jazz2love

  New Release:  Modern Music from Wayne Alpern Label: Henri Elkan Music Release Date: June 27, 2025 Website: https://www.waynealpern.com Composer Wayne Alpern has compiled tracks that are performed by pianist Steven Beck for his release Modern Music, a collection of music for solo piano with a modern perspective.  Produced by Judith Sherman, the recording showcases various musical styles, forms, and expressions.  For instance, the track "Gigue" demonstrates the tempo and style that defines gigue, a Baroque dance form performed on piano.  "Prelude" and "March" all do the same, performing traditional chord patterns for each, infused with Beck's perspective.  Track after track is a lesson in standard musical form from the nimble movements of "Partita," stringing together various patterns that travel from fast and dynamic to slow and pensive, followed by the dreamy soundscape of "Reverie," as Beck intermittently plays one sequence with ...

Album:  Gotham Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website:  https://www.waynealpern.com Arranger, composer and bandleader Wayne Alpern has made substantial and meaningful contributions to the jazz emporium, and he continues go strong.  His 2024 release Gotham brings together elements of R&B, classic jazz, and sultry Latin swing to enhance a selection of classic standards.  Combined with his melodic sensibilities, the recording pulls the listener into Alpern's world of merrymaking and solemn reflection. The playful interaction of the horns cleated by a swinging Latin beat along "Desafinado," authored by Antonio Carlos Jobim, filament a lively mood and produce an elevating experience.  Turning reflective and amorous, Wayne's reimagination of "Norwegian Wood," written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, opens with breathy guitar strings punctuated by the balmy riffs of the horns.  The smooth waltzing motion of the rhythmic beats are ...

Album:  Rezurrektion Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label: Henri Elkan Music Website:  www.waynealpern.com Reimagining compositions is a talent of arranger, composer and leader Wayne Alpern that has garnered him worldwide notoriety.  His 2023 offering Rezurrektion features a string quartet, the Sirius Quartet, that integrates jazz idioms into a classical repertoire.  The recording reconfigures 5 compositions of Mozart followed by a mash-up of works by Jonathan Larson and Edvard Grieg.  Another track is a reinterpretation of Duke Ellington's classic piece "Black Beauty" before closing with a reworking of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess." The outcome is a lavish and bountiful feast that showcases Alpern's visionary inclination.  His penchant to meticulously knead chord patterns makes each note call to the listeners attention with effortless persuasion.  Listeners are naturally drawn to the music, hanging onto each phrase, each transition, each crescendo, ...

Album:  Saxology Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website:  www.waynealpern.com Saxology, the latest release from leader and arranger Wayne Alpern, showcases a quartet of saxophones performed by Steve Kenyon, Todd Groves, Dave Noland, and John Winder.  The recording features an array of jazz standards and classic pop novelties reworked with Alpern's acute sensibilities and finesse. The sassy twizzles accenting the saxophones phrasing and their fiery punctuations dotting "Fascinating Rhythm," written by George and Ira Gershwin, shows Alpern's confidence to take control of the reins and make moves along the track that are bold and daring.  Alpern's treatment of the Beatles pop hit "Hide Your Love Away" is envisioned with a torchlight ambience as the softly twirling saxophones evoke a reflective mood. Another pop hit for the Beatles, "When I'm Sixty-Four," is delivered with vaudeville-style pomp and joviality.  Contrastly, Rich...

Album:  The Shape of Strings Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website: www.waynealpern.com Wayne Alpern's compilation The Shape of Strings leaves listeners with the impression that they are in the center of Louis XIV's court, hearing a recital performed by a symphony of strings.  There is something so 18th century French classicism about the recording that will make audiences feel like they have gone back in time to an age when beauty was common place and within everyone's grasp.  There is a majestic, royal-like pomp and ceremony quality about the scores that transcends the listener into a fantasy-like realm.  Alpern leads the renowned String Orchestra of New York City on his release, assembling a compilation of compositions that elevates the spirit and pacifies the mind.   Perceivably, influences of jazz ballads are integrated with classical dramatic phrasing on scores like "Serenade 1" and "Serenade 3," projecting an intensity th...

Album:  Secular Rituals Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label: Henri Elkan Music Website:  www.waynealpern.com If celestial bodies could sing, people would imagine they'd sound like Wayne Alpern's soundscapes from his latest release Secular Rituals . Notes float like wandering silhouettes, both delicate and symphonic sounding, emerging and withdrawing spontaneously, each working harmoniously and separately. Written, composed, arranged, and performed by Alpern, the recording characterizes a series of illustrations, using notes that usually form dialogues and conversations are building pictures that change and evolve organically. Audiences may detect a myriad of influences in Alpern's music such as a reggae-skew in the flittering whistles along "Brave Art," joined by the Gaelic accents of a bagpipe's echo.  The jaunty pulse of the keyboards helming "Sista Re" wield a rhythm and blues ilk, and the percussive beating threading through "Triangularity" inf...

