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Maria Schneider: Data Lords
by Pat Youngspiel
Well someone doesn't seem too happy with the digital world. But that's nothing new for Maria Schneider. The Grammy-award winning composer and bandleader has been an outspoken critic of copyright abuses in the digital and streaming world of music for the biggest part of the last decade. On her newest effort, she sets her justified quarrels with the industry to music by juxtaposing the cold world of ones and zeroes, comprised on the first CD titled “The Digital World," in ...
Continue ReadingJulian Shore: Where We Started
by Troy Dostert
A pianist of uncommon sensitivity and graceful temperament, Julian Shore crafts music with atmosphere and feeling, aiming for emotional depth rather than settling for typical jazz devices. On Where We Started, his third release, he offers eight well-honed tracks which are both evocative and nuanced; while they might not win over the uninitiated in a crowded club, they offer plenty of introspective delights to listeners prepared to settle in with the music. Joined by a fine ensemble, Shore ...
Continue ReadingMaria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords
by Jerome Wilson
Composer Maria Schneider has long been writing and speaking about the dangers of the omnipresent digital universe, intellectual property theft, gathering and manipulation of personal data by big tech companies, the unchecked proliferation of false and misleading material, and so on. Those concerns form the basis of her latest musical project, Data Lords, a 2 CD set examining the conflicting realities of the digital and real worlds. The two CDs are labeled “The Digital World" and “Our Natural ...
Continue ReadingMaria Schneider: Data Lords
by Doug Hall
Maria Schneider, jazz pianist, orchestral composer and 2019 NEA Jazz Master, has just released a new double-album, Data Lords (artistShare, 2020), which creates poignant musical imagery about our data-driven world. Schneider, who has been an active advocate for musicians' rights and copyright, has followed-on this impact, citing “big data" companies as manipulators of music, culture and privacy. This collection of uniquely and emotionally rendered original compositions addresses the conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, featuring Schneider's orchestra of ...
Continue ReadingMaria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords
by Karl Ackermann
The skillfully designed cover art tells part of the story; a leaf--half as nature intended--the remainder, a circuit board doppelganger. The pastoral soundscapes associated with the music of Grammy-winning composer/bandleader Maria Schneider belie her activist alter-ego. An outspoken critic of copyright protections, prejudicial revenue schemes and the abuses of “big data," Schneider has authored op-eds and testified before the US Congress. She ventures onto unfamiliar terrain, coalescing her passions on a masterwork double album, Data Lords. The two ...
Continue ReadingBen Monder: Day After Day
by Claudio Bonomi
Ben Monder, classe 1962, chitarrista attivo da oltre 30 anni nell'area di New York, confeziona un doppio cd di sole covers che conquista al primo ascolto. Il primo album è suonato da Monder in completa solitudine alternando composizioni di ogni genere, da “Dreamsville" di Henry Mancini a “O Sacrum Convivium" di Olivier Messiaen, da “The Windows of The World di Burt Bacharach" a “The Midnight Sun Will Never Set" di Quincy Jones. Nel secondo è accompagna da Matt ...
Continue ReadingBen Monder: Day After Day
by Mark Corroto
On Day After Day, Ben Monder explores memories triggered by songs. Over two discs, one solo and the other with bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Ted Poor, the guitarist rouses impressions formed long ago. Just like a certain fragrance can spark the memory of an old lover, songs deep in your brain's hard drive can be recovered. Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins were masters at this, but covering Rodgers and Hammerstein's “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" from the ...
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