Julie Sassoon
New Life
Babel BDV 2662
Indecisive Madness 6.02 mp3
PM Song 8.34
New Life 19.16 mp3
Forty Four 11.31
Safe Passage 5.46 mp3
All compositions by Julie Sassoon
Julie Sassoon – piano & voice (tracks 3 & 5)
Recent Press
"This is a lovely record that takes inspiration from both jazz and classical musics but does so in a genuinely personal way. Sassoon was the pianist-composer with the remarkable Azilut! trio and this is her first solo record. Recorded during the time she was pregnant with her first child, the twin themes of womanhood and motherhood permeate the music in a way that almost gives the album a programmatic aspect. Yet such thoughts merely add to its sense of wonder. Improvisation here arises from the compositional elements quite seamlessly and her influences from Scriabin, Ravel, Debussy, Steve Reich and Egberto Gismonti have all dissolved into her own vision. True you can hear Scriabin in her occasionally dramatic climactic chords, as you can Gismonti in the restless shifting melodies of the title track. Yet there's no hint of pastiche, post-modernism or plagiarism. Those moments where you glimpse an influence or hear something just familiar are more like meeting an old friend. Sassoon's capacity to sustain interest without resorting to licks, tricks or slickness of any kind is remarkable. Its more as if an essence has been distilled to the point where sound becomes a sensory trigger for all kinds of memories, thoughts and feelings. Beautifully produced, played and executed and most of all, music of rare beauty. ****" Duncan Heining Jazzwise Magazine July 2006
The effect is rather Keith Jarrett-meets minimalism, full of swooning rhapsodies grounded by hardedged repetitions." Independent on Sunday ****
"Here's a solo piano album made by an artist who was six months pregnant at the time of recording, over two days in May, 2004. It's tempting to make the connection between Julie's condition and the music. It's a connection she herself makes: the five extended improvisations have the titles ‘Indecisive Madness', ‘PM Song', ‘New Life', ‘Forty Four' and ‘Safe Passage'. And the inlay photo in the CD case is as arresting as the Demi Moore pregnant Vanity Fair shot. The music is just as vulnerable. ‘Indecisive Madness' is not, as the title suggests, the incoherent ramblings of a woman awash with hormones, but a model of harmonic logic and elegance that recalls Debussy. The pulsing rhythms of ‘New Life' have a questing obsessiveness, but there is a precedent in the work of Sassoon's obvious jazz role model, Keith Jarrett. Koln Concert might have been made under trying conditions, but at least he wasn't pregnant. What is unquestionable is the emotional commitment of Sassoon's performance, in which raw instinct and trained musicality combine to create something new, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. Julie's daughter, Mia, was born on September 2, 2004, which means that the album had a longer gestation than the baby. The hidden track consists of reassuring gurgles." Mike Butler -Jazz UK
“Julie's music possesses spiritual depth and a special lyricism entirely of its own." The Guardian
New Life is Julie Sassoon's first solo album. The English pianist has a style that has echoes of the great Russian powerhouse composers such as Scriabin and Rachmaninov as well as an incredible sense of contemporary rhythmic pulse. She came to the attention of critics and audiences in 2000, when she formed Azilut!, receiving rave reviews for her performances and recordings including the Babel release To the Power of Three with the trio. New Life includes five original compositions by Julie, and is a celebration of the birth of her first child.
As Julie puts it “solo piano has always been the purest means of expression for me. Scriabin and Debussy, as well as the great modern improvising pianists have formed the colour and foundations of my music. When Oliver Weindling, MD of the Babel Label, asked me to record a solo piano recording, it seemed a very natural thing for me to do. The musical ideas contained within the album are very much informed by the fact that I was pregnant whilst making it. To work on this music with my daughter, Mia, growing inside me was probably the most direct translation of my emotional world that I can imagine. The title song of my album, "New Life", in particular, seemed to emerge from somewhere deep inside me”
“New Life” is one of a series of solo piano albums planned for release on Babel. “ Pianists are among the great creative forces in jazz and have the great opportunity/challenge of being able to perform solo without losing any harmonic or melodic aspects” says Oliver Weindling “Following on from the successful solo album by Huw Warren (Infinite Riches In A Little Room) this is part of a long-term aim to raise the status of many of our finest pianists by giving them a chance to record solo”. The release of solo piano albums by Huw Warren and Richard Fairhurst is planned for 2007.
To purchase this CD from our store click on sleeve