Steel House, a leaderless trio made up of Edward Simon (piano, keyboards), Scott Colley (bass), and Brian Blade (drums, pump organ), offers expressive original music whose inviting transparency is suffused with intelligence and grace. On Friday, November 15, the trio will grace the stage at the Outpost for what promises to be a highlight of the musical season.
The latest release from alto saxophonist and Puerto Rico cultural ambassador Miguel Zenón, the stunning Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera, pays homage to a Puerto Rican cultural and musical icon, known affectionately as Maelo by his fans, whose originality and improvisational genius enriched and extended the bomba and plena traditions. The album features songs from Rivera’s repertoire, focusing on the Great Latin American Songbook through the lens of jazz. Zenón brings his remarkable quartet—with Luis Perdomo on piano, Matt Penman on bass (subbing for Hans Glawischnig), and Henry Cole on drums—to the Gig Performance Space in Santa Fe on November 13 and the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque on November 14. Musically Speaking had the opportunity to speak to Zenón about the project.
Continue readingFans of big band jazz have three reasons to celebrate: The first two are the double-CD Hiding Out, which marks the return of Mike Holober as composer, arranger, and pianist with the Gotham Jazz Orchestra after a 10-year hiatus. The third is the big band premiere of composer/saxophonist/flutist Remy Le Boeuf on Assembly of Shadows. Both projects offer subtle, sophisticated, and superlative feasts of symphonic jazz.
Continue reading
Chicago saxophonist Chris Greene has made a career of following his musical instincts wherever they lead, crossing the boundary lines of musical genres with his imagination as his passport. For nearly 15 years, with only a single change in personnel, he’s been aided and abetted by his quartet colleagues—Albuquerque native Damian Espinosa (piano, keyboards), Marc Piane (bass), and Steve Corley (drums). That continuity of personnel allows the quartet to function with what seems like a single brain, and they’ll be exercising that brain this week at two concerts in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and Corrales.
Continue reading
Carla Van Blake (aka Carla Van Blake Terwilliger) possesses a variety of skills, from software engineering to couture design to jewelry making, but her first and enduring love is music. Starting in a gospel choir at age three, Van Blake expanded her repertoire to blues and jazz as an adult. When trumpet maestro and jazz icon Bobby Shew heard her for the first time, he said, “The phrasing and everything was right, and she sings in tune, and she has the whole persona as a jazz singer.” In 2018, she released her first jazz album, Land of Enchantment, a New Mexico Music Awards finalist that includes 10 originals.
She’s led an interesting life, growing up in New York State and Nigeria, volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mali, and surviving a near-death experience (see my article from Albuquerque The Magazine, appended below). So it seems only fitting that, for her appearance in the New Mexico Jazz Workshop’s Jazz Stories 3.0 series on September 24, she will be presenting “My Life, My Music,” featuring original music, with the help of Jim Ahrend (piano), Steve Terwilliger (guitar), Rob “Milo” Jaramillo (bass), John Bartlit (drums), and special guest, reed maestro Arlen Asher.
Carla and I had recently spoke about the upcoming event, and the lightly edited interview follows.
Continue reading
