'Mr.
Ears' sounds immense. Great solos, beautiful touch and wonderfully
melodic...and the writing is brilliant."
Bassist Laurence Cottle
|
|
 |
| ______________________________ |
| |
| Cai's
debut album, entitled ‘Mr. Ears’, features
saxophonists Tony Woods,
Duncan Eagles
and Rob Sell,
keyboardists Kit Downes
(BBC Jazz Rising Star Award 2008, Empirical, Jim Mullen,
Dennis Rollins) and Steve
Kite, drummers Martyn
Kaine (Natalie Williams) and Dan
Paton, guitarist Sagat
Guirey (John Etheridge, Mark and Mike
Mondesir, Robert Mitchell), Freddie
Gavita (BBC Jazz Rising Star 2008) on
trumpet, and Stuart Semple
(Peter Erskine) on percussion. Check out these samples: |
| |
| |
| |
'Another
One Gone' |
Listen |
 |
| |
'Moonlit
in Mayotte' |
|
| |
'Crazy
Bee' |
|
| |
'Orpheus' |
Listen |
| |
'Rio' |
|
| |
'The
Black Beast of Bolivia' |
|
| |
'The
Z Man' |
|
| |
'Helsinki
Special' |
Listen |
| |
|
THE VISION
With his own original compositions,
Cai has a clear vision: to bring what made jazz-fusion
in the 1970s and 80s so good, to the modern day. Memorable
tunes that you'll end up whistling, grooves that simmer
then boil over. Organic tunes that make modern jazz
about melodies and 'in-the-moment' spontaneity. With
his debut album 'Mr. Ears', Cai is looking to start
this revival from 2009.
For Cai, it is time for the re-emergence of spine-tingling
chord progressions that stun you with their subtlety
and melodies that keep you humming and whistling for
years. Improvisation that is based in the heat of the
moment, life experience, and the life experiences of
the musicians around you, and not the cold lifeless
practice drills confined to solo practice. Cai wants
his compositions to each have a different character
to them enable him to be able to breathe life and a
narrative into each one. Cai’s
aim (along with his ongoing
aim in music) is for this to be the opening chapter
of his story.
CAI'S
INFLUENCES
Cai’s music is influenced
by many artists but in a pure form, it is a contemporary
view of the aspects of jazz that made the genre so popular
back in the 1960s, '70s and ‘80s. A big influence
of his is 'Weather Report', who, along with Chick Corea
and Miles Davis, all managed to combine the complexities
of jazz with electronica whilst retaining a faultless
sense of melody. Essentially, Cai sees his music as
an antidote to over-composed modern jazz which has lost
a sense of memorable melody and subtlety. It draws on
many different influences ranging from rock to world
music, to contemporary styles such as drum and bass
and other electronica.
Cai is a huge admirer of many musicians from many genres
throughout the decades; from Charlie Parker, Bach and
Jaco Pastorius to present stars such as Janek Gwizdala,
Hadrien Feraud, EST and Joshua Redman. His wide-ranging
influences coupled with his love of playing and creating
music with a strong organic quality gives him not only
a cultured sound and approach to his instrument but
also a unique appeal to musicians and non-musicians
alike. It is this organic approach that gives life to
debut album ‘Mr. Ears’, and the musicians
that play on it are of a similar vein. Cai believes
that this organic quality is lacking from most contemporary
jazz, music which is focused purely on technicality
and obscure, often irrelevant sound effects. |
______________________________ |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
