Recording News

Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club to Meet Tuesday, November 11

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 25, 2008

The second meeting of Jazz St. Louis' new CD Listening Club will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 11 at Borders, 1519 S. Brentwood Blvd. Cordell Whitlock, reporter and weekend anchor for local NBC affiliate KSDK (Channel 5), will be the special guest and JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford will serve as moderator as the club discusses John Coltrane's landmark album Giant Steps. The event is free and open to the public, and no advance reservations are ...

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Steve Schenkel and Ashley Mason Release Christmas CD

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 25, 2008

The holiday season is just a few weeks away, and guitarist Steve Schenkel and singer Ashley Mason (pictured) are ready with a new Christmas-themed CD titled A Midnight Clear. The just-released CD features the duo's interpretations of 15 favorite seasonal songs, and you can check out two of the tracks for free on Schenkel's Web site.Schenkel and Mason also have scheduled several live performances of the music from A Midnight Clear. On Sunday, November 9, they'll do a ...

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"To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story", Deluxe 3-CD+DVD Box Set

Source: All About Jazz
October 24, 2008

Most Comprehensive and Wide-Ranging Collection of Nina Simone's Music Ever Compiled 51 TRACKS SPANNING 1957-93, FROM BETHLEHEM, COLPIX, PHILIPS, RCA, PM, CTI, AND ELEKTRA RECORD LABELS - INCLUDES 24 LIVE TRACKS AND 8 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS - PLUS 23-MINUTE DVD DOCUMENTARY WITH 9 ADDED PERFORMANCES Ultimate survey of her work - interpreting jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, folk, folk rock, rock, pop, Broadway, movie songs, standards, French chanson, African songs, reggae and protest songs Liner notes by Richard Seidel and NPR's ...

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Boz Scaggs Releases Second Standards Album "Speak Low"

Source: All About Jazz
October 24, 2008

Five years after his first volume of standards, But Beautiful, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart, GRAMMY award winning musician Boz Scaggs offers his second volume of standards and ballads, aptly titled Speak Low (out September 30 on vinyl and wide release on October 28th via Decca). The multi-dimensional singer, whose 1976 album Silk Degrees was one of the landmark pop titles of the decade, began working on Speak Low several years ago. He'd settled on most of ...

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Frank Macchia Releases New CD "Saxolollapalooza"

Source: All About Jazz
October 24, 2008

SAXOLOLLAPALOOZA = MASSIVE SAXOPHONES!!

What do you get when you cross six of Los Angeles best jazz saxophonists, the drummer from the legendary band Weather Report and Grammy nominated composer/arranger Frank Macchia? Saxolollapalooza, of course!

The CD features Eric Marienthal, Bob Sheppard, Gene Cipriano, Sal Lozano, Frank Macchia and Jay Mason on saxes and woodwinds, with drummer extraordinaire Peter Erskine supplying the fluid grooves. Macchia arranged and produced the material, which is an eclectic mix of New Orleans second line ...

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Lotus:Hammerstrike

Source: JamBase
October 24, 2008

By: Chase Sewell

Here we go with another example that demonstrates that any all-encompassing, one-word genre for experimental, eclectic music (namely, “livetronica") is subject to failure. Embracing rhythmic grooves and dissolving such boundaries, Lotus are back again with their album Hammerstrike (released October 14 on SCI Fidelity Records). Elements of post-rock, pop, electronic, world music and jazz fusion are all present, but if one pays too much attention to rigid labels or classifications the emotional content of this music can ...

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Tommy James & the Shondells' "40 Years" 2-CD Set Presents Four Decades of Hits and Rarities

Source: conqueroo
October 23, 2008

From “Hanky Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now” to “Mirage” and “Mony Mony” to “Crimson and Clover” and “Draggin’ the Line”— all with original single mixes — the volume unfolds like a greatest hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and traces James’ later solo career. Includes extensive liner notes and photos.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – If you were a rock ’n’ roll fan in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, you well remember Tommy James & the Shondells having hit ...

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ESP-Disk’ Announces Its November Releases of Cutting Edge Music

Source: All About Jazz
October 23, 2008

ESP-Disk’, the premier American avant-garde record label of the sixties, announces its November 2008 releases of modern music of the past, present and future with six titles, including three reissues of groundbreaking albums from its catalogue of uncompromising free jazz and new music of the sixties, two newly recorded dates evolving from that tradition, and an impressively packaged collector’s edition of rare early recordings by one of jazz’s first and most individualistic modernists, at the beginning of his career. The ...

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