Jeff Ellwood is essentially a balladeer, focused on texture, tone, and melody, even on up-tempo tunes. Despite years of experience backing touring legendary performers and playing in West Coast bands, saxophonist Ellwood is releasing in 2020 his first album, planned over several previous years. Appropriately, Ellwood chose the beautiful, too-seldom-performed …
When Blue Note Records president Don Was heard the originality, cohesion and virtuosity of the band Artemis at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival, he lost no time in signing the group to the legendary label, as he has with jazz talent heard at other jazz festivals. This person responsible for …
Peter Leitch’s New Life Orchestra actually celebrates his New Life as the title of the fifteen-piece Orchestra’s first album. Leitch’s transition from an acclaimed jazz guitarist who performed with numerous jazz masters to a jazz orchestra leader and composer occurred not through a voluntary decision, but through involuntary change. Leitch, …
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.
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.
Chick Corea still captures the child within us.
Who knew but Schneider that her defense of the value of art would eventually be the basis for another work of art?
The commitment of the musicians to the project makes Seven Angels one of this pandemic year’s bright spots.
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 …
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, …
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 …
Within the first few seconds, I knew this song was going to be enjoyable to listen to with its chill vibes from the instrumentals. Furthermore, the vocal articulation is on point and blends seamlessly with the beat and song rhythm. I would also like to highlight how creative and artistic …
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 …
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 …
Stefon Harris’ Blackout has proven to be an enduring concept, and Harris has grown to be an enduring presence in the international jazz scene. The title of Blackout’s first album, 2004’s Evolution, proved be prophetic, even if its original meaning intended a broader perspective. For Blackout has evolved through the …
Ben Wendel—saxophonist, bassoonist, composer, arranger, producer, educator, social media innovator, writer of movie scores, artistic council founder, member of numerous bands, musical group leader, musical visionary—has developed one of the year’s most fascinating jazz albums. The Seasons, three years in refinement, had been available in its original form on YouTube. …
