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The Official video for "Tequila" has been added to Ted's Official YouTube Channel. Click and watch below. Get "Tequila" in the Official Ted Store. 
New Single - Tequila - available at all leading retail outlets and the Official Ted Store.
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Produced by: Ted Howe and Trammell Starks
Arrangements: Ted Howe Keyboards and programming: Ted Howe Vocal: Karla Harris Mixed by: Trammell Starks at Studio Magic, Atlanta, GA Mastered by: Daddy Kev at Daddy Kev Productions, Los Angeles, CA Consultation: Joseph Patrick Moore Artwork: Dan Traynor, Taste Of Ink Studios, Phoenix, AZ Ted composed the music for the movie starring Chris Cordone titled, "Stevie D".  SynopsisWhen Stevie D (Chris Cordone), the only son of Los Angeles construction magnate Angelo DiMarco (John Aprea), accidentally kills a connected man, Angelo is left with few options. Working with his confidant Lenny (Kevin Chapman), the two devise a plan to send the wayward son into hiding while an unknown, look-alike actor is hired to fill his shoes and unknowingly take the hit. Watch Now:
The new TedHowe.com website has launched (version 2.0). Check out all of the addition's and also follow Ted on his Social Media accounts. Sign-Up on the Newsletter mailing list to keep up-to-date.   Chuck Berg: Howe mines new Ellington gold Posted: October 16, 2011 - 8:44pm West Coast pianist Ted Howe regaled a full house of Topeka Jazz Workshop patrons with a Sunday afternoon concert that mined new gold from the happily inexhaustible Ellington lode. Intertwining tales of The Duke’s fabled life with ear-grabbing variations on such indelible melodies as “Do Nothing Til You Hear from Me,” Howe had us sitting at the edge of our seats wanting more. In setting up “Do Nothing...,” for example, Howe, after reminiscing on the warmth of the Count Basie-Duke Ellington relationship, served up a leisurely and sparsely noted romp redolent of Basie’s bluesy KC barbecue-flavored heritage. Howe, who has lifted bandstands with jazz icons Joe Williams, Buddy Rich and Mel Torme, as well as the singular Diahann Carroll and Henry Mancini, is a modern melodist conversant in jazzdom’s great keyboard traditions. In a jaunty dash through “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” Howe let loose with several blazing choruses that evoked Ellington’s love of the stride piano giants of his Washington, D.C., childhood, such as Fats Waller. Dialing the tempo down, Howe also proved a compelling balladeer. His luminescent limning of “Prelude to a Kiss,” for instance, hit all the right places with romantic pianistic waves made poignant with hauntingly astringent harmonies. Abetting Howe with pitch-perfect support were drummer Tommy Ruskin and bassist Gerald Spaits, whose status as world-class jazz musicians we sometimes tend to take for granted since they hail from Kansas City. Indeed, the combination of Howe’s lean yet perfectly crafted arrangements, which helped shape intros and outros along with Ruskin’s and Spaits’ note-perfect as well as inspired playing gave the trio uncommon polish and panache. Together, the trio breathed as one. Soaring up here, swooping down there, they laced genuinely spontaneous solos into and around Howe’s well-mapped charts that made everything move. Howe generously shared the spotlight with his peers. Spaits, for example, leaned into the rich contours of “Mood Indigo” with a rich plangent sound and lovely articulation of the melody that was all satin and silk. Ruskin, for his part, stopped traffic in Howe’s ear-grabbing take on “Caravan.” For Juan Tizol’s exotic hit for the Ellington Orchestra, the nonpareil Ruskin opened with a spectacular demonstration of virtuosic stick work. Soon, it was his hands, and then fingers, and then his percussive scat singing that carried the day. We were all astounded. So, too, was the beaming Howe. It was a happy afternoon with the crowd standing and cheering enthusiastically with the curtain-closing “Take the ‘A’ Train” taken at a burning tempo whose speed suggested more a bullet train than the storied New York City subway. Ted Howe — a jazz pianist extraordinaire. Salute! Chuck Berg is a professor at The University of Kansas. He can be reached at cberg@ku.edu.
