Congratulations to Béla Fleck, who took home four awards at the 33rd Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, more than anyone else this year! Read all of his awards below:
Instrumental Group of the Year
– Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart
Album of the Year
– My Bluegrass Heart (Béla Fleck)
Instrumental Recording of the Year
Banjo Player of the Year
A new musical about jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald is in the works from Anna Deavere Smith (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Notes From the Field). Titled ELLA: An American Miracle, the work will portray Fitzgerald at different points in her life, drawing from her own songbook for the score. The musical is holding a work session August 25-September 21, which will culminate in a private industry presentation.
Starring in the work session are Tony winner and three-time Grammy winner Dee Dee Bridgewater (The Wiz, Lady Day) as the ghost of Ella and Charity Angél Dawson (Chicago, Waitress) as Young Ella, along with Saint Aubyn, Angela Birchett, J. Bernard Calloway, Milanis Clark, Crystal Joy, Ken Marks, Jhardon Dishon Milton, Joshua Morgan, Rance Nix, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nick Rehberger, Jessica Rush, Deandre Sevon, and Erica Sweany.
“Composers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing their songs because listening to her, they knew how their songs were supposed to be sung,” says Smith in a statement. “A jazz singer, a scat singer, she also famously both sang and defined the American songbook. To say she had humble beginnings is a profound understatement. She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.”
The project is directed by Philip Wm. McKinley (The Boy From Oz) and choreographed by Ellenore Scott (Funny Girl, Mr. Saturday Night). Jazz musician Mark G. Meadows is music directing, with costumes set to be designed by Ann Hould-Ward. ShowTown Theatricals serves as general manager, with Steve J. Scarduzio and John Hart producing.
When, during the pandemic, Lizz Wright found the time to listen back to some previous live dates, she was particularly struck by a show recorded in Berlin, the final date of her 2018 European summer tour. Produced by Christian Ulbrich and the first album to be released on Wright’s own label, Blues & Greens Records, Holding Space features Wright and her exceptional band – Chris Bruce (guitar), Bobby Ray Sparks II (keys), Ben Zwerin (bass), Ivan Edwards (drums) – performing 11 songs from that Berlin date. Six are taken from Wright’s most recent studio album, Grace (2017), including the deeply moving Rose Cousins-penned title track, the warm embrace of her original co-write with Maia Sharp ‘All The Way Here’, plus the great song of belonging, ‘Seems I’m Never Tired Loving You’, penned by Aretha Franklin’s sister, Carolyn. We’re also treated to a brace of songs from Wright’s 2015 album Freedom & Surrender – the spirited country blues ‘The New Game’ and the sudden, ecstatic outbursts of ‘Somewhere Down The Mystic’ – the sublime traditional gospel song ‘Walk With Me Lord’ from her 2003 Verve debut Salt, and the incredibly powerful ‘No More Will I Run’ written by Wright’s great friend, the brilliant Toshi Reagon. With stunning recorded sound, a wonderfully attentive audience, and an irresistible communion between singer and band, it’s the most transporting and beautiful album I’ve heard this year.
Walter Trout
Ride
(Provogue)
4 out of 5 stars
Even in the notoriously unsparing blues world, Walter Trout has had a bumpy, at times life-threatening, career. And it has been a long one.
The now 71-year-old guitarist/vocalist and songwriter has been playing professionally since his late teens, eventually supporting well-respected roots acts like Big Mama Thornton and John Lee Hooker. But a high-profile stint in Canned Heat starting in 1981 generated international recognition as one of the best blues rocking guitarists of his generation, along with kick-starting him on a never-ending road of grueling one-night stands propped up by drug and alcohol abuse. A five-year run working with the legendary John Mayall further spotlighted his scorching talents, after which he went solo.
That was in 1990 and he hasn’t stopped for long since, logging thousands of road miles along with churning out 29 albums. The life of near-constant travel and various substance abuses came to a head in 2013 when Trout’s liver failed. A transplant a year later created more health complications, but trooper that he is, the appropriately titled Battle Scars appeared in 2015, followed by the just as aptly named Survivor Blues in 2019.
He’s back for album number thirty and if anyone thinks his health issues have mellowed him, one spin of this hour-long set removes any doubts. From the opening swamp stomp of “Ghosts,” a song about old, often bad habits that won’t let go, to the sweet, closing love ballad “Destiny,” Trout sings and plays with the gutsy passion and emotional intensity of a guy who has persevered over obstacles that would have derailed other musicians.
How exciting to see so many all-star jazz greats performing together. The SFJAZZ Collective is a talented cohort of artists who perform arrangements of works by modern composers and also newly commissioned pieces by each member of the band.
In 2020, the Collective was scheduled to perform an in-person Tiny Desk concert, but it was canceled due to the pandemic. We are still working to make that happen — but in the meantime, let’s enjoy this uplifting Tiny Desk (home) concert, recorded in The Joe Henderson Lab at SFJAZZ, a large, sunny venue that serves as both a live performance space and as the Collective’s rehearsal space.
