Oscar Peterson | “A Time For Love: The Oscar Peterson Quartet - Live In Helsinki, 1987”

For nearly 80 years, legacy has been the spinal cord of the glorious jazz tradition – but maybe never more so to its fans than during these challenging days of the pandemic. Unable to hear music in person, all of us have only been able to access new music through technology, resulting in many looking back upon what may have been missed. But when one can look back on something that is at the same time entirely new, that is a most special situation. And when that something new is coming from jazz immortal Oscar Peterson – even more so. And that is exactly what is in hand with A Time for Love: The Oscar Peterson Quartet – Live in Helsinki, 1987 from Two Lions/Mack Avenue Records. 

From this perspective alone, this is a momentous album – but it is far more than that. The final gig of a long international tour that began with 4 concerts in Brazil, this date was the 14th of a European tour that took the quartet all over mainland Europe and Scandinavia. Anyone with any knowledge of jazz knows that the magic of consistent performing only makes the synergy and empathy of an ensemble – both substances this quartet has in mind-blowing quantity – better and better. That always dwarfs the fatigue factor, and sometimes results in sheer magic on a different plane. That’s clearly what happened during this spectacular concert. As Kelly Peterson says: “Performing with joy and vivacity, they determined to make every concert better than the previous one. This night in Helsinki is a glorious example of that” – and a stunning addition to the continuing legacy of this beloved master of music. 

With a remarkable quartet of Joe Pass on guitar and the bass/drums tandem of Dave Young and Martin Drew – all of whom at the time of this recording were about halfway through their thirty-year affiliations with Peterson – the wildly enthusiastic Helsinki audience was treated to a marvelous performance that spans gorgeously poignant lyricism to blistering intensity and every stroke in between with flawless artistry and an exuberant sense of adventurous creativity. The live performance, presented in its unedited entirety, offers the actual being there experience. It graces listeners with the sweeping breadth of Peterson’s majesty as presented in the immediacy of the live concert. 

The first set consists exclusively of Peterson’s own compositions – an important focus in Kelly’s efforts to further enhance his immortal legacy. The scope of his exceptional vision as composer is on intriguing display through these five pieces, opening with the sauntering strut of the aptly titled “Cool Walk.” A pair of scorchers – “Sushi” and “Cakewalk” – vividly deliver the explosive power and consummate artistry that is so prominent in Peterson’s ensembles. Defining jazz as “instant composition,” he would occasionally compose a song during a performance. “Love Ballade” is one such piece, written spontaneously during an earlier concert. A mesmerizing extended solo piano opening of filigreed beauty. and an excellent guitar-like Young solo highlight this captivating offering. 

A lifelong fascination with Johann Sebastian Bach inspired Peterson’s stunning 20-minute “A Salute to Bach.” This enchanting three-part excursion maintains full jazz integrity in its homage, allowing him to dig into his early classical training. 

The second set features Peterson’s enthralling exploration of time-honored jazz and songbook classics, including two virtuosic solo performances: Pass’ exquisite rendition of the iconic Disney tune “When You Wish Upon a Star” and Peterson’s delightful take on Bill Evans’ “A Waltz for Debby.” 

Also included are Johnny Mandel’s lovely ballad “A Time for Love,” the deeply grooved swing of Benny Goodman’s “Soft Winds” and “How High the Moon,” a blast-off point of departure in so many of the legendary Jazz at the Philharmonic jams of Peterson’s past, given a gentler, jaunty take. 

The monumental climax – before the explosive encore of Peterson’s “Blues Etude” – is the “Duke Ellington Medley” featuring six Ellingtonia classics – “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Come Sunday,” “C-Jam Blues,” “Lush Life” and “Caravan.” A solo piano and ensemble tribute to the transcendence of what Duke represents to the legacy blending elements of swing, blues, barrelhouse, stride, boogie-woogie and every other color in Duke’s – and Peterson’s – endlessly creative palette. This incredible adventure is the perfect symbol for this entire album, touching upon the ultimate essence of jazz expression allowing Peterson to pay homage to his own fathers: Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, James P. Johnson and Nat Cole by weaving them into a maelstrom of brilliance that is all Oscar Peterson. The perfect definition of the living and ever-expanding legacy of this profound art form. 

For those not totally aware of Peterson’s importance within the jazz legacy – as unimaginable as that may be – the Canadian-born of West Indian heritage pianist held court as an ultimate master for nearly 60 years. A recipient of numerous honors and awards (including eight GRAMMY® Awards) and the subject of various documentaries, Oscar Peterson was the embodiment of the history of jazz piano. blended with a superb command of Western Classical knowledge – all of which contributed to Ellington bestowing upon him the title “the Maharajah of the keyboard.” With over 200 albums of his own, Peterson’s amazing ability to temper his own magnificence as a leader and soloist to be able to provide totally empathetic and subtle accompaniment to other musicians and vocalists – simply and eloquently explained by Dave Young as “he listened” – made him a contributor to hundreds of other outstanding recordings, most notably as the virtual “house pianist” for his longtime manager Norman Granz’s Verve and Pablo Records. A professional since the age of 14, Peterson passed away at the age of 82 in 2007, leaving an unparalleled legacy that is as timeless as jazz itself. 

A Time for Love is available in both a double-CD format and as 180-gram vinyl in a 3-LP set. Both versions are beautifully packaged and include two sets of inside-view liner notes by quartet member Dave Young, Peterson protégé Benny Green and Oscar’s wife and producer of this album, Kelly Peterson. This is Mack Avenue Music Group’s second collaboration with the estate, following 2017’s re-release of Oscar, with Love. The release will also be available everywhere digitally. 

The recording is ideally summed up by Green in his liner notes: This live concert recording of Oscar in his epic prime is a heaven-sent time capsule of beauty and serves a glorious addition to the Jazz pantheon itself, a stunning testament to the music for which he honestly, humbly and fearlessly dedicated his life as a peaceful warrior, a hero to us all for the ages. I’m thankful for the gift of this concert and that Oscar’s spiritual music will play on for us today and tomorrow, as we need it more than ever before.

Rob Zinn "Push It Forward" Feat. Ragan Whiteside

Trumpet sensation Rob Zinn debuts on the Randis Music label with the brand new single titled “Push It Forward” featuring none other than contemporary soul-jazz flute phenomenon Ragan Whiteside. The upbeat, danceable track showcases the melodic improvisational skills of both musicians and winds to the close with a clever call-and-response segment between the two instruments. Released on January 21, “Push It Forward” is available now on all digital retail and streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, and more. The track represents the first release on Randis Music to feature an artist other than Whiteside.

“I’m so excited about my latest single and collaborating with my friends: producer Dennis Johnson and flautist Ragan Whiteside. We first met at a Festival in Mallorca, Spain, and we instantly bonded. I am both honored and flattered to be working with Randis Music,” says Zinn.

Composer, trumpeter, and vocalist Rob Zinn has been touring with other groups and artists for many years and released two independent solo projects, including his critically acclaimed album Walk The Walk in 2018. His path crossed with Whiteside’s when he was slated to perform with her at the 2019 Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival. Whiteside says she was blown away by his musicianship during their live show in Mallorca. “Rob nailed that trumpet part like he had been playing it all his life – on the first go! He was amazing. I was so impressed,” she recalls.

The two quickly forged a professional friendship. In talking about their respective career trajectories, Whiteside says she was struck by Zinn’s desire to try something new: “We ended up talking about the wide range of styles that are present in the genre today and how he wanted to stretch out. So, I said, ‘Why don’t we try to work together and see if we can add a different flavor?’” Thus, the idea for a collaboration was born.

“Push It Forward” was co-written by Whiteside with Dennis Johnson, as well as frequent collaborator, keyboardist and producer Bob Baldwin, and was recorded at Randis’ Uppa Room Studio in Atlanta, a week before Thanksgiving. “Rob was the first outside person in our studio since COVID,” Whiteside confides. “We were fortunate to be able to take advantage of the lull in the pandemic (at the time) and get some in-person music done.” Johnson also produced the track’s catchy title.

“Push It Forward” by Rob Zinn featuring Ragan Whiteside is the first single release of 2022 on Randis Music. Adds Zinn: “I have always felt this business is built on relationships and I’m proud to be associated with Randis Music with my latest single, ‘Push it Forward’!”

Through another record label, Zinn’s forthcoming album, Anything Can Happen is scheduled for release this year.

