Music
Boy do I wish I had been in Chicago last Friday 🎵
Get out there right now & watch Esperanza Spalding & Milton Nascimiento’s beautiful Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. A stunning collaboration between a true great of Brazilian jazz & a young musical genius. 🎵
Current listening: Pat Metheny’s beautiful new solo guitar album, Moondial.
The album includes a beautiful version of “My Love & I”—but that’s redundant, since every version of “My Love & I” is beautiful. 🎵
Current listening: Ron Carter, All Blues.
Roland Hanna’s solo on “Light Blue” is a beautiful little miracle. 🎵
I think this year would be a good year to listen to Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers straight through chronologically.
There’s a zillion albums, so I might not make it. But I can start. Tonight: Live at the Cafe Bohemia, volume 1. 🎶
Current listening: *The Incomparable Bola Sete 🎶
Sure, it’s just a live recording, but I’m here all day for this one. Heck, here all year. 🎶
Current listening: a new Arvo Pärt album, Tractus, featuring a new, chamber-choir arrangement of Pärt’s setting of words from a sermon of John Henry Newman. 🎶
Current listening: Johnathan Blake, Passage. Blake is a master. Always brings the fire. 🎶
Current listening: Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Continuing.
Four tracks, 53 minutes. As wide-ranging as ever for this group, which features Matt Brewer on bass and Aaron Diehl on piano. 🎶
R.I.P., Astrud Gilberto—one of the most ethereal & beautiful of all singers, IMO. 🎶
Current listening: Danish Rain, the new album from a duet of wonderful musicians: pianist Justin Kauflin and bassist Thomas Fonnesbæk. 🎶
Current listening: Brian Blade, Mama Rosa.
I’ve loved this singer-songwriter-Gospel album from a world-class jazz drummer. 🎶
R.I.P. Ahmad Jamal, one of the greatest and perhaps my absolute favorite jazz pianist.
My dad used to play “Stolen Moments” at night while I was going to sleep. I’ve loved Jamal ever since. 🎶 🔗
Blue Note Records is absolutely crushing it lately: Julian Lage, Charles Lloyd’s trio of trios, Bill Frisell’s new quartet, Gerald Clayton’s Bells on Sand, Ethan Iverson’s Every Note is True: seems like all my fav new albums are Blue Note.
And this week, new Walter Smith III and Kendrick Scott. 🎵
Current listening: Charles Lloyd, Trio of Trios 🎵
Three fantastic trio albums, each with a different cast of musicians alongside Lloyd: Thomas Morgan & Bill Frisell; Anthony Wilson & Gerard Clayton; Julian Lage & Zakir Hussain.
Current listening: Charles Lloyd, Trio of Trios. 🎵
Three fantastic trio albums, each with a different cast of musicians alongside Lloyd: Thomas Morgan & Bill Frisell; Anthony Wilson & Gerard Clayton; Julian Lage & Zakir Hussain.
Rest in peace, Wayne Shorter, one of the very greats. 🎶
Current listening: Kendrick Scott, Reverence.
A 2009 album featuring some incredible players: not just Scott, but Gerald Clayton, Walter Smith III, Mike Moreno, and Derrick Hodge. 🎶