Author's posts
New Music Monday for March 14, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Cecile McLorin Salvant, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy Award winner, is a singer and composer bringing historical perspective, a renewed sense of drama, and an enlightened musical understanding to both jazz standards and her own original compositions. Classically trained, steeped in jazz, blues and folk, and …
New Music Monday for March 7, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyAlvin Queen arrived on the jazz scene in the late 1960s and quickly became known as the drummer for icons, including Horace Silver, the Brecker Brothers, George Benson and Tom Harrell. He’s perhaps best known as the longtime rhythmic anchor in Oscar Peterson’s final trio, remaining in the …
New Music Monday for February 28, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyWhy would one of poetry’s most revered voices want to curate a jazz saxophonist’s album of gospel hymns and spirituals? “These songs are so important,” says Nikki Giovanni, one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends and a Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2017. “They comforted people …
New Music Monday for February 21, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyArtists around the world responded to the forced isolation brought about by the 2020 pandemic in various ways. In Brazil, superstars such as Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil shared concerts from their homes, performing their hit songs for their fans. Among those fans were Anat …
New Music Monday for February 14, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Pianist Bill O’Connell is a genuine triple-threat in jazz, equally well-known as a composer, arranger and instrumentalist. He honed his craft carefully from his days with Mongo Santamaria in the ‘70s, his gigs with Chet Baker, Gato Barbieri, Sonny Rollins and others, and his long-time associations with Jerry …
New Music Monday for February 7, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Pianist and composer Deanna Witkowski honors the First Lady of Jazz, Mary Lou Williams, on her lovingly conceived and radiantly realized seventh album, “Force of Nature.” Released along with Witkowski’s first book—a detailed and engaging biography of Williams—the disc caps off 20 years of immersive research into …
New Music Monday for January 31, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Le Coq Records offers up a second volume from its ever-growing family of brilliant musicians with “The Jazz All Stars Vol. 2.” It showcases not only the virtuoso musicianship of many of contemporary jazz’s most in demand players, but also shines a brighter spotlight on their compositional gifts. …
New Music Monday for January 24, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Bernie Dresel has been one of the busiest studio musicians in the world since moving to Los Angeles in 1983. He’s traveled the world, occupying the coveted drum chair for Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band since its inception in 1999, and an overlapping 15 years as drummer for …