Author's posts
New Music Monday for September 7, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Christian McBride solidifies his role as the champion of the past, present and future of jazz with his Grammy Award-winning big band’s new album in tribute to Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Oliver Nelson. In September of 1966, over the course of three days, organist Smith and …
New Music Monday for August 31, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” has been hailed as a milestone, considered one of the band’s best at the time of its release, and ranked “the greatest album of all time” in Rolling Stone’s list of the top 500 rock albums. When bassist Leon …
New Music Monday for August 24, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Over the course of two albums, bandleader/composer/arranger John Beasley has reimagined Thelonious Monk’s iconic compositions through his inventive, versatile MONK’estra—a big band able to deftly navigate the legend’s eccentricities from a variety of perspectives, from boisterous swing to raucous funk to Afro-Cuban explosiveness. The discs garnered Grammy …
New Music Monday for August 10, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify On the heels of his 2018 Grammy-nominated album, “Heart of Brazil: The Music of Egberto Gismonte,” comes jazz clarinet icon Eddie Daniels’ new project paying tribute to the world-renowned Brazilian musician and composer Ivan Lins entitled “Night Kisses.” After Antonio Carlos Jobim, Lins is arguably the most successful …
New Music Monday for August 3, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyRay Mantilla was one of the true conga giants from the 1950s through the ‘70s recording hundreds of album sessions and pioneering the use of unique combinations of Latin percussion instruments. In 1977, he was chosen by the great jazz ambassador Dizzy Gillespie to accompany him to Cuba …
New Music Monday for July 27, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyWhen Benny Golson left Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1958, the drummer turned to a Messenger alumnus, Hank Mobley, to take over the sax chair. Known for his writing as well as his playing, Mobley had worked with both trumpeter Lee Morgan and pianist Bobby Timmons …
New Music Monday for July 20, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyQuiet as it’s kept, too many of today’s finest jazz artists are given short shrift by an industry that seems to value product of a fleeting nature over true craft and a reverence for the jazz legacy. This makes it particularly challenging for a talent like Adam Shulman to break …
New Music Monday for July 13, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyThe John Fedchock NY Sextet recording, “Into the Shadows,” is the trombonist’s tenth album as a leader, this time with an all-star group showcasing Fedchock’s notable solo skills and bringing his special composing/arranging to the forefront. The recording features new treatments of familiar standards coupled with five Fechock …