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Oct 13 - 25, I will be traveling all across Europe as part of the Oliver Lake Quartet, playing the music of Eric Dolphy!! On this project I'll be playing trumpet, flute and bass clarinet, with the great Mr. Lake on alto, of course – so we'll have all of Eric's instruments covered, with a nod to Booker Little too.

Oct 28, I'll be appearing at Makor (Upper West Side) with one of my very favorite singer/songwriters, Rebecca Martin, playing her lyrical and beautiful music – that gig being a warm-up for her short New England tour the following week which will take us to Maine, New Hampshire and Boston.

Nov 13 will give me another chance to work with electric bass great Will Lee (of the Letterman Show) – his band The Fab Faux wil be in concert that evening in New Brunswick, NJ.

Dec 2 I'll be back at Makor with the NY Hieroglyphics, playing music from the just-completed CD.

 

 

Welcome!

At this site you can find out what I've been up to recently,and what I have coming up. You can also take a listen to my records and if you like what you hear, you can purchase them!

2004 Update

'04 has been a crazy and musical year so far -- travels with Me'Shell NdegeOcello's Spirit Music Sextet have taken me to Tokyo, Nagoya, San Francisco, New Orleans, Atlanta, Richmond VA, and, this summer, all across Canada and Europe for festival season. We also did a week at the New York Blue Note back in the Spring -- all this activity really developed the music into something strong and beautiful. In Me'Shell's group, I play trumpet, flute, bass clarinet and kalimba, and have contributed several originals and arrangements to the "book". The group also includes Oliver Lake and Ron Blake - saxes, Michael Cain - keyboards, Chris Dave - drums, and DJ Jahi Sundance on sounds. Me'Shell herself plays only bass in this project, no singing, so it is a real departure for her!

In addition to Me'Shell's group, recent musical highlights for me have been working with the Mark Helias Sextet, the Oliver Lake Big Band, Bonga Jean-Baptiste's Haitian-flavored Vodou Jazz Ensemble, Will Lee's Fab Faux, Jenny Scheinman's group, Peter Apfelbaum's NY Hieroglyphics, playing Chorro music with Brazilian guitarist Carlos Pereira, and working with remarkable up-and-coming vocalist, Sasha Dobson.

Teaching jazz trumpet for two weeks at the Monterey Jazz Festival's Summer Workshop in June was also a blast and exposed me to some really gifted young players.

Kalimba Craziness

I recently debuted a new version of my own band, The Peck Allmond Group. Since 1989, my group has been more or less the same configuration: two horn players, piano, bass, and drums, with an occassional guest percussionist or vocalist, etc. This year seemed like a good time to try something new and in August the Peck Allmond Kalimba Quintet gave it's first performance. No, it's not five kalimba-ists, but me playing a lot of kalimbas (aka "thumb-pianos" or "mbiras") and of course many horns, with Jenny Scheinman on violin, Gary Fisher on keyboards, Bonga Jean-Baptiste on Haitian hand-drums, and Kenny Wollesen on drums and marimba (no bass -- who needs it?!). As it's name suggests, the group really features the kalimba (an instrument I have fallen in love with over the last three years), and some of the textures mixing violin, marimba, and kalimba are very exciting and beautiful to me; as soon as my new kalimba record (more about that in a moment) is out, look for many more performances around NYC by this group.

And most recently, I just finished a week in the studio with Peter Apfelbaum's NY Hieroglyphics, recording our first new album in twelve years! Peter's music somehow keeps getting better and better and this recording will be the best so far.

MORE KALIMBA CRAZINESS!!

What I'm most excited about in '04 is the October release of my newest record, "Kalimba Collage"!!! Released on SoniCulture Records and available at this site, this cd is my favorite effort to date by a longshot! Recorded over the last year and a half, the disc features Claudia Acuna, Kenny Wollesen, a string trio, and others, with me on many kalimbas, flute, trumpet, saxes, trombonium, clarinet, conch shells, wood flutes, and many other beautiful-sounding and unusual instruments. The music itself ranges from my originals to folk tunes from Haiti, Scotland and Kenya, to complete improvisation, to text by the great Latin-jazz singer Mili Bermejo, and by Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy Spokesman Oren Lyons. If you are a fan of the lovely, harp-like instrument known as the kalimba -- or if you have never heard it before - I hope you take a minute to hear some samples at this site! Everyone who has heard the disc so far has said that it is truly like no other they've ever heard, and I myself am very happy with it.

In addition, this is also the place to hear and/or purchase my 2001 release, "Short Stories", recorded for the Spirit Nectar label. That record features me on trumpet, tenor and soprano saxes, peckhorn, wood-flutes and cornet, as well as some great playing by Hans Teuber (alto), Gary Fisher (piano), Doug Weiss (bass), Kenny Wollesen (drums), and Bonga (percussion).

This is the record the Village Voice called "[Allmond's] most convincing disc yet"; Entertainment Weekly wrote, "trumpeter and saxophonist Allmond makes the difficult doubling seem as easy as eating two favorite flavors of ice cream"; and jazz legend Jackie McLean said, "Allmond is a fiery young talent and a true triple-threat: trumpet, saxophones and composition. "Short Stories" is an exciting recording that showcases his gifts beautifully".

Also here you can hear a preview of my soon to be released SoniCulture CD, "Slow Songs". Mostly ballads, featuring the same group as on "Short Stories", with the addition of Dave Berkman and John Wiitala on several tracks.

For any info, contact me at peck@peckallmond.com. Thanks!

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