Claudia Villela | "Cartas ao Vento"

Vocalist-pianist-composer Claudia Villela basks in the warmth of her hometown of Rio de Janeiro with Cartas ao Vento, set for a September 8 release on her own Taina Music label. When visiting her family last year, the San Francisco Bay Area artist rounded up some of her collaborators from her youth (drummer Marcelo Costa, bassist Jorge Helder, arranger Mario Adnet) and some of Brazil’s greatest players (guitarists Toninho Horta and Romero Lubambo, multi-reedists Edu Neves and Zé Nogueira, accordionist Vitor Gonçalves) to craft the first album Villela has made on Brazilian soil.

The result is a beautiful, highly disciplined collection of Villela’s originals, with a focus not on individuals’ improvisations but on the leader’s songcraft. “This is not a jazz album,” Villela stresses. “I wanted everything to be part of the song, to get away from the solo as a virtuoso statement.”

That said, Cartas ao Vento (Portuguese for “letters to the wind”) puts Villela’s own virtuoso writing abilities on vivid display. It’s in the soaring melody and wordless vocal break on “Meninando,” the seamless exchange between sweeping flow and rhythmic dance on “Chamego,” the stirring drama of “Instrumento,” and the surprising shapeshifts of “Agua Santa”—also a tour-de-force for Villela as a performer, taking extraordinary turns as both pianist and a cappella vocalist.

But Villela is not the only artist to shine on this album. Three of the pieces were written as settings for the words of great South American poets including Ana Cristina Cesar (“Flores do Mais”), Ramon Palomares (“Paramo”), and Mario Quintana (“Instrumento”). There’s also fine work from the instrumentalists, with the rhythm section of Helder and Costa giving exemplary performances throughout the album and guests such as Lubambo, Neves, and accordionist Vitor Gonçalves adding gorgeous color and deep pathos to Villela’s songs. On the writing side, Adnet also makes splendid contributions with charts for violin, reeds, and even (on “Bolero”) for the obscure but lovely opheicleide (played by Everson Moraes). It’s Villela, however, that brings the magic to Cartas ao Vento.

Claudia Villela was born August 27, 1961 in Rio de Janeiro. She grew up surrounded by music in her grandmother’s home, beginning to make music herself when she was only a year old. She started singing in college festivals around Rio at age 15, and before long found work as a studio musician. She also started performing around the city, while developing a book of original songs featuring her lyrics and music. Initially planning to enroll in medical school, Villela decided to combine her two passions and earned a B.A. in music therapy from the Brazilian Conservatory of Music.

Relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1980s, Villela quickly immersed herself in the region’s thriving jazz scene, gaining valuable experience with the Down Beat-award winning De Anza College Jazz Singers. She studied with NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan and with John Robert Dunlap of the New York Metropolitan Opera before making her recording debut with 1994’s Grammy-nominated Asa Verde.

She has since performed and recorded with such major jazz figures as Michael Brecker, Toots Thielemans, Toninho Horta, and Kenny Werner. She recorded a live performance at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, California, for broadcast on NPR; it was released as Live @ Kuumbwa 2004 in 2013. 2019 saw the appearance of her second live album, Encantada Live (compiled from several of Villela’s illuminating concert performances). Her recordings have included 1998’s Supernova, 2001’s Inverse/Universe, and 2004’s Dreamtales (an improvised duo album with Werner). As only her seventh album in a thirty-year career, Cartas ao Vento stands as a rare but exquisite gem.

Villela’s summer/fall performance schedule kicked off with a sold-out show at Kuumbwa Jazz in Santa Cruz Mon 6/26. It also includes Monterey Jazz Festival, Sun 9/24; and SFJAZZ, San Francisco, Thurs-Sun 11/9-12. 

Gregory Hutchinson | "Da Bang"

The acclaimed drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Gregory Hutchinson has unveiled "New Dawn," the third preview from his highly anticipated debut solo album, 'Da Bang,' out September 29th. A captivating collaboration with Swedish and London-based jazz artist Liselotte Östblom, "New Dawn" is infused with infectious rhythms and airy jazz keys, where Östblom's soulful neo-soul vocals interweave seamlessly with Hutchinson's punchy drum production, creating a mesmerizing blend of melody and rhythm. Embodying personal growth and transformation, "New Dawn" encapsulates the exhilaration and determination of embracing a fresh start. “It’s a dawning of dreams / A new regime / The forming of a crown on my head / I’m moving on," as Östblom sings. With playful sensuality and unwavering resolve, the track invites listeners to embark on a journey of new beginnings and exciting horizons.

“New Dawn” follows the previously released offerings “Straight From The Heart" (Feat. Leona Berlin & Karriem Riggins) and “Blow My Mind/Let's Take It Back” (feat. Sy Smith, Javier Starks) from the upcoming album. Recorded by award-winning producer/drummer Karriem Riggins (J Dilla, Common, Robert Glasper), the 15-track collection “Da Bang” sees Hutchinson joined by an all-star lineup of unique collaborators, including such diverse friends and fellow artists as Riggins, Leona Berlin, PJ, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Vernon Reid, Christian Scott, Nicholas Payton, Kameron Corvet, Tim Smith, Sy Smith, Javier Starks, Samora, James Poyser, and more. 

One of the most highly regarded musicians of his generation, Gregory Hutchinson has been hailed for his work performing and recording with countless jazz greats including Betty Carter, Red Rodney, Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, Dianne Reeves, Lou Donaldson, Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield, Diana Krall, and Harry Connick Jr, to name just a few. The Brooklyn, NY-born, Rome, Italy-based artist grew up surrounded by music, from his late mother’s beloved soul and R&B to reggae via his percussionist father and the explosive sounds of classic hip-hop that filled the streets of NYC in the late 1970s and 1980s. 

Now, with 'Da Bang,' Hutchinson has taken those variegated styles and fused them into a one-of-a-kind blast of genre-busting Brooklyn energy, all with a deeply personal lyrical approach hewn from his own diaries and experiences. Though soundly rooted in the jazz tradition, the album sees Hutchinson approaching his strikingly powerful songcraft with the versatility, dynamism, and imagination he has long been known for, coloring original compositions like the fiery statement of purpose, “We Got Drumz (Feat. Javier Starks & Soweto Kinch” and the album-closing “Fly Away (Feat. Nicholas Payton)” with his mastery of timing, natural feel, and staggering innovation.

“Everyone knows me for playing jazz but I grew up around the corner from Biggie,” Hutchinson says. “That's my era. I was thinking, how are we going to bring younger people to jazz music now that they are gravitating away from it. I was going through a divorce, going through different trials in life, and I decided to just do what I love to do. To just speak to the way I want to speak. Making music is, I think, supposed to be kind of like telling your life story. I'm not trying to portray anything that I'm not in the music. I just understand what makes people move and how to do that. It’s like, this is where we are.”

Bobby Zankel | "A Change Of Destiny"

Philadelphia alto saxophonist and composer Bobby Zankel explores a darker side of his longtime city’s history with A Change of Destiny, set for a September 22 release on Mahakala Records. The album is a distillation of music that Zankel wrote for a dance piece, The Spirits Break to Freedom, in the 2010s, and was recorded with Zankel’s Wonderful Sound 8 (a byproduct of his Warriors of the Wonderful Sound Big Band), featuring Philadelphia jazz greats drummer Pheeroan AkLaff, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd, violinist Diane Monroe, alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, bassist Lee Smith, and pianist Sumi Tonooka.

A six-section suite of “resistance, revolution, and renewal,” according to its composer, A Change of Destiny is a response to the 2007 excavation of slave quarters on the site of the President’s House—George Washington’s residence in Philadelphia. The opening track “Destiny,” based on a Jymie Merritt–inspired cross rhythm, asks the question “Why have we been brought here?” and proclaims, “My destiny belongs to me!”

