EERIE GLOW OF JELLYFISH

While Sam Phillips of Sun Records is known as one of the architects of rock and roll, he also dabbled in other genres - 1960's The Martini Set is a great example of his jazzy side. Featuring pianist Graham Forbes and his trio, this midcentury lounge music gem has interpretations of standards like "Autumn in New York" and "The Lady is a Tramp." Fans of romantic jazz can raise their glass to the shimmering version of "Adios" that provided the soundtrack to an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

MOVIE SINFONICA

AFHGAN WOMEN

BARCODE

Expanded edition of the Icelandic singer/songwriter's 2025 album. A Matter of Time is the third studio album by Laufey. With four new songs, this 19-track deluxe album is an introspection about learning to live with one's anxieties - embracing uncertainty, accepting the passage of time, and finding calm after the storm.

12.4236

New York, N.Y.

Songbird

Drummer Makaya Ntshoko was born in 1939 in South Africa and had been an integral part of the famed Cape Town jazz scene before he moved to Switzerland in 1962. Since then Makaya has performed and recorded all over the world with a host of jazz luminaries such as Dexter Gordon, Don Cherry, Hugh Masakela, Dollar Brand, Weather Report, to mention a few. “Here is a magnificent milestone on Makaya’s lifetime journey through rhythm.” (Mark Gardner – from the liner notes)

Ball At Louisiana

SteepleChase’s March 2022 is featuring “Duo” settings. Here on our SteepleChase LookOut label we are proud to present two New York based young elite instrumentalists Nicki Adams (piano) and Michael Eaton (saxophone). They both share neo-classism in jazz as their formative background but they transcend beyond the categorization to something far more original and multifaceted. The album “Paraphrase” is a formidable presentation at this junction of time of how jazz has developed itself through its rich and diverse history. Nicki Adams (b. 1988) is a New York-based composer and pianist. He has worked with renowned artists including Billy Hart and Francisco Mela and appeared on NPR's Soundcheck and Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theatre. Nicki plays with many groups including his own band. His works have appeared in film and radio throughout the world. Michael Eaton (b. 1981) is a Brooklyn, NY based saxophonist, composer, and educator active in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. He embraces a progressive and holistic vision of jazz, cognizant of the music's rich history, while he reaches for a personal outlook with an eye towards future possibilities.

Passage

LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL CLEO LA

BAROQUE AND ON THE STREET FRE

When he set foot on the stage of Club Doelen on Oct. 28, 1967 in Rotterdam, Thelonious Monk had just turned 50. 15 years later, he disappeared from the music scene and spent his 6 final years in New York, at Pannonica de Koenigswater's, and never touched a piano again. This concert is a testament to his genius. Opening and ending with two “classic pieces”, “Ruby, My Dear” and “Blue Monk”, he led for over 80 minutes the quartet and his accomplices, Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales, Ben Riley, and guests. Larry Gales's bass seems to pop out like a jack-in-the-box at the end of “Hackensack”, the brass instruments get carried away towards the middle of “We see”, and billow out and away in the breathtaking “Oska”. And it all leads to a solo time on “Don't Blame Me”: his fingers must be widely spread apart as he hits the keys the way you'd hit and shuffle cards. And then it's time to conclude with one of his classic tunes “Blue Monk”. The architect can set down his tools, what remains is pure art.

Track Listing
1. Moonlight Serenade
2. King Porter Stomp
3. Little Brown Jug
4. In the Mood
5. Tuxedo Junction
6. Pennsylvania 6-5000
7. String of Pearls, A
8. Elmer's Tune
9. Chattanooga Choo-Choo
10. Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me)
11. American Patrol

Personnel includes: Glenn Miller (leader); Ray Eberle, Marion Hutton, Tex Beneke, The Modernaires (vocals).

Recorded in New York and Hollywood, California between September 27, 1938 and April 2, 1942. Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.

Selections Include:
1. Baby Driver
2. Cecilia
3. One Man's Ceiling Is Another man's Floor
4. so Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
5. Loves Me Like A Rock
6. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
7. St. Judy's Comet
8. Punky's Dilemma
9. Overs
10. Mother And Child Reunion
11. Do It For Your Love
12. Still Crazy After All These Years
13. Why Don't You Write Me?
14. Old Friends/Bookends

Additional personnel includes: Gil Goldstein (keyboards); Russell Malone (guitar); Christian McBride (bass).

