Joseph Nowell Trio
Joseph Nowell piano
Manolo Cabras double bass
Gaspard Sicx drums
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Debut album "Sketches" was released September 16, 2022 on Off Record Label
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All compositions by Joseph Nowell except for Blurp, by Manolo Cabras
Recorded in September 2021 by Manolo Cabras in Brussels, Belgium
Mixed and mastered by Manolo Cabras
Produced by Joseph Nowell
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PRESS
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"It is intimate, impressionist, Debussian music, mixed with avant-garde[...] But this music is not difficult: it tells us stories."
Jean-Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir (fr)
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"With 'Sketches', pianist Joseph Nowell reveals a promising pianistic wealth of ideas. A powerful debut."
Bernard Lefèvre, jazzhalo.be (nl)
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"A CD of scanning, searching, trying out and, above all, finding. It makes one look forward to the live translation of all this."
Georges Tonla Briquet, jazzenzo.nl
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Featured on "Strange Fruits", Radio Panik (Brussels), December 17th 2022
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Featured on "Jazz.com", Radio ARA (Luxembourg), December 8th 2022
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"I met Manolo at a jam in Antwerp in 2018 while I was studying there for my master in jazz piano. We then began having sessions in Brussels together with Gaspard, playing standards, originals and improvising. I moved back to Italy before the pandemic, but we stayed in touch and in 2021 we decided to make a recording of my compositions, in Manolo's home studio in Brussels. The compositions are quite diverse, some are quite old and others more recent, and they have various influences ranging from 20th century classical music and dodecaphony, to free jazz, to more traditional jazz harmonies, etc...the 2021 recordings which make up the album were the first time we had played together after 2 years of pandemic. We spent four days recording, with a great, vibrant yet relaxed atmosphere. On the last day we felt like we had good takes of all the tunes, so Manolo and I decided to try some duo versions, treating the material very freely. This is where the "sketch" takes come from. The album is called "Sketches" because our intent in the compositions was for them to be merely starting points for us to improvise as freely as possible, whilst maintaining ourselves to the material, in the same way that a sketch is a rough, preparatory drawing and not something completely defined or organised."
Manolo Cabras is an established Sardinian double bass player based in Brussels with a long career, having collaborated with Ben Sluijs Quartet, Enrico Rava, Toots Thielemans Quartet, Chris Joris Quartet, Frederik Desmyter Quartet (feat. John Ruocco), Charles Gayle, Marshall Allen, Roswell Rud, Maria Pia De Vito, Marc Murphy, Jasper Blom, Jesse van Ruller and many others.
Together with drummer Gaspard Sicx they form the rhythm section for many Belgian bands.
