NEW RELEASES - WAR, NEW BIRTH, GENERAL JOHNSON

WAR - THE WORLD IS A GHETTO 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

A monster from start to finish – not only the greatest album from War, but maybe one of the greatest mainstream funk albums of all time! The set's got a really unique groove – one that so many others tried to copy, but which was forged here first – in a wicked LA blend of Chicano funk, heavy organ lines, and soulful singing that sews the whole thing together perfectly. Just about every cut is upbeat and funky – rolling along at that low-rider pace that was War's lasting contribution to funk music – and the album features the huge hits "World Is A Ghetto" and "Cisco Kid", two of the brightest spots on radio funk from the 70s – plus classics like "Four Cornered Room", "City Country City", "Where Was You At", and "Beetles In The Bog". Features great bonus tracks too – previously unreleased "Ghetto Jam" numbers that are even more open and freewheeling than cuts on the album – titles that include "Freight Train Jam", "58 Blues", "War Is Coming (blues version)", and a sweet rehearsal take of "The World Is A Ghetto". ~ Dusty Groove

NEW BIRTH - NEW BIRTH

Way more than just another soul group – as The New Birth are almost big enough to be their own sort of soul music village – complete with different neighborhoods along the way! Vocals are handled by the combined groups of The Mint Juleps and Now Sound – gals and guys that soar together wonderfully with backings from The Nite-Liters – who help give the record a righteous undercurrent at most points, which makes the whole thing sound way hipper than any other projects of this nature! Vernon Bulllock acts as the music director for the whole group – really pulling things together with a tightness that's outta sight – and leadership of the project comes from Harvey Fuqua – who arranged and produced as well. There's some massively heavy talent on board for this initial outing, and you can definitely hear it all come into play beautifully – a wonderful harmony of rich talents, without any egos or issues to get in the way. Vocals chance nicely throughout – sometimes a female lead, sometimes male – as do the grooves, which are funky one minute, and mellow the next! Tracks include "All The Way", "Pretty Words Don't Mean A Thing", "One Way Bus", "It's You Or No One", "Do The Funky Chicken", "The Unh Song", and "What'll I Do". Great reissue – with excellent sound, and very detailed notes! ~ Dusty Groove

GENERAL JOHNSON - GENERALLY SPEAKING

A great solo album by this member of Chairmen of the Board – done with some wicked Holland Dozier Holland production, at a level that almost makes Johnson sound heavier here than in his work with his more famous group! The vocals have that same sort of crazy pinched sound that he had with The Chairmen, and there's loads of great original tunes here – plus a few Chairmen numbers, thrown into the mix, in the way that things sometimes got repeated on the Invictus label – but that's OK with us, because the tunes are so great. The grooves are nice and bouncy – and cuts include "God's Gift To Man", "Every Couple's Not A Pair", "I'll Never Get Tired Of You", "Mary Lou Thomas", and "My Credit Didn't Go Through". CD also features four bonus tracks – "Only Time Will Tell" in vocal and instrumental versions, plus "Savannah Lady", and "I'm In Love Darling". ~ Dusty Groove

NEW RELEASES - MARY WELLS, FONTELLA BASS, BOBBY PATTERSON

MARY WELLS - ONE WHO REALLY LOVES YOU / TWO LOVERS

A pair of incredible early Motown albums from Mary Wells – one of the label's first truly great singers – in a great single set from Kent UK! Mary Wells never sounded better than in her Motown years – and 1962's The One Who Really Loves You is key proof of her talents, as it's overflowing with laidback and mellow soul tunes – done in Mary's great blend of bluesy and classy styles! Titles include classics like "Drifting Love", "Strange Love", "The Day Will Come", "I've Got A Notion", "The One Who Really Loves You", "You Beat Me To The Punch", "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right", "I'll Still Be Around" and more. The follow-up Two Lovers features the subtitle And Other Greatest Hits, but it's actually a great batch of songs that were most newly-recorded by Mary at the time – and not at all a simple round-up of singles! The approach here has just a little more rawness than some of the girl groups Berry Gordy was scoring hits with at the time, but also a sense of urban classiness. As is their wonderful way, Kent goes above and beyond here – with a great booklet of notes and photos – which shines a necessary light on the making of these great records. Wonderful stuff! Titles include "Two Lovers", "Guess Who", "My 2 Arms - You = Tears", "Goody, Goody", "Stop Right Here", "Laughing Boy", "Looking Back", "(I Guess There's) No Love", "Was It Worth It" and "Operator". ~ Dusty Groove

FONTELLA BASS - FREE

Very righteous work from Fontella Bass – an album done after her time at Chess Records, and after her work in Paris with the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – in a heartfelt, southern soul mode that's totally great! Fontella's back working with producer Oliver Sain, who first brought her fame back in the 60s – but the sound is a bit more sophisticated than before, drenched with roots from gospel and country soul, but also inflected with some of the more righteous modes of the early 70s, too. Fontella's vocals are incredible – with a range that should have made her one of the leading ladies of soul in the 70s – and titles include "To Be Free", "I Need Love", "Wiping Tears", "Hold On this Time", "Talking About Freedom", and "My God My Freedom My Home". 4 bonus tracks on this CD edition: "It Sure Is Good", "I'm Leaving The Choice To You", "Home Wrecker" and "It's Hard To Get Back In". ~ Dusty Groove

BOBBY PATTERSON - IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME

One of the best soul records to come out on the Paula label in the early 70s – one with a number of beautifully soulful moments – and a few surprisingly funky ones, too! Although Bobby did a lot of work for other singers, this is one of the few albums he actually cut under his own name – and it's a lasting testament to his talents as both a singer and writer. It's got a nice mix of southern soul ballads and more uptempo tracks, and loads of original compositions by Bobby! Includes "This Whole Funky World is a Ghetto", "If You Took A Survey", How Do You Spell Love", "Make Sure You Can Handle It", "I Just Loved You Because I Wanted To", "Right On Jody", "Quiet! Do Not Disturb", and "I Get My Groove From You". 7 bonus tracks on the CD edition: "She Don't Have To See You (To See Through You)", "It Takes Two To Do Wrong", "Take Time To Know The Truth", "I Get My Groove From You", "I'm In The Wrong" and more. ~ Dusty Groove

PATRICIA BARBER - SMASH

PIANIST, VOCALIST AND COMPOSER PATRICIA BARBER SET TO RELEASE HER CONCORD DEBUT, SMASH, JANUARY 22, 2013

On Smash, her January 22, 2013 debut on Concord Jazz, Patricia Barber reiterates her unique position in modern music as a jazz triple-threat – imaginative pianist, startling vocalist, and innovative composer (international release dates may vary). With a new band and a dozen new compositions, she also continues her two-decade crusade to retrieve the ground that jazz musicians long ago ceded to pop and rock: the realm of the intelligent and committed singer-songwriter, tackling even familiar subjects (like love and loss) with a nuance and depth beyond the limits of the Great American Songbook.
Once again – in the crisp chill of her vocals, as well as the fiery feminine intellect that informs her music and lyrics – Barber makes most of her contemporaries sound like little girls.

A prime example is the title track, where Barber paints the end of a love affair with subtly stated allusions to destruction: the erosion of edifices; a bloody road accident. The lines are more akin to poetry than conventional song lyrics, as she depicts “the crumbling of tall castles built / on kisses and blood / and dreams so like sand.” The song’s reprise compares “the sound of a heart breaking” to “the sound of / the red on the road” – a devastatingly effective mélange of synesthetic imagery. Aided by a raw, forceful guitar solo, the performance illuminates a counter-intuitive realization about loss:

"It just struck me, as it does everyone who experiences great loss, that on the outside, no one can tell,” Barber explains. “You go to the grocery store, and everything’s the same, which is shocking. It struck me that this is the sound of a heart breaking: silence. You’re alone. And I felt that this was an interesting juxtaposition, since the sound of a heart breaking should be the loudest, screamiest, shriekiest combination of sounds there could be.”

Barber has another song on the subject of “loud, shrieky” emotion: “Scream,” paradoxically set to a gentle, quiet melody that belies its message, and which has proved extremely popular with those audiences hearing it prior to this recording. “Scream / when Sunday / finally comes / and God / isn’t there . . . . the soldier / has his gun / and the war / isn’t where / we thought it would be.” As Barber points out in conversation, with only the slightest sarcasm, “It’s an angry song – and everyone wants that.”

