There's a new sponsor for the first big jazz festival of the season, but the same great music as always seems to be ready to go. The 2025 Saratoga Jazz Festival is sponsored by GE Vernova, and is scheduled for June 28-29 on the scenic grounds of Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). As always, the range of talent is broad, from the blues (Gary Clark Jr.) to the great vocalists of today and tomorrow (Gregory Porter, Cassandra Wilson, Veronica Swift, Nicole Zuraitis) to certified jazz legends (Al DiMeola, Gary Bartz, Kenny Garrett) to successful crossover acts (Lettuce, Trombone Shorty). Click here for a full list of artists on the Main Stage and more intimate Charles R, Wood Discovery Stage. 

As always, producer Danny Melnick joined me to discuss the festival and give some insight into how the event is structured and how it takes place, as well as the skinny on which artists to catch. Danny has been graciously joining me for podcast conversations since 2011, and its always a pleasure to speak with him. 

Besides all the great music, the festival has continually upgraded its facilities, and has a juried art and craft fair, terrific restaurant-quality food and grounds to explore. "The Hang" is one of the great weekends of each summer, so be sure to put it on your calendar. 

Musical selections include the title track from NEA Jazz Master Kenny Garrett's Do Your Dance album and "Skylark" from Cassandra Wilson's Grammy winning New Moon Daughter album, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary at the festival in an exclusive New York performance. 

Sometimes jazz musicians get their big breaks at school, and others from mentors on the bandstand. And others…from their job in land use regulation?

Such is the case for singer Susan Hinkson, whose debut album Just In Time (on windfall creations, LLC) is a spirited romp through the Great American Songbook. For years Susan was a regulator and policy maker for architectural real estate both for the city of New York and as the managing member in the Capalino Ventures, LLC urban strategy firm. Among those with whom she worked closely was Richard Barth, the touchstone of regulatory real estate land use, who introduced her to his brother Bruce. Straight No Chaser fans are well-acquainted with pianist Bruce Barth, an important part of the New York jazz scene for decades.

Ms. Hinkson has an expansive knowledge of showtunes, immersed in the music by a mother who was a musical arranger on Broadway. Together they listened to the storied Make Believe Ballroom radio show on WNEW-FM that played all the popular songs of earlier years. So when she met Bruce Barth to talk about voice lessons, the two knew they had a deep sense of musical commonality. Fast-forward to the present, and the result is Just In Time . The album features Barth on piano in a superb New York quintet comprising alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Adam Cruz.

Susan digs deep for some lesser recorded runes like the Rodgers/Hammerstein tune “This Nearly Was Mine” from South Pacific, as well as better known classics like the title track, “My Funny Valentine,” and “It Might as Well Be Spring.” With a nod to her favorite singers, she delivers a fun version of Blossom Dearie’s “Rhode Island Is Famous For You,” and goes against type with female-centric versions of “The Best is Yet to Come” and “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road).”

Podcast 996 is my conversation with Susan, as we discuss her late start in recording and her attraction to “boy songs” in choosing repertoire. The podcast features her  versions of “The Best is Yet to Come,” and "Thus Nearly Was Mine."

You don’t judge a book by it’s cover, and you don’t judge a band by its name.  Toronto-based Shuffle Demons may sound like a retro-blues band, but in fact the sounds they have captured on their latest album, Are You Really Real? (Alma/Universal ) don’t easily get categorized.

There’s the jazz-funk of “X Marks The Spot,” swinging “Good Mourning,” and more intricate “Ride the Wave” among a set of tunes heavy in high-energy improvisation. The band presents a unique lineup of instrumentation featuring Richard Underhill (alto and baritone sax), Kelly Jefferson and Matt Lagan (tenor sax), Mike Downes (electric and acoustic bass) and drummer Stich Wynston.  The result is an always interesting listen that will hit both your mind and bottom.

Richard and Stich joined me for our conversation,  as we followed the band’s history from busking on the streets of Toronto forty years ago, to personnel changes which shifted the band’s core sound, to today’s ensemble. Aided by the Canada Council for the Arts, the band has been able to record and release albums that try – and even succeed – to capture the energy of their live shows.

Musical selections include “Good Mourning" and "Scala Rosa."

