Salt Lake City-based contemporary and concert saxophonist Randal Clark is bringing us a new album titled Imaginary World. Clark has teamed up with prolific songwriter Jeff Lorber, who wrote well over half of the material on this project. Lorber’s tunes are brilliant and melodious. The keyboardist is also among the strong cast of musicians assembled for this recording, including drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Gary Novak, bassist Jimmy Haslip (who also produced), guitarists Mike Miller and Michael Thompson, as well as several others. There’s even a special guest appearance from Randy Brecker.
Right from the opening track, [...]
Moods is back with a project recorded live in Leiden during the peak of the pandemic. Recorded with a full band, Music Ruined My Life has Moods electronic music balanced with soulful contemporary R&B, funk, and jazz. Music Ruined My Life presents eight tracks of intricate and uncaged spin of the Moods sound, which has been consistently hailed by tastemakers globally and sampled by the likes of Logic. Moods explains, “There really wasn’t a huge concept or target for this record; it was more about tapping into the pure joy of making and creating music,” he explains. “The pandemic was such a weird time; there was a lot of uncertainty in all [...]
Joe Farnsworth is releasing a live album recorded in New York City at the Smoke Jazz & Supper Club with a theme of New York City’s deep jazz history called City of Sounds. Farnsworth explains some of his inspiration behind the title, “I went on a Black Lives Matter march from Inwood through Harlem that ended up at a park on the West Side Highway,” he recalls. “As we marched, people were flying the flags of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and you’d hear salsa music playing from their windows. Then you went through Harlem and heard funk and soul and rap music. Everyone was cheering for the same thing, but [...]
James Vincent McMorrow is releasing his long-awaited fifth studio album called Grapefruit Season. The album was produced by James alongside fellow genre disruptors Paul Epworth, Kenny Beats, Lil Silva, and Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift) and was recorded in London, Los Angeles, and Dublin. The song’s theme embraces the fact that life is chaos and the idea of growing up but feeling none the wiser. Grapefruit Season sees James Vincent McMorrow push himself (and his sound) in all-new ways through elements of dancehall to soul, country to R&B. The title, Grapefruit Season, seems to indicate doing simply what you want, rather than [...]
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, [...]