Jon Fratelli - Bright Night Flowers - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The music of Radames Gnattali stands very distinguished on the Brazilian classical music landscape given the composer's unique background a hybrid of classical virtuoso pianist, composer of symphonies, concertos and sophisticated chamber music and popular composer who immensely contributed to different musical styles in the Brazilian music scene such as the samba, choro, bossa nova and Brazilian jazz. Gnattali started his career as a classical pianist and was considered one of the greatest virtuosos of his generation. He spent a great part of his life as the composer, arranger, and conductor of the National Radio orchestra in Rio de Janeiro. It was in 2005, thanks to Roberto Gnattali, that I had my first immersion in Gnattali's universe. Roberto Gnattali, composer and teacher at the University of Rio de Janeiro, is the nephew of Radames Gnattali. Nowadays considered the curator of Radames Gnattali's music, Roberto is an expert of all his uncle's recordings and compositions. Gnattali's widow surprised me with an unexpected present when she allowed me to take the digital copies of all music Gnattali has written for piano, that included solo, chamber, and concertos. The present album is a fortunate consequence of that! -Luis Rabello

2022 . Florist is the self-titled fourth full length record from upstate NY based indie folk band, Florist. Florist is the follow up to 2019's critically acclaimed Emily Alone, and is the strongest album of the band's decade-long career; an immersive work that conveys the magic of the earth and of family, and the whole of the band's heart. For all of June of 2019, amid a hot and rainy summer, Emily Sprague (guitar, synth, vocals), Jonnie Baker (guitar, synth, sampling, bass, saxophone, vocals), Rick Spataro (bass, piano, synth, vocals) and Felix Walworth (percussion, synth, guitar, vocals) convened in a rented house in the Hudson Valley, to live and work together. It was the first time the quartet recorded that way, and for that long. The result is 19 tracks that feel like the culmination of a decade-long journey, their fourth full-length album, but the first deserving of a self-titled designation. InchWe called it Florist because this is not just my songs with a backing band,Inch Sprague explains. InchIt's a practice. It's a collaboration. It's our one life. These are my best friends and the music is the way that it is because of that.Inch

With a 2008 month-long tour of Africa as inspiration, Chicago saxophonist Geof Bradfield composed a rhythmically rich, harmonically challenging suite, drawing on his experiences in Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, & Zimbabwe. Incorporating elements of jazz, Bradfield connects the sounds of Africa with those of the African Diaspora in North America, creating a stunning musical travelogue. Before writing, he assembled a group of like-minded, dynamic Chicago musicians to compose for-pianist Ryan Cohan, guitarist Jeff Parker, trumpeter-percussionist Victor Garcia, bassist Clark Sommers, and drummer George Fludas helping to forge a powerful group aesthetic for the recording. Inch... a colorful tableau filtered through personal experience and infused by an understanding of the history of the continent.Inch - Jazz Chicago.