Lagniappe

Rosina Bessie was born in Ukraine, the daughter of a Dutch merchant doing business in Kiev. The Czar’s assassination in 1881 unleashed three days of violent anti-Semitic riots, and many Jewish families like the Bessies moved to Moscow. She was a prodigy at the piano and took lessons from a piano student at the Moscow Conservatory, Josef Lhevinne, who was five years older. Later she became a student at that Conservatory and studied with Josef’s teacher, Vassily Safonov. She graduated in 1898 with a gold medal, just as Josef had done in 1892. That same year (1898) she married Josef Lhevinne and he went on to a great international career as a virtuoso pianist. Once when someone heard her and exclaimed that she a better pianist than her husband she was horrified, and vowed from that moment on never to play solo again. She performed only with him as his duo-piano partner until after his death in 1944.

New Orleans' Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews knows the music biz inside out. Hounded for years by friends and music business types to jump into the game, he understood the lessons of his lineage elders: too many had been been ripped off and discarded. He took his time, assembling, rehearsing, and touring Orleans Avenue, a band steeped in brass band history, jazz improv, funk, soul, rock, and hip hop. He finally signed to Verve Forecast and released Backatown in April of 2010. Entering at number one on the jazz charts, it stayed there for nine straight weeks, and was in the Top Ten for over six months. For True hits while Backatown is climbing again. Chock-full of cameos it is an extension, but sonically different. It's production is crisper, but the musical diversity more pushes further. In addition to trombone, Shorty plays trumpet, organ, piano, drums, synths, and, of course, sings…

Award-winning pianist Michael Wolff, known for an impressive and eclectic career that has spanned nearly five decades, presents his new live recording, Live at Vitellos. Surfacing a decade after its capture at the iconic Los Angeles club Vitellos in 2011, Live at Vitellos is a stirring snapshot of a stunning live performance - something that is so sorely missed during these modern times.