JOMORO is the alias of the musical merger of...Joey Waronker – Veteran drummer of session and live renown with the likes of Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, Adele, Beck, Roger Waters, Air and R.E.M., and full-fledged member of Ultraista and Atoms for Peace, the latter of which also featured bandmate...and Mauro Refosco – International percussionist hailing from Brazil to Broadway-specifically David Byrne's American Utopia-with additional credits ranging from Vampire Weekend and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Dirty Projectors, Bebel Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, among others. Whereas the two have recorded together before-notably alongside Thom Yorke, Flea and Nigel Godrich on Atoms For Peace's #2 charting album AMOK-with JOMORO, Joey and Mauro build their own world at the crossroads of the electronic and the percussive. The expanse of the duo's musical realm is mapped throughout the sonic geography of its debut album, Blue Marble Sky (Sony Music Masterworks): a 12-track travelogue that transports the listener to aural environs ranging from the tranquil Brazilian rainforest to bustling city streets, with occasional breezy pop detours along the way. This is a double interview as Harmonious World Podcast's Hilary Robertson speaks to JOMORO.   LISTEN

The New York Times critics and writers have selected noteworthy cultural events to experience virtually and in person in New York City.......June 3, 2021. The New York Times - LAUREL GRAEBER writes......Cinema Treats, Short and Often Sweet. These are just a few of the subjects in KidsFilmFest, an international slate of short cinematic adventures that this year, like last, will be shown entirely online. For $10, families can view the two programs, which are presented by the Brooklyn Film Festival, any time from noon on Friday to 10 p.m. Eastern time on June 13. Streaming on CineSend, each series - eight titles for ages 3 to 7, and nine for ages 8 to 15 - will be followed by a recorded discussion with filmmakers. The animated choices include Xi Chengzhuo's beautiful, wordless "Ballad of Music Notes"; Catherine Chen's "Yuan Yuan and the Hollow Monster," in which a girl defeats a hurricane; and Susan Lim and Samudra Kajal Saikia's "Boy Scientist," about geek romance. But the most powerful love story is live action: "At Last," Lorena Gordon's portrayal of a gay teenager's coming of age - and heartfelt coming out.

Gramophone Magazine noted that GRAMMY-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta conducts performances that are assured, spontaneous and superbly played. An award winning musician and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Council on the Arts, Ms. Faletta has introduced over 500 works by American composers, including over 100 world premieres, and her discography tops 120 titles. Not only does she lead the Buffalo Philharmonic, but is also Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center, and Artistic Adviser of the Hawaii Symphony and Cleveland Institute of Music - Orchestra. Hailed for having ‘Toscanini's tight control over her ensembles, Walter's affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski's gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein', Joann Falletta is a leading force for the music of our time. In 2018, The Buffalo Philharmonic made their first international tour in three decades and performed at Warsaw's Beethoven Easter Festival. The impetus for the tour was the BPO's friendship with Krzysztof Penderecki and his wife,  Easter Festival founder and artistic director Elzbieta Penderecka.  That year the festival celebrated the centennial of Leonard Bernstein, as well as Penderecki's 85th birthday, and Maestra Falletta also made history as the first American women conductor to lead an orchestra at the prestigious event. JoAnn Falletta is here with us to discuss the great Polish composer; Krystof Penderecki. LISTEN JoAnn, met Penderecki when guest-conducting in Krakow, and invited him to Buffalo. In December 2016, Penderecki led the BPO in concert. Soon after that, the BPO accepted Penderecka's invitation to perform at the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw. What was your first impressions of meeting Penderecki?  For our conversation today, JF and I touched on 3 Penderecki pieces that you have performed and recorded; the Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, the Horn Concerto subtitled Vinterreise, and the Adagio from Symphony #3. The Double Concerto, a commission from Vienna's Musikverein which marked the society's bicentenary provided Penderecki an opportunity to try out an idea suggested to him by Julian Rachlin, who wanted a work that he could play and record both the solo violin and viola parts. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major is probably the most well known example of a piece in this format. Max Bruch and Benjamin Britten have also contributed, JF gives thoughts on Why there are relatively few compositions in this configuration.

