New Music Monday for March 9, 2015

New Music Monday Playlist on YouTube and Spotify. 

     Sure-footed swing, sweet-toned harmonies and ever-insouciant charm are embodied in the new jazz vocal trio Duchess, featuring notable New York singers Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou. The group’s self-titled debut album channels the 1930s inspiration of the virtuosic Boswell Sisters into a wonderfully entertaining and contemporary package. The songs, blending the vintage and the fresh, range from Peggy Lee to Johnny Mercer to Gershwin.

     With his monthly residency at Small’s Jazz Club in New York, saxophonist Lucas Pino has developed his No Net Nonet into an exciting and deeply musical improvising ensemble. Performing all original compositions, the group forges new ground while maintaining a rich, organic, swinging center. Pino attended the Brubeck Institute, the New School and Julliard, where he received his Masters in 2011. The Villager says, “that feeling of navigating the unexpected is probably the most exciting part of watching a group like the No Net Nonet perform…with all of its members sonically bouncing around, building and expanding upon each other’s ideas until a greater sum bursts forth…”

 

     Also this week, drummer Manu Katche unveils the first live recording with his quartet, “Live in Concert”; alto saxophonist Matt Criscuolo exemplifies that he is a staying force on the scene, offering up his sixth disc as leader, “Headin’ Out”; and Brooklyn-based saxophonist and composer Michael Eaton is joined by special guest Dave Liebman for his debut release, “Individuation.”