Pritesh Walia | Hopetown

Jazz guitarist extraordinaire Pritesh Walia has been bubbling under the surface of wider public awareness and acclaim for several years. His nimble technical skills and deep sense of musicality has been making its mark in performances as a leader and as sideman, while his strides in education—after graduating from Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory–have helped to spread his message in that capacity.

But with the release of Walia’s impressive debut album Hopetown, featuring his guitar trio with bassist Chris Worden and drummer Gen Yoshimura, Walia is poised to go public in a more game-changing way. His long-awaited recording debut, a fresh and deep excursion into the neo-mainstream, clean-toned jazz guitar trio tradition, boldly initiates the discography portion of his career, with yet three other varied albums soon to follow. Earlier this year, he released the self-titled album with his organ trio PSA, and coming soon are albums by his big band and a special strings project.

Clearly, the New Delhi-born and currently Los Angeles-based Walia’s musical life is taking flight with a new fervor and higher profile. Hopetown makes for an auspicious introduction to Walia’s musical voice. Its ripe collection of original compositions—plus a venturesome new arrangement of The Beatles classic “Blackbird”—weave a narrative about the inner and outer life of the artist thus far.

Probably the most disarming and pleasant surprise on the album is Walia’s original, and slightly subversive, reading of “Blackbird,” which takes its place alongside a recent move in jazz to find expressive fodder in The Beatles songbook. Among the key Beatle-maniacal jazz proponents is Brad Mehldau, a strong influence on Walia who helped the guitarist look at The Beatles in jazz context. (He also points to the influence of mentors Miguel Zenon, Jerry Bergonzi, Jason Moran, Ethan Iverson and Donny McCaslin, with whom Walia has performed).

“The Beatles are like the Bach for rock and roll,” Walia comments. “A lot of their tunes almost feel like they have a form of a jazz standard.”

Walia remembers calling out “Blackbird” at a weekly jam session he led with his trio in the Boston club called The Bebop (an ongoing tradition, with Walia’s name still attached). The song “started to get solidified into something new, something that was coming up. I kept reharmonizing it, finding hits and things that I could deconstruct and reconstruct It’s pretty radically revised. I feel either people are going to like it or really hate it,” he laughs.

When it came time to record Hopetown, Walia was insistent that it be in a live way, together in a studio with sight lines between his highly empathetic bandmates. Jazz, he asserts, is “communicative music. I want to have a line of sight to cue a lot of things. Also, there’s something about visually being able to see each other that helps us improvise. There are so many moments in the music where it feels like we’re all on the same page, in the same stream of consciousness.”

Hopetown’s title tune itself stems from a vulnerable transition moment in the young Walia’s life, an epiphany on a bus trip from his work sites in Boston and New York City, passing by an idyllic small town along the route. “It seemed very calm,” he recalls, “like the place I wanted to be at. I had just finished my graduate studies and being a musician in general is tough. But then you add the fact that I’m from India and my parents have no clue about what it means to be a musician—let alone trying to be a musician in jazz. I remember singing pretty much the full melody on my phone.”

The sweet and infectious tune quickly became popular in Walia’s expanding circles, and an NEC ally Henry Godfrey created a big band version of it. “He wants to put it out and I hadn’t even put out the original,” Walia laughs.

Other songs on the album come equipped with back stories or ulterior motives, beyond their musical forms. “Thankful” expresses gratitude in a suitably gospel-hued palette. “Colors” pays musical tribute to his respect for NEC teacher Ben Schwendener, dealing with the post-George Russell’s Lydian concept developed into his book, Organic Music Theory. In the song, Walia explains, “each chord used in the song for this doesn’t have a relationship to each other. It has its own color–each vertical structure in the song. That’s what led me into writing the song.”

A Brazilian undertow tugs at the mischievous “Low Talks,” opening with a bass melody and a skittering, chattering guitar-bass melody in the body of the tune. Walia further explains that “’Low Talks’ is what I would call talking smack about anyone else. In music school and art school, you hear that quite a lot about people. It troubled me so much that as much of a community that jazz is, there’s also enough people trying to battle each other and compete. It’s a terrible position because I feel the only thing we have left is the communal aspect of this music.”

The album’s bittersweet balladic closing tune, aptly entitled “Finishing Up” makes emotional reference to the end of his 10-15 years of education and pondering “where my direction was. That was a song of hope I wrote for myself.”

Hopetown showcases the fact that Walia was very culturally versed. “My parents both being from north and south of India,” he says, “we had different influences of music and culture that I was thrown into and was exposed to. But I think by 15, I was kind of musically exhausted by Indian classical music. You can’t escape it if you live in it. For me, I was like ‘wow, what is this band called ACDC? This is really happening.

“I would start learning these tunes and I only had dial-up internet. I used to just download a Led Zeppelin song and play it, then show up to my Indian classical class and play that riff on the low two strings of the instrument. And my Indian classical teacher would say ‘ouch.’”

Fast forward to extensive jazz studies in Boston and establishing himself as a strong guitarist force, alongside expanding work in music education and the “gear” side of music, and a move to Los Angeles. His initial entry point to jazz, per se, came through guitarists blending tougher rock tones and blues airs with jazz sophistication–especially the Indian music-centric John McLaughlin, as well as John Scofield, Pat Metheny and Al DiMeola.

Consider Hopetown phase one in a musical career teeming with promise for the future. Bringing this music out into the world is also, for the creative restless and forward-leaning Walia, a necessity.

“All the songs in this record have a story, and they are a reflection of my past 15 years or so, in some shape or form. This is a good start.”

Vocalist Youn Sun Nah Teams with Pianist Jon Cowherd on Elles

Award-winning vocalist Youn Sun Nah has released her groundbreaking new album, Elles, arriving via Warner Music Arts.

Long hailed for her style-blurring renditions of artists spanning Tom Waits and Jimi Hendrix to Marvin Gaye and Metallica, Elles sees Youn Sun Nah bringing her remarkable voice and unique perspective to a range of songs that have deeply fueled her own indescribable musical approach, all made famous by such iconic female artists as Björk, Sarah Vaughan, Grace Jones, Roberta Flack, Edith Piaf, Grace Slick, Maria João, and more. Get it here.

Recorded in New York City alongside acclaimed pianist Jon Cowherd (Brian Blade, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright) and producer/musician Tomek Miernowski, Elles spans a wide array of songs either written or performed by notable women artists, from soulful spirituals (“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child”) and psychedelic milestones (“White Rabbit”) to long-overdue takes on “Feeling Good,” “My Funny Valentine,” “I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (the latter performed alone with a treasured music box). Backed by Cowherd’s subtle yet inventive work on a variety of keyboards, Youn Sun Nah reimagines standards both old and new in typically captivating fashion, traversing gender and generation with precision, magic, and intimacy.

“I realized that the songs I’ve recorded over the years, most have been from male singers,” Youn Sun Nah says. “So this time I wanted to honor the female singers I’ve been admiring since a long time, the songs which move me and the voices that touch me.”

Since late 2023, Youn Sun Nah has been celebrating Elles with an international tour that included stops in Finland, Spain, France, Romania, Austria, South Korea and Germany. For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.younsunnah.com/dates.

Youn Sun Nah is among contemporary jazz’s most admired vocalists, an international award-winning singer, songwriter, and performer, hailed by The Guardian for her “seamless” movement “between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity.” The Seoul, South Korea-based artist began her musical journey with piano lessons as a child before singing gospel with the Korean Symphony Orchestra as a teen. A career in musical theatre beckoned but Youn Sun Nah instead chose to pursue her own muse by attending Paris’ Institut National de Musique de Beauvais, Nadia and Lili Boulanger Conservatory, and the CIM, a school of jazz and contemporary music. Youn Sun Nah quickly affirmed herself as an exceptional vocal star, winning prizes at jazz festivals and competitions before truly arriving in 2001 with her debut album Reflets.

A series of increasingly acclaimed albums followed, including 2010’s breakthrough Same Girl and 2013’s Lento, earning her Gold certification in both France and Germany amidst a plethora of honors and accolades.

Along with her growing body of work as recording artist, Youn Sun Nah has performed countless live shows and tours in historic venues and at prestigious festivals across Europe, Asia, and North America, including performances at closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and at the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concerts in Havana in 2017 and at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2022.

Appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2019, Youn Sun Nah made her Warner Music debut that same year with the highly lauded Immersion. Stuck in place by the pandemic, Youn Sun Nah wrote and recorded her first ever collection of all original songs, 2022’s evocative Waking World, marked as always by deep emotional insight and a haunting musical approach bridging pop gestures, folk intimacy, and surprising jazz instrumentations. Now, with the remarkable Elles, Youn Sun Nah continues to explore musical possibilities through her idiosyncratic creativity and deep sense of craft, reaching across boundaries and borders to once again touch something universal and true.

