Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

There's a bumper crop of new Holiday Jazz out there folks, so i you are looking for last minute enjoyment for Christmas and Hanukkah (and all the rest of the seasonal celebrations) you can listen to Podcast 993, featuring:

Nick Maclean - "Christmas Time is Here" from his single on Browntasauras Records

Christian Sands - "Do You Hear What I Here" from Christmas Stories

George Burt0n - "The Holly and the Ivy" from Yule Log

Rich Wiley - "Silver Bells" from Boptism Christmas

George Gee Swing Orchestra - "Winter Wonderland Mambo" from Winter Wonderland

Band of Other Brothers - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from This Year at Christmas

Mitchell Shiner Latin Vibes - "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah" from Latkes Con Salsa

Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O - "8 Little Candles" from Tree Jazz - The Shape of Christmas to Come

Brownman & Cruzao - "Frosty El Cubano" from their single on Brownasauras Records

Gregory Porter - "Christmas Will Really Be Christmas" from Christmas Wishes (Deluxe Edition)

Tower of Power - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from It's Christmas

Laila Biali - "Drifting Down Ice" from Wintersongs

Donald Vega - "Auld Lang Syne" from All is Merry and Bright

At its heart, Oneness is Israeli-born vocalist/songwriter/arranger Sivan Arbel’s musical response to the divisions she sees in society. Seamlessly blending Eastern and Western influences, she invites listeners to embrace their cultural and ideological differences and yet recognize the universal connections that bind us all. A tall order in late 2024.

Oneness echoes this hopeful idealism by envisioning what is possible. Growing up in an environment where diverse cultures coexisted fueled her lifelong curiosity and desire to explore and integrate different musical influences. As a follow-up to 2016’s Broken Lines and 2019’s Change of Light , which was selected as Best Vocal Disc of the year by Jazz2K, the album stands as a major statement from a developing artist.

The concept for Oneness started to take shape in 2022, during a week-long residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, where Arbel and her band -- pianist Nick Hetko, bassist Sam Weber, and drummer Evan Hyde -- were awarded a retreat. The resulting work was honed before live audiences before recording the music, bringing to fruition Arbel’s lifelong exploration of unity through diversity, drawing from her experiences both in Israel and Brooklyn.

In Podcast 992, Sivan and I talk about the tunes on Oneness , from her own “Second Floor Beloved," a deeply moving narrative about a homeless man on the Tel Aviv boardwalk sung in Hebrew, to the classic Tears for Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Her fresh, soulful interpretation of that iconic tune infuses her rhythmic and harmonic flair into a brand=new musical statement.

Sivan Arbel will be presenting the album release show on December 18, 2024 at 8PM at the New York City club Nublu.

On its own merits, the music on Seven Days , Mauricio Morales’ latest album, speaks with a strong, persuasive creative voice. The respected bassist-composer-bandleader’s fourth album presents seven distinctive compositions for sextet, with sophisticated shifts in mood and musical structure. In a mode of decidedly modern jazz which also manages to be easy on the ear and heart, the music also benefits from bold, integrated playing and soloing by his young allies from both the east and west coasts--connections made when the Mexican Morales lived and studied in Boston before settling in his current adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

Morales composed this body of work—the result of a self-driven challenge to write seven tunes in as many days--while literally stuck in his native Mexico due to a mysterious Visa renewal snafu. Completing the challenge (barely, as you will hear him say) led to a live performance in Los Angeles, and following the urging of his bandmates to create a recorded version of the work, recorded entirely live over two days in the studio.

Morales has been a rising force as player and bandleader/project-leader for the past several years, but his formative musical life goes back to his picking up the electric bass at 13 years old and the upright bass six years later. Working on the east coast scene after heading to Berklee School of Music in 2012, Morales migrated westward to Los Angeles in 2018.

His diverse discography with the sometimes fusion-tinged tracks of 2021’s Luna, followed by the improvisation-leaning trio album Eclipse in 2022 and The Endless Ride last year.

For the Seven Days project, Morales had bold and empathetic company in the band gathered to realize his vision—saxophonist Edmar Colón, guitarist Horace Bray, trombonist Ido Meshulam, pianist Luca Mendoza and dynamo drummer Jongkuk "JK" Kim. In Podcast 991, we discuss what Mauricio looks for in collaborators, the demands of daily composing and creation, and how he views Seven Days in the contet of his body of work.

With The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook, Manhattan Transfer founding member and Grammy Award-Winning vocalist Janis Siegel and acclaimed pianist/arranger/musical director Yaron Gershovsky, together have co-produced their first duo songbook album. And it comes from a classic “When a door closes, a window opens” moment.

The Manhattan Transfer performed its final concert a year ago, bringing to a close one of the most storied chapters in vocal jazz history. With their scintillating live performances and memorable recordings, The Transfer bridged the gap from the fabulous four-part harmony groups of the thirties and forties and Lambert Hendrick & Ross to the 197u0’s, teaching late baby boomers how jazz singing should be done. Years earlier, Siegel and Gershovsky discovered that both had worked with the revered songwriter Cy Coleman – Gershovsky as the vocal arranger for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical City of Angels , Siegel as part of the all-star vocal ensemble for Coleman’s final collaboration with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman at the Kennedy Center.

That conversation soon evolved into a full-fledged project: The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook on the Club44 label. It features the duo’s spirited interpretations of ten favorite Coleman compositions, pairing Siegel’s unmistakable voice with Gershovsky’s inventive music and vocal arrangements. The album boasts an elite roster of musicians including bassists David Finck and Boris Kozlov, drummer Cliff Almond, guest vocalist Aubrey Johnson, and The Crosby Street String Quartet.

The alnum marks the first songbook album of Siegel’s diverse and prolific career, the first collection in her rich discography devoted to the work of a single composer. Beyond her ten Grammys with the Transfer, Janis has collaborated with pianists Fred Hersch, Edsel Gomez, Cedar Walton, Gil Goldstein, John di Martino, Addison Frei, and fellow vocalists including her former Transfer bandmate Laurel Massé, Lauren Kinhan of New York Voices, Bobby McFerrin, and Bob Dorough.

Gershovsky is a highly accomplished, internationally recognized and award-winning pianist, arranger, composer and producer who has recorded and performed with such artists as Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Smith, Steve Gadd, Take 6 and the Count Basie Orchestra. His Broadway credits include vocal arranging for the Tony Award-nominated musicals Swing and City of Angels , and serving as keyboardist for Broadway megahits Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera . He has been the pianist and musical director for Manhattan Transfer since 1979, and is Janis’ first call collaborator.

The repertoire on The Colors of My Life ranges from familiar standards to more obscure material. They range from the oft-performed “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come,” to the previously unrecorded melancholy “Being Without You,” which Siegel took note of during that Kennedy Center workshop and always knew she’d return to.

Podcast 990 is my conversation with Janis and Yaron, as they dissect the manner in which the Coleman tribute was prepared, what they find so moving about his work, and how best to bring freshness to well-loved standards. Musical selections include the silky slowed-down take on “Witchcraft,” and the afore mentioned “Being Without You.”

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.

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.” 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.

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.

In Podcast 989, Youn and I talk about how she chooses cover songs that she can inhabit with her own spirit and style, how she came to jazz late, and why she has constantly changed accompanists through her year long tour. Musical selections include “White Rabbit” and “Baltimore Oriole” from Elles , and “My Favorite Things” from her breakthrough album Same Girl .

No Cowards in Our Band is a musical drama telling the story of renowned activist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) through his own words. With the performance just days before the 2024 Presidential Election, the piece is a striking reminder of the power of the pen, the voice, and the vote.

Based on a libretto by Anthony Knight, Jr. and interwoven with Negro spirituals arranged by GRAMMY-nominated jazz artist Orrin Evans, No Cowards in Our Band stars actor, artist, and TV personality Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass performing with a trio of opera singers, the “moving and electrifying performer” (Wall Street Journal ) Nia Drummond, soprano – who went viral last year for a rendition of Happy Birthday that made Busta Rhymes cry – Metropolitan Opera tenor Edward Washington II, and Opera Ebony and Syracuse Opera’s Gregory Sheppard, bass.

Evans is a fixture on the jazz scene now, and is featured on the cover of Downbeat in November. As a deft tune deconstructor, he traverses a broad timeline of the vocabularies of swinging, blues-infused hardcore jazz and spiritual jazz/avant garde jazz traditions, as well as the Euro-canon, with the intuitive spontaneity of an ear player. He projects an instantly recognizable sound, sometimes eliciting flowing rubato poetry. He records and performs in collaborative projects include the Eubanks Evans Experience (a duo with eminent guitarist Kevin Eubanks); the Brazilian unit Terreno Comum; Evans’ working trio with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr.; Tar Baby (a collective trio of 20 years standing with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits); and the Captain Black Big Band, which just recently released Walk a Mile in My Shoe (Imani Records).

Orrin was just off the red-eye from gigs on the West Coast when I caught up with him by Zoom, and we discussed his very personal involvement with No Cowards in Our Band , as his mother was an opera singer, and his father a playwright. We also dig into Walk a Mile in My Shoe , from which you will hear the Captain Black Big Band take on Bread’s 70’s soft-rock standard “If,” with a wonderful vocal by Paul Jost.

Saturday, November 2nd at 7pm
Concept and Libretto: Anthony Knight, Jr.
Musical Arrangement: Orrin Evans
Director: Michael Hofmann

Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass

Nia Drummond , soprano
Edward Washingington II , tenor
Gregory Sheppard , bass

Tickets : https://hudsonhall.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FUT000002I0d72AC
Tier 1: Reserved Seating, $45 (plus $5 fee)
Tier 2: General Admission, Mid-Center Section/Side Aisle, Front Mezzanine, $30 (plus $5 fee)
Tier 3: General Admission, Rear and Side Seating, far sides may be partially obstructed, $19 (plus $3 fee)

While organzing candy for Trick or Treat this afternoon, I went down memory lane to the many "Spooky Songs for Hallowe'en" shows I've presented over the years. If you are so invlined, you can revisit (or hear for the first time) some great jazz. Just download Podcasts 772, 598 , 452 , 387 , 309 , 240 ,and 166 to enjoy some classic performers playing tunes with titles and themes that are sure to send a chill down your spine. "Prince of Darkness," anyone?

Tord Gustavsen has gone down many musical paths in his still-blossoming career. Classically trained and educated in musicology, Tord also has a deep knowledge of jazz, which he has seamlessly integrated with the folk and religious music of his upbringing in Oslo. In many ways a quintessential ECM artis (though in our conversation he says he did not think this was originally the case), he has performed and recorded in any number of traditional jazz formats, as well as integrating choirs, singers and world music into his sound.

With Seeing , Tord begins an intricate new chapter in his series of acclaimed trio recordings, initiated in 2003 with Changing Places – an album that is today considered a classic. The new recording with its compact, concentrated song forms features five Gustavsen originals, two chorals after Johann Sebastian Bach, a traditional Norwegian church hymn, plus the 19th century English chorale “Nearer My God, to Thee."Tord, together with long-time ally Jarle Vespestad on drums and Steinar Raknes on double bass digs deep into his unique blend of jazz, blues, gospel, Scandinavian folk and church music on the album. Fans of the deeply moving and meditative music for which Gustavsen has become famous will not be disappointed. Seeing , recorded in fall 2023 at Studios La Buissonne in Southern France, was produced – naturally - by Manfred Eicher.

Podcast 987 is our conversation, as we talk about his trio, the new album, his musical background and influences, and how he approaches improvisation. Musical selections include “Seattle Song,” taken from an improvisational idea he and the trio created as a sound check before a show in the Emerald City, and a stirring version of “Auf Meinen Lieben Gott,” which featuring a stunning bass solo by Steinar Raknes.

I’m always happy to preview jazz festivals across the US on Straight No Chaser. The big ones like Newport or Monterey are always great, and regional festivals like those held in Saratoga or by NJPAC are a blast. But I have a special place in my heart for the cities and towns who present festivals, places like Northampton, MA , or Burlington, VT , Hartford, CT or Portland, Oregon, or in the case, Hudson, NY.

Scheduled in February in years’ past, the 2024 Hudson Jazz Festival marks the festival’s official move to October, offering music lovers the chance to get out and enjoy the festival’s many offerings and the region’s idyllic autumnal landscape. Coinciding with the seasonal change, the festival is taking its events city-wide with the addition of three new festival venues that showcase well-loved Hudson destinations and a free pre-festival Community Dayfeaturing Melanie Charles’ Make Jazz Trill Again: Trill Mega Jam.

There are multiple free events each day, with top-notch ticketed events at historic Hudson Hall each evening. Friday night features Ekep Nkwelle presenting “Ella Fitzgerald - Against All Odds,” an evening of songs associated with the legendary Ella, and bringing attention to her little known incarceration in Hudson, NY as a teenager.

Saturday night’s headliner is trumpeter Riley Mulherkar (formerly of the Westerlies ) leading a quartet with Chris Pattishall (piano), Barry Stephenson (bass) and Chris Icasiano (drums). Riley has released his first solo album, the eponymous Riley , and we’ll feature “Ride or Die” from that album. Sunday afternoon wraps up with the Ethan Iverson Trio, with the former Bad Plus pianist joined by Reuben Rogers on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

Podcast 986 is my preview of the festival with curator Cat Henry. Ms. Henry has previously curated concerts for MoMA Summergarden: New Music for New York, featuring composers such as Henry Threadgill, Myra Melford and Don Byron, and produced programs for Lincoln Center’s inaugural Poet-in-Residence, Mahogany L. Browne. Henry currently serves as Executive Director of Live Music Society, a foundation supporting grassroots music venues where musicians start their careers, connect with audiences and hone their craft. Previously, she served as Vice President, Concerts and Touring, for Jazz at Lincoln Center, where she managed all performance-related activities under the JALC brand, including concert seasons at Rose Theater and The Appel Room, worldwide touring of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and nightly sets at Dizzy’s Club. She is a fellow of the Executive Program in Arts and Culture Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BFA in Jazz Performance from The New School. Originally from the UK, she lives in Brooklyn with her teenage daughter.

Pianist and keyboardist Dan Siegel has covered a broad swath of the jazz spectrum over the course of his four-and-a-half decade career, from straight ahead swing to sleek contemporary sounds. While that’s a testament to Siegel’s multi-faceted talents and restless curiosity, it’s also the result of the diverse array of collaborators that have joined him along the journey – a roster that includes Bela Fleck, Steve Gadd, Larry Carlton, Ernie Watts, Ottmar Liebert, Lee Ritenour, Brian Bromberg, Eric Marienthal, Bob Sheppard, Boney James, Alex Acuña and others.

Siegel’s twenty-third release, Unity , is the latest and one of the finest examples of that alchemical process. It reunites the keyboardist with drummer Oscar Seaton for the first time in 20 years, since the recording of the 2004 album Inside Out . It also marks his first meeting with bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, Seaton’s rhythm section partner in Terence Blanchard’s electrically charged E-Collective band. From the time the trio entered the studio together, Siegel’s vision of the music he’d written for the session irrevocably changed, a display of the titular unity.

To the core trio, Siegel added a rotating cast of master guitarists, most of them longtime compatriots and friends who each added their own distinctive flavors to the tracks: Rob Bacon (Raphael Saadiq, Amp Fiddler), Allen Hinds (Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole), Michael Miller (Boz Scaggs, Chick Corea), Dean Parks (Steely Dan, Michael Jackson), and Michael Thompson (Babyface, Whitney Houston). Unity also features percussion great Lenny Castro, whose relationship with Siegel dates back to the keyboardist’s self-titled 1982 album, as does that of prolific saxophonist Tom Scott, who heads the album’s horn section.

During out conversation for Podcast 985, Siegel acknowledged that at 70, his long and rewarding career is entering a concluding chapter. It’s refreshing to hear an artist address the arc of his career, and Dan speaks eloquently for his fondness for his collaborators, his life as a musician and producer, and the possibility that he may still have more musical mountains to climb. Muscial selections from Unity include “free Spirit” and “Simple Things.”

‘Genre-fluid’ is a great word to describe the music of guitarist Ethan Margolis, aka “Emaginario.” A life-long student of music, he has traveled the world from his native Cleveland to bring African diaspora-Caribbean sounds and flamenco stylings to his musical base of the blues and folk-rock. Margolis has evolved into a creative and worldly artist, whose deep connections with flamenco, jazz, blues and even punk coalesce into a unique musical voice.

Elements of that Margolis style can be heard coming to fruition on his latest album, Interlude of the Duende (released on Ropeadope), in trio form with a pair of jazz masters Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland.

“Duende” is the Spanish word in the title, has been called “a heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity” and is often connected with flamenco and the Andalusian Romaní population. On this recording, the term appropriately reflects the complexity of the music, the power of the collaboration itself and more broadly Margolis’ life experience in Spain’s Romaní community. Ethan continues to translate that rhythmic language into American jazz formats and recordings in the vein of Hungarian Roma guitarist Gabor Szabó ("Gypsy Queen") and most importantly, the jazz-flamenco crossover playing of Lenny Breau.

In Podcast 984 we discuss his still-maturing musical saga, talk about past and future collaborations with pianist Chano Domínguez, and take a deep dive into the world of flamenco. Musical selections include the aptly titled “Beginning with a Groove,” and “A Beating Heart.”

Norma Winstone has been a one of a kind musician in the jazz scene for more than fifty years. A unique artist as both jazz vocalist and lyricist, and ability to sing in ensembles from Big Bands to Avant-garde ensembles to intimate duets and trios have made each release in her distinctive career a “must hear.”

Her first ECM recording in six years, Outpost of Dreams , finds Norma in a new duo with pianist Kit Downes. Norma brings her poetic sensibilities to new pieces by Downes as well as compositions by Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and John Taylor. The results are always striking, and often moving.

Take “Out Of The Dancing Sea.” Based on the work habits of noted Scottish painter Joan Eardley, Aidin O’Rourke and Downes wrote piece of music, which in turn was also inspired by James Robertson’s short story about Eardley. To this Norma brings her gifts, and the end result is one of the album’s highlights.

Podcast 983 is my talk with Norma, as we discuss how she and Downes came to work together, and the making of Outpost of Dreams . We also go back to some of Norma’s most memorably collaborations, including work with Kenny Wheeler and Fred Hersch. Musical selections include “Out Of The Dancing Sea,” and “Beneath an Evening Sky” from Outpost of Dreams and “My Soul” from her collaboration with Wheeler, Mirrors .

A reliably swinging presence and facile improviser on the New York scene since the late ‘80s, guitarist Greg Skaff has shared the bandstand with such jazz greats as Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, David “Fathead” Newman and Ralph Peterson Jr., as well current notables like Mike LeDonne, David Hazeltine, Orrin Evans, Ben Allison, Jim Rotondi and Joe Farnsworth. He has also toured and recorded with “Queen of R&B” Ruth Brown and jazz diva Gloria Lynne and recorded seven albums as a leader.

Skaff’s latest, Re Up , recorded with bassist Ugonna Okegwo and young drumming sensation Jonathan Barber, follows the guitar trio format he explored on 2021’s Polaris , which paired him with two legends: bassist Ron Carter and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath.

Greg speaks highly of his collaborators, who were all-in on the project, and put in the time rehearsing and playing live before going into the studio. It was on the bandstand that tasty covers (Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys” and Duke Ellington’s “Fleurette Africaine,” rendered as a sublime solo guitar piece) and Skaff’s sometimes challenging originals took shape. The result is Re Up (you’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear about the serendipity that led to the title).

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Skaff studied jazz at Wichita State University before moving to New York, where he soon began making an impression with his solidly swinging style. He held the guitar chair in tenor saxophonist Stanley “Don’t Mess With Mr. T” Turrentine’s band for five years and subsequently worked in bands led by saxophonists Bobby Watson and David “Fathead” Newman as well as in bassist Ron Carter’s big band. This is his seventh album as a leader.

Podcast 982 is my conversation with Greg Skaff, as he whips out his guitar to let us hear how some of the tracks on the album came to be. You can hear three tracks from the album, including a solo rendition of his dreamy “Peace Place,” which also has trio version.

The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner is Conrad Herwig’s latest reimagination of music from his musical heroes, and in this case, former boss on the bandstand. Backed by a band that includes his closest friends and long-time collaborators, including Craig Handy (tenor & baritone saxophone), Alex Norris (trumpet & flugelhorn), Bill O'Connell (piano), Ruben Rodriguez (bass), Robby Ameen (drums), and Camilo Molina congas & bata), the new album is a worthy companion to previous entries in the “Latin Side” series, Luques Curtis and Eddie Palmieri sit in on a track each.

Well-known as an anchor of the Mingus Big Band and a first-call session musician, Conrad has released more than twenty-five albums as a leader..Among his more notable credits include Joe Lovano’s 52nd Street Themes , Al Di Meola’s Orange and Blue, and Miles Davis’s final large-scale performance released as Live at Montreux .

Podcast 981 completes our two part conversation with Herwig, who spoke to me by telephone while sitting a in a park near his home. The bird calls you hear in the background add a wonderful ambience to our talk. In this second part, we discuss his musical history and future projects, and talk about some of my favorite Herwig sessions, including The Tip of the Sword with Richie Beirach and Jack DeJohnette, and New York Breed , with Beirach, Adam Nussbaum, Dave Liebman, and Rufus Reid. Musical selections from those albums include “Thought Precede Action” and McCoy Tyner’s “Search for Peace.”

