Brian Lynch “Unsung Heroes” Project

A Tribute To Some Underappreciated Jazz Trumpet Masters

The “Unsung Heroes” project represents a bold step in redefining the relationship between the jazz artist and the audience. “Unsung Heroes” transforms the jazz tradition even as it affirms it, through the breakthrough use of current technology to make the creative process of a classic form aurally transparent. “Unsung Heroes” allows a crucial segment of the jazz audience – the practitioner/listener – to directly enter the music as a participant. “Unsung Heroes” permits the listener, the student, the player access to the music in a way never experienced before off the bandstand.

http://hollisticmusicworks.com/hear/brian-lynch-unsung-heroes-project/

In “Unsung Heroes” Grammy Award winning trumpeter Brian Lynch pays tribute to a diverse group of jazz trumpet masters, active from the 1940s through the present day, that have produced amazing music as players and composers despite flying below the radar of the general jazz public through their compositions (in some cases first recordings) and original works in honor of these greats. The trumpeters we paid homage to range from masters no longer with us (Tommy Turrentine, Howard McGhee, Joe Gordon, Idrees Sulieman) to those very much alive, well, and swinging (Charles Tolliver, Claudio Roditi). Other trumpet masters represented in this project include Louis Smith and an early influence on Lynch’s own work, Kamau Adilifu (Charles Sullivan).

A Grammy Award winner for his self produced CD “Simpático” (with the collaboration of Eddie Palmieri), Brian Lynch’s multi talents as composer, arranger, producer, and bandleader as well as being one of the pre-eminent jazz trumpeters of today make him stand alone. With 17 CDs as a leader to his credit, more than 200 recordings as a sideman, and long term musical tenures with the likes of Eddie Palmieri, Phil Woods, Art Blakey, and Horace Silver, Lynch now really strikes oiut on his own after 30 years on the international music scene with Hollistic MusicWorks and “Unsung Heroes”.

The innovative features of this project will interest music practitioners from the professional player to the avocational musician, student and listener alike, and represent some new ways for the audience to be able to interact with the music

Classic yet fresh, the band’s book includes newly discovered compositions by under- appreciated trumpet masters such as Louis Smith, Tommy Turrentine, and Idrees Sulieman, along with Lynch’s originals in tribute to these unsung heroes. The multigenerational band, in quintet or sextet formats, mix established figures (alto sax star Vincent Herring and veteran pianist Rob Schneiderman) and top up and comers on the New York scene (tenor saxist Alex Hoffman, bassist David Wong, and drummer Peter Van Nostrand). This band’s special chemistry and playing affinity has been noted in both recording and performance. The Unsung Heroes band has performed at jazz venues and festivals worldwide, including the Detroit Jazz Festival, the Amazonas Jazz Festival in Manauas, Brazil, Jazz Jakarta in Jakarta, Indonesia, and US venues such as Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in NYC.