US TOUR DATES

• November 7-9 – Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Davis, CA
• November 13 – Joe’s Pub, NYC

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra celebrates the 100th Birthday of its Legendary Founder with the Album, Centennial: The Music of Thad Jones

March 28, 2023 would have marked the 100th birthday of the legendary trumpeter, composer and bandleader Thad Jones, who passed away in 1986 at the age of 63. Always ahead of his time, Jones had anticipated the occasion by more than four decades, recording “My Centennial” in 1980 with his big band Eclipse.

That piece inevitably makes up part of the repertoire for Centennial: The Music of Thad Jones, the celebration concert recorded by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the now-legendary ensemble that he co-founded in 1966 as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Released via BCM+D Records, Centennial is a vibrant two-album set captured live on stage at the ensemble’s Monday night home for nearly six decades, the iconic Village Vanguard. 

“I always say that we have two things going for us that no other band has,” explains bass trombonist Douglas Purviance, who joined the VJO in 1978 and now serves as its business manager. “That’s Thad Jones’ music and a steady gig at the Mecca of jazz. It’s every jazz musician’s goal to play the Village Vanguard, and we get to do that every week.”

Centennial was recorded in February 2024, during the VJO’s annual anniversary week. Late in 1965, Jones – middle brother of the famed jazz family that also included pianist Hank and drummer Elvin – and the drummer Mel Lewis had agreed to share the helm of a new big band, booking three nights the following February to test the concept on the stage of the Village Vanguard.

The club’s cantankerous owner, Max Gordon, grudgingly acknowledged the Orchestra’s successful debut, reportedly suggesting, “We’ll keep it going until it tapers off.”

Nearly six decades and more than 2,700 Monday nights later, the Vanguard is still waiting. Even after a pandemic-necessitated hiatus the band quickly returned to capacity crowds, continuing a historic tenure that has featured a who’s-who line-up, a pair of Grammy Awards from 17 nominated albums, and eleven “Best Big Band” nods in the DownBeat Critics and Readers Polls.

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra modernized the big band sound as the world changed through the late 60s and early 70s. Jones’ writing and arranging drew upon the inspiration of the two most iconic bands in jazz history, elegantly interweaving the complexity and elegance of Duke Ellington with the fervor and blues roots of Count Basie, in whose band Jones had launched his career. It’s a combination that Purviance calls, “sophisticated yet down home.”

“Thad set the Orchestra up as a small group with a lot of horns,” adds lead alto saxophonist Dick Oatts, the current band’s senior member and artistic director. “The way Thad wrote was just ingenious. It was the future the of the jazz big band tradition.”

With more than 300 compositions now in its book, the VJO prides itself on never repeating the same show from week to week, mixing in a blend of music from throughout its 58-year history. When it came time to honor its founder, however, Oatts decided on a selection that would represent the cornerstones of the band’s identity. “These are the tunes that really put Thad Jones and Mel Lewis on the map,” he says.

The setlist reaches all the way back to the band’s beginnings. “Back Bone,” bookended here by Oatts’ captivating unaccompanied intro and Purviance’s rousing solo turn, was already in the mix for the Orchestra’s debut performance; it opens All My Yesterdays, the essential 2016 release of its earliest recordings. It includes such indelible compositions as the spellbinding ballad “A Child Is Born,” which has become both a jazz standard and a Christmas classic, interpreted by the likes of Bill Evans, Tony Bennett, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Geri Allen. “61st & Rich’It” serves as a tribute to another foundational band member, original Orchestra bassist Richard Davis, who died in September 2023.

The release of Centennial on Temple University’s five-time Grammy-nominated imprint BCM+D coincides with the Orchestra’s establishment as artists-in-residence at the school, bringing members to the school for classes and performances and opening the Vanguard’s doors to students on Monday nights. The partnership continues a longstanding relationship between the VJO and Temple’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. Terell Stafford, director of Jazz Studies and chair of Instrumental Studies, has played trumpet with the Orchestra for more than 20 years, while Oatts is a longtime faculty member.

“The Village Vanguard has essentially become another classroom for our students,” says Boyer College Dean Robert Stroker. “At Temple we’re all about building bridges to the professional world for our students, so this relationship provides an important opportunity to take jazz out of the Ivory Tower and onto the bandstand.”

Oatts’ tenure in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, which began in 1976, is nearing the halfway point of its own centennial. But the saxophonist remains focused on the band’s future, never its past – however historic that past may be. “We’ve all taken on the responsibility to ensure that this legacy is going to stay true for the next hundred years.”

John Alvey | Loft Glow

Drummer John Alvey announces his formidable presence to the jazz world with the release of Loft Glow on Jazz Music City Records. Alvey’s recording debut presents a remarkably assured, but also risk-taking set of straight-ahead postbop jazz, joined by a killer sextet of stalwarts from the increasingly hot Nashville jazz scene: trombonist Roland Barber, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, alto saxophonist Jovan Quallo, pianist Matt Endahl, and bassist Jacob Jezioro. 

Alvey is a native of Nashville, the son of pianist and former Opryland USA conductor Michael Alvey. He grew up, studied, apprenticed, listened, and honed his craft all in the environs of Music City. Loft Glow is a nod to that immersion. “A small studio apartment south of Nashville was my home for a few years about ten years ago,” Alvey recalls. “It was a peaceful period of practicing and listening, a relaxed, focused, and transitional time in my life. This album is a reflection on that time and place, with an emphasis on the solitary, undistracted listening experiences I had there every evening.” 

The album title refers directly to those experiences: “the many lamps I kept on late at night, aglow in the window as seen from the street below my apartment.” 

We can hear how that intensive work paid off on Loft Glow’s combination of band originals and covers of tunes by Alvey’s musical heroes Ron Carter, Benny Golson, and John Stubblefield. The drummer drives the stately suspenseful interpretation of Stubblefield’s “Baby Man” and adds depth, shading, and a Latin tinge to Golson’s “Terminal 1,” giving sharp-eared empathy to smart solos by Endahl, Barber, and Frahm and making his own thoughtful, curiously colored statement on Golson’s tune. Alvey takes a more subtle, but still defining role on Carter’s fun, gospel-inflected “Blues for D.P."

Alvey brings the same level of respect and sensitivity to the album’s original tunes. His deft treatments of Barber’s sweet “Winslow Nocturne” and Quallo’s introspective “June 23” beautifully maintain the balance—so often neglected on drummer-led albums—of firmly outlining the rhythmic shapes while also giving his bandmates maximal room to express themselves. Even on his own tune, the harder-driving “Azure,” Alvey proves himself a careful drummer, injecting the performance with the required energy but never getting carried away (as his dazzling but punctilious solo demonstrates). 

In short, it’s Alvey’s remarkable discipline behind the kit that helps elevate Loft Glow to the polished, eminently pleasurable record that it is. It augurs well for the leader’s, and the musics future.

John Alvey was born February 3, 1985, in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of noted jazz pianist, conductor, and educator Michael Alvey. While growing up in the suburbs of the country music capital of the world, Alvey the younger was nonetheless first drawn to rock music. It was the energy of those artists and songs that led him to the drums, forsaking his father’s piano for them at nine years old. 

But if country music surrounded him and rock inspired him, it was jazz—in the guise of his father’s influence—that guided him. He taught his son how to play drum rolls, encouraged him to check out the great jazz albums, and jammed with him at home. Eventually, they played a gig together, which led to seven years of John’s presence in Michael’s established piano trio at a Nashville restaurant. 

That, in turn, led Alvey to find work with fellow Nashvillians Barber (as well as his saxophonist twin brother Rahsaan), Joel Frahm, and Rod McGaha, and with musicians like Taj Mahal and Sherman Holmes. He’s also been an active freelancer on Nashville’s rich circuit of country, bluegrass, and Americana music, playing with Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley and Sierra Hull. Each was a valuable educational and artistic experience that worked along with those late-night practice and listening sessions to feed the creation of his debut album, Loft Glow. 

Randall Bramblett | Paradise Breakdow

Randall Bramblett is happy to announce the unveiling of his latest single "Round and 'Round The Sun" off his wildly anticipated album, Paradise Breakdown, released via Strolling Bones Records. 