The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner is the latest installment in a critically-acclaimed series that started in 1996 with The Latin Side of John Coltrane . It's the work of Conrad Herwig, a musically gifted, bilingual artist, a master trombonist who grew up admiring jazz's greatest practitioners but, at the same time, cutting his Latin Jazz teeth with legends such as Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera and the great pianist and composer, Eddie Palmieri.

Herwig called McCoy Tyner his boss for a number of years, so bringing his reimagination skills to the legendary pianist’s music is a natural step for the trombonist. He has assembled a group of musicians he calls his closest friends and long-time collaborators for the album, including Craig Handy (tenor & baritone saxophone), Alex Norris (trumpet & flugelhorn), Bill O'Connell (piano), Ruben Rodriguez (bass), Robby Ameen (drums), and Camilo Molina congas & bata), Luques Curtis and Eddie Palmieri sit in on a track each.

Beyond his “Latin Side” series (including the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hanock, and Wayne Shorter), Herwig is well-known as an anchor of the Mingus Big Band and a first-call session musician. Among his more notable credits include Joe Lovano’s 52nd Street Themes , Al Di Meola’s Orange and Blue, and Miles Davis’s final large-scale performance released as Live at Montreux . He’s released more than twenty-five albums as a leader.

Podcast 980 is the first of my two part conversation with Conrad, who spoke to me by telephone while sitting a in a park near his home. The bird calls you hear in the background add a wonderful ambience to our talk. In this first part, we discuss jhow the Latin Side series began, and how he chooses his material, He discusses the contribution of his fellow musicians to the recordings, and you’ll hear the The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner ’s take on “Seach for Peace.” Part Two of our conversation appears later this week.

An early highlight of the summer for jazz fans in the US Northeast is always the Freihoer's Saratoga Jazz Festival, held on the grounds of the lovely Saratoga Performing Arts Center ("SPAC"). This year's lineup should please almost any jazz fan, bringing ta wide ranging lineup to two stages on June 29 and 30. Want the inside scoop on the festival? listen to Podcast 979 as festival organizer Danny Melnick talks about the acts, the scene and the background on a great weekend of music.

The Festival scehdule (subject to change) is:

Saturday, June 29th

Amphitheater Stage

· 12:00PM – The New Orleans Groove Masters featuring Herlin Riley, Jason Marsalis & Shannon Powell

· 1:45PM – Joey Alexander Trio with special guest Theo Croker ​

· 3:30PM – The Yussef Dayes Experience

· 5:15PM – Samara Joy​

· 7:00PM – Cimafunk with special guest Pedrito Martinez​

· 8:55PM – Lake Street Dive​

Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage

· 11:00AM – Sara Caswell Quartet

· 12:20PM – Harold López-Nussa: Timba a la Americana​

· 1:40PM – Tia Fuller​

· 3:00PM – Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra​

· 4:20PM – Theo Croker​

· 5:40PM – Coco Montoya​

Sunday June 30th

Amphitheater Stage

· 12:30PM – Terence Blanchard Sextet

· 2:00PM – Cory Henry

· 3:30PM – Laufey​

· 5:15PM – Stanley Clarke N*4Ever​

· 7:00PM – Norah Jones​

Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage

· 11:30AM – Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars Centennial Celebration of Max Roach, Bud Powell & J.J. Johnson featuring Clay Jenkins, Steve Wilson, Steve Davis, Mike Moreno, Bill Cunliffe, Todd Coolman & Dennis Mackrel ​

· 12:55PM – Helen Sung: JazzPlasticity

· 2:20PM – Miguel Zenon Quartet​

· 4:00PM – Olatuja

· 5:35PM – Pedrito Martinez Group

Those who cover music love to categorize the music and musicians we focus on. I put myself all too often into this group. What should I call it? Is it Acid Jazz? Post Bop? Downtown Loft? But far too often muscians fall in between the cracks of these often arbitrary categories, and we are left looking for new descriptive words. Often the words fail us.

The UK-based duo Edy Forey are definitely in those cracks, even if they call their music “Urban Jazz.” What does that sound like, and where does it come from? Listen to Podcast 978, my conversation with Edy Forey and find out,

Vocalist Edy Szewy and keyboardist Guilhem Forey believe music is sacred and musicians matter greatly. Szewy was born in Poland to an American father and a Polish mother. Her parents separated early, but her dad would send her CDs from America that you couldn’t find locally. By the time she moved to one of the cultural centers of Europe, Edinburgh Scotland, she had absorbed the very American grooves of TLC and En Vogue, enthralled with the songwriting and production skills of the likes of D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill, imagining that one day she could do it too.

Conversely, Forey, born in Paris and raised in Nantes, France was a child musical prodigy. Bach spiritually and emotionally pulled him in at the age of three—so much so that this classical music was almost scary to his immature mind. But by the time his grandfather introduced him to American icon Ray Charles and British guitarist Eric Clapton, everyone who heard him play realized he was a gifted pianist. At age 11, his mom walked him into a rehearsal hall for his first jazz piano lessons. So taken was the teacher on this introductory audition, he flung his door open and quickly recruited a bassist and drummer to join in. It was the talented adolescent’s first jam session. By 16, Forey was leading a jazz trio.

Culture Today , their debut album, sounds more like a project that has been germinating for years, rather than a coming-out party. Part of the reason is the presence of Bob Power behind the board, a man whose distinguished resume includes work by Me’Shell N’degéocello, The Roots, D’Angelo, and Erykah Badu mixing and mastering the duo’s entire album. Then there is the sound of several guest artists who joined them on this record, including founding members of Snarky Puppy bassist Michael League and saxophonist Bob Reynolds . Also, Sharay Reed , of the Funk Apostles, Femi Koleoso of the Ezra Collective and reed player Alex Hahn provided significant contributions.

Both Edy and Foret=y joined me for our conversation as we dug into the roots of their sound, how they go about collaborating on material, and where they want to go with their music now that they have made that all-important first album. Musical selections include “Better Way,” with the two bassist sound of Luca Alemanno (double bass) and Dean Mark (electric bass) and their cover of the standard “Nature Boy,” with some revised harmony and additional lyrics by Edy.

" "In a world where it's easy to be cynical and bitter, what strikes me most about Nicola and his music is the pure joy and excitement that he brings and carries with him at all times. To be present in the euphoria of this art form is the most difficult skill the way I see it and many young artists seem to ignore that simple and powerful fact. Nicola, in addition to being an accomplished instrumentalist and composer, possesses that ineffable quality that draws us to his music." - Rio Sakairi, the artistic director of The Jazz Gallery, NYC,

In one of the best debut recordings of the year so far, Italian-born, NYC-based saxophonist Nicola Caminiti has released Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self-Portrait on his own label. Leading a quartet that includes pianist Lex Korten, bassist Ben Tiberio and drummer Miguel Russell, Nicola shows strong writing skills and plenty of chops to go with them. The band’s interplay shows that they’ve been honing this material for some time now, and the result is a terrific listen.

Caminiti has racked up impressive accolades over the recent past, including being named a 2023 Herb Alpert ASCAP Young Composer, winning the North American Saxophone Alliance Jazz Competition, and a Jazz Gallery Artist Commission for 2023-2024. He's performed with Pedrito Martinez, Arturo O’Farrill & Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and his friend and mentor Dayna Stephens, among many others.

Podcast 977 is my conversation with Nicola, as we discuss the band, how he goes about writing his tunes, and what musicians have inspired and driven him to be a jazz musician. Musical selections from Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self-Portrait include “Elliptical Biking,” written during the pandemic, and “Adam Arturo,” a tribute of sorts to jazz musician Adam O’Farrill.

Zaccai Curtis continues to be one of the most engaging piano players of the past decade. Whether as a band leader (alone or with his brother Luques) or backing the likes of the late Ralph Peterson, Lakecia Benjamin and Cindy Blackman Santana, his strong sense of rhythm and deep knowledge of Latin and Afro-Cuban sounds and Bebop chords make him a cornerstone of those artist’s sounds.

Cubop Lives! is an album that stands as the culmination of his work as a composer/arranger, performer, and educator steeped in the Afro-Cuban Jazz tradition. Backed by Willie Martinez (drums, voice, timbales), Camilo Molina (percussion), Reinaldo De Jesus (percussion, drums), and brother Luques Curtis (bass), he has delivered an album that creates a fusion of the Bebop and Latin jazz traditions. For example, one of the most notable ways he does this is through the “Noro Morales Suite ,” a collection of four pieces by the great Puerto Rican pianist, Noro Morales, one of Zaccai’s musical heroes. And then with his take on Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” he reinterprets a piano staple and turns it into something fresh and new.

Since his days learning at the feet of masters like Jackie McLean in Hartford, Connecticut, Zaccai has absorbed innumerous influences. With the new album, he gets to turn that sound loose, on his original tunes and tasty covers. There is nary a week moment on the album, and I suspect it will find its way to many year-end “Best of” lists.

Zaccai records on the Truth Revolution Recording Collective, a group he, Luques and likeminded musicians run to release and distribute their work. We discuss his label, and how he came to be so versed in Latin Jazz in Podcast 976. Musical selections include “Maple Leaf Rag” and the Curits-penned blues “Black Rice.”

Podcast 975 continues my conversation with the great Charles McPherson. A giant of the saxophone, Charles is a product of the rich jazz city of Detroit, where he was mentored by the late Barry Harris. His closest childhood friend was the future trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer; the two later played together with the iconic Charles Mingus, with whom McPherson would tour and record for more than a decade. McPherson and Hillyer lived just blocks from the famed Blue Bird Inn, a renowned jazz club where the house band included Harris, Pepper Adams, Paul Chambers, and Elvin Jones.

His new album Reverence pays a tribute to the late Barry Harris, as well as showcasing his top notch band featuring Terell Stafford on trumpet. We discuss the band and the tunes that make up Reverence, as well as The Lost Album at Ronnie Scott's , a previously unreleased album sh owcasing McPherson, Charles Mingus, a very young Jon Faddis, Bobby Jones, John Foster and Roy Brooks. That recording form shows in August 1972 at the famed London jazz club, illustrates McPherson's approach to playing his saxophone.

Reverence is Charles McPherson’s first release for Smoke Sessions Records, and a few listens reveal why he’s been held in such reverence for the last 64 years. The album captures a scintillating live performance from Smoke Jazz Club, where McPherson is joined by his remarkable current group featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford , pianist Jeb Patton, bassist David Wong, and drummer Billy Drummond. The set is a showcase for McPherson’s gifts as both composer and soloist and bridges his deep and far-reaching exploration of the full jazz spectrum.

Reverence kicks off a yearlong series of live recordings celebrating the 25th anniversary of Smoke Jazz Club and the tenth anniversary of its record label, Smoke Sessions. McPherson’s preference for recording live was a major factor in launching this series. After an inspiring, post-pandemic week performing at the recently renovated and reopened Smoke back in November 2022, McPherson knew he wanted to capture that same atmosphere and energy on his next recording, so the decision to skip the studio and record live was a relatively easy one.

Born in Joplin, Missouri, McPherson spent his formative years in the rich jazz city of Detroit, where he was mentored by the late Barry Harris. His closest childhood friend was the future trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer; the two later played together with the iconic Charles Mingus, with whom McPherson would tour and record for more than a decade. McPherson and Hillyer lived just blocks from the famed Blue Bird Inn, a renowned jazz club where the house band included Harris, Pepper Adams, Paul Chambers, and Elvin Jones.

Reverence was born shortly after Barry Harris passed away in late 2021. Harris was a pivotal figure for McPherson, not just as a musician but as a person. In light of his recent passing, the album is particularly dedicated to his memory. The final track on Reverence , “Ode to Barry,” was penned in homage to the great pianist and educator. Beyond topnotch McPherson originals, the set is rounded out by a pair of familiar standards: “Come Rain or Come Shine,” the Harold Arlen classic, showcasing the warm tenderness of McPherson’s ballad playing in a quartet setting; and the yearning, nostalgic “Old Folks,” led by a wistful Stafford outing.

Podcast 974 is the first of a two part conversation with Charles McPherson, as he talks about his love of live performances and of bebop vocabulary, and tells the story of his time with Barry Harris. Podcast 975 will pick up the conversation with talk of his time with Charles Mingus and Art Farmer, and how he keeps busy in his home near San Diego, California.

You’ve probably seen Linda Purl act more often than you’ve heard her sing. Besides being Richie Cunningham’s girlfriend and Fonzie’s fiancée on Happy Days , Matlock ’s daughter Charlene Matlock, and Pam’s Mom/Steve Carell’s girlfriend on The Office , she has had stints on Homeland , True Blood, and Hacks . She has starred in over 45 made-for-TV movies and is currently recurring on The Bold and the Beautiful. She’s been on the Broadway stage and a number of Off-Broadway productions, performing roles from Shakespeare to the one-woman theatrical presentation of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking .

But she can sing. And This Could Be the Start (Reaching Records) shows off her talents in spades. Backed by a band composed off Tedd Firth (piano) David Finck (bass), Ray Marchica (drums & percussion) and Nelson Rangell (Reeds) the album is a tight collection of Standards, from Jimmy Van Heusen and Cole Porter to Cy Coleman and Stephen Sondheim. Add to that the vocal version of Carla Bley’s “Lawns” with lyrics by Sara Teasdale, and you have a constantly interesting listen.

Born in Connecticut, Ms. Purl grew up in Japan, becoming the only foreigner to have trained at the Toho Geino Academy. Her studies continued at Neighborhood Playhouse and Lee Strasberg Institute. She was Founding Director of the California International Theatre Festival. She tours with her Music Director Tedd Firth, who she describes as her catalyst for recording the new album.

Podcast 973 is my conversation with Linda Purl as discusses how she selects her tunes and prepared for This Could Be the Start . Musical selections include a dreamy “Let’s Get Lost,” the peppy “Live Alone and Like It” and “Two Hearts on Lawns.”

Since Yellowjackets’ eponymous 1981 debut album, the group has hewed its own creative path, influencing colleagues with enviable compositional craftsmanship and an ever-shifting blend of influences. In many ways Yellowjackets embody both continuity and renewal, with founding­ pianist/keyboardist Russell Ferrante providing the four-decade thread first joined by Will Kennedy­, who took over the drum chair from 1987-99 and returned to the fold in 2010. Bob Mintzer, a Jacket since 1990, contributes on tenor and soprano saxophones and EWI.

The bass chair in Yellowjackets has been held by some mighty players over the years, beginning with the legendary Jimmy Haslip , and then Felix Pastorious. By the band’s standards Australian-born electric bass virtuoso Dane Alderson is still the new kid, though he’s already anchored the quartet at bass for almost ten years. A product of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Western Australian, his playing shows his great love of rock (“I was a total metalhead” he says in our conversation), R&B and funk.

The band’s last release was the Grammy nominated Parallel Motion. Every Jacket is well represented on the album with Alderson contributing two stand-out tracks. His slyly grooving “Early” grew out of a sketch that had been languishing on his laptop for more than a decade. “Onyx Manor” has a funk-infused drum and bass start, expanding to give everyone in the band a chance to shine.

Podcast 972 is my conversation with Dane Alderson, belatedly posted from our past conversation. We discuss how he came to join the Yellowjackets, his decision to play a 6 string bass, and his many influences as a player and a fan. Muscial selections include the Alderson-penned “Onyx Manor.”

Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Bossa Nova-themed animated film They Shot the Piano Player will be in wide release nationwide from Sony Classic Pictures this week. Trueba and Mariscal are the duo behind the 2012 Academy Award nominated Chico and Rita, and their latest work features a who’s who of the best of Brazilian music, including João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, Milton Nascimento and Paulo Moura.

The film follows a New York music journalist who goes on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso FernandoTenorio Jr. in 1976. A celebratory origin story of the world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova, the film captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the 60s and 70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes. The film features the voice of actor Jeff Goldblum, who is no stranger to the world of jazz, performing and recording on piano.

Trueba is also no stranger to music, having w on two Grammy Awards and four Latin Grammy Awards. as a producer for the likes of Bebe and Chuco Valdes, and Michel Camillo, His 2000 documentary Calle 54 set the standard for examination of Latin Jazz. He spoke with me from Spain, and he related the arduous process that led to the creation of They Shot the Piano Player . Fernando shares his thoughts on the importance of the music of Brazil and what he hopes to accomplish with this film, and more particularly, this animated film. Musical selections include Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Stone Flower" from the album Fernando says started his love of Brazilian music.

The legendary George Coleman’s latest project is a release from hard-bop supergroup One For All, an album appropriately called Big George on Smoke Sessions Records. One For All is composed of tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander , trumpeter Jim Rotondi , trombonist Steve Davis , pianist David Hazeltine , bassist John Webber , and drummer Joe Farnsworth . Coleman joins the group on three tracks, the Rotondi original “Oscar Winner,” standard “My Foolish Heart,” and Hank Mobley’s “This I Dig of You.”

Coleman is approaching his 89th birthday, and still plays with the classic sense of Memphis blues that is his birthright. Underrated as a leader for much of his career, he was in invaluable part of recordings and performing bands with all the greats, from Max Roach and Chet Baker to Elvin Jones and Charles Mingus to Horace Silver and Lee Morgan. He was a crucial part of some of the most important recordings in jazz history, holding the saxophone chair on Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage , and Miles Davis’ Seven Steps to Heaven , and the live albums My Funny Valentine and Four and More .

Podcast 971 is Part Two of my two part conversation with George Coleman, as he talks about his past collaborations with Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis and B.B. King. Musical selections include the title track from “Maiden Voyage” and the Coleman composition “5/4 Thing” from his collaboration with Elvin Jones and Wilbur Ware.

New York’s premier hard-bop supergroup, One for All has evolved over the course of its quarter-century history from a sextet of young torchbearers to an assemblage of the music’s most revered traditionalists. Just how in-demand these six artists have become can be traced by the span of time that elapses between albums. 2016’s The Third Decade followed its predecessor by five years; seven years of that decade have now passed before the band’s long-awaited follow-up, Big George .

Due out March 15, 2024 from Smoke Sessions Records , Big George features the unparalleled line-up of tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander , trumpeter Jim Rotondi , trombonist Steve Davis , pianist David Hazeltine , bassist John Webber , and drummer Joe Farnsworth . This time around the group has invited a very special guest for the proceedings – tenor sax legend George Coleman .

While the title of Big George is a nod to Coleman, the session is not a “tribute album” in the traditional sense. The tip of the hat is more an acknowledgment of the giants who still walk among us – a list that has grown distressingly (if inevitably) shorter over the sextet’s 27-year lifetime. Coleman is a living legend with an emphasis on the “living,” and his vital presence on three of the album’s nine tracks is less about paying homage than an opportunity to breathe fire alongside one of the greatest to ever do it.

Coleman is approaching his 89th birthday, and still plays with the classic sense of Memphis blues that is his birthright. Underrated as a leader for much of his career, he was an invaluable part of recordings and performing bands with all the greats, from Max Roach and Chet Baker to Elvin Jones and Charles Mingus to Horace Silver and Lee Morgan. He was a crucial part of some of the most important recordings in jazz history, holding the saxophone chair on Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage , and Miles Davis’ Seven Steps to Heaven , and the live albums My Funny Valentine and Four and More .

Podcast 970 is Part One of my two part conversation with George Coleman, as he talks about his collaboration with One For All and looks back on his past with sharp and sometimes surprising detail. Musical selections from Big George include the Jim Rotondi composition “Oscar Winner.”

Italy-born, Long Island, New York-based saxophonist and arranger Ada Rovatti ’s seventh album as a leader, The Hidden World of Piloo is deeply personal, and stylistically varied. It features six improvisationally rich instrumentals that include blues grooves, samba vibes, straight-up lyricism, melancholic balladry and a comedic finale. Two songs include strings; another features the dobro, a country instrument unlikely to be in a jazz song.

In a change for Ada, several compositions showcase top-tier vocalists, including jazz-poll champion Kurt Elling , the Netherlands jazz singer Fay Claassen , German pop/jazz star Alma Naidu and fired-up R&B singer Niki Haris (the daughter of jazz great Gene Harris) who once served as a Madonna backing vocalist. These singers allow her band members—including her husband Randy Brecker on trumpet and flugelhorn, organist Simon Oslender , bassist Claus Fischer , drummer Tim Dudek , percussionist Café Da Silva —to both support and augment the lyrics and melodies Ms. Rovatti has carefully created.

Ms. Rovatti grew up in Italy playing classical piano before making the switch to saxophone which led her to the Berklee College of Music and later New York where she became active in the jazz community. Ada began recording as a leader with two albums in 2003: Ada Rovatti & The Elephunk Band’s For Rent and her quartet’s Under the Hat . Her discography continued with Airbop . Green Facto r , Disguise and in 2019 her Brecker Plays Rovatti—Sacred Bond , with her husband Randy joining her in playing her compositions. Today Rovatti tours with her own band as well as serves as the tenor saxophonist in Brecker’s band.

Podcast 968 is my conversation with Ada Rovatti, as we discuss the creation of The Hidden World of Piloo , her decision to write lyrics for her newest tunes, and how her background led to her carer playing sax. Musical selections include “Hey You (Scintilla Of Sonder)” featuring Fay Claassen on vocals, and “Make Up Girl,” a tune written about the entrance into adolescence of her daughter.

