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While Kurt Vonnegut undoubtedly found his true calling as an author, he once speculated about another potential career. “What I would really like to have been, given a perfect world, is a jazz pianist.” On the occasion of the great satirist’s 100th birthday, the pianist and composer Jason Yeager releases “Unstuck in Time,” a new suite of music inspired by Vonnegut’s writings. Yeager presents eleven new compositions vibrantly capturing the wit and skewed vision of one of the 20th century’s most inventive and celebrated novelists, and one-time teacher at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
“Joy” is the latest record from Juno-winning drummer and composer Ernesto Cervini. Inspired by Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series of books and the qualities of goodness, decency, courage and love that permeate them, Cervini was moved to compose music that captures the characters, landscapes and relationships created by Penny. The album showcases Canada’s finest musicians from Ernesto’s various groups and is the first of his albums to feature vocalists.
Also this week, singer Samara Joy offers up a collection of ten timeless standards for a new generation on “Linger Awhile”;
trumpeter Arturo Sandoval’s new disc, “Rhythm and Soul,” showcases a set of tunes born during the pandemic as he composed music every day;
and Bloomington, Indiana-based saxophonist and composer Ana Nelson unveils her first full-length release as a leader, “Bridges.”