Recording News

The Michael Jackson New-Music Onslaught Begins

Source: Michael Ricci
September 23, 2009

SO THIS IS IT! Sony Music announced this morning that on Oct. 12 it will release a new Michael Jackson single called “This Is It" -- the first previously unreleased recording to emerge since the superstar's death.

The song's debut will be followed by a blitz of posthumous releases from the King of Pop, including a two-disc album also titled This Is It (which hits retail internationally on Oct. 26 and North America on Oct. 27), featuring music ...

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Songwriter Impresses Jazz World with His Recent Album Release "Girl in Blue"

Source: Michael Ricci
September 23, 2009

As a teenager back in the late '60s, Les Veale had his transistor radio glued to his ear, soaking up the pop, soul and blues sounds of the time. He was learning to play drums and dreamed of appearing on TV shows such as Top of the Pops. Through his interest in drums, he was also drawn to the jazz world, by way of drummers such as Buddy Rich but made a modest living, over the next thirty years or ...

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Taylor and Crew Tell Stories + 2 Piano Trios

Source: See! Hear! by Richard Kamins
September 23, 2009

Madeleine Dreams - Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records) -  This program was recorded last November (2008),, the same weekend the octet played the program at Firehouse 12 in New Haven.  It's truly different from any other of Bynum's recording, yet elements of all his different musical adventures emerge in the playing.  The first 6 cuts is built upon the text from the 2004 novel, “Madeleine is Sleeping“, written by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, the composer's sister.  The ...

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Morphine: Greatest Hits Set

Source: JamBase
September 23, 2009

Greatest Hits Collection, At Your Service, out October 6 Two-Disc Set of Unreleased Studio And Live Recordings Captures Morphine's Inimitable Sound On The 10-Year Anniversary Of Lead Singer's Untimely Death

Morphine Singer Mark Sandman coined the phrase “low rock" to describe the sonorous, languid groove he created with the acclaimed Boston band Morphine. Sadly, the band's time together was cut short in 1999 when Sandman suffered a heart attack in Italy while onstage with Morphine and ...

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Anschell and Jensen Agreed More

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
September 23, 2009

Yakima, Washington

The recent CD by pianist Bill Anschell and soprano saxophonist Brent Jensen is called We Couldn't Agree More. The title is inaccurate. In an intimate concert last weekend at The Seasons, they were in even greater agreement, with more daring and more complexity.

The duo's approach is to play well-known tunes without well-known routines; no arrangements, no obvious statement of melody, no predetermined tempos or key signatures. They call on their experience, ears and reflexes. That may read ...

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New Harry Connick Jr. Album

Source: Michael Ricci
September 22, 2009

Over the past two decades, Harry Connick, Jr. has taken a very hands-on approach to his recording career. The multi-talented Connick has called the shots at the numerous phases of his album projects--writing original material or picking songs, choosing the ensemble settings and writing arrangements, singing and playing piano, and with the aid of co-producer and longtime confidant, Tracey Freeman, overseeing mixing and mastering. Whether performing the American Songbook or in the jazz, blues or funk idiom, the process has ...

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Ramsey Lewis to Release New Album

Source: On Target Media Group
September 22, 2009

On September 29th, Concord Jazz will release Songs from the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey, the new album from iconic pianist and bandleader, Ramsey Lewis. Songs From the Heart contains a refined collection of 12 new originals composed over a period of two years, including music from two commissioned world premiere performances at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. Eight songs come from the score of 2007’s ballet To Know Her…written for the Joffrey Ballet Company ...

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Now Streaming Online: "Hemispheres" by Jim Hall and Bill Frisell

Source: Michael Ricci
September 22, 2009

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