In Part One of our conversation, pianist and composer Sullivan Fortner talked about the creation of his latest release, the creative two-disc Solo Game . One disc is solo piano, the result of a curation in the studio with his mentor Fred Hersch, and the other electric keyboard and other musical toys to create both composed through and improvised soundscapes.

Part Two talks about future Fornter projects, like his coming performance with the National Symphony in `Washington DC to salute Duke Ellington and a choir-based recording to begin later in the year. We also talk about his work with jazz singers, most botably Cécile McLorin Salvant and thoughtson legends like pianist Barry Harris and Roy Hargrove, with whom Sullivan shared a bandstand for years starting in 2010.

Musical selections for Podcast 967 include one of Sullivan's collaborations with Ms. Salvant from her Ghost Song album, "Until."

The latest release from the rising star Sullivan Fortner shows off two very different sides of his musical pallet – lyrical and moving solo piano, and electronic explorations. Both will leave you wanting more, and to hear what he has next up his sleeve.

Frustrated by his lack of musical outlets during the pandemic, “Game,” the second of two discs that make up Solo Game came first. Visiting a studio in Brooklyn to consider a project, Fortner began employing a range of instruments and effects — Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, Moog, vocoder, celesta, chimes, drums, an immense variety of percussion (and a piano as well). The results are shimmering soundscapes that feel as spontaneous as they are admirably constructed. Some are composed (“It’s a Game,” “Snakes and Ladders,” “Cross and Circles” and “The Minute Waltz” borrowed from Frédéric Chopin), others improvised on the piano then “orchestrated” by means of electronics – effects from Pro Tools, Melodyne and Auto-Tune were added afterward.

“Solo” is more traditional, but still revelatory. Fortner called upon one of his mentors, Fred Hersch, to help him produce a solo piano program. Hersch asked Fortner to draw up a list of his favorite pieces, from the Great American Songbook and beyond, from which Hersch made choices over the course of four recording sessions, with no rehearsal or second takes allowed. From more than 200 songs on the initial list, 24 were recorded and Fortner selected nine for this album

Fortner moves with consummate skill between classic standards (“I Didn’t Know What Time it Was” by Rodgers & Hart; Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday;” “This is Now” from Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin) to less well known jazz compositions (among them Randy Weston’s “Congolese Children”) and works by Stevie Wonder (“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”) and Antônio Carlos Jobim (“Once I Loved”), taking each into unexpected territory. His harmonic sense is sophisticated, his polyrhythmic concepts bold, his sound crystalline, and he makes of these performances something highly personal yet rooted in tradition, at once respectful and progressive.

Now in his late thirties, he enrolled at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts at age 13, where he became Valedictorian of his high school graduating class. He continued his formal music studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in jazz performance, and at the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a Master’s degree in jazz performance. Fortner complemented that experience by studying under such jazz piano masters as Peter Martin, Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, and Phil Markowitz, and playing in bands led by Stefon Harris, Etienne Charles, Roy Hargrove, and Christian Scott.

In Part One of this two part conversation, we discuss the making and recording of Solo Game and hear one musical selection from each project, the reinterpretation of the standard “I Didn’t Know What Time it Was,” and his composed experimental piece “Snakes and Ladders.” Part two will let us focus on Sullivan’s future projects, as well as discussion of his work with jazz singers, most notably Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Giorgi Mikadze (pronounced “Gih-ohr-gih Mih-kahd-zeh”) is a pianist who values his heritage and roots, having been born and raised in Georgia, at the foot of the Caucasus mountains. While his training and early carer arch may have seemed typical for an aspiring jazz musician – classical training, Berklee and Manhattan School of Music studies, time on the road with his elders – his choice of music is not.

Rather than concentrate on the Great American Songbook or record only his own compositions, Giorgi has adapted Georgia music, from folk songs to movie scores. This process comes to a new high with the release of Face to Face: The Georgian Songbook Vol. 1 on the French label PeeWee!. The album features pieces by seven of the Caucasus country’s most revered composers, most of them originally penned for film, animation and theatrical soundtracks from the Sixties through the Nineties. Mikadze adds three of his own compositions to the mix, suggesting that much like the American model, this new Songbook is one that invites a continual expansion and evolution.

Face To Face also marks Mikadze’s first venture on record into the traditional piano, bass and drums jazz trio. He’s joined by the stellar French rhythm section of bassist François Moutin and drummer Raphaël Pannier, the latter of whom was a Berklee classmate of Giorgi’s. The results are a wonderful mix of Georgian melodies with a jazz sensibility.

Podcast 965 is my conversation with Giorgi as he discusses the microtonal roots of Georgian music, how his jazz playing brought him back to his native music, and where he plans to take it in the future. Musical selections include the rousing “Satchidao,” and the moving “Not Easy to Repeat.”

Giorgi Mikadze performs on the Main Space at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City for a CD Release Party on Saturday February 3, 2024 at 8 pm. For more information, click here ,

Following in the footsteps of the giants of solo piano who have recorded for ECM Records, Call on the Old Wise is Nitai Hershkovits ’ first record as a leader for the famous label, presenting his powerful pianistic ingenuity in a largely improvised solo setting. A veteran of Oded Tzur’s quartet (he appears on Isabela and Here Be Dragons ) , Nitai was also a mainstay of Avishai Cohen’s trio from 2011 to 2016.

The album is partially dedicated to Nitai’s former piano teacher Suzan Cohen, with whom he studied in Jerusalem and who according to Nitai is the mentor to whom the term ‘wise’ in the record’s title alludes. The pieces “The Old Wise,” “Of Mentorship” and “For Suzan” refer directly to her. But Nitai draws from wide-reaching influences, ranging from his work in jazz contexts and innovative contemporary explorations to his background in classical music. This immaculate balance of idioms gives rise to an abundance of colors and timbres, explored by a pianist, who has successfully forged his very own voice as improviser and shape-designer.

Born to a Moroccan mother and a Polish father, Nitai originally started out his musical path on clarinet before switching to the piano at age 15. Jazz and improvised music were the focal point of his musical investigations throughout his teens, with a particularly strong interest for the idiosyncrasies of Sonny Rollins. In this period, Nitai won several jazz competitions in the Tel Aviv area, before his deepened interest in classical music took shape, leading to studies in both jazz and classical piano. He has recently moved back to Israel, where he is involved with a variety of musical projects, including collaborations with electronic musician Yuvi Havkin aka Rejoicer and drummer Amir Bresler, who can be heard on their joint venture Apifera .

Musical selections from Call on the Old Wise include "Of Trust and Remorse" and "This You Mean to Me", both Nitali originals, and Duke Ellington's "Single Petal of a Rose."

As 2023 comes to a close, Straight No Chaser posts a few conversations with artists who produced memorable albums this year. Today’s podcast features bassist Buster Williams, who released Unalome on the Smoke Sessions label this past winter.

While the band on Unalome is familiar – drummer Lenny White, pianist George Colligan, alto saxophonist Bruce Williams and Vibes master Stefon Harris are all long-time running partners – the album adds vocalist Jean Baylor for covers and Williams originals that take his music in a less familiar territory. O ne of the most revered bassists of the last half century, the Grammy-winning Williams has played, recorded, and collaborated with such jazz giants as Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Heath, Larry Coryell, Wynton, and Branford Marsalis, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Errol Garner, Freddie Hubbard, and countless others. He was a charter member of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi band and the all-star Thelonious Monk tribute ensemble Sphere. And at 80 years of age, Buster Williams shows no sign of slowing his climb along that ascending path. Among the topics we disucss was the recent documentary about Buster's life, "From Bass to Ininity" directed by Adam Kahan.

Musical selections for Podcast 96_ include the Williams original “In the Middle of a Rainbow,” and a revamped take on the classic “42nd Street.” If you enjoyed this podcast, please check out Podcast 486 for another conversation with Buster from 2015.

Dominic Miller may be best known to the world as Sting’s “right-hand man on guitar” and co-writer of “Shape of My Heart,” among the ex-Police bassist's other pop hits. But the multi-faceted Miller has a completely different outlet for his improvisatory talents as well.

Vagabond is the guitarist’s third recording for ECM, and might prove his most poetic tale to date. After Dominic’s debut Silent Light (2017), which captured the guitarist in solo performances with occasional percussive injections by Miles Bould, Absinthe (2019) found him expand his subtle instrumental sketches in a quintet lineup. For Vagabond , the guitarist has come up with a quartet, and partnered up with Ziv Ravitz on drums and Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon , while long-time collaborator Nicolas Fiszman returns on bass.

Most of the tunes come from solo sketches, several from the isolated period of the recent pandemic. Once he was in the south of France in April 2021 with producer Manfred Eicher, the tunes began to build, develop and become showcases for his sidemen to interject their musical skills. The guitarist provides a framework for Ziv, Jakob and Nicolas to spread out in, whether the slow-burning groove of “Altea” or the mesmerizing balladry of “Lone Waltz,” with each player building dynamic momentum.

Born in Argentina to an American father and Irish mother, Miller was raised in the U.S. from age 10 and then educated there and in England. The guitarist’s international mindset has only been deepened through decades touring the globe, working with the likes of Paul Simon, The Chieftains, Plácido Domingo and, most often, Sting. This quartet will be touring Europe between Sting jaunts in the Winter and Spring of 2024, so keep your eyes open for a date near you.

Musical selections for Podcast 962 include “Lone Waltz” and the fiery “All Changes,” the latter inspired from Sting’s use of arpeggios in the Police classic “When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around.”

On Part Two of our conversation, guitarist Ralph Towner talks about his growth as a guitarist from his early days playing trumpet and piano, through his time with influential bands like the Paul Winter Consort and Oregon, and then his many solo, duo and trio recordings. We talk about his work with Wolfgang Muthspeil and Slava Grigoryan (From a Dream and Travel Guide in 2008 and 2013) as well as his favorite duo recordings, especially those with bassist Gary Peacock. We also discuss some of his other collaborations, including his brief brush performing with Weather Report in 1972.

At First Light is Ralph’s 25th ECM album as leader or co-leader, and his latest solo guitar release. Besides those prior releases, he has guested on important ECM albums by Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, and Kenny Wheeler.

Never one to be pigeon-holed as an interpreter and composer of a specific type of music, At First Light features new and old Towner pieces, as well as tunes from Broadway musicals and the much-covered Irish traditional air “Danny Boy.” Ralph also looks back on older pieces he has revisited on the album, especially “Guitarra Picante,” a piece originally from the Oregon songbook.

At the age of 83, guitarist Ralph Towner continues to write, perform and improvise on the highest of musical levels. He has been an ECM artist for more than fifty years, appearing in many different contexts, one of the most important being a run of solo recordings which began with Diary in 1973. At First Light is the latest addition to the solo guitar series. Never one to be pigeon-holed as an interpreter and composer of a specific type of music, this release features new and old Towner pieces, as well as tunes from Broadway musicals and the much-covered Irish traditional air “Danny Boy.”

Born into a musical family in Washington in 1940, Towner grew up immersed in classical music, jazz and the popular music of the day. A trumpet player from the age of seven, he took up piano seriously in his teens, in parallel studying composition, then embraced the classical guitar at 22.

What makes Towner’s sound unique is his desire to draw crucial inspirations from classical music, contemporary composition, Bill Evans’s conception of jazz and also from Brazilian music. At this time, his sound can only be called “Towner-esque.”

At First Light was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in February 2022, and produced by ECM maestro Manfred Eicher. Towner lives in Rome with his wife, the actress Mariello Lo Sardi, and we spoke by Zoom on an unseasonably hot morning a few months ago. In part one of our two-part conversation, we discussed the differences to Towner of recording solo versus a group, of using different strings and guitars to create the varying colors and sounds he hears in his head, and how as a young piano player he began his career improvising with the likes of John Abercrombie, Gary Peacock and Gary Burton. Musical selections from At First Light includes “Make Someone Happy.”

One of the few positives of the horrid COVID pandemic that shook the music world to its core has been the release of musci composed during those uncertain days. Alton and soprano saxophonist Christine Jensen's lastest album, Day Moon (Justin Time Records) stands as a shining example of how a great musician turns struggle into art.

Recorded with her quartet of pianist Steve Amirault and her long-time collaborators bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Jim Doxas, Day Moon is highlighted by t he four-song suite Quiescence. W ritten for a commission from New York’s Jazz Coalition that had raised funds for composers. Jensen sketched compositions including the Brazilian clave-feel “Tolos d’Abril,” her April Fool’s birthday song.

Ms. Jensen is the two-time winner of Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year at the Juno Awards, the Canadian version of the Grammys. She's released eleven albums as a leader, from her CODE Quartet to the large scale Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra, She's collaborated with her sister, the noted trumper Ingrid Jensen, as well as Ben Monder, Donny McCaslin and Geoffrey Keezer.

Podcast 959 is my conversation with Christine, as she discusses how she writes music, how she plays to the strengths of her collaborators, and where she is headed musically. Musical selections include “Tolos d’Abril.”

For the first time ever, the complete Vince Guaraldi soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving , the timeless 10th animated Peanuts special, from writer and creator Charles Schulz, director Bill Melendez and Phil Roman and producers Melendez and Lee Mendelson. Originally airing on November 20, 1973 on CBS-TV, the special has been broadcast or streamed every year for the last 50 years. But the soundtrack album has remained elusively out of reach.

Now we have the original recordings that comprise the thirteen song cues of the Special, plus another nine bonus or alternative tracks that have never been released or heard before .

The recording features Guaraldi (piano, keyboards, guitar, vocals), Seward McCain (electric bass), future funk master Mike Clark (drums), Tom Harrell (trumpet and brass arrangements), and Chuck Bennett (trombone). Guaraldi even contributes a rare vocal on “Little Birdie.” The soundtrack was produced by Sean and Jason Mendelson, re-mixed by Terry Carleton at Bones and Knives, and restored and mastered/re-mastered by Vinson Hudson.

Sean Mendelson is the son of the legendary Lee Mendelson, the man who coaxed Charles Schulz into taking his comic strip to television, and co-write the classic “Christmas Time is Here.” A fine musician in his own right, on Podcast 958, Sean takes us through the circuitous route this music has taken, and how it has been upgraded to meet current standards. Musical selections include a particualrly funky take on “Linus and Lucy” and “Little Birdie.”

Perennial DownBeat Critics Poll winner trombonist Michael Dease has embraced his role as a torchbearer for his mentors and the great jazz ancestors over his 15 deeply-swinging, state-of-the-art mainstream recordings. For The Other Shoe (Origin Records), Dease teams with the formidable composer Gregg Hill, expanding his rhythmic & harmonic palette with a flexible, in-the-moment perspective while remaining true to the sensibilities at his musical core. With the prodigiously talented pianist Geoffrey Keezer as a central foil, Dease brings along a wide-ranging collection of musicians, each specifically brought in for their unique outlooks and talents. Most notable is the inclusion of clarinetist Virginia MacDonald, along with the solid one-two punch of Liany Mateo on bass, and drummer Colleen Clark.

Gregg Hill’s music has been the subject of tribute albums before, especially two releases by bassist Rodney Whitaker and another by guitarist Randy Napoleon. The compositions Dease chooses for The Other Shoe always call for careful listening. They dart with unusual; time signatures, play with chord progressions and key signatures that require the listener to pay attention. But these are hardly avant-garde tunes – they have strong melodies, accentuated by Dease’s strong sense of the songs.

Michael Dease began his musical career playing saxophone, switching to trombone late in his teens. Three years later he was holding down a trombone chair with Illinois Jacquet’s Big Band. Since then, he has been a first call player for the large ensembles of Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, Nicholas Payton and more. As a soloist and bandleader he has recorded 16 albums, many or the Posi-Tone Records label.

Podcast 957 is my conversation with Michael Dease and Gregg Hill, as they discuss the elements of Hill’s music that attracts them, how Dease assembled his unusual lineup for the album, and what they most admire about one another. Musical selections include “The Goodbye Blues.”

Keyboardist Jon Cowherd has been on my list of interview subjects for a long time, and after an unconscionable delay, Podcast 956 features him and his latest release, a trio album on the Le Coq Records imprint called "Pride and Joy." And what a trio it is - Cowherd joined by long-time friend and musical running partner Brian Blade on drums, and the sensational John Patitucci on bass. Add guest spots by Chris Potter on saxophone and Alex Acuna on percussion, and you have a killer lineup for a sensational album.

Cowherd has been at the center of some of the most interesting muscial projects of the past years, including The Brian Blade Fellowship, the Mercy Project, and albums by top singers such as Lizz Wright, Cassandra Wilson and Alyssa Graham. His work on the Joni Mitchell tribute concerts with Brandi Carlile have earned rave reviews.

Musically, the album draws some inspiration from Cowherd's new home in Colorado, a marked departure from his urban New York digs of the past thirty years. The music is expansive, with plenty of space for solos. The sense of roominess permeates the tunes. Along with Jon's six compositions, Patitucci contributes the topnotch "Chickmonk" and Blade the album closer "Quilt City Blues."

As a fan of the Great American Songbook (and really, who isn't?) I'm always looking for new and different approaches to these storied songs. Enter the Nigerian born singer Douyé, whose latest release The Golden Sèkèrè , is a wonderful meld of polyrhythms, swing and soul.

Having grwon up listening to American torch singers as well as Afrobeat, it was inevitable that Douyé, would tackle tunes by Ray Noble, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. Her Nigerian-steeped support team features arrangers Bada Ken Okulolo, Tosin Aribisala and Zem Audu as well as guitarist Dokun Oke and percussionist Najite Agindotan. She also enlists an impressive guest list, including trumpeter Sean Jones, guitarist Lionel Loueke and especially bassist Buster Williams.

Podcast 955 features my conversation with Douyé, as we dig into her approach to some of the classics, including the big band backed version of "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the bass-driven take on "Devil May Care."

Pianists Joe Alterman and Les McCann make something of an odd couple. The pair are separated in age by more than half a century; McCann is confined to a medical rehab facility in Los Angeles, while Alterman left New York City to return to his native Atlanta, Georgia six years ago. But since their paths first crossed back in 2012, according to Alterman, “barely a day has passed that we haven't chatted.”

So it's only natural that Alterman's trio would evenually tackle the McCann songbook, and now we have Joe Alterman Plays Les McCann: Big Mo & Little Joe . Bassist Kevin Smith and drummer Justin Chesarek add the necessary swing as Alterman reimagines and erharmonizes his friend's tunes, some of them more than sixty years old.

From the gospel roar of the opening "Gone On and Get That Church" through tender ballads like Dorene Don;t Cry" and the moving conclusion (co-written by McCann and Alterman) "Don't Forget to Love Yourself," Alterman leads us through tunes that perhaps should have gotten more notice over the years. If nothing else, Big Mo & Little Joe .gives the listener a peak into the compositions and craft of an underrated jazz master, Les McCann. Musical selections include "Gone On and Get That Church" and Don't Forget to Love Yourself."

Listeners to Straight No Chaser know I have great fondness for the music of the piano trio, an art I consider one of the highest forms of jazz in terms of improvisation and collaboration. The music these groups make grows richer over time, so those groups that stay together can often take their sound to another level as they mature.

Pianist Omer Klein has made some of the most intriguing piano trio music of the recent past. His latest album Life & Fire marks an anniversary – Klein and his trio partners bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo and drummer Amir Bresler have been together for ten years. Over this period, they have produced four albums and shared their common musical experience with audiences worldwide. To celebrate the group took both music from the past repertoire and new tunes, and recorded in a small studio with an audience of friends and family, making Life & Fire sound not just intimate, but celebratory.

In our conversation Omer talks about how the group has grown together, how he individually continues to work outside of the trio – he has written scores for dance and performed with classical musicians – and the music scene in his hometown of Frankfurt, Germany. Musical selections are “Niggun” with a challenging 11/8 meter, and the melodic “Tzuri,” written for his late grandfather.

"I'm freer than I've ever been in my personal life, and I'm freer than I've ever been in my music. I'm accepting who I am. I love who I am. And as I continue to evolve – my artistry, my sexuality, and my overall humanity – my music will continue to become more and more personal ” - Eric Reed

Pianist Eric Reed has been a key component in memorable bands led by Wynton Marsalis, Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard, but I've founds the recordings he has made as a leader in his own right the most moving. Reed has been a strong advocate for rethinking what songs and songwriters should make up the American muscial canon, and he continues that trend on his latest release on Smoke Sessions Records.

Black, Brown and Blue features music written by jazz masters like Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Horace Silver, Buddy Collette, and Buster Williams, along with jazz-conversant pop/R&B songwriters Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers. In addition, Reed's new bandmates on this session – bassist Luca Alemanno and drummer Reggie Quinerly – each contribute a new piece of their own that works well in this setting.

Reed continues to bring his own gospel-tinged sound to these classics, and he and his bandmates shine when they mix and match the tunes into witty commentary on others (Horace Silver's "Peace" matched with McCoy Tyner's "Search for Peace" with a tasty quote from Ornette Coleman's "Peace" for good measure.

Reed shares his personal views on his music, on Thelonious Monk, his students at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his place in the jazz world as a member of the LBTQ+ community. Muscial selections for Podcast 952 include his cover of "Lean on Me' featuring a fiery vocal from veteran minister and vocalist Calvin B. Rhone and Thelonious Monk's "Ugle Beauty."

