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Lisa Hilton: More Than Another Day

It's very comforting to know that, as Annus Horribilis (2020) crashes to its long awaited, cursed demise, pianist/composer Lisa Hilton delivers, as she has faithfully over the past few years, a year-end gift to aficionados everywhere with her soulfully bluesy More Than Another Day. When you consider all our anxious caution for the year ahead, More Than Another Day may be a more laid back affair given 2019's watermark Chalkboard Destiny (Ruby Slippers Productions), 2018's ascendant Oasis (Ruby ...
read moreLisa Hilton, Randy Brecker, Dexter Gordon and More

This week we open with Malibu-based jazz Pianist Lisa Hilton and end with London-based jazz fusion guitarist Jules Hay. In between, we hear some quality work from Christian McBride, Felipe Salles, Dave Glasser and many more. Enjoy the show, my friends. Playlist Lisa Hilton Waltz from Nowhere" Chalkboard Destiny (Ruby Slippers) 00:00 Host talks 5:16 Christian McBride Big Band Night Train" For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver (Mack Avenue Records) 7:45 Tbone Paxton and the RJ Spangler Quarter Smile" ...
read moreLisa Hilton: Chalkboard Destiny

Not surprisingly, considering the political and social climate existing on the threshold of 2020, pianist and composer Lisa Hilton finds ripe inspiration for material on Chalkboard Destiny. Addressing the point, she writes: Our future, our destiny, can be continually reshapedwe are not beholden by history or traditional myths, allowing us a freedom in creation." With a stellar line-up of musicians, including JD Allen on tenor sax, Rudy Royston on drums and Luques Curtis on bass, Hilton is set to begin ...
read moreLisa Hilton: Chalkboard Destiny

By finely feathering-in her Pacific cool to a gritty, more urban sense of persistent chaos, Chalkboard Destiny may very well be the ten-song set which places pianist Lisa Hilton well beyond the borders of West Coast fandom and East Coast fetishism and gathers her the wider audience she richly deserves. And here's hoping, because Chalkboard Destiny and the quartet Hilton calls her own--drummer Rudy Royston, bassist Luques Curtis and JD Allen on tenor sax--create a vibe which is ...
read moreLisa Hilton: Oasis

Like whispers of a better place just around the corner if you're prepared to take the ride, the tunes on West Coast mainstay and prolific pianist/composer Lisa Hilton's exciting, well paced Oasis work their way into your listening space and take up residence. They hop, bop and bounce along her keyboard. Hilton, who has enlivened stages across the continent and counts among her jazz influences Horace Silver, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington as well bluesman Muddy Waters, rockers ...
read morePiano – Emily Bear, Dan Cray, Lisa Hilton, Emmet Cohen, Julien Labro

Like jazz vocal releases, piano-led affairs are legion. The jazz piano combo is a format that is difficult to get either bad or good. Here are five recent releases looking for the latter. Emily Bear Trio Into the Blue Edston Records 2015 The immediate charm of pianist Emily Bear is that she is a mid-teenager...a musically precocious one at that. The 15-year old enfant terrible releases a brief EP, ...
read moreTake Five With Lisa Hilton

Meet Lisa Hilton:Lisa Hilton is considered one of the most distinctive composers and pianists in jazz today. Trained as a classical pianist but with a degree in art, she has created her evocative, individualistic and impressionistic sound paintings" for over a decade as a leader. In the book, The New Face of Jazz, Hilton was compared to some of the best pianists in history," her imagistic compositions drawing deeply on classical traditions, twentieth century modernists, and the avant-garde ...
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