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Best selling smooth jazz at amazon.com
Jazz from Amazon.com
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Critically Acclaimed Composer Mahmood Schricker to release the Soundtrack to the award winning new film "Fremont" #jazz
Best selling smooth jazz at amazon.com
Jazz from Amazon.com
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
25th Anniversary of Susan Tedeschi's Album 'Just Won't Burn' on Fantasy / Concord
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25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF SUSAN TEDESCHI’S BREAKTHROUGH ALBUM JUST WON'T BURN OUT NOW
16-TRACK SPECIAL EDITION INCLUDES PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED BONUS MATERIAL AND LIVE VERSIONS |
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PBS NewsHour profile:
The 25th Anniversary edition of Susan Tedeschi’s breakthrough album, Just Won’t Burn, is available now via Fantasy Records / Concord. This special, 16-track expanded edition features the original album plus five previously unreleased bonus tracks: an alternate take of “Looking For Answers,” two new album outtakes, and two live versions of Just Won’t Burn album tracks recorded with Tedeschi Trucks Band at NYC’s Beacon Theatre.
Tedeschi is one of the most celebrated blues and American roots musicians of her generation, known for her unyielding commitment to her craft – both as a solo artist and in Tedeschi Trucks Band – which has earned her multiple GRAMMY nominations and the adoration of audiences around the world. It all began humbly at blues jams in her native Boston back in the early ‘90s and led to significant regional acclaim, but with the 1998 release of her solo debut, Just Won’t Burn, Tedeschi put the wider music world on notice that she was a true force to be reckoned with.
“Making Just Won’t Burn was a pivot,” Tedeschi says of the album, which features musicians such as guitarists Adrienne Hayes and Sean Costello, harmonica player Annie Raines, percussionist/songwriter Tom Hambridge, and keyboardist Tom West tackling her original songs in tandem with material popularized by Ruth Brown (“Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean”), Junior Wells (“Little by Little”), and John Prine (“Angel From Montgomery”).
“All of a sudden, I was working with different groups of people, new musicians, new songwriting collaborators,” she adds. “We had no idea how it was going to turn out. I think the thing that held it all together was the blues. Blues is a language that I love. You can take it anywhere in the world and communicate with people, which isn’t necessarily true about other forms of music. And being a white artist in a black milieu, you just have to let the music speak.”
Speak it did, as Just Won’t Burn went platinum (a rare achievement for a blues-based album at that time) and earned Tedeschi a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 2000 (alongside the hilariously of-the-moment cast of Britney Spears, Macy Gray, Kid Rock, and Christina Aguilera). It would be the first of five Grammy nominations for Tedeschi as a solo artist, with each of her next three solo releases earning nods for Best Contemporary Blues Album. |
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Previously, Tedeschi shared a live performance of her existential showstopper “Looking For Answers” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band at NYC’s Beacon Theatre from 2022 and a blistering version of Koko Taylor’s “Voodoo Woman.”
Even after 25 years, the past-decade plus of which have seen Tedeschi rise to even greater heights with her husband Derek Trucks in Tedeschi Trucks Band, Just Won’t Burn remains a touchstone of blues-based rock’n’roll. “The way people react to Just Won’t Burn has always been heartwarming and surprising,” she admits. “I used to get letters from a prisoner who identified with the songs and found hope in them, and then I started getting letters from the rest of the prisoners on the cell block because it was the only cassette they had.”
“Sometimes when I look back on the 25 years since the release, I think about the places I’ve been and the adventures I’ve had, and I feel like Forrest Gump,” Tedeschi continues. “I say, ‘No! You’re a baseball mom. You didn’t do all that!’ But I must have. The blues has its demands. You have to be honest — musically, emotionally, and personally — above everything else, and that can lead to some uncomfortable truths. But the blues hasn’t burned me. It hasn’t hurt me. It’s my main resource. I can express myself and get stuff out about my life – or, like B.B. always said, ‘whatever ails you.’ The blues got me here.”
FOLLOW SUSAN TEDESCHI |
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Best selling smooth jazz at amazon.com
Jazz from Amazon.com
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
World jazz guitarist Emaginario returns to his singer-songwriter roots #jazz
The transcendent album of self-discovery set to acoustic jazz and Americana music with Flamenco nuances, “Songs Of Mind,” drops November 17.
It’s equal parts self-realization, multicultural exploration and multi-genre experimentation. Composer-Guitarist-Vocalist Emaginario aka Ethan Margolis has been creatively crosspollinating acclaimed recording and video projects featuring him in the company of world-class musicians for more than two decades. He wrote seven of the eight songs that comprise “Songs Of Mind,” an intimate and lush collection of acoustic jazz and singer-songwriter Americana tunes with elements of flamenco. Margolis meticulously produced the set that arrives November 17 on the Sir Sultry Music label.
