft, and find my own voice as I was doing it right. </p>
<p>Your new CD Tesseterra is coming our next month. Can you tell us about that? </p>
<p>That’s been a dream of mine ever since I was in school. I’ve loved listening to and writing for string quartet. It’s so totally contrapuntal and tonally interesting… a fascinating puzzle solving exercise and musical expression. I just had this idea that string quartet and a great trio would be a great combination, and then Kurt Elling’s record, Live at Lincoln Center, won a Grammy, and that had string quartet all over it. That was when I reconnected with string quartet writing and I started experimenting with a couple of things. In fact, the first really successful one is the track of “Georgia on My Mind.” I wrote that arrangement six or seven years ago and haven’t changed a thing. The writing got a little bit more, in some cases, abstracted, but it’s not abstracted the way most people would think of it. The whole concept of it is that it’s all iconic song repertoire reimagined for that instrumentation… Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Chopin, Cole Porter, Hoagie Carmichael, Sting, Paul McCartney… that’s the writing pool. Every single one of the songs on the CD means something to people. I’ve had arguments with my wife about [including]“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” and whether that’s truly an iconic song. I think it is. </p>
<p>I’m sure Judy Collins does too. What can fans expect at your upcoming Kahilu Theatre show? </p>
<p>We will be concentrating on the repertoire from my most recent CD, Honor Thy Fathers, and every track is a dedication to some influence…. Nat Cole, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Wayne Shorter, Bill Evans… those are the people that each track is dedicated to. You’ll definitely hear some jazz updating of pop tunes like Stevie Wonder’s “If It’s Magic,” and “Give Me The Simple Life.” Remember that old tune? It was used in an old commercial, but they changed it to ‘…Campbell Life.’ </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I do, and the jingle will be stuck in my head today. </p>
<p>Well, all you have to do is go to my Soundcloud page and listen to my version to get it out of your head. </p>
<p>Nice segue, sir. Are you working on any new projects or recordings this year? </p>
<p>Before the holidays, I recorded with a drummer Harvey Mason on a project that he got me involved with a yet unknown singer. I’m not going to say his name, because this is all a big surprise. I wrote the whole record… eleven arrangements, and right now I’m writing for a really interesting project that does involve the trio, and we will have recorded it in L.A. right before we come to Honolulu, and before Waimea. All I’ll say about it is that it’s a woman who had more of a history with opera and musical theater and that the project involves these healing bowls. She wanted to do something really cool that involved something stylistically for a more eclectic palette. I wouldn’t strictly call it jazz, but it’s still very focused. I’m doing the arrangements to incorporate the bowls. And, so, that’s what I’m working on right now. </p>
<p>Thanks for your time, and we look forward to your upcoming show at the Kahilu. </p>
<p>My pleasure. </p>
<hr><p><em>If You Go </em></p>
<p>The Laurence Hobgood Trio will perform some electrifying jazz music at the Kahilu Theatre on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 7 4 pm. Tickets are $65/$45/$25, and can be purchased at <a contents="kahilutheatre.org" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?performance=391495" target="_blank">kahilutheatre.org</a>, (808) 885-6868 or at the Kahilu Theatre Box Office located at 67-1186 Lindsey Road, Kamuela HI. </p>
<p>Steve Roby is a music journalist, best-selling author, and originally from San Francisco. He’s been featured in the NY Times, Rolling Stone, and Billboard Magazine. Roby is also the Managing Editor of Big Island Music Magazine. </p>
<p>Photo credit: David Belusic and Steve Parke.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/55404982018-12-05T07:38:37-05:002018-12-05T07:43:49-05:0030 years later, piano whiz Laurence Hobgood returns to the Mill<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/837595b9d7cec2fcae75609650c4c7b120a44f2d/original/chicago-tribune-image.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Dec 3, 2018 | Howard Reich</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/422c34defb9e6ed391f3798195495878415a7238/original/green-mill-tribune.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_right border_" /><br>Thirty years ago, a little-known pianist from Champaign-Urbana moved to Chicago and quickly aced a standing engagement in one of the city’s top jazz rooms, the Green Mill. </p>
<p>Since then, Laurence Hobgood has built a formidable reputation as a double-threat keyboard virtuoso and Grammy-winning arranger. </p>
<p>So when Hobgood celebrates his 30th anniversary at the Mill this weekend, he’ll have cause to feel a bit nostalgic about how much has transpired since those early days. </p>
<p>Back then, “Like anybody else, I was hoping to at least get on the radar and make a name for myself of some kind, whatever that means,” says the pianist. </p>
<p>He decided to start by dropping in at the Mill, where saxophonist Barry Winograd was leading the late-night Friday jam session. When the evening’s pianist was late in getting to show, Winograd invited Hobgood to take his shot. </p>
<p>“At the end of the gig, Barry and (bassist) Steve Hashimoto said: ‘Hey, do you want to do this gig every week?’” remembers Hobgood. </p>
<p>“So I had a steady at the Mill, and I’d only lived in Chicago for three days.” </p>
<p>Anyone who has heard Hobgood – even back then – would not be surprised by that offer, even if the pianist himself was. For the fluidity, tonal sheen and narrative arc of Hobgood’s pianism long has set him apart from contemporaries, his work only deepening through the decades. </p>
<p>Of all the subsequent residences he held at the Mill before moving to New York, in 2006, none has been more important to him than his tenure in former Chicago saxophonist Ed Petersen’s Monday night band. </p>
<p>“Ed’s book was so challenging, and that music was so hard,” says Hobgood, who also accompanied singer Kurt Elling’s appearances at the Mill in the late 1990s and early 2000s. </p>
<p>“If there were 8 to 10 crazy hard pieces that we were focusing on, you’d think that at least you’d have another chance next Monday to try to do better. </p>
<p>“But that wasn’t the way Ed ran the gig. He might call a tune that was hard to play, and he might not call it for another six months. That band just ratcheted up our standard for what was conceivably possible in terms of complexity. Like playing a piece that’s 11 pages long with almost impossible chord changes and odd phrase lengths.” </p>
<p>At one point, Hobgood rebelled. </p>
<p>“We had played this tune before, and it had been a frustration before,” remembers Hobgood. “This one particular time we played it, about a chorus-and-half into my solo, I just basically said: To hell with it, and I totally went off script. I stopped looking at the paper. … I was just playing whatever. </p>
<p>“And at the end of the tune, Ed got on the mic and said: ‘Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody butcher my chord changes quite like that.’ </p>
<p>“And then he goes: ‘The thing is, I totally dug it.’” </p>
<p>That’s the effect Hobgood’s work tends to have on listeners, even the most demanding of them: It sweeps you along on the journey, whether you intend to go or not. </p>
<p>One other Green Mill memory holds a large place in Hobgood’s life: The night in fall of 2015 when he proposed to actor-singer-dancer Ariane Reinhart. </p>
<p>“The main thing is that I succeeded in completely surprising her, and if you know my wife, you know that that’s very difficult to do,” says Hobgood, who’ll lead a quintet during this weekend’s appearances. </p>
<p>“But there was absolutely no way – in her mind – that I was going to do that there, because of the way I get when I’m in the middle of a weekend like that – there’s nothing but the music. </p>
<p>“It was really magical. I pretended to drop something on the ground, so that it got me on my knees. And I came up with the ring, and she was completely flabbergasted. The club was packed, as it gets, people standing. </p>
<p>“So nobody, except for the people standing right by us, saw it happen. But after I stood up and we were hugging and she was crying, and I was probably crying a little bit, it took less than a minute for the whole place to erupt into an ovation. It just spread like wildfire: ‘Laurence asked Ariane to marry him.’” </p>
<p>Only at the Mill. </p>
<p>Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.<br>hreich@chicagotribune.com<br>Twitter @howardreich</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/53982622018-10-28T18:35:00-04:002018-12-05T07:42:38-05:00Review: Honor Thy Fathers Circumstantial<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/797c2046977113bf18fcd88c4e0897cbbf79d5fc/original/jazztimes.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/933c1da53d9ec85382aaa59271b9fd4bd2c81eb9/original/promoted-media-optimized-563c10eab33bf.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" />It’s easy to hear similarities between Laurence Hobgood’s piano and that of Brad Mehldau, who shares primary influences (Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans). But Hobgood, known for his years as Kurt Elling’s musical director, differentiates himself via another cluster of inspirations: Oscar Peterson, Nat “King” Cole and his own father, theater director Burnet Mclean. These and other mentors are the focus of his radiant trio record Honor Thy Fathers. </p>