Her anger finds a more whimsical (but no less impactful) outlet in the catchy “Devil’s Food,” written specifically from Barber’s perspective as a gay woman: “boy meets boy / girl meets girl / given any chance / to fall in love / they do . . . / like loves like / like devil’s food / like chocolate twice / I’m in the mood / for you . . . .” She wrote the song in reaction to last year’s highly publicized efforts to quash gay-marriage initiatives around the country:

“It made me mad, and it made me want to make a declaration – but to make it fun. I find one of the best ways to bring people to your perspective is of course to charm them, and music can always do that. That’s how I get a lot of people thinking about a lot of things. I mean, the lyrics are fairly graphic – ‘sweet on sweet, meat on meat’ – but the music is so beguiling, I think I make the case. And when it becomes clear that it’s turning into a gay disco song, it’s really fun watching people’s reaction, which is surprise and mostly delight.”

It’s not the usual territory trod by jazz singers and songwriters; we’re a long way from “The Man I Love.” (“Smart songs about the way we think and live, not just about the way we love,” wrote Margo Jefferson in The New York Times.)

Much of Barber’s magic lies in setting these words to music as fully evocative as it is coolly provocative. Many of her arrangements attain a thrilling friction between style and substance. (For a defining example, turn to “Redshift,” in which Barber weds the science-geek lyric – itself a miraculous marriage of physics and love – to the gentle lull of a bossa-nova beat.) Throughout the album, her Chicago-based quartet – comprising the superlative rhythm team of bassist Larry Kohut and drummer Jon Deitemyer, with the edgy and arresting John Kregor on guitars – functions as a translucent extension of Barber’s own musicality, while her piano work enjoys a prominence that some of her newer fans may not previously have experienced.

One song, “Missing” – perhaps the album’s most indelible portrait of heartache – came about in an unusual way: “This was a commission, I guess you could call it. A woman sent me a letter and her story, and a very small check, and asked if I could turn it into a song. It was sort of an outrageous request, but it really hit me, so I wrote it; it was my idea to take the story through the four seasons. In some ways, it’s the sleeper of the record. When I play this in concert, a lot of people cry at this one.”

The other songs on Smash represent the fruit of Barber’s decision to write what she calls a “syllabic song series”; these pieces resulted from a disciplined framework, based on the number of beats in each poetic line. (For instance, “The Swim” consists entirely of two-syllable lines; “Spring Song” has three such phonemes per line; “The Wind Song,” six.) “I studied the songwriters, but now I just study the poets,” she explains. “I’m trying to make the poetry of a finer order. But I still need to rhyme, because rhyme is rhythm, and rhythm is music.”

Audiophiles will be especially glad to know that Smash reunites Barber with her long-time recording engineer Jim Anderson (with whom she first worked in 1994, on her Premonition Records debut Café Blue.) Anderson – who is Professor of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School for of the Arts – has again captured Barber’s music with the clarity and presence that led Stereophile Magazine to label Café Blue a “Record To Die For.” HDTracks and Mastered for iTunes versions of Smash are also available.

After her long association with Premonition and then Blue Note Records, Barber self-released her two most recent albums – recorded at Chicago’s legendary Green Mill, her weekly showcase for more than two decades – and had no plans to sign with anyone else at this point in her career. “I didn’t have a contract, or even a recording in mind,” she states. “I assumed that when I had a group of ten or so new songs I would probably put it out myself.” Halfway through this process, Barber received an offer from Concord, which she promptly turned down: “I was really enjoying the freedom of not having a label, especially in this environment, and just doing what I always do – trying to advance myself musically, practicing a lot, and locking in on what I consider a really good band.”

But the persistence of Concord producer Nick Phillips won out. “He came to see me, and he reminded me so much of Bruce Lundvall,” Barber recalls, referring to the former Blue Note president with whom she worked closely. “I had been grieving the loss of that professional relationship. And then Nick mentioned that he has great respect and admiration for Bruce. So we hit it off personally, and that’s what it takes for me.”

That, and the chance to take her time – to read poetry, practice piano, and do some gardening on a tract of farmland she owns in Michigan, a welcome getaway from city life in Chicago. That’s how Barber’s ideas take root and bloom. She remains an electrifying performer, but performance is not the most important aspect of her art. “My favorite part is the internal part – the research,” she points out. “All the interesting stuff happens inside your head and at the piano.”

Fortunately, those of us not in Patricia Barber’s head or at her piano still get to enjoy the fruits of that labor.

CONCORD MUSIC GROUP RECEIVES 26 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS

Concord Music Group artists nabbed a stunning 26 Grammy nominations.  

 

Best Pop Instrumental Album: 24/7
Gerald Albright & Norman Brown
[Concord Jazz]

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:
A Holiday Carole
Carole King
[Hear Music]

Kisses on the Bottom
Paul McCartney
[Hear Music]

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
"On the Outskirts of Town"
The Time Jumpers
Track from: The Time Jumpers
[Rounder]

Best Country Album:
The Time Jumpers
[Rounder]

Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
"Hot House"
Gary Burton & Chick Corea, soloists
Track from: Hot House
[Concord Jazz]

"Alice in Wonderland"
Chick Corea, soloist
Track from: Further Explorations (Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez & Paul Motian)
[Concord Jazz]

Best Jazz Vocal Album:
1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
Kurt Elling
[Concord Jazz]

Live
Al Jarreau (And the Metropole Orkest)
[Concord]

Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding
[Heads Up International]

Best Jazz Instrumental Album:
Further Explorations
Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez & Paul Motian
[Concord Jazz]

Hot House
Chick Corea & Gary Burton
[Concord Jazz]

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album:
Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)
Arturo Sandoval
[Concord Jazz]

Best Bluegrass Album:
The Gospel Side Of
Dailey & Vincent
[Rounder]

Nobody Knows You
Steep Canyon Rangers
[Rounder]

Best Blues Album:
33 1/3
Shemekia Copeland
[Telarc International]

Best Instrumental Composition:
"December Dream"
Chuck Loeb, composer (Fourplay)
Track from: Esprit De Four
[Heads Up International]

"Mozart Goes Dancing"
Chick Corea, composer (Chick Corea & Gary Burton)
Track from: Hot House
[Concord Jazz]

Best Instrumental Arrangement:
"A Night In Tunisia (Actually An Entire Weekend!)"
Wally Minko, arranger (Arturo Sandoval)
Track from: Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
[Concord Jazz]

"Salt Peanuts! (Mani Salado)"
Gordon Goodwin, arranger (Arturo Sandoval)
Track from: Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
[Concord Jazz]

Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s):
"City of Roses"
Thara Memory & Esperanza Spalding, arrangers (Esperanza Spalding)
Track from: Radio Music Society
[Heads Up International]

"Spain (I Can Recall)"
Vince Mendoza, arranger (Al Jarreau and the Metropole Orkest)
Track from: Live
[Concord Records]

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package:
Ram - Paul McCartney Archive Collection (Deluxe Edition)
Simon Earith & James Musgrave, art directors (Paul and Linda McCartney)
[Hear Music]

Best Album Notes:
Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles
Billy Vera, album notes writer (Ray Charles)
[Concord]

Best Historical Album:
Ram - Paul McCartney Archive Collection (Deluxe Edition)
Paul McCartney, compilation producer; Simon Gibson, Guy Massey & Steve Rooke, mastering engineers (Paul and Linda McCartney)
[MPL/Hear Music/Concord]

Best Long Form Music Video:
Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding, Pilar Sanz, video director; Esperanza Spalding, video producer [Heads Up International]

Source: Concord Records

DENISE DONATELLI - SOUL SHADOWS

Denise Donatelli, the GRAMMY® nominated and critically acclaimed award winning Savant recording artist, has become one of today’s premiere jazz vocalists. Her 2010 release When Lights are Low — which received two GRAMMY® nominations, one for Best Jazz Vocal Album and another for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist for pianist and collaborator Geoffrey Keezer for his arrangement of "Don't Explain" — confirms Denise's status in the upper echelons of talented and engaging jazz artists in the country and internationally.


Denise’s four recordings, Soul Shadows (Savant Records, September 2012), When Lights are Low (Savant Records 2010), What Lies Within (Savant Records 2008), and In the Company of Friends (Jazzed Media 2005), have consistently topped the National Jazz Week radio charts. Her GRAMMY® Nominated recording When Lights are Low peaked at #2 and remained on the chart for 23 weeks. It resurfaced 28 weeks later where it remained for another 7 weeks. Soul Shadows is another collaboration with 2 time GRAMMY® nominated pianist, composer, arranger, Geoffrey Keezer. KSJS-FM Radio Programmer, Dr. Brad Stone considers Soul Shadows to be “Simply her best work to date!”

Denise also appears as guest vocalist on GRAMMY® Award Winner Bill Cunliffe's Christmas recording, That Time of Year. (2011).
 
In addition to Denise’s 2010 GRAMMY® Nomination, The Los Angeles Jazz Society has honored Denise with their 2012 Jazz Vocalist of the Year award. 


