52nd Street Blues Project

This collaborative effort between Queen Esther, Charlie Burnham, Mark Peterson, Aubrey Dayle and guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer reflects a singular, down-home vision of the blues and backwoods roots music. Blues & Grass is less about jamming and instrumentalists and more about chant and incantation, about old-time spirituals and story-telling.

This collaborative effort between Queen Esther, Charlie Burnham, Mark Peterson, Aubrey Dayle and guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer reflects a singular, down-home vision of the blues and backwoods roots music. Blues & Grass is less about jamming and instrumentalists and more about chant and incantation, about old-time spirituals and story-telling.

The genius of pianist and composer Thelonious Monk is unassailable. Since his death in 1982, he has become recognized as one of the greatest composers of jazz – and of the wider world of music. The year 2017 was the centennial of Monk’s birth, and brought scores of tributes, including a well-received stay of pianist Frank Kimbrough’s quartet at the Jazz Standard club in New York City.

Impulse!/Verve present “The Passion of Charlie Parker”, an album of iconic Parker songs transformed through the addition of lyrics to create a musical play that narrates Bird’s life. Produced by Larry Klein with lyrics by David Baerwald, the album features actor Jeffrey Wright in the role of Parker as narrator, with vocals provided by Wright, Gregory Porter, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Barbara Hannigan, Luciana Souza, Kurt Elling and Camille Bertault.