Carolina Calvache Marries Poetry and Music on Vida Profunda, out May 29th on Sunnyside Records Pianist, Composer and Arranger Carolina Calvache is pleased to announce the release of her second album as a bandleader, Vida Profunda, out May 29th, 2020 on Sunnyside Records. On this dynamic new release, Calvache explores meaningful poetry by world-renowned poets, augmenting … Read More
By Jim Hynes, Making A Scene This is a comeback for jazz vocalist JD Walter, the unexpected kind. With a reputation for being somewhat eccentric, adventurous, and the so-called “progressive electronic vocalist,” Walter returns from a life-threatening heart condition and surgeries on his heart and vocal cords to deliver an intimate album of mostly acoustic … Read More
By Doug Hall, WICN Public Radio When you think about video game themes, the word “Jazz” does not easily come to mind. However, on March 1st at the Berklee Performance Center, Charlie Rosen, “gamer,” multi-instrumentalist and orchestral composer/arranger brought the two together with his 30+ piece Jazz orchestra, the 8-Bit Big Band. He wowed an … Read More
By Steve Provizer, The Arts Fuse Jazz doesn’t have many éminences grise. Either a musician’s influence is widely acknowledged, as in, for example, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, or a reputation is maintained by way of a subtler stylistic bleed-through, which is common. There are differences of opinion about the importance of pianist Lennie Tristano. … Read More
By Dee Dee McNeil, Musical Memoir’s Blog The Pacific Mambo Orchestra is a Latin flavored orchestra full of celebration and celebrity. Now in their tenth year, PMO finally gained well-overdue recognition in 2013, when their crowd-funded, self-titled, debut album took home the GRAMMY for Best Tropical Latin Album. No newcomer to the big band circuit, … Read More
By Nancy Jiang, The Daily Free Press Behind every popular video game is a nostalgic soundtrack, something that the 8-Bit Big Band understands better than anyone. The 33-person jazz-pop ensemble is conducted by founder Charlie Rosen, an alumnus of Berklee College of Music and Broadway. The band returned to Berklee Performance Center Sunday to revitalize video … Read More
By Shae Fontana, Bleu Bop The Chicago trio made up of bassist Clark Sommers, saxophonist Geof Bradfield, and drummer Dana Hall, have just released their long awaited sophomore album, “PENINSULA.” Playing together for over twenty years, Sommer wrote seven new compositions with his colleagues in mind. “I specifically wrote the music for those 2 personalities,” … Read More
By Shae Fontana, Bleu Bop Rising star, saxophonist, and bandleader, Lakecia Benjamin, is set to release her third full-length album on March 27th, 2020, Pursuance: The Coltranes. The driven and highly talented musician set out to make a record that captured the musical excellence and spirituality of John and Alice Coltrane. For the album, Benjamin … Read More
By Richard Kamins, Step Tempest Ba(SH)’s second album,”Peninsula” (Outside In Music), moves in a similar path to its earlier album. Produced and composed by the bassist (the 2013 date had three pieces by Bradfield plus one each from Thelonious Monk and Billy Higgins), one can sense from the onset here are three musicians who listen, … Read More
By Chris Baber, Jazz Views You might, like me, have first come across Zac Brock in his time with Snarky Puppy, especially on their ‘Culcha Vulcha’ album. On this new album with his trio partners, Brock’s violin has, at times, the feel of a fiddle in folk tunes; rich with harmonics and layered tones that create … Read More