Why Penderecki's Double Concerto has had a huge impact on the repertoire.  the Horn Concerto running counter to Penderecki development.  the Adagio from Symphony No. 3  Maestra JoAnn Falletta in a candid interview about Krystof Penderecki Produced by Max Horowitz - Crossover Media, This content, as well as the related podcast, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) for redistribution and adaptation.

H enoxn's Liana Malandrenioti writes......The presence of Smaro Grigoriadou in contemporary Greek music is very valuable , as a soloist, as a composer, as a researcher and mainly as a performer with her decisive contribution to the support and promotion of Aesthetics Kertsopoulos. The discography of Kertsopoulos is based on the system and method of Aesthetics, but also on the musical realization of this interpretive school. In her record debut in 2009 she introduced the term "Reinventing guitar" (reinventing the guitar), where on the cd she appeared as a soloist and as a composer with works for guitar by Bach, Skarlatti, Jose, Kertsopoulos and her own (in her first world performances). Aesthetics Kertsopoulos) and surprised us with new interpretive proposals for the traditional guitar repertoire, through a redefinition. The recent record work entitled «A Healing Fire» ( A Therapeutic Fire ), was released amid pandemic in adverse conditions for the world of music and recorded again from Delos.  In this album, Grigoriadou, holding in her hands exclusively the guitars of the teacher and companion of George Kertsopoulos, chooses to perform works by composers of different eras, one of the Baroque era and three of the twenty-first twenty-first century. The works have been recorded with two instruments by Kertsopoulos of non-conventional construction and acoustics. Interventions include pedal mechanisms, new string materials and non-standard settings. We hear a rich and clear sound and an interpretation that reaches perfection. She arranges the arrangements of the works for the specific guitars. The interesting sound experience opens with the transcription for Sonata for Violin no. 2, in minor, BWV 1003, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Grigoriadou interprets the sonata with thought and clarity and proves that this innovative approach with her guitars gives baroque music a special charm. The Night after John Dowland ( Opcturnal after John Dowland ), Op. 70, by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), completed in 1963 especially for the important and relatively recently lost guitarist and lute player Julian Bream (1933-2020). Bream endowed the guitar repertoire with many important works as he inspired great composers of his time to write works for guitar such as William Walton, Michael Tippet, Richard Rodney Bennett, Malcolm Arnold, Alan Rawsthorne, Lennox Berkeley and Hans Werner Henze, etc. .a. The Night of Britten based on the theme of the song Come Deep Drive ( Come, heavy Sleep) belonging to First Book Quadrophony Song or Aryans ( First Book of Songs or Ayres of Four Parts ). This is a collection of twenty songs for voice and lute, published in 1597 and belonging to the leading English (or Irish) Renaissance composer John Dowland (1563-1626). Grigoriadou conveys to us the beauty, the rhythm and the harmony of the Night with subtle sensitivity. READ THE FULL H enoxn REVIEW

gambit's JAKE CLAPP writes.....Pianist Oscar Rossignoli has become a well-recognized name in the New Orleans jazz community for his part in the brilliant contemporary trio Extended with Matt Booth and Brad Webb as well as leading his own quartet and joining other musicians like Herlin Riley and Quinn Sternberg on stage. With his debut solo album, "Inertia," Rossignoli is alone behind the piano on this captivating, intuitive outing. The 11-track "Inertia" features a collection of originals, save for "Recuerdos de mi Infancia," an adaptation of a song Rossignoli grew up singing in his native Honduras. Rossignoli delicately composed most of the tracks over time, but the pianist demonstrates his improvisational prowess on a trio of spontaneous recordings, the opener "Pendulum," the song "Preludio for Chick," and the album's closer "Perpetual Motion." Rossignoli celebrates the release of his album at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, at former church space at the St. Peter & Paul Hotel. READ THE FULL gambit ARTICLE

