Nir Felder - Golden Age (2014)

Touted as "the next big jazz guitarist," hailed by the New York Times as a "whiz kid," and dubbed "incredible" by the Montreal Gazette, rising star Nir Felder has been making big waves in the New York City jazz scene since his arrival in 2005. His many credits include stints in bands led by Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding, Terry Lyne Carrington, José James, Meshell Ndegeocello and Chuck Mangione as well as performances with Jack DeJohnette, Cassandra Wilson, Stanley Clark and Black Sheep. Now, Felder is poised to take center stage with his debut album, Golden Age.

For Golden Age, Felder recruited pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Nate Smith to join him in bringing his unique musical vision to life. But it s Felder s exquisite playing that sets the standard for this album; from fully strummed electric guitar chords to delicate finger-picked notes to spirals of single-note runs that fully exhibit Felder s jazz chops.

The album was not born of a concept, but the title does provide a unifying sentiment- one of ambiguity and duality. Says Felder, "Was the past a golden age? Is this one? Has there really ever been one? The question is always according to whom? So there s a lack of clarity about whether things are going great or they re really bad, and the music reflects that." To augment his instrumental takes on those questions, Felder studied dozens of legendary speeches and mixed spoken-word samples in with the music from Hillary Clinton, Mario Cuomo, Malcolm X, Richard Nixon, Lou Gehrig, Elie Wiesel and others on two songs, "Lights" and "Sketch 2". The results are sweeping, cinematic impressions of history brought into the present moment.

Tracklist:

01. Lights
02. Bandits
03. Ernest/Protector
04. Sketch
05. Code
06. Memorial
07. Lover
08. Bandits II
09. Slower Machinery
10. Before the Tsars

Personnel:

Nir Felder – guitars
Aaron Parks – keyboards
Matt Penman – bass
Nate Smith – drums