Denise tours extensively, performing at jazz festivals , jazz clubs, performing art centers, and with university jazz bands where she conducts master clinics.

Donatelli’s innate musicianship and pure tone have won her spots singing for episodes of The Simpsons, television promos for Frasier, Card Sharks and Turner Classic Movies and has appeared in national and international commercials for CNN, Hyundai, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz among others.

Growing up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Denise's talent was discovered at the early age of three when she plunked out Silent Night on the family piano. By the age of four, Denise began studying classical piano. She was an active member of the Allentown Music Club along with area musicians including jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. She garnered numerous ‘Superior’ awards for her piano performances in the National Federation of Music Club’s regional piano competitions.

While piano study was a major part of Denise’s musical background, she always loved to sing and soon realized that her true passion was jazz and popular music. 

Placing her musical career aside in favor of motherhood, Denise found her voice again years later after relocating to Atlanta, Georgia. It wasn't long before she became immersed in Atlanta's jazz scene working by day at Turner Broadcasting System and singing at night with a jazz trio at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

 A decision to move to Los Angeles in 2000, put her in touch with some of the city’s stellar musicians including Neil Hefti. Described as "a musician's singer" by GRAMMY® Award winning saxophonist, Phil Woods, Denise has performed as guest vocalist with Roger Kellaway, Terry Trotter, Christian Jacob's Big Band Theory, Alf Clausen's Jazz Orchestra, Les Hooper's Big Band and the Stan Kenton Alumni Band.

Visit THE JAZZ NETWORK WORLDWIDE "A GREAT PLACE TO HANG" at: http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

GRACE KELLY LIVE AT SCULLERS

Album Focuses on Original Compositions and Features Jason Palmer and Zach Brown, Among Others

"It's a blessing from the gods, this kind of talent, and when we see it in someone young, we marvel at the contrast..." - Todd Leopold, CNN

Stream Tracks From Live at Scullers

There are snapshots in the family photo album of Grace Kelly at Scullers Jazz Club at the age of six, falling asleep in her father's arms. When she began studying saxophone at the tender age of ten, she dreamed of one day performing on that very same stage. In those childhood visions, it was a much older Grace Kelly that she envisioned on the bandstand, but she made her Scullers debut at thirteen and held a CD release concert there the following year.

These days, the Boston club is a second home for Kelly, where she is a top draw for her regular performances. She claims to have set a record for the number of times she's sat in with headliners there, ranging from David Sanborn to Steve Tyrell to Ann Hampton Callaway. And she has her own dedicated seat at the bar, although she's still a few months away from being legally able to order a drink.

All of which made it a no-brainer to choose Scullers when the saxophone prodigy decided to record her first live album. "It was the perfect place to record a CD," Kelly says. "I knew if I was going to do a live CD I wanted to have a really great audience. Having grown up in Boston and developed a fan base there since I was twelve, it literally sounds like a yelling, hooting stadium when we come on stage at Scullers. People are just so enthusiastic, and I feel with this audience I can do whatever I want."

On Live at Scullers, Kelly offers a set mostly composed of new material which shows off her remarkable versatility. Her sax chops have been granted the imprimatur of jazz elders like Phil Woods and Lee Konitz, both of whom have recorded with her. But here, Kelly's instrumental virtuosity shares the spotlight with her winsome voice via her most song-oriented collection to date.

I listen to a wide range of music, from Miles Davis to John Mayer," Kelly explains. "Lately I've been listening to more contemporary music and songwriters and at the same time I've been more inspired to write songs. Growing up and learning the saxophone, I always listened more to singers than instrumentalists. Whenever I play a standard I always make sure to know the lyrics behind it. I feel like words are a really big connection between myself and the audience."

Kelly boldly offers her mission statement on the opening track, "Please Don't Box Me In." The title plea is made by a gifted musician and songwriter who sees no reason why the music she makes should be more single-minded than the music that she enjoys.

"As a young person," she says, "I love the tradition but I also I listen to the radio. So I've been trying to figure out how to meld some of this contemporary stuff with jazz in a different way. I'm like a mad scientist in my laboratory experimenting."

Those experiments have resulted in a stunningly diverse set of songs. The repertoire on Live at Scullers ranges from the smoldering "Night Time Star" to the tender "Autumn Song" to the country-tinged ballad "Kiss Away Your Tears."

Live at Scullers is by no means a complete break from Kelly's jazz roots, however. "Searching for Peace" is a scintillating burner, and the set closes with two familiar standards, both of which the saxophonist has recorded in the past. "The Way You Look Tonight" is reprised from Man With the Hat, Kelly's last record, which featured the legendary saxophonist Phil Woods. And the evening draws to a funky close with her groove-oriented take on "Summertime," which she previously recorded in a completely different arrangement on her 2006 album Every Road I Walked.

The band that took the stage that February night features a blend of old and new collaborators. Trumpeter Jason Palmer has been a fixture of Kelly's line-ups for the past six years, and their easy, empathetic interplay is evident throughout - as is their playful camaraderie. On "Searching for Peace," Kelly can be heard bursting out in laughter as Palmer begins his solo by quoting the theme from Sanford and Son. "We've gotten to the point where it feels like when we play together we're reading each other's minds," Kelly says. "It's so comfortable to communicate with him on stage musically."

Guitarist Pete McCann is a new addition, replacing the usual piano spot in Kelly's band. He also doubles on ukulele for "Falling" and "Ready, Set, Stay," a love song about a lazy day under the covers penned by Kelly and Emily Dale, a friend from Berklee College of Music.

Kelly recently graduated from Berklee at the age of 19, and the school provided many of her bandmates for the gig: cellist Eric Law (whose birthday was on the same night, resulting in a brief quote of "Happy Birthday" from Kelly on "Searching for Peace"), backing vocalists Jaime Woods and Chantale Sterling, and bassist Zach Brown. Drummer and Berklee professor Mark Walker - who, like Brown, plays regularly with Cuban clarinet master Paquito D'Rivera - rounds out the ensemble.
And, of course, there's the Scullers audience, which provides a character of its own. "The thing that's different about creating a live CD for me is the fact that I'm thinking about how I can program the set for my audience," Kelly says. "It's not so much about the album or the concept, and it's not only about how we can feature ourselves. But how can we capture the energy of the audience and more importantly connect with them?"

The answer, in Kelly's case, was to make the kind of personal, engaging music she's been making for most of her life. For the audience at Scullers - not to mention listeners to this CD - that's more than enough.

Live at Scullers - Track Listing/Personnel
1. Please Don't Box Me In - 6:55
2. Eggshells - 4:53
3. Night Time Star - 5:45
4. Autumn Song - 5:51
5. Ready, Set, Stay (Kelly/Dale) - 2:59
6. Searching for Peace - 8:34
7. Kiss Away Your Tears - 4:01
8. Falling - 4:17
9. The Way You Look Tonight (Kern/Fields) - 7:35
10. Summertime (Gershwin/Gershwin/Heyward) - 8:19

All tracks composed by Grace Kelly (unless otherwise noted)
Grace Kelly / vocals & saxophones
Jason Palmer / trumpet
Zach Brown / bass
Pete McCann / guitars/ukelele
Mark Walker / drums
Eric Law / cello
Jaime Woods & Chantale Sterling / backing vocals

Upcoming Grace Kelly Appearances:
January 8 / Blues Alley / Washington, DC
January 12 & 13 / APAP Showcase (Hilton) / New York, NY
January 26 / Exodus to Jazz (Hochstein School of Music) / Rochester, NY
February 6 & 7 / Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe / Grosse Pointe Farms, MI
February 8 & 9 / Eastern Illinois University / Charleston, IL
February 14 / Gilly's / Dayton, OH
February 15 / Germantown Performing Arts Centre / Germantown, TN
February 16 / Walton Arts Center / Fayetteville, AR
February 17 / Murry's / Columbia, MO
February 18 / The Blue Shop / Burlington, IA
February 26 / Hagan Center at Assumption College / Worcester, MA
February 27 / Club Passim / Cambridge, MA
March 2 / The Chocolate Church Arts Center / Bath, ME
April 18-20 / ASCAP Expo / Los Angeles, CA
April 26 / Jazz Festival / St. Ingbert, Germany
May 11 / Kirkland Performance Center / Kirkland, WA
May 12-17 / Juneau Jazz / Juneau, AK
August 24 / Boston Harbor Hotel / Boston, MA

gracekellymusic.com

TONY BENNETT KICKS-OFF HIS FIRST EXTENSIVE TOUR OF LATIN AMERICA

On December 3, Brazilian Star Ana Carolina Welcomed Tony Bennett At A Sold-Out Concert In Rio de Janeiro, And Presented The Legendary Entertainer With A Gold Record For Sales Of His Recently Released “Viva Duets” Album In Brazil.

