Crossovermedia Blog

TUNE IN TODAY! for Bobby McFerrin on NPR's 'All Things Considered'

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:08:01 -0400

TUNE IN TODAY! as Bobby McFerrin discusses his brand new CD: 'sprityouall' honoring his father and the American Spiritual on: NPR's 'All Things Considered. Please check local listings for airtime.

The Piano Guys release the 'Home' video covering hit song from American Idol winner Phillip Phillips

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:40:17 -0400

Utah's favorite dads, The Piano Guys just released their new video ‘Home' covering the hit song from 2012 American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. Shot in their home state of Utah near Zion National Park, Steven Sharp Nelson commented on the impetus to make the video. "We love being on tour and meeting our fans! However, as we travel along with our equipment, cellos and baggage one thing never gets checked away - we miss home. We miss our family. When we first heard ‘Home' we couldn't help but be emotionally drawn to it."

The video is being released in conjunction with the group's new album The Piano Guys 2, which features more imaginative mash-ups and arrangements on music from Pachelbel to The Turtles to Bruno Mars

The Piano Guys started making music videos together for fun, a hobby which turned into a worldwide phenomenon when their self-made YouTube videos amassed 220 million views to date.

The Blind Boys of Alabama sign with Sony Masterworks

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:25:56 -0400

Veteran gospel act The Blind Boys of Alabama has signed with Sony Masterworks, Paste has learned. The band is now set to release a new album this fall, taking production notes from other than Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. An album title has not yet been released. The album will feature a few unexpected guest spots, which will be announced later. Its release will be followed by an international tour.

The band's current lineup includes founding vocalists Jimmy Carter, along with vocalists Bishop Billy Bowers and Ben Moore. Drummer Eric McKinnie, guitarist Joey Williams, bassist Tracy Pierce and keyboard player Peter Levin round out the lineup.

Vernon will add The Blind Boys to his growing list of production credits, which includes work with James Blake, Kathleen Edwards and Land of Talk.

45 North speaks with Maria Schneider about 'Winter Morning Walks'

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:12:24 -0400

45 North / Friday, May 3, 2013

Anne Strainchamps talks with a jazz composer and two-time Grammy winner Maria Schneider about her new album: 'Winter Morning Walks.'

Also on the show, Zoe Keating is a cellist with a lot of pluck. Acting as her own agent, tour manager, producer and publisher, Zoe tells Anne Strainchamps how to orchestrate a "slow, sustainable, career" as a musician-mother, how to crowd-source a tour, and why she writes odes to iTunes. A little later in the hour:

Soul Flower is 'The Real McKelle'

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:09:36 -0400

'Soul Flower,' Robin McKelle's new album on Sony Masterworks, set for release on June 11 might have called 'The Real McKelle.' "It's the record I've always dreamed of making" the singer says. McKelle who wrote most of the albums songs is true to it's title blending soul, blues, and R&B and showcasing not only her powerful expressive sound but also a great gift for devising familiar melodies that take hold immediately. McKelle also firmly puts her stamp on the project insisting on recognizing the backing band on the cover credit: Robin McKelle & The Flytones.

"I grew up listening to Nina Simone and Gladys Knight. I sang their classics and what I enjoy most today is building my own repertoire in that same soulful vein" McKelle says, as her lyrics delve into today's gloomy news. "You turn on the radio in the morning, you watch TV in the evening, and all you hear is crisis, crisis, crisis'. Wherever you are in the world the word is repeated ten thousand times a day, So I've tried to offer a take based on real life - people's experience, the everyday impression they have." The Rochester New York native does however end the session on a glamorous jazz note, with a cover of 'I'm A Fool To Want You' immortalized by Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

Inspired by their love of natural life, Nell Robinson & Jim Nunally release: House & Garden

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:32:50 -0400

House & Garden was inspired by our love of natural life, of our gardens and the central place they play in our home-lives, our friendships and relationships. Jim and I were working one day, it was a beautiful spring day, and Jim said he'd started a song while thinking about the strawberry plants he has in his garden. His mother gave him the cuttings planted by his father, and though he passed on many years ago, his memory is kept alive in the garden. What a beautiful gift to reflect on your loved ones as you tend your flowers! We wrote the rest of the lyrics with specific flowers in mind and what they represent (love, faith, comfort).

