Joshua Redman takes Still Dreaming to Lincoln Center in NYC … A Nonesuch Celebration pays tribute to Bob Hurwitz at BAM … Sam Amidon joins Anaïs Mitchell in Vermont … Teresa Cristina returns to Rio de Janeiro … Jeremy Denk concludes run with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra … Rhiannon Giddens is in the UK … Richard Goode gives solo recital in Nebraska … Tigran Hamasyan performs in Belgium … Audra McDonald is in New Orleans … Brad Mehldau brings Bach to Boston … and more …
Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s current run of dates with Still Dreaming, a quartet with trumpeter Ron Miles, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade, culminates with four sets over two nights at the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City tonight and Saturday.
Still Dreaming, which the Boston Globe calls an “all-star unit in its own right,” was formed in homage to the late Dewey Redman, Joshua’s father, and his role in the classic Ornette Coleman alumni quartet Old and New Dreams. The New Yorker says that Joshua Redman has “convened a quartet in honor of the former band, combining three players equally attuned to controlled free improvisation.”
“I feel this music is alive and well,” Redman told the Columbus Dispatch ahead of a performance earlier this week. He continues: "We never know what's going to happen, which is jazz … The songs are so wide open so it's an adventure every night." You can read what else he had to say here.
Joshua Redman released his debut duo album with his longtime friend and collaborator Brad Mehldau, Nearness, last fall.
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As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, a stellar lineup of musical luminaries comes together on Saturday for a one-night-only concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) to pay tribute to Bob Hurwitz, who for the past three decades served as the president of Nonesuch Records. The centerpiece of this celebration is the world premiere of piano music written expressly for Hurwitz by Nonesuch artists he has worked with for many years including John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Adam Guettel, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Nico Muhly, Randy Newman, and Steve Reich. The evening also includes performances from Nonesuch albums by Kronos Quartet, k.d. lang, Natalie Merchant, Stephin Merritt, Pat Metheny, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Thile, Dawn Upshaw, Caetano Veloso, and others who have worked closely with Hurwitz during his tenure.
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Composer John Adams recently celebrated his 70th birthday, and the New York Philharmonic, led by music director Alan Gilbert, continues the celebration as part of Barbican's Adams at 70 in London this weekend, performing his Absolute Jest on Saturday, followed by Harmonielehre and The Chairman Dances on Sunday. Saturday’s program also includes performances of works by Beethoven and Berlioz. Sunday’s program features the European premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto, performed by Yo-Yo Ma.
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, led by David Robertson, perform Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York City tonight. Robertson spoke with the New York Times about the piece, which he says allows Adams “to use the fabulous talent that he has for theater and his wonderful ability for contemplating the otherworldly, spiritual qualities that instrumental music without words can provide.” Read more at nytimes.com.
Bonn Opera, led by Joana Carneiro, presents the same piece in the Peter Sellars production first seen at English National Opera, at Bonn Theater on Saturday. The Guardian calls the work “a mesmerising aural world.”
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Sam Amidon joins Anaïs Mitchell for a performance at Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, Vermont, on Saturday. NPR says that Amidon’s “highly personal approach opens a window on the American past and lets us feel it like nothing else around."
As announced earlier this week, Amidon’s new album, The Following Mountain, will be released May 26 on Nonesuch. The album is available to preorder from iTunes and the Nonesuch Store, with an instant download of the album track "Juma Mountain." You can watch a lyric video for the track here.
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Brazilian samba singer Teresa Cristina returns to Theatro Net in Rio de Janeiro, home to the recording of her 2016 live album and DVD, Canta Cartola, for a performance tonight. The New York Times says the album “feels fully embodied, as if Ms. Cristina had written the songs herself … she laughs while singing them, and she dredges the beauty out of them."
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Jeremy Denk concludes his week-long run of dates with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Piano Quintet in E-Flat, at Ordway Concert Hall tonight, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. The program also includes Brahms’s Horn Trio and Bartók’s Divertimento for Strings.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, reviewing a performance from last weekend, says that Denk played “exquisitely … with clarity and emotional power.”
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Rhiannon Giddens brings her tour of Europe, featuring music from her new album, Freedom Highway, to the UK for two-sold out shows this weekend: at Cambridge Junction tonight and Queens Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday. She concludes the tour with a sold-out show in Dublin next week, before heading to Australia, where she joins Bonnie Raitt for two nights, followed by headlining and festival sets. Giddens returns to the US at the end of the month to begin her spring and summer tour of the country.
Freedom Highway has received major critical acclaim, with the Guardian calling it a “powerful and timely set” and Uncut naming the "remarkably wise and timely new album" its Album of the Month. Pitchfork exclaims: "Rhiannon Giddens emerges as a peerless and powerful voice in roots music,” while the Wall Street Journal concludes: "Detailed, strongly conceived and powerful in its music, singing and songs, Rhiannon Giddens’s Freedom Highway will get to you, and stick with you."
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Richard Goode gives a solo piano recital, performing works from Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin, at Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Sunday afternoon. On the program are Bach’s Partita no. 6, Beethoven’s Sonatas nos. 28 and 31, and Chopin’s Nocturne in B major, Three Mazurkas, and Polonaise in F sharp minor.
The Los Angeles Times calls the pianist’s approach to Bach “a small miracle of sensitivity, expression and nuance,” while the New York Times describes his Beethoven performances as “remarkable” and “surprisingly intimate,” praising his playing both for its “organic naturalness” and “unerringly lyric sensibility.” The San Francisco Examiner applauds the "exploratory, spontaneous charge" that Goode brings to Chopin’s music.
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Tigran Hamasyan celebrates the release of his new album, An Ancient Observer, out today, with two tour stops in Belgium this weekend: at Flagey in Brussels tonight and Handelsbeurs in Ghent on Saturday. An Ancient Observer has been met with acclaim from the Belgian press, earning four-star reviews from L'Avenir, Het Nieuwsblad De Standaard, and Le Soir.
An Ancient Observer has been met with praise on both sides of the Atlantic, with Downbeat saying “it’s simply breathtaking,” the Huffington Post declaring it “outstanding,” and BBC Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum calling Hamasyan “a pianist who touches the piano and immediately establishes himself as a true giant and a true original.”
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Audra McDonald is joined by her husband, fellow Broadway star Will Swenson, plus Seth Rudetsky of Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s On Broadway as host and pianist, for a performance at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts tonight. All proceeds from the concert will benefit The NOCCA Institute, which supports the Louisiana arts conservatory for high school students. McDonald gives a solo performance at the Oklahoma City Community College Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater on Sunday.
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Pianist Brad Mehldau rounds out his run of solo US dates, bringing his Three Pieces After Bach program to Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sunday. The Guardian, in its four-star review of the program’s UK premiere, wrote: "[A]s conversations between jazz, classical music and pop have grown ever more fluent, Mehldau’s eclecticism has turned him into a major star … the balance of space and intensity was almost perfectly struck in this powerful and thought-provoking gig."
Mehldau is nominated for the Jazz FM Awards 2017 International Artist of the Year. The winners will be announced in London on April 25.
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