The Global Ambassador Of The Great American Songbook Will Now Continue His Tour With Additional Shows in Brazil, And Upcoming Visits To Argentina, Chile, Mexico & Puerto Rico (See Dates Below)

Mark Your Calendars For December 9th at 10:00PM When Tony Becomes The First Non-Latino Performer To Star In A Primetime Univision Broadcast Special

Hosted by Giselle Blondett, the groundbreaking "FELIZ NAVIDAD CON LOS NUESTROS...TONY BENNETT Y SUS AMIGOS" will give an inside look at the recording of Bennett's critically praised "Viva Duets" album - Featuring segments with Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Romeo Santos, Vicente Fernandez, Thalía, Juan Luis Guerra and more. The special will also highlight solo performances of two Bennett classics and unveil newly recorded duets with Shaila Durcal and Armando Manzanero - including a heartfelt rendition of "Silent Night" to usher in the Holiday Season.

TONY BENNETT’s “Viva Duets Tour” Continues Across Latin America With These Concert Dates
December 01 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Via Funchal
December 04 – Porto Alegre, Brazil – Teatro Do Sesi
December 06 - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Gran Rex
December 08 - Santiago, Chile – Teatro Municipal
December 10 & 11 - Mexico City, Mexico - Metropolitan Theatre
December 13 - San Juan, Puerto Rico - Bellas Artes

(Left): Ana Carolina presents Tony Bennett a Brazilian Gold record for sales of “Viva Duets” (Right): Tony Bennett and Ana Carolina perform duet in Concert last night in Rio de Janiero – Photos courtesy SONY Brazil

“Tony Bennett's 'Viva Duets' is a bilingual beauty … “Viva Duets,” the latest in the increasingly adventurous series of collaboration CDs by Tony Bennett, is, in its dapper way, as experimental as anything you’ll hear out of a Brooklyn basement noise-rock band or European knob-twister this year… The songs are, with a few exceptions, bilingual in the truest sense, toggling between languages right in the middle of verses… The emotional heft of some of these melodies — Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,” sung with the Argentine balladeer Vicentico, in particular — is sufficiently powerful to transcend language barriers. Bennett, always a genial host and an outstanding conversationalist on the microphone, generates chemistry and heat with each of his collaborators. His voice remains a marvel… His comfort zone, apparently, is as big as the world…. If “Viva Duets” turns his U.S. audience on to some of the fantastic balladeers of Mexico, South and Central America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, it will put the veteran singer on the side of the angels. …It’s another gift from a veteran entertainer who keeps on giving” – Star Ledger

www.tonybennett.com - www.exploringthearts.org - www.zenofbennett.com

NEXT COLLECTIVE’S COVER ART DELIVERS THE NEXT GENERATION

Features rising stars: saxophonists Logan Richardson and Walter Smith III, guitarist Matthew Stevens, keyboardists Gerald Clayton and Kris Bowers, bassist Ben Williams, drummer Jamire Williams, and special guest trumpeter Christian Scott (aka Christian aTunde Adjuah)

Concord Jazz, a division of Concord Music Group, releases an exciting new project by NEXT Collective titled Cover Art — an ensemble recording by the next generation of jazz greats exploring their own interpretations of songs by such contemporary artists as Bon Iver, Drake, N.E.R.D, Little Dragon and more. The album contains 10 tracks and the digital version will include special bonus tracks.

Not often—maybe every quarter century—a new generation of musicians gets to the scene and rapidly develops a collective musical identity of its own. So it was in the jazz of the late ’60s and into the ’70s when a group of newcomers helped bring the funk and R&B grooves. We saw it again in the early ’90s, when a loose-limbed hybrid of jazz and hip-hop became the hippest flavor of the day, a crew of jazzmen working closely with deejays and rappers. As one looks further back in the tradition, other generational examples pop up, almost like clockwork.

Yet it’s never some carefully worked-out plan that ushers in the new breed. It simply happens—and it’s happening again now. The right people together at the right time, with a marked sound of their own: a sound best described as flowing with the improvisatory rush of modern jazz, all the while reflecting many of today’s most expressive popular styles— electronica and hip-hop; ambient and alternative rock as well as embracing uptempo or slow and moody, there’s a distinct undercurrent of funk. A Dutch music festival coined the term “New Urban Jazz” just this past summer. The leading lights making up this new wave include saxophonists Logan Richardson and Walter Smith III, guitarist Matthew Stevens, keyboardists Gerald Clayton and Kris Bowers, bassist Ben Williams, drummer Jamire Williams and special guest trumpeter Christian Scott (aka Christian aTunde Adjuah).

Together these names stand as the best of this next generation. They are improvisers, melodists, and arrangers. Some are bandleaders, some soon to be, and they’re a tight bunch: long-time friends, including a few who have studied together, and all of them have played together, on stages and in sessions.

Now, they are all featured on an exciting project—NEXT Collective—an ensemble recording that documents this new jazz age. “There was a point in the sessions for this album,” says producer Chris Dunn, “when I looked around the room and suddenly realized the level of talent packed in there together, the cream of the new crop, so to speak—and how much they are invested in jazz and also soaked in the music going on around them.”

Sr. Director of A&R for Concord Music Group, Dunn conceived, coordinated and produced this debut recording along with the members of NEXT Collective. Titled Cover Art, the album is scheduled for release February 26, 2013 (international release dates may vary) on Concord Jazz. Speaking to the album’s development, Dunn states, “It began as a way of introducing three new artists on Concord—Richardson, Smith, and Stevens. They are all great writers, but doing a recording of their originals, when not using their own band members, and all three having very different styles as leaders… that’s a tall order musically. It could make for a very disjointed experience no matter how great the playing. Instead, I thought it would be cool to do a project of covers from their generation and make a super group of the same. Each player chose and arranged tunes that came from any contemporary style they really liked: strong melodies but no jazz. The tunes we ended up with really bring something fresh to the table.”

The range in the feel of the tunes on Cover Art speaks both to the arranging talents of the members of NEXT Collective, and also to the diversity of their collective taste (what jazz veterans like to call “big ears”). The styles represented by these originals are a hyphenated hodge-podge—hip-hop and punk-funk, singer-songwriter and guitar-pop, electro-R&B and alt-rock. From Jay Z and Kanye West’s “No Church In The Wild” to Pearl Jam’s “Oceans” to Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Come Smoke My Herb,” to Drake’s “Marvins Room,” to Bon Iver’s “Perth,” the album delivers a cohesive flow. Other themes by Missy Elliott, Grizzly Bear, Rufus Wainwright and more not only serve as bonus tracks but also give a wide-lensed view of today’s musical outlook.

The versions that comprise Cover Art are often striking in how the songs have been reimagined, and compelling in the way they bounce off each tune’s original mood. Check how a tune like “Fly or Die”— a rock-fueled slice of R&B by N.E.R.D.—is recast by Ben Williams with the bounce and gear-shifts of a late ’70s fusion workout. Or how efficiently close to the atmospheric, neo-soul buoyancy of D’Angelo’s “Africa” Clayton steers his own reworking. Or how the metronomic beats and laconic lyricism of Little Dragon’s “Twice” are faithfully recreated in an acoustic jazz setting, courtesy of Richardson; the reversed horn lines that kick off the tune (and the album) are a clear signal that this project is both as mindful of the studio-craft of its many musical sources as it is of the live interaction of the jazz tradition. Cover Art has its feet firmly planted in the overlap of as many styles as possible.

Yet there remains an intuitive consistency throughout the album that owes much to an almost wordless connection felt by the musicians as they recorded together in Manhattan’s Sear Sound. “I was glad to hear that all the music fits together as an album even though it comes from a wide variety of places,” says Walter Smith III, who chose and re-arranged the Bon Iver, Becca Stevens and Dido tunes. “The main thing that still sticks out for me is how everyone was on the same page during the sessions. There was little to no discussion about much other than the basic road maps of the arrangements. When music can happen that way, something special usually comes out of it.”

For Matthew Stevens—who brought in the Pearl Jam, Wainwright and Portishead compositions—Cover Art benefited from familiarity with the songs and with each other. “The sessions were a blast, equally focused and relaxed. It felt like a family reunion—a lot of mutual respect present and a lot of laughs. It’s a great concept for an album since everyone had a connection with all the material.”

“When I listen to this album, and remove myself from having been a part of it, it sounds like a classic from beginning to end,” says Logan Richardson, who contributed arrangements of songs by Little Dragon and Ndegeocello. The remaining tunes were interpreted by Gerald Clayton (D’Angelo, Missy Elliott), Kris Bowers (Stepkids, Grizzly Bear), Christian Scott (Jay Z & Kanye West, Drake), Ben Williams (N.E.R.D.), and Jamire Williams (Stereolab). The temptation to dig these versions, and compare them to the originals is difficult to deny; in fact, it’s an exercise that should not be resisted, as it reveals the degree of inspiration and thought that went into Cover Art.

