Keep (it) Swinging: Octave - Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music shows its talents.
The absolute top tier of Berklee's student jazz composers and performers introduced.
Hans Koert
When my nephew graduated at the Fontys School of Music in Tilburg, in the south of The Netherlands, they produced an album entitled Unexpected. This album contained seven tracks with own compositions by the graduates of the Conservatory and presented a new generation of Dutch jazzmen. This kind of albums are very valuable, as it shows us the new 2020s generation of jazz musicians.

Octave - Jazz Revelation Records (cover painting Banner, Resolution by Liana Bennett)
The largest independent college of contemporary music in the world must be the Berklee College of Music, located in Boston MA, where you can study a wide range of contemporary and historic music styles, including hip hop, reggae, salsa, and bluegrass, in addition to its traditional jazz courses, its website learns. Much now well known jazz musicians were educated here, like Gary Burton, Donald Harrison, John Abercrombie, Jo Lovano, Jacky Terrasson, Quincy Jones, Al Di Meola, Booker Ervin, Roy Hargrove, Cyrus Chestnut, Bill Frissell, John Scofield, Georg Mraz, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Kenny Werner and Ernie Watts, to list some. Each year a new generation of jazz musicians graduates and, since the early 2000s, a group of students selects the tracks for the new Berklee College of Music Jazz Revelation Records cd. This year the album is entitled: Octave.

Dayramir Gonzalez (source: havanatimes.org)
The album contains ten tracks and features all kinds of Jazz related music styles. It is remarkable to learn that most students who present themselves on this record, were born outside the States: Albino Mbie is from Mozambique, Eran Fink and Hagai Perets. are from Israel; Felix Peikli comes from Norway; Pasquale Strizzi, Leonado Radicchi and Concetta Donato are from Italy and Dayramir Gonzalez was born in Cuba.

Label of Octave (click to enlarge)
For most of the students Berklee is a follow-up course after finishing a school of music in their own native countries. The music on the album differs from Progressive and Experimental Jazz up to Cuban Big Band music and classic Jazz Ballads. It's a thrill to learn what this new generation offers us. It is impossible, in my opinion, to select the most talented and promising musicians after listening to only one single track, so I won't do that. Some track fascinated me, like the tune Cerberus by the Zac Zinger Group, an US group that plays progressive jazz; piano player Concetta Donato, who plays Cum Passi ' Dda with his sextet tango influenced jazz and blues and Leonardo Radicchi, an Italian saxophonist who can be heard with I Hear Voices In My Head.

Zac Zinger (source: myspace.com)
I really liked the tune entiteled Mabel's Cha by Dayramir and Habana enTRANCE, a 10-piece Cuban big band. Dayramir Gonzalez, who is a piano player, founded Habana enTRANCE seven years ago and got several awards since then. One of the highlights of this album. I love to share with you a fragment of this tune as played by this talented piano player and his Cuban big band: Mabel's Cha. This album, Octave, which refers to the fact that it is the 8th album of Berklee's Jazz Revelation Records label, can be ordered at the website of Jazz Revelation or contact them directly.
Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

Long ago jazz musicians were born in communities where they learned to play the music by ear, joining the eldery, who had learned to play it in the same way. No conservatories or music schools to learn how to syncopate or swing ........ they even repudiate this kind of music. Nowadays students from all over the world learn how to play jazz and contemporary music in schools like Berklee College of Music in Boston (MA). Most established jazz musicians nowadays studied at conservatories like Berklee and these places seem to be breeding grounds for young talented musicians. The album Octave, released by Berklee's, learns that it has a lot of talents among its graduates. A must for each serious jazz collector, who wants to hear the stars of the 2020s. Keep Swinging loves to point you to new upcoming talents. If you don't want to miss it, follow it at Twitter (#keepswinging) or ask for its newsletter ( keepswinging@live.nl )