SteepleChase’s March 2022 is featuring “Duo” settings. Here on our SteepleChase LookOut label we are proud to present two New York based young elite instrumentalists Nicki Adams (piano) and Michael Eaton (saxophone). They both share neo-classism in jazz as their formative background but they transcend beyond the categorization to something far more original and multifaceted. The album “Paraphrase” is a formidable presentation at this junction of time of how jazz has developed itself through its rich and diverse history.
Nicki Adams (b. 1988) is a New York-based composer and pianist. He has worked with renowned artists including Billy Hart and Francisco Mela and appeared on NPR's Soundcheck and Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theatre. Nicki plays with many groups including his own band. His works have appeared in film and radio throughout the world.
Michael Eaton (b. 1981) is a Brooklyn, NY based saxophonist, composer, and educator active in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. He embraces a progressive and holistic vision of jazz, cognizant of the music's rich history, while he reaches for a personal outlook with an eye towards future possibilities.
The violin, a bowed instrument with four strings, of such perfection that it has focussed the attention of composers from the Baroque to the present day. Apart from the piano, no other instrument has had so many important concertos written for it, from Locatelli and Vivaldi, to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, among many others. It might seem unimaginable that this instrument with it's one bow on four strings be able to perform polyphonic works from the piano, Lied and orchestral repertoire unaccompanied, but that is precisely what the great virtuosos of the early Romantic period right up to the modern era repeatedly saw as a challenge in their compositions. Paganini, Ernst and their successors pushed the technical possibilities of the violin to the limit. With this CD we present the most important of these works, which are otherwise pigeonholed as salon or encore pieces. The result is musical gems ranging from practically complete Lieder such as the Erlkonig, to Isang Yun's masterful arrangement of The Musical Offering by Bach. Her debut CD "1939" on Solo Musica with the Munich Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kevin John Edusei received worldwide acclaim, including reviews in BBC magazine, The Strad Magazine, Gramophone and the American Record Guide. This new release is the first solo album by violinist Fabiola Kim, hailed by the New York Times as "a brilliant soloist" who plays "with extraordinary precision and intensity". She is an energetic performer and enjoys a wide-ranging career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.
