For those unaware, Felipe Salles and his Interconnections Ensemble will be celebrating the release Home is Here at the National Sawdust on June 22nd, 2023 [for more info, see their link below).

Home is Here completes Salles’ immigration themed trilogy, started by The Lullaby Project (2018) and followed by the Guggenheim funded multi-media The New Immigrant Experience (2020).

In Home is Here Felipe focuses on the theme of immigration in the jazz community. Each of the 8 pieces of the work were written for an immigrant jazz artist, who were featured in the album.

The process of composing these pieces was preceded by a long interview conversation between the composer and the featured artists on topics such as immigration, artistic vision, race, culture, and heritage among others.

The recording features Paquito D’Rivera, Melissa Aldana, Chico Pinheiro, Yosvany Terry, Magos Herrera, Sofia Rei, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, and Nadje Noordhuis.

The project was made possible by the prestigious Jazz Road Creative Residency Grant (2021) with the support of Jazz Road and South Arts.

1. Re-Invention (feat. Paquito D’Rivera)
2. Meridian 63 (feat. Sofia Rei)
3. Polymorphous (feat. Jacques Schwarz-Bart)
4. Wanderlust (feat. Nadje Noordhuis)
5. Two Worlds Together (feat. Magos Herrera)
6. World Citizen (feat. Yosvany Terry)
7. The Promise of Happiness (feat. Chico Pinheiro)
8. Storytelling (feat. Melissa Aldana)

This wonderfully buoyant and melodically-hued new recording opens on the 10 minute, rhythmically-sprightly, jazz-pop bounce of Re-Invention (featuring Paquito D’Rivera) and the lushly flowing, Argentine-influenced Meridian 63 (featuring Sofia Rei) and follows those up seamlessly with the euphorically-charged Polymorphous (featuring Jacques Schwarz-Bart) and the emotively-refined Wanderlust (featuring the vibrant lyricism of Nadje Noordhuis).

Bringing together modern large jazz ensemble writing, contemporary classical textures and Latin American rhythmic influences in a unique way, along next is the stoically, at first, flushly cinematic latterly, and yet always sensuous Two Worlds Together (featuring Magos Herrera) and that is in turn backed by the upbeat and perky, playful even, and inclusive of Afro-Cuban rhythms, World Citizen (featuring Yosvany Terry), the album rounding out on the dutifully wistful, later flourishing, 10 minute The Promise of Happiness (featuring Chico Pinheiro), closing on the beautifully sculptured Storytelling (featuring Melissa Aldana).

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Felipe Salles is a composer, conductor, arranger, saxophonist, and flutist. He has worked and recorded with Paquito D’Rivera, Randy Brecker, David Liebman, Lionel Loueke, Jerry Bergonzi, Chico Pinheiro, Melissa Aldana, Magos Herrera, Luciana Souza, and Bob Moses among others, and has toured extensively in Europe, North and South America, India, and Australia.

Awards include a 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Composition Fellow, a 2021 South Arts Jazz Road Creative Residency Grant Fellowship, a 2015 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, a 2009-2010 French American Jazz Exchange Grant, and a 2005-2006 Chamber Music America New Works among others.

His arrangements and compositions have been performed by some of the top groups in the world including The Metropole Orchestra, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Violas, among others.

Salles has released nine critically acclaimed recordings as a leader, most recently the ambitious multi-media work The New Immigrant Experience, in 2020, which received a 4.5 stars review from Downbeat Magazine. Felipe Salles is currently a Professor of Jazz and African American Music Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Felipe Salles @ Facebook