“Spirits Break to Freedom” is an epic journey from rainforest hocket rhythms to Afrobeat groove, 21st-century urban angularity, and freedom. “Naming Names” is an Ornette Coleman–influenced praise song in which vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd intones the names of “our nation’s nine founding mothers and fathers whose forced labor made the President’s House functional.” The gospel ecstasy of “Ring Shouting” and the Billie Jean groove of “Rituals of Resistance” express two cultural revolutionary modes of joyful freedom, while “To Be a Human Being,” constructed over a 14-beat rhythmic mode, features the powerful self-declaratory words of Malcolm X.

If the octet here is a spin-off of Zankel’s large ensemble, it is also a new band unto itself. Similarly, while A Change of Destiny is related to the prior work Spirits Break to Freedom, it is also a stand-alone project, with fresh arrangements written especially for the Wonderful Sound 8. “It becomes easy to write when I know who I’m writing for,” says Zankel. “And having those players provides such a rich palette. I like a big band, but I prefer a midsize unit because you can hear everything.” On A Change of Destiny, there is indeed much to hear.

Bobby Zankel was born December 21, 1949 in Brooklyn. He first began attracting national attention in 1971, while at the University of Wisconsin as a member of Cecil Taylor’s Unit Core Ensemble and simultaneously working with drummer George Brown’s quartet with organist Melvin Rhyne.

In the early to mid-1970s, Zankel’s underground reputation grew on the New York loft scene, where he performed with the likes of William Parker and Ray Anderson while continuing his apprenticeship with Taylor. In 1975, Zankel moved to Philadelphia to raise his family and expand his artistic vision without heed to commercialism or the trends of the times. He has performed and recorded with such diverse masters as Johnny Coles, Odean Pope, Ralph Peterson, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Oliver Lake, and Marilyn Crispell, among others. Zankel continued working occasionally with Taylor for the remainder of the pianist’s life.

The saxophonist became a devoted son to his adopted city, working with several generations of the finest of Philadelphia jazz musicians. In 2001, Zankel founded the jazz advocacy and education nonprofit Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, Inc., and established an eponymous 18-piece big band as its centerpiece. Composers from Muhal Richard Abrams to Rudresh Mahanthappa have written for the ensemble. All of this creative work has been balanced with 32 years of teaching in the Pennsylvania prisons.

The Bobby Zankel Wonderful Sound 8 will perform at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church, 15 Mt. Morris Park (at 122nd Street), NYC, on Friday 10/20, a performance curated by Craig Harris; and at the Painted Bride Art Center, 5230 Market Street, Philadelphia, on Saturday 10/21. 

Ian Shaw | "Greek Street Friday"

Multi-award-winning singer-songwriter Ian Shaw announces the release of his new studio album ‘Greek Street Friday’ and shares the first single ‘To Be Held’ with its accompanying video. The album will be released on CD and digital on September 1st via Ian’s own label Silent Wish Records, with the vinyl to follow in the autumn.

Soulful, funky and bold, these new songs draw inspiration from Shaw’s early musical and lyrical influences — Bowie, Steely Dan, Al Jarreau, early Elton John, Billy Joel – to create 11 autobiographical portraits of people and places: 1980s London, New York, loving and losing, basement bars, poets, friendships, lovers, near-escapes and far-away places.

‘Greek Street Friday’ will see its inaugural performances at four shows over two days on Thursday 31st August and Friday 1st September 2023, at Ronnie Scott’s in London.

As an “utterly brilliant” (Time Out) mainstay of the British music and comedy circuit, Ian has never been one to conceal an often-outspoken view on injustice and equality and details his personal experiences for audiences to share. ‘Greek Street Friday’ sees him do so with typical poetic frankness, as well as pay homage to friends and icons, and muse on our place in a complicated world. Whilst the album’s main focus is a collection of partially autobiographical vignettes, Ian has also chosen to include a new take on a favourite song from one of his musical idols, ‘Blinded By The Hunt’ by Rickie Lee Jones.

The first single, ‘To Be Held,’ has its title inspired by a Truman Capote interview with Dick Cavett, and which later expands into a beautiful tribute to lost friends, the power of connections, imperfections and navigating the strangeness and beauty of being alive on what Ian describes as “this beaten-up planet of ours”.

Expanding his jazz foundations to the realms of blues-rock and pop, ‘Greek Street Friday’ brings to mind shades of classic 21st century songwriters such as Little Feat, Steely Dan, Randy Newman, and of course Rickie Lee Jones. Co-written and produced with Jamie Safir (Kylie, Birdy, Will Young), and recorded at Livingston and Cowshed Studios, the album features an all-star band of session players, including drummer Ian Thomas (George Michael, Van Morrison, Céline Dion), guitarist David Preston (Melody Gardot, Curtis Stigers) and saxophonist Iain Ballamy (Everything But The Girl, Hermeto Pascoal, Loose Tubes).

Ian’s “smart and soulful show” featuring “the quirks and character tics of everyday living” (The Guardian) will be out in full force at one of London’s most iconic venues on August 31st and September 1st. Taking Ronnie Scott’s stage for a series of matinee and evening performances, these unmissable shows will be packed with witty anecdotes and stories, as Ian performs the record with his full band of seasoned musicians.

Kavita Shah | "Cape Verdean Blues"

Award-winning vocalist, composer, and educator Kavita Shah’s latest album, Cape Verdean Blues, a cul- mination of a diasporic quest to find a spiritual home, will be released September 15, 2023 on the new global music label Folkalist Records. The carefully curated album of traditional Cape Verdean mornas and co- ladeiras is also a tribute to the charismatic and unapologetically individual Cape Verdean vocalist Cesária Évora, and a love letter to her breathtaking archipelago and its welcoming people. Resonating with the music’s language of loss, Shah, herself the daughter of immigrants, spent several years conducting ethno- graphic research on the island of São Vicente. On Cape Verdean Blues, Shah’s collaboration with Évora’s longtime bandmates (including master guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Bau), and her bold self-possession have enabled her to achieve a rare feat: creating a world music album that feels like home.

At the heart of the 12-song album is “sodade,” an idiomatic word that doesn’t have a strict English definition, but connotes a melancholy sense of transience that permeates Cape Verde, its music, and its free-spirited island population. “In this paradise in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I found a sense of home that has eluded me for much of my 37 years,” Shah says. She continues: “When I look back, I realize that upon hear- ing Cesária’s voice nearly a decade ago, she was summoning me down a path I must continue walking in search of sodade.”

Shah is a global citizen and cultural interlocutor whose work involves deep engagement with the jazz tradi- tion, while also addressing and advancing its global sensibilities. She is a lifelong New Yorker of Indian origin hailed for possessing an “amazing dexterity for musical languages” (NPR). Shah speaks 9 languages—in- cluding Portuguese and Cape Verdean Kriol—and incorporates ethnographic research into her original mu- sic. She has researched traditional music practices in Brazil, West Africa, East Africa, Turkey, and India. To support her work, Shah has earned grants from the Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America, Asian Cultural Council, and New Music USA. Shah holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Harvard, and a Master’s in Jazz Voice from Manhattan School of Music.

To date, Shah’s projects include Visions (2014), co-produced by Lionel Loueke; Folk Songs of Naboréa, which premiered at the Park Avenue Armory in 2017; and Interplay in duo with François Moutin, which was nominated in 2018 for France’s Victoires de la Musique for Jazz Album of the Year. Shah regularly performs her music at major concert halls, festivals, and clubs on six continents.

Shah first heard the voice of Cesária Évora as a 20-year-old college student in Cambridge, MA. Her father had died unexpectedly two years earlier, and three of her four grandparents had passed since his death. As an only child, these losses left her with very few tangible ties to her native culture. Months later, she was conducting ethnomusicology research on Afro-Brazilian music in Salvador, Brazil, where she began to see how marginalized people looked outside their environment to find connection. “They found solidarity with Black people’s plight during the American civil rights movement and liberation movements across the African continent,” Shah says. “As a member of a diaspora, I related to that. I began to seek to elevate my con- sciousness through connecting outside my immediate surroundings.”

