jazz2love

  New Release:  Very Early:  Remembering Bill Evans from Jim Witzel Label:  Joplin & Sweeney Records Release Date: August 15, 2025 Website:  https://www.jimwitzelmusic.com Jim Witzel's 4th album, Very Early:  Remembering Bill Evans is a memorial to the works of pianist Bill Evans, performed on guitar by Witzel.  His slant on Evans's material draws out the reflective and relaxing qualities of the music.  Teaming up with pianist Phil Aaron, bass player Dan Feiszli, and drummer Jason Lewis, Witzel merges collective improvisation with introspective musings and straight-ahead jazz elements found in Evans's music.  Inspired by Evans's recording Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Witzel recreates a relaxing Sunday afternoon vibe in his recompositions of Evans's material as he, Aaron and Lewis trade motifs and choruses.  Their harmonies move like poetry in motion standing out on "Israel" with the swinging stride of the rhythm section collabora...

  Treasury, Volume 2 from Terry Waldo Label:  Turtle Bay Records Release Date:  May 30, 2025 Website:  https://terrywaldo.com The foxtrot, the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Collegiate Shag are all social dances that emerged out of ragtime, Dixieland bluegrass, and swing music.  Pianist and bandleader Terry Waldo is a jazz historian, who specializes in the music and dances of such turn of the century-Prohibition Era trademarks.  Audiences will find samples of this musical stock on his 2025 recording Treasury, Vol. 2 , as well as on his podcast edition of Waldo's radio show "This is Ragtime."  Subsequently, Waldo has a book about this stock, by the same title as the radio series, published by Jazz at Lincoln Center.  The music on his recording sizzles, soars, and shimmers, grilling a bubbly fare of Dixieland boot-tapping hoots, ragtime blues and swinging romps.  His rendition of "Wabash Bash" features the ruminating wails of Jerron Paxton'...

  Album:  Live at Birdland  Artist:  High Society New Orleans Jazz Band Label:  Turtle Bay Records Release Date:  September 18, 2025 Website:  https://www.conalfowkes.com Invoking merriment and laughter from beginning to end, the High Society New Orleans Jazz Band poured it on thick and steadfast during their live shows at Birdland Jazz Club in Manhattan.  Recorded during their performances on August 22 and 29, 2024 for Live at Birdland, their production is released by Turtle Bay Records.  From Dixieland jazz to ragtime, and from Tin Pan Alley swing to vaudeville showtunes, the band demonstrates the high octane of Jelly Roll Morton, the crisp synchronicity of Bix Beiderbecke, and the buoyancy and vigorous improvising on a melody reflective of Louis Armstrong.  Co-led by  Conal Fowkes on piano and Simon Wettenhall on trumpet and occasional vocals, the band is filled out by Kevin Dorn on drums, Josh Dunn on banjo and guitar, Harvey Ti...

Elizabeth Shapiro, the founder, lead singer, and frontwoman of Lizzy and the Triggermen, was infatuated with Swing Era music and its glamorous artists while growing up.  What she did not realize is how swing music has become a global phenomenon in present day circles.  Serendipitously, she is relishing being a part of it. She reveals, "I have always enjoyed listening to music from the Swing Era - but I had no idea that swing music was so alive and well in modern times until I was putting together my band." "In search of an arranger," she recalls, "I went to hear a band play at a little dive bar in Burbank that hosted swing music every Monday.  As I pulled up to what looked like a sports bar, I was shocked to find inside a room full of young people in vintage outfits dancing their hearts out to a super swinging band. It felt like being transported to another time."  "Turns out," she illuminates, "there is this whole vibrant scene of swing da...

  Album:  New Jazz Standards Vol 7:  The Music of Carl Saunders  Artist:  Marina Pacowski Label:  Summit Records Release Date:  May 9, 2025 Website:  https://marinapacowski.com French vocalist-pianist Marina Pacowski pays tribute to her friend, composer and trumpet player Carl Saunders on her 2025 recording New Jazz Standards Vol. 7:  The Music of Carl Saunders.   Performing Saunder's material with Pacowski on vocals are:  Roy McCurdy on drums, John Clayton on bass,  Josh Nelson on piano, Rickey Woodard on saxophones, Ron Stout on trumpet, Larry Koonse on guitar, Ken Wild on bass, Scott Whitfield on trombone, and special guests: John Proulx on vocals and Ken Peplowski on clarinet.   A classic jazz crooner and scat improviser, Pacowski keeps the melodies focused and palliative, projecting a consolatory voicing, particularly prevalent in "Feels Like Home" as her vocals rise and fall congruent with the palpitating beats ...

  Words Underlined from Patrick Smith Label:  Lit Soc Records Release Date:  December 12, 2025 Website:  https://www.patricksmithsax.com https://litsocrecords.bandcamp.com Saxophonist-composer Patrick Smith plays with a soulful script and unwavering determination, displaying a sensitivity that is penetrative and an instinct that moves in sync with his collaborators.  His 2025 program Words Underlined is an 11-track disc that evokes introspection, willpower and solace.  The mournful wails of his sax construct an ecclesiastical edifice for "Hazel," contrasting the fiery blazes roaring across "Banff" kettled by guitarist Dan Pitt and drummer Lowell Whitty, and ignited by Smith's belting saxophone howls.  He plays a swinging ragtime-like shuffle across "I've Found A New Nemesis," nimbly moving into a hollering squeal.  Smith halos "As Years Go By" with amorous, cool jazz flutters that evoke reflection and solace as his sax soars and ebbs, sl...