In 2016, veteran trumpeter and flugelhornist Rob Zinn launched an exciting new phase of his distinguished, multi-faceted career, emerging as an internationally recognized independent smooth jazz artist and composer with his critically acclaimed albums, Walk The Walk (2018) and Yesterday Again (2016). Walk The Walk, produced by two-time Grammy winner Paul Brown, was selected for the 61st Grammy Ballot for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Songs from the album received airplay on more than 125 smooth jazz stations around the world with a listening audience in 90 countries. Rob’s songs have charted on the Billboard Smooth Jazz National Airplay and Audience charts, America’s Music Chart powered by Mediabase, the Smooth Jazz Top 50 Album chart, Smooth Jazz Radar chart, Smooth Jazz Indie chart, Smooth Jazz Network Top 100 chart, Groove Jazz Music Chart Top 30 and the RadioWave Internet Play chart and received “Most Added” designations on Nielsen/Billboard numerous times.

Originally from Glen Burnie, Maryland, and later launching his career in Delaware, Zinn has performed at numerous jazz festivals such as the Mallorca Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Lake Arbor Jazz Festival, Berks Jazz Festival, Sandy Shore’s Jazz Weekender, Sweet Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Legacy Foundation’s Jazz Festival as well as venues throughout the country. When not playing with his band, Rob often appears as a sideman with guitar player Paul Brown.

It’s been an incredible 2021 for Whiteside. She celebrated the end of the year with the holiday single “This Christmas,” a warm and witty version of the Donny Hathaway classic. Her single “Off The Cuff” reached No. 7 on Billboard's Smooth Jazz Airplay chart, where it spent 17 weeks, making it her seventh consecutive Billboard Top 10 hit. The tune also reached No. 5 on RadioWave, No. 3 on Media Base, and No. 5 on Smooth Jazz Network. Whiteside’s streak of six previous Billboard Top 10 singles included “JJ’s Strut,” “Reminiscing,” “Jam It,” “Early Arrival,” “See You At The Get Down,” and the Billboard No. 1 “Corey’s Bop.” The instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist was also a finalist for the Smooth Jazz Network’s Artist of the Year, and for two years, she remained in the Top 5 in Billboard’s Top Smooth Jazz Songs Year-End chart issue – the only woman to rise into the year-end Top 5. Whiteside has released five previous albums, including the 2020 five-track EP Five Up Top, 2017’s Treblemaker, 2014’s Quantum Drive, 2012’s Evolve, and 2007’s Class Axe. 

Originally from Mt. Vernon, New York, Whiteside attended the Cleveland Institute of Music before transferring to the highly competitive HARID Conservatory in Florida. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music Performance - Classical, she attended a show at a local jazz club and met keyboardist and producer Bob Baldwin, who encouraged her to pursue a career as a contemporary instrumentalist. Baldwin became a mentor and ultimately introduced her to veteran producer Dennis Johnson, who owned a recording studio. Johnson and Baldwin have since become Whiteside’s frequent songwriting collaborators. Since then, Whiteside has blazed a trail in contemporary music by fusing inspired flute melodies and breathtaking solos with hip upbeat grooves. In the fall of 2020, she added yet another highlight to her résumé when she began hosting her Saturday morning radio show on Atlanta’s 91.9 FM WCLK. Whiteside is expected to deliver her new album titled, Thrill Ride, in May 2022. Featuring her smash single “Off The Cuff,” the full-length project will be released on her label, Randis Music.

Azar Lawrence | "New Sky"

For those who've survived the Covid-19 pandemic, the last two years have been transformative. If we're fortunate, we have assessed our losses, which can range from personal loved ones, health, and financial securities as well as our gains, which can include a renewed sense of purpose, deeper appreciation for life, and a keen acknowledgment of self-resilience and spirituality. Veteran tenor and soprano saxophonist and composer, Azar Lawrence taps into the latter with his new album, New Sky, a defiantly optimistic musical soundtrack – co-produced by him, James Saez and Tracy Hannah – that focuses on the benefits that we've received since the pandemic began. 

With an illustrious career that stretches more than half a century, Lawrence has performed with numerous jazz titans that include pianists Horace Tapscott and McCoy Tyner; trumpeters Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw; percussionist James Mtume; and drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Higgins. The Los Angeles-born Lawrence, however, has never been confined by conventional genre categories. His instrumental and songwriting work with iconic soul singers, Chuck Jackson, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, and Phyllis Hyman; and the R&B/jazz juggernaut ensemble, Earth, Wind & Fire is just as indelible. 

The culminating experiences from working with those artists as well as mapping out his impressive discography as a leader, particularly his fiery spiritual jazz LPs for Prestige Records in the 1970s – Bridge into the New Age (1974), Summer Solstice (1975), and People Moving (1976) – all inform what Lawrence brings to the table on New Sky. 

"All of my skills that have been gathered throughout my career has been a journey, and all of those energies that have been acquired throughout that journey are coming together in a focused manner," Lawrence says. "This new album expresses that." 

Joining Lawrence on New Sky is an illustrious cast of musicians that consists of pianists and keyboardists John Beasley and Nduduzo Makhathini; bassist Sekou Bunch; drummer Tony Austin; percussionist Munyungo Jackson; singers Calesha "Bre-Z" Murray, Oren Waters, and Lynne Fiddmont; harpist Destiny Muhammad; and guitarists James Saez, Greg Poree and Gregory 'GMOE' Moore. Together, they aim to usher in a new post-pandemic dawn, filled with universal love and global humanity. 

Lawrence's coiling soprano saxophone rises triumphantly on the album's opening piece, "All in Love" as he's announcing a new age of enlightenment. The rest of the ensemble soon joins in to underscore Lawrence's declarative melody and commanding improvisation with a strident groove that sounds like angels marching down to earth.   

"The concept comes from one of the benefits of the Aquarian Age idea, in which society starts to embrace universal love," Lawrence explains of "All in Love." "We're becoming more of a global society in which all races and different religious ideas can be embraced." 

Spiritual ebullience continues with the surging samba-inflected "Peace and Harmony" and the equally Brazilian flavored title track "New Sky," which features Fiddmont's caressing lead vocals sharing the frontline with Lawrence's soulful passages. 

"'New Sky' refers to the cleansing that has occurred via this pandemic," Lawrence says. "Now many people are experiencing the freshness that comes after everything has been shut down. We think differently; there are so many new possibilities now. Everything is fresh and new as we start to rebuild after the initial shutdown for the pandemic." 

The acknowledgment of this new sky and moments of transition are articulated in the percolating "Ain't No Doubt About It," featuring Calesha "Bre-Z" Murray's raspy, hip-hop-centric vocals sharing the lead with Lawrence's alluring melodic improvisations on tenor saxophone. 

Lawrence pays respect to the Creator, All-Mighty on the enticing R&B-flavored "Just Because of You," featuring vocalist Oren Waters of the legendary The Waters singing group. Afterward, Lawrence spruces up one of his older compositions, "From the Point of Love," which was first recorded on his Summer Solstice album. The new version retains the haunting, samba-tinged spiritual vibe of the original as Lawrence's sensual soprano recalls some of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders's seeking explorations, while John Beasley heightens the tranquil suspenseful with a joyous solo on electric piano. 

The festive waltz, "Birds Are Singing," marked by Lawrence's soprano saxophone once again channeling Coltrane's hypnotic musing, touches upon the theme of how birds tend to sing loudly after many natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Rejuvenating energy of survival after life's calamities and having faith that brighter days are to come are wonderfully captured on the energetic "I Really Love You" and the groove-laden, "Let It Go." 

"'Let It Go' comes from the standpoint of how we have started letting go of some of the lower thoughts as we tune ourselves to the higher energies that have been delivered during the pandemic," Lawrence explains. "During the shutdown, we had to let a lot of things go that we were clinging to. When we let go of a lot of these things, we got a chance to see what was necessary for our lives." 

The album closes with Lawrence refurbishing another older composition, "Revelation" which was originally featured on his 2009 album, Speak the Word. The composition rumbles with Black American church fury as Lawrence unravels a haunting, sermon-like melody on soprano saxophone. The song also features a powerful Tyner-esque piano solo from critically acclaimed, South African-born pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and celestial harp accompaniment from Destiny Muhammad. 

Lawrence composed and recorded most of the music on New Sky during the beginning of October 2020. As someone who practices Egyptian Ankh mediation, and breathing mediation techniques taught by Michael Beckwith's Agape International Spiritual Center, he used the first year of the pandemic to listen to his inner voice for musical inspiration. 

"There was the lack of the outer movement – having to sustain oneself and staying out of the limelight," Lawrence says of that period. "It gave us a lot of time to focus our energies, go within, and listen to the inner call. Now, a new age is taking hold with some of the new ideas."

