The New York Times (11 18 2016)

Alan Yentob accompanies the charismatic and provocative novelist Marlon James back to James's home country of Jamaica and finds in his three highly praised novels a complex portrait of the turbulent history of his native country. 2015 was a momentous year for James. He became the first Jamaican writer to win the Man Booker prize for his magisterial novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, about the events surrounding the attempted assassination of Bob Marley and their aftermath.

Leyla McCalla is a New York-born Haitian-American living in New Orleans, who sings in French, Haitian Creole and English, and plays cello, tenor banjo and guitar. Deeply influenced by traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music, as well as by American jazz and folk, her music is at once earthy, elegant, soulful and witty — it vibrates with three centuries of history, yet also feels strikingly fresh, distinctive and contemporary.

Based on Colin Harrison's acclaimed novel Manhattan Nocturne (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), MANHATTAN NIGHT tells the story of Porter Wren (Adrien Brody), a New York City tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy and anything that passes for the truth. At home he is a model family man, devoted to his loving wife (Jennifer Beals). But when a seductive stranger (Yvonne Strahovski) asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband Simon (Campbell Scott), he can't resist. In this modern version of a classic film noir, we follow Porter as he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail - one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life. MANHATTAN NIGHT will be released by Lionsgate Premiere in theaters and On Demand May 20, 2016. Lionsgate Premiere, Grindstone Entertainment Group and 13 Films present in association with Sparkle Roll Media Corporation and Big Indie Pictures a production of Fable…

The widely acclaimed vocal ensemble New York Polyphony has on its previous recordings for BIS focused on Franco-Flemish polyphony (endBeginning, BIS1949), the English Renaissance (Times go by Turns, BIS2037) and Christmas (Sing thee Nowell, BIS2099). Each of these discs which have been highly praised by the critics, receiving no less than two Grammy Award nominations has also included contemporary works, resulting in striking resonances between music from across more than half a millennium.

This 2005 session features the 15-year-old native Sicilian saxophonist making his American recording debut accompanied by a crack New York rhythm section. Although it's common to hear rueful expressions about what a Charlie Parker or Clifford Brown might have accomplished had they lived longer, a player as precocious as Francesco Cafiso reminds us of the challenges facing an artist who appears to "be there" already yet has a lifetime with practically an obligation to top himself. In June 2007, when he was 17, the gifted altoist made history of sorts when he entered Birdland, the domain named after the music's most acclaimed improviser, to play the "Bird role" in a re-creation of the predecessor-father figure's most popular recording, "Charlie Parker with Strings". From the evidence on "New York Lullaby" the young player is perhaps one of the few musicians up to such a formidable, even unenviable assignment.

This 2005 session features the 15-year-old native Sicilian saxophonist making his American recording debut accompanied by a crack New York rhythm section. Although it's common to hear rueful expressions about what a Charlie Parker or Clifford Brown might have accomplished had they lived longer, a player as precocious as Francesco Cafiso reminds us of the challenges facing an artist who appears to "be there" already yet has a lifetime with practically an obligation to top himself. In June 2007, when he was 17, the gifted altoist made history of sorts when he entered Birdland, the domain named after the music's most acclaimed improviser, to play the "Bird role" in a re-creation of the predecessor-father figure's most popular recording, "Charlie Parker with Strings". From the evidence on "New York Lullaby" the young player is perhaps one of the few musicians up to such a formidable, even unenviable assignment.