On September 18, Storyville Records releases a newly remastered edition of Circular Chant, percussionist Marilyn Mazur's 1994 recording made in connection with the Jazzpar Project, featuring new liner notes by saxophonist Fredrik Lundin and new album cover art. Marilyn Mazur (1955-2025) was a singular presence on the international jazz scene. Few percussionists have commanded such a wide range of instruments. She reshaped the role of percussion in improvised music and developed a personal musical language that expanded it's expressive scope. Recorded in March 1994 at Sun Studio in Copenhagen and at the Jazzpar Prize Concert at the SAS Falconer Center, the album documents a specially assembled ensemble featuring Nils Petter Molvær, Per Jørgensen, Michael Riessler, Hans Ulrik, Bugge Wesseltoft, Mikkel Nordsø, Klavs Hovman, Jacob Andersen, and Mazur herself. The album contains 13 tracks in total: nine compositions by Marilyn Mazur and four co-composed group pieces. Although the group was formed for the Jazzpar concerts, the recordings show a high degree of cohesion. The ensemble, often referred to as Pulse Unit, combines composed material by Mazur with ensemble pieces and shorter interludes. Mazur worked throughout her career at the intersection of composition and improvisation, and Circular Chant reflects this approach to ensemble writing and performance. The album places strong emphasis on group interaction, with the ensemble frequently functioning as a responsive collective. The three wind players, Molvær, Ulrik, and Riessler, play a central role throughout, moving between melodic and textural roles. They are supported by Wesseltoft on keyboards, Nordsø on guitar, Hovman on bass, and the rhythmic interplay between Andersen and Mazur on percussion and drums. The recording moves between composed ensemble works, vocal-led sections, electric group passages, and shorter interludes. More than thirty years after it's original recording, Circular Chant stands as a distinctive collaborative release from European jazz in the 1990s, bringing together a group of musicians who were central to the Scandinavian and wider European scene at the time.
Wayne Shorter once said “To hell with the rules, I’m going for the unknown”. This is what we did on this recording. No talks about tunes, keys, solos, tempos—as a matter of fact Jean-Michel and Marilyn hadn’t even played together before. We just started playing to see where the music would take us - and as you can hear it was quite a trip. We did two long sets and occasionally a tune would emerge - but most of the time we where in unchartered waters, taking us to places we haven’t been before. This is the ultimate way of improvising. Why then is the album called Composing? Well - Arnold Schoenberg also once said “Composing is improvisation slowed down”. This album is compositions in realtime. - Mads Vinding
The album is a continuous journey through a landscape constantly changing. Along the way, your ears will encounter simplicity, fragility, ferocity, sensitivity and a special sense of greatness in the smallest of details. From beautiful ballads of stormy moods to swinging jazz - everything beautifully executed by Margrete Grarup’s unique and expressive voice. Each track has an identity of its own - still, they all come together and make a whole. Walk with Me includes new, wondrous takes on classics such as “Georgia on My Mind”, “Strange Fruit” and “My Funny Valentine” along with some of the musician’s own compositions which in combination creates a soulfully meditative and with every turn delightfully unknown journey to be experienced. Margrete Grarup is an educated soloist from Nordjysk Musikkonservatorium and knows how to balance the power of her voice with delicate nuances and a certain humility.
Ever since it quietly emerged on the international scene in the late ‘60s; Scandinavian jazz carved out for itself a distinctive niche. Drawing on the influence of Miles Davis and Gil Evans; Scandinavian jazz embraced a free, spacious; experimental; and contemplative aesthetic. It has also been open to modern or contemporary classical music and collaborations with European folk and ethnic-musicians. This is not OUR Recordings first journey into Scandinavian Jazz; the critically acclaimed album Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart; with legendary trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg; has proudly taken its place with other genre-defying Scandinavian jazz classics. Composer; trumpet and flugelhorn player Jakob Buchanan writes music specifically with the musicians he is working with in mind. Joining him on this important project are regular collaborators the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen and percussionist Marilyn Mazur. Together they conjure landscapes of beauty, power and sometimes deep melancholy. Mazur’s panoply of percussion function as an emotional “basso continuo,” speaking a language built out of pure rhythm while Buchanan’s solos emerge almost like ancient cantilations from the choral/orchestral textures. The Aarhus Jazz Orchestra is carefully orchestrated; and the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir provides an aura of ethereal beauty to this soundscape song and wind. In every way; Buchanan’s Song & Wind is a worthy successor to his earlier award-winning Requiem; (also written with Marilyn Mazur and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra in mind); a major work; expressive and full of beauty; drawing equally on the music of the past while charting a further course into the future.
Who can resist the casual, seductive, ingenious and multilayered music of Brazil? A country of continental dimensions where all of Europe could fit within her borders! But size isn't everything! From the lithesome, musical elegance of the choro to the hypnotic sensuality of the Bossa nova, and a kaleidoscope of subtle rhythms wrapped in sophisticated jazz harmonies, the sound of Brazilian music is unforgettable unmistakable, and best summed up by the Portuguese word ''saudade,'' which mingles yearning, sadness and memory. The leading recorder-player for decades, Michala Petri returns to take us on a new musical journey to Terra do Brasil through the music of Jobim, Nazareth, Gismonti, Villa-Lobos, Hermeto Pascoal and others. Joining her are two exciting musicians in their fields: the young guitarist and composer Daniel Murray and award-winning percussionist/composer Marilyn Mazur. A natural guitar prodigy, Murray has established himself at a young age as both a masterful interpreter of the music of Tom Jobim and as a leading voice in the contemporary Brazilian music scene.
