JeruJazz Records warmly announces the release of American Lullaby, composer and pianist Carl Kennedy's debut album as a leader. Bassist Dan Thatcher (James Davis' Beveled, Lucas Gillan's Many Blessings) and drummer Andrew Green (Twin Talk) fill out his jazz piano trio and help give life to an album grown from Americana roots and wrapped in a chamber music aesthetic. The album will be released on May 26th, 2019 with a performance at Fulton Street Collective in Chicago, IL with a follow up appearance at Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL on June 1st, 2019.

"On this album, I wanted to capture one of my favorite things about instrumental music: providing an emotional soundtrack that invites the listener to fill in the imagery and story with their own history and experiences."

It's easy to simply say that Kennedy cross-pollinated jazz with aspects of classical chamber and Americana music, but those broad terms belie the level of detail and careful nurturing with which this album was constructed. On this album, Kennedy has curated a blend of Paul Simon and Erik Satie, Bill Frisell and Florian Ross, Keith Jarrett and Thelonious Monk. His playing reveals evidence of his recording and touring with folk rock band Jonas Friddle and The Majority and with neo-soul/funk group Bassel & The Supernaturals.

Despite its title, American Lullaby doesn't appear overtly political, in that it doesn't have a message and doesn't impose upon the listener how they should feel. Instead, it's more of an emotional impression of the American political and social landscape for the listener to consider and decide how to react. And what better music than jazz to capture the intricate and many-faceted emotional reflection of an America going through a time of political and social uncertainty?

"A lot of this music has existed in various incarnations across various projects, and with this group, I was able to bring it all together and really find the right musical medium to express it."

The title track of American Lullaby captures the warmth and nostalgia of a lullaby but intentionally weaves a thread of uncertainty and darkness. Kennedy accomplishes this through employing the form and lilting melody of a folk song while incorporating harmonic tension that more commonly appears in jazz and classical music. Osage Avenue uses that same rhythmic feel and harmonic tension to address a colder moment of the American experience. Osage Avenue was the location of the 1985 bombing of civil rights organization MOVE's headquarters by Philadelphia Police, which burned 65 houses to the ground and left 11 people dead.

Arcus references the experience of driving into an oncoming thunderstorm with the flat landscape of the Midwest accentuating the ominous presence of the arcus cloud. "And you think, 'Oh, I didn't realize Mordor was ten miles outside of Lafayette, Indiana.'" Referencing the Pacific Northwest, Mountain Child captures a very different American landscape through the eyes of Kennedy's wife, a native of Seattle.

Furniture Music is directly inspired by Erik Satie's Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes, and The Clock employs a similar classical piano approach with its independently moving left hand accompaniment. Begin Again and Children of the Fountain allows the trio to function more like a classical chamber ensemble emphasising the collective, eschewing the more traditional jazz practice of featuring the piano.

When Kennedy started this project, Dan Thatcher had been one of his favorite bass players for years and was an obvious choice. Drummer Andrew Green wasn't even a choice. For those early musical discoveries, Kennedy and Green were college roommates. "Now, I put music in front of him, and he plays exactly what I hear. His instincts match mine because we grew in that same soil."