Music
This disc is mainly a showcase for guitarist Nels Cline’s compositions as well as his cleverness at commanding group improvisation.
Jonathan Nott does right by Ligeti and Herbert Blomstedt does the same for Mozart. You didn’t know that Evgeny Kissin, the piano virtuoso, was also a composer? Join the club.
A triumphant disc from A Far Cry, some fresh thinking from Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Israel Philharmonic, and Thomas Hampson, a great purveyor of American song, focuses on Chicago.
Every guitarist should listen carefully to this album. And then maybe some Johnny Smith.
Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is a big personality and in this performance he was almost as much raconteur, comedian and ringmaster as musician.
From intense solo recitals to big band rumbles, Satoko Fujii can not only be counted on for exploratory zeal — she also has the chops to pull off whatever she attempts.
Toots Hibbert’s voice expresses both his Jamaican country church upbringing and his deep love of American R&B and soul.
“Our intention was something other than being famous. When you create art from that place, a song is going to connect with people.”
Although his choice of material doesn’t always work for me, for my money, Kurt Elling is the most important jazz vocalist of the last twenty years.
Commentary/Interview: “The Jazz Bubble” — The Arts, Commodified
In what ways are the arts themselves (and our understanding of them) being shaped to serve the ethos of corporate profit-making?
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