Earl Klugh Kiri

Heralded as 'a riveting adrenaline rush of a show!' by Peter Marks in The Washington Post, 'MJ the Musical' opened at the Neil Simon Theatre on February 1, 2022 to rave reviews from both critics and audiences. 'MJ delivers the thrills!' exclaimed Jesse Green at The New York Times. Recorded at Power Station at BerkleeNYC, the album was produced by David Holcenberg and Jason Michael Webb and co-produced by Derik Lee, Lia Vollack, John Branca, and John McClain served as executive producers. MJ is currently in the running for ten Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical (Myles Frost), Best Book of a Musical (Lynn Nottage), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Derek McLane and Peter Nigrini), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Paul Tazewell), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Natasha Katz), Best Sound Design of a Musical (Gareth Owen), Best Direction of a Musical (Christopher Wheeldon), Best Choreography (Christopher Wheeldon) and Best Orchestrations (Jason Michael Webb and David Holcenberg).

The 10th full-length release for the New York folk rock band. Musically, "Love Is Love" feels like a continuation of the direction the band staked out on City Sun Eater, augmenting their stoned Americana with rolling percussion and a minor-key horn arrangement that could have been pulled from an Ennio Morricone score or a Studio One production.

Pavans and galliards by the Elizabethan master of melancholy, complemented by a new recording of Benjamin Britten’s magnificent Nocturnal inspired by both Dowland’s music and by the playing of Julian Bream.

Al Grey and Billy Mitchell's musical paths first crossed in various bands led by prominent jazz leaders. After pursuing separate musical endeavors, fate brought them back together in the exciting Count Basie organization during the late 1950s, where they became key members of the band. Their time with Basie lasted until the late 1960 when they decided to chart their own course and co-lead an impressive sextet.

Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate, a previously unreleased recording captured over a half century ago consists of two blistering sets recorded at the legendary venue in October, 1968. Digitally remastered from the original tapes, the album features one of jazz’s most prominent trios - pianist Bill Evans, drummer Marty Morell and bassist Eddie Gomez.

Charles Mingus was a composer whose music spoke volumes without words. It was a rare thing to hear lyrics along with his highly wrought and incredibly emotive compositions, though Mingus had the heart of a poet, as can be seen in his song titles alone. However, there were projects where Mingus added lyrics to his compositional voice, using either his poetry or that of others. On Ku-umba Frank Lacy and Mingus Big Band’s Mingus Sings, the tremendous repertory ensemble directed by Mingus’s widow, Sue Mingus, has recorded an album of pieces that put vocals front and center, led in part by the triumphant voice of Ku-umba Frank Lacy.

Drummer/producer Makaya McCraven traveled to London in October of 2017 to record material for a new album (which has since been titled Universal Beings & will come out on International Anthem in Fall of 2018).

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is tough to place. Most of their musical style falls freely into the jazz or jazz fusion arena. The problem is this instrumental band is so unique, so different and so original that they sound unlike any other group also associated with jazz or jazz fusion.

‘The way in which composers influence each other, whether across generations or more directly through the master – pupil relationships that they often cultivate fascinates me. The comparison of William Byrd’s ‘pervasive’ influence on the Elizabethan/Jacobean world with the impact that Arnold Schoenberg left on the twentieth Century, by Joseph Kerman, inspired my repertoire frame on this disk. I chose a selection of keyboard music, whether for the modern piano or the virginals of sixteenth-century England, to indulge in the astonishing versatility with which these instruments have been used across the centuries.

Before coming into contact with James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon, Handel was is dire straits in London. His pension of £200 a year for teaching the Royal princesses had stopped, as had the public taste for opera. London had plunged into a hedonistic, alcohol- and gambling-driven lifestyle, where the bawdier things were the better.