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Trombone Shorty Drops New Album Entitled, ‘Lifted’ And New Single, “Come Back”

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It was after midnight when Trombone Shorty stepped offstage at the House of Blues in New Orleans, but he wasn’t done playing yet. Not by a long shot.

“I had an idea for a new song right after the show,” says Shorty, “so the band and I decided to go straight into the studio and record it that night. We were still sweaty and buzzing from the energy of the gig, and we definitely carried that vibe into the session with us.”

Take a listen to Lifted, Trombone Shorty’s second release for Blue Note Records, and you’ll hear that same ecstatic energy coursing through the entire collection. Recorded at Shorty’s own Buckjump Studio with producer Chris Seefried (Fitz and the Tantrums, Andra Day), the album finds the GRAMMY-nominated NOLA icon and his bandmates tapping into the raw power and exhilarating grooves of their legendary live show, channeling it all into a series of tight, explosive performances that blur the lines between funk, soul, R&B, and psychedelic rock. The writing is bold and self-assured, standing up to hard times and loss with grit and determination, and the playing is muscular to match, mixing pop gleam with hip-hop swagger and second line abandon. Wild as all that may sound, Lifted is still the work of a master craftsman, and the album’s nimble arrangements and judicious use of special guests—from Gary Clark Jr. and Lauren Daigle to the rhythm section from Shorty’s high school marching band—ultimately yields a collection that’s as refined as it is rapturous, one that balances technical virtuosity and emotional release in equal measure as it celebrates music’s primal power to bring us all together.

“I think this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to bottling up the live show and putting it on a record,” says Shorty, whose audiences have grown exponentially in recent years. “Normally when I’m in the studio, I’m trying to make the cleanest thing I can, but this time around, I told everybody to really cut loose, to perform like they were onstage at a festival.”

If anybody knows their way around a festival, it’s Trombone Shorty. Born Troy Andrews, he got his start (and nickname) earlier than most: at four, he made his first appearance at Jazz Fest performing with Bo Diddley; at six, he was leading his own brass band; and by his teenage years, he was hired by Lenny Kravitz to join the band he assembled for his Electric Church World Tour. Shorty’s proven he’s more than just a horn player, though. Catch a gig, open the pages of the New York Times or Vanity Fair, flip on any late-night TV show and you’ll see an undeniable star with utterly magnetic charisma, a natural born showman who can command an audience with the best of them. Since 2010, he’s released four chart topping studio albums; toured with everyone from Jeff Beck to the Red Hot Chili Peppers; collaborated across genres with Pharrell, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Foo Fighters, ZHU, Zac Brown, Normani, Ringo Starr, and countless more; played Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk, Newport Jazz, and nearly every other major festival; performed four times at the GRAMMY Awards, five times at the White House, on dozens of TV shows, and at the star-studded Sesame Street Gala, where he was honored with his own Muppet; launched the Trombone Shorty Foundation to support youth music education; and received the prestigious Caldecott Honor for his first children’s book. Meanwhile in New Orleans, Shorty now leads his own Mardi Gras parade atop a giant float crafted in his likeness, hosts the annual Voodoo Threauxdown shows that have drawn guests including Usher, Nick Jonas, Dierks Bentley, Andra Day, and Leon Bridges to sit in with his band, and has taken over the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s hallowed final set, which has seen him closing out the internationally renowned gathering after performances by the likes of Neil Young, the Black Keys, and Kings of Leon.

“I owe all that to my mother,” says Shorty. “She passed recently, but she continued to inspire me right up until she transitioned, and that’s why I put a picture of her holding me up at a second line on the cover of this album. She lifted me up my whole life.”

As if his New Orleans roots weren’t already deep enough, Shorty decided to take over a recording studio in the Lower Garden District after the release of his latest album, 2017’s Seefried-produced Parking Lot Symphony. Dubbing the space Buckjump in a nod to the second lines he grew up playing in, Shortly immediately set about converting the studio into a freewheeling sonic laboratory, one where he and his friends could push themselves creatively without any artistic or commercial restraints.

“Having my own studio meant that the band and I could capture stuff in the moment any time we were feeling inspired,” says Shorty. “It meant that we could take chances and experiment. I could call the guys up with an idea in the middle of the night and they’d say, ‘We’ll meet you there in an hour!’”