While living in Brazil, Shah had the opportunity to hear Cesária perform live. #What struck me about her was that she was wholly herself. She was barefoot, smoking, drinking, she wasn!t overly smiling or entertaining— she was just delivering the songs,” Shah recalls. “As a person of color, to see a black woman whose main power was her authenticity was transformative. She changed my life.”

Shah ended up visiting Cape Verde in 2016—after Cesária’s death—and it would be a trip brimming with serendipitous events. Through mystical coincidence, she ended up befriending Cesária’s musical director and guitarist Bau. The pair instantly discovered an intuitive musical chemistry, and informal jam sessions led to live performances. In 2018, Shah returned to Cape Verde after being awarded a grant by the Jerome Foundation to formally research and study its music and culture. During this time, she deepened her friend- ship with Cape Verde’s legendary classical composer Vasco Martins who penned the Cape Verdean Blues compositions “Um Porta Aberte” and “Situações Triangulares.”

Cape Verdean Blues organically grew organically out of Shah and Bau’s casual studio sessions originally intended to document their repertoire. The album features members of Cesária’s band, including percussion- ist Miroca Paris, and Cesária’s mentee and acclaimed vocalist Fantcha. It was recorded in Mindelo, Lisbon, and New York, and includes traditional repertoire in Cape Verdean Kriol, a newly-penned original written to lyrics by another legend, Morgadinho, a Brazilian classic, and an Indian folk song in Gujarati, Shah’s moth- er tongue.

Shah painstakingly studied the repertoire’s distinctive phrasing, but she also invigorates the program of songs with fresh individuality. Trained as a jazz singer, Shah elegantly expands the songs with sensual vocal improvisations. She weaves in vocal textures, and mouth percussion creating lush, enchanting soundscapes with almost minimal orchestration. On the album’s title track— written by hard bop jazz pianist and composer Horace Silver (“Cape Verdean Blues”), whose dad was born on Cape Verde—she vocalizes the song’s instrumental parts.

Freddie Bryant | "Upper West Side Love Story"

With a beautiful new music video (combining nostalgic images with modern-day in-studio performance footage,) an expansive interview feature and more media coverage on the way, composer, lyricist and guitarist Freddie Bryant continues to lay the groundwork for the recent release of his ambitious double CD ‘Upper West Side Love Story’.

Inspired by Bryant’s first-hand experiences as he witnessed the the gentrification of the Upper West Side, Bryant has crafted a confident and profound work of art - deep, textured and resonant - written from the perspective of someone, from childhood to adulthood, navigating the simple joys, increasing confusion, and, ultimately, the simmering resentments of growing up in a neighborhood that is changing before his very eyes.

At times a wistful valentine and at others a melancholy break-up note, the song cycle is ultimately a complicated love letter to the home Bryant lived in for fifty-four years, from birth until 2019, when he moved to the Bronx.

Bryant’s new single, ‘His Bed is a Box’, out today, is a haiku which reflects on the sad reality of homelessness. In his song notes, Bryant comments: The dark side…coincided with a crisis of homelessness which we seem to still be dealing with amongst the new and incomprehensible wealth that defines gentrification today. It’s dedicated to our neighbors that we see, or try not to, as we go about our daily life.

How did it come into being? Thank you! There were a few stages: 2019 a Grant from Chamber Music America, 2020-2021 writing the lyrics and music during the Covid quarantine, 2021-2022 rehearsing and premiering the music in concerts in the Northeast, finishing the studio recording and 2023 finally releasing the music to the world! In terms of the idea and concept the impetus came from being forced out of our family apartment we lived in for 54 years. It was a struggle that got me thinking about my life, family, friends, upbringing, playgrounds, music and then also the bigger picture of the history and culture of the neighborhood and how it has changed over the years. For me the creative process in music, with lyrics and without, always comes from feelings and emotion and this project had so much to inspire me. I started with the words and three months later after the lyrics were finished came the music – that took a year. I let it grow organically and in the end it took shape in a 16 song suite in two parts – a double CD with 92 minutes of music, like a show, musical or mini-opera. What I’m really happy about is that it works as individual songs in any order and it can also take you through an engaging story from start to finish.

Musicians Featured:

• Carla Cook - vocals
• Regina Carter - violin
• Gwen Laster - viola
• Akua Dixon - cello
• Steve Wilson - alto/soprano sax and alto/concert flutes
• Donny McCaslin - tenor/soprano sax
• John Benitez - bass
• Alvester Garnett - drums
• Freddie Bryant - guitars and vocals

New Music Releases from Buddy Rich, George Freeman, Tyshawn Sorey and Jeff Bradshaw

Buddy Rich’s “Birdland” LP To Be Re-Released On Limited Edition Translucent Red Vinyl 

Lightyear Entertainment and Lobitos Creek Ranch, in association with Scabeba Entertainment and the Buddy Rich Estate, have announced the release of a special limited-edition version of the best-selling live album “Birdland” featuring Buddy Rich and his Killer Force Band at the peak of their performing years. The new release will be a 180-gram audiophile translucent red vinyl collector’s edition. It will be released July 21 through Virgin/Universal Music Group and will temporarily replace the original black vinyl version, which has sold out after multiple re-pressings. The “Birdland” album was seen in the Academy Award winning film “Whiplash,” in the hands of the young star Miles Teller, who played an extraordinary drummer who idolizes Buddy Rich. Cathy Rich, CEO of Scabeba Entertainment and Buddy’s daughter, was a consultant on the “Whiplash” film. She is currently on tour with her Buddy Rich Big Band Machine, featuring drummer Gregg Potter.  The original black vinyl version of “Birdland” was released in 2015.

George Freeman – Good Life

Guitarist George Freeman has given his music to the world for many decades – a fantastic live player who still makes magic on the Chicago scene, and a recording artist who's gotten the chance to cut plenty of records over the years, but rarely in a top-shelf setting like this! The lineup is an all-star one – with Joey DeFrancesco on organ, Christian McBride on bass, and either Carl Allen or Lewis Nash on drums – great players, but who also have the maturity to really give George the space to open up and do his thing – especially important now that, in his later years, Freeman is less of a sonic monster than he was in the 70s, yet maybe even more of a sensitive soloist overall. Titles include a remake of his classic "Lowe Groovin" – plus "Mr D", "Up & Down", "The Good Life", and "Sister Tankersley". Dusty Groove

Tyshawn Sorey – Continuing

A really moody album from drummer Tyshawn Sorey – one that features a straightish jazz approach, but on really long songs that take a form that's all their own! The set's a trio date – recorded with Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass – but the music is hardly standard piano trio fare, as there's a sense of pacing and spacing that really gives the record a unique vibe – something that's maybe not that much of a surprise, given how unique Sorey's music can be! Titles include "Reincarnation Blues", "Angel Eyes", "Seleritus", and a great reading of "In What Direction Are You Headed" – which was penned by Harold Mabern, and initially done on Lee Morgan's last album. Dusty Groove

Jeff Bradshaw – 20

One of the most soul-based records we've ever heard from trombonist Jeff Bradshaw, and one of the best as well – a rock-solid set that really draws on all his many years of making music, and one that's put together with that effortless blend of jazz and soul that makes Bradshaw so unique! At some level, it's almost as if Jeff has perfectly adopted the mantle of jazzy soul from Wayne Henderson during that late 70s moment when Henderson was both working in The Crusaders and doing so much production work as well. But at another, Jeff's a clearly contemporary artist, and really speaks strongly to the best aspect of the neo soul scene – enforced here on collaborations with Eric Roberson, Raheem DeVaughn, Liz Vaughn, Mike Burton, and others. Titles include "How You Gonna Act Like That", "Make Some Time", "Carrie's Bread Pudding", "Young Broke & Brave", "Don't Wanna Wait", "The Maintenance Man", "Destiny", and "Dubai Voices". Dusty Groove

Hilario Durán and His Latin Jazz Big Band Presents Cry Me A River

Hilario Durán brings the full scope of his artistry, the depth of knowledge of musical genres in the perfect storm of big artistry on Cry Me A River. The nine works on this recording are born of Durán’s Afro-Caribbean cultural topography but are also informed by his gifts for bending tradition and infusing his arrangements with unfettered improvisation.

