Jawanza Kobie’s Weekly Wednesday Jazz Playlist April 26, 2023
Acantha Lang
Acantha Lang didn’t find her voice until she stumbled into the good graces of New York’s most accomplished R&B session musicians — and now, she’s London’s best-kept soul secret on the cusp of a solo breakthrough. After moving to New York, this calling eventually led her to take the stage at the famed Harlem Grill, a now-defunct space where Black musicians would congregate after performances in the borough. After nearly three years at the Grill, Acantha was headhunted for Manhattan’s renowned cabaret, The Box, where she became the club’s first female MC — a role that ultimately catapulted her to London to open the UK’s sister club. There, she was able to put together her band, write her own music, and start polishing her sound. That newfound musical confidence shines through on her 2021 EP debut, Sugar Woman, which Soul Tracks selected as their featured album of the month upon its August release.
This is her latest 2023 release ‘Ride This’
Eric Reed
Eric Scott Reed (born June 21, 1970 Philadelphia) is an American jazz pianist and composer. He began playing piano at age two, was playing piano in his minister father's church by age five, and at age seven began formal study at Philadelphia's Settlement Music School. At age 11 his family moved to Los Angeles, and he studied at the R. D. Colburn School of Arts. In May 1986, at Colburn School, Reed met Wynton Marsalis, an encounter that would greatly aid his career. At age 18, during a year of college at California State University, Northridge, Reed briefly toured with Marsalis. He joined Marsalis's septet a year later, and worked with him from 1990 to 1991 (in 1991–1992 he worked with Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard), and again from 1992 to 1995. He later worked with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for two years (1996–1998), and led his own group in 1999. Reed has worked with Robert Stewart, Irvin Mayfield, Cassandra Wilson, Mary Stallings, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves, Elvin Jones, Ron Carter, Paula West, and Benny Carter. Reed has also worked as a composer, scoring music for independent and mainstream films, including the comedy Life, featuring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. This is his rendition of the late great Wayne Shorter’s ‘Infant Eyes’
Brooklyn Funk Essentials
Brooklyn Funk Essentials is a music collective who mix jazz, funk, and hip hop, featuring musicians and poets from different cultures. The band was conceived in 1993 by producer Arthur Baker and bassist and musical director Lati Kronlund. In the mid-1990s, the group became a staple of the New York City club scene. Their debut album Cool and Steady and Easy (1995) scored an underground hit with the rendition of Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan". The following album, In the BuzzBag (1998), included Turkish folk music rhythms and instruments, recorded in consortium with the Turkish clarinettist Hüsnü Şenlendirici. Further albums followed in 2000 and 2009 which more resembled their first offering. ‘Rollin (Love Will Be Here)’ is their latest 2023 release from their upcoming CD.
Arturo O’Farrill
Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz (more specifically Afro-Cuban jazz), having received Grammy Awards and nominations, he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop. Unlike his father, whose music was undeniably Afro-Cuban in nature, Arturo O'Farrill's casts a wider net, capturing sounds from throughout Latin America. Reflective of big band traditions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and elsewhere. His music is described as stylistically "pan-Latin" by critic Dan Bilawsky. Philip Booth of JazzTimes writes that the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's 2011 record 40 Acres and a Burro "has the big-band digging deeper into the textures and rhythms of South America and the Caribbean" than ever before. ‘Un Poco Loco’ written by the great Bud Powell is a tune Arturo breathes new life into from his latest Blue Note 2023 release.
Kevin Sun
Kevin Sun is a saxophonist and composer living in New York City. His music has been called “...intense, harmonically virtuosic and compositionally complex" by DownBeat Magazine, and he has released four albums to date—most recently 3 BIRD in August 2021, which landed on the Boston Globe’s “60 best Albums of the year”. Sun has also recorded four albums with the ensembles Mute, Earprint, and Great On Paper, and he appears on recordings led by Jacob Garchik, Dana Saul, and Xiongguan Zhang. In addition to performing in the U.S., Sun has performed extensively in China and has served as the Artistic Director of the Blue Note China Jazz Orchestra. In 2021, Sun was named a Finalist for the Jerome Hill Foundation Artist Fellowship. ‘Frozen In Profile’ is the latest 2023 from this artist.
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Over the course of a career that spans five decades, she has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, pop, soul, and jazz. She released her self-titled debut album in 1979, to critical and commercial success. It peaked at No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and spawned the hit single "Chuck E.'s in Love", which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went Platinum later that year, and earned Jones four Grammy Award nominations in 1980, including Best New Artist, which she won. At age 21, Jones began singing traditional jazz and original compositions in bars and coffee houses in Venice, California. There she met Alfred Johnson, a piano player and songwriter, with whom she wrote "Weasel and the White Boys Cool", and "Company", which would later appear on Jones's debut album in 1977. Here she is with her rendition of the classic ‘September Song’ from her latest 2023 release.
Billy Childs
A personal favorite of mine for over thirty years is William Edward Childs (Billy Childs) is an American composer, jazz pianist, arranger and conductor from Los Angeles, California, United States. When he was sixteen he attended the Community School of the Performing Arts sponsored by the University of Southern California. He studied music theory with Marienne Uszler and piano with John Weisenfluh. From 1975–'79 he attended the University of Southern California and received a degree in composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn. His early influences as a pianist included Herbie Hancock, Keith Emerson, and Chick Corea and as a composer, Paul Hindemith, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. Childs nevertheless had an original conception of his own from near the start, developing his own voice as both a pianist and a composer in jazz and classical music genres Childs's solo jazz recording career began in 1988, when he released Take for Example, This..., the first of four critically acclaimed albums on Windham Hill Jazz. He followed that album with Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), His April Touch (1992), and Portrait of a Player (1993). Chick Corea asked Childs to join his label, Stretch Records. Childs's next album, I've Known Rivers appeared on Stretch/GRP (now Stretch/Concord) in 1995. This was followed by The Child Within on Shanachie Records in 1996. His long awaited CD was recently released earlier this month and ‘The Black Angel’ is a track from this surely future award winning composers latest release.
I hope you enjoy
JK