Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

As I do every year, this Podcast is "A Few of My Favorite Things" from 2021. It is not intended on being a Top Ten list - I do that for the Jazz Journalist Association , where I posted a list of 14 - but rather a grouping of recordings that got repeat play in my house, making me take notice among the many recordings I receive.  While 2021 got off to a very rocky start here in the USA, there was mu...

Every December since 1980, Paul Winter and his colleagues have celebrated the Winter Solstice at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine with a feast of music from cultures around the world. Over these past 40 years, Paul Winter's Solstice Celebration has become New York's favorite holiday alternative to the Nutcracker and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, as well as becoming a "can't miss...

Perhaps you are decorating your house for the holidays. Or wrapping gifts. Hanging with family and friends. Enjoying some seasonal food or libations.  Have I got a musical soundtrack for you! Yes, it's the return of Straight No Chaser's "Nuthin' But Christmas Jazz" podcast, an hour of curated Christmas music for your enjoyment.  This year's podcast features: Stan Kenton - "The Twelve Days of Chris...

Sometimes a Christmas jazz album is more than just a holiday treat. That's the way I heard Merry and Bright ,  the latest release from drummer Jeff Hamilton and his trio, bassist Jon Hamar and pianist Tamir Hendelman (Capri Records). Sure the classic tunes of the holiday are there, and there are a few more obscure tunes as well. But once the trio gets things going, the result is simply a solid, sw...

One of the joys of listening to the music of saxophonist Kirk Whalum is diving deeper into the songs he selects and the way he performs them. I point to his series of The Gospel According to Jazz albums, where he interprets and refracts music from the church and gospel tradition through his jazz prism. If you've not heard them, stop now and give a listen. So it was with great anticipation that I l...

Straight No Chaser is always on the prowl for new and exciting jazz releases for the Christmas holiday season. This year has a number of wonderful releases, and we'll be featuring several of the more exciting ones over the next week or so. One of those releases is an EP by singer June Bisantz on the Arabesque label, a collection of unusual, upbeat holiday/winter songs written by Arnold Miller and...

Every year right after the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, I post a podcast that serves as sort of a consumer guide to new jazz releases featuring Christmas music. I mean, really - how is the jazz fan to know what is fresh and new out there to listen to as they do there shopping, decorating and general making merry? Here are thirteen  tracks from new release, ranging from artists well known t...

There is no doubt that Christian McBride is one of the most versatile musicians on the music scene today. His artistry has been documented in recordings and performances with the widest possible range of musicians in the most varied settings and genres one might imagine. His collaborations have been as diverse as duets with the revered classical bassist Edgar Meyer and avant-garde composer and vio...

In 2019 boundary-breaking trombonist Joe Fiedler released  Open Sesame , packed with inventive jazz readings of material drawn from his longstanding "day job" as an Emmy-nominated music director and staff arranger for the famed children's show  Sesame Street . The album gave long-time fans of the television show a chance to hear musicians reinterpret tunes that were part of their formative years,...

Of said this of musicians before, but in so many ways, trumpeter Alex Norris is the personification of a working jazz musician. As a sideman, especially in big bands like the Mingus Big Band and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, he is a fixture. He's called upon to contribute to recordings by legends like George Colligan and Pat Martino. He teaches and gives lessons online. And, when he's not too busy...

Podcast 859 is something of a follow-up from Podcast 839 earlier this summer. At that time, saxophonist Jon Irabagon talked about his involvement with a new organization based in Columbus, Ohio. Stephanie Matthews and her business partner, Bruce Halliburton, started " A Tribe For Jazz " in April 2021. It's a new nonprofit that works to market global jazz musicians, but it's goals are far loftier....

Pianist Helen Sung's recorded work has grown more esoteric over the past few years – a duet album with trumpeter Marquis Hill (vinyl only) and a collaboration with poet Dana Gioia ( Sung With Words ). One of her first releases, Sungbird , showed her classical chops. These albums show us a young artist willing to continue to push the envelope and move beyond the sounds of a successful band-oriented...

Podcast 857 is the second of my two-part conversation with Andrew Cyrille. The last twenty years has seen Andrew obtain some of the exposure that he so richly deserves, as his releases under his own name on ECM, TUM and Soul Note have been rapturously praised, as has been his work with Trio 3, joining Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman for ten albums. Add to this sideman work on albums by Anthony Brax...