Time—as it always does—will tell how prescient this collection is of what is coming, what is truly around the corner for this music we tend to limit to the term “jazz” (and yet often includes much more). Cover Art is one of those albums that captures a rare moment in time—the coming together of a new generation and a new sound—while the NEXT Collective stands as one of those ensembles too laden with talent and future bandleaders to remain together for too long. “They’re young—but they’re not young players,” says Dunn. “All of these cats are real players despite their ages, with real experience under their belts.” And the majority of that experience has found them in each other’s company. That’s as good a reason as any to explain why Cover Art feels so much like the document of the next generation in jazz.
Complete Album Track Listing (bonus tracks on digital album to be announced):
1. Twice (Little Dragon)
2. No Church In The Wild (Jay Z and Kanye West)
3. Africa (D’Angelo)
4. Fly Or Die (N.E.R.D)
5. Oceans (Pearl Jam)
6. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Stereolab)
7. Marvins Room (Drake)
8. Come Smoke My Herb (Meshell Ndegeocello)
9. Perth (Bon Iver)
10. Thank You (Dido)

KENDRICK SCOTT ORACLE - CONVICTION

With the 2007 release of The Source – his debut recording as a leader – drummer and composer Kendrick Scott established a reputation right out of the gate as an explorer, someone with a generous measure of wisdom and insight to counterbalance his youth and newcomer status.

Nearly six years later, Scott and his band continue to dig beneath the surface to find the deeper truths in Conviction, their new CD scheduled for release on Concord Jazz on March 26, 2013 (international release dates may vary). As the title suggests, Conviction is the vehicle by which Kendrick and company look past the mundane and examine the motivating forces that propel us through life, even in those times when the greater truths are obscured by the tedium of the everyday.

“The first record was almost like a potluck project,” says Kendrick, who has developed associations with numerous high-profile jazz figures in the decade since his emergence from the Berklee scene in 2003. “There were so many of my friends and people whom I love to play with, and I wanted to have them all in one place on that record. But Conviction is something different. I wanted to make this more of a band statement. This current lineup of the band just molded itself around this music, and then took it in all different kinds of direction at the same time. It all came together so easily and so well.”

The streamlined version of Oracle on the new recording includes saxophonist and bass clarinetist John Ellis, guitarist Mike Moreno (the only member to also appear on The Source) pianist Taylor Eigsti and bassist Joe Sanders. Guest vocalist and guitarist Alan Hampton makes appearances on two tracks.

“These guys create a totally different vibe from the band on the previous album,” says Scott. “They bring something that has definitely added to my writing. The way they interpret my compositions is exactly the way I want them to be interpreted. I provide them with just a few elements and ideas to get started, and then they take it wherever they feel it should be taken – which always turns out the be a good place.”

The album plays as a continuous and seamless stream of music with no breaks between tracks, the net result being an atmospheric soundscape rather than a series of individual tracks. The set opens with Scott’s nod to his gospel roots in a traditional prayer in which seeks to be an instrument of peace, faith, hope and love. The prayer segues immediately into the shimmering “Pendulum, which showcases the captivating solo work of saxophonist John Ellis atop the solid foundation set up by Taylor Eigsti on piano and the full-bodied rhythm section of Scott and Sanders.

"Pendulum,” originally performed by UK indie electronic band Broadcast, moves seamlessly into a melodic cover of avant popster Sufjan Stevens’ “Too Much,” a song propelled by Hampton’s intriguing vocals and a lurching backbeat that forces the listener to engage and come along for the ride.

Scott and company deliver an expertly rendered cover of Herbie Hancock’s “I Have a Dream,” which morphs directly into a short and quiet – but nonetheless intense – solo bass track entitled “We Shall Overcome By Any Means.” The haunting “Liberty Or Death” is built on a simple four-note piano riff that escalates to near-crescendo proportions midway through its near seven-minute run time.

The title track, written by Derrick Hodge (also the co-producer on Conviction), is built on a piano/bass/drum configuration that dances around any clearly defined rhythmic pocket, yet establishes a unique groove nonetheless.

In the final stretch, “Serenity” once again features the vocals of Alan Hampton. The following track “Be Water,” includes an opening monologue by legendary martial arts master and philosopher Bruce Lee that encourages a shapeless, fluid approach to the creative process rather than adherence to any concrete style. “Be water, my friend,” he intones more than once, as the track segues into a piece of music that is just that – fluid, flowing, energetic and crystal clear.

The closer, “Memory of Enchantment,” is a gentle solo piano piece crafted with plenty of breathing space between the notes and a poignant melody that briefly conjures a sense of urgency but ultimately instills a sense of closure and peace.

“Just like the title suggests, I’d like this album to encourage people to consider their own convictions,” says Scott. “We can live day to day and not really think about what our greater purpose is in this lifetime. What inspires me most about life are the opportunities we have to create and evolve. At any given moment, it’s our knowledge – and unfortunately, sometimes our lack of knowledge – that informs everything we do. And in those actions, if we’re wise enough to recognize it, there’s a quiet understanding that whatever we do has a purpose. With that understanding comes a sense of conviction. This record is my way of trying to give more thought to the things that I sometimes take for granted. Hopefully, I can take the listener on that same journey of self-discovery.”

NEW RELEASES - THE ROLLING STONES, GLENN UNDERGROUND, KELLI SAE

THE ROLLING STONES EP

The Stones first EP finally reissued in its original format for the first time! Back in 1963 The Rolling Stones were driving audiences wild all over the UK with their covers of American R&B songs. They covered tunes by Chuck Berry, Arthur Alexander and many more, and developed their own sound in the process. Despite their success, the girls losing it and the angry dudes waiting for them after their shows, their label still felt like they needed to test the waters before they would commit to an album. The result was their self titled EP released on 7" as a mono recording in 1964. - Reviewed by Michu Meszaros /  Turntablelab.com

GLENN UNDERGROUND - JULY 12 1979

Warmly soulful sounds from Chicago deep house icon Glenn Underground – who continues to masterfully translate dancefloor-tailored soundscapes into the full length album format – and does it with a compelling vibe that leaves a lot of his contemporaries in the dust! Glenn is great simply on the dancefloor tip, but he goes well beyond the call of duty by bringing in a wealth of jazzy and soulful instrumentation. So, along with the percolating beats and insistent rhythms, you get these sax solos and other brass goodness, some brilliant keyboard grooves and lots more. Dancefloor soul with an uncommon depth! Includes "Calor (Heat)", "For The Love Of Money", "Master Fuze", "Scenic Route", "The Band Played On" "DiscoSucks (Interlude)", "Going Bananas (Gorilla Interlude)", "Service", "AfterHours", "Reckless Art" and more. ~ Dusty Groove

KELLI SAE - PURE

Kelli Sae's really come a long way since we first started digging her vocals years ago – growing from a soulful singer with a jazzy vibe to a richly visionary artist with a great ear for the bigger picture too! Kelli wrote, arranged, and produced the whole set – and it bursts forward with positive energy right from the start – a magnificently mature vibe that really gives other contemporary soul singers a run for their money! Nona Hendryx guests on one track, and some of the others on the set have a Nona-like love of electric guitar – some nice fuzzy touches used alongside the more expected beats and keyboards, which really furthers the energy of the set. Titles include "Mask", "No Good", "Warrior", "Son Of A Gun", "Shot Me", "Nothing But A Fool", "White Rabbit", "Call Me", "Come Over", and "Urgency". ~ Dusty Groove

TAJ MAHAL - THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION

The career of American bluesman, roots radical, and pioneer of world music Taj Mahal is set to be celebrated next year with the release of THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION. This deluxe box set will include all ten of the two-time Grammy Award®-winning artist's original Columbia albums, plus one movie soundtrack and the two previously-unreleased albums which comprised last year's The Hidden Treasures Of Taj Mahal: 1969-1973 package. Fifteen CDs in all, covering 170 tracks. The box will be available everywhere February 5, 2013, through Columbia/Legacy.

THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION will include the following titles, all originally released on Columbia Records: Taj Mahal (1968), The Natch'l Blues (1968), Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home (double-CD, 1969), The Real Thing (live, 1971), Happy Just To Be Like I Am (1971), Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff (1972), Sounder (movie soundtrack, 1972), Oooh So Good 'N Blues (1973), Mo' Roots (1974), Music Keeps Me Together (1975), and Satisfied 'N Tickled Too (1976). Many of these titles have been out of print for decades and are being issued in the U.S. for the first time on CD.

