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 Greg Bryant, WBGO NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman’s new release, Selflessness, is a passionate reimagining of the John Coltrane songbook. Liebman and his Expansions ensemble have cracked the code to a concept seldom expressed in previous renderings of Coltrane’s most burning mid-to-late-period compositions. Read more 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 Greg Bryant, WBGO Singer-songwriter Sasha Dobson’s latest album, Girl Talk, is an engaging return to her first love: standards and swing. Read more here.
By Greg Bryant, WBGO Grammy-nominated trumpeter Tim Hagans’ newest recording, A Conversation, is a five-part musical narrative that addresses the ongoing need for dialogue. Listen to this interview here.
