Journal
- Friday, May 3, 2024
MESTIZX, Bolivian-born singer and multimedia performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Chicago expat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly's debut full-length album as co-composers, arrangers, and musicians, is out now. Partners in both marriage and art, the Amsterdam-based duo dove deep into the sounds of their respective ancestral roots in Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico to create this deeply personal meditation on decolonization and the defiant power of ritual and protest. Also out today is a video for the album track "TURBULÊNCIA."
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Video
- Monday, September 21, 2009
Chris Thile recently premiered his Mandolin Concerto with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and performs it again this weekend with the Oregon Symphony, after which, Thile joins his fellow Punch Brothers for a three-week US tour, including Carnegie Hall. The group’s next record is scheduled for 2010. "The new album is the next step in the natural progression of Punch Brothers," says band member Gabe Witcher, "from a group first assembled to render Thile’s composition, The Blind Leaving the Blind, to a collective compositional entity in its own right."
Journal Topics: On TourMonday, September 21, 2009The Low Anthem closes out its European tour this week with stops in Hamburg, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris, before heading home to the States for Austin City Limits and an extensive US tour with Blind Pilot. And with a performance in Amsterdam this week, it's fitting that The Low Anthem is offering a free copy of its performance of Bob Dylan's "Dignity" recorded in that city when you sign up for the group's mailing list.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist NewsFriday, September 18, 2009Youssou N'Dour talks to BBC Radio 4 ... Kronos premieres Damon Albarn piece in Spain ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica perform Mendelssohn in Germany ... Low Anthem plays in Germany too ... Joshua Redman Trio launches Indy Jazz Fest ... Chris Thile, Colorado Sympohny give encore performances of his "astounding" Mandolin Concerto ... Allen Toussaint plays New York's Joe's Pub ... Laura Veirs tours with The Decemberists ... Sara Watkins plays the Americana Music Festival in Nashville ... and more ...
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events, RadioFriday, September 18, 2009Chris Thile gave the world premiere of his Mandolin Concerto with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jeffrey Kahane in Denver last night. The Denver Post, rather than view Thile through the lens of his past achievements, sees him "as an up-and-coming classical composer with almost unlimited potential." Even in that context, says the Post, the new piece "is nothing short of astounding."
Journal Topics: Artist News, ReviewsWednesday, September 16, 2009Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, Disfarmer, is out now. The Christian Science Monitor calls the album "a tour de force of jazz creativity by Bill Frisell," with the guitarist creating "a profoundly eerie merger of old-timey mountain music and jazz."
Wednesday, September 16, 2009Chris Thile's first Mandolin Concerto, Ad astra per alas porci, receives its official world premiere this week in three performances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra under Jeffrey Kahane, following a test run of the piece at Interlochen this summer. "I feel like I've done a lot of examining of the mandolin's possibilities," Thile tells violin.com, "but this is the culmination of my efforts in that direction thus far." In an extensive interview with Sequenza 21, he says, "As long as I have something to play, something to sing, something to write, I'll be happy."
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist NewsTuesday, September 15, 2009Alarm Will Sound makes its full-length Nonesuch debut today with the release of a/rhythmia, on which the group performs 14 pieces from composers spanning six centuries, all of which explore the concept of “arrhythmia”: “want of rhythm or regularity, specifically of the pulse.” The resulting work upends order and expectation, often taking ideas akin to minimalism and refracting them through a fun-house mirror.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsMonday, September 14, 2009John Adams's recent Nonesuch release features the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Robertson performing the first recordings of Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony and Guide to Strange Places. Jazz.com names the latter today's Song of the Day, saying: "This is the composer at his most mature, and demonstrating an uncanny skill in channeling his personality through a symphony orchestra." The Stranger's Christopher DeLaurenti calls it his "favorite orchestral work of this decade." The Philadelphia Inquirer gives the album 3.5 stars; the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, an A-.
Journal Topics: ReviewsMonday, September 14, 2009Pop Matters: Christina Courtin "Fearless, Profound, and Musically Fascinating" on "Impressive" DebutChristina Courtin's California concert schedule continues this week with performances in San Francisco and LA. Pop Matters describes the singer as "fearless, profound, and musically fascinating" and her "impressive" new album as "unlike anything else I have heard this year ... Lyrically precocious, and musically varied, Courtin presents herself as a chameleon, shifting through varied terrain from jazz to folk to country to pop and back again."
Friday, September 11, 2009Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, a musical memorial for September 11, will air on WNYC and be performed in concert by the Phoenix Symphony ... Carolina Chocolate Drops celebrate Chapel Hill library's 50th ... Bill Frisell performs music of Disfarmer ... Kronos begins its season at Poland's Wratislava festival ... Low Anthem plays UK's End of the Road fest ... Brad Mehldau solos in São Paolo ... Nicholas Payton plays NY's Iridium ... Guggenheim presents dances to Reich's Double Sextet ... Allen Toussaint plays Texas, Maryland, NYC ... and more
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events, RadioThursday, September 10, 2009Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is featured in Glide's biweekly look at favorite singer-songwriters. Columnist Jason Gonulsen reflects on the impact Tweedy's songwriting has had on him over the years, dating back to an unforgettable first listen to "Misunderstood," from Being There, the 1996 double disc slated for vinyl reissue next month. "I was immediately floored," Gonulson recalls, following a through line to the band's latest release, Wilco (the album).
Journal Topics:Wednesday, September 9, 2009Kronos Quartet announces the tour dates for its 2009/10 concert season, a season that will bring the group all over the United States and to seven countries around the globe. Highlights include a Carnegie Hall Perspectives; collaborations with artists like Wu Man, Tanya Tagaq, and Alim Qasimov; the John Adams–curated West Coast, Left Coast festival with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and several world and New York premieres.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News