A well-deserved accolade for the pianist, the band and the music!
Ubuntu Music Artists Dominate Jazzwise Magazine Year End Issue
Noemi Nuti, John Law, Andrew McCormack, Allison Neale, Darius Brubeck, Nigel Price, Joshua Jaswon, Dave & Judith O’Higgins, Joe Downard and James Copus are all featured here!
NOEMI NUTI
JOHN LAW’S CONGREGATION
ANDREW McCORMACK
ALLISON NEALE
DARIUS BRUBECK / TURNING POINT
ALLISON NEALE / TAKING OFF
NIGEL PRICE / FEATURE
DAVE & JUDITH O’HIGGINS / AUDIOPHILE CORNER
New Series: “Ubuntu Music Live” at Jazz Café launches on 29 September
Ubuntu Music and the Jazz Café are announcing a new series starting on Tuesday 29 September with the launch gig for two albums: James Copus’ album Dusk, and Joe Downard’s Seven Japanese Tales.
For the full article, please click on the image, above.
New Series: “Ubuntu Music Live” at Jazz Café launches on 29 September
Ubuntu Music and the Jazz Café are announcing a new series starting on Tuesday 29 September with the launch gig for two albums: James Copus’ album Dusk, and Joe Downard’s Seven Japanese Tales.
Ellora Management and Ubuntu Management Group Announce the Creation of a Formal Collaborative Partnership
The two businesses plan an aggressive expansion of
shared services with select artists from their respective rosters.
Left to right: Laura Hess-Hay and Martin Hummel.
Ellora Management Inc, a division of Ellora Designs LLC, is a Lakeville, Connecticut-based company which provides diversified music and related services to jazz artists. It is owned and managed by Laura Hess-Hay, who has considerable talent management experience. Its roster includes Ahmad Jamal, Hiromi and Marialy Pacheco.
Ubuntu Management Group Ltd is a London-based company that provides diversified music services which includes consulting, talent management and recorded music through its record label, Ubuntu Music. It is owned and managed by Martin Hummel, who has a considerable track record in advertising, marketing and communications across a broad spectrum of businesses throughout the world. Artists who have appeared on its album releases include Alina Bzhezhinska, Andrew McCormack, Camilla George, Chet Baker, Darius Brubeck, Eric Alexander, Harold Mabern, Jay Phelps, Laurence Hobgood, Mike LeDonne, Quentin Collins and Seamus Blake.
These two businesses first came together in 2019 through the shared mutual interest in a young Turkish pianist, Hakan Başar. Ellora manages Başar while Ubuntu released his debut album that same year.
The success of this initial encounter led to the decision to work together with Boston-based Japanese pianist, Yoko Miwa. Again, Ellora manages Miwa while Ubuntu will be releasing her next album on its label later this year.
Collaborations with additional artists have been identified and will be announced, shortly.
The essence of the relationship between these two parties resides in leveraging Ellora’s considerable management track record and its booking agent infrastructure along with Ubuntu’s business/marketing management experience and its highly successful Ubuntu Music record label.
Speaking on behalf of Ellora Management, President Laura Hess-Hay said, “Martin Hummel and I came together like a tornado having like minds on absolutely everything we were seeking for our mutual artist, Hakan Başar. As our talks continued and we evolved sharing our views about how we worked and what we intended to achieve in our lives musically, it quickly became apparent that we were like mirrors of the other.
My family is my priority, and this includes my music family as well. Martin’s priorities are absolutely the same. It quickly became apparent that together we could accomplish more for our upcoming family of new artists. Look out for some wonderful happenings in the near future!”
Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Management Group elaborated further, saying, “This partnership seemed destined to happen. Laura Hess Hay Jamal and I share the same ethos, values and passion for what we do and for the artists we represent. We have complimentary skills and geographic breadth. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working together and independently came to the view that we should formalise the relationship. We have some very exciting plans ahead and firmly believe that the combined forces of our two businesses will continue to make a significant difference to our artists.”
For further information, please contact:
Mike Wilpizeski (mikew@chartroommedia.com) at Chart Room Media, 718 459 2117 (USA)
Ellora Management: info@elloramanagement.com
Ubuntu Management Group: info@ubuntumanagementgroup.com
Websites
https://www.elloramanagement.com/
For Jazziz Magazine’s 3-Month trial subscription, please click on the image, above.
Darius Brubeck on Polskie Radio Lublin
Listen to this surprisingly timely excerpt from an interview with Darius Brubeck at Radio Lublin Poland which was recorded during the Darius Brubeck Quartet's 2018 'Live in Poland' tour. Speaking to Magdalena Fijalkowska, Darius reveals the back-stories behind Earthrise, I Saw Your Father, and Before It's Too Late…all original compositions which are featured on the recently-released live recording on the Ubuntu Music record label.
To listen to the interview excerpt, please click PLAY, below.