We felt the album should be simple with spare instrumentation and a focus on stories, lyrics and vocal harmonies. The sound is refreshingly rich, with sweet surprises as the guitar and voices take on the sound of bees, mayflies, a music box, and even cello strings."
Nell Robinson

Bobby McFerrin's Spiritual celebration of his father - All About Jazz review

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:10:14 -0400

Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau and Jon Hendricks are the most innovative jazz voices of the past 50 years. Our current subject, McFerrin, took the technical capabilities of the human voice, remolding them into the fantastic and delightful forms we recognise as his genius today. spirityouall is McFerrin's celebration of both his father, Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first African-American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera Company and the American musical vernacular called the Spiritual.

McFerrin's father was also an historic interpreter of the American Negro Spiritual, having recorded "Deep River" and Other Classic Negro Spirituals in 1957 (which is curiously unavailable digitally or as a compact disc). The younger McFerrin resculpts three timeless pieces that appeared also on his father's release-"Every time I Feel the Spirit," "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Fix Me Jesus"- making these time-tested songs shine like liquid mercury exploding. McFerrin takes old songs and new originals, even a Dylan tune, melding them in the organic fashion of 1990s Cassandra Wilson, only completing Wilson's evolution in concept and execution. This is fully realized music.

First, no song is allowed a "standard" treatment. No, not one of the thirteen songs here. McFerrin digs in the Delta Dirt with guitarist Larry Campbell's talents with dobro, slide guitar, steel guitar conjuring blues and deep country mojo on "Fix Me Jesus," "Whole World" and an Eddie Son House "Death Letter" stomp on the singer's original take on Psalms, "25:15:" Blind Willie Johnson meets Tommy Johnson at the crossroads of canned heat and the Yazoo river. McFerrin transforms "Wade in the Water" into a steel-guitar rag jazz piece quite unlike anything else. Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" has never been so transformed, sounding like it belongs to McFerrin and his father's spirit.

The riches that make up spirityouall cannot be overestimated. McFerrin is well-inspired and supported on this disc, where he really does something both unique and special. This is music that heals.

Track Listing: Everytime; Swing Low; Joshua; Fix Me Jesus; Woe; I Shall Be Released; Whole World; Gracious; 25:15; Wade; Glory; Jesus Makes It Good; Rest/Yes, Indeed.

Personnel: Bobby McFerrin: vocals; Esperanza Spalding: bass, vocals (1, 2, 7, 11, 13); Larry Campbell: guitars; Gil Goldstein: keyboards; Charley Drayton: drums (1, 2, 7, 11, 13); Ali Jackson: drums (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13); Larry Grenadier: bass (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12).

Bobby McFerrin's Musical Tribute to His Father - Wall Street Journal piece

Sun, 12 May 2013 11:59:12 -0400

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bobby McFerrin's Musical Tribute to His Father.
By JOHN JURGENSEN

At the WSJ Cafe, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Bobby McFerrin performs an original song from his album "Spirityouall," which also includes his reinterpretation of such traditionals as "Swing Low."

Almost anything gets Bobby McFerrin to make music. He created a rhythmic popping sound with his mouth while walking a hall during a recent interview, then he sang a little fanfare to the clacking tempo of a passing woman's high heels.

Bobby McFerrin, known for a capella, worked with a band this time.

His famously agile voice box has filtered music from around the world and multiple genres, from jazz to classical, but the Grammy-winning singer found the source for his latest project at home. Due Tuesday, "Spirityouall" is a collection of Christian spirituals inspired not only by Mr. McFerrin's personal faith, but also by recordings his musician father made 56 years ago. (You can hear two songs from the album at WSJ.com/Speakeasy.)

Robert McFerrin Sr. was the first black male principal singer to join the New York Metropolitan Opera, in 1955. He later dubbed Sidney Poitier's singing parts in the Hollywood version of "Porgy and Bess." He was also a celebrated interpreter of the Negro spiritual. A few years after joining the Met he released a collection titled "Deep River."

Mr. McFerrin reworked three songs from that album for "Spirityouall," including "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and his rendering of these standards is anything but traditional. To demonstrate his father's version of "Everytime I Feel the Spirit," the singer rapped his fingertips on a table, mimicking the measured rhythm of a piano. "It's a very gospel-y, very tent-meeting kind of sound," he said. The son's take is breezy folk and bluegrass, in which his voice spills into a scatting call-and-response with singer Esperanza Spalding. She also plays bass on the album, which includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released."

