Oct 28, 2010
Nu Shooz were a footnote in Eighties dance-pop music, hitting the charts with “I Can’t Wait” and “Point of No Return”, and garnering a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 1987 (they lost to Bruce Hornsby & the Range). More than twenty years later, the husband and wife team of John Smith and Valerie Day...
Oct 27, 2010
On Saturday, October 30th, WKCR will present the Clifford Brown Birthday Broadcast, celebrating the life and career of the legendary trumpeter by broadcasting twenty-four hours of his music.
Born in 1930 in Wilmington, Delaware, Brown picked up the trumpet at age fifteen, and quickly became one of the most influential...
Oct 26, 2010
Highly underrated as a musical constructionist, Alec Wilder was a drinking buddy of singers like Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Tony Bennett, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they adored his songs. A fan of crossword puzzles, he allowed that passion to spill over as he wrote his material, always looking for a...
Oct 25, 2010
Am I wrong to think that Taylor Eigsti’s latest CD is a tad formulaic? I don’t want to denigrate the talented pianist’s chops, nor his growing ability as a composer, as witnessed by multiple Grammy nominations. But in many ways, Daylight at Midnight seems like it was put together by some A&R person. Do we have...
Oct 23, 2010
You can put it on the list right now - Danilo Perez’s’ Providencia is one of the ten best jazz CD’s of 2010. The Panamanian pianist has made his reputation with a tremendous ability to turn the staid and expected into something special, whether as a bandleader or the sideman of choice for Wayne Shorter, Roy Haynes...