Scott Smith

Drummer and composer Kendrick Scott presents Corridors, a striking new album that finds the Houston-born drummer and composer paring down to a trio featuring saxophonist Walter Smith III and bassist Reuben Rogers. The anticipated follow-up to A Wall Becomes A Bridge, Scott’s much-lauded 2019 release with his band Oracle, Corridors features eight original compositions and one new arrangement of a beloved tune from the Bobby Hutcherson canon.

This sixth volume in the Classics Willie "The Lion" Smith chronology is packed with exceptionally fine music, beginning with seven Commodore piano solos recorded near the end of 1950. The Lion is in excellent form here - his thunderously percussive rendition of Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things" could serve as a sort of primal preface to Cecil Taylor's 1959 reconstitution of Porter's "Get Out of Town." The Lion's Blue Circle session of August 15, 1953, features a robust little band with a front line of trumpeter Henry Goodwin, trombonist Jimmy Archey, and reedman Cecil Scott. Myra Johnson, Fats Waller's feisty touring vocalist during the late '30s and early '40s, chips in with a rowdy reading of "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Stop It, Joe," a James P. Johnson composition erroneously credited here to Willie "The Lion" Smith…

Released during the historic and unusual 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign, "Swing The Vote!" offers an antidote to election fatigue with some of the most fun Postmodern Jukebox remakes, recorded at the collective's Los Angeles "Bro Mountain" studio. Newcomer Addie Hamilton leads off the collection with a hard swingin' remake of Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl", and Robyn Adele Anderson's vocals on "Hollaback Girl" remind the listener why she was PMJ's first breakout star vocalist. Clark Beckham joins the cast for a classy soul remake of the notorious "Rick roll" theme, "Never Gonna Give You Up", and Casey Abrams' take on "Sweet Child O' Mine" showcases his vocal chops and charismatic personality. There's even a debut from the youngest PMJ member - 14 year old vocal prodigy Caroline Baran, in her first commercially available recording.

Billie Holiday. The first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, Billie Holiday changed the art of American pop vocals forever. More than a half-century after her death, it's difficult to believe that prior to her emergence, jazz and pop singers were tied to the Tin Pan Alley tradition and rarely personalized their songs; only blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey actually gave the impression they had lived through what they were singing. Billie Holiday's highly stylized reading of this blues tradition revolutionized traditional pop, ripping the decades-long tradition of song plugging in two by refusing to compromise her artistry for either the song or the band…