Release.
Blues for Tahrir

Blues for Tahrir

Promo video.

 

Details (from Blue House Productions).

Bass clarinetist, composer and arranger Todd Marcus   has a new album coming out  entitled “Blues For Tahrir”. The album was  recorded and mixed by Jeff Gruber at Blue House Productions  recording studios in Kensington, and  Silver Spring, Maryland.

 

The unique combination of modern jazz and sweeping Middle Eastern vistas played by  6 horns,  piano bass and drums is  refreshingly different but easily embraced by  lovers of strong melodic composition. The album showcases Todd’s writing  and arranging skills as well as his bass clarinet chops.

 

Making the most of  the  cast of stellar musicians the pieces are insistently melodic with lush harmonies and strong riff based rhythms that add plenty of groove to the ensemble.  Almost all of the works showcase the harmonic influence of Todd Marcus’s Egyptian Heritage.
The tunes grow from simple to complex but never lose the listener and  are combined with the highest level of jazz improv in the solo sections.  Believe me these guys can blow!

 

The compositions all have huge dynamic ranges from the loudest of crescendos to the quietest pin drop while the soloing form inside to outside the harmony and back seamlessly.  This is an all world class record for the ages and I hope everyone gets to here it.

 

Instrumentalists

Todd Marcus  (Bass Clarinet)

Gregory Tardy (tenor)

Russell Kirk (alto sax)

Brent Birckhead (flute & alto sax)

Alex Norris (trumpet)

Alan Ferber (trombone)

Xavier Davis (piano)

Jeff Reed (bass)

Eric Kennedy (drums)

Jon Seligman (percussion)

Irene Jalenti (vocals)