Music & More

Photo courtesy of Sam Javitch Sam Javitch is a jazz musician and composer who has just released his second album People and Places . The New York City native has been performing jazz since the age of eleven. Sam attended the NYU School for Improvised Music, earned an Honors Bachelor degree in Jazz from William Paterson University, and a Masters in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. He has studied with a host of notable jazz pianists including Mulgrew Miller, and he has performed at a wide array of New York area venues. “I learned how much effort and perseverance it takes to turn a musical idea into a reality. There isn’t some button you can push or a lever to pull, but when it’s done, it is one of the most gratifying feelings in the world.” In 2014, Javitch released his debut recording, Train to Nowhere , which included six original solo piano compositions. People and Places , his sophomore album, represents his debut as a band leader. The album contains seven ne...

For their Philadelphia debut, Svetlana and The Delancey Trio played a beautiful set at Golden Gates on the evening of Wednesday, April 4th. The ten song set consisted of jazz and swing standards, which were often extended by solos from the excellent band. Instead of The Delancey Five, Svetlana's road band consisted of two musicians from NYC, Willerm Delisfort on piano and Henry Conerway III on drums, and one from Philadelphia, Nimrod Speaks on upright bass. The show opened with the band playing "Dolphin Dance," an instrumental composition by Herbie Hancock. After introductions, Svetlana sang a delightful "Just Squeeze Me" written by Duke Ellington. Watch "Honeysuckle Rose" Setlist: Click linked titles to watch 01 Dolphin Dance 02 Just Squeeze Me 03 Everybody Loves My Baby (Waller) 04 If I Give My Heart To You (Jacobs, Crane, Brewster) 05 Lady Be Good (Gershwin & Gershwin) 06 You Are Like A Song [in Russian] (Rosner) 07 I Can'...

Welcome to Part 2 of my year in music, 2017. In my best of the year lists, I usually only include new original studio albums, I usually disregard live albums, tributes, remakes, reissues, and best of collections. This year there were far too many and too many good ones to disregard. If I included them in my top ten and top fifty lists it would knock out too many other fine recordings. So, this year we have Part 1 and Part 2. Let's get busy. Best Live, etc. Album of the Year: Steve Winwood - Winwood: Greatest Hits Live Buy at Amazon Buy at iTunes Stream on Spotify Christmas came early this year for fans of Steve Winwood in the form of Winwood: Greatest Hits Live . Rather than collecting tracks from the original albums that his fans probably already have, this is a set of recently recorded live renditions of Winwood's finest material, curated by the man himself. Winwood's musical legacy runs deep and over the last 50+ years he has covered a lot of ground. He played...

I have a general rule, when I make an end of the year list, I normally only consider new original works from that year. I rule out live albums, tributes, remakes, best of collections, and reissues. It seems that this year brought some really terrific entries in all of those categories. So much so that I am going to do a separate article on them, even though I was sorely tempted to include Steve Winwood's live greatest hits and the live Mavis Staples tribute concert in my top ten. Yes, they are that good. All that said, I must break my own rule to offer a fifty year old album as my choice for album of the year. I will explain fully below. Following that is my top ten. My methodology hasn't changed. My choices for top ten each need to possess the goods to be the album of the year. Forty more albums follow to complete my top 50. Each of those picks is something that might place in the top ten in a lesser year. Which is not necessarily saying that one album is better than anot...