Blitz Magazine writes.......Country music and jazz are each at a crossroads.   In both cases, the inevitable rate of attrition via death has taken almost all of the beloved pioneers of each genre. As such, the torches have been passed out of necessity to a generation of eager aspirants.   However, with respect to country, there are many among the hardcore faithful who will contend that the current keepers of the flame have not run with it accordingly. As such, the likes of such pre-New Traditionalist mavericks as Alabama, Janie Fricke, Gene Watson and Jeannie Seely have risen to the occasion in order to keep the genre from imploding. To their considerable credit, all remain up to the challenge.   With respect to jazz, the inevitable transition seems to find the genre in relatively more capable hands. While the current century alone has seen the passing of such giants as Dave Brubeck, Gary Burton, Jimmy Heath, Bobby Short, Chick Corea, Alice Coltrane and Manhattan Transfer's Tim Hauser, their successors have nonetheless assumed their responsibilities in matter of fact manner; sustaining the vision and earning the appropriate accolades without actively soliciting the fanfare.    One such group of successors is the five piece ensemble, the Alchemy Sound Project. Formed in 2014 (two years after its principals met at a seminar in Los Angeles), the Alchemy Sound Project herein reiterates their original mission statement decisively.   A key component of that mission statement is to seek out, champion and sustain the common ground between the vaunted verse, chorus and bridge template and the genre's innate propensity towards improvisation. With Afrika Love, they have succeeded on all counts.   To wit, the album's opener, The Fountain (composed by bassist David Arend) at once draws in the observer by virtue of its seemingly decisive structure. Therein, snippets of the inspiration of everyone from Sergio Mendes to Sun Ra can be heard, albeit with a tension that belies the listener's initial impression.    In turn, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack jumps right off of the proverbial bridge straight out of the gate with her The Cadillac Of Mountains, taking on a free fall versus parachuted bit of interplay before Salim Washington cushions the landing with a bass clarinet interlude that sets the stage for the piece's intended overview of the grandeur of nature. The quintet's reed specialist, Erica Lindsay brings the point home for the finale with Kesji, her salute to a colleague whose well lived journey recently ended at the age of 107.   Kudos must also go to Washington and pianist Sumi Tonooka for the title track and Dark Blue Residue, respectively. With regards to the latter, snippets of pre-Brew Miles Davis, Prestige-era John Coltrane and the aforementioned Dave Brubeck's trademark time signature fluctuations abound before bringing the piece to a seemingly unresolved conclusion.   In fact, each of the five selections herein follow suit in making basic statements and soaring as needed, but ultimately not drawing the line, thereby enabling the observer to envision their own ending (or beginning) as the inspiration moves them. To be certain, such is the essence of the art itself, which proves to be in reassuringly capable hands here. Job well done.