To hear the interview I reference in this podcast, go to WRTI.org .

Wayne Escoffery was riding high the morning I spoke with him. And why not? Just that weekend he had become the first person of color to conduct a performance of Charles Mingus' epic "Epitaph.," a piece he had played before under the direction of Gunther Schuller. His latest album, Like Minds , ws just out on Smoke Sessions Records, and featured top notch guests like Gregory Porter, Tom Harrell, and Mike Moreno joining Escoffery’s quartet of David Kikoski, Ugonna Okegwo, and Mark Whitfield, Jr.

Whitfield Jr is the new hand on board, as longtime drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. had passed away in March 2021.. This is a top notch group, and the selections are brilliantly assembled with Escoery tunes, most written during the lockdown days of the pandemic.

New for Wayne is the recording of tunes for which he has written lrics, and who better to sing them than Gregory Porter? Particualrly stunning is the group's talke on the reggae classic "Rivers of Babylon," which had been oft-heard in the Escoffery household during his youth.

Podcast 951 is my conversatioin with Wayne (an apology for some of the audio distortion from cellphones) as we talk about the importance of his longtime collaborators to his sound, and what they bring to the studio when they all get together. Musical slections include "Like Minds" and "Rivers of Babylon."

A new face on the New York jazz scene, 25-year-old guitarist-composer Tomer Cohen made his debut as a leader earlier this year with the release of Not the Same River , an album that shows how painting with sound and silence can create often striking musical moods.

Accompanied by the highly interactive rhythm tandem of drummer Obed Calvaire (a ubiquitous figure on the NYC scene and currently a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis) and stalwart bassist Matt Penman (formerly a linchpin of the SFJAZZ Collective and sideman on over 100 recordings), Cohen demonstrates his unique fingerstyle-and-pick technique on eight thoughtful compositions that reflect his pastoral upbringing, from age 4 to 21, on a kibbutz in Israel.

From the wistful title track to the odd-metered, Middle Eastern flavored “Connecting Dots,” the meditative “Hithadshut (Regeneration)” and the intricate, briskly moving “Empty?,” Cohen distinguishes himself as a fresh new voice through his affecting compositions and considerable six-string skills. Other tunes like “Pastures” and “Sunrise” show his unique ability to evoke a sense of place in a composition, while the energized groover “Probably More than Two” and the sublime ballad “First Laps” each harken back to more personal memories for the composer. The extraordinarily sensitive and complimentary playing of Calvaire and Penman throughout Not the Same River only serves to elevate the proceedings from track to track.

Podcast 950 is my conversation with Tomer, as we dsicuss his writing techniques, his thematic choices for compositions, and his choice of gear to create the sonic landscapes of Not the Same River , Musical selections include “Connecting Dots.”

If you think Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s remarkable, 1960 interpretation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet, The Nutcracker , is the final jazz word on the popular orchestral work, think again. Performed by drummer/leader Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band, The Pan American Nutcracker Suite is a distinctly different take on the famous score, integrating the polyrhythms and distinctive percussion from across the world, most notably McCarthy’s playground of choice, Latin America

The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band includes some of the finest players in jazz. Session conductor Vince Norman led Nick Marchione, John Chudoba, Brandon Lee, and Alex Norris, trumpets; followed by Andrew Gould, lead alto saxophone; Alejandro Aviles, alto saxophone; Ben Kono and Luis Hernandez, tenor saxophones; and Frank Basile, baritone saxophone. Mark Patterson, Ryan Keberle, and John Yao played trombones, James Borowski, bass trombone. McCarthy, of course, handled drums, while directing the rhythm section of Luis Perdomo, piano; Vinny Valentino, guitar; Boris Kozlov, bass; and Samuel Torres, percussion.

Downbeat Magazine hailed Joe McCarthy, writing “The Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band, captained by drummer Joe McCarthy, occupies a singular spot in the timeline of Afro-Cuban ensembles, at once a torchbearer of the genre’s storied history and also one of its fiercest innovators." Nine McCarthy-led recordings preceded The Pan American Nutcracker Suite , including Caribbean Jazz Project/Afro Bop Alliance featuring Dave Samuels , winner of the Latin Jazz Album Grammy of 2008. The album was also nominated in the Latin Jazz category at the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Podcast 949 takes us into the thought process behind the innovative arrangements to the ubiquitous holiday sounds,.

If it’s June, then jazz festival season must be underway. As always, the early highlight for me is Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, held in lovely Saratoga Springs’ Performing Arts Center June 24-25.

Impressario Danny Melnick has a strong lineup for the festival this year, with acts performing on two stages, along with juried crafts, food and drink. The line-ups for Saturday, June 24 include Snarky Puppy, Angelique Kidjp, Tower of Power, Chucho Valdes, Cory Wong and the Cindy Blackman Santana Band on the Amphoteater Stage, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, Emmet Cohen, Claudia Acuna, Carolyn Wonderland, Glen David Andrews and Nduduzo Makhathini on the Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage

Sunday’s talent on the Amphitheater Stage kicks off with Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye Project, Hiromi’s Sonicwonder, St. Paul & The Broken Bones and ends with Bonnie Raitt. The Discovery stage gives them great competition, as Grammy darling Samara Joy will be performing, as will Melissa Aldana. Mark Guiliana, Jupiter & Okwess and the Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars, featuring Todd Coolman, Clay Jenkins, Dennis Mackrel, Jimmy Greene, Michael Dease, Bill Cunliffe and Dave Stryker.

So listen up as Danny and I give you the inside information on the Festival, with some great backstory and insight into how and why these great artists are set to perform. Musical selections include tunes from Nduduzo Makhathini, Cindy Blackman Santana Band, and St. Paul & The Broken Bones.

It’s been a while, but I’m pleased to say that Straight No Chaser is back in business! There is a lot of great content coming up, so please spread the word.

We’ll kick things off with my conversation with singer/songwriter/arranger Ann Hampton Callaway. Ann has a new album out on Palmetto Records, and it’s her tribute to one of her earliest music heroes, Peggy Lee.

The recording come on the heels of Callaway’s show, Fever: The Peggy Lee Century , a 100th birthday celebration of the singer at the New York City supper club 54 Below for which she just received a BroadwayWorld nomination for Best Celebrity Show. The album, Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration! features the vocal strength we’ve come to expect from Ms. Callaway.

She has assembled a crack band to support her interpretations of Lee tunes, led by long-time collaborators Ted Rosenthal at the piano and Martin Wind on bass. Tim Horner is on drums, and guest guitarists Bob Mann and John Pizzarelli add some extra pizzazz.

Ms. Callaway has wisely focused on Miss Lee’s compositions rather than the tunes she covered. The author of over 270 songs in her lifetime, Ann calls her “the first singer-songwriter” in our conversation. In addition to the nine tunes Peggy wrote or co-wrote, Ann shines on the singer’s signature material, like “Fever” and “Black Coffee.” Of special interest is “Claire de Lune”, with music and arrangement by Ann andwords by Peggy Lee from an unpublished poem.

Podcast 947 is my conversation with Ann Hampton Callaway, as we discuss Peggy Lee, Ann’s recent explorations of the Linda Ronstadt Songbook, and some exciting future projects she has coming our way. Musical highlights include “Claire de Lune” and a medley of “ This Is a Very Special Day /It's a Good Day.”

Looking for some new Christmas jazz tunes to brighten your hoilday spirit? Our annual consumer guide gives you a chance to hear a track or two from recent releases of holiday music. This year features "new" releases from Norah Jones and Vince Guaraldi (deluxe versions of previous albums) and a comprehensive collection from Louis Armstrong. There are also single/EP only tunes from Laila Biali, Samara Joy, and Matt Wilson.

I'm featuring two tracks from Andy James' Bells Are Ringing (Le Coq Records). The first is an instrumetal original, "It's Christmas Time" composed by Andy, Piero Pata and Jon Cowherd and featuring an all-star group: Piano - Cowherd, Tenor Sax - Marcus Strickland (solo), Organ Melody - Ronnie Foster, Percussion - Alex Acuña, Drums - Clarence Penn, Bass - Christopher Thomas, Trumpet - Terell Stafford, Trombonist - Michael Dease, Alto Sax - Bob Sheppard). The vocal song from the album is the venerable "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),"recorded at Capitol Studios with Nat King Cole’s very own Steinway piano. Arranged by Bill Cunliffe who accompanies on piano, along with Drums - Joe LaBarbera, Bass - Chris Colangelo, Guitar - Jake Langley, Vibraphone - Lolly Allen, and Violin - Calabría McChesney.

Podcast 946 features:

Richard Williams - "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (with Alex Stiles)" from Hollywood Christmas
Laila Biali - "My Favorite Things"
Chris Ruggiero - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Christmas with Chris Ruggiero
Louis Armstrong - "Winter Wonderland" from Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule
Joe McCarthy's New York Afro-Alliance Big Band - "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Pan American Nutcracker Suite
Norah Jones - "Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)" from I Dream of Christmas (Deluxe Edition)
John Beasley - "Away in the Manger" from Holidaze
Vince Guaraldi - "Skating (#7, Take 2 - September 22, 1965)" from A Charlie Brown Christmas [Super Deluxe Edition ]
Andy James - "It's Christmas Time" from Bells Are Ringing
Andy James - "The Christmas Song" from Bells Are Ringing
Chris Ruggiero - "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" from Christmas with Chris Ruggiero
Richard Williams - "Here Comes Santa Claus/Jingle Bells/Frosty the Snowman (with Hayley Kirkland, Connor Ross, Company B)" from Hollywood Christmas
Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O - "MariahParushka"
Samara Joy - "O Holy Night"

We heard from promising young jazz singer Samara Joy in Podcast 943 last week, and today it’s Tawanda’s turn.

When she tied for first place with Gabrielle Cavassa in the 9th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, the feat was all the more impressive given that Tawanda had performed her first full show just a year before. Raised in the deep south of New Mexico on the border with Texas, she is proudly a first generation American with a mother from Germany and a father from Mozambique. This unique background has served her well, giving her access to a world of music styles that few can access. Under the tutelage of singer/educator Mirabai Daniels, she was recommended to Resonance Records founder George Klabin who pushed her to perform live and enter the Sarah Vaughan competition.

Her first album, Smile , was produced by Klabin, who brought veteran pianists Tamir Hendelman and Josh Nelson to accompany the young singer. The end result neatly mixes jazz standards like “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “Lucky to Be Me” with interpretations of pop numbers like Sting’s “Sister Moon”and Donny Hathaway’s “Sack Full of Dreams.” She only cuts loose a few times, most notably on a scatting “Out of This World,” but it’s clear there is not only a singer with the necessary pipes here, but one with the ability to inhabit and interpret a song.

Podcast 944 is my conversation with Tawanda, as we discuss her sudden rise to touring performer and recording artist, what she looks for in a song to add to her repertoire, and what projects she hopes to tackle in the near future. Musical selections from Smile include “Out of This World,” and “Sack Full of Dreams.”

On Straight No Chaser this week, we feature two promising young female vocalists and their most recent releases. Both Samara Joy McLendon and Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim have professionally dropped their last names. Both were winners of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition, in 2019 and 2021, respectively ( Tawanda’s competition was originally slated to be held in 2020 but delayed due to COVID). Both are following well-worn paths of singing standards and modern pop songs with small group backing. And the sky seems the limit for both.

Samara's major label debut on Verve Records is Linger Awhile , an often thrilling collection of standards and lesser known gems. Recorded at Sear Sound in New York City, it features a crack band of Pasquale Grasso (guitar), Ben Paterson (piano), David Wong (double bass), and Kenny Washington (drums) behind the singer. Whether she is singing classics by Gershwin or Monk, or digging deeper for the title track and tunes by Fats Navarro what stands out is that voice - cutting through the material, and emoting for all she is worth.

Music has always been a guiding presence within Samara’s family. Her grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, led the well-known Philadelphia-based gospel group, The Savettes, and her father toured with the renowned Andrae Crouch. Although her earliest influences are the gospel and R&B sounds of Stevie Wonder, Lalah Hathaway, George Duke, and Musiq Soulchild, Samara fell in love with jazz while attending Fordham High School for the Arts, where she performed regularly with the jazz band and eventually won Best Vocalist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition. Samara attended SUNY Purchase and recently graduated as the Ella Fitzgerald Scholar.

Podcast 943 is my conversation with Samara Joy, recorded on Zoom while she was on tour recently. We talk about how she came to fall in love with jazz, how she chooses material and works on the arrangements, and what her next step (hint: Christmas music and tour) will be. Musical selections include "'Round Midnight" and the title track.

Back in the early 70’s, drummer Mike Clark and bassist Paul Jackson were best friends, living in East Oakland, playing flatbed gigs at Black Panther rallies and generally raising hell. Cooking was not their forte, so the barbecue joint next door became a hangout. Mrs. Jones (of Everett and Jones) asked them to write a song to promote the spot, and they came up with the first version of ‘God Made Me Funky.’ Bill Summers worked with Jackson at the local record store, and he jumped at an opportunity to open a show for Herbie Hancock in the Bay Area. He got the call to audition for Herbie’s band, joining Herbie for the album Headhunters . The result was the first platinum selling Jazz album in history. The lineup on that first album: Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson, Harvey Mason, and Bill Summers. Mike Clark replaced Mason afterwards, and the lineup continued on several hugely influential Herbie Hancock releases such as Thrust and Flood .

"God Made Me Funky" and it's sampled drum loop helped define early hip-hop, and cemented the reputation of the two percussionists forever. Mike Clark and Bill Summers are two of a kind - they share a love for music that never dies. The pair kept The Headhunters alive, releasing two albums in Survival of the Fittest in 1975 and Straight From The Gate in 1977 with Herbie as featured guest. The chemistry between them is undeniable: They have persevered for over 40 years through industry setbacks, the death of band members, and more, to stay true to their mission with the same energy and zeal that the music demands.

11 years after their last release, The Headhunters are set to release Speakers In The House , a new full length album featuring Summers, Clark, NEA Jazz master Donald Harrison, Stephen Gordon, bassist Reggie Washington, and organist Jerry Z. The album also features Scott Roberts and Fode Sissoko on kora. The Headhunters spirit is alive and well on the album, which fuses the band’s African and New Orleans influences with their ever-present technical jazz-funk, rooted in music history and growing in the present moment.

It was a real treat to get both Clark and Summers together on a Zoom call a month back, and let the two do in conversation what they do in musical conversation onstage - exchange ideas, riffs and thoughts in lightning speed, keeping a great rhythm going at all times. It was a blast.

And you can hear it on Podcast 942, where they talk about the new album, how they have stayed together for forty plus years, and their recent solo projects, Summers' Forward Back and Clark's Blues on Top with Leon Lee Dorsey and Mike LeDonne. You'll get a chance to hear the re-arranged and performed "Actual Proof" as the two remember the late, great Paul Jackson.

Bobby Watson continues to carry the Hard Bop torch well into the 21st century. And he sounds as vibrant as ever on his latest release, Back Home in Kansas City (Smoke Sessions Records), which was released last month. He’s joined by some familiar faces – his longtime rhythm section of bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Jones along with two stars in their own right - pianist Cyrus Chestnut and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.

The album is made up of Watson tunes old and new, as he finally got around to recording a few tunes that he had on the shelf. He has three contrafacts as well – his takes on classics from “Maiden Voyage” to “Back Home in Indiana” to “Giant Steps.”

As his Jazz Messenger boss Art Blakey taught him, your sidemen can bring in great tunes as well. Jones contributes the stealthy “Red Bank Heist,” and Chestnut contributes the sparkling “A Star in the East,” an easygoing waltz that thrives on the rich melody shared by Watson and Pelt. The trumpeter’s offering is the tender “Celestial,” highlighted by his own muted eloquence.

In addition, old friend Carmen Lundy comes by to join the band for “Our Love Remains,” co-written by Watson and his wife Pamela. In instrumental form, the song was the title track for his 1986 album Love Remains and was recorded again for 1992’s Present Tense . The vocal version has previously been recorded by Kevin Mahogany and Melissa Walker, and Lou Rawls was planning his own rendition prior to his death.

Bobby shares insights into the writing and recording of Back Home in Kansas City , and shares how he reharmonizes tunes to get them to sit best on his alto horn. Want to know what he has planned next? Listen to Podcast 941.

Marshall Gilkes keeps one foot firmly in the world of jazz, and another in the classical world. On any given night in New York, you might find the trombonist playing with the New York Philharmonic, filling in a Big Band brass section, or soloing with a salsa band. He is in demand as part of the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the WDR Big Band, as well as the Slide Monsters Trombone Quartet, and leading his own projects This has led to his producing six critically acclaimed albums, along with his latest work, Cyclic Journeys (Alternate Side Records).

Something of a throwback to the “Third Stream” compositions of the late Fifties, Cyclic Journeys finds Marshall writing for jazz quartet – himself on trombone, Aaron Parks on piano, Linda May Han Oh on bass, Johnathan Blake on drums – as well as classical brass octet - Brandon Ridenour-trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, Ethan Bensdorf-trumpet, flugelhorn, Tony Kadleck-trumpet, flugelhorn, Adam Unsworth-horn, Joseph Alessi-trombone, Demondrae Thurman-euphonium, Nick Schwartz-bass trombone, and the inimitable Marcus Rojas-tuba. The resulting long-form composition moves deftly through musical styles, while refusing to be put into any one musical box. Take the tune “Genre Battles,” which offers contrasting brass octet sections against the jazz quartet absolutely burning over Rhythm Changes.

Podcast 940 is my conversation with Marshall, as we discuss the difference in writing and arranging for, and playing with, jazz and classical players. Marshall also talks about his early days as a budding musician, following in his father’s footsteps on the trombone, but carving out his own path to acclaim.

I enjoyed having author Sammy Stein on the podcast so much (check out Podcast 810 ), when I learned she had a new book out, I had to have her back.

The Wonder of Jazz: Music That Changed the World is slim in size but not in scope, as she takes both the jazz newbie and the aficinado on a tour of jazz past, present and future. Backed with a long listening list, it represents the ideal read for those looking to get deeper into this great music. Early Christmas present anyone?

Her previous book, All That’s Jazz (Tomahawk Press), received critical acclaim, and her Women in Jazz (8th House) gained the JazzTimes Distaff Award, made the Gearbox list and was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for best jazz book. She has curated several radio series and has appeared on Jazz FM, BBC, Jazz Bites Radio and more. Sammy organized the London Jazz Platform mini-festival event and was named the Jazz Journalists Association International Editor.

In our conversation we try to define exactly what jazz music is, where it might be going in the future, and how the pandemic changed things for musicians in her home UK as well as around the world.

A pivotal member of New York's Jazz scene for 40 years, pianist Bruce Barth's inspired vision and generous accompaniment has always led to rich musical collaborations, none more so than with his working trio of many years with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Montez Coleman. Their collective voice found its perfect setting, which makes the release of Dedication a profound and emotion-filled moment, as Montez passed away 5 months after the recording session at the age of 48. Celebrating the joy and camaraderie Montez brought to their work, the thread of relationships, inspiration, guidance and gratefulness that imbued the recording revealed itself, leading Barth to present the music as a display of mindfulness of those gifts. Dedication is for the ones who give, and is filled with life, dance and above all, swing.

Beyond paying tribute to Montez, Bruce has written songs that are dedicated to other figures who have touched him in one way of another, including Tommy Flanagan, McCoy Tyner and George Floyd. While moving, it is never elegiac – there is a deep feeling of hope in Barth’s playing here, and heaven knows we need more of that these days.

Bruce has performed on over 125 recordings and movie soundtracks, including fifteen as a leader. He is equally at home playing solo piano leading an all-star septet and composing for a variety of ensembles. Within a year of moving to Brooklyn in 1988, Barth toured Japan with Nat Adderley. He started working with Vincent Herring and Stanley Turrentine, and joined Terence Blanchard's quintet in 1990. During the next four years, he toured extensively with Blanchard, recorded six CD's and several movie soundtracks, and played onscreen in Spike Lee's film, Malcolm X .

Bruce has had extended collaborations with Terell Stafford, Steve Wilson, Luciana Souza, Steve Nelson, and Tony Bennett. He has performed with James Moody, Phil Woods, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Harrell, Branford Marsalis, Art Farmer, and the Mingus Big Band. Finally, Bruce is a dedicated teacher, currently on the faculties of Temple University and Columbia University.

Podcast 938 is my conversation with Bruce Barth, as we talk about the new album, the loss of Montez Coleman, and his future projects. Musical selections from Dedication include "Courage," dedicated to front line workers who braved the pandemic, and "Memoriam," dedicated to Geore Floyd and those who fight for racial equity.

I must confess that any album that features Brazilian-born singer Luciana Souza is going to be on my radar immediately. A brilliant interpreter of both American and Brazilian pop and jazz classics, she collaborated brilliantly with Yellowjackets in 2018, and Vince Mendoza and the WDR Big Band Köln in 2020.