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

As Paul Simon was perparing his first Broadway musical, The Capeman, the New York Voices assembled New York Voices Sing the Songs of Paul Simon, a song-and-dance production of Simon's biggest hits. As a musical experience, the New York Voices turned out a better, richer album than Simon, whose Songs from the Capeman was curiously stillborn. The Songs of Paul Simon, however, is full of life, teeming with energy and bursting with melody. Produced by Joel Moss and featuring cameos by Christian McBride, Gil Goldstein and Russell Malone, the project features familiar numbers like "Cecilia," "Loves Me Like a Rock," "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" and "Still Crazy After All These Years," but it also showcases wonderful album tracks like "One Man's Ceiling (Is Another Man's Floor)" and "Baby Driver." The arrangements are brighter and brassier than Simon's originals, but there's a real charm to the performances that makes it a thoroughly entertaining experience, one that's much more fun and engaging than The Capeman. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH ROY HARG

Falling in Love With Paul Desmond is part of RCA's mid-line Falling in Love With series, which focuses on romantic highlights from classic big-band, swing, and jazz artists. There aren't any risky choices on Desmond's volume, but that's fine, since each of the title's 11 cuts -- including "When Joanna Loved Me," "Body and Soul," "My Funny Valentine," "Embarcadero," and "Then I'll Be Tired of You" -- sustains a mellow, romantic mood. This record may not really be necessary, but for anyone looking for lovely, romantic music from Desmond, it's not a bad choice at all.

-- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.com

Personnel includes: Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Albert Richman (French horn); Gene Bianco, Gloria Agostini (harp); Jim Hall (guitar); Eugene Wright, Gene Cherico, Milt Hinton (bass); Robert Thomas (drums, percussion); Connie Kay (drums).

Recorded at Webster Hall and RCA Studio A in New York, New York between 1962 and 1964. Includes liner notes by Joshua Sherman.

Digitally remastered by James Nichols (BMG Studios, New York, New York).

This is part of RCA Victor's Falling In Love With series.

Personnel: Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Jim Hall (guitar); Gene Bianco, Gloria Agostini (harp); Al Richman (French horn); Robert Thomas (snare drum, percussion); Connie Kay (snare drum).

Liner Note Author: Joshua Sherman.

Recording information: RCA Studio A, New York, NY (1962-1964); Webster Hall, New York, NY (1962-1964).

This double-CD from French RCA in their Jazz Tribune series (a reissue of an earlier double-LP) gives one a good overview of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke's Victor recordings. More serious collectors will want to acquire this music as part of a more complete series (since all of his solos are significant), while beginning collectors are advised to pick up his Columbia reissue CDs (which feature Beiderbecke in smaller groups) first. The 36 performances on this two-fer mostly focus on his sideman's appearances with the large dance orchestras of Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman during 1926-28, although there is one 1924 track ("I Didn't Know") with Goldkette, and a few later sessions from 1930. Highlights include "Clementine," "San," "There Ain't No Sweet Man," "From Monday On," and "You Took Advantage of Me."

-- Scott Yanow, AllMusic.com

This long-awaited solo album from Bill Frisell, who has spent a considerable portion of his career collaborating with others, reflects just how far the guitarist has come since making his first recordings for ECM in the early 1980s. As a leader and sideman on more than 250 albums, Frisell has proven himself time and again to be an expert at engaging his fellow musicians in meaningful musical conversations and playful call-and-response. In short, he plays well, and often, with others—and that’s what makes his unaccompanied performances on Music IS so revealing. - DownBeat Editors' Pick

Click here to read the full review at DownBeat Magazine

REVIEW:

Since his debut recording 35 years ago, Bill Frisell has been remarkably prolific, resulting in 36 albums as a leader. On Music IS the guitarist re-examines some of his earlier works while showcasing five new compositions, all in an unaccompanied setting.

