Big band and small group jazz featuring Mike Metheny (flugelhorn, cornet, EVI) and various Kansas City all-stars.

9 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Big Band, JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo



Details:
KC POTPOURRI
CD Description

KC POTPOURRI, trumpeter Mike Metheny's seventh release as a leader, is a diverse set of small group jazz and big band arrangements performed by some of the finest musicians on today's Kansas City scene. The Soundtrek Big Band backs Mike (muted cornet, flugelhorn, EVI/electronic valve instrument) on a hard-driving version of the venerable "Flintstones" theme, Bob Curnow's treatment of brother Pat Metheny's ballad "Always and Forever," the late Frank Mantooth's bossa arrangement of Jimmy Van Huesen's "Darn That Dream," and Jack Peterson's lively "Hey Man!" Then on the small ensemble side (there are three different groups) the tracks include the blues "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West" by John Lewis, Danny Embrey's ballad/waltz "Tell Me Now," Jobim's "How Insensitive" done as a slow bossa, Benny Golson's swinging "Are You Real," and a late-night rendition of the Fischer/Laine ballad, "We'll Be Together Again." "These musicians are the cream of the crop in KC," Mike says. "And what a pleasure it always is to record at Ron Ubel's Soundtrek Studio."


MIKE METHENY BIO

Trumpet/flugelhorn soloist Mike Metheny is a native of Lee's Summit, Missouri and has degrees from the University of Missouri/ Columbia (B.S. in Music Education) and Northeast Missouri State University (Masters in Music Education). His teachers included Keith House and John Alexander.

From 1971 to 1974, he was a trumpeter in the U.S. Army Field Band in Washington D.C., and in 1976 became a faculty member at Boston's Berklee College of Music, a position he held for six years. At Berklee, Mike taught private trumpet, music theory and jazz improvisation and, while in Boston from 1976 to 1989, led his own Boston-based jazz quartet, appearing in numerous club, concert and festival settings across New England and the U.S.

Mike is a recipient of the "Outstanding Brass Player" award at the annual Boston Music Awards. And, in addition to appearing on numerous jazz recordings as a sideman, he has recorded eight solo albums: Blue Jay Sessions (1982, Headfirst Records), Day In -- Night Out (1986, MCA/Impulse; and featuring Mike's brother, award-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny), Kaleidoscope (1988, MCA/ Impulse), From Then 'Til Now (1992, Altenburgh Records) and Street of Dreams (1996, Altenburgh Records), and Close Enough for Love (2001), KC Potpourri (2003) and Back to Basics (2004) on Mike's 3 Valve Music label.

Since 1983 Mike has been one of the few trumpeters to regularly perform on the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), a trumpet synthesizer with many dimensions and musical possibilities. Originally developed by Nyle Steiner, the EVI has an eight octave range, is MIDI capable, and, as Mike says, "can double as a bug sprayer."

Today, Mike is a freelance performer, educator and music journalist in the Kansas City area. He is also the former editor of Kansas City's Jazz Ambassador Magazine (JAM), a position he held from 1994 to 2003.

Web site: www.mikemetheny.com