A force in improvisation for more than sixty years, Andrew Cyrille has played across the landscape of jazz from Coleman Hawkins's  The Hawk Relaxes  to Cecil Taylor 's  Unit Structures , led his own bands, and worked extensively with Milford Graves, Walt Dickerson, David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, Oliver Lake , Reggie Workman and many, many more. For  The News , recorded at Sound on Sound Studi...

Podcast interviews these days can sound like "How I Spent My Covid Vacation" at times. So many musicians used to traveling, gigging and recording at length became housebound. Some used the time to practice; others learned new instruments or worked on previously back-burnered material. Pianist/Composer Dan Siegel (no relation to your humble host) prepared his 22nd album as a leader, Faraway Places...

Dave Holland. Larry Grenadier. Miroslav Vitous. Barre Phillips. Eberhard Weber. Björn Meyer. All of these famous bass players have recorded and released solo bass recordings on the famed ECM label over the years. And now, we can add Marc Johnson to that list.   Overpass , recorded in January and February 2018 at Nacena Studios, in São Paulo, Brazil, was produced by Marc Johnson and his partner in...

With the release of Sing to the World on the St. Petersburg, Russia label Rainy Days Records pianist Benito Gonzalez takes a stellar step into the future of his jazz journey. He's assembled an impressive team of collaborators to perform the ten tunes, including Christian McBride, Essiet Okon Essiet, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Nicholas Payton as well as rising stars Russian drummer Sasha Mashin, trumpe...

Though jazz composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams, who died in 1981, is not as well-known today as contemporaries such as Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie, her musical and spiritual legacy is lately the focus of renewed, and well-deserved, appreciation. She was on the cover of a recent issue of JazzTimes , and earlier this year we had Chris Pattishall on the Podcast discussing his...

A Baby-Boomer like myself recalls when Freda Payne rode high on the Pop Charts with soulful tunes like "Band of Gold," "Bring the Boys Home," and "Deeper and Deeper" in the early Seventies. However, I did not know at the time that this sort of Top 40 R&B was an aberration for Ms. Payne – singing jazz was her first love, and her musical goal. Since 2014, when she released Come Back To Me Love , Fre...

We live in a nearly unparalleled time for the discovery of previously unreleased and archival music from jazz legends. Just recently we've seen important releases from Lee Morgan , Miles Davis , Roy Hargrove, Mulgrew Miller , and Roy Brooks , with promises of more from Bill Evans and Art Blakey before the year is out. But the big one drops  Friday October 22, when A Love Supreme – Live in Seattle...

When drummer/composer Jared Schonig says he wants to go big, he's not kidding. The music on Schonig's debut recordings as a leader on Anzic Records,  Two Takes Vol. 1: Quintet & Vol. 2: Big Band are meticulously crafted, played with the freedom, abandon, joy and excellence that only top New York City players seem to truly capture simultaneously. With these recordings, Schonig now joins the growing...

It's not hard to see David Finck as a consummate professional musician. His instrument – the bass – and his knowledge of an extraordinary number of musical styles and genres make him a first call player in jazz, rock and pop circles. Two gigs in August provide perfect examples. Finck was in the pit at Radio City Music Hall for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga's concert, one of  Tony's final shows. Two w...

Jason Miles and his group Kind of New had big plans for 2020. Their funky new album, Black Magic , was released by Ropeadope to critical acclaim in spring 2020, as the world braced for lockdown. Tour plans in Europe to perform the music were canceled, and Jason, like all of us, found himself at home looking for positive ways to get through this unusual time. Revisiting the album, he decided to to...

We need more music. That's true almost anytime, but it rings even truer in the world we live in today An that's where Joey DeFrancesco comes in, bringing us More Music , his latest release on Mack Avenue Records. The legendary organ player has expanded his recorded legacy over the past five years, releasing the politically charged Project Freedom and the intensely spiritual In the Key of the Unive...

One of the finest bass players of the past fifty years has passed away. George Mraz (1944-2021) had been seriously ill after surgery a few years back, and never truly recovered. I was inspired to prepare this podcast after reading a Facebook comment by bassist Todd Coolman. He wrote: "There is not much I can add to the abundant love, respect, and sadness shown in this forum as a result of the deat...