Joshua Breakstone’s Cello Quartet: “88” | November CD of the Month

Joshua Breakstone is far from being “just another great guitarist”, he has developed into a unique stylist with his own sound that has attracted numerous new fans while maintaining he longtime fan base. He is perhaps the most popular guitarist in Japan where he often tours and records. Over the last several years Joshua has been touring and playing in Denver on a regular basis. KUVO’s downstairs neighbors in the Five Points Media Center is Colorado Public TV-Channel 12 which decided to document Breakstone’s recent travels and has produced a new documentary about him: Joshua Breakstone, Soft Hands: Jazz Ethereal to be broadcast in early January 2017. Portions of the documentary were filmed in Denver and in KUVO’s Studio Flo.  To accompany the documentary, Joshua has recorded his 6^th session for Colorado’s very own Capri Records out of Bailey, it is also his 3^rd outing with his cello quartet.  88 is the apropos title since 8 of the 9 selections on the disc were composed by pianists and the 9^th entry is a Joshua Breakstone original which serves as the title track.

Joshua Breakstone Cello Quartet’s 88 is a very pleasing recording, the musicians have played and recorded together many times and the cohesiveness of the ensemble is evident from start to finish. Joshua’s accompanying players are: Lisle Atkinson-bass, Andy Watson-drums and Mike Redmond-cello. Since pianists are the primary composer musicians, it would’ve been easy for Breakstone to select well known songs by the most famous pianists, instead he opted for those excellent lesser known piano players and their infrequently recorded works that fit well in a cello quartet. The most recognizable pieces are perhaps Tadd Dameron’s If You Could See Me Now and Soul Eyes by Mal Waldron, the other tunes are by Harold Mabern, Cedar Walton, Elmo Hope, Sonny Clark, Lennie Tristano and Barry Harris-all top notch pianists and composers.

Mr. Breakstone hails from Elizabeth, NJ, a suburb of Newark. He began playing guitar while in high school and would travel to nearby Manhattan to study with the superb jazz guitarist Sal Salvador. At first Joshua was influenced by trumpet players like Lee Morgan but then he heard Charlie “Yardbird” Parker and his sensibilities for jazz were changed forever. After graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, he lived in Brazil for a while then returned to NYC. He began his recording career in 1979 and in 1986 the mutual love affair with Japan and her jazz fans began in earnest when he conducted his first tour of The Land of the Rising Sun. Stay tuned to KUVO and logged on to our home page and Facebook page as we will announce when Channel 12 schedules the broadcast of the Breakstone documentary. In the meantime, Joshua’s newest CD will most likely be in your heavy rotation through the end of the year, a perfect preamble to watch Joshua Breakstone, Soft Hands: Jazz Ethereal.