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Hank Roberts’s latest CD was recently released on April 10th in the US.  Read about it, and see European reviews below.

To purchase the new CD, click on ‘Store’ above

In Ithaca, purchase Hank’s CDs at Angry Mom Records, and Ithaca Guitar Works.

With 10 CD’s on the highly-acclaimed Munich based ‘Winter and Winter’ label, Hank Roberts’s latest recording ‘Everything is Alive’ (W&W 910 174-2) is now available in Europe and has a US release date of April 10th, 2012. It’s available at www.hankrobertsmusic.com and in shops that carry CD’s (US distribution is ‘Allegro Music’). Recorded ‘live-to-two track’ by legendary engineer Ron St Germaine at Sear Sound Studios in New York City, it features Hank’s compositions and a quartet of prestigious musician friends: Hank Roberts on cello, Bill Frisell on Guitar, Jerome Harris on acoustic bass guitar, and Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion.

European Press for Hank’s recent recording, “Everything is Alive”:

Nürnberger Zeitung:  the American cellist [Hank Roberts] dares to present magical musical field tests, which sound as delicate as a moribund musical box or intoxicating emotional like a pop song. Grumpy, but yes, ingenious.“       January 10, 2012

Südkurier: “From the beginning this music opens the horizon. […] Since the 80s Hank Roberts has achieved for his instrument […] a completely new position that he keeps on strengthening. Genre limits are too narrow for him, important is his own fusion of elements, which are brought together in an improvisational way…

Music full of air, lightness and delight in playing, characterized by listening and reacting to each other, sustained by a natural sound and elevating the listener to comforting spheres.”            January 13, 2012

Freejazz-Stef.Blogspot.com (USA): “Roberts’s compositions with their masterful folk-like breath of whimsy come to life…    January 18, 2012

Stuttgarter Zeitung: “… a splendid quartet recording that steps out into the vast field of folk, jazz and chamber music besides all thinkable intermediate regions and sub genres… sound journey develops so coherent and at the same time diversified like a highly concentrated live improvisation.    December 20, 2011

Jazzthing: “…urban folk and sublimed blues, and a bit of vaudeville and collage…  …could hardly be explained.      “February/March 2012

Hank’s album ‘Green’ (featuring touring partners Jim Black and Marc Ducret) won the 2008 German Recording Critics’ Award in the Jazz category.

“There’s a wisdom and patience and catholicity in this record (‘Green’). ‘It’s all one song,’ goes the hip musician’s cliché, but Mr. Roberts walks that walk.” —    Ben Ratliff, NY Times

Booking info:

gille@dogandponyindustries.com

About the group:

Cellist Hank Roberts has organized a group of four internationally acclaimed improviser/collaborators, including Jakob Bro on guitar, Luke Bergman on bass, and Kenny Wollesen on drums.

“I am inspired by each of these players. ‘Reflecting on the unique and exceptional expression and artistry that each of them offers makes me excited to expand on the highly diverse sonic, lyrical and rhythmic potential for the group.”  Hank Roberts March 2012

Bassist Luke Bergman, one of Seattle and the Northwest area’s integral creative musicians, has garnered critical acclaim on a national and international level for his work with Heatwarmer, Speak, Thousands, and The Cuong Vu Group.  He’s also involved with several Seattle-area organizations that actively promote a wide range of highly innovative performance and recording work.

Danish guitarist Jakob Bro first came in to international recognition as a member of Paul Motian’s Bebob Band In 2002.  His recent musical collaborations include Paul Motian, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Joe lovano, Tom Harrel and Tomasz Stanko.  He’s received four Danish Music Awards, including best Crossover and best Jazz Album of The Year.

Drummer Kenny Wollesen lives in New York City. He has recorded and toured with

many musicians including Tom Waits, Sean Lennon, Ron Sexsmith, Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Steven Bernstein and John Zorn. He is a founding member of the New Klezmer Trio and a member of the Sex Mob group. He also performs on popular children’s show ‘The Backyardigans’.

Even in a parallel universe where jazz cellists are as common as tenor madmen and trumpet-blowing boppers, Hank Roberts would be utterly unique. Over his nearly four-decade career, Roberts has forged a compelling original voice on the cello, encompassing abstract improvisation and soulful folk melodies, intricate new-music compositions and vigorous rock songs.

Roberts’ latest CD, Everything Is Alive, features three long-time compatriots: guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Jerome Harris, and drummer Kenny Wollesen. The 2012 Winter & Winter release continues the cellist’s relationship with producer Stefan Winter, which stretches back through the bulk of Robert’s discography. The album’s ten original compositions speak with a direct voice inflected with roots, rock and funk accents.

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Roberts studied at Berklee and made his name on the legendary Downtown scene in 1980s New York. Faced with a dearth of mentors or peers on his instrument, he carved his own path through that fertile ground alongside such frequent collaborators as Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Marc Ribot and John Zorn, finding a second home at the famed Knitting Factory. Like those fellow innovators, Roberts is equally at home in grand concert halls or dingy rock clubs, covering a wide swath of modern music.

The list of names with whom Roberts has shared stages or studios is staggering, including members of U2, Gavin Friday, Sting, Joel Grey, David Sanborn, Lydia Lunch, Mamadou Diabate, Andy Summers, Pat Metheny, Flo and Eddie, Gary Burton, Shane McGowan, and Julius Hemphill.

