New Music Releases: The Music Of Wayne Shorter: Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchester; Aretha Franklin; Eri Yamamoto Trio & Choral Chameleon

The Music Of Wayne Shorter: Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestera With Wynton Marsalis

The Music of Wayne Shorter will be Blue Engine Records’ initial physical album release of 2020. The CD, recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2015, features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis alongside 11-time Grammy Award  (including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy) winner Wayne Shorter performing. Each of the album’s 10 songs—which include “Yes or No,” “Endangered Species,” and “Teru”—is a classic Shorter composition given an invigorating new arrangement by a JLCO member. Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director, says, "Wayne Shorter is at the highest level of our music—you can’t get any higher than him. Everybody strives to have a personal sound: Wayne’s sound is definitive.”

Aretha Franklin - Atlantic Singles 1968 (4 X 7 inch box set) (2019 Black Friday Release)

The cover may look a bit scientific – but the music is plenty soulful throughout – a package that brings together four key singles from that momentous musical year of 1968 – a time when Aretha Franklin was really finding her sound at Atlantic Records! The music here represents Aretha really stretching out from the earlier years – not just in the deep soul modes that would forever put her on the map – but also with some sophisticated touches that would forever earn her a place as the first lady of soul – as you'll hear on titles that include "My Song", "See Saw", "I Say A Little Prayer", "Since You've Been Gone", "Ain't No Way", "Think", "You Send Me", and "The House That Jack Built". Great design, too – a book-style cover, with the singles in the pages!  ~ Dusty Groove

Eri Yamamoto Trio & Choral Chameleon - Goshu Ondo Suite

One of the most beautiful albums we've ever heard from pianist Eri Yamamoto – in large part because of the presence of the Choral Cameleon vocal group! The mix of piano and voice is wonderful – haunting and powerful, in a way that reminds us of some of the best Vince Guaraldi experiments of this type – but with a sharper edge, as you might guess from the piano of Yamamoto – and support from David Ambrosio on bass and Ikuo Takeuchi on drums! Sometimes the voices rise high and proud – as in a Max Roach jazz-with-voices album – other times they drift dreamily, providing more of a subtle ascendant current to the lines of the piano. Either way is great to our ears – a really wonderful record – and tracks feature the long "Goshu Ondo Suite", plus "Echo Of Echo". ~ Dusty Groove