Sullivan Fortner's ended 2024 with three Grammy nominations including Best Jazz Instrumental Album for 2024's Solo Game. 2025 kicks off with the release of his new trio album Southern Nights. In July 2023, Fortner returned to the Village Vanguard as a leader. Tasked with forming an all-star trio, Sullivan brought together the iconic bassist Peter Washington, celebrated for his lyrical depth and groove, and drummer Marcus Gilmore, whose innovative rhythms have redefined modern jazz. Despite their first-ever collaboration and limited rehearsal, the trio's chemistry was immediate, resulting in Southern Nights, a raw, unedited live recording that perfectly captures the energy of their Vanguard performances. "Not only would this be the first time Peter and Marcus had ever met, but there was no time to rehearse. [...] With no isolation, no edits, and very few retakes, we managed to record 12 songs in four hours." Featuring one of Fortner's original composition, pieces by Allen Toussaint and Consuela Lee, and a heartfelt tribute to his late mentor, Bill Lee, the album is an acoustic celebration of spontaneity and connection. On Southern Nights, Fortner celebrates the music of New Orleans that he holds so dear and continues to prove why he is one of the most celebrated jazz pianists of his generation, delivering music that is both timeless and deeply personal.
The Choir of Westminster School blends the ancient and modern in this festive collection of choral works, drawing on Advent and Christmas music by composers including Judith Weir, James MacMillan, John Tavener, Roxanna Panufnik and Ralph Vaughan Williams. With a national reputation for excellence, the Choir of Westminster school gives annual concerts at the Barbican and performs regularly at venues including Westminster Abbey, St John's Smith Square and the Houses of Parliament. Under the direction of Timothy Garrard, Director of Music, the Choir rehearses regularly throughout the week in preparation for twice-weekly services in Westminster Abbey and evensongs in the School Chapel.
Gregory Wanamaker: Light and Shadows, Waves and Time
Navona
CD
$8.49$16.99Save 50%Apr 13, 2018
An exploration of the unique timbral characteristics and technical extensions of wind instruments, Gregory Wanamaker's LIGHT AND SHADOWS, WAVES AND TIME is comprised of eight compositions that collectively illustrate the composer's ability to integrate various genre influences into a distinctive whole. His music has been lauded as "pure gold, shot through with tenderness and grace" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "achingly beautiful" by the Palm Beach Daily News. The album's first track, "des ondes et les temps," which translates to "of waves and time," explores the saxophone's full range of possibilities. A solo piece performed by Casey Grev, "des ondes et les temps" waxes and wanes and rises and falls. Wanamaker expands to a quartet setting for "... unsettled, unphased... ," whose rhythmic roots can be found in genres ranging from Eastern European folk and dance music to jazz and progressive rock. The somber, poignant "Elegy," written for and performed by the Akropolis Reed Quintet, was originally composed in memory of those who died in the September 11 attacks, while the virtuosic musical fantasy, "Ragahoro Breakdown" intricately weaves elements of North Indian Raga with characteristics of a Bulgarian Horo and subtle hints of American folk music. The track that represents the second half of the album's title is a sonata in two contrasting movements, the first a quiet nocturne, the second it's polar opposite, each exploring the extended timbres of the saxophone and extreme ranges of the piano, while the dynamic "Out of Mind, Into Body" travels a similar path taken by John Friedrich's solo bass clarinet. While less than two minutes in length, the spirited "Counterpunch" effectively alternates elements of driving American-style minimalist with a fusion of jazz and funk. The album concludes with a concrète version of it's opening track, transforming it into the form of experimental music in which sound identities are intentionally manipulated to appear unconnected to their source, creating an ambient, layered soundscape.
