News
April 25 2013
Next week, the remarkable pianist Jason Moran will kick off a run of west coast tour dates with what’s sure to be a mind-opening 4-night stand at the newly opened SFJAZZ center in San Francisco. Moran will perform solo piano (May 2), with his Fats Waller Dance Party featuring Meshell Ndegeocello (May 3), and 2 nights with his longstanding trio The Bandwagon (bassist Tarus Mateen & drummer Nasheet Waits) augmented by live skateboarders (May 4-5). The Bandwagon will then continue down the west coast making stops in Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and San Diego before further shows in Albuquerque and Denver.
April 16 2013
Following the 2012 release of O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade, the acclaimed singer Marisa Monte has announced Verdade Uma Ilusão, her seventh international tour that will bring her to the U.S. for the first time since 2006. Recognized as one of the great Brazilian singers of our time with three Latin Grammys and more than 12 million records sold around the world, Marisa is renowned for creating a bridge between traditional and contemporary pop music. Her latest tour, which has already been seen by more than 200,000 people in 14 cities in Brazil last year, will now cross the Atlantic Ocean for a season in Europe before returning to the U.S. to perform at The Fillmore Miami Beach on June 23 and NYC’s Beacon Theatre on June 26.
April 15 2013
Robert Randolph, the slide guitar jam/rock/blues phenomenon who’s been captivating global audiences for a decade, announced to reporters assembled at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Music Festival in Madison Square Garden that his long-awaited new album is titled Lickety Split. The new record is Randolph’s first for Blue Note Records and will be released July 16. Lickety Split represents the first new studio album for Randolph & The Family Band in three years.
April 11 2013
On August 6, Blue Note Records will release Live Today, the debut recording from extraordinary bassist and composer Derrick Hodge. Hodge is perhaps best known as the anchor of the genre-bending, GRAMMY award-winning band Robert Glasper Experiment, but he has also spent time in the cutting-edge jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s group, and is currently the music director for the R&B star Maxwell. Hodge brings all his experience as a soloist, bandleader, and composer to the fore on this impressive debut.
“This whole album was about putting on a composer’s hat, but also letting go and making sure that I’m giving people raw examples of how I feel on any given day,” Hodge explains. Live Today weaves together a distinctive musical vision from 14 stylistically diverse originals either written or co-written by Hodge that traverse modern jazz, hip-hop, R&B, gospel, and acoustic folk. The album features guest appearances from rapper Common, singer-guitarist Alan Hampton, as well as RGE members Robert Glasper, vocoderist Casey Benjamin, and drummers Marc Colenburg and Chris Dave, in addition to keyboardists James Poyser and Aaron Parks, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, and the American String Quartet, among others.