I last caught up with pianist Eric Reed almost two years ago, as he marked the release of his fine tribute album Black, Brown and Blue (Smoke Sessions Records). He returns to original music with his full name on the album Out Late (Smoke Sessions Records), buoyed by a killer band featuring trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Joe Farnsworth.

This stellar quintet’s members share deep histories with one another as well as with the l+abel’s namesake Manhattan club. So it seemed natural when Reed wanted to record a new batch of tunes in an “old school” style that they would record on an empty Smoke club’s stage. Out Late was recorded live, with only one take for each tune, and the musicians free of headphones or barriers. The result is a highly satisfying collection that rivals anything Reed has previously released.

Anyone who has followed Reed’s remarkable story in recent years will immediately catch the double meaning embedded in the title as well. Two years ago, Reed made the decision to exist openly in his sexuality, a decision that he feels has also led to a newfound openness and freedom in his musical life. A key member of bands led by Wynton Marsalis, Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard, Reed has been sharing his gospel-tinged sound with jazz listeners since he toured with Marsalis at the age of eighteen. He has almost an album a year over the past thirty-five years, including four album-length explorations of the music of Thelonious Monk.

Podcast 994 is my conversation with Eric as he discusses his decision to make this record with no frills or overdubs, his love for his fellow musicians, and his current tour schedule, where he will perform tributes to two of his piano heroes, Oscar Peterson and Hampton Hawes. Musical selections include “Out Late."

There's a bumper crop of new Holiday Jazz out there folks, so i you are looking for last minute enjoyment for Christmas and Hanukkah (and all the rest of the seasonal celebrations) you can listen to Podcast 993, featuring:

Nick Maclean - "Christmas Time is Here" from his single on Browntasauras Records

Christian Sands - "Do You Hear What I Here" from Christmas Stories

George Burt0n - "The Holly and the Ivy" from Yule Log

Rich Wiley - "Silver Bells" from Boptism Christmas

George Gee Swing Orchestra - "Winter Wonderland Mambo" from Winter Wonderland

Band of Other Brothers - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from This Year at Christmas

Mitchell Shiner Latin Vibes - "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah" from Latkes Con Salsa

Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O - "8 Little Candles" from Tree Jazz - The Shape of Christmas to Come

Brownman & Cruzao - "Frosty El Cubano" from their single on Brownasauras Records

Gregory Porter - "Christmas Will Really Be Christmas" from Christmas Wishes (Deluxe Edition)

Tower of Power - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from It's Christmas

Laila Biali -  "Drifting Down Ice" from Wintersongs

Donald Vega - "Auld Lang Syne" from All is Merry and Bright

At its heart, Oneness is Israeli-born vocalist/songwriter/arranger Sivan Arbel’s musical response to the divisions she sees in society. Seamlessly blending Eastern and Western influences, she invites listeners to embrace their cultural and ideological differences and yet recognize the universal connections that bind us all. A tall order in late 2024.

Oneness echoes this hopeful idealism by envisioning what is possible. Growing up in an environment where diverse cultures coexisted fueled her lifelong curiosity and desire to explore and integrate different musical influences. As a follow-up to 2016’s Broken Lines and 2019’s Change of Light, which was selected as Best Vocal Disc of the year by Jazz2K, the album stands as a major statement from a developing artist.

The concept for Oneness started to take shape in 2022, during a week-long residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, where Arbel and her band -- pianist Nick Hetko, bassist Sam Weber, and drummer Evan Hyde -- were awarded a retreat. The resulting work was honed before live audiences before recording the music, bringing to fruition Arbel’s lifelong exploration of unity through diversity, drawing from her experiences both in Israel and Brooklyn. 

In Podcast 992, Sivan and I talk about the tunes on Oneness, from her own  “Second Floor Beloved," a deeply moving narrative about a homeless man on the Tel Aviv boardwalk sung in Hebrew, to the classic Tears for Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Her fresh, soulful interpretation of that iconic tune infuses her rhythmic and harmonic flair into a brand=new musical statement.

 Sivan Arbel will be presenting the album release show on December 18, 2024 at 8PM at the New York City club Nublu.