Her latest collaboration is another smashing success. Grammy-winning Cuban-born drummer, composer, bandleader, and 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Dafnis Prieto wrote songs and lyrics for his latest album Cantar , (on his Dafnison Music label) a great vehicle for Luciana’s talents. Prieto and Souza are joined by a trio of masterful improvisers on the album, including Peter Apfelbaum (Woodwinds, Melodica, Percussion, and Keys), Martin Bejerano (Piano), and Matt Brewer (Acoustic and Electric Bass). Recorded in September 2021, the project is co-produced by Grammy-winning producer (and Souza’s husband), Larry Klein, and Eric Oberstein, Prieto’s collaborator for the past half decade.

Songs with lyrics are something new for Prieto, but you’d never know if from the songs he (and on several, Souza) wrote in three languages — English, Spanish, and Portuguese — making it a truly global affair. Dafnis moves between his award-winning Big Band, the more supple sextet and this smaller group with little effort, driving the sound with his patented percussion. Ms. Souza is once again at the top of her game, her voice more than merely a device for the lyrics, but a true instrument in itself.

Podcast 937 is my conversation with Dafnis Prieto, as we hear the story behind the making of Cantar , his desire to write the lyrics for an album of his music, and why he tapped Luciana Souza for the gig, Musical selections include the wordless vocal of Luciana on "To the Concert." and the collaboratively written "The Muse."

“Musically, I have the very clear feeling that my stretching out and being creative has a much better chance of happening organically, avoiding alienation and stiffness, when done in energetic connection with my roots – with the sensuality and groundedness of the hymns and the spirituals and the lullabies.” – Tord Gustavsen

Piano players who record on ECM are in some heavy company. Many of the legends of the ivories – Jarrett, Corea, Bley, Iyer – have all had some of their finest work appear on the now legendary label. Tord Gustavsen seems to shrug off these rarified heights as he continues his recording career on ECM. And for good reason.

Changing Places , Gustavsen’s 2003 recording debut with his first trio, was ECM’s most successful debut in a decade. He followed with two more trio recordings, before launching a new, more flexible ensemble, which released the album Restored, Returned in 2009. The line-up included Tore Brunborg on saxophones and Kristin Asbjørnsen on vocals. This was followed in 2012 by an instrumental quartet album called The Well . He remains one of their most consistent sellers, and his releases are critically lauded.

The Tord Gustavsen Trio that recorded Opening , his latest release, has someone old and someone new in the band. Long-time drummer Jarle Vespestad is still here, but bassist Steinar Raknes is new to the fold. His playing is perfectly matched for this piano and drums, and he is not afraid to step out and take the lead on a few tunes as well. Steinar's use of elctronics, which Tord has touched on before, adds additional depth and texture to the recordings. As at least a few critics have pointed out, this music is the epitome of what ECM has stood for over the years, and one of the finest releases of 2022.

Tord was born in Oslo in 1970 and grew up in the Norwegian countryside. He began playing the piano aged 4, and was composing and improvising before he learned to read music and perform classical pieces. His first stages were in churches, and he still calls on hymns and folk melodies in his compositions today. At the age of 19, he began his studies at the University of Oslo and his interest in jazz started to flourish. He was accepted into the jazz department at the Conservatory of Music in Trondheim in 1993, where he formed several bands and toured all over Scandinavia.

I caught up with Tord via Zoom recently and we discussed his desire to move between piano trio and other ensemble sizes, why the addition of Raknes on bass was so important to the new album, and his plans for the rest of 2022. Musical selections from Opening include the ironically titled "Helensburgh Tango" and the melodic "The Circle."

Following the success of his digital showcase series of solo guitar tributes to giants like Monk, Powell, and Ellington, Pasquale Grasso has cast his musical net a bit wider. His latst album, a trio recording from the Sony Music Masterworks release called Be-Bop!, is an often dazzling tribute to be-bop pioneers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

Backed by his working trio of bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, the Grasso trio is in sync through super-up-tempo, challenging fare like “A Night n Tunisia.” “Groovin’ High,” “Cheryl,” “Ornithology," “Be-bop" and “Shaw ‘Nuff." Although the tunes are all staples of the jazz repertoire, it’s a pleasure to hear Pasquale use his guitar and fleet fingers to give a different voice to the memorable melodies and harmonics.

Special guest vocalist Samara Joy, who has been collaborating with Pasquale since 2020, appears on one track, the lesser-known jivey mid-tempo swinger “I’m in a Mess” (originally sung by Joe Carroll on Gillespie’s 1951 album, School Days ). The two have great chemistry, and it’s no surprise that he will be on her debut album, now available on the Verve label.

Born and raised in Ariano Irpino in Southern Italy’s Campania region, Grasso relocated to New York City in 2009 and has since been wowing audiences with regular appearances at Mezzrow, Smalls and The Django, where he has showcased his tremendous command of the fretboard by freely moving between single notes, chords and independent bass lines while flashing Art Tatum-esque filigrees with uncanny speed and precision. In 2015, Pasquale won the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition in New York City, including performing with guitar legend Pat Martino’s organ trio. Grasso was subsequently signed to an exclusive deal with Sony Masterworks, which led to his initial series of digital releases in 2019.

Podcast 935 is my conversation with Pasquale, as we delve into his love of the be-bop classics, his studies with the late Barry Harris, how he came to jazz – a family thing – and his working relationship with Samara Joy. Musical selections include “Groovin’ High” and A Night in Tunisia.”

Tomasz Stańko – one of Europe’s most original and beloved jazz musicians – was born on July 11, 1942, in Rzeszów, Poland, and he passed away in Warsaw on July 29, 2018. In many ways, his life traced the course of modern jazz in Europe, beginning with his tenure – when barely into his twenties – in the band of the great Polish composer-pianist Krzysztof Komeda, through his association as a leader with the iconic German art-house label ECM Records that would produce a dozen masterful albums up to his final release, December Avenue , in 2017.. To mark what would have been his 80th birthday year, an all-star memorial concert – “Remembering Tomasz Stańko” – will be held at Brooklyn’s Roulette at 8:00pm on September 18, 2022, with tickets free of charge. The event will include musicians who worked closest with Stańko in his last, highly productive decades and others who collaborated with him on special latter-day projects.

“Remembering Tomasz Stańko” will include two illustrious soloists on trumpet: Wadada Leo Smith and Ambrose Akinmusire. The night’s revolving cast of musicians will be anchored by the rhythm sections from both Stańko’s New York and Polish quartets: pianist David Virelles, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Gerald Cleaver, from the former; and, from the latter, pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michał Miśkiewicz. Stańko discovered the Poles when they were just teenagers; in addition to working as an established trio, they now play with saxophonist Joe Lovano – who will also join them for this event. Guitarist Jakob Bro, who played on Stańko’s Dark Eyes album, will be on hand, as will saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Craig Taborn – who were part of a special band that Stańko put together for a concert at New York’s Jazz Standard in 2011. Saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist Dezron Douglas will also perform; they, along with Virelles, featured in a quintet that recorded POLIN , a suite that Stańko composed for an exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

I spoke with Dezron Douglas about his time with Stańko, the man he calls “my Polish O.G.” Dezron has a strong sense of the history of jazz, and his love and respect for Tomasz was clear in our conversation. Douglas knows the masters of this music well – he was tutored as a teenager in Hartford, Connecticut by his great-uncle Walter Bolden, as well as saxophone legend Jackie McLean. Since then, he has become one of the foremost bass players in the business, leading his own group and playing with acts as diverse as Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Mulgrew Miller, Enrico Rava and more, including his current spot with jam band master Trey Anastasio.

Podcast 934 is my talk with Dezron, as he remembers his time with Tomasz Stańko, and shares insight into how he moves effortlessly between genres of music. Musical selections include the title track from POLIN.

After several weeks of bad news in the jazz world, driven by the untimely deaths of Jaimie Branch and Joey DeFrancesco , a little sunshine has appeared. After two years were spent reorienting to the pandemic with modified operations including livestreams, sidewalk concerts, and outdoor dining, Smoke Jazz Club made a long-awaited return as a world-renowned full-time destination earlier this month. The revered Manhattan institution has undertaken an impressive expansion and renovation that readies itfor the post-pandemic 21st century. And signing a thirty year lease extension doesn't hurt either.

Despite being closed to indoor performances and dining for over two years, Smoke has survived and doesn't seem to have missed a beat in its musical presentations. A new, separate lounge and enlarged stage will make performances even more memorable from this point forward. Husband and wife co-owners Paul Stache and Molly Sparrow Johnson have much to be proud of.

The club was first opened on April 9, 1999 by co-founders Stache and Frank Christopher, taking over the space that had been Augie's Jazz Bar for 25 years. Since then, not only have Stache and Ms. Johnson operated and grown Smoke for jazz performance, they also have also have created a Grammy-nominated label, Smoke Sessions Records, and a celebrated streaming
concert series, Smoke Screens.

Podcast 933 is my conversation with Paul Stache, as we talk about the long road to Smoke's reopening, the elements of its expansion and plans for the future.

After an impressive foray on her debut album, Azalea, rising star vibraphonist Sasha Berliner has followed up with a vigorous, unabashedly avant-garde sophomore recording, Onyx on JMI Recording. Her band is packed with familiar names who happen to be fellow students and friends of Sasha’s, including Marcus Gilmore on drums, Burniss Travis II on upright and electric bass and James Francies on piano and Fender Rhodes. Special guests include Jaleel Shaw on alto saxophone, Julius Rodriguez on analog synths and vocalist Thana Alexa.

The album has a dense, shaded sound, creating soundscapes that serve as strong backing for Sasha’s nimble mallet work. If at times melodies seem fleeting, each accompaniment imposes an array of feelings that serves the music and the musicians well. Perhaps the most resonant example of abandoning jazz tradition is presented in Berliner’s two-part arrangement of the standard “My Funny Valentine.” Propelled by her entrancing solo on the first, listeners ride through a forlorn, dreamlike exploration, waking up in a vibrant Part II where a brash and swift conversation between the band ensues.

A Bay Area native, Sasha was the 2020 Downbeat Critics’ Poll winner of the “Rising Star - Vibraphone” category, becoming both the first woman, and at 21, was the youngest individual in the poll’s history to be granted the win. Sasha graduated from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music with her Bachelor's degree in Jazz Vibraphone Performance and a minor in Non Fiction writing from the adjacent Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.Since then it’s been onward and upward, not just with her own bands, but working with her friends and established stars like Christian McBride and Tyshawn Sorey.

Podcast 931 is my in-depth conversation with Sasha Berliner, as she delves into the songs on Onyx and talks about her transition from drums to vibes in her teens. Musical selections include “Jade” and “Polaris.”

After the deaths earlier this week of legendary producer-record label impresario Creed Taylor and brilliant young trumpeter jaimie branch, the jazz world had another shock on Friday, when the news spread that legendary organist Joe DeFrancesco had died suddenly at the age of 51. No cause of death was immediately released.

I had the pleasure to see Joey D several times, and to have two podcast interviews with him (Podcasts 666 and 846 ). first fell in love with the music of Joey DeFrancesco twenty years ago, when I booked him on an epic Organ Summit triple bill with the late Charles Earland and recently departed Dr. Lonnie Smith for the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz. What an evening that was! Significantly younger than the other greats sharing the stage that night, he more than held his own, and seemed as excited as any fan in attendance to be part of a very special event.

During his thirty plus years as a performer, he went from part of the Philly music scene that included Christian McBride and Kurt Rosenwinkel to playing with everyone from Miles Davis and John McLaughlin to Van Morrison and the Count Basie Orchestra. He matched musical wits with the great Jimmy Smith, and in his most recent recordings, sought to stretch his sound by working with Pharoah Sanders. A well written obit for Joey D can be found here.

Podcast 932 honors the music Joey DeFrancesco made during his too-short life, including some of my favorite tracks. It ends with the last track he recorded on his last album, More Music with the appropriate title of "Soul Dancing":

Joey DeFrancesco - "Cherokee" from Authorized Bootleg

Miles Davis - "Intruder" from Live Around the World

Joey DeFrancesco - "Blue 'N Boogie from The Philadelphia Connection

Grover Washington Jr - "Keep in Touch" from Strawberry Moon

Joey DeFrancesco and Bobby Hutcherson - "Speak Low" from Organic Vibes

Joey DeFrancesco - "Vibrations in Blue" from In the Key of the Universe

John McLaughlin - "Tones for Elvin Jones" from After the Rain

Joey DeFrancesco with Jimmy Smith - "Dot Com Blues" from Legacy

Christian McBride Big Band - "Pie Blues" from For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver

Joey DeFrancesco - "Soul Dancing" from More Music

Brian Lynch is well known for his work in Latin, Afro-Carribean and other global sounds, as well as for a Hard Bop trumpet sound that never gets tired. His latest release, Songbook Vol. 2: Dance The Way U Want To finds him bringing new life to older Lynch compositions, backed by his crack band Spheres of Influence.

Spheres of Influence represents some of the best of the Miami jazz scene, with a core rhythm section of Rodner Padilla (electric bass), Hilario Bell (drums), and Murphy Aucamp (percussion) backing Lynch's trumpet. Other players moved in and out of the sessions including Alex Brown (piano), Tom Kelley (alto sax), and Aldo Salvent and Chris Thompson-Taylor (tenor sax).

Lynch’s “Songbook” series reclaims the many original compositions that he recorded for other labels throughout his career on his own label Hollistic MusicWorks, in new and improved renditions. Coming directly after the critically acclaimed (one of JazzTimes’ Best Albums Of 2021) Songbook Vol. 1: Bus Stop Serenade , Dance The Way U Want To continues the project with a focus on works chronicling Lynch’s uniquely personal mixture of straight ahead modern jazz style with Afro-Caribbean musical elements, reflecting his long and distinguished career in both idioms.

Dance The Way U Want To features music fashioned over a period of almost forty years, mostly from Brian’s long association with the Criss Cross and ConClave labels. The album includes two new compositions recorded here for the very first time: "E.P.s Plan B", dedicated to Eddie Palmieri; and "The Disco Godfather", a shout out to Black humorist and pioneering filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore.

Coming out of the Midwest, Lynch cut his teeth working with the great Charles McPherson in San Diego, before moving to New York and spending time with Horace Silver and and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. He recieved acclaim for his work with Phil Woods and Art Blakey, but most notably for playing with Eddie Palmieri, leading to a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz album for 2006's Simpatico . He won a second Grammy for the Brian Lynch Big Band's album, The Omni-American Book Club in 2020. Brian has taught at The Frost School Of Music at The University Of Miami since 2011.

Podcast 930 is my conversation with Brian, as we talk about how the influences of Blakey, Silver and Palmieri have shaped his music, and the joy he found in "rediscovering" his older material. Musical selections include

A conversation with keyboardist Geoffrey Keezer crossed another name off my list of top-notch artists I have not had the pleasure to meet. His career began with roles in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and bands led by Ray Brown and Art Farmer, all before his 30th birthday. Since then, he has grown as a writer, performer, arranger and band leader, to say nothing of being a first call sideman for the likes of Benny Golson, Christian McBride, and Chris Botti.

On his 23rd album as a leader, Keezer continues to augment and refine his distinctive style. Playdate , on his own record label, MarKeez, is the perfect title for the project, as he has put together a group of distinguished collaborators, to create a new edition of “Geoffrey Keezer and Friends.”

On Playdate , collaborators Shedrick Mitchell on organ, Ron Blake on tenor and soprano saxophone, Richie Goods on acoustic and electric bass and Kendrick Scott on drums create the perfect partners for Keezer's musical productions. He has added guitarists Aayushi Karnik and Nir Felder , percussionist Munyungo Jackson, a String section and French Horns from Rachel Drehmann.

Though his intention was to remain “old school” with a Blue Note-style blowing date, Keezer found inspiration in his love of strings and percussion amidst his writing and decided to expand. From the Hard Bop sound of “I.L.Y.B.D. ” (“I Love You But Damn”) to the funky arrangement of “Tomorrow” (from The Brothers Johnson by way of Quincy Jones) and the string soaked "Bebah," there's an awful lot to like in Playdate.

In Podcast 928 we talk about the new album, his times playing with Art Blakey and Art Farmer, and how he almost joined up with Miles Davis. Musical selections include the album closer, "M’s Bedtime Blues.” The tune is based on a melody that Keezer and his wife, vocalist Gillian Margot, created when their son began to play with his drum kit over nightly FaceTime sessions with Keezer's late father.

Over the years, the drummer-less trio of Steve Cardenas (guitar), Ben Allison (bass) and Ted Nash (reeds) has recorded wonderful interpretive albums to celebrate their favorite composers. First came Quiet Revolution (2016), drawing from the compositions of Jim Hall and Jimmy Giuffre and then Somewhere Else: West Side Story Songs reinterpreting the music of Leonard Bernstein.

Now we have Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley (Sunnyside Records).The trio plays a wide range of Bley-penned tunes written between 1958 and1987, including classics like "Ida Lupino" and "Lawns", along with lesser-known compositions such as "Ictus" and "Donkey". The tunes are constructed to give top improvisers plenty of room to work, and the results are often striking. These three have developed an awesome chemistry.

In a career that spans over 30 years, Allison has developed his own instantly identifiable sound. Known for his inspired arrangements, inventive grooves and hummable melodies, Ben draws from the jazz tradition and a range of influences from rock and folk to 20th century and a broad range of music from around the world, seamlessly blending them into a cinematic, cohesive whole. Ben is also well kn own as an educator and advocate. Ben served as an advisor to the Doris Duke Foundation, helping to establish Chamber Music America’s New Works – Creation and Presentation program. He served two terms as President of the Board of the New York chapter of the Recording Academy and chaired the Advocacy Committee from 2012 until 2019.

Musical selections from Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley include "Lawns" and "Ictus."

It's past the midpoint in summer in New England, so why not some summer themed music for what may still be lazy, hot days? Today is August 16th, the feast day of Saint Roch, the patron saint of Dogs, so why not celebrate the "Dog Days"? Plus, Saint Roch's name is to be invoked to avoid plagues, so need I say anything more?

The Romans associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They considered Sirius to be the "Dog Star" because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog), as well as the brightest star in the night sky. The term "Dog Days" was used earlier by the Greeks in Aristotle's Physics .

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise, which is no longer true, owing to procession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog (Apologies to Angus and Hamish, my two miniature dachshunds!) at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

I've now done eight previous Dog Day postings, Podcast 292 , Podcast 225 , Podcast 442, Podcast 492 , Podcast 546 , Podcast 588, Podcast 632 , Podcast 695 and Podcast 838 if you'd like some more summer-themed music. There may be a few repeats between these posts, but what the hey. It’s all grooving or relaxing music for soaking in those wonderful warming rays. As they said on Game of Thrones , "Winter is Coming", so let's grab all the warmth we can get.

Musical selections for Podcast 929 include:

Joey Alexander - "Summer Rising"

Elan Trotman's Tropicality - "Thoughts of Summer"

Clark Burroughs Group - "Surf's Up"

Ronnie Foster - "Sultry Song"

Marilyn Scott - "Summer Night"

John Patitucci - "My Summer Vacation"

Al Jarreau - "Somebossa (Summer Breezin')"

The Rippingtons - "Summer Lovers"

John Scofield - "Endless Summer"

Stacey Kent - "The Summer We Crossed"

Michael Henderson - "Stay With Me This Summer"

Blue Mitchell - "Summer Soft"

Bud Shank - "The Summer Wind"

Michael Franks - "Dragonfly Summer"

Podcast 926 completes my conversation with noted trombonist Steve Davis. Steve's latest album is a sextet release on the Smoke Sessions label called Bluesthetic , and it features Steve on trombone, Peter Bernstein on guitar, Steve Nelson on vibes, Christian McBride on bass, Geoffrey Keezer on keys and Willie Jones III on drums.

In Part Two of our conversation, Steve talks about his times with the likes of Jackie McLean and Art Blakey, as well as his coming projects with the collective One For All. Musical selections include the Davis composition "Fire Waltz" from One For All's album Incorrigible . The band is composed of Davis on trombone, Eric Alexander on sax, Jim Rotondi on trumpeter and flügelhorn, David Hazeltine on piano, John Webber on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums.

Year in and year out, Steve Davis is at or near the top of the trombone category in all the important jazz polls. A veteran writer-performer-educator his career runs from the final version of the Jazz Messengers through runs backing the likes of Jackie McLean and Chick Corea. He has lead any number of bands under his own name, and co-leads the collective One For All. During my time as a member of the Hartford, Connecticut scene, Steve was always a key figure in playing, teaching and organizing important events for the community.

His latest album, Bluesthetic (Smoke Sessions label) presents something of a throwback sound. Steve has put together a group with two old collaborators - vibraphonist Steve Nelson and guitarist Peter Bernstein - and keyboardist Geoffrey Keezer, bassist Christian McBride and drummer William Jones III for a swinging set of originals. Nelson, Bernstein and Davis had joined forces for a 1998 album Vibes Up! and return to that unique front line here, with a wonderfully satisfying result.

Podcast 925 is the first of a two-part conversation with Steve, as we discuss the latest album, and he recalls his time working in the Origin and Spanish Heart Band (the latter of which won Steve a Grammy). Musical selections from Bluesthetic include the title track.

Part Two of our conversation with focus on Steve's work with other musicians, his plans for recording in the fall, and his new gig teaching at Berklee in Boston.

