“Really, really remarkable… Oran has touched both of our boys’ lives.” - Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber
“Makes music from all over the world accessible and fun for children to listen to and learn about.” - Harvey Keitel and Daphna Kastner Keitel
“Immediately connects to a child’s imagination.”  -Edie Falco
“The children learn without ever knowing they are learning.”   -Ken Burns

Oran Etkin, an internationally acclaimed jazz/world artist and composer whose NYC based music classes for children are endorsed by Harvey Keitel, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber, will release Wake Up, Clarinet! on his new Timbalooloo label (September 14, Motema Music /Allegro-NewSound distribution). The album features performances by Jason Marsalis and Charenee Wade and is enhanced with a video of Etkin and his band performing live in concert. Watch a live concert video medley from Wake Up, Clarinet!  below.

Oran Etkin has been described as a “great clarinet player” and “an excellent improviser” by the New York Times’ jazz critic Ben Ratliff and a “woodwind maestro” by PRI’s Afropop Worldwide.  He has performed around the world with musicians ranging from jazz guitarist Mike Stern to rapper Wyclef Jean. His 2009 album Kelenia (Motema Music) fuses traditional Malian and Jewish music with modern jazz.  Etkin brings this diverse perspective to his music for children, which incorporates rhythms and melodies from all over the world.

Oran Etkin’s Timbalooloo gets its name from a three year old boy enrolled in Etkin’s music classes, who expressed his extreme musical excitement by sitting his parents and baby brother down for a 20 minute “music class” during which he pretended to be Oran and demonstrated to his “pupils” a new instrument he called the timbalooloo.  The story captures the essence of Etkin’s mission: to excite children about the wonders of music and musical instruments and encourage their creative freedom and personal ingenuity.
More info on Oran Etkin
Pre-Order Wake Up, Clarinet

Us jazz-heads are thrilled and honored to announce legendary pianist Randy Weston as the latest artist to join Motéma Music!  With a career that spans over sixty years and shows no signs of slowing down, Weston will release an exceptional new album, The Storyteller, this fall.

Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, The Storyteller features new arrangements of Weston classics and includes accompaniments by Alex Blake on bass, Lewis Nash on drums, Benny Powell on trombone, TK Blue on flute & saxophones, Neil Clarke on percussion, and music by the Jazz Heritage Orchestra of Cleveland State University.

With a lifelong career collaborating with creative greats including Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and more, Weston has endless stories to share from his historic career.  Not only does Weston vocalize these stories, he transcribes them.  In addition to his album release, Weston is also releasing the autobiography African Rhythms in October, arranged by music journalist Willard Jenkins.

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Weston’s Motéma debut The Storyteller will be released in November, and coincides with the 50th Anniversary of Weston’s landmark 1960 recording, UHURU Afrika which helped introduce jazz to Africa, and African rhythms to jazz. Weston’s most recent accolades (of the scores) include a win in the Composer category in The annual Downbeat Critics’ Poll as well as being named to the Hall of Fame joining jazz legends and piers Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. He was also inducted into ASCAP’s “Jazz Wall of Fame” this year.

We welcome Weston aboard and look forward to being a part of this exciting new chapter in his career!

Tracklisting for The Storyteller

1. African Sunrise
2. African Cookbook (Suite)
3. The Shrine
4.  Loose Wig (Suite)
5.  Hi Fly

Upcoming

Date: November 13
Venue: BMCC Performing Arts Center  Tribeca, NY

The anniversary performance of UHURU Afrika will feature Weston with a 22 piece orchestra. Heads of state of 17 African nations (also turning 50) are expected to attend.
Performance dates and events in honor of Weston’s 85th year and Autobiography are scheduled throughout the fall and into the new year.  Stay tuned for further details!

Meanwhile, take a look at our Randy Weston video playlist:

These photos are from Painted on Water’s media tour. Here they are on the set of Metro Magazine in Fairfax Station, VA.

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Painted on Water are currently on a media tour in support of their new digital EP “Love.” They’ve been reporting back from the road and sent us some pics from their appearance on Fox 8 Morning News in Greensboro, NC. To see where you can catch them next, check their upcoming appearance dates.

