Seamus Blake & Chris Cheek Celebrate New CD “Reeds Ramble”

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Seamus Blake & Chris Cheek Celebrate New CD “Reeds Ramble” With 3 Nights at Smalls (Smalls Jazz Club, 183 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village, 183 W 10th St, New York, NY 10014) March 13, 14 & 15. Seamus Blake, Thelonious Monk Competition winner in 2002, teams up with former Bloomdaddies band member Chris Cheek for his latest outing on the Criss Cross label. The CD's title, "Reeds Ramble", is taken from a tune by Jerry Reed made famous by country guitarist Chet Atkins. On the CD Seamus and Chris take an extraordinary journey through their influences as top of the line jazz musicians for the past 25 years.

Two saxophones up front is not your everyday line-up, but Seamus and Chris know each other's playing so intimately that the results seem magical. They shared the task of song selection, and their choices ranged far and wide. As an opener Chris chose Chico Buarque's "No Carreira". Seamus followed with an Eddie Harris tune, "!974 Blues". Both Seamus and Chris are big Eddie Harris fans, which should come as no surprise to those familiar with their Bloomdaddies CDs. Seamus has done an Eddie Harris show at Smoke for the last two years and there is talk of doing a live recording of the 2014 gig.

Both Seamus and Chris contribute an original tune. For Seamus it's "All About Me". And no, it's not all about Seamus, but rather a wry reference to the Facebook generation. In an interview with Jazz writer David Adler, Seamus notes, "Onstage I like to dedicate this to the Facebook generation, taking selfies and posting their twerking videos to instagram" While "All About Me" draws on bebop, Chris' original, "Blue Moose", was inspired by listening to country music. And the eclecticism continues with songs by Monk, Brian Wilson and Jim Beard.

The outing ends with a song, "Lady in Langour" by Canadian composer Vickie Yang. In the Adler interview Seamus comments, "I wanted harmony that was not songbook kind of harmony, but more modern".

SEAMUS BLAKE tenor sax

CHRIS CHEEK tenor & soprano sax

ETHAN IVERSON piano

MATT PENMAN bass

JOCHEN RUECKERT drums

1. NA CARREIRA

(Ch. Buarque) 7.50

2. 1974 BLUES

(E. Harris) 7.04

3. HOLODECK WALTZ

(J. Beard) 6.09

4. BLUE MOOSE

(Chr. Cheek) 6.27

5. DE DAH

(E. Hope) 6.23

6. 'TIL I DIE

(B. Wilson) 7.34

7. I SURRENDER DEAR

(Clifford-Barris) 7.29

8. ALL ABOUT ME

(S. Blake) 6.34

9. LADY IN LANGUOR
(V. Yang) 6.44

TOTAL TIME: 62.32

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