Podcast 924 is the final part of my conversation with bass legend Jimmy Haslip. A founding member of Yellowjackets, he's been at the epicenter of bass playing for the past thirty years, with over 400 sessions and almost 200 productions under his belt. His latest project is a trio record that came together during the pandemic shut-down period, when long-time friend Barry Coates, who plays a unique synth guitar, shared music he was working on with Jimmy. From there came virtual sessions with drummer Jerry Kalaf, resulting in New Dreams . Haslip plays both fretless and fretted bass on the album, adding to an ethereal sound harkening back to the glory days of ECM Records.

We conclude our talk with Jimmy's reminisces on a session he played with KISS, how he began playing the bass (he's self-taught) and how he hones his craft today when he practices. Musical selections include "Postcards," a tune that Jimmy co-wrote with Russell Ferrante for Yellowjackets' 1987 album Four Corners on the GRP label.

And now back to my conversation with ace bass player Jimmy Haslip! Having been the producer or co-producer on more than 190 recordings, and having recorded over 400 records, Haslip continues to thrive on the road and in the studio.

His latest project is a trio record that came together during the pandemic shut-down period, when long-time friend Barry Coates, who plays a unique synth guitar, shared music he was working on with Jimmy. From there came virtual sessions with drummer Jerry Kalaf, resulting in New Dreams . Tune into Podcast 922 for more details.

Part Two of my conversation allows us to go back into his history as a recording artists, producer, and arranger having worked with the likes of jazz artists like Al Jarreau, Lee Ritenour, Billy Cobham, Pat Metheny, George Duke, Branford Marsalis and the Jeff Lorber Fusion to pop. rock and soul stars like Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, , Crosby, Stills & Nash, Anita Baker and Bruce Hornsby.

Here we discuss some of my favorite recordings in which he was involved. Musical selections for Podcast 923 include:

-"Magnolia" from Yellowjackets' 211 album Timeline . The track was co-written by Jimmy and keyboardist Russell Ferrante, and features a guest guitar from fellow founding member Robben Ford. Jimmy spent 34 years as a regular member of Yellowjackets, leaving only when the travel commitments became too great for him.

-""Candleglow" from singer Michael Franks' 2018 release The Music in My Head . The track was produced and arranged by Haslip, and features his bass as well.

- An edited version of "It Must Be Jazz" from the quartet of the late Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua, Haslip and Chad Wackerman, from the 2009 Blues for Tony double album. Jimmy co-wrote the tune with the other band members. Jimmy has a hand in organizing a new album of previously unreleased material from this quartet, to be titled Protocosmos and released this fall.

Part Three of my conversation with Haslip will be released later this week. Then we talk about his beginnings as a player, his practice regimen, and how he came to play bass on a session with Kiss.

Simply put, Jimmy Haslip is one of the legends of the electric bass.

Producing over 190 recordings, he also has himself recorded on over 400 records. Haslip is a founding member of the group Yellowjackets, and was a member for 34 years. He has 22 Grammy nominations and 3 Grammy wins. Haslip has toured and recorded with over 180 artists and bands in 52 years, from jazz artists like Al Jarreau, Lee Ritenour, Billy Cobham, Pat Metheny, George Duke, Branford Marsalis and the Jeff Lorber Fusion to pop. rock and soul stars like Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, , Crosby, Stills & Nash, Anita Baker and Bruce Hornsby.

His latest project is a trio record that came together during the pandemic shut-down period, when long-time friend Barry Coates, who plays a unique synth guitar, shared music he was working on with Jimmy. From there came virtual sessions with drummer Jerry Kalaf, resulting in New Dreams . Haslip plays both fretless and fretted bass on the album, adding to an ethereal sound harkening back to the glory days of ECM Records.

Haslip has been getting back on stage slowly, with short tours backing drummer Dennis Chambers and guitarist Oz Noy. His most recent productions include a session with singer Marilyn Scott, an old musical buddy, working with Yellowjacket Russ Ferrante on her album The Landscape .

Podcast 922 is the first of a multi-part conversation with Jimmy, as he talks about his recent projects. Musical selections include “Towner” from New Dreams , and the title track from Marilyn Scott’s The Landscape .

Podcast 921 takes us inside "New York Jazz Stories", in written and now video form. Based on the Joe's Pub at the Public residency, this series of stories interacts with the lives of the people involved. From 2012 to 2020, Cadence writers and interviewers asked subjects to present stories in their own words. Under David's expert eye, we can enjoy them now.

These are stories about Sonny Rollins, Annie Ross, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk, and many others both historic and contemporary. The music features Bernard Purdie, David Haney, Jay Clayton, Adam Lane, Nick Lyons, Kirk Knuffke, and Dave Storrs.

Click here to get started with your viewing fun.

David Haney studied composition with Czech-American composer Tomas Svoboda and piano with jazz pianist Eddie Wied. He has recorded with the likes of Roswell Rudd, Julian Priester, John Tchicai, Bud Shank, Andrew Cyrille, Bernard Purdie, Adam Lane and more. As a leader, Haney has over 25 albums on CIMP-USA, Cadence-USA, Big Round Records, SLAM-UK, NoSe-So-Argentina, La Gorda-Argentina, and Canada Jazz Studio-Canada.

He has received grants and commissions for his creative work from the U.S. State Department; Alberta Film Works; and the Oregon Ballet Theatre. He was awarded a travel grant from the U.S. State Department to present the music of composer Herbie Nichols in concerts throughout Argentina and Chile. His releases Conspiracy a go go and Clandestine were both selected Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2009 (Cadence Magazine ).

Red List , the new Palmetto album by multi-woodwind specialist Brian Landrus is dedicated to bringing awareness to some of the world’s most endangered animal species. Landrus is backed by a top-notch band of Ryan Keberle (trombone), Geoffrey Keezer (keyboards), Nir Felder (guitar), Rudy Royston (drums), Ron Blake and Jaleel Shaw (saxophones), Lonnie Plaxico (bass), John Hadfield (percussion), Steve Roach (trumpet) and vocalist Corey King.

Long an animal lover, Brian found himself learning more about the plight of many potentially doomed species. Seeking a way to call attention to the world-wide problem, he decided to do an album dedicated to the plight of 13 endangered species. The album title comes from The Red List, compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk of animal, fungus and plant species. He reached out to friends and musicians recommended to him, and found likeminded individuals to work on the album. Released last month, Landrus will be donating 20% of all proceeds and 100% of the profits to Save The Elephants, which has been helping to ensure a future for African Elephants for nearly 30 years.

In ou conversation, Brian explains how the compositions flowed once he began working on the album, and how the entire thing came together in the studio during only a few rehearsals and sessions. Despite its serious themes, the music captures the joys of these animals’ existence rather than dwell on their possibly grim fate.

A veteran of the New York scene since moving to town in 2007 following four years at New England Conservatory in Boston, Landrus has performed with some of the world’s great jazz musicians, including Fred Hersch, Esperanza Spalding, Billy Hart, George Garzone, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Ken Schaphorst Orchestra, and his teacher and mentor Bob Brookmeyer. He also toured with such national pop acts as The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Coasters, The Drifters and Martha Reeves. Landrus, who hails from Reno, Nevada, earned his doctorate from Rutgers University and is joining the faculty at the Berklee School of Music in Boston this fall.

Red List is his sixth album as a leader, and he continues to grow as a player on baritone sax, baritone clarinet and other woodwinds, as well as a composer. The podcast features musical selections from Red List including the reggae-tinged “Leatherbacks,” for the Leatherback Sea Turtle, and “The Distant Deeps,” where vocalist Corey King delivers Herschel Garfein’s evocative lyrics with uncommon sensitivity.

In Part One of my conversation with Danilo Pérez, we talked about his latest release, Crisálida, a collaboration with Pérez’s Global Messengers. The group consists of alumni from Berklee College of Music’s Global Jazz Institute, run by Danilo. The musicians, and the instruments they play, create a crazy quilt of musical history and styles, but Pérez seems more than capable of bringing them together.

In this podcast, we cast a wider net, and talk about his most recent Grammy-wining collaborations with saxophonist Wayne Shorter and vocalist Kurt Elling . With Shorter unable to tour due to a number of medical issues, the other members of his quartet, Pérez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums have formed a trio, Children of Light, which released an album as well.

Danilo explains how he came to work with Elling, and how the resulting album, Secrets Are the Best Stories , has changed how he plays the compositions to which Elling added lyrics. Musical selections for the podcast include the Elling-Pérez version of Danilo's composition "Gratitude." here retitled "Gratitude [For Robert Bly]." We'll also hear "Gratitude" as performed by Children of Light in an April 23, 2018 show at the Fasching Jazz Club,in Stockholm, Sweden .

With the release of Crisálida (Mack Avenue Records), which in English translates to “chrysalis,” pianist/composer Danilo Pérez moves closer to creating art that bridges the many gaps that exist between peoples of the world. In our conversation, he said forthrightly, “We all need more positive thoughts.” The new album is nearly an hour of musical positivity.

Composed of two suites, Crisálida is a collaboration with Pérez’s Global Messengers, consisting of alumni from Berklee College of Music’s Global Jazz Institute. The musicians, and the instruments they play, create a crazy quilt of musical history and styles, but Danilo seems more than capable of bringing them together. The Global Messengers features percussionist Tareq Rantisi (Palestine), laouto player Vasilis Kostas (Greece), violinist and vocalist Layth Sidiq (Iraq, Jordan), cellist Naseem Alatrash (Palestine) and singer Farayi Malek (United States). Guest appearing on several cuts are batá drummer Román Diaz (Cuba), Ney flutist Faris Ishaq (Palestine), Zárate (Chile), singer Erini Tornesaki (Greece) and the Kalesma Children’s Choir of The Ark of the World (Kivotos tou Kosmou) (based in Greece).

Pérez credits his mentor Dizzy Gillespie for the foundation of the idea, as Danilo’s career was boosted by participation in Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra. A native of Panama, Pérez has built upon the many musical influences he absorbed there, becoming as he puts it, “a global citizen of music.” Danilo is a UNESCO Artist for Peace, the Cultural Ambassador to the Republic of Panama, and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Panama Jazz Festival.

He has released more than a dozen critically acclaimed albums as a leader and served as a key member of the highly regarded Wayne Shorter Quartet with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. We’ll talk more about Shorter and other artists with whom Danilo has worked in Part Two of the conversation.

Musical selections in Podcast 918 include the opening movements of the two suites that make up Crisálida : “Rise From Love “ from the La Muralla (Glass Walls) Suite , and “Adrift” from the Frontera (Borders) Suite .

I posted Podcast 689 - "Independence Day 2019 - Red State Blue State" with the hopes that the coming year and election might improve things in America. To some degree the ousting of the Trump administration has helped. However, America remains hopelessly, and I feel forever, divided.

I prepared a Podcast which intends to bring across in music the great frustrations so many of us feel about America. I begin once again with “America the Beautiful” – a song sung by an African-American (Ray Charles), the son of a sharecropper, with lyrics written by a woman (Katherine Lee Bates) and music by a man (Samuel A. Ward). But the message must be refracted through the lens of the rest of the songs I have chosen, all questioning whether we are crowning our good with brotherhood in 2019, and if there is a chance we can regain some of our common sense and grace:

Ray Charles - "America the Beautiful"

Noah Preminger – “A Change is Gonna Come” from Meditations on Freedom

Delfeayo Marsalis presents the Uptown Orchestra – the Title Track from Make America Great Again!

Wadada Leo Smith – “America, Pts. 1-3” from Ten Freedom Summers

Brad Mehldau – “The Prophet is a Fool” from Finding Gabriel

Ratetet – “Red State, Blue State” from Arctic

The Dirty Dozen Band featuring Chuck D – the Title Track from What’s Going On

Charlie Haden and the Liberation Orchestra – “This is Not America” from Not In Our Name

I end with an element of hope – but not a lot of faith:

Mavis Staples – “Build a Bridge” from If All I Was Was Black

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - “The Star Spangled Banner” from Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

Click on the hyperlink above to download or listen.

(Note: This version of "The Star Spangled Banner" was arranged during the Battle of Wadi Al-Battle in Iraq in1991and was recorded a day after the battle started.)

In the previous podcast, Kirk Knuffke discussed the making of his trio album, Gravity Without Airs , with pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio. Part Two of my conversation with Kirk Knuffke begins with a chance for him to look back at some of the great talent he has worked with or learned under. While he has played and recorded with the likes of Roswell Rudd, Marshall Allen, Tootie Heath, Frank Kimbrough, William Parker, Myra Melford, Billy Hart and Ben Allison, we discussed three other players in some detail.

Kirk has been a member of the Matt Wilson Quartet for more than a dozen years and he shares his insight into Matt’s unique talents and wonderful sense of humor. Wilson has been a guest several times on the show, and I have found him one of the most personable and engaging artists in jazz today.

Knuffke also has recorded with Matt to make up the trio that recorded Mary Halvorson’s Sifter in 2013. Kirk has a fondness for working with guitarists, and Halvorson and Charlie Hunter are two of the finest he has spent time backing. His time with the extraordinary Hunter included the release of one of the best album titles I can recall, Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth .

Knuffke remembers one of his great teachers and friends, fellow Coloradan and cornetist Ron Miles, who passed away in March., and shares a number of stories about the influence Miles had on his playing. Kirk also shares insight into how he decided to play jazz. We'll also discuss the release of several projects he has been working on over the past year, and rest assured, they are many and varied.

Musical selections in the Podcast include “How Ya Going” from the Matt Wilson Quartet’s release with pianist John Medeski, Gathering Call , and “We Don’t Want Nobody Nobody Sent,” a bluesy number from Charlie Hunter’s Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth.

Cornetist Kirk Knuffke has made some 20 albums as a leader or co-leader over the past two decades, while also being a key member of groups led by Matt Wilson , Alison Miller (Boom Tic Boom) and Mary Halvorson (Sifter). His latest release, an intimate, double album. Gravity Without Airs, features him with pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio. On the album they perform Knuffke compositions as well in a number of free improvisations, making for a a constantly changing and engaging release.

Gravity Without Airs (digitally and on 2CD & 2LP by TAO Forms imprint) was recorded in a lengthy session, often with little or no prompting from any of the musicians as to where the music should go. Kirk shares his thoughts on this demanding practice, and why he finds working with musicians like Shipp and Bisio so rewarding.

Originally from Colorado, Knuffke was self-taught on the trumpet and cornet, later benefiting from the private tutelage of Ornette Coleman, Art Lande and Ron Miles. Knuffke began playing with Butch Morris after moving to New York City in 2005. This friendship resulted in four recordings and several European tours. In 2009, he joined the Matt Wilson Quartet, and began collaborations with such sage musicians like Roswell Rudd, Marshall Allen, Tootie Heath, Frank Kimbrough, William Parker, Myra Melford, Steve Swell and Billy Hart. He is or was a member of projects led by Wilson, Halvorson, Charlie Hunter, Ben Allison, Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Bill Goodwin, Karl Berger, Ted Brown and Bisio.

Podcast 916 is Part One of my conversation with Kirk Knuffke, as he shares insight into the Gravity Without Airs recording and writing, as well as plans for performing live with the trio. Musical selections from the album include the wholly improvised “Stars Go Up,” and his composition “Today for Today,” which closes the album.

Part Two of my conversation, Podcast 917, with appear in the first few days of July.

Drummer and composer Keith Hall spent nine years on the New York scene, as well as a lengthy time backing vocalist Curtis Stigers and as part of Betty Carter’s prestigious Jazz Ahead. He returned to the Midwest where he has been deeply immersed in the Kalamazoo, Michigan community for some 20 years. After playing with the likes of Wycliffe Gordon, Sir Roland Hanna, Janis Siegel, Luciana Souza, Terrell Stafford and Steve Wilson, Hall now makes his long-awaited debut as a leader. Made in Kalamazoo (Trios and Duos) is a free-wheeling set of high-energy music that is a love letter of sorts to a place Hall appreciates for its vibrant arts community, dynamic industries and vital personal connections. The album documents the drummer’s most accomplished and compelling playing and writing to date.

Roughly 100 miles east of Lake Michigan (across the lake from Chicago), Kalamazoo provided the inspiration for this invigorating summit between Hall and two of the finest collaborators he could ask for: Andrew Rathbun , a fellow jazz studies professor at Western Michigan University and transplanted Kalamazooan himself, on saxophones, bass clarinet and effects; and eminent Detroit-born bassist Robert Hurst III, currently teaching at the University of Michigan.

Made in Kalamazoo finds Hall in a few different modalities with the players involved. There are three solo drum features — placed at beginning, middle and end — in which Hall pays homage to the towering role models Billy Hart (his mentor), Elvin Jones and Max Roach. There are seven tracks with the full trio, including three compelling Hall originals (“Coming of Age,” “Creative Force,” “Well of Hope”) and four tunes that the leader co-composed with Rathbun (“Douglass King Obama,” “Kzoo Brew,” “The Promise,” “Boiling Pot”). And there are 10 spontaneously composed duo tracks for drums and reeds, giving Rathbun creative space to “plug in” at times with signal processing, dirtying up the sound and leading the duo onto new and shifting terrain.

In addition to his busy playing and professorial schedules, Hall is the Artistic Director of the Keith Hall Summer Drum Intensive, a one-of-a-kind jazz drum camp, now 15 years and counting. He is also the Executive Director of TUNED IN, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting the power of music education to change lives. He has authored the instructional books Jazz Drums Now! Vols. 1 & 2 and is the radio host for Jazz Currents on WMUK, the NPR affiliate in Kalamazoo.

Podcast 915 is my conversation with Keith, as we talk about the joys of jazz outside the New York City orbit, and the talent he finds while teaching and running his camp. Musical selections from Made in Kalamazoo include "Get Up Get Out," a duet with Rathbun, and the album opener, a solo "Be Curious (For Billy Hart)" plus "If I Were a Bell" from Hooray for Love , an album Keith made with Curtis Stigers.

The hard-swinging saxophonist Grant Stewart has been leading quartets for years. His latest album, The Lighting Of The Lamps (Cellar Music), features regular collaborators, bassist David Wong, pianist Tardo Hammer and drummer Phil Stewart. However, in a twist, the group is joined by special guest trumpeter Bruce Harris for a searching, straight-ahead date.

The Toronto-born bandleader has collaborated with the likes of Jimmy Cobb, Harold Mabern, Louis Hayes and Clark Terry in the past, as well as recording over twenty albums as leader or co-leader. I'm especially fond of his three "Reeds and Deeds" albums with co-leader Eric Alexander.

The Lighting Of The Lamps doesn't break any new ground, but for Stewart that's not necessarily a bad thing - his albums are full of tunes that swing and ballads that lilt with style and excitement. The addition of Harris to the mix adds another color to the musical palette, and he rips off a few furious solos to boot.

Podcast 914 is my conversation with Grant (apologies for some poor sound quality at times - Grant was outside for our call and there was some noise pollution) as well talk about his choice of Bruce Harris to work with, and why he returns again and again to compositions by Elmo Hope, Clifford Jordan and Thad Jones. Musical selections from The Lighting Of The Lamps include "Mo is On" and "Little Spain."

June 15th is the 100th anniversary of the noted pianist Jaki Byard, and Podcast 913 celebrates his diverse musical talents with an hour plus of tunes in which Jaki is leader or sideman.

Byard played a number of instruments, but is best known as a pianist. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, after spending much of the 1950's in the Boston club scene, he moved to New York and immediately hit it off with Charles Mingus. Byard worked with a wide variety of artists, from then on, from early days with Maynard Ferguson through his time with cutting edge artists like Mingus, Eric Dolphy, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He could play New Orleans gutbucket blues as fluently as free jazz, solo piano as well as larger ensembles, and was a key member of bands for Booker Ervin and Sam Rivers.

His solo work on Prestige Records paired him with top sidemen, and his recordings with Ron Carter, Bob Cranshaw, Paul Chambers and Richard Davis on bass; Billy Higgins, Roy Haynes and Alan Dawson on drums and George Benson on guitar are uniformly outstanding.

Byard was a charter faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music, helping to establish its jazz studies program, initially named 'Afro-American Music'. He stayed there for more than 15 years, becoming highly influential as a teacher and mentor. He died in a still-unsolved homicide in 1999.

Musical selections for Podcast 913 include:

Jaki Byard - "D.D.I.J."

Booker Ervin - "Groovin' High"

Jaki Byard - "Blues for Smoke"

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - "Roots"

Maynard Ferguson - "Mangos"

Jaki Byard - "Ode to Prez"

Charles Mingus with Eric Dolphy - "Orange was the Color of Her Dress, the Silk Blue"

Jaki Byard - "Spanish Tinge"

Eric Dolphy with Booker Ervin - "Far Cry"

Sam Rivers - "Downstairs Blues Upstairs (Alt. Take 1)"

Jaki Byard - "Medley: I Know a Place/Let the Good Times Roll"

By day, Stephen Philip Harvey appears to be a mild-mannered saxophonist, music teacher and choir director in sleepy Salisbury, MD. But when he leads the estimable team of musicians known as the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra, he shows his superpowers as composer and bandleader. With the release of the big band’s debut album, Smash! ( Next Level label), that identity should become a lot less secret.

It was Saturday morning cartoons, not comics, that introduced Harvey to the superhero mythos. The days when kids could only feast on sugared cereals and watch their heroes on television all morning seem to be long gone in the streaming era, but the sound of this album is what Harvey imagined aurally when he thought back on those characters and themes.

