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In the meantime, here’s some more details about the show:
Explore the creative edges of contemporary Jazz, with Michael Ambrosino on The Fringe. It’s a two-hour journey that showcases musicians from around the globe who are redefining this unique American art form. Indulge your ears with music that's creative, fun, hip, curious, & thoughtful, but still familiar to anyone who listens to, & appreciates contemporary Jazz. The Fringe is not just about “world Jazz.” It’s about how Jazz has changed the musical world.
Ending the year with a countdown of the Top Ten Albums in Jazz for 2017. Join The Fringe for one final listen to the very best from this remarkable year in music.
Feel free to get in touch with Michael via e-mail: michael@soulandjazz.com or follow him via Facebook , Twitter or Instagram.
Stereo, not stereotypical®
Enjoy!
The Fringe
25th December 2017
Artist - Track - Album - Year
Miguel Zenón Tipico Típico 2017
Billy Childs Rebirth Rebirth 2017
Charlie Sepúlveda Peer Magic Mr. EP - A Tribute To Eddie Palmieri 2017
Antonio Sánchez Home Bad Hombre 2017
Nicholas Payton Jazz is a Four-Letter Word Afro-Caribbean Mixtape 2017
Gerald Clayton Are We Tributary Tales 2017
Brian McCarthy Shiloh The Better Angels of Our Nature 2017
Doug Beavers Barra Limpia Art of the Arrangement 2017
Diego Barber Dilar River One Minute Later 2017
Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah Mix Diaspora/Rebel/Procastrination 2017
John Beasley Evidence MONK'estra Vol. 2 2017
Eliana Cuevas Seré Libre Golpes y Flores 2017
SFJAZZ Collective All Blues Live 2017 - Music of Miles Davis 2017
Somi Like Dakar Petite Afrique 2017
Jane Ira Bloom Mind Gray River Wild Lines - Improvising Emily Dickinson 2017
Jazzmeia Horn People Make The World Go Round A Social Call 2017
Fringe Top Ten Albums of 2017
Celebrating an embarrassment of riches, The Fringe is once more counting down it’s Top Ten Albums for 2017. And my goodness what a year it’s been! Supremely gifted artists pushed and pulled this art form in every possible direction, remaking the music while focusing attention on the major cultural and political issues of these times.
To the gracious musicians, record labels and promoters who supported The Fringe this year, a toast to your efforts and a renewed promise to make 2018 a year where the ecology of Jazz is stronger than ever!
10. Billy Childs - Rebirth (Mack Avenue Records)
Mr. Childs is at the height of his musical powers with ‘Rebirth,’ a superb quartet recording
by one of the best arrangers in Jazz. Deft compositions and a killer band provide the latest
insight into his remarkable musical mind.
9. Antonio Sánchez - Bad Hombre (Cam Jazz)
Answering the call against a campaign for bigoted immigration reform, Antonio Sánchez gives us a searing festival of electronics to go along with his deft and powerful playing. ‘Bad Hombre’ resists musical definition as it reverberates through today’s political landscape.
8. Nicholas Payton - Afro-Caribbean Mixtape (Paytone Records)
Not many double CDs are so good that you listen all the way through. Here “Jazz” is just a four letter word as Nicholas Payton infuses ‘Afro-Caribbean Mixtape’ with the flavors of music touched by the complexity, beauty and genius that is the diaspora of Black creativity.
7. Brian McCarthy - The Better Angels of Our Nature (Truth Revolution Records)
If measured by degree of compositional difficulty, then ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature’ is a record diving from a hand stand off a ten meter platform. Civil War era music arranged for Jazz?! Hell yeah! And done so in a series of gorgeously arranged tunes preformed by McCarthy’s Nonet.
6. Doug Beavers - Art of the Arrangement (ArtistShare)
If you value Latin Jazz as ‘community service,’ then go get ‘Art of the Arrangement’ and buy trombonist Doug Beavers a beer! Thirty three musicians bring an electrifying magic to songs re-arranged by some of the most brilliant minds in Salsa and Latin Jazz. See your doctor if you’re not dancing by the second cut.
5. Christian Atunde Adjuah - Diaspora Trilogy (Ropeadope Records)
Adjuah goes old-school by cutting three discs in one year, and new school, by again reinventing what his take on musical gumbo sounds like. Asking you to keep your mind and ears open, Adjuah makes this music work on so many levels that you wonder what he’ll come up with next.
4. John Beasley - MONK'estra Vol. 2 (Mack Avenue Music)
Beasley does the impossible with a stunning follow-up to last year’s special gift, ‘MONK’estra Vol. 1.’ ‘Vol. 2’ continues to navigate Monk’s music through the creative storm of Beasley’s world class arranging. The band sails brilliantly through charts that artfully bend the physical laws of what’s possible in Jazz.
3. SFJAZZ Collective - Live 2017 - Music of Miles Davis (SFJAZZ Records)
One of the best collectives in Jazz rewards faithful listeners with a remarkably soulful and sophisticated take on the classic Miles Davis songbook. This album ranks high among their long list of musical celebrations, as the band shines with stunning covers that sound like fresh paint on old masterpieces.
2. Somi - Petite Afrique (Okeh Records)
Who else takes on race, gentrification, love and alienation in our modern world quite like Somi? ‘Petite Afrique’ soars above these subjects, going from clouds to ground level with patience and a sense of craft uncommon among vocalists in Jazz. A stellar cast of musicians and gorgeous string arrangements fill out this completely absorbing addition to her legacy.
1. Jazzmeia Horn - A Social Call (Concord Music Group)
Hopefully history will remember this extremely special debut album. ‘Social Call’ is classic in all ways one might imagine, as Jazzmeia Horn dazzles with the rare combination of intelligence, power, and heart. The fearlessness and graceful artistic manner in which she tackles today’s political climate is something I like to think Nina, Betty, Sarah and Abbey would all smile upon.
Honorable Mentions:
Miguel Zenón - ‘Tipico’ / Meil Records
Chris Potter - ‘The Dreamer is The Dream’ / ECM
Diego Barber - ‘One Minute Later’ / Sunnyside Records
Jane Ira Bloom - ‘Wild Lines - Improvising Emily Dickinson’ / Outline Records
Gerry Gibbs - ‘Weather or Not’ / Whaling City Sound
#FringeJazz Top 10 for 2017