Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
Keeping the Flame at Van Gelder Studio
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Cassandra Wilson’s new album Thunderbird(Blue Note), a collaboration with producer T-Bone Burnett, will hit stores on April 4.
“Working with T Bone took the songs into a whole other place,” Wilson said. “He guided me into the deepest recesses of the material, and that attention to detail and nuance allowed me to delve into my own innermost emotions.”
This album, influenced by the ancient and magical myth of the thunderbird, offers new combinations of musical sounds, instrumentation, styles and different covers of songs that Wilson felt she had to do. “With ‘Easy Rider,’ I had always heard the ‘C.C. Rider’ version of this song covered, but never heard anyone do the Blind Lemon version, which resonated with me,” Wilson said.
The singer, whose past albums were defined by the sparse sounds of acoustic guitars, went in a different direction with Thunderbird, utilizing keyboardist Keefus Ciancia, who also coproduced the album.
Also playing on the album are Marc Ribot, Colin Linden, Mike Elizondo, Reginald Veal, Jim Keltner, Bill Maxwell and Jay Bellerose on drums.
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
Sep 3, 2025 12:03 PM
Trio aRT, a working unit since 1988, shockingly released its very first studio recording this summer. Recorded in…
“Think of all the creative people I’m going to meet and a whole other way of thinking about music and a challenge of singing completely different material than I would have sung otherwise to my highest level in dedication to the moment,” Elling says about his Broadway run.
Sep 9, 2025 1:18 PM
Kurt Elling was back at home in Chicago, grabbing some family time in a late-June window between gigs. Sporting a smile…
Pat Metheny will perform with his Side-Eye III ensemble at Big Ears 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee, next March.
Sep 9, 2025 12:19 PM
Big Ears has announced the lineup for its 2026 festival, which will take place March 26–29 and include 250…
Mark Masters, right, with Billy Harper.
Sep 3, 2025 12:00 PM
The Rising Star Category of this publication’s annual Critics Poll was once called Talent Deserving Wider Recognition…