On its own merits, the music on Seven Days, Mauricio Morales’ latest album, speaks with a strong, persuasive creative voice. The respected bassist-composer-bandleader’s fourth album presents seven distinctive compositions for sextet, with sophisticated shifts in mood and musical structure. In a mode of decidedly modern jazz which also manages to be easy on the ear and heart, the music also benefits from bold, integrated playing and soloing by his young allies from both the east and west coasts--connections made when the Mexican Morales lived and studied in Boston before settling in his current adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

 Morales composed this body of work—the result of a self-driven challenge to write seven tunes in as many days--while literally stuck in his native Mexico due to a mysterious Visa renewal snafu. Completing the challenge (barely, as you will hear him say) led to a live performance in Los Angeles, and following the urging of his bandmates to create a recorded version of the work, recorded entirely live over two days in the studio.

 Morales has been a rising force as player and bandleader/project-leader for the past several years, but his formative musical life goes back to his picking up the electric bass at 13 years old and the upright bass six years later. Working on the east coast scene after heading to Berklee School of Music in 2012, Morales migrated westward to Los Angeles in 2018.

 His diverse discography with the sometimes fusion-tinged tracks of 2021’s Luna, followed by the improvisation-leaning trio album Eclipse in 2022 and The Endless Ride last year.

 For the Seven Days project, Morales had bold and empathetic company in the band gathered to realize his vision—saxophonist Edmar Colón, guitarist Horace Bray, trombonist Ido Meshulam, pianist Luca Mendoza and dynamo drummer Jongkuk "JK" Kim. In Podcast 991, we discuss what Mauricio looks for in collaborators, the demands of daily composing and creation, and how he views Seven Days in the contet of his body of work.

With The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook, Manhattan Transfer founding member and Grammy Award-Winning vocalist Janis Siegel and acclaimed pianist/arranger/musical director Yaron Gershovsky, together have co-produced their first duo songbook album. And it comes from a classic “When a door closes, a window opens” moment.

The Manhattan Transfer performed its final concert a year ago, bringing to a close one of the most storied chapters in vocal jazz history. With their scintillating live performances and memorable recordings, The Transfer bridged the gap from the fabulous four-part harmony groups of the thirties and forties and Lambert Hendrick & Ross to the 197u0’s, teaching late baby boomers how jazz singing should be done.  Years earlier, Siegel and Gershovsky discovered that both had worked with the revered songwriter Cy Coleman – Gershovsky as the vocal arranger for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical City of Angels, Siegel as part of the all-star vocal ensemble for Coleman’s final collaboration with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman at the Kennedy Center.

 That conversation soon evolved into a full-fledged project: The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook on the Club44 label. It features the duo’s spirited interpretations of ten favorite Coleman compositions, pairing Siegel’s unmistakable voice with Gershovsky’s inventive music and vocal arrangements. The album boasts an elite roster of musicians including bassists David Finck and Boris Kozlov, drummer Cliff Almond, guest vocalist Aubrey Johnson, and The Crosby Street String Quartet. 

The alnum marks the first songbook album of Siegel’s diverse and prolific career, the first collection in her rich discography devoted to the work of a single composer. Beyond her ten Grammys with the Transfer, Janis has collaborated with pianists Fred Hersch, Edsel Gomez, Cedar Walton, Gil Goldstein, John di Martino, Addison Frei, and fellow vocalists including her former Transfer bandmate Laurel Massé, Lauren Kinhan of New York Voices, Bobby McFerrin, and Bob Dorough.

Gershovsky is a highly accomplished, internationally recognized and award-winning pianist, arranger, composer and producer who has recorded and performed with such artists as Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Smith, Steve Gadd, Take 6 and the Count Basie Orchestra. His Broadway credits include vocal arranging for the Tony Award-nominated musicals Swing and City of Angels, and serving as keyboardist for Broadway megahits Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. He has been the pianist and musical director for Manhattan Transfer since 1979, and is Janis’ first call collaborator.

The repertoire on The Colors of My Life ranges from familiar standards to more obscure material. They range from the oft-performed  “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come,” to the previously unrecorded melancholy “Being Without You,” which Siegel took note of during that Kennedy Center workshop and always knew she’d return to.

 Podcast 990 is my conversation with Janis and Yaron, as they dissect the manner in which the Coleman tribute was prepared, what they find so moving about his work, and how best to bring freshness to well-loved standards. Musical selections include the silky slowed-down take on “Witchcraft,” and the afore mentioned “Being Without You.”