That sense of excitement and liberation is palpable on Lifted, which opens with the addictive “Come Back.” Fueled by a bottom-heavy rhythm section, buoyant keys, and bright flashes of brass, the track pairs a hip-hop groove with hard rock energy as Shorty delivers silky smooth vocals that float effortlessly above the instrumental fray. As its title might suggest, the song is a reckoning with loss and regret, but like much of the album, it refuses to surrender to disappointment, keeping its chin held high as it presses forward and fights for what it wants. The effervescent “What It Takes” gets profoundly funky as it celebrates the strength and growth that can emerge from times of struggle, while the bittersweet “Forgiveness” leans into the band’s R&B side as it works to move on from pain and betrayal, and the blistering “I’m Standing Here” (which features a mind-bending guitar solo from Gary Clark Jr.) rushes headlong into the maelstrom.

“I grew up watching wrestling as a kid,” Shorty says with a laugh, “and I if I was a wrestler, ‘I’m Standing Here’ would be the song they played when I came into the ring. It’s all about standing tall no matter what life throws at you.”

Shorty makes sure to celebrate the good times on the album, too, reveling in the joy of love and friendship and family throughout. The spirited “Might Not Make It Home” commits to letting go and living in the moment; the playful “Miss Beautiful” embraces the thrill of desire while offering a twist on the second line tradition, with an electric bass stepping in for the tuba; and the feel-good “Everybody In The World” (which features the New Breed Brass Band) finds common ground in our universal desire for love and acceptance. But it’s perhaps the electrifying title track, which lands somewhere between Earth, Wind & Fire and Shorty’s old tourmate Lenny Kravitz that best encapsulates the spirit of the album, wrapping earnest emotion in a high-octane package that offers you no choice but to move your body.

“The whole time we were making Lifted, I couldn’t help but think about how much fun it would be to get onstage and play it for an audience,” Shorty recalls. “Usually when I make an album, I record the songs first and figure out how we’re going to present them live afterwards, but with this record I was in the studio imagining the lights flashing on the hits and the audience singing everything back to us. I could see the whole thing in my head.”

For Trombone Shorty, the show never ends. Not by a long shot.


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CoolJazzClassics | Candy Duffer Paired Musically With David A. Stewart To Make A Succinct Statement… “Lilly Was Here”

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Candy Dulfer was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, as the daughter of saxophonist Hans Dulfer. She began playing the drums at the age of five. As a six-year-old she started to play the soprano saxophone. At the age of seven she switched to alto saxophone and later began playing in a local concert band Jeugd Doet Leven (English translation: “Youth Brings Life”) in Zuiderwoude.

Dulfer played her first solo on stage with her father’s band De Perikels (“The Perils”). At the age of eleven, she made her first recordings for the album ‘I Didn’t Ask‘ (1981) of De Perikels. In 1982, when she was twelve years old, she played as a member of Rosa King’s Ladies Horn section at the North Sea Jazz Festival. According to Dulfer, King encouraged her to become a band leader herself. In 1984, at the age of fourteen, Dulfer started her own band Funky Stuff.

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& All That Jazz

NOIRE CLASSICS | In 1991, Jazz Quartet Fourplay Teamed WIth El Debarge For Marvin Gayes’ “After The Dance”

El Debarge was the guest vocalist when Fourplay recorded Marvin Gayes’ Classic, “Dance With Me” in 1991, the session was captured live and is presented here as a RNTV Noire Classic .

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For over 25 years the legend of Fourplay has grown.  Exploring the limitless possibilities of jazz has allowed the quartet to evolve musically, drawing musical elements from a wide range of styles, to hone their own unique and innovative sound.

The story begins in 1990, with keyboardist Bob James, who had already established himself as a formidable figure in jazz, known not just as an instrumentalist, also but as a composer and arranger, with a solo career dating back to the mid-1960s.

It was in 1990, when James decided to reunite with Harvey Mason during the recording of James’ album Grand Piano Canyon.  Mason, one of the most highly sought after drummers of all time (Herbie Hancock, Barbra Steisand, Notorious B.I.G.), was also well known as a composer and producer.  This project also included Lee Ritenour, and bassist Nathan East (Barry White, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Daft Punk).  This recording marked the genesis of the group known as Fourplay.

