ESPN collaborates with The Soul Rebels, who have worked with seemingly everyone from Nas to G-Eazy to Metallica to Katy Perry, to feature their new song “Greatness” off their latest album Poetry In Motion as part of the 2020 college basketball campaign “Blockbuster Theater”.

“It’s an honor to be working with ESPN,” The Soul Rebels say. “ESPN feels like home to us. We’ve gone weeks without seeing our families and loved ones while touring, but it’s ESPN we can rely on to always be there to entertain, inform, stimulate and humor us. As a band, we gather around a TV or laptop or iPhone to watch our games, all huddled around in our dressing room watching the big games right up until we need to walk on stage.”

Read the Full Article on ESPN

Soul Rebels on TKA

Grammy-nominated pianist, composer and bandleader JOEY ALEXANDER announces the release of his major label debut album WARNA (Verve Records). Slated for release January 31, the album is primarily a collection of reflective, moving new and original music by an experienced and confident musician.

Translating as “color” from Alexander’s native language of Bahasa, WARNA follows four albums that garnered the pianist three Grammy nominations, top-spots on Billboard Jazz charts, and multiple critics’ and readers’ poll victories in DownBeat and JazzTimes. Joining Alexander on the album are bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Kendrick Scott. On select tracks, Venezuelan percussionist Luisito Quintero and flautist Anne Drummond join on to stunning aural effect.

Joey Alexander evinces a deftness of touch, wit and, most important, emotional depth that would seem well beyond his years. – JazzTimes

Official Press Release

Joey Alexander on TKA

Best Jazz Vocal Album: Alone Together — Catherine Russell

Best Regional Roots Music Album: Good Time — Ranky Tanky

Best Instrumental Composition: “Begin Again” — Fred Hersch

Best Traditional Blues Album: Spectacular Class — Jontavious Willis

Best Traditional Blues Album: Sitting On Top Of The Blues — Bobby Rush

Best Jazz Instrumental Album: In The Key Of The Universe — Joey DeFrancesco

Best Folk Album: Rearrange My Heart — Che Apalache (produced by Béla Fleck)

Pat Metheny’s new album From This Place will be released on Nonesuch Records on February 21, 2020. Joined by his long-time drummer Antonio Sanchez, Malaysian/Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh, and British pianist Gwilym Simcock, as well as the Hollywood Studio Symphony, the album features ten new compositions by Metheny. Special guests include Meshell Ndegeocello, Gregoire Maret, and Luis Conte.

Read the Announcement on Nonesuch

Pre-order From This Place

Pat Metheny on TKA

Each year, the prestigious title is only awarded to a limited number of artists who have “significantly contributed to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance.” The distinction was presented to the legendary tenor saxophonist and flutist at the Maison De La Culture De Nevers by Michel Orier, Director of Music and Creation at Radio France.

Read The Official Announcement

Charles Lloyd on TKA

Wild Wild East first started to take shape following the 2016 election. “It felt like the Wild West,” Jain says of the times.

Premiering on Brooklyn Vegan, lead single “Immigrant Warrior” conveys the concept behind the album title. It sounds like the middle ground between a Western score and a Bollywood score, with a little free jazz in the mix too, and Sunny Jain fuses these things to the point where they sound like one focused style of music.

Premiere on Brooklyn Vegan

Listen to Immigrant Warrior Now

Sunny Jain’s Wild Wild East on TKA

Guitarist and bluesman Jack Broadbent releases the second single off his forthcoming record Moonshine Blue, “Everytime I Drown,” exclusively on American Songwriter. Check out the emotionally raw, single-shot music video, filmed on a freezing cold day at Lake Superior.

Watch The Video Here

Jack Broadbent on TKA

“Although each individual member of this supergroup is a bona fide jazz titan, these incredible musicians dwell in the rarefied air of bands whose whole is greater than the sum of its already-sublime parts. Their musical conversation is sophisticated, soulful and powerful and their groove runs deep.” – Don Was, President of Blue Note Records

Read The Official Press Release

Artemis on TKA

Margie Goldsmith of Forbes caught up with Coco Montoya after his recent show at the Iridium in NYC to discuss his new release Coming In Hot.

On what makes his fifth album unique, Coco says, “the songwriting. I don’t do a lot of songwriting. We only have one song that was accepted by the record company on the album, which just ended up being the title…We seem to be willing to take that risk of being accepted or totally rejected.”

Read The Full Interview

Buy Coming In Hot

Coco Montoya on TKA

Grammy Award winner Kurt Elling—coming off his sixteenth top-listing on the Annual Downbeat Critics Poll—will record a new album featuring acclaimed global jazz ambassador, pianist and composer Danilo Pérez.

Due for release on April 3, 2020, the release brings together a powerful message and unique collaboration, as Kurt explains: “When I’m in the room with someone of such enormous talent and experience, I hope to learn all that I can about his approach to music and life. I want to be challenged and to meet the unexpected. I get that and more from Danilo. In the end, I believe we enrich one another and create something valuable and new.”

Read The Full Press Release

Kurt Elling on TKA