Time, silence, light, reflection and transcendence are all explored in Jane Antonia Cornish's new album, Into Silence. A breathless fragility on the precipice of liminal space imbues the album's six over-arching linear meditations; each work an inquiry into the transitory beauty of the unknown, through self-reflection and the conscious reorientation of perspective. These hallmarks of Cornish's aesthetic experience, along with the exquisitely balanced unfolding of her material, all contribute to a highly expressive and brave musical narrative that is unafraid, and, once heard, cannot be unheard. The six works featured here are not only unified conceptually, but also through their instrumentation; each features a subset of an aggregate ensemble of violin, piano, four cellos, and electronics. Throughout, Cornish brilliantly uses a carefully planned unveiling of instrumental sonorities to actuate and propel the over-arching design of the album's broader narrative. Memory of Time explores a distant nocturnal pathos as the solo violin's expressive presence floats, suspended, over the cello ensemble's irrevocable sighs. The titular Into Silence I incorporates piano and electronics into the sonic tableaux of the proceeding work, reorienting the seemingly unappesed yearning of the introductory material with a tender earthbound comfort. Scattered Light, scored for cello alone, expounds an unbridled moment of cadenza-like virtuosity. As the harmonic rhythm increases and intensifies the work concludes in an evaporated calmness. Elegia returns to the sound-world and material of the album's opening work, now examiend through the aperture of elegiac reflexivity. A meditation on solitude, Into Silence II, for piano solo, probes some of the album's most inner-directed moments of isolation. Luminescence is a culmination of the entire album's exploration of liminality. The electronic component returns with an exquisite and arresting subtly of hushed empyrean filigree. A solo cello momentarily transforms the sighing motif of the opening into a hopeful upward reach towards transcendence. The work ends in deliquesce silence, and the album concludes with a return of the opening motif, exemplifying the elegant notion that silence is the path to transformation.
Back for the first time in more than 25 years, MAXINE SULLIVAN: Great Songs From the Cotton Club by Arlen & Koehler this award winning album has already been Grammy nominated and has won the NAIRD award for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. This album was carried on many top ten lists, and brought Maxine Sullivan’s five decade career to a climax. Maxine Sullivan and her husband John Kirby became the first African American jazz stars to have a regular radio program. After her retirement, Maxine formed The House That Jazz Built in the South Bronx, which supports jazz education programs for children.
•This 2013 Royal Opera House staging of Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale stars the great Italian baritone Alessandro Corbelli in title role, with Danielle de Niese as his reluctant wife. The London Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra is led by bel canto specialist Enrique Mazzola. Mariame Clément’s sensitive and perceptive production was hailed by theFinancial Times as ‘classic’. Bonus features include Behind The Curtain, Ms. de Niese introduction, Staging the Opera and cast gallery.
Chicago jazz pianist Jim Holman brings together an exciting crew for Blue Skies, his second Delmark CD. Multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan, who was there in bebop's heyday and played with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Art Blakey and others continues to set the standard of greatness. Each of his phrases is an epiphany. Here Ira plays trumpet and tenor saxophone. Drummer Roger Humphries embodies the spirit of jazz: sophisticated yet uninhibited. He is best known for playing drums on Horace Silver's Song for My Father but also played with many greats including Stanley Turrentine and Ray Charles. Nick Schneider, Dennis Carroll, (bass) and George Fludas (drums) each contribute.
Based on the book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel, 1978's Working tells the story of average working people through original songs written by Stephen Schwartz (who also directed the show), James Taylor, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, and Susan Birkenhead. Terkel described the production as a celebration of the “ordinary” people whose lives are unsung. Though Working only ran for a total of 24 performances, it was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Steven Boockvor and Rex Everhart). The formidable cast also included Joe Mantegna and Lynne Thigpen as well as Bob Gunton and Patti LuPone, who would be reunited a year later as husband and wife in the original Broadway cast of Evita. Working continues to be revised and performed throughout the world and was adapted for an episode of PBS’s “American Playhouse” in 1982.
Original songs by Craig Carnella, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor.
Principal Cast: David Langston Smyrl, David Patrick Kelly, Matthew McGrath, Bobo Lewis, Matt Landers, Joe Mantegna, Susan Bigelow, Robin Lamont, Lynne Thigpen, Arny Freeman, Lenora Nemetz, Bob Gunton.