The original lineup of James, Mason, East, and Ritenour released their self-titled debut in 1991, and stayed together for three successive albums, including Elixir in 1994.  Elixir features vocalists such as Phil Collins, Patti Austin and Peabo Bryson, along with East, who has continued to contribute vocals throughout the course of the group’s history.

For the release of album in 1998, Fourplay brought in Larry Carlton (The Crusaders, Joni Mitchell, Quincy Jones) to replace Ritenour, who left the group to pursue other projects.  Album 4 included compositions by all four members, and featured an impressive crew of guest vocalists, including El Debarge, Babyface Edmonds, Kevyn Lettau and Shanice.

Carlton stayed with the group for 12 years, before delving into his own solo career.  During that time, the group continued its creative evolution, with releases such as 1999’s, Yes Please!, and album which challenged the standard definitions of contemporary jazz by incorporating elements of blues, funk and Celtic.

Improvisation reigned supreme in 2002 with Heartfelt, born from a series of improvisational performances developed into full compositions with less clearly defined melodies.  After releasing Journey in 2004, Fourplay released X in 2006, which featured vocals by the iconic Michael McDonald.

2008 brought the release of Energy, which spent three consecutive weeks at the top of Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart.  The album weaves a variety of genres into a tapestry of Fourplay’s signature jazz foundations, and features vocals Esperanza Spalding.

In 2010, virtuoso guitarist Chuck Loeb joined Fourplay on Let’s Touch the Sky, which features vocals by Anita Baker and Ruben Studdard.  2012 brought Esprit De Four, which is highlighted by “Put Our Hearts Together”.  The song is a tribute to raise awareness and relief efforts in Japan after the disasters of 2011, and featured vocals by Seiko Matsuda.

The group has enjoyed consistent artistic and commercial success by grafting elements of R&B and pop to jazz, appealing to a broad mainstream audience.

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& All That Jazz

DEBUT | …Yes, That Tommy Davidson… Teams With Dave Koz, & Croons On His “Sweet Reunion” Single

Davidson, 58, wrote in his memoir, “Living in Color” (released January 2020) that he had no idea who his birth mother, Tommie Gene, was or if she was even alive until he was nearly 33 when his adoptive mother, who worked at HUD, tracked her down and made contact without checking with the comic first.

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Comedian, Actor, Tommy Davidson is now an Author and Singer. The “In Living Color” star has completed his memoirs where he wrote that at 18 months, he was discovered by Barbara Jean Davidson, a white woman when she spied a toddler’s foot poking out from behind a tire in a pile of garbage in Greenville, Miss., who then went on to adopt him.

Davidson, 58, wrote in his memoir, “Living in Color” (released January 2020) that he had no idea who his birth mother, Tommie Gene, was or if she was even alive until he was nearly 33 when his adoptive mother, who worked at HUD, tracked her down and made contact without checking with the comic first.

Davidson, who was born Anthony Reed on November 10, 1963 was later an original cast member on the sketch comedy TV show ‘In Living Color,’  he played ‘ Mitchell on the TV Series”Between Brothers’ (1997-1999), Dexter on ‘Malcom & Eddie’ (1999-2000), Oscar Proud on The Proud Family (2001-2005). In movies Davidson played ‘Rushon’ in Booty Call (1997), Womack in Bamboozled (2000), and Black Dynamite (2009) among other small and large-screen appearances.

Davidson has always flirted with singing and has now teamed with saxman Dave Kos to bring us his latest output, a single entitled “Sweet Reunion,” the first single from an upcoming, and yet unnamed jazz collection.

Look for more on the actor/comedian turned author and now singer, in an upcoming article in a future issue of RhythmNation Magazine, meanwhile listen to Tommy Davidson performing “Sweet Reunion” featuring Dave Koz and view the video podcast short, “Driving With Dave” and let us know what you think.

