04/22/2014 New Release: Anne Mette Iversen's Double Life - So Many Roads
So Many Roads, the grand new album from bassist/composer Anne Mette Iversen's Double Life, to be released on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records on April 22, is a very personal recording for Iversen. The artist explains, "Its conception and realisation has been a long journey. Along the road I had many ideas about how to present it to you: which story to tell you, which words to describe it with and which pictures to paint in your head. In the end, I rejected them all to let the music speak for itself, and, hopefully, to leave space for it to become your own personal journey."
So Many Roads was composed specifically for Iversen's group Double Life, which consists of her long running quartet, the Anne Mette Iversen Quartet, featuring John Ellis (soprano & tenor saxophone), Danny Grissett (piano), Otis Brown III (drums & cymbals) and special guest, the outstanding Swedish trombonist Peter Dahlgren, of the Norrbotten Big Band (who also appeared on the bassist's very first recording, On the Other Side, ten years ago); plus, the string quartet, 4Corners, featuring members of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who also appeared on Iversen's 2008 recording, Best of the West. Read more
02/09/2014 New Release: Tom Guarna - Rush
Brooklyn born and raised guitarist / composer Tom Guarna is a musician's musician, a stellar talent who can seemingly play anything, and play it brilliantly. His fluid lines, creative chord-voicings, captivating tone, and profound solos have made him a first-call musician for the likes of Manuel Valera and New Cuban Express (in the band nominated for a 2013 Grammy Award), Blood Sweat and Tears, Wallace Roney, Branford Marsalis, Randy Brecker, Lenny White, the late Mulgrew Miller, Billy Hart, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Greg Hutchinson, John Benitez, Joe Locke, E.J. Strickland and many, many others. Read more
10/29/2013 New Release: Perry Smith Quartet - Street Sense
Street Sense was inspired and influenced by simplicity, repetition, melody, spontaneous interaction, and space. Smith explains, "to highlight these concepts I brought on board Dayna Stephens (saxophone), Sam Minaie (bass) and Ross Pederson (drums). I’m very grateful to these incredible musicians who helped me bring this music and these concepts to life. The end result represents a foundation rooted in jazz tradition combined with an artistic drive to create a fresh identity within the art of jazz. Read More
10/29/2013 New Release: Joshua Shneider - Love Speaks Orchestra
Music has always been the main attraction in Shneider's life. Born in Stamford, Connecticut, raised in the greater Boston area and residing in Brooklyn, New York since 1988, Shneider is the product of a childhood spent searching the radio dial, and rifling through his parent's records. These included sides by Al Hibbler, Cozy Cole, Count Basie, and a particular favorite, A Jazz Salute to Freedom, which featured Bird, Dizzy, Miles, Stan Getz, Ellington, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn and many others. Regarding AM radio, where he heard an incredible variety of music Shneider elaborated, "Just on 'Hit' radio you could hear Louis Armstrong, Sly Stone, Hugh Masekela, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Motown, John Coltrane, James Brown, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Cannonball Adderley, Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery and more; just on one station in the space of a couple of hours - it seems crazy now. The music grabbed me and shaped me before I had a reason to think about it; before I even knew about style or influence." Read More
Selected press about BJUR, - of earlier dates:
1/1/2011 BJURecords chosen amongst the best Record Labels of the year by the DownBeat reader's poll.
OK so this is a big one... we were amongst the chosen ones. 103 Downbeat readers thought of us as the hippest label of the year. We are humbled and yet proud of this acomplishment for our artist-run company!
2010 BJUR feature in the April issue of ICON magazine
plus
"A musician's collective grows in Brooklyn" - Alexis Cuadrado and Anne Mette Iversen featured on NPR's "A Blog Supreme" (click for link)
6/9/2009 All About Jazz New York features BJUR on their LABEL SPOTLIGHT
BJU Records by Matthew Miller
With a name that conjures smoky clubs in cabforsaken neighborhoods, the approachably progressive ethnic and global appeal of Brooklyn Jazz Underground (BJU) might surprise the uninitiated. The association, which has thrived on the practical notion of collective strength and shared PR, has also served as another example of the musical microcosm its namesake borough has become. ......
5/16/2008 The Brooklyn Eagle interviews BJURecords
5/1/2008 Jazz Improv NY magazine interviews Anne Mette iversen and Alexis Cuadrado.
BJUR artists Anne Mette Iversen and Alexis Cuadrado tell about how BJUR came to be and how the company originated from the Brooklyn Jazz Underground collective. Read more
3/10/2008 Official Launch of BJUR!
"Consider this the opening shot in the latest revolution to hit New York's improv scene.” – Time Out New York
“Think of it as a mix-tape, a calling card from artists who operate in a small world but like to think big.” – JazzTimes (on the BJU Compilation, Vol. 1)
“Brooklyn jazz is happening and those who venture across the bridge will be delighted by the hard-edged ethnically-flavored jazz that they find on the other side. Two great places to start exploring the new artist collective known as ‘The Brooklyn Jazz Underground’ are Sign of the Times and This is My House, the latest from keyboardist Benny Lackner and bassist Anne Mette Iversen respectively.” – All About Jazz New York
“The Brooklyn Jazz Underground is a coalition of artists united by aesthetics as well as geography.” – The New York Times