Celebration as jazzman Darius Brubeck licks Covid-19
Musician’s recovery will benefit Durban’s homeless
Darius Brubeck at a UK jazz festival in 2012. After a month in hospital in the UK battling Covid-19, he is back home and regaining his strength as musicians prepare for a thanksgiving concert in aid of the homeless in Durban.
Image: Alan John Ainsworth/Getty Image
As acclaimed jazz musician and academic professor Darius Brubeck waged a month-long battle against Covid-19 in the ICU of a hospital in the UK, it was not death he feared most but the thought of never seeing his beloved South Africa-born wife, Catherine, again.
The 73-year-old American pianist and composer, who co-founded the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Jazz and Popular Music with her in the 1980s and still has strong ties to SA, was given a slim chance of survival by doctors after testing positive for the deadly virus in March.
Brubeck is the son of acclaimed US jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, regarded as one of the pioneers of cool jazz and best known for the jazz standard Take Five.
Now, as Brubeck slowly regains his strength at the home he shares with Catherine in Rye, East Sussex, she too is on a healing journey, recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after nearly losing her husband.
His recovery has inspired the Piano Passion Project — a collective of pianists mainly with piano lineage to Brubeck — to host a virtual thanksgiving concert on Wednesday.
About 20 pianists in SA, the UK, the Netherlands and the US, who he either taught, lectured with or mentored, are set to perform at the concert. It will benefit the Denis Hurley Centre, which feeds and cares for Durban’s homeless.
Brubeck doesn’t know when or how he contracted the virus, but suspects it was while he was on tour in the UK with his two musician brothers, Chris and Dan, and saxophonist Dave O’Higgins.
“A good guess is at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, where we played seven sold-out shows in five days beginning on March 3,” he told Sunday Times from his home in the UK.
By the end of the tour on March 13, Brubeck was ill. His brothers, who later also tested positive, flew back to the US. Dan was admitted to an ICU in the US, and Chris displayed mild symptoms and self-isolated.
“I resisted going to hospital for six days despite having a high fever and a persistent cough. Big mistake,” said Brubeck.
Brubeck eventually relented and was taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was tested and given a “50/50” chance of survival.
Despite being on a ventilator, the terrifying experience is imprinted in Brubeck’s memory, which he is unpacking by writing about it.
“I recall all of this in vivid, horrifying detail, which I will not share now but will at some point. What frightened me most was not the possibility of dying but the thought of never seeing Cathy again and the rather paranoid notion that she wouldn’t know what had happened to me.
“I really didn’t know what was going on for a lot of this time, but I kept my sanity by repeating, actually mentally singing, ‘Love is stronger than death’ over and over. This was the last line of the piece Chris wrote that we performed with an orchestra and chorus in Fribourg, Switzerland,” Brubeck recalled.
“We are now literally recovering together as she is diagnosed with [PTSD] while I am trying to regain full physical functionality.”
Jazz musician and concert organiser Neil Gonsalves said: “This thanksgiving concert in aid of the Denis Hurley Centre brings full circle prof Brubeck’s connection and vital contribution to Durban.”
Darius Brubeck: Alive and Well
He was in ICU and on a ventilator for a month, but Darius is now recovering at home and we are all so thankful for Darius and his partner, Cathy.
Image by Monika S Jakubowska
With all the heart-breaking news in the world these days and the endless frustrations with our present situation, there is good reason to be thankful. Darius Brubeck contracted the COVID-19 virus while on tour in the UK and was admitted at Conquest Hospital in Hastings on March 19th. He was immediately placed in ICU under sedation and on a ventilator for a month. Last week, Darius was removed from critical care and this week he returned home to his lovely partner and manager, Cathy. Yesterday, Darius sent this message:
"I have been home for exactly a week today, so this is a kind of milestone. I am writing this post myself. I spend 80% of my time in bed but I know the crisis is definitely behind me and I will be ‘back’ someday. I am profoundly grateful for messages from you all that Cathy read to me every day. In sport they say the crowd can make the difference between winning and losing, so you inspire me to do as much as I can to fulfil your generous wishes on my behalf. To this I add that it is impossible overstate my gratitude for the wonderful hospital and now post-hospital care I’ve received from the NHS, free of charge (take note America!). Cathy joins me in thanking everyone."
Miracles can and do happen. Just ask Darius. As he says, "I will be back" and we'll all be waiting for just that day to arrive. It can't come soon enough.
Our deepest gratitude goes to those extraordinary individuals at the NHS who place their lives on the line each and every day. We would be absolutely lost without you.
—Martin Hummel
Darius Brubeck Scores Big, Again!
Hi-Fi news & Record Review writes “…great live set.”
DBQ 'Live in Poland' Scores Big with BBC Music Magazine!
BBC calls the live recording “…a straight-ahead treat”.