<p>Armed with a top-flight rhythm section—drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist John Patitucci—Hobgood both salutes the aforementioned influences and pulls the music in unexpected directions. “Sanctuary,” an original dedicated to his father, and Cole’s “Straighten Up and Fly Right” pack in serious gospel feeling; the sanctified church even peeks through his Evans pastiche, “The Waltz.” “Give Me the Simple Life,” intended as a nod to Peterson, acknowledges him only with a few runs in the middle of Hobgood’s solo; the remainder is about unorthodox structure and carefully built suspense. </p>
<p>There are definite through lines on Honor Thy Fathers, however. Hobgood likes to work in odd meters without being ostentatious about it; “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” for example, has a bouncing march groove that doesn’t sound like the 7/4 it is, and “The Road Home,” Hobgood’s tribute to Charlie Haden, is so downhome that its rhythm in 5 seems perfectly natural. The other recurring element is lyricism, credit for which goes to Patitucci as well. His lines are not only lyrical but have the dynamics and flexible tone of a human voice, as in both his lead and fecund solo on “Shirakumo No Michi.” The album is a sublime statement—perhaps the first of 2016.</p>
<p>MICHAEL WEST | MAR 16, 2016</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54333392018-10-24T06:55:00-04:002018-10-24T10:27:47-04:00Review: Laurence Hobgood Unveils A Daring New Project at Green Mill<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/5ee6d1baad013ddd22731486f1c223cfe90de511/original/chicago-tribune-image.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>April 22, 2017 | Howard Reich </p>
<p>For two decades, pianist Laurence Hobgood was best known as accompanist and primary arranger for singer Kurt Elling. </p>
<p>When the two abruptly parted company in 2013, one wondered how Hobgood would go about forging a musical identity of his own. </p>
<p>Singers, after all, stand front and center and, by definition, bask in the spotlight. But how do those who toil just outside it make themselves heard and seen? </p>
<p>Hobgood — like Elling, a former Chicagoan living in New York — addressed the question boldly with "Honor Thy Fathers," one of the best recordings of 2016. Here the luster of Hobgood's tone, fluidity of his technique and originality of his jazz- trio conception could be savored without distraction. </p>
<p>Friday night at the Green Mill Jazz Club, the pianist made another striking move with the world premiere of tesseterra, a project for trio and string quartet. By arranging what he called "iconic tunes" for this instrumentation, Hobgood took a rather large gamble. For what could be worse than hearing classic pop songs of various eras subjected to jazz-meets-the-classics cliches? </p>
<p>Hobgood, however, is too savvy an arranger to ask string players to sustain easy-listening chords, while his trio riffs freely. Instead, he has crafted deeply considered arrangements, no two alike, each providing multiple twists and turns. To hear this music played by Hobgood's trio and a Chicago string contingent was to realize how much the pianist has developed during the past 20-plus years. </p>
<p>The caliber and finesse of his writing were instantly apparent in his version of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia On My Mind," which opened the evening's first set. After a bit of dialogue between piano and strings, Hobgood offered all-over-the-keyboard virtuosity. But this really was the curtain raiser for what was yet to come, including a pizzicato section for strings and two piano cadenzas that re-harmonized the tune while conveying the flavor of the original. </p>
<p>It was all so beautifully structured and thoughtfully paced that when the final notes arrived, there was no question that Hobgood had made a major statement. </p>
<p>Like most of Cole Porter's greatest hits, "All of You" has inspired profound recordings from Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and generations of jazz instrumentalists. Hobgood's version was distinct, opening with a musical conversation among piano, two violins and drums, the texture inexorably thickening as rhythmic energy intensified. Rather than arrive at a big finish, however, Hobgood's final pages eased up and slowed down, the last notes drifting into the ether. </p>
<p>So it went, each song re-envisioned via alternate themes, unexpected chord choices and an unmistakable storytelling arc. All of this was meticulously scored. Yes, there were solos from Hobgood and passages of improvisation for bassist Ben Rolston and drummer Stephen Boegehold, but only within a carefully constructed musical architecture. Very little was left to chance. </p>
<p>You had to admire the subtlety of Hobgood's reworking of Lennon and McCartney's "Blackbird"; the austere eloquence of Hobgood's arrangement of "We Shall Overcome," with its church-piano flourishes; and the nearly orchestral rush of sound that drove his account of Stephen Stills' "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." </p>
<p>In all of this music, Hobgood merged accessibility and sophistication, intertwining jazz, pop and classical idioms. The packed house at the Green Mill embraced the endeavor, judging by the crescendo of ovations it received. </p>
<p>If Hobgood can continue developing this music in concert and on recordings, it's easy to imagine him finding a wide audience for songs everyone knows but no one has heard in quite this way.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/53982612018-10-23T14:35:00-04:002018-10-24T11:13:47-04:00Barb Jungr & Laurence Hobgood Trio<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/0348949daf17e2063725a3c7158762c2df7c39ae/original/new-york-times.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/f8ad03f521f22b0066cfd4e3dd8b47edc3019cec/original/barb-jungr-trio.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />When the British singer Barb Jungr was growing up in Manchester, she recalled on Saturday evening, the images on an album cover of “South Pacific” gave her the illusion that a tropical island was a safe, paradisiacal refuge. At Joe’s Pub, where she is performing songs from her new album, “Shelter From the Storm: Songs of Hope for Troubled Times,” Ms. Jungr, in a green silk shirt, shell necklace and black slacks, appeared as Bloody Mary and sang “Bali Hai” with a trio that included the piano virtuoso Laurence Hobgood, Wilson Torres on percussion and Matt Clohesy on bass. These brilliant musicians lifted the performance out of the realm of cabaret and into jazz. </p>
<p>Ms. Jungr is not afraid to be goofy, and her playfulness during a program whose songs addressed the generalized anxiety about the future injected a dash of humor into a troubling question: Where do we go when global catastrophe strikes? Ms. Jungr countered that sense of dread with an attitude that could only be described as jolly. She never stopped moving, and wore a beatific smile. </p>
<p>The album title refers to the Bob Dylan song from “Blood on the Tracks.” Ms. Jungr, a passionate Dylanologist, can squeeze more juice out of a Dylan song than just about anybody. But her approach is less archaeological than intuitive. Analyzing the song, she suggested that each verse is a miniature Shakespearean play, and that’s how she performed it. </p>
<p>A strong, mambo-driven rendition of “Something’s Coming” from “West Side Story” introduced the show’s theme of ominous anticipation, but in a cheerful voice. Mr. Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” pursued the possibilities of warning and escape. And Bruce Springsteen’s “Long Walk Home” described the desolation of a small town where the narrator grew up. </p>
<p>When she sang Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” the self-adoring proclamation “We are stardust, we are golden” sounded naïve. The words “bomber jet planes riding shotgun in the sky” and “caught in the devil’s bargain” stood out. Yes, something momentous is indeed coming.</p>
<p>STEPHEN HOLDEN | MAY 16, 2016 </p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54333382018-10-22T18:50:00-04:002018-10-24T11:14:40-04:00INTERVIEW: Laurence Hobgood (UK and France tour dates April 4-13)<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/3cca860cee918a33613c26e2748e1732e9848210/original/london-jazz-news-long.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/5a613db02f776be5fa6309449f6670c280a4a6d0/original/at-piano-blue.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><span style="color:#7f8c8d;"><em>It is now four and a half years since the 18-year partnership between pianist LAURENCE HOBGOOD and vocalist Kurt Elling came to an end. The pianist has several new projects, and will be doing dates with his trio in the UK and Australia in April. He explained the background to Sebastian: </em></span></p>
<p><strong>LondonJazz News:</strong> Can I clear up one uncertainty (of mine): are you now a Chicagoan or a New Yorker? </p>
<p><strong>Laurence Hobgood: </strong>I guess kind of both; I definitely live in New York full time (for one thing I married a born-and-bred Upper Westsider) but Chicago will always be "home" in a sense – I have more close friends there and that's where the Green Mill is. The Mill will always be my true jazz home. </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> I so much enjoyed the 2016 album Honor Thy Fathers with John Patitucci and Kendrick Scott. What was the significance of that album for you? </p>
