Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Medeski, Martin & Wood are set to release Omnisphere on Sept. 14.
(Photo: Michael Bloom)Medeski Martin & Wood is set to issue Omnisphere (Indirecto), a live disc the trio recorded in Colorado during 2015 with new music collective Alarm Will Sound, on Sept. 14. Below is a new arrangement of “End Of The World Party,” one of two tracks on the forthcoming disc reimagined from the group’s 2004 Blue Note album of the same name.
This latest version softens the composition’s groove a bit, but adds an ominous spirit through whirring keyboard supplements, and Alarm Will Sound’s brass and reeds.
Tour dates for MMW are forthcoming. Keyboardist John Medeski is set for fall dates with Mad Skillet, a new ensemble featuring guitarist Will Bernard, sousaphone player Kirk Joseph and drummer Terence Higgins. MMW bassist Chris Wood continues road work with the Wood Brothers, and percussionist Billy Martin is enmeshed in his role as artistic director for the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. For more information about the group, visit its homepage. DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…