There's a bumper crop of new Holiday Jazz out there folks, so i you are looking for last minute enjoyment for Christmas and Hanukkah (and all the rest of the seasonal celebrations) you can listen to Podcast 993, featuring:

Nick Maclean - "Christmas Time is Here" from his single on Browntasauras Records

Christian Sands - "Do You Hear What I Here" from Christmas Stories

George Burt0n - "The Holly and the Ivy" from Yule Log

Rich Wiley - "Silver Bells" from Boptism Christmas

George Gee Swing Orchestra - "Winter Wonderland Mambo" from Winter Wonderland

Band of Other Brothers - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from This Year at Christmas

Mitchell Shiner Latin Vibes - "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah" from Latkes Con Salsa

Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O - "8 Little Candles" from Tree Jazz - The Shape of Christmas to Come

Brownman & Cruzao - "Frosty El Cubano" from their single on Brownasauras Records

Gregory Porter - "Christmas Will Really Be Christmas" from Christmas Wishes (Deluxe Edition)

Tower of Power - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from It's Christmas

Laila Biali - "Drifting Down Ice" from Wintersongs

Donald Vega - "Auld Lang Syne" from All is Merry and Bright

At its heart, Oneness is Israeli-born vocalist/songwriter/arranger Sivan Arbel’s musical response to the divisions she sees in society. Seamlessly blending Eastern and Western influences, she invites listeners to embrace their cultural and ideological differences and yet recognize the universal connections that bind us all. A tall order in late 2024.

Oneness echoes this hopeful idealism by envisioning what is possible. Growing up in an environment where diverse cultures coexisted fueled her lifelong curiosity and desire to explore and integrate different musical influences. As a follow-up to 2016’s Broken Lines and 2019’s Change of Light, which was selected as Best Vocal Disc of the year by Jazz2K, the album stands as a major statement from a developing artist.

The concept for Oneness started to take shape in 2022, during a week-long residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, where Arbel and her band -- pianist Nick Hetko, bassist Sam Weber, and drummer Evan Hyde -- were awarded a retreat. The resulting work was honed before live audiences before recording the music, bringing to fruition Arbel’s lifelong exploration of unity through diversity, drawing from her experiences both in Israel and Brooklyn.

In Podcast 992, Sivan and I talk about the tunes on Oneness, from her own “Second Floor Beloved," a deeply moving narrative about a homeless man on the Tel Aviv boardwalk sung in Hebrew, to the classic Tears for Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Her fresh, soulful interpretation of that iconic tune infuses her rhythmic and harmonic flair into a brand=new musical statement.

Sivan Arbel will be presenting the album release show on December 18, 2024 at 8PM at the New York City club Nublu.

On its own merits, the music on Seven Days, Mauricio Morales’ latest album, speaks with a strong, persuasive creative voice. The respected bassist-composer-bandleader’s fourth album presents seven distinctive compositions for sextet, with sophisticated shifts in mood and musical structure. In a mode of decidedly modern jazz which also manages to be easy on the ear and heart, the music also benefits from bold, integrated playing and soloing by his young allies from both the east and west coasts--connections made when the Mexican Morales lived and studied in Boston before settling in his current adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

Morales composed this body of work—the result of a self-driven challenge to write seven tunes in as many days--while literally stuck in his native Mexico due to a mysterious Visa renewal snafu. Completing the challenge (barely, as you will hear him say) led to a live performance in Los Angeles, and following the urging of his bandmates to create a recorded version of the work, recorded entirely live over two days in the studio.

Morales has been a rising force as player and bandleader/project-leader for the past several years, but his formative musical life goes back to his picking up the electric bass at 13 years old and the upright bass six years later. Working on the east coast scene after heading to Berklee School of Music in 2012, Morales migrated westward to Los Angeles in 2018.

His diverse discography with the sometimes fusion-tinged tracks of 2021’s Luna, followed by the improvisation-leaning trio album Eclipse in 2022 and The Endless Ride last year.

For the Seven Days project, Morales had bold and empathetic company in the band gathered to realize his vision—saxophonist Edmar Colón, guitarist Horace Bray, trombonist Ido Meshulam, pianist Luca Mendoza and dynamo drummer Jongkuk "JK" Kim. In Podcast 991, we discuss what Mauricio looks for in collaborators, the demands of daily composing and creation, and how he views Seven Days in the contet of his body of work.