Author's posts
New Music Monday for May 27, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyAmong the vanguard of today’s contemporary composers and big band arrangers, trombonist Ben Patterson and his Washington, DC-based band deliver with a new hard-driving set of funky electrified jazz on “Groove Junkies.” His music is just as comfortable harnessing the power of the traditional big band horn section as …
New Music Monday for May 20, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyRachel Z is a renowned, virtuoso pianist, keyboardist, composer and electronic musician with a star-studded resume, as well as 13 records as a leader. As a performer, she’s had longstanding careers with Wayne Shorter, Mike Mainieri and Steps Ahead, and Stanley Clarke, all of whose influence she carries with …
New Music Monday for May 13, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyLegendary alto saxophonist Charles McPherson makes his Smoke Sessions Records debut with an inspired new album, “Reverence.” It’s dedicated to Mr. McPherson’s longtime mentor and teacher Barry Harris, captured in front of alive audience at Smoke Jazz Club, and featuring his quintet of Terell Stafford, Jeb Patton, David Wong, …
New Music Monday for May 6, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyThe title “Moving On “perfectly sums up the new aspirations of Jacky Terrasson. After being the muse of major labels, it is a new adventure as an artist-producer and a new path that Jacky has decided to begin by creating his own record label, Earth-Sounds. It is also, after thirty …
New Music Monday for April 29, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyNicole Glover has been getting some well-deserved exposure recently in the context of groups like the Artemis sextet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. But this tenor saxophonist is best appreciated on her own albums, where she fronts a saxophone-bass-drums trio. While not a common jazz format, …
New Music Monday for April 22, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyAn incredible experience of freedom—June 6, 2024 will mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings aka D-Day. It is also the day Monty Alexander turns 80. A highly symbolic historical concordance which the great musician naturally embraces, since the name he was given pays homage to General Bernard …
New Music Monday for April 15, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyWhile Tucson-born, Los Angeles-based Brian Bromberg has been equally conversant and downright virtuosic on both electric and upright basses, he sticks to the latter on his latest offering, “LaFaro.” A tribute to the legendary jazz bassist Scott LaFaro whose revolutionary contributions to the classic Bill Evans Trio still reverberate …
New Music Monday for April 8, 2024
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyThe chromatic harmonica may look like a simple toy or a novelty but it is actually one of the most difficult of all instruments to play. Stating a bebop melody with the ease of a saxophonist has only been achieved by a small handful of jazz harmonica players, most …