He assembled a crack group of 14 musicians from Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh in particular) and Northeast Ohio, and the results are smiling inducing from the first track. Harvey left his saxophone home when it was time to record, deciding instead to let players he viewed as technically superior to him bring his written creations to life.

Podcast 912 is my conversation with Stephen, as we discuss the inspiration for Smash!, how he came to jazz late in his musical development, and his plans for his New York debut at the Jazz Gallery in Manhattan on June 23rd. Musical selections include "Hero's Journey" and "Vigilante."

Hargrove , a vérité style documentary chronicling the last year of legendary trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s life, will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 8PM at Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place (230 Vesey Street, NYC). Executive produced by Janine Sherman Barrois and Erykah Badu, Hargrove offers unprecedented access to Roy like never before through intimate and insightful interviews along with stunning live performances. A Q&A, moderated by music and culture critic Nelson George featuring first-time director Eliane Henri and musicians in the film, will immediately follow the June 12 screening.

Filmed in the jazz clubs of New York, Los Angeles and across Mediterranean Europe (Vienne, Perugia, Sète, Sorrento, and Marseille) on what would be his final tour, Hargrove shines a bright spotlight on the genius of Roy Hargrove and his enormous contributions to the art of jazz. Key conversations expand beyond Roy’s personal story and enter the terrain of what it means to be an artist, particularly in America. Hargrove dives into the significance of Black music in America while offering a glimpse into the politics of power and race in the music industry.

Scenes of conflict between Hargrove, Henri and Hargrove manager Larry Clothier add drama to the story, and serve as perhaps a warning for future African-American artists (Clothier, who controls Hargrove's music, would not allow Eliane to include any Hargrove compositions in the film). Elsewhere, Director Henri uses a deft touch to give the audience insight into Hargrove and performer, and finally as a complicated, talented man, facing his mortality.

Music icons Erykah Badu (a friend of Roy's since high school), Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride, Questlove, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, Robert Glasper, and others pay tribute to Hargrove’s legacy as an acclaimed composer, improviser and friend in the film .

Podcast 909 is my conversation with Eliane Henri, as we discuss the bittersweet nature of the film, which was begun well before Roy's death, and only at its end becomes a meditation on life, death and art.

To enjoy Tribeca At Home: Hargrove as a Virtual Screening beginning Tuesday June 14, 2022 click here .

The name of this band tells you what you need to know - think of all the great post-bop soul-jazz sounds that came out of the 1950s and ‘60s, putting groove and feeling above analytics and theory. Decades later, here comes the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, co-led by saxophonist John Fournier and trumpeter Marques Carroll, doubling down on this storied jazz idiom and allowing a new generation to dig the sound.

For their CSJC's third album, On the Way to Be Free , the group raises the ante by inviting Dee Alexander to join in. Chicago’s grand dame of jazz vocals (as well as a syndicated radio broadcaster), the internationally acclaimed Ms. Alexander elevates every project she undertakes. She’s a shape-shifter who ranges far and wide, from her groundbreaking work with Chicago’s famed AACM, to her own strikingly original compositions, to her celebrations of the music’s great divas, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, and Billie Holiday (as on Alexander’s guest appearance with the Metropolitan Jazz Octet on its 2019 album, It’s Too Hot for Words ). And as she proves here, she can sass and strut with the best. Just listen as she levitates the bandstand on the fiery protest/gospel tune “The Man Is Coming Back,” and then she settles into the soulful ballad “So Alive” and drapes it in all the plummy finery it deserves.

The CSJC is Keith Brooks II on drums; Larry Brown Jr. on guitar and vocals; Carroll on trumpet; Amr Fahmy on Rhodes electric piano, clavinet and organ; Fournier on tenor sax; and Andrew Vogt on bass with guests Victor Garcia on percussion and Dan Leali on tambourine. They make music that moves your soul as well as your feet, bringing some much needed joy to the world today.

Podcast 911 is my conversation with Dee Alexander as we discuss her collaboration with the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, her history with the AACM, and her participation in a project honoring Chicago legend Von Freeman. Musical selections from On the Way to Be Free include “The Man Is Coming Back.”

In my opinion, Summer unofficially begins on Memorial Day, but officially kicks off when the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival takes place. This year the event is back at full strength after a COVID-reduced event in 2021. It will take place on the wooded grounds of SPAC on June 25 and 26th.

Danny Melnick of Absolutely Live Entertainment joins us again to discuss the bookings, surprises and future highlights of the event. The Festival will again have two stages, the large Amphitheater and the more intimate Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage. Acts will include:

Saturday, June 25 - Amphitheater
Booker T. Presents: A Stax Revue Robert Glasper Galactic featuring Anjelika Jelly Joseph Con Tumbao featuring Isaac Delgado, Robby Ameen, Oscar Hernandez, Conrad Herwig, Pedrito Martinez, Juan Munguia, Alain Pérez, Mike Rodriguez, Tony Succar & Miguel Zenon Ozmosys Band featuring Omar Hakim & Rachel Z Amina Figarova Sextet plus Strings Hot Club of Saratoga
Saturday, June 25 - Charles R. Wood "Jazz Discovery" Stage
Red Baraat Matt Wilson's Honey & Salt with Dawn Thomson, Nadje Noordhuis, Jeff Lederer & Martin Wind Craig Handy & 2nd Line Smith Connie Han Trio Emmaline Dan Wilson Trio
Sunday, June 26 - Amphitheater
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Ledisi SuperBlue: Kurt Elling featuring Charlie Hunter Eliane Elias Matthew Whitaker Garland Nelson's Joyful Noise
Sunday, June 26 - Charles R. Wood "Jazz Discovery" Stage
Cha Wa Tiempo Libre Carolyn Wonderland Ryan Keberle & Catharsis Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars celebrate George Wein featuring Mike Rodriguez, Steve Davis, Jimmy Greene, Bill Cunliffe, Dave Stryker, Todd Coolman & Dennis Mackrel

“Since a while ago, all my concerts are totally improvised – no set list, nothing prepared, just let the music lead the way. I come on stage as a newborn, ready for a new life, a new journey, a new experience every time. My bandmates are part of that experience as much as I am myself, every note they play becomes part of this life we are living together on the stage.” - Jean-Michel Pilc

Alive–Live at Diese Onze Montreal (Justin Time Recors) is a rare treat for fans of improvised music in general, and piano trios in particular. For, pianist Jeam-Michel Pilc, bassist Rémi-Jean LeBlanc and drummer Jim Doxas, this concert recording was their "break-out" after COVID-19 had effectively ended live performance for 18 months or so. The crowd was ready, the musicians set - and the result captures one of those nights like lightning in a bottle.

While the tunes are standards like "Nardis," and "Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise" plus a pair of Pilc originals, titles do not accurately describe the music made by the trio. The best example comes on "All Blues," where the classic melody is barely quoted, and time, tempo and harmonic sensibilities are left behind as the band takes the tune to places Miles and Trane never contemplated.

Enormously prolific and multi-faceted as composer and pianist, including musical directorship for Harry Belafonte; a duet performance with operatic legend Jessye Norman; a large-scale commissioned work based upon a Charlie Chaplin classic; and over a dozen albums as a leader and almost as many as co-leader, Jean-Michel Pilc has become one of the most highly respected pianist/composers of the past 25 years. Alive may give him even wider acclaim and exposure

Podcast 908 is my conversation with Jean-Michel, as we talk about his refusal to categorize his music or let his choice of songs dictate where the improvisation will go. While I rarely post long tracks on my podcasts, the scintillating "All Blues" is included in its entirety.

Pianist Lynne Arriale's last few trio albums have had something of a thematic structure. Chimes of Freedom were tunes that expressed Lynne’s solidarity with democratic values and reaffirmed her support of cultural diversity and racial equality. Give Us These Days took on a spiritual flavor - given the unpredictability and impermanence of life, her music suggests, savor each moment.

Both of those albums feature Ms. Arriale with bassist Jasper Somsen and drummer E.J. Strickland, as does The Lights Are Always On , her latest release. This original music is a suite of compositions that reflect the world-wide, life-changing events of the past two years. Several of the pieces are named in honor of heroes around the world, including those who served as caregivers on the front lines of the COVID pandemic and as defenders of democracy.

Ever since winning the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in 1993, Lynne has been one of the most consistently engaging pianists around Her critically acclaimed albums have
topped the Jazzweek Radio Charts and have received “Best of” honors in major publications. She toured Japan with “100 Golden Fingers” with Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Monty Alexander, Cedar Walton, Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern, Roger Kellaway, Junior Mance and Ray Bryant. She is currently a professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, FL.

Podcast 907 is a return visit from Lynne (we last spoke in 2012 when she released an album of solo piano) as we discuss the strengths of her piano trio, how her compositions drive her topical titles and sounds, and how and why she tweaks her compositions, particularly in regard to tempo. Musical selections from The Lights Are Always On include the title track and "Sisters," plus "Take It With Me." the Tom Waits composition performed on Give Us These Days with singer Kate McGarry.

With the release of Return from the Stars (ECM) earlier this year, Mark Turner cemented his place as not only one of the top tenor saxophone players around, but also as an artist who can write and arrange at rarified heights.

The album, is a quartet project with Jason Palmer on trumpet; Joe Martin on double bass; and Jonathan Pinson on drums. The absence of a chordal instrument like piano leaves Turner and Palmer's sound suspended over the rhythm. By this I mean that the compositions, performance and always perfect ECM recording place the two lead instruments above and from time to time, within, the rhythm section,, forcing the listener to pay attention and enjoy their intertwining sound of three-part harmony. No safety net of a piano, and it's never missed.

Mark Turner has been a frequent and significant presence on ECM recordings of the last dozen years, bringing his saxophone artistry and his musical commitment to recordings with Enrico Rava, the Billy Hart Quartet, the cooperative Fly trio (with Jeff Ballard and Larry Grenadier), Stefano Bollani and, most recently, Ethan Iverson, on the duo recording Temporary Kings . Albums under Turner’s leadership, however, have been rare and Return from the Stars is the first ECM recording to feature his quartet since 2014’s Lathe of Heaven .

Podcast 906 is my conversation with Turner, as we discuss the making of Return from the Stars , why playing live with the quartet before recording made a difference, and how he fell in love with science fiction. Musical selections from Return from the Stars includes "Waste Land."

Acclaimed for creating concept albums that riff on gospel, heavy metal, and rhythm section-less big bands, Jacob Garchik ( #1 Rising Star trombonist, 2018 Downbeat Critics Poll) has released his jazziest album yet, but one that is still imbued with his sense of experimentalism and surprise.

The result is the aptly titled Assembly , and it continues to show Jacob as a musician who enjoys the cutting edge in composition, production and performance. His long-time friends and collaborators Jacob Sacks (piano) and Dan Weiss (percussion) are joined by two other “heavies” – bassist Thomas Morgan and saxophonist Sam Newsome.

In February 2021, in the isolation of the pre-vaccine pandemic, Garchik felt the frustration of so many musicians, unable to perform or jam with his peers in almost a year. He brought together a stellar quintet to record small group jazz in a studio with enough isolation booths to record simultaneously. This initial assembly, playing blues and standards with no heads, created a swinging jam session atmosphere. For the next 3 months Garchik used these recordings for another type of assembly, cutting, pasting, transcribing, composing, reordering and reworking. The band met for a second time in May to record Garchik’s original compositions and collages based on, and sometimes overlaid atop, their own playing.

Garchik has honed his craft by playing trombone with the likes of Lee Konitz, Miguel Zenon, Henry Threadgill and Mary Halvorson. In continuing to defy classification with his music, he has arranged over 100 pieces for the Kronos Quartet and backs the Mark Morris Dance Group on Ethan Iverson’s “Pepperland.” He also sits in with the fiery Slavic Soul Party playing funked-up Balkan music, and with the Mexican brass band, Banda de los Muertos.

Podcast 905 is my conversation with Jacob, as we discuss how he came to create the loops and sounds for Assembly , why he decided to return to playing jazz trombone, and how his musicians responded to the challenges he presented to them. Musical selections from Assembly include “Bricolage” and “Idee Fixe.”

Jacob Garchik will present the premier of "Assembly" at Barbes in Brooklyn, NY on March 25, 2022. Click here for further information.

Aaron Seeber is no rookie. A native of Washington D.C. and a graduate of the highly regarded jazz program at SUNY-Purchase, the drummer has been part of groups assembled by Tim Green, Pete Malverni and Warren Wolf, and hosted weekly after-hour jam sessions at Small’s in New York. First Move is the aptly titled initial release by Seeber as a bandleader, and what a band he has assembled! He repaid Green and Wolf for previous gigs by putting them in the front line, and added pianist Sullivan Fortner and bassist Ugonna Ukegwo to make a swinging quintet.

Recorded live in Brooklyn at Ornithology Jazz Club on October 19, 2021, First Move is mostly hot covers of lesser-played tunes. The album kicks off in style with Al Foster’s “Brandyn,” and goes on with tunes from the likes of Bennie Golson (“Out Of The Past”), Myron Walden (“Fire Waltz”), Geri Allen (“Unconditional Love”) and Mulgrew Miller (“Eleventh Hour”). The title track is a Seeber original, written with shifting time signatures and in a style that recalls mid-Sixties Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter. Through in a Mingus and Bird tune, and you’ve got a solid set of material performed at a high level.

Podcast 904 is my conversation with Aaron, as we talk about the album, his experiences writing tunes as a drummer, and the relevance of a collegiate jazz education (literally a million dollar question, he says). Musical selections from First Move include “Brandyn” and the title track.

On his debut album, Balance , Berlin-based saxophonist Fabian Willmann pairs himself with two long-time friends and mentors to create a consistently fresh sounding and lyrical work. Willmann's clear tone on the tenor saxophone recalls the best eras of a Dexter Gordon or a Stan Getz, or even Wayne Marsh. The rhythmic meshing contributed by bassist Arne Huber and drummer Jeff Ballard is starkly modern. keeping things consistently interesting and moving.

Willmann has been connected to Jeff Ballard since he was a student in Basel. Always captivated by the dynamics that the drummer can unroll, especially in trio situations, he quickly took him up on a standing offer to work together. Arne Huber has partnered up with Willmann within various contexts so it was natural to enroll him in the band. Guest Danish alto saxophonist Asger Nissen adds to the fun when he is called upon to work with Fabian on three tracks.

The album has five Willmann originals, and appears on the new CYH Label. Created by Patrik Zosso and Sarah Chaksad, CYH will release mostly new jazz artists, and we hope to have Sarah on the show soon.

Musical selections from Balance include "Trees, Birds, River, Sky," and the tune Fabian identifies as his favorite on the album, "Intro."

Like many jazz musicians today, trombonist Nick Finzer's success has come from working in a number of different capacities over a long period of time. There are his recordings and performances as a leader, and again as a sideman; his teaching, giving lessons, owning and operating his own label, and writing instruction books,

In his first Music Business book, Create, Connect, Repeat , Finzer reaches out to fellow musicians and unpacks his multifaceted approach to building an audience with work that matters to you. This might include finding sustainable practices for sharing your life’s mission, and finding creative ways to monetize that work across the multitude of platforms that are available to artists in 2022 and beyond.

At its core, Create, Connect, Repeat is designed to offer creatives a blueprint to success that focuses on both creating and sharing. It focuses on the generosity of artistry, creativity, and vision. It focuses on building one step at a time and focuses on finding one fan at a time and building the life you’ve been dreaming of.

Podcast 902 is my conversation about the book with Nick Finzer, as we discuss why he decided to share his outlook with others in written form, and artists he holds up as examples of those who have built and audience slowly, over time, We also touch base on his latest CD, Out of Focus , which combines quartet recordings with solo trombone interpretations. Musical selections from Out of Focus include "Single Petal of a Rose."

Ah, Record Store Day! This is the 15th year that the biannual event celebrates independent record stores, and increasingly popular vinyl records. There are a number of notable jazz releases seeing the light of day for the first time this Saturday, either as newly discovered works, limited edition or remastered vinyl. These include:

Dave Brubeck Trio - Live from Vienna 1967

Art Pepper - Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section

Max Roach - We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Suite

Podcast 901 brings back Zev Feldman to take us through some exciting albums that he has been responsible for, including Charles Mingus' The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's (see Podcast 898 for more), Albert Ayler's Revelations - The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings , the Chet Baker Trio's Live in Paris , and two from Bill Evans' South American tours, Morning Glory: The 1973 Concert At The Teatro Gran Rex, Buenos Aires and Inner Spirit: The 1979 Concert At The Teatro General San Martín, Buenos Aires .

Musical selections for the Podcast include Ayler's "Music is the Healing Force of the Universe" and Baker's take on the standard "Stella by Starlight."

What can we say here that hasn't already been said about Charles Mingus, not one of a handful of true geniuses of the jazz world, but one of the towering figures in 20th century music as a whole. Having learned music and composition from classical figures, his career began in the groups of Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton in the 1940's. His work would covered jazz history for another three decades, playing bebop with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Money Jungle with Duke Ellington and Max Roach, and leading large and small groups through increasingly charged work. He was a pioneer off the bandstand as well, creating the Jazz Workshop as a means of allowing artists greater control over their work.

As a composer, his work reflected not just his voluminous experiences, but his sharp wit, political anger, and desire to open new and exciting ways to play music. That's the side of music we pay tribute to in Podcast 900, choosing some of my favorite Mingus tunes, performed by a wide variety of jazz musicians.

Musical selections include:

Dannie Richmond - "Fables of Faubus"

Aaron Seeber - "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love"

Pepper Adams - "Song with Orange"

Tierney Sutton - "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines"

Blue Moods - "Peggy's Blue Skylight"

Larry Coryell - "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul"

John Hebert - "Remember Rockefeller at Attica"

Akua Dixon - "Haitian Fight Song"

Kevin Mahogany - "Mingus Medley (Boogie Stop Shuffle - Jelly Roll - Good-Bye Pork Pie Hat)"

Stanley Clarke - "Good-Bye Pork Pie Hat"

Resonance Records, the top U.S. independent label for previously unreleased jazz treasures, will issue The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s, a never-before-heard 1972 club performance by bassist/composer Charles Mingus’ powerful sextet, as a three-LP Record Store Day offering on April 23 (one day after what would have been Mingus’ 100th birthday). The album will be issued as a three-CD set and digital download on April 29.

The two live sets, comprising nearly two-and-a-half hours of music, were professionally recorded on eight-track tapes via a mobile recording truck on Aug. 14-15, 1972. However, the performance went unreleased, as Columbia Records reversed course in the spring of 1973 and cancelled all its jazz projects except that of Miles Davis. By the time Mingus’ band took the stage at saxophonist Scott’s celebrated London club, Mingus was experiencing a career renaissance: he had received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and seen his music adapted for choreographer Alvin Ailey’s The Mingus Dances in 1971. The following year saw the release of his potent autobiography Beneath the Underdog and his widely acclaimed big band album Let My Children Hear Music .

Though his group still featured the formidable saxophonists Bobby Jones (tenor) and Charles McPherson (alto), the sextet was in a state of flux, but the new members delivered on stage. Pianist Jaki Byard was succeeded by the relatively unknown John Foster, who showed off both his keyboard and vocal chops at Scott’s. Longtime drummer Dannie Richmond, who had joined the pop band Mark-Almond, was replaced by the ingenious, powerful Detroit musician Roy Brooks, who demonstrated his invention the “breath-a-tone,” which allowed him to control the pitch of his kit while playing, and, on a couple of numbers, his abilities on the musical saw. The trumpet chair was filled by the phenomenal 19-year old Jon Faddis, a protégé and acolyte of Dizzy Gillespie.

The Lost Album features nine performances captured during the two-night engagement; some of them – the then-new compositions “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues” and “Mind-readers’ Convention in Milano” and a sensational version of “Fables of Faubus” – are epics that range around the half-hour mark.

Podcast 898 takes a deep dive into this fascinating new recording with the help of Resonance co-President Zev Feldman, who co-produced the set with David Weiss. Musical selections include "Pops (a.k.a. When the Saints Go Marching In."

It seems that most of the world’s religions have spring holidays. In fact, celebrating the beginning of spring may be among the oldest seasonal holidays in human culture. The earliest reference we have to such a holiday comes to us from Babylon, 2400 BCE. The city of Ur apparently had a celebration dedicated to the moon and the spring equinox which was held some time during our months of March or April.

For Christianity, today is Good Friday, at the end of Holy Week, culminating in the commemoration of the Passion with the celebration of Easter. The Jewish 8 day celebration of Passover begins tonight, commemorating the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. For Buddhists, spring is significant mainly for its connection with events in the life of the Buddha. Hindus celebrate the birth of the lord Rama with the festival known as Rama Navami, celebrated this past April 10th.

Native Americans celebrate the Yaqui Deer dance this month, a ceremony intended to integrate ancient rites of the Yaqui people of Arizona with the Christian Easter Rituals. According to Muslim tradition, Nis Sha-ban (celebrated a month ago this year) is the time when Allah Approaches the earth to call humanity to repentance and grant forgiveness off sins. On April 21, the Bahai faith begins a celebration called Ridvan, commemorating the twelve days that Baha u llah spent in the garden of Ridvan during his exile from Baghdad.