Though he has conducted symphony orchestras and collaborated with everyone from Chick Corea to Yo-Yo Ma, Mr. McFerrin is best known as a one-man band who pinballs his voice through four octaves or uses it for percussion. In 1988, his surprise smash "Don't Worry Be Happy" became the first a cappella track to hit No. 1. And for his most recent album, 2010's "Vocabularies," he joined with more than 50 international vocalists. On "Spirityouall," layered overdubs of his voice sometimes create a choir effect, but the album marks the first time he has recorded with a band in over a decade.

A trembling slide guitar sets the blues tone of "25:15," one of Mr. McFerrin's five original songs on the album. The title and repeated lyric-"Don't you know that my eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare"-come from the Book of Psalms. For Mr. McFerrin, who spends at least two hours each morning reading the Bible and praying in his home studio in Philadelphia, the song's melody sprang from his effort to memorize a longer passage with his usual method of singing it in his head. Even before "25:15" got the blues treatment, he sometimes performed it during solo vocal concerts. "It's very fluid. You can start singing the phrase at any point in the song," he said.

Mr. McFerrin grew up Episcopalian in Los Angeles, where he sang hymns of the Church of England. As a young boy, he first learned the American spirituals passed down from slaves from his father, who studied them with mentor Hall Johnson, a composer and choral director who dedicated his career to preserving the legacy of those songs. "I can still see my dad sitting at the piano bench and Hall instructing him on how to sing these pieces and what they meant," Mr. McFerrin said.

Sara McFerrin, Bobby's 88-year-old mother, recalls long sessions with Johnson "pointing his finger straight at Bob [Sr.] and beating the time out. He worked very slowly and he talked a long time." She added, "His grandparents were slaves. He would sort of paint the picture for us."

Robert McFerrin, whose "Deep River" album is now a collector's item, died in 2006, after a decline from Alzheimer's disease. "He lost all of his memory except for his music," said his son. "He could sing anything, but he just couldn't speak to you."

A version of this article appeared May 10, 2013, on page D8 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Bobby McFerrin's Musical Tribute to His Father.

Radio Celebrates Motherhood With RBP's 'Violin Lullabies'

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:45:05 -0400

Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Rachel Barton Pine collected more than 150 lullabies and picked her favorite 25 for her new album, 'Violin Lullabies.' Inspired by art, history, and the everyday mother and child family ritual RBP, joined by the wonderful pianist Matthew Hagle have recorded pieces by Ravel, Schubert, Gershwin and Brahms with RBP's violin, hand-picked by Brahms for a student of his day.

In its first week of release, 'Violin Lullabies' ascended to:
#1 on Amazon Children's Music
#2 on iTunes Classical Chart
#2 Amazon Classical Music

Radio has also responded with great enthisiasm to the CD with an 'NPR: All Things Considered,' a Bob Edwards Morning Show feature on Sirius XM, on American Public Media's Performance Today, on Minnesota Public Radio's 'New Classical Tracks', WTTW-TV's Chicago Tonight', WGN: Chicago/'Music Lounge', Public Radio International's 'The Record Shelf'

Additional Interviews and Features have been airing on the following local stations to promote the album leading into Mother's Day on May 12 2013.

WQXR: New York
WFMT: Chicago
WRTI: Philadelphia
KDFC: San Francisco
WQED: Pittsburgh
WRCJ: Detroit
WICR: Indianapolis
WKNO: Memphis
Texas Public Radio
New Jersey Net: Statewide
Kansas PR: Statewide
Alabama PR: Statewide
WNED: Buffalo/NY
WCPE: Wake Forest/NC
WDAV: Davidson/NC
WGTE: Toledo/OH
KBAQ: Tempe/AZ
WFIU: Bloomington/IN
WIAA: Interlochen/MI
WFSU: Tallahassee/FL
KBIA: Columbia/MO
WBAA: West Lafayette/IN
KRCB: Rohnert Park/CA
In-Flight Airline programming via Spafax

Sony Classical Celebrates 100th Anniversary Of Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:20:35 -0400

A century ago, on May 29, 1913, the premiere performance of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring shocked a Paris audience that included Debussy, Ravel, Picasso, and Proust. Audience members rioted at the work's "unexpected eruption of rebarbative dissonances, off-kilter rhythms, obsessive-compulsive ostinati and agitated mood-swinging dynamics," as Jonathan Cott puts it in the album notes to This new release (with the Original Cover Artwork) of the legendary recording by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, celebrates the 100th Anniversary Of this historic concert event.

