Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Podcast 921 takes us inside "New York Jazz Stories", in written and now video form. Based on the Joe's Pub at the Public residency, this series of stories interacts with the lives of the people involved. From 2012 to 2020, Cadence writers and interviewers asked subjects to present stories in their own words. Under David's expert eye, we can enjoy them now. These are stories about Sonny Rollins, An...

Red List , the new Palmetto album by multi-woodwind specialist Brian Landrus is dedicated to bringing awareness to some of the world's most endangered animal species. Landrus is backed by a top-notch band of Ryan Keberle (trombone), Geoffrey Keezer (keyboards), Nir Felder (guitar), Rudy Royston (drums), Ron Blake and Jaleel Shaw (saxophones), Lonnie Plaxico (bass), John Hadfield (percussion), Stev...

In Part One of my conversation with Danilo Pérez, we talked about his latest release, Crisálida,  a collaboration with Pérez's Global Messengers. The group consists of alumni from Berklee College of Music's Global Jazz Institute, run by Danilo. The musicians, and the instruments they play, create a crazy quilt of musical history and styles, but Pérez seems more than capable of bringing them togeth...

With the release of Crisálida (Mack Avenue Records), which in English translates to "chrysalis," pianist/composer Danilo Pérez moves closer to creating art that bridges the many gaps that exist between peoples of the world. In our conversation, he said forthrightly, "We all need more positive thoughts." The new album is nearly an hour of musical positivity. Composed of two suites, Crisálida is a c...

In the previous podcast, Kirk Knuffke discussed the making of his trio album, Gravity Without Airs , with pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio. Part Two of my conversation with Kirk Knuffke begins with a chance for him to look back at some of the  great talent he has worked with or learned under. While he has played and recorded with the likes of Roswell Rudd, Marshall Allen, Tootie Hea...

Cornetist Kirk Knuffke has made some 20 albums as a leader or co-leader over the past two decades, while also being a key member of groups led by Matt Wilson , Alison Miller (Boom Tic Boom) and Mary Halvorson (Sifter). His latest release, an intimate, double album. Gravity Without Airs, features him with pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio. On the album they perform Knuffke composition...

Drummer and composer Keith Hall spent nine years on the New York scene, as well as a lengthy time backing vocalist Curtis Stigers and as part of Betty Carter's prestigious Jazz Ahead. He returned to the Midwest where he has been deeply immersed in the Kalamazoo, Michigan community for some 20 years. After playing with the likes of Wycliffe Gordon, Sir Roland Hanna, Janis Siegel, Luciana Souza, Ter...

The hard-swinging saxophonist Grant Stewart has been leading quartets for years. His latest album, The Lighting Of The Lamps (Cellar Music), features regular collaborators, bassist David Wong, pianist Tardo Hammer and drummer Phil Stewart. However, in a twist, the group is joined by special guest trumpeter Bruce Harris for a searching, straight-ahead date. The Toronto-born bandleader has collabora...

June 15th is the 100th anniversary of the noted pianist Jaki Byard, and Podcast 913 celebrates his diverse musical talents with an hour plus of tunes in which Jaki is leader or sideman.  Byard played a number of instruments, but is best known as a pianist.  Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, after spending much of the 1950's in the Boston club scene, he moved to New York and immediately hit it off...

By day, Stephen Philip Harvey   appears to be a mild-mannered saxophonist, music teacher and choir director in sleepy Salisbury, MD. But when he leads the estimable team of musicians known as the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra, he shows his superpowers as composer and bandleader. With the release of the big band's debut album, Smash! ( Next Level label), that identity should become a lot les...

Hargrove , a  vérité  style documentary chronicling the last year of legendary trumpeter Roy Hargrove's life, will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 8PM at Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place (230 Vesey Street, NYC). Executive produced by Janine Sherman Barrois and Erykah Badu, Hargrove  offers unprecedented access to Roy like never before through intimate and insight...

The name of this band tells you what you need to know  - think of all the great post-bop soul-jazz sounds that came out of the 1950s and '60s, putting groove and feeling above analytics and theory.  Decades later, here comes the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, co-led by saxophonist John Fournier and trumpeter Marques Carroll, doubling down on this storied jazz idiom and allowing a new generation to...

