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.

With The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook, Manhattan Transfer founding member and Grammy Award-Winning vocalist Janis Siegel and acclaimed pianist/arranger/musical director Yaron Gershovsky, together have co-produced their first duo songbook album. And it comes from a classic “When a door closes, a window opens” moment.

The Manhattan Transfer performed its final concert a year ago, bringing to a close one of the most storied chapters in vocal jazz history. With their scintillating live performances and memorable recordings, The Transfer bridged the gap from the fabulous four-part harmony groups of the thirties and forties and Lambert Hendrick & Ross to the 197u0’s, teaching late baby boomers how jazz singing should be done. Years earlier, Siegel and Gershovsky discovered that both had worked with the revered songwriter Cy Coleman – Gershovsky as the vocal arranger for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical City of Angels, Siegel as part of the all-star vocal ensemble for Coleman’s final collaboration with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman at the Kennedy Center.

That conversation soon evolved into a full-fledged project: The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook on the Club44 label. It features the duo’s spirited interpretations of ten favorite Coleman compositions, pairing Siegel’s unmistakable voice with Gershovsky’s inventive music and vocal arrangements. The album boasts an elite roster of musicians including bassists David Finck and Boris Kozlov, drummer Cliff Almond, guest vocalist Aubrey Johnson, and The Crosby Street String Quartet.

The alnum marks the first songbook album of Siegel’s diverse and prolific career, the first collection in her rich discography devoted to the work of a single composer. Beyond her ten Grammys with the Transfer, Janis has collaborated with pianists Fred Hersch, Edsel Gomez, Cedar Walton, Gil Goldstein, John di Martino, Addison Frei, and fellow vocalists including her former Transfer bandmate Laurel Massé, Lauren Kinhan of New York Voices, Bobby McFerrin, and Bob Dorough.

Gershovsky is a highly accomplished, internationally recognized and award-winning pianist, arranger, composer and producer who has recorded and performed with such artists as Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Smith, Steve Gadd, Take 6 and the Count Basie Orchestra. His Broadway credits include vocal arranging for the Tony Award-nominated musicals Swing and City of Angels, and serving as keyboardist for Broadway megahits Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. He has been the pianist and musical director for Manhattan Transfer since 1979, and is Janis’ first call collaborator.

The repertoire on The Colors of My Life ranges from familiar standards to more obscure material. They range from the oft-performed “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come,” to the previously unrecorded melancholy “Being Without You,” which Siegel took note of during that Kennedy Center workshop and always knew she’d return to.

Podcast 990 is my conversation with Janis and Yaron, as they dissect the manner in which the Coleman tribute was prepared, what they find so moving about his work, and how best to bring freshness to well-loved standards. Musical selections include the silky slowed-down take on “Witchcraft,” and the afore mentioned “Being Without You.”

Long hailed for her style-blurring renditions of artists spanning Tom Waits and Jimi Hendrix to Marvin Gaye and Metallica, Elles sees Youn Sun Nah bringing her remarkable voice and unique perspective to a range of songs that have deeply fueled her own indescribable musical approach, all made famous by such iconic female artists as Björk, Sarah Vaughan, Grace Jones, Roberta Flack, Edith Piaf, Grace Slick, Maria João, and more.

Recorded in New York City alongside acclaimed pianist Jon Cowherd (Brian Blade, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright) and producer/musician Tomek Miernowski, Elles spans a wide array of songs either written or performed by notable women artists, from soulful spirituals (“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child”) and psychedelic milestones (“White Rabbit”) to long-overdue takes on “Feeling Good,” “My Funny Valentine,” “I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Backed by Cowherd’s subtle yet inventive work on a variety of keyboards, Youn Sun Nah reimagines standards both old and new in typically captivating fashion, traversing gender and generation with precision, magic, and intimacy.

Youn Sun Nah is among contemporary jazz’s most admired vocalists, an international award-winning singer, songwriter, and performer, hailed by The Guardian for her “seamless” movement “between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity.” The Seoul, South Korea-based artist began her musical journey with piano lessons as a child before singing gospel with the Korean Symphony Orchestra as a teen. A career in musical theatre beckoned but Youn Sun Nah instead chose to pursue her own muse by attending Paris’ Institut National de Musique de Beauvais, Nadia and Lili Boulanger Conservatory, and the CIM, a school of jazz and contemporary music. Youn Sun Nah quickly affirmed herself as an exceptional vocal star, winning prizes at jazz festivals and competitions.

In Podcast 989, Youn and I talk about how she chooses cover songs that she can inhabit with her own spirit and style, how she came to jazz late, and why she has constantly changed accompanists through her year long tour. Musical selections include “White Rabbit” and “Baltimore Oriole” from Elles, and “My Favorite Things” from her breakthrough album Same Girl.

No Cowards in Our Band is a musical drama telling the story of renowned activist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) through his own words. With the performance just days before the 2024 Presidential Election, the piece is a striking reminder of the power of the pen, the voice, and the vote.

Based on a libretto by Anthony Knight, Jr. and interwoven with Negro spirituals arranged by GRAMMY-nominated jazz artist Orrin Evans, No Cowards in Our Band stars actor, artist, and TV personality Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass performing with a trio of opera singers, the “moving and electrifying performer” (Wall Street Journal) Nia Drummond, soprano – who went viral last year for a rendition of Happy Birthday that made Busta Rhymes cry – Metropolitan Opera tenor Edward Washington II, and Opera Ebony and Syracuse Opera’s Gregory Sheppard, bass.

