Author's posts
New Music Monday for July 31, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Ahmad Jamal’s story and journey through music from his birthplace of Pittsburgh is nothing if not astonishing. He was inspired early on after meeting virtuoso pianist Art Tatum and became a professional musician at age 17, forming quartets and then trios. His 1958 disc, “At the Pershing,” spent 108 …
New Music Monday for July 17, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. People familiar with the top tier of jazz sidemen in New York City will know of Tardo Hammer’s name. Tardo is a fixture in mainstream Manhattan jazz clubs and has performed in Europe and Japan with some of the world’s leading jazz artists. Perhaps because the demand for …
New Music Monday for July 10, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The All Angles Orchestra is a 15-piece ensemble that forces the classical and jazz worlds to collide. The combination of orchestral woodwinds, a string quartet, a mix of brass instruments, and a jazz rhythm section allows the group to produce a wide variety of amazing colors and textures, …
New Music Monday for July 3, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. It was late June 2007 that NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman received a call to produce a show for theBBC 3’s popular program, “Jazz on 3.” Noting that July 17, 2007 marked the 40th anniversary of John Coltrane’s passing, he was asked to bring in Saxophone Summit, Liebman’s outfit …
New Music Monday for June 26, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Veteran musical colleagues Don Braden and Joris Teepe continue a nearly quarter- century of collaborations with their new disc, “Conversations.” Having met back in 1992 at a session in New York City, the two titans of jazz immediately recognized their potential to work well together. As …
New Music Monday for June 19, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Resonance Records has dipped into the vaults again and come up with another previously unreleased gem, “Truth, Liberty & Soul—Live in NYC: the Complete 1982 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording.” The first official release authorized by the Jaco Pastorius estate captures the iconic bass innovator leading …
New Music Monday for June 12, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. For an incredible eight decades now, feisty vibraphonist and jazz icon Terry Gibbs has demonstrated the sheer joy of performing. In performance, he behaves like an exuberant fan of his own band, cheering them on, punctuating arrangements and solos with non-verbal interjections. His spirit was cultivated …
New Music Monday for June 5, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Pearl Django formed twenty three years ago and very quickly came to forefront of the Northwest Gypsy jazz scene, as well as America’s Gypsy jazz scene, where they have remained ever since. The band’s newest CD, “With Friends Like These,” their thirteenth in all, …