The gratification of a hook-drenched melody will never leave you high and dry. That is what you’ll find in Atlantic Groove Society’s newest venture (Feb. 2022), “Past and Present.” The album creates a warm, expansive feeling in ten memorable tracks. While the horn (from leader Alexander Hartgers) soars and sings, guitar, drums, keys, bass and... Continue Reading →
Nine new tracks from Big Brooklyn show the light peeking through after lockdown and two difficult years for all of us. “Everyone Everywhere” is the CD that invites us to restore music to its rightful place in our lives. The song “Send it to Me” rolls right along with a tight hook and lots of... Continue Reading →
A steady beat by piano and darkly colored dissonances collide with an ethereal voice, twinned by cello and grounded by luscious bass. This is the title track of Jacopo Ferrazza’s new CD Fantasia, where the music takes off like a bird in flight with a sudden fugue of horns, piano and notes too high to... Continue Reading →
There are ways to cover songs that take the material to new places, infusing a new climate altogether. Sax player Carlo Muscat has gathered tunes by some of the biggest names in jazz (Coltrane, Mobley, Rollins, Shorter) and pressed them gently but firmly into a new form. The result is Diversion, released November 2021. The... Continue Reading →
Socially, politically and musically, vocalist Viktoria Leléka wants to show the world the beauty of life and culture in Ukraine. Maintaining that the Western world (especially) confuses and confounds Ukraine with an extension of Russia, Leléka’s passion is to demonstrate not necessarily the differences between the two nations but to paint a fully rounded, loving... Continue Reading →
Using his blockchain handle “NiftySax” (for NFTs, or non-fungible tokens), the composer and tenor sax musician Milo Lombardi has just released fifty-five tracks that provide a variety of moods and modes to meditate to or ponder our place in the universe. Presenting and consuming music through blockchain, he claims, absolutely cracks the music industry wide... Continue Reading →
Tenor sax player Tim Armacost has taken all that he knows about music and brilliantly placed it into the new book The Jazz Saxophone Book (Sher Music, 2022). A large spiral-bound book full of clear instruction, easy-to-follow examples and personal commentary, this book is a friendly and highly accessible helping hand for sax players just... Continue Reading →
An astounding biography has recently emerged which discusses the life, faith and music of pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams. Author and jazz composer/pianist Deanna Witkowski has penned a well-researched study with fascinating insights into a time punctuated by race relations and the Civil Rights Movement. Mary Lou Williams, Music for the Soul (Liturgical Press,... Continue Reading →
Chuck Sher Instruction from the masters and the icons of jazz is one genre of literature that always has an eager audience. Whether it’s learning how to improvise, a new take on well-loved chestnuts or how to master the key changes, musicians need their fingers and their ears to be in tip-top shape. How does... Continue Reading →
Debbie Burke - jazz author 
You must be logged in to post a comment.