Recording News

Bassist/Composer Orlando le Fleming Releases New CD "From Brooklyn with Love" on 19/8 Records.

Source: Two for the Show Media
June 2, 2010

Orlando Le Fleming draws from his extensive experience as a sideman and steps forth with some music from his own pen. “From Brooklyn with Love" is Orlando's debut release. Recorded live by Jimmy Katz in the intimate setting of Freddy's Bar in Brooklyn, it features Le Fleming on bass, Antonio Sanchez on Drums, Will Vinson on alto saxophone, and Lage Lund on guitar. Each of Orlando's compositions utilizes the bass as a tool to push each musician into unfamiliar territory. ...

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Disc of the Day: Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden, "Jasmine"

Source: Between the Grooves with Philip Booth
June 1, 2010

Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden, Jasmine (ECM)--Bassist Charlie Haden has been down this path a quiet, intimate, album-length session with a musically simpatico partner in recent years, notably on Americana-tinged outings with late pianist Hank Jones and guitarist Pat Metheny. The format is similarly engaging on this reflective, brightly communicative set with long-ago bandmate Keith Jarrett, who seldom strays from his Standards Trio and solo-piano gigs.

What are the ties that bind the two (last together for a 2007 documentary on Haden)? ...

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Kenny Clarke and Ernie Wilkins

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 1, 2010

I purposefully left my favorite Hank Jones record off my top-20 list last Sunday to talk about the album here in full. This record is a rare and rather obscure date from March 1955 for Savoy, when a&r chief Ozzie Cadena was producing some amazing music at the label. You probably would never know about this baby unless someone hipped you to it, so here I am.

This early Savoy LP didn't have an official title. Instead, two musicians' names ...

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The Stryker/Slagle Band - Keeper (2010)

Source: Something Else!
June 1, 2010

By PicoIf you has happened to follow this site long enough, you know the drill: The Stryker/Slagle Band puts out a new record, I listen to said new record, then I write about how great it is. Keeper, the newest by the Stryker/Slagle Band that goes on sale tomorrow, offers me no reasons to break that trend.We last visited this combo in the fall of '08. That's when their last sizzling release, The Scene, came out. ...

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Quickies: New Release Roundup 2010, Vol. 3 (Jazz-Only Edition)

Source: Something Else!
June 1, 2010

By PicoIt's catch up time again.In what is becoming a frequent tradition for me on Something Else, I'm taking a batch of CD's and doing pocket reviews on them, in order to get you all caught up on what's been getting the spins lately. Whereas the prior two release roundups (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) zeroed in on mostly rock and other non-jazz records, this time we're fixated on jazz only: post-bop, klezmer, fusion and Latin.

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Jazzwax List: With Strings

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 1, 2010

Charlie Parker With Strings and Clifford Brown With Strings are probably the best-known albums by jazz artists backed by a string section. The concept of placing strings behind a jazz soloist became more prevalent after World War II, when pop records began to outsell virtually all other genres of music. As the record business entered the LP era in the late 1940s, the merging of jazz and strings was an attempt by producers to give jazz a sweeter, more legitimate ...

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Mingus Big Band Live at Jazz Standard Album Now Available

Source: AMT Public Relations
June 1, 2010

Mingus Big Band Live at Jazz Standard Available June 1st “Every tune a classic, every player a master, every tune sounding new, every player keeping the spirit of Charles Mingus alive and swinging!" --Michael Bourne, WBGO “A spirited blend of the lush harmonies and boisterous blues sections, interwoven ensemble passages and sudden tempo shifts that made the late bassist Charles Mingus one of the most challenging and celebrated artists in jazz." --Los Angeles Times “[the Big Band] is ...

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Bryan and the Haggards - Pretend It's the End of the World (Hot Cup)

Source: Master of a Small House
June 1, 2010

Country and jazz have rarely been congenial bedfellows. Sure, there's the heyday of western swing to consider and much more recent cross-pollinations like the Blue Note-backed collaboration between Wynton and Willie, but more often the genres reflect and oil and water dynamic. Cue Bryan and the Haggards, a hardcore honky-tonk freebop collective who aims to mend any flattened fences while simultaneously removing any need for them in the first place. A swift survey of the roster reveals how well the ...

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