Music

HEPPED-UP, FUN, UPBEAT JAZZ AND SWING The Apollo Trio’s performances on the album released today — Straightaway  from ITI Records — is fun, fun, fun, and way groovy. The story of vocalist and bandleader James Apollo is as remarkable as any who perseveres against abject adversity. From a small frontier town, Apollo would wait at the…

With the 15-piece  Makrokosmos Orchestra, composer/guitarist  Richard Nelson  takes a big picture, broad-spectrum view of contemporary creative music. The orchestra, a New York City outpost for the Maine-based Nelson and co-leader and saxophonist  Tim O’Dell, encompasses influences from modern jazz and contemporary classical music, maneuvering deftly between ambitious compositions and adventurous improvisation. Due out  February 2, 2024  from  Adhyâropa Records on Bandcamp…

Brilliant arranger Matthew Sheeran turns Easley Blackwood’s Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media (1980) into an accessible, gorgeous chamber work. Honoring the one-year anniversary of Chicago-based microtonal composer  Easley Blackwood, Jr.’s death, Chicago’s Cedille Records (pronounced say-DEE) releases on Jan 19, 2024, Acoustic Microtonal, a new and unconventional acoustic presentation of Blackwood’s  Twelve Microtonal Etudes for…

There are certain bodily movements that humans do without thinking: the expansion and contraction of the lungs, the beating of the heart, or in this case, the tapping of the foot to a deliciously slow, swinging groove. On  CT!, baritone saxophonist and bandleader  Adam Schroeder  teams up with arranger  Mark Masters  to deliver a tasty baker’s dozen tunes in the…

The original cast album of Adam Guettel’s new Broadway musical,  Days of Wine and Roses, is now digitally available; it will be available on CD in the spring. Craig Lucas  wrote the show’s book and  Michael Greif  directs the production, which previously ran at the Atlantic Theater Company earlier this year.  Kelli O’Hara  and  Brian d’Arcy James  star in this searing musical, based…