With his self-titled new album-out May 8 on Candid Records-Grammy-winning guitarist, producer, and songwriter Matthew Stevens delivers a definitive midcareer mission statement. Long recognized as one of the most thrilling and thoughtful guitarists of his generation, Stevens has built an elite reputation in music, touring and recording with a "who's who" of modern icons, including Esperanza Spalding, Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, Harvey Mason, and Walter Smith III. On this new release, Stevens steps fully into the spotlight, performing at the absolute peak of his powers. The music seamlessly melds acoustic and electric sonics through a mix of genre-blurring originals and deeply personal covers. The album features a multigenerational cast of musicians, including mentors like Terri Lyne Carrington, personal guitar heroes like Jeff Parker, and rising visionaries such as vibraphonist Joel Ross and vocalists Anna B Savage and Corey King. Co-produced by Stevens alongside Josh Johnson and Eric Doob, the record is the culmination of 20 years of craft. It reflects a period of profound personal and artistic change, ultimately bringing Stevens to "a place of optimism, excitement, and confidence" that signals a bold new chapter for one of jazz's most essential voices.
With his self-titled new album-out May 8 on Candid Records-Grammy-winning guitarist, producer, and songwriter Matthew Stevens delivers a definitive midcareer mission statement. Long recognized as one of the most thrilling and thoughtful guitarists of his generation, Stevens has built an elite reputation in music, touring and recording with a "who's who" of modern icons, including Esperanza Spalding, Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, Harvey Mason, and Walter Smith III. On this new release, Stevens steps fully into the spotlight, performing at the absolute peak of his powers. The music seamlessly melds acoustic and electric sonics through a mix of genre-blurring originals and deeply personal covers. The album features a multigenerational cast of musicians, including mentors like Terri Lyne Carrington, personal guitar heroes like Jeff Parker, and rising visionaries such as vibraphonist Joel Ross and vocalists Anna B Savage and Corey King. Co-produced by Stevens alongside Josh Johnson and Eric Doob, the record is the culmination of 20 years of craft. It reflects a period of profound personal and artistic change, ultimately bringing Stevens to "a place of optimism, excitement, and confidence" that signals a bold new chapter for one of jazz's most essential voices.
He may not have known it before, but Toronto-born, New York-based guitarist Matthew Stevens, prized for his forceful, distinctive electric sound was an ideal candidate to make an album fully devoted to solo acoustic guitar: the intimate, unadorned, straightforwardly titled 'Pittsburgh'. September 2020, Stevens was hunkering down in his wife's family's hometown of Pittsburgh, while navigating his way through the crisis. He had with him a vintage Martin 00-17, a small-body mahogany guitar. Practicing daily on the Martin, he began generating a series of short song "starts" - ideas and sketches he thought might lead somewhere. Then one rainy Pittsburgh day, Stevens' bike slid out from under him and he broke his right elbow. Rather than getting derailed musically, he became immersed in a creative process that led straight to 'Pittsburgh': a document of those short song "starts" from the notebook, now hatched as completed compositions. "Playing this music became a big part of my rehab," Stevens recalls. As the album took shape, it became clear to Stevens that he was headed in the direction of a wholly unaccompanied recital, with no overdubs or sound layering of any kind. Just him and this special Martin, two Neumann U89 mics and enough peace of mind across two separate sessions to make 'Pittsburgh' the triumph that it is. 1. Ambler 2. Purpose Of A Machine 3. Buckets 4. Can Am 5. Foreign Ghosts 6. Northern Touch 7. Cocoon 8. Ending Is Beginning 9. Blue Blues 10. Broke 11. Miserere
He may not have known it before, but Toronto-born, New York-based guitarist Matthew Stevens, prized for his forceful, distinctive electric sound was an ideal candidate to make an album fully devoted to solo acoustic guitar: the intimate, unadorned, straightforwardly titled 'Pittsburgh'. September 2020, Stevens was hunkering down in his wife's family's hometown of Pittsburgh, while navigating his way through the crisis. He had with him a vintage Martin 00-17, a small-body mahogany guitar. Practicing daily on the Martin, he began generating a series of short song "starts" - ideas and sketches he thought might lead somewhere. Then one rainy Pittsburgh day, Stevens' bike slid out from under him and he broke his right elbow. Rather than getting derailed musically, he became immersed in a creative process that led straight to 'Pittsburgh': a document of those short song "starts" from the notebook, now hatched as completed compositions. "Playing this music became a big part of my rehab," Stevens recalls. As the album took shape, it became clear to Stevens that he was headed in the direction of a wholly unaccompanied recital, with no overdubs or sound layering of any kind. Just him and this special Martin, two Neumann U89 mics and enough peace of mind across two separate sessions to make 'Pittsburgh' the triumph that it is. 1. Ambler 2. Purpose Of A Machine 3. Buckets 4. Can Am 5. Foreign Ghosts 6. Northern Touch 7. Cocoon 8. Ending Is Beginning 9. Blue Blues 10. Broke 11. Miserere
