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Sketches

Started in 2011, SKETCHES is a Brooklyn-based collective jazz quintet in which each member writes music based on another member's musical idea. Before each rehearsal members post a sketch from their notebook (e.g. any musical fragment, a collection of fragments, an incomplete tune) and another member uses that as the basis for a new composition. Inherent in each piece is the challenge of blending two distinct musical personalities, yet with an ensemble of strong composers and sensitive performers, the results have been as engaging as they are unpredictable.

Volume One is SKETCHES' first release after working on this concept for over a year – writing, rehearsing, and performing in New York's Small's Jazz Club and Douglass Street Music Collective – until a cohesive set of material was ready to record. It was released on November 5th, 2013.

Volume Two, to be released October 14th, 2014 on BJURecords, will include 10 brand new compositions (2 from each member) plus a bonus track. More details to be announced soon!

Members of the project are leaders of their own bands and all in-demand sideman as well, having performed and/or recorded with Lee Konitz, Fred Hersch, Darcy James Argue, Joe Lovano, Steve Lacy, George Garzone, Aaron Goldberg, Aaron Parks, & Esperanza Spalding, among many others. They have also garnered multiple accolades from the Young Jazz Composer Awards, the BMI Foundation’s Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize/Manny Albam Commission, as well as both national and international performance competitions.

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5
Album Review

Sketches: Volume 2

Read "Volume 2" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Same musicians, same winning concept, great new songs: that's what awaits on the second volume of music from the quintet collective known as Sketches. This Brooklyn-based outfit works a unique angle with its own brand of cross-pollinated composition, whereby one musician brings in a tidbit of music that serves as the seed for a piece from the pen of another band member. It's a form of collaborative writing that allows both parties to work alone together.

5
Album Review

Sketches: Volume One

Read "Volume One" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Compositional specificity can be a blessing and a curse. It's easy to understand how having every last instruction set to paper can be helpful when it comes to starting the music making process, but the flip side of that argument is that there's nothing left to actually create if everything is already there in black and white on the page. Jazz, as a form of creative music, has always wrestled to find a balance between structure and ...

6
Album Review

Sketches: Volume One

Read "Volume One" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


This Brooklyn-based jazz quintet comprised of nascent talent takes a unique approach to composition. Here, the musicians share a sketch from a notepad, denoting an incomplete composition or musical fragment and another band-member runs with it to use as a foundation for a new composition. Nonetheless, it's a balanced program, where the musicians fuse probing melodic content via regimented flows and loose grooves, while occasionally skirting the outside realm. Essentially, these pieces are structured by design, yet the band doesn't ...

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Recording

Jan Hammer Will Release Sketches In Jazz On March 27

Jan Hammer Will Release Sketches In Jazz On March 27

Source: GoMedia PR

While he may be best known for his Grammy-award-winning music for Miami Vice, Jan Hammer’s roots have always been planted firmly in jazz. He was 14 when he formed his first jazz trio in Czechoslovakia, after which he came to the United States to study jazz at the Berklee College of Music. He spent a year as keyboardist/conductor for the inimitable Sarah Vaughan before joining forces in 1971 with John McLaughlin, Jerry Goodman, Rick Laird, and Billy Cobham in the ...

5

Performance / Tour

Joe Barna Announces Sketches of Influence Live Recording at Middle C Jazz

Joe Barna Announces Sketches of Influence Live Recording at Middle C Jazz

Source: Mark Sullivan

Drummer/composer/bandleader Joe Barna is bringing his band Sketches of Influence to Middle C Jazz (a recently opened jazz club in jny: Charlotte, NC) to record a live album on March 13-14, 2020. This is certainly the first live recording to be produced at the club, and may be the first time that an artist from outside the Charlotte area has chosen to make a live recording there. Asked what he would like the Charlotte audience to know about his career ...

1

Recording

BJURecords Releases New Recordings From: Nathan Parker Smith Large Ensemble, Sketches & Owen Howard!

BJURecords Releases New Recordings From: Nathan Parker Smith Large Ensemble, Sketches & Owen Howard!

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

CD Release Celebrations! Sketches: Saturday, October 25 @ An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD Tuesday, November 4 @ Korzo (Konceptions), Brooklyn, NY Wednesday, November 19 @ The Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC Owen Howard: November 7 @ The Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, which was launched in January of 2008, and now boasts a catalog of more than forty-five recordings, proudly releases the newest wave of recordings on the label; Not Dark Yet, the debut ...

