Author's posts
New Music Monday for August 22, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. There’s an old saying that a great jazz musician never plays a song the same way once. That could certainly be said of Jerry Bergonzi. He is an intellectual artist of uncompromising integrity and a bold, original composer. On his new disc, “Spotlight on Standards,” …
New Music Monday for August 15, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Jazz is often portrayed as an art form defined by blazing young artists. It’s true that many jazz masters reach a mid-career plateau marked by small variations on a mature style. But there’s also a vanguard of players and composers who continue to refine and expand …
New Music Monday for August 8, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “By no means is jazz dead—that’s essentially why Louis Hayes and I formed this band.” So wrote Woody Shaw in 1976 in response to the much-heralded death of jazz. It was people like Shaw, Hays and others who proved that it was only outdated preconceptions …
New Music Monday for August 1, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. With the release of “One for Marian,” New York-based pianist, composer and bandleader Roberta Piket shines a warm, loving light on an extraordinary but underappreciated aspect of the career of the beloved pianist and public radio host Marian McPartland–her vast body of work as a …
New Music Monday for July 25, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. With two Juno Awards, five Juno nominations, and a host of other international awards, Metalwood is arguably Canada’s most decorated jazz ensemble. Between 1997 and 2003, their name became synonymous with groove-oriented electric jazz, winning the band devoted fans around the world. Taking their cue from the …
New Music Monday for July 18, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Beginning his professional career with the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the top call New York trumpeter Raul Agraz has performed with Tito Puente, the Mingus Big Band and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Percolating with a combination of Latin rhythms, boss nova, swinging big band arrangements, traditional Venezuelan …
New Music Monday for July 11, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Saxophonist and composer Chris Cheek has come to feel at home in a variety of musical contexts, from the infectious grooves of Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout to the challenging global music of Guillermo Klein. Much of his compositional style’s effectiveness stems from his love and use of …
New Music Monday for July 4, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. It’s no secret that the Branford Marsalis Quartet can be as freewheeling off the bandstand as in performance. The saxophonist and his ensemble, made up of pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner, are each bold personalities with strong opinions, equally intense in …