The Will Holshouser Trio Live In Brooklyn and Manhattan

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Clean Feed Records proudly announces the release of accordionist, composer and bandleader Will Holshouser's new live recording, Singing To a Bee, featuring Ron Horton on trumpet and David Phillips on bass. Singing To a Bee is the follow[up recording to The Will Holshouser Trio's debut recording Reed Song. In celebration of this recording. Holshouser will be leading his trio of Ron Horton on trumpet and David Phillips on bass at two CD release performances: September 19 at The Bowery Poetry Club, and September 21 at Barbes, as part of the Clean Feed Festival. This evening, the last of the three night festival, will also feature The Rodrigo Amado Quartet and the Joe Morris Quartet.

Will Holshouser's unusual chamber-jazz trio covers a broad scope, drawing its warmth from accordion folk styles, its energy and swing from jazz, and its quiet surprise from experimental music. As a composer, Holshouser's allegiance above all is to strong melodic material. Listeners familiar with Dave Douglas' small ensembles, Guy Klucevsek's accordion innovations, or Astor Piazzolla's blend of traditional and modern sounds will find themselves right at home with Holshouser's unique distillations.

This collection of new Holshouser compositions, along with the traditional tune "La Esperanza, " was recorded live in Faro, Portugal during the Jazz No Inverno Festival in December 2004. It was the last concert in a ten-day tour of Portugal organized by the trio's Portuguese label, Clean Feed. The venue was the small, 19th-century Teatro Lethes--the painting on the CD's cover is from its wooden ceiling (with the addition of a few bees). The trio played without amplification in this beautiful hall designed for acoustic music. As they set up for the live recording, they were told that the theater's basement was home to a fleet of fire trucks, ready for action. Fortunately for everyone, the firefighters had no calls that night. Faro is in the Algarve region where the accordion is popular in folk music. As with elsewhere in Europe, listeners there were enthusiastic about what this American jazz musician does with the accordion, an instrument they consider their own.

The title, "Singing to a Bee, " is from the novel "Lovesong for the Giant Contessa" by Steven Tye Culbert (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1997) and is used here with his kind permission.

Will Holshouser (accordion) grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now living in New York, he is active internationally with his own trio and as a sideman. He's played accordion with a wide variety of artists such as David Krakauer, Phillip Johnston, Lenny Pickett, Andy Statman, Dave Douglas, Matt Munisteri & Brock Mumford, Brian Dewan, Roberto Rodriguez, the Raymond Scott Orchestrette, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, NYC Opera, and others. Holshouser has also composed music for solo accordion and for short films, and has arranged music for assorted ensembles. He studied with Anthony Braxton and Bill Barron at Wesleyan University, where he received a grant to research Cajun and Creole music in Louisiana. After moving to New York in 1991, he began studying accordion with Dr. William Schimmel.

Ron Horton (trumpet) has three CDs as a leader, most recently Everything in a Dream. A member of New York's Jazz Composers Collective, he has worked with Andrew Hill, Jane Ira Bloom, Lee Konitz, Phillip Johnston, Frank Kimbrough, Ben Allison, Matt Wilson, Ted Nash, Michael Blake, the Herbie Nichols Project, and more.

David Phillips (bass) leads the group Freedance, who just released their third CD. He began learning bass from his father, Barre Phillips, then studied with Homer Mensch at Mannes College of Music and earned a graduate degree from Juilliard under Eugene Levinson. He has worked with Richie Havens, Ben Perowsky, David Johansen, Dawn Upshaw, Andy Biskin, and others.

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