Through the course of the album the Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning Durán actively throws overboard melodic, harmonic, and structural hooks that have become expressively blunted through overuse, building big band charts that bloom in color and texture and atmospheric beauty.

“I have waited almost twenty years to record another big band album,” Durán says. “But there was plenty of preparation for this moment,” Durán reveals. He refers to the four radio broadcasts of his compositions and arrangements with the great WDR Big Band in Koln, Germany. “It was great to showcase my music and to ‘workshop’ some new arrangements... aspects of the craft I learned working with the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna in Habana which I inherited from Chucho Valdés… So much to be grateful for the gift of music… it seemed that the time is right for this new album, Cry Me A River,” Durán muses.

Durán integrates a myriad of genres into his singular style on the album – traversing innovations that have made his music uniquely breathtaking. He points to "Claudia," a song he arranged while he was touring as musical director with Valdés, and features Paquito D’Rivera on alto saxophone, as Dizzy Gillespie’s "Night in Tunisia." "Fantasia Impromptu" is a kind of jazz-meets classical, via Brazil and Cuba, featuring D’Rivera on clarinet. “It is our way of honoring the classics – in this case, Chopin,” Durán says.

Of the title song, "Cry Me A River" Durán says: “Elizabeth Rodríguez is just fantastic on violin. In her solo she plays deep in the Cuban tradition and follows that with an incredible improvisation!” he says. “'Pacá por Juanito' is a tribute to Juanito Márquez,” Durán explains, “He was one of the greatest musicians of Cuba the conductor of Orquesta de la Radio y Televisión in the '60s. I learned how to arrange for big band, by studying his scores for that orchestra.” Another original is "Mambo y Tumbao." “Here, I highlight both traditional forms (mambo) and the revolutionary innovators of Cuban music – the great Bebo Valdés, who invented the ‘batanga’ rhythm, and the influential bandleader Pérez Prado. And of course, 'I Remember Mingus' is a tribute to Charles Mingus, the great composer, bassist, and bandleader. Check out Marc Rogers’ solo here,” Durán says enthusiastically.

One name missing from the performance credits is Yailin Durán, the bandleader’s daughter. “She taught me all about hand-movements… everything I know about conducting,” Durán explains. “I owe the deepest gratitude to her for all my big band music… for Cry Me A River.”

Jason Jackson | "All In"

It’s been a whirlwind from the U.S. Navy to the Billboard top twenty for R&B/jazz saxophonist Jason Jackson. When it comes to music, he’s been all in from the go, inspiring the title of his first album, “All In,” which was released last fall. The second single from the set produced by twelve-time Billboard chart-topper Adam Hawley, “Through The Night,” began collecting playlist adds on Monday.  

Jackson spent ten years performing all over the world as a member of the Navy’s band, playing prestigious venues in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia and Japan. Just prior to completing his service in 2021, he reached out to Hawley, sending him a demo. Upon hearing it, Hawley agreed to produce and write with the sax player who had opened for Brian McKnight, Morris Day and the Time, KC and the Sunshine Band, and Michael McDonald while he was a teenager under the tutelage of longtime James Brown saxophonist Leroy Harper Jr.

Hawley produced Jackson’s 2021 debut EP, “Movin’ On,” that showcased the saxman alongside prominent duet partners Julian Vaughn and Tim Bowman. Last November, Jackson realized a dream when he released his first full-length album, “All In.” “Through The Night” is the latest offering from the Hawley-produced collection.

A soulful midtempo groove written by Jackson, Hawley and keyboardist Caleb Middleton, “Through The Night” is a sophisticated urban-jazz track lit by Jackson’s yearning saxes that portray a fiery sense of urgency and desire.

“When Adam and I set out to write ‘Through The Night,’ we were looking to create something with a sultry R&B groove that would really help the tone of the sax melodies shine. Imagine sitting outside, perhaps by a fire or on the beach, on a warm but crisp summer night. You’ve got a glass of wine in your hand and the love of your life sitting beside you. What would be the perfect soundtrack for that night? How could we put into music what you were feeling in that moment as well as the possibilities of the moments to come? That’s a snapshot of the vibe we were trying to capture,” said Jackson, a Wilmington, NC native who now calls Chesapeake, VA home.   

“Through The Night” follows “Workin’ It Out,” the first single from “All In” featuring keyboardist Gino Rosaria that hit Billboard/Mediabase’s top forty. Other noteworthy musicians who play alongside Jackson on the album are Jonathan Fritzén, Chieli Minucci and Mr. Talkbox. However, the sentimental favorite is a special guest appearance by six-time Grammy nominated saxophonist Eric Marienthal, one of Jackson’s mentors.

“I studied with Eric for many years before making my own records. It was so cool to finally get to collaborate with him on ‘On The Move,’ one of the songs from the ‘All In’ project. It was a really cool student-teacher moment,” shared Jackson who is excited about what he’s accomplished in two short years since transitioning from military life to life as a civilian musician. 

“My last month in the Navy was May of 2021. I got out of the military and around two months later, I was breaking into the top twenty on the Billboard chart with the single ‘All The Way’ featuring Julian Vaughn, which came out a month before I left the Navy. Pretty cool transition. No looking back since then!”

BT ALC Band - Hearing The Truth

It’s a powerful sight seldom seen on stage anymore and the sound is larger than life. Thirteen horn players and a five-piece rhythm section fill up the bandstand when BT ALC Big Band takes the stage. Stirring up a soul-powered force of get-down-tonight funk, improvisational jazz, deep-fried R&B grooves and a splash of hip-hop, the mighty and muscular outfit rips through their meticulous charts with passion and precision. Capturing that awesome firepower, mesmerizing magic and imaginative vision on their newly released fifth album, “Hearing The Truth,” is a triumphant accomplishment bolstered by a bevy of guest stars that illumined the nine-track set written, produced and arranged by band leaders Brian Thomas (trombone) and Alex Lee-Clark (trumpet).   

BT ALC Big Band’s lineup includes Grammy-winning trumpeter Bijon Watson, tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker (Arturo Sandoval), guitarist Jeffrey Lockhart (Berklee College of Music), and drummer Dean Johnston (Neighbor, Club D'elf).

It was a packed house when the Boston-based big band recently played their album release concert at SoundCheck Studios. The crowd was on their feet dancing the entire time to the retro soul sounds of vintage jazz-funk that mimicked the swinging 1940s, sounded like the 1970s, and felt like the present day by confronting the societal and political issues of today head on – from media misinformation to civil unrest, from national division to out-of-control inflation and rising homelessness.

“Hearing The Truth” was several years in the making. The inherent difficulties of gathering a big band during a pandemic should be obvious, what with social distancing mandates and all those wind instruments. Yet Thomas and Lee-Clark found a way to lay tracks, first remotely and then in small groups. Eventually, when restrictions eased and the full big band was permitted to get together to unleash their vim and vigor, guest stars were added to the tracks. G. Love (G. Love & Special Sauce), John Medeski (Medeski Martin & Wood), Alan Evans (Soulive), Adam Deitch (Lettuce), Karl Denson (The Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, The Greyboy Allstars), two-time Grammy winner Eric Krasno, Nigel Hall (Lettuce) and Eric "Benny" Bloom guest on the project.

