Twisted Pine has been included in the Improper Bostonian’s annual list of “Top Ten Local Artists on the Rise.” Read what writer Paul Robicheau had to say about the band:

“When the electricity went out at DelFest, that didn’t stop string quartet Twisted Pine. “If we were all electric, we wouldn’t have been able to play,” fiddler/singer Kathleen Parks says of that Memorial Day weekend event earlier this year in Maryland. “We went into the audience and did three or four traditional bluegrass tunes. Then the power came back on, and we plugged in and had all the pedals.”

Pedals? Yes, Twisted Pine has come a long way from late 2013, when Parks, guitarist/singer Rachel Sumner and mandolinist Dan Bui (all from Berklee) and UMass/Amherst-bred bassist Chris Sartori began playing bluegrass in the tradition of Del McCoury and Bill Monroe at the Cantab Lounge in Central Square. On their eponymous 2017 debut, they served crisp, charming bluegrass-pop originals like “Hold on Me” and “I Miss Talking,” then took another turn with last month’s EPDreams, which reimagines covers of the Beatles, Blondie and the Cranberries. Those covers took form in backstage rooms.”

Read the rest of the feature at the Improper Bostonian

Find Twisted Pine on TKA

 

TKA artist Cécile Mclorin Salvant has made NPR’s new list of  “The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women,” with her song “Monday” coming in at number 53! This is what NPR had to say about the song:

“While she’s made her name lending her unparalleled vocal chops to mischievous old blues tunes and forgotten Broadway melodies, Cécile McLorin Salvant has equally mastered spacious, searching ballads. “Monday” is of the latter ilk, an impressionistic Salvant original that floats like a two-minute daydream. It’s nestled midway through her 2015 album For One to Love, which found the French-trained 20-something honing her songwriter’s voice with keen observations on romance, yearning and human interaction.” —Rachel Horn

Visit NPR to listen to “Monday” as well as the other songs on the list

Find Cécile Mclorin Salvant on TKA

Recently, Dustbowl Revival stopped by DittyTV’s Memphis Studio to perform their songs “Honey I Love You” and “Sonic Boom” in a fantastic live session.

Watch the video for “Honey I Love You” on Youtube

Watch the video for “Sonic Boom” on Youtube

Find Dustbowl Revival on TKA

 

Nate Chinen for WGBO – The maestro has returned to the mountain. On his super-dynamic new album, Full Circle, pianist and bandleader Eddie Palmieri breathes new life into a menu of his classic salsa compositions. One of these is “Vámonos Pa’l Monte,” the title track of his essential 1971 album — which, as critic and professor Gregory “Goyo” Pappas has put it, “represents the culmination of a period where Palmieri learned to successfully adopt and integrate an increasing number of jazz elements into his music.”

On Full Circle, “Vámonos Pa’l Monte” is actually played twice: in a sleek version featuring his working band, stocked with stalwarts like Little Johnny Rivero on congas and Jimmy Bosch on trombone; and in a big-band version arranged by Jose Madera.

 

Find the full review on WGBO

Find Eddie Palmieri on TKA

Jessicha Valentina for The Jakarta Post – Indonesian musician Joey Alexander is synonymous with jazz.

Born in Bali, Joey began playing the piano at the tender of age 6. His father, Denny Sila, introduced him to the instrument and helped him to hone his swing and improvisation skills by introducing him to classic jazz recordings and taking him to jam sessions in Bali and Jakarta.

Joey received international recognition after performing at the 2014 Jazz at Lincoln Center’s gala, a show that New York Times described as an “overnight sensation”.

Since then, Joey has become unstoppable. In 2016, he made history to be the first Indonesian nominated for a Grammy Award for his debut album My Favorite Things, as well as the youngest-ever Grammy nominee in the jazz category at the age of 12. Currently, Joey has received a total of three Grammy nominations.

Joey, who recently turned 15, launched his third studio album Eclipse in May. The jazz pianist talked with The Jakarta Post via email about his new album and life as a jazz musician.

Tell us more about your new album Eclipse. How does it feel to work with renowned musicians Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland and Joshua Redman? What are the things you learned from them?

The album was named after a piece called “Eclipse” we recorded on the day of the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. It was a spontaneous thing we did for more than 10 minutes, composing and improvising at the same time.

[Rogers, Harland and Redman] are great musicians and you get what you expected from great musicians. I have toured with Rogers and Harland before recording, so we knew each other.

When you play with people in order to work, there has to be learning from each other and mutual respect. They had to learn about what I wanted to accomplish with my compositions and arrangements, we learned from each other as we play. Listening is the key.

Regarding your new music video “Bali”, how long did you take to compose the song? Is “Bali” more personal to you when compared with other songs onEclipse?

Probably, around a month. The more I played it, the better I knew the song and the more I wanted to share it with the listeners.

I am grateful for the videographer, who did a great job capturing what I saw and experienced every day growing up in Bali.

 

Find the full interview on The Jakarta Post

Find Joey Alexander on TKA

via Missing Piece

Eddie Palmieri’s Debut Release on His Newly Formed Label Uprising Music

Album Accompanied by Release of “Palmieri Salsa Jams” App

 

A titan of Latin Jazz and Salsa music, Eddie Palmieri, known as “El Maestro,” is still making musical history. At 81 years old, the multi-Grammy Award winning pianist and music legend today releases his new album Full Circle.

