CD Release: Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, Artlessly Falling
Mary Halvorson’s uncompromising recordings reassure listeners that the future of jazz remains promising, even as it builds upon the similar fearlessness of the past innovators of jazz.
CD Release: Matt Wilson Quartet, hug!
Wilson maintains his own inimitable style on hug! with the big-family happiness that defines his love of humanity and his associated love of music.
CD Release: Chick Corea Plays
Chick Corea still captures the child within us.
CD Release: Maria Schneider Orchestra, Data Lords
Who knew but Schneider that her defense of the value of art would eventually be the basis for another work of art?
CD Release: John Lake, Seven Angels
The commitment of the musicians to the project makes Seven Angels one of this pandemic year’s bright spots.
CD Release: John Bailey, Can You Imagine?
In this era of lightning-fast social changes, John Bailey’s Can You Imagine? album becomes more relevant every day. Can You Imagine? was released on January 20, 2020, a year in advance of the U.S. Inauguration Day, which will be the culmination of drama, mudslinging, social media falsehoods, nationwide protests, COVID-19 social distancing …
CD Release: Glafkos Kontemeniotis, Yūgen
Music tells the stories of life. More eloquently than can words. For those who will listen. It’s not sufficient merely to hear. For in the stories contained within the notes and even within the rests between the notes played by an accomplished musician, music can capture injustice, joy, struggle, love, …
CD Release: Chick Corea, Trilogy 2
Fortunately for his listeners, Chick Corea’s prodigious musical output pours not from a container that’s emptied and then refilled, but from a stream that ceaselessly flows. One can imagine his never being far away from his piano or keyboard at home. Corea seems so connected to music that no …
CD Releases: Cannonball Adderley, Swingin’ in Seattle *and* Etta Jones, A Soulful Sunday
It’s not every day that a new recording label comes along. Online availability of new music has taken care of that. But now, at the start of a new year, a new recording label has gone back to the future by packaging previously unreleased live recordings from a more than …
CD Release: Lorraine Feather, Math Camp
It should come as no surprise that Lorraine Feather, a poet at heart, writes her song lyrics first. The musical notation comes later. Feather’s unique style of poetic imagery mixed with honest descriptions of personal relationships continues on her most recent album, the intriguingly titled Math Camp. Feather isn’t a …