For decades, Bramblett explored the deep corners and outer orbits of American roots music, creating a southern sound that's every bit as eclectic as its maker. That sound reaches a new milestone with Bramblett's thirteenth record, Paradise Breakdown. In discussing his work, Randall says, "My songs are vignettes about everyday joy and pain that came to me over the last few years. An awareness of mortality and the fragility of life has settled in me, and all these songs have grown from those feelings. All the players brought their brilliant skills and love for this music into the sessions. The songs grew from my basement demos into beautiful pieces of a big, years-long puzzle. We called this record Paradise Breakdown because it has the feel of beauty and hope running up against pain and loss."

About the new single, "Round and 'Round The Sun," Bramblett said, "I overheard someone talking about a spiritual experience they had while driving.  Their car filled up with light. This story evolved into a song about the possibilities of seeing a world full of beauty and peace. Maybe it's much sweeter than we knew."

Teaming up with legendary instrumentalists like Tom Bukovac, Steve Mackey, Nick Johnson, and producer/drummer Gerry Hansen, Bramblett cooked up his melting pot of urban swamp-soul and modern roots music in an East Nashville studio. Once those sessions wrapped up, he returned to Athens, Georgia, to finish the record with Seth Hendershot, A.J. Adams, Tom Ryan, and Nick Johnson. The result is a mix of organic performances and electronic textures: an album built for roadhouse dance floors, dark, lonely corners, and the long ride from past to present.

Bramblett is no stranger to accolades; The New York Times declared: "Bettye Levette's Grammy-nominated album contains a set of songs by Randall Bramblett. LaVette sings about humankind as a flawed creation — "You gotta stop and wonder/Baby, why were you born?"— over a sputtering, tumbling Afrobeat groove, anchored like Fela's music by a burly baritone saxophone. Every rasp and break in her voice sounds like one more obstacle overcome." Associated Press concurs, "Imagine a world where musicians play concerts: These songs would have folks on their feet," and Rolling Stone effuses, "Randall Bramblett is one of the South's most lyrical and literate songwriters.

Bonnie Raitt opened her Grammy-winning album Slipstream with his composition "Used to Rule the World" in 2012. The Blind Boys of Alabama covered his song "Almost Home" on their own Grammy-nominated record several years later. Blues legend  Bettye LaVette took things a step further, recording 11 different Bramblett compositions on her 2024 Grammy-nominated record LaVette! , dubbing him "the best writer that I have heard in the last 30 years.".

Paradise Breakdown offers more than the soulful, sobering reflections of a road warrior willing to look at the blacktop stretching out behind him; it's also a snapshot of a man still in motion.

 

Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol.

The acclaimed Miles Davis “Bootleg Series” has spanned years as early as 1955, and as late as 1985, but it has not yet touched 1963 or 1964 – a pivotal period in Miles’ musical evolution and the auspicious beginnings of the Second Great Quintet – until now. Today, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, announce the newest box set in the Miles Bootleg Series out November 8th — Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 which includes all the music made at the 1963 Festival Mondial Du Jazz in Antibes (July 26-28 of that year) and the 1964 Paris Jazz Festival (October 1). The 1963 recordings feature George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams – while the 1964 recordings feature Wayne Shorter’s arrival on tenor saxophone as the final member of the Second Great Quintet.

Miles In France will arrive November 8th as a 6 CD and 8 LP set with more than four hours of previously unreleased music and new liner notes by journalist Marcus J. Moore. A 2LP break-out set, of just the 1964 recordings, pressed on French flag-inspired blue-white-red vinyl will also be available. The release will also be available digitally in its entirety on DSPs. 

Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 Arrives November 8th via Columbia/Legacy Recordings

Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 Arrives November 8th via Columbia/Legacy Recordings

Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 Arrives November 8th via Columbia/Legacy Recordings

Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 was produced by the multi-GRAMMY winning team of Steve Berkowitz, Richard Seidel and Michael Cuscuna (marking one of the last productions for Cuscuna, who passed away earlier this year) and mastered by multi-GRAMMY winning Sony Music engineer Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in NYC.

France was important to Miles on both a professional and personal level, quickly becoming his preferred live market. He played in France more times than any other country outside the U.S. and recorded there frequently. His history in the country goes back as far as 1949 – when he appeared at the Festival International De Jazz at just 22 years old – and as late as July 1991, for a concert in Nice just two months before he passed.

In the early 1960s, Miles came to France having altered the course of jazz. His 1959 landmark album Kind of Blue eschewed hard bop for a modal style that allowed room for a freer type of improvisation – an overcast slow-burner evoking ease and tension. But when compared with the studio version of Kind of Blue, the music coming out of the Quintet in Antibes and Paris had very little room for space and silence. The highs were dramatic and the lows were filled with powerful phrasing – adding fresh perspective to this landmark album in all of jazz.

Miles officially hired the rhythm section of Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums in the Spring of 1963, and they went into the studio in May of that year with George Coleman on tenor saxophone to record the second half of the Seven Steps To Heaven album. Two months later they arrived in Europe, and Downbeat deemed their performances at the 1963 Festival Mondial Du Jazz to be: “superb… [Davis] was in clean, decisive form and at his lyrical best…”

Ron Carter recalls the experience in the new liner notes, adding, “I had never played with anyone like that, of course, and certainly not for this extended period of time. It was just stunning to hear him play like this, play with that intensity, play with that tempo, play with that direction night in and night out and not turn it on to the band and say, ‘Stop that.’ He allowed us to do whatever the chemist allowed his proteges in the lab to do. Take these chemicals I’m giving you guys and see what we come up with. Just call the fire department if necessary.”

Miles would return to the U.S. with a new sense of musical purpose, spurred on by the bands he took to France, reveling in the stages they played. By the time Miles recorded E.S.P. with the Second Great Quintet in 1965, he proved that – despite whatever physical and spiritual challenges he may have endured – he was the barometer by which jazz moved and evolved. Some 60 years removed from these recordings, and more than 30 since his passing, Miles is still the summit and pinnacle, the essence of audacity, the monument of all monuments.

Out Of/Into | Motion 1

The history of Blue Note Records is characterized by a harmonious blend of tradition and innovation. Over the past 85 years, the label has celebrated jazz's rich past while championing its vibrant future, from the rise of hard bop to its commitment to nurturing emerging talent. The all-star collective Out Of/Into, which began as the Blue Note Quintet to mark the label’s anniversary, perfectly embodies this ethos. Featuring pianist Gerald Clayton, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Matt Brewer, the group showcases cutting-edge music while honoring Blue Note’s storied legacy. As Ross succinctly puts it, “The collective keeps the Blue Note legacy alive by being unapologetically true to ourselves.”

On December 6, Out Of/Into will release their debut album, Motion I, featuring seven original compositions by the band members, including the striking lead track “Ofafrii.” This album was recorded during their extensive 2024 tour, where the group honed these improvisational pieces across nearly 40 performances in some of the country’s premier concert halls.

“With so much time on the road, we really aimed to push our boundaries,” says Wilkins. Clayton adds, “We challenged each other to dig deeper night after night. Over two months, the music evolved in every direction—growing both tighter and looser. There was an incredible amount of talent and creativity on that stage.”

Out Of/Into represents five of the most influential voices in contemporary jazz and is the latest chapter in Blue Note’s tradition of assembling all-star ensembles. Throughout its history, the label has formed groups like Out of the Blue, Superblue, New Directions, the Blue Note 7, and the Blue Note All-Stars, featuring trailblazers like Kenny Garrett, Roy Hargrove, and Robert Glasper. Each of these ensembles encapsulated their respective Blue Note era, proving that the label's “golden age” is not confined to a single period but is a continuous evolution of excellence and innovation.

The name “Out Of/Into” reflects this ongoing journey, emphasizing the balance between honoring the past and forging new paths. As Scott explains, “‘Out Of/Into’ signifies the evolution of the Blue Note story and our unique sound.”

Tanya Wills | She

Stepping back into the realm of dating can be an intriguing or irksome conundrum for those who have recently separated, split up, or divorced. With the commitment to your former partner now just a memory, some simply appreciate the joys of dating from afar. That is to say not dating at all. It's this idea that planted the creative kernel for Toronto-area jazz/blues singer Tanya Wills' latest Latin-infused single "That's Love" from her new album She, out now. 

Wills says "That's Love," the follow up single to "Someone To Love," was inspired in part by the culmination of her own marriage and wondering how difficult navigating dating waters nowadays could be. She knew it might not be for her at this time but realized it could be the germ of a fine song. 

The single opens with Latin sonic flavors that could recall Santana's classic "Oye Como Va." From there Wills relays the huge series of questions running sporadically through a person's mind. Is this date going good or not so good? Is there a connection? Will it last? What am I even doing here with this person? 