It is rare to hear a band capable of channeling James Brown & The J.B.’s, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Wu-Tang Clan on one record while infusing their own distinctive brand of jazz-funk. BT ALC Big Band pulls it off with aplomb on “Hearing The Truth.”

Cuts from the collection were quickly added to Spotify and radio playlists at home and abroad – from the BBC Radio 6 Music to Takoma, Maryland’s WOWD. Locally, the Boston Globe selected the track “What Will You Do?,” featuring Medeski’s dazzling keyboard artistry, as one of the 50 standout songs of 2023.   

BT ALC Big Band consistently maintains a busy concert calendar throughout New England. Audiences are treated to the full throttle, high-voltage experience, a taste of which can be gleaned from these videos from the “Hearing The Truth” album release concert for the songs “Egyptian Secrets” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFe7nzJ-iFo) and “That Sound” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gguIztzGSUc). At over eight minutes per cut, BT ALC Big Band takes full advantage of the opportunity to take their time, improvise and vibe off each other like a seasoned jam band. 

The truth is that there’s nothing like experiencing a big band live or on record. They’ll be back at SoundCheck Studios on September 29 to play a show with special guest trombonist Fred Wesley (James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic) sitting in with the band. BT ALC Big Band reignites the grandeur of the artform, making it relevant in the technological age while fostering dynamic new possibilities for its evolution. If you’re ready to hear the truth, visit https://www.btalc.com for more information.

Mark Dresser - Tines Of Change

“I think of the bass as an orchestra,” writes bassist/composer Mark Dresser in the liner notes for his breathtaking new solo album, Tines of Change. If anything, this is an understatement in regards to the multi-dimensional sonic possibilities that Dresser conjures from the instrument. Through his singular combination of improvisational artistry and innovative adaptations, Dresser seems to discover orchestras within orchestras, crosscurrents of harmonic and multiphonic inspiration that engage in captivating and entrancingly beautiful dialogues.

Dresser has devoted a lifetime of research and performance to expanding the vocabulary of the bass, experimenting with extended techniques as well as with the physical properties of the instrument itself. Intensive though these studies have been, the results are always far from esoteric. He is renowned as one of creative music’s most expressive and inventive artists, whether in his expansive solo playing or in collaboration with such acclaimed collaborators as John Zorn, Henry Threadgill, Gerry Hemingway, Myra Melford, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Tim Berne, Jane Ira Bloom, Dawn Upshaw, Ray Anderson, and countless others. His trio with “hyperpiano” player Denman Maroney and flutist Matthias Ziegler features three musicians who take similarly expansive approaches to their instruments. 

Released via Pyroclastic Records, Tines of Change features a dozen new explorations performed on unconventional four- and five-string basses crafted for Dresser by the Colorado-based bassist and luthier Kent McLagan. The album’s title refers to those basses’ most striking feature, an array of metal tines affixed to a secondary bridge. Like the strings these tines can be plucked or bowed, offering a variety of sounds from the percussive to the ethereal that adds sounds resembling both an African mbira and the stroked rods invented by composer Robert Erickson that Dresser employed on his 2017 release Modicana.

But that’s just one of the modifications that McLagan has made to translate Dresser’s sonic imaginings

into reality. In 2001 he embedded hand-wound individual magnetic pickups into the fingerboard of the bass, one set below the nut and the other at the octave. These additional pickups allow Dresser to sound up to three different pitches on each string, as well as amplify subtle tones and pitches that might otherwise go unheard in a live or collaborative setting.

“I heard micro-details of the instrument when I practiced alone, that got lost once I played with others,” Dresser explains. “That led to a lot of time thinking about how I could make these exciting soft sounds louder. As a bass player, you're relegated to what the realities of the acoustics allow. I realized that I could access the sonic details I was hearing by amplifying the bass differently.”

In large part that desire stemmed from the diverse influences that caught Dresser’s ear early in his development. Three figures stand out as hugely influential, each from a different point on the musical spectrum: Charles Mingus, whose expressive and fervent playing drew a prismatic rage of colors from the bass; Jimi Hendrix, whose ability to sculpt feedback encouraged Dresser to attempt to wield the most unpredictable aspects of his instrument; and Bertram Turetzky, the unparalleled experimental and new music solo bassist whose dynamic virtuosity, eclectic stylistic range and mentorship were crucial to Dresser early on.

“As a young musician, it was as if I had conflicting musical agendas,” Dresser recalls. “I set out to learn how to embrace and integrate them, and make them speak to one another as a single musical identity. Ultimately everything feeds into one another. It’s all music.”

“Prolotine,” the opening track on Tines of Change, is that effort in microcosm, a polyphonic dialogue between the disparate voices of Dresser’s bass. Arco moans give way to pizzicato hammering, shimmering overtones resound from deep, echoing scrapes. “Tynalogue” plunges into the sub-audio range of the tines, resonating below the range of hearing with percussive beats that are felt deep in the body. 

Each piece reveals new potentialities, profound riches unearthed from bold explorations – from the deep harmonic sonorities of “Harmonity” to the stark, crystalline elegance of “Melodine.” On “Gregoratyne” Dresser bows the tines, conjuring auroral patterns that evoke the preternatural singing of Gregorian monks. “Narratone” delves into guttural sounds that at times evoke the overtone-rich tradition of throat singing.

Though it arrives as the result of a significant period of reflection and invention, Tines of Change can’t be considered the “culmination” of Dresser’s solo explorations. As always, he continues to evolve and broaden his musical possibilities and compel open-eared listeners with previously unimagined, deeply felt invocations. 

“I realized that the bass has so many different and distinct voices,” he says. “I wanted to be able to access them and make them speak to one another. What I’m trying to do with all of these techniques is expand what I hear and feel. It's always about trying to find something that registers to me as musical and expressive and something that I want to listen to. I’m driven by the larger impulses of what is musical.”

Mark Dresser is a Grammy nominated, internationally renowned bass player, improviser, composer, and interdisciplinary collaborator. At the core of his music is an artistic obsession and commitment to expanding the sonic, musical, and expressive possibilities of the contrabass. He has recorded over 150 albums.

Raymond Scott Reimagined

Violinjazz Recordings, the label of acclaimed Grammy-nominated musician Jeremy Cohen, principal violinist and founder of Classical Crossover specialists Quartet San Francisco, has announced the release of ‘Raymond Scott Reimagined,’ an unprecedented new collaboration teaming Quartet San Francisco with accomplished Grammy/Emmy Award-winning composer, producer and arranger Gordon Goodwin and revered Grammy-winning a cappella group Take 6.

The 14-track collection, which includes Goodwin’s fresh arrangements of eight Scott classics, including mainstays “Powerhouse,” “Twilight in Turkey,” “Huckleberry Duck,” “The Quintette Goes to a Dance” and “In an 18th Century Drawing Room,” also introduces an entirely brand new composition, “Cutey and the Dragon,” which was crafted from an unfinished sketch Scott made in 1982 with Goodwin completing the composition in a manner that honors the great composer’s style and verve.

The album, available for pre-order at Violinjazz Recordings, also contains several interstitials of Raymond Scott’s voice, along with spoken word from audio historian Art Shifrin and Grammy-winning composer/conductor John Williams, excerpted from the documentary film, ‘Deconstructing Dad’ (directed by Raymond’s son, Stan Warnow), has been two years in the making but, in actuality, is a journey of nearly 50 years.

Cohen, the project’s Executive Producer, explains, “I grew up during an era when a simple turn of the television dial could bring one's world from Leonard Bernstein to animation and cartoons. Escape, creativity, and whimsy fueled my imagination where animation offered a humorous view of the world. As a kid studying classical violin, I was fascinated by Carl Stalling's incorporation of iconic classical music into the Warner Brothers cartoon soundtracks.”