Having fully realized his identity as a prodigious guitar player, “Songs Of Mind” can be described as Margolis stepping into his identity as a singer-songwriter. Emaginario immersed himself in flamenco guitar in Spain where he lived for more than a decade thus his artistic musical “voice” was primarily instrumental. He relished the freedom inherent in jazz, which he took as a visa to become an alchemist mixing in Cuban, Delta blues and Americana music. As the son of acclaimed singer-songwriter Ken Margolis (The Choir), he was born with an innate skillset that couldn’t be ignored or kept dormant.
“I value songwriting immensely because of its unique ability to transmit human stories in a way that's understandable to everyone. The difficulty in getting here was for me to understand my sound as a singer-songwriter. With so many interests in varying genres and with such a long stint in Spain, it's taken a very long time for me to understand myself as a musician. I am a composer-guitarist foremost, but I am also a singer of songs. It was important for me to get that out in a contemporary way with a sound that reflected my life experiences,” said Margolis who now resides in Southern California after establishing lengthy residencies in Spain.
Stylistically and sonically for “Songs Of Mind,” Margolis elected to pair his nylon-string flamenco guitar with a jazz piano, the role masterfully filled by Grammy-winning pianist Ruslan Sirota.
“Instead of playing the flamenco guitar like a flamenco musician, I played it with the mindset of a session player on the recordings - doubling guitars, playing softly with no fingernails, recording with
many mics and planning for a guitar sound that would be unique to me but also sound like Americana,” said Margolis, who will launch the new album with concert dates in Solvang (November 16 at The Last Chord) and Topanga Canyon (November 17 at Corazón Performing Arts).
Margolis’s voice is as unique as his musical amalgams. His gift is telling stories via singing, scatting and crooning cerebral observations, poetic passages, insightful ruminations and graceful vocalese. Oozing passion and emotional depth, his voice rises and falls from tenor to falsetto and back again, adeptly maintaining full control – even when pivoting on a dime. Margolis’s charismatic voice balances zeal, charm and allure with bouts of bite, sarcasm and snark when his subject matter requires it.
Mixed by two-time Grammy winner Dave O’Donnell (James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton), “Songs Of Mind” opens with an improvised voice and piano sketch, “Mind Search.” It begins as a vocal exercise and piano warmup that kicks up its heels into snappy flamenco forays seamlessly balanced with freeform jazz runs.
“I have such a strong need to improvise and test my reactions and my heart's output in music that structured recording sessions sometimes bog me down. I knew that Ruslan Sirota was a fantastic improviser and that we could have some fun together, but I never imagined that it would come out the way this one did. There’s an entire painting on one track,” said Margolis, who channeled everything from calypso, Soca, flamenco, R&B, beatbox and scat, resulting in a modern jazz adventure in vocalization with a defined message.
Margolis wrote the hauntingly beautiful “Hoping You Will Find Me” fifteen years ago but held off on recording it. Again, Sirota proves to be the perfect counterpart, providing an exquisite backdrop for the divine love song.
“I knew that it was a strong song when I wrote it, but I never pursued it until it finally made sense. The idea of changing the simple voicings of the chords and recording it with a jazz pianist excited me because I knew it would add the poetic depth the song needed. I believe strongly in doing things with a definitive purpose and sometimes that means...just wait, wait until I can see that it's the right time,” shared Margolis.
Whimsical and joyous, “Mugu Beach” adds a full ensemble to the sublime voice and piano pairing. Romaní percussionist Ramón Porrina constructed the percussion arrangement that backbones the track with augmentation from upright bassist Benjamin Shepherd and soprano saxophonist Katisse Buckingham.
Playing guitar on the track, Margolis said, “Composing jazz and Americana melodies over flamenco rhythms is a passionate and unique point of my musicality. It is extremely hard to do authentically so that both the jazz and flamenco schools are satisfied with the result. On this one, I wanted the production to sound like an older jazz standard with burning accents and slow, melodic vocal phrasing in the styles of Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday. I added the soprano saxophone afterwards - played by Katisse - to mimic the accompaniment of Lester Young for Billie Holiday. The vocal phrasing is very much in the Romaní school of the flamenco Bulerías. There are a lot of syncopated stops and vocal rhythmic maneuvers in this song and at the same time, there are many older jazz standard influences.”
Margolis’s defends his jazz-Americana-flamenco doctorate thesis on an imaginative bilingual rendition of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” that he blends with the Spanish copla "Compañera del Alma." Freeing his hands to focus on delivering an arresting vocal performance, Margolis leaves the improvisational guitar work to Israeli guitarist Dan Ben Lior. Organist Mitchel Forman (Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin) adds the perfect touch. Recorded in Madrid in 2021, the concept for this recording was seeded at shows Margolis performed at Hotel Café and The Baked Potato in Hollywood nine years ago.