David Weininger for The New York Times writes...... A Pianist Comes Around on Period Instruments - Early in his career, Andras Schiff disdained historical authenticity. Now he embraces it, including on a revelatory new Brahms recording. For much of his career, the eminent pianist Andras Schiff, 67, disdained the use of historical instruments. He proudly played Bach on modern pianos; referred to fortepianists with an interest in Schubert as mere "specialists"; and told a New York Times interviewer in 1983, "I've heard some ghastly things done in the name of authenticity." Time and experience, though, have brought about a wholesale change in his attitude, and Schiff has transformed into an eager evangelist for the use of historical keyboards. Several years ago he acquired an 1820 fortepiano, which he has used to make compelling recordings of Beethoven and Schubert. In recent interviews, he has criticized the increasing homogeneity of piano performance, with modern Steinways used for repertoire of every era. Schiff's latest venture in this arena is his most convincing yet: a vibrant new recording of Brahms's two piano concertos with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Aiming to recover the sound of this music when it was written, Schiff plays a piano made by Julius Blüthner in Leipzig, Germany, in 1859 - the year of the First Concerto's premiere. He also - a rarity in these works - serves as both soloist and conductor, leading an ensemble of around 50 players. Wiping away the historical grime, Schiff and the orchestra breathe air and vitality into pieces that, even in successful performances, can sound heavy and clotted; the drier instrumental palette instead conveys improbable elegance. Words like monumental have a way of attaching themselves to these concertos, but Mr. Schiff and the outstanding players make them sound intimate and human-scale. Schiff spoke about these works and his interpretations in a recent phone call from London. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. What converted me was when I first played Mozart's piano in Salzburg, in the room where he was born. This must have been the second half of the 1980s. It was the first time I met an instrument - an original instrument, not a copy - that was in wonderful condition. Subsequently, there were many occasions to find wonderful instruments. I'm now getting to a place where I will find it very difficult to play music on modern pianos. But even as late as the 1990s, you were still saying in interviews that, for example, you wouldn't think of playing Schubert on a fortepiano. I did say that, yes. I have to take it back, or I have to say that I was not well-informed, or plain stupid. One has to be flexible and one has to say, sometimes, I made a mistake; I was wrong. Why was Brahms the next composer you decided to record in a historically informed way? It was a logical step from Schubert. And also, I met this wonderful orchestra, the Age of Enlightenment, and we did the Robert Schumann concerto together at the Royal Festival Hall in London, which has something like two and a half thousand seats. It's a very problematic hall. There are always seats where the piano is covered by the orchestra. And for the first time in my life, in the Schumann with this orchestra it was absolutely without any problems: the balance, the way the piano came across, the way the orchestral parts came across. So after the Schumann I thought, Let's try the Brahms. Playing the Brahms concertos on a modern piano with modern orchestras, there were always balance problems. And I found, especially in the B-flat Concerto, that it was just physically and psychologically very hard to play. Somehow, with this Blüthner piano, the physical difficulties disappear. The keys are a tiny bit narrower, so the stretches are not so tiring, and the action is much lighter. So there is not this colossal physical work involved. What were the challenges of doing the concertos in this way? The challenge is, of course, to play and conduct and hold it together. And there are many, many places where your hands are busy, so you cannot conduct. Therefore, you need a real partner, because this is not accompaniment, but give and take. And so the orchestra has to anticipate and listen very carefully. It needs an orchestra where we know each other intimately, which has a chamber-music-like approach. You achieve a remarkable level of audible detail in these performances. That was our intention: transparency and clarity, and also just to get rid of the fat already associated with this music from, I would say, the 1930s. And in orchestral terms, for example, the gut strings make a huge difference. I think that in any music you play, this heaviness also comes from - if you see, let's say, a dotted half note or a long note, people just sit on it forever. The composer will not write a diminuendo on that long note, because Brahms, let's say, expected a musical person to do that automatically. You're saying that he didn't write the diminuendo just because it would have been obvious to the performer. Yes. This already happens all over in Mozart and Beethoven. With every orchestra, when I play and conduct, I have to tell them, endless times, "You wind players, please, attack the note, and then get softer," because with those sustained chords, you are covering all the detail that you spoke about. Can you think of a particular passage in either of the Brahms concertos in which the use of these instruments allows the music to come across with unusual freshness? For example, in the first movement of the Second Concerto, the development section can sound, in modern performance, very muddy and not clear, because there is so much counterpoint there. I'm very pleased to hear all those details. But also, take the opening of the third movement, with the cello solo. If it's played with these instruments, next to the cello solo you hear all the other lower strings: the cellos and violas, and then later the oboe and bassoon. I just hear these layers of sound, instead of a general sauce. You also write in the liner notes that "Brahms on the piano is definitely not for children." What do you mean? I have a very strong view on this, what young people should play and what they should not play. They should not play the early Brahms, because of the enormous physical challenges, and they shouldn't, certainly, play the late Brahms, where they could manage the notes, but those pieces are the summary of a lifetime. But they do it anyway. I mean, today, any kid comes to you with the "Goldberg" Variations or the last three Beethoven sonatas. Anything goes. And who am I to say? I'm not a policeman. It's a friendly piece of advice that when you are young, choose the right pieces. And wait with these until you are older. In my ripe old age, I'm beginning now to reduce my repertoire. But I'm very happy to play now the late Brahms, and the last three sonatas of Beethoven. And then there is music, Bach and Mozart, that you start playing when you are very young, and they stay with you until the day you die.      PHOTO: Vincent Tullo for The New York Times