Roots Music Report

Elsa Nilsson is a flutist, composer and educator from Gothenburg, Sweden currently residing in Brooklyn, New York where she can often be found playing at The 55 Bar, Bar Bayeux and other New York Jazz venues. She is Faculty at The New School College for Performing Arts where she teaches Rhythmic Analysis. Nilsson approaches music with an attitude of inclusiveness. She believes there is a space to be found in music that gives us the freedom to be exactly who we are. This leads her to make some unconventional choices in her compositions. The... Read More

Trumpeter and composer Kalí Rodríguez-Peña blurs the lines between genres as he pays homage to the 21st-century mindset with his hard-grooving debut, Mélange, out March 4, 2022 via Truth Revolution Records. Drawing from bebop and post-bop; Cuban timba, salsa, and rumba; and world music from India and the Caribbean, Mélange creates an eclectic yet seamless blend of musical traditions and heritages that, when combined, shine with a mosaic ebullience. Trumpeter and composer Kalí... Read More

Cantodiscanto has come out with a new album entitled Pandemusica. There are significant collaborations with artists, old and new fellow travelers who have given their contribution by working at a distance, when conditions did not allow to meet. The basic quintet composed of Guido Sodo (string instruments and voice), Frida Forlani (voice), Ivan Valentini (sax), Giovanni Calcaterra (double bass) and Paolo Caruso (percussion, drums, berimbau and santoor). They are joined by the vocalist Maria Anadon (Lisbon), together with cellist Davide... Read More

Visage Music is a record label founded by Claudio Carboni and Riccardo Tesi, focused on the production of world music and Italian songwriting. UPGRADE is a new album by Andrea Piccioni e Francesco Loccisano and is a new production by Visage Music. It is a CD composed of original songs in which tradition renews itself in search of new languages and musical frontiers. Tradition is a living process, in transformation, that renews and regenerates itself thanks to the incessant work of its bearers. This is the meaning of the meeting between... Read More

Bologna - On 7th April 2022, neapolitan musician Peppe Aiello released his solo debut CD on the Visage Music label. Taking inspiration from the theatrical show Male Doce, given with great success during the summer review of the Baraccano Theatre of 2019, the album ‘Na stanza chiena ‘e ’ncienzo comes to fruition in 2021 produced by Visage Music of Claudio Carboni, Riccardo Tesi and Simona Capecchi, a discografic label that treats world music, always attentive towards new talents and presenting musical propositions that... Read More

“This new album is about letting my all of my electronic influences out for everyone to see!” laughs two-time Emmy® award winning composer and international recording artist Michael Whalen discussing his forthcoming electronic album: Imaginary Trains, due April 22, 2022, via MWM/Spout label through Six Degrees Distribution/INgrooves/UMG. “Since I completed my album ‘Sacred Spaces’ in 2019, my evolution as an artist, synthesist and sound designer has made it essential to create a whole new... Read More

The Jazz Journalists Association has announced its 2022 class of Jazz Heroes – 28 “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz” from 26 U.S. communities -- to be celebrated for their energy, imagination and resilience in supporting and sustaining jazz artists and audiences in their local communities and beyond. See full portraits and profiles of the Heroes at JJAJazzAwards.org. Simultaneously, the JJA debuts The Buzz: The JJA Podcast, available at all... Read More

NASHVILLE, TENN. – Life-affirming music- songs and musicians with the power to lift souls into the heavens.  They always manage to arrive when we need it most. Call these mini sermons of healing delivered by prophets with microphones, guitars, basses, drums, and keyboards. They are sonic balms that energize just as they soothe. The Nashville-based Jason Lee McKinney Band offers up 16 of those spiritual infusions on One Last Thing, the group’s 11th studio album and its first to embrace a gospel vibe... Read More

A sampler, such as this one released by the CPL-Music label in Germany, is a nice sonic respite for world music exploration. In October 2021, the Russian World Music Chart was launched to popularize and promote folk music of multi-ethnic Russia. A true community effort, forty albums in the genres of world, ethnic and folk music participated in the 2021 chart. A jury of 16 international experts (mostly music journalists and reviewers) from around the world then selected the 20 best albums by the end of the year. Folk Galore presents some of... Read More

The Independent Music Award-winning artist AMY CORREIA, hailed for her “powerful voice” (NPR) and “richly melodic mix of mournful tales and whimsical stories” (All Music Guide) announces the March 25, 2022 release of her new EP As We Are. Produced by Kimon Kirk, As We Are, a collection of five original songs, written and performed by Correia, deals head on with demons, regrets, self-reflection, mortality, and holds the godsend of creative inspiration at its center.  Noted for a “lyrical... Read More

