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 readingChris Greene Quartet Crosses Boundaries in Los Ranchos and Corrales
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 readingCarla Does Carla
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 readingPatti Does Carmen
Vocalist Patti Littlefield has crisscrossed the country following her muse—touring in theatrical productions, performing as a singer/songwriter in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square, working in a puppet theater in Chicago, singing with Luther Vandross in LA, hanging with Joni Mitchell, and making demos in New York City for legendary songwriter Doc Pomus. Fate deposited her in Albuquerque, where she has made a name for herself as a vocalist comfortable in an array of genres, from blues to new music. This coming Tuesday at Kosmos, as part of the New Mexico Jazz Workshop’s Jazz Stories 3.0 series, she’ll be paying homage to Carmen McRae, a vocalist close to her heart, with help from Sid Fendley (piano) and Rob “Milo” Jaramillo (bass). Rumor has it that a well-loved reed man by the name of Arlen Asher could also make an appearance.
Patti and I recently had a chat about her connection to McRae, and the upcoming concert.
Continue readingLiterary Beginnings for Ben Goldberg and Ryan Keberle
Clarinetist 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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