The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz world. It’s a one-stop destination for the music news you need to know. Let’s take it from the top.
Noteworthy
Jon Batiste Exits Colbert: After seven seasons as the show's bandleader, Jon Batiste has departed The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “We’ve been so lucky to have a front row seat to Jon’s incredible talent for the past seven years,” Stephen Colbert said on the show. Louis Cato has been promoted from interim bandleader and will take over permanently. Batiste recently won Album of the Year this year at the 2022 GRAMMYs for his album, We Are.
Joey Alexander on JAZZIZ Travel: Joey Alexander was our guest in our ongoing JAZZIZ Travel podcast series. The pianist/composer talked about his latest record, Origin, the first album where he plays a program entirely comprising his own original compositions. Origin was released earlier this year on Mack Avenue. Listen to the JAZZIZ Travel podcast conversation via the player below.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/02f6XTCOxGDByrihz9GXbR?si=c65de670215f4849
Reliving Chick Corea's Montreux Years: Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG have announced the next instalment in The Montreux Years series. Chick Corea: The Montreux Yearswill be available on September 23 as a collection of Chick Corea's finest performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland between 1981 and 2010. The recordings will be available in multi-format, including vinyl, CD and streaming services.
Super Deluxe Edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas: Craft will release a definitive, bonus-filled edition of the timeless score from the beloved 1965 animated PEANUTS special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. The new set includes several hours of never-before-heard outtakes from the original sessions by the Vince Guaraldi Trio and will be released on October 14. The Super Deluxe edition will be available on a 4-CD/1-Blu-ray audio box set or 80-track digital collection, while the Deluxe Edition will be available on a 2-LP or CD. Pre-order here.
New and Upcoming Albums
Various Artists, Blue Note Re:Imagined II (Blue Note): Blue Note Records will release Blue Note Re:Imagined II on September 30, as part of its celebrated album series featuring reworked and newly-recorded Blue Note classics from an array of rising UK stars. The 16-track collection features such artists as Nubiyan Twist, Theon Cross, Yazz Ahmed, Binker Golding, Swindle and more, reimagining works by such artists as Wayne Shorter, Norah Jones, Thelonious Monk and Donald Byrd, among others.
Steve Tibbetts, Hellbound Train: An Anthology (ECM): Juxtaposing pieces originally featured on his previous ECM albums, Hellbound Train is a Steve Tibbett retrospective that serves as an ideal introduction to the guitarist's unique body of work. The collection serves as an ideal introduction to Tibbet's dynamic and idiosyncratic approach to music, neatly divided into electric and acoustic chapters. Hellbound Train was released on July 1.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7llc28ZKtC8mgPaQtHCfcI?si=LpBpVawBR82skOwu7VvrDg
Julius Rodriguez, Let Sound Tell All (Verve): Having dropped out of Juilliard to tour with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Cautious Clay and more, multi-talented musician Julius Rodriguez continues to blaze his own sonic path on his genre-defying debut album. Let Sound Tell All was released on June 10 via Verve Records and weaves his life and influences into a visionary blend of jazz, classical, R&B, experimentation and sheer technical wizardry.
Imperial Boxmen, Imperial Boxmen (600 Block): Imperial Boxmen, a newly-formed ensemble of Chicago heavyweights, represents a culmination of keyboardist/producer Kevin Ford's years of live experimentation and studio composition. Their self-titled full-length, released on May 27, is a twelve-song journey of original music taking the listener through an international confluence of downtempo, jazz and funk.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2FyMRGuoAJDwIBauet8HNu?si=KKg6PWTxQUmZsLTwLdE_Rw
Live Music and Festival News
Presenting AfroClassical Composers Live Event, October 16: Presenting AfroClassical Composers, the new non-profit organization founded to celebrate the contribution of African-American and other African Diaspora classical music composers, will present its first post-pandemic live event on October 16 at 4 p.m. at Los Angeles' First Unitarian Church. The event will feature the music of AfroClassical composers Dorothy Rudd-Moore, George Walker, R. Nathaniel Dett and Maria Thompson Corley. The music will be performed on piano by Corley and Presenting AfroClassical Composers' Executive Director Michael Ligon. More here.
Robert Glasper Month-Long Residency at Blue Note NYC: Robert Glasper will return to New York City's Blue Note Jazz Club for a month-long residency that will take place from October 4 to November 5. Robtober, as it is affectionately known, will find the acclaimed musician performing a total of 48 shows across 24 nights, including Halloween weekend. More here. The announcement follows Glasper's three-day residency at Blue Note's inaugural edition of Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa Valley.
2022 TD James Moody Jazz Festival Program Announced: The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) has announced the lineup of its 2022 TD James Moody Jazz Festival, which will take place on November 8-20. The program includes Terence Blanchard, Jazzmeia Horn, the Yellowjackets, the Maria Schneider Orchestra and Christian McBride, among others. The festival will also be hosting the 11th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, the internationally-renowned competition for up-and-coming jazz vocalists, and many other events. More here.
Featured photo: Edouard Curchod.
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