Earlier this year, the ensemble released New Works Reflecting the Moment (Live from the SFJAZZ Center 2021), an album addressing racial injustices, the ongoing pandemic and political polarization. In this concert, the musicians perform three songs from that project. “Ay Bendito” was written by tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, and its title is slang for “oh my God” or “aw man”; it’s also subtitled “The Struggle Continues.”
Written to reflect the present moment, especially the isolation and social upheaval many of us continue to endure, “Mutuality” by tenor saxophonist Chris Potter was inspired by a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote that reads, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
Congratulations to all of the winners and runners-up for the 70th annual DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll! We’d like to highlight all the artists on our roster who were recognized this year for their incredible work.
Jazz Group: Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
Tenor Saxophone: Charles Lloyd
Female Vocalist: Cécile McLorin Salvant
Male Vocalist: Kurt Elling
Rising Star Organ: Delvon Lamarr
The National Endowment for the Arts is continuing its long history of honoring America’s rich, artistic heritage with today’s announcement of the 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellowship recipients, including Michael Cleveland. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the program, our nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. A film celebrating the 2022 class of artists and tradition bearers will premiere in the fall on arts.gov.
“In their artistic practices, the NEA National Heritage Fellows tell their own stories on their own terms. They pass their skills and knowledge to others through mentorship and teaching,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “These honorees are not only sustaining the cultural history of their art form and of their community, they are also enriching our nation as a whole.”
Each fellowship includes a $25,000 award and all of the recipients will be featured in a film that will premiere in November 2022 on arts.gov. Through the film, viewers will have the opportunity to visit the homes and communities where the fellows live and work, providing a connection to the distinct art forms and traditions these artists practice.
Charles Lloyd, now 84, has lived many lives. Over the decades, the saxophone virtuoso has blurred the lines between jazz and popular music, playing with B.B. King, Cannonball Adderley, The Beach Boys and The Grateful Dead – and he’s still flowing with music.
This year, Lloyd is releasing three different albums featuring three different trio ensembles. The first album in the series, Chapel, recorded with guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan comes out Friday. Ocean, featuring pianist Gerald Clayton and guitarist Anthony Wilson, comes out Aug 26. Sacred Thread, the final trio featuring guitarist Julian Lage and percussionist Zakir Hussain, comes out Oct 28.
Lloyd says creating and recording them gave him an opportunity to search inward.
Joey Alexander’s new album ‘Origin’ was featured as the second album on NPR’s May 20th edition of New Music Friday. Here’s what they had to say:
“He has always been phenomenal…” — Christina Lee for NPR Music
“…it’s a true coming of age for Joey. It’s such a mature sound…” — Christina Lee for NPR Music
“…what we’re hearing right now, ‘Remembering,’ there’s just such a sense of pensiveness about it that feels really different from the past albums that he’s put out. I feel like he’s really putting himself more and more into his sound.” — Christina Lee for NPR Music
“I think ’Summer Rising’ is going to be another one for playlists for the summer.” — Christina Lee for NPR Music
“I can’t believe this is his first record of all original material, because it is so beautifully conceived and so completely realized. As you say, if he wants the record to lift people, it really does take you to a wonderful place.” — Robin Hilton for NPR Music
Halfway through Bill Charlap’s early set at Birdland on Friday night, the great pianist played, “You’re All the World to Me.” He then picked up the mic, turned around to face the crowd, and marveled at the way Fred Astaire introduced the song in the 1951 movie musical “Royal Wedding.”
This is the classic number in which the legendary song-and-dance man literally defies gravity by strutting, whirling, tapping, and pirouetting all over the walls and ceiling of a room. Astaire, Mr. Charlap explained, used a devilishly clever bit of “practical effects” to achieve this feat of movie magic.
After hearing this pianist and his amazing Trio for 25 years now, I still can’t figure how he does it — how Mr. Charlap makes his own magic happen.
“You’re All the World to Me,” which composer Burton Lane had repurposed from an earlier song by virtue of a new lyric by Alan Jay Lerner, is also a highpoint of Mr. Charlap’s latest album, “Street of Dreams.” Mr. Charlap starts slowly, tentatively, with the verse, rendering it in a hesitating, probing fashion as if he were looking for an answer, or seeking a pathway. His confidence increases when he arrives at the melody — it’s like he’s now found his musical compass — and by the time he completes a full chorus of the tune, he is ready to improvise and tear down the highway with gusto.
More literally, he starts defying gravity in his own way, even as Astaire did, teleporting across the globe. He’s playing the tune but is driven by the lyric, which moves from “Paris in April and May” and then to “New York on a silvery day” in just two lines, and next, just as swiftly, transports us to the Swiss Alps and Loch Lomond before we’re even 16 bars into it.
Could it be that this mixing of moods — using tempo as an indicator — is a key part of Mr. Charlap’s magical musical toolkit? He faked us out several times at Birdland, as in the opener, which began with the bouncy intro to “Squeeze Me (But Don’t Tease Me),” with rumbling bass notes, but then followed with an understated reading of “What Is this Thing Called Love?” It was swinging but spare, with lots of open spaces along the way.