Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
“Great political speeches inspire us to believe we are capable of achieving great things together,” say Grammy-nominated composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Ted Nash. “I can’t think of a better time to release “Presidential Suite” than during this election season.” Subtitled “Eight Variations on Freedom,” the eight movement project for Nash’s big band transforms eight iconic political speeches of the 20th century from world leaders including Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Winston Churchill , Jawaharlal Nehru and Nelson Mandela. To create the music, Nash transcribed the actual pitches and rhythms of the speeches as they were spoken and then transformed them into original motifs, riffs and grooves, placing each into contexts that embrace the character, location and era of each leader via contemporary jazz. Important figures from the worlds of politics and the arts introduce each movement with an excerpt of the speech that inspired it, featuring readings by Joe Lieberman, Sam Waterston, Andrew Young, Deepak Chopra, Glenn Close and others.
The Bad Plus’ eleventh studio recording, “It’s Hard,” sees the trio—bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King—returning to the distinctive deconstruction of pop forms that drew their first international attention almost two decades ago. The band offers new perspectives on classic songs from the 1970s to the 2010s, including iconic covers of songs made famous by Peter Gabriel, Prince, Kraftwerk, Cyndi Lauper, Ornette Coleman, and Crowded House, among others. “After several years of focusing largely on original music,” says King,” we thought it would be creatively challenging to return to arranging music that’s not ours…to take another stab at it after 13 albums and 16 years together.”
Also this week, guitarist Dave Stryker reimagines another batch of classic pop tunes from the ‘70s and ‘80s with his working trio plus vibes on “Eight Track II”.
Saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel of the band Kneebody offers up his latest project apart from that band, “What We Bring,” featuring pianist Gerald Clayton.
Renowned German trumpeter Till Bronner revisits a selection of standards, all of which have made history through their vocal interpretations, on “The Good Life,” featuring guitarist Anthony Wilson, keyboardist Larry Goldings, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton.