With a playful interplay and energetic presence, the BLISS Quintet has in a short time made its mark as an up-and-coming band within the Norwegian jazz scene. The band released their critically acclaimed debut album "Dramaqueen" on Jazzland Recordings in the spring of 2022. The album was mentioned in Ballade (NO) as album of the year, and by Selwyn Harris from Jazzwise (UK) as "an impressive-sounding young Norwegian band for the future". The band went on an extensive Norwegian tour to coincide with the release, and won the international 7th Virtual Jazz Competition for the title track "Dramaqueen - live". The results of the competition opened up new opportunities for the quintet, through concerts in Italy, Denmark, and Jazzahead in spring 2023. Bliss Quintet will release their second album "Glasshouse" on 29 September 2023 on Jazzland Recordings with a subsequent tour in Norway and Europe.
Exit-13 is a grind band from Pennsylvania. Exit-13 is a mainly- studio concoction, the brainchild of guitarist Steve O'Donnell and vocalist Bill Yurkiewicz (ex-Relapse Records owner ); for this recording, they enlisted the assistance of members of Brutal Truth (Danny Lilker and Rich Hoak) and former Pain Teens singer Bliss Blood. Released in 1996, this odd collection of songs is a tribute to the virtues of smokin' spliffs, mostly featuring "smoking songs" of the 1920s and '30s along with a couple of parody moments and a crazed semi-white-noise freakout track, "Loading Dock."
Christian McBride's second big-band album, 2017's Bringin' It, is a robust, swaggeringly performed set of originals and standards showcasing his deft arranging skills and his ensemble's exuberant virtuosity. The album comes six years after his previous big-band outing, The Good Feeling, and once again finds the bassist conscripting a slew of his talented cohorts (some new, others returning), including saxophonists Steve Wilson and Ron Blake, trumpeters Freddie Hendrix and Brandon Lee, trombonist Steve Davis, pianist Xavier Davis, drummer Quincy Phillips, and others. Together, they make a swinging, dynamic sound that brings to mind the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra of the 1960s and bassist Charles Mingus' various big-band recordings. It should be noted that both of those ensembles continue to live on as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Mingus Big Band, and McBride's group matches their high artistic legacies.
We’re returning to the fertile grounds of Northern California for the next installment in the GarciaLive series. GarciaLive Volume 17: NorCal ’76 will present highlights from three* stand-out Jerry Garcia Band performances captured over the span of a week — November 7th at the Keystone in Berkeley; November 12th at the University of California, Davis; and November 13th at Humboldt State University in Arcata. While a myriad of challenges from reel damage to tape loss and other assorted technical difficulties spoil any opportunity to feature the complete performances, what remains of Betty Cantor-Jackson’s original recordings offers some of the finest performances from this iteration of the Jerry Garcia Band.
Having helped generate the first wave of '90s pop-punk, Face to Face was due to profit from the mainstream success of artists like Lit and Blink 182 who had taken their melodic approach to punk songcrafting to new commercial heights. With so much punk credibility to be had, the last thing anyone expected these famous SoCal punkers to do is release a hard rock record; which is exactly what the foursome did when they shipped their first disc for Beyond Records in 1999. From the initial drum and guitar blasts of the record's lead cut "Overcome" Ignorance Is Bliss lets listeners in on the fact that Face to Face would not be limited to the punk genre, and that the quartet's songwriting skills stand up against the most successful of hard rock bands.
Soul Coughing's second album, Irresistible Bliss, finds the band cutting away some of their eccentricities, leaving behind the bare basics of their pseudo-bohemian fusion of jazz, hip-hop, performance art, and alternative rock. Theoretically, the album should be more accessible; in practice, it is simply less involving. Though some engagingly quirky, off-center avant-pop remains, there are no jarring juxtapositions as satisfying as those that dominated Ruby Vroom, with its melded samples of Howlin' Wolf and the Andrews Sisters. There's enough strong music on Irresistible Bliss to suggest that the album is merely a slight sophomore slump, but that still doesn't make the long stretches of tediousness on the album any more forgivable.