Albums

Bobby Broom's new CD (Orgin Records), Upper West Side Story, is the guitarist's tenth album in as many years -- the culmination of a golden period of prolific creativity and steady artistic growth. Five of those recordings have featured his jazz trio with bassist Dennis Carroll and drummer Kobie Watkins, who've worked as a unit since 1997.

Providing an intimate look at Broom's musical personality and the trio's fully developed group chemistry, the original compositions on Upper West Side Story are described by Broom as "an ode to where I'm from." They reflect a wide range of influences across a spectrum of genres while always remaining deep in the tradition of the modern jazz guitarist. Included is the first studio recording of Broom's "D's Blues," a live video of which has been a fan favorite online for several years.

"I purposely waited to make a record of all originals," says Broom. "I feel that can be sort of a run-of-the-mill thing to do -- that everyone is doing it. But, you know, I've been out here 30 years now and people need to know who I am beyond my guitar sound and style. This album reveals more of me."

"In my twenty years of playing with Bobby," says bassist Carroll, "I've always felt that his style of playing melds the feelings of all-American blues with an urban hip soulfulness that really speaks to the progression of jazz."

"B is one of the great guitarists and musicians of this generation," adds drummer Watkins. "Playing with him and this trio has meant so much for my development and prepared me to have intelligent musical conversations."

For the last two years, Broom has also been working with the young drummer Makaya McCraven, who is heard on three tracks of the new CD. "Playing with Bobby," says McCraven, "you always have to dig deeper. His depth in vocabulary allows the music to go anywhere with ease."

Read more: Bobby Broom's Upper West Side Story

Spiritual Nature features  Bassist Christian McBride,  Guitarist Anthony Wilson, Drummer Lewis Nash and Violinist Christian Howes.

"... an exceptionally articulate pianist... Vega's single most distinctive characteristic is his romantic lyricism." - JazzTimes


While pianist Donald Vega is beginning to draw attention in jazz circles as Mulgrew Miller's successor in the Ron Carter Trio, he makes a bold statement as a composer and bandleader on Spiritual Nature. Joined by the regal rhythm tandem of bassist Christian McBride and drummer Lewis Nash, Vega explores the marriage of jazz, Latin and classical music on his auspicious Resonance Records debut. "It's a dream come true," says the 37-year-old pianist of the opportunity to record with McBride and Nash. "Spiritually, this is my dream trio." The core trio is augmented by guitarist Anthony Wilson, violinist and label mate Christian Howes, tenor saxophonist Bob Sheppard, trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and trombonist Bob McChesney on Vega's sophomore outing (following 2008's self-produced Tomorrows, which also featured drummer Nash).

Read more: Donald Vega

Album Inspired by Japanese-American Artist Isamu Noguchi and Recorded After Hours at The Noguchi Museum

For some, each discipline in the arts is a self-contained universe, with its own materials and tools and ruled by its own laws. But great art transcends -- sometimes in unexpected ways.

Consider the reaction of GRAMMY® Award winning pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill to the work of Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988).

"I performed at a gala at The Noguchi Museum, and I noticed how in many of Noguchi's stone sculptures there's a section, maybe a side or an angle, that is unfinished," recalls O'Farrill. "He had such a mastery over these huge stone and metal structures, and yet he left parts of his raw material untouched. It's almost as if he were inviting the viewer to complete the piece, to enter the conversation."

Paradoxically, for O'Farrill these solid pieces "also capture the transient nature of life."

"When you are in a room surrounded by objects that weigh several tons, you definitely feel your fragility, the transience of being a bag of skin and bones. We are not permanent. And Noguchi captures that fleetingness of our lives in his work."

If all this struck a chord with O'Farrill it was in part because, as he sees it, "there is an unfinished quality to jazz. It's not supposed to be finished. The best jazz has a certain roughness. It's not supposed to be all perfectly polished."

It's not by chance, then, that O'Farrill chose The Noguchi Museum (in Long Island City, NY) as a setting for perhaps his most personal and challenging project to date: a recording of solo piano. "I have waited to record solo piano. It is the scariest thing a pianist can do. But that's not why," O'Farrill writes in his notes to The Noguchi Sessions. "I think it's because I feel a bit like an outsider."

Read more: The Noguchi Sessions

The painting by Edward LaRose that graces the cover of The Duality Perspective, drummer/composer Ralph Peterson's new release and 16th as a leader, is a dynamic illustration of the album's driving principles. The yin yang symbol in the background represents the balance between the two ensembles that appear on the record, the young, next-generation Fo'tet and the more established Sextet. The names of the members of each group are spelled out on the branches of a tree, the Sextet side fully flowering while the Fo'tet side is still budding; the tree's roots are inscribed with the names of elders and mentors including Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, and Bill Fielder.

At the center of all of this is a portrait of Peterson himself, the locus of the enterprise both musically and spiritually. It is Peterson that nurtures this living, growing entity so that buds will bloom, branches will grow and thrive, and roots will delve ever deeper and stronger.

The Duality Perspective thus embodies youth and maturity, past; past, present and future; and diverse stylistic approaches based on a common language. In a bit of word association, Peterson characterizes the young, hungry Fo'tet as "dry ice, so cold it'll burn you," and the all-star Sextet as "richly rooted, one foot in the tradition, the other foot in tomorrow." But as he acknowledges, "Each has a distinct sound and approach, yet they have a commonality at the core."

Of course, as Peterson is quick to point out, there are more than two sides to his musical identity. ("Later on there might be a record called The Multiplicity Perspective," he muses.) Besides his incomparable talent behind the drumkit, which has led to collaborations with the likes of Terence Blanchard, Branford Marsalis, David Murray, Roy Hargrove, Jon Faddis, Michael Brecker, Steve Coleman and Betty Carter over a nearly thirty-year career - not to mention being hand-picked by Art Blakey as the second drummer in the legendary bandleader's Jazz Messenger Big Band until Blakey's 1990 death - Peterson is an agile trumpeter and a respected educator.

Celebrating Peterson's fiftieth birthday, The Duality Perspective is the veteran drummer's 16th album as a leader and the second release on his own Onyx Music label, following last year's acclaimed Outer Reaches. Turning 50, Peterson says, has been accompanied by some positive adjustments in his lifestyle. "These changes helped me to be the best person I can be," he says, "and the best person will always produce the best music. I think this is one of my best records because it very much says where I am right now."

The importance of unifying distinct elements into a distinctive whole springs directly from Peterson's martial arts training. A third-degree black belt and Buddhist, Peterson has studied tae kwon do on and off for more than two decades. "As I continue my martial arts training," he says, "Asian philosophical concepts like yin and yang become more important to me and I'm able to fuse them back into my other artistry, my music art. It also helps me stay physically fit, so I can play with the vigor of my youth but add to it the maturity and wisdom I've gotten through my experiences."

Read more: Ralph Peterson's The Duality Perspective