Recording News

Darren Johnston's Gone to Chicago - The Big Lift (2011)

Source: Something Else!
December 21, 2011

As I write this, the power fails at San Francisco's Candlestick Park just prior to kickoff of the Niners/Steelers Monday night football game. But as I am also listening to Frisco-based trumpeter Darren Johnston, I'm hearing lights-out music. Canadian-born Johnston found fertile musical ground in the Bay Area, but trips out to gigs in Chicago engendered a deep bonding with the improvised scene there, culminating in a recording session with some of Chicago brightest young players in that scene. The ...

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SoundCloud Grabs Exclusive Unreleased Paul McCartney with Eric Clapton [listen]

Source: HypeBot
December 21, 2011

SoundCloud is hosting the first track from Paul McCartney's upcoming album, a month before its official release next year. 'My Valentine,' featuring a guest appearance from Eric Clapton, will debut on the platform's newly released HTML5 player. LISTEN:

Announced officially yesterday, Paul McCartney returns with a brand new album on 6th February 2012 through Hear Music/Concord Records. With the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall and her band—as well as guest appearances from Stevie Wonder and ...

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4 New Soul Favorites + 6 More

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 21, 2011

If you follow the music press, you've probably read that soul is dying. The line goes something like this: Rap, house, hip-hop, pop and other bouncy forms have made soul and funk less relevant today. But based on what has been crossing my desk, I tend to disagree. What I am noticing is that there's much less junk in the soul and funk categories—since junk now is costly. Instead, I'm seeing more superb releases of both new and older soul. ...

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Drummer Stockton Helbing releases ambitious, visionary new album

Source: Lauren Rogers
December 20, 2011

If drummer Stockton Helbing's new album Battlestations & Escape Plans was a film, it'd be a widescreen epic. In a sense, it already is. This ambitious, visionary work lights up the imagination with the blinding force of an atomic bomb. That is not hyperbole; every track on the record pulses with dazzling arrangements, thumping energy, and breathtaking cinematic atmospherics. What Helbing has produced here is a movie for the mind, one that unreels scenes of high adventure and poignant drama ...

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Crosby, Stills and Nash - Crosby, Stills and Nash (1969, 2011 Audio Fidelity Remaster)

Source: Something Else!
December 20, 2011

Coming on the heels of the Sweet Baby James reissue by Audio Fidelity, the outfit that releases limited edition remastered versions of classic rock albums, is the widely celebrated debut album by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Going back about a year earlier than Taylor's breakthrough record, Crosby, Stills & Nash also signaled a shift away from the harsher, heavier sound of the late 60s and helped establish the template for lighter, more melodic fare that dominated rock for much of ...

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Sonny Stitt: Varitone Redux

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 20, 2011

By the end of 1964, the saxophone's fate was pretty much sealed. For more than 30 years, the reed instrument along with the trumpet had been played by superstar jazz performers who typically led groups or were at least main soloists. But with pop-rock's arrival in the early 1960s, the Beatles' euphoric invasion in '64 and Bob Dylan's electric conversion in mid-'65, the saxophone was fast taking a backseat to the electric guitar. Panicked, the Selmer Co. began experimenting with ...

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Joel Shapira Quartet releases invigorating collection of jazz standards and Latin songs

Source: Lauren Rogers
December 20, 2011

Coolness is defined by action, not words. Joel Shapira approaches guitar playing like a veteran baseball player on a hot streak would approach the plate, brimming with an obvious yet calm swagger. When he swings for the fences, there's no obnoxious boasting, just an easy self-confidence that is bred from years of experience and a complete understanding of the game. On Open Lines, Shapira never hogs the spotlight, doesn't let the musicians that fill his quartet take a passenger seat. ...

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Harry Connick Jr. Trio - Music from 'The Happy Elf' (2011)

Source: Something Else!
December 19, 2011

This plays like Vince Guaraldi for a new generation, as Harry Connick Jr. performs an all-original, Christmas-themed set that recalls the spirit of the season without falling into the cliches that often follow better known Yuletide classics. And Connick's done his share—including the 2003 best-selling album Harry for the Holidays, which featured the original vocal version of “The Happy Elf." There followed a TV program, a stage production and a new children's book on the same theme—about this helper for ...

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