<p><strong>LH:</strong> Honor Thy Fathers was significant in many ways; principally that it was my first "full production" opportunity on my own project – meaning a first class studio where I had control of all the elements. I'd been in that position many times but always for someone else's project – and indeed it was in those situations where I'd learned studio/production craft. So I felt totally ready to bring all that experience to bear on my own recording. </p>
<p>Also, getting to play with Patitucci and Kendrick was significant – I'd played with both of them but not together. And at the time, fresh from the break with Kurt Elling, I felt it important to record with players who have "high profiles". And then there's the actual material/concept of the record itself; I was at a real junction point and the idea of paying tribute to the big influences in my life seemed not just appropriate but necessary. (By the way, I have every intention of doing an "Honor Thy Mothers" project at some point.) </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> And it seems to have had a good reception? </p>
<p><strong>LH: </strong>Definitely -- great print reviews but even more important to me are the many friends who still tell me it's in some form of heavy rotation in their home, car, iPod, etc. </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> Now you will be touring with a different trio. Please introduce us to the other members? </p>
<p><strong>LH:</strong> In Jared Schonig (drums) and Matt Clohesy (bass) I feel I've really found my sound – they each combine all the attributes my music requires: super broad stylistic versatility, virtuosic/effortless technique and a boundless joyfulness that comes across in their playing. </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> And the dominant repertoire is your arrangements of songs? </p>
<p><strong>LH</strong>: Short answer: yes. </p>
<p>Longer answer: our repertoire is divided about 60/40 between arrangements of known songs and original material. I've found that the term "arrangement" is, let's just say, incompletely apprehended by most people. It literally means "how are we going to play the song in question" in a nuts & bolts sense. Given that most musical works have at their core a discernible melody, said melody can be thought of as the heart of the composition. But is the first note of the melody going to be the first note we actually play? Usually not – there will likely be some sort of introduction, probably something that establishes the groove that's been chosen. And there can be many other "events" during a performance (in addition to the improvised solo sections) that go beyond the basic melody. The sum total of all those decisions constitutes the arrangement – so you see that even original compositions have to be "arranged" in a way that's separate from conceiving their central melody. </p>
<p>As both an improviser and composer my particular approach is to try to frame an arrangement in what is frequently a pretty scripted way; this is tricky because jazz music always needs to sound spontaneous – it can't come off as overly controlled by its compositional elements. But in the hands of great players deftly conceived arranging can seem so fresh that the lines between exactly what's being improvised and what's pre-figured tend to blur. One of the best ways to describe the result is that my music is much harder to play than it is to listen to – and of course closely related to that is the old maxim of making it look easy. </p>
<p><strong>LJN: </strong>Including some songs by Brits? </p>
<p><strong>LH:</strong> Definitely. For example we'll play my arrangements of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic and Blackbird. </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> And your own compositions too? </p>
<p><strong>LH:</strong> Oh yes, quite a few of those; we'll focus on the original pieces on Honor Thy Fathers but there are several others we've been digging into lately as well. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/6f35cd031ea783e5345bd7eac18753a054de923d/original/hobgood-trio-image-1.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color:#7f8c8d;"><strong>Laurence Hobgood (centre) <br>with Matt Clohesy and Jared Schonig <br>Publicity photo </strong></span></p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> Does this now feel like a working band? </p>
<p><strong>LH: </strong>Absolutely. These two young(-ish) gentlemen are the ideal fit for my music. Jared's parents are music educators in the Los Angeles area; as such he's grown up in a musically enlightened environment – he plays piano and has a good working knowledge of tonal music theory that's rare for drummers. So his interpretive abilities are expansive. </p>
<p>Matt is one of the few bassists I've heard anywhere whose sound is as huge as Patitucci's – or Christian's or Dave Holland's for that matter. His soloing is not just facile – it's interesting. That's a very important thing to me vis-à-vis the trio format – I want frequent bass solos, but for that to work the bassist has to really be able to play exciting ideas in a virtuosic way. </p>
<p>The point really is that they're both advanced musical thinkers who've also taken the time to develop monster technique. It's very special. </p>
<p><strong>LJN: </strong> You launched a new project called Tesseterra in Chicago – what’s the story there? </p>
<p><strong>LH: </strong>Tesseterra is my new project for trio and string quartet. (I made up this word, tesseterra, by the way, and I'm inclined to italicize it for some reason – it's an amalgam of "tessitura" and "terra", and to me means "the fabric of the world" – meant of course in an aural sense.) </p>
<p>It probably started with the Kurt Elling project that eventually – thankfully – put a Grammy on my shelf; that was the Dedicated To You John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman tribute recorded live at Lincoln Center. That was the project that got me back to writing for string quartet (with rhythm section), which I hadn't done since college. </p>
<p>I love writing for string quartet – mind you I mean real string quartet writing, not glorified string section; intricate, independent scoring tightly coordinated with the rhythm section. As I felt I was sort of coming into my own as an arranger – and particularly focusing on the "expanded songbook" (bringing great modern popular songs into the jazz canon) – it seemed natural to revisit this sound (but sans vocals.) So I've been writing for a little over four years and finally last Fall felt I was ready (repertoire-wise) to get into the studio. I'm very excited with the results: the repertoire ranges from Sting (Every Little Thing...) to Jimmy Webb (Wichita Lineman) to Chopin (Waltz Op. 64 no. 2) to the American folk spiritual We Shall Overcome (which I started writing the day after our most recent Presidential election.) I even wrote an arrangement of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills and Nash. </p>
<p>The trio recorded with the string quartet ETHEL, who played on the aforementioned Grammy-winning project. It was great to reunite with them and I hope to be able to have them tour this project at least a little bit – they're quite busy. I'm guessing we'll end up collaborating with local string quartets – but that's cool, there are a lot of great string quartets out there who I think would really enjoy playing this material since it's both challenging but a lot of fun, too. </p>
<p>As for the album we're still "shopping" this so I'm not sure exactly when it will be released, hopefully by this Fall. </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> And there is a quintet with trumpet and sax. Who’s involved? </p>
<p><strong>LH: </strong>Well Jared and Matt of course; I'm very proud to say that the tenor sax player is none other than the amazing Ernie Watts. I'm not yet sure who will play trumpet when we go into the studio – Marquis Hill played the longest tour we've done, but that was before he won the Monk competition and blew up, so he hasn't been available. Not sure about the trumpeter yet. </p>
<p>This is also ready to record – I think there are 12 finished pieces for the quintet. I'm constantly writing, either for my groups or, just as likely, one of the singers whose projects I'm writing and/or producing. When you write enough to develop a system that allows you to work with increasing speed (I use Sibelius if anyone's interested) you start viewing repertoire differently. </p>
<p>So it's intentional that tesseterra is all iconic song repertoire, whereas the quintet is all original writing. I wanted to do simultaneous projects that showed both sides of my compositional self; the classic sound of jazz quintet with tenor sax and trumpet is the perfect vessel for realizing my original compositions, whereas the more unique sound of trio + string quartet appeals to my penchant for reimagining standards. </p>
<p><strong>LJN:</strong> And you also work with singer Arianna Neikrug? </p>
<p><strong>LH:</strong> I met Arianna last year; she had won the Sarah Vaughan vocal competition and part of her prize was making a record for Concord. Chris Dunn (head of A&R at Concord) reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in shepherding the project and, after meeting with Arianna a couple times, I agreed enthusiastically. </p>