As a child, Roberts studied several different instruments and dreamed of one day becoming “a rock and blues guitar player, a jazz trombonist, and a classical cellist.” He has achieved all three, but on a single instrument, expanding the capability and vocabulary of the cello to accommodate his restless and wide-ranging imagination. He often accompanies himself with wordless vocals, emphasizing the pristine lyricism of his writing, even in the most angular and abstract of settings.

He has recently assembled a new quartet with Wollesen, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro, and Seattle bassist Luke Bergman and leads a trio with pianist John Stetch and drummer Jim Black. His 2008 CD Green, with Black and French guitarist Marc Ducret, won that year’s German Recording Critics’ Award. He is also a member of the folk group Ti Ti Chickpea and the anti-voilence ensemble Wiggy Dog Boy, which features his son on guitar. His solo performances are singularly compelling and unpredictable, wending from jagged dissonance to intoxicating pop songcraft.

Roberts is currently a member of Frisell’s 858 Quartet alongside violist Eyvind Kang and violinist Jenny Scheinman, and appeared on the guitarist’s Grammy-winning 2004 release Unspeakable. He also recently performed with the expanded eight-piece version of that group at Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory, accompanying a reading of Allen Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” read by Hal Willner and Chloe Webb  with music composed by Frisell, whose collaboration and friendship with Roberts dates back to 1975.

He recently also reunited with saxophonist Tim Berne in the quartet Buffalo Collision, also featuring pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King of The Bad Plus. Roberts and Berne began working together in the late eighties and formed the trio Miniature with drummer Joey Baron. At the same time, he co-founded the Arcado String Trio with bassist Mark Dresser and violinist Mark Feldman; in 1992, each member of the trio wrote an orchestral piece for Arcado and Germany’s WDR Orchestra.

Based since 1989 in the more serene environs of Ithaca, New York, Roberts finds inspiration in the area’s thriving Americana and folk music scene, which threads into his own work in intriguing and surprising ways. He performs annually at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival, which spans a range of music from old-timey Americana to African and Cajun music. He’s shared that stage with artists such as Mamadou Diabate, Jeb Puryear, Keith Secola, Nery Arevalo, Martin Simpson, the Sim Redmond Band, John Brown’s Body, and Donna the Buffalo.

Roberts serves as a musical consultant for The Readers’ Theatre of Ithaca, for which he recently composed and performed a solo cello/voice score for a performance of Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya.” He also contributed arrangements and appears in the upcoming film Greetings From Tim Buckley, which will premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. The film, about the ill-fated father-and-son singer-songwriters Tim and Jeff Buckley, recreates a pivotal 1991 concert that Roberts performed with Jeff Buckley at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn.

In addition to his active performing career, Roberts has passed his knowledge on to new generations of creative musicians at educational institutions such as the Banff Center in Canada, Ithaca College, Cornell University and others.

Hank will perform solo on June 23rd  at 8PM at The Carriage House Cafe 305 Stewart Ave Ithaca, NY.  He’ll be celebrating the release of his new CD, “Everything is Alive”.

Tickets; $15 Advance, $20 at the door

info: everythinghankroberts@yahoo.com

Learn all about the Hank Roberts Trio, view videos and download the EPK. Click here!

‘Green’, recorded on the Winter and Winter label, is now available. It features Hank on cello, guitar and vocals, Marc Ducret on guitar and Jim Black on drums and electronics. You’ll find it in your local music store, distributed in the U.S. through ‘Allegro Music’.  To purchase the CD from Funkyside.com go to:   http://www.funkyside.com/store/index.cfm/product/215/green.cfm 

New York Times review of ‘Green’  By BEN RATLIFFPublished: June 8, 2008 

Hank Roberts  ’Green’

“the best moments shut down the distances among folk and rock and classical and a more ancient kind of song…

There’s a wisdom and patience and catholicity in this record. “It’s all one song,” goes the hip musician’s cliché, but Mr. Roberts walks that walk”.

for full review, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/arts/music/08play.html?scp=1&sq=hank+roberts+green&st=nyt

 ’All About Jazz’ review of ‘Green’

All About Jazz Review

By Mark F. Turner 

“outstanding release… environmental aura of expansive open plains, ruralesque backdrops, and majestic mountainscapes within a distinct, rustic and avant-garde music setting…

world class cellist who could easily excel in any music genre… 

From pastoral and somber moods to a 1960s LSD-laced trip on one track, the recording’s a blend of both the familiar and strange…

all pleasantly unpredictable, creating a listening environment that’s memorable and mysterious…

Roberts is in total command of his cello, able to produce multiple voicings— plucking, strumming, tapping and beautiful bowing. He also provides earthy vocal on a couple of tunes; such as “Trees,” a hard rocking piece…

Creativity is at the recording’s center and reaches its apex on “Lenape Suite”…

Lenape Suite…a sonic voyage that includes an aboriginal-like motif and lyrics, electronics colorization and a frenzied (yet awe inspiring) trio performance that’s unsettling yet hypnotic…

Green is uniquely captivating, haunting yet warmly assuasive and, true to Roberts’ form, not easily categorized. A wondrous journey for those who appreciate music of, literally, a different shade of green. 

 

For full review, go to: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?=29801