In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

I just returned from a week in New Orleans. The music here recounts the range of sounds we heard there including brass bands, dixieland, R&B and some of the modern jazz and rock being played in the Big Easy. Most of the tracks heard are from local bands we saw, and from local music that our new friends at WWOZ laid us on to.

This show is all over the jazz lot. From an ethereal fusion sound of Kurt Rosenwinkel, to gorgeous trio piano from Eric Reed and George Cables, to the post-modern jazz of Ravi Coltrane and Linda Oh. Towards the end of the show, we settle into a nice New Orleans groove (appropriate, since I am there right now). The show concludes with a show tune you will recognize from a new album by Jeff Holmes.

Surely this show contains the Rhythms of the Earth. That is also a fine album by the great Jackie McLean, that starts off this podcast. There are some great musicians from the Hartford area on that track, and we continue the Hartford connection with New Jazz Workshop and Winard Harper. From there, we get into a great guitar set featuring Frank Varela, Fareed Haque, Cory Christianson, and finally the incomperable Wes Montgomery.

This is the second hour of last week's podcast. We start with a bass, trumpet, drum trio from Linda Oh. Then we have both new and old Wayne Shorter. From there, we have Metheny's Unity Band collaborators Ben Williams and Antonio Sanchez followed by Metheny himself from his Grammy winning Unity Band and finishing with a favorite composition Minuano.

Some great music covering a wide range of jazz styles make up this week's podcast. We kick off the show with Pharoah Sanders channeling John Coltrane with "The Creator Has a Master Plan". The show concludes with tracks from a beautiful new album from piano master George Cables. In between we feature Kenny Garrett, Dave Douglas, Flora Purim and Russ Kaplan.

Jazz and Beyond burned the midnight oil this week with a midnight till 2AM broadcast. Antonio Sanchez burns it up on his new CD too. Next up is Joe Farrell with some 70's fusion as well as showing his chops on a straight jazz standard. We finish the show with some more fusion from Weather Report, David Saborn and live Miles Davis from the latest "bootleg" released recordings.

The sophisticated giant, Dexter Gordon takes front and center in today's podcast. This show was broadcast last week, a few days after the 90th birthday of Dexter, had he survived. His deep large tone is illustrated on the two tracks that kick off the podcast. Dexter Gordon was a big influence on John Coltrane, as heard on "Softly". Drummer Jonathan Blake plays his tribute to Long Tall Dexter. We finish up the podcast with a couple of new songs from Greg Abate and Cedar Walton.

Three Miles Davis Quintets are featured on this show, along with other great Jazz in many different styles. Tom Harrell starts the show with some modern hard bop with his current quintet. Drummer Dafnis Prieto hits it with some Cuban influenced jazz. Dan Arcamone brings us his modern electric guitar fusion. Then we hear Miles Quintets starting with his 60's version, then we hear 2 versions of the Monk composition 'Round Midnight performed by his 50's quintet followed by his quintet of the late 60's that spawned his famous Bitches Brew ensemble. The show finishes with a high energy funky fusion offering from Weather Report.

The gem of this podcast is at the end; Pegasus, a 23 minute composition with wind ensemble from Wayne Shorter's newly released Without A Net. The Podcast starts with the 3 Cohens doing their version of the classic Tiger Rag. For something completely different, we go to Rudresh Mahanthappa's Gamak including a way out raga. U Mass educator Jeff Holmes has a great new CD with a track included here. Next up is a taste of a wonderful project from Russ Kaplan telling the tale of The Odyssey. More Indo/Jazz fusion from Rez Abassi before we finish with the Shorter masterpiece.

Perhaps the greatest source of inspiration in art and life is FAMILY, and so it is for the three Cohens from Tel Aviv. This podcast begins with the 3 Cohens and their recent album Family. In fact, the entire podcast is recent albums from Terri Lyne Carrington's interpretations of Duke Ellington, Wayne Shorter's anticipated new release, Branford Marsalis' virtuosic quartet and Rudresh Mahanthappa with his return to high energy fusion sound. Keep listening to this podcast to hear more of these great new jazz albums.

At the heart of this podcast is a Wayne Shorter set that shows different sides of this jazz genius' writing and soloing skills. We start the podcast with Donald Byrd, who passed away this week. We play some vintage Chick Corea and brand new Terri Lynn Carrington. Dana Lauren serenades us from her latest album. After the Shorter set, we hear from another great saxophone player, also playing the bass clarinet, Chris Potter from a new release, The Sirens.

These cats all play a tough tenor sax in my book. Starting with Chris Potter, and a couple of tracks from a new CD, The Sirens. Joe Lovano is next up with his latest effort from the Us Five band. We also hear from Jerry Bergonzi letting loose on his latest album. Jared Sims may not be as well know as the previous players, but he can be just as tough playing tenor with this piano-less quartet The New Stablemates. Last but not least we settle things down with Noah Preminger, playing his deep, strong tone on this beautiful ballad.

Tribute to Obama's inauguration mix with Monk, also featured is guitarist Dan Arcamone

This afternoon broadcast features a new album by Joe Lovano and his Us Five Quintet. First we open up with a fusion guitar set with new music from John McLaughlin and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Also notable in this podcast is Jerry Bergonzi's new CD as well and others.

2012 was a prolific year for jazz releases, and it has taken me three shows to review some of my favorite albums from this year. This show shows off new releases by drummer Winard Harper, singer Kurt Elling, bassist Linda Oh and Esperanza Spaulding, pianists Vijay Iyer and Cyrus Chestnut, sax player Ravi Coltrane and more.