Evans is a fixture on the jazz scene now, and is featured on the cover of Downbeat in November. As a deft tune deconstructor, he traverses a broad timeline of the vocabularies of swinging, blues-infused hardcore jazz and spiritual jazz/avant garde jazz traditions, as well as the Euro-canon, with the intuitive spontaneity of an ear player. He projects an instantly recognizable sound, sometimes eliciting flowing rubato poetry. He records and performs in collaborative projects include the Eubanks Evans Experience (a duo with eminent guitarist Kevin Eubanks); the Brazilian unit Terreno Comum; Evans’ working trio with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr.; Tar Baby (a collective trio of 20 years standing with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits); and the Captain Black Big Band, which just recently released Walk a Mile in My Shoe (Imani Records).

Orrin was just off the red-eye from gigs on the West Coast when I caught up with him by Zoom, and we discussed his very personal involvement with No Cowards in Our Band, as his mother was an opera singer, and his father a playwright. We also dig into Walk a Mile in My Shoe, from which you will hear the Captain Black Big Band take on Bread’s 70’s soft-rock standard “If,” with a wonderful vocal by Paul Jost.

Saturday, November 2nd at 7pm
Concept and Libretto: Anthony Knight, Jr.
Musical Arrangement: Orrin Evans
Director: Michael Hofmann

Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass

Nia Drummond, soprano
Edward Washingington II, tenor
Gregory Sheppard, bass

Tickets: https://hudsonhall.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FUT000002I0d72AC
Tier 1: Reserved Seating, $45 (plus $5 fee)
Tier 2: General Admission, Mid-Center Section/Side Aisle, Front Mezzanine, $30 (plus $5 fee)
Tier 3: General Admission, Rear and Side Seating, far sides may be partially obstructed, $19 (plus $3 fee)

Tord Gustavsen has gone down many musical paths in his still-blossoming career. Classically trained and educated in musicology, Tord also has a deep knowledge of jazz, which he has seamlessly integrated with the folk and religious music of his upbringing in Oslo. In many ways a quintessential ECM artis (though in our conversation he says he did not think this was originally the case), he has performed and recorded in any number of traditional jazz formats, as well as integrating choirs, singers and world music into his sound.

With Seeing, Tord begins an intricate new chapter in his series of acclaimed trio recordings, initiated in 2003 with Changing Places – an album that is today considered a classic. The new recording with its compact, concentrated song forms features five Gustavsen originals, two chorals after Johann Sebastian Bach, a traditional Norwegian church hymn, plus the 19th century English chorale “Nearer My God, to Thee."Tord, together with long-time ally Jarle Vespestad on drums and Steinar Raknes on double bass digs deep into his unique blend of jazz, blues, gospel, Scandinavian folk and church music on the album. Fans of the deeply moving and meditative music for which Gustavsen has become famous will not be disappointed. Seeing, recorded in fall 2023 at Studios La Buissonne in Southern France, was produced – naturally - by Manfred Eicher.

Podcast 987 is our conversation, as we talk about his trio, the new album, his musical background and influences, and how he approaches improvisation. Musical selections include “Seattle Song,” taken from an improvisational idea he and the trio created as a sound check before a show in the Emerald City, and a stirring version of “Auf Meinen Lieben Gott,” which featuring a stunning bass solo by Steinar Raknes.

I’m always happy to preview jazz festivals across the US on Straight No Chaser. The big ones like Newport or Monterey are always great, and regional festivals like those held in Saratoga or by NJPAC are a blast. But I have a special place in my heart for the cities and towns who present festivals, places like Northampton, MA, or Burlington, VT, Hartford, CT or Portland, Oregon, or in the case, Hudson, NY.

Scheduled in February in years’ past, the 2024 Hudson Jazz Festival marks the festival’s official move to October, offering music lovers the chance to get out and enjoy the festival’s many offerings and the region’s idyllic autumnal landscape. Coinciding with the seasonal change, the festival is taking its events city-wide with the addition of three new festival venues that showcase well-loved Hudson destinations and a free pre-festival Community Dayfeaturing Melanie Charles’ Make Jazz Trill Again: Trill Mega Jam.

There are multiple free events each day, with top-notch ticketed events at historic Hudson Hall each evening. Friday night features Ekep Nkwelle presenting “Ella Fitzgerald - Against All Odds,” an evening of songs associated with the legendary Ella, and bringing attention to her little known incarceration in Hudson, NY as a teenager.

Saturday night’s headliner is trumpeter Riley Mulherkar (formerly of the Westerlies) leading a quartet with Chris Pattishall (piano), Barry Stephenson (bass) and Chris Icasiano (drums). Riley has released his first solo album, the eponymous Riley, and we’ll feature “Ride or Die” from that album. Sunday afternoon wraps up with the Ethan Iverson Trio, with the former Bad Plus pianist joined by Reuben Rogers on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

Podcast 986 is my preview of the festival with curator Cat Henry. Ms. Henry has previously curated concerts for MoMA Summergarden: New Music for New York, featuring composers such as Henry Threadgill, Myra Melford and Don Byron, and produced programs for Lincoln Center’s inaugural Poet-in-Residence, Mahogany L. Browne. Henry currently serves as Executive Director of Live Music Society, a foundation supporting grassroots music venues where musicians start their careers, connect with audiences and hone their craft. Previously, she served as Vice President, Concerts and Touring, for Jazz at Lincoln Center, where she managed all performance-related activities under the JALC brand, including concert seasons at Rose Theater and The Appel Room, worldwide touring of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and nightly sets at Dizzy’s Club. She is a fellow of the Executive Program in Arts and Culture Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BFA in Jazz Performance from The New School. Originally from the UK, she lives in Brooklyn with her teenage daughter.