Various preoccupations have slowed my listening and reviewing, so to pick up some of the slack, “Something for Everyone” features short reviews of six groups, covering a wide range of styles and sensibilities. Featured artists in part 1 include the Virg Dzurinko/Ryan Messina duo, Leslie Pintchik trio, and Florian Hoefner trio.
Fans 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 readingClarinetist Ben Goldberg and trombonist Ryan Keberle have launched their latest projects from the impressive pads of poets Dean Young and Langston Hughes, respectively. Goldberg’s Good Day for Cloud Fishing is as quirky as Young’s disarming poetry, and the poet gets to comment on the music. Hughes’ wish for America finds a receptive ear in Keberle, whose The Hope I Hold offers a musical vehicle for the poetry.
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Update: Guitarist/songwriter/composer/vocalist Janet Feder was scheduled to perform at Live at Thrive in Corrales on August 4, but pesky circumstances beyond everyone’s control prevented that from happening. This weekend, she is making good on her pledge to return and will be appearing both at Live at Thrive in Corrales and at Littleglobe in Santa Fe. Check the updated concert information at the end of this post for details. The Corrales concert is a benefit for Littleglobe 501(C)(3) in Santa Fe. Littleglobe is committed to interdisciplinary, collaborative art projects that foster life-affirming connections across the boundaries that divide us.
Singer/songwriters Yvonne Perea and Moody Little Sister (Naomi Sparrow and Rob Stroup) take widely divergent approaches to production on their new albums, but they deliver much the same balm: however bad your situation may appear, you most likely have the means to make it better.
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