jazz2love

  New Release:  Heart Music from George Crotty Label:  Self-Released Release Date:  June 6, 2025 Artist Websites:  https://www.georgecrotty.com/trio https://georgecrotty.bandcamp.com/album/heart-music The exotic aesthetics and melodic improvisations of the George Crotty Trio coalesce aspects rooted in multiple cultures from the tingling chimes of India to the Celtic-like tones steep in chamber music and the percussive throbbing of folkloric chants, all of which are found throughout their new recording Heart Music .  Led by Canadian cellist and composer George Crotty, his collaborators John Murchison on bass and Jeremy Smith on percussion move in synchronicity with his tender strokes and brisk rosining of the strings, bowing and lobbing, gliding and cascading across the rhythmic palpitations.  The music is a scintillating elixir for the ears, traversing across a lustrous prism of genres and the music of various cultures.

Album:  Subduing the Silence Artist:  Ruiqi Wang (王睿琪) Label:  Orchard of Pomegranates Website:  https://www.ruiqiwangsings.com/ The debut recording Subduing the Silence from vocalist Ruiqi Wang (王睿琪) fuses ruminating vocals with stride piano, chamber music serenades, and traditional Chinese spirituals.  Wang's delivery is expressive, articulate and introspective as she channels a calm current among the sparse instrumental layers.  Her songs are interspersed with short instrumental interludes, indulging in freeform extemporization while Wang steers the recording into dream-like ambiences, helmed by thought-evoking lyrics and her sensual voicing. Accompanied by Stephanie Urquhart on piano, Summer Kodama on bass, Mili Hong on drums, and members of the Craft Ensemble including Colleen Brannen on violin, Amy Sims on violin, Amelia Hollander Ames on viola, and Velleda Miragias on cello, Wang bridges the ethereal plane with the human soul.  The chanting voi...

Album:  Veneta Artist:  Miguel Espinoza Flamenco Fusion Label: Self-Released Website:  https://www.meflamencofusion.com Elements of flamenco dance, folkloric jazz, and chamber music come together in Miguel Espinoza Flamenco Fusion's newly self-released Veneta .  From festive ambiences to contemplative moods and requiem-like hymms, the recording speaks to audiences on many levels.  Led by guitarist Miguel Espinoza, Veneta celebrates life and puts a positive slant on all of its experiences. The rippling beats of the percussion set the foundation for the title track as Espinoza's guitar strings nestle beside the soaring yowls of  Dianne Betkowski's cello and then circle around the undulating billows of Lynn Baker's saxophone.  The multiple tiers in the track is a sonic feast for the listener.  The melodic sensibilities of the quintet bathe the listener in soothing effects along the wavy riffs of "Cayendo," producing an arrangement rife with balmy ae...

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: The Curtis Session Artist:  The Dover Quartet Label:  Bimperl Entertainment & Media website:  www.doverquartet.com The elevating ride that string instruments produce is taken to a new level of creativity by the Dover Quartet whose latest release The Curtis Session features compositions that the quartet composed while riffing ideas at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.  Comprised of violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, viola player Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shaw, the Dover Quartet create four movements based on the theme of "Dreams from Life Awake."  The foursome demonstrate their ingenuity to play irregular meters while countering each other's performance, creating sonic formations that resemble a Jenga tower as each member builds on the other's notes and phrases. Like a glade of spires and valleys, abstract figures along "Dreams from life awake: I. reverberation-exploration-flow" rise and dissolve spontaneousl...