Backed by a premier rhythm section in drummer Gary Novak (George Benson, Chick Corea, David Sanborn) and bassist Reggie Hamilton (George Duke, Seal, Mariah Carey) along with Sirota’s coloring, “How Will You Feel” benefits from illuminating background vocals by Keri Lee (John Legend) whose soulful voice intertwines with Margolis’s dulcet falsetto. It’s another chilled world jazz cocktail, but this one is served with a splash of R&B.
“So many people were suffering during the pandemic and confronting deaths of friends and family. I lost some remarkably close friends to the pandemic and the hopelessness was overpowering. It's
like we could all see it coming, and then it came. This song reflects that, but at the same time, it suggests that our souls - when they output love - have done their job. Maybe that's all we need to do in this life,” speculated Margolis.
“Tantrum Town” is a bizarro and eccentric carnival ride penned shortly after the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the Capitol. Margolis describes the song like “A Clockwork Orange jazz cirque performance in Las Vegas.” It’s a barbed commentary on the politics of the time featuring bassist Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Sting) and Mike Cottone’s gallant trumpeting in Herb Alpert fashion.
“As if we didn't need more insanity than a pandemic, racially motivated police killings, and then, a president like Donald Trump. I wanted to create a song that sounded like an off-kilter circus - something that grooved with a funky, carousel type repetition. I decided it would add to the song's quirkiness if I sang it in a cabaret 'spoken' voice - like an old show tune,” said Margolis.
Ken Margolis wrote “Seasons” forty years ago, but never recorded it. Ethan, who produced his father’s forthcoming album, “Hope and Courage,” found a way to make the song his own by changing the time signature from 4/4 to 12/8 melded with flamenco ideas of the Soleá style. The scion also changed the lyrical focus - from a man mourning lost love to a love song for our planet.
“I re-wrote the lyrics like mankind issuing an apology for what he had done to Mother Earth when all she has given him was love and resource,” said Ethan on the cut that showcases another sterling appearance by Lee on background vocals and Novak’s deft drumming.
Indulging in what he called “flamenco life” while living in Seville years ago inspired “Walking Back Home,” a breezy and bouncy jaunt that adds calypso into the jazz, Americana and flamenco mélange.
“Arranging it like a calypso song underneath an Americana melody, the result is different and in a strange way, mimics some of the Brazilian songwriters I have heard. Perhaps it's the side sticking and the nylon guitars. The vocalizations under the guitar solo towards the end are very much in a calypso style. The song sounds like pure Americana, but it reminds me of the streets of Spain.”
A Cleveland native, Margolis has already recorded his next Emaginario record, this one tracked in New York City in an acoustic jazz trio setting flanked by bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland that was recorded by five-time Grammy winner James Farber. The album is slated to drop next spring. Margolis is also producing a slate of culturally diverse projects from Latin Grammy nominee Yelsy Heredia featuring percussionist Pedrito Martínez; Jamaican dancehall legend Papa Michigan; and poet Cecilia Woloch about the Romaní Holocaust and Pogroms of Europe.
“Songs Of Mind” contains the following songs:
“Mind Search”
“Hoping You Will Find Me”
“Mugu Beach”
“Hallelujah (Compañera Del Alma)”
“How Will You Feel”
“Tantrum Town”
“Seasons”
“Walking Back Home”
For more information, please visit https://www.emaginario.com.
Best selling smooth jazz at amazon.com
Jazz from Amazon.com
Monday, September 25, 2023
Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 100 - September 25, 2023 #jazz
Monday, September 18, 2023
Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 100 - September 19, 2023 #jazz
Sunday, September 17, 2023
"No Goodbyes" - John Stein - Whaling City Sound #jazz
Experience illuminates the path to clarity, and nowhere is this more evident than in No Goodbyes by guitarist John Stein. As his 18th recording and 13th for the renowned Whaling City Sound label, Stein, along with his exceptional trio partners Ed Lucie on bass guitar and Mike Connors on drums, showcases a transcendent musical experience. Building upon their previous collaboration on 2021’s Serendipity, the trio creates an enchanting collection of interactive, conversational, and expressive melodies.
Adding a new dimension to this captivating journey, the talented vocalist Cindy Scott joins them on five tracks. With her insightful and sophisticated lyrics, Scott breathes life into Stein’s jazz compositions, transforming them into magnificent songs. The music on this album evokes a range of emotions, from powerful and delicate to playful and swinging. Drawing from their diverse musical backgrounds and life experiences, each contributor infuses the core grooves of every composition with depth and authenticity.
The synergy between the John Stein Trio and Cindy Scott is undeniable. Their unwavering commitment to exposing the soul and spirit of the music shines through every note. A palpable sense of familiarity and devotion pervades this recording, enveloping it with exquisite lyricism and artistic clarity. No Goodbyes is a testament to the enduring power of musical collaboration, leaving listeners profoundly moved and yearning for more.
Featured
John Stein – Guitar
Ed Lucie – Bass
Mike Connors – Drums
Cindy Scott – Vocals