Guitarist Bill Bridges provides some breezy instrumental work in the bridge as drummer Kevin Coady and bassist Ron Johnston are locked into the airy yet sensuous groove. The narrative In some respects recalls the classic Latin song "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás," better known in English circles as "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" made famous by Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. 

"'That's Love' is from a slightly different outlook on love," Wills says. "I was reflecting on how grateful I am to NOT be in the dating game, and how it could cause one to develop a bit of a cynical attitude toward the 'relationship.' I have several friends who are finding themselves newly single again, and they have stories about their experiences in having to dive into the dating pool." 

Because this might really be love...or isn't

And you might have givin' me your heart...or didn't

Flip a coin, douse the flame, turn the page, or change the game

Roll the dice, it's all the same

That's love 

The single is one of the songs from Wills' forthcoming album She set for an Oct. 4 release. Wills, who performs in the Wintergarten Orchestra in Toronto as well as leading the Tanya Wills Quartet, says the material was written over a 15-year period. Wills worked with her quartet as well as Jordan Klapman and Rob Korb. Unfortunately, the album's recording at Toronto's Inception Sound studio was shelved due to the pandemic. But Wills and her bandmates kept working on it by sending files and ideas back and forth through the internet. A second phase of recording post-pandemic at Toronto's Revolution Recording completed She.

Now with her latest single "That's Love," Tanya Wills should see a huge boost to her career with this lovely Latin-tinged nugget. In short, and to steal a lyric from the single, "That's Love" should be on a loop and leave you ten feet off the ground.

VISIONS JAZZ ENSEMBLE | ACROSS THE FIELD

Although Indiana isn’t usually the first place that comes to mind when considering the finest jazz players in the country, The Visions Jazz Ensemble and their debut album, ACROSS THE FIELD, should make jazz fans take notice. The band comprises Indiana University graduates and is spearheaded by trumpeter SAM BUTLER and tenor saxophonist GARRETT FASIG, both of whom are individually making a name for themselves around the Midwest and beyond. 

Butler is also a composer, arranger and educator based in Indianapolis. He has performed with various ensembles including the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, Sean Dobbins and the Modern Jazz Messengers. He was the winner of the 2023 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Solo Competition, and his debut album Folklore (2023) received positive reviews. JazzWeekly said, “Butler has a sweet bopping tone to his horn, similar to that of vintage players like Kenny Dorham and Blue Mitchell.” He is a recent graduate of the Master’s program at IU, where he was an Associate Instructor.

Fasig is also a composer, arranger, and educator. He has written and recorded music with the Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble, John Raymond Ensemble, Greg Ward Large Ensemble, and the Plummer Jazz Quintet. He has also performed alongside world-class musicians, including Walter Smith III, Oliver Nelson Jr., Dayna Stephens, and Steve Houghton.

They are joined on this recording by other IU graduates NICK RECKTENWALD (trumpet), JEFF PARKER (trombone, bass trumpet), DAN VENTURA (piano), JACOB SMITH (bass), FRANCIS BASSETT-DILLEY (drums), and special guest WYCLIFFE GORDON on trombone on one track.

On ACROSS THE FIELD, Butler and Fasig did a yeoman’s task of turning college fight songs into hip jazz tunes with a modern edge. Before work on the album started, the Indiana Entertainment Foundation conceived and commissioned the idea for a live show. Working in conjunction with The Timeless Music Project, which presents live music performances around Indianapolis, Butler and Fasig came to the attention of the Project by Brent Wallarab, an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at IU and a strong supporter of Butler and Fasig. The two jumped at the chance with each of them choosing and arranging six songs. 

Butler and Fasig chose songs they had some connection to and thought were amenable to modern jazz treatments. They kept the melodies somewhat front and center but provided fresh takes on each tune. The show premiered in October of 2023 at the SILO Club in Indianapolis and was such a hit, that the Entertainment Foundation asked them to record an album of the music. 

Around this time, Wycliffe Gordon had been in town performing with his band and had also enjoyed their music. When he agreed to record one tune, Butler and Fasig jointly arranged “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” the fight song of Florida A&M University, Gordon’s alma mater.

Many of these songs, which were written at least 100 years ago, are based on marches that influenced early New Orleans street music. Butler explains, “A lot of these songs are not that far from the origins of early jazz. We all have a concept of modern marching bands, but once we dug into the music, we started to find a lot of commonalities. It’s more closely related than we thought.” 

The album opens with “Tiger Rag,” arranged by Butler. It was written and first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. Butler took inspiration from Louisiana State University’s arrangement, using a traditional second-line feel and adding a twist of modern harmony and odd phrasing. The second half features classic NOLA-style backgrounds and a solo break during Butler’s solo. 

Other Butler arrangements include “Rocky Top.” The University of Tennessee chose the Osborne Brothers tune for the halftime show of a football game against Alabama. Butler’s twist on the tune features Dan Ventura on piano and Jeff Parker on bass trumpet. “Glory, Glory,” the classic fight song from the University of Georgia, features solos by Parker on trombone and Butler on trumpet. The University of Southern California’s “Fight On” uses multiple musical inspirations, including their “war march” opening that unwinds into a Lee Morgan “Sidewinder” groove and blues form, with solos from Fasig and Recktenwald leading into a big marching band-style finish. The groove of Georgia Tech’s “Ramblin’ Wreck” has a jazz march that lends itself to the classic pairing of muted-trumpet and flute. The whimsical tune features solos from Recktenwald on trumpet and Smith on bass. Butler transforms Notre Dame’s “Victory March” into a waltz featuring solos from Fasig on tenor saxophone and Ventura on piano. 

Fasig’s arrangement of the Naval Academy’s “Anchors Aweigh” turns this classic, traditional march into a lively straight-ahead jazz tune. At the band’s first show, the audience sang along to Indiana University’s “Indiana Our Indiana,” featuring Recktenwald on trumpet. “Across the Field,” a spirited march from Ohio State University, takes a reflective and winding harmonic journey while creatively reimagining the iconic “dogfight” section of this melody. Purdue University’s “Hail Purdue” features some soulful playing by Fasig, who also re-imagines University of Michigan’s “The Victors” as an up-tempo, modal jazz tune. Fasig arranged “On Wisconsin” as a swinging version of the original march, playing the melody in a minor key rather than major.

Butler and Fasig co-arranged “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” from Florida A&M, featuring Wycliffe Gordon on trombone. The arrangement combines aspects of Theodore Metz’s original song, Louis Armstrong’s 1964 arrangement, and a Horace Silver-inspired form and backgrounds.

Although the melodies on ACROSS THE FIELD will be familiar to many, Butler’s and Fasig’s clever, hip jazz arrangements played by musicians with top shelf improvisatory chops make this project truly unique.  

Geneva Renee | Your Tender Kiss

Summer love never sounded more sensual than Geneva Renée’s new single heating up playlists nationwide. The soul-jazz singer-songwriter wrote the Red Mile Music single with David P. Stevens who produced the song featuring saxophonist Marqueal Jordan.

“Your Tender Kiss” was conceived after a sit down in Stevens’ Los Angeles studio. The organic connection between Renée and her producer inspired Stevens to compose the initial track. 

“When Geneva came to the studio that day, her conversation and total vibe gave me an indescribable feeling. The song came to me after that conversation. As she and I began to collaborate, this sensual but tender masterpiece was born. I believe the song resonates with people because of the passionate place it was born from,” said Stevens, who has architected multiple Billboard top ten singles as a writer, producer and artist. 

The next day, Renée returned to the studio, excited to enter the vocal booth to croon the sultry tune set to an R&B groove with a sophisticated adult contemporary meets cool jazz nuance. 

"I was instantly captivated by the intoxicating melody and ambience, reminiscent of the Sade era that I missed so much. While we were in the studio, David encouraged me to channel my emotions by thinking of that one special guy—the one who never said, 'I love you,' but his kiss spoke volumes. When I was alone, I’d always wonder how this man felt about me; but every moment we spent together, my body would instantly respond to his touch, and I knew that our chemistry ran deeper than three words could ever express. In those moments, I was convinced our love was real,” said the Washington, DC-based Renée, a mezzo-soprano blessed with a three-octave voice. 

Instead of writing a vocal bridge to the song, Stevens suggested bringing in Jordan for a saxophone solo. 

“Once I heard ‘Your Tender Kiss,’ I was immediately taken to that place of high desire and tension when you are feeling someone, the chemistry and attraction is mutual, and you cannot wait to kiss them. Geneva's performance takes you there. She has a phenomenal tone that emotes sensuality and she gives everything to a song. I wanted to bring my emotional intensity to the song in a supportive way,” said Jordan, who launched his solo recording career after a lengthy tenure flanking superstar R&B/jazz instrumentalist Brian Culbertson. 

