''At World's Edge'' is the ninth album by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

Philippe Saisse. The 2009 release was Saisse's first on

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch"), formerly known as Koch Records and Entertainment One (eOne) Music/Records, is an American independent record label and music management company based in New York City. It was formed in 1987 as a music div ...

. It was produced by Saisse and Roy Hendrickson and was nominated for the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality ...

Overview

Philippe Saisse dedicated ''At World's Edge'' to his late father Maurice Saisse. This album has African and Latin influences. The album was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album but lost to the

Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to bec ...

album '' 75''. This was Saisse's first Grammy nomination. The other nominees were '' Urbanus'' by

Stefon Harris Stefon DeLeon Harris (born March 23, 1973) is an American jazz vibraphonist. Biography A native of Albany, New York, Harris intended to work for the New York Philharmonic until he heard the music of Charlie Parker. During the 1990s he recorded ...

, '' Sounding Point'' by Julian Lage, and '' Big Neighborhood'' by

Mike Stern Mike Stern (born January 10, 1953) is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, re ...

Recording

Work on the album began in Saisse's

Scarsdale, New York Scarsdale is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Scarsdale is coterminous municipality, coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate ...

basement studio, but he had to relocate to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

after a flood destroyed the studio. The album's core musicians, drummer Simon Phillips, bassist

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A session bassist, he has played bass for a number of acts such as the Who, the John Mayer Trio, Gary Numan, Paul Young, Don Henle ...

, and guitarist Jeff Golub, recorded with Saisse in Los Angeles, but not all of the album was recorded on site. The guest musicians recorded their parts where ever they were, then sent them to Saisse who produced the pieces together. The work was then sent to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

where engineer Goh Hotoda completed the mixing.

Selected tracks

Saisse's mid-recording forced cross-country move was the inspiration for much of the album. "Billy's Blues", which features Jason Golley on both

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

, was inspired by Saisse's friend Bill Howell. Saisse stayed with Howell prior to his move west, the location of Howell's home was the inspiration for the track "Topanga Moon Dance". The album opens with "From Nowhere to Now Here", the piece tells the story of his journey west. The track "Assante Sana" exemplifies Saisse's

world The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

view of music. This Latin flavored piece feature the vocals of

Angélique Kidjo Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo (; born July 14, 1960) is a Beninese- French singer-songwriter, actress and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Kidjo has won five Grammy A ...

from

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Critical reception

Jonathan Widran of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called ''At World's Edge'' "one of the most exciting and explosive contemporary jazz sets of 2009". Randall Parrish called the album "a highly entertaining and engaging work" and closed his review with " ly a true accomplished master such as Philippe Saisse could nimbly pull this expression of contemporary jazz together so marvelously."

Track listing

#"From Nowhere to Now Here (Intro)" ( Philippe Saisse) 1:16 #"From Nowhere to Now Here" (Saisse) 4:11 #"The Rover" (Saisse) 3:59 #"Billy's Blues" (Saisse) 4:21 #"At World's Edge" (Saisse) 4:12 #"Monday Afternoon" (Saisse) 5:31 #"Assante Sana" (

, Saisse) 3:45 #"Roppongi Blues" (Saisse) 6:29 #"Through Tainted Glass" (Saisse) 3:41 #"Topanga Moon Dance" (Saisse) 6:25 #"Junto" (Saisse) 2:40 #"At World's Edge" ocal Version(David Rice, Saisse) 4:12

Personnel

* Philippe Saisse – keyboards,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, producer * Simon Phillips –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

, mixing *

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Jeff Golub –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, engineer

Guest musicians

Jeff Beal Jeff Beal (born June 20, 1963) is an American composer of music for film, television, recordings, and the concert hall. Highly regarded as a jazz instrumentalist and versatile composer, Beal creates music that often incorporates a synthesis of impr ...

–

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Michael Davis –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

* Marc Antoine –

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

Kirk Whalum Kirk Whalum (born July 11, 1958) is an American R&B and smooth jazz saxophonist and songwriter. Whalum has recorded a series of commercially and critically acclaimed solo studio albums. Along with several film soundtracks, with music ranging fro ...

–

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

, engineer *

Lenny Castro Lenny Castro (born September 19, 1956) is an American percussionist from the Los Angeles area. He is one of the most prolific percussionists of all time, appearing on hundreds of albums, including those by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Maroon ...

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

*Annas Allaf – guitar, oud, engineer *Jason C. Golley – trumpet, flugelhorn * David Finck –

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

, engineer, audio production *Jasmine Roy – vocals *Scooter Warner – drums, engineer

Production

*Roy Hendrickson – producer, engineer *Goh Hotoda – engineer, mixing, audio production *Ramon Hervey II –

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

*Francois Boutault – engineer *Javier García – engineer *Ronald Jenkins – engineer *Daniel Meron – engineer *Doug Schwartz – mastering *Andy Snitzer – engineer *Jake Wherry – engineer *Christian "Wicked" Wicht – engineer *Erik Zobler – engineer *Alice Butts – art direction, design * Sunny Bak –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

References

{{Authority control 2009 albums Philippe Saisse albums E1 Music albums