<p>She has a great voice and also a great imagination; further, I can say without a doubt that Arianna's the most theoretically informed singer I've ever worked with – she graduated from the Frost School of Music at University of Miami and it's no surprise to me that she learned so much because the dean there, the amazing pianist/composer/arranger Shelly Berg, is a good friend and I'd expect nothing less from any programme he'd be in charge of. </p>
<p>But Arianna has a thinking musician's mind or she wouldn't have retained so much information. She's special, and I think the record we've made, Changes (title of an original song we co-wrote,) is special – hopefully the start of an enduring collaboration. It comes out in May. </p>
<p>By the way Jared and Matt are on Changes, too. </p>
<p><strong>LJN: </strong>And does either the UK or Australia bring back memories of previous visits? </p>
<p><strong>LH:</strong> Oh yes, many memories. In fact Pizza Express in Dean Street especially so; that's where one night, as we began the second set, I looked out and saw Tony Bennett sitting there not 20 feet from me. </p>
<p>But there were also great nights at the Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Hall when I was still playing with Kurt Elling – I'd love to bring tesseterra into one of those exquisite venues! </p>
<p>And Australia – I love Australia, the people are so amazingly open and friendly! I think I've been down to Oz ten times or so? Been all over the country – lots of great memories, from sailing on Sydney Harbor to some great days in wine country – Barossa, McLaren Vale, Margaret River. Hitting the beach at Byron Bay, gorgeous place! And of course musical memories as well – playing in the main hall at Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony didn't ruin my day at all! </p>
<p>I can't wait to get back to both places and I'm so excited to be bringing the best trio I've ever had – we have so much fun and I can truthfully say that every time we play the audience does, too. </p>
<p>3/19/18</p>
<p><strong>TOUR DATES - UK and FRANCE</strong> </p>
<p>Wednesday 4 April 18:30 PizzaExpress Live, London <br>Thursday 5 April 18:30 PizzaExpress Live, London <br>Friday 6 April 18:30 Dublin Jazz, Bagots Hutton, Dublin, Ireland <br>Saturday 7 April 19:30 Cinnamon Club, Altricham <br>Tuesday 10 April 20:30 Watermill Jazz, Dorking <br>Friday 13 April 18:30 Duc des Lombards, Paris </p>
<p>LINKS: <br><a contents="Review of 2016 CD Honor Thy Fathers" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.londonjazznews.com/2016/03/cd-review-laurence-hobgood-trio-with.html" target="_blank">Review of 2016 CD Honor Thy Fathers</a> <br><a contents="Laurence Hobgood website" data-link-label="Home" data-link-type="page" href="/home">Laurence Hobgood website</a><br><a contents="Original interview in LJN" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.londonjazznews.com/2018/03/interview-laurence-hobgood-uk-and.html?m=1" target="_blank">Original interview in LJN</a></p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54333362018-10-22T17:40:00-04:002018-10-24T11:23:27-04:00Laurence Hobgood review: On His Own Terms<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/f5652086826ef838d2e70afe0ca39f65a1c61c1e/original/press-title-0001-the-age.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />MUSIC <br>THE LAURENCE HOBGOOD TRIO ★★★★ <br>The Jazzlab, Brunswick </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/9f62b618841772e4f5708098c423911a0e25d8da/original/the-age.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>Laurence Hobgood: Precise musical vision</strong></span></p>
<p>Australia isn’t exactly a new destination for Laurence Hobgood. The American pianist has toured here close to a dozen times, playing in clubs and concert halls, in small-group settings and with symphony orchestras. What’s new this time is the billing, which features Hobgood’s own name. For almost two decades, the pianist worked with the celebrated vocalist Kurt Elling (as Elling’s pianist, musical director and co-producer). </p>
<p>When that collaboration came to an end in 2013, it provided an opportunity for Hobgood to finally step into the spotlight as a bandleader on his own terms. </p>
<p>Without a vocalist, the attributes that make Hobgood such a peerless accompanist are pulled into even sharper focus. One is his mastery as an arranger, dressing familiar tunes in striking new clothes without disguising or dismissing their essential qualities. Another is his determination never to let virtuosity overtake musicality. His facility as a pianist may be awe-inspiring, but you can be sure that every phrase – every note – is there for a <br>reason. </p>
<p>His precise musical vision requires extremely attentive bandmates, and at the Jazzlab, Melbourne musicians Sam Anning (on bass) and Danny Fischer (drums) did a remarkable job negotiating the intricate arrangements and allowing them to breathe. The repertoire was drawn mainly from Hobgood’s 2016 album Honor Thy Fathers, where the pianist pays tribute to his musical and personal mentors. On Saturday, the trio offered a buoyant <br>7/4 strut through Nat Cole’s Straighten Up and Fly Right, an artfully elongated melody line on the Beatles’ Blackbird, and an unusually dynamic take on Ahmad Jamal’s Poinciana. </p>
<p>Just as impactful were Hobgood’s originals: the lovely, gospel-tinged homage to his father Sanctuary; the soulful saunter of The Road Home; and One Version of Happiness, which – like many of the night’s most memorable tunes – exuded an air of ebullience that felt as warm as a loved one’s embrace. </p>
<p>By Jessica Nicholas<br><a contents="The Age" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/laurence-hobgood-review-on-his-own-terms-20180426-p4zbw7.html" target="_blank">The Age</a></p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54333252018-10-22T12:25:00-04:002018-10-24T10:35:08-04:00Laurence Hobgood, The pianist talks to David Gallant about how he got started, the instruments he's played and his all-time favourite choice<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/2caef8d2050e7dfefbe25db21533e8075e93704d/original/screen-shot-2018-06-14-at-12-28-43-pm.png" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/b400cdaa377fdf7d840040b0f447660768ef761f/original/jazzwise-hobgood-review-image-page-56.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54630852018-10-22T10:45:00-04:002018-10-24T10:39:45-04:00Pianist Laurence Hobgood steps into spotlight<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/5ee6d1baad013ddd22731486f1c223cfe90de511/original/chicago-tribune-image.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">HOWARD REICH | OCTOBER 10, 2015</p>
<p>Anyone who has heard Laurence Hobgood already knows that he's one of the most accomplished jazz pianists working today. </p>
<p>But the melodic urgency, tonal sheen and improvisational creativity of his art have reached an apex with "Honor Thy Fathers," a trio album that won't be released until early next year but will be briefly available this weekend at the Green Mill Jazz Club. That's where Hobgood, who thrived in Chicago from 1988 to 2006, will play music from a recording that says a great deal about where he stands in his art and his life.</p>
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="width:75%;"><tbody> <tr> <td>
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/ac76abf29a65b018a98de9d5fb636df845ad6ff5/original/lawrence-hobgood-jpg-20151006-chicago-tribune.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_none border_" /> <p><span style="color:#999999;"><em>Laurence Hobgood in the recording studio in New York. Hobgood's new album "Honor Thy Fathers," due out in 2016, will be briefly available this weekend when he plays the Green Mill Jazz Club. (Cali Hobgood)</em></span></p> </td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>As its title suggests, "Honor Thy Fathers" represents Hobgood's homage to those who have mentored him, from his father and grandfather (pictured with the infant in 1960) to his "musical fathers," among them piano giants Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Nat King Cole. Notwithstanding the achievements of Hobgood's earlier recordings and his long tenure as pianist-arranger with singer Kurt Elling, "Honor Thy Fathers" casts Hobgood's pianism in its most favorable light yet. </p>
<p>To hear Hobgood seamlessly exchanging ideas with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Kendrick Scott is to savor more fully than ever the flow of his ideas, the unpredictability with which he develops them, the luster of his keyboard touch and the assuredness and subtlety of his work as bandleader (Hobgood will be joined by drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Matt Clohesy for the Green Mill engagement).</p>
<p>In essence, Hobgood has been busily going about the "pianistic business of rediscovering myself after the break-up with Kurt Elling," he says, referencing their split at the end of 2013. The abrupt parting ended what had been a remarkably productive partnership, at least in their early years together, when Elling was producing technically brilliant, innovative vocals. </p>
<p>By leading his own trio in "Honor Thy Fathers," Hobgood found himself "getting back in touch with my voice and how I might apply that to myself, as opposed to applying it to someone else's work, and the inherent nature of everything I've learned from all these great jazz fathers, and how it informs that process. It's just been a very deep experience." </p>
<p>In essence, Hobgood now steps into the spotlight he long has deserved. When Elling spoke with me in December of 2013 about the end of his collaboration with Hobgood, he was forthright — and correct — in acknowledging how much Hobgood had done for him. </p>
