Author's posts
New Music Monday for May 7, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. As a young man growing up in Louisville in the 1970s, Don Braden discovered the music of both Earth Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder, and it immediately captured his heart, mind and soul. The esteemed saxophonist explains that “the messages within their music—built around core …
New Music Monday for April 30, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Following her Grammy wins in 2015 and 2017, Eliane Elias returns with “Music from Man of La Mancha,” recorded with two different trios—one that finds the piano virtuoso accompanied by bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette and the other featuring Marc Johnson on bass …
New Music Monday for April 23, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Inspired to make his biggest statement yet, Cuban-born drummer, composer, bandleader, and 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Dafnis Prieto unveils the Dafnis Prieto Big Band’s debut album, “Back to the Sunset.” The band made its world premiere at New York’s Jazz Standard last August, followed by recording sessions …
New Music Monday for April 16, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. One of the most highly acclaimed and prolific drummers in history, Steve Gadd has performed on literally thousands of sessions and live gigs over more than four decades. He has supplied the core rhythmic foundation on iconic recordings from an astounding A-list of artists including Chick Corea, B.B. …
New Music Monday for April 9, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Legendary Grammy Award winning guitarist and composer Al Di Meola is a pioneer of blending world music and jazz. Over the past four decades, he’s explored the rich influence of flamenco, tango, Middle Eastern, Brazilian and African music. And he has won more guitar awards …
New Music Monday for April 2, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “The Questions,” Kurt Elling’s newest studio recording, is his musical response to this moment in history and the widespread anxiety of our times. It touches artfully on challenges—personal, political, global, spiritual, and existential—and on hopes and aspirations for the future. Elling offers a vibrant and surprising choice …
New Music Monday for March 26, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Pianist Manuel Valera’s new trio CD, “The Planets,” draws upon and interprets the wisdom of the late Russian composer Nicolas Slonimsky whose “Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns,” originally published in 1947, became a seminal opus for musicians, composers, and educators. The likes of Arnold Schoenberg, Freddie Hubbard and …
New Music Monday for March 19, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. In the course of its 30-year lifespan, the trio of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette—the group colloquially known as The Standards Trio—made many outstanding recordings. And “After the Fall,” overflowing with sparkling playing and dynamic interaction, must rank with the very best of them. The performance—in Newark, …