Pianist Pete Malinverni pays tribute to iconic composer Leonard Bernstein with his all-star trio featuring bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Jeff Hamilton are released On the Town – Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein, on January 14, 2022 via Planet Arts Recordings. The album harkens back to an inspiring “only in New York” meeting between the two passionate musicians. Having spent four decades on the New York City jazz scene, pianist Pete Malinverni has crossed paths with countless revered artists and come away... Read More

Baba Sissoko’s Griot Jazz project was born during the residency for the production of the opera Le Vol du Boli at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where three Malian musicians were involved, Baba Sissoko and Lansiné Kouyaté, already popular in Europe (the former lives in Italy, the latter in France) and the younger Madou Sidiki Diabate, who still dwells in Mali. The three of them always played together, every day, before rehearsing as well as during the intermissions, and a month later Sissoko had... Read More

“How does music carry memory? How does New Orleans music carry memory differently? Is there meaning in historical violence? What is the meaning of Louisiana’s historical violence?” These are the questions being asked on New Orleans-based Sabertooth Swing Band’s upcoming Delta Bound (March 18, 2022, Slammin’ Media), an ambitious album that brings together the work of poets, activists, and historical figures to become a meditation on the violent history and complex culture out of which jazz... Read More

Samba in Seattle is the first official release of legendary Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete's live recordings at the Penthouse in Seattle, WA (1966-68). Produced by Zev Feldman, and mastered from the original tape reels, this Deluxe 3 CD set includes a 40-page booklet with rare photos, an essay by music critic Greg Casseus, and words by guitar icon Carlos Santana, pianist/composer Lalo Schifrin, pianist/producer George Winston, and Sete's widow Anne Sete; plus a tribute by guitar great John Fahey. Bola Sete - Samba in Seattle :... Read More

  María Cangiano presents her fourth album, Pandemonium. which compiles ten classic songs by Astor Piazzolla. Pandemonium comprises unconventional interpretations of iconic Piazzolla songs on piano and voice arranged by Miguel Pereiro and songs with electronic arrangements of cosmic resonances by Pablo Suárez. The songs cover a myriad of human emotions, some typical of tango, expressing a tragic feeling of life and others not so common to tango, such as the celebration of love, life, and its infinity. On the eve of... Read More

  On TIME TO LOVE AGAIN, vocalist NICOLE HENRY performs an eclectic mix of jazz standards and reimagined pop tunes with the sweet yet powerful voice that has made her a favorite with audiences and critics alike, around the country and the world. Stephen Holden of The New York Times raved, “I had the sense of being in the presence of a pop-soul superwoman whose every gesture and inflection conveyed confidence and mastery.” BroadwayWorld says,... Read More

Pianist David Janeway releases his third trio recording, Distant Voices, on Steeplechase. This is the first recording for his working trio that features Billy Hart on drums and Cameron Brown, bass. During this time of Covid, Janeway looks back and pays tribute to the many jazz pianists that have inspired and influenced him throughout his career. There are selections by Hank Jones, Walter Bishop Jr. Bill Evans and Ellington as well as tributes written for Ahmad Jamal, Larry Willis, Cedar Walton and Herbie Hancock. This is an... Read More

Following his 2017 solo album 21st Century Riffology, Jimmy Ryan is back in action with a new album that some long-time fans are calling his finest musical achievement to date. Released in 2021, the 13-track Astral Café finds the guitar legend behind the Flyin’ Ryan Brothers in stellar form. As the cofounder of The Flyin’ Ryan Brothers, Jimmy Ryan and his brother Johnny Ryan released 7 albums between 1999 and 2011 and Astral Café brings his sound back alive and well in the roaring ‘20s. Although Jimmy... Read More

Award-winning Bluegrass artist Rick Faris is celebrating the release his sophomore Dark Shadow Recording album The Next Mountain. Produced by Dark Shadow Recording label head Stephen Mougin, the 12-track record includes a cast of astounding pickers and singers including Sam Bush, Ronnie Bowman, Becky Buller, Ronnie McCoury and more. The follow-up to Faris’ critically acclaimed debut album Breaking In Lonesome, The Next Mountain features tracks written by Faris and distinguished songwriters... Read More

Xanthoula Dakovanou will unveil her new album “Lamenta” on its release November 26, 2021 on Quart de Lune / UVM Distribution. Under the musical artistic direction of the greek singer Xanthoula Dakovanou, principal voice of Lamenta, the creation of this album is inspired from the musical traditions of Epirus, Greece fusioned with post-rock and world jazz elements. Staged by the belgian choreographers of international reputation Koen Augustijnen and Rosalba Torres Guerrero (Siamese Cie),... Read More

