New Releases
-
July 10, 2020The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—reunite with RoundAgain, the group’s first recording since 1994’s MoodSwing. The album features seven newly composed songs: three from Redman, two from Mehldau, and one each from McBride and Blade. Pre-order to download the track "Right Back Round Again" now.
-
Brad Mehldau’s Finding Gabriel includes nine thematically related songs by Mehldau and features performances by him on piano, synthesizers, percussion, and Fender Rhodes, as well as vocals. Guest musicians include Ambrose Akinmusire, Sara Caswell, Kurt Elling, Joel Frahm, Mark Guiliana, Gabriel Kahane, and Becca Stevens, among others. "A soundtrack for our times," says the AP. "[T]he intricate arrangements of wordless vocals are fascinating, and among the singers is Mehldau, who happens to have a lovely voice. Fetching melodies abound." Grammy Award Winner: Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
-
Rhiannon Giddens’s album there is no Other, recorded with the multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, was produced by Joe Henry and tracked over five days in Dublin. The album is at once a condemnation of “othering” and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience. "This is acoustic roots music at its most glorious," exclaims Uncut, "and Giddens is fast becoming the genre’s brightest star in the firmament." The double-vinyl edition includes four additional tracks, expanded liner notes, and photos from the recording session. Grammy Award Nominee: Best American Roots Performance, "I'm on My Way."
-
On composer William Brittelle’s album Spiritual America, indie rock duo Wye Oak, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the Metropolis Ensemble perform a genre-defying electro-acoustic song cycle written by Brittelle, plus a Wye Oak piece re-imagined by Brittelle. On the album, Brittelle works to reconcile his youth in a conservative Christian household with his adult life as an "agnostic Buddhist." The project began when he endured a family crisis and instinctively found himself praying to God.
-
The third in a series of musical installments from singer Mandy Patinkin and pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett, Diary: December 2018 was recorded by the two musicians in Bartlett's NYC studio. The eleven tracks of this Diary entry include two songs written by Patinkin himself plus songs by Paul Simon, Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields), Randy Newman, Biff Rose, Teitur, and John Grant.
-
Emmylou Harris's The Studio Albums, 1980–83 was first released for Record Store Day 2019. It comprises five classic titles—Roses in the Snow, Evangeline, Cimarron, Last Date, and White Shoes—on vinyl plus a bonus 45 RPM of "That Lovin' You Feeling Again” with Roy Orbison b/w "Mr. Sandman." The collection is in a limited release of 1,100.
-
On Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw's album Orange, Attacca Quartet performs six of her pieces for string quartet. "Completely gorgeous in so many ways," exclaims BBC Radio 3. "It hits you everywhere, all at once." "A love letter to the string quartet," says NPR. "[W]hen you hear all the imaginative sounds on Orange, you know you're listening to the voice of a strong composer." The two-LP vinyl edition includes the album on double 180-gram orange vinyl, pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands, along with a printed excerpt from the score, is due in late summer 2020. Grammy Award Winner: Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.