Danish group Human Being Human are a piano trio with a name that is a question as much as a statement, in which bassist-composer Torben Bjørnskov gently asks just what being human entails…
If you’re a fan of the alternative ’80s UK goth or post-punk scene, prick up your ears because this deserves your attention…
Inexorum play fast-paced melodic black/death metal, combining both styles into a sharp blackened framework. Equinox Vigil contains 40 minutes of quite satisfying music…
Fort Collins, Colorado native Sarahbeth Taite has been making music since age five. Piano lessons led her to the guitar, and the guitar led her to songwriting. Sarahbeth spent her 14th birthday participating in an NSAI songwriter’s workshop, and very shortly thereafter, she singed her first publishing deal…
Stephen Philip Harvey loves superheroes. The Pittsburgh-born/Maryland-based saxophonist, composer, teacher and bandleader grew up watching colorful costumes and punch-to-the-face problem solving on Saturday morning cartoons (though not reading comic books that spawned them). Though music eventually overtook his interest in superheroics, his childhood infatuation remains a creative inspiration. Trading in archetypes rather than specific characters, Harvey uses his considerable skills as composer and arranger on Smash! to pay tribute to the world of capes and costumes with his big band…
Brian Landrus works the low end but has a high-minded mission. The poll winner on baritone saxophone and bass clarinet delivers his eleventh album as a leader with a fervent cause – Red List: Music Dedicated to the Preservation of Our Endangered Species…
Golden Hour is guitarist Jocelyn Gould’s sophomore album. A follow up to her 2020 Juno-winning debut Elegant Traveler, Golden Hour further explores her musical character and personal development. It showcases her virtuosic guitar playing and dynamic compositions, and introduces her voice, which is featured on several tracks…
Four years after his last studio effort, the somnambulistic Play Me, Harry Belafonte returned with this album which showed the veteran artist returning to his strength: unique interpretations of songs from many cultures…
WDR BigBand lead trombonist and bassist meet world-class pianists, double bass, trombone and piano - which sounds unusual at first, creates space, swings and carries you away - in a chamber music atmosphere…
Legendary drummer Kenny Clarke compared Jean-Luc Ponty to Dizzy Gillespie. Fellow violinist Stuff Smith marveled, “He plays violin like Coltrane plays saxophone.” Born in 1942, the French violinist transported jazz violin playing into the world of modern jazz…
Compositionally very convincing and once again a trombone theme to recent posts applies in the days since the news of the passing of Grachan Moncur III spread – Judas and the Black Messiah film music composer Craig Harris here in scintillating form directing a horn-heavy painterly ensemble who recorded in a New York studio last year…
he Ray Charles Singers were formed around Ray Charles and featured on Perry Como's records, radio shows and television shows for 35 years….
Norah Jones' debut on Blue Note is a mellow, acoustic pop affair with soul and country overtones, immaculately produced by the great Arif Mardin. Jones is not quite a jazz singer, but she is joined by some highly regarded jazz talent: guitarists Adam Levy, Adam Rogers, Tony Scherr, Bill Frisell, and Kevin Breit; drummers Brian Blade, Dan Rieser, and Kenny Wollesen; organist Sam Yahel; accordionist Rob Burger; and violinist Jenny Scheinman…