In addition, the box includes two historic Columbia/Legacy archival releases. Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal And Ry Cooder was first issued in 1992 and features early group recordings of 1965-1966. Last year's Hidden Treasures features one CD of previously unreleased rarities alongside a second CD recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall on April 18, 1970, when the Taj Mahal group opened for fellow Columbia artists Johnny Winter and Santana.

As with previous volumes in Legacy's Complete Album Collections series, each of the discs in THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION is packaged in a replica mini-LP sleeve reproducing that LP's original front and back cover artwork. The accompanying booklet includes complete disco­graphical information for each album, along with a liner notes essay written by blues and jazz and roots music commentator Miles Mellough. Mellough oversees the website http://birdswithbrokenwings2.blogspot.com and also penned the liners for last summer's Hidden Treasures.


The release of THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION coincides with Black History Month in February 2013. The release also finds the perennial road warrior, who celebrated his 70th birthday on May 17, 2012, in the midst of a busy tour schedule. Among his most recent gigs, he could be found aboard the Holland America Line's MS Nieuw Amsterdam from January 20-27, for the all-star "Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise," featuring Dion, Mavis Staples, Elvin Bishop with Mickey Thomas, Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Tab Benoit, Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers, and dozens more. (Please see upcoming tour dates below, or go to www.tajblues.com.)

Taj Mahal is nothing less than a force of nature whose global sensibility is without precedent or peer. He was not "ahead of his time" but rather of his time, an embodiment of the awakening world collective consciousness that has run from Selma and the first Be-In in San Francisco, all the way to Tahir Square and Occupy Wall Street. This is affirmed by David Rubinson, the former Columbia Records staff producer who produced Taj's first five albums.

"It has been my enormous fortune to have known, admired, enjoyed, revered, loved and survived with, my great friend Taj Mahal for damn near fifty years" says Rubinson. "As this amazing collection illustrates, he was one of the very first to embody and make manifest a truly universal global humanism, a world without borders, risen from a deep inquiry and understanding and love of human beings in all their shapes and forms and shades and sounds. Taj Mahal is not a curator or archaeologist, but the unique summation of a vast repository of human, African, and African-American experience. His uniqueness is matched by his universality."

Taj Mahal's life and times are well documented. Growing up in a musical family of South Carolina and West Indian heritage in Massachusetts, he fell under the folk and blues spell of the burgeoning Cambridge coffee house scene in the late 1950s and early '60s. His first lesson in guitar came from childhood neighbors from North Carolina. After graduating from U-Mass at Amherst, he headed west to pursue music. He was 23 years old when he recorded his first tentative album for Columbia Records in 1965, material which remained unissued for more than 25 years. By 1967, however, working with Columbia staff producer David Rubinson, his official self-titled debut LP was completed and released early the following year.

The landmark album, Taj Mahal introduced the band he'd been working with for some two years, featuring guitarists Jesse Ed Davis and Ry Cooder, bassist Gary Gilmore, and drummer Chuck Blackwell. The material was heavily drawn from his idol of the time, rediscovered Tennessee bluesman Sleepy John Estes ("Leaving Trunk," "Everybody's Got To Change Sometime," "Diving Duck Blues"), along with numbers from country bluesmen Robert Johnson ("Dust My Broom") and Sonny Boy Williamson ("Checkin' Up On My Baby"). There were also arrangements of "E Z Rider," "Walkin' Blues," and Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues."

The Natch'l Blues found Taj Mahal expanding his base and staking out the first soundings on his own turf. In addition to tributes to Otis Redding ("You Don't Miss Your Water") and Estes' long-time partner Yank Rachell ("She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule To Ride"), the album featured three originals by Taj ("I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll," "Going To Move Up To the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue," "Done Changed My Way Of Living"), and a couple of arrangements of traditional folk-blues ("Corinna," "The Cuckoo"). When the album was reissued on CD in 2000, it included an alternate version of "The Cuckoo" and two songs that don't appear anywhere else in the Taj Mahal discography, "New Stranger Blues" and "Things Are Gonna Work Out Fine." The expanded edition tracklist is included in this box set.

Bursting with musical ideas, the next project with Rubinson was the ambitious double-LP of 1969, Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home. A collection of nearly two dozen songs, it was Taj Mahal's first entry into the top 100 of the Billboard albums chart and stayed in print in the Columbia catalog for two decades. Meanwhile, over the course of the next two years the band morphed, as Ry Cooder and Jesse Ed Davis began solo recording careers. Taj Mahal established a partnership with jazz tuba virtuoso Howard Johnson (who became a cornerstone of his band) that was introduced on another double-LP, The Real Thing, recorded live at the Fillmore East in February 1971.

The Real Thing reprised many familiar numbers and audience favorites ("Fishin' Blues," "Ain't Gwine To Whistle Dixie (Any Mo')," "Going Up To the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue," "Diving Duck Blues"), some of them in extended versions that gave Johnson's brass section plenty of room to stretch out. It also included enough new material to keep the program lively ("Sweet Mama Janisse," "Big Kneed Gal," Blind Willie Johnson's "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond," "Tom and Sally Drake," "John, Ain't It Hard"). The penultimate jam occupied one full LP side, the 19-minute "You Ain't No Street Walker Mama, Honey But I Do Love the Way You Strut Your Stuff" (edited to 11:45 on CD). The 2000 reissue reinstated "She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule To Ride," which had been shelved due to time limitations of the double-LP, and that expanded edition is contained in this box set.

Taj Mahal's career blossomed over the next five years as his musical scope grew to encompass the blues of Chicago, Memphis and Detroit, and the rhythms of Jamaica and the West Indies. He began to produce his own albums for Columbia in 1972, and recorded the soundtrack to 20th Century-Fox's Sounder that same year. He parted ways with Columbia in 1976 and moved on to Warner Bros., Gramavision, Private Music, Hannibal, Rhino Kids, and Music Maker, to name a few, recording countless fascinating album projects and collaborations along the way.

"In hindsight," Mellough sums up, "we now know that Taj Mahal indeed was, and still is the real thing. More so, we also realize that he was a man very much ahead of his time, employing the entire spectrum of blue. Taj utilized indigo shades from all of the mighty river's feeders, deftly incorporating them into that voice he was so steadfastly sculpting back in those early years. Today, some four decades later, we should count our lucky stars that someone like Taj Mahal had the foresight, the degree of interest, and the love for the blues to dip his toes into the music's many streams and help keep them alive and flowing."

TAJ MAHAL – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION

RISING SONS FEATURING TAJ MAHAL AND RY COODER (recorded 1965-66, originally issued 1992, as Columbia/Legacy 52828) Selections: 1. Statesboro Blues • 2. If The River Was Whiskey (Divin' Duck Blues) • 3. By And By (Poor Me) • 4. Candy Man • 5. 2:10 Train • 6. Let The Good Times Roll • 7. .44 Blues • 8. 11th Street Overcrossing • 9. Corrin, Corinna • 10. Tulsa County • 11. Walkin' Down The Line • 12. The Girl With Green Eyes • 13. Sunny's Dream • 14. Spanish Lace Blues • 15. The Devil's Got My Woman • 16. Take A Giant Step • 17. Flyin ' So High • 18. Dust My Broom • 19. Last Fair Deal Gone Down • 20. Baby, What You Want Me To Do? • 21. Statesboro Blues - version 2 • 22. I Got A Little.

TAJ MAHAL (originally issued 1968, as Columbia 9579) Selections: 1. Leaving Trunk • 2. Statesboro Blues • 3. Checkin' Up On My Baby • 4. Everybody's Got To Change Sometime • 5. E Z Rider • 6. Dust My Broom • 7. Diving Duck Blues • 8. The Celebrated Walkin' Blues.

THE NATCH'L BLUES (originally issued 1968, as Columbia 9698)
Selections: 1. Good Morning Miss Brown • 2. Corinna • 3. I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll • 4. Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue • 5. Done Changed My Way Of Living • 6. She Caught The Katy And Left Me A Mule To Ride • 7. The Cuckoo • 8. You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til Your Well Runs Dry) • 9. Ain't That A Lot Of Love • Bonus tracks: 10. The Cuckoo (alternate version) • 11. New Strange Blues • 12. Things Are Gonna Work Out Fine.

GIANT STEP/DE OLE FOLKS AT HOME (originally issued 1969, as Columbia GP 18) CD 1: GIANT STEP - Selections: 1. Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') • 2. Take A Giant Step • 3. Give Your Woman What She Wants (from the motion picture The April Fools) • 4. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl • 5. You're Going To Need Somebody On Your Bond • 6. Six Days On The Road • 7. Farther On Down The Road (You Will Accompany Me) • 8. Keep Your Hands Off Her • 9. Bacon Fat.