Renée, Stevens and Jordan teamed up to lens a romantic video for “Your Tender Kiss,” which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anCib1Cc94g. 

 “For the video, I envisioned a relatable scene for most busy women. You arrive home after work to relax with soothing music creating the atmosphere. The romantic twist was adding a handsome love interest to surprise me with a bubble bath and sparkling wine. As I dip into the steamy water, take a sip of the rosé, and close my eyes, I’m transported by the sexy saxophone solo as the perfect finishing touch to a tender night of passion,” Renée describes. 

A native of Oxnard, California, Renée attended Howard University where she earned a master’s degree and a doctorate. Elements of classical, jazz, soul, gospel, and pop inform her recordings. Noted R&B producer Dinky Bingham (Patti Labelle, Lionel Richie, New Edition) produced her 2012 debut album, “Beautiful Wonder,” which was led by the empowering single “She Presses On.” Bingham also produced her sophomore release, “Brand New Day,” a 2021 EP. She has shared the stage with Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Shakira, Diana Ross, Maysa Leak and Vanessa Williams, and has performed at internationally televised events honoring Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Renée has graced such prestigious and diverse venues as the Kennedy Center, Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, Blues Alley, The Birchmere, and UniverSoul Circus.     

 

Dan Zinn | Two Worlds

Tenor saxophonist Dann Zinn named Two Roads—his sixth album, released on Ridgeway Records—for the words of poet Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Like the poem’s narrator, Zinn stares down a fork in the road, faced with a choice that will make all the difference. Backing him on this expedition through eight distinctive original compositions is an incendiary, innovative quartet that features Rachel Z on piano, Jeff Denson on bass, and Omar Hakim on drums, with percussionist Brian Rice guesting as well. 

The dilemma Zinn encountered was the result of an accident that damaged his right hand, endangering his ability to play the saxophone (and permanently derailed his flute playing). While the music on Two Roads was recorded before the accident, it provides an enthralling portrait of what was at stake—fork in the road—to continue on this path or another. After seriously considering whether to end his musical career, Zinn decided to persevere. It wasn’t easy—he had to completely rebuild his saxophone to accommodate the loss of motion in his fingers—but ultimately, here he is, with an offering that underscores that fateful choice.

The music is also a bold stylistic move. It explores the wide swath of musical styles that have informed Zinn’s unmistakably original voice as both a composer and a player. The range of ideas is remarkable, encompassing the Nordic folk-jazz of Jan Garbarek (who shares Zinn’s Norwegian heritage), American jazz, East Bay funk, gospel, and electronically processed atmospheres. 

Many of these elements show themselves individually—from the unabashed post-bop opener “Yarak,” to the rollicking, churchy “Pros and Cons,” to the eerie soundscapes that bookend “A Revolution of One.” Yet Two Roads’s deeper revelation is of the leader’s brilliance as a synthesist. Seamless blends like “The Sound of Ice Melting,” with its hard-driving, funky aggression balanced by the longing folklike melody; the pounding Latin rhythms and evocative wordless vocal (courtesy of Jeff Denson) on “Two Words”; or the quirky, grooving, not-at-all punk “East Bay Punk” could have come from nobody but Dann Zinn.

Dann Zinn was born January 4, 1958 in Castro Valley, California. He picked up the violin at the age of eight, switched to saxophone at nine, and took off down the jazz rabbit hole. On the way, however, he also encountered rock and roll; the hard-edged funk of Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power (studying with the latter’s Lenny Pickett); and Irish flutist James Galway, among many others, creating a unique and diverse wellspring of ideas from which Zinn would draw throughout his life. 

After high school—and a supplementary education at San Francisco’s legendary Keystone Korner jazz club—Zinn went to Los Angeles, becoming involved in that city’s intensive music scene, then onward to the East Coast, where he spent some time in New York and played in a Boston-based rock band throughout the early and mid-1980s. 

He returned to the Bay Area to study at what is now Cal State East Bay, where he transitioned from student to teacher, and eventually became the school’s director of jazz studies. He has also been on faculty at University of California at Berkeley and the California Jazz Conservatory, directed the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, given private lessons, and authored the six-volume textbook Zinn and the Art of Saxophone: a remarkable and accomplished career for an educator. 

In the meantime, however, his career as a saxophonist, composer, and improviser hasn’t slowed down a bit. Zinn has worked with the likes of Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Terri Lyne Carrington, Mike and Leni Stern, Cuong Vu, Peter Erskine, Taylor Eigsti, Allison Miller, and Derrick Hodge, to name just a few. As a leader in his own right, Zinn has recorded six albums, beginning with his 2003 debut Ten Songs and continuing through to his latest effort, Two Roads. 

“In the tradition of the great Duke Ellington,” says Zinn, “I have written this music for these exact musicians—music to be reflective and contemplative of the times we have lived, and are living through. Rachel, Omar, and Jeff exceeded all expectations and are brilliant. Two Roads is about choices—taking a road less traveled and finding that, at the end of one journey, another begins. Two Roads is both a culmination and a beginning, coming from a life well lived, and looking forward to what comes next.” 

Hyson Green | Electric Soul Sessions

Hyson Green, the dynamic duo of brothers David and Roy Osborne, is thrilled to announce the release of their latest album, Electric Soul Sessions. This follows their successful instrumental jazz/blues/funk album, Tongue Tied, and marks an exciting evolution in their musical journey.

Born and raised in the East Midlands of England, the brothers’ music encapsulates a rich tapestry of influences from Nottingham, London, and Los Angeles. Their unique sound blends elements of the Brum Beat, the Leicester Beat, and the Trent Beat, infused with the soulful vibe of the legendary Dungeon Club in Nottingham. This diverse background allows them to create a fresh yet nostalgic listening experience.

Electric Soul Sessions showcases the Osbornes' songwriting prowess and musicianship, drawing inspiration from blue-eyed English and American soul artists. Fans of Boz Scaggs, Jess Roden, Delaney and Bonnie, Robert Palmer, Hall and Oates, Frankie Miller, Steely Dan, Chic, Chicago house, and Horace Silver will find echoes of these influences throughout the album. The brothers evoke a time when songs were crafted with heartfelt experience and a genuine love for music.

Their self-penned tracks harken back to an era when horns, high school bands, and harmonies reigned supreme on the airwaves. In a musical landscape that often overlooks these sounds, Hyson Green’s music offers a refreshing return to the melodies we all cherish but rarely hear today. Electric Soul Sessions is the culmination of David and Roy's shared vision, delivering contemporary sounds that promise to stand the test of time. The album is now available for your listening pleasure—experience the magic for yourself!

Lex French | In The World's First Summer

New Zealand-Canadian jazz trumpeter Lex French has release dhis debut album, In the World’s First Summer, out now via Justin Time/Nettwerk. Traces of Miles Davis can be heard throughout the eight-song release, as French cites the seminal jazz trumpeter among his many inspirations. He also takes cues from poetry and paintings that add to the album’s artful nature. Listen to In the World’s First Summer on all digital retailers.

Lex explains in his own words: “In the World’s First Summer is a setting of James K. Baxter’s poem On the Death of Her Body, while Colour Grid is inspired by Paul Klee’s painting New Harmony. Falling Up was a tune that floated around in my head for about 5 years before I figured out how to write it down and keep the spirit of the song intact.  A number of the other pieces–Nana, Going Home, V’la L’bon Vent–are arrangements of folk songs from different traditions, while Huancavelica is a new composition inspired by such a tune. My arrangements of these songs are attempts to make sense of this music that reaches through time, and still manages to tell our stories. Bye Bye Blackbird brings us back to Miles and the end of his first quintet with John Coltrane… check out the version on Live from the Olympia and you’ll see the first glimmerings of his second quintet off in the distance, the same glimmering light that reached through time from 1967 to 1999, grabbed hold of me and never let go.” 

https://lexfrench.ffm.to/intheworldsfirstsummer 

‘In the World’s First Summer’ marks the debut recording of New Zealand-Canadian jazz trumpet player Lex French on the Justin Time label.  Hailed by Radio Canada jazz critic Stanley Pean as “an extraordinary trumpeter”, he is fast becoming a bright star on the Canadian jazz scene, and is a highly in-demand composer and arranger. 

