The new record — UPDATED

UPDATE: Since this post, the album has been completed, and, as with all creative endeavors, has evolved in the process. Weber Iago has brought a lot of beautiful Brazilian light to the recording, so I've retitled the album TRAVELOGUE. On bass is my old grade school chum Chris Higgins, with Rich Cole playing the various winds. As always, Bob Stark did an incredible job recording, mixing, and mastering.

Nocturnes, the new Todd Bishop Group CD is in pre-production as we speak. The album will feature my own original compositions, in collaboration with pianist/composer Weber Iago. The band will again include Iago, and saxophonist Rich Cole, who will be playing everything but his main axe: bass clarinet, bari sax, alto flute. If we decide we need a second horn, Tim Willcox will be our man. The bass chair is TBD at the moment. We'll again be exploring the terrain between free and composed music, with the aim of setting a mood— that's a recurring theme through all of my recordings, actually.

Included will be an old composition of mine, Headlights, which was previously released on the Lower Monumental album:

On this tune, with Cole playing bari, we may have achieved a similar mood to what we'll do this time around:

We will record in March, and the album will be released in April, at the time of the Ballard Jazz Festival.

Ballard Jazz Festival this weekend

If you're in Seattle, hopefully you're out going to all of the Ballard Jazz Festival events anyway, but my group will be playing at the Salmon Bay Eagles on Friday, from 8pm-midnight, as part of the Jazz Walk. The band will feature three incredible players, along with myself:

Rich Cole (reeds)
Jay Thomas (trumpet)
Paul Gabrielson (bass). It's going to be good.

More Jazz Walk info.

Get your tickets here.