Brian Bromberg | "A Little Driving Music"

After nearly a year of being cooped up within the same four walls, it’s only natural that one’s thoughts might turn to the freedom of the open road. That’s certainly true of virtuoso jazz bassist and world-renowned producer Brian Bromberg, whose third pandemic-era release shrugs off the prevailing mood of COVID-era claustrophobia and political strife for A Little Driving Music, a fun, funky paean to cruising with the top down and leaving your troubles behind.

While countless musicians have spent the quarantine months in a state of limbo, the always-prolific Bromberg quickly figured out a way to continue making music while remaining socially distanced. Out now on Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group, A Little Driving Music follows the bassist’s wide-ranging holiday album, Celebrate Me Home, and the remixed and remastered digital release of his stunning tribute album Bromberg Plays Hendrix. 

“In one aspect it's been a weird, heartbreaking time to be a musician who just wants to play music with human beings, for human beings,” Bromberg laments. “On the flip side, I've been really fortunate. It's been a really positive, productive period because I've had nothing but time to sit in front of a computer or pluck my strings.”

A Little Driving Music features a dozen brand-new Bromberg compositions as well as a surprising 80s cover song, the joyful Katrina and the Waves hit “Walking on Sunshine.” Despite recording each musician in isolation and at a distance, the bassist managed to (virtually) assemble an elite roster of longtime collaborators and all-star special guests including saxophonists Dave Koz, Everette Harp, Gary Meek, Elan Trotman, Darren Rahn and Marion Meadows; keyboardist Tom Zink; guitarists Jerry Cortez, Nick Colionne and Ray Fuller; drummers Joel Taylor and Tony Moore; vibraphonist Craig Fundiga; and percussionist Lenny Castro. There’s even a string orchestra featuring members of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, conducted by arranger/producer Corey Allen (again, with COVID safety protocols in place).

“This is the hand you're dealt, so you make the most of it,” Bromberg says of the unusual circumstances under which the album was recorded. “Everything about how we do things has changed, but when you come to terms with that and accept it for what is, you can enjoy the process. Especially when you're dealing with a lot of talented people and state-of-the-art technology – it's amazing what you can do despite not being in a prime situation.”

No trace of that adverse situation can be heard as the album kicks off with “Froggy’s,” a carefree, high-spirited funk tune highlighted by a lively horn section emulating the chorus of frogs that often greets the composer at his Southern California home. Bromberg takes a blistering solo on piccolo bass, which could easily be mistaken for a shredding electric guitar. The baton is then picked up by Everette Harp’s vibrant turn on sax. 

A diary entry for these strange times, “Quarantine” was the first track penned by Bromberg after lockdown commenced. The rest of the album was also composed in quarantine, with the sole exception of the title track – fittingly enough, as the freewheeling “A Little Driving Music” fills the listener with a sense of movement and freedom much missed over these solitary months. “That Cool Groovy Beatnik Jazz” is another self-explanatory title, conjuring the laid-back, finger-snapping groove of a classic BYOB hipster café (meaning Bring Your Own Bongos).

Both “Bado Boy!” and “Lullaby for Bado” are dedicated to a cat that Bromberg and his fiancée rescued from Barbados, a complicated tale that eventually involved the island’s Minister of Agriculture. (“It would be as if you wanted to rescue a cat and had to talk to the Vice President of the United States to do it,” Bromberg says incredulously.) The former tune, which features Barbados-born saxophonist Elan Trotman, reflects the feline’s playful spirit; the latter, pairing Bromberg’s emotional acoustic bass with the Dominican Republic strings, is an elegy for the lost cat.

“We knew he was sick, but we hoped he'd live a long time,” Bromberg recalls. “Unfortunately, he only lived a year, but he had a hell of a year living with us instead of being alone as a stray cat sick in the Caribbean.”

With an assist from Dave Koz, “Walking on Sunshine” reimagines the 80s classic in a jazz context, slower and funkier than the incessantly upbeat original. “After the year we've had – and, sadly, the year we're likely going to have – a little positive energy goes a long way,” Bromberg explains. “So, I wanted to record something with positive energy and uplift that also had that twist, that most recording artists might not have thought of doing.”

Short for Sagittarius, “Sag 5” is named for the December 5 birthday that Bromberg shares with saxophonist Darren Rahn, who guests on the track, melding sounds so harmoniously with the bassist that it lends a bit of credence to astrological synergy. Adding Andrew Neu on clarinet and Mitch Forman on accordion, “A Rainy Day in Paris” transports the listener to a café in the City of Lights as the weather turns gray outside. “If that song doesn't make you want to have a glass of wine and some cheese, I don't know what will,” insists Bromberg. “The only thing missing is a red and white checkered tablecloth.”

With Marion Meadows extolling the hopeful melody on soprano sax, “Peace” is Bromberg’s offering to the search for sanity in a contentious world. As he describes it, the tune is “the equivalent of a musical time out, suggesting that everybody just take a deep breath while the world and this country, in particular, is pretty upside down.” 

The country-accented “Jedediah’s Gold” paints a sepia-tinged portrait of a Gold Rush miner and his stake in the Old West, while “The Sitting Room” luxuriates in the feeling of relaxing in a favorite, comfy spot at home. The greasy, slinky “Baton Rouge” detours down south for a bit of hot, sweaty, fun-in-the-sun funk with Nick Colionne laying down some down-home guitar licks.

“There's some heavier music on A Little Driving Music,” Bromberg concludes, “but for the most part it's a fun, positive energy record. There's nothing better than that Zen moment of listening to great tunes on the road, looking out the window at life. That's the vibe of it to me: I hope people just want to put it on in the car and crank it up.” 

James Brown | "Song Within The Story"

Guitarist-composer James Brown returns from a 13-year recording hiatus with the fetching Song Within the Story, set for a March 18 release on NGP Records. Brown’s fourth album, and his first since 2009’s Sevendaze, finds him helming his Toronto-based working trio featuring bassist Clark Johnston and drummer Anthony Michelli. Respected tenor saxophonist Mike Murley joins the band on three of the album’s 10 tracks—eight of which are original compositions that document Brown’s ongoing intermarriage of jazz and classical music, while two covers explore Canada’s rich folk-rock legacy. 

Brown is deeply immersed in jazz-classical fusion; he wrote his master’s thesis on the Third Stream movement (the early 1960s effort to merge the two genres) and last year premiered The Mosley Street Suite, a concert work in that style. Song within the Story, though, offers no hint of the bombast or self-seriousness often associated with classical music. It’s a thoroughly swinging affair, packed with melody and inventive, often blistering improvisations by Brown and the band. 

“I’m so pleased with how the trio has developed,” the guitarist says. “We’ve been working regularly at clubs like the Rex Jazz Bar in Toronto for three or four years, and we’ve been playing a lot of the pieces on this CD.”

Their hard work shows on unconventional pieces like the 7/4 groover “Alystair and I” and the harmonically daring “The Circle,” both of which they tackle with apparent ease and aplomb. They do no less, however, on the bluesy “Igor” or the (outwardly) delicate “All Rivers Lead.” The latter is one of the three showcases for guest player Murley, whose thoughtful but unyielding solo offers a glimpse of the intensity that lies beneath the tune’s surface. 

“Igor” is named for and inspired by the great composer Igor Stravinsky, a nod to Brown’s classical pursuits. The album’s title track contains echoes of Pat Metheny. But the influences on display throughout Song Within the Story are hardly a jazz-classical binary. “Mbira Kids,” as its title suggests, directly evokes the musical traditions of Southern Africa (specifically, that of Zimbabwe’s Shona people). Meanwhile, the trio passionately renders ballads by Neil Young (“The Needle and the Damage Done”) and Joni Mitchell (“A Case of You”), perhaps the two most revered Canadian singer-songwriters of the rock era. 

“I’m not afraid of going into folk or rock,” says Brown of his musical concept. “I like when there’s something a little bit more going on.” On Song Within the Story, there’s a lot more going on, and it resounds through the album’s every note.

James Brown was born in 1967 in Oakville, Ontario, and was raised in the city of Burlington. His maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather were Québécois musicians, and James followed in their footsteps at age 13 when he began taking guitar lessons. These led a few years later to classical guitar studies at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. 

At first, his ambitions were to become “the next Segovia or John Williams”—but while studying at the University of Toronto, he found a new role model in Ed Bickert. Often hailed as Canada’s finest jazz guitarist, Bickert was local to Toronto; Brown began frequenting his appearances at area clubs, enchanted by his tone. 

While he continued his classical curriculum, Brown also began attending informal jam sessions, slowly recalibrating his creative trajectory. (He eventually did the same with his studies, focusing on Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream music for his master’s degree.) By 1998, his immersion in jazz was deep enough to record his debut album, First Dance, with renowned Toronto musicians Ernie Tollar (saxophones), Andrew Downing (bass), and John Obercian (drums). 

