jazz2love

  Night Mist from Peter Calandra Label:  Self-Released Release Date:  May 23, 2025 Website:  https://www.petecalandramusic.com Composer-keyboardist Peter Calandra presents his latest release Night Mist , comprised of eleven original arrangements that project stimulating sensations relatable to the works of composer James Horner with a cinematic fascination emblematic of the scores by composer Bill Conti.  Some compositions like "Winter Song" and "Whispers of the Dawn" showcase Calandra playing solo piano, speaking to the listener on an intimate level.  Other tracks have an atmospheric texture with lofty string arrangements that flex a charismatic fluidity like "Peaceful Valley" and "Mohawk Morning."  The ambient soundscapes have a glistening quality that are uplifting, enchanting the listener as the melodic intervals meld into each other, pervading an amorous shimmer. Calandra's synth effects have a thrilling magnetism that galvanizes the lis...

  Days of Gypsy Nights from Doug Wyatt Label:  Sonosphere Music Release Date:  April 18, 2024 Website: https://www.dougwyatt-music.com A refined smorgasburg of ambient strings, silky keys, tightly-knit percussive beats, and wavy saxophone tweets, Days of Gypsy Nights from pianist-composer-leader Doug Wyatt is a dreamy escape into an incorporeal textured ether.  Suspended strings swerve and twist smoothly across "Katy's Spring" as Wyatt's keys prance lightly, treading a tender pulsing along the melodic course.  The soft vibrations of Wyatt's keys are encircled in fluttering strings across "The Pseudo-Iterative," producing an angelic atmosphere, traversing into the portly throbbing of Michael Rosen's tenor saxophone through "Mythaka," as the breathy strokes of Wyatt's keys ruminate blissfully.  Wyatt's lilting keys imprint a poetic versing along "Return To The Sea Beyond," perusing delicately as wispy strings swirl and swis...

  Skybound from Laurent Ziliani Release Date:  August 18, 2025 Website:  https://www.laurentziliani.com Composer-pianist Laurent Ziliani pays tribute to his friend and violinist Ben Powell on his single "Skybound".  The piece resounds with all the qualities Ziliani discerned in Powell's music, crafting sound passages that move gracefully and effortlessly, filled with warmth and quiet brilliance.  Bringing his vision into physical form are Nicholas Daley on trombones, Peter Erskine on drums, Nick Mancini on vibraphone, Kyle Newmaster on trumpet and flugelhorns, Darius Scheider on guitar, Michael Valerio on upright bass, Leah Zeger on violin, and Zac Zinger on saxophones, alto flute and clarinets with Ziliani on piano.  The instruments glide breezily, choreographed into a panoply of elegant crescendos and balladry sways.  French born, Ziliani is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and now resides in Los Angeles.  His imaginings have a heavenly te...

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...

Album:  Can't Get Out of this Mood Artist:  Beverley Church Hogan Label:  Cafe Pacific Website:  http://www.beverleyhogan.com/ Torchlight vocalist Beverley Church Hogan intimates human vulnerabilities, temporal desires, and lingering reflections about life on her debut recording Can't Get Out of this Mood .  Projecting a dimly lit atmosphere in the sparse throbs of Lyman Medeiros' bass, the strolling gait of John Proulx's piano keys, the gentle strums of Graham Dechter's guitar, and the lightly brushed strokes of Clayton Cameron's drumming, Hogan creates a cozy setting for her audiences as though she is tapping into their thoughts and emotions on a personal and private wavelength. She ruminates in the title track, "Can't get out of this mood / Last night your lips were appealing / The thrill should have been all gone by today / And the usual way / But it's only your arms I'm out of / Can't get out of this dream / Oh, w...