In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

We celebrate the birth date of John Coltrane, one of the greatest and most influential jazz masters. Coltrane pioneered a freedom of expression in jazz music that has influenced nearly every jazz musician and those that appreciate this art form. To honor his life, we will listen to one of the greatest composition and performances in all of jazz, A Love Supreme. That is followed by a couple from his gifted son Ravi Coltrane, and finally a 'Trane composition performed by Rochester drummer Mike Melito.

Elvin Jones defined a style of drumming as he helped to drive the John Coltrane Quartet towards a new freedom of expression in jazz music. He would have been 85 years old this week, so we celebrate his birth date to start this podcast. Also in this show, you will get a taste of an upcoming tour by Chick Corea and Gary Burton with tracks from a re-release of the album Hot House. As I often do on my radio show, I showcase new emerging jazz artists as well as the masters of this genre. This week I feature tracks by Mike DiRubbo, Julian Shore, Shimrit Shoshan and an amazing drummer Dafnis Prieto. Featured Album Hot House - Chick Corea & Gary Burton on iTunes Track ~ Artist ~ Album Buzz-At ~ Elvin Jones ~ Elvin! 26-2 ~ John Coltrane ~ Coltrane's Sound Eight for Elvin ~ Mike DiRubbo ~ Chronos Eleanor Rigby ~ Chick Corea & Gary Burton ~ Hot House Time Remembered ~ Chick Corea & Gary Burton ~ Hot House Give ~ Julian Shore ~ Filaments Venus ~ Julian Shore ~ Filaments Shimmy n' You ~ Shimrit Shohan ~ keep it movin' Just Say It ~ Dafnis Prieto ~ Taking the Soul for a Walk The Sooner the Better ~ Dafnis Prieto ~ Taking the Soul for a Walk

This week marks the 82nd birthday of legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and we pay tribute to him with one of his most celebrated albums "The Bridge". While we love to honor our Jazz masters, what is most notable on this podcast are the great young players that are creating such wonderful jazz music today. In this show, we feature young artists like Jared Sims and The New Stablemates, Linda Oh, Noah Preminger, Marcus Roberts (with Bela Fleck) and Craig Hartley. Jane Ira Bloom has been composing and playing jazz for a long time, yet you may not have heard her. Her new album Wingwalker is amazing. Wayne Shorter, another jazz legend keeps writing music as if he were a new modern artist. They are all represented here in this podcast.

Pat Metheny, best know for his guitar prowess and as a band leader is also a great jazz composer. This podcast features compositions by Metheny that have been covered by other jazz artists. You will hear other artists performing their own interpretations of Pat Metheny compositions. Kurt Elling and Ruben Blades perform vocalizations of Pat's compositions. Some of these tracks have Metheny playing in bands led by others, like Gary Burton and the late Michael Brecker. Featured Album Time Is of the Essence - Michael Brecker on iTunes Track ~ Artist ~ Album Come and See ~ Pat Metheny ~ Unity Band First Circle ~ Rubin Blades ~ Mundo Minuano ~ Kurt Elling ~ Man in the Air Timeline ~ Michael Brecker ~ Time is of the Essence As I Am ~ Michael Brecker ~ Time is of the Essence Question and Answer ~ Gary Burton ~ Like Minds Elucidation ~ Gary Burton ~ Like Minds James ~ Roy Haynes & the Fountain of Youth ~ Whereas Travels ~ Gregoire Maret ~ Gregoire Maret This is Not America ~ Charlie Haden ~ Not in Our Name

This podcast begins with a tribute to the late Shimrit Shoshan. This is a sad and tragic story of a gifted jazz artists who passed away suddenly due to illness at 29 years of age. Shimrit was born and raised in Israel and currently was living in New York City pursuing a career in jazz music. She was a great pianist, composer and arranger. I had the pleasure of seeing her play, both in New York City and Hartford CT. She was a beautiful and extremely talented musician. Her passing is a great loss to the jazz community. We feature two tracks from her debut album, Keep it Movin'. Next I play a track from Linda Oh, another great young lady of jazz from her recent release as a leader, Initial Here. We then feature some music from some great musicians with their roots in the Hartford area. All of these cats are creating a splash on the jazz scene in NY and around the world. These are names you will be hearing much more of as their jazz careers progress. Keep your eyes and ears open for Craig Hartley (p), Josh Evants (trumpet), and the Curtis Brothers, Zaccai (p) and Luques (b).

This podcast features new music by artists you may not have heard of like Andrei Matorin and Kris Allen, as well as a creative new composition, Rayeula (Hopscotch) by Miguel Zenon and Laurent Coq. This exciting new music illustrates how dynamic and cutting edge modern jazz music is. Featured Album Rayuela on iTunes Track ~ Artist ~ Album Smile ~ Andrei Matorin ~ Opus Song for Abdullah ~ Joel Frahm ~ We Used to Dance Thoughts Not My Own ~ Curtis Brothers Quartet ~ Blood-Spirit-Land-Water-Freedom Talita ~ Miguel Zenon and Laurent Coq ~ Rayuela La Maga ~ Miguel Zenon and Laurent Coq ~ Rayuela Passing ~ Kris Allen ~ Circle House

This week's playlist was made in anticipation of the Litchfield Jazz Festival which took place last weekend. It was my first time there and we had a great time. The show starts off with a couple of artists we heard in NYC recently, Kenny Garrett and the LeBoeuf Brothers. Then we get into the Litchfield set. I especially like the Miguel Zenon tracks posted here. Also Donny McCaslin shows off some killer tenor sax chops. We go back to the 1970's with flutist Hubert Laws. Dave Stryker gives us some fine guitar licks and the podcast finishes with vocalist Kevin Mahogany, who closed out this years Litchfield Jazz Festival. We will definitely return to the Litchfield festival next year.