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Painted on Water’s self titled debut, which All Music Guide calls “A Turkish Delight,” has been generating fans internationally. The band will be digitally releasing an English version of their song, “Ask” with Motéma in January. Writing the English lyrics will be Ken Williams, a writer on the Alicia Keys’ Grammy® winning single “You Don’t Know My Name,” with previous hits including “Everybody Plays the Fool” and “Just Don’t Want To be Lonely.” Following the release, POW will be doing a national TV tour on network morning shows. To learn more, please visit their artist page at Motéma.

Take a look at the new video from Painted on Water - “Mad Love” which features footage from their recent US tour.

All Music Guide had this to say about their self-titled debut:

“Demirkan’s own superb guitar skills are displayed across the set, and the musicianship throughout is extraordinary, as is Erener, whose vocals give every track just a whiff of exotica, and make this album a true Turkish delight.” -Dave Thompson, ALL MUSIC GUIDE

And here’s a little something extra for you…An ‘unplugged’ performance  of “ASHK” (which means “love” in Turkish). Look out for a digital release of this song in the Spring. In the meanwhile, watch this video:

There is a growing epidemic of cancers of women’s reproductive systems. N.E.D. (which stands for “No Evidence of Disease”) is a new rock band, a new CD and a new movement started by six gynecologic cancer surgeons. The mission of the band is to enhance knowledge about gynecologic cancers to save lives, as well as to bring hope to women undergoing treatment. The doctors strongly believe that music heals. Here at Motéma we are extremely proud to be partnering with N.E.D. in their fight against cancer. The widget above will give you more details about the band and their mission as well as offering ways you can participate. We ask that you assist our efforts to support this cause  by re-posting the widget on your Facebook page, Myspace page, blog or any other social profile you may have. Simply click on the “Share” button on the bottom-right of the widget and copy/paste the embed code. N.E.D.’s CD No Evidence of Disease will be released on September 8th and proceeds will benefit the N.E.D. Fund, which is part of the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation.The CD can be ordered at the Motéma store. Find out more about N.E.D. at their Motéma artist page.

On her stunning third recording, Obsession, to be released by Motéma Music on August 11, vocalist Tessa Souter (soo-ter), born of Trinidadian and English parents, presents a multicultural banquet, that reflects her own conjoined African, Indian, Caribbean, and English bloodlines, as well as her American present. Experiencing Souter, you will hear “traces of Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae in her phrasing, and Julie London and Peggy Lee in her delicate breathing”; you will be treated to “a captivating voice” (Swing Journal Magazine, on Souter’s sophomore release Nights of Key Largo). Souter delivers every word with a “crystal clear voice and diamond cut phrasing”- The Philadelphia Inquirer.  From the opening notes of Obsession she displays the beautiful “ability to see the shape of a tune so the words seem to come from her soul” – All About Jazz New York.

Download Mp3: “Usha’s Wedding”

More info on Tessa Souter
Purchase Obsession

Babatunde Lea’s fourth release on Motema is a tribute to the late Leon Thomas. Umbo Weti features a stellar band of improvisers: Dwight Trible (vocals), Ernie Watts (tenor sax), Gary Brown (bass), Patrice Rushen (piano), and Lea on drums and percussion.

UMBO WETI finds Lea, and his “dream team” of musicians exploring pieces associated with Thomas’ blend of a spiritually passionate and socially conscious worldview with deftly inventive musicality and progressive vision. They re-imagine Thomas’ version of John Lee Hooker’s primal “Boom Boom Boom Boom,” his new lyrics for Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father,” and the timeless “The Creator Has a Master Plan” – the latter which inexplicably turned into an FM radio hit for Sanders and Thomas. “It was the kind of post-bop thing that happened, kind of the spiritual thing that [John] Coltrane started,” Lea explains. “It was a post-bop spiritual jazz that originated with Coltrane in the late ‘60s and that lasted through the ‘70s and early ‘80s,” Lea explains.  “Leon was a big part of that style and really moved it forward.”

In this video Lea and his band perform the material live at Yoshi’s and speak about the process of creating the tribute and capturing the essence of Thomas’ spirit.

More info on Babatunde Lea

Motema artists Jana Herzen and Charnett Moffett performed at this year’s Harmony Festival in California. Take a look at some select photos from the event. Charnett and Jana were joined by Will Calhoun on drums and Angela Moffett on the tambour.

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