This project takes inspiration from Miles Davis’s seminal second quintet in its approach, a group that has influenced so many musicians over the last 50 years. “When I was about 16 years old, in 1998 or ’99, I bought a copy of Miles Davis’1967 album, Miles Smiles,” says French, “and was immediately captivated. Ever since that first listen, I’ve wanted to lead a group that followed in the footsteps of Miles’s seminal second quintet. His quintet was a band that prioritised communication and improvisation, embraced lush and open harmonic soundscapes, and above all, placed the spirit of spontaneity at the center of everything. In order to play with such spontaneity and open lines of communication, it is important that each musician in the group is an exceptional musician in their own right. François Bourassa (piano), Morgan Moore (bass), and Jim Doxas (drums) are all improvising musicians of the highest order who can bring their individual and personal approaches to the music but also function as members of the group in order to create a whole that is great than the sum of its parts.”

Acclaimed pianist, composer, and bandleader Emmet Cohen has made a significant impact on the global jazz scene, captivating audiences with his dynamic performances and innovative projects. His sold-out shows around the world showcase not only his exceptional talent but also his commitment to the genre, blending traditional jazz elements with contemporary influences to create a unique sound that resonates with both seasoned listeners and newcomers alike.

Cohen is also the creator and host of "Live From Emmet’s Place," a groundbreaking online jazz show that has been recognized by The Guardian as “the most highly watched regular online jazz show in the world.” This platform has allowed him to connect with jazz enthusiasts and emerging musicians, fostering an environment where creativity thrives. Through this show, he has brought together a diverse array of artists, highlighting their talents and contributing to a sense of community within the jazz world. 

A defining aspect of Cohen's musical journey is his friendship with jazz legend Michael Funmi Ononaiye, affectionately known as the iconic Vibe Provider. Since 2012, this relationship has profoundly influenced Cohen's artistic direction, enriching his work and inspiring him to explore new musical landscapes. Funmi's mentorship and unwavering support have been instrumental in shaping Cohen’s voice as an artist.

In his latest project, Vibe Provider, Cohen presents a masterful blend of original compositions and cherished classics, all dedicated to his friend and mentor, Funmi. This album features an all-star ensemble, including Bruce Harris on trumpet, Tivon Pennicott on tenor saxophone, Frank Lacy on trombone, Cecily Petrarca on koshkah, Philip Norris on bass, and Joe Farnsworth and Kyle Poole on drums, with Poole also serving as producer. Each musician contributes their unique artistry, creating a rich tapestry of sound that pays homage to the spirit of collaboration in jazz.

Emmet Cohen is a celebrated figure in the jazz community, known for his artistry and innovative spirit. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, he has quickly established himself as a leading voice in contemporary jazz. Cohen's performances are characterized by his remarkable technical skill and heartfelt improvisation, making him a sought-after collaborator and bandleader. His dedication to mentorship extends beyond the stage; he actively engages with young musicians through workshops and educational programs, ensuring that the legacy of this rich genre lives on. By creating opportunities for others, Cohen not only uplifts his peers but also helps to nurture the future of jazz. His commitment to musical excellence and community connection makes him a vital force in the world of jazz today.

The Town Hall Presents: THE MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA - 30th Anniversary Celebration -- Sat. Nov 23 at 8pm

The big band is jazz’s symphony orchestra, a powerful instrument offering a broad palette of colors, textures, and rhythmic and tonal possibilities. Few have written for it better this century than composer, arranger, and bandleader Maria Schneider. Well-designed, expressive, and substantial, Schneider’s work often blurs distinctions between music genres and styles. It has earned her a shelf full of critics’ prizes, the distinction of being named an “NEA Jazz Master,” seven GRAMMY Awards, primarily in jazz but also in classical, and for her collaboration with the late British singer and songwriter David Bowie (a GRAMMY for Best Arrangement, Instruments, and Vocals for her work on "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)".

Her orchestra’s 2020 release, Data Lords, was a Pulitzer Finalist.

Remarkably, she has done it while navigating the trying economics of jazz. In an era when keeping together a trio is a challenge, Schneider has been able to hold on to her 18-piece orchestra and, in the process, turn it into a one-of-a-kind instrument.

To honor the extraordinary career of this Minnesota native, The Town Hall will present The Maria Schneider Orchestra - 30th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, November 23rd.

For Schneider, “it just felt like a time of reflection.”

“My first recording came out 30 years ago,” she says. “And this year, we produced Decades, a three-LP box set retrospective, with extensive liner notes that I wrote that look back with a keen view of what was going on — hindsight is always 20/20, as they say.”

“I’m feeling a change. I don't know what's next,” she continues. “And I've felt that this is almost like an era. Maybe it also has to do with losing both my parents, and so it's about everything that culminates in this music: the support of family, my upbringing, and where I came from. This chapter is closed, and it felt right to look at it and highlight so many people who made the band what it is now – the many people who inspired the music I write.”

https://youtu.be/uhl1ZvTPrCk?si=BN6naNPIpgTc-9AB

The concert will open with “Evanescence,” written in memory of her mentor, Gil Evans. It was her first commission and the title track of her first album. “That piece holds a lot of significance for me,” she notes. “It’s the foundation.”

The other works “will represent different periods of my work and the influences from those periods: nature, art, my battle with big data companies,” she says. “I always give a little background before we play a piece because so much of the music comes directly from my life. Growing up in rural Minnesota certainly gave me a pastoral side that I will represent at this concert. I’ve never been one to write music based mostly on simply trying to create music. Life experience has been largely the driver.”

Her writing shows a distinct way of musical storytelling, lyrical and direct, and the subject matter can stretch from bird watching to her battles with Big Tech.

Consider pieces in the program such as “Sputnik,” which won a GRAMMY Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and “Don’t Be Evil,” which mocks Google. Both tracks are from her GRAMMY-winning Data Lords. The recording is a powerful, sharply articulated expression of her position as a critic of data collection practices and what those practices have done to society. Schneider has not only been very vocal and written about her concerns but has also testified before Congress.

“American Crow,” a new, unrecorded piece in the program, further illustrates her approach.

“It speaks to political polarization,” notes Schneider. “It's a piece that expresses my deep concern and sadness that the effects of big data are so extreme that we’re no longer capable of listening to each other anymore. It’s perfect to express this through jazz, the ultimate listening art. The piece reflects on a time when people could disagree yet still speak to each other, listen to each other, and still even love one another. The improviser listens and responds to a rather pastoral theme reflective of a past I remember, but then the piece devolves into where we are today, everyone spewing at each other from their own echo chamber. It ends with a longing to find our way back. “

Schneider grew up in Windom, a small town in Southwest Minnesota (population 4,798 according to the 2020 census), and studied with Evelyn Butler, a stride, boogie-woogie, and classical pianist from Chicago. She describes her as an “extraordinary world-class musician” who moved to Windom for family reasons. Her approach to teaching opened a broad, generous view of music to Schneider. “It was like, ‘OK, let's play this Cole Porter song, and here's how you dress it up. OK. Let's now work on the “Bach Two-Part Invention.’ So I grew up with both things integrated into my own life.”

A self-described “lousy piano player,” Schneider “almost quit music” while in college because, as a classical composition student with a love of melody and harmony, she was coming into a classical music world infatuated with atonality. “But at my school, there was a big band, and my classical teacher said, ‘You know, your music sounds so influenced by jazz, and you're listening to many jazz composers, why don't you write something for the big band?’ And I did — and never stopped since,” she says, laughing.

Matt Booth | Sun Prints

Bassist and composer MATT BOOTH is releasing SUN PRINTS, his first album of all original music. The music is freewheeling and varied but stays true to the contemporary jazz tradition. Rather than create an album focused on his bass playing, Booth wanted the recording to showcase his compositions and a unified ensemble sound.

A ubiquitous performer on the New Orleans jazz scene, Booth found a great deal of success both as a leader and sideman. He has released numerous albums as a co-leader of several groups. His compositions are texturally rich and dynamic, occasionally

crossing over to the avant-garde but driven by melody and propulsive grooves. Booth plays both upright and electric bass on the album.

The musicians on SUN PRINTS are more than up to the task of playing Booth’s inventive and dynamic compositions. Although the music is complex, Booth’s melodic sense makes it accessible to the average listener. The album unfolds in a way that keeps the audience guessing, and the detailed production will reward multiple listens. SUN PRINTS is a superb representation of Matt Booth’s playing and compositional skills are deserving of a wider audience.

Though recently relocated to Durham NC (15 minutes from me!!!), Booth has lived in New Orleans and brought on board several top musicians from the area. Trumpeter STEVE LANDS has performed with many jazz and pop bands, including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Swiss pianist and composer Florian Favre, PJ Morton, Maroon 5, and in big bands with the Marsalis family. OSCAR ROSSIGNOLI, on piano and keyboard, has collaborated on a wide range of projects with artists such as John Boutté, Jason Marsalis, Joe Dyson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Alexey Marti, among many others. Drummer PETER VARNADO, a native of New Orleans, has performed with some of the biggest names in the industry as well as local legends, like Ellis Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, and The Jordan Family. Saxophonist SAM TAYLOR, now a resident of Chicago continuing his music studies at DePaul University, has performed with jazz artists such as Marcus Roberts, Jason Marsalis, and Roland Guerin.  Special note should be made of co-producer BRIAN SEEGER – this is the third project he has worked on of Booth’s, and his efforts both in the studio and in post-production are invaluable.