Brown recorded two additional albums in 2002 (The Home Fields) and 2009 (Sevendaze), but slowed his approach in the 2010s while he and his wife Lisa—to whom “All Rivers Lead” is dedicated—raised the six children in their blended family. But a few years ago, feeling ripe for a comeback, he created a trio with Clark Johnston on bass and Anthony Michelli on drums, working regularly to shape the empathetic and tightly woven sound they evidence today. 

Brown has also remained committed to classical music—and the possibilities of jazz as a contributor to that tradition. His 2021 chamber piece, The Mosley Street Suite, featured among its movements several tunes that have also made their way onto Song Within the Story. 

The James Brown Quartet will be performing at the following venues, with additional dates to be announced: Sat. 3/26 The Jazz Room, Waterloo, ON (8:00 & 9:30 pm); Thurs. 4/21 Paradise Theatre, Toronto, ON (8:00 pm). 

Marianne Faithfull | "Vagabond Ways"

BMG are to reissue Marianne Faithfull’s 1999 studio album Vagabond Ways on March 4th 2022. The reissue, originally recorded at Teatro Studios in California and produced by Mark Howard and Daniel Lanois, will include a selection of previously unreleased bonus demos and an unheard studio recording, plus new liner notes. It will be the first time the album has been released as a heavyweight vinyl, as well as CD and digital formats. 

Vagabond Ways was Marianne’s first album containing original material after a 5 year gap; in between which her biography Faithfull was released, as well as her recording of the Kurt Weill opera The Seven Deadly Sins. Many of the stories told on this album were adapted from memories that didn’t make the biography, or her observations of social struggles she felt particularly moved by. Other tracks include an interpretation Leonard Cohen’s ‘Tower of Song’, a track gifted to her from the Pink Floyd vaults by Roger Waters (‘Incarceration of a Flower Child’), and ‘For Wanting You’, written specially for Marianne by songwriting duo Elton John and Bernie Taupin. 

It was also an album of firsts for Marianne, who at the time expressed that it displayed a level of self-acceptance she hadn’t explored before; that she had “nailed her colours to the mast”. It contains early examples of her overlaying poetry performance with music, something she recently explored to critically acclaim on the 2021 album with Warren Ellis, She Walks In Beauty. 

Bonus material on the album include an unheard Marianne Faithfull and Daniel Lanois composition, ‘Drifting’, recorded at the time of the original sessions but left off the final album, as well as demo recordings of ‘Vagabond Ways’, ‘Incarceration of a Flower Child’, ‘Electra’, and ‘Tower of Song’. The reissue also includes the Bob Dylan penned ‘Blood In My Eyes’, included on a physical format for the first time outside of its original release as a bonus track on the Japanese version.

Mary Wilson -"The Motown Anthology"

Singer, activist, author, fashion icon, actress, U.S. cultural ambassador, motivational speaker, dancer, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, trailblazer, legend, Supreme: Mary Wilson earned her place in music history. She was the only original member of The Supremes in every incarnation of the groundbreaking group from beginning to end (1961 to 1977) but her story didn't end when The Supremes did. Wilson the world-renowned performer was an advocate for social and economic challenges in the U.S. and abroad and used her fame and flair to promote diverse humanitarian efforts including ending hunger, raising HIV/AIDS awareness and encouraging world peace. October 11, 2018, The Music Modernization Act was passed. Mary played a key role in explaining its importance to members of Congress and how it directly affected artists. She was always fighting for artist rights and was seated in the Senate chambers when it unanimously passed.  She continued making music, performing to adoring fans around the world, wrote several best-selling books, and continued to protect artist rights and promote the legacy of the Supremes.

Now, the late legend's remarkable legacy of music is being collected for the very first time in a deluxe 2-CD set. UMe is proud to present Mary Wilson's The Motown Anthology. Slated for release on March 4, 2022, in celebration of her birthday March 6, this first-ever comprehensive overview of Wilson's Motown discography presents 38 songs, including a whopping 33 tracks only available physically on this collection. The first track, "Falling In Love (Live at The Frontier January 13, 1970)" is available now for streaming and download, here. The Motown Anthology boasts nearly two dozen Supremes classics, deep cuts, and never-before-heard songs (most in stunning new mixes) from a host of songwriters including Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Deke Richards, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Thom Bell and Linda Creed, and others. In addition to the worldwide CD debut of the 1979 Mary Wilson album, The Motown Anthology premieres on CD solo tracks produced by the late Gus Dudgeon, the first-time-available album version of Mary's new single "Why Can't We All Get Along," and Eric Kupper's remix of "Red Hot." And, perhaps most intriguingly, the collection premieres seven songs that have not been heard anywhere: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Falling in Love with Love" from the unheard January 13 Supremes live performance at the Frontier; "Send Him to Me," "If You Let Me Baby," "Son of a Preacher Man," "Witchi Tai To," and "Anytime at All."

The set was overseen by Turkessa Babich, Mary Wilson's daughter, and Jay D. Schwartz, her longtime publicist, with its 44-page booklet stuffed with rare and previously unpublished color photos. The booklet also features detailed track annotations, and exclusive tributes to Mary from such luminaries as Dionne Warwick, Darlene Love, Otis Williams, Duke Fakir, Martha Reeves, Claudette Robinson, Brian and Edward Holland, Paul McCartney, Rita Coolidge, Merry Clayton, Brenda Russell, Blinky Williams, and RuPaul. Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton has penned a special appreciation, as well, for this ultimate celebration of Supreme legend Mary Wilson. 

Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni | "The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni"

Why would one of poetry’s most revered voices want to curate a jazz saxophonist’s album of gospel hymns and spirituals? “These songs are so important,” says Nikki Giovanni, one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 “Living Legends” and a Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2017. “They comforted people through times of slavery, and during recent years we needed them to comfort us again. But a lot of the students today do not know about the history of these songs, and they should. So I’m out here putting water on the flowers, because they need a drink.”

Giovanni’s historic collaboration with saxophonist-composer and former Jazz Messenger Javon Jackson has yielded The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni, available February 18, 2022 on his Solid Jackson label. “The spirituals have been around so long,” says the renowned poet, activist and educator, who came to prominence in the 1960s and ’70s as a foundational member of the Black Arts movement following the publication of such early works as 1968’s book of poetry Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgment and 1970’s Re:Creation. “Some spirituals have been updated and stayed around and some have been lost over time,” Giovanni notes “So for me, it’s just helping to keep something going. And I do it because there’s a need.”

Jackson brings his bold-toned, Trane-inspired tenor lines to bear on a series of hymns, spirituals and gospel numbers hand-picked by Giovanni, who was also the first person to receive the Rosa L. Parks Women of Courage Award. And the 78-year-old poet makes a rare vocal appearance on the tender ballad “Night Song,” singing a song identified with her close friend, the late civil rights activist and High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone. “Nina was a friend of mine, and I knew that one of her favorite songs was ‘Night Song’,” she explains. “And even though I’m not a singer, I told Javon I wanted to sing it because I just wanted Nina to be remembered.” Jackson, who flew to Nikki’s home in Roanoke, Virginia, to record her vocal track on the existing instrumental tracks, says, “I sat beside her when she sang it and by the time she finished that chorus, I was deeply moved. I just love the fragile nature of the way she treated it. It was very emotional.”

Joined by an outstanding crew comprised of pianist Jeremy Manasia, bassist David Williams and drummer McClenty Hunter — the same lineup that appeared on Jackson’s 2018 album For You and his 2020 follow-up, Deja Vu — Jackson interprets gospel staples like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Wade in the Water,” “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” and “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” with authoritative tenor tones, deep walking bass lines and an organic sense of group swing. “It’s the first time I worked in a collaborative manner,” Jackson says. “The project is personal for me. I come from a lineage of devout Christians, and that has afforded me the chance to connect with that ancestral stream.”

The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni came about through a serendipitous meeting between the two principals when Jackson, a faculty member of The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and director of its Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, invited Giovanni to speak to his students there. As he recalls, “Ever since I’ve been at the University of Hartford, I felt that the school would be well-served to bring great scholars of color and scholars who were freedom fighters and activists, if you will. So I brought in Dr. Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, Angela Davis and Michael Eric Dyson. Then in February of 2020, I brought Nikki Giovanni.”

The renowned poet’s appearance at the University coincided with her receiving an honorary doctorate there. And as Jackson recalls, “After Nikki spoke to the students, she noticed that the Hank Jones and Charlie Haden CD of hymns and spirituals (1994’s Steal Away) was playing in the auditorium. She said she loved it and wanted to hear more, and just then I was hit with the idea. Two days later, after she returned to her home in Roanoke, I contacted her and said, ‘Would you be willing to pick 10 hymns? And that’ll be my next recording.’ She got back to me in a few days and gave me the 10 selections.”

