In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

This podcast features multi reed player Greg Abate and his new album Motif. Greg phones into the show for a brief interview about his latest CD, traveling and upcoming gigs. Lot's of other great music here from Jonathan Blake, Monk, and others. We also feature a groovin' band with some Hartford roots in with Vin Scialla and Eric Schugren. We end this show with a Christmas teaser from Dane Scazzari.

This podcast celebrates my favorite holiday. Food, family and giving thanks. We give thanks, not for material possessions, but for the wonderful spiritual things in our life, jazz music among them.

This week I am re-posting a 2009 interview with the great bassist Dave Holland. Dave talks about his experiences with Miles, composition and arranging, the role of the bass and other projects. Interspersed with our discussion, I play some excerpts of his great music. Below is some edited video of our interview.

This podcast features a conversation with Noah Preminger talking about the Jazz scene in Boston and his upcoming show at The Side Door in Old Lyme, CT. We start with some great music with a Latin spin from the Curtis Brothers and JD Allen who have played in the Hartford area recently. New music from Dave Liebman is represented here as will as John Coltrane, Joe Lovano and Earl MacDonald.

This podcast features mostly new music from amazing jazz artists. Some are new to the jazz scene others are stalwarts that continue to move the music forward. Some like The Cookers, Noah Baerman, Dave Liebman, Frank Kimbrough are pushing modern jazz to new grounds, others like Kavita Shah and Miguel Zenon fuse world music with jazz influences. JD Allen and The Bad Plus experiment with new rhythmic and melodic approaches.

We begin this podcast with new music from some of modern jazz's most creative innovators. From that we segway into a set of classic fusion from the 70's. I dig this set. Hope you will too.

Although I won't be doing my regular radio show for a couple weeks, the Podcast doesn't skip a beat. We feature some new music from Fred Hersch, Otis Brown III, Tom Guarna, Alan Ferber. Also, dig the upbeat version of Bye Bye Blackbird from one of my favorites, Kenny Garrett.

September 23 is the birth dates of two giants of American music. John Coltrane and Ray Charles were both born on this day. We celebrate their music and innovation on this podcast. Perhaps not as well known, but a great player from Boston, George Garzone shares this birth date as well. Garzone shared a stage with Joe Lovano in Boston this week, and I was honored to be present at that event. We hear from both of them to close out this podcast.

A varied mix of creative jazz artists and mostly new releases. This is the sound of modern jazz happening today. Many are young artists breaking in, others have been around making their mark on jazz over the years. Get hip to this music!

This podcast begins with a tribute to Joe Sample who passed away last week. You will hear the wide range of music he played during his long career with the Crusaders and as a solo artist. We also review some of the music heard at this years Northampton Jazz fest with Miro Sprague, Steve Davis and Seamus Blake.

The playlist for this week's podcast goes a little out there. From new music by innovators Dave Douglas and Rob Garcia, to groundbreakers like Mario Pavone, Thomas Chapin and Sonny Rollins with Theloneous Monk. These artists have been moving the music forward bringing new directions to jazz.

After introducing some new music, we settle into a tribute to Charlie Parker and Alice Coltrane who's birthdays came this week. First we introduce recent releases by Fred Hersch, Jane Bunnett and Alan Ferber. The podcast finishes with Brandee Younger and her version of Ms. Coltrane's Blue Nile.

A mostly vocal set on this week's podcast. Kavita Shah brings an amalgamation of cultural influences to her music. We recently experienced her perform, and had the chance to speak with her after the show. I bring that conversation to you between tracks in this podcast. Other vocals represented here are from Dana Lauren, and the incomparable Ella and Satch. We follow with a stunning vocal choir led by Bobby McFerrin. The podcast concludes with something new from Billy Harper and The Cookers.

As summer winds down, so does the jazz festival season. Two great festival we attended this year were the Newport Jazz Festival (60th Anniversary) and the Litchfield (CT) Jazz Festival. We'll review some of the great festival performances we attended this summer.

While digital music and streaming services makes music almost too easy to find, you can still feel that excitement of discovering great albums at used record stores. Mystery Train is a great one in Glouster MA that I always hit up when I am in the area. Recently I picked up some monster CD's there. I feature those on this show. You'll hear from Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Ella and Louis, and Miles. We were in the North Shore area to see a concert at the beautiful Shaulin Lui Performance Center in Rockport Mass to see The Bad Plus with Joshua Redman, so I play some of their music too.