<p>"It's been a massive contribution," Elling said, "and I'm proud of the work that we've done together, and I'm proud of Laurence for what he's brought to the table." </p>
<p>Now the table is Hobgood's, and he's making the most of it. For starters, it's clear that Hobgood has been practicing, his seemingly effortless virtuosity evident throughout the recording. Hobgood credits the sleekness of this pianism to the nature of his early musical training and how he has been building on it in the last couple of years. </p>
<p>"I was the fortunate beneficiary … of really good classical instruction, meaning I was taught to finish," says Hobgood, who's based in New York. "There's a difference between playing a piece and preparing it for performance — the whole polishing of the piece. I draw more benefit from doing that kind of work, really trying to get a piece so that it sounds performance ready." </p>
<p>That's certainly how Hobgood's pianism emerges in "Honor Thy Fathers," perhaps because he has been practicing Chopin waltzes, Beethoven sonatas and Bach preludes and fugues (from the "Well-Tempered Clavier"). But the fully finished quality of Hobgood's playing on "Honor Thy Fathers" is counterbalanced by its rush of ideas and sense of spontaneity — the best of two worlds, in effect. </p>
<p>Then, too, Hobgood always has been concerned with the arc of a melody line and the completion of a musical gesture. Poetic phrasing radiates from the opening track of the album, Hobgood's "Sanctuary" (an ode to his father) and serves as the undertow of his more ebullient pianism on "Straighten Up and Fly Right" (a tribute to Cole), his fast-flying notes and buoyantly swung rhythms in "Give Me the Simple Life" (a salute to Peterson) and his impressionistic palette and bejeweled tone in "The Waltz" (evoking Evans). </p>
<p>To Hobgood, it's the melodic line that matters most. To this day, he says, he's fascinated by "what I call song-based melody … that still puts improvisation at the forefront of what's going on. I don't mean to say anything about any particular style or anything, but there's a lot of very mathematical music happening these days that has gone away from songlike melody. </p>
<p>"I guess one of my things is that it's impossible to take the math out of music — musical pattern is inherently mathematical. But why do we need to remove melody in order to explore that is something I don't get. </p>
<p>"I like to listen to music, and I like to play music that there's a chance you might come away from it with something stuck in your head that you're humming the next day." </p>
<p>Even if you can't hum what you hear amid Hobgood's avalanche of notes, it's quite likely that you'll be thinking about it after the last chord has sounded. </p>
<p>"Portraits in Jazz": Howard Reich's e-book collects his exclusive interviews with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, plus profiles of past masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get "Portraits in Jazz" at chicagotribune.com/ebooks. </p>
<p>hreich@tribpub.com </p>
<p>Twitter @howardreich </p>
<p>When: 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday </p>
<p>Where: Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway </p>
<p>Tickets: $15; 773-878-5552 or www.greenmilljazz.com</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54442802018-10-21T11:15:00-04:002018-10-24T10:42:30-04:00Album: Laurence Hobgood, When the Heart Dances, (Naim)<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/a897b60aa8090a8eebf2b7d20eb5fe7895cf905c/original/the-independent.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />BY PHIL JOHNSON | SUNDAY 26 APRIL 2009</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/2aafa9ceabee8e89f4454093c4029c9df159af16/original/17-lh-when-the-heart-dances.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_" />Welcome to a new piano star. Better known as the long-standing musical partner of Kurt Elling, Hobgood arrives at the top jazz table with this atmospheric album of duets with bassist Charlie Haden plus two solo pieces and three vocals by Elling. </p>
<p>Like a more human version of Brad Mehldau, he combines a vivid Romantic imagination, evident on a number of limpid ballads, with great time. The singular thump of Haden's bass remains one of the marvels of the age. </p>
<p>Pick of the album: 'Que Sera Sera': with Haden's tender solo.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54379412018-08-07T10:40:00-04:002018-10-24T10:37:02-04:00Arianna Neikrug: Changes review – a hugely impressive debut<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/3bb0fb1c31a86c32a21c8376d352edf94215173f/original/2018-the-guardian-logo-design.png/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/1bbb8e13134c2d889e436f7feaf042bba2c274a1/original/guardian750.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" /></p>
<p>This is 25-year-old Arianna Neikrug’s debut album, and a startling experience it can be, if you’re unprepared for it. Instead of the customary glossy full orchestra there is a piano trio, and the pianist (also arranger and producer) is Laurence Hobgood, for 20 years a close musical confidant of Kurt Elling. Between them they virtually rewrote the rulebook for jazz singing and raised technique to virtuoso level. </p>
<p>This is the point at which Neikrug, winner of the 2015 Sarah Vaughan international vocal competition, enters the scene. From the first half-minute it’s obvious that notes are no problem as she pitches immaculately over some very unlikely chords. The song is No Moon at All, famously recorded in 1955 by Julie London, and Hobgood is noted for doing radical things to old songs. As the set proceeds, through numbers associated with Al Green, the Jackson Five, Joni Mitchell and others, plus two attractive if slightly wordy originals, the scale of Neikrug’s talent becomes apparent. Her grip on time is quite extraordinary, and her scat singing totally convincing. It’s all a little intense, but as a display of endless potential hugely impressive.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54036642018-08-06T18:45:00-04:002018-09-18T12:04:20-04:00Embracing the Changes: Vocalist Arianna Neikrug on her Path to Artistic Enlightenment<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/b00c493dc499802c0eb72b4f299c6ffc087cbfec/original/jazziz.png" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />Arianna Neikrug has compressed a lot of success into a very short number of years. The Los Angeles-born, New York-based vocalist burst into public consciousness only three years ago, making a grand entrance with her win in the 2015 Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition. The following year, she performed a critically praised set at the Montreal Jazz Festival, adding the title “international jazz performing artist” to her résumé. And to top it all off, on August 24 of 2018, Neikrug will release her debut album, Changes, on the Concord Jazz label. Mind you, she’s only 25. </p>
<p>Don’t let that number fool you. Despite her age, Neikrug brings a wealth of experience to Changes. Raised in a musical home, she’s been performing in front of audiences since she was a child, initially pursuing a musical theater path in high school, and later shifting to jazz studies as a student at the esteemed University of Miami Frost School of Music. </p>
<p>Changes is in many ways a summation of Neikrug’s career to this point, combining boldly reimagined Songbook standards with her own thought-provoking originals. Accompanying Neikrug on this journey are pianist Laurence Hobgood, drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Matt Clohesy. The musicians here demonstrate strong cohesion across a diverse musical program, which runs the gamut from Broadway show tunes (“The Song Is You” and “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most”) to R&B classics (Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”) to a mash-up of Joni Mitchell hits (“Help Me” and “Be Cool”). </p>
<p>Changes also features two originals by Neikrug that reveal both her ample skill as a vocalist and her profound depth as a lyricist. On “New York Song,” she depicts her journey from L.A. to New York with unblinking clarity, investigating the hardship she endured while learning to adjust to life away from home. On the title track, Neikrug wrestles with similar themes of adversity, chronicling the emotional strain she experienced after trading the safe, structured life of college for the strangeness and uncertainty of the real world. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, however, the music never feels weighed down or encumbered. Changes is an album built around positivity, and the musicians rarely veer from their pursuit of melody and groove. The collective mood is one of optimism and uplift. </p>
<p>Neikrug spoke to JAZZIZ over the phone about the making of Changes and how music helped her cope with the mental and emotional challenges of the creative life. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity. </p>
<p>You come from a musical background. What was your house like growing up? </p>
<p>Well, just to give you a little synopsis, I came from a sort of broken home. My parents were divorced, but up until I was about 6 years old my dad would come over quite a bit. He was a classical pianist and he would play all of my favorite show tunes. I would be singing and performing in the living room – for just my mom and my brother, maybe my dog (laughs). There was lots of playing and singing. I mean, I’ve probably been doing shows in my living room since I was 3. </p>
