Author's posts
New Music Monday for March 21, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The life of a jazz musician tends to be an itinerant one. While traveling the world over the past three decades, trumpeter Jim Rotondi has formed a tenuous definition of the work “home”-sometimes it can mean a permanent residence, sometimes just a welcoming room for …
New Music Monday for March 14, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Jazz harmonica master Hendrik Meurkens, whose numerous CDs have established him as an important stylist in the world of Brazilian music, is releasing his first all straight ahead jazz album in 15 years. Jazz came first for Meurkens, long before the Brazilian bug caught him. His …
New Music Monday for March 7, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. With “Honor Thy Fathers,” Laurence Hobgood embarks on a striking new chapter in what has already been a storied career. His 18-year tenure as musical director for singer Kurt Elling drew to a close in late 2013. He seizes that opportunity with a bold and original …
KCCK’s Featured CD for March 2016
The KCCK Featured CD for March is “All My Yesterdays” by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. The first official release of the two-disc set documents the debut recordings of the Orchestra at the Village Vanguard in 1966, a Monday night gig which lasted for twelve years. Many of the charts were things that Jones had …
New Music Monday for February 29, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. On a cold February evening in 1966, jazz fans lined up around the block waiting for the doors to open at the famed Village Vanguard to catch a new big band formed by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. Vanguard founder Max Gordon had invited the orchestra to …
New Music Monday for February 22, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. For more than four decades, drummer Peter Erskine has proven among the most consistently innovative and reliable masters of his instrument. The Grammy Award-winner has appeared on over 600 albums and film scores, more than 50 of those discs as leader or co-leader. He has collaborated with …
New Music Monday for February 15, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “A true and modern arrangement!” is how composer Claude Bolling refers to American composer/arranger Steve Barta’s new “Symphonic Arrangement: Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano.” Bolling’s 1975 recording enjoyed a lengthy stay on the Billboard charts to become a standard in the jazz and classical worlds. …
New Music Monday for February 8, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “When You Wish Upon a Star” is the latest project from legendary guitarist and composer Bill Frisell. Comprised of music from iconic film and television scores, the disc is conceived not only as an homage, but as a celebration of music-making with longtime collaborators and their collective …