The excitingly creative Canadian jazz quartet, THERMO has launched their debut album, Birdlike. Featuring Nathan Hiltz on guitar, and Mike Manny on piano, this album demands attention from not only the dedicated audience of forward-thinking jazz listeners, but also from anyone interested in hearing well-executed music. Performing selections from the hard-bop era, the ten tracks pay homage to compositions by jazz masters, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Wes Montgomery – to name a few. The album also includes two original compositions:
Co-leaders Nathan Hiltz (originally from Antigonish, residing in Toronto) and Mike Manny (originally from Toronto, residing in Ottawa) formed THERMO during the pandemic after performing guitar-piano duo shows online via the magic of cyberspace through the low latency internet platform, Syncspace.live. Through the online shows, a musical kinship blossomed where a few laughs were had, and musical ideas were put into motion. Suddenly, a few live performances were in the books and a recording date at Imagine Sound Studios (Toronto) was set - all to include legendary Canadian jazz bassist, Neil Swainson, and the deep swinging Morgan Childs on drums.
Birdlike was officially released on G-B Records (Toronto) as of 7 October 2022. THERMO celebrated the recording release with a live performance at Jazz Bistro (jazzbistro.ca) in Toronto on Friday, 21 April 2023 at 8:00pm. They will also be performing a release show in Ottawa in the summer of 2023, and a Canadian West Coast tour in November 2023.
- ‘Betty’s Buns’ composed by Mike Manny is a swinging, straight-ahead number dedicated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia piano player, Betty-Lou Beaton – and baker of wonderful homemade buns!
- ‘Fountain Scenery’ composed by Nathan Hiltz is a contemporary Latin selection which has a tuneful melody built on outside harmony – the title of this track is a response to the song ‘Mountain Greenery’ by one of Nathan’s favourite composers of all time, Richard Rogers.
Co-leaders Nathan Hiltz (originally from Antigonish, residing in Toronto) and Mike Manny (originally from Toronto, residing in Ottawa) formed THERMO during the pandemic after performing guitar-piano duo shows online via the magic of cyberspace through the low latency internet platform, Syncspace.live. Through the online shows, a musical kinship blossomed where a few laughs were had, and musical ideas were put into motion. Suddenly, a few live performances were in the books and a recording date at Imagine Sound Studios (Toronto) was set - all to include legendary Canadian jazz bassist, Neil Swainson, and the deep swinging Morgan Childs on drums.
Birdlike was officially released on G-B Records (Toronto) as of 7 October 2022. THERMO celebrated the recording release with a live performance at Jazz Bistro (jazzbistro.ca) in Toronto on Friday, 21 April 2023 at 8:00pm. They will also be performing a release show in Ottawa in the summer of 2023, and a Canadian West Coast tour in November 2023.
"... the listener gets dipped into some serious jazz juice! A triumph!"
Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, WholeNote Magazine
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