In late August, during the frenetic last push to deliver our two new decorated instruments on a firm schedule, we finished up a new PRANA 3 instrument for Wynton Marsalis. Dave Monette jumped on a plane to deliver the horn and fine-tune mouthpiece selection with the horn in time for Wynton's new small group recording for Blue Note Records just a few days later.

During the visit to Wynton's apartment, Wynton played some of the new music he had written for the CD on his living room piano, and shared other details of the project that Blue Note Records doesn't want us to divulge - but suffice it to say that this new project should be an all-time favorite of ours based on what Wynton shared with us!

Wynton recorded the small group CD after a few nights of performance/run through up in Northampton, MA at a small club called the Iron Horse. Writer Carl Vigeland was there, and reported to us that the music just got better and better with every set each night.

TED NASH'S PORTRAIT IN SEVEN SHADES

Wynton's other recording project just a week or so later was to participate in the recording of Ted Nash's composition "Portrait in Seven Shades." The CD was made at the new recording studio at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The piece was inspired in part by works from the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, and by musical compositions such as Ellington's Degas Suite, Coleman Hawkins' "Picasso," Jim McNeely's "Cockiness" and Maria Schneider's "Some Circles." The seven movements of the piece are Chagall, Dali, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Pollack and Van Gogh.

For more information on Ted's composition and new CD, please refer to the following links:

http://tednash.com/jazz-art.html
www.ny1.com
www.nytimes.com