The collection opens with the driving shuffle “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” a spiritual recorded by Paul Robeson in 1937. Jackson delivers the melody in straightforward fashion with golden tenor tones before Manasia “goes to church” on his piano solo. The minor-key “Wade in the Water” is lifted by a mid-tempo swing feel, paced by Williams’ deep walking basslines and Hunter’s steady, syncopated ride-cymbal pulse. After Jackson delivers a robust tenor solo and Manasia follows suit with an earthy piano solo, Christina Greer enters, dropping some wisdom from Giovanni’s poem “A Very Simple Wish.” As Jackson explains, “For this, I reached out to Markeysha Davis, an assistant professor of Africana studies and literature at the University of Hartford. She is really a fan and knows Nikki's work far better than I do. Nikki’s got 50 years’ worth of poetry, so I didn’t know where to begin. But I sent Markeysha John Coltrane’s ‘Spiritual’ to give her an idea of what we were trying to do, and she came back with that poem.”

The quartet’s rendition of the dirge-like “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” carries the somber feeling of Coltrane’s “Equinox,” while their interpretation of “Mary Had a Baby, Yes Lord” recalls Trane’s powerful civil-rights era requiem, “Alabama.” “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” one of Giovanni’s favorites from her own Baptist church upbringing, is rendered at a loping beat, conveying a distinctive Southern gospel feel. “A lot of times when I’ve heard this song in church, it's a little faster, a little more upbeat,” Jackson says. “I wanted to make it slower, where I could really expose the melody a lot more and lay on some of those phrases—so I could be as emotive as possible with the melody, as if I was playing in church with people in the audience.”

“I’ve Been ’Buked,” a spiritual sung by Mahalia Jackson in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, where Dr. Martin Luther King also delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech,” opens with some dramatic unaccompanied arco bass work by Williams before the full band enters with Jackson conveying the melody simply and deliberately. “In a perfect world, I would love to have had David bowing with Paul Robeson singing that melody,” says the leader. “The bow is so beautiful because, to me, it’s close to the human voice in a way.”

Jackson and company render the normally somber “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” as a buoyant calypso. In fact, you can hear the saxophonist directly quoting from Sonny Rollins’ most famous calypso, “St. Thomas,” midway through the song. Bassist Williams, being from Trinidad, is uniquely qualified to provide the requisite bounce on this ebullient calypso rendition of this well-known African American spiritual. “Doing that song this way is a reminder that the departure or the transition doesn’t have to be one of sadness,” says Jackson. “We don’t want it to be where the person or persons listening to the CD become downtrodden. We want it to be celebratory. It’s like what Art Blakey always used to tell us: ‘You cry when they come in, and you rejoice when they go out.’ I never forgot that.”

The most intimate piece of the collection is the gentle hymn “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian,” performed as a rubato duet between Jackson’s tenor sax and Manasia’s piano. The quartet closes on a rousing note with a swinging “I Opened My Mouth to the Lord,” which again features Williams’ deeply resonant bass carrying the melody and Jackson in strong ‘speechifying’ mode on tenor sax. Manasia also turns in an exhilarating piano solo here, and even drummer Hunter gets a solo taste near the end of this triumphant closer.  

Captured live at Telefunken Studios in South Windsor, Connecticut, the 10 tunes on The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni were all done without the use of headphones, another first for Jackson. “I’ve never done a recording before in a studio where I didn’t use headphones, so it felt like performing a gig,” he says. “We never counted off a piece and there were no endings, where I might dictate or give a direction towards an ending. I really wanted to do it just like if you’re in church, where there’s a preacher talking and all of a sudden the choir begins. So each time, whether the bass would start the tune or the piano or myself, there were no count-offs because I wanted to make it as natural as possible.”

“This music is something that people will probably be a little surprised to see coming from me,” Jackson says. But given the state of the world, it could be just in time. Both poet and saxophonist stand on the shoulders of their ancestors on The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni.

Larry McCray | "Blues Without You"

Poised to become a genre-shaping staple with the release of two major label albums in the 90's, rustbelt Blues singer and guitarist  proves he's been hiding in plain sight with today's announcement of his first album in nearly seven years, Blues Without You, set for release on March 25. Produced by blues-rock titan Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, the 12-track collection will be released via Bonamassa's Keeping the Blues Alive Records (KTBA Records). The album also features performances by Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes, Joanna Connor, and Reese Wynans. 

Throughout his career, McCray's life has imitated the rags-to-riches stories of the blues.   Larry's musical journey took him through many twists and turns, personal hardships, and dark moments. After meeting his current companion and collaborator, Peggy Smith, Larry found peace and was rediscovered by kindred spirits Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith.

"Writing this album made me feel proud, as it allows others to see me as more than a blues musician," shares McCray. "The songs are reflective of my broad taste in music styles and the subject matter, although personal at times, is relatable to anyone's life. Hopefully, the words and message of the songs will help others express their feelings in a similar synopsis.

"I feel totally reborn, with a whole new career, and I'm optimistic about what the future holds," McCray continues. "But truthfully speaking, sometimes I do wish it would have happened 30 years ago. I would have been much more qualified for the job at that age than at 62," he laughs.

"Larry McCray is a legend," praises Bonamassa. "We have known that for 30 years. He is the last of the great blues shouters from the rust belt. In the spirit of BB King, Luther Allison and Little Milton, Larry is among the greats. It's now up to the world to rediscover him. He has been here all along."

"Working with Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith as producers was an opportunity of a lifetime," credits McCray. "Having known and respected them as accomplished musicians first, it allowed me to trust their opinions even more and made this an incredibly fulfilling project."

Along with today's album announcement McCray releases lead single "Arkansas," a charging ode to McCray's childhood in his home state and an anthem for those who grew up similarly. 

"This song is a reminder of my childhood, growing up in rural Arkansas in the 60's," elaborates McCray. "Feeding hogs, bailing straw, amongst all the other chores that a kid of that generation had to perform, and still, we found a way to find the joy and make it seem as though it was no work at all. I hope the people can feel that spirit when they listen to this music that was born from a generation whose prime has long come to pass."

McCray was named the Orville H. Gibson (in honor of the vaunted Gibson Guitar founder) Male Blues Guitarist of the Year in 2000, won the Top Guitarist prize in the International Blues Matters 2014 writer's poll and was awarded the "Sunshine" Sonny Payne Award for Blues Excellence in 2015. Over the years, Larry has performed and toured with such blues greats as BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, John Mayall, Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Keb Mo, Jimmie Vaughan, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonamassa, as well as rock legends the Allman Brothers, Phil Lesh, Jonny Lang, Joe Walsh, Levon Helm, Chris Robinson, Dickey Betts, and countless others.

The Mark Masters Ensemble | "Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster"

Duke Ellington was one of the most iconic and influential composers in the history of jazz, crafting indelible music that continues to be revered and revived to this day. Arguably the pinnacle of his artistry occurred between 1940 and 1942, when his revered Orchestra featured the groundbreaking bassist Jimmie Blanton and the tenor saxophone master Ben Webster. For a genius composer who famously wrote for musicians rather than instruments, this era of the Duke Ellington Orchestra – now known as the Blanton-Webster Band – proved especially inspirational to both Ellington and his frequent collaborator, composer Billy Strayhorn.

That inspiration is carried forward by the brilliant arranger and bandleader Mark Masters, who revisits the music of the Blanton-Webster Band on his latest album, reimagining these classic compositions with his own unique interpretation. In addition to his own virtuosic Mark Masters Ensemble, the project spotlights the legendary Art Baron, the last trombonist hired by Ellington himself in 1973. Baron occupied the plunger trombone chair, a standout element of the Ellington Orchestra, for the final year of the bandleader’s life, and continued with the band under the baton of the founder’s son, Mercer Ellington.

Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster, due out June 18, 2021 via Capri Records, is a generation-spanning summit meeting that offers a fresh perspective on some of jazz’s greatest compositions. In contrast to Baron’s direct link to Ellington’s storied past, special guest Tim Hagans adds a decidedly contemporary twist with his bold, modernist approach to the trumpet.

The Mark Masters Ensemble brings together a supremely gifted group of musicians to conjure Masters’ distinctive palette: four saxophones (Kirsten Edkins and Jerry Pinter splitting Webster’s tenor duties along with Danny House on alto and clarinet and Adam Schroeder on baritone); three trumpets in addition to Hagans (Scott Englebright, Les Lovitt and Ron Stout); trombonists Les Benedict and Dave Woodley alongside Baron; bassist Bruce Lett filling Blanton’s role; and drummer Mark Ferber.

