Recording News

Putumayo Presents "Jazz," a Collection of Exceptional Recordings by Jazz Legends

Source: Chris M. Slawecki
March 18, 2011

Featured Artists: Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans * Mose Allison * Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson * Chet Baker * Blossom Dearie * Hampton Hawes * Billie Holiday * The Nat King Cole Trio * Anita O'Day * Nina Simone * Zoot Sims * Maxine Sullivan

Putumayo announces the May 3rd release of Jazz, featuring a veritable who's who of jazz legends performing beloved standards. The 1950s was a golden age for jazz and three-quarters of this collection was recorded ...

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Toots Thielemans' Harmonica Live with His European Quartet

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
March 18, 2011

Everybody knows that Toots Thielemans IS jazz harmonica. He is the man. He phrases like a horn. Others have followed in his wake but he continues to lead the way. If you listen to the late George Shearing's Quintet in the early 50s, when Toots was the guitarist, you can hear in the few features for the Thielemans harmonica that he had gotten his style pretty much together by then. And he's kept going for the many years that have ...

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Karrin Allyson Covers Ellington, Sondheim & More on "'Round Midnight"

Source: Seth Cohen PR
March 17, 2011

Elegant, Dreamy, Understated CD by Grammy-Nominated Vocalist Karrin Allyson Features Melancholy Takes on Jazz/Broadway/Pop Songs by Ellington, Sondheim, Monk, Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Anthony Newley, Johnny Mandel, and More Concord Jazz Sets 'Round Midnight for May 3rd On her new album, 'Round Midnight, Grammy-nominated vocalist and pianist Karrin Allyson weaves an elegant, understated dreamscape featuring 11 songs by some of the most storied writers in jazz, Broadway and pop music, from Duke Ellington to Stephen Sondheim to Paul Simon and ...

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Peter Scharli Trio Featuring Ithamara Koorax "O Grande Amor"

Source: Sound Insights by Doug Payne
March 17, 2011

In their second recording together, Swiss trumpeter Peter Schärli and Brazilian singer Ithamara Koorax have come up with a beautiful reflection on Brazilian music that goes far above and beyond expectation. Schärli, whose attractive sound and complimentary interjections suggest the influence of Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, and Koorax were first brought together in 2006 by the legendary Brazilian percussionist Dom Um Romão (1925-2005), who had previously worked with both musicians on separate occasions, to record Obrigado Dom Um Romão. Here, ...

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Rautavaara's Opera "Kavos (the Mine)" Engages Early High-Modernism

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
March 17, 2011

Rautavaara, I am discovering, is a composer of some depth and breadth. His 1962 opera Kaivos (The Mine) (Ondine 1174-2) illustrates this to me. It involves a dramatic story set “somewhere in Europe" in the '50s. A group of miners engage in an illegal strike. They are directed by outside forces but find that while those forces have managed to set things in motion, they cannot give the miners support to see the action through. The leaders of the strike ...

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Dave Liebman - Lieb Plays the Blues a la Trane (Daybreak Records, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
March 17, 2011

During an extensive tour playing the music of Kurt Weill and Alec Wilder, tenor and soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman thought the band needed a chance to take a break and play something different. Liebman, along with Marius Beets on bass and Eric Ineke on drums dove headlong into a set of blues compositions by or associated with John Coltrane. The results were excellent, recalling the dynamic nature of Liebman's recent successful tribute to Ornette Coleman. Opening with a re-imagined version ...

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New Release from Paolo Fresu and a Filetta

Source: ECM Records
March 17, 2011

On February 22nd ECM released Mistico Mediterraneo, a mesmerizing collaboration between lyrical Italian jazz improvisers Paolo Fresu and Daniele di Bonaventura and the Corsican vocal ensemble A Filetta.

Paolo Fresu Mistico Mediterraneo Paolo Fresu trumpet, flugelhorn Daniele di Bonaventura bandoneon A Filetta: Jean-Claude Acquaviva: seconda Paul Giansily: terza Jean-Luc Geronimi: seconda José Filippi: bassu Jean Sicurani: bassu Maxime ...

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The Cookers Release Cast the First Stone (Plus Loin)

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity
March 17, 2011

Hard-Hitting Follow-Up to Acclaimed WARRIORS On April 12, 2011 The Cookers CD Release Celebration May 14 & 15 @ The Iridium, NYC! Cast The First Stone Features: Billy Harper (Tenor Sax), Eddie Henderson (Trumpet), David Weiss (Trumpet), Craig Handy (Alto Sax, trks 1-5), George Cables (Piano), Cecil McBee (Bass), Billy Hart (Drums) & Special guest Azar Lawrence (Tenor Sax, trks 4, 6 & 7, Soprano Sax, trk 3) Experience counts, especially in jazz. The more time musicians spend interpreting tunes ...

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