jazz2love

  Album:  Quartet Vol. II Artist:   Takeshi Asai Label:   Fono Bono Records Release Date:   November 20, 2026 Website:   https://www.takeshiasai.com/index.html https://takeshiasai.com/QuartetVol2_Album.html   The esteemed Takeshi Asai, a New York City-based jazz pianist, composer and bandleader releases his 24th album Quartet Vol. II, featuring Hashem Assadullahi on alto saxophone, Mark Wade on bass, and John Clay on drums.   The quartet fuses bop, swing, blues, and straight-ahead jazz into a sonic consortium that balances melodic motifs with improvised musings.   At times, the quartet ventures into organic conversations among themselves, but now and then, they immerse their audience in spellbinding storylines that speak to the listener.   "Fillet Mignon" is one such track that speaks to the audience.   The whispery swells of Asai's keys scroll intense musings that cause the listener to pause and take a moment to reflect.   The...

Album:  True Stories Artist:  Mark Wade Label:  Mark Wade Music Website:  http://markwademusicny.com Modern jazz composer and bassist Mark Wade looks to jazz luminaries like Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Wayne Shorter for wisdom while making music that serves his day and age.  His latest release True Stories is not a rehashing of straight ahead jazz/after hours club music from a bygone era but rather his arrangements are a descendant of the works from such pioneers of the art form.  Audiences will recognize that Wade has a kindred spirit with after hours club staples.  He is a product of their lessons and willpower to see that jazz music endures into contemporary times. Wade exhibits a frolicking nature along the recording, continuously shifting the dynamics moving effortlessly from being somber like in "Song with Orange and Other Things" to jovial like in "I Feel More Like I Do;" from being sedate and reflective like in "Falling Delores" to uplifti...