<p>My mom played a lot of Motown, R&B, oldies, and her parents were huge into the Great American Songbook: jazz, musical theater, you name it. So there was lots of music growing up. We lived in L.A., so all of our closest friends were either actors, agents, managers or musicians. It’s a weird thing to talk about having such a musical family to people who don’t have a musical family, because it was just so normal for me to grow up in a house where you’re constantly listening to music, or singing, or dancing around. </p>
<p>Did you always know that you wanted to be a singer? </p>
<p>I think at a very young age, maybe 2 or 3, I knew I wanted to be on stage, to be performing, so I knew that I loved singing and I knew that it was maybe my ticket to performing. But there was some decision-making early on – I went to a performing arts high school – where I really had to decide if I was just going to do musical theater or if I was just going to study voice. I think the creative side of being a jazz singer was more alluring than being in musical theater, because being myself is ultimately what I like to do. I didn’t have to pretend to be someone else. I had creative license to do what I wanted. </p>
<p>You ultimately wound up pursuing jazz studies at the University of Miami. I’ve heard you say that your transition out of school was difficult, and that you even went through a depressive episode after college. </p>
<p>Yeah, that was a crazy time. </p>
<p> What helped you overcome that? </p>
<p>Many different groups aiding and offering support. Family, friends, my boyfriend at the time. Many of my friends had left Miami. My professors had to go back to teaching other students, and they didn’t really have time to help me. But to be quite frank and transparent: therapy. I was actually going through another really hard time that I’m finally comfortable talking about. I actually come from a history of a very long eating disorder, about 14 years, and that transition out of college sparked a little more of that eating disorder mindset, which, if we’re being completely honest, just really takes you out of whatever discomfort you’re feeling about your own self. It’s a distraction from some of those deeper, more concerning emotions, such as “What is my purpose in the world?” “What meaning am I offering to other people?” Those were huge things that kept finding their way back to me. What was I doing that was actually moving people, touching people, affecting people? </p>
<p>Something as simple as getting up in the morning, getting out of bed – those were really hard. The mornings were incredibly painful. I remember journaling a lot through that time, just to get my thoughts on the page and sort through them. I had to find it within myself to put something on the page, whether it was lyrics, a little lick on the piano, anything. </p>
<p>The tune “Changes” really targets that transition of coming out of school and figuring out who I was when the only thing I had on the schedule was one yoga class a week and some side work at Lululemon. I don’t want to sugarcoat it, because the lyrics to this song are so painfully blunt. I’m ready to say, “Hey world, let’s not try to cover up these struggles. Because they’re often the most important times in life to figure out what you want.” </p>
<p>“Changes” was absolutely a standout for me, especially because it dealt with the topic of perfectionism, which a lot of creative people grapple with. </p>
<p>That was a challenge I worked through for a while. A lot of the struggle in college was trusting that I had the chops, tools and knowledge so that I could use my body as a vessel for all that to come out. </p>
<p>One of my voice teachers taught me to think about my artistic self like a cabinet. I’m the cabinet and I have all these shelves in me. I have my intonation, my phrasing, all the things that go into a musical composition. And every time I’m nervous about singing, I just stop and trust that those things are inside of me. When I’m living in the moment and singing in the moment, then those things will come out of me if I’ve stocked my cabinet well enough. </p>
<p>That’s a struggle that I think a lot of young artists are kind of figuring out. Because if you want to connect with an audience that doesn’t know music, you need to be in the moment. You need to show that you are nothing but a vessel to produce a really organic way of emoting through art. </p>
<p>It’s just a matter of shifting your thoughts. Artists rely so much on other people’s approval. I have to remind myself that it’s good enough. I am who I am, and I have nothing that I’m embarrassed to show. </p>
<p>For Changes, you had the opportunity to work with Laurence Hobgood, pretty much the king of modern Songbook interpretation. When did you first start working together? </p>
<p>We started working together in February of 2017. It was about six months before we decided we wanted to record. Now, I thought six months was nothing – I wanted two years! But the label was there to remind me that it wasn’t college anymore (laughs). </p>
<p>So when Laurence and I first met up, it was pretty much just two hours of talking, telling stories and making music. I was a little nervous, only 23 at the time, so it was a real challenge. I was unsettled, not happy at my job. I wanted to sing more but didn’t know how to do it. So a meeting with Laurence was like my golden ticket. The quick-mindedness that Laurence has, and the ability to express what I’m looking for and just have him take two minutes of futzing and have something to play off musically, is incredible. </p>
<p>It was a strange relationship because on the one hand you have this kind of angsty I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing 23-year-old, and then you have this guy who’s been around the block. But he really listened to me without judgment. He’s so open and really let me take the reins sometimes. And that was what really made me feel a part of this project. I don’t want anyone thinking that I met up with Laurence once and gave him all the titles and that he just wrote arrangements. Absolutely not. He might have scripted it on paper, but I am 100% certain that he and I created this record together. </p>
<p>Your version of “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” is unlike any arrangement I’ve ever heard. </p>
<p>(Laughs) It really is. </p>
<p>It’s kind of dark and forlorn. How did you approach your interpretation of that song? </p>
<p>I actually recorded a version of this song as part of my college audition, and I had zero awareness of what it meant to have spring, to really experience that season and associate it with rebirth, with life. I grew up in Southern California and went to school in Miami – not a lot of seasonal change! But the transition between winter and spring is something that very few people really understand. </p>
<p>At first, we were arranging this tune as this heavily produced bossa nova. But we weren’t sure that it was working. So I was fiddling around with this darker lick at the beginning [sings dark, minor lick], and that came about from me hearing a specific note [isolates note in the lick]. This gets a little technical, but when you have a half-step in the first interval of a scale and you also have a major third it’s like the lightness of spring and the darkness of winter’s end. It’s push and pull. Having experienced spring now, and having come out of some of my internal struggles, was a really pivotal moment for me. And that’s why this is such a pivotal tune for me, as gorgeous and eerie and haunting as it is. </p>
<p>I have to ask about the Al Green tune. “Let’s Stay Together” is one of the tracks on this album. What about that song stood out to you? </p>
<p>It actually came from the Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs of All Time list. Laurence saw the title and said, “Do you like this song?” I said, “Of course, who doesn’t?” It really struck him for some reason. He took about five minutes to really flush some things out on the piano. Five minutes later he told me to pull up the lyrics and start singing. So I did. His arrangement was so simple yet so beautiful, and it came out of him like he had been sitting on it for seven years. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until we brought it to the band that we discovered this kind of snowflake-y jazz waltz vibe to it. We took out the synth and all the electric keyboard sound and we decided to go with upright bass and acoustic piano. And it just sounded so hip and so cool. </p>
<p>You’re a Sarah Vaughan winner. You’ve performed at the Montreal Jazz Fest. Your debut album is about to launch. If you could put yourself back in the shoes of the little 6-year-old Arianna, would you have ever guessed you would end up here? </p>
<p>This might sound strange, but yes. It has never felt like a dream to be a singer. It has always just been what I knew I was going to do, and it was just about how I was going to do it. I started realizing that things were aligning in a very universal way. Yoga was what transformed my thinking toward being able to receive the benefits of my work. Knowing that physical postures can lead to a very deep kind of enlightenment. Obviously, I’m not there yet, but I’m at least on the journey. That’s the way my music is, too. I’m constantly practicing and opening myself up to whatever comes my way. </p>