Featuring 8 classic salsa tracks recorded with stunning cast of musicians from New York and beyond, the album si his first album released on Palmieri’s newly launched imprint Uprising Music via Ropeadope. The album release coincides with the release of the Palmieri Salsa Jams App, the world’s first interactive Salsa music app on Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s Stretch Music App platform.

Watch a demo video of the app HERE, and listen to the album on Spotify HERE.

A recipient of The National Endowment for the Arts’ distinguished Jazz Master Award and the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Science Lifetime Achievement Award, Palmieri has always been at the forefront of major shifts and modernizations in the music industry. From using a front line of trombones rather than the trumpets customary in Latin orchestras in his heralded “La Perfecta” band, to breaking the three minute recording of “Azucar Pa’ Ti,” Palmieri has always pushed the creative envelope. The release of some of his greatest Salsa classics in the form of an interactive app is just another in a long line of firsts for the music icon.

Full Circle finds Mr. Palmieri teamed with world-class musicians from the New York scene that have played with him over the last decade; “Little” Johnny Rivero, Luques Curtis, Jonathan Powell, Louis Fouché, and many more. On Full Circle listeners will find the basic harmonic and rhythmic structures of the original recordings but with Eddie’s solos freer and more aggressive than ever. These tracks are true representations of Palmieri at the peak of his creative powers.

The Palmieri Salsa Jams App (powered by Stretch Music and Spectrum) is sure to please musicians and audiophiles alike. It gives musicians the ability to completely control their listening, practicing, and learning experience by customizing the player to fit their specific needs and goals. The app has the capability to mute, solo, pan and fade any instrument chosen along with tempo control, looping and sheet music for each part.

As he has throughout his 50+year career, Eddie Palmieri is once again pushing boundaries by building bridges; between musicians, listeners and now with young students with his interactive technology. Full Circle begins yet another chapter in the Palmieri legacy.

 

Eddie Palmieri on TKA 

Neil Ferguson for GLIDE Magazine- “At last it was time for the main attraction, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, who opened with a wonderfully manic mélange of sounds that got downright funky and found Howard Levy jumping in headfirst with a wild harmonica solo. On tour celebrating their thirtieth year, the Flecktones sounded spry as ever, each at the absolute highest level of craftsmanship on his instrument. Victor Wooten would lay down thick and dirty bass grooves throughout the night, while Bela Fleck would create sounds with the banjo that are seemingly impossible. At times he would alternate from gritty blues guitar tone only to drop on a dime into a jazz solo or break off into a full on a banjo bluegrass riff.

Onstage at the zoo, the band led the audience through peaks and valleys with astounding proficiency. There was the progressive scaling of “Nemo’s Dream”, the trippy two-part jazzgrass opus “Mars Needs Women”, and the swinging yet highly technical number “Hurricane Camille” that found drum mastermind Future Man kicking off with a cymbal-heavy, almost tribal solo. The biggest moment of the night would come close to the end as the Flecktones did what many in the audience hoped for and invited first Jerry Douglas to the stage to join them on the reggae groove meets Celtic jam “Lochs of Dread” only to then invite David Grisman out for “Big Country”. Each act of the night undoubtedly delivered an impressive set, but seeing all of the masters onstage together was truly the pinnacle of an already magical night of bluegrass at the zoo.”

Read the full article at Glide Magazine

Find Béla Fleck and the Flecktones on TKA

Scott Bernstein for JamBase – New York-bred instrumental quartet TAUK will issue the full-length Shapeshifter II: Outbreak on September 28. The follow-up to their early 2018 EP Shapeshifter I: Construct was recorded with producer Robert Carranza. TAUK released “Convoy,” the first single from the album.

The band recorded both the EP and LP at an old home on Long Island drummer Isaac Teel described in a press released as “the Jumanji house meets Addams Family meets Amityville Horror.” Bassist Charlie Dolan explained how the secluded location played into the resulting music, “Overall the whole process was incredibly organic—there were no constrictions as far as time or space, nothing ever felt forced. There was a greater feeling of possibility, and it ended up being a really liberating experience for all of us.” Guitarist Matt Jalbert added, “The location definitely added to the vibe of everything we were going for. It was like we set up a laboratory in the middle of nowhere and shut off the rest of the world, which really helped get us into a specific headspace.”

 

Find the full article on JamBase

Find TAUK on TKA

The August 2018 issue of DownBeat announced the winners of the 66th Annual International Critics Poll. TKA is proud to congratulate Cécile McLorin Salvant, Charles Lloyd and Kurt Elling for the following accolades:

Cécile McLorin Salvant winner of the Jazz Album of the Year for Dreams and Daggers (Mack Avenue) and of the Female Vocalist category

Charles Lloyd winner of the Tenor Saxophone category

Kurt Elling winner of the Male Vocalist category

 

Read the full list of winners and nominees on DownBeat

Cécile McLorin Salvant on TKA

Charles Lloyd on TKA

Kurt Elling on TKA

From Youtube- “Joey Alexander takes a giant step forward with his fourth album, ‘Eclipse.’ This recording features a stellar rhythm section of bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland with guest appearances on three tracks by saxophonist Joshua Redman.”

Watch the video, directed by Yas Rowan, on Youtube

Find Joey Alexander on TKA