Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
At age 14, pianist an
d 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 Hall, The White House, Lincoln Center and the Monteux Jazz Festival, among others. At age 6, Emily was the youngest ever to receive the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and orchestras all over the world have performed her original compositions. Last year, she was the recipient of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer of the Year Award. She offers up a batch of her original tunes on her new CD, “Into the Blue.”
Without the great Eddie Palmieri, not only Latin jazz but jazz itself would not be what it is today. Certainly if you ask Charlie Sepulveda you will hear an echo of that belief. Playing in one of Palmieri’s bands was like going to school, and if you made the grade then you graduated to the University of Palmieri. It’s been that way for many extraordinary musicians over the years. While not many folks were paying attention, Sepulveda graduated from that school years ago. The trumpet genius had cut his teeth with Hilton Ruiz, but Palmieri polished the diamond in the rough. And what more honorable way of saying thank you to his maestro than with “Mr. EP: a Tribute to Eddie Palmieri,” a set featuring a mix of Palmieri’s tunes and Sepulveda originals, with Eddie himself playing piano on a few.
Also this week, with his newly-formed band The People, organ great Joey DeFrancesco expresses his viewpoints on current world events with uplifting compositions and emotional tributes on “Project Freedom”.
Trumpeter Carol Morgan and her quartet, featu
ring Matt Wilson, Joel Frahm and Martin Wind, delve into “Post Cool Vol. 1: the Night Shift”.
Pianist
Art Hirahara unveils a new batch of original compositions on his fourth disc as a leader, “Central Line.”