The young piano phenom Joey Alexander moves over to and shines on Fender Rhodes on this blues tinged original romp.
Featuring acclaimed Alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, who provides the shimmering melody, and rising electric guitarist Gilad Hekselman, who ads grit to the bottom and doubles Shaw, SALT showcases Alexander as a daring and bright composer having fun with his electric side.
Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate their shared love of the music of George and Ira Gershwin on their new collaborative album, Love Is Here To Stay, set for a September 14th release on Verve Records/Columbia Records. Tony Bennett, who celebrates his 92nd birthday today, has been friends with Diana Krall for over 20 years and the album will be out just in time for the 120th Anniversary of George Gershwin’s birthday which takes place on September 26th.
The album was recorded with the Grammy award winning Bill Charlap Trio. The stunning result is a subtle, sophisticated and a beautifully rendered love letter to The Gershwins’ music and their status as one of the premiere songwriters of the American popular standard. The duet tracks include “Love Is Here to Stay”, “S’Wonderful,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” and “Fascinating Rhythm” to name a few. Listen to “Fascinating Rhythm” and order the album today! #LoveIsHereToStay
The legendary ladies sing, among others. Ella: “Body and Soul,” “April in Paris,” “This Can't Be Love” “My Man”; Billie: “Lover, Come Back to Me,” “Willow Weep for Me”; Carmen: “Skyliner,” “Perdido.”
In honor of Record Store Day, we’re bringing you the debut vinyl release of the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald singing and swinging in front of an animated, adoring crowd at Zardi’s Jazzland on Hollywood Boulevard in 1956. Available in extremely limited quantities at your local record store!
“Bettye wrenches every bit of emotion in these powerful, inspired
re-workings of some of Dylan’s best songs. Great production, all around knock out of an album.”
Bonnie Raitt
“It must be illegal to have that much soul, but I'm glad to have been a partner in crime on this album. She made these songs her own.”
Steve Jordan
“Whatever she sings acquires the fierce, confessional intensity of someone who barely lived to tell the tale.”
The New York Times
For her tenth album and first album on a major label in nearly thirty years, legendary soul singer Bettye LaVette takes on the songs of Bob Dylan with the grit and experience that makes her one of the greatest living soul singers. Things Have Changed is a masterpiece of interpretation of one of the greatest songwriters alive, by one of the greatest soul singers alive. Keith Richards and Trombone Shorty guest on the Steve Jordan-produced album, which is set for release on Verve Records on March 30.
The title track was released today and premiered yesterday by Rolling Stone Country, who says of the track, “It’s a foreboding song…and LaVette rips into it with bluesy grit, as though she’s unashamed of her own confessions.”
This spring, Bettye will tour the new album across North America, including dates in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Washington, DC. She will also perform on NPR’s Mountain Stage on February 25, full dates below.
Things Have Changed spans more than five decades of Dylan songs, from 1964’s immortal “The Times They Are A-Changin’” up to “Ain’t Talkin’,” the epic final track on his 2006 album Modern Times.
“Other people write songs, but he writes vignettes, more prose than poetry. I didn’t find his words to be pretty so much as they are extremely practical or extremely logical. He can work things like ‘go jump off a ledge’ into a song.”
Things Have Changed sees Dylan’s songs seriously transformed: “I had never really listened to ‘It Ain’t Me Babe,’” she says, “But I had to make it more dismissive—not fast and hard, but like a Jimmy Reed tune. And ‘The Times They Are A-Changin,’ I had to flip that all the way around, so we worked up the groove on a beat box. That just made it extremely surprising.”
To pull off these transformations, LaVette needed a producer who was up to the challenge, and, through Executive Producer Carol Friedman, she found the perfect collaborator in Steve Jordan, former drummer in David Letterman’s house band, who has worked with everyone from Chuck Berry to John Mayer. “Steve was absolutely brilliant,” she says. “He remembers everything he has ever heard in his entire life, and he was able to interpret for the musicians everything I said to him.”
Jordan brought in an A Team of musicians, including Dylan’s long-time guitarist Larry Campbell, bass virtuoso Pino Palladino, and keyboardist Leon Pendarvis. The group was in such sync that the whole album was cut in just three days. Later, Keith Richards added guitar and is featured on “Political World” and New Orleans ace Trombone Shorty joined for “What Was It You Wanted.”
Grammy nominated singer Bettye LaVette has been in show business for nearly six decades. Her first single “My Man – He's A Lovin' Man” was released on Atlantic Records in 1962, when she was only 16 years old. She continued recording until her resurgence came in the early aughts with a series of albums of interpretations, and in 2008 she wowed the audience at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony with a heart-wrenching rendition of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me.” Her voice is like no other, and taking on the tricky canon of one of the most substantial songwriters alive is no small feat - but if anyone can match the heart of Bob Dylan, it’s Bettye LaVette.