“All eras of Ellington interest me,” Masters says. “But the Blanton-Webster Band represents a really remarkable period of time. Jimmie Blanton is credited with revolutionizing the role of the bass in the jazz orchestra, making it a melodic contributor instead of just keeping time and laying out basic harmony. And Ben Webster was quite simply a giant. It just so happened that the two of them were in the band at the same time, and then you add all the great Ellington and Strayhorn compositions to that.”

The project’s inception can be traced back to 2013, when Masters invited Baron to perform at an Ellington Brass Encounters concert in Southern California. “Art is one of a kind as a player and as a person,” Masters explains. “He’s a great student of the music and knows all the history, plus he’s an original with a unique sound. It was a joy to be able to craft my writing specifically for him and that plunger mute specialty.”

Hagans’ inventive sound introduces a singular element all its own to several pieces, including a stunning muted solo on Masters’ deconstructed “Take the ‘A’ Train.” As Masters describes, “Tim is another one of a kind. I’ve introduced him at concerts as ‘an improviser who has created his own language,’ and there aren't many people that do that. His language is so unique, and I thought it would be interesting to include an element that you wouldn't normally associate with Ellington.”

The material on Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster include some of the most familiar and oft-revisited titles in the Ellington-Strayhorn canon, including “Ko-Ko,” “In a Mellotone,” “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing,” “I Got it Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” and of course, “Take the ‘A’ Train,” among others. Discovering a new angle on such well-worn repertoire might prove daunting to most arrangers; but for Masters, who specializes in recomposing music – taking the composition as raw material to be reworked to sometimes unrecognizable degrees – the familiarity proved freeing. In many cases his transformations required only the most tenuous resemblance to the originals in order to evoke their spirit while becoming an entirely new piece of music.

“All of the tunes are so well known that there would be no point in just going ahead and doing another arrangement of, say, ‘Take the ‘A’ Train,” he says. “I feel like I left enough that people can hear the tunes, but recomposed them enough to make them something of my own and something worth recording again. These classic Ellington compositions have been recorded countless times over the last 25 years, and some people don't want to touch them because they are such classics. But I always want to use the source material to do something dramatically different.”

Long recognized as one of the great jazz arrangers of the last few decades, Mark Masters formed his first ensemble in 1982. He’s gone on to found the non-profit American Jazz Institute and has recorded tributes to Jimmy Knepper, Clifford Brown, Dewey Redman and other greats. The vehicle for his transformative orchestrations, The Mark Masters Ensemble, has featured some of the music’s most revered performers, including Billy Harper, Tim Hagans, Gary Smulyan, Peter Erskine, Steve Kuhn, Ray Drummond and Oliver Lake. His most recent album, Night Talk, delved deep into the catalogue of composer Alex Wilder, whose sophisticated approach blended jazz, classical and American popular song influences. Prior to that Masters reimagined works by Gerry Mulligan and Charles Mingus on 2017’s acclaimed Blue Skylight and assembled an all-star band of creative musicians to perform his own original works for Our Métier (2018). He has been named a Rising Star Arranger in the annual DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll on numerous occasions.

 

New Music: Joss Stone, Gaetano Letizia, Jon Gordon, Blue Moods

Joss Stone - Never Forget My Love

New album from Grammy and Brit-award winning artist freshly signed to Dave Stewart's Bay Street Records. Co-written and produced by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and recorded at Blackbird Studios, Nashville. Bay Street Records is proud to announce ‘Never Forget My Love’, the new album by GRAMMY Award-winning singer songwriter Joss Stone. With worldwide sales in excess of 15 million albums, Joss Stone is without question among the most iconic soul singers of the modern era, whose remarkable career now spans two decades. Produced by Bay Street Records founder Dave Stewart, and co-written by Stewart and Stone, the duo wrote every song for the album on acoustic guitar at Bay Street Studios in the Bahamas before recording them at Nashville's famed Blackbird Studios. The project marks Stone's first full length LP in more than five years as well as her first new music with Stewart in over a decade. Describing it, Joss says, "You know – think of Dusty Springfield, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick – those kinds of classy, timeless songs. Think long gloves and a dress."

Gaetano Letizia - Chartreuse

Gaetano Letizia does not like labels. The guitarist, composer, and vocalist (whom friends and fans know as “Tom”) fronts a jazz band, whose music is inflected with reggae, R&B, blues, funk, and soul.  Letizia also fronts another band, a popular blues trio, called Underworld Blues Band, that features his blazing electric solos, and slide and nylon string guitar mastery. Letizia’s newest project, Chartreuse, featuring the Gaetano Letizia Jazz Quintet, his eleventh album as a leader, is a multi-genre jazz suite of original compositions that showcases his expansive creativity and serious guitar chops. The music on Chartreuse is modern and pleasantly unpredictable. “I prefer to not try and fit in to any particular genre,” says Letizia. “I make extensive use of jazz harmonies and leave plenty of room for improvisation, but I like the freedom to explore whatever style or musical idea crosses my mind at the time.” Indeed, if you listen carefully, you can hear the influence of jazz greats like Wes Montgomery, perhaps Letizia’s favorite, as well as George Benson, Jim Hall, Grant Green, and Pat Martino, with whom Letizia was friends and took some lessons with while staying at Martino’s house. With influences of jazz, blues, funk, reggae, and classical, the music on Chartreuse does not fit easily into one category. But that is precisely what makes it so engaging. Letizia’s fluent guitar playing, improvisations and creative compositions are the work of an artist at the peak of his powers.

Jon Gordon - Stranger Than Fiction

Jon Gordon is one of the most accomplished and in demand alto and soprano saxophonists of his generation. A past winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, Gordon has made multiple appearances in Downbeat Magazine’s critics poll over the years. His past recordings have been consistently celebrated for their unique brilliance. Gordon’s new ArtistShare release Stranger Than Fiction is a nonet project of all original music. It features faculty members and former students from the University of Manitoba jazz program - where Gordon teaches - alongside special guests from across North America, including jazz greats Orrin Evans, John Ellis, and Alan Ferber, among others. Stranger Than Fiction is an incredible addition to an already remarkable catalogue of music.

Blue Moods - Myth & Wisdom

The moods here are anything but blue – as the group's got an upbeat, positive way of laying into a tune right from the start – as they take on a range of compositions by Charles Mingus, but all served up in a lean quartet formation that really helps transform the songs! Diego Rivera is often in the lead on tenor, and the rest of the group features Boris Kozlov on bass, Joe Strasser on drums, and Art Hirihara on piano – save for a few tracks where David Kikoski comes in on the keys! If you dig Mingus as much as us, you'll recognize most of the melodies – but the treatment is nicely fresh, and also not nearly as slavish as some other Mingus-related projects – really breathing new life into songs that include "Reincarnation Of A Lovebird", "Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress", "Nostalgia In Times Square", "Tonight At Noon", "Better Get It In Your Soul", and "Pithecathropus Erectus". ~ Dusty Groove

Tomas Fujiwara | "Triple Double"

Parsing out the various combinations possible within Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double feels something like wandering through a hall of mirrors. Look at it one way and you might see two horn/guitar/drum trios; turn slightly and suddenly it becomes three paired artists taking their shared instruments in radically different directions. Despite the unusual instrumentation of the ensemble, however, Triple Double is at its core a group of six distinctive individuals, each among the most innovative and singular voices in contemporary creative music – drummers Tomas Fujiwara and Gerald Cleaver, guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, and trumpeter Ralph Alessi and cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum. 

On the sextet’s second album, March (due out March 4, 2022 via Firehouse 12 Records), Triple Double has also become a band in the most thrilling sense, sharing a scintillating chemistry and a sense of musical mission that remains evident no matter how far apart the various pairings and triplings stretch the music in far-flung directions.

“On the first album [2017’s Triple Double], the band was still relatively new,” Fujiwara explains. “There were a few people in the group that had never played together before. Since then we’ve spent a lot more time touring and playing together, so I feel like those connections and the rapport within the group have really deepened. That influenced my writing for this album because now I had a reference point for different places the band had gone, and I was also conscious of where else I wanted to push us as a group.”

The formation of Triple Double did bring together some new pairings – Alessi and Bynum had never crossed paths, and the drummers had never had the opportunity to share the stage despite Fujiwara’s longheld admiration for Cleaver. At the same time, the grouping also reconvened some well-established hook-ups (to borrow the name of another Fujiwara ensemble). Bynum and Halvorson are both among Fujiwara’s most frequent collaborators, in each other’s ensembles as well as (in Fujiwara and Halvorson’s case) in the collective trio Thumbscrew. Triple Double grew out of a trio that the drummer formed with Alessi and Seabrook.