 Pianist Ted Howe offered up one of the finest of Duke Ellington tributes, the piano trio set titled simply Ellington (Summit Records, 2005). It was a heartfelt ride through some of The Duke's most familiar tunes, swinging mightily. He now steps up into Ellington-ian ensemble territory with Pinnacle, by his thirteen piece Ted Howe Jazz Orchestra. In the old "is it classical, is it jazz?" discussion, Pinnacledefinitely leans classical—but it does swing. Opening with "Presto for Two Trombones," Howe's arrangement sounds less like Ellington and more like those of trombonist J.J.Johnson on his work with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie on Perceptions (Verve, 1961), brassy and magisterial before it breaks into a deep groove. Trombonists Andy Martin and Francisco Torres rip it up on their solos, and bassist John Patitucci sears his solo while his rhythm mates, guitarist Dan Baraszu and keyboardist Geoff Haydon, give the piece a ringing modernity, with a Latin tinge injected by percussionist Jose "Bam Bam" Ramirez. "Impromptu for Trumpet" is another grand, sweeping statement, a showcase for horn man Lester Walker, who plays a beautiful lead around the harmonic gusts of the orchestra. Howe centerpieces the CD with "Suite #1 for Jazz Orchestra." The piece is comprised of three six minute movement: "Movement 1" an airy landscape that brightens out of a gray murk like a sunrise, with electric undercurrents from guitar and rhodes keyboard. "Movement 2" contains some of set's most gorgeous harmonies, one of Ellington's greatest strengths, and we could mention Maria Schneider in this context, too, for comparison—working, again, a light/dark dynamic. Ellington is evoked on "Movement 3," with trumpeter Lester Walker coming to the front again, growling around a Cotton Club plunger mute. Swing is king here, with drummer Marlon Patton's muscularity driving the music forward. A beautiful, masterfully constructed and arranged suite. The eleven minute "Adagio for Piano" gives pianist Ted Howe a chance to step out on his instrument, with a spare, melancholy solo intro, two minutes of ruminative beauty, joined then by a gentle burst of bass and drums, followed by the orchestra's sound seeping up out of the flooring to create a resplendent, sweeping panorama, an ebb and flow of brass and reeds shot through with Howe's inspired pianism. The closer, "Jazz Etude for Three Clarinets" brings back an Ellington mood, with jungle drums pounding behind the wailing, snaky reeds, an exciting and upbeat wrap-up for an extraordinary orchestra jazz set.
- Dan McClenaghan c/o All About Jazz  Big bands come at the listener from a variety of angles these days, some more aslant than others. On Pinnnacle, Los Angeles-based composer / arranger / pianist Ted Howe covers all the bases, navigating his thirteen-piece orchestra through styles ranging from swing to funk, Latin to tone poem, often with classical undertones. Howe gives credit for his eclectic approach to the late Herb Pomeroy, with whom he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and afterward by late- night telephone after Howe ended his tenure as an instructor at Berklee and moved to Atlanta, GA. Among other things, Pomeroy was a Duke Ellington enthusiast and scholar, and Howe writes that the three-movement Suite #1 for Jazz Orchestra, whose aesthetic is at the heart of this admirable session, was inspired by the many suites composed by Ellington for his orchestra. Howe began work on the Suite in 1981 and has revised and modified it over the years. The other four numbers on Pinnacle, also influenced by Pomeroy (to whose memory the album is dedicated), were written in 2011- 12. They include the red-hot opener, "Presto for Two Trombones," which showcases to of the L.A. area's most acclaimed 'bone masters, Andy Martin and Francisco Torres, with another splendid solo by bassist John Patitucci. "Presto" is followed by the debonair "Impromptu for Trumpet," featuring Lester Walker whose eloquent horn engrafts precisely the proper warmth and spirit. Walker solos again, this time muted, on the last of the eighteen-minute Suite's movements, a powerful flag-waver whose sturdy underpinnings are supervised by Patitucci and drummer Marlon Patton. The rhythm section introduces the first movement, whose funky rhythms provide a sturdy bridge to the second, a more subtle vehicle for horns, winds and rhythm underscored by Geoff Haydon's Fender Rhodes. Howe's tasteful piano is front and center on the enchanting eleven-minute "Adagio for Piano," Patitucci's resonant bass and Sam Skelton's animated clarinets on the closing "Jazz Etude for Three Clarinets." Howe's orchestra traverses a sizable expanse of musical ground, most of which is well worth canvassing. His compositions and arrangements are never less than engaging, the orchestra itself sound in every respect. In short, a first-rate album replete with pleasant surprises.
- Jack Bowers |
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