Sao Paulo-born & New York City-based bassist - Nilson Matta has just released his new album EastSideRioDrive. Unlike nearly every South American-styled CD this unique, creative discc blends sounds of the South via Romero Lubambo and Cyro Baptista, and North via Anne Drummond and Craig Handy, as well as pianist Edsel Gomez from Puerto Rico. This wonderfully balanced mixture of jazz and brasilian sounds from these two hemispheres is soothing and relaxing in places, gutsy and bold in others. 

Will Friedwald from the Wall Street Journal commented - "To reconsider an old expression, this album doesn't just represent the "best of both worlds" – but rather the collective greatness of at least three or four."  EastSideRioDrive was '#3 Most ADDed'@Jazzweek

 

Lately there seems to be an especially noteworthy new crop of young female singer-songwriters. Kat Edmonson's original songs and her delivery thereof somehow seems both retro and cutting edge all at the same time, contemporary but with a firm grounding in the 1960s. On her new album, "The Big Picture," "You Can't Break My Heart" combines James Bond fender bass lines and an Ennio Morricone trumpet, while the next track, "Till We Start to Kiss" pays a visit to Martin Denny's tiki lounge. Although this show is an album release event, here's hoping Ms. Edmonson will include a few standards; her rendition of "Mele Kalikimaka" was the highlight of Vince Giordano 's Town Hall Christmas concert two months ago.  SEE THE Wall Street Journal LISTING

 

Anybody who has seen or heard Bobby McFerrin's performances - even if it's just from watching a YouTube video - will not forget just how wonderfully comfortable the legendary performer appears to be on stage. Often clad just in jeans and baggy shirts, the 10-time Grammy winner has spent decades wowing audiences with his vocal talent. The 64-year-old, who is best known for his 1988 a cappella hit, Don't Worry, Be Happy, as well as his spontaneous, free-wheeling musical style, has worked with some of music's biggest names - including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, jazz keyboardist Chick Corea and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. But it's his improvisation that will make you sit up and take notice. READ THE FULL Today ARTICLE

 

From Mike Ragogna's interview with Somi MR: Somi, after speaking to your Uncle Hugh Masekela, you decided that you wanted to go to Lagos, Nigeria, that trip inspiring your new album The Lagos Music Salon. Did you have any idea of what was going to happen after that or were you just going to Lagos for discovery? Somi: I was definitely just going to discover. I had always been interested in seeing what it might be like to live and work on the African continent. How it might impact my lyrical and musical inspiration. It was really Uncle Hugh who gave me the courage and reminded me of the global citizenship of musicians. We shouldn't overthink something in terms of a move, and then we start thinking of the logistics, the production, the finances. He said you can go and just decide to spend time with a part of your audience and a part of the world and then always come right back if and when you feel ready. I decided to stop talking about it and just go. I had this soft landing through the extension of a former graduate advisor of mine at New York University, a professor there by the name of Awam Ampka, who is also Nigerian and has been in the US for a number of years, now tenured at Tisch. He was starting an international artist residency program and I took him up on the offer to go for a minimum of 7 weeks. I used that time to kind of explore the city, the country and my heart to see if it seemed like the right place for me to be at that time. I decided once I got there that I would stay through the end of the following year. I moved there in September 2011 and the plan was to stay until December 2012. Once I was there, I stayed for 18 months until 2013.  READ THE FULL HuffPost INTERVIEW

 

In the 1930s, Europe's loss of artists and intellectuals fleeing the rise of Nazi persecution and anti-intellectualism proved to be America's gain. Some of the greatest contributions to American culture came in the form of Hollywood film scores, with European exiles raising the symphonic standard of movie music for generations of film fans to come. The Madison Symphony Orchestra will showcase the works of three better-known artists in its Composers in Exile: Creating the Hollywood Sound concert series. Classical and cinematic compositions by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa and Franz Waxman fill the playlist March 6-8 at Madison's Overture Center. Maestro John DeMain will conduct the three performances, with violinist Daniel Hope performing Korngold's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major. The March concerts will be Hope's first time performing with MSO, and he says he's delighted by the program that has been chosen, both for its musicality and as a way to educate audiences unfamiliar with the composers and their contributions. "I particularly love vintage Hollywood film music, especially the scores by the European exiles such as Korngold, Waxman and Rózsa," Hope said in an email interview from his home in the U.K. "These three composers also wrote a number of serious works, but only really Korngold is acknowledged today in this field."  READ THE FULL Wisconsin Gazette ARTICLE

 

Ask someone in the Jazz community about Ron Carter, and you may hear that he has a reputation for being a bit temperamental when interacting with certain players or people in the industry. If one wishes to, they can easily find stories from the past that tell of Ron becoming upset with someone at a session or maybe scolding a news reporter for their ignorance. carter_findingtherightnotes_cm It's even recounted in his 2009 biography by Downbeat writer Dan Ouellette that while he was a member of the famous Miles Davis Quintet in the 1960's, he nearly walked out on Miles right before a west coast tour because the band hadn't been paid from the previous week. However, with any examination at all, it's clear to see that this is not an ego trip. In fact, it is the opposite. It's a tack that's not frequently found these days in professional music called "upholding standards" – not the ones that you play, but the ones that you live by. It boils down to a respect for the process, and when you have worked hard to attain a reputation and a place in this industry, you respect it, and you can't help but have opinions about those who didn't learn or forget to hold that respect. Not even a musical behemoth like Miles Davis was immune from the fundamental rules that govern a true professional like Ron Carter. There is another image of Ron out there, as spoken by his peers and music professionals who above all, defend Ron as the most reliable, trustworthy, sensitive player they know and how he is their number one call on every gig, regardless of the challenges. And it is actually this reputation that causes the other, because this one is much harder to attain, more difficult to maintain, and can evaporate instantly if the wrong choices are made. Those juicy stories of past conflict are really just reverberations of reputation maintenance. Yet, they are still the ones that filter into the headlines and rumors of the main stream. It's easy to tell which Ron is the real one, he's the one up there on stage, making all the right choices night after night. Watch him at any gig: always impeccably dressed, punctual, articulate, a towering posture standing with even a taller instrument, his attention focused to a razors edge. With every note he commands attention, nay, he demands it. There are plenty of column inches dedicated to less disciplined musicians out there acting the fool, squandering resources in a studio session, or maybe losing it out on the road. Less often is that space used to outline a real role model for the professional musician. If you happen to need a perfect example for a monster player who also keeps his ship together, then look no further. Oregon Music News got to talk with Ron Carter about his music and the trio he will be bringing to the PDX Jazz Festival 2015:

 

From Mike Ragogna's interview with Nir Felder MR:  Let's talk about all things Golden Age, where historic speeches actually played a part in its creative process. Was the concept of Golden Age planned out or was it something that happened as it evolved? Nir Felder: I didn't really plan out the album from front to back as I was writing the music. But it was like, those themes are something that we're dealing with in such a major way in this sort of political climate kind of musical climate, for basically the whole time I've been a professional musician. So this was stuff that's with me and not something that just ended with the record. The narrative goes through basically my whole adult life. I started playing music as a teenager, and said this is what I want to do, it was when Napster came out--same exact time. The changes in the music industry, the changes in the U.S., the changes in New York City have been so profound over the course of my adult life and it was just what I was tuned in to. The Golden Agetitle is kind of more of a question than it is a statement. I've said that many times in interviews, but the record was written during a time that I was feeling very hopeful and now maybe things have panned out the way we could have hoped, or better, and other things have panned out not at all that way. It's just food for thought.  READ THE FULL HuffPost INTERVIEW