Album:  Frankenstein Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website:  www.waynealpern.com Frankenstein , the new CD from composer Wayne Alpern is a compilation of jazz standards and classic pop tunes interpreted with contemporary trimmings.  Solo excursions are performed by Mike Davis and Boscarino on trombones, Tatum Greenblatt and Brad Mason on trumpets, and David Mann on reeds.  Filling out the melodic passages is the ambling stride of guitarist Kevin Ramessar, the sauntering gait of keyboardist Andy Ezrin, and rhythmic pulse of bassist John Patitucci and drummer Clint DeGanon. Alpern's vision for Andrew Lloyd Webber's "All I Ask of You," from the musical Phantom of the Opera , engenders the horns with an elevating slant that uplifts the listener and bolsters a serene vista.  Alpern has a melodic acuity that positively affects listeners with his interpretation of this classic score.  The recording fastens a swing jazz propulsion on "Mo...

Album:  Jukebox Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website:  https://www.waynealpern.com Part concerthall requiem, part classic chamber music, and part cafe jazz, Jukebox from producer-arranger Wayne Alpern is both delicate and lofty.  Savvy in making fluid movements, Alpern bonds shards of impromptu silhouettes into the tracks, finessing them to a ballroom polish.  Recomposing an assortment of favorite pop novelties and classic symphonies, Alpern's impulse to bring out supplemental nuances in a phrase and draw out new textures in a motif exhibit his affinity for music that is dear to him, all found in the passages of the world's collective memory. The frolicking toots of  Gretchen Pusch's flute, Gerard Reuter's oboe, Benjamin Fingland's clarinet, Karl Kramer-Johansen's horn, and Adrian Morejon's bassoon stroke gleefully across "Handel Allegro."  Their flights seem as though they are powered by the open air, displaying a fancyfree wh...

Album:  Scarab Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website:  https://www.waynealpern.com                 https://www.billytest.com Arranger/composer Wayne Alpern reimagines a selection of Beatles tunes with pianist Billy Test on his latest release Scarab from Henri Elkan Music.  The emotion Test puts into melodies like "Eleanor Rigby" and "Hide Your Love Away" allows audiences to hear something new, something more intriguing about the compositions.  His inherent sense of melodic versing is magical, choreographing seamless dances with the piano keys.  His improvised twists and imaginative tweaks enhance the natural lyricism in the melodies, emphasizing poignant moments along the chord progressions that make the listener stop and take notice. Alpern's interpretation of "Yesterday" projects passion laden with a fiery urgency that's comparable to one of Beethoven's momen...

Album:  Standard Deviation Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label:  Henri Elkan Music Website:  www.waynealpern.com Having worked as a composer and arranger for numerous jazz ensembles, string quartets, woodwind and brass quintets, string orchestras, and piano arias, Wayne Alpern integrates pop music and jazz idioms on his latest release Standard Deviation .  By crisscrossing genres, Alpern recompositions and reimagines familiar melodies, deviating from the originals and giving them a contemporary jazz visage.  Songs made popular by Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Journey, the Temptations, The Zombies, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Bobbie Gentry, Katy Perry, and Gotye are groomed with a jazz demeanor. The folksy tinged roots rock melody "She's Not There" by the Zombies was a model of 1960's mainstream pop/rock in its day.  Alpern's treatment of the song deviates from the original and applies new textures to the music. Benjamin Sutin's arching violin strings...

Album:  Skeleton Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label: Self-Released Website:  www.waynealpern.com From the fancy-free musings of the horns trotting along "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," penned by Joe Zawinul, to the smooth serenade of the horns illuminating Frank Loesser's number "I've Never Been in Love Before," composer-arranger Wayne Alpern's latest release Skeleton displays reverence for classic straight-ahead jazz idioms.  Treated with valor and esteem, Alpern's cover of popular jazz standards along with his original composition "Blue Bones" takes audiences back to the foundation of jazz. Alpern's original work "Blue Bones" may have been written a century after many of the other works on his CD but listening through the recording, no one could detect the generation gap.  The well-scripted bopping of the trombones recalls of vaudeville style minstrels that entertained and amused audiences across the globe, and so too does Alpern's...