Rick Braun | It's Christmas

In the cozy confines of his Southern California “backyard” concert venue, contemporary jazz trumpeter Rick Braun played an intimate four-night stand at Spaghettini last Thanksgiving weekend to launch into the Christmas spirit. The holiday cheer experienced at those sold-out shows, and the music he selected, arranged and performed at the concerts have spread from the boutiquey Seal Beach enclave to seed the global release of “It’s Christmas,” a ten-track collection produced by Braun releasing October 11 from Brauntosoarus Music.

Braun worked closely on the arrangements for the Spaghettini setlist with Grammy nominated composer, producer and keyboardist Philippe Saisse, who plays Rhodes and Hammond B3 organ on the album’s first single, “Deck Those Halls,” a bluesy funk frolic that sets the tone for the festivities ahead. 

“We wanted to do something interesting with a traditional Christmas carol, so we changed up the chorus to include some descending blues chords and added the horn section along with  Tony Pulizzi’s funky guitar part and Jamey Tate's Steely Dan-like shuffle on drums. Picture the Saturday Night Live house band laying it down on a traditional Christmas carol at 2am and that pretty much sums it up,” described Braun about the single that will be serviced to radio stations in November.  

Braun crafted a clever arrangement for “The Coventry Torch Song,” seamlessly blending the English Elizabethan “The Coventry Carol” and the 17th century French “Bring a Torch, Jaenette, Isabella.” In the studio, he layered tracks of his trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone, adding John Dickson’s regal French horn to the mélange of culture and beauty. 

“I had so much fun doing this arrangement that includes multiple modulations, full orchestration, and even a little piccolo trumpet playing from yours truly. If I had to play someone one track from the project, this would be it. I love the sound of a brass group and orchestra, and I had so much fun exploring the harmonic possibilities of these two well-loved songs. To me, the antiphonal brass ending of this piece is the quintessential sound of Christmas,” said Braun, who will return to Spaghettini for a five-night extended stand this Thanksgiving weekend (November 29-December 2) during which he will showcase special guest stars guitarist Peter White, saxophonist Richard Elliot and pianist Keiko Matsui on different nights. 

Braun and Saisse’s sterling arrangement of the classic “The Christmas Song” is poignant and exquisitely decorated by a four-chair string section, David Finck’s supple upright bass, and Joe La Barbera’s gentle drumming. Saisse’s elegant grand piano illumines Braun’s flugelhorn lead.   

“When we recorded this song, we knew we had something special. It’s a magical musical take of one of the most beautiful Christmas songs ever written. Whenever I want to just close my eyes and feel the spirit of Christmas in the most classic of ways, I put this track on. I envision the flugelhorn taking the place of Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole as that old-school vocal over top of a beautiful arrangement,” Braun said. 

“Do You Hear The Angels” is a medley of four Christmas chestnuts – “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Deck the Halls” – imaginatively arranged by Braun. Accompanied by bassist Darryl Williams and drummer Gregg Bissonette, Braun forms his own brass section on the track that grew beyond his initial vision. 

Braun said, “I had no idea this was going to turn into a full-on orchestral Christmas Disney extravaganza complete with timpani when I started it, but it quickly grew and grew and grew into exactly that. Many years ago, I learned to orchestrate, and it's been a long time since I've used that skill. But I enjoyed dusting off the rust and digging into all the modulations and color changes that make up this medley. I picture this version being performed by the LA Philharmonic at Disney Hall or as the opening theme for a Christmas movie.” 

The mood shifts to steamy and sensual on a mashup of “We Three Kings” and “Good King Wenceslas.” Braun explains, “This track is a sultry, smooth, funky musical journey

traveling across a moonlit desert following a beautiful star. All is cool and calm on the journey, thanks to Nate Phillips’ probing bass. This song pairs nicely with a glass of cabernet at the end of Christmas Day.” 

During the pandemic, Braun began playing with a group of fellow brass men and wine lovers, calling themselves the Pinot Noir Brass. Together, they released a Christmas album last year,  “Pinot Noir Brass Christmas.” The ensemble – Braun (trumpet), Jeff Bunnell (trumpet), Dickson (French horn), Doug Tornquist (tuba), and Nick Lane (trombone) - reunites on “God Rest Ye Merry Gents” deftly arranged by Lane. 

“Christmas is a season where the overuse of brass is not only tolerated but encouraged. And there is a heaping helping of brass on this track,” laughed Braun. 

For something completely different, Braun croons a finger-popping “White Christmas” in a doo-wop setting accented by a wawa trumpet to add even more character and flair to the track colorfully seasoned with dashes of New Orleans and Gypsy jazz, the latter courtesy of Craig Sharmat’s guitar. Braun derived inspiration from a number of legendary sources on this one. 

“From The Drifters to one of my all-time trumpet-playing heroes, Louis Armstrong, this  version of ‘White Christmas’ is a bit tongue in cheek. I patterned my vocal performance after the great Dean Martin, and I chose to break out the plunger for my trumpet solo to create that old-school wawa sound,” explained Braun. 

The title track is the first of two new songs Braun wrote for the album. He sings in storyteller manner with a full and grateful heart recalling Christmases spent with his family. Braun paints the picture. 

“Picture that scene in ‘The Christmas Story’ when Ralphie and Randy have gone to bed and Mom and Dad are enjoying a glass of wine by the fire. Snow is falling and the Christmas tree fills the room with a warm glow as the soft sound of music fills the background. Another Christmas well spent with family celebrating a wonderful holiday together. This song didn't start out as a vocal but as I was writing it, lyrics started coming to mind. It is the story of our 27-year marriage with our two kids and all the holidays we've celebrated together while looking forward to many more,” said Braun who is flanked by Williams and drummer Eric Valentine. 

Whistling through the opening, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” references the Tim Allen Christmas movie, “The Santa Clause.” While that may make you think it’s a whimsical tune, Braun’s version is a serious straight-ahead jazz number bopping like John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” with elastic acoustic bass work from Luca Allemano. 

“I wrote this song using some of the changes from that great John Coltrane classic. It starts off with me whistling the melody and quickly modulates keys to trumpet taking over. The song continually modulates throughout, and it was my goal to just keep an old simple song as interesting as possible with different textures and key centers. The ending is a tip of my hat to the great Vince Guaraldi,” shared Braun. 

The “It’s Christmas” album concludes with a second Braun composition, “Christmas Eve Waltz,” on which he duets with himself on flugelhorn and piano while handling all the instrumentation, including the string arrangement. 

“I have written several songs over the course of my career that feature flugelhorn and piano almost exclusively. Those two instruments playing together create such a beautiful sound. On this one, I added an intimate string section and wanted to leave everyone with a quiet moment and a gorgeous melody to take with you throughout the Christmas season. It felt like the right way to close the record,” said Braun. 

Thirty years ago, Braun released his first holiday themed set, “Christmas Present.” A dozen years ago, he issued a second Christmas disc, the big band jazz vocal album “Swingin’ In The Snow.” He summarized “It’s Christmas” by saying that the project is “a high spirited, genre-transcendent holiday collection that explores an expansive range of styles.”  

An Allentown, PA native who has long been based in the Los Angeles area, Braun spent many years touring and recording with pop-rock royalty, including Rod Stewart, Sade, Tina Turner, Natalie Cole, Tom Petty, Glenn Frey and War. He debuted as a solo artist with 1992’s “Intimate Secrets,” and quickly became a core contemporary jazz artist and a seminal smooth icon. To date, he’s amassed thirty Billboard No. 1 hits as an artist and a producer for other genre giants such as White, David Benoit, Marc Antoine, Jeff Golub and Elliot, the latter with whom Braun formed RnR, spawning a hit-filled album and a powerhouse touring combo. Braun teamed with superstar saxman Boney James for an album of duets, “Shake It Up,” propelled by the fan favorite “Grazin’ in the Grass.”  

