January’s tune of the month Every time we say goodbye (to listen just click on it) has only been recently discovered. This is the first time that the tune has been made available and we will work to make ‘Every time we say goodbye’ available on CD in 2012 together with other unpublished gems.

The first version of ‘Every time we say goodbye’ was written and played by Cole Porter (1944) and the beautiful song has been recorded by many leading musicians ever since, among them John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Sammy Davis Jr.

Noah used to play this tune to his wife each time she left on a work trip – and we are now saying goodbye to 2011, and to loved ones and great musicians who passed away this year with this tune played by him in Stockholm.

A highlight of the year was the publication of Noah’s autobiography MUSIC IN MY SOUL which can be ordered here

We are wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Share this month’s tune with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook button below this text.

Noah recorded this month’s tune Creole Girl (to listen just click on it) for the 1977 album Red Star for which he teamed up with the great bop drummer Kenny Clarke, hard-bop trumpeter Richard Williams, grand piano stylist Bobby Few and bassist Guy Pederson.

Throughout his musical voyage Noah remained a son of New Orleans. Even as a free jazzer par excellence he never forgot his musical roots in the city of New Orleans and creole culture he hailed from.

Red Star is available from Amazon.

Noah’s autobiography MUSIC IN MY SOUL (2011) can be ordered here

Share this month’s tune with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook button below this text.

November’s Tune of the Month is This Place Called Earth from the 1966 Noah Howard at Judson Hall album.

Lionel H Mitchell, the Afro-American writer and close childhood friend, wrote about the album “Conceived and partly written in flight, it is a series of paradoxes, ironies and contradiction even, revealing themselves only through total listening because the music is no longer one music or a music. It is about total-like sound surging into many or all dimensions and introducing the listener to total freedom (…). Mr. Howard (…) stretches the theme until at times it becomes like the funeral marches of the Young Tuxedo Brass Bands of his native New Orleans, includes the triumphant jump back from the brother’s grave with the wine bottles glinting in the sun outside St. Louis Cemetery and at the highpoints of his ecstasy he reaches the blues. It must be recognized, however, that this dirge is in a sense incidental because the overall form of the work sets it in the jet age and is therefore designed within the symbolism of the steel bird−gunning the engines, taking off, soaring into the blue, rocketing beyond the speed of sound to a ringside seat of the universe. In the discussion, which takes place none of the instruments have what can, strictly speaking, be called, a supportive role−they are all individuals seemingly going their separate ways.”

Noah Howard at Judson Hall is available from Amazon.

Noah Howard at Judson Hall recorded in New York City in 1966.
Noah Howard, Dave Burrell, Rik Colbeck, Norris Jones [aka Sirone], Bobby Kapp, Catherine Norris
Label: ESP
Compositions by Noah Howard: This place called earth, Homage to Coltrane

Noah’s autobiography MUSIC IN MY SOUL (2011) can be ordered here

Share this month’s tune with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook button below this text.

MESSAGE TO SOUTH AFRICA was written one week after Steve Biko died in policy custody and featured two of South Africa’s most powerful and evocative exiles: pianist Chris McGregor and bassist Johnny Dyani.

In his autobiography Music In My Soul Noah says about Message to South Africa “I am convinced that together we were able to develop a soulful piece with spiritual intensity reflecting the times we lived in. The inspiration I felt was coming to me at that moment and being receptive to it was my soul’s reward. We were able to reach another level of existence.”

Patterns / Message to South Africa is available from Eremite Records.

Message to South Africa recorded in Paris in 1979.
Noah Howard (as), Johnny Dyani (dr), Kali Fasteau (s), Chris McGregor (p), Noel McGee (b)
Label: Altsax in 1971 and issued on by Eremite in 1979 in a compilation with Patterns (MTED 19 CD)
Compositions by Noah Howard: Patterns/Message to South Africa.

Noah’s autobiography MUSIC IN MY SOUL (2011) can be ordered here

Share this month’s tune with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook button below this text.

A year ago Noah suddenly left us and we miss him dearly as a great friend and outstanding musician. Our thoughts are with his family.

But fortunately he left us a lot to keep his legacy alive and to make us smile:

His music, a celebration of his life, for example SOUL SHADOWS from the Live in Paris album, the September Tune of the Month.

His autobiography MUSIC IN MY SOUL, which is being released these days and can be ordered here

And most of all fond memories of his kindness, love and enthusiasm.

Share this month’s tune with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook button below this text.

Kanpai, this month’s tune, is from Noah’s Live in Paris album. For the five tracks Music in my Soul, Kanpai, Chasing the Ark, Domino and Soul Shadows Noah worked with Boulou Ferret (guitar), Joe Lee Wilson (vocals), François Tusque (piano), Jack Greg (bass), Armando (percussion) and Daniel Berchet (drums).

Listen to Kanpai

Live in Paris is one of many albums Noah recorded in Paris, a city he had a very special and close relationship with. It began when in 1972, disenchanted by the lack of appreciation for musical avant-garde in the US, Noah left New York City and moved to the French capital, . . . weiterlesen!

Lovers, your choice for the July Tune of the Month, was taken from ‘Convergence’ an album Noah did together with Chris Chalfant in 2007. In the notes by Andrew Nielsen ‘Lovers’ is described as “a welcome ballad sung by Chris, reminiscent of the European chanteuse genre with it’s haunting melody”.

Listen to Lovers

Chris Chalfant recounts how the album was recorded: “We decided to record this CD just days before it happened and just days after our first meeting in this incarnation, playing the New York Jazz Festival. There were many moments where we had no idea what would happen next, but somehow . . . weiterlesen!

New Arrival, our June Tune of the Month was composed by Noah for the birth of pianist and composer Michael J. Smith’s first daughter Tania. This version was recorded life in Bremen in 1975.
Listen to New Arrival

The studio version as well as the whole album Eye of the Improviser from 2003 can be purchased on itunes

You can also share this tune with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook-share button below . . . weiterlesen!