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WVU Director of Jazz to release new album

Jared Sims

West Virginia University’s Director of Jazz, Jared Sims, will release his new album “The New York Sessions ” on Friday, Oct. 12.  

The album, recorded with help from students in WVU’s Music Industry program, will be released by Ropeadope Records.

“The theme of this record is not just what New York means to me, but what New York  meant to me before it just became all Starbucks and strip malls,” he says. “Not so much looking backward but telling my New York story.”

Students traveled with Sims to New York City to take part in the recording process at the Engine Room, a recording, mixing and mastering studio that has worked with artists like 50 Cent, Trey Songz and Boyz II Men.

“The students not only learned about the recording process, but stepped in and demonstrated their own skills throughout the process,” he says of the experience.

Sims is joined on the album by pianist Chris McCarthy, bassist Alex Tremblay and drummer Evan Hyde. Each of which brought their own New York story to the record as well. Sims has released five other albums in addition to  The New York Sessions. Two trio sessions,  Acoustic Shadows (2009) and  Convergence (2011), and a quartet album,  The New Stablemates (2012), as well as  Layers (2016), and a quintet album titled  Change of Address (2017).

Five release parties will be held after “The New York Sessions” goes on sale in Pittsburgh, Oct. 12; Washington, D.C., Oct. 21; Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Oct. 25; Boston, Massachusetts, Oct. 26; and New York City, Oct. 27. For more information, visit http://www.jaredsims.com/.