Janko Novoselic - Jazz Kvartet (2025) [Hi-Res]

The album was recorded live in one course, at the Travno Cultural Center, Zagreb, 6.3.2023.
After more than 20 years of playing jazz, and numerous collaborations with orchestras and jazz bands, one of the most respected and beloved Croatian musicians, the drummer of the Croatian Radiotelevision Jazz Orchestra - Janko Novoselić, decided to record a real organic jazz album. hiddle "After half my life playing jazz, I finally decided to record a jazz album. I have a feeling that I just discovered and realized jazz - standards, American songbook, songs from the musical, recordings, progressions, melodies, and as if I loved it all a little more together," said Novoselić hiddle The compositions on the new album are jazz standards from different authors – from Dave Brubeck, Rodgers / Hart, James Black, Schwartz/Dietz, Stephen Sondheim, Duke Ellington and Sun Ra – a real traditional jazz. The album's announcement single 'Alone Together' is one of those songs that are almost always played on 'sessions', along with a few more things, some would say that these are already 'wretched' jazz standards. I wanted to dive deeper into these compositions and try to find some way of my own how to perform and make it simple - music. There are also much lesser-known and performed songs such as The Duke, Ballet or A Call for all Demons, songs that are amazing and that are very challenging to play. On the other hand, precisely because these are extremely well-written compositions - they are extremely easy to perform, we like to say that they are 'almost playing alone' – jokes Janko. hiddle In addition to Novoselić on drums, the quartet on the album consists of guitarist Elvis Penava, saxophonist Mario Bočić and double bass player Zvonimir Šestak. Janko gathered a band that shares a common sensibility towards playing, but also understanding of jazz and improvisational music. They approached shooting in an 'old-school' way - all in one take and live together in the room, without fixing and editing. The album was recorded in the form of a session at the Travno Cultural Center in Zagreb. Luka Grubišić - Čabo from Soundbrick Studio is credited with recording the sound. hiddle - With the method of recording, we wanted to get closer to the old jazz recordings, e.g. Blue Note albums that were recorded like this despite the imperfections have something perfect - both atmosphere and performance. If that recording is a document one moment, then it is also a kind of proof of ourselves in that time - how we play, sound, look right now. If we were to repeat such a thing in a year, it would certainly be a lot different, and yet it would be interesting to see if some things would be identical. The recording itself went fantastically, mostly thanks to the top team of musicians who took this task seriously, and then the audio and video recorders who were together with us on the same wavelength from the beginning to the end. Luka Grubišić Čabo fully understood what we want to achieve and enabled us to build such live sound all together in one room and without headphones. hiddle In addition to being the main instrumentalist and producer of the album, Janko Novoselić is also responsible for the mix, while he entrusted mastering to a verified professional from the USA, Grammy winner, Stephen Marsh from Marsh Mastering, a renowned American audio engineer whose portfolio includes reissues of classics by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Earth, Wind & Fire, Donny Hathaway, Bad Company, and numerous famous music Stephen is also known for his analogous approach to sound, which perfectly builds on the ‘old-school’ philosophy of this quartet that recorded live. hiddle The new album 'Jazz Quartet' was released under the music label Intek Music as a digital release and you can listen to it through music streaming services. Watch the video album recorded by Petar Milić and Neven Muretić from Hommage Production. Video editing was done by Natko Klobučar. The design of the album cover is credited to Ivan Klisurić.