CD 2: DE OLE FOLKS AT HOME - Selections: 1. Linin' Track • 2. Country Blues #1 • 3. Wild Ox Moan • 4. Light Rain Blues • 5. A Little Soulful Tune • 6. Candy Man • 7. Cluck Old Hen • 8. Colored Aristocracy • 9. Blind Boy Rag • 10. Stagger Lee • 11. Cajun Tune • 12. Fishin' Blues • 13. Annie's Lover.

THE REAL THING (originally issued 1971, as Columbia 30619) Selections: 1. Fishin' Blues • 2. Ain't Gwine To Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') • 3. Sweet Mama Janisse • 4. Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue • 5. Big Kneed Gal • 6. You're Going To Need Somebody On Your Bond • 7. Tom And Sally Drake • 8. Diving Duck Blues • 9. John, Ain't It Hard • 10. You Ain't No Street Walker Mama, Honey But I Do Love The Way You Strut Your Stuff. (Recorded February 13, 1971 at the Fillmore East, New York.)

HAPPY JUST TO BE LIKE I AM (originally issued 1971, as Columbia 30619) Selections: 1. Happy Just To Be Like I Am • 2. Stealin' • 3. Oh Susanna • 4. Eighteen Hammers • 5. Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day • 6. Chevrolet • 7. West Indian Revelation • 8. Black Spirit Boogie.

RECYCLING THE BLUES & OTHER RELATED STUFF (originally issued 1972, as Columbia 31605) Selections: 1. Conch: Introduction • 2. Kalimba • 3. Bound To Love Me Some • 4. Ricochet • 5. A Free Song (Rise Up Children Shake The Devil Out Of Your Soul) • 6. Corinna • 7. Conch: Close • 8. Cakewalk Into Town • 9. Sweet Home Chicago • 10. Texas Woman Blues • 11. Gitano Negro.

SOUNDER Original Soundtrack Recording (originally issued 1972, as Columbia 31944) Selections: 1. Needed Time (Lightnin' Hopkins) • 2. Sounder Chase A Coon • 3. Needed Time (Hummin' And Pickin') • 4. Morning Work/n' Meat's On The Stove • 5. I'm Running And I'm Happy • 6. Speedball • 7. Goin' To The Country/Critters In The Woods • 8. Motherless Children (Hummin') • 9. Jailhouse Blues • 10. Just Workin' • 11. Harriet's Dance Song • 12. Two Spirits Reunited • 13. David Runs Again • 14. Curiosity Blues • 15. Someday Be A Change • 16. Horseshoes • 17. Cheraw • 18. David's Dream • 19. Needed Time - guitar • 20. Needed Time - banjo and handclapping.

OOOH SO GOOD 'N BLUES (originally issued 1973, as Columbia 32600)
Selections: 1. Buck Dancer's Choice • 2. Little Red Hen • 3. Oh Mama Don't You Know • 4. Frankie And Albert • 5. Railroad Bill • 6. Dust My Broom • 7. Built For Comfort • 8. Teacup's Jazzy Blues Tune. (Pointer Sisters – vocals, tracks 2, 4, 8)

MO' ROOTS (originally issued 1974, as Columbia 33051) Selections: 1. Johnny Too Bad • 2. Blackjack Davey • 3. Big Mama • 4. Cajun Waltz • 5. Slave Driver • 6. Why Did You Have To Desert Me? • 7. Desperate Lover • 8. Clara (St. Kitts Woman).

MUSIC KEEPS ME TOGETHER (originally issued 1975, as Columbia 33801) Selections: 1. Music Keeps Me Together • 2. When I Feel The Sea Beneath My Soul • 3. Dear Ladies • 4. Aristocracy • 5. Further On Down The Road • 6. Roll, Turn, Spin • 7. West Indian Revelation • 8. My Ancestors • 9. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man • 10. Why? . . . And We Repeat Why? . . . And We Repeat!

SATISFIED 'N TICKLED TOO (originally issued 1976, as Columbia 34103)
Selections: 1. Satisfied 'N Tickled Too • 2. New E-Z Rider Blues • 3. Black Man, Brown Man • 4. Baby Love • 5. Ain't Nobody's Business • 6. Misty Morning Ride • 7. Easy To Love • 8. Old Time Song - Old Time Love • 9. We Tune.

THE HIDDEN TREASURES OF TAJ MAHAL 1969-1973 (originally issued August 2012, as Columbia/Legacy 82876 82294 2) CD 1 - Selections: 1. Chainey Do • 2. Sweet Mama Janisse • 3. Yan-Nah Mama-Loo • 4. Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day • 5. I Pity The Poor Immigrant • 6. Jacob's Ladder • 7. Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') • 8. Sweet Mama Janisse • 9. You Ain't No Streetwalker Mama, Honey But I Do Love The Way You Strut Your Stuff • 10. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl • 11. Shady Grove • 12. Butter. (Tracks 1-4 recorded 1970; 5-6 recorded 1969; 7-9 recorded 1971; 10-12 recorded 1973).

CD 2 - LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, APRIL 18, 1970 - Selections: 1. Runnin' By The Riverside • 2. John, Ain't It Hard • 3. Band Introduction • 4. Sweet Mama Janisse • 5. Big Fat • 6. Diving Duck Blues • 7. Checkin' Up On My Baby • 8. Oh Susanna • 9. Bacon Fat • 10. Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day.


TAJ MAHAL ON TOUR
Dec. 4-5 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Dec. 6 - San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theatre
Dec. 8 - Napa, CA @ Uptown Theatre Napa
Dec. 9 - Grass Valley, CA @ The Center For The Arts
Jan. 20-27, 2013 - "Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise", Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Holland America Line
Jan. 30 - Saint Catharines, Ont., @ Sean O'Sullivan Theatre
Jan. 31 - Brampton, Ont. @ Rose Theatre Brampton
Feb. 1 - Burlington, Ont. @ Burlington Performing Arts Ctr.
April 17 - Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center
April 19 - Santa Barbara, CA @ Campbell Hall
April 21 - Redding, CA @ Cascade Theatre
April 23 - Eugene, OR @ Silva Concert Hall
April 27 - Calgary, Alb. @ MacEwan Conf. & Event Ctr.
April 28 - Edmonton, Alb. @ Winspear Centre
May 27 - Nashville, TN @ Centennial Park

Source: Legacy Recordings

WINTER MUSIC CONFERENCE 2013

Winter Music Conference March 15-24, 2013 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, South Beach, FL

Winter Music Conference (WMC) opened its 2013 season in South Florida with the announcement of the Winter Music Conference 2013 dates. This will be the 28th annual program for the pre-eminent platform on the global EDM industry calendar for launching new music, technology and trends. Winter Music Conference Week 2013 happens March 15 – 24, 2013 in Miami Beach, Florida.

For 2013, WMC delivers another ten non-stop days and nights of music programming including two full weekends of events and parties. WMC's Managing Director, Margo Possenti, explains, "Last year's expansion of the WMC dates was a resounding success in opening many new avenues for artists and industry participation. Over 2300 artists and DJs performed at 134 venues in Miami Beach and Miami last year – an increase of over 64% in artist participation from the previous year.” WMC's music industry panels and seminars will be presented March 18-22, 2013 at the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) in the hub of South Beach's vibrant art deco resort and clubbing district. WMC will be expanding its music trade show and exhibit area to inlcude a leading-edge cultural exchange and consumer expo centered on EDM trends, music, gear and fashion to be presented March 18 & 19, 2013 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Winter Music Conference 2013
•DJ Sets, Live Performances & Parties: March 15 – 24, 2013
•WMC Music Industry Program: March 18 – 22, 2013
•WMC Trade Show & Exhibits: March 18 – 19, 2013
•Club & Poolside Events: March 15 – 24, 2013

Currently the WMC industry badge is being offered at a promotional Early Registration rate of $235 (over half off the Walk-Up rate) until September 12th, 2012. Registration includes access to panels, seminars, featured Q & A's, the 28th Annual IDMAs (International Dance Music Awards), WMC official poolside events, South Beach Sessions, trade show & exhibits, workshops (with the exception of the Remixing and Editing Workshops), DJ Spin-Offs, VJ Challenge as well as complimentary or reduced admission to WMC official and sanctioned events for the full ten days of programming.

The WMC registration office and housing bureau is currently open at www.WinterMusicConference.com. WMC is also accepting applications, inquiries and requests for panels and workshops, DJ Spin Off, VJ Challenge, showcasing and events.

DOM LA NENA - NO MEU PAIS

Today’s essential download from Six Degrees Records is by a beautiful Brazilian cellist, Dominique Pinto, who performs under the name Dom La Nena. Brazilian Girls, the debut album by the band of the same name is one of my favorite albums of the past decade, so I was intrigued to hear the output of an actual Brazilian girl — and a classically trained one at that. Her debut album, Ela, is a delicate, intricate flower; each petal a lovely understated melody. If Cat Power had a lost sister in the Southern Hemisphere, her name would be Dom La Nena.

