Author's posts
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. …
New Music Monday for January 2, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The music of Latin America has long been some of the world’s most beloved, whether Brazilian bossa nova, Argentinean tango, Cuban bolero or irresistible songs from Chile, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Pianist Edward Simon— a native of Venezuela who has made a name for himself in …
New Music Monday for December 26, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. After a recorded trio encounter in 2005 known as Mondo Trio (with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta) that became a musicians’ favorite, kindred spirits and fellow Jeffs, keyboardist Babko and reedman Coffin, knew they had to reconvene. When drummer Keith Carlock relocated to Nashville, where Coffin resides, it …
New Music Monday for December 19, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “It was very moving to have all these people paying tribute to me, but I just treated it like it was another show,” six-time Grammy-winner Dr. John says of “The Musical Mojo of Dr. John: A Celebration of Mac & his Music.” The expansive live tribute set …