“Raymond Scott, who never actually wrote music expressly for animation, was widely quoted in Merrie Melodies cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy and pals. Scott’s music sat right alongside the world's most recognizable classical music and became part of the soundtrack of my imagination. Scott's ‘Powerhouse’ brings musical shape to emotions.”

“In the 1990s, I was introduced to Raymond Scott with the album ‘The Music of Raymond Scott: Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights’ (Columbia, 1992, Irwin Chusid, producer) and let's just say that at that moment, the lantern was lit for a longstanding quest. Scott’s music found its way into arrangements for my group, Quartet San Francisco. We found boundless passion and energy for bringing this music to our audiences.”

While the basis of the album would be an alliance between Quartet San Francisco and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Jeremy and Gordon decided to engage a variety of ensembles to partner with the string quartet. These include pairing the string quartet with the big band on “Powerhouse,” “The Quintette Goes to a Dance,” “Twilight in Turkey,” and “Cutey and the Dragon,” incorporating a smaller ensemble of three horns on “Toy Trumpet” and a saxophone quintet on “Yesterday's Ice Cubes.” Two pianos enhanced “Huckleberry Duck” with the gorgeous vocals of Claude V. McKnight III, Mark Kibble, Joel Kibble, Dave Thomas, Alvin Chea and Khristian Dentley (of the group Take 6) joining on “In an 18th Century Drawing Room” and “Serenade.” The results are spellbinding.

Gordon Goodwin, co-producer, composer, arranger, and bandleader of The Big Phat Band, recalls his introduction to the iconic composer and approach to the project, “I took a deep dive into the music of Raymond Scott when I was working as a composer for Warner Brothers Animation. His music made quite an impact on me, so when Jeremy approached me about collaborating on a project featuring Scott’s music, the answer was an immediate and enthusiastic yes!”

“There is a long list of great Raymond Scott songs from which to pick, but we knew that were some tunes we had to include, such as ‘Powerhouse’ and ‘Toy Trumpet,’ but we were excited when the Raymond Scott Archives presented us with an unfinished lead sheet to a song called ‘Cutey and the Dragon’ that Scott was working on with, and for, his granddaughter Kathy. They asked if I wanted to arrange it, but as I examined the lead sheet, I realized that it really wasn’t a finished composition, but ­­rather a work in progress. So the Scott family gave me the honor of finishing the composition. This allows us to present something rare—a previously unheard composition by Raymond Scott.”

“Another highlight was “Twilight in Turkey,” which features Don Williams on timpani, along with Wade Culbreth on mallet percussion. This is special because Don’s father Johnny Williams was the drummer for the Raymond Scott Quintette. He is also the father of film composer John Williams. Don was able to allow us the use of his father’s cowbell and tom toms, so this track has a direct and unique connection to this music’s creator.”

“When we considered the vocal component for this music, there was really only one consideration. Take 6 has set the bar for a cappella singing over the past three decades, and I knew that their sound and versatility would make for a distinctive contribution.”

A distinctive collaboration is quite the understatement. Between the three main collaborators, QSF, Goodwin and Take 6, they’ve earned 60 Grammy nominations, scoring 12 wins. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the size and scope of Reimagined as two dozen best-in-class musicians amplify the sound and vision including Wayne Bergeron (trumpet), Ray Brinker (drums), Joey De Leon (percussion, congas, bongos), Justin Smith (guitar), Andy Waddell (guitar), Kevin Axt (bass), Sal Lozano (alto sax), Brett McDonald (alto sax, piccolo, clarinet), Brian Scanlon (tenor sax), Thomas Luer (tenor sax), Jay Mason (baritone sax), Daniel Fornero (trumpet), Aaron Janik (trumpet), Dan Savant (trumpet), Andrew Martin (trombone), Charlie Morillas (trombone), Francisco Torres (trombone), Craig Gosnell (bass trombone), Wade Culbreath (marimba, vibes, xylophone, cowbell), Meredith Clark (harp) and Don Williams (timpani, tom-toms) with Goodwin on piano and tenor sax and esteemed accompaniment by the other three virtuosos in Quartet San Francisco, Joseph Christianson (violin), Chad Kaltinger (viola) and Andrés Vera (cello).

Also in the mix is 7-time Grammy-winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones, who’s recognized for her work with Kronos Quartet, Chanticleer and Rosemary Clooney and whom Cohen’s worked with on previous projects including Pacific Premieres: New Works by California Composers. For Raymond Scott Reimagined, Jones recorded the joint sessions at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound, the famed studio on George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, California. Additional recording took place at Dragonfly Creek Recording in Malibu and Lake Balboa Sound in Los Angeles.

Reimagining one of the all-time greats is a gargantuan undertaking but one ripe to cross all boundaries of time and space and one meant for the stage. To celebrate the release of the album, Quartet San Francisco, along with Gordon Goodwin and some of the key members of The Big Phat Band, including Wayne Bergeron on trumpet and Andrew Martin on trombone, will perform live at Yoshi’s in Oakland, California on Sunday, June 11. The 90-minute show will feature select cuts from the new album as well as favorites from each group’s repertoire. Tix on sale now.

Evenings At The Village Gate - John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy

In the summer of 1961, John Coltrane headlined at the celebrated music venue, the Village Gate. With a lineup of musicians that included McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, Elvin Jones, and the fiery playing of Eric Dolphy, Evenings at the Village Gate captures the creative and transformative spirit that sprang from the pairing of Coltrane and Dolphy, and the evolving short-lived quintet.

Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy will be released globally July 14 on Impulse! Records/UMe. The first track from the fabled performances, “Impressions,” is available now and you can listen to the track and pre-order the album here. You can also order a special edition orange vinyl variant here.

Recently discovered at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the recordings on this album—recorded by engineer Rich Alderson as part of a test of the club's new sound system—were seemingly lost, then found, and then disappeared again into the vast sound archives of the Library for the Performing Arts. The tapes’ circuitous route over several decades seemingly mirrors Coltrane's ongoing musical journey in August of 1961.

Recorded during Coltrane’s month-long Village Gate residency with his quintet (often with a revolving cast of musicians), the album consists of eighty minutes of never-before-heard music. It offers a glimpse into a powerful musical partnership that ended much too soon – Dolphy sadly passed away three years later and this recording is the only live recording of their legendary Village Gate performances. In addition to some well-known Coltrane material (“My Favorite Things,” “Impressions,” and “Greensleeves”), there is a breathtaking feature for Dolphy’s bass clarinet on “When Lights Are Low,” and the only known non-studio recording of Coltrane’s composition “Africa,” that includes bassist Art Davis.

Evenings at the Village Gate showcases the poignant, brief relationship between John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. Coltrane first met Dolphy in Los Angeles and, when Dolphy moved to New York in 1959, they renewed their friendship. They recognized many of the same analytic and driving qualities in each other. Both came of age at the height of bebop, both were deeply interested in harmony and emotive expression and both employed vocal-like effects and a wide emotional range in their playing. The combination of their signature sounds—Dolphy's distinctively bright, sharply-stated voice set against Coltrane's darker, slurred phrasing—is a unique and evocative feature of their historic run at the Village Gate.

Accompanying the release are essays from two participants from those evenings at the Village Gate, bassist Reggie Workman and recording engineer Rich Alderson. Additionally, historian Ashley Kahn and jazz luminaries Branford Marsalis and Lakecia Benjamin offer valuable and insightful essays on the recordings.

Maci Miller | "Nine"

In the field of numerology, the number nine is connected to wisdom and experience. As Philadelphia-based vocalist Maci Miller writes in the liner notes for her new album, Nine, “The number nine is significant because it's closely associated with the spirit, with spiritual growth, inner awakening and self-realization. It symbolizes a lifetime of learning and is the universal number for love and for hope. It represents patience, harmony, friendship, strength and unity.”

