Contemporary Jazz - Jazz Fusion with a touch of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Victor Wooten topped off with a Quincy Jones style of production and you have a taste of what Jo Sallins is all about.

16 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Fusion, JAZZ: Contemporary Jazz

Details:
JO SALLINS
Composer ...quot; Multi-Instrumentalist
Clinician ...quot; Performer
Educator ...quot; Producer

Maestro bass player celebrates CD release
Joe Sallins brings his funk-inspired rhythms to the Iron Horse Music Hall

Funk ---moving the bass and rhythm lines of a piece of music up front while the traditionally melodic instruments play accompaniment --- has created an avenue for many now-well-established entities in music: fusion jazz, hiphop, groove rock, Afro-Caribbean anything, the list goes on.

Joe Sallins was born on that avenue. From his first steps on drums, at age nine, through his adventures on the piccolo bass, his discovery of the West African drum called a djembe, and his Chick Corea-inspired exploration of the keyboard, to his recent collaboration with flamenco dancer Ines Arrubla, the Springfield-bred Sallins has spent nearly four decades finding constantly new ways to arrange bass lines and percussion. To mix metaphors, his music brings to mind an oriental rug, for its intricacies of color, shape, repetition and overall beautiful pattern.

Not for symmetry, though. Sallinsâ music has direction, expression. Itâs not a tidy assembly of grooves that end up where they began. And itâs not as though heâs neglecting melody. His newest disc ranges from rap to jazz to Chopin --- the âNocturne in B-flat minorâ with piles of crystalline high notes tumbling through the air.

Sallins celebrates yet another step in the expansion of his musical range: the release of the new CD, âMr. Cool,â and the accompanying DVD.

âMr. Coolâ shows the breadth of Sallinsâ range. Besides the bass grooves at one point and the Chopin piano at another, these tunes include fine sweeping horn riffs and vocal work by various sidepeople, while Sallins underlines their work with clean, almost transparent bass lines and churning drums, playing both instruments for the session.

Sallins drives the sound acrobatically, with as much variety of style as possible, and for his quality he repeatedly mentions the Chick Corea influence.

Sallins is so versatile that he sometimes plays bass and drums at the same time, live. Or bass and keyboard, or keyboard and drums. He can play bas with just his left, by hammering-on, or by tapping the strings, while playing a piano chord or solo with the other hand. (Hereâs yet another reason for the new trend toward CD-DVD recordings: on the âMr. Coolâ DVD, you can see how Sallins pulls these moves.)

John Stifler

Includes the CD and a DVD of Iron Horse Concert in Northampton, MA.

La'Jaz Productions
Jo Sallins, C.E.O
33 Benham Street
Springfield, MA 01109-2301
cell: (413)262-2950
(413)739-0795
Email: josallins@comcast.net
Website: www.josallins.com

People who are interested in should consider this download.