Bluescentric features new Pinetop Perkins this week

Preview Joined At The Hip here

Check out Bluescentric.com here

Pianist Pinetop Perkins is one of the true originals. With his 100th birthday on the not-too-distant horizon, he is one of the last blues musicians who can legitimately claim direct roots in the Delta blues of the 1930s – a period that spawned such giants as Robert Johnson, Honeyboy Edwards and other titans of the of the deep South who laid the foundation for the blues as we know them today.

Born Willie Perkins in Belzoni, Mississippi, in July 1913, Pinetop has compiled a resume that spans nearly eighty years – as a guitarist and a pianist, then moving over to exclusively piano, following a knifing in 1942. One of the obvious highlights is his stint with Muddy Waters band for more than a decade. From 1969 through the early ‘80s, Perkins was an integral part of Muddy’s powerhouse combo that dominated the urbanized, electrified post-World War II blues scene. It was during these years that he forged an enduring friendship and prolific creative bond with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, then the drummer in Muddy’s band.

The most recent chapter in this longstanding alliance is Joined at the Hip, a collaborative project shared by Pinetop and Smith. It was at the suggestion of manager Patricia Morgan that the two collaborate, with producer Michael Freeman offering the inspired title. The album is a mix of material written by Smith, along with a few chestnuts from the annals of Delta and Chicago blues.

Although Smith spent much of his earlier years behind the drum kit, Joined at the Hip solidifies Willie’s skills on the harp, developed over the last five years, along with handling the majority of the vocals. But regardless of Smith’s role in the band, the connection between him and Pinetop borders on the telepathic, and is evident among the 13 effortless tracks on this new recording.

“They’ve been the greatest of friends and musical partners for such a long time,” says Michael Freeman, who co-produced Pinetop’s star-studded 2008 Telarc release, Pinetop Perkins and Friends. “There’s just so much between them that goes unspoken onstage and in the recording process. Each knows exactly what the other is going to do at any given moment. It’s just what comes with playing with somebody for that long.”

Pinetop Perkins featured in USA Today

Check out Pinetop at USA Today's website here

Preview Joined At The Hip here

Born Willie Perkins in Belzoni, Mississippi, in July 1913, Pinetop has compiled a resume that spans nearly eighty years – as a guitarist and a pianist, then moving over to exclusively piano, following a knifing in 1942. One of the obvious highlights is his stint with Muddy Waters band for more than a decade. From 1969 through the early ‘80s, Perkins was an integral part of Muddy’s powerhouse combo that dominated the urbanized, electrified post-World War II blues scene. It was during these years that he forged an enduring friendship and prolific creative bond with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, then the drummer in Muddy’s band.

The most recent chapter in this longstanding alliance is Joined at the Hip, a collaborative project shared by Pinetop and Smith. It was at the suggestion of manager Patricia Morgan that the two collaborate, with producer Michael Freeman offering the inspired title. The album is a mix of material written by Smith, along with a few chestnuts from the annals of Delta and Chicago blues.

Although Smith spent much of his earlier years behind the drum kit, Joined at the Hip solidifies Willie’s skills on the harp, developed over the last five years, along with handling the majority of the vocals. But regardless of Smith’s role in the band, the connection between him and Pinetop borders on the telepathic, and is evident among the 13 effortless tracks on this new recording.

“They’ve been the greatest of friends and musical partners for such a long time,” says Michael Freeman, who co-produced Pinetop’s star-studded 2008 Telarc release, Pinetop Perkins and Friends. “There’s just so much between them that goes unspoken onstage and in the recording process. Each knows exactly what the other is going to do at any given moment. It’s just what comes with playing with somebody for that long.”

Hiromi - Place To Be Giveaway! Win an ipod touch and so much more

Enter the contest here

Preview Place To Be here

HIROMI CHRONICLES HER WORLD TRAVELS ON HER FIRST SOLO PIANO RECORDING

If all the world is indeed a stage, pianist-composer Hiromi Uehara has played on just about every corner of it. Since the beginning of the decade, she has supported her impressive body of studio work with an ambitious tour schedule that has electrified audiences throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and elsewhere with performances that have pushed the limits of piano jazz to new frontiers of compositional and technical skills.

Each stop on her journey – be it the world-class metropolis, the quiet college town or something in between – has introduced her to a new and singular vibe that has left an indelible impression on her creative sensibilities. Indeed, she has come away from every new place with just as much as she has brought to it, and perhaps even more.

Hiromi chronicles just a few of the many places and moments where she has experienced the almost mystical exchange between performer and audience on Place To Be (CD-83695), her new CD on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group. The album, her first solo piano recording, is set for release on January 26, 2010.

“I really wanted the record to be a kind of travel journal,” she says. “I’ve traveled so much in the last few years that I’ve started to wonder exactly where is the place that I’m supposed to be. Traveling takes so much out of you. It can be exhausting. But as soon as I go on the stage and I see people who are very happy because of what I’m doing, it just erases all of the struggles and the craziness that can come with all the traveling, and it really fulfills me.”

To Hiromi’s way of thinking, music is something much more than just notes on a scale or a series of black and white keys. Rather, it is a naturally occurring phenomenon to be plucked out of the air, a vibration to be captured and re-transmitted to receptive ears and open hearts. “Some places have such a special vibe,” she says. “Sometimes a melody emerges in and around a place without me having to think about it at all. I can just walk down the street and I hear it. I’m always thinking about composing, and always trying to find what parts of the world around me can be musical. Sometimes it just comes to me in a beautiful moment.”

Cameron Carpenter - New York Times concert review

Preview Cameron's CD/DVD here

Read the full NYT article online here

Mr. Carpenter’s original plan was to use his own practice organ and celebrate the release of his new compact disc and DVD, “Cameron Live!” (Telarc), by performing works of Bach, Shostakovich, Liszt, Chopin and Moszkowski. But a few days before the performance he decided that his instrument was not flexible enough for recital use.

His solution was odd. He rented a Hammond B3: an organ favored by jazz musicians (and some 1960s rock bands) but not ideal, in timbre and range, for classical works. So out went the classics, for the most part. Instead Mr. Carpenter brought along a drummer, Marion Felder, a recent Juilliard graduate who performs with the Count Basie Orchestra, and played a freewheeling, virtuosic jazz set.

That the concert now had little to do with the recording it was meant to promote seemed not to matter to anyone, least of all Mr. Carpenter, who spent the hour before the performance milling through the crowd, stopping at every table in the club to introduce himself (“Hi, I’m Cameron,” he said, holding out a hand) and chat. This was his party, and he was determined to enjoy every minute it. You almost had the feeling that he would have brought you a beer on request. At curtain time he threw a jacket studded with small mirrors over his black T-shirt and took to the keys.

It was clear in Mr. Carpenter’s opening selection, a rhythmically supple account of Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice,” that he had a feeling for this music. That should not be surprising: organists, unlike most classical instrumentalists, are schooled in improvisation, and Mr. Carpenter has an extroverted performing style well suited to the business of finding the possibilities in a chord progression or a melody.

Zuill Bailey featured on NPR

Preview Zuill's Bach Cello Suites here

Watch the NPR story online here

There's something about the rich and resonant sound of the cello that connects with many people. Perhaps it's because the instrument is the closest, they say, to the human voice.

That was certainly true when Zuill Bailey picked up his cello to play this lovely impromptu concert behind Bob Boilen's desk, here at NPR Music's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Bailey doesn't play just any old cello. Yes, it is old — very old — but it's also special, built by the renowned Venetian maker Matteo Goffriller in 1693. That means Johann Sebastian Bach was all of 8 years old when Goffriller slapped on the final layer of shellac.