My Playlist
Discover what jazz musicians and jazz fans are listening to on Spotify.
In Praise of Playlists
by Ben Sparks
Some analytics up front. I sat down and tried to come up with a guess as to how many complete albums I listen to a year. A rough approximation. My guess is about 1,000, a little less than three a day. You can come up with your own number. Next I went to some discographies and tried to count the number of works, including their work as sidemen, of three trumpeters and three saxophonists I love: ...
read moreMattias Ståhl: What I'm Listening To Now
by Vincenzo Roggero
Mattias Ståhl is a Swedish jazz vibraphonist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. A key figure on the nordic jazz scene, he is active both as a leader and a sideman in countless projects including Eirik Hegdal's Team Hegdal, the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, IPA and many more. 1. Thelonious Monk, Solo Monk, (Columbia, 1965). I always return to this one, I listen to a lot of Bach but after a while I need something to shake loose, Monk ...
read moreTrish Clowes
by Vincenzo Roggero
1. Chico Buarque: Construção (Philips, 1971) This is a very new find, although released in 1971. Just take a listen, what a mind! 2. Joe Henderson: Double Rainbow (Verve, 1995) I was doing a lot of listening to Brazilian music recently (including the above album!) and as a result I was drawn back to this brilliant album. All roads lead to Joe Henderson. He's the person who brings it all together for me, ...
read moreThe Ultimate Peggy Lee
by Tish Oney
In honor of the 100th birthday of Peggy Lee (which we celebrated May 26, kicking off an entire year of Peggy Lee celebrations around the world), I have been enjoying listening to this timeless artist in a number of ways. Writing my new book, Peggy Lee: A Century of Song, opened my eyes to the treasure trove of recorded music Lee left us as a rich legacy, and it was my goal to make her music the main character of ...
read moreMichael League
by Michael League
Here are a few albums that I'm listening to now. In this list, I decided to highlight several of the artists who will be at this year's GroundUP Music Festival, an experience dedicated to exposing open-minded listeners to new music. 1. Susana Baca, Eco De Sombras (Lusaka Bop, 2000) My first introduction to arguably the most important figure in Afro-Peruvian music (as well as a former cultural ambassador of Perú) was this record. I actually played ...
read moreJeroen Kimman
by Vincenzo Roggero
1. Puro Huayno, Antologia de la musica Peruana (Wisepack ltd, 2000) For a few years I've been in love with Hauyno music from Bolivia and Peru, to a point where I sometimes have to force myself to put something else on; it's addicting. It's like its own musical language, and I will never be able to work out what is exactly going on rhythmically; those kind of things that can just not be written down. This Peruvian compilation ...
read moreOtis Sandsjö
by Vincenzo Roggero
1. Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace (Atlantic, 1972)Listening to Aretha coming home makes you feel like coming home. R.I.P. 2. Skúli Sverrisson, Óskar Gudjónsson, The Box Tree (Mengi, 2012). This album was on repeat around the time of my daughter's birth a few months back. It says it all. A saxophone sound from another planet. 3. NONAME, Telefone (Vinyl Me, Please, 2017)Yesterday" was the soundtrack to my whole 2017. ...
read moreNick Millevoi
by Vincenzo Roggero
Nick Millevoi, a young guitarist and composer of jny: Philadelphia, likes to surprise, as the sheer diversity of his project demonstrates. He has the innate curiosity of the best music explorers and is equally at ease composing for large ensembles as for small rock bands. As his bio aptly puts it, Nick Millevoi is a guitarist and composer whose music searches for the sonic cracks between jazz, rock and roll, noise, and modern composition. 1. Jeff Parker: ...
read moreMick Rossi
by Vincenzo Roggero
Pianist, drummer/percussionist, and composer Mick Rossi is known for his diverse, progressive work in the New York Downtown scene where he has collaborated with the likes of Steven Bernstein, Mark Dresser, Dave Douglas, Erik Friedlander, Gerry Hemingway, Ron Horton, Andy Laster, Michael Sarin and Cuong Vu. Despite the very busy and long-standing collaborations with Philip Glass and Paul Simon, he has established himself as one of the most courageous, gifted and charismatic musicians in the New York scene and beyond ...
read moreMats Gustafsson
by Vincenzo Roggero
If Mats Gustafsson's approach to music were to be described with a single adjective, it would have to be intense." This applies to him both as a musician, as illustrated by over three decades of playing with stalwarts of the free and creative jazz scenes on both sides of the Ocean (Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Derek Bailey etc.), and as a voracious crate-digger and record-trader with a two and a half ton vinyl cave in rural Austria. We ...
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