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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AND PURCHASE (http://smarturl.it/HSungAnthem_amnz) Anthem for a New Day includes special guest appearances by violinist Regina Carter and clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera Concord Jazz debut out today! Pianist/composer Helen Sung has an announcement to make. In fact, declarationmight be a more appropriate word. The artist’s musical statement can be heard atthe center, literally and figuratively, of her Concord Jazz debut and her sixth album overall. Anthem for a New Day, a ten-song set that positions her at theforefront of a talented and diverse sextet, is set for release January 28, 2014,on Concord Jazz. “I have been working on and ‘trying on’ different approaches in jazz music,”says Sung, who made the leap from classical to jazz piano in college and began performing in and around Boston and New York before releasing her first album in 2003. “With my previous albums, I was searching, experimenting – not that that ever ends. But this is the first project where I feel the most comfortable with who I am as an artist, where I am as an artist, what I’m doing as an artist. It brings the different pieces of my experience together in a way that’s organic and authentic. That kind of clarity is very exciting.” Exciting enough for Sung to fly her colors with a sense of conviction that hadn’t existed previously. “When I hear the word ‘anthem,’ I think of flags or banners,” she says. “This album is my way of planting my flag in the ground. The journey continues, but at this point, I feel a confidence unlike before.” Ellis also lends his bass clarinet on a tune). In addition, guest artists Regina Carter (violin) and Paquito D’Rivera (clarinet) make outstanding appearances. Sung also shook things up a bit with her own instrumentation. “Along with the piano, I played Rhodes as well, which I haven’t done on my previous albums,” she says. “Classical and jazz are the two primary genres I’ve been immersed in since I started playing music as a child. Early on, I played classical concertos and sonatas with their diverse and grand textures; then when I started jazz, in my quest to really swing, I found myself primarily just playing single lines in my right hand while playing chords with my left. Now I feel like it’s all starting to come together – in my playing, my improvisation, my writing, and with my arranging. All of this makes for an album that’s much bigger in terms of the sonic space it occupies.” She stakes out that territory early on with “Brother Thelonious,” an effervescent opening track with an interesting origin. Sung originally wrote it as the commissioned “theme song” for a Belgian ale of the same name, crafted by the small North Coast Brewing Company located in Fort Bragg, California. “The owners are jazz fanatics, and I got to meet one of them through a connection with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance [Sung is a graduate of the program’s inaugural class when it was housed at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston]. I had recorded an earlier version of the song for them, but then I revamped it a bit and recorded a stronger version this time, and it became the lead-off track for the album. North Coast is a fabulous outfit. They do so much good – not just for jazz but for a variety of causes.” (http://smarturl.it/HSungAnthem_amnz) CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AND PURCHASE (http://smarturl.it/HSungAnthem_amnz) Visit THE JAZZ NETWORK WORLDWIDE "A GREAT PLACE TO HANG" at: http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network -------------------- To control which emails you receive on THE JAZZ NETWORK WORLDWIDE "A GREAT PLACE TO HANG", or to opt-out, go to: http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/profiles/profile/emailSettings?xg_source=msg_mes_network
