New Music [Jazz] Releases for the Week of 6/7/2010

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Geri Allen, Hector Martignon, Mike Clark, New Releases, Paul Motian, Piano, Stacey Kent

Greetings’ jazz aficionados, I’m back with another palette of distinctive, and insinuating sounds, immaculate melodies, relentless rhythms attached to the opulent flavors embedded & exalted freely from the vibrant voice of jazz is here to quench our ongoing thirst for quality music.

On the menus this week, we have pianist Geri Allen and her fabulous group Timeline and her newest offering “Live” is our featured album of the week. Vocalist Stacey Kent stops by with her latest “Raconte-Moi,” drummer Paul Motian pays tribute to the legendary “Bill Evans.” The plot thickens with piano duo Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes are linked together to record “Double Portrait.” The aforementioned titles and more were compiled by yours truly can be found just below the new releases banner …

Featured Album of the Week

Geri Allen & Timeline - Live

Geri Allen & Timeline -|- Live (Dig) – [Motema Music, 2010]

This incendiary group gains standing ovations with their unique act that speaks the language of tap, drumming, and the street within the totally embracing context of Allen’s deep in-the-pocket, groove-oriented jazz. Allen is one of the most respected pianists of her generation, with scans of over 36,000 units as a leader. * Geri Allen and her youthful group TIMELINE stand at the leading edge of a current, hip trend to include tap in jazz performances. Tap percussionist Maurice Chestnut, a protégé of tap icon Savion Glover, proves himself to be one of the most innovative practitioners of his discipline, and a musician of the highest order.

Flux Music Essentials … [Fuller, Metheny, Mahogany, Green & Tebar]

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Jimmy Green, Kevin Mahogany, Pat Metheny Group, Tia Fuller, Ximo Tebar

Flux Music Essentials

Greeting’s everyone, I’m back this week with another serving of who’s who in the world of jazz from the shelves of “Flux Music Essentials.”

Tia Fuller - Decisive Steps

Tia Fuller -|- Decisive Steps – [Mack Avenue Records, 2010]

The astonishingly gifted, Colorado-born, alto / soprano saxophonist / flautist Tia Fuller is at home at all points of the musicverse – from her show-stopping solos as a member of superstar Beyoncé’s all-female band, to her scintillatingly swinging jazz dates and recordings. Her newest Mack Avenue release Decisive Steps, is the long-awaited follow-up to her 2007 label debut Healing Space. It features her Beyoncé bandmate, drummer Kim Thompson; bassist Miriam Sullivan; Fuller’s sister, Shamie Royston on piano and Fender Rhodes; with special guests, trumpeter Sean Jones and bassist Christian McBride (both Mack Avenue label mates); vibraphonist Warren Wolf; and tap dancer Maurice Chestnut.

Marcus Strickland -|- Of Song

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African American, Jazz, Marcus Strickland, Saxophone

Marcus Strickland - Of Song

Marcus Strickland -|- Of Song – [Criss Cross, 2009]

I’m someone who listens mostly to the great, classic artists of jazz, like Clifford Brown, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane, so it’s rare when a contemporary jazz musician (other than Sonny Rollins) knocks me flat. But Marcus Strickland has the purity of tone, the heart, the sense of invention that keeps me coming back to this album over and over again. It’s quite simply beautiful.

In some ways, this CD reminds me of Coltrane’s “Ballads” album, lovely playing, certainly, but it’s not the place one would go for the music most original to Trane. In a similar way, “Of Song” has a clear, lyric beauty, but for the music most original to Marcus Stickland, there are other places to look.

Composer/Bandleader Roland Vazquez Proudly Announces The Release of Roland Vazquez Band: The Visitor

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Drums, Roland Vazquez

Roland Vasquez Band - The Visitor

The Visitor is Vazquez’ tenth album as composer/leader, his first studio recording in thirteen years, & a 19-piece all-star Afro Latin “big band” project made possible through a grant from The Aaron Copland Fund For Music

The Roland Vazquez Band featuring:
Aaron Heick, Joel Frahm, Dan Willis, Roger Rosenberg,
Tony Kadleck, Alex Norris Luis Perdomo (piano),
James Genus (bass), Ignacio Berroa (drums)
Samuel Torres (congas & percussion), Pete McCann (guitar)
Roland Vazquez (composer/conductor/producer)

Roland Vazquez Band

To know Roland Vazquez is to know his music, and vice versa. Like many true artists, his work is inseparable from the essence of his character. One can hear in the music of Vazquez, the powerful optimism, wisdom, love, humor and joy that exudes so effortlessly from the man. Nowhere has this been more prevalent than on the award-winning and critically-acclaimed composer, bandleader and drummer’s glorious new recording, The Visitor, to be released on RVCD through iTunes on July 8, and through CD Baby on August 9.