hey all,

yes.. we're back in the studio for new tracks ... for our next album. after the preparation of our summer-festival tour we again have some days in the studio. and what a fascinating start into the next album we had. the ethiopian jazz legend mulatu astatke came by for recording 2 tracks with us. as one of the tracks was my very first try to compose a jazz song in the ethiopian mode i was happy as a child, when mr. astatke complimented me for that composition. he could feel the ethiopian soul, he said,  and after he continuously praised the composition during the recordings, he gave me a handwritten note sheet with different ethiopian modes/scales from different areas of his home country. what a great and inspiring experience.
ameseginalew! thank you mulatu!
peace all, stefan leisering (1/6 of the j-nova crew).

hey all,

yes.. right.. as some of you might have read or heard before, we just started a remix-contest for our album-track: "I Can See"..
for more information just hit the button on our myspace site or go directly to :

http://www.jazzanova.de/remixcontest

have fun twisting, cutting, slicing , (re-)programming, (re-)arrangeing, editing, transforming .. whatever... our original song around the way you like.
the deadline will be 12/15/08 ..til then we all six j-novas will be waiting for your remixes.. curious from which distant musical galaxy our song echoes back to us.

peace, stefan (1/6 of j-nova)

Of all the aspects we love about beeing involved in music, making an album is maybe one of the greatest and most satisfying... that's what i can tell you from the studio-side of j-nova ;-). in the last six years (the time after "in-between") we released and produced different artists, made a lot of compilations in various fields of music,  developed in dj-ing, continued producing remixes, established our own label Sonar Kollektiv & our own radio-show and wrote/produced a score for a musical theatre show called "Belle et Fou" (2006). during all these years we've never lost contact to our own work and the aim to produce a new album.. coming from the sampling and programming side of music we learned a lot about composing .. arranging .. recording.. working with vocalists and musicans.
we enhanced and extended our studio .. bought new instruments.. new equipment. etc.:

  .. a fertile ground for "Of All The Things".

for us doing and representing music is like a neverending quest you might want to join in when listening to our new album.
peace all, stefan.


"Of All The Things" (Verve) release-dates:


Japan 15.10.2008

USA 21.10.2008

Germany 24.10. 2008

Austria 24.10.2008

Switzerland 24.10.2008

France 27.10.2008

Greece 27.10.2008

Spain 28.10.2008

Netherlands 31.10.2008

Portugal 10.11.2008

UK Januar 2009


other countries are scheduled and will be anounced, when we have a release-date.

hey y'all,
during the last weeks we had some great recording sessions for our forthcoming album.. in may ben westbeech and josé james came by our studio in berlin. in april we were at the leroy studios in amsterdam to record with dwele. now we are heading straight to get all the arrangements, orchestrations , additional recordings, editing, mixing.. etc. done.

it was a great honour and pleasure to work and share inspiring studio-time together with all these musicans:

leon ware
dwele
phonte (little brother)
paul randolph
ben westbeech
josé james
joe dukie (fat freddie's drop)
bembe segue
azymuth
five corners quintet.

so expect a great jazzy soul album to come in fall '08.

peace, stefan (1/6 of the j-nova crew).

hey all,
we've added a new song to our profile, as some of you might have already noticed .
well actually .. it's not really a new song.. we've originally composed & recorded it in 2002 together with vikter duplaix during the sessions for our first album 'in-between'.
for the recording of the 'Belle et Fou' score, we decided to do a new version of the song. we felt that it could take an important part in the live performance of the show. during the 'Bell et Fou' period we worked on two alternate instrumental versions, we had recorded with some berlin jazz musicians..
finally, the 6/8 version found it's way to the show.. and with clara hill's lovely vocal interpretation on top .. to the 'Belle et Fou' album, which was released in winter 2006/07..
when bembe segue came to our studio to record a new track for our new album, we also played the faster 4/4 instrumental version to her.. she really liked the idea to do a more fiery and energetic version of the song.
so, our third 'THAT NIGHT' interpretation was born:

JAZZANOVA feat. BEMBE SEGUE 'That Night'

Bembe Segue (Vocals) ;
Rainer Winch (Drums) ;
Paul Kleber (Aco. Bass) ;
Bene Aperdannier (Piano) ;
Stefan Leisering (Hohner Elektra Piano ; Percussion)


peace all,
stefan.

hey all,

jazzanova's dj alex will be touring through america oct 11th - nov 3rd 2007..

feel free to check out the tour calender on our myspace site..

see you!

in this 2 much to short films you can have a little view inside: the string recordings @ berlin teldex studios for the track 'let me show ya' which will be featured on our next lp. detroit singer paul randolph will be lead vocalist on this soul masterpiece. by the way ..during this session (spring 2006) also most of the string parts of jazzanova's 'belle et fou' soundtrack have been recorded.

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14040028

 

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14040874

 

axel & me just interupted our lp production to work on two tracks for clara hill's new folk project, which will be released in fall 07 on our sonar kollektiv label. you can have an exclusive listen here  http://www.myspace.com/extendedspirit  there's also a blog on that theme.

stefan.

Inside the J-nova studio:

During the last months we had great studio sessions with Leon Ware , Bembe Segue , Paul Randolph , Phonte ( Little Brother), Five Corners Quintet, Azymuth, Joe Dukie (Fat Freddy's Drop).. and.. the list is still growing. Here you can read and see what's happening inside the Jazzanova studio and share some of the great moments we had with all these magnificent artists.