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…
Trumpeter Steven Bernstein is back with his latest recording Diaspora Suite, the fourth installment from his Diaspora series on Tzadik Records. The disc was released on Jan. 27 in San Francisco and there will be a release party at The Jazz Standard in New York on Feb. 10. Diaspora Suite evolves the concept of radical Jewish music, however, this time around Bernstein contributes all twelve original compositions. The music was recorded in one day during a session at Bay Studios in Bernstein’s hometown of Oakland, Calif.
He was joined by a nonet of fellow California-native musicians, including Jeff Cressman on trombone, Peter Apfelbaum on tenor saxophone and flute, Ben Goldberg on clarinets, Nels Cline, John Schott and Will Bernard on guitars, Devin Hoff on bass, and Josh Jones and Scott Amendola on drums and percussion.
“I’d been performing the music from Diaspora Soul, Diaspora Blues and Diaspora Hollywood around the world,” Bernstein said. “With each performance I’d gained greater insight into the cantorial melodies that I had transcribed over the years, and like any folk music these melodies transformed as we played them night after night for different audiences.”
More info: tzadik.com
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…
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“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.”
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In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
