A soulful, toe-tapping, instantly accessible jazz recording, Church on Monday features long-time musical director for Ray Charles, Dr. James Polk on Hammond B3 organ as well as former Joey DeFrancesco band-mate Jake Langley on guitar. The result is a highly entertaining musical journey that features two new original compositions penned by Elias and slate of great jazz standards arranged just for this session.
Inspired by the great Blue Note recordings from the '50's and '60's, Elias and his quintet of tenor saxophone, B3 organ, guitar, bass and drums spent two days tracking in an old church in East Austin that is now a recording studio. Capturing a classic sound with swinging arrangements played by outstanding musicians is what this session is all about. For high-fidelity enthusiasts, Cherrywood Records will press a limited number of vinyl records and make the high-definition (24-bit/88.2 kHz) sound files available for download.
Elias Haslanger has played and recorded with Ellis Marsalis, Maynard Ferguson, The Temptations, Asleep at the Wheel, Alejandro Escovedo and countless others. He has released 4 critically-acclaimed recordings as a leader which have been played on radio stations around the world and reviewed favorably in DownBeat, JazzTimes, Billboard, Cadence, Texas Monthly and the Austin Chronicle. He is an active performer performing over 150 shows a year at venues across the United States.
Haslanger is now a major talent, both as a composer and instrumentalist whose future has almost unlimited potential and should be regarded in national terms." -Michael Point, DownBeat ~ CD Universe