Journal
- Friday, November 22, 2024
The Way Out of Easy, the first album from guitarist Jeff Parker and his long-running ETA IVtet—saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose—since their 2022 debut Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which Pitchfork named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far, is out now on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Like that album, The Way Out of Easy comprises recordings from LA venue ETA, where Parker and the ensemble held a weekly residency for seven years. During that time, the ETA IVtet evolved from a band that played mostly standards into a group known for its transcendent, long-form journeys into innovative, groove-oriented improvised music. All four tracks on The Way Out of Easy come from a single night in 2023, providing an unfiltered view of the ensemble, fully in their element.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News
- Saturday, February 3, 2024
Chris Thile returned to CBS Saturday Morning to perform for the first time with guitarist Billy Strings in a Saturday Sessions set of three songs: "Wild Bill Jones," "I Am a Pilgrim," and "I've Been All Around This World." You can watch all three performances here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoFriday, February 2, 2024When Molly Tuttle was back home in the Bay Area in December to perform four sold-out shows with her band Golden Highway at the Guild Theatre, she spoke with Anne Makovec of Bay Area CBS station KPIX in celebration of the GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album for City of Gold. They stopped by Gryphon String Instruments in Palo Alto, joined by Molly's dad, music teacher and multi-instrumentalist Jack Tuttle, to talk about her formative time there. You can watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoFriday, February 2, 2024This GRAMMY Awards weekend—in which Nonesuch recordings are nominated for eleven GRAMMYs and Laurie Anderson will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award—there’s lots of great live music ahead around the world, including three shows in Cambridge, MA, from Cécile McLorin Salvant, Brad Mehldau, and Mary Halvorson. Salvant then heads to Philadelphia, Mehldau to Georgia. Ambrose Akinmusire tours the Netherlands. Attacca Quartet performs Caroline Shaw in Berkeley. Jeremy Denk plays Bach in St. Louis, Richard Goode in Philadelphia. Jonny Greenwood performs Steve Reich in Manchester. Rachael & Vilray tour Colorado.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsThursday, February 1, 2024Molly Tuttle was on WNYC's All of It with Alison Stewart, as part of the show's GRAMMY nominees series, to talk with Stewart about her new album with Golden Highway, City of Gold, which is up for the GRAMMY for Best Bluegrass Album this weekend, and their debut album, Crooked Tree, which won the award last year. You can hear their conversation here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, RadioWednesday, January 31, 2024Composer/pianist Timo Andres has made his NPR Tiny Desk Concert debut with a performance of two Philip Glass Piano Etudes—Nos. 6 and 5—that premiered today, on Glass's eighty-seventh birthday. You can watch it here. Andres performs Glass's Evening Song No. 2 on the 2020 Nonesuch album I Still Play. Andres's new album, The Blind Banister, is due March 22.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoTuesday, January 30, 2024Timo Andres’ new album, The Blind Banister, is due March 22 on Nonesuch. The album comprises three works by the composer/pianist: the piano concerto The Blind Banister (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016), with Andres as soloist, and Upstate Obscura for chamber orchestra and cello, with soloist Inbal Segev—both of which feature Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr—and the solo piano piece Colorful History, also performed by Andres. You can hear the third movement of Upstate Obscura, “Vanishing Point,” now.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsMonday, January 29, 2024Days of Wine and Roses, which opened on Broadway last night to rave reviews, was featured on NPR's Morning Edition today. NPR contributor Jeff Lunden talks with composer Adam Guettel, script writer Craig Lucas, stars Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James, and director Matthew Greif about the creation of the musical. You can the piece here. All of the artists were also in a New York Times feature over the weekend. "I come off the stage feeling emotional, but elated and proud and breathless—literally breathless—from the freedom to be given a challenge like this and to be trusted with it … I’ve never been so passionate about anything in my life," O'Hara tells the Times. "Astonishing … superb," exclaims the New York Times Critic's Pick review. "Guettel’s anxious, spiky, sumptuous score … grabs hold of us and doesn’t let go."
Journal Topics: Artist News, RadioFriday, January 26, 2024Grammy and Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla releases his acclaimed 1998 album Ronroco on vinyl for the first time in a newly remastered edition from Nonesuch, out now. The singer, composer, and producer’s classic album—which takes its name from a South American stringed instrument—comprises twelve original tunes inspired by traditional Argentinean music and influenced by music of Japan, Africa, and Eastern Europe. “Ronroco conjures bucolic images and feelings for me,” filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu writes in the new liner note. “There’s always a note that surprises, breaks the pattern of the rainstorm, turning into silence, a gentle drizzle, or escalating into a tempest.”
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, January 26, 2024The Yussef Dayes Experience: Live From Malibu, featuring music from Dayes' critically acclaimed debut solo album, Black Classical Music, and more, is now available on vinyl and digitally. Dayes—who has just been nominated for BRIT Awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative/Rock Act—is joined by his longtime collaborators Rocco Palladino, Venna, Elijah Fox, and Alexander Bourt on Live From Malibu, which was originally released as a live-performance video filmed in the Malibu mountains last year; you can watch that here.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, January 26, 2024Jeff Parker and the New Breed, including Makaya McCraven, perform in Chicago and Iowa City. Ambrose Akinmusire, Bil Frisell, and Gregory Hutchinson bring Owl Song to Budapest and Helsinki. Jeremy Denk is in Utah. Mary Halvorson's sextet takes Cloudward to Germany and Austria. Emmylou Harris headlines Ann Arbor Folk Fest. Gabriel Kahane, Attacca Quartet, and Roomful of Teeth premiere his new work in San Francisco. Kronos Quartet celebrates 50 in Stanford. Brad Mehldau is in Canada and Connecticut. Natalie Merchant leads Fondazione Prada workshop/concert in Milan. Punch Brothers host Kacey Musgraves and Tiny Habits at their NYC variety hour. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Molly Tuttle concludes UK tour with Tommy Emmanuel in New Brighton and Harrogate.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsFriday, January 26, 2024Classical singer Julia Bullock was on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour ahead of her UK performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra—with whom she performs on her album Walking in the Dark—next week, culminating with the mixed-media project History’s Persistent Voice, which shines a light on the words, work, and experiences of Black artists, at Queen Elizabeth Hall. You can hear her conversation with Woman's Hour presenter Anita Rani here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, RadioThursday, January 25, 2024Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, has released "Colossus of Roads” and Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive),” two new tracks from their upcoming album, The Past Is Still Alive, due February 23. "I've only had this experience a couple of times, where a song falls on me—it’s all there, and I don't do anything," Segarra says. "Writing ‘Colossus of Roads’ felt like creating a space where all us outsiders can be safe together. That doesn’t exist, but it exists in our minds, and it exists in this song—this one is sacred to me. I’ve also always wanted to make my version of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home,’ and ‘Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)’ is it.”
Journal Topics: Artist News, Video