<p>To learn more about Arianna Neikrug, visit the <a contents="vocalist’s&nbsp;website" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ariannaneikrug.com/" target="_blank">vocalist’s website</a>. </p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54287882018-08-02T12:55:00-04:002018-09-18T12:04:05-04:00Arianna Neikrug’s ‘Changes’ Album Showcase her Sultry and Distinctive Vocal Chops<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/30a0dc9e83cc9d069c7046d8f3256ce8ef38c40a/original/san-diego.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/399b56fc401ab6d22193a85586f510002df6d592/original/arianna-changes-album-cover.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><br><span style="color:#7f8c8d;"><strong>Arianna Neikrug’s August 24, 2018 “Changes” album<br>debuts a singer with enormous talents, which bodes well<br>for the future of jazz and pop music in America.</strong></span></p>
<p>By Danny R. Johnson – Jazz and Pop Music Critic </p>
<p>LOS ANGELES – The late great Edward William ‘Billy’ May Jr., (1916-2004) an American composer, arranger and trumpeter who wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Anita O’Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, and countless of others, once stated: “There are three sexes…women, men and singers.” </p>
<p>Arianna Neikrug, a 25-year-old singer and songwriter, in a kinky way that seems completely characteristic of her budding musical journey, both supports and challenged the role traditional jazz singers are presented. After winning the 2015 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition then performing at the Montreal International Jazz Festival the following year, Neikrug makes her grander introduction to the music world with the August 24, 2018 release of “Changes” on the Concord Jazz label. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/aeedcfffb81419db429ea9145621f9558293ca84/original/arianna-neikrug-by-jacob-blickenstaff-500x375.jpg" class="size_orig justify_right border_" />With the pending release of “Changes,” this young singer has earned the privilege of being labeled a “musician” and “singer” in every rich resonance of the terms. In Neikrug’s way of thinking, apparently a singer is someone with a pure voice who really sings the melody as written. By contrast as you will discover in “Changes,” Neikrug’s emphasis in not just on voice or melody, it’s about taking a song and styling it; swinging it, improvising on it. Yet even though she doesn’t have the pure power of a Jazzmeia Horn or a Gretchen Parlato, her voice is one of the most efficiently musical instruments among any of her contemporaries on the jazz scene today. </p>
<p>Arianna Neikrug’s indelible jazzy musical statements can be heard through-out the “Changes” album. Photo: Jacob Blickenstaff </p>
<p>The album was produced by the Grammy-winning pianist and arranger Laurence Hobgood, “Changes” parades Neikrug’s gift for interpreting tunes from the “Great American Songbook” and more recent pop and R&B classics from the ’70s. The disc also contains two originals that reveal some of Neikrug’s journey from her hometown of Los Angeles to New York City, where she argues she truly belongs. While working on the album, Hobgood, who recruited his regular trio mates – drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Matt Clohesy, discovered that Neikrug had more than a working knowledge of the technical side of music: She could read a score, write songs, and generally worked out her arrangements in collaboration with the ensemble. </p>
<p>And as her improvising shows, she knows her harmonies: Her rendition of the 1971 R&B classic by Al Green and Al Jackson, Jr., and Willie Mitchell, “Let’s Stay Together,” is a typically brilliant Neikrug invention, with the singer sailing effortlessly over the Al Green’s chromaticism like a woman on a swinging trapeze. Even more remarkable is her indelible jazzy musical statements that can be heard through-out the album as you hear her applying her technique on practically every song, as when she croons us with her witty reinterpretation of the 1932 Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern classic, “The Song Is For You,” or “After You’re Gone,” a lovely 1918 lullaby by Henry Creamer and Turner Layton. </p>
<p>The “Changes” album promises a set of mostly romantic and swinging set of compositions, aided by the presence of a heavyweight accompanist Hobgood on piano. I am especially enamored of her treatment of Bob Dorough and Terrell Kirk’s 1957 tune, “Devil May Care,” in which she wrings all the emotion possible out of Dorough and Kirk’s most poignant texts, and Neikrug does it without missing a beat!</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54333352018-06-01T22:35:00-04:002018-09-18T10:32:23-04:00Winter’s Jazz Club Presents REVIEW: The Two of Us: Rhiannon & Laurence Hobgood – Raw Masters At Play<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/3b5e252bda1c5ec49fd2d0e99ae9bf7a57d91745/original/press-title-0000-picture-this-post.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/83ab8d1c7fcc22427b6c6b4cd588f2c85257dc17/original/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-1-12-45-pm.png" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />As this listener awaited the dynamic duo to start their set, an employee informed us that the Winter Jazz Club was a “listening room”, and that they wanted to keep it that way. Dimly lit, with four grounding columns flanking the stage, the evening had been set not just for something fantastic, but something intimate and raw, leaving us emotionally spent by the performance close. </p>
<p><strong>A Well-Oiled Creation Machine </strong></p>
<p>Perhaps the most impressive part of the evening was the connection and sense of play that Rhiannon and Hobgood displayed and embodied every second of the night. Hobgood would start a somber melody without prompt, and Rhiannon would quickly jump into the jazz standard he was evoking, without skipping a beat. The natural give and take between these two is palpable, but not to the point of routine. Far from it, throughout the evening, Laurence and Rhiannon were constantly impressing and surprising each other. Laurence’s music was flowing through Rhiannon’s veins as she prepared her next improvisation, and these surprises became expressions of pure joy. Electric seems to be a woeful understatement in describing the relationship between these two legends on stage together. </p>
<p><strong>Winter’s Jazz Club Showcases Incredible Vocal Depth </strong></p>
<p>The sounds coming from Rhiannon’s vocal chords were not always the ones you might expect. Beyond the airy, jazz sound that one might presume they will hear in a standard jazz set, Rhiannon showed an astounding vocal variety, the likes of which most have probably not heard before. Belts, chants, grunts, slurps, yells, cheers, screeches, scats, and any other sound you may be able to comprehend all were thrown out at precisely the right time in Rhiannon’s improvisation, which flowed out in an ebb with the jazz standards in the set, to the point that one may not be able to determine which lyrics were Rhiannon’s at all. At one point, Rhiannon, alone, sang a song’s entire orchestration, switching between baseline and melody seamlessly and passionately. There was a soul behind this depth as well, an aching sorrow accompanied by natural worship that made a powerful pair. </p>
<p><strong>Laurence Hobgood’s Sense of Mood </strong></p>
<p>It’s striking that Hobgood seems grounding in how Rhiannon and the audience are feeling. With this knowledge, he can pull on our heartstrings in ways we don’t think possible. If Rhiannon starts chanting an African melody, within seconds Laurence is already in the right key and improvising his own harmonies and chords around her. There were several times in the show where Rhiannon (and the audience) were so deeply moved by one of Hobgood’s solos that all we could do was acknowledge it and applaud, even if it was in the middle of a song. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for an intimate, quiet, but devoted appreciation of jazz, and ready for raw emotion and true vulnerability, look no further. </p>
<p>Winter’s Jazz Club has ongoing performances with musical talents like Rhiannon and Laurence six nights a week. For more information, visit the<a contents=" Winter Jazz Club Website " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://wintersjazzclub.com/" target="_blank"> Winter's Jazz Club Website </a></p>
<p>Rhiannon and Laurence’s future performances can be found at <a contents="Rhiannon" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.rhiannonmusic.com/" target="_blank">Rhiannon</a> and <a contents="Laurence’s" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.laurencehobgood.com/" target="_blank">Laurence’s</a> websites.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54036212017-01-03T18:35:00-05:002018-10-01T10:46:00-04:00Ten Best Jazz CDs 2016<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/5ee6d1baad013ddd22731486f1c223cfe90de511/original/chicago-tribune-image.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Laurence Hobgood Trio: "Honor Thy Fathers" (Circumstantial): </p>
