Author's posts
New Music Monday for August 9, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify The new album, “Mike Drop,” demonstrates the mastery of two jazz veterans—iconic jazz drumming legend Mike Clark and renowned saxophonist Michael Zilber. Between Clark’s straight-ahead post-bop drumming and Zilber’s raw and refined sax mastery, the clarity and brilliance of this release is the rewarding product of a ten …
New Music Monday for August 2, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify “The Magic of Now” is the 20th album of pianist and composer Orrin Evans’ luminous career. Recorded in the midst of the upheavals set in motion by the Covid-19 pandemic, this latest document of Evans’ kaleidoscopic artistic journey coincides with several self-generated sea changes in his life. Perhaps …
New Music Monday for July 26, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify “My Grateful Dead experience began a few years ago when I was lucky enough to play a show with the Wolf Bros.,” says saxophonist Dave McMurray of the band led by Grateful Dead cofounder Bob Weir. “The long-form, odd measures and complex chords of the …
New Music Monday for July 19, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify “In Harmony” is the first previously unissued recording of the late Roy Hargrove since his passing in 2018. Captured live at Merkin Hall in New York City in 2006 and Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 2007 with the late piano great Mulgrew Miller, the set is an …
New Music Monday for July 12, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyLike many serious musicians, John Stein was trying to find a way to reach his audience during the Covid-19 shutdown. The guitarist had just released a career-defining recording to mark his planned retirement from Berklee College of Music where he was an acclaimed educator. When the tour in …
New Music Monday for July 5, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyWhen pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street and drummer Billy Hart, three of the most admired and respected musicians in jazz, assembled on one of the darkest, coldest nights at the end of a difficult year of despair, they were merely together to perform for Smoke Jazz Club’s …
New Music Monday for June 28, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyThe Joel Frahm Trio is a new band featuring Joel on reeds, Dan Loomis on bass and Ernesto Cervini on drums. “The Bright Side” is their debut recording and is the culmination of a musical partnership that has developed over the course of many tours and recording sessions …
New Music Monday for June 21, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyHarold Land was a legendary hard bop tenor saxophonist who developed his playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. He moved to Los Angeles in 1955 where led his own bands and co-led ensembles with Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell and Red Mitchell. Over …