With several recent concert performances of The Rite of Spring under their belts, Bernstein and the orchestra headed to the Colorama Ballroom in Brooklyn's Hotel St. George to make what would prove to be one of the most enduring recordings of this work that the conductor characterized as "only one of your everyday volcanic masterpieces...a miraculous new creation of such originality and power that still today it shocks and overwhelms us." After 55 years, this recording still sounds as galvanizing and revolutionary as Le Sacre du Printemps itself.

On 'spirityouall,' Bobby McFerrin can't do anything without faith

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:23:20 -0400

On 'spirityouall' Bobby McFerrin pays tribute to his late father, Robert McFerrin Sr., the celebrated Metropolitan Opera baritone and master interpreter of African-American spirituals. This May 14 CD release is a deeply personal statement for Bobby. "I couldn't do anything without faith," he says. "I couldn't open up my eyes, I couldn't walk, I couldn't speak, I couldn't sing. The 10-time Grammy winner is joined on the date by master arranger/musical director Gil Goldstein, and a killer band: Esperanza Spalding, who also sings on three tracks, Larry Grenadier on bass, multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, and drummers Ali Jackson and Charley Drayton.

This is American Music at it's finest with seven classic spirituals, an unexpected cover (Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released"), and five more original tunes. Hoedowns, anthems, blues and Psalms, all based on McFerrin's own readings of the Bible.

Please watch Bobby's performance of 'Woe' from 'spirityouall' on the attached clip from a recent visit to the WSJ Cafe, Bobby wrote this for the album

More fun mash-ups from The Piano Guys on " Vol. 2." - 'Deseret Weekly' Review

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:12:56 -0400

The Piano Guys are back with a new album, The Piano Guys - Volume 2, with their unique take on music from Pachelbel to The Turtles to Bruno Mars, available from Portrait, Sony Masterworks' new adult contemporary imprint. Also available is the Deluxe version which includes the CD plus the 12 corresponding music videos – available for the first time on DVD!

The recording features imaginative mash-ups and arrangements that made their last album so successful, plus a few original recordings including the previously unreleased song "Berlin" as well as "Waterfall," creating an incomparable style that appeals to audiences from all walks of life and across generations.

James | Sanborn: 'Deep in the Weeds' is #1 most added this week at Smooth Jazz Radio!

Tue, 07 May 2013 07:08:32 -0400

The track is from Keyboardist-composer-arranger Bob James and alto saxophonist David Sanborn's new album, Quartette Humaine, which will be released on May 21 2013 on Okeh! The album is the first collaboration between the two musicians since their 1986 Platinum-selling, GRAMMY® Award-winning album, Double Vision. An all-acoustic effort Quartette Humaine pays tribute to the late iconic pianist-composer Dave Brubeck and his great alto saxophonist Paul Desmond.

"David and I realized long ago that Double Vision had become more successful than we originally imagined it could be," James says. "Ironically, although we've met in the studio, doing other people's projects, we've never toured, or performed together live as a band. The exception was a midnight jam session at the Tokyo Jazz Festival a few years ago. We played just a couple of tunes, but it engendered the feeling that a reunion was way overdue."

This all-acoustic quartet recording includes 4 new compositions by James, 3 by Sanborn, and 2 James-arranged covers "My Old Flame," & "Geste Humain." Propelled by legendary drummer Steve Gadd and bass giant James Genus, the album is reflective and swinging with melodic improvising and beautiful tonalities.

Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt visit Performance Today

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:13:46 -0400

Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt come from separate musical worlds: Dinnerstein is a classical pianist known for her interpretations of music by Bach; Merritt is a singer-songwriter known for her sweet voice and emotionally precise lyrics. The two musicians admired each other's work and became friends. And eventually, they became musical collaborators.

Dinnerstein and Merritt join host Fred Child in the 'Performance Today' studio to discuss what they learned from each other musically. They also perform several songs from their new album Night. Take a listen to the Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein Perfchat.

RBP's cradle songs getting Amazon Chart Position

Thu, 02 May 2013 06:55:51 -0400

In its first week of CD release, Rachel Barton Pine's VIOLIN LULLABIES is:
#1 on Amazon Children's Music
#2 on iTunes Classical Chart
#2 Amazon Classical Music

Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Rachel collected more than 150 lullabies and picked her favorite 25 for the album.?inspired by art, history and how this music has become an everyday family ritual, RBP plays these?pieces by?Ravel, Schubert, Gershwin and Brahms on a violin hand-picked by Brahms for a student of his day.
Listen?to NPR: All Things Considered