The new album from award winning drummer/composer Jon Sheckler

" I just wanted to hear interesting things"

After debuting in 2014 with Cable Street, Jon Sheckler waited for the right time to record again. "I felt like my first record was more in line with other people's ideas then my own. So I wanted to wait until I was 100% comfortable with the situation."

After moving to New York in 2014, the pieces began to come together. Steve Denny became a regular member of the trio shortly after Jon arrived in New York. Aron Caceras joined soon after and a working trio was formed. "The biggest thing for me was to have a working band. You can always tell when a record is made with a working band because there is something different in the music."

Pianist Steve Denny is an engaging leader in his own right. His debut Life in the Basement was praised as an “impressive debut” by Allaboutjazz.com. Bassist Aron Caceres is the youngest musician, but he already been an in demand sideman, working with Ryan Keberle, Jane Monheit, New York Voices, and Robin Eubanks.

Beginning in January 2017, this trio began its residency at Caffe Vivaldi. "Having the residency was a huge step for me. It gave me a place to test tunes out and to build something." Working twice a month, the trio began to gel and move together. They began to play original tunes inside and out. As they grew musically, Jon began to see an opportunity. "We were really playing well and when I started to look at my book, I saw a lot of music I liked playing. I thought it might be time."

Cityscapes began to take shape in 2016 when the title track was written. "Cityscapes began as something totally different. It was going to be this slow clunky thing, but I took a lot at my other tunes and found that some could really work well together."

Written as a tribute to his favorite cities, Jon says there was no chance that another tune would make this album work. "The three sections each represent a neighborhood in New York and New Orleans. The first section is based around Ridgewood in Queens, the second is inspired by Midtown Manhattan and the final act is meant to sound like the Garden District in New Orleans. The tune is so sprawling and the title invokes so much imagery that it had to be the foundation of the record."

The other tracks followed soon after. "Since moving to New York, I stopped being interested in the new thing and doing the next step and all that. I just wanted to hear interesting things. And I wanted to hear things that I could listen to. I started to feel like a lot of new music was alienating the audience because there was no real surprise or melody or anything outside of the technique of the composer. I didn't want to write like that. If I felt a tune was becoming boring or monotonous I would throw it out. So when I was picking and writing for this record, I tried to find tunes that had something different about them."

Right Side Up, which begins the album, is the prime example of the subversive nature of the compositions. "I wanted the first track to be an example of the whole album. Right Side Up has a good singable melody that seems less complicated then it is. You don't really feel the key changes and abnormal form. The same could be said about most of the record."

Cityscapes

Jon Sheckler - Drums/Compositions

Steve Denny - Fender Rhodes

Aron Caceras - Acoustic Bass

Produced by Jon Sheckler

Engineered by Mike Gevaza, October 27th, 2017 at Continental Recording, LIC, Queens, NY

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Gevaza

Album cover designed by Jon Sheckler

Press Release