Long hailed for her style-blurring renditions of artists spanning Tom Waits and Jimi Hendrix to Marvin Gaye and Metallica, Elles sees Youn Sun Nah bringing her remarkable voice and unique perspective to a range of songs that have deeply fueled her own indescribable musical approach, all made famous by such iconic female artists as Björk, Sarah Vaughan, Grace Jones, Roberta Flack, Edith Piaf, Grace Slick, Maria João, and more.

Recorded in New York City alongside acclaimed pianist Jon Cowherd (Brian Blade, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright) and producer/musician Tomek Miernowski, Elles spans a wide array of songs either written or performed by notable women artists, from soulful spirituals (“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child”) and psychedelic milestones (“White Rabbit”) to long-overdue takes on “Feeling Good,” “My Funny Valentine,” “I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Backed by Cowherd’s subtle yet inventive work on a variety of keyboards, Youn Sun Nah reimagines standards both old and new in typically captivating fashion, traversing gender and generation with precision, magic, and intimacy.

Youn Sun Nah is among contemporary jazz’s most admired vocalists, an international award-winning singer, songwriter, and performer, hailed by The Guardian for her “seamless” movement “between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity.” The Seoul, South Korea-based artist began her musical journey with piano lessons as a child before singing gospel with the Korean Symphony Orchestra as a teen. A career in musical theatre beckoned but Youn Sun Nah instead chose to pursue her own muse by attending Paris’ Institut National de Musique de Beauvais, Nadia and Lili Boulanger Conservatory, and the CIM, a school of jazz and contemporary music. Youn Sun Nah quickly affirmed herself as an exceptional vocal star, winning prizes at jazz festivals and competitions.

In Podcast 989, Youn and I talk about how she chooses cover songs that she can inhabit with her own spirit and style, how she came to jazz late, and why she has constantly changed accompanists through her year long tour. Musical selections include “White Rabbit” and “Baltimore Oriole” from Elles, and “My Favorite Things” from her breakthrough album Same Girl.

No Cowards in Our Band is a musical drama telling the story of renowned activist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) through his own words. With the performance just days before the 2024 Presidential Election, the piece is a striking reminder of the power of the pen, the voice, and the vote. 

Based on a libretto by Anthony Knight, Jr. and interwoven with Negro spirituals arranged by GRAMMY-nominated jazz artist Orrin Evans, No Cowards in Our Band stars actor, artist, and TV personality Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass performing with a trio of opera singers, the “moving and electrifying performer” (Wall Street Journal) Nia Drummond, soprano – who went viral last year for a rendition of Happy Birthday that made Busta Rhymes cry – Metropolitan Opera tenor Edward Washington II, and Opera Ebony and Syracuse Opera’s Gregory Sheppard, bass.

Evans is a fixture on the jazz scene now, and is featured on the cover of Downbeat in November.  As a deft tune deconstructor, he traverses a broad timeline of the vocabularies of swinging, blues-infused hardcore jazz and spiritual jazz/avant garde jazz traditions, as well as the Euro-canon, with the intuitive spontaneity of an ear player. He projects an instantly recognizable sound, sometimes eliciting flowing rubato poetry. He records and performs in collaborative projects include the Eubanks Evans Experience (a duo with eminent guitarist Kevin Eubanks); the Brazilian unit Terreno Comum; Evans’ working trio with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr.; Tar Baby (a collective trio of 20 years standing with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits); and the Captain Black Big Band, which just recently released Walk a Mile in My Shoe (Imani Records).

Orrin was just off the red-eye from gigs on the West Coast when I caught up with him by Zoom, and we discussed his very personal involvement with No Cowards in Our Band, as his mother was an opera singer, and his father a playwright. We also dig into Walk a Mile in My Shoe, from which you will hear the Captain Black Big Band take on Bread’s 70’s soft-rock standard “If,” with a wonderful vocal by Paul Jost.

Saturday, November 2nd at 7pm Concept and Libretto: Anthony Knight, Jr.Musical Arrangement: Orrin Evans Director: Michael Hofmann Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass

Nia Drummond, soprano Edward Washingington II, tenor Gregory Sheppard, bass

 Tickets: https://hudsonhall.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FUT000002I0d72AC Tier 1: Reserved Seating, $45 (plus $5 fee) Tier 2: General Admission, Mid-Center Section/Side Aisle, Front Mezzanine, $30 (plus $5 fee)Tier 3: General Admission, Rear and Side Seating, far sides may be partially obstructed, $19 (plus $3 fee)