Guitarist Lawson Rollins has been described by Acoustic Guitar Magazine as ‘impeccable’ and ‘dazzling.’ At the same time, the prestigious Guitar Player Magazine ranks Rollins as one of the “50 Transcendent Acoustic Guitarists” of all time and writes, “Lawson Rollins is a bona fide star…The key to Rollins’ mass appeal is his signature artistic balance between classically influenced compositional refinement, infectious exotic rhythms, and the unbridled intensity of full-on shred.” Rollins is releasing RISE, a bold collection of ten original songs that showcase his signature virtuoso guitar style [...]
Samantha Fish is back with a new blues-rock album filled with edgy vocal delivery and in-your-face guitar. For her seventh album, Faster, she wanted to develop her sound outside of her normal trad blues-rock and capture the feeling and energy of her live performances. The result is a robust set of songs with producer Martin Kierszenbaum that takes her blues-rock music and encompasses hard rock, electro-pop, and retro soul. Fish is featured throughout, dealing up her searing lead guitar and sultry vocals with a punkish nuance. Also on the album is Hannah Brier, guitar; Martin Kierszenbaum, guitar, keyboards, drums; Diego Navaira, bass, and Josh Freese, [...]
Kane Mathis is now releasing his album titled, Geminus. Mathis has studied the Kora and Oud intensely for over 23 years, and Geminus features him on both instruments in a trio setting with fellow New York-based musicians John Hadfield on drums (Yo-Yo Ma, Kinan Azmeh) and Sam Minaie on bass (Tigran Hamasyan, Mark Guiliana). In live sessions over three days, the trio was recorded and mixed by John Davis (Brad Mehldau) at The Bunker recording studio in Brooklyn, New York. The music is ten tracks of original material by Mathis based on the tradition of both instruments while still moving forward with new forms and improvisations.
“Kürdi 7 and 9” is [...]
Troy Roberts is back and causing a ruckus with his buddies from Australia. The album is titled Best Buddies and is a co-project with guitarist Tim Jago. Both are a part of Roberts’ Nu-Jive Five ensemble that has earned a reputation for their hard-hitting live shows and messing of styles that has bucked jazz trends to push their music to new territory beyond mainstream jazz. With Best Buddies, the two are releasing a series of biting, creative, and celebratory songs based on well-known jazz harmonic progressions and forms with new original melodies, otherwise known as a contrafact. Roberts and Jago are joined by Karl Florisson on [...]