As a young girl. Dom honed her craft under the guidance of Christine Walevska, an American cellist living in Buenos Aires. Years later, she performed cello on tour with French actress Jeanne Moreau and Serge Gainsbourg’s beloved Jane Birkin. After the Birkin tour wrapped in 2009, Dom set about composing the songs that would create Ela. She traveled to the south of France and recorded voice, piano and cello multitracks all by herself during a weeklong session at producer Piers Faccini’s cottage studio in the Cévennes mountains. Intrigued by the results, Faccini shaped demos into a finished album.

On “No Meu Pais,” Faccini adds an acoustic rhythm guitar to accompany Dom’s piano part, as well as an array of percussion (a chain, a shaker, a clave), electric guitars, harmonica and backing vocals. “Meu pais” normally translates to “my country,” but without a nationality attached, it becomes “myself.” The song is about Dom’s struggles to lay down roots during her constant studies, classical training and touring throughout Brazil, Europe and Argentina (the country where she picked her stage name).

Download:
Dom La Nena – No Meu Pais

While you could overload your Google Translate tying to keep up with the Portuguese and Spanish lyrics on Ela, I highly suggest surrendering to the inventive arrangements and beautiful melodies. Early favorites include the cinematic “O Vento” which is either about wind or coffee, and “Batuque” a multi-tracked vocal rhythm stomp which features Brazilian composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Kiko Dinucci, who played and arranged the entrancing percussion parts with Guilherme Kastru. On the joyous, ‘Você’, when French singer Camille joins the vocal mix, they’re like two little girls romping on the playground.

Songs from this album will play nicely in iPod mixes alongside Cat Power, the xx, the soundtracks for Henry and June and Betty Blue, Rodrigo y Gabriela and early Vanessa Paradis (who I was into way before Johnny Depp was).

Ela, the debut album by Dom La Nena, will be released in January 15, 2013 in the USA and Canada; it comes out in Europe a month later.

~ Six Degrees Records

CYNTHIA BASINET - THE STANDARD

Cynthia Basinet, the actress, singer, humanitarian known for the most iconic version of "Santa Baby," releases her debut full length jazz CD The Standard.

The Standard, 15 years in the making contains 11 tracks, including two bonus Holiday tracks. Cynthia has given new vocals and mixies to several of her songs, like "Blue Moon", "Going Out Of My Head", "Sweet Dreams" and "The Christmas Song".

SmoothJazz.com said, "This gorgeous version of Nat King Cole's holiday nugget was arranged by Tony Bennett's arranger and pianist Lee Musiker, and while the song features A-List musicians, it's Ms. Basinet's approach to the vocals that steals the show! Warm, rich and delightful - Cynthia Basinet's version of "The Christmas Song" is a must have download this holiday season!"

Fans say Cynthia's version of "Santa Baby" has become the industry standard and influenced nearly every version by many of today's pop artists worldwide, including Pussycat Dolls, Shakira, Kylie Minogue, Kellie Pickler, Taylor Swift, Micheal Buble, Pink Martini and more.

CynthiaBasinet.com
Source: jazzcorner.com

QUINCY JONES PLAYS THE HIP HITS

Classic Quincy Jones from the 60s – a pair of records that really show why his jazz skills were unlike anyone else! Quincy Jones Plays Hip Hits is a very groovy record that was done with a feel that's somewhere in between his Big Band Bossa album and his best 60s soundtrack work! The format is simple – Quincy picks a sweet batch of jazz semi-hits from the early 60s, plays them with a nice mix of soul jazz arrangements, and works with a great ensemble filled with wonderful players – including Roland Kirk, Budd Johnson, Seldon Powell, James Moody, and Jerome Richardson on reeds; Lalo Schifrin and Patti Brown on piano, Jim Hall on guitar, Clark Terry on trumpet, and Melba Liston on trombone – plus lots of great percussion at the bottom, helping bring some Latin energy to the grooves at points.

Tunes are familiar, but all given a great Quincy Jones twist – and titles include "Gravy Waltz", "Jive Samba", "Walk On The Wild Side", "Bossa Nova USA", and "Watermelon Man". Golden Boy is a sweet bridge between Quincy's big band recordings and his groovier soundtrack work of the mid 60s – as the record combines straight jazzy grooving with some of the cooler elements of Quincy's soundtrack scores, like stepping strings, wordless voices, and a breathy mellow groove that floats across the disc in a wonderful way! Aiding Quincy in the album are a host of top-line jazz players – including Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Jerome Richardson, and Phil Woods on saxes – plus Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Al Grey on trombone, and Jim Hall on guitar! Although titled after the show Golden Boy, only a few cuts here are from that musical – and the rest include Quincy Jones originals and some cool covers, given the Q twist. Titles include "Seaweed", "The Witching Hour", "Hard Day's Night", "The Sidewinder", and "Theme From Golden Boy", done in 2 versions, both great! ~ Dusty Groove

BOB BROOKMEYER - TROMBONE JAZZ SAMBA / SAMBA PARA DOS

Pure genius throughout – two great albums on a single CD! Trombone Jazz Samba is an overlooked gem from Bob Brookmeyer – and a set that fits in strongly with the other Verve Records bossa nova albums of the 60s! Bob's the center star on valve trombone, but the record's awash in work from other great Verve talents too – a tight small group that features Gary McFarland on vibes, Jim Hall and Jimmy Raney on guitars, and Willie Bobo on drums – alongside some added percussion that really helps keep the bossa spirit strong! Tunes have that spare, soulful crackle that you'd find in the Stan Getz bossa sessions for Verve – except that trombone is the lead solo instrument here – and titles include "A Felicidade", "Col Bogey Bossa Nova", "Blues Bossa Nova", "Qual E O Po", "Chara Tu Tristeza", and "Samba De Orfeu".

Samba Para Dos is a great lost groover on Verve – recorded during the heyday of the label's bossa years with Stan Getz! The record features Bob Brookmeyer fronting a large group arranged and conducted by Lalo Schifrin – soloing over the top, while Lalo comes up with sparkling bossa-tinged grooves that are in the spirit of his best soundtrack work of the mid 60s. Brookmeyer's playing is great too – very different than his sparer, modernist work on other records – and very much in the tradition of Brazilian trombone players who were a key force in bossa jazz at the time. The set includes one long original, "Samba Para Dos", plus shorter standards like "My Funny Valentine", "What Kind Of Fool Am I", and "I Get A Kick Out Of You" – all taken in great jazzy bossa versions! ~ Dusty Groove

GENE HARRIS - THE 3 SOUNDS

A pair of killers from keyboardist Gene Harris – both recorded for Blue Note, and back to back on a single CD! First up is Gene Harris/The 3 Sounds – the last Three Sounds album for Blue Note – and the funkiest too – thanks to lots more electrification than usual, and some killer arrangements from the mighty Monk Higgins! Monk's really at the top of his game here – going past even his great previous work for the group, and working with a tight, sharp edge that recalls his funky 45 brilliance of the 60s – yet tuned a bit more towards the electric Cali jazz of early 70s Blue Note! Gene Harris plays loads of funky piano lines – and in addition to the trio's core electric bass and drums, the set also features some added work on percussion from Paul Humphrey – who really brings in a kick – plus added guitar, congas, and even a bit of Hammond from Higgins too! Some cuts even have a bit of vocals too – sung in this offbeat way that's a wild approach to soul. There's some killer breaks on the set – including the massive "Put On Train" and "What's The Answer" – but the whole set smokes, and other cuts include "I'm Leaving", "You Got To Play The Game", "Your Love Is Just Too Much", "Did You Think", "Hey Girl", and a mad version of "Eleanor Rigby".

On the second album – Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds – Gene really steps into the solo spotlight – moving away from his work with the Three Sounds trio, and headed into even more righteous territory – as you might guess from the trippy image on the cover! The set features Harris mostly on acoustic piano, but amidst larger arrangements from Wade Marcus that really round things out with a warm, soulful edge – mixing guitar from Sam Brown and Cornell Dupree with Gene's lines on piano – and giving things an extra kick at the bottom with drums from Freddie Waits, and percussion from Johnny Rodriguez and Omar Clay. The record echoes Harris' older roots at some points, yet comes across with a richer 70s vibe too – a hip 70s style that's strongly due to the contributions of Marcus' arrangements. Tracks include a great remake of "Listen Here", which begins with a great funky break; a sweet steppers version of "Killer Joe"; and the tracks "Lean On Me", "Day In The Life Of A Fool", "Django", "Emily", and "C Jam Blues". ~Dusty Groove