BLUE NOTE JAZZ CLUB CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY WITH INAUGURAL BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK CITY

Tags

BLUE NOTE JAZZ CLUB, Bobby McFerrin, Chris Botti, Dave Brubeck, Jon Hendricks, Kathleen Battle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Nancy Wilson

Chris Botti, Dave Brubeck, Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin, The Roots and Many More to Perform in June at this Year’s Largest New York Jazz Festival

Blue Note Jazz Festival

New York, NY – April 13, 2011 – In honor of its 30th anniversary, the Blue Note Jazz Club is opening its doors throughout New York City during the month of June for the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival. More than 80 shows featuring many artists who have performed at the Blue Note for years will take the city by storm at this year’s largest New York jazz festival. More than 60,000 tickets are available. Ticket information and a complete schedule of events are available on the official festival website, http://www.BlueNoteJazzFestival.com.

The festival will feature a diverse group of high-profile artists including Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti, Nancy Wilson, Bobby McFerrin, Brian Wilson, The Roots, Chaka Khan, Roberta Flack, El Gran Combo, Jon Hendricks, Kathleen Battle, McCoy Tyner, Youssou N’Dour, Bill Frisell, Meshell Ndegeocello, Madeleine Peyroux and many more. In addition to presenting a special series of shows at the Blue Note, the club has scheduled shows at the Beacon Theatre, Town Hall, BB King Blues Club & Grill, Highline Ballroom, Terminal 5, Joe’s Pub, Mercury Lounge, Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, The Lehman Center for Performing Arts, and the Katonah Museum of Art.

Prelude To Music’s Biggest Night with Esperanza Spalding and Bobby McFerrin to Co-host GRAMMY Pre-Telecast

Tags

Bobby McFerrin, Esperanza Spalding, Grammy Awards 2011, Jazz, Kirk Whalum, Trombone Shorty, Wayne Wallace

Featuring performances by Buddy Guy, Cyndi Lauper and Mavis Staples, among others …

Esperanza Spalding

The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards Pre-Telecast Ceremony will take place on Sunday, Feb. 13 from 1–4 p.m. PT at the Los Angeles Convention Center and will be streamed live internationally on http://www.grammy.com/live and http://www.youtube.com/thegrammys beginning at 1 p.m. PT. The live stream of the Pre-Telecast will remain on GRAMMY.com as video on demand for 30 days following the event.

Bobby McFerrin

Well-attended by nominees and industry VIPs, the star-studded ceremony with be co-hosted by current GRAMMY nominees Bobby McFerrin and Esperanza Spalding, and will feature performances by nominees including Afro-Colombian hip-hop trio ChocQuibTown, blues musician Buddy Guy, singer/songwriter Cyndi Lauper, American roots interpreter Maria Muldaur, contemporary blues artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, trombone and trumpet player Trombone Shorty, legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples, jazz musician Kirk Whalum, and R&B singer/songwriter Betty Wright. Presenting the first GRAMMY Awards of the night in 98 categories will be current nominees Laurie Anderson, Sara Bareilles, BT, Kathy Griffin, and Wayne Wallace.

Co-hosts McFerrin and Spalding each have one nomination: McFerrin for Best Classical Crossover Album for Vocabularies, and Spalding for Best New Artist.

Performers ChocQuibTown, Guy, Lauper, Muldaur, Shepherd, Staples, Trombone Shorty, and Wright each have one nod: ChocQuibTown for Best Latin Rock, Alternative Or Urban Album for Oro; Guy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for Living Proof; Lauper for Best Traditional Blues Album for Memphis Blues; Muldaur for Best Traditional Folk Album for Maria Muldaur & Her Garden Of Joy; Shepherd for Best Contemporary Blues Album for Live! In Chicago (Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band Featuring Hubert Sumlin, Wille “Big Eyes” Smith, Bryan Lee, and Buddy Flett); Staples for Best Americana Album for You Are Not Alone; Trombone Shorty for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Backatown; and Wright for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for “Go (Live).”

Bobby McFerrin -][- The Voice [Elektra Musician/Nonesuch]

Tags

African American, Bobby McFerrin, Jazz, Male Jazz Vocalist

The charismatic vocal style of virtuoso Bobby McFerrin exceeds the limits we usually find in music regardless of genre. His performance here captures the profound sensibilities generated by his predecessors as he is truly one of the greatest jazz vocalist and improvisers of our time. The Voice, his second album as a soloist ranked among the best recordings in the modern era as it served as springboard to sent his career into the hemisphere of stardom. I’m delighted to get re-engaged myself with this classic and take this gem on a weekend spin. —Rob Young | The Urban Flux

Bobby McFerrin - The Voice

Bobby McFerrin -][- The Voice – [Elektra Musician (1984) Nonesuch, 1990]

The vocalist’s 1984 solo album has proven in many ways to be the blueprint for the iconoclastic career to come. Following his more mainstream debut, 1982’s Bobby McFerrin, The Voice is a daring idea: an unaccompanied, live solo vocal album. Although there’s little here that augers the explicit interest in classical music that would later be apparent, The Voice showcases McFerrin’s remarkable vocal abilities, unabashedly optimistic personality, and willingness to take risky ideas to their logical conclusion.

The son of opera singers, McFerrin is grounded in the vocalese style of King Pleasure, Jon Hendricks and Eddie Jefferson, but is only nominally a jazz singer. Rather, his omnivorous interest in music becomes obvious here with covers of James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” Duke Ellington’s “Take the A-Train,” and a medley that manages to incorporate both Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee” and the Tin Pan Alley standard “We’re in the Money.” As a stylist, McFerrin makes bold use of effects to create a panoply of sounds that stands the notion of pop vocals on its head. —Fred Goodman

..:: Source: Amazon.com ::..