This podcast is a tribute to great trumpet player and jazz composer Lee Morgan. It features Billy Hart telling the tragic story of the day Lee Morgan died. While Billy was not a witness to this event, and his story is pieced together from second and third hand information, it is a fascinating insight into the dark side of the jazz scene in the early 1960's. The podcast begins with Ben Williams telling the story of the life and death of Lee Morgan through music and spoken word. Following is Lee Morgan's music and Billy Hart's words.

This is our Newport Jazz Festival Preview show for 2012. The festival takes place at Newport RI, Fort Adam State Park next weekend, August 4-5. On this show I outline the lineup for both days, and play some music from the artists we are likely to hear. We are covering the Festival for WHUS FM. We will be taking photos, conducting interviews and live tweeting from the events. Follow Digginjazz on Twitter for more information. If you are at the festival, look for me in my WHUS t-shirt and come over to say hello! Hope to see you there.

This show exemplifies the "Jazz and Beyond" moniker as many of the tracks have influences well beyond traditional jazz forms. From jazz-rock fusion of Metheny to the classical influences of Dana Leong, Eastern musical forms of Mozumder's mandolin and the merging of jazz to the bluegrass by Bela Fleck and Marcus Roberts. This podcast covers a lot of musical and cultural ground.

This podcast recaps our trip to the North Sea Jazz Festival, after returning from Rotterdam, The Netherlands to attend this event. Where possible, I play some of the artists whose performances we attended and some of the compositions that were performed. I recorded many of the artists on stage, and in this podcast I have featured two of those live recordings (Joshua Redman's Axis Sax Quartet, and the Wayne Shorter Quartet). Other notable tracks are from a Norwegian saxophonist named Marius Neset, Pat Metheny, Terri Lynn Carrington and Archie Shepp. North Sea Jazz Festival 2012 - Wallace Roney Track ~ Artist ~ Album Song For My Lady ~ McCoy Tyner ~ Song For My Lady Everyman ~ Dave Douglas ~ Magic Triangle Echo ~ Terri Lynn Carrington ~ The Mosaic Project Wild is the Wind ~ Ahmad Jamal ~ It's Magic Signals (Orchestrion Sketch) ~ Pat Metheny ~ Unity Band Thanks for the Giving ~ Rez Abbasi's Invocation ~ Suno Suno Axis Sax Quartet Live Recording ~ Joshua Redman's Axis Sax Quartet Golden Explosion (+Intro) ~ Marius Neset ~ Golden Xplosion Wayne Shorter live recording ~ Wayne Shorter Capricorn II ~ Wayne Shorter ~ Alegria Syeeda's Song Flute ~ Archie Shepp ~ Four for Trane

Although the North Sea Jazz Festival 2012 is now history, this podcast is Part 2 of the preview show (see last week's show). I'll have full details of our trip to the Netherlands and a run down of the Festival on next weeks show. Featured Album Blending Times - Ravi Coltrane on iTunes Track ~ Artist ~ Album Epistrophy ~ Ravi Coltrane ~ Ravi Coltrane Village Rythym ~ Joe Lovano ~ Villange Rythm Us Five ~ Joe Lovano ~ Folk Art Philosophers Stone ~ Van Morrison ~ Still on Top Beatnik ~ Josh Evans ~ Portrait

The NSJ Festival takes place the first weekend in July in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. We will be attending this amazing event, and this show will preview some of the great artists appearing there. In this show, we feature Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny Unity Band, Joshua Redman, The Bad Plus, Christian Scott, Brian Blade and the Robert Glasper Experiment. This is just a small sampling of the artists that appear on 12 stages simultaneously over three days. For more information check out the website at northseajazz.com .

I call this set Lazy DJ, because I play all extended arrangements which means less mic breaks and more music. We begin with a rip-roaring arrangement of Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Next we keep the energy level at maximum with a couple from early Weather Report. Following that we go back to the Prog-Rock genre with Close to the Edge from Yes. Thus far, everything we have played is from the early '70s. We time shift from there to our current timeframe with Five Peace Band led by Chick Corea and John McLaughlin performing from the Miles classic In A Silent Way to finish this podcast.

This show really cooks for Father's Day. Starting with a unique project from tenor player and arranger Travis Sullivan doing his take on Bjork tunes. Cyrus Chestnut has a new one with Hartford's own Dezron Douglas. While we are featuring hometown cats, we play from the Curtis Brother's latest release. The Cookers were in town, and I play two from them. Horace Silver helps celebrate Father's Day with his classic Song For My Father. We finish out this podcast with three cookin' tracks from the late Joe Farrell.