Mingus Big Band
Celebrating Mingus: Dizzy Moods
On occasion of the 100th birthday of Charles Mingus on April 22, 2022
The Mingus Big Band cultivates the music of composer and bassist Charles Mingus, who died in 1979. Under the artistic direction of Sue Mingus, this band of fourteen musicians performed weekly at the Fez and Time Cafe in New York from 1991 to 2004. From May 2004 to October 2008, they maintained these regular performances at various venues around the city and then launched ‘Mingus Mondays’ at the Jazz Standard, where the Mingus Orchestra alternated with Mingus Dynasty, until the pandemic eleven years later. In 2022, the popular tradition is resumed at The Django, at the beautiful Roxy Hotel. Mingus Band can be heard in popular clubs around town and around the world.
Dreyfus Records | May 22
Fantastic Negrito
White Jesus Black Problems
«Back in 1759, in Virginia, Elizabeth Gallimore, an indentured white Scottish servant, fell in love with a black slave whose name has been lost in the mists of time. All these years later, their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, aka Fantastic Negrito, has discovered he is 27 per cent white and has written an album based on their tale. There’s darkness to spare. There’s casually dispensed pain; legal proceedings (fuelled by Joe Meek-style keyboards, the gritty Nibbadip {black falsetto} goes into the court case for ‘unlawfully cohabiting with a negro slave’ in funky fashion), and overt racism on the interlude You Don’t Belong Here. But there’s redemption too, when the couple’s children are freed.» (Check Thomann for Louder Sound)
Storefront Records | June 22
Adrian Quesada
Boleros Psicodélicos
For Adrian Quesada, co-founder of the psychedelic soul duo Black Pumas, all it took was the stillness of the pandemic to finally create the project that had existed only in his head for the last 10-plus years — his latest release, Boleros Psicodélicos. The 12-track album is infused with the multi-instrumentalist’s admiration for the golden era of romantic bolero music that continues to transcend cultural borders today. Bolero ballads first manifested throughout Latin America in the late ’60s and early ’70s, with elements of instrumental experimentation that would go on to influence future generations like electric guitars with an influx of added reverb, the electric organ harpsichord strings and the mellotron. (Variety)
ATO Records | June 22
Death Cab for Cutie
Roman Candles
Death Cab for Cutie formed in 1997, in Bellingham, Washington, a college town about two hours south of Seattle. According to Wikipedia it is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harner (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyboards, guitar), and Jasen McGerr (drums). To date, the band has earned eight Grammy nominations, the first of which in 2006 for Best Alternative Music Album for Plans, and the most recent in 2016 for Best Rock Album, Kintsugi. Gibbard supposedly took the band name from the song of the same name, “Death Cab for Cutie,” written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and recorded by their group, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band for their 1967 debut album Gorilla. Their new album Asphalt Meadows, featuring. Roman Candles, is due on 16 September.
Atlantic | June 22
Harry Styles
Music for a Sushi Restaurant
Harry Styles spoils us with little pop pearls. A multi-talented energy bundle, he surprises again and again with his freshness. A versatile voice, a confident style, self-ironic songs, and an uninhibited androgyny reminiscent of the seventies: the critics are once again full of praise. And he can act, too. It all started with the British talent show ‘The X-Factor’, followed by the boyband ‘One Direction’, put on hold at Harry’s request in 2016 because he didn’t want to “tire out” his fans. Because of his style-setting flair, Harry became the first man to make it onto the cover of Vogue. Harry meditates and works out daily, doesn’t eat meat and describes himself as spiritual. (sgs)
Erskine Music | June 22