May 24, 2018 9:00 AM
Nik Bärtsch Wants his Ensemble to be a ‘Flexible Organism’
The Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch is best known for Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, an electric group that plays what…
Kaspar Rast (left), Nik Bärtsch, Sha and Thomy Jordi recorded Awase for the ECM imprint.
May 24, 2018 9:00 AM
The Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch is best known for Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, an electric group that plays what…
Maria Pia De Vito’s embrace of the Portuguese language has resulted in the singer making connections between seemingly disparate musical traditions.
May 23, 2018 9:00 AM
Singer Maria Pia De Vito folds her facility for more than a dozen languages into her recordings.
Her latest album,…
During the 1960s and 1970s, multi-instrumentalist Hailu Mergia was a star in Ethiopia as a member of the Walias Band.
May 21, 2018 9:10 AM
Hailu Mergia is hardly a household name. Still, he’s making one of the grandest and most inspiring comebacks in…
Simba Baumgartner performs May 5 at Town Hall in New York during the 12th Django A GoGo.
May 18, 2018 11:01 AM
In the span of five days in May, two major Django Reinhardt tributes took place in Manhattan, drawing hordes of…
Chicago pianist Charles Joseph Smith says War Of The Martian Ghosts, which he began composing in the ’90s, was inspired by saxophonist Caroline Davis, the film Mars Attacks! and techniques of minimalist composers.
May 18, 2018 9:24 AM
Pianist Charles Joseph Smith always has used music to challenge limitations. When this world offered him only scant…
Emma-Jean Thackray began her life as a musician in a Yorkshire brass band.
May 17, 2018 9:20 AM
Emma-Jean Thackray built her new record, Ley Lines, in the upstairs studio of her cozy and colorful South London flat,…
Lakecia Benjamin’s new album is titled Rise Up.
May 16, 2018 3:51 PM
Because of the music’s sheer ebullience, it’s sometimes hard to comprehend the somber inspiration that fuels alto…
Bassist and ASCAP board member Marcus Miller (left) and music director Paul Mirkovich take part in a panel discussion at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles during the organization’s recent “I Create Music” Expo.
May 14, 2018 9:12 AM
Three years ago, Marcus Miller got a phone call from one of the many music legends he’s worked with over the years,…
Bettye LaVette interprets 12 Bob Dylan songs on her album Things Have Changed.
May 11, 2018 1:27 PM
A few years ago, singer Bettye LaVette was backstage at a festival in Italy and found herself walking about 50 feet…
Vibraphonist Roy Ayers performs last year in Pittsburgh.
May 11, 2018 11:54 AM
Pittsburgh’s contributions to the jazz firmament stretch from seminal figures like Roy Eldridge, Kenny Clarke and…
