B R A H J A - BRAHJA (RR GEMS)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

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WHAT WE SAY:

2020 seems to be a slow starter which is just as well as I'm still digging 2019 & one of the best jazz LPs I've heard in a while from Brahja Waldman & crew for RRGEMS Records. Alternately hard & soft grooving, oozing higher purpose & spirituality with a focused freeness where all stars shine equally brightly. Get on this...

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

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WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

BRAHJA is a new album of a band by the same name. We've been playing, in one form or another, since 2008. In this current incarnation, BRAHJA is made up of 10 musicians coming out of Montreal, New York City, Washington D.C. and Chicago, respectively. Core members — Damon Shadrach Hankoff, Isis Giraldo, Martin Heslop, Daniel Gelinas & I — toured throughout the US and Canada in 2015 & 16, oftentimes picking up a special guest in whichever city: a concept we called "Everybody's In The Band Tour." Luke Stewart, Anais Maviel, Margaret Morris, Sam Shalabi & Daniel Carter — all featured on this album — is an all star sample of the extended family which came from this process. I spent a year and some change composing the music for the album; and in the spring of 2017 we began recording in a former church in rural Quebec that Daniel Gelinas had converted into a studio. Back in NYC, where I live, additional layers were added to the recordings. Being my first trial with mixing, I realized a year into it that I had layered more sounds than I could even hear. So as I peeled away at the layers, eliminating some sounds and carving out a space for the rest, I learned to hear it all. These songs mostly deal with the purging of uninvited darkness. Some kind of cure for some kind of poison. Some kind of death for some kind of renewal.

I hope you can derive meaning and joy from this music.
With sincere gratitude,
Devin Brahja Waldman

Credits:
Devin Brahja Waldman - saxophone, piano, synthesizer, drums
Isis Giraldo - piano, synthesizer, voice
Damon Shadrach Hankoff - organ, piano, synthesizer
Martin Heslop - acoustic bass
Daniel Gélinas - drums, synthesizer
Margaret Morris - voice on songs #1 and #2
Sam Shalabi - guitar on songs #3, #6, #8
Luke Stewart - electric bass/pedals on #2 #4 #5, #6, #9
Daniel Carter - soprano saxophone on #5 and #10
Anais Maviel - surdo and voice on #10

Composed, Mixed & Produced by Devin Brahja Waldman
Recorded by Daniel Gélinas at Studio Chocolat Chaud at Graniteville, QC
Additional recording by Ambrose Bye at Fast Speaking Music Studios, NYC. Digital mastering by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Studio, NYC
Vinyl mastering by Louis Henry Sarmiento II at Sonic Vista Studios, Ibiza, Spain

Photography by Isaac Rosenthal
Outer sleeve artwork by Hanz Mambo
Gatefold interior artwork by Jason McLean
Interior photography by No Land (of M.M., D.B.W., L.S.), Thomas Sayers Ellis (of D.S.H., M.H., D.G., D.C.), Mazen Kerbaj (of S.S.), Simon DesRochers (of A.M.)
Layout by Ilja Tulit

RR GEMS RECORDS