Whether you believe in the mystical properties of numbers or not, there’s no mistaking the relevance of those qualities to Miller’s stunning new album. Nine is the singer’s second release following a nearly decade-long hiatus to focus on adopting and raising her daughter, Ruby, a period that certainly resulted in a wealth of personal growth and realization. The album also arrives on the heels of a period of near-universal turmoil on the planet, making Miller’s message of universal love a vivid spiritual antidote. 

Already a compelling song stylist who combines wide-ranging influences into a entrancing and unique voice all her own, Miller emerged from this period of reflection with a rejuvenated passion for songwriting and a mission to explore the theme of universal love in all its vibrant and complicated forms. She’s a beguiling storyteller with a singular ability to embody a lyric, whether the emotion calls for tenderness or sensuality, heartbreak or joy. 

Perhaps most importantly, Nine is the number of musicians that Miller and producer/ pianist/writing partner Aaron Graves have assembled for this project. The stellar ensemble represents a who’s who of the thriving Philly jazz scene – the pair are joined by bassist Mike Boone, tenor sax living legend Larry McKenna, Victor North on soprano sax, and drummers Byron Landham, Leon Jordan Sr., and Josh Orlando. The number is rounded out by special guest trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, who is granted honorary Philadelphian status for his appearance on “The Nearness of You.”

“The jazz scene in Philadelphia has such a high caliber of players,” Miller says. “But what I really love is that it's such a warm community. I felt embraced and supported right from the beginning.”

Originally from Harrisburg, PA, Maci Miller was born into a musical family. Her great-grandfather was a Russian Jewish violinist who immigrated to the United States to perform with the Ziegfeld Follies (family lore has it that he also worked as Eddie Cantor’s musical director in the 20s, though that has yet to be confirmed). Growing up she was drawn to the soulful divas of the day – Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner – whose influence remains in Miller’s gift for imbuing a lyric with soul and drama. 

Her inspiration of the great jazz singers, in particular Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, shines through – Holiday’s rhythmic phrasing, Fitzgerald’s brassy brightness. But Miller absorbs those legendary voices with the pop subtlety of Norah Jones and the soul storytelling of her childhood favorites to arrive at a mesmerizingly personal style, rapturously framed by her wide-ranging songcraft.

Miller’s early career was nomadic, leading her across the U.S. and Asia and to extended residencies in Las Vegas and Thailand. Her frequent trips to perform at the famed Bamboo Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok proved particularly fateful: Miller and her husband adopted Ruby from Thailand, and her new role as a Mom led Miller to put her singing career on hold indefinitely. 

The only music Miller released during that period was Butterfly Moon, a collection of lullabies featuring the late George Mesterhazy on piano. Originally intended just as a gift for Ruby, Miller decided to release the album as a benefit for The Mercy Center in Bangkok, which provides aid for children living with HIV.

Butterfly Moon had been preceded by a pair of more traditional jazz albums: the all original big band session A Very Good Night and Take a Closer Look, a collection of jazz standards and pop covers that also included one of her own original songs. At first, Miller assumed those albums, along with her endeavors as a print model and actress in film (The Sixth Sense) and TV (Law and Order), would constitute her legacy. 

“For years I had no desire to do anything but be Ruby’s mom,” she recalls. “But as she grew up, I realized the music never left my heart.” In 2019 she made her long-overdue return to recording with the gorgeous Round Midnight, a set of standards on which she partnered with NYC-based guitarist David O’Rourke. 

While the events of the next few years put another temporary hold on Miller’s activities, she determined to celebrate the superb musicians that surrounded her in Philly on Nine. During the pandemic, bassist Mike Boone invited her to join him for several of his weekly livestream concerts; it was there that she met pianist Aaron Graves. “We clicked immediately,” she remembers. “Aaron is a musical genius and a very sensitive player who pays attention to every little nuance. We think very much alike, and I’ve loved writing with him.”

Playing into the theme of the album, Graves turns out to be the ninth writing partner that Miller has worked with during her career. She and Graves collaborated on six of the album’s nine (of course) tracks, the pianist providing striking and lush arrangements for Miller’s captivating lyrics and memorable melodies. “Little Bird” grew out of a few lines that Miller sang to coax her pet birds out of their cage, becoming a metaphor for leaving the nest and finding one’s own way in life. “Complicated,” featuring a witty call and response with Larry McKenna, the tense “I Can’t Wait,” and the sultry “Love Me For Who I Am” all contend with the often messy realities of romance.

“Strange is the Night” sets an ominous noir tone to address the societal issues confronting the world, with modern-day echoes of Billie Holiday’s immortal “Strange Fruit.” The album ends with the buoyant “Feel the Music,” serving as a mission statement for the deeply felt album. In addition to the original songs, the album includes a rendition of Chick Corea’s inspirational “High Wire,” the aforementioned standard “The Nearness of You,” and Miller’s new lyric for Cedar Walton’s “Firm Roots,” the title song of the pianist’s 1976 album.

Jazz fusion guitarist Ron Bosse releases "The Afterburners"

When jazz fusion guitarist Ron Bosse starts writing music for an album, he keeps writing, winding up with more songs than he can include on the album. That’s what happened with his “Burning Room Only” album that he wrote with Grammy-winning keyboardist and the project’s producer Jeff Lorber, which was issued last November. The success of the Deep Cat Records album inspired Bosse to release a couple of tunes that were left off the disc that have the same “burning” theme in addition to releasing a few alternate versions of songs from the album featuring prominent and highly esteemed collaborators. Assembled as a six-track EP, “Burning Room Only: The Afterburners” releases on June 30.

The EP opens the way the album opens, with “Bossman.” There are two versions on “The Afterburners,” the first of which spotlights Grammy-winning trumpeter Randy Brecker trading barbs with Bosse’s clean and crisp electric guitar.

“I've been a huge fan of Randy Brecker since I was a student at Berklee College of Music. Since many of the songs on the album have saxophone as another melodic voice, we felt that trumpet would be a great contrast. Jeff (Lorber) and I immediately thought of Randy as we are both big fans. I think he was the perfect choice and his (trumpet) voice really brings an element to this song that takes it to a different place. Not only does he help add punch to the melody I wrote, but he also adds these beautiful ambient soundscapes via his solos that remind me of some of the old fusion stuff Miles Davis did,” said the Boston-based Bosse, who plans to release this version as a single.

The set closes with a version of “Bossman” that highlights drummer Lil’ John Roberts (Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Elton John).

The EP also contains two versions of “Enter The Burn,” a jazz-rock rocket ship careening at dazzling speed requiring exceptional dexterity. The first version features keyboardist Derek Sherinian while the second take showcases guitarist Norwood Pearson.

Israeli guitarist Oz Noy guests on a different version of “Rumble Strip” from what appears on the album. Cruising along a funky mid-tempo groove bolstered by robust horn section parts, the guitar work exhibited is masterful from Bosse and his special guest.

“I learned about Oz's playing about three years ago and was immediately impressed. He really has carved out a unique and individual voice as a guitarist. He has this fantastic combination of jazz, fusion and blues in his playing that is truly distinctive. I thought Oz would be the perfect choice for ‘Rumble Strip’ because his sound is a great contrast to my sound. Oz has a bright tone with a hint of distortion that is very edgy whereas mine is a clean tone and a little darker sounding. Together, they really complement each other, and because they're so different, you can distinctly hear each individual element,” said Bosse. 

Bosse invited Grammy nominated guitar legend Mike Stern to duet on “Zero-G,” a relentless, frenetically paced shredder doused with the fervent force of Bob Mintzer’s (Yellowjackets) wailing sax.

