Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS & NEW YEAR!

Florencia Gonzalez Big Band -][- Woman Dreaming of Escape – [Florencia Gonzalez, 2012] –

Tags

Arranger, Composer, Florencia Gonzalez, Saxophone, SInger, Uruguay

Florencia Gonzalez Big Band, Woman Dreaming of Escape

Florencia Gonzalez Big Band -][- Woman Dreaming of Escape –Mp3– [Florencia Gonzalez, 2012] –

Florencia, composer, performer (multi woodwind player, singer), and session musician, leads bands that range from a duo of guitar and saxophone to a 20-piece Big Band.

Her Big Band has been together since 2007; playing regularly in Boston until 2011, when it was selected one of the best 5 jazz bands in Boston right before moving to New York, where she established a new Big Band composed by the finest jazz musicians of the city.

Chelsey Green and The Green Project -][- Still Green: The EP – [Chelsey Alyse Green, 2012] –

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African American, Chelsey Green, Composer. Violinist, Marcus J. Moore

Chelsey Green and The Green Project, STILL GREEN . THE EP

Chelsey Green and The Green Project -][- Still Green: The EP –Mp3– [Chelsey Alyse Green, 2012] –

Standout Track: No. 3, “Pizzicato,” a calming concoction of light drum taps and ambient keys, on which violinist Chelsey Green piles layers of fluid string work. This song—the last one recorded for her Still Green EP—is classical meets contemporary, blurring the line between jazz and R&B. While Green’s playing is the clear centerpiece, it occasionally gives way to Aaron Hardin’s rolling piano chords and Brian “Spyda” Wheatley’s escalating percussion. “I like to call it ‘classical, shaken and stirred,’” says Green, 26.

Shana Tucker -][- SHINE – [Shana Tucker, 2011] –

Tags

African American, Cellist, Female Vocalist, Shana Tucker

Shana Tucker, SHINE

Shana Tucker -][- SHINE –Mp3– [Shana Tucker, 2011] –

Transcending genre distinctions, SHANA TUCKER is a “ChamberSoul” cellist and singer/songwriter from New York who’s set on blazing a trail for herself down in North Carolina. Her music is a sultry pastiche of acoustic pop and soulful, jazz-influenced contemporary folk. “It’s different, yet comfortably familiar…I love 80’s music and I’m a sucker for jazz. Many of the grooves have a bossa-nova/latin heartbeat, translated through percussive vocal phrasing. I can’t deny the classical training; it inspires my cello sensibilities…but I like the thump of walking blues & old-timey bass lines. It’s like a delicious coffee blend: bold and robust, with subtle undertones of bittersweet…and something you can’t quite place, but it’s still good!” she says with a smile.