After two solid albums on Motema, both of which earned Grammy nominations, singer and songwriter Gregory Porter makes his Blue Note debut with Liquid Spirit. A singer whose quicksilver vocal style refuses to be caged by either jazz, gospel, or R&B, his warm, inviting baritone utilizes them all when…
Musicians separated by age, style, and demographic, Elvis Costello and the Roots are nevertheless natural collaborators bound by wide taste, insatiable appetite, and fathomless record collections. This is particularly true of Roots drummer/de facto bandleader ?uestlove, the musical omnivore who is the band’s most recognizable member and perhaps the…
Amos Lee’s fifth studio album, 2013’s Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song, features more of the Philadelphia-born singer/songwriter’s country-, folk-, and soul-inflected pop music. The album follows up his acclaimed 2011 release, Mission Bell. Recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce, who has worked with Emmylou Harris and others,…
On Black Radio 2, the Robert Glasper Experiment attempts the near impossible: create a sequel that delivers fully on the promise of its groundbreaking, Grammy-winning predecessor. Glasper’s group — bassist Derrick Hodge, Casey Benjamin on vocoder and synth, and drummer Mark Colenburg — again enlists a stellar cast of…
Total Eclipse was Bobby Hutcherson‘s first recording session with tenor saxophonist Harold Land, who became one of his major collaborators (and a quintet co-leader) during the late ’60s. Land‘s rounded, echoing tone is a nice contrast for the coolly cerebral post-bop that fills Total Eclipse. Hutcherson contributes four of the five compositions (the other, “Matrix,” is…
Nearly eight years after Rosanne Cash last released a set of original songs, 2014’s The River & the Thread finds her in a reflective mood, and just as 2009’s The List saw her looking back with a set of classic songs recommended by her father, the late country legend…
As a Heartbreaker and on his own, Benmont Tench defines a supporting musician: versatile, tasteful, and distinctive; enhancing sessions without overwhelming the leader. He’s so thoroughly part of a group that it’s hard to picture him stepping to the center of the stage, but You Should Be So Lucky…
This little-known gem is from the declining days of Blue Note. Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson welcomed his friend trumpeter Freddie Hubbard to his date and Hubbard (who is heard on four of the six selections) almost stole the show. It is particularly nice to hear Hubbard (whose recordings from this…
By the time of this fourth Blue Note album by trumpeter Donald Byrd, it became clear that his playing was becoming stronger with the passing of time. This album features separate studio sessions from January and July of 1960 with constants Duke Pearson on piano and drummer Lex Humphries….
This CD, Freddie Hubbard’s last Blue Note release of the 1960s (with the exception of the blowing session The Night of the Cookers), adds two numbers to the original LP program and features the great trumpeter in three challenging settings ranging from a sextet to an octet. Hubbard uses…