Home » Jazz News
Recording News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
Frank Wess: Trombones & Flute
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of my favorite small-group jazz albums of the mid-1950s is Frank Wess's Trombones & Flute. The album, recorded for Savoy in July 1956, paired Wess on flute with four trombonists—Jimmy Cleveland, Henry Coker, Benny Powell and Bill Hughes. They were backed by Ronnell Bright (p), Freddie Green (g), Eddie Jones (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). The gorgeous arrangements were by Frank Foster. At the time, Wess, Foster, Coker, Powell, Hughes, Green and Jones were all members of Count Basie's ...
Continue
Reading...
"Cheerin' Up The Universe," New CD By Trumpeter/Vocalist Bob Merrill, Due For Sept. 4 Release By Accurate Records
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
Trumpeter/vocalist Bob Merrill has had an amazingly varied career in and around music—mentored by his late father-in-law Joe Bushkin, Jaki Byard, and Red Rodney; starting and operating Hip Pocket Recording Studios in New York City; and recording as a leader himself. Cheerin’ Up the Universe, his new CD and fourth to date, is being released September 4 by Accurate Records, which has also reissued two of Merrill’s earlier albums (Catch As Catch Can, Got a Bran’ New Suit). In the ...
Continue
Reading...
Billy May: 1951-53
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Before Frank Sinatra signed with Capitol Records in 1954, the label already had on staff a growing team of arrangers and bandleaders that were pouring the foundation for a neo-swing era. With the shift to longer-playing albums, vocalists and instrumental pop music were in demand by middle-aged couples for whom teenage R&B and classical meant little. To meet the growing demand, Capitol turned to orchestrators like Paul Weston, Nelson Riddle, Les Baxter, Frank De Vol and Skitch Henderson. But perhaps ...
Continue
Reading...
Music Icons Jon Anderson & Jean Luc Ponty To Release New CD/DVD "Better Late Than Never"
Source:
Glass Onyon PR - Keith James
One of the most eagerly awaited releases of 2015 by the AndersonPonty Band, featuring music icons Jon Anderson and Jean Luc Ponty, is scheduled to hit the streets early Fall 2015! The new CD/DVD titled Better Late Than Never features outstanding performances by the band from September 2014 at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado, as well as some innovative production. The AndersonPonty Band has created some breathtaking new musical compositions. Better Late Than Never also showcases rearrangements of ...
Continue
Reading...
Mannie Klein: Keynote, 1946
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Mannie Klein is all but forgotten today. Yet the trumpeter, with 672 sessions, is among the most recorded trumpeters in jazz history, nearly matching Louis Armstrong's output. Klein began recording in 1922 and worked with a steady stream of bands. In 1928 alone, he recorded with Red Nichols and His Five Pennies, the Dorsey Brothers and Paul Whiteman among other leading bands of the day. Throughout the 1930s, Klein recorded in dozens of bands, including those led by Ben Selvin ...
Continue
Reading...
Monday Recommendation: Music Of Gary McFarland
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The Gary McFarland Legacy Ensemble, Circulation: The Music of Gary McFarland (Planet Arts) Concerned that recognition of Gary McFarland’s achievement was fading, drummer Michael Benedict created the ensemble named for McFarland and recorded 11 of his compositions. The mystery of McFarland’s death at 38 in 1971 remains unsolved. His composing and arranging made him a welcome presence in jazz in the 1960s. With slight academic training and a large natural talent, he produced work of freshness and appeal in collaborations ...
Continue
Reading...
Keyboardist/Composer Michael Gallant's "Live Plus One" To Be Released October 9
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
With his well-received 2013 debut Completely, keyboardist/composer Michael Gallant emerged as a stylistically omnivorous musical force, “an artist unafraid and bending the tradition,” in the words of one critic. Gallant continues to explore his disruptive musical proclivities on his sophomore release, Live Plus One, due out October 9 from his Gallant Music label. Recorded live and almost exclusively at Levine Music in Washington, DC, where Gallant studied piano as a teenager, Live Plus One first came together when the school ...
Continue
Reading...
George Wallington: Trios
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In its infancy in the mid-1940s, bebop was about speed and generating ideas on the fly. This was particularly true of the piano, the instrument that typically kicked off bebop songs, kept the rhythm going and put meat on the bone, so to speak. At first, bebop's velocity made the style a private club, since few musicians could improvise in the vernacular at such a lightning-fast tempos. Speed also limited the number of musicians who could figure out the music ...
Continue
Reading...
Album Showcase
Trending
Award / Grant
How Can Album Notes Compete For A Grammy Nomination?
Recording
Macedonian Saxophonist Hristijan Risteski Releases...
Music Industry
Harvard’s Ming Mei Residency Concert Features...
Recording
Jelly Roll Morton - 'New Orleans Joys: The Earliest...
Recording
Dan Papirany Trio Captures Lyrical Interplay On New...
Recording
What Happened To The American Dream?
Recording
Blue Bottle Coffee Debuts Notes In Repose, A...
VOTE!