“When I first put the band together I made a pretty exhaustive list of all the different combinations of the six of us,” Fujiwara says. “On this album I really wanted to hone in on the subtle shifts that can happen with the addition and subtraction of different musicians in the ensemble. It feels like there are endless possibilities, which is really exciting.”

Opener “Pack Up, Coming For You” offers perhaps the most explicit example. The tune begins with the trio of Fujiwara, Bynum and Halvorson. After they trade improvisations their counterparts emerge and the second trio takes over for a time. Finally all six combine and the full scope of the group dynamic is revealed. Like its predecessor, March includes an improvised duet by Fujiwara and Cleaver in tribute to the bandleader’s childhood teacher, Alan Dawson.

The unique combination of instruments is in some ways a challenge, offering little guidance for a composer. At the same time, Fujiwara found the lack of precedent refreshing. “Not having a blueprint can be challenging,” he explains, “but at the same time it can be quite liberating and inspiring. If you’re leading a guitar trio and want to do something personal with it, it can be difficult to get out from under the shadow of all the great guitar trios that came before. With this there isn't that history, so it takes away expectations. That challenge is fun for me.”

Fujiwara took on several disparate challenges in the crafting of March. His vibraphone playing is given a much more prominent role, while the floating, airy “Life Only Gets More” was instigated by the fact that drummers are so rarely asked to solo over ballads. The album was also recorded fairly quickly and spontaneously, despite the challenging material – an approach prompted by Fujiwara’s love of classic Blue Note Records.

“On many of the sessions they would just call in a group of musicians, they’d show up, the bandleader would have some charts on the music stand, they’d run through them and just record them. And yet they're now eternal classics that we love. I wanted to capture some of that magic.”

Like the name of the ensemble, the new album’s title also folds multiple meanings into a deceptively simple word. At its most basic, March is the month of the album release – but of course it’s a loaded date, falling exactly two years after much of the world went into pandemic lockdown and ensembles like Triple Double were suddenly indefinitely separated. The gulf has proved a long one for this band in particular, having recorded the album in late 2019.

But March also implies movement, as suggested by the felt assemblages that grace the album’s colorful artwork. The multi-hued group embracing on the cover could be dancers stepping in rhythm or protesters parading for a cause. All of those meanings danced in Fujiwara’s head as he penned the music for March, especially as he titled the tunes in the midst of the tense protests that erupted throughout 2020.

“There's something about marching that is very evocative to me,” the drummer explains. “It's a coordinated activity that always has a group intent behind it – which could be peaceful, violent, revolutionary, stifling or joyful. Marching can take on so many different forms, but it's always a group activity for a group cause that represents those intentions or feelings by a show of numbers together in one direction. Oftentimes it's not about getting from point A to point B, it's simply the act of marching and of being together that expresses the point.”

Described as “a ubiquitous presence in the New York scene…an artist whose urbane writing is equal to his impressively nuanced drumming,” Brooklyn-based Tomas Fujiwara is an active player in some of the most exciting music of the current generation. He leads the bands Triple Double (with Gerald Cleaver, Mary Halvorson, Brandon Seabrook, Ralph Alessi, and Taylor Ho Bynum), 7 Poets Trio (with Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid), and Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up (with Jonathan Finlayson, Brian Settles, Halvorson, and Michael Formanek); has a collaborative duo with Bynum; is a member of the collective trio Thumbscrew (with Halvorson and Formanek); and engages in a diversity of creative work with Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Halvorson, Matana Roberts, Joe Morris, Bynum, Nicole Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, Reid, Amir ElSaffar, Benoit Delbecq, and many others. In 2021, he won the DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Drummer, and premiered two suites of new music as part of his Roulette Residency: “You Don’t Have to Try” (with Meshell Ndegeocello) and “Shizuko” (with Bynum, Reid, Rafiq Bhatia, and Davi Vieira). “Drummer Tomas Fujiwara works with rhythm as a pliable substance, solid but ever shifting. His style is forward-driving but rarely blunt or aggressive, and never random. He has a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting up a rigorous scaffolding of restraint…A conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.”

Terell Stafford and The Temple University Jazz Band | "Without You, No Me Honoring The Legacy Of Jimmy Heath"

January 19, 2020, bears a bittersweet tinge in Terell Stafford’s memory. On one hand, Temple University’s Director of Jazz and Instrumental Studies recalls that day with a great deal of pride and celebration, as the Temple University Jazz Band took top honors in the inaugural Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

That same night, however, Stafford received the sad news that the legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath had died at the age of 93. Since their days touring together with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band, Stafford had been fortunate to call Heath a friend, a colleague, a mentor, and a confidante. 

“Jimmy Heath was an incredible human being,” Stafford says. “When I got the phone call saying that he had just passed, I was totally devastated and broken. The next day I called Temple Dean Robert T. Stroker and said, ‘I hope we can find a way to honor Mr., Heath this year.’ So, we started to prepare some music -- and then the pandemic hit.” 

Ah yes, that by now familiar refrain. At this writing, more than a year and a half later, January 2020 feels like a lifetime ago. The events of last year hardly bear repeating; no matter where you read these words and hear this music, the Covid-19 pandemic had its effect on your existence. It certainly disrupted the lives of the students and faculty at Temple, though the music, as always, found a way. 

Thanks to the tenacity and ingenuity of Stafford and his colleagues, Without You, No Me is the second new album released by the Temple University Jazz Band in the wake of the pandemic. The first, the aptly titled Covid Sessions: A Social Call, was recorded long-distance, in student’s homes across the country, via the innovative portable sound rigs devised by Grammy and Emmy Award- winning recording engineer John Harris and Temple Music Technology Professor Dr. David Pasbrig. 

Without You, No Me was captured at much closer range. The musicians were able to convene in the spacious confines of the Temple Performing Arts Center in April 2021, with filters and covers over the bells of the horn players and breaks every half hour for air exchange. The 12 feet of space and plexiglass dividers between them were less than optimal but still an improvement over the miles and days that had separated them on their previous outing. Harris and Pasbrig’s rigs were dusted off to facilitate this session’s special guests, bassist Christian McBride and organist Joey DeFrancesco. 

Whatever the obstacles presented by these most unprecedented of circumstances, it was clearly worth it to honor an artist who has meant so much to the music and to the city of Philadelphia as well as to Temple University, its students, and its director. Along with his brothers, bassist Percy and drummer Albert “Tootie,” Jimmy Heath is Philly jazz royalty, a master saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who has contributed several tunes to the jazz canon, including “CTA,” “Gingerbread Boy,” and “For Minors Only.” 

The title track of the present album, “Without You, No Me,” was originally commissioned by Dizzy Gillespie and named in the iconic trumpeter’s honor. Here it comes full circle, acknowledging the foundational influence that Jimmy Heath has had on generations of jazz musicians, Terell Stafford among them. Famous for his teasing, pun-happy nicknames, Heath christened the younger trumpeter “Staff Inflection.” 

“He was almost like a father to me,” Stafford explains. “When I started at Temple, he was the first person I called. He gave me such great advice: ‘Just teach yourself,’ he said. ‘Teach who you are. Figure out what you do, how you do it and teach that. And that will be what the students will need.’ He would constantly call to check on the students and came to the school whenever he could to conduct master classes and give concerts at Temple.” 

In the same spirit Todd Bashore, a former student of Mr. Heath’s at Queens College, composed album opener “Passing of the Torch” in honor of his mentor. Heath’s compositional gifts are further represented by “The Voice of the Saxophone,” rendered in lush and vibrant hues by this stellar ensemble. 

Tragically, Jimmy Heath was not the only loss that Philadelphia endured over the past year. The great tenor saxophonist Bootsie Barnes, a linchpin of the Philly jazz scene, passed in April at the age of 82. The young saxophonist and bandleader Jack Saint Clair, a Temple alumnus, composed the rollicking “Bootsie” in Barnes’ honor, its muscular yet relaxed swing offering a knowing portrait of the wryly laconic jazzman. 

Saint Clair also contributes a brassy rendition of the standard “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone” and a sultry arrangement of a piece from another Philly jazz giant, organist Shirley Scott, with whom Bootsie shared the stage many times. Both tracks showcase the clarion vocals of Danielle Dougherty while Scott’s “The Blues Ain’t Nothin’ (But Some Pain)” encourages the band to dig deep into their own blues to capture the tune’s sense of heartache and remorse. 

Hall of Fame basketball coach John Chaney, who led Temple to 17 NCAA tournaments during his 24 seasons at the University, was another icon in the city whose influence reached far beyond the court. The night he died in January; Christian McBride called Stafford to suggest an homage to Chaney. The bass great composed “The Wise Old Owl,” inspired by the school’s avian mascot as well as the coach’s reputation as a sage counselor to so many of his students. The tune unfolds with a nail-biting dramatic arc that vividly conveys Chaney’s grace under pressure, an elegant demeanor that suddenly erupts into kinetic action. 

