via The Times

Jazz is renowned for its constant transformation, so it’s odd that Afro-Cuban jazz has barely changed since Dizzy Gillespie, Machito and others developed it in the 1940s. The Cuban pianist Harold López-Nussa here spectacularly puts that to rights. To the classic clave pattern he has added danzon and bata drumming, then fused it with modern song structure and improv. Listening to it, you’ll wonder why no one has tried it before.

It doesn’t stop there. López-Nussa and his producer, Michael League of Snarky Puppy, pack in keyboard sounds and styles as tightly as the meat in a mixto sandwich: Rhodes on the wistful Mal du Pays, Moog and Mellotron on the yearning Tumba la Timba and synths on the flamboyant Funky. The last of these has the leader pushing his piano into postbop territory as the dance rhythms catch fire. Radical, but kind of inevitable too.

Read the full review on The Times

Harold López-Nussa on TKA

Via KNKX Studio Session Youtube

With three Grammy awards and an Oscar combined, singer Lisa Fischer and the roots band Ranky Tanky are a serious group of musicians. But when you put them together their music can make you feel like, as Fischer put it, “I’m on a hot wire! Whoo!!” The veteran vocalist known for her appearance in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, Fischer long ago earned the respect and love of her collaborators in Ranky Tanky. In this performance in Studio X, at KNKX’s Seattle studios, it felt like they were made for each other

Ranky Tanky’s updated versions of folk music drawn from the Gullah tradition of African slaves and their ancestors on America’s southeastern coast are honored by Fischer’s gospel-powered blues delivery. Fischer also brings her own musical influences to the group, as heard in their version of “Come Together” by The Beatles. The song brings Fischer’s and Ranky Tanky vocalist Quiana Parler’s voices together in a funky groove. Their version of “Wild Horses,” by Fischer’s longtime collaborators The Rolling Stones, is a ballad with Fischer backed by a spare guitar, bass and drums trio.

We know this special KNKX studio session will have you both reaching for a tissue and dancing in the aisles with Ranky Tanky and Lisa Fischer. They left us with the promise that this new collaboration is just the beginning, there’s more soul-stirring music to come.

Lisa Fischer on TKA

Ranky Tanky on TKA

Via The Art Fuse

When Béla Fleck took the stage on Saturday night with his band, My Bluegrass Heart, at the sold out Groton Hill Music Center’s concert hall, the audience was filled with Fleck fans who knew something special was likely to be in store.

Fleck has won 15 Grammy awards for nine different genres — including country, pop, jazz, classical, instrumental, and world music. He was as likely to team up with the likes of Chick Corea as a group of musicians in a remote Ugandan village. He played with symphony orchestras and his breakout band, The Flecktones, and never encountered a genre that didn’t entice him. In his hands, the banjo became something more than a musical instrument; it was a bridge across styles and cultures and tastes.

 Returning to his bluegrass roots for the first time in 24 years, Fleck brought along his My Bluegrass Heart band, an all-star lineup of talent that has spent the past two years touring and recording an album with Fleck. Every member of the group has soaring bona fides and the set list was created to let everyone demonstrate mind-blowing skill. Fleck displayed both generosity and wisdom in spreading the wealth throughout the show.

Read Full Revue on The Art Fuse

Bela Fleck on TKA

Via NPR

Over the course of a more-than-30-year career, Meshell Ndegeocello has combined soul, funk, pop, hip-hop and jazz to create a unique body of work. Her new album is called “The Omnichord Real Book,” and rock critic Ken Tucker says it serves as a kind of summation of Ndegeocello’s lifetime of making music thus far.

 Ndegeocello began her career in the Washington, D.C. area, playing go-go music, the syncopated funk offshoot, as a member of Rare Essence and other bands. In the 1990s, she was one of the first artists signed to Madonna’s Maverick Records, where she released her debut album, “Plantation Lullabies.” It’s widely considered one of the first examples of the neo soul movement. In the same decade, she hit No. 3 on the Billboard pop charts with a duet with John Mellencamp, a cover of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night,” and later had a No. 1 dance chart hit with a cover of Bill Withers’ “Who Is He (And What Is He To You)?” In 2016, her theater piece, “Can I Get A Witness? The Gospel Of James Baldwin” was performed in Manhattan. All of these works suggest that saying Ndegeocello has range is putting it mildly.

Read Full Review on NPR

MeShell Ndegeocello on TKA

Released in 2015 On The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, Tony Bennett is joined by acclaimed jazz pianist Bill Charlap. This release continues the classic series of Tony Bennett album releases celebrating the essentials of the Great American Songbook. The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is an appreciation of the genius of Jerome David Kern, one of the 20th century’s most important American composers of musical theater and popular music. Jerome Kern was a major force on Broadway and in Hollywood musicals in a career that spanned more than four decades. Playing alongside Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap on The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern are pianist Renee Rosnes (on the piano duet pieces), Peter Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums). Unrelated, though sharing the same last name, Peter and Kenny have been performing with Bill Charlap for nearly two decades and pianist Renee Rosnes has been Charlap’s life partner for close to 10 years.