  Half a world away from each other, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito recapture the delicate intensity of their duo, Futari, on their new CD, Underground. After the pandemic prevented an in-person reunion during a planned European tour, Fujii and Saito agreed to carry on by exchanging sound files over the Internet. Although the format is remote, the resulting music is, if anything, even more intimate and compelling than their debut album, Beyond, which was recorded live in the... Read More

"Who Are You, Who Am I” is the title track to Bill’s latest EP. It follows his #1 South Africa Country chart hit, “World’s Foremost Authority On Everything.” Bill Abernathy “I get asked all the time about where my music comes from. ‘Who Are You Who Am I’ was written to answer that question.”— Bill Abernathy “I get asked all the time about where my music comes from. ‘Who Are You Who Am I’ was written to answer that question. I’ve had a... Read More

  In 1990, commissioned by award-winning musician, songwriter, producer, innovator and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart, veteran music film director Robert Mugge and renowned music scholar Robert Palmer ventured deep into the heart of the North Mississippi Hill Country and Mississippi Delta to seek out the best rural blues acts currently working. Starting on Beale Street in Memphis, they headed south to the juke joints, lounges, front porches, and parlors of Holly Springs, Greenville, Clarksdale, Bentonia, and Lexington. Along... Read More

Beloved Nigerian vocalist, entrepreneur, actress and activist Sonia Aimy reconnects with her creative heart via quarantine-inspired reflections and self-realizations on her latest album Reconnect  For almost as long as she can remember now, beloved Nigerian vocalist, entrepreneur, actress, and activist Sonia Aimy has been on the go. In fact, since she started touring widely as a musician at the young age of 23, she can’t recall having lingered in any one city for more than a few months at a time or having ever... Read More

The indie-pop group GENTLE GLOW started with their second single “LaST CaLL”, which has been available everywhere since October 22nd, a call for more mindfulness. With their new single “LaST CaLL”, the Austrian indie-pop aesthetes draw attention to a cutting edge topic: “It is five to twelve when it comes to climate change and in addition to the careful use of our resources in our everyday lives, we also want to use our music to point it out ”, front woman Jasmin Neuninger explains the background of... Read More

Ladino singer/songwriter, author and activist, Sarah Aroeste presents the world’s first all-Ladino Hanuka album   Hanuka! to be released Nov 19. Purchase here. Hanuka, the festival of lights, is a celebration beloved by Jews across the globe. It commemorates the victory of the Jewish Maccabees against the Syrian-Greek Army, who had desecrated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Refusing to worship Greek gods, the Maccabees heroically led a revolt and won! Following their victory, the Maccabees rededicated the Temple using oil... Read More

This much acclaimed Cyprus-based trio return with a thrilling fourth album. The record pushes their trademark Mediterranean sonics into a deep psychedelic and avant-folk direction. A danceable fever storm of stringed instruments, multi-layered singing and trombone-driven low end. Night is when strange things happen. When shapes shift and blur. When it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s illusion. Night…is the time of the imagination. For Cyprus’s Monsieur Doumani, those hours of blackness have lured... Read More

Performing on the 21-string Mandinka Harp and the Turkish Oud, Kane Mathis renders compelling interpretations of these traditional musics. Years of study with generous masters have given Kane a rare opportunity to share these traditions with other cultures.  Kane began taking trips to The Gambia, West Africa in 1997 and has continued rigorous study of the Mandinka Kora. Over the past ten years his performances have earned him recognition by the Gambian president, The Gambian minister of culture, and both national... Read More

In these dark days of stark societal uncertainty and pronounced cultural intolerance, could the illuminating words of the world’s greatest poet and champion of tolerance and love inspire dialogue and spark a constructive collective conversation where pundits and politicians cannot?  This questions is earnestly and eloquently explored by a culturally diverse group of musicians and close friends on This Pale (released October 1, 2021 on Lycopod Records), the new album from Iranian-American vocalist Katayoun... Read More

Composer, arranger, and bass player ANGEL ROMAN is an innovative Latin jazz artist who prefers not to tread the well-worn path of past masters of the genre as he blends different Afro Latin rhythms, along with Jazz, Brazilian, Pop, Fusion, Neo-Soul and Funk. On FESTIVE INTERPLAY, Roman fully embraces his talents as an imaginative composer while presenting a program of Latin jazz that is at once very recognizable, but at the same time, quite different and... Read More