McBride lends his robust voice to John Clayton’s vigorous arrangement of the classic “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” engaging in a spirited dialogue between his nimble, eloquent bass and the joyous ensemble. To close the album, he’s reunited with lifelong friend Joey DeFrancesco (albeit remotely) for a brisk romp through living legend saxophonist Larry McKenna’s arrangement of Juan Tizol’s “Perdido,” which prompts blistering turns from both virtuosic Philly natives. DeFrancesco’s jaw-dropping organ skills are on full display on his own “In That Order,” which the great pianist Bill Cunliffe arranged for the occasion. 

The title Without You, No Me acknowledges a debt to the past, one that is paid by keeping memories alive. While it’s safe to say that much about this album falls under the category of the unforgettable – recorded during an unforgettable period in history, undertaken in honor of some of the city and the music’s most unforgettable visionaries – it nonetheless repays that debt with dazzling enthusiasm and gratitude. As Jimmy Heath once wrote about his relationship to Dizzy Gillespie, the experience is “like being on a musical mountaintop or hitting a high note.” 

Jo Harrop | " Everything's Changing"

Jazz vocalist and songwriter Jo Harrop has released her new single ‘Everything’s Changing’, the third release from her hugely anticipated new studio album, The Heart Wants. Recorded in London and produced by Hannah V (who has worked with everyone from JP Cooper to Stormzy), Everything’s Changing was written by Harrop, Hannah V, Sam Watts and Natalie Williams and features Tony Kofi (saxophone), Andy Davies (trumpet) and the Debs White String Quartet.

“’Everything’s Changing’ was written mid-lockdown when confusion and frustration were setting in and people had been cooped up in their homes - some not seeing another soul for months,” says Harrop. “It’s a song that was inspired by that time, but it also transcends it.”

“During lockdown, like most people, I was struggling. I wanted to write a song that gave some sense of hope. Whatever it is you’re going through, no matter how scared you are, reach out and hang in there, because you are not alone. I often write songs about love and relationships, but a song about hope and supporting each other during hard times seemed important.”

Born in Durham and raised on a heady musical diet of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin, Jo Harrop cut her teeth as a session singer, working with a host of iconic artists including Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart and Gloria Gaynor.

After moving to London, she quickly established herself as one of the most unmistakable voices in British jazz. Having signed to London-based jazz label, Lateralize Records, she recently received a raft of rapturous reviews for Weathering The Storm, her debut with guitarist, Jamie McCredie. The Guardian dubbed it “a little gem of an album: simple, modest and perfect,” whilst BBC 6 Music’s Iggy Pop fell in love with her voice, calling her “a very fine jazz singer.”

Alex Norris | "Fleet From The Heat"



Trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and educator Alex Pope Norris is one of these artists. However, the cognoscenti has long been fully aware of Norris’ prodigiousness, and it is high time the world got hip to an artist who has conquered the unwieldiness of the trumpet and brought forth music worthy of our attention in the process. Norris is a true melodicist, and an improvisor who eats up chord changes in a Freddie-like and Lee-like fashion. His solos have an easy elegance that belies their rigorous architecture. His technique doesn’t call attention to itself; instead of flashy showboating, his craftsmanship allows the busiest passages to develop without advertising the dexterity they require. All that, plus a lambent, radiant tone, makes him an exceptionally lyrical but no less fiery improviser. 

Alex Pope Norris, who has appeared on close to 90 recordings as a sideman (many of them on Steeplechase), now celebrates the ten-plus year anniversary of his Quintet, with Fleet From The Heat, his debut on Steeplechase Records, and his third recording as a leader. The album is comprised of a combination of old and new material, much of it workshopped and performed at Smalls in NYC since 2008. The members of the band, Norris’ “go-to Quintet,” tenor saxophonist Ari Ambrose, pianist Jeremy Manasia, bassist Paul Gill and drummer Brian Floody, are all veteran New York City jazz musicians. “We’ve known each other in various contexts for more than 25 years,” Norris states proudly, and you can hear their history in how the musicians breathe and connect; the way that one solo dovetails with the next; and the seamlessness of the rhythm section, which provides a supportive springboard for dazzling improvisations. 

If these virtues recall the classic bands of Horace Silver and Art Blakey, and recordings by Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter, mission accomplished. Norris worships that sound, and capturing the spirit of those bands was a goal for Fleet From The Heat. Norris explains, “most of my career in jazz has been as a sideman. I have played in many of the top big bands, countless small group projects ranging from the traditional to the highly complex and experimental, covering a wide range of styles, and have been deeply involved with a plethora of Latin Jazz projects over the years. With this Steeplechase release, I’m trying to represent a side of my playing and writing that draws on my love for swinging, straight-ahead Jazz, with an old spirit for an ever-changing world.” 

The opportunity for Norris to record his Quintet came directly from Nils Winther, owner of Steeplechase. “He knew my playing through my sideman appearances on other Steeplechase sessions by George Colligan, Ari Ambrose (who appears on this recording), and saxophonist Gregory Tardy. In fact, it was Tardy who recommended to Nils that he record me as a leader for Steeplechase,” explains Norris. 

Fleet From the Heat – Norris composed the title track in 2008 upon his return to New York City after living in Miami, Florida for four years. “I look at this tune as a reclaiming of New York City as my home, physically and artistically.” 

No Fair, It’s Mine – A jazz waltz composed circa 2013, on the piano while visiting his father in the D.C. suburbs. “I was hearing some kids play ball outside, and one of them exclaimed, ‘No Fair, It’s Mine,’ which seemed like a good title to me. 

Tracks 3-6 (“What Normal,” “Quarandemic,” “Ballad For 2020,” & “Dude, Where’s My Deli”) comprise a suite that Norris calls, “The Famous Original Pandemic Suite.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek title, as many musicians and artists created works during the COVID lockdown of 2020 with references to COVID (such as, “The Pandemic Suite,” “The COVID Suite,” “The Pandemic Symphony,” “The Lockdown Opera,” etc . . .). “I was thinking about how in New York there are (or were) many pizza shops all over Manhattan claiming to be the “Famous Original Ray’s Pizza,” or same variation. I never knew which Famous Original Ray’s was the original! So, I decided to title this suite of new tunes the “Famous Original Pandemic Suite,” knowing full well that it’s not the first . . . that’s how it is tongue-in- cheek!” In naming the suite as he did, Norris affectionately tweaks this minor absurdity of New York life – a small detail that helps solidify Fleet From the Heat as an unsentimental love letter to New York City, in rough times as well as good. 

What Normal? – Norris’ reaction to the plethora of news bearing the advice or instruction about how we all have to get used to this “new normal.” “I thought to myself . . . we’re Jazz musicians, we have no normal. What Normal?!?! 

Quarandemic – A portmanteau combining quarantine and pandemic. “I have the rhythm section repetitive ostinatos representing the sameness and repetitiveness of life during lockdown times, with a floating melody overtop representing the search and desire for change in the monotony.” 

Ballad for 2020 – 2020 was a devastating year for people around the world; from the loss of lives to the upheaval of our ways of life, sources of income, and being closed off from friends and family. “I’ve never written a ballad before, so I felt this was a good opportunity to challenge myself, artistically, to write a piece of music in dedication to everything we all went through.” 

Dude, Where’s My Deli? – “I had a deli across the street from my apartment. It was overpriced and funky, and it was open 24 hours, always there when you needed it! Like so many businesses in my neighborhood, it closed during the pandemic. This song, a boogaloo (a groove that I’m a fan of) is an homage to the little spots in NYC we loved that left us during the pandemic. 

Holiday Blues – Norris composed this during the Winter of 2008, close to Christmas, and it serves as an ad-hoc homage to Norris’ Seasonal Affective Disorder. Simultaneously, it’s a simpler tune from Norris that’s obviously fun to play. 

Night Bus – “This tune was written in the 1990’s. I came up with the opening three-note motive while riding on a bus at night. The next day, when I was able to get near a piano, I was able to develop the rest of the tune with a productive flow that I haven’t been able to replicate yet.” 

The Untamed Land – Norris created this theme while touring the Midwest. “The theme sort of overlaps itself, which reminds me of the rolling fields of the Midwest that seem to overlap each other. I was also inspired by Jackie McLean’s writing on this one.” 

Grapple With A Snapple – As most people who know jazz can guess, it’s a line composed over the changes to “Scrapple From the Apple” (Norris hates the word “contrafact”).