Frisell starts many tunes with an almost naive simplicity but gradually builds sonic cathedrals by using looped layers and gorgeously finessed chordal voicings; “Pretty Stars” and “Thankful” are examples of this approach. Another Frisell signature, the Monkian herky-jerky quirkiness in some of his rhythmic cadences, manifests on his sparse reworking of “Winslow Homer,” which he gradually builds up to a virtual guitar choir through overdubbing. “Change Is in the Air” is a fragile, chamber-like minor key lament that relies on multiple guitar tracks for lush effect. He makes judicious use of swirling loops and backwards effects on the somber “What Do You Want?” and the hypnotic “In Line” while the grunge element in Frisell’s playing rears its dissonant head on “Kentucky Derby.” Other intimate gems here include a haunting remake of the lonesome-sounding “Ron Carter,” an artful re-imagining of “Rambler,” and “Monica Jane,” a poignant ode to his daughter.

-- The Absolute Sound (Bill Milkowski, 8/2018)

Ellington, Duke: Jump For Joy (1941-1942)

This is the extraordinary recording debut of jazz phenomenon Anaïs Reno, who made it in 2020 at the age of 16. Reno has already won accolades for her dedication to the Great American Songbook. She recently received the Julie Wilson Award, and in 2019 won the Mabel Mercer Foundation competition for high school students. For this album she has chosen 12 tunes by two master writers: Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and Billy Strayhorn 1915-67), creators of some of the most challenging and sophisticated material in the Great American Songbook. Reno combines beloved hits such as "Mood Indigo," "Take the 'A' Train," "Lush Life" and "Caravan" with lesser-known but equally memorable tunes like "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" and "It's Kind of Lonesome Out Tonight," all backed by a stellar group of jazz musicians led by pianist Emmet Cohen, who also did the arrangements with Reno. "I have a very personal relationship with these songs," says Reno. "Somehow I believe that the music of Ellington & Strayhorn understands me. This is why I want to honor it." Acclaimed jazz historian Will Friedwald, who has written the liner notes for the 12-page booklet, comments that "At 16, Anaïs achieved what precious few adults ever accomplish: namely, to actually enhance our appreciation and enjoyment of the Ellington-Strayhorn canon. Whether working together or separately, the two of them were always on the same page, both metaphorically and literally. And now, so is Anaïs Reno."

Track Listing
1. C Jam Blues
2. Solitude
3. Mood Indigo
4. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
5. Lush Life
6. Just Squeeze Me (But Don't Tease Me)
7. Things Ain't What They Used to Be
8. Caravan
9. Take the "A" Train
10. Cotton Tail
11. Sophisticated Lady

Personnel: Harry Allen (tenor saxophone); Bill Charlap (piano); Peter Washington (bass); Kenny Washington (drums).
Recorded at Nola Recording Studios, New York, New York on July 28 & 29, 1999. Includes liner notes by Harry Allen.
Personnel: Harry Allen (tenor saxophone); Bill Charlap (piano); Kenny Washington (drums).
Liner Note Author: Harry Allen.
Recording information: Nola Recording Studios, New York, NY (07/28/1999/07/29/1999).
Photographer: Junichi Takahashi.
Allen's tenor sax sound is perfectly suited for the music of Duke Ellington. His literate, traditional approach and occasionally Stan Getz-ian breathy tones go to the heart of Duke's melodic and harmonic concepts. Pianist Bill Charlap is excellent through and through, while bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington are dutiful in attending to their swing. Several of these tracks are read pretty straight, as the ballad "Lush Life," the easy swinger "Just Squeeze Me," the Afro-Cuban to bop "Caravan," and the air-filled "Sophisticated Lady." But the band changes up the rest. At the least extreme, "Mood Indigo" is easy swing as opposed to balladic; "Take the A Train" is slowed way down with Allen and Charlap only, while the pianist plays the melody while Allen's tenor counter-swipes licks on "C Jam Blues." More adapted is the slow tick-tock to bossa of the usual wall-melting ballad "Solitude," and a low-down, lugubrious bluesy swing with Charlap loading up on the intro and melody of "Things Ain't What They Used to Be," with Allen's stacatto stopped accents. At their most energetic, the quartet charges hard and trade eights during the up-tempo workout "Cotton Tail," whereas Allen and bassist Washington in duet need no other instrumental accoutrements in order to rhythmically fire up "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing." This is most likely Allen's best batch yet, for he is a great interpreter rather than innovator. Duke did all the inventing necessary here, and this true collective quartet is hard to top.