He may not have known it before, but Toronto-born, New York-based guitarist Matthew Stevens, prized for his forceful, distinctive electric sound was an ideal candidate to make an album fully devoted to solo acoustic guitar: the intimate, unadorned, straightforwardly titled 'Pittsburgh'. September 2020, Stevens was hunkering down in his wife's family's hometown of Pittsburgh, while navigating his way through the crisis. He had with him a vintage Martin 00-17, a small-body mahogany guitar. Practicing daily on the Martin, he began generating a series of short song "starts" - ideas and sketches he thought might lead somewhere. Then one rainy Pittsburgh day, Stevens' bike slid out from under him and he broke his right elbow. Rather than getting derailed musically, he became immersed in a creative process that led straight to 'Pittsburgh': a document of those short song "starts" from the notebook, now hatched as completed compositions. "Playing this music became a big part of my rehab," Stevens recalls. As the album took shape, it became clear to Stevens that he was headed in the direction of a wholly unaccompanied recital, with no overdubs or sound layering of any kind. Just him and this special Martin, two Neumann U89 mics and enough peace of mind across two separate sessions to make 'Pittsburgh' the triumph that it is. 1. Ambler 2. Purpose Of A Machine 3. Buckets 4. Can Am 5. Foreign Ghosts 6. Northern Touch 7. Cocoon 8. Ending Is Beginning 9. Blue Blues 10. Broke 11. Miserere
SOMM Recordings continues its acclaimed championing of neglected British composers with Dame Ethel Smyth: Songs and Ballads – 17 vocal works with piano and chamber orchestra accompaniment composed between 1886 and 1913. Contralto Lucy Stevens has a long relationship with Smyth, portraying the composer, political activist and writer in her widely admired stage show Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle. She is joined by her long-time stage companion, pianist Elizabeth Marcus, and Odaline de la Martinez conducting the Berkeley Ensemble. All four are making their debuts on SOMM. Published in 1886 and receiving their first recordings in English are the five Op.3 Songs and Ballads. Dedicated to Livia Frege, the singer to whom Mendelsohn and Schumann dedicated some of their finest songs, they blend images of the natural world with themes of lost love to reveal Smyth as a songwriter of already considerable gifts. Dedicated to Smyth’s mother and exploring themes of motherhood while shot through with images drawn from troublesome dreams, the five Op.4 Lieder, settings of German texts, exalt in an emotional palette that ranges from tenderness to trenchant emotion. Three Songs from 1913, composed during the period of Smyth’s suffragette activity – which saw her jailed for two months for throwing a stone through a cabinet minister’s window – deftly combine the political and personal. With lyrics by the suffragist Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, Possession is dedicated to Emmeline Pankhurst, On the Road: a marching tune to Pankhurst’s daughter, Christabel. The Clown sets a text by Maurice Baring, whose biography Smyth wrote in 1938. Written for voice and chamber orchestra, the Four Songs from 1908 boast exquisite orchestrations that revel in Smyth’s associations with artistic circles in France and were hailed by Debussy as “tout à fait remarquables”. Stevens, who devised the album’s programme, Martinez and Christopher Wiley provide informative booklet notes.
The British composer Robin Stevens is a great talent waiting to be discovered by the global music community. His varied, stimulating and expressive work is exemplified by this collection of music for wind instruments, ranging from the jolly and accessible (yet very difficult to play) Concert Rondoto the darker, deeper and meaningful Grief’s Portrait. Stevens has a brilliant touch, and also is an excellent pianist, cellist and guitarist and plays all three instruments here, alongside some of the foremost instrumentalists from the musical hotspot of Manchester, England: John Bradbury (principal clarinet, BBC Philharmonic); John Turner (recorderist: Academy of Ancient Music etc.); Richard Simpson (principal oboe, BBC Symphony), Janet Simpson (former principal keyboardist, Hallé Orchestra); and freelance soloists Sarah Miller (flutes);Helen Peller (bassoon) and Lindsey Stoker (horn).
The title of "The Decalogue" has a touch of the grandiose: it means "The Ten Commandments." Yet this score, composed by Sufjan Stevens for a dance work choreographed by Justin Peck that premiered with the New York City Ballet in May of 2017, is quiet and experimental. Stevens's piano score, as played and recorded by Timo Andres, sounds like etudes in the Romantic-modernist tradition, as if prompted by Debussy. With "The Decalogue," now released digitally, and on vinyl and CD, Sufjan is making-gently, without ostentation-new departures.
This new release is the conclusion of a project exploring ways of transforming and developing the piano concerto. Pianist Kate Halsall developed these works centered around two pianos with varied electro-acoustical and chamber accompaniment. The pieces incorporate rock and jazz instruments, extended techniques, film, and pitched silences. The composers featured here are all part of the English new-music scene, and are developing reputations for innovation.
But even the best high-res classical recordings from other labels pale in comparison to the pitch-perfect presentations found in this collection. - D. Burger Home Entertainment. AIX presents a chamber music masterpiece in real HD-Audio. Bonus features include complete system setup, extensive liner notes, photo gallery, and liner notes. This DVD features a 4 panel "split screen" video of the members of the quartet and a multiple angle of the pianist.
Musical genres seem superfluous in describing Becca Stevens. The evolution of the singer / songwriter has let to absorption of all forms and thus unique music from the distillation. Stevens has mastered this art and displays her fantastic ability to command a listeners attention on her new Sunnyside recording WEIGHTLESS.
Principal cast: Laurence Naismith (Kris Kringle); Craig Stevens (Fred Gaily); Valerie Lee (Susan Walker); Fred Gwynne (Marvin Shellhammer); Janis Paige (Doris Walker); Paul Reed (R.H. Macy); David Doyle (Mr. Psawyer); Cliff Hall (Judge Martin Group). Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York on October 6, 1963. Includes liner notes and a plot synopsis by Didier C. Deutsch in English, German, French and Italian. All songs written by Meredith Willson. HERE'S LOVE opened at the Shubert Theatre, New York on October 3, 1963 and ran 338 performances, closing on July 25, 1964.
NIcholas Sackman's music is not limited by particular stylistic lines but within the freedom of contemporary expression uses traditional qualities of harmony, pitch and rhythm to engage with the performer and listener. More simply, just really good music.
