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July '06  New Release!

Joel Newton Situation, Crying and Laughing

Read the new review in All About Jazz-New York
Read the slightly less new review in All About Jazz

listen to and purchase Crying and Laughing:
CD Baby   or    itunes

Featuring Ben Stivers on keys, Eric Halvorson on drums, and Toshi Someya on bass
Produced by Joel Newton, Associate Producer: D.D. Jackson
Recorded by Eric Halvorson in Winter/Spring '05
Mixed by Joel with help from Eric,
and some more mixing by Peter Doris at Avatar Studios.
Mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf! Digital.
All tunes by Joel, except In the Wind, Homeward, and Esopus
which were composed collectively by the group.

here are some of my own clips (in addition to those on CD Baby and itunes)

Little Devil    Octopus Pants    In the Wind    New Day
Quintisms    Homeward     Esopus    Feeding Time

Notes on Crying and Laughing, July 2006: This recording captures a sound cultivated by the four musicians over a three year period of frequent performing. It wasn't until the end of the four recording sessions that we realized we had an album in the making. We had been recording casually, largely to test out all the new studio equipment Eric had recently purchased. Out of this relaxed environment came documentation of a handful of songs (spanning 12 years of my writing career) and about 4 hours of open-ended improvisation. I tried to carve out of this a slice of the essence of this group: how we interpret songs, and how we interpret a blank slate. It's about freedom and motion and abandon and as many moods as possible (except boredom). I hope you enjoy it.

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Like the music? Wanna join the mailing list? Contact me!

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March '00 debut release

Joel Newton Situation, ONE

listen to and purchase ONE:
CD Baby   or   itunes

featuring Lars Aakesson on guitar, Chris Michael on drums, and Toshi Someya on bass
Produced by Joel Newton, Associate Producer: Lars Aakesson
Recorded at East Side Sound by Lou Holtzman Feb. '00
Mixed and Mastered by Lou

here are some of my own clips (in addition to those on CD Baby and itunes)

Last One 
(Lars, 1.7MB. Scratchy, funky good time.)
Lunch in the Park 
(Joel, 1.4MB. 9/8 Latin meets Doobies meets Hendrix.)
This Way, That Way
(Joel, 1.6MB )
Tech 2 
( Lars, 1.6MB. High-tech, high-energy kookiness)
Vickie's Dream 
(Joel, 1.1MB. Vickie's my wife. Her dream is, like many dreams, weird, eerie, mysterious.)
Quintisms 
(Joel, 1.4MB. A driving romp in 5/4 with angular funk and tributes to Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.)
Long Valley 
(Joel, 853K. Imagine vast southwestern valleys and mesas. Imagine riding in a low-flying jet through this terrain. Imagine eating ice-cream as you do it.)

Notes on ONE, March 2000: We're pretty excited about this CD and think it came as close as we could ask for to capturing what we sound like as a band--that is, a live, gigging band. We were fortunate to have a lot of Knitting Factory Tap Bar shows in the weeks and months leading up to the recording date, and we basically approached the performance aspect of the recording as just another gig, albeit an important one. Hopefully this will be apparent to the listener, in terms of things like spontaneity and energy. We were also fortunate to have Christian Howes playing electric and acoustic violin on three tracks. He kicked some serious ass (has anyone ever kicked frivolous ass?) and blended in beautifully with the 'band vibe.' Adding to the synergistic harmony was the fact that none of us was overly messed up on acid, crack, weed or alcohol, although Toshi was suffering from a bad case of stink-foot. While unconfirmed, there may also have been an underarm malodor issue with Christian Howes, but please consider this in the proper context, which is that Christian had driven all the way from his home in Columbus, OH for the recording and was putting so much energy and passion into his playing that not breaking a sweat would have been more troubling. While I'm at it, I should mention that Lars couldn't stop talking about Sweden, and Chris Michael had deplorable posture throughout the entire two day period. Of course, I was the model recording musician in all respects: I smelled like roses, entertained with ceaseless wit, and offended no one unintentionally.

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Some older sound clips:

Excerpts from a few live Joel Newton Group shows during the last several years (except for What It's Like--studio recording '96) featuring:

Donny McCaslin (tenor sax),
Jim Parrella (tenor sax on What It's Like), 
Matt Shulman (trumpet),
Ben Stivers (keys),
Toshi Someya (bass),
Eric Halvorson (drums),
Scott McLemore (drums on What It's Like)

All compositions by Newton except Diamond Dust, by Bernie Holland

Short, mostly live excerpts:

Big Jimmy P (2:49 / 2.6 MB)
Tune for Two (2:25 / 2.3 MB)
What It's Like (1:57 / 1.8 MB)
Diamond Dust (1:14 / 1.2 MB)

oh, did I mention...Like the music? Wanna join the mailing list? Contact me!