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NEXT UP! | Latina Saxophonist Melissa Aldana to Drop her Sophomore Blue Note Album Entitled “12 Stars”

Saxophonist Melissa Aldana will make her Blue Note debut with the March 4 release of 12 Stars. The Brooklyn-based tenor player from Santiago, Chile has garnered international recognition for her visionary work as a band leader and was one of the founding members of the collective band ARTEMIS,

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BioBrief: Melissa Aldana

Saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana was born in Santiago, Chile and grew up in a musical family. Both her father and grandfather were saxophonists and she took up the instrument at age six under her father Marcos’ tutelage. Aldana began on alto, influenced by artists such as Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley, but switched to tenor upon first hearing the music of Sonny Rollins. She performed in Santiago jazz clubs in her early teens and was invited by pianist Danilo Pérez to play at the Panama Jazz Festival in 2005.

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Aldana moved to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College of Music, and the year after graduating she released her first album Free Fall on Greg Osby’s Inner Circle label in 2010, followed by Second Cycle in 2012. In 2013, at 24, she became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, in which her father had been a semi-finalist in 1991. After her win, she released her third album Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio (Concord).

Melissa Aldana. – 12 Stars Album – Blue Note Records

Aldana’s celebrated 2019 album Visions (Motéma) earned the saxophonist her first-ever GRAMMY nomination for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. In naming Visions among the best albums of 2019 for NPR Music, critic Nate Chinen wrote that Aldana “has the elusive ability to balance technical achievement against a rich emotional palette.”

Aldana was one of the founding members of ARTEMIS, the all-star collective that released their debut album “Artemus” on Blue Note in the Fall of 2021. The album featured Aldana’s simmering composition “Frida” which was dedicated to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who inspired the musician through “her own process of finding self-identity through art.”

Aldana is now poised to drop her sophomore album March 4, this upcoming collection is entitled ‘12 Stars‘. 12 Stars was produced by guitarist Lage Lund, who also performs as part of a quintet with Sullivan Fortner on keyboards, Pablo Menares on bass & Kush Abadey on drums. Hear “12 Stars (Live) Solo Version” visual teaser above, discover the first single from her upcoming album, “Falling” below and let us know what you think.

Pre-Order the album now on vinyl, CD, or download.


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She’s the most heralded new voice on the harp in a generation, Who is Harpist, Brandee Younger?

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Who is Brandee Younger?

The 38-year-old musician is an artist who, in addition to leading her own groups, has performed Jazz with Jack DeJohnette and Charlie Haden and recorded with such pop/R&B superstars as John Legend, Common and Drake.

Brandee Younger is a harpist, an instrument she plays deftly as if it were part of her own body. Younger infuses classical, jazz, soul, and funk influences to the harp tradition pioneered by her predecessors and idols Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane.

It all began for Younger when her parents who were hoping to inspire their daughter to stay on track with the instrument she discovered as a tween, they gave her a copy of an Alice Coltrane compilation. “The first track was ‘Blue Nile’ and the second track was ‘Turiya and Ramakrishna,’ and I stayed on those two tracks,” Younger said in an interview with JazzTimes a few years back. 

Younger in that same interview relates that she became obsessed with Coltrane. “I would write these letters to her … but I never sent them,” she said. “When I got to [the Hartt School of Music in Hartford] I met Jackie McLean and I said, ‘Mr. McLean, I need to meet Alice Coltrane.’ Same thing in high school. I met Clark Terry: ‘Hi, Mr. Terry, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Do you know how I can meet Alice Coltrane?’” Despite those entreaties she never met her hero, but ironically ended up playing alongside jazz icons at her memorial service in New York in 2007. There she began developing a musical relationship with Ravi Coltrane, who had contacted her about the memorial through MySpace.

Tenor and soprano saxophonist Ravi Coltrane through the years has been an important mentor to Younger, he, with his horns has appeared on a few of Youngers albums, but his influence and gravitas turns up and shines through on many of her tracks.

To date Younger has released 6 albums as a Leader and has appeared on more than 38 albums as a sideman, including Kanye West’s vaunted ‘Donda’ LP.

Who is Brandee Younger? She is a gifted musician, educator and so much more… Perhaps NPR Writer Nate Chinen said it best in referencing her “As the most heralded new voice on the harp in a generation, Younger feels a responsibility to rep for her principal forebears, Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane — brilliant African American women who blazed a trail by setting their own creative terms. Reclaiming their legacy means carrying on their example, without for a moment retracing their path.”

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