by Nate Chinen, WBGO “Now Berliner is about to release a much-anticipated follow-up, Onyx, on JMI Recordings. Due out on July 22, it sports an illustrious ensemble with Berliner on vibraphone, James Francies on piano and Fender Rhodes, Burniss Earl Travis II on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. Among the album’s special guests is alto saxophonist … Read More
by Nate Chinen, WBGO “What does devotion sound like? One vivid answer to that question can be found in a forthcoming album by singer-songwriter and playwright SOMI, titled Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba.” Read the Valentine’s Day-themed Take Five here.
by Greg Bryant, Nate Chinen, WBGO “Cecil Taylor’s intensity at the piano conjured a musical sorcery stretching far beyond himself or his collaborators. In a 1975 interview with Boston Public Television, he said: ‘The purpose of the music is to achieve a levitation or a trance which is the existence beyond the normal existence.’” Listen to … Read More
by Nate Chinen, WBGO “Catherine Russell is, among many other delightful things, a certifiable party-starter. We’ve known this for some time now..” Read the complete article here, where you can listen to the track premiere of “At the Swing Cats Ball.”
by Nate Chinen, WBGO Read WBGO’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide here, which includes The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946 – 66.
by Nate Chinen, WBGO “His new album on Outside in Music, Unamuno Songs and Stories, adapts some of the ideas Unamuno articulated during the Spanish Civil War to our own present moment of doubt and division, with an underlying note of hope.” See the full article and video here.
by Nate Chinen, WBGO “Pianist and composer Miki Yamanaka last caught our ear with Human Dust Suite, an assured album released just over a year ago. She recorded her latest, Stairway to the Stars, in her New York apartment in late summer of 2020. In that sense, it was made under pandemic duress — but you’d never know … Read More
By Nate Chinen, WBGO Solo piano is a consecrated calling for Kirk Lightsey, who made his name partly on the strength of a series of albums in that format more than 35 years ago. So it would be accurate in some sense to hail his exquisite new release — I Will Never Stop Loving You, arriving … Read More
by Nate Chinen, WBGO Gerry Gibbs, Chick Corea, Ron Carter’s “Bopstacle Course” and Hilary Kole’s “Sophisticated Lady”. Read it here.
By Nate Chinen, WBGO Chick Corea Akoustic Band LIVE may be Corea’s final scheduled release, but it isn’t his last recorded work. That distinction belongs to Songs From My Father, the new album by drummer Gerry Gibbs. Read more here.
