NEW RELEASES - OPUS 5 - PROGRESSION; MALIKA TIROLIEN - SUR LA VOIE ENSOLEILLEE; PAQUITO D'RIVERA - JAZZ MEETS THE CLASSICS

OPUS 5 – PROGRESSION

A great lineup, and a great sound throughout – really smoking through a batch of all original numbers by members of the quintet – which features Seamus Blake on tenor, Alex Sipiagin on trumpet, David Kikoski on piano, Boris Kozlov on bass, and Donald Edwards on drums! Most of these players have sparkled for years on other records – both as leaders and sidemen – but they have a really special quality when they come together as Opus 5 – a sense of every individual's strengths, rising together in a rich voice that's perfect for the well-crafted tunes in the set! Blake sounds especially strong in the setting – more focused and soulful than ever – possibly due to Kikoski's bold lines on piano. Titles include "Climbing", "Walk A Waltz", "Fear Of Rooming", "Snow Child", "For Instance Take This",a nd "Inner Balance".  ~ Dusty Groove

MALIKA TIROLIEN - SUR LA VOIE ENSOLEILLEE

A sweet debut from Malika Tirolien – a singer we know best for her work with Snarky Puppy, but who's got a hell of a presence on her own! Malika brings together so many different styles here – Caribbean roots, contemporary soul, and even some elements of her Montreal hometown – in a blend that's wonderfully fresh, and which has the artist effortlessly stepping between French and English as she moves through the set! Malika plays keyboards on most numbers (pretty darn well, too!) – and backing is from a shifting lineup of players who have the warmth of jazz in their touch – on tracks that include "Patience", "Oliassa", "Revolution", "Racines", "Regard Dore", "So Long Ago", "What's It Like", "Sew", and "I Ja Fin".  ~ Dusty Groove

PAQUITO D'RIVERA - JAZZ MEETS THE CLASSICS

The border between classical and jazz music has always been a fluid one, with composers from each camp finding inspiration on both sides of the divide. It wasn t long ago that Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok were studying the exciting, extemporaneous new music of jazz musicians. Of course, many jazz musicians were just as transfixed by the historical developments made by classical composers. The Grammy Award winning woodwind master Paquito D Rivera has a long history with classical music. As a young boy, he was introduced to a wide variety of music, from Mozart to Ellington, by his classical saxophone playing father in Cuba. On his new recording Jazz Meets the Classics, D Rivera and his wonderful ensemble have recorded intriguing arrangements of the classical repertoire of legendary composers, including Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart, for a jazz sextet. D Rivera has long been a highly regarded clarinetist and saxophonist in the realms of jazz and Latin music. As a boy, he was regarded as a wunderkind on clarinet following in his father s classical performing footsteps. D Rivera was weaned on the music of Mozart and Beethoven but also on that of Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. For D Rivera, the bridge between classical and jazz was a natural one. For the recording, D Rivera assembled a sextet of his regular collaborators, all astonishing musicians in their own right: trumpeter/trombonist Diego Urcola, pianist Alex Brown, bassist Oscar Stagnaro, percussionist Arturo Stable, and drummer Mark Walker. Special guest pianist Pepe Rivero was also featured on two arrangements of Chopin and an original piece that he wrote for the ensemble. The ensemble convened and recorded the album live at Dizzy s Club Coca-Cola in New York City on June 14, 2012. ~ Amazon.com