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Recording

Musings on Latin Jazz: 4 Questions About Sketches of Spain from Miles Davis

Musings on Latin Jazz: 4 Questions About Sketches of Spain from Miles Davis

Source: The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz

Musings On Latin Jazz will look at the genre in more of an open and conversational method. Instead of presenting researched facts and well formed thoughts, Musings On Latin Jazz will consider the style in a more free flowing fashion. I'll put together a few questions and off the top of my head, put together some answers. This is meant to spark conversation, so join in the discussion—leave a comment below and let us know what you think about the ...

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Radio

Brilliant Sketches: Marcus Miller

Brilliant Sketches: Marcus Miller

Source: Jazz Online By Joseph Vella

The brilliant Miles Davis recording Sketches of Spain turned 50 in 2009 and on behalf of Legacy Recordings, who reissued a special collector's edition CD that same year, I produced a podcast series celebrating this masterpiece. For this series it was important to find artists who could speak with authority, not only about the impact of Miles' playing at that time but also about Gil Evans, the recording itself and the album's huge influence on the music. Our cast of ...

47

Radio

Brilliant Sketches: Herb Alpert

Brilliant Sketches: Herb Alpert

Source: Jazz Online By Joseph Vella

The brilliant Miles Davis recording Sketches of Spain turned 50 in 2009 and on behalf of Legacy Recordings, who reissued a special collector's edition CD that same year, I produced a podcast series celebrating this masterpiece. For this series it was important to find artists who could speak with authority, not only about the impact of Miles' playing at that time but also about Gil Evans, the recording itself and the album's huge influence on the music. Our cast of ...

48

Radio

Brilliant Sketches: Nicholas Payton

Brilliant Sketches: Nicholas Payton

Source: Jazz Online By Joseph Vella

The brilliant Miles Davis recording Sketches of Spain turned 50 in 2009 and on behalf of Legacy Recordings, who reissued a special collector's edition CD that same year, I produced a podcast series celebrating this masterpiece. For this series it was important to find artists who could speak with authority, not only about the impact of Miles' playing at that time but also about Gil Evans, the recording itself and the album's huge influence on the music. Our cast of ...

124

Recording

Amina Figarova - Sketches (2010)

Amina Figarova - Sketches (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Pico It used to be, all good jazz originated out of New Orleans, then Chicago, then New York. And a lot of it still does these days. Eventually, Western Europe became the place of origin for a lot of great jazz for several generations, now, and even Eastern Europe is the home of some mighty good jazz performers, a few of whom have been profiled here. But nowadays, you can find good jazz from the Caucasus region where Europe ...

89

Interview

Sketches from Spain

Sketches from Spain

Source: The Ring Modulator by Adrian Stevenson

Interview with Mike Walker in Andalucia, Spain. 22nd June 2010The new Manchester Jazz Festival website includes a fifteen minute interview with Mike Walker that I managed to get while I was on Mike's advanced Jazz Guitar Master Class Retreat in Andalucia, Spain recently. I thought I'd include it here as well.Mike talks about how the Simcock Walker Swallow Nussbaum tour came about, and how he went about writing material for this group of musicians, as well ...

299

Recording

1959--Jazz's Greatest Year - Columbia/Legacy Celebrates 50th Anniversary of "Time Out, "Sketches of Spain," and "Mingus Ah Um"

1959--Jazz's Greatest Year - Columbia/Legacy Celebrates 50th Anniversary of "Time Out, "Sketches of Spain," and "Mingus Ah Um"

Source: All About Jazz

Genre-defining albums by Columbia artists Miles Davis (Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain), Dave Brubeck (Time Out) and Charles Mingus (Mingus Ah Um) all celebrate their 50th anniversaries in 2009, alongside John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz To Come

Following the release of Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition in January, Columbia/Legacy announces three more multi-disc 1959 commemorative sets:

Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Double-CD + DVD) Sketches of Spain ...

...impressive post bop material, with rich and intelligent arrangements and a clever mix of melody and improvisation….You’ll like these guys!” –George Harris, JazzWeekly

“...an album that touches on many aspects of the jazz vernacular, yet it's a comprehensive agenda that is impressively concocted with the ensemble's hallmark sound and unassuming complexities.” –Glenn Astartia, All About Jazz

"...But more important than their long lists of credits is that these five musicians all have compatible styles and listen closely to each other, two qualities that give Sketches its own group sound… With consistently fine solos (pianist Cherner is particularly inventive) and worthy themes, Volume One is an excellent start for Sketches.” –Scott Yanow, Jazz Inside Magazine

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Volume One

BaldHill Records
2014

buy

Volume 2

Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records
2014

buy

SKETCHES Volume One

BaldHill Records
2013

buy

Volume One

Original Jazz Classics
2013

buy

Dusk On The Porch

From: Volume One
By Sketches

Videos

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