In fashion circles, the adjective “bespoke” denotes custom-made suits and shirts and signifies the person who designs and constructs them. On The Bespoke Man’s Narrative, his brilliant Mack Avenue Records debut,...
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For those who know how to listen, time and distance offer a wealth of perspective. “When you live in your own country, you are immersed in that reality and you’re not...
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Four-time Grammy® Award-winner Billy Childs remains one of the most diversely prolific and acclaimed artists working in music today. Childs’ canon of original compositions and arrangements has garnered him an additional 10 Grammy®...
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Pianist, composer and vocalist Cameron Graves calls the music he’s architected for his new Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group release thrash-jazz, though that only begins to tell the story. Yes,...
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"You get a singer like this once in a generation or two." - Wynton Marsalis‘She connects with jazz’s past and prehistory while being entirely about risk and play in the...
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When Philadelphia-born bassist/bandleader Christian McBride arrived in New York in 1989 as a Juilliard student, he was the “Godchild of the Groove” with unlimited potential. Today, with over 300 recordings as a sideman...
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On his stunning new album, Be Water, pianist Christian Sands takes inspiration from water’s tranquility and power and muses on the possibilities offered by echoing its fluidity and malleability. Through ten...
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Valdés set the batá-driven small-group format aside in the wake of Irakere’s explosive popularity in 1973, but he’s always wanted to get back to it. Now he’s done...
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As the title makes vividly clear, Connie Han’s career may be in the early stages of
what promises to be a vertiginous climb, but the 23-year-old pianist and composer is
no...
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“I get goosebumps just thinking about it,” Aimée says. “At the moment that I was working on this album I was going through a lot of life changes. The more I...
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“We can ‘comprovise’ (spontaneous composition) with dense harmonic and melodic forms, but we can also explore the beauty of a simple harmony,” says Pérez. “And you can see the care each...
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In the early days of jazz, the clarinet joined with trumpet and trombone to create the music's signature sound and it ruled the roost in the swing era, when jazz was America's...
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There are so many superlatives thrown around these days that they seem to have lost their effect; but as this unique and deeply grounded album sinks into your consciousness, you will undoubtedly...
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Multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen is one of his generation's pivotal figures in music and the related arts. Leader of the Emmet Cohen Trio and creator of the Masters...
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A popular phrase in years past was “Life Begins at 60,” but Gary Burton—as he has done so often throughout his career—is rewriting the book on retirement. Having turned 70...
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Gerald Wilson, jazz’s reigning composer/orchestrator pays homage to his adopted hometown, Chicago on his fifth Mack Avenue Records release, Legacy. Composers Igor Stravinsky and Giacomo Puccini also receive Wilson’s...
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López-Nussa was born into a musical family in Havana on July 13, 1983. Not only are his father and uncle—Ernán, a pianist—working musicians, but also his late mother,...
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“I want to live in a world where my glass is always half full!” That’s the inspiring maxim of New Orleans master drummerHerlin Riley. On his second Mack Avenue Records release,...
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Following up It's About That Time, Nighttown and the eponymous 2006 debut—Hot Club of Detroit expands its sonic and compositional horizons with Junction. Retaining its original lineup of reeds, two guitars,...
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On While Looking Up, Greene finds solace, support and inspiration from each of these directions, but in particular from casting his gaze heavenward. Looking inward, he’s comforted by his faith...
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When jazz aficionados think of Joey DeFrancesco – and they often do – they ponder his matchless talents as a modern-day avatar of the Hammond B3 organ and the Philadelphia history he shares with...
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John Beasley has shared stages with some of the most important names in jazz during his three-decade career. From his days as a member of Freddie Hubbard’s quintet and one of...
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Progressive yet somehow timeless, Love Hurts reveals new facets of Lage’s approach while truly demonstrating his avowed belief in simple human interaction and spontaneous creative communication. As he has throughout his...
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Detroit-born Kenny Garrett is a five-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee and 2010 GRAMMY® Award-winner (as a member of Chick Corea’s and John McLaughlin’s co-led Five Peace Band), and the recipient of an Honorary...
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Philadelphia native Kevin Eubanks grew up surrounded by music. His mother, Vera, was both a gospel and classical pianist, and his brothers Robin and Duane play trombone and trumpet respectively. Eubanks started...
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Since its rollicking debut at the 2012 Detroit Jazz Festival, the Mack Avenue SuperBand has become a tradition at the annual event, a gathering of label superstars that the Motor City can look...
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Taking in the full breadth of guitarist Nels Cline’s sonic sphere of influence has always required a particularly wide lens. Zoom out from his fret board-blistering mash-ups of abrasive rock and...
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Combining jazz sensibility and deep roots in the Afro-Cuban tradition, Yesun is the Havana-born artist’s ninth solo album. The record delves into the music of Fonseca’s homeland of Cuba while...
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When We Find Ourselves Alone is Rodney Whitaker’s 8th recording as a leader, showing that the 46-year-old son of Detroit hasn’t neglected to carve out time for creative development since...
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Multi-talented saxophonist Ron Blake inhabits many worlds, and nowhere is this more apparent than on his third release for Mack Avenue, Shayari (shy-ree). Produced by pianist Michael Cain (who also appears on...
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A major event in that evolution occurred when he chose to step down from his longtime position as Lead Trumpeter of the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2010. But touring with Wayne...
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45 years after his album debut, four-time Grammy® Award-winning bassist Stanley Clarke shows he is still unapproachable on both the electric and acoustic, wielding a vision of fusion and funk, breakbeats and...
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In a career that took flight in 1985 with immediate commercial and critical acclaim, guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan has consistently displayed a chameleonic musical persona of openness, imagination, versatility, respect and maverick daring....
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The Symphonic Jazz Orchestra (SJO) is comprised of Los Angeles’s finest studio musicians and jazz soloists. Over the years, such world-class soloists as Dave Grusin, Christian McBride, Raul Midón, Luciana...
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While the phrase “diamond in the rough” often describes burgeoning talents brimming with potential, Fuller has exhibited impending greatness since emerging on the international jazz scene more than a decade ago. Now,...
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At just 25 years old, Veronica Swift has built a résumé that even many late-career jazz singers would envy: tours as a featured vocalist with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at...
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As a tight, longstanding jazz ensemble, Yellowjackets has explored a universe all its own of electro-acoustic soundscapes in its nearly four-decade history. Since the band’s eponymous 1981 debut album, Yellowjackets has consistently...
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