Recording News

Trumpets: Wadada Leo Smith; Corey Wilkes

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
November 25, 2011

Wadada Leo Smith—Dark Lady of the Sonnets (TUM, 2011) Always searching for new musical vistas, the trumpet and flugelhorn player Wadada Leo Smith teams up with Min Xiao-Fen on pipa and occasional voice and Pheeroan akLaff on drums. The trio is called Mbira, and they create a very interesting album featuring five lengthy improvisations which develop dynamically from abstract beginnings and unfold in suite-like formations growing collective improvisational energy gradually like particles from the cosmic void coalescing into stars and ...

Continue Reading...

Oscar Castro-Neves to Release "Live at Blue Note Tokyo" on Zoho Records.

Source: Two for the Show Media
November 24, 2011

Oscar Castro-Neves: This project, Live at Blue Note Tokyo, is endearing to my heart for several reasons: first—it was done on Tokyo. Japan is a land that never ceases to mesmerize and educate me with its culture, its history, and its people. There is, I feel, a strong connection between Japanese and Brazilian melodies, and I believe that part of this connection is the embedded emotion that both convey. Second- this CD is the result of our performances at the ...

Continue Reading...

Jazzwax List: 10 for Thanksgiving

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 24, 2011

Last year I served Thanksgiving dinner for song-minded readers. This year the JazzWax audience has expanded, so I was up early shopping and preparing a larger musical feast. Remember, no grabbing, no reaching across plates, and be sure to use the right fork. To all my JazzWax readers worldwide, Happy Thanksgiving. Dig in!

Roast Turkey Stomp—Benny Goodman Sextet (1939) More Gravy—Willis Jackson (1963) Sweet Potato Piper—Glenn Miller (1940) String Beans—Joe Marsala's Chicagoans (1938) Delirious Trimmings—Jerome Richardson (1958) Custard Pie—Sonny Terry ...

Continue Reading...

Matt Baker - Underground (2011)

Source: Something Else!
November 23, 2011

If pianist and composer Matt Baker's new recording has the tempo and feel of a jet-set traveler, there's a reason for that: Baker, an Australian native, has kept busy since moving to New York City in mid 2010—playing a series of well-received engagements at jazz venues like Smalls and the Zinc Bar, among others, having already performed at an impressive number of festivals (including a two-year stint as house band at Montreux) and concert halls from his home country and ...

Continue Reading...

Leonard Cohen: New Track, New Album Details

Source: JamBase
November 23, 2011

NEW ALBUM OLD IDEAS OUT JAN. 31, 2012 ON COLUMBIA RECORDS Old Ideas, a new album by Leonard Cohen, will be released by Columbia Records on January 31, 2012. The album's ten songs poetically address some of the most profound quandaries of human existence—the relationship to a transcendent being, love, sexuality, loss and death. Arguably the most overtly spiritual of the revered artist's albums, Old Ideas inspires commitment to a greater sense of compassion and decency. The new record is ...

Continue Reading...

Music Listening: Samuel Blaser, Atomic, R.E.M.

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
November 22, 2011

Samuel Blaser—Consort in Motion (Kind of Blue, 2011) This is a chamber jazz album filled with hushed tones and thoughtfully designed improvisations between Samuel Blaser on trombone, Russ Lossing on piano, Thmoas Morgan on bass and Paul Motian on drums. The interaction between between Blaser's delicately smeared and articulated trombone and Motian's minimalist percussion creates a quiet, intimate album that requires and concentration and contemplation. “Si Dolce è l'Tormento" and “Reflections on Vespro della Beata Vergine" nudge the tempos slightly ...

Continue Reading...

Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Collectors' Edition Box Set (2011)

Source: Something Else!
November 22, 2011

A fun opportunity to catch up with Bill Wyman's old-school R&B and blues revue arrives in the form of this sweeping five-disc retrospective focusing on the former Rolling Stones bassist's subsequent Rhythm Kings band. You're to be forgiven, even as the biggest fan of his old group, for not knowing much about what became of Wyman. He's led the lowest of low key existences since leaving the Stones in the mid-1990s. Wyman's Rhythm Kings have made consistent appearances over the ...

Continue Reading...

"A Season Called Christmas" CD Package Released for 2011 Holiday Season

Source: Joanne Marlowe
November 22, 2011

Chicago, IL: RCM-millennia Records this week released a two-disc CD set titled, A Season Called Christmas. This project was several years in the making and offers more than just a stereo-typical jazz interpretation of classic holiday songs. Disc One is a 35-minute storybook narrative of an original poem of the same title that was authored by Lee James and laid over an all-original jazz underscore, leading into a rendition of the classic poem “'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Disc Two ...

Continue Reading...