In my opinion, Summer unofficially begins on Memorial Day, but officially kicks off when the Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival takes place. This year the event is back at full strength after a COVID-reduced event in 2021. It will take place on the wooded grounds of SPAC on June 25 and 26th. Danny Melnick of Absolutely Live Entertainment joins us again to discuss the bookings, surprises and future...

" Since a while ago, all my concerts are totally improvised – no set list, nothing prepared, just let the music lead the way. I come on stage as a newborn, ready for a new life, a new journey, a new experience every time. My bandmates are part of that experience as much as I am myself, every note they play becomes part of this life we are living together on the stage." - Jean-Michel Pilc Alive–Liv...

Pianist Lynne Arriale's last few trio albums have had something of a thematic structure.  Chimes of Freedom were tunes that expressed Lynne's solidarity with democratic values and reaffirmed her support of cultural diversity and racial equality.  Give Us These Days took on a spiritual flavor - given the unpredictability and impermanence of life, her music suggests, savor each moment.  Both of thos...

With the release of Return from the Stars (ECM) earlier this year, Mark Turner cemented his place as not only one of the top tenor saxophone players around,  but also as an artist who can write and arrange at rarified heights. The album, is a quartet project with Jason Palmer on trumpet; Joe Martin on double bass; and Jonathan Pinson on  drums. The absence of a chordal instrument like piano leaves...

Acclaimed for creating concept albums that riff on gospel, heavy metal, and rhythm section-less big bands, Jacob Garchik ( #1 Rising Star trombonist, 2018 Downbeat Critics Poll) has released his jazziest album yet, but one that is still imbued with his sense of experimentalism and surprise. The result is the aptly titled Assembly , and it continues to show Jacob as a musician who enjoys the cuttin...

Aaron Seeber is no rookie. A native of Washington D.C. and a graduate of the highly regarded jazz program at SUNY-Purchase, the drummer has been part of groups assembled by Tim Green, Pete Malverni and Warren Wolf, and hosted weekly after-hour jam sessions at Small's in New York. First Move is the aptly titled initial release by Seeber as a bandleader, and what a band he has assembled!  He repaid...

On his debut album,  Balance , Berlin-based saxophonist Fabian Willmann pairs himself with two long-time friends and mentors to create a consistently fresh sounding and lyrical work. Willmann's clear tone on the tenor saxophone recalls the best eras of a Dexter Gordon or a Stan Getz, or even Wayne Marsh. The rhythmic meshing contributed by bassist Arne Huber and drummer Jeff Ballard is starkly mod...

Like many jazz musicians today, trombonist Nick Finzer's success has come from working in a number of different capacities over a long period of time. There are his recordings and performances as a leader, and again as a sideman; his teaching, giving lessons, owning and operating his own label, and writing instruction books, In his first Music Business book, Create, Connect, Repeat ,  Finzer reach...

Ah, Record Store Day!  This is the 15th year that the biannual event celebrates independent record stores, and increasingly popular vinyl records. There are a number of notable jazz releases seeing the light of day for the first time this Saturday, either as newly discovered works, limited edition or remastered vinyl. These include: Dave Brubeck Trio - Live from Vienna 1967 Art Pepper - Art Pepper...

What can we say here that hasn't already been said about Charles Mingus, not one of a handful of true geniuses of the jazz world, but one of the towering figures in 20th century music as a whole. Having learned music and composition from classical figures, his career began in the groups of Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton in the 1940's. His work would covered jazz history for another th...

Resonance Records, the top U.S. independent label for previously unreleased jazz treasures, will issue The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's, a  never-before-heard 1972 club performance by bassist/composer Charles Mingus' powerful sextet, as a three-LP Record Store Day offering on April 23 (one day after what would have been Mingus' 100th birthday). The album will be issued as a three-CD set and digi...

It seems that most of the world's religions have spring holidays. In fact, celebrating the beginning of spring may be among the oldest seasonal holidays in human culture. The earliest reference we have to such a holiday comes to us from Babylon, 2400 BCE. The city of Ur apparently had a celebration dedicated to the moon and the spring equinox which was held some time during our months of March or...

Broadway musicals have been the source of many notable jazz standards, so it should come as no surprise that the DIVA Jazz Orchestra's latest release is DIVA Swings Broadway . The 15-piece band, fast approaching its 30th year as a performing group, lends their seemingly boundless talents to nine songs, some well known, and others which dig deep into the Broadway Songbook. DIVA was founded by Stanl...