Author's posts
New Music Monday for February 27, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. In many ways, Charles Mingus and Gerry Mulligan couldn’t have been more different. One was notoriously fiery and confrontational; the other understated, the epitome of cool. But one thing the two jazz icons did share—beyond their influential shaping of the music’s low end—was their singularity …
New Music Monday for February 20, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. At age 14, pianist and composer Emily Bear enjoys arranging, orchestrating and performing in a diverse collection of styles. Having made her professional debut at the Ravinia Festival at 5-years-old, she has since performed at many of the world’s most well-known venues including Carnegie …
New Music Monday for February 13, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Since moving from Chesapeake, Virginia to New York City in 2001, Nate Smith has helped reinvigorate the international jazz scene with his visceral style of drumming by playing with such esteemed leading lights as bassist Dave Holland, saxophonists Chris Potter and Ravi Coltrane, and singers …
New Music Monday for February 6, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. As the name of composer and pianist Cynthia Hilts’ octet Lyric Fury implies, her writing and playing are defined by powerful contrasts. She likes to build from long, meditative passages to explosive endings. The technique of tension and release seldom yields more satisfaction or surprise. As …
New Music Monday for January 30, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Mads Tolling is a two-time Grammy Award winner, and was named last year’s winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Award for Violin. He’s a former longtime member of Stanley Clarke’s band and the Turtle Island String Quartet, and has also played with Kenny Barron, …
New Music Monday for January 23, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. On November 24th, 1980, Dizzy Gillespie invited five jazz legends—Milt Jackson, James Moody, Hank Jones, Ray Brown & Philly Joe Jones—to join him onstage in Montreal to pay tribute to the legendary Charlie Parker. A limited quantity bootleg LP of the concert soon appeared and then …
New Music Monday for January 16, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Duchess—the trio of rising-star New York singers Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner & Melissa Stylianou—has won hearts far and wide with its insouciant swing, sweet-tone harmonies and charming stage presence. Dubbed by DownBeat as “a beacon of jovial esprit,” the group channels the inspiration of vintage …
New Music Monday for January 9, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Hailing from the remote location of Perth, West Australia, saxophonist and composer Troy Roberts has received numerous awards, including three consecutive DownBeat Jazz Soloist Awards, and was theonly Australian semi-finalist in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He’s performed around Europe and the U.S. …