Producers include: Elliot Scheiner, Stephen Schwartz.
Reissue producer: Bruce Kimmel.
Recorded at A & R Studios, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Stephen Schwartz and Studs Terkel.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Lyricists: Craig Carnelia, James Taylor, Micki Grant, Matt Landers, Graciela Daniele, and Stephen Schwartz.
Personnel: Matt Landers (vocals, guitar); Stephen Schwartz (vocals, keyboards); David Langston Smyrl, David Patrick Kelly , Micki Grant, Arny Freeman, Steven Boockvor, Brad Sullivan, Lenora Nemetz, Matthew McGrath, Susan Bigelow, Kennard Ramsey, Bob Gunton, Rex Everhart, Robin Lamont, Joe Mantegna, Lynne Thigpen, Patti LuPone, Bob Lewis (vocals); Jerry Wiener, Scott Kuney (guitar); John Kunkel, Jesse Cusimano, Evelyn Glover, Terry Woitach (violin); Carolyn Halik, Clarissa Howell (cello); Richard Centalonza, Joe Palmer (woodwinds); John Bova (trumpet); Donald Corrado (French horn); Eddie Bert, Jack D. Elliot (trombone); Rosalinda DeLeon, Kenneth Bichel (keyboards); Don Simmons (drums); Jim Ogden (percussion).
Recording information: A&R Studios, New York, NY.
Despite an accomplished background as both a writer and an actor, Studs Terkel has never been known as a playwright. It has been left to other writers to put Terkel's works on the stage, and several have given it a shot, including Arthur Miller (The American Clock) and Jamie Pachino (Race). But none of them has had more success than Stephen Schwartz, whose musical adaptation of Terkel's Working has been produced around the world for more than 20 years now. The strength of the musical is the diversity of the songwriting, which is meant to reflect the diversity of the working men and women of America. Mary Rodgers and James Taylor are especially effective at capturing the voices of their characters without falling back too readily on musical theater clichés. On the whole the soundtrack captures the substance of both the musical and Terkel's book.
Pianist Joe Sullivan was a noted performer in Chicago, New York and San Francisco jazz circles. These rare recordings feature a string of buoyant solos, but he also joins Sidney Bechet, Pops Foster and George Wettling for an up-tempo combo and accompanies vocalist Stella Brooks in "Rabbit Foot Blues. "
With a 57-year history of performing together, going back to their 1954 meeting in their hometown of Chicago, the legendary saxophonist/trumpeter Ira Sullivan and vibist/pianist Stu Katz team together finally to commit their well-earned rapport to tape. Recorded live at their good friend Joe Segal's famed Jazz Showcase, with a quintet including pianist Dan Trudell, bassist Dennis Carroll, drummer George Fludas, plus a couple of special guests, "A Family Affair" swings with the joy and magic that only such a shared history can create. "It was standing room only at the Jazz Showcase, and for good reason... When this week is done, multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan and pianist-vibist Stu Katz will have documented one of the more enduring partnerships in jazz." - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune.
Prologos from Lysistrata / Late Victorians / Little Women Suite
Naxos
CD
$19.99Nov 17, 2009
Acclaimed as ‘one of the best opera composers of the moment’, American composer-librettist Mark Adamo has also ventured into symphonic composition and other fields in each of which his theatrical sensitivity, political commitment and musical mastery are equally evident. The vivacity of his Overture to Lysistrata accentuates the play’s anti-war theme, while Alcott Music rethinks the music from his hit opera Little Women. Regina Coeli pays tribute to the Queen of Heaven and Late Victorians is dedicated both to the memory of those who have died and to those who have survived AIDS.
Like his mentor Von Freeman, trumpeter Brad Goode has been a star player in the Chicago scene for quite some time. Though classically trained in violin, trumpet and contrabass and with Bachelor and Master degrees in music, Brad Goode learned and shaped his style as jazz musician by performing with numerous local musicians in Chicago including his partner on this recording legendary saxophonist/trumpeter Ira Sullivan.
This is Brad Goode’s first CD on SteepleChase.