Braun’s “It’s Christmas” album contains the following songs:

• “Deck Those Halls”
• “The Coventry Torch Song”
• “The Christmas Song”
• “Do You Hear The Angels”
• “The Good Kings”
• “God Rest Ye Merry Gents” featuring the Pinot Noir Brass
• “White Christmas”
• “It’s Christmas”
• “The Santa Clause”
• “Christmas Eve Waltz”

 

Herb Alpert To Reform Iconic Tijuana Brass Band For 2025 US Tour Dates

Legendary musician, artist, record label executive, and philanthropist Herb Alpert has announced he will reform his iconic Tijuana Brass Band for the first time in over 40 years for a string of US tour dates in 2025. With an all-new lineup, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass & Other Delights will commemorate the 60th anniversary of his historic album Whipped Cream & Other Delights performing hits like “The Lonely Bull,” “Spanish Flea,” “Taste of Honey” and “This Guy’s In Love With You.” The tour will also include a once-in-a-lifetime performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater on March 31st celebrating Alpert’s landmark 90th birthday. See below for the full list of tour dates with many more to be announced throughout the year. 

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass & Other Delights Tour Dates:

• 02/11 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Broward Center for the Performing Arts
• 02/12 - Sarasota, FL @ Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
• 02/13 - Orlando, FL @ Dr Phillips Center Steinmetz Hall
• 02/15 - Augusta, GA @ Miller Theater
• 02/16 - Lexington, KY @ Lexington Opera House
• 03/25 - Detroit, MI @ Masonic Cathedral Theatre
• 03/26 - Akron, OH @ Goodyear Theater
• 03/28 - Buffalo, NY @ Buffalo State Performing Arts Center
• 03/29 - Boston, MA @ Shubert Wang Theatre
• 03/31 - New York, NY @ Jazz at Lincoln Center - Rose Theater

Earlier this fall, Herb Alpert marked another extraordinary milestone in his storied six-decade music career with the release of his 50th studio album titled 50. The album also commemorates another significant landmark as it celebrates 50 years of marriage to his wife, collaborator, and touring partner, Lani Hall; their golden anniversary. 50 debuted at #4 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart, #17 on the Billboard Jazz Chart, and #1 on the Current Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and has continued to claim the top spot for three weeks in a row and counting. 

Alpert recently sat down with The New York Times at his home in Malibu and discussed 50, his iconic career, his marriage to Lani, touring, and his work as an artist/sculptor. Of the new album, they raved “The sound he got from his instrument - clean in tone, tidy in arrangement and joyous in character - also speaks of consistency. From the first note of the opening track, ‘Dancing Down 50th Street,’ his playing evokes the brisk and flirty mood of his ‘60s hits, from ‘A Taste of Honey’ to ‘Spanish Flea,’ a sound that represents midcentury modern culture as eloquently as an Eames chair or an Ossie Clark frock.” 50 also earned critical acclaim from NPR, Billboard, Associated Press, Paste, and Stereogum who raved “The legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert has had one hell of a life in music…He’s still going now. Amazing.” 

For almost three-quarters-of-a-century, Alpert has always had the rare gift of being able to reach the greatest possible group of people through inhabiting an inimitable artistic voice. He has maintained and reshaped his sound through constant practice, recording, and performing (he continues to tour internationally, playing dozens of shows every year). With his eye invariably set on the future, Alpert is already turning over ideas for multiple upcoming albums. The sentiment crystalizes how one of popular music’s truest originals continues to find ways to connect and reconnect with himself and his audience. It is through his love of artistic kernels of inspiration—a couple of bars, a chord, a suggestive brushstroke—that seem to cut across time. 

To support 50, Alpert and Hall will be playing the following shows in December.

 Herb Alpert & Lani Hall Tour Dates:

• 12/10 - Nashville, TN @ Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater
• 12/11 - Chattanooga, TN @ Walker Theatre
• 12/13 - Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
• 12/14 - Metairie, LA @ Jefferson Performing Arts Center
• 12/15 - Houston, TX @ Cullen Auditorium

Alpert’s extraordinary musicianship has earned him 9 GRAMMY® Awards (the latest from his 2014 album Steppin’ Out), 15 Gold albums, 14 Platinum albums and has sold over 72 million records. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass propelled his sound into the pop music limelight, at one point outselling the Beatles two to one. Alpert has a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama in 2013. Alpert also has a second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with group and solo exhibitions around the United States and Europe. 

As an industry leader, Alpert’s commitment to artists with personal vision guided A&M Records (with partner Jerry Moss) from a Hollywood garage operation into one of the most successful independent record labels in music history, with stars including Janet Jackson, Quincy Jones, Cat Stevens, The Carpenters, Carole King, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, The Police and scores of others. 

Through the Herb Alpert Foundation, Herb and Lani have dedicated their lives to philanthropy, funding programs that help bring creativity to young students and keep creativity alive for all the arts, for artists young and old, including jazz education and programs that teach compassion and well-being. May 2022 marked the 28th anniversary of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts celebrating 140 awardees over the past 28 years. 2021 also brought the opening of the newly remodeled Harlem School of the Arts at the Herb Alpert Center, funded entirely by Herb and Lani Alpert. During the pandemic, the foundation dramatically increased its emergency funding to artists in need through organizations such as Chrysalis, the Jazz Foundation, the Good People’s Fund and Artists Relief.

Blue Magic Stop To Start – The Atco & WMOT Recordings 1973 to 1977 (6CD set)

A massive legacy of music, brought together in one great little package – all of which shows just how much the group Blue Magic evolved in the span of just a few short years! At their start, the group were right up there with some of the best east coast sweet soul acts – like The Stylistics and Delfonics, and also shared a similar high-soaring lead singer in the wonderful Ted Wizard Mills, who gives Blue Magic a stunning sound that's very much their own! And as the years progressed, they also picked up a great talent for stepping up their groove, but all without ever losing the sense of soul that made them so great – working with giants from the Sigma Sound scene, like Norman Harris, Bobby Eli, and Vince Montana – and also getting some production help from the great Skip Scarborough as well! All the top-shelf talent really keeps things strong through this amazing run of records – albums presented here with new remastering, with 74 tracks in all, including bonus material as well! 

The package features the full albums Blue Magic, Magic Of The Blue, Thirteen Blue Magic Lane, Mystic Dragons, Message From The Magic, and the Live album done with Major Harris and Margie Joseph – presented here with all the Blue Magic tracks, including duets with Joseph. Bonus tracks include "Freak N Stein (single edit)", "I Waited (single edit)", "Grateful", "Stop & Get A Hold Of Yourself (single edit)", "You & Me (with Margie Joseph)", "Magic Of The Blue (vocal)", "Look Me Up (Tom Moulton ext rmx)", "Three Ring Circus (single edit)", "Guess Who", "Where Have You Been", "Sideshow (Mike Maurro ext magic rmx)", "Just Don't Want To Be Lonely (single edit)", and "Welcome To The Club (UK single edit)"

Blue Magic emerged in the early 1970s from Philadelphia, a city renowned for its rich musical heritage. The group was formed by a quartet of talented vocalists: Ted "Wizard" Mills, Vernon "Blue" Magic, Jimmy "Jump" McCulloch, and Keith "Sweet" Beaton. Their unique blend of smooth harmonies and soul-infused melodies quickly garnered attention in the burgeoning Philadelphia soul scene.

In 1974, Blue Magic released their self-titled debut album, which featured the hit single "Sideshow." The song, characterized by its lush arrangements and heartfelt lyrics, climbed the charts, reaching the top of the R&B charts and solidifying the group’s place in soul music history. The success of "Sideshow" was followed by other popular tracks, including "Blue Magic," and their sophomore album, "The Magic of Blue Magic," further established them as key figures in the genre.

Blue Magic’s sound is defined by their sophisticated vocal arrangements, often likened to the smooth, lush productions of Philadelphia soul. Their music often incorporates elements of funk and R&B, with lyrics that explore themes of love, heartbreak, and resilience. The group’s style influenced many artists in the soul and R&B genres, paving the way for future vocal groups.

Despite their early success, Blue Magic faced challenges throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, including changes in lineup and shifts in the music industry. The original members went through various changes, leading to a fluctuating lineup, yet they continued to perform and record, adapting their sound to fit the evolving musical landscape.

Blue Magic's impact on soul music endures, with their songs being sampled and covered by numerous artists over the years. They remain a beloved act among soul music enthusiasts. The group has seen various reunions and performances, celebrating their classic hits and contributing to the revival of interest in 1970s soul music.

In the 2000s, Blue Magic continued to tour and release new music, keeping their legacy alive. They remain a testament to the rich tapestry of Philadelphia soul, with their enduring melodies and harmonies resonating with both longtime fans and new listeners alike.With a career spanning decades, Blue Magic remains a significant part of the soul music narrative, celebrated for their contributions and timeless classics.