Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Miles Davis shocked the music world in 1985 when he left Columbia Records after 30 years to join Warner Bros. Records. In October of that year, he began recording the album “Rubberband” in Los Angeles. The musical direction Davis was taking during the sessions marked a radical departure, with the inclusion of funk and soul grooves and plans to feature guest vocalists Al Jarreau and Chaka Khan. Eventually the album was shelved and Davis went on to record “Tutu,” leaving the “Rubberband” songs unheard and untouched for over 30 years. Now the entire 11-song album makes its debut, finished by the original producers with an original Davis painting as the cover art.
Throughout his career, master conguero Poncho Sanchez has held aloft the torch lit by such Latin jazz innovators as Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, embraced by each of those icons and entrusted to carry forward the traditions of the music. But Sanchez’s influences are numerous, and John Coltrane looms large in his pantheon alongside those pioneers. On his first album in seven years, Poncho celebrates the life and music of the iconic saxophonist. “Trane’s Delight” pays tribute with Latin-tinged reimaginings of Coltrane’s classics as well as new pieces composed in honor of late jazz legend.
Also this week, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, who delighted at this summer’s Iowa City Jazz Festival, offer up their exuberant blend of Afro-Cuban and jazz fusion on their third release, “On Firm Ground”.
Pianist/composer Masa Ishikawa, a native of Fukushima, Japan, and the newest addition to the University of Iowa jazz faculty, unveils his first jazz CD, “Dialogue”.
and vocalist Mark Winkler pays homage to one of America’s great tunesmiths and master lyricists with “I’m With You: Mark Winkler Sings Bobby Troup.”