Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Richie Cole is an internationally recognized jazz legend who began his career as the lead altoist for the Buddy Rich Big Band. He later formed his own quintet and toured worldwide popularizing bebop and his own Alto Madness style. He has recorded over fifty albums, and spends much of …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “Formidable” is the title of Pat Martino’s first studio recording as a bandleader in eleven years and it is an excellent metaphor for the guitarist’s fearless and virtuosic playing. Martino grew up in Philadelphia, a musical melting pot where many jazz greats began their journey, so perhaps it’s of …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Basin Street Records presents a collaborative disc between its two most recorded artists. “A Beautiful World” features trumpeter and singer Kermit Ruffins, co-founder of the Rebirth Brass Band, and two-time Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. Combined, the two musicians share a staggering output …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. While every great jazz musician knows the value of spontaneity, few understand the true value of being in the moment quite like Johnny O’Neal. A rising star in the early 1980s, O’Neal left New York after a mugging in 1986. Performing and recording in Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal and …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. With his Caribbean heritage, classical training and a unique rhythmic and melodic approach to jazz improvisation, Nestor Torres’ talkative and mellifluous flute sound remains in a class all by itself. Now, with his 15th album release, “Jazz Flute Traditions,” the Latin Grammy Award-winner shows his deep respect and …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Drummer Mark Giuliana has been in the vanguard of drummers creating a new vernacular on the instrument, blending virtuosity on acoustic drums with artfully deployed electronic beats and processing. He was chosen as Best Jazz Drummer in Modern Drummer magazine’s Readers Poll this year, while DownBeat dubbed him a …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The Bill Charlap Trio is the pinnacle of jazz piano trio playing and has been a New York City staple since 1997. The Grammy Award-winning pianist and his longtime trio partners, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, celebrate their twentieth anniversary together with “Uptown Downtown,” a new collection …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s 2016-2017 season opened with a program entitled “Handful of Keys: A Century of Jazz Piano,” kicking off a year-long celebration of the many artists, styles, and movements encompassed in the century-long jazz continuum. The concert was an “encapsulated history” exploring the many rich traditions …
