Music News 10/12/23

NEW 

Allison Miller, RIVERS IN OUR VEINS (Royal Potato Family, $19.98) – Jazz drummer and composer Allison Miller unveils the recording of an ambitious multi-media stage project (which she brought to Strathmore this past February). Rivers in Our Veins is a 12-song cycle inspired by “the cultural histories of five East Coast rivers: the James, Delaware, Potomac, Hudson, and Susquehanna.” Ms. Miller is joined by long-time collaborators:  pianist Carmen Staaf, violinist Jenny Scheinman, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Todd Sickafoose, and quintet of tap dancers (Claudia Rahardjanoto, Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Burke, Byron Tittle, and Orlando Hernández). 

Highly recommended. 

NOTE:  

Allison Miller will be in Baltimore’s Keystone Korner this weekend, October 14-15, playing with Artemis, the all-star group of women improvisers. 

She will bring the full Rivers in Our Veins performance to Goucher College on October 27. 

And put this on your calendar for 2024: On February 22, Allison and pianist Myra Melford will bring their Lux Quartet, with Dayna Stephens and Scott Colley, to the Kennedy Center. 

boygenius, THE REST (Interscope, $15.98) – Boygenius (the trio of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus) release a four-track EP of more songs from the sessions which resulted in their full-length album, Record, from earlier this year. 

 GUITAR TRIOS! 

John Scofield / Vicente Archer / Bill Stewart, UNCLE JOHN’S BAND (ECM, 2 CDs, $29.98) – Scofield and his trio partners play seven of his originals, interspersed with tasty covers of Leonard Bernstein (“Somewhere”), Bud Powell and Miles Davis (“Budo”), Neil Young (“Old Man”), Jerry Garcia (“Uncle John’s Band”), and Bob Dylan (“Mr. Tambourine Man”).  

Wolfgang Muthspiel / Scott Colley / Brian Blade, DANCE OF THE ELDERS (ECM, $18.98) – Muthspiel’s trio move through mostly originals, as well as a tribute to Bach (ending with a solo rendition the chorale “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”), a Kurt Weill song, and ending with Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia.” 

BOX SET: JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES VOL 3 

Joni Mitchell, ARCHIVES VOL 3: The Asylum Years (1972 – 1975) (Elektra, 5-CD box set, $72.98) – From the creative and transformational period of For The Roses (1972), Court And Spark, and the live Miles of Aisles with the L.A. Express (both 1974), and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns (1975), Archives Vol. 3 includes lots of live recordings, demos, and studio versions.