There's a funny thing about round numbers and commemorations. People add extra value to big signpost years in the narrative of things, to make them somehow make more sense in the context. Perhaps this is the grasp I'm making as I have fallen for alto saxophonist Steve Lehman's album, released in his 40th rotation around the sun and his trio of bassist Matt Brewer and drummer … [Read more...]
Ben Wendel – “June” (Video)
Ben Wendel is about to take his Seasons Band with him to New York's Village Vanguard May 14-19th. It's going to be a highly anticipated week for one of the best works of 2018. To lead up to it all, Wendel has released one last music video from The Seasons, for the song June, as usual directed by Alex Chaloff and showing this band with just as much beauty as the music they're … [Read more...]
Ben Wendel Seasons Band – “March” (Video)
One of the highlight albums of 2018 is most certainly saxophonist Ben Wendel's The Seasons, a quintet filling out compositions originally for duets released as a YouTube series in 2015, with one song for each month of the year. It's a bold, dazzling album that must be embraced (and though I never did get around to reviewing it, it certainly appeared on The Line-Up a lot lately … [Read more...]
Ben Wendel’s Seasons Band Release “July”, First Track Off Debut Album ‘The Seasons’ (Video)
With the fall season's upcoming releases looking quite promising, saxophonist Ben Wendel's new album, The Seasons, is definitely one of the albums we are most highly anticipating around here. Based on the video series he put together back in 2015 involving duet compositions with assorted musicians, the project has now evolved to include a full band (many of whom were in said … [Read more...]
Gonzalo Rubalcaba – “The Making of XXI Century” (Full-length Documentary)
Three years ago, Grammy award winning pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba released an ambitious double album entitled XXI Century to critical acclaim. The album featured the pianist alongside his core rhythm section of Matt Brewer on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums augmented by special guests Ignacio Berroa, Pedro “Pedrito” Martinez, Lionel Loueke and Gary Galimidi. The recording … [Read more...]