Music News 3/2/23

VOICES  

 

Sunny War, ANARCHIST GOSPEL (New West, $13.98) – Sunny War is a young singer and guitarist (playing a bluesy thumb and index-finger style). Her voice and her songs are striking, reminiscent of Tracy Chapman and Valerie June. 

NOTE: 

Last Thursday, Sunny War played a Millenium Stage show at the Kennedy Center in a trio setting. 

You can watch it here.  

 

Iris DeMent, WORKIN’ ON A WORLD (Flariella, $16.99) – Iris DeMent’s first album since The Trackless Woods (2015). Ms. DeMent’s pure church-hymn voice and piano lead her band in a new collection of tunes. Songs like “Say a Good Word,” “Warriors of Love,” “Mahalia,” “How Long,” “Waycross, Georgia,” and the perfect marching song for rallies, “Goin’ Down to Sing in Texas” engage in our current chaotic times. 

 

Willie Nelson, I DON’T KNOW A THING ABOUT LOVE: The Songs of Harlan Howard (Sony Legacy, $15.98) – Willie pays tribute to one of Nashville’s greatest songriters. Harlan Howard wrote hits sung by Ray Charles (“Busted”), Buck Owens, (“Tiger By the Tail”), Bobby Bare (“The Streets of Baltimore”), and Conway Twitty (“I Don’t Know a Thing About Love”). Willie covers these and other Howard tunes. 

 

 

 

 

NEW CLASSICAL 

 

Sarah Cahill, THE FUTURE IS FEMALE VOL. 1: In Nature (First Hand, $16.99) – Pianist Sarah Cahill has embarked on a project to establish a woman-centered repertoire.  

On The Future is Female Vol. 1: In Nature, she programs works from the 18th century (Anna Bon, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel), the 19th (Teresa Carreño), 20th (Leokadiya Kashperova, Fannie Dillon, Vitězslava Kaprálova, Agi Jambor), and the 21st (Eve Beglarian, Deirdre Gribbin, Mary Watkins).  

 

THE FUTURE IS FEMALE VOL. 2: The Dance (First Hand, $16.99) will be available later this month, and VOL. 3: At Play will appear in April.  

 

NOTE:  

Sarah Cahill will perform selections from The Future is Female project at the National Gallery of Art in two programs next Wednesday afternoon, March 8, at noon and 2:45 p.m. 

 

 

NEW JAZZ 

 

Chris Potter, GOT THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM: Live at the Village Vanguard (Edition, $14.98) – A great new quartet featuring Potter on tenor saxophone; Craig Taborn on piano; Scott Colley on bass; and Marcus Gilmore on drums.
The tunes include classics by Charlie Parker, Billy Strayhorn, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Mississippi Fred McDowell, an Amazonian folk tune transcribed by Villa-Lobos, and the traditional spiritual that is the title track.
 

 

Brian Blade & Lifecycles, VOLUMES I & II: NOW! AND FOREVERMORE: Honoring Bobby Hutcherson (Stoner Hill, 2 CDs, $21.99) – Drummer Brian Blade’s group, Lifecycles, reformed in 2018 to pay tribute to the great vibraphonist and composer Bobby Hutcherson, who died in 2016. The group recorded all the tunes from Hutcherson’s album, NOW! (1970), two songs from Bobby’s collaborative history with Jackie McLean and Grachan Moncur III, and five original compositions. 

Lifecycles includes members of the Brian Blade Fellowship (Jon Cowherd [keyboards} and Myron Walden  [reeds and flutes]), with Monte Croft (vibes and marimbas; John Hart (guitar); Doug Weiss (bass); and Rogério Boccato (percussion). 

 

Box Set 

 

Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis & Shirley Scott, COOKIN’ WITH JAWS AND THE QUEEN: The Legendary Prestige Cookbook Albums (Craft, 4 CDs, $60.98) – The fantastic collaborations between the saxophonist and the “Queen of the Organ.”