Today, The Latin Recording Academy announces that Arturo Sandoval will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as part of its annual Special Awards Presentation.

A founding member of innovative Cuban group Irakere, Arturo Sandoval has excelled as a Latin jazz musician, pianist, classical composer and trumpet virtuoso. Born in Artemisa, Cuba, in 1949, Sandoval formed Irakere in 1973 with keyboardist Chucho Valdés and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera. Together, they pioneered a bold fusion of experimental jazz, funky rock’n’roll and rousing Afro-Cuban patterns. Sandoval left the band in 1981, and later moved to the U.S. with the assistance of his mentor Dizzy Gillespie. He then assembled his own band and began touring the world. Sandoval is equally comfortable performing as a classical trumpet soloist with symphony orchestras across the globe, and has also composed two Concertos for Trumpet and Orchestra. He’s the recipient of multiple Latin GRAMMYs and GRAMMYs, and won an Emmy for composing the score of For Love or Country—an emotionally stirring HBO biopic based on his life and starring Andy García. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013.

Full Article on Recording Academy Grammy Rewards

Arturo Sandoval on TKA

Eric Clapton feat. Judith Hill, Simon Climie & Daniel Santiago – “How Could We Know” is now available everywhere!

Simon Climie, who is the co-songwriter and vocalist on the track, says “I couldn’t dream of a more incredible line up for “How Could We Know” than Eric Clapton, Judith Hill and Daniel Santiago.”

Hailing from Los Angeles, CA, Judith Hill comes from a Japanese/African-American bi-racial musical family. Mother Michiko and father Robert (aka Pee Wee) met in a 1970’s funk band, and continue to perform in Judith’s backing ensemble. After graduating from Biola University with a degree in Music Composition, Hill took off for France in 2007 to join French superstar Michel Polnareff’s touring band. Inspired upon returning to the States, Judith embarked on a meteoric ascent to soul singer, songwriter, and badass bandleader. 

Judith Hill on TKA

Via NPR

Terence Blanchard have been selected as one of the 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters.

For more than 40 years, the NEA has annually selected a select group of Jazz Masters. The program, which started in 1982, is one of the most prestigious honors in jazz. Abbey Lincoln, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Sonny Rollins are among the 173 fellows recognized by the NEA as great figures of jazz.

Born in New Orleans to an opera-loving father, Blanchard started playing the trumpet as a child. Summer camp friends included two princes of jazz: Wynton and Branford Marsalis. Wynton would eventually recommend Blanchard, then a recent Rutgers University graduate, to Art Blakey, then seeking a replacement in the Jazz Messengers. In the 1980s, Blanchard started playing with Lionel Hampton. Since then, he’s written Academy Award-nominated film scores for director Spike Lee as well as for movies such as The Woman King.

Read Full Article on NPR

Terence Blanchard on TKA

Downbeats 71st annual Critics Poll has named Cécile McLorin Salvant as the Top Vocalist of the Year and Charles Loyd as part of their Hall of Fame.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, is a composer, singer, and visual artist. The late Jessye Norman described Salvant as“a unique voice supported by an intelligence and  full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings”. Her new album, Mélusine, is a mix of originals and interpretations of songs dating as far back as the 12th century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. They tell the folk tale of Mélusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday after a childhood curse by her mother.

Charles Lloyd, now in his eighth decade, has never sounded better. The depth of his sound reflects a lifetime of experience. A Memphis Music Hall of Fame inductee, and recipient of the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et Lettre from the French Minister of culture, Lloyd has a legendary history in the music world, and could certainly be in a position to slow down and rest on his laurels. But he keeps shifting to a higher, well calibrated gear.

Full Article on Downbeat

Cécile McLorin Salvant on TKA

Via Okayplayer

Ndegeocello is known for her skill and creativity on the bass, as well as her unmistakable groove and ever-evolving songwriting. On this album she includes three bassists: Jake Sherman, Bruce, and Travis II. “I want to be a good composer,” Ndegeocello told Okayplayer. “I want to write the music that when people play it, they enjoy playing it. They find something in it that can allow them to continue on in a journey of self-expression. That’s the goal. And I feel blessed as a woman of color, a human of color, to be in that experience. Because when I play music… it’s the only time I feel genderless and raceless. I’m free from all the perceptions, all the stuff other people have put on me. I feel a complete togetherness.”

The music on these 18 tracks was created during the COVID-19 pandemic, which offered Ndegeocello plenty of time to reflect on her life experiences. She was spending long days composing scores for film (The Devil You Know) and TV shows (Black Mafia Family, Queen Sugar, and Our Kind of People) in front of computer screens, and so working on the album gave her an opportunity to step away from looking at music, to slow back down, and listen to her own thoughts and ideas. “I must admit it was a beautiful time for me,” she said. “I got to really sit and reacquaint myself with music.”

Read Full Review on Okayplayer

Meshell Ndegeocello on TKA