Flux Music Essentials … [Davis, El Movimiento, McFerrin, Parks & Washington]

Tags

Aaron Parks, Bobby McFerrin, El Movimiento, Grover Washington Jr., Jazz, Miles Davis

Greeting’s jazz enthusiasts, I’m back with another tasty mix of jazz that’s undoubtedly shaken and well stirred from the shelves of the “Flux Music Essentials.” As can you see, the titles below may or may not fit in the category of hot selling artist/recordings. Nevertheless, they’re personal favorites that I’ve met and grown to love.

Flux Music Essentials

Miles Davis - Nefertiti

Miles Davis -|- Nefertiti – [Sony, 1967]

The fourth studio album by the second great Miles Davis quintet, and the second comprising material recorded in the pivotal year of 1967, NEFERTITI marked yet another metamorphosis in the career of a great musician noted for welcoming change. While Davis (1926-1991) did not make wholesale, far- reaching alterations on NEFERTITI, as he had on KIND OF BLUE and E.S.P and would on BITCHES BREW, one could say that the pace-setting trumpeter-bandleader modified his approach to the freebop that had for two-and-and-half years been his group’s bread and butter, at least for recording purposes.

On the title selection, and to a lesser extent on “Fall” (another indelibly aching piece) and “Pinocchio,” all high water marks in the catalog of tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, the group’s principal composer, Davis had the front line and rhythm section reverse their traditional roles. While the horns repeated the theme again and again, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams shifted the beat’s emphasis, stretched the time, and offered a full dynamic/emotional range. The effect was like a series of time lapse photographs of a particularly beautiful scene, with light and color and shadows subtly, but continually changing, thus shifting the focus of one’s eye – or, in this case, ear. This made for some of Davis’ most mesmerizing music since KIND OF BLUE and SKETCHES OF SPAIN.

Expanded significantly to almost 66 minutes by the the inclusion of four consistently enthralling alternate takes, NEFERTITI presents Miles Davis’ second great quintet at the peak of their hypnotic, roiling, poetic powers. —Amazon.com

New Releases [Jazz] for the Week of 4/6/2010

Tags

African American, Bobby McFerrin, Jazz

Greetings jazz enthusiasts, April arrives just in time with a short list of New Releases for the first Tuesday of the month. First off, the Featured Album of the Week is the long anticipated recording by Grammy Award winning Bobby McFerrin, bassist / vocalist Richard Bona, the multifaceted Marcus Miller and guitarist Fabrizio Sotti with a host of imports and re-releases.

Featured Album of the Week

Bobby McFerrin - VOCAbuLarieS

Bobby McFerrin .:|:. VOCAbuLarieS – [EmArcy, 2010]

Ten-time Grammy Award winner/vocal innovator Bobby McFerrin surprises us yet again with VOCAbuLarieS, his first new release in eight years. Like his #1 worldwide hit song Don’t Worry Be Happy and his multi-platinum duo album Hush with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, VOCAbuLarieS is based on Bobby’s experiments with multi-track recording and his ceaseless exploration of the potential of the human voice. VOCAbuLarieS is Bobby McFerrin music for the 21st century. A collaboration with the composer/arranger/producer Roger Treece, VOCAbuLarieS features over fifty of the world’s finest singers, recorded one at a time and in small groups to create a virtual choir made up of over 1,400 vocal tracks. Constructed as meticulously as a Mozart symphony or a Steely Dan album, intricately synthesized from countless stylistic elements, VOCAbuLarieS may be unlike any album anyone has ever recorded. Yet the music is always accessible, joyous, and inviting. VOCAbuLarieS celebrates Bobby’s love of all musical genres, from classical to world music, R&B to gospel and beyond, building upon McFerrin’s past explorations and journeying into bold new territory. If the song Don’t Worry Be Happy is all you know about Bobby McFerrin, sit back and prepare to be amazed.

Bobby McFerrin | VOCAbuLarieS

Tags

AAfrican American, Bobby McFerrin, Jazz, Male Vocalist

Bobby McFerrin | VOCAbuLarieS – [EmArcy, 2010]

Bobby McFerrin - VOCAbuLarieS

Ten-time Grammy Award winner/vocal innovator Bobby McFerrin surprises us yet again with VOCAbuLarieS, his first new release in eight years. Like his #1 worldwide hit song Don’t Worry Be Happy and his multi-platinum duo album Hush with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, VOCAbuLarieS is based on Bobby’s experiments with multi-track recording and his ceaseless exploration of the potential of the human voice. VOCAbuLarieS is Bobby McFerrin music for the 21st century. A collaboration with the composer/arranger/producer Roger Treece, VOCAbuLarieS features over fifty of the world’s finest singers, recorded one at a time and in small groups to create a virtual choir made up of over 1,400 vocal tracks.

Constructed as meticulously as a Mozart symphony or a Steely Dan album, intricately synthesized from countless stylistic elements, VOCAbuLarieS may be unlike any album anyone has ever recorded. Yet the music is always accessible, joyous, and inviting. VOCAbuLarieS celebrates Bobby’s love of all musical genres, from classical to world music, R&B to gospel and beyond, building upon McFerrin’s past explorations and journeying into bold new territory. If the song Don’t Worry Be Happy is all you know about Bobby McFerrin, sit back and prepare to be amazed.

..:: Source: Amazon.com ::..