This never-before-released archival recording finds the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald singing and swinging in front of an animated, adoring crowd at Zardi’s Jazzland on Hollywood Boulevard in 1956.
"We can hear a fluid and joyous singer who operates with almost giddy authority. Ella manages to find a way of swinging almost every number, no matter the tempo. She anticipates her studio songbook albums with Duke Ellington's 'In A Mellow Tone,' Cole Porter's 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy,' the Gershwins' 'S'Wonderful' and 'I've Got a Crush On You,' and Jerome Kern's 'A Fine Romance'... Ella uses her intelligent phrasing and rhythmic sense in inventive and exhilarating ways…"– Journalist Kirk Silsbee
Herbie Hancock's Spellbinding "River: The Joni Letters" Expanded Edition Releasing December 15 In Celebration Of 10th Anniversary
When Herbie Hancock's genre-defying River: The Joni Letters, won the 2007 Grammy® Award for "Album of the Year," beating out Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Foo Fighters and Vince Gill, it was a victory for musical exploration, inspired musicianship and the kind of creative spirit that the legendary jazz musician has carried throughout his incredible and influential five-decade career. A true milestone, the album was only the second jazz recording to win the top honors in the award's history, with the first being Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and João Gilberto in 1965, 43 years prior. The musical tribute to the iconic Joni Mitchell, which also won "Best Contemporary Jazz Album," soared up the charts where it peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200.
In celebration of the album's first decade anniversary, River: The Joni Letters, will be released as a 2CD expanded edition with four bonus tracks on December 15 via Verve Records/UMe with the digital release to follow on December 29. Last month, the album was released on vinyl for the first time in the U.S. Pre-order River: The Joni Letters here.
Upon release, River was hailed by critics for Hancock's thoughtful interpretations of Mitchell's compositions, which he used as a jumping off point for extended musical meditations. The New York Times declared it "an intimate reinvention issuing from someplace deep inside the music" while NPR remarked, "Hancock is too smart to follow the tribute-record script. He doesn't radically overhaul Mitchell's songs — instead, he gently opens them up and lures the singers into fascinating free-associative conversations." New York enthused, "Hancock comes to these songs with uncommon sensitivity and understanding," adding, he "came of age when pop and jazz overlapped comfortably, and he's at his best when he shows us how they still can."
Hancock first worked with Mitchell on the acclaimed singer/songwriter's Mingus record, an album comprised of collaborations between Mitchell and the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Together with Wayne Shorter, Hancock was part of the ensemble with which Mitchell tried to craft a new "conversational" approach to coupling lyrics with instrumental jazz.
"At this point in my career," Hancock said when the album was announced, "I want to do something that reaches into the lives and hearts of people." With River, he did just that. Hancock enlisted producer/arranger/bassist Larry Klein (a frequent producer and collaborator of Mitchell's), to help him go deeply into Mitchell's body of work to select songs that they could adapt to a genre-less and conversational musical approach, while trying to portray the breadth of Mitchell's gift as a musician and writer. To add another dimension to their picture of Mitchell's musical world, they also included two compositions that were important to her musical development, Shorter's asymmetrical masterpiece "Nefertiti," first recorded by Hancock and Shorter on Miles Davis' classic album of the same name, and Duke Ellington's prescient standard "Solitude." Hancock and Klein worked for months, carefully reading through Mitchell's lyrics and music, eventually paring their list down to thirteen songs that they hoped comprised a panoramic view of the poet's work. They then assembled a group of the top musicians in the world, including the incomparable Shorter on soprano and tenor sax, the brilliant bassist and composer Dave Holland, (a musical cohort of Hancock and Shorter's who shared their adventurousness, as well as the Miles Davis imprimatur), drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (a then-recent member of Hancock's band as well as having played extensively with Mitchell and Sting), and Benin-born guitarist Lionel Loueke, also a member of Hancock's band. They went on to craft arrangements for songs like the often recorded "Both Sides Now," and "Sweet Bird" (from Mitchell's overlooked classic The Hissing of Summer Lawns) that transformed the songs into lyrical and elegant instrumental tone poems, devoid of the trappings of conventional jazz records. "We wanted to create a new vocabulary, a new way of speaking in a musical sense," Hancock said. Klein added, "We used the words to guide us. All of the music emanated from the poetry." They were also fortunate to be able to cast the vocal songs with some of the greatest singers in the music world. Mitchell herself sings the autobiographical musing on childhood "The Tea Leaf Prophecy," Tina Turner turns the beautiful prose of "Edith And The Kingpin" into a timeless piece of song-noir, Norah Jones delivers the wistful classic "Court and Spark," Corinne Bailey Rae turns the mournful Christmas classic "River" into an innocent and optimistic poem of bittersweet romance, Brazilian-born Luciana Souza becomes a dark third voice to Hancock and Shorter on "Amelia," and in a stark and cinematic closer, Leonard Cohen recites the brilliant and surreal lyric to "The Jungle Line" as Hancock provides film score-like improvised accompaniment. The 10th anniversary edition of River adds four additional songs of Mitchells', previously released as Amazon and iTunes exclusives. The extra tracks span Mitchell's expansive career and include "A Case Of You" and "All I Want" (featuring Sonya Kitchell) from her masterpiece Blue, "Harlem In Havana" from her 1998 album Taming The Tiger and "I Had A King," the opening song on Mitchell's debut record Song To A Seagull. "Harlem In Havana" and "I Had A King" are making their debut in any physical format. River: The Joni Letters represented a journey into a new world in Hancock's search for fresh ground – a world of words – and now with this new expanded release fans can revisit this stunning album again and dive even deeper into Hancock and Mitchell's timeless creations.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas! Kick off your holiday with a few of our favorite Christmas albums.
Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas
A swingin' Christmas and a jazzy new year - that's what this joyous 1960 Ella LP brings you. She sings (and swings) "Jingle Bells," "Sleigh Ride," "Winter Wonderland," and more!
Diana Krall’s Christmas Songs
Christmas Songs is an uplifting collection of seasonal favorites featuring swinging big band arrangements by John Clayton and several tracks for quartet, including string arrangements by Johnny Mandel. The album was produced by the late Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall.
Sound of Christmas
Legendary jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis’ Christmas release incorporates all of your favorite holiday standards. His virtuosic, harmonically-elegant takes on these classics makes for the perfect gift for any jazz fan in your life.
Les obsessions n’existent que pour être vécues. Certaines ronronnent, tristement centripètes, et en reviennent sempiternellement à l’objet du désir ; cela consiste à toujours tourner le même film, enregistrer le même album, écrire le même livre avec quelques décors placardés à la hâte et de rapides arrangements, principalement avec la réalité. Rares sont les obsessions centrifuges, séminales, qui régulièrement viennent se désaltérer à la source pour parcourir à grands pas de nouveaux horizons. La passion ancienne de Sylvain Rifflet pour le Focus de Stan Getz est de celles-ci. Il se confie dans l’interview qu’il nous accorde, mais le projet bouillonne depuis 2013, puisqu’il parlait déjà alors de s’attaquer à ce monument du flirt entre jazz et classique aux côtés d’un Fred Pallem qui serait son Eddie Sauter. Cette idée fixe irradie sa musique de longue date sans pour autant la vampiriser, de Beaux Arts jusqu’à Mechanics. Elle est désormais assouvie avec ReFocus, en compagnie de l’orchestre à cordes Appassionato et édité - comme le disque de 1961 - par Verve, une condition sine qua non.
Il ne s’agit pas de redites. Pas plus d’un exercice de style : les partitions sont inédites pour la plupart et l’esprit de Getz est davantage dans la méthode que dans le résultat. Dans « Echoplex » qui débute sur les marimbas de Guillaume Lantonnet, le son si caractéristique du ténor de Rifflet badine un moment, avant de se laisser ensevelir par les cordes. Le choix de l’instrumentation et des musiciens a été primordial. L’option d’un vibraphone/marimba était évidente, tant la musique de Rifflet se nourrit de ces timbres. La présence de Jeff Ballard, qui tient le rôle de Roy Haynes pour Getz, est audacieuse. Avec le contrebassiste Simon Tailleu, il alimente le dialogue avec les quinze cordes de l’orchestre grâce à un colorisme savamment distillé. Le batteur peut aussi entretenir une tension vite acidulée par le travail des archets (« Le Kinétoscope »). Ce qui pourrait virer au sirupeux garde, à l’instar de ce qui était le miracle de Focus, une distance. Une savante alchimie qui ne consiste pas à farcir son jazz de classique - praline de bas étage - mais à créer une passerelle éphémère, douce mais pas smooth où l’action discrète de Pallem sur les arrangements offre une pléthore de pistes. Ainsi « Egyptian Riot », belle construction contemporaine où les slaps du saxophone ouvrent la porte à des motifs répétitifs. Une énergie qui évoquera « I’m Late, I’m Late » de Getz sans jamais le citer. ReFocus n’est pas un jeu de piste ; c’est un point d’étape sur la question des relations entre jazz et musique écrite occidentale, 55 ans après l’influence de Bartók et Weill. Sylvain Rifflet l’exprime très bien dans notre interview : « On repart des moyens de 1961 et de s’interroger sur la démarche de Sauter et Getz s’ils avaient été inspirés par Glass ou Riley et toute cette branche répétitive et tonale contemporaine américaine ». Évidemment, le limpide « Another From C », structuré sur les cymbales de Ballard et le cycle des violons, en est le symbole, mais le mouvement circulaire de « Harlequin On The Strings » en représente incontestablement le morceau le plus abouti. ReFocus est comme son aîné ; clair, précis, avec cette soyeuse profondeur de champ qui fait les beaux portraits. Le plaisir d’un fantasme qui a pris corps.