With all of these religious events happening in less than a thirty day period, it has been the Straight No Chaser tradition to assemble a Podcast of Spiritual Jazz to honor and embrace the spiritual aspects of life. Podcast 897 is no exception, with musical selections including:

Grant Green - "Sunday Morning"

Javon Jackson - "I Opened My Mouth to the Lord"

John Zorn featuring Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Gyan Riley - "Devotion"

The Cosmic Range - "Palms to Heaven"

Pharoah Sanders - "Prince of Peace"

Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Grady Tate - "Sanctification"

Dave Douglas - "Agnus Dei"

Afro-Semitic Experience - "Go Down Moses"

Vibration Society - "Spirits Up Above"

Duke Pearson - "Christo Redentor"

Charlie Haden & Hank Jones - "Were You There When they Crucified My Lord?"

For those interested in previous Podcasts of Spiritual Jazz, please click the links that follow to listen to Podcasts 178 , 215 , 341 , 422 , 472 , 525. 617 . and 676 .

Broadway musicals have been the source of many notable jazz standards, so it should come as no surprise that the DIVA Jazz Orchestra’s latest release is DIVA Swings Broadway . The 15-piece band, fast approaching its 30th year as a performing group, lends their seemingly boundless talents to nine songs, some well known, and others which dig deep into the Broadway Songbook.

DIVA was founded by Stanley Kay, one-time manager and relief drummer for Buddy Rich and the band’s drummer and musical director, Sherrie Maricle. In 1990, Stanley heard Sherrie play, was impressed, and decided to create a band of like-minded players. In 1992 the search was on, and through nationwide auditions the foundation for DIVA was poured. From the world’s largest jazz festivals to television and even film (the award-winning documentary The Girls in the Band) there seems to be no stage too big for DIVA.

The band has a core of musicians who have spent a decade or more in the band, including Noriko Ueda (bass), Tomoko Ohno (piano), Sara Jacovino (trombone) and Maricle. Other great players such as Anat Cohen and Ingrid Jensen have passed through the band after lengthy stays. To the experienced players come a continuing flow of new talent that should stand DIVA in good stead for another thirty years or more.

Podcast 896 is my conversation with Sherrie Maricle, as talk about DIVA Swings Broadway , how she keeps a jazz orchestra together after the pandemic, and their plans for a 30th birthday celebration next year. Musical selections include “With Every Breathe I Take” from the Cy Coleman-penned musical City of Angels , and “Love Who You Love,” from the musical A Man of No Importance .

Podcast 895 is Part Two of my conversation with the extraordinary Dave Douglas. In Part One, we focused on the inspiration for, then writing and recording of Secular Psalms, now available on his Greenleaf Music label. Created as part of the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the Ghent Altarpiece painting "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," Douglas and mostly European musicians recorded the spiritually uplifting music during the COVID pandemic. Dave discussed how they overcame travel and group restrictions, and produced a memorable piece of music.

In Part Two we continue discussing the musicians who helped create Secular Psalms , and then focus on recent projects with which Douglas has been involved, starting with Greenleaf Music. Dave shares insights on some new Greenleaf releases, as well as on future recording from Sound Prints, the group he co-leads with saxophonist Joe Lovano. Douglas also talks about the coming release of his album Overcome on vinyl for the first time.

Musical selections include the Douglas composition "Antiquity to Outer Space" from the most recent Sound Prints album Other Worlds , and "We Shall Overcome" from the album Overcome

With the start of the month of April, Straight No Chaser begins a month long celebration of the life and music of Charles Mingus, one of the most important jazz performers, composers and personalities ever.

Six years ago I interviewed Kris Gabbard , the author of Better Git It in Your Soul : An Interpretive Biography of Charles Mingus (University of California Press), who considered Mingus not just one of the most important figures in jazz, but in American 20th century music as a whole. At that time I wrote:

Classically trained on cello, (Mingus) moved to jazz music and played with virtually every major figure in the history of jazz in his lifetime, starting with New Orleans legends Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory. He played bass in the “Greatest Jazz Concert Ever” at Massey Hall in Toronto, sharing the stage with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Max Roach. He recorded with his father-figure Duke Ellington (Money Jungle ) , but also with Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton, and helped launch the careers of Eric Dolphy, Booker Ervin, and Paul Bley. As a composer and bandleader, his works moved from bebop to blues, from ballet scores to orchestral pieces, from in-your-face civil rights protests to moving elegies. At his death from ALS in 1979, he was working with Joni Mitchell on the album that would eventually be called Mingus .

To that I would add that his importance as a figure of African-American excellence and pride, of political protest, and as creator of artist-owned and run record labels and workshops, he is almost unparalleled in jazz.

It would take more than a month to truly explore his life, influence and music, and what better place to begin than with a young musician who carries the torch of his music as a member of the Grammy-winning Mingus Big Band? Sarah Hanahan plays alto saxophone, and will appear at The Django, home of the Mingus Big Band’s “Mingus Monday” performances on April 2 leading her own group.

A graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz Studies at the University of Hartford, Sarah is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in jazz performance at Julliard. She not only is a member of the Mingus Big Band but plays lead alto in the current iteration of the Diva Jazz Orchestra, currently celebrating its 29th year of performing. She has shared the stage with the likes of Jason Moran, Javon Jackson, Christian McBride, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Rufus Reid and more She will tour Europe with the Ulysses Owens Jr. Generation Y Band in May, and be seen across the US with the Mingus Big Band and Diva Jazz Orchestra this spring and summer. She hopes to record her initial album this fall.

Podcast 894 features my conversation with Sarah Hanahan, as we talk her love of the music of Charles Mingus, what she has learned by her tenure in Big Bands and working with Jason Moran, and her plans for the near future. We’ll hear Charles Mingus play “Profile of Jackie” and Sarah play her own “Melodee.”

Dave Douglas, one of the most prolific writers, performers and recording artists in jazz today is also one of its widest-ranging stylists and important entrepreneurs. At the age of 59, his award-winning career includes more than fifty recordings as a leader, close to one hundred as a sideman, and more than five hundred published compositions. In 2005 Douglas founded Greenleaf Music, a record label for his albums, sheet music, podcasts, as well as the music of other modern jazz musicians. To date, Greenleaf has produced over seventy albums and continues to be an important independent source for recorded music.

Among Douglas’ interests are the history of the trumpet, his chosen instrument. He is the co-founder of the Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York, and has written varied pieces for the instrument, including for chamber orchestra. It’s this last area that led him down a long path to the creation of Secular Psalms , his latest release.

Dave began to formulate the work as part of a larger plan to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the famed Altarpiece “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” painted by Jan and Hubert van Eyck, with creation of new music. The polyptych was originally created for display in St. Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium in the early 15th century, and has had a history of being removed, stolen and finally restored to its initial glory.

Douglas finally arrived at music that would celebrate spiritualism in all its many forms, and the work at times takes the structure of a classic Mass. To bring the work to life, he assembled musicians form across the US and Europe, needing multi-instrumentalists who could handle both the tools of the 15th and 21st century.

The resulting group - Berlinde Deman on serpent, tuba, and voice; Marta Warelis on piano, prepared piano, and pump organ; Frederik Leroux on guitars, lute, and electronics; Tomeka Reid on cello; and Lander Gyselinck on drums and electronics – is joined by Douglas on trumpet, and for the first time, vocals as well. The music they make seems to defy time and space across the fifty-plus minutes of Secular Psalms , but is always moving and touches the listener’s heart and soul as well as intellect.

Podcast 893 is the first of two podcasts with Dave Douglas. In the first part, we talk extensively of the Secular Psalms project, beginning with his interest in the composers of the early 14th century French Ars Nova, most notably Guillaume De Machaut, This led to the writing and recording of Fabliaux with the Australian Monash Arts Ensemble in 2014. Secular Psalms may be considered a logical next step in Douglas’ interest in the past. Musical selections include “Ah Moon” and “We Believe.”

Part Two of the conversation with appear next week, and include discussions of recent Douglas projects, most notably his Sound Prints group with Joe Lovano, and Greenleaf Music.

One of the benefits we get as jazz listeners from the inactivity in recording and releasing of music due to the COVID-19 pandemic is the backlog of exciting music that is now coming out. Trumpeter Avishai Cohen describes his album as the outcome of a “two-year meditation.” He had been sitting with the main motif of Naked Truth since the start of Covid, and used the layoff to follow that melody to its inevitable conclusion, an 8 part suite with a spoken ending.

Naked Truth (ECM Records) was recorded by Avishai with his long-time musical comrades — pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassist Barak Mori and drummer Ziv Ravitz — who share an intuitive understanding, hyper alert to the music’s subtly-changing emphases. Alternately through composed and improvised, Cohen challenged his bandmates to successfully “play nothing,” while at the same time saying everything. To this listener, the challenge was more than met with a stripped-down arrangement and sound.

Avishai was born in Tel Aviv, and is part of the first-family of Israeli jazz, joining his brother Yuval and sister Anat in the jazz world. He plans to reunite with his siblings for some overdue concerts this June, while touring with his quartet and his band Big Vicious throughout 2022-23. Big Vicious had the misfortune of being released in March 2020, and the pandemic derailed plans to tour with Uzi Ramirez (Guitar), Yonatan Albalak (Guitar, Bass), Aviv Cohen (Drums) and Ravitz (Drums, Live Sampling).

Musical selections from Naked Truth , with it’s eight parts unnamed, are Parts 2 and 5, the former of which contains the root melody that Avishai developed into the entire musical statement over time.

Nourished by the abundant creative energies of the scene in his native Chicago, drummer and composer Kabir Dalawari has developed a unique musical on his vibrant debut album, Awareness . Dalawari fronts a talent-packed quartet with altoist Kyle Brooks, pianist Eric Arroyo and bassist Matt Ulery for a set of original pieces brimming with rhythmic animation, melodic richness and bristling interactivity.

Dalawari approaches music in part from the perspective of someone versed in neuroscience, given his collegiate focus on Jazz Studies and Cognitive Psychology at Loyola University Chicago. The resulting music can feature some odd time signatures and even odder chord structures at times but rewards the listener after repeated plays as a strong, coherent musical statement.

Podcast 891 is my conversation with Kabir, as we discuss the inspiration for tunes on Awareness , including the title track, dedicated to his brother. He also takes us on a tour of Chicago’s best jazz spots and talks about plans for live performances as well. Musical selections from Awareness include the title track.

Quentin Angus has received national and international recognition for winning three ASCAP 'Young Jazz Composer Awards', five Downbeat Magazine Awards in the 'Composition' and 'Soloist' categories. The State of Things is his third album as a leader.

He carefully chose his collaborators for the album, choosing the topnotch drummer Nate Smith as the core of his band. Pianist Can Olgun and bassist Desmond White solidly round out the rhythm section. Vocalist/lyricist Michael Mayo is a new talent to me, and based on his work here, most definitely deserving of wider recognition. The album is mostly Quentin originals, although some reharmonized standards are also here, most notably “Pure Imagination” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” both with revised time signatures.

Angus holds a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), awarded with a 'Dean's Commendation', a Master of Music Degree (Jazz Performance) under the tutelage of jazz great John Abercrombie, awarded 'Summa Cum Laude', and a Bachelor of Music Degree (Jazz Performance). Angus' is the author of five original transcription books of Gilad Hekselman improvisations and has also been published by PickUp Music, Jazz Lessons Videos, Mel Bay, Jazz Heaven, and the NZMiC music journal. He has performed and recorded with jazz luminaries Nate Smith, Ari Hoenig, Kevin Hays, Shai Maestro, Linda May Han Oh, and Will Vinson.

Podcast 891 is my conversation with Quentin Angus, as we discuss his interest in composition over improvisation, his time under the tutelage of the legendary Abercrombie, and his views on the importance (in some cases) of a formal jazz education. Musical selections include “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and the original “Broken Bones.”

Since the 1991 release of his debut album A Guitar Thing , featuring Benny Green, Cecil Brooks III and Lonnie Plaxico, guitarist Ron Jackson has steadily built a robust reputation as a sideman and solo artist. Standards and My Songs is his ninth title as a leader on his independent label Roni Music, the logical follow-up to his. Standards and Other Songs . The seven-string guitar player put together a topnotch trio, with Ben Wolfe on bass and Willie Jones III on drums to tackle tunes that vary from the Seventies pop one-hit wonder “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” to the Broadway standard “This Nearly was Mine” to his own compositions.

Born in 1964 in the Philippines, though mostly raised just outside of Boston, Jackson started out as a rocker, but fell deep into the jazz realm under the influence of such legends as George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Pat Metheny. After studies at Berklee School of Music, Jackson lived and worked in Paris before moving to New York City and launching his high-profile jazz career.

A disciple of Bucky Pizzarelli, Ron moved to the seven-string guitar at his mentor’s urging, and has not looked back since. He’s played on dozens of albums (such as those by Ron Blake, Hal Singer, T.K. Blue) and working with such artists as Oliver Lake, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gary Bartz and Randy Weston.

Podcast 889 is my conversation with Ron, as he takes us through the technical and aesthetic virtues of the seven-string guitar, and how he uses the unique instrument to interpret old and new tunes alike. Musical selections from Standards and My Songs include “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” which adds organist Brian Ho to the mix, and “For Pat” which pays homage to another mentor, the late Pat Martino, and is loosely modeled after Martino’s own ballad “Country Road.”

Matt Slocum’s latest work is a long-form suite, performed by one of the best quartets I’ve seen put together in some time. Slocum, the drummer and composer of the songs on With Love and Sadness (Sunnyside Records), originally planned for a trio, but decided the music called for a fuller sound. The resulting group – Walter Smith III on saxophone, Taylor Eigsti on piano and Fender Rhodes, Larry Grenadier on bass and Slocum on drums – makes the album a must-listen and an early contender for the year end “best of” lists.

With Love and Sadness , made possible by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works Program, was recorded on analog equipment, giving the resulting music a warm, immediate feel. Created to be listened to as a whole, the seven-part suite was inspired in part by Matt’s first trip away from home after the pandemic hit, a vacation at Maine’s majestic Acadia National Park. There is a strong sense of melody, and a harmonic unity that rewards the listener who enjoys the album in one sitting.

Slocum honed his craft as an undergraduate at USC under Peter Erskine, and has gone on to record with Steve Cardenas and Dayna Stephens on his Trio Pacific Vol.1 , Grenadier and Gerald Clayton on Sanctuary and Smith, Stephens, Clayton and Massimo Biolcati on his noted Black Elk’s Dream . He’s performed with those players in many different settings, as he has with Anthony Wilson, Ben Wendel, Sam Yahel, Lage Lund and Linda May Han Oh.

Podcast 888 is my conversation with Matt, as we talk about the inspiration behind, and the writing and recording of With Love and Sadness . He also shares some information on coming projects – is there another Trio Pacific album on the horizon? – and his hopes for playing the suite live. There is a release party planned at Mezzrow in Manhattan on May 12. Musical selections from With Love and Sadness include “An Evolving Alliance” and the concluding “America Revisited.”

It's been seven years since Tel Aviv-based saxophonist-composer Eli Degibri has released an album of original music. However, that drought ends this week with the release of his deeply personal album of tunes, Henri and Rachel.

Recorded on March 9, 2020, days before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Henri and Rachel is Degibri’s first album of original music since 2015, when he recorded Cliff Hanging , which earned a 5-star review from DownBeat (a 2018 release, Soul Station , was a tune-for-tune homage to one of Degibri’s heroes, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and his iconic 1960 Blue Note album of that name).

During those years, Degibri, an only child, was preoccupied not only with his musical production, but with caring for his aging and ailing parents, who both emigrated to Israel following World War II. His father, Henri, a native of Bulgaria who passed away in the fall of 2020, developed cancer; his mother, Rachel, born in Iran, developed Parkinson’s Disease and dementia. As a result, his compositions, whether consciously or not, are infused with a sense of longing, shifting feelings, and love.

Eli has worked with his current rhythm section – Tom Oren on piano, Alon Near on bass (the most recent member), and Eviatar Slivnik on drums – for the last four years, and their camaraderie translates into some wonderful playing. Whether it’s the aptly titled “Longing,” the melodic title track (performed in two versions, in two different keys, one for the masculine, the other the feminine) or the straight ahead “Preaching to the Choir,” the tunes and playing make for an emotionally satisfying listen.

Degibri has been in the spotlight since 1999, when Ron Carter – a mentor at the Thelonious Monk Institute, who in 2009 recorded on Degibri’s Israeli Song with Brad Mehldau and Al Foster – recommended him to Herbie Hancock for what would be a 30-month stint performing repertoire from Hancock’s Grammy-winning Gershwin’s World album. He further refined his artistry as a member of Foster’s group from 2002 until 2011, and as the leader of bands that included such internationally acclaimed musicians as Aaron Goldberg, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Street, Jeff Ballard, Kevin Hays, Gary Versace, Gregory Hutchinson, and Obed Calvaire. For years he was the artistic director of the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat, a world-class event.

Podcast 887 is my conversation with Eli, as talk about the emotional process of turning his feelings regarding his parents’ decline and passing into music, and the importance of his close relationship with his band. He also pays tribute to Hank Mobley and Ron Carter, the latter of whom will celebrate his 85th birthday later this year. Musical selections from Henri and Rachel include the title track and “Don Quixote,” a tune dedicated to his late father.

In Part One of this two-part conversation, Bill Summers explained the long path he has followed to learn the art and the history of Bata, placing him firmly in a thousand plus year history of percussionists. We talked about Forward Back, his new project with his longtime friend Scott Roberts, a way to blend spiritual music with the sounds of the modern western world, especially hip-hop. That EP, Yellow Flowers, was released recently on the Ropeadope label.

Part Two follows Summers' 50 year career, as we talk about his time with Herbie Hancock, making Headhunters , Thrust and Flood , plus sessions with the likes of Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Rollins, Patrice Rushen and many more. We also talk about music in his home New Orleans, and delve into musical history and myth surrounding the legendary figure known as Bras-Coupe .

Musical selections include "Watermelon Man" from Headhunters; "My Ideal" from the Sonny Rollins album Don't Ask , which also featured guitarist Larry Coryell; and "Hang It Up" from Patrice Rushen's 1978 album Patrice .

Years ago, the study of percussion led Bill Summers to a particular ceremony in Brooklyn, where he was introduced to the rich history of religious, spiritual drumming by vocalist Leon Thomas. The path led him to Cuba, where he studied with a venerated master, immersed in a spiritual drum fraternity (Anya) that took him all the way back. He innately recognized the origin, the source, the foundation of all rhythm.

Learning the history of Bata in this deep way has been a 50-year process for Summers. All through his illustrious career with Herbie Hancock, The Headhunters, Los Hombres Calientes, and countless top names in music from Sonny Rollins and Ella Fitzgerald to Quincy Jones and Patrice Rushen, he has, with his longtime friend Scott Roberts (a/k/a One Drop Scott), sought for a way to blend spiritual music with the sounds of the modern western world.

His latest project, Yellow Flowers , is from the group he calls Forward Back. Summers and Roberts create music with a purpose, to, as he says, take the world on a journey BACK into traditional instruments to move the culture FORWARD by unearthing the rhythmic relationship between Africa, the Caribbean, and America.

The Forward Back concept is built on the back of African tradition: Summers plays three drums (bata), representing Father, Mother, and Child on each track. With the foundation in place, Summers and One Drop Scott were inspired to collaborate with music duo Cruzmatik and solo vocalist Simoné Mosley to cultivate not only a musical group but a family of artists who authentically make music influenced by their life experiences. Cruzmatic is Reggie Stephens a.k.a. Reggae Steel Bon, a former NFL player, rap artist, and producer, and J-Willz is a Rock & Reggae singer and a filmmaker. The duo brings a fresh, current sound to the recording, rooted in its own way to their community. Simoné Mosley is a Bay Area native who strives to combine her sultry voice, poetic insight, and life experience to bring healing and a sense of culture into the realm of self-reflection.

As we spoke, Summers became clearly excited about Forward Back, in which he melds his percussive tradition with hip-hop, funk and soul. Podcast 885 is the first of a two-part conversation, as we follow his path with Bata, and discuss the making of Yellow Flowers . Musical selections from the EP on the Ropeadope label include the title track, and “Buttafly”, which adds funk legend George Clinton to the mix.

Les Bon Temps Rouler!

It's Mardi Gras time in New Orleans, and this year the parades and parties are in full swing. So if you're not in the Big Easy to sample the music, food and fun, here's an hour plus of music to get you in the swing of things:

Kermit Ruffins - "Drop Me Off in New Orleans"

Marcus Roberts - "New Orleans Blues"

Cyril Neville - "New Orleans Cookin'"

The Hot 8 Brass Band - "New Orleans, After the City"

Irma Thomas and Marcia Ball - "I Just Can't Get New Orleans Off My Mind"

Wynton Marsalis - "New Orleans Bump"

Booker Ervin - "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans"

Lil' Queenie & The Percolators - "My Darlin' New Orleans"

Dave Bennett - "A Funeral in New Orleans"

George Benson - "Walkin' to New Orleans"

Dr. John with the Donald Harrison Band - "You Ain't Such a Much"

Delfeayo Marsalis And The Uptown Jazz Orchestra - "So New Orleans!"

Harold Lopez-Nussa - "Van Van Meets New Orleans"

Harry Connick Jr. - "Mardi Gras in New Orleans"

Earl King - "No City Like New Orleans"