Violeta

A collaboration between Kevin Hays, Shawn Conley,
John Hadfield and The Knights

program notes

Kevin Hays & The Knights: Violeta

A few years back I had the great pleasure of working with the gifted singer-songwriter, Christina Courtin on a recording session in NYC. The project had been organized by our shared publishing administrator (and wonderful composer/conductor) Dan Coleman. What I did not know at the time was that Christina is also a virtuoso violinist and a core member of The Knights.

Several years later, and with a global pandemic in full swing with no opportunities to play out live or tour, it seemed like a good time to check some things off my wishlist. One big item was to somehow find a way to work with this group of extraordinary musicians.

So one afternoon in the Spring of 2020 I sent an email to brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen to see what we could do together and was thrilled when discussions to collaborate began in earnest. It was Colin who suggested that Shawn Conley, bassist for The Knights, with his extensive knowledge of jazz and arranging skills, take the lead.

In deciding what song to work on, Shawn mentioned his fondness for one of my compositions ‘Violeta’ (dedicated to the Chilean singer-songwriter and visual artist, Violeta Parra). The piece was written a few years back and though I had already performed and recorded it in a few different contexts (with my own trio, in duo with guitar virtuoso Lionel Loueke and with drummer Jeff Ballard), Shawn thought that its melodies and rhythmic structure would work well with a pared down version of the orchestra.

Within a few months of Shawn completing his beautiful arrangement and sending out parts we received back all the string player’s audio and video files and began assembling them alongside my piano track. Before long we concluded that adding some percussion would give the track some additional propulsion and we reached out to the wonderful drummer/percussionist John Hadfield who added his unique brand of driving rhythms and colorful textures.

The video accompaniment (also produced by Shawn!) features a wild and fun montage of vintage footage of orchestral performances, control room recording sessions from the 1950’s, informational films about vinyl record pressing alongside flying circus acts. These images are interwoven with our sheltered-in-place performances, ending with a lovely clip of Ms. Para herself.

So, after many months of hard work and heartfelt effort I can gratefully put a checkmark next to ‘Get with The Knights!’, and count myself as one more thrilled collaborator of this wonderful group. Thank you all!

Kevin Hays
Narrowsburg, NY
March 2022

Violeta
Composed by Kevin Hays
Arrangement, video production & editing by Shawn Conley
Michael LaValle, audio mixing

Colin Jacobsen & Christina Courtin, violins
Mario Gotoh, viola
Karen Ouzounian, cello
Shawn Conley, bass
Kevin Hays, piano
John Hadfield, percussion

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Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist, composer, and singer/songwriter Kevin Hays is internationally recognized as one of the most original and compelling musicians of his generation. A musician and composer based in New York City, his work has been performed on numerous albums as a guest artist, recording with Chris Potter, Bill Stewart, Joshua Redman, Jeff Ballard, Nicholas Payton, and Al Foster, among many others. To learn more about Hays, visit his website. 

Hawaiian-born bassist and composer Shawn Conley grew up loving all types of music. This love of diversity of sound developed into a career that straddles many genres. He has played with the Silkroad Ensemble for eight years and is a member of the Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra The Knights. To learn more about Conley, visit his instagram page.

As a composer and percussionist, John Hadfield’s dedication to music has taken him from his native Missouri to concert halls and clubs across the world. He has released three albums of his own compositions—John Hadfield’s Paris Quartet, The Eye of Gordon and Displaced and has composed for many projects. John’s ability to cross genres has allowed him to appear with a broad range of artists such as Kinan Azmeh’s City Band, Nguyen Le’s STREAMS Quartet, the Saturday Night Live Band on NBC, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Silkroad Ensemble. To learn more about John, visit his website.