Renowned musician Chris Stamey is best known for his work in the indie-rock idiom with The dB’s, Alex Chilton / Big Star’s Third, and Chris Bell, but his most recent record was jazz album New Songs for the 20th Century, Vols. 1 & 2, (with guests like Branford Marsalis, Bill Frisell, and Nels Cline) which received high praise both in Downbeat and Jazz Times.

Stamey now returns with another foray into the jazz field with the upcoming album A Brand-New Shade of Blue, which arrives August 21st via Omnivore Recordings. The LP explores the after-hours, small-combo jazz sound, and Stamey is joined by a talented group of collaborators known as The Fellow Travelers.

Featuring vocalists Brett Harris, Ramunė Martin, and Django Haskins, and with performances by Will Campbell, Charles Cleaver, Dan Davis, Elijah Freeman, Jason Foureman, Peter Holsapple, Evan Ringel, Ben Robinson, and others, A Brand-New Shade of Blue was inspired by the intimate jazz sound of the late ’50s and early ’60s — a time when the “cool jazz” compositions of such luminaries as John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk lived alongside the expanding pop vocabulary of Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb.

“These are songs for late nights and rainy days,” Stamey explains. “I wrote most of it in the dark of winter, in whispers, in the ‘wee small hours of the morning,’ that magic time ‘when the whole wide world is fast asleep.’ And these great singers and musicians kept that mood alive throughout the sessions that followed.”

Stamey recalls: “Some of the new [songs] are more clearly Tin Pan Alley-ish in their musical vocabularies, including the jolly, stride-piano-style exposition of “Come Home to Me” and the bittersweet sixth chords of “It Must Be Raining Somewhere.”“

Big Takeover is pleased to host the premiere of the reflective “It Must Be Raining Somewhere.” The track straddles the line between pop ballad and jazz reverie, plush with wistful vocals, gentle piano contemplation, shimmering cello, brushed drums, muted trumpet, low-register upright bass, and acoustic guitar plucks.

Track Listing
1. A Brand-New Shade of Blue
2. Je Ne Sais Quoi
3. Late for the Party
4. I Don’t Think of You
5. In a Minor Key
6. It Must Be Raining Somewhere
7. Un Autre Temps
8. Come Home to Me
9. Late for the Party (Slight Return)
10. There’s a Dream Around the Corner
11. Cerulean Is Lovely
12. Speechless
13. Dangling Cheek to Cheek

Personnel
Brett Harris, principal vocalist
Charles Cleaver, pianist, organist
Dan Davis, drummer
Jason Foureman, acoustic bassist
Chris Stamey, guitarist
Ramunė Martin, vocalist (“I Don’t Think”)
Django Haskins, vocalist (“Dangling”)
Will Campbell, alto and soprano saxophonist
Elijah Freeman, tenor saxophonist
Evan Ringel, trombonist
Ben Robinson, trumpeter
Rachel Kiel, flautist
Matt Douglas, bass clarinet, bari sax

Omnivore Recordings Website