<p>Pianist Hobgood pays homage to his "musical fathers" — including Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Nat King Cole — and in so doing achieves some of the finest playing of an already distinguished career. The sheer beauty of Hobgood's tone and touch are worth savoring, and there's no missing the poetry of his "Sanctuary" (a salute to his father), the joyousness of his approach to rhythm in "Straighten Up and Fly Right" (a tribute to Cole) and the impressionistic canvas of his "The Waltz" (suggesting Evans). Joined by bassist John Patitucci and drummer Kendrick Scott, Hobgood never has sounded better.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/53982572015-10-10T18:35:00-04:002018-10-10T10:21:23-04:00CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Electrifying sneak peek at bold new music<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-laurence-hobgood-review-ent-1012-20151010-column.html" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/b3b3316a14c2230c8e2c7b894681f28a6256c5a3/original/chicago-tribune-image.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">HOWARD REICH | OCT 10, 2015</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/1d9053aa02c43255589bcfef8a78a7ec556cd6de/original/ct-photo-gallery-laurence-hobgood-trio-at-green-mill-20151010.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />Pianist Laurence Hobgood will be making a significant statement in 2016. That's when his newest recording, "Honor Thy Fathers," will be released, but Chicago listeners who crowded the Green Mill Jazz Club on Friday night heard a sneak preview of the music (and snapped up advance copies that Hobgood brought along for the occasion). </p>
<p>That Hobgood should offer an early view of the project at the Mill seemed thoroughly appropriate, for he was based in Chicago from 1988 to 2006 and presented some of his most important work in the great old room. It was at the Mill that Hobgood and singer Kurt Elling forged their partnership, both eventually moving to New York, then splitting up abruptly at the end of 2013.</p>
<p>So Hobgood's weekend engagement leading his new trio represented a meaningful return for him. </p>
<p>"Man, it's nice to be home," he told the audience, to high-decibel response. "This will always be my jazz home." </p>
<p>Sure sounded like it during his first set, Hobgood bringing considerable ardor to music from "Honor Thy Fathers." If the album, with drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist John Patitucci, represents Hobgood's trio work at its most polished and controlled, the concert performance with drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Matt Clohesy leaned toward viscerally exciting, rhythmically propulsive music-making. </p>
<p>Or perhaps the electricity of the occasion and Hobgood's eagerness to perform in a valued setting explained the intensity of the proceedings. Whatever the reason, Hobgood and friends clearly came to make a point and did so emphatically. </p>
<p>Pianist Laurence Hobgood steps into spotlight <br>Though the evening began with a hush in the album's closing tune, Hobgood's "Shirakumo No Michi (White Cloud Way)," his delicately stated introductory passages soon gave way to full-throttle playing. Drummer Schonig and bassist Clohesy sounded as fiercely committed to this music as Hobgood, the three musicians showing a sonic cohesiveness that belied the freshness of the venture. Together they conjured power without noise, energy without haste, drama without overstatement. </p>
<p>As its title implies, "Honor They Fathers" represents Hobgood's salute to those who have influenced him, either through love (his father) or music (his teachers and jazz heroes). The aforementioned "Shirakumo" emerged as Hobgood's homage to master composer Wayne Shorter, while Hobgood's "Triptych" stood as a complex, oft-profound tribute to the late University of Illinois music professor Salvatore Martirano. The perpetual inventiveness of Hobgood's right-hand lines in this work and the profusion of its musical incidents made this one of the more substantial performances of the evening. </p>
<p>Hobgood's arrangement of the chestnut "Poinciana" was cut from the album, but you didn't have to hear his commentary to realize he was tipping his hat to a piano giant who similarly launched his international career in Chicago, Ahmad Jamal. Somehow Hobgood captured the rhythmically airborne quality of Jamal's classic recording (and uncounted subsequent performances) without attempting to mimic Jamal's other musical signatures. Instead, Hobgood produced exquisitely detailed right-hand filigree, backed by the muscular sound and rhythmic tension of Schonig's drums. </p>
<p>You have to admire a pianist who's willing to take on "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" at this late date. The tune may not be a masterpiece, but singer Doris Day turned the melody into something radiant with her hit recording long ago. Hobgood's ultra-slow version (perhaps for a future "Honor Thy Mothers" album?) made a lullaby of the piece, his legato lines answered by a soulful solo from bassist Clohesy. </p>
<p>The most important takeaway from this occasion, though, was not so much the persuasiveness of Hobgood's pianism or the musicality of his arrangements, which are well-known, but the alacrity of this trio. Just as "Honor Thy Fathers" can be considered Hobgood's strongest recording to date, this band may provide his best musical forum yet, opening a major new chapter in his career. </p>
<p>We'll see next year. </p>
<p>Howard Reich is a Tribune critic. </p>
<p>The Laurence Hobgood Trio plays at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway; $15; 773-878-5552 or greenmilljazz.com. </p>
<p>hreich@tribpub.com </p>
<p>Twitter @howardreich</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54455552013-12-10T07:40:00-05:002018-10-01T10:47:14-04:00New Jazz Recordings for Christmas<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/b3b3316a14c2230c8e2c7b894681f28a6256c5a3/original/chicago-tribune-image.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>December 10, 2013 | Howard Reich </p>
<p>Laurence Hobgood is one of many musicians with new recordings for the holidays.</p>
<p>Christmas recordings often yield unbearable treacle when it comes to jazz and standards, but this year happens to be an exception. </p>
<p>Thanks to pianists Laurence Hobgood and Ted Rosenthal, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, violinist Joshua Bell and others, music lovers have something to cheer about this season. </p>
<p>Among the best recordings: </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/d282fea1f082bb47c3a888883dae4ee0cca76795/original/0026-03-lh-christmas3.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" /></p>
<p>Laurence Hobgood: "Christmas" (Circumstantial). Can overplayed holiday repertoire be transformed into art? It can when Hobgood is at work, the pianist turning in one of the most appealing recordings of an already distinguished career with "Christmas." Because most of the tracks are solos, listeners can savor the beauty of his touch, the subtlety of his voicings, the lushness of his harmonies and the ingenuity of his improvisations. Rarely has "Away in a Manger" sounded so lustrously Impressionistic, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" so brainy, "O Holy Night" so pristinely uncluttered or "Little Drummer Boy" so unapologetically trippy (thanks to Hobgood's doubling on acoustic and electric pianos). Hobgood's former collaborator, singer Kurt Elling, makes two cameos: an inspired and deeply idiomatic version of Joni Mitchell's "River" and a sappy, vibrato-drenched account of Hobgood's "Song of the Christmas Bells." But these are mere sidelights to the main event: Hobgood's glistening pianism, which always bears hearing, and especially on this album.</p>Laurence Hobgoodtag:laurencehobgood.com,2005:Post/54379232013-06-26T07:55:00-04:002018-09-21T08:03:51-04:00Robert Pinsky & Laurence Hobgood: Poemjazz<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/e29e1299447244acafefa8cdd1ae27420f362563/original/press-title-0005-jazztimes.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/309341/d23906a557c8eb537ba1f97035624230f072ac49/original/0014-16-poemjazz-cdcover.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" /></p>
<p>Robert Pinsky, arguably America’s greatest living poet and the only one in history to serve three terms as U.S. Poet Laureate, has maintained a lifelong appreciation for jazz that is evident throughout much of his writing, though never quite to the degree of this tremendous collaboration. Pinsky reads 13 of his poems (plus Ben Jonson’s “His Excuse for Loving”) accompanied by pianist Laurence Hobgood, best known for his long and immensely fruitful musical partnership with Kurt Elling (who, closing the circle, once fitted Pinsky’s “The City Dark” to Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil”). </p>
<p>If the blending of poetry and jazz conjures images of smoky Greenwich Village coffeehouses where Jack Kerouac wannabes bleat to bongo beats, park that cliché. Pinsky and Hobgood establish a wholly simpatico artistic partnership. On all but two tracks, Hobgood improvised every note in the studio, concurrent with Pinsky’s readings. Pinsky proves himself an equally adept improviser. His are not dramatic interpretations of the poems but musical ones, the focus on cadence and harmony with Hobgood. The poet’s performances are rich with spontaneous touches-repeating phrases, doubling back on words, inserting freshly elucidating text-worthy of Ella, Anita O’Day or, most accurately, Mark Murphy and Elling. </p>
<p>As for the poems, Pinsky has carefully chosen works old and new that, while exploring wider themes, will resonate with jazz aficionados, particularly “Horn,” his homage to the trumpet and all players who aspire to its mastery; the epic slaveship-to-sax-colossi voyage of “Ginza Samba”; and “The Hearts,” with its doo-wop-dusted examination of love’s all-consuming power, extending from Romeo and Juliet to the equally fatal attraction of Art Pepper and heroin.</p>Laurence Hobgood