Groove Travels Gerard Presencer & Danish Radio Big Band

• 1 Another Weirdo 05:40
• 2 Blues for Des 09:10
• 3 Ballad or Tango of the Misunderstood 07:10
• 4 The Devil's Larder 05:14
• 5 Eleanor Rigby 06:00
• 6 Istanbul Coffee Cup 05:54
• 7 Footprints 06:53
• 8 Can't Stop Loving You 06:42
• Total Runtime 52:43

Info for Groove Travels

Groove Travels is the highly anticipated new album from British trumpeter, arranger and composer Gerard Presencer, featuring the Danish Radio Big Band.

Groove Travels is set to be a defining album both for Gerard and for new Big Band groove conceptions. This new release is without doubt his most ambitious and well executed solo recording to date and will stand alongside the leading voices in contemporary big band groove music.

The idea for this album first took root when Gerard moved to Copenhagen to take a trumpet seat in the band. As Gerard explains: ‘It’s taken five or six years for me to get this album together which is great for a project like this, because I got to know everybody, we play together all the time, so the tunes that I’ve chosen are specifically chosen for the musicians that are playing them’.

Over the past 25 years Gerard Presencer has carved out a formidable reputation as one of the most respected trumpeters on the European scene. He exploded onto the international scene, aged 18, when US3 asked him to play the solo part on Blue Note’s Cantaloupe Island (re-imagined as Cantaloop Flip-Fantasia) which went on to become one of the biggest selling jazz records of the 1990s. Since then, he has performed with a who’s who of international jazz artists, and has developed a career as an educator, arranger and composer.

Gerard has also been an essential member of Charlie Watts’ various jazz groups over the last 25 years, touring the world and releasing several albums in various groups with the jazz-loving Stone!

Gerard continues to push himself and his instrument, moving outside his comfort zone in order to develop as a player and writer....

‘In the future I would like to play more frequently without drums and without microphones, because then I have to really focus on my sound and get very fundamental things clear to sound more beautiful. I have made several recordings within the Suoni Ensemble exploring this area. To play the trumpet quietly is the biggest challenge for me, so that’s what I’m trying to do at the moment: shhhh!’

As the title of this project suggests, cultural diversity has played a vital part in shaping Gerard’s music and he wanted to add contrasting colours to build on the predominantly northern European sound.

“Another aspect of music I love is the cross-fertilisation of different cultures within our music. With this album I wanted to take a Scandinavian ensemble and myself (the most exotic it got!), and I added guest lead trumpet Adam Rapa from America and Cuban percussionist Eliel Lazo. I wanted to see how we responded to these new challenges as a band...”

The traveling implied in the title comes as much from a restless desire to find new influences, new musical touch-stones: ‘Groove Travels is a loose idea. It’s not a travelogue, but a compilation of grooves that I’ve heard on my travels that have caught my imagination. I’ve always written music from the groove upwards, as that’s always what gets me excited. The groove gives me ideas for the rest of the music every time’.

Gerard compares the writing on Groove Travels to writing for a gigantic horn section. For example... “‘The Devil’s Larder’ is two big bands, multi-tracked, so it’s the biggest horn section ever! Which is a lot of fun...” And fun it is for us too!

The ensemble playing and the writing is sophisticated and exciting - as one would expect from a big band that has had leaders such as Bob Brookmeyer and Thad Jones - this is as good technically as big band jazz gets, but without the obvious fun, the joie de vivre so clearly on display, Groove Travels would only be a very fine album. With this x factor, it’s a great one.

Gerard Presencer, trumpet
Adam Rapa, trumpet
Christer Gustafsson, trumpet
Thomas Kjærgaard, trumpet
Jens Chr. Gotholdt, trumpet
Michael Mølhede, trumpet
Vincent Nilsson, trombone
Steen Hansen, trombone
André Jensen, trombone
Anders Larson, trombone
Ola Nordquist, trombone
Nicolai Schultz, saxophone
Pelle Fridell, saxophone
Hans Ulrik Jensen, saxophone
Karl-Martin Almqvist, saxophone
Anders Gaardmand, saxophone
Per Gade, guitar
Kaspar Vadsholt, bass
Søren Frost, drums
Henrik Gunde, synthesizer, Fender Rhodes
Eliel Lazo, percussion

Gerard Presencer
was born in London in 1972 and has become widely respected as one of the finest trumpet players in the World. Having established himself as a studio musician and session player he has since received critical acclaim for his 3 solo albums. His playing credits cross musical genres and he has recorded with many leading artists including Sting, Robbie Williams, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell and Chick Corea. He has also played on and arranged strings and brass for a variety of performers including Charlie Watts, Incognito, Zero 7 and Will Young. Gerard has won the trumpet category of the British Jazz Awards 4 times. In addition to all this, he has remained Head of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music in London since 1999 and is also the Head of Brass at the Jazz Institute Berlin. Gerard first worked with Audio Network with Tim Garland in 2002 and has more recently started composing for the company.

This album contains no booklet.