“I specifically decided to include Mike Stern on this project because he is one of my all-time favorite musicians. Mike is this amazingly fiery player who plays with a ton of energy and excitement, and I felt he would be perfect for these tracks. ‘Zero-G’ is an incredibly ferocious tune and extremely challenging on a technical level for guitar. In fact, I've had a handful of world-class musicians straight up tell me that they wouldn't be able to play it due to the technical challenges. This is one of the songs that started with a motif that I designed in order to overcome specific technical challenges on the guitar. I then composed a song around those sections. It's similar to how Bach would write etudes that focused on specific instrumental hurdles and how John Coltrane wrote ‘Giant Steps’ in order to help him play over specific types of chord changes,” said Bosse.

Other noteworthy musicians who perform on “The Afterburners” are horn player and arranger David Mann, drummer Gary Novak, and bassists Benjamin Shepherd, MonoNeon and Jimmy Haslip.  

Bosse loves the sound of two guitarists going toe to toe and he relishes the opportunity to play alongside Stern, Noy and Pearson. The decision to challenge himself by keeping prestigious company recalls a lesson he learned while at Berklee watching a Pat Metheny masterclass.

“Pat (Metheny) said something that may be the single greatest bit of advice that I've used over the years. He said, ‘Always surround yourself with great players.’ When I look at my career, I have consistently done this in every musical situation I've been involved with. It is almost instinctual to me at this point, and it goes without saying that this approach is the best way to consistently push yourself to the next level, which is incredibly important to me,” Bosse explained.

To help set up the EP release, Bosse and Lorber will play two shows in Washington, DC on Wednesday (June 21) at Blues Alley and one show on Friday (June 23) at The Tin Pan in Richmond, VA. Backed by an accomplished quintet made up of Pearson on guitar, saxophonist Mark Zaleski, vibraphonist Will Hudgins, bassist Carlos Sulbaran and drummer Steve Langone, the set list will be composed of most of the songs on “Burning Room Only” along with several classics from Lorber’s catalogue.  

Jazziz magazine named “Burning Room Only” one of 2022’s best albums. It peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz albums chart, generating over 300,000 streams on Spotify, YouTube, Amazon and Apple Music to date. The latest single from the album, “DNA,” was released earlier this month and was one of the most added new singles on the Mediabase chart in its debut week.

“It has a very hypnotic, almost trance-like quality to it. People talk a lot about great songs and what they make them ‘think’ about, but I believe that some great songs don't make you think of anything in particular, but actually make you ‘feel’ something instead. ‘DNA’ always puts me in a serene, peaceful-like state. It's one of those songs that is perfect for when you want to free your mind and experience the world around you,” said Bosse.

 

New Music Releases: Madlib; Janelle Monae; Mario Rusca Trio; J&F Quintet

Madlib - Shades Of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note

A really revolutionary album – both at the time it was released, and all these many years later! In a surprising nod to the younger generation, Blue Note opened the door to Madlib – already making a name with his array of great projects at the start of the century – an early part of his legacy of bringing in lots of jazz energy to hip hop production! The album wasn't the first effort of this nature, but certainly set a new standard – one that so many others have tried to match over the years, but never got this right. The set's got a fair bit of live jazz work – in the mode of Madlib's Yesterdays New Quintet project – mixed with all sorts of cool production elements too. We love the vibes of Ahmad Miller especially in the lineup – and titles include reworks of "Montara", "Song For My Father", "Footprints", "Stepping Into Tomorrow", "Peace/Dolphin Dance", "Stormy", "Distant Land", and "Slim's Return" – plus the original "Funky Blue Note".  ~ Dusty Groove

Janelle Monae - Age Of Pleasure

Janelle Monae took a bit of a rest between this album and her last – but given the results, it feels like she's really recharged her groove in that surprisingly long stretch! Not that Janelle needed recharging at all – but there's something here that sets the record apart from earlier chapters in her career – and not in a commercial way, or something that feels like a sidestep – maybe just a bit like Sade after the first few records – able to space out her creative activity, and always keep us wanting more! There's maybe a more down to earth approach here than before – but at a level that makes the whole thing feel more heavenly overall – and Monae works with guests who include Sister Nancy, Seun Kuti, and Grace Jones – on titles that include "The Rush", "The French 75", "Float", "Black Sugar Beach", "Phenomenal", "Ooh La La", "Lipstick Lover", "Paid In Pleasure", "A Dry Red", and "Only Have Eyes 42". ~ Dusty Groove

Mario Rusca Trio - Love Should Never End

A warmly wonderful trio set from the legendary Italian pianist Mario Rusca – a set that's got all the best elements of vintage European jazz sessions from the 70s, from the instrumentation right down to the production! Rusca's a lyrical master on the keys of the piano – swinging at all times, but also letting loose with flowing lines that are overflowing with color – given some nice support by Maxx Furian on drums and Riccardo Fioravanti on bass, both players who occasionally shape the rhythms with some contemporary inflections, while still letting Mario's magic flow out on the keyboard! Titles include "Love Should Never End", "Mr Rik", "Cool Green", "You Look Good To Me", "Sunny", "Killer Joe", "Wait For Me In The Sky", and "Strollin." ~ Groove

J&F Quintet - Contrast

Originally released in 1976 on the Swiss label Delta Production, Contrast is a highly collectible and very rare example of Swiss Jazz that is now re-issued by BBE Music. Its new release is due in no small part to the diligence, enthusiasm and curatorship of IF Music’s Jean-Claude. With mint copies of the original going for upwards of £350 the release of J&F Quintet’s Contrast is a gift to all serious Jazz heads and collectors. Recorded by founding band members Stefan Schneller, Donat Beer and Toni Schädler, with the addition of drummers Gieri Bievi and Peter ‘Huck’ Hug and bassist Andri A Piorta, Contrast fuses Jazz with music from the Swiss-Romansh traditions to create an absolute masterpiece of a debut album. Surprisingly, Contrast also constitutes the only release by J&F Quintet as the members were subsequently to go their separate ways to work on other projects. It is thanks to Jean-Claude’s determination and ear for great music that we are able to hear this fantastic album. After hearing it played to him at a record fair, Jean-Claude set about tracking down the original members of the band with a view to re-issuing Contrast. Post pandemic he was able to contact the band members who, rather fortuitously, still had the original master tapes. It is from these tapes that the album has been beautifully remastered ready for release on BBE Music.

Hannah Macklin - Mu

What’s Mu about?Mu is about everything: Songs about heartbreak and parting share the album with songs marveling at the scale of the universe.

Mu is a concept from Zen and Chan Buddhism that means: “nothingness” and also, “pure awareness.” The awareness at the source of all things. In Hannah’s words: “There is so much life in every moment. Endless patterns, algorithms and instances repeating and changing and adapting. Spiraling outwards from the source. What source? The source.” In search of the source, Hannah has composed and arranged an undefinable, cinematic album that leads the listener on a winding path through her imagination.

Sonically as well as thematically, Mu is an album of extremes and lofty ambitions. Fragile and delicate vocal and violin textures contrast with crunchy noisescapes and brooding synthesizers. Hannah’s commanding voice shares the spotlight with a string section and is backed by spacious production featuring many acoustic instruments.

Producer Nick Herrera has brought a reassuring chunkiness to this unplugged palette, in particular the head nodding drums that anchor Hannah’s celestial musings . Like a !lm soundtrack or a symphony Mu is best listened to and understood as a whole - it circles back to themes and refrains and re-examines them. Sometimes a song is a song, sometimes it’s a soundscape dreaming of a song.

“When making this album, I had a specific concept for how I wanted the music to sound. I don’t mean in terms of genre... it was more of a visceral, sensory concept which I knew I could only realise by allowing myself to experiment and create simultaneously, believing in my rough ideas enough to grow them, to weave them into stories. I began allowing myself to enter and remain in a very heightened state of awareness, which is a state I have continued to pursue and learnt to enjoy ever since. I let my mind dissolve into blackness each day. From there the most wonderful